News

Eight years ago, tech billionaire Jeff Skoll clapped enthusiastically as Al Gore assuaged the opening-night Sundance crowd just hours before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president. “We will win,” Gore said after the Skoll-backed climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” made its world premiere. “We want this movie to recruit others.”

But a funny thing happened over the ensuing years. The founder and chair of Participant Media appears to have defected to the other side. In January, on the weekend Trump was sworn in as the 47th president, Skoll hosted both the Make America Great Again Victory Rally and the inaugural parade, sending shockwaves through the indie film world. (Skoll declined comment.)

For the past two decades, the eBay mogul was the most reliable financier of progressive documentaries, from “Rbg” to “He Named Me Malala.” Skoll’s 180-degree turn as he shuttered Participant...

Pictures: Netflix

After a very intense and controversial Oscars season, Netflix scooped up three awards at the 2025 97th Academy Awards. That brings Netflix’s total Oscar count up to 26 statues. Here’s a full breakdown of Netflix’s past efforts at the Academy Awards and the full list of 73 nominated titles.

Netflix takes the Oscars seriously. They continue to have a massive team working on awards campaigning. Insider reported in 2022 that Netflix had a 40-person awards operation along with 15 consultants who spread their time working on campaigns for Emmys and, of course, the Oscars. Despite that massive spending and resource allocation, it’s still yet to win some of the biggest prizes of the night when some of its close rivals have. Apple TV+ notably scored Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars, and Prime Video has scooped some top awards, too.

As of 2025, Netflix has still eluded a few big awards,...

During a recent appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Will Ferrell playfully told Oscar documentary branch voters to “suck it” for snubbing “Will & Harper” in the best doc feature race. Although Ferrell was joking, he voiced a sentiment held by a number of doc branch members.

Netflix acquired “Will & Harper” for a reported eight figures after the film’s acclaimed premiere at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. The doc centers on a road trip Ferrell took with Harper Steele after she came out as transgender 30 years into their friendship. Although it covers a controversial, timely subject matter – gender transition – the film was, thanks in large part to Ferrell’s celebrity status, a success. But that success, depending on who you speak to in the doc branch, could be one reason why the film was not nominated.

Over the last several years, some of the most critically acclaimed,...

Brave is the word that echoes more than any other in this awardsy time of year. It comes up at cocktail parties, as in “that studio was so brave to make that film.” Or at awards shows, where winners are always thanking their backers for their bravery.

This year you’re hearing the word a little bit less. And I think for good reason.

When director Brady Corbet stood up at the Beverly Hilton to accept the Golden Globe for best picture drama for his (truly bold) movie The Brutalist, he didn’t thank all the corporate entities that believed in him. No, he noted how the film “kept falling apart” and pulled no punches with the studio executives in the room. “I was told that this film was undistributable; I was told that no one would come out and see it. I was told the film wouldn’t work.

The Sundance Film Festival is best known as being the launching point for some of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Tarantino, Chazelle, Soderbergh, Aronofsky, and more have brought their first films to Sundance the rest has been history. While these names are now household staples, Sundance is perhaps best known as the premiere destination for ground-breaking documentaries, consistently showcasing some of the greatest non-fiction storytelling ever made.

Eighteen documentaries have premiered at Sundance and gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Some of those include Navalny, Searching for Sugarman, Icarus, March of the Penguins, Man On Wire, When We Were Kings, and many many more.

The best documentary of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and possibly an Oscar frontrunner, is a film called Andre is an Idiot. One wouldn’t expect a documentary about a man suffering from colon cancer to be the funniest film of the 150+ films showing at Sundance,...

On Monday January 27 2025, CBS broadcasts NCIS: Origins!

Flight of Icarus Season 1 Episode 11 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “NCIS: Origins,” titled “Flight of Icarus,” promises an engaging mix of mystery and personal drama. This episode will delve into the investigation surrounding the death of a well-known Marine commander’s son. The team will work hard to uncover the truth behind this tragic event, which is sure to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

As the investigation unfolds, the episode will also reveal important details about Franks’ past. His family history plays a crucial role in the storyline, adding depth to his character and shedding light on his motivations. This blend of personal stakes and professional challenges is a hallmark of the series, making it a compelling watch for fans.

“Flight of Icarus” is set to explore themes of loss, loyalty, and the impact of the past on the present.

When it comes to the expanded universe, many people feel like it started with Timothy Zahn. Although several comics and a handful of novels were already published when he wrote his first Star Wars book, Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy that started with Heir to the Empire (1991-1993) is often seen as the true launching point for the expanded universe of Star Wars.

Here are five things you may not know about Timothy Zahn.

1. Has Written 16 Star Wars novels (so far)

Timothy Zahn is, without a doubt, one of the most prolific Star Wars authors ever. With his first Star Wars book released in 1991, Zahn would continue to write Star Wars novels over the next three decades. Most of Zahn's books would feature his most famous creation, Grand Admiral Thrawn. In fact, he has written four different series featuring the character including The Thrawn Trilogy (1991-1993), The Hand of Thrawn Duology...

Buddyhead, the LA music website and record label, is getting the documentary treatment.

The group, which was created by Travis Keller and The Icarus Line’s Aaron North in 1998, was infamous for its brash attitude in the late ‘90s and early 2000s with pranks such as stealing Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst’s baseball caps and auctioning them off for a rape charity and vandalizing The Strokes’ tour bus.

Keller and Joe Cardamone, the former frontman of The Icarus Line, are now putting together a documentary with some help from artist Shepard Fairey and Mayans M.C. co-creator Elgin James.

On The Lash: The Buddyhead Movie will be co-directed by Keller and Cardamone and produced by Fairey and James.

“It’s the birth of the internet, it’s the death rattle of the old world and its story of Buddyhead and The Icarus Line. It’s a time capsule constructed...

Great Oscar-contending documentaries and the Scad Savannah Film Festival: for more than a decade now, the two have been virtually synonymous thanks to the ‘Docs to Watch’ panel, which is presented by The Hollywood Reporter, moderated by yours truly and brings to the nation’s largest university-run film festival the directors of 10 of the year’s finest nonfiction features.

Indeed, over the 10 years that the panel was held prior to this year, 21 of the 97 docs that were featured went on to nominations for the best documentary feature Oscar, and eight of those ultimately won that award: 2015’s Amy, 2016’s O.J.: Made in America, 2017’s Icarus, 2018’s Free Solo, 2019’s American Factory, 2021’s Summer of Soul, 2022’s Navalny and 2023’s 20 Days in Mariupol.

This year’s gathering took place on Oct. 30 at Scad’s Lucas Theatre as part of the fest’s 27th edition, and, as you can see for...

Paul Morrissey, a cult film director and early Andy Warhol collaborator, has died. He was 86 years of age.

Morrissey’s archivist Michael Chaiken told The Hollywood Reporter the filmmaker died in the early morning of Oct. 28 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City after a bout with pneumonia. His most celebrated films as an auteur include Flesh, Trash, Heat, Flesh for Frankenstein and the classic B-picture Blood for Dracula, which starred Joe Dallesandro.

Morrissey’s films also included classics like Women in Revolt and the 1980s New York City trilogy Forty Deuce, Mixed Blood and Spike of Bensonhurst. But it’s Morrissey’s early association with pop artist Andy Warhol that helped establish him as a director and kept his cult status alive throughout his career.

The two artists first met in 1965 and Morrissey signed on to run the publicity and filmmaking for Warhol at The Factory under a...

The Lincoln Lawyer co-showrunner opens up about the show's explosive season 3 finale, and the impact it is set to have on Mickey Haller's future. The hit Netflix legal drama starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Neve Campbell, Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, and Angus Sampson debuted in May 2022, with The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 dropped on Netflix on October 17. According to co-showrunner Ted Humphrey, the conclusion of the season could have enormous ramifications for Mickey's future and the long-term prospects of the show.

In an interview with TVLine, Humphrey talked about how the finale revelations change Mickey's path as a character, and how he now, in a role reversal, finds himself as the client. The season finale saw several revelations, including the surprising reveal of the person who had murdered Glory Daze, capping off the case that ran through the season. However, a bigger twist was yet to come, when the final scene saw Mickey...

Fifteen-year-old Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, has revealed its influential 15-film Short List. The festival will run its main lineup of 111 features, 32 world premieres, 24 U.S. premieres, and 129 short films in-person November 13-21 in New York City’s IFC Center, Sva Theatre, and Village East by Angelika and continue online until December 1 with films available to viewers across the U.S. All the films will have theatrical screenings at the festival, often with the directors in person.

Historically, most of the Doc NYC shortlist titles overlap with the Academy’s official 15-film Oscar shortlist. With the notable exception of Netflix’s Oscar-winning “My Octopus Teacher,” for 12 years, the festival has screened the documentary that went on to win the Academy Award, including “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Navalny,” “Summer of Soul,” “American Factory,” “Free Solo,” “Icarus,” “O.J.: Made in America,” “Amy,” “Citizenfour,” “20 Feet From Stardom,” “Searching for Sugar Man,...

Before Fallout 5 comes out, we should look at what makes a survival game good. When developing a survival game, there’s a delicate balance between challenge, creativity, and immersion. But what makes a survival game truly stand out?

Survival games can often be hit or miss. | Image Credit: Bethesda Game Studios.

In a recent Reddit post, one developer noted some key points they wanted to explore in their survival game. As we look ahead to the next Fallout game, Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda might do well to integrate these ‘golden points’ into the next iteration of their post-apocalyptic universe.

1 . Purposeful Progression and Exploration The next Fallout has a lot of potential. Image credit: Bethesda Game Studios

One of the most crucial elements of a successful survival game is the sense of purpose. Players need more than just a never-ending grind—they need a goal that gives their struggles meaning.

The Scad Savannah Film Festival, which takes place each year shortly before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences votes to determine its Oscar shortlists, has revealed the names of the 10 documentary features that it will highlight on this year’s edition of its Docs to Watch panel, a 90-minute discussion about the challenges and rewards of documentary filmmaking.

The films that will be represented on this year’s panel — which will take place at the Lucas Theatre on the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 30, and will be moderated by yours truly for the 11th year in a row — and will also screen during the fest, followed by a Q&a with their director(s), will be:

Black Box Diaries (MTV Documentary Films), represented on the panel by director Shiori Ito — the filmmaker documents the investigation into her sexual assault by a powerful man in Japan Carville: Winning Is Everything,...

Predicting the winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar becomes a lot easier on December 17 when the academy announces the 15 films that make the shortlist. Those semi-finalists will be culled from the more than 100 titles that qualified this year for consideration. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Documentary Feature.)

To winnow those down to a manageable number, the academy adds newly eligible documentary feature to a virtual screening room available to all 500-plus 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. Each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.

All of these ballots are collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members are then encouraged to watch films on that list which they haven’t seen yet before casting another preferential ballot with their top five choices.

A good tasty noir, like “Love Lies Bleeding,” always feels contemporary, even if set in the past; that’s because it should feel as urgent as the love-and-death stakes it’s about. “Killer Heat,” on the other hand, while not quite so old-fashioned that it creaks, definitely plays like a mirage of detective noirs you’ve seen before. To start with: Could there be a worse title? It makes the movie sound like some straight-to-tape potboiler from the ’80s starring Jim Belushi and Daphne Zuniga. “Killer Heat” opens with the voice of its star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has a way of sounding like Keanu Reeves’ brainier brother), delivering one of those logy “hardboiled” philosophical nuggets to the audience (“The Icarus myth was set on the island of Crete. And apparently no one there had learned much from his story…”).

But just as you’re ready to nod out, Gordon-Levitt, as...

Today’s release of the trailer for The Final War showcases the gripping new podcast that uncovers the shadowy world of global espionage and cyber warfare to surveil everyone, from ordinary American citizens to influential individuals in Hollywood. The podcast follows Max Lebow, a former assistant to Oscar-winning filmmaker Bryan Fogel, as he finds himself at the center of a dangerous web spun by a mysterious group of foreign hackers.

Hosted by Max Lebow, The Final War tells how he became the unwitting target of foreign hacking. Lebow’s association with Bryan Fogel, known for his hard-hitting documentaries like Icarus, made him a person of interest to the hackers. Specifically, operatives sought information about Fogel and Lebow’s volunteer work during the Covid-19 pandemic. What begins as a shocking intrusion into Lebow's digital life quickly spirals into a high-stakes battle for survival.

As Max is coerced into providing information to the hackers under blackmail threats,...

Sprint shines a long-awaited spotlight on the world of track and field, showcasing the dedication and personal stories of legendary athletes. With exclusive access, Sprint delves into the emotional and physical demands of sprinting, providing a rare behind-the-scenes look at the athletes' lives. Just in time for the Olympics, Sprint hypes up the sport with a star-studded lineup, including insights from sprinting legends like Usain Bolt.

Staying extremely faithful to its title, Netflix's Sprint is a docuseries about some of the world's fastest and greatest sprinters. Since its release on July 2, 2024, the documentary series has claimed a coveted spot on Netflix's Global Top 10 list, with 2.4 million views at the time of writing. Suffice it to say that Netflix has added yet another title to its successful sport-centered docuseries tally. Sprint focuses on some of the most popular names in athletics and gives viewers a rare behind-the-scenes look into the personal lives of the athletes,...

In a marketplace dominated by social media, streaming and celebrities, sports and entertainment have never been more aligned. Streamers across the board are clamoring for live sports to pair with their original content, and athletes of all disciplines and genders can rocket to international fame with a single post.

To examine the growing nexus of sports, media and entertainment, Variety & Sportico held the Sports & Entertainment Summit, presented by City National Bank, on July 12 at the Beverly Hilton. The summit brought together agents, executives, and athletes to discuss fan engagement, the rise of women’s sports, the state of the art in presenting live games, and much more.

Watch highlights from the summit below.

Keynote Conversation with Jay Williams

Jay Williams, Chairman and Co-Founder, Improbable Media and ESPN Analyst

In January, ESPN anchor Jay Williams and NBA Champion Giannis Antetokounmpo founded Improbable Media with the mission to reinvent storytelling in the world of sports.

Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori defends the film's sci-fi gadgets, explaining that they're based on real-world technology. Pierce Brosnan's final outing as James Bond wasn't well-received and was criticized for its invisible Aston Martin and outlandish Icarus storyline. It wasn't the sci-fi gadgets that hurt Die Another Day, but their place in a story that didn't feel believable.

James Bond director Lee Tamahori defends Die Another Day's controversial sci-fi gadgets. Released in 2002, Die Another Day marks actor Pierce Brosnan's final time playing 007. The film, which also stars Halle Berry and Rosamund Pike, follows Bond as he attempts to take down an eccentric diamond mogul who plans to use the Icarus, a solar-powered satellite, to start a war between North and South Korea. Die Another Day earned mostly negative reviews from critics and was heavily criticized for being too far-fetched with its plot and gadgets, which included an invisible Aston Martin.

This all very well could be a fever dream, or a slightly buzzed hallucination. Such are the thoughts that pass as the white wine is uncorked — let’s be real, it’s a twist-off — and “A Family Affair” opens with real-life Zac Efron red carpet footage of the actor at TIFF. But this isn’t TMZ, this is a scripted Netflix rom-com. And we love it.

Directed by “Beautiful Creatures” helmer Richard Lagravenese from a script by Carrie Solomon, “A Family Affair” reunites Efron with his “The Paper Boy” co-star Nicole Kidman, and adds in beloved everywoman Joey King to make a different kind of unconventional love triangle. Both Efron and King’s characters just want Kidman to be a supportive mother type: One as her actual mom, and the other as a Milf.

King plays Zara, the 24-year-old daughter of Kidman’s famous novelist character Brooke. While Zara wants to be a Hollywood agent,...

Nintendo franchises besides Mario should get cinematic adaptations following the success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Punch-Out series is hinted to exist in the same universe as the Mario movie, presenting a potential for a big-screen adaptation. Punch-Out! being an underrated franchise could offer new storytelling possibilities beyond Mario's world.

One of the other Nintendo franchises teased in The Super Mario Bros. Movie should get the cinematic treatment next. The success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie solidified Nintendo's potential power at the box-office. While Pokemon movies had succeeded in the past, Mario's billion-dollar success in theaters highlights how Nintendo needs to continue to bring adaptations of their games to the big-screen. While The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 is currently in production and other characters like Donkey Kong are begging for a spin-off, there are plenty of other Nintendo franchises that could benefit from the movie treatment.

One month ago today, the Netflix streaming service unveiled a batch of images that gave us our first look at the upcoming romantic comedy A Family Affair, which is scheduled to begin streaming on June 28th. With that date now just one month away, a trailer for A Family Affair has been released, and you can check that out in the embed above.

The film was directed by Richard Lagravenese, whose previous credits include Living Out Loud, A Decade Under the Influence, Freedom Writers, P.S. I Love You, Beautiful Creatures, and The Last Five Years. Speaking with the Netflix promotional website Tudum, Lagravenese said he was drawn to the material because, “I saw in it a coming of age story for three different characters at three different stages of their lives. I was going through my own sort of transition into what Gail Sheehy called Second Adulthood, where after you...

HamptonsFilm’s 16th annual SummerDocs series will feature three Sundance favorites: “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” “War Game,” and “Super/Man:The Christopher Reeve Story.” HamptonsFilm and Hamptons Intl. Film Festival artistic director David Nugent and chairman emeritus Alec Baldwin will lead conversations with attending filmmakers and guests.

The series will kick-off on July 5 with Jeff Zimbalist and Maria Bukhonina’s “Skywalkers: A Love Story.” Following a successful Sundance debut, Netflix acquired the worldwide rights to the docu about daredevil couple Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus from Moscow, as they take their relationship to terrifying new heights in a wild scheme to climb the world’s last great skyscraper and perform a death-defying stunt on its spire. Following the screening, Bukhonina will take part in a Q&a.

Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss’s “War Game” will screen on July 20 followed by Q&a with both filmmakers. The docu, which debuted at Sundance 2024, imagines a nation-wide insurrection,...

Zayn’s starting point for his fourth studio album Room Under the Stairs was an emotional low point. “Alienated” began in his home studio in rural Pennsylvania, where he wrote the majority of the record on his own in a state of both creative and physical isolation. The percussive track simmers in solitary sorrow as the musician dives simultaneously into the darkest depths of his mind and the bottom of a bottle. “Know my reasons for the pain, but if you brought it in front of me I know I’d do it all again,...

This is not the documentary renaissance we hoped for. Despite its 2023 Oscar win for “Navalny,” CNN pulled back on non-fiction production. Non-fiction programming at Showtime Networks, which produced Oscar-nominated “Attica” in 2022, is no more.

“The New York Times Presents” series, which produced titles like “The Killing of Breonna Taylor” and “Framing Britney Spears,” is being phased out in favor of integrating non-fiction video into the media brand. Hot Docs is on the ropes; Participant, which produced documentaries like “An Inconvenient Truth,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” and “American Factory,” closed last month.

And then there’s Netflix, which is still very much in the documentary game under Adam Del Deo, Netflix VP of original documentary films and limited series — and can afford to be with nearly 270 million global subscribers. However, it’s a specific sort of gameplay: For tight, high-quality nonfiction work that’s heartwarming, or thrilling, or stars a celebrity,...

Exclusive: Joel ‘Kachi Benson (Madu) has been tapped to direct the documentary The Harvest, on Nigeria’s infamous Boko Haram Kidnappings of 2014, for Hunting Lane and Impact Partners. A first-look still can be found above.

Following four Nigerian mothers as they fight to educate their children in the wake of tragedy, the film marks the 10th anniversary of terrorist organization Boko Haram’s attack and abduction of 276 young girls from a school in the village of Chibok.

Joel ‘Kachi Benson

Nigerian filmmaker Benson came to helm the film after tackling the aftermath of the attacks with previous work including 2019’s Daughters of Chibok, a VR experience he wrote and produced which won the Lion for Best Immersive Story at the 76th Venice Film Festival.

“I have spent the last five years with the mothers and survivors of the Chibok kidnappings,” the filmmaker told Deadline. “I’ve listened to their stories,...

Documentary filmmaking has never been a profession one enters into to get rich — though for a brief period it seemed possible.

Cable expanded documentary’s reach to wider audiences in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and films like “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “March of the Penguins,” and “An Inconvenient Truth” became legitimate box-office breakthroughs, but nonfiction features on the whole remained something of a stepchild within the larger Hollywood ecosystem until 2017, when Netflix acquired Brian Fogel’s “Icarus” for $5 million.

At the time, the deal was one of the biggest ever for a non-fiction film. And it was followed by even bigger deals: In 2019 Netflix shelled out $10 million for Rachel Lears’ “Knock Down the House.” The following year Apple TV+ and A24 partnered to buy Jesse Moss’ “Boys State” for $10 million, and in 2021 Searchlight and Hulu bought Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s “Summer of Soul” for $12 million.

On the surface it seemed like people,...

Chris Smith’s “Devo” will open the ninth edition of Chicago’s Doc10 documentary film festival on May 2.

The film, which premiered at Sundance 2024, charts the life of the art-movement-turned-band Devo from Akron, Ohio, through archival footage of the band and candid sit-down interviews with band members. Smith follows the band on their journey from Dadaist, Kent State radicals to unlikely icons of 1980s MTV. Currently celebrating their 50 years of De-Evolution Tour, Devo band members will join Doc10 in a live, virtual Q&a moderated by Wxrt’s Marty Lennartz.

Doc10, a four-day fest running May 2-5, features a selection of 10 documentaries making their Chicago premieres along with a package of 10 prestigious documentary shorts. The fest is hosted by Chicago Media Project, a company that has generated more than $8.5 million in funding for documentary projects. Cmp has directly supported over 150 films including “Icarus,” “Crip Camp” and most recently “Gaucho, Gaucho,...

The latest season of Fortnite Battle Royale, Myths & Mortals, has introduced quite a series of changes and developments to the ongoing narrative of the game. With the new season, players can go against Greek gods, acquire Mythic weapons/items, and new points of interest to fly over.

While players have been enjoying soaring over the skies of the Fortnite island, a recent change has put down the morale of competitive players. If you’re someone who wishes to participate in the game’s Tournaments, it’s unlikely that you can use this latest item to your advantage.

Wings of Icarus Has Had a Massive Impact on Fortnite’s Mobility The Wings of Icarus have completely changed the game.

Ever since the latest season arrived, players in Fortnite Battle Royale have been soaring into the skies once they’ve obtained the Wings of Icarus during the match. This is an Epic...

Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2, Myths & Mortals, is now live, and it’s brought a ton of new content for players to enjoy. With the major theme revolving around Greek mythology, we are going to see many references to mythical weapons and items that the player can use to get an advantage over their opponents.

It’s not all about weapons, either; some items can allow you to make tactical moves to gain a strategic advantage. The Wings of Icarus is one such pick-up that can greatly improve your movement abilities, allowing you to move away from danger and cover large distances easily. If you’re having difficulty finding the wings, we’ve made a comprehensive guide to help you get this item.

Here’s How to Find the Wings of Icarus in Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2

Soar into Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2 on wings of legend.

The Wings of Icarus is a purple Epic Rarity item,...

Streamers narrowly avoided getting shut out at the 2024 Oscars: Netflix came away with just one trophy and Apple left empty-handed, after they garnered a total of 32 nominations.

Netflix collected its one win for Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” an adaptation of a Roald Dahl story, in the live action short film category. The 40-minute film, with a cast that includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes, is the first Oscar for Anderson (who wasn’t in attendance to receive the award).

Read More: See all the 2024 Oscar winners here.

Heading into Sunday’s 96th Academy Awards, Netflix led all studios and platforms with 19 nominations across 11 films, including seven for Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” — which was shut out. Apple had picked up 13 nods, including 10 for Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which also drew a goose egg.

Since 2017, Netflix has now won 23 Oscars in all.

As we wrap up our year-end coverage, IndieWire looks back at the people, projects, and ideas that defined 2023 — and what’s coming next.

As golden ages go, this one was more of a blip.

Five years ago, the box office celebrated nonfiction films: $22 million for “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” $14 million for “Rbg,” $17.5 million for “Free Solo.” Critical favorites and Oscar nominees included films from exciting American first-time directors, including RaMell Ross’s lyrical breakthrough about life in rural Alabama, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” and Bing Liu’s moving personal exposé of domestic abuse in northern Illinois, “Minding the Gap.”

2023 lacked documentary touchstones. A few faith-based documentaries succeeded by preaching to the choir, but the most successful (non-concert) documentary released in theaters this year was the Yogi Berra baseball portrait “It Ain’t Over”. You also could include Magnolia Pictures’ “Joan Baez: I Am A Noise” or — if you...

For the 10th year in a row, the Scad Savannah Film Festival, the 26th edition of which ran from Oct. 21 through Oct. 28, was the place to be for documentary filmmakers and documentary lovers — specifically on Oct. 25, when The Hollywood Reporter presented and your humble correspondent hosted the fest’s Docs to Watch panel that brings together the directors of up to 10 of the year’s finest documentary features.

Over the past nine years, 45 films were nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar, 19 of which were first highlighted as Docs to Watch. And in seven of those nine years, one of the Docs to Watch went on to win the best documentary feature Oscar: 2015’s Amy, 2016’s O.J.: Made in America, 2017’s Icarus, 2018’s Free Solo, 2019’s American Factory, 2021’s Summer of Soul and 2022’s Navalny. (The other two eventual winners — 2014’s Citizenfour and 2020’s My Octopus Teacher — were not screened...

Thirteen-year-old Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, has revealed its influential 15-film Short List. The festival will run its main lineup of 114 features and 129 short films in-person November 8-16 in New York City’s IFC Center, Sva Theatre and Village East by Angelika and continue online until November 26 with films available to viewers across the U.S. All the films will have theatrical screenings at the festival, often with the directors in person.

Historically, most of the Doc NYC shortlist titles overlap with the Academy’s official 15-film Oscar Shortlist. With the notable exception of Netflix’s Oscar-winning “My Octopus Teacher,” for 11 years the festival has screened the documentary that went on to win the Academy Award, including “Navalny,” “Summer of Soul,” “American Factory,” “Free Solo,” “Icarus,” “O.J.: Made in America,” “Amy,” “Citizenfour,” “20 Feet From Stardom,” “Searching for Sugar Man,” and “Undefeated.” The festival has also screened 49 of the last 55 Oscar-nominated documentary features.

Washington, Aug 18 (Ians) Astronomers have uncovered a link between Neptune’s disappearing clouds and the increasing activity of the Sun as it approaches its solar cycle, expected to occur in 2025.

The Sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle, known as Solar Cycle 25. The solar cycle is the period when the Sun’s magnetic field flips every 11 years as it becomes more tangled like a ball of yarn. This is evident in the increasing number of sunspots and increasing solar flare activity.

As the cycle progresses, the Sun’s tempestuous behaviour builds to a maximum, until the magnetic field breaks down and reverses polarity. Then the Sun settles back down to a minimum, only to start another cycle.

The link between Neptune and solar activity is surprising to planetary scientists because Neptune is the farthest major planet in the solar system. It receives sunlight with...

Documentaries have the power to captivate audiences with real-life stories, revealing the most thrilling and jaw-dropping moments. From shocking confessions to disturbing crimes, these fifteen documentaries offer real-life plot twists that will surprise, disturb, and uplift viewers. Whether it's uncovering a fraudulent identity in "The Imposter" or questioning the limits of nature vs. nurture in "Three Identical Strangers," these documentaries showcase the variety and complexity of true stories.

The truth is definitely stranger than fiction in these fifteen documentaries with real-life plot twists. From catching a killer’s confession in The Jinx to unraveling the dark underbelly of tickling competitions in Tickled, documentaries remind audiences that the most thrilling moments in cinema can come from other people’s real lives. Sometimes the most jaw-dropping scenes are not in the latest blockbuster but in someone’s decade-old story being documented for the first time. Viewers searching to be swept away by...

Former Netflix content executive Cindy Holland has joined Elizabeth Murdoch’s production company Sister as its new global chief executive officer, tasked with overseeing the business’ strategic direction and portfolio of companies in the U.S. and U.K.

Holland served at the streaming giant for 18 years, including nine years as its vice president of original content. In that role, she established Netflix’s original programming strategy and oversaw teams behind titles including “House of Cards,” “Orange is the New Black,” “BoJack Horseman,” “Grace and Frankie,” “Narcos,” “Making a Murderer,” “Stranger Things,” “The Crown,” “Icarus,” “Ozark,” “Big Mouth,” “Russian Doll,” “When They See Us,” and “The Queen’s Gambit,” among many others.

Most recently, Holland has been an active investor and advisor, with a focus on entertainment and women’s sports. She began her career on the producing side working at Spring Creek Productions with Paula Weinstein and at Mutual Film Company.

Amazon Studios has acquired worldwide rights to the Imax Original Documentary, “The Blue Angels,” the company announced on Monday.

Bad Robot, Glen Powell’s Barnstorm Productions, Zipper Bros Films, and Dolphin Entertainment produced the project that chronicles a year in the cockpit with one of the most exclusive aviator teams in the world, filmed with Imax cameras.

“The Blue Angels” follows the newest class of the storied Navy and Marine Corps flight squadron through intense training and into a season of heart-stopping aerial artistry, and the veterans on the team who, this year, will take their final flights.

The documentary marks the first time the iconic blue and yellow F/A-18 Super Hornets will be featured in Imax. The film also captures the spectacle of this traveling air show through key members of the support staff on the ground, as well as from loved ones left at home.

Also Read:...

The growing amount of homeless, independently made documentaries has made film festivals like Hot Docs, arguably more important than ever before. Many docus that premiered at Sundance 2023 but have yet to find distribution are part of the Toronto-based documentary festival’s lineup, which in turn allows those titles to stay on buyers’ radars.

But corporate consolidation, along with streamers’ current mandate for nonfiction content that fits into one of three boxes – celebrity, true crime, or sports – means that many docu filmmakers will eventually have to turn to non-traditional distribution to get their films seen outside the fest circuit.

Tracy Droz Tragos’ docu “Plan C” follows a grassroots organization fighting to expand access to abortion pills across the United States. The timely film premiered at Sundance in January, but despite good reviews, Tragos hasn’t found distribution for “Plan C.”

“We are hearing things from the big buyers like, ‘The subject matter is hugely important,...

Oscar-winning documentarian Bryan Fogel has signed for representation with Range Media Partners.

Fogel is best known for his 2018 film “Icarus,” which exposed Russia’s state-sponsored doping program and the whistleblower at its center. The Netflix title won the Academy Award for best documentary, the first such prize for the streamer. Prior to its crowning moment on the Dolby stage, the film sold for $5 million out of the Sundance Film Festival.

Additional laurels for “Icarus” included the special jury prize at that year’s Sundance, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Journalism, and nominations from BAFTA, the television academy and the Directors Guild of America.

Fogel followed “Icarus” with the nonfiction thriller “The Dissident,” about the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. “The Dissident” premiered at Sundance 2020 to near-unanimous critical acclaim and sold distribution rights to Briarcliff Entertainment. In his review for Variety,...

Washington, April 15 (Ians) Scientists have offered an explanation of how quakes could be the source of the mysteriously smooth terrain on moons circling Jupiter and Saturn. Many of the ice-encrusted moons orbiting the giant planets in the far reaches of our solar system are known to be geologically active.

Jupiter and Saturn have such strong gravity that they stretch and pull the bodies orbiting them, causing moonquakes that can crack the moons’ crusts and surfaces.

New research shows for the first time how these quakes may trigger landslides that lead to remarkably smooth terrain.

The study, published in the journal Icarus, outlines the link between quakes and landslides, shedding new light on how icy moon surfaces and textures evolve.

On the surfaces of icy moons such as Europa, Ganymede, and Enceladus, it’s common to see steep ridges surrounded by relatively flat, smooth areas.

Scientists have theorised that these spots...

Netflix executive Lisa Nishimura backed some of the streamer’s biggest successes – Tiger King, The Tinder Swindler, The Power of the Dog, Making a Murderer, and American Factory – but in an era of corporate cost-cutting, it wasn’t enough to save her job.

Related Story Netflix Vets Lisa Nishimura & Ian Bricke Depart In Film Group Reorg Related Story Omar Epps Boards Netflix's Limited Series 'The Perfect Couple' Related Story IFC Center's John Vanco Joins Netflix To Oversee Programming For Streamer's Theaters

Her imminent departure as VP of independent film and documentary features, after a 16-year stint at Netflix, has come as a particular shock to the nonfiction film community, which saw her build Netflix into a dominant force in documentary and become, in the process, one of Netflix’s most visible execs.

(L-r) Lisa Nishimura, Taylor Swift and Ted Sarandos attend the Netflix 2019 Golden Globes After Party

“Lisa...

Lukas Nelson and Lainey Wilson lobby for a night with benefits (and zero regrets) in their spunky new duet “More Than Friends.” It’s a bright, rollicking country-rock anthem and announces Nelson’s new album, Sticks and Stones, the follow-up to Nelson’s A Few Stars Apart.

“Let’s pretend we’re more than friends tonight,” Nelson sings, teeing up the cheeky message of the collab, before both harmonize on the carpe diem pre-chorus: “Forget tomorrow, we can face the music then/but I promise you tonight will never end.

Warning: contains spoilers for Endeavour Series 1 – 9.

Endeavour’s blend of long-form storytelling and case-of-the-week thrills means that rewarding character moments are dotted throughout its ingenious murder mysteries. Its very best episodes strike a fine balance between the two. Satisfying puzzles, diverting investigations that make the most of the period setting, and enjoyable guest stars are one thing, but Endeavour’s success also lies in the simultaneous development of characters and relationships that have come to mean a great deal to fans over the years.

The 10 episodes below, listed in (an entirely subjective) order of greatness, achieve all of that. They could easily have been joined by half a dozen more – cases could certainly be made for ‘Sway’, ‘Harvest’, ‘Fugue’ and pilot episode ‘Overture’, to name just a few – from the 36 films totalling over 50 hours of drama from creator Russell Lewis and Mammoth Screen. If you find this selection wide of the mark,...

Much like its subject, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the nonfiction thriller “Navalny” started off as an underdog in our Oscar predictions for Best Documentary Feature. But after key wins at precursor awards ceremonies, it has risen to the top of the odds, which are calculated based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. Do you agree that it will prevail on March 12? Scroll down to see the graph that illustrates how quickly the film has climbed.

Going into the Oscar nominations, “Navalny” actually ranked fourth in our predictions behind front-runner “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” as well as “All That Breathes” and “Fire of Love.” All four of them ended up with nominations, along with surprise contender “A House Made of Splinters.” Then in the winners round it rose to third place, and it stayed there until as recently as February 26. So what changed?

A week earlier,...

“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” seemed like a lock to win Best Documentary. The political exposé on artist Nan Goldin and the fall of a pharmaceutical empire was cleaning up among critics’ groups throughout awards season – including New York, Los Angeles, and Florida – as well as being named one of the top-five docs of the year by the National Board of Review.

But as we head toward the Oscars ceremony on March 12, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” feels more vulnerable than ever despite a comfortable lead in the Gold Derby combined odds. After missing a nomination at the Producers Guild Awards, director Laura Poitras lost to “Fire of Love” filmmaker Sara Dosa at the Directors Guild Awards. Then on Sunday at the BAFTA Awards, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” lost Best Documentary to “Navalny.”

Let’s start with the PGA Awards, which take place this weekend. The...

After narrowing down 144 eligible documentary features to a remarkably strong shortlist of 15 docs, the Academy’s nonfiction branch whittled down that batch to five nominees: “All That Breathes,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “Fire of Love,” “A House Made of Splinters,” and “Navalny.”

It’s a quintuplet of powerful films from five formidable helmers. It’s also a list that, as every year, is notably missing several heralded docus including Brett Morgen’s “Moonage Daydream,” Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home” and Alex Pritz’s “The Territory.” But despite the omissions, five beautifully crafted movies remain from both veteran and relatively green directors.

Interestingly all but one of the nominated films, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022, which is a testament to just how vital the fest is to the nonfiction genre. But despite four of the five nominated docus having more than 12 months of exposure,...

Among the Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature are four films that received acclaim across the major nonfiction precursors this year and a fifth that earned its spot after flying under the radar for much of the season. One of these five films will become the documentary branch’s next Oscar winner when the 95th Academy Awards air on March 12. Let’s take a look the road to the ballot for the five nominees and consider which could end up with the statue.

During the season there are four major groups that signal where the documentary feature race is headed. The International Documentary Association (IDA), Cinema Eye Honors (Ceh), the Doc NYC festival shortlist, and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda) have the strongest recent history of indicating which films will earn a nomination from the academy’s branch. Their track record at matching the academy’s winner is less of a sure thing.

Multi-platinum selling recording artist, producer and philanthropist Zayn Malik has inked with UTA for representation across music, film and television, among other areas.

The most recent album release for the British artist, who rose to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction, was 2021’s acclaimed Nobody is Listening. His debut solo album, Mind of Mine (2016), made him the first UK male solo artist to simultaneously chart at #1 on the UK and US album charts in the first week of release, with his lead single “Pillowtalk” hitting #1 in 68 countries around the world and being certified 5x platinum by the RIAA. Malik’s sophomore solo effort, the gold certified Icarus Falls, was released in 2018.

The artist known for his hybrid style of pop and R&b, who is currently at work on his fourth studio album, was with One Direction from 2010-2015. It was his time with that group...