News

“The Cruise” continues on Channel 5 this Wednesday, following the crew and passengers of the Valiant Lady as they chart a course for Ibiza. But before the party can start, there are security checks to conduct, sporting activities to conquer, and a rather unexpected mid-voyage emergency. As the ship prepares to depart Gibraltar, Senior Security […]

The Cruise: Fun-Loving Brits at Sea: Season 3, Episode 3...

From gale-force winds in Gibraltar to drag queen drama and onboard wellbeing initiatives, the second episode of “The Cruise” delivers another dose of life aboard the Valiant Lady. This time, the challenges are as varied as the ship’s itinerary. Third Officer Claire and her team find themselves battling the elements as gale-force winds make docking […]

The Cruise: Fun-Loving Brits at Sea: Season 3 Episode 2...

‘You know there’s got to be something better,” sang the iconic Marianne Faithfull. Similarly Göteborg market’s head of TV Drama Vision Cia Edström and Josef Kullengård, head of industry and Nordic Film Market, were determined to bring “good energy and hope” to their 2,000-plus guests – and not only as DJs of the closing Nordic Film Market gig.

Below are takeaways from the 2025 Nordic Film Market and TV Drama Vision, that took place under the motto “Collaborate, Create and Captivate.”

Farewell – Until Next Year

A new record attendance was set this year, according to preliminary figures released by Kullengård. A total 2,368 on-site delegates from 54 countries were accredited, including 780 for TV Drama Vision and 586 for the Nordic Film Market.

In terms of projects, Nordic Film Market showcased 68 feature-length projects and TV Drama Vision 61 series at various stages of production.

Edström said she is very happy with the numbers for the...

The eagerly anticipated TV Drama Vision showcase in Göteborg has unveiled its 2025 program, where 50+ series from some of the best Nordic and European creatives will be showcased over Jan. 28-29, next to a full program of inspiring talks.

“Our curated program is a true team effort. We’ve worked hard and enjoyed every bit of it and I hope our 700+ industry delegates from 30 countries will enjoy it,” said Cia Edström, founder and head of Scandinavia’s biggest drama market.

Shortlisted by TV Drama Vision’s strong selection committee, a record high number of series in development from 14 countries were selected, and the nine series in the works in progress were picked “from the most relevant and captivating stories coming up,” said Edström.

Host country Sweden is out in force, with four projects in post-production, backed by top-tier platforms and broadcasters and stellar talents on both sides of the camera.

In...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

In honor of Ken Kelsch, Abel Ferrara’s The Blackout and The Addiction screen on 35mm; prints of Douglas Buck’s Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America and the 2006 Sisters remake screen Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Film Forum

A 4K restoration of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Il Grido begins; 42 screens on Sunday.

Bam

A series of New York coming-of-age movies begins, including Crooklyn on 35mm.

Film at Lincoln Center

The new 4K restoration of Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors continues.

Museum of the Moving Image

Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein plays in 3D on Friday; a Frank Oz series.

Metrograph

Light Sleeper and The White Ribbon show on 35mm; Around Ludlow, The World Is a Stage, and a Jeff Wall program begins; My Crazy Uncle (or Aunt) and Insomnia continue.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

A series of “silent” movies includes films by Tati, Miguel Gomes, and Chaplin.

Film at Lincoln Center

The new 4K restoration of Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors continues.

Museum of the Moving Image

The Seventh Victim and The Fog play on Friday; a Godzilla series gets underway; The Indian in the Cupboard plays on 35mm Saturday and Sunday.

Metrograph

Rio Bravo, Funny Games, Insomnia, Kung Fu Hustle, The Outfit, and The Good, the Bad, the Weird show on 35mm; My Crazy Uncle (or Aunt), Insomnia, and Crush the Strong, Help the Weak begin.

Roxy Cinema

Dancer in the Dark and Scream play on 35mm, while Suspiria and Without You I’m Nothing also screen.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive retrospective of Portuguese cinema continues, while the films of Mohammad Reza Aslani screen.

IFC Center

4K restorations...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

The new 4K restoration of Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is now playing.

Bam

Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer’s Candy Mountain begins screening in a new restoration. (Watch our exclusive trailer debut.)

Museum of the Moving Image

Monsters Inc. and What About Bob? play in a Frank Oz retrospective; Chantal Akerman’s American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy screens on Sunday; The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shows throughout the weekend.

Metrograph

The Decameron, Fellini Satyricon, In America, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Legend of Suram Fortress, Corpse Bride, All the President’s Men, The Candidate, We Won’t Grow Old Together, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, and Momma’s Man show on 35mm; an Azazel Jacobs series and Follow the Money: Kimberly Reed Selects begin; The Phantom of Ester Krumbachová, Rabbit on the Moon,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

Films by Warren Beatty, Mike Judge, and more play in Facing the Future; the restoration of I Heard it Through the Grapevine screens.

Roxy Cinema

Gummo, Love Streams, and Dancer in the Dark play on 35mm, while Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro screens screens on Saturday and a 16mm puppet program shows Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive retrospective of Portuguese cinema begins, featuring films by Paulo Rocha and Manoel de Oliveira, among many others.

Museum of the Moving Image

A highlight of the 1969 Directors’ Fortnight includes prints of Oshima’s Death By Hanging and Garrel’s The Virgin’s Bed; a Frank Oz retrospective continues.

Anthology Film Archives

Dreyer’s Ordet plays in “Essential Cinema.”

IFC Center

The black-and-white restoration of Johnny Mnemonic plays, as does a 40th-anniversary restoration of Paris, Texas and Bennett Miller’s The Cruise; The Company of Wolves,...

San Diego Comic-Con is taking the pop culture world by storm once again this weekend. While the big news surrounding the convention this year has been the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes causing major studios to readjust their plans and cancel panels at Sdcc, that’s not ruining the party in San Diego. The first major announcement coming out of convention is that the first ever Comic-Con: The Cruise is hitting the high seas in 2025.

Comic-Con is coming to the high seas.

San Diego Comic Convention, the parent company of the international comic convention, and Entertainment Cruise Productions — which has previously produced a Star Trek cruise experience — are teaming to launch Comic-Con: The Cruise. The full-ship charter will take fans from Tampa to the Mexican island Cozumel onboard Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas, with its first voyage set for Feb. 5-9, 2025.

“With a stellar reputation for producing fan events on the ocean, we are excited that Entertainment Cruise Productions has developed Comic-Con: The Cruise to be a truly new kind of adventure,” said David Glanzer, a spokesperson for the popular convention, in a statement. “The team at Ecp shares our passion for transformational events and innovative programming and we are excited they are building something so amazing.”

Fans will be immersed in a one-of-a-kind experience dedicated to comics and popular arts. Fans will...

The disappearance of Bennett Miller from the forefront of Hollywood filmmaking is one of the most unusual situations in the industry. After directing several successful films and receiving multiple Academy Award nominations, Miller somehow hasn’t made a new film since 2014. It’s unclear why he’s taken so long between projects, but movie fans will ensure that it’s on their radar. Miller’s filmography may be rather limited, but in his case, quality is more important than quantity. Each of his films manage to reinvent the notion of the biopic by using history as an inspiration, but not a burden. He helmed the thrilling life of a famous author in Capote, the complex world of baseball in Moneyball, and a shocking true crime story in Foxcatcher.

Prior to his venture into narrative filmmaking, Miller began his career as a documentarian, which certainly proved his capability to do research into well known stories.

Two films released, another film shot, and Steven Soderbergh managed to still watch and read a decent amount in 2019. (Note to self: barely using his Twitter account probably helps.) So a favorite tradition continues with today’s release of his annual viewing and reading log on Extension 765, which has a surprise, oddity, or some-such at nearly every turn.

Favorites include: making it through all 181 hours of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Too Old to Die Young in seven days but taking nearly four months to finish Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace; Chinatown and Richard Lester movies appearing on yet another list; he, too, watching Fleabag; seeing a version of his next movie, Let Them All Talk, just under a month after principal photography commenced. And so on and so forth.

All caps, bold: Movie

All caps, bold, asterisk: Short*

All caps: TV Series

Italics: Book

Quotation marks: “Play”

Italics, quotation...

Now celebrating its fourth year, Qumra is a weeklong industry event run by the Doha Film Institute in Qatar. We’ll be bringing you coverage of the stellar lineup of Qumra 2018 Masterclasses, given by such luminaries as Tilda Swinton, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Andrey Zvyaginstev and Bennett Miller in the coming days.

Maybe because he’s only made four films — “The Cruise,” “Capote,” “Moneyball” and “Foxcatcher” — Bennett Miller, despite two director Oscar nominations, still feels like a relatively unheralded quantity.

Miller was talking at a Qumra Masterclass.

The fickle nature of the film business was one of the subjects covered by Academy Award-nominated director Bennett Miller during a talk to emerging Arab and international filmmakers in Doha on Monday (13 March).

“Do not wait for approvals. It won’t happen. Follow your vision of what you want to do, and don’t give up on what you are doing,” said the Us filmmaker, best known for Capote, Moneyball and Foxcatcher.

Miller was participating in a Masterclass as part of the Doha Film Institute’s Modern Masters series at the fourth annual Qumra event.

Miller was talking at a Qumra Masterclass.

The fickle nature of the film business was one of the subjects covered by Academy Award-nominated director Bennett Miller during a talk to emerging Arab and international filmmakers in Doha on Monday (13 March).

“Do not wait for approvals. It won’t happen. Follow your vision of what you want to do, and don’t give up on what you are doing,” said the Us filmmaker, best known for Capote, Moneyball and Foxcatcher.

Miller was participating in a Masterclass as part of the Doha Film Institute’s Modern Masters series at the fourth annual Qumra event.

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Making the transition from documentary to feature film — or vice versa — can be difficult, but some filmmakers are well-known for jumping between the two styles. Bennett Miller, whose directorial debut was the documentary The Cruise, has made three feature films, including this year’s Oscar contender Foxcatcher.

The Theory of Everything, another of this year’s Oscar contenders, was directed by James Marsh, who received an Oscar nomination for his documentary Man on Wire (2008), which showcases Philippe Petit’s unauthorized high-wire walk between the World Trade Center buildings in 1974. He is also well-known for his documentary Project Nim (2011), about a chimpanzee raised like a human child. Both films garnered him BAFTA nominations: Man on Wire for best British film and Project Nim for best documentary. If Marsh, who received a BAFTA nomination for directing The Theory of Everything, is nominated for a best director Oscar,...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Screenwriter Dan Gilroy made his directorial this year with Nightcrawler, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a corrupt freelance crime reporter who will do anything to get a story. Since the film’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, it’s garnered Oscar buzz and has been compared to best picture winner Crash (2004). It holds a 95 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was named one of AFI’s top 10 films of the year and received four BAFTA nominations, as well as three Critics’ Choice Awards. Gyllenhaal has earned Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Critics’ Choice acting nominations. If Gilroy were to earn a nomination for best director, like Crash did, he would become the sixth director in the 21st century to achieve that accolade.

Tony Gilroy, Dan’s older brother, earned his first Oscar nomination for Michael Clayton (2007), his directorial debut. He was also nominated for best original screenplay.

For Astoria’s Museum of the Moving Image to house an event like the First Look series—opening this Friday and running through January 18—is a cinematic blessing. Here, in its fourth year, you’ll find undistributed gems, but, though its similarities to other festivals halt with “undistributed,” the curation of the series is precise and impeccable, giving an illusion of intimacy. This year, with selections from Omer Fast, Gina Telaroli, and Jessica Hausner, there’s a stress on waking nightmares; films whose atmospheres are bone chilling in both overt and subtle ways.

Ville Marie

Opening with a title card dedicating the film to Carlos Lorenzo, Ville Marie—one of the many experimental films being exhibited during the series—intentionally or otherwise becomes a living fever dream, its use of double and reverse exposure reminiscent of E. Elias Merhige’s horror experiment Begotten. That film sought to expose the horror of creation,...

Yes, it's true! The first real awards show is here! It's time for the 2014 Gotham Awards live from New York City. The 24th installment of the annual indie awards fete should feature salutes to Tilda Swinton and Bennett Miller as well as an intriguing best feature film showdown between "Birdman" and "Boyhood." You can watch the show streamed live yourself here. For all of this year's nominees and winners click here. 5:08 Pm - And we're off, with Uma Thurman as your host. She's having a few issues looking back and forth between the teleprompters too much. Eke. "And. Then. We. Have... 'Boyhood.'" (aka "the movie my ex-husband made for 12 years"). Just sayin'! 5:09 Pm - Uma is already on her way to full Faye Dunaway camp mode and we're just one minute in! 5:11 Pm - The Ifp has been there since the birth of Independent Film? That might be stretching it,...

"Foxcatcher" isn't a film about trapping animals, but it is captivating, and in its own way extremely wild. Based on a true story involving Olympic wrestlers, an heir to a great fortune, and a smouldering conflict that soon caught fire, this is a challenging-yet-rewarding film with some impeccable performances.

This is the one with Steve Carell wearing a funny nose, right?

Yeah, that's the one. It also stars Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo. In fact, if there's three things to recommend about the film, it's these actors. Performance-wise the film is incredible, with each actor stretching in ways that put them all at the top of their game.

Carell's quiet sociopathy is riveting, and he portrays John du Pont with an unsettling air that's intoxicating. That snout he wears may be costume affectation, but it gives his face just the right amount of arrogant aloofness to give the film its core tonality.

“I think that we could all do with a healthy dose of disillusionment,” remarks director Bennett Miller while recently speaking in Chicago about his new film Foxcatcher. It’s a statement delivered with his zen garden-like tone (Mark Ruffalo’s words, not mine), and with truth concerning his dramatic pursuits as a storyteller. Foxcatcher, like his previous projects Capote and Moneyball, explores characters and systems that audiences may recognize, but with dramatic ambition then seeks to unravel it in a colder light.

A riveting true story about Olympic wrestling brothers Mark and David Schultz (Channing Tatum and Ruffalo, respectively) and the billionaire who wanted to own their glory (Steve Carell), Foxcatcher is an observational drama on the morose results of the American Dream, and the ideals that create selfish ambition. Miller is certainly aiming high with his material, and mostly achieves this desired prominence with the help of larger-than-life performances.

It feels appropriate to write this in the dull early morning. Through the window, the trees are nearly bare, the sky flat and gray; it will not change at all until night falls. If Terrence Malick owns a kind of harvest time golden hour, then perhaps Bennett Miller, director of “Foxcatcher,” (our review) owns this slate, damp, late autumnal dawn. It’s the color of the beginning of his feature debut, “Capote," as a car drives up to a house, eerily still amid miles of empty Kansas farmland. It’s the color of the skies that hover over a deserted Fenway Park as Billy Beane is made an offer he can’t refuse and does. “More clouds of gray… than any Russian play… ” warbles Timothy Speed Levitch tunelessly as Miller’s black and white 1998 documentary “The Cruise” opens, and that same film ends with a hazy, low-contrast aerial shot of...

One of the more graceful film segments in recent memory, a literally winning one at that, takes place about an hour into the wrestling drama Foxcatcher, directed with patience and precision by Bennett Miller (Moneyball, Capote, The Cruise). In it, each of four males labors in his own way. Straight out of small-town Wisconsin, impressionable prole Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), heavyweight Gold Medal winner at the 1984 L.A. Olympics, is already under the spell of wealthy, patriotic, and highly educated John du Pont (a career-best Steve Carell) — less eccentric than deranged, the middle-aged heir to the chemical fortune and […]...

One of the more graceful film segments in recent memory, a literally winning one at that, takes place about an hour into the wrestling drama Foxcatcher, directed with patience and precision by Bennett Miller (Moneyball, Capote, The Cruise). In it, each of four males labors in his own way. Straight out of small-town Wisconsin, impressionable prole Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), heavyweight Gold Medal winner at the 1984 L.A. Olympics, is already under the spell of wealthy, patriotic, and highly educated John du Pont (a career-best Steve Carell) — less eccentric than deranged, the middle-aged heir to the chemical fortune and […]...

Bennett Miller is a filmmaker who knows a good true story when he sees one. The director, who got his start with the documentary "The Cruise," and then directed the critically adored, Oscar-strewn films "Capote" and "Moneyball," both of which were based on real life accounts of very different events (the making of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" and then something involving math and baseball). For his latest film, "Foxcatcher," Miller once again dips into the reservoir of real life tragedy to come up with his dramatic inspiration.

"Foxcatcher" is based on a famous incident in 1996 when John Du Pont (played in the film by Steve Carell), a multimillionaire weirdo, murdered Mark Schultz (played by Mark Ruffalo), an Olympic wrestler, on his vast estate (named Foxcatcher). Du Pont fancied himself a wrestling fanatic (and amateur coach) and wanted to will a team to Olympic glory basically through money and weird encouragement.

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Where feature filmmakers head into a project with a script and a plan, the path for documentarians is unpredictable. They follow real subjects and real issues often in real time — and sometimes for years at a time — and piece everything together as the footage comes along. Sometimes, things fall apart or the subject has to change, such as it with Alex Gibney’s The Armstrong Lie (2013). Though different skill sets go into the distinct film forms, some documentary filmmakers choose to transition to narrative features and vice versa, such as Spike Lee, whose next release will be a documentary titled Go Brasil Go!.

Rob Epstein and Jeff Friedman have made the jump from documentaries to feature films and have said that they intend on continuing to make both types of film. Epstein and Friedman won an Oscar for their first co-directed documentary, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt...

Though I did get to attend the TCM Classic Film Festival earlier this year (which was an amazing experience, and well worth your time), the New York Film Festival, in its 52nd year this time around, will be the first time I will have attended a festival as press. So, I’m very giddy about it. I’m excited to hobnob with other writers, get up at unfathomable times to catch screenings of films in languages I don’t often hear, and write like the wind. So, without further ado, here are my top five anticipated films of Nyff.

- Goodbye to Language 3D | Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Though I’ve never felt much warmth towards the iconoclastic Godard (save for Vivre sa Vie), I found myself realizing, as word came from Cannes, that I was incredibly eager to test out his newest film Goodbye to Language. Intellectually stimulating, supposedly playful,...

Many saw Foxcatcher when Bennett Miller and Sony Pictures Classics premiered it at Cannes. I saw it yesterday at Toronto, and the tale about two Olympic Gold Medalist brother wrestlers who get entwined with the bizarre Du Pont family scion John is just as soul crushing when it veers from a quirky character study to tragedy. The human need that gets twisted and corroded in the relationship between Mark and Dave Schultz with Du Pont is every bit as powerful as the strange bond between In Cold Blood killer Perry Smith and Truman Capote in Miller’s first narrative film. Capote got five Oscar noms and won Philip Seymour Hoffman his Best Actor Oscar, and Miller’s follow-up, Moneyball, got six Oscar noms including Best Picture. Foxcatcher’s had Oscar buzz on it since Cannes, where Miller was named Best Director and the film was a Palm d’Or nominee with praise for Steve Carell,...

Welcome back to Cannes Check, In Contention's annual preview of the films in Competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on May 14. Taking on different selections every day, we'll be examining what they're about, who's involved and what their chances are of snagging an award from Jane Campion's jury. Next up, a film we've been waiting to see for some time now: Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher." The director: Bennett Miller (American, 47 years old). The film may be one of the biggest-name selections in Competition, but in festival auteur terms, Miller is one of its least seasoned entrants -- "Foxcatcher" is only his third narrative feature, and his first to appear at one of the European majors. That said, he's certainly made the other two count. Born and raised in New York, he attended high school with future collaborator Dan Futterman; together with Philip Seymour Hoffman, they...

Sony Pictures Classics will release Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" on November 14, a full year after it was scheduled to open at the AFI Film Festival 2013. Michael Barker and Tom Bernard pulled the film from that festival; it's now heading to screen in competition at Cannes. It's a big deal to be anointed a full-fledged auteur your first time playing at Cannes, which tends to throw newcomers ("The Cruise," "Capote" and "Moneyball" did not play the festival) into Un Certain Regard or the Quinzaine (Directors Fortnight).  The anticipated awards contender, backed by billionaire Larry Ellison scion Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures, is co-financed by Sony. Miller worked with Sony motion picture chairman Amy Pascal on the Oscar-nominated "Moneyball."  E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman (Miller's "Capote" adapted a true story long-in-development by Miller. John du Pont, a multimillionaire and paranoid schizophrenic, built a wrestling training facility named...

[Editor's Note: We Can't Wait is a Team Experience series, in which we highlight our top 14 most anticipated films of 2014. Here's Glenn Dunks on "Foxcatcher"]

Mark and Dave Schutlz played by Ruffalo and Tatum respectively

Foxcatcher 

Based on the true story of Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), Foxcatcher tells the story of how John du Pont (Steve Carell), member of the millionaire du Pont family, murdered Schultz's brother, wrestling champion Dave (Mark Ruffalo). 

Talent

Director Bennett Miller, unlike the David O. Russells of the world, is switching his casts with each movie. Here he is working with a screenplay by Oscar-nominated Dan Futterman and Emmy-nominated E. Max Eyre. Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum take the three major roles, but the peripheries are filled out with such names as Vanessa Redgrave, Sienna Miller, Anthony Michael Hall and prolific character actor Brett Rice.

Why We Can't Wait

Appearing, at least on first inspection, like a cross between the real life sport drama of Moneyball and the small town true crime drama of Capote...

By Seth Stevenson

Last week, Hulu posted the final entry in Up to Speed, its six-part travel series. Directed by Richard Linklater and starring Timothy “Speed” Levitch, the show is a mashup of travel, history, and meandering beatnik rants. As with much of Linklater’s output, I found it frustratingly flawed and yet deeply charming all the same.

America first encountered Levitch in The Cruise, a 1998 documentary about his life as a tour guide in Manhattan. (It was directed by Bennett Miller, the man behind Capote and Moneyball.) Levitch’s adenoidal voice, rubbery face, and astonishing facility with historical facts made him an unforgettable figure. It’s easy to see why Linklater would take a shine to him: The director keeps a stable of pet monologists.

Like philosophy professor Louis H. Mackey and filmmaker Caveh Zahidi—both of whom appeared, as did Levitch, in Linklater’s Waking Life—Levitch has an Olympic-level gift of gab.

Timothy "Speed" Levitch is both an unconventional tour guide and a kind of indie film muse. Working on double-decker bus hosting sightseeing tours in his native New York in the '90s, he attracted attention for his unique, philosophical take on the city and its history. He eventually became the subject of the 1998 documentary "The Cruise," which launched the career of "Moneyball" director Bennett Miller and made Levitch both a fixture on the festival circuit and an occasional on-screen presence in films like "Scotland, Pa.," "Waking Life" and "The School of Rock." Levitch's friendship with Richard Linklater, director of those latter two features, lead to the pair conceiving of the new Hulu original series "Up to Speed," a quirky, psychedelic half-hour travel show that showcases host Levitch's personality and his distinctive take on a location's past and present. He takes...

Hulu unveiled a summer slate of 10 shows Monday, including the Kevin Smith movie show "Spoilers" and a Richard Linklater travel show called "Up to Speed." "Spoilers," a half-hour movie "revue" with fearure the "Clerks" and "Red State" director talking movies. It launches on Hulu and Hulu Plus on June 4th. "Up to Speed," from the "Dazed and Confused" and "School of Rock" director, stars Speed Levitch ("The Cruise"). It debuts in August. The basketball comedy "We Got Next, "co-created by Kenya Barris (“America’s Next Top Model”) and Hale Rothstein (“The Game”) will...

Bennett Miller and Francis Lawrence have been added to short list to direct 'Hunger Games' sequel.

By Kevin P. Sullivan

Jennifer Lawrence in "Hunger Games"

Photo: Lionsgate

It is now certainly safe to say that the search for a "Catching Fire" director is under way. Not long after "Hunger Games" director Gary Ross turned down the job, names of potential replacements began appearing. Last week, a Lionsgate wish list of seven or eight directors included the names David Cronenberg, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Alfonso Cuaron. (We also had a few suggestions of our own.)

Now, two more possibilities have stepped forward. The Playlist is reporting that Bennett Miller and Francis Lawrence are also in contention for the gig. Both directors have impressive résumés, but "Catching Fire" would be their most noteworthy credits to date.

Here is our breakdown of the two latest candidates.

Bennett Miller

Background: Documentary

Miller's first film...

Bennett Miller and Francis Lawrence have been added to short list to direct 'Hunger Games' sequel.

By Kevin P. Sullivan

Jennifer Lawrence in "Hunger Games"

Photo: Lionsgate

It is now certainly safe to say that the search for a "Catching Fire" director is under way. Not long after "Hunger Games" director Gary Ross turned down the job, names of potential replacements began appearing. Last week, a Lionsgate wish list of seven or eight directors included the names David Cronenberg, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Alfonso Cuaron. (We also had a few suggestions of our own.)

Now, two more possibilities have stepped forward. The Playlist is reporting that Bennett Miller and Francis Lawrence are also in contention for the gig. Both directors have impressive résumés, but "Catching Fire" would be their most noteworthy credits to date.

Here is our breakdown of the two latest candidates.

Bennett Miller

Background: Documentary

Miller's first film...

By Sean O’Connell

hollywoodnews.com: Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” was the best movie I saw in 2011.

Granted, it didn’t register as my favorite movie immediately after a pre-Toronto screening. But I found myself thinking about Miller’s adaptation for weeks. I went out of my way to see it again. Then one more time. By year’s end, no other film stuck to the ribs in quite the same way, resonating on multiple levels as it recounted the maverick story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt, at his finest) and his against-the-grain plan to get his undervalued team back in contention.

I’m not alone in recognizing Miller’s efforts. The Broadcast Film Critics Association have nominated “Moneyball” in three Critics’ Choice Movie Awards categories including Best Picture, Actor (for Pitt), and Screenplay (for Stan Chervin, Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin). The film earned four Golden Globe noms,...

Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff) announced today that Moneyball starring Brad Pitt has been selected as the Official Closing film for the 24th Tiff.

The film, an adaptation of the Michael Lewis book Moneyball: The Art of Winning a Fair Game, tells the true story of Oakland Athletics' general manager Billy Beane and his successful attempt to put together a baseball club, by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

Moneyball which co-stars Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Wright is directed by Oscar nominee Bennett Miller (Capote, The Cruise) who will be working with Hoffman for the second time.

The UK trailer was released to positive reviews, which suggests that the response could be eqaually as great when the film debuts later this year.

The 24th Tiff will be held October 22-30, 2011, at Roppongi Hills and other venues in Tokyo and will be opening with Paul W.S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers.

Okay, I’m aware that anyone can use Flickchart to filter their favorite documentaries. That’s Flickchart 101, Derek.

But I decided to focus on documentaries this week because I made an organic list of my ten favorite documentaries for a post I wrote last year on my own blog. This was at a time when I wasn’t aware of Flickchart’s potential to do the same thing, or at least, didn’t yet use the site that way, if I did know.

What truer measure of the effectiveness of Flickchart at distilling my true feelings, than to compare a list I produced from my brain with one produced from Flickchart’s algorithms? As an added bonus, Flickchart might also help me identify a movie I didn’t realize I loved as much as I do. Here is the list I came up with organically, to prepare you for what...

On Christmas day, I marked my one year anniversary of moving from San Francisco to New York City. It's been an interesting year for me; a cocktail of good and bad that's given me a lubricated view of my new home. The city shifts between gifts and tolls. It's the stumble home after greeting sunrise with a bleeding forehead. In New York, no one is ever sober.

It's probably just as well that the best documentary about New York features someone who appears perpetually under the influence. Timothy "Speed" Levitch is a character so engrossing that it's unclear if the subject of the film is New York City or Levitch himself.

One could say that it's obviously him, but that discredits the fact that The Cruise is still a wonderful portrait of New York thanks to the native Levitch. Most people's first exposure to this man is probably in Richard Linklater's 2001 film Waking Life,...

Kathryn Morris is getting ready for the majors as she signs up for Columbia Pictures' "Moneyball". The baseball drama, based off the nonfiction novel by Michael Lewis, focuses on how general manager Billy Beane uses a computer-generated analysis to draft players on a budget for the major league team the Oakland A's. The cast is pretty hefty in the big stars sense with the likes of Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Robin Wright and Philip Seymour Hoffman on board. Morris is one lucky woman, taking on the role of Billy Beane's (Pitt) second wife who shares a mutual interest in the sport. Well, she's a lucky woman in most female's eyes, though the attraction of the famous actor is something that I could never quite get at all. Principal photography on the Bennett Miller film is slated for next week in the Los Angeles area. Miller sounds familiar to you,...

• Quick Links > The Immortalist > Bennett Miller > Paramount Vantage > Capote Capote director Bennett Miller and Paramount Vantage are joining forces to bring The Immortalist to life. The project, which will be scripted by The Delicate Art of the Rifle scripe Dante Harper, is described as a “contemporary, character-driven drama set in the world of life-extension,” as the title suggests. Plan B will produce, with Vantage higher-ups Amy Israel and Matt Brodlie overseeing the project. Miller, who’s only previous credit to Capote is a 1998 documentary called The Cruise about a guy who drives tour buses in NYC, could be the luckiest man alive. His fiction directorial debut, Capote, got him nominated for an Academy Award for directing, and Capote was nominated for another four awards, including Best Picture (even though I’ve never met a single person who really loves that film). This summer, Miller occupied his time

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