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Producer Robert A. Goldston, whose credits ranged from such American Film Theatre productions as The Iceman Cometh and A Delicate Balance in the 1970s to the 1987 HBO film Mandela, died Saturday at his home in New York from complications of Crohn’s disease. He was 88.

A graduate of Harvard Law, Goldston practiced law briefly before entering show business, working first at Screen Gems/Columbia and then joining New York’s WNTA, the forerunner to public television station WNET. There, as president of NTA Productions, he was involved in the Play of the Week series, which ran from 1959-1961, broadcasting 67 Broadway-style...

Well-received race and identity comedy Dear White People marks the first acquisition for The New Black Film Collective but the film faces significant challenges in the UK.

Justin Simien’s Sundance-winning feature debut Dear White People, the identity comedy about the tension between white and black students at an elite university, was a critical and commercial success in the Us.

The low-budget indie – part-backed by crowd-funder Indiegogo - took $4.5m at the Us box office in October and was widely praised by Us and international critics.

Tessa Thompson (Copper) stars alongside well-known TV faces Tyler James Williams (Everybody Hates Chris) and Dennis Haysbert (24) in the film, which carries important messages about race and identity but also “smartly pinpoints people’s universal needs”.

The New York Times’ A.O Scott hailed the film as “as smart and fearless a debut as I have seen from an American filmmaker in quite some time…everyone should...

The 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards went off without a hitch earlier this evening (February 22) with "12 Years a Slave" continuing to make waves snagging the biggest prize of the night.

Before her film won Outstanding Motion Picture, the gorgeous Lupita Nyong'o added another piece of hardware to her already impressive collection taking home a trophy for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, while Kerry Washington snagged up her second Image Award with a win for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series. Kerry's show "Scandal" also won Outstanding Drama Series.

In addition, the hilarious Kevin Hart took home Entertainer of the Year, while Oprah Winfrey paid tribute to the late Nelson Mandela with a touching speech and musical dedication.

"He was everything we have all have heard and more. He was humble and he was unscathed by any kind of bitterness after all that we know he's been through," Winfrey said.

The 45th NAACP Image Awards were presented Saturday night (Feb. 22), with names like Kevin Hart, Kerry Washington, "12 Years a Slave" director Steve McQueen and Lupita Nyong'o being honored.

The Image Awards pay tribute to the best in film, TV, writing, music and literature. Take a look at the full list of winners below.

Winners are in bold.

Entertainer of the Year

Kevin Hart

Film

Outstanding Motion Picture

"12 Years A Slave" "Fruitvale Station""Lee Daniels' The Butler""Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom""The Best Man Holiday" 

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture

Forest Whitaker - "Lee Daniels' The Butler"Chadwick Boseman - "42"Chiwetel Ejiofor - "12 Years A Slave"Idris Elba - "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom"Michael B. Jordan - "Fruitvale Station"

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture

Angela Bassett - "Black Nativity"Halle Berry - "The Call"Jennifer Hudson - "Winnie Mandela"Kerry Washington - "Tyler Perry Presents Peeples"Nicole Beharie...

Adding their picks to the awards season deluge, the 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards unveiled the official list of nominees.

Not surprisingly, “The Butler” will compete in categories including Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Supporting Actor & Actress and Writing.

Meanwhile, Kerry Washington’s “Scandal” is up for Outstanding Drama Series, and Ms. Washington herself received a nod for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.

NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock gushed, “This has been an incredible year from the artistic community, with phenomenal contributions across the board from the music, television, motion picture, and literature genres that have the power and impact to drive social change.”

The 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards will go live on Friday, February 21st.

And the nominees are:

Television

Outstanding Comedy Series

"House of Lies" (Showtime)

"Modern Family" (ABC)

"Real Husbands of Hollywood" (Bet)

"The Game" (Bet)

"The Soul Man" (TV Land)

Outstanding Actor in...

Nassau, Bahamas (AP) — Actor Danny Glover has received a career achievement award in the Bahamas as he reflected on the role he played as Nelson Mandela while the South African leader was still in prison. The 67-year-old actor says he was moved by Mandela's political writings as a student in the 1960s and acknowledged he was the only U.S. actor who portrayed him in a film before the publication of his biography and release from prison in 1990. Story: Nelson Mandela Dies at 95 "There's a great deal that comes back over a period of time,

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Nelson Mandela on film and TV: From Sidney Poitier to Terrence Howard (photo: Sidney Poitier as Nelson Mandela in ‘Mandela and de Klerk’) (See previous post: "Nelson Mandela Movies: ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,’ ‘Invictus.’") As found on the IMDb, here are a handful of other narrative big-screen films featuring Nelson Mandela: Darrell Roodt’s Winnie Mandela (2011), with Jennifer Hudson in the title role and Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela. Pete Travis’ Endgame (2009), with Clarke Peters’ Mandela as less a martyred saint than a skillful realpolitik negotiator. This political drama also features Chiwetel Ejiofor, William Hurt, Jonny Lee Miller, Mark Strong, and Derek Jacobi. Zola Maseko’s 1950s-set Drum (2004), in which Mandela is played — for a change — by a South African actor, Lindani Nkosi. As reported by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, British filmmaker Peter Kosminsky (White Oleander, Wuthering Heights) "got into hot water a couple of years ago...

In film, the role of the former Anc activist and president of South Africa has traditionally been approached with great reverence

The voice. The gentle, mysterious smile. The walk – generally an older man's walk, across a garden, or presidential office, or prison exercise yard. The enigmatically polite manner: intimidating, even awe-inspiring for allies and adversaries alike. The list of actors who have tried all this is long: Morgan Freeman, David Harewood, Terrence Howard, Danny Glover, Sidney Poitier, Clarke Peters, Dennis Haysbert, Idris Elba – and Lindane Nkosi, the one South African actor who has managed to make some sort of impression as this character in Anglo-Hollywood circles, for a film called Drum, about the 1950s anti-apartheid campaign, that played at festivals in London and Cannes.

Nelson Mandela has been a role to be approached reverently, a difficult part and a career hurdle in some ways, like a royal figure in a Shakespearian play,...

For such a widely revered public figure, Nelson Mandela was oddly underrepresented when it came to major motion pictures. The South African leader, who passed away yesterday at age 95, was portrayed only a handful of times, mostly in marginal fare that barely registered critically or commercially. Part of this probably has to do with the unusual contours of his long life, 27 years of which were spent in prison -- daunting subject matter from the perspective of a filmmaker, who must place those decades in context.

The latest attempt to render Mandela's life and legacy on the big screen comes from director Justin Chadwick, in the form of "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," a biopic that we got to see earlier this year at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Star Idris Elba brings a lot of conviction to the challenging role, giving Mandela great depth and shying away from the...

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first democratically elected black president and a crusader against apartheid, died Thursday in his suburban Johannesburg home. He was 95. He had been receiving in-home intensive care since leaving the hospital on Sept. 1 after being admitted in June for a lung infection. Mandela was an inspiration to many, including some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, who quickly took to Twitter and Instagram to mourn his passing. The former president has been portrayed onscreen by Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, Terrence Howard, Sidney Poitier and Dennis Haysbert among others. His life is also

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var brightcovevideoid = '2898010499001'; Nelson Mandela, who heroically symbolized the longstanding fight against South Africa's white supremacist government - and rose from its victimized prisoner to his nation's powerful and compassionate leader - has died, according to South African President Jacob Zuma. He was 95. "My Fellow South Africans, our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding President of our democratic nation has departed. He passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20h50 on the 5th of December 2013," Zuma said in a statement. "He is now resting. He is now at peace. Our nation has lost its greatest son.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela -- famous for his fight to end the racist policy of apartheid -- died today at the age of 95.Mandela's health had been in steep decline over the past few months -- he was hospitalized on June 8 for kidney and liver problems and had been on life support. Doctors also said he had a recurring lung infection. The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, had said Mandela was...

London-born actor says playing former president in Long Walk To Freedom was 'a massive responsibility'

He could hardly be described as Nelson Mandela's spitting image, but when the British actor Idris Elba arrived at the South African premiere of Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom on Sunday, there was some of the awe and adulation usually reserved for the great statesman himself.

"You can see the sweat! No pressure?" joked Elba, feeling the heat of countless cameraphones as he wiped perspiration from his forehead. "South Africans love their Madiba and it's a massive responsibility to bring him alive in the best possible way."

Playing Mandela is an acting Everest that stars including Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, David Harewood, Terrence Howard, Clarke Peters and Sidney Poitier have attempted to scale, but none, perhaps, have quite reached the summit. Elba, who grew up in Hackney, east London, has already earned the praise of Mandela's family.

An Original Voice

“We didn’t get mad, we got smart,” HBO CEO Michael Fuchs said about hitting The Wall, looking back at HBO stalling in 1984 from the vantage of the early 1990s. Actually, a lot of the rank and file didn’t get mad or smart; we’d seen 125 of our friends and colleagues get shown the door when the company had suddenly flatlined after eight years of phenomenal growth, and what we got was scared.

But it’s to the credit of HBO’s execs that whatever anxieties they may have had, they showed no panic or even nervousness in public. Instead, they poured any concerns into energetically and immediately addressing the question of, “What do we do now?” The world we knew had changed and there was no going back to the Gold Rush days of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The company required a humongous...

Every Labor Day weekend, cinephiles journey out to a small town nestled in a remote corner of southwest Colorado’s San Juan mountain range for the Telluride Film Festival. Production staff are hard at work building state-of-the-art theaters for more than a month before the event and readying for a sudden influx of dedicated filmgoers. Veteran pass holders, staff, and volunteers make the trip largely out of faith in the festival’s superb programming that’s famously kept completely secret up until the day before it begins. The shroud of mystery, the breathtaking scenery of a box canyon and the fact that there are no press lines, competitions, or paparazzi lend a sanctified awe to this complete cinematic immersion. Venturing deep into uncharted storytelling territory with old or new friends make the cost of getting out here and the intensive labor involved with putting it all together worth it each and every time.

With each passing year, Tiff is becoming more and more prominent on the film festival circuit, with more and more Oscar-primed films making their debut out in Canada. And with the initial line-up announced for the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the trend is definitely continuing.

Amongst the many, many films making their presence felt out in Toronto will be Steve McQueen’s highly anticipated 12 Years a Slave, which launched a powerful first trailer earlier in the month. The film sees Chiwetel Ejiofor lead a fantastic cast, with Michael Fassbender returning to work for his Hunger / Shame director, alongside the likes of Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sarah Paulson, Paul Giamatti, and many more.

Opening the festival will be Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, alongside Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and Stanley Tucci.

And closing it will be Daniel Schechter’s Life of Crime,...

Bet Networks will celebrate the 95th birthday of Nelson Mandela on this Thursday, July 18, with the premiere of the Bet News Special, Mandela - Freedom’s Father, at 8 Pm Et/Pt and the Bet Premiere Cinema debut of Invictus at 9 Pm Et/Pt.Details via press release from Bet:“Bet News Special: Mandela – Freedom’S Father” - Premieres Thursday, July 18th at 8 Pm* Et/Pt.This one-hour Bet News special, "Mandela: Freedom's Father", takes viewers on a journey through the life and times of Nelson Mandela with exclusive video and heartfelt interviews with celebrities and Mandela insiders. Actors Alfre Woodard and Blair...

Rising from anti-apartheid revolutionary and political prisoner to President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela is a courageous man with an incredible life story. It's one that has inspired a handful of biopics over the years, including two made-for-tv features starring Danny Glover in 1987 then Sidney Poitier in 1997, and Goodbye Bafana, a 2007 release in which Dennis Haysbert played Mandela. Then of course there was Clint Eastwood's historical drama Invictus, which earned Morgan Freeman an Academy Award nod for his portrayal of the internationally respected leader. But the latest, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is one based on the man's own autobiography. And though you can't make him out in the teaser above, Mandela is played here by the one and only Idris Elba. Between winning a Golden Globe for his devastating drama series Luther and stealing scenes as the accordion-playing space captain in the polarizing sci-fi epic Prometheus, 2012 was a...

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president and a charismatic inspiration to Hollywood and millions around the world, died Thursday. He was 95. Mandela, who was portrayed by Morgan Freeman, Sidney Poitier, Dennis Haysbert, Danny Glover, David Harewood, Terrence Howard and others in TV and film, died in his bedroom at his suburban Johannesburg home. South African President Jacob Zuma announced the death in nationally televised address. Photos: Nelson Mandela and Apartheid: 13 Hollywood Portrayals He had been in intensive care since being discharged Sept. 1 after nearly three months in a hospital for a lung infection. Idris Elba can

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'Kick-ass' authorised biography starring Idris Elba expected to win plaudits, while troubled Winnie stumbles in its wake

As millions pray for Nelson Mandela, hospitalised for a week with a recurring lung infection, the race is under way to provide the definitive film version of his extraordinary life and times.

Leading the charge is a big-budget adaptation of Mandela's bestselling autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba, best known for The Wire and Luther, and Naomie Harris, recently seen in Skyfall.

Later this year it could go head-to-head at the box office with Winnie, featuring Jennifer Hudson as Mandela's wife, the struggle heroine Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, with Terrence Howard as South Africa's first black president.

The casting of foreigners has been controversial in South Africa and accents will be under close scrutiny in the latest films, which represent a transatlantic duel between Britons Elba and Harris and Americans Hudson and Howard.

The Oscars are in just over for 48 hours, but man, they feel so yesterday already, amirite? So let's start looking ahead to next year, and one can't ignore the news and start speculating when someone like Harvey Weinstein snaps up a movie about Nelson Mandela. The Weinstein Company has picked up the rights to "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom," the biopic with none other than the eternally awesome Idris Elba in the lead role. Justin Chadwick ("The First Grader") directs with Naomie Harris co-starring as Winnie, with the film said by Elba last year to cover Mandela's "early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison…" It's a powerful story indeed, though previous attempts to chronicle the South African leader's life (or parts of it) haven't had quite the lasting impact. Actors ranging from Danny Glover ("Mandela"), Dennis Haysbert ("Goodbye Bafana") and Terrence Howard...

Everything from street hustlers and school teachers to Nobel prize winners and Islamist extremists in a feast of African film

We have selected eight films from five African countries to look out for in 2013 – the year of the 23rd edition of Fespaco – the bi-annual pan-African film and television festival of Ouagadougou.

Burn it up Djassa by Lonesome Solo (Cote d'Ivoire)

Labelled "a film by the people for the people", Burn it up Djassa is about a young street hustler in Abidjan looking for a break. After shooting his first feature, Lonesome Solo escaped the war torn Cote d'Ivoire and has not been seen since.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Biyi Bandele (Nigeria/UK)

The adaptation of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi-Adiche's Orange Prize-winning and bestselling epic, stars Thandie Newton and Chewitel Ejiofor. Nigerian investors contributed with 80% of the budget to fellow Nigerian director and writer Bandele's feature debut.

Jeppe on a Friday by Shannon Walsh,...

British-born star picked to play Nelson Mandela in biopic after casting agent says local actors lack stature for role

Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, David Harewood, Dennis Haysbert, Terrence Howard, Clarke Peters, Sidney Poitier and now Idris Elba: all are actors who have been cast as Nelson Mandela – yet none is South African.

This is already a sore point for local performers, and now salt has been rubbed in the wound. Why do they never get the chance to play their national hero? Because they are too short, according to the country's top casting agent.

Mandela, a towering figure in every sense, is 6ft 4ins (1.93 metres) tall: actors in South Africa just don't measure up, says Moonyeenn Lee, who picked British-born Elba – star of The Wire and Luther – for a planned film adaptation of Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

"I was free to cast a South African, and...

Must all German film roles be acted by Germans? Of course not. The idea that British-born Idris Elba can't play Mandela is daft

I was a South African tween growing up in Zimbabwe when my mother acted (or rather, appeared on screen for 45 seconds) in a made for television film starring Danny Glover as Nelson Mandela and Alfre Woodard as Winnie. In her role, my Zimbabwean mother knocks on the window and reminds the American actress about a women's meeting ending with a raised thumb and that very South African expression, "sharp".

If some arguments are to be believed, my mother, Alfre, Danny and the many other non-South Africans who acted in this film should not have taken the roles they did, and instead South African actors should have. And the film should have been made in South Africa. It was not; it was shot in Zimbabwe. South Africa was burning at the time.

Final round of updates for today.

Ryan Kennedy and John Pyper-Ferguson have a new film in the works, called Hannah's Law. It will premiere on Hallmark next spring. More details in the press release:

A frontier town is fueled by crime and corruption until a strong-willed heroine and her friends, including legendary lawman Wyatt Earp and gunfighter Doc Holliday, take a stand for justice to see who will be left standing in "Hannah's Law," a Hallmark Movie Channel Original produced by Nomadic Pictures Productions 3 and Sony Pictures Television, premiering on the network in 2012. The film, which is currently in production in Calgary, Alberta, stars Sara Canning ("The Vampire Diaries") as Hannah, Greystone Holt ("Durham County") as Wyatt Earp, Kimberly Elise ("For Colored Girls") as Stagecoach Mary, four-time Emmy(R) Award nominee Danny Glover ("Freedom Song," "Mandela") as Isom Dart, Billy Zane ("Titanic") as Lockwood, Ryan Kennedy ("Hellcats") as Doc Holliday...

Make no mistake, Danny Glover is still not too old for this sh…tuff called acting. Not by a stretch. And the Lethal Weapon vet’s latest gig is on TNT’s Leverage, TVLine has learned exclusively.

In the fifth episode of the sleuthing drama’s upcoming fourth season, Glover will guest-star as a retired war veteran who “acquired a piece of art that has a little bit of a mystery story behind it,” Aldis Hodge (aka Hardison) told us on Saturday at the 32nd College Television Awards. “We get involved to try to help him recover it.”

TNT Sets...

Terrence Howard is to become the latest actor to portray Nelson Mandela onscreen after landing the role in Jennifer Hudson's upcoming film about the ex-wife of the South African leader. The two stars will play man and wife in filmmaker Darrell J. Roodt's new movie, "Winnie", which documents Winnie Mandela's life.

Hudson's appointment previously caused uproar among the members of the Creative Workers Union of South Africa, who insisted local actors should have been cast as the lead characters in a movie so important to the country's history. Principal photography on Winnie is scheduled to begin on May 31 in South Africa, reports Variety.

Morgan Freeman played Mandela in Clint Eastwood's rugby film "Invictus" and Danny Glover played the politician in TV movie "Mandela".

Terrence Howard is to become the latest actor to portray Nelson Mandela onscreen after landing the role in Jennifer Hudson's upcoming film about the ex-wife of the South African leader.

The two stars will play man and wife in filmmaker Darrell J. Roodt's new movie, Winnie, which documents Winnie Mandela's life.

Hudson's appointment previously caused uproar among the members of the Creative Workers Union of South Africa, who insisted local actors should have been cast as the lead characters in a movie so important to the country's history.

Principal photography on Winnie is scheduled to begin on 31 May in South Africa, reports Variety.

Morgan Freeman played Mandela in Clint Eastwood's rugby film Invictus and Danny Glover played the politician in TV movie Mandela.

Last May we heard that DreamWorks had picked up the rights to create an official biopic of Dr. Martin Luther King, with Steven Spielberg producing. At the time there was no other talent involved. Now, just a day or two late to make the announcement resonate perfectly with Monday's Mlk holiday, the studio has announced a screenwriter: Ronald Harwood, who won an Oscar for The Pianist. Variety announces the hire and notes that the South African native has written extensively about racial divides and apartheid in the past. Harwood wrote the films Mandela and Cry, the Beloved Country in addition to plays and novels that dealt with South Africa's racial policies. That info is surely provided to prove Harwood's pedigree in order to forestall complaints that a white writer is penning the script. I'll give Harwood the benefit of the doubt, however. (He wrote the wonderful The Diving Bell and the Butterfly...

Last year we reported on the fact that Dreamworks had acquired the rights to make a Martin Luther King Jr. biopic, which is set to be produced by Steven Spielberg, Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones and is said to be a dream project for the trio. The last we heard about the Mlk biopic, there was some trouble behind-the-scenes with regards to King’s children, Dexter, Bernice and Martin Luther King III, who were fighting over rights.

However, today we get news by way of Variety (thanks to The Playlist) that a screenwriter in the form of Ronald Harwood has been brought on board to pen the script for the film. This probably means that the trouble with King’s children has been worked out as Dreamworks, Spielberg and Co. have full access to the influential figure’s intellectual property, including his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. This...

Timely news comes on the heels of Martin Luther King Jr. Day: DreamWorks has tapped a screenwriter for its biopic about the civil rights leader. Ronald Harwood, who won an Oscar for penning Roman Polanski's Holocaust drama The Pianist, will handle the task of adapting Mlk's life once again for the screen, this time with the authorization of part of the King Estate. While other films and miniseries about or involving the Reverend Doctor have been made in the past, none have been approved by any members of his family or had access to his intellectual property (such as the "I Have a Dream" speech). This as yet untitled biopic will also be a bigger deal than past efforts due to the fact it's being produced by Steven Spielberg.

Harwood is also a pretty significant player. In addition to winning an Academy Award, he's been nominated for his scripts...

Ronald Harwood writing the Martin Luther King Jr. Biopic Acclaimed playwright and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood will write the screenplay for DreamWorks Studios' Martin Luther King, Jr. bio-pic, it was announced today by Mark Sourian and Holly Bario, Co-Presidents of Production for the studio. As previously announced, Steven Spielberg, Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones will produce the film about the renowned civil rights leader. The DreamWorks film will be the first theatrical motion picture to be authorized by The King Estate to utilize the intellectual property of Dr. King to create the definitive portrait of his life. Dr. King copyrighted his speeches, books, and famous works during his lifetime. "It is so gratifying for all of us at DreamWorks Studios to have a writer as respected and honored as Ronald Harwood to write the screenplay for our Martin Luther King film," said Mark Sourian and Holly Bario.

Portraying Nelson Mandela has defeated many actors, but not Morgan Freeman. The star of Invictus tells Bill Keller about shadowing – and embodying – the South African leader

Morgan Freeman has been cast as God – twice – so he evidently has no trouble projecting moral authority. The challenge of portraying Nelson Mandela, then, was not the size of the halo, but knowing the performance would be measured against the real, familiar Mandela, and his myth. "If we can say any part of acting is hard, then playing someone who is living and everybody knows would be the hardest," Freeman says.

The role has defeated actors as varied as Danny Glover (in the 1987 TV film Mandela), Sidney Poitier (Mandela and de Klerk, 1997, also for TV) and Dennis Haysbert (Goodbye Bafana, 2007), in vehicles that were reverential and mostly forgettable. But as someone who studied Mandela over the course of three years while he replaced an...