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“Okay, who’s ready for a horrifying documentary?” asks director Erin Lee Carr at the Royal Alexandra Theatre Friday night. Her introduction to the world premiere of “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan & Sara,” at the Toronto International Film Festival, is not hyperbole. Indeed, “Fanatical” is a horror and mystery rolled into one.

“If there’s one takeaway from the film, it’s to listen to your gut,” Tegan says later during the Q&a.

The film — out Oct. 18 on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in Canada — is a painstaking investigation into what the Canadian indie-rock duo have endured behind the scenes for 16 years and counting. Carr and her team attempt to track down the identity of the person pretending via email and direct message to be Tegan Quin, otherwise referred to as “Fake Tegan” and “Fegan.”

Tegan and Sara Quin, 43-year-old Canadian identical twins known for such...

The 49th edition of the Toronto Film Festival continues to announce more movies, with the festival on Tuesday unveiled its 2024 Centrepiece lineup that features 43 titles from filmmakers representing 41 countries. TIFF runs September 5-15 under its new sponsorship with Rogers.

In total, the list includes 18 world premieres from Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Spain and the U.S..

The section is a reflection of TIFF’s spirit of providing an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work from influential filmmakers.

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who made it to Cannes this past year with The Seed of the Sacred Fig after fleeing his home country, is at TIFF with not one but two movies. He’ll have The Seed of the Sacred Fig, but also a title he wrote,...

Hulu has ordered a documentary on a catfishing scheme that entrapped fans of a popular Canadian indie rock duo.

Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara, directed by true-crime specialist Erin Lee Carr, will debut October 18 on the streaming platform. The film revolves around Tegan and Sara Quin, gay twin sisters from Calgary, Alberta, who formed a rock band that attracted devoted followers, many of them from the LGBTQ+ community. But in 2011, Tegan’s personal computer files were hacked, setting off a calamitous chain of events.

“This is a sprawling yet intimate story of how Tegan’s identity was stolen and weaponized in a complex catfish scheme to ensnare members of this community,” states a release from Hulu, triggering a “severe ripple effect of mistrust, anxiety and self-doubt.”

The film, from Story Syndicate and Carr Lot Productions, attempts to identify whoever is responsible for concocting the scheme.

“Tegan enlists documentary...

This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here.

Grand Theft Hamlet is about as absurd a mash-up as its title would have you believe. It’s a documentary about Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, two actors left jobless at the height of the pandemic who decide to put on a live-streamed production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Partway through the film, which was shot entirely in-game, as Sam is rehearsing the play’s famous “To be or not to be” speech on the beaches of Los Santos, a masked player walks up and calls him a bitch over chat, utterly unmoved by the iconic soliloquy. Other rehearsals are interrupted by helicopters and shootouts, all fitting encapsulations of the stark juxtaposition at the heart of the documentary. But GTA and Shakespeare may not be...

Updated with date, time of ceremony: The 13th Television Academy Honors will be hosted by Jameela Jamil as a virtual event and will stream live Tuesday, September 8 at 9 p.m. Et/6 p.m. Pt on the Television Academy’s website.

Winners of the honors, which recognize TV shows that shed light on complex issues and challenges facing our society, were announced in April, but the annual in-person ceremony was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year’s winners: documentary specials At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal (HBO) and 16 Shots (Showtime), limited series Watchmen (HBO) and Unbelievable (Netflix), drama series Queen Sugar (OWN) and comedy commentary program Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj (Netflix).

The TV Academy said Wednesday the ceremony will stream on TelevisionAcademy.com and that Erin Lee Carr (At the Heart of Gold), Susannah Grant (Unbelievable), Regina King (Watchmen), Damon Lindelof (Watchmen), Hasan Minhaj...

On today’s episode of Crew Call we speak with Alena Smith, the creator of Apple TV’s period comedy series Dickinson starring Hailee Steinfeld as the famed, passionate, dark 19th Century Amherst, Mass. poet, and the show’s composers Drum & Lace and Ian.

Dickinson follows Emily Dickinson through her formative teenage years in northern Massachusetts, as she defies stiff society norms of the day, indulging in a love affair with her future sister-in-law , Sue Gilbert (played by Ella Hunt — (Emily dedicated many poems to Sue); breaking hearts (George Gould played by Samuel Farnsworth), being obsessed with death (played by Wiz Khalifa) and refusing to be penned in by her politician father Edward (Toby Huss) as she pursues a career to have a byline on her emotional penned thoughts. She also meets a few intriguing contemporaries of the day, including author Henry David Thoreau (John Mulaney) and booming regional Little...

The Television Academy announced the recipients of the 13th Television Academy Honors on Thursday, recognizing six TV shows that tackled difficult social issues with innovation and insight, including matters of mental health, sexual abuse, addiction, and race relations.

Among the honorees were two HBO projects, Damon Lindelof’s gripping “Watchmen,” which grappled with America’s brutal history of racism, and documentary “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal,” which exposed the culture of abuse within the country’s women’s Olympic gymnastics team.

More from IndieWireTV Academy Compresses Emmy Schedule, Cancels FYCs, but Keeps September Ceremony DatesIndustry Leaders Press TV Academy for Fyc Calendar Clarity

Netflix also featured two honorees in “Unbelievable,” a limited series inspired by real life incidents that deals with sexual assault and victims of trauma within the criminal justice system, and “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” a weekly comedy commentary series which features...

The HBO miniseries “Watchmen,” Ava DuVernay’s drama series “Queen Sugar” and the Netflix comedy series “Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj” are among the shows that have been chosen to receive the 13th annual Television Academy Honors, which were announced by the Academy on Thursday morning.

The other recipients of the award will be the Netflix miniseries “Unbelievable” and a pair of documentary specials, “16 Shots” and “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal.”

The recipients were chosen for “impacting society through thoughtful, powerful and innovative storytelling,” according to a Television Academy release.

Also Read: Television Academy Delays Emmy Voting, Bans Campaign Events

The Television Academy Honors ceremony, which was to have taken place in April, has been postponed indefinitely because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Last week, it delayed nomination voting for the Primetime Emmy Awards for the same reason.

The winning programs were chosen by a jury...

The 13th annual Television Academy Honors awards ceremony, originally scheduled for April, has been “postponed indefinitely,” due to the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. But the TV Academy has gone ahead and announced this year’s honorees.

The six programs set to be honored by the Television Academy this year are “16 Shots” (Showtime), “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal” (HBO), “Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj” (Netflix), “Queen Sugar” (Own), “Unbelievable” (Netflix) and “Watchmen” (HBO).

Per the TV Academy, the roster recognizes programs that were “meaningful and impactful” television in 2019 that “shed light on complex issues and challenges facing our society.” The two documentary specials, one drama series, two limited series and one talk series were chosen for tackling issues such as women’s rights, mental health, substance abuse and addiction, sexual abuse, race relations and gender discrimination.

“We are so pleased to recognize these extraordinary programs and...

Six "exceptional television programs that impact society through thoughtful, powerful and innovative storytelling" are this year's Television Academy Honors recipients, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced Thursday.

The honorees are Showtime's 16 Shots, HBO's At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal, Netflix's Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj, Own's Queen Sugar, Netflix's Unbelievable and HBO's Watchmen.

The 13th annual Television Academy Honors ceremony, which was scheduled to take place in April, has been postponed indefinitely because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

This year's honorees encompass a wide cross section of programming from ...

Sia has released her uplifting new single “Original,” off the soundtrack for the upcoming Robert Downey Jr. film Dolittle.

“I won’t waste my life being typical / Imma be original, even when it’s difficult,” Sia sings on the chorus. “And I won’t change myself when they tell me ‘no’ / Imma be original.”

Dolittle, a new spin on the classic story of the doctor who can speak to animals, arrives in theaters January 17th.

“Original” marks Sia’s first new solo song since 2019’s “Out There,” a collaboration with...

Every year, documentaries that examine crimes are made. Some, such as Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America,” Joshua Rofe’s “Lorena” and most recently Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s “The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park,” study a single crime decades after the fact in hopes of establishing a greater clarity and understanding of traumatic events.

But some crimes against humanity deserve immediate dissection and magnification, including mass shootings, sexual abuse and data-mining manipulation. Each is an offense that has directly and indirectly affected millions of Americans in recent years and each is an offense that continues to play out in our society. In these cases, documentarians take on crimes that need immediate absorption and contemplation.

Just four days after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, Emily Taguchi and Jake Lefferman traveled to Parkland, Fla., on assignment for ABC’s “Nightline.” Initially the duo...

A total of 159 documentary features have qualified in the Oscars’ Best Documentary Feature category, the Academy announced on Tuesday.

Last year, 166 documentaries qualified. In 2017, a record 170 made the cut.

All of the films are now available to members of the Documentary Branch to stream on the Academy’s secure members website. The films have been placed there over the last six months, with 23 added to the site in June, 24 in July, 26 in August, 19 in September and 62 in October and only five in November.

Also Read: 'Maiden' Star Tracy Edwards Kept Her Story 'Messy' to Serve the Next Generation of Women Athletes (Video)

Each member is randomly assigned 20% of the films as mandatory viewing but is free to see any additional films beyond those that are assigned. A preliminary round of voting will produce a 15-film shortlist, with a second-round narrowing those 15 to the five nominees.

This year is...

For twelve years now, the Cinema Eye Honors selection committees, comprised of filmmakers from the documentary community, help to whittle down a curated list of must-see non-fiction film and television. At the annual Cinema Eye brunch, Cinema Eye Honors founding director A.J. Schnack and his team unveiled the first in a series of awards announcements, including nominees for two new awards: Outstanding Achievement for a Broadcast Film or Series in Editing and Cinematography.

Netflix, 30 for 30, Hulu and Showtime Documentary Films hosted the lunch at Tartine Bianco in Los Angeles, attended by many filmmakers, including many of this year’s non-fiction contenders: Nanfu Wang + Jialing Zhang, Todd Douglas Miller, Petra Costa, Steven Bognar + Julia Reichert, Lauren Greenfield, and Feras Fayyad.

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s “Homecoming” (Netflix) led the Broadcast honorees with three nominations: Broadcast Film, Broadcast Editing and Broadcast Cinematography. Other multiple nominees included National Geographic’s “Apollo: Mission to the Moon,...

For twelve years now, the Cinema Eye Honors selection committees, comprised of filmmakers from the documentary community, help to whittle down a curated list of must-see non-fiction film and television. At the annual Cinema Eye brunch, Cinema Eye Honors founding director A.J. Schnack and his team unveiled the first in a series of awards announcements, including nominees for two new awards: Outstanding Achievement for a Broadcast Film or Series in Editing and Cinematography.

Netflix, 30 for 30, Hulu and Showtime Documentary Films hosted the lunch at Tartine Bianco in Los Angeles, attended by many filmmakers, including many of this year’s non-fiction contenders: Nanfu Wang + Jialing Zhang, Todd Douglas Miller, Petra Costa, Steven Bognar + Julia Reichert, Lauren Greenfield, and Feras Fayyad.

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s “Homecoming” (Netflix) led the Broadcast honorees with three nominations: Broadcast Film, Broadcast Editing and Broadcast Cinematography. Other multiple nominees included National Geographic’s “Apollo: Mission to the Moon,...

Beyonce’s “Homecoming” has landed three nominations to lead all films in the first round of noms for the Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based awards ceremony established in 2007 to honor all aspects of nonfiction filmmaking.

In an announcement made at a luncheon in downtown Los Angeles, Cinema Eye Honors organizers unveiled nominations in seven categories, including new categories for broadcast editing and cinematography. “Homecoming” received nominations in both those new categories, as well as for the outstanding broadcast film of the year.

It faces off in that last category against “Apollo: Mission to the Moon,” “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal,” “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” “Leaving Neverland” and “The Sentence.”

Also Read: 'Homecoming' Film Review: Beyoncé's Powerful Documentary Captures Her Once-in-a-Lifetime Coachella Triumph

Other shows with multiple nominations were the broadcast series “Salt Fat Acid Heat” and “Tricky Dick,” which received two each.

Exclusive: In a competitive situation, Ucp has optioned the rights to Jesse Barron’s 2017 Esquire true crime article The Girl From Plainville for TV series development.

The Girl From Plainville is considered the definitive account of the events that led Michelle Carter, a young woman from a small town in Massachusetts, to stand trial for her boyfriend Conrad Roy’s homicide, as prosecutors argued that her calls and texts fueled his suicide when they were both teens.

In a highly publicized case, which raised the question, Can words kill?, Carter was convicted in 2017 of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging Roy, over the text messages and phone calls to kill himself. Roy had seen numerous mental health professionals and insisted he wanted to die. Carter was convicted mainly on the basis of her final phone call in which she told Roy to get back in his truck, which was filling with carbon monoxide,...

Amid all the amazing performances and inspiring speeches at the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Monday night, one particular win gave us the most poignant speech of the entire award show.

Surviving R. Kelly, the Lifetime docuseries that shook the musical world by exposing the multiple sexual abuse allegations against Kelly, took home the Golden Popcorn for best documentary and beat out several other documentaries - including At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal, Rbj, Minding the Gap, and McQueen. Brie Miranda Bryant (senior vice president of unscripted development and programming for Lifetime) accepted the award surrounded by several of Kelly's survivors and moved the audience to tears with an incredibly powerful speech.

"This isn't just a trophy to us. It speaks to the cultural impact that it generated from this documentary," Bryant said. "Survivors walked through the fire and stood again to tell the story . . . journalists,...

The MTV Movie & TV Awards returned to television Monday, with host Zachary Levi and a number of pop culture favorites.

Dominating this year’s nominations with four apiece were front runners “Avengers: Endgame,” which took home the evening’s best movie award, and “Game of Thrones,” which won best show. The Oscar-nominated documentary “Rbg” also scored four nods but was overtaken by the evening’s best documentary winner “Surviving R. Kelly.”

This year’s show also featured three new categories: reality royalty (“Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta”), most meme-able moment (“The Bachelor”) and best real-life hero (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) in addition to the show’s new tradition — started in 2017 — which refrains from separating nominees by gender.

Additionally, Dwayne Johnson was honored with the Generation Award, and Jada Pinkett Smith took home the Trailblazer Award.

See the full list of winners below.

Best Movie

“Avengers: Endgame” (Winner)

“BlacKkKlansman”

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse...

Erin Lee Carr and her team were investigating the predatory culture of elite gymnastics when they found their story.

"We started by exploring the relationship between coaches and athletes and then the name Larry Nassar kept coming up and we said, 'Oh my God, this story has changed,'" Carr explained when she premiered her film, At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on Thursday. “Just speaking his name inspires deep sadness and I’m sure, for some of you, deep rage. But I want ...

Erin Lee Carr and her team were investigating the predatory culture of elite gymnastics when they found their story.

"We started by exploring the relationship between coaches and athletes and then the name Larry Nassar kept coming up and we said, 'Oh my God, this story has changed,'" Carr explained when she premiered her film, At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on Thursday. “Just speaking his name inspires deep sadness and I’m sure, for some of you, deep rage. But I want ...

Much of Erin Lee Carr’s documentary work has focused on true crime, including Mommy Dead and Dearest and I Love You, Now Die, about a Massachusetts woman convicted of manslaughter for sending a series of text messages encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself.

Her newest film, At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal — which bows May 3 on HBO — is a different kind of true-crime documentary. It may often be referred to as a scandal, but the courts will soon decide if the complicity on the part of officials at the USA Gymnastics, the governing body ...

Much of Erin Lee Carr’s documentary work has focused on true crime, including Mommy Dead and Dearest and I Love You, Now Die, about a Massachusetts woman convicted of manslaughter for sending a series of text messages encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself.

Her newest film, At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal — which bows May 3 on HBO — is a different kind of true-crime documentary. It may often be referred to as a scandal, but the courts will soon decide if the complicity on the part of officials at the USA Gymnastics, the governing body ...

Up until recently, what it meant to be a professional female athlete in a world dominated by men wasn’t an issue that garnered high volumes of public interest, let alone national headlines. But that all changed in October 2017 when stories from the New York Times and the New Yorker detailing sexual allegations and improper workplace behavior against Harvey Weinstein ignited the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, which quickly spread beyond the entertainment world. Less than two years later, four documentary films that explore the role of gender and sexuality in male dominated sports are heading to the Tribeca Film Festival. Those docus are: Erin Lee Carr’s “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal,” Yu Gu’s “A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem,” Alex Holmes’ “Maiden” and Michael Barnett’s “Changing the Game.”

“At the Heart of Gold” explores the 2017 USA Gymnastics...