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Italian animation producer Riva Studios has finalized its acquisition of leading French indie TeamTO after receiving final approval from the Tribunal de Commerce de Paris.

Led by Riva Studios executives Marco Balsamo, Jay Oliva, and Tara Sibel Demren, the acquisition will prevent TeamTO from having to declare bankruptcy and allow the company to move into its 20th year of operation in 2025.

TeamTO is the company behind the popular Children’s & Family Emmy-winning Netflix series “City of Ghosts” and other outstanding kids’ programming, including “Pj Masks” and “Elena of Avalor,” to name a few. In 2018, when the company was producing seven to eight titles per year, they started work on a new state-of-the-art studio that would allow the company to increase to as many as 12 productions per year.

However, during and since the pandemic, global commissioners have cut back massively on the number of titles they’re ordering, leading to the...

French indie animation powerhouse TeamTO, which announced insolvency in September, has accepted an acquisition bid from Milan-based Riva Studios, which is subject to approval from the Tribunal Commerce de Paris. A hearing was planned for today but has been postponed until Nov. 20.

TeamTO is the production company behind the Children’s & Family Emmy-winning Netflix series “City of Ghosts” and other standout kids’ programming, including “Pj Masks” and “Elena of Avalor,” among others.

Riva and TeamTO have been collaborating on the adult animated series “Junichiro Jackson” for a year, and according to TeamTo President Guillaume Hellouin, “We started discussing a potential investment [by Riva] in the studio five months ago, but these conversations always take a long time, and as things sped up in recent weeks, the conversation changed.”

Initially, TeamTo received offers from three other companies, but Hellouin says Riva’s, which came in at the last minute, was the best fit...

Veteran actor Matt Dillon will receive the prestigious Golden Alexander award at the upcoming Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece. Organizers will honor Dillon for his long acting career and diverse artistic contributions to cinema. The 65th annual festival runs from October 31 to November 10.

During the festival, Dillon will showcase several of his recent projects. This includes his portrayal of legendary actor Marlon Brando in the film “Being Maria.” The movie explores actress Maria Schneider’s experience filming the controversial 1972 film “Last Tango in Paris.” Dillon both acts in and directed “Being Maria,” which had its premiere earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival.

Festival organizers will also honor Dillon by screening his 2002 directorial debut “City of Ghosts.” In addition, Dillon will participate in an experimental art installation called “Interfears.” The piece will use Mri scans to visualize Dillon’s brain activity while he performs a monologue. Both the installation...

Matt Dillon will be feted at the 65th edition of Greece’s Thessaloniki Film Festival, where he will present his recent film “Being Maria,” in which he plays Marlon Brando.

Dillon will receive the festival’s honorary Golden Alexander award on Nov. 4, before a screening of his 2002 film “City of Ghosts,” which was his debut as a film director and screenwriter.

Other honorees at the festival, which runs Oct. 31-Nov. 10, include Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, as previously announced.

“Being Maria,” which will screen at Thessaloniki on Nov. 3, had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Jessica Palud, it revolves around the troubled life of Maria Schneider, played by Anamaria Vartolomei.

When Schneider, a young, struggling actress with promise, is offered the lead role in “Last Tango in Paris,” playing opposite Brando, her dreams seem to be coming true. But what seems like a big break turns...

On Wednesday, September 11, 2024, at 9:00 Pm, Discovery will air a captivating episode of “Expedition X” titled “City of Ghosts.” In this intriguing installment, Josh Gates leads his skilled team of investigators, Phil Torres and Heather Amaro, as they embark on a journey to explore some of the world’s most mysterious and unexplained phenomena.

This episode promises to take viewers on an adventure filled with suspense and discovery as the team delves into the supernatural. They will investigate ghostly sightings and uncover the secrets behind haunted locations. With their unique perspectives and expertise, Josh, Phil, and Heather aim to shed light on the eerie stories that surround these locations.

As they travel to various locations known for their paranormal activity, viewers can expect thrilling encounters and unexpected revelations. “City of Ghosts” is sure to engage both fans of the paranormal and those curious about the mysteries that lurk in the shadows of our world.

Martin Scorsese’s one of those rare directors who’ve made so many masterpieces that all too many of his films wind up being underrated just because maybe they don’t quite set the world on fire when they first come out. One such film is Bringing Out the Dead, starring Nicolas Cage as a New York City paramedic on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Hyped as a kind of companion piece to Taxi Driver, with it being written by that film’s Paul Schrader, it was rather coolly received in ’99. Why? Well, let’s not forget that year is one of the strongest in recent memory, and it got a bit overshadowed by movies like Fight Club, Three Kings, Magnolia, The Matrix, Being John Malkovich and a whole bunch of others as far as the cultural zeitgeist went.

However, looking back at the movie twenty-five years later, it...

The history of television is fascinating because you can trace lines between almost any modern show and one of the classics, as crews move from one show to another, bringing their past work and their influences with them. This applies to both live-action and animation. In the latter, many animators who start as writers or storyboard artists in one show end up creating their own series years later, bringing colleagues along with them, who then go on to create their own shows in return. Take "Dexter's Laboratory" launching the career of not just Genndy Tartakovsky, but also Craig McCracken, Rob Renzetti, Butch Hartman, and Seth MacFarlane, each going on to make a popular show.

What "Dexter's Laboratory" did in the '90s, "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" did in the late 2000s. This is a show that helped launch several animation careers, with plenty of writers and storyboard artists...

Exclusive: Apple TV+ is staying in business with one of the men behind its latest sports docuseries The Dynasty: New England Patriots.

The streamer has struck a first-look deal with director Matthew Hamachek.

It is the latest first-look deal for the tech company following similar deals with the likes of David & Jessica Oyelowo, The Morning Show’s Mimi Leder and Black Bird co-creator Dennis Lehane.

In addition to The Dynasty, Hamachek directed HBO’s Tiger Woods documentary Tiger, which won a sports Emmy in 2022.

He started his career working on the Oscar-nominated documentary Street Fight before working on Racing Dreams and If A Tree Falls before co-producing docs including Cartel Land, Amanda Knox, City of Ghosts and The Trade. He also exec produced Netflix’s Return To Space, which was directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

The Apple deal comes ahead of the finale of the ten-part series The Dynasty: New England Patriots,...

"For some of us, it's always midnight." Based on the book of the same name by renowned author Barry Gifford (Wild At Heart), Night People will debut the first of its four issues this March as one of the exciting new monthly comic book series from Oni Press, and we have a look at exclusive character designs as a special treat for Daily Dead readers!

Adapted by writer Chris Condon, Night People features illustrations by an all-star lineup of artists, including Brian Level, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Artyom Topilin, and Marco Finnegan, and below you can check out exclusive character designs of Elvis, Chihuahua, Sabine, and other eclectic characters from the macabre world of Night People.

We also have a look at the amazing cover artwork by J.H. Williams III, Joëlle Jones, Jacob Phillips, and Brian Level, as well as preview pages from the first issue of Night People, hitting shelves on March 6th from Oni Press!

Apple TV+ has set a February 21, 2024 premiere date for Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend which just released an official trailer. The four-part documentary series provides a peek behind the curtain into the life of football (or soccer) star Lionel Messi.

Emmy Award winner Tim Pastore (Jane), Emmy and Tony Award winners Patrick Milling Smith and Brian Carmody, and Emmy Award winner Matt Renner (Limitless with Chris Hemsworth) of Smuggler Entertainment executive produce the docuseries, along with Jenna Millman (The Dropout) and Juan Camilo Cruz (City of Ghosts).

The series dives into the life of the soccer superstar, with Messi providing insight into his incredible career.

“Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend highlights the thrilling story of the planet’s top living athlete, his loyal supporters across Argentina, and those who made the pilgrimage across the globe to witness his epic World Cup win,” reads Apple TV+’s synopsis.

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

Director Matthew Heineman has made a name for himself covering warzones in narrative film (A Private War) and most prominently in documentary. I don’t blame him for stepping back just this once and making a movie about a charming musician and his rise to zeitgeist prominence. The film is American Symphony about Jon Batiste, a soft lob of a tribute that somewhat perversely is the film that could very well win him an Academy Award. Even documentarians can follow the same tried-and-tested path. I just wish I liked it more.

Batiste is 37 years old. American Symphony doesn’t say this stat outright as far as I recall, but it goes to great pains to make the audience very well aware that he is some sort of wunderkind. A Juilliard graduate who landed a big break as bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and...

We’re getting the first look at Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend, Apple TV+’s four-part docuseries that follows football great Lionel Messi’s sensational career. The streamer released the teaser trailer today for the series from Smuggler Entertainment. It premieres globally February 21.

Messi’s World Cup follows the career of the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner through five FIFA World Cup appearances and his FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 win, in one of the most exciting finals in history. In his own words, Messi tells the definitive story of his incredible career with the Argentina national football team, providing an intimate and unprecedented look at his quest for a legacy-defining World Cup victory.

The series also features personal interviews with Messi, alongside conversations with teammates, coaches, competitors, fans and commentators. The docuseries charts his path from his first match with the Argentina national football team through several elusive World Cup wins,...

Michelle Obama is giving a boost to American Symphony, the Oscar-contending documentary about musician Jon Batiste and his wife, musician Suleika Jaouad.

The former first lady introduced the Matthew Heineman film at a special screening Thursday night in New Orleans, a place of special significance for Batiste, who was born in nearby Metairie, Louisiana and raised in Kenner just outside N.O. proper. Michelle and Barack Obama are executive producing the Netflix film through their Higher Ground production company, which has a distribution deal with the streaming platform.

“I’m beyond thrilled to be here in Nawlins with all y’all!” Mrs. Obama began. “There is no better place to lift up this work than in the city where music is at the heart of everything, because music is at the heart of this film.

Plot: A moving portrait of musician Jon Batiste, who in 2022 found himself the most celebrated artist of the year with eleven Grammy nominations including Album of the Year. In the midst of that triumph, Jon embarks on his most ambitious challenge to date, composing an original symphony. This trajectory was upended, however, when his life partner — best-selling author Suleika Jaouad — learns that her long-dormant cancer has returned.

Review: Few things are as subjective as art, whether film, music, literature or any other creative outlet. Fame is also fleeting, but when true artistry mixes with the zeitgeist, it can be powerful. Jon Batiste is an artist who has found success in many forms, personally and professionally. Best known as the band leader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and for his Oscar-winning score for Pixar’s Soul, Batiste won Album of the Year at the Grammys in 2022 despite much of...

A recent report revealed that Netflix spent $55 million on a sci-fi series from director Carl Rinsch that never actually got made. Creatives are now taking to social media to voice their frustration, revealing just how far $55 million could have gone towards their own projects. Other creatives point out that Rinsch, a straight white man whose only feature film was a box office bomb, was given an opportunity that diverse creatives are often not.

Some Netflix creatives have taken to social media to voice their frustrations following a report about the streamer spending $55 million on a show that was never completed. A recent report from The New York Times claims that Carl Rinsch, the director known for 2013 bomb 47 Ronin, which stars Keanu Reeves, entered into an eight-figure deal with the streamer in 2018 to make an expansive new sci-fi series. Despite the millions that Netflix was pumping into the project, the series,...

Exclusive: Amidst a recent expansion into docs and scripted series, after just two years as a producer-financier of features, Closer Media has added accomplished producers Joey Marra and Nate Matteson to its leadership team. Former Jigsaw exec Marra will lead the company’s non-fiction division, with former manager Matteson set to oversee scripted television.

The hires come following Closer Media’s successful run on the fall festival circuit with titles including its first narrative feature, Ezra, The Monk and the Gun, which was snapped up for North America by Roadside Attractions after bowing out of Toronto, and the documentary In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.

Marra will be based out of New York City, with Matteson working out of L.A.

Since joining Closer, Marra has spearheaded development of the Elon Musk documentary Musk, from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, which was recently acquired by HBO. He produced...

This year’s best documentary feature Oscar race, which heretofore seemed unusually wide open, now has a frontrunner.

American Symphony, Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman’s moving portrait of the musician Jon Batiste as he experiences his greatest professional success (he dominated the 2022 Grammys) at the same time his wife faces her greatest personal challenge (Suleika Jaouad is battling leukemia), has been acquired by Netflix following a lengthy bidding war, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The film will be released this year and will be promoted with a major Oscar campaign in the works. Moreover, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground, which has a first-look deal with Netflix, is on board for the project, just as it was for two other recent Netflix films: 2019’s American Factory, which went on to win the best documentary feature Oscar, and for 2020’s Crip Camp, which was nominated for it.

There is an intricate balance when it comes to animated performances, with animators and voice actors working together to create memorable characters. Remove one of the two elements, and you get a completely different character. Look at Mark Hamill as Joker in "Batman: The Animated Series," Dante Basco as Zuko in "Avatar: The Last Airbender," or Robin Williams as Genie in "Aladdin": These characters work because of the team of animators infusing the characters with life, and because of the unique personality the actors bring to the roles (even if Williams' casting ended up causing a whole lot of problems).

This is to say that fans of "Adventure Time" were disappointed when the spin-off show "Fionna and Cake" released late last month with most of the cast returning to their roles, except one.

Kumail Nanjiani, who voiced a Wish Master named Prismo in "Adventure Time," did not return to voice the character,...

How much longer will the Oscars wait? That is, wait to embrace the quality and sheer brilliance of documentary filmmaking in a significant way, meaning nominating one in the best picture category? Matthew Heineman’s deeply moving “American Symphony,” which follows Oscar and Grammy-winning composer Jon Batiste as he prepares for his performance at Carnegie Hall, is yet another home run for the filmmaker behind “Cartel Land” and “City of Ghosts,” not to mention a singular love story.

Batiste’s larger-than-life personality was on full display following the Telluride screening of the documentary, when he led a band down to the main street of Telluride.

The film doesn’t just follow Batiste in his musical element, such as his work as band leader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” or when he led the 2022 Grammy nominations and won album of the year. Instead, it’s an intimate portrait of...

“Be kind, because everyone you meet is fighting a great battle” — that popular maxim (or some variation thereof) is often brought up in the context of remembering to have some sympathy for jerks. But it could also be applied to people whose lives seem too charmed to be true. In the documentary “American Symphony,” Jon Batiste, who often comes off as the merriest performer in all of popular music, turns out to be dealing with grim stuff behind the grin. It’s his wife, Suleika Jaouad, who’s waging the real war, against recurring leukemia. But Batiste is having his own skirmishes with anxiety and panic attacks related to her illness, even as he’s making headlines as the surprise Grammy hoarder of 2022. So don’t hate him just because he seems so damn happy, the film suggests; he’s earned his ebullience.

A Batiste doc might have seemed an...

Stacey Offman, Jigsaw Production’s exec VP of development and production, is exiting the company to work as an independent producer, Variety has confirmed. Longtime Jigsaw producer Erin Edeiken to serve as head of production for Alex Gibney’s shingle going forward.

Offman, who is exiting on May 19, joined Jigsaw Productions in 2012. In her 11-year tenure at the documentary production company, Offman was part of the team that launched Jigsaw’s television branch as well as the creation of a vertical of non-fiction series and documentaries for an array of studios and broadcast partners.

Offman’s recent projects include Jigsaw’s “Dirty Money,” a six-part investigative series which exposed corruption and financial malfeasance in some of the most influential companies and industries. The series began streaming on Netflix in January 2018. In addition, Offman developed “Salt, Fat, Acid Heat,” a 2018 four-part Netflix culinary travel series based on Samin Nosrat’s book by the same name,...

“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” has coasted through the season as the Oscar front-runner for Best Documentary Feature, so it makes sense that it’s also out front in our forecasts for the Directors Guild Award. But the guild doesn’t always agree with the Oscars when it comes to documentaries, and the Expert journalists we’ve surveyed from major media outlets are split between all five of the nominees.

SEEBrendan Fraser (‘The Whale’): ‘I needed only to look into Hong’s eyes’ to ‘reflect the authenticity’ [Complete Interview Transcript]

Laura Poitras is the director of “Bloodshed,” which explores the life and career of Nan Goldin, a photographer and activist who fought to hold Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family responsible for the opioid crisis across the United States. Poitras won the last time she was nominated at the DGA Awards, for “Citizenfour” (2014), and by winning again she would join a...

Just one year after Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Lost Daughter”) became the second woman to win the Directors Guild of America’s First-Time Film Director award, Charlotte Wells (“Aftersun”) is set to follow her as the category’s third female champ. The 35-year-old Scottish filmmaker, who helmed three narrative shorts between 2015 and 2017, has already been heavily feted for her feature directing (and writing) debut with accolades such as the Cannes French Touch Prize and the Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Director. Now, the fact that a whopping 96 of Gold Derby’s 2023 DGA Awards predictions odds-makers have her as their top choice in the rookie race should translate to a decisive win.

This category’s current lineup is the only one in its eight-year history to include just one male nominee. Last year’s unprecedented field of six consisted of two men and four women, including Gyllenhaal. Our odds show Wells far outpacing female contenders Alice Diop,...

The inaugural Children’s & Family Emmys got underway at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles for a two-night gala to award the best in kid-friendly programming. JoJo Siwa hosted the Creative Arts ceremony on Night 1 and Jack McBrayer took over hosting duties on Night 2 with the rest of the categories.

On Night 1, it was Maya and the Three, Sneakerella and The Quest that took the most accolades with three trophies each.

Some of the first night’s highlights included a special performance by Xomg Pop!, the all-girl group created by Jess and Siwa. There was also an appearance from Martin P. Robinson, the legendary puppeteer who has been with Sesame Street since 1980, providing voices and puppeteering for Mr. Snuffleupagus, Telly Monster, Slimey the Worm, Martians and more. He also built, designed and performed the Audrey II puppets for Little Shop of Horrors.

Night 2 of the...

In early 2021, while Americans were focused on the transfer of power back home, daredevil director Matthew Heineman assembled a crew and flew to Afghanistan to check in on the status of America’s longest war. At that point, Osama bin Laden had been dead a decade, the Taliban was weakened but not defeated, and the U.S.-trained Afghan Army was holding its own fairly well — and yet, nearly 20 years in, there was still no end in sight for American involvement. That changed almost as soon as Heineman arrived, as the Biden administration made plans to pull out.

In that moment, what might have been another business-as-usual desert war doc — with routine patrols, precisely targeted drone strikes and soldiers expressing their ennui — shifted to something audiences hadn’t seen before. The title, “Retrograde,” refers to the process by which military forces extricate themselves from conflict, removing or otherwise rendering useless...

National Geographic has revealed a first look teaser trailer for the new documentary film Retrograde, the latest from award-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman. This initially premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival over the weekend, hence the new teaser, and will be showing up later this year though an exact date isn't set yet. The film is about one of the most upsetting topics of 2021 – it captures the final nine months of America's 20-year war in Afghanistan from multiple perspectives. Focusing on the intimate relationship between American Green Berets and the Afghan officers they trained. From the Oscar-nominated & Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, Retrograde offers a cinematic and historic window onto the end of America’s longest war, and the costs endured for those most intimately involved. With everything in Afghanistan in 2021 being a major political topic, this doc should interest many viewers as it's as close as one can get to learning about...

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If “documentary-style” has become shorthand for a certain kind of blandly flat aesthetic that viewers have learned to code as “reality,” you can’t blame Matthew Heineman.

In only a decade of directing docs, Heineman has set a template for astonishingly well-shot films marked by impeccably intimate access and the sort of eye for compositional detail you’d expect from a feature film with the budget and time for elaborate set-ups and uncannily placed lighting, not a seat-of-your-pants shoot in some of the most precarious situations imaginable. Put more simply, from Cartel Land to City of Ghosts to his TV work on The Trade, Heineman makes films that are both pretty and pretty unnerving.

A more negative interpretation would be that I’m frequently so impressed with the look of Heineman’s films — and his ability to somehow have cameras in places cameras...

Kcet, the Los Angeles public broadcaster, announced the student finalists and eight industry judges who will take part of the 23rd Fine Cut Festival of Films. The festival will broadcast as a series of six one-hour episodes starting Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 10 p.m. on Kcet in Southern California and on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 11 p.m. Et/Pt on Link TV nationwide.

In addition to the student films making their broadcast debut, all winners will have their short films screened as part of a student showcase at the 2022 Newport Beach Film Festival on Oct. 20. Three winners in the categories of Documentary, Animation and Narrative short films will receive a variety of prize packages valued to be over 30,000, and the Jack Larson Southern California Student Filmmaker Award will recognize one student winner’s strength as a storyteller.

An industry panel of eight esteemed experts determined the finalists and winners, including director and producer Lynne Southerland,...

Matt Dillon might have been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at Locarno on Thursday, but he still has “stuff to do.” And he wants you to know that.

“The first thing I thought was: ‘Oh wow, that’s really nice.’ And then: ‘I don’t feel like I am done just yet!’,” Dillon tells Variety ahead of the ceremony. But he has been around for a long time, he admits, having made his first film, Jonathan Kaplan’s “Over the Edge,” back in 1979.

“We were a bunch of actors playing juvenile delinquents, staying at a Holiday Inn in Colorado where McDonald’s slaughterhouses are based. One day we came across that old guy, a scenic painter, who worked on ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ It was like running into Mozart.”

Curious about everything, he was affected by seeing characters come to life and the idea of mirroring human nature right from the start.

Matt Dillon is at Locarno this week where he will receive the festival’s lifetime achievement award, a prestigious honour that he joked comes with a unique balance of positives and negatives.

“I’m too young,” he said. “But I do this because hopefully there’s some director here that’s gonna say ‘good job’ because I’m only as good as the directors I work with.”

This year, in tribute to Dillon, the festival will screen Gus Van Sant’s 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy, for which Dillon won his first of two Indie Spirit Awards as well as his directorial debut City Of Ghosts starring James Caan, Gérard Depardieu, and Stellan Skarsgård.

“I made that film on celluloid and now nobody makes movies on celluloid anymore. Everything is happening so fast,” he said.

For his latest project, Dillon has returned to the director’s seat for the first time in...

On April 13 the Peabody Board of Jurors announced the 60 nominees for the 82nd Annual Peabody Awards honoring the best and most impactful work in media in 2021, including everything from news to entertainment to podcasts. A jury of 19 unanimously selected these nominees from more than 1,200 entries. Out of these nominees, 30 will eventually be selected as winners, to be announced during virtual events from June 6 through June 9. Scroll down for the complete list.

SEEWill ‘Yellowjackets’ finally bring Showtime back to the drama series Emmy race?

Peabody executive director Jeffrey Jones said in a statement, “Following yet another turbulent year, Peabody is proud to honor an array of stories that poignantly and powerfully help us make sense of the challenges we face as a nation and world. Demonstrating the immense power of stories, these nominees exposed our societal failures and celebrated the best of the human spirit. They are all worthy of recognition,...

“Dopesick” and “Only Murders in the Building,” “Yellowjackets” and “The Underground Railroad” are among this year’s nominees for the Peabody Awards. Oscar winners, including “Summer of Soul” and “The Queen of Basketball,” and Emmy winners including “Bo Burnham: Inside” and “Hacks,” also landed spots, as did “Colin in Black & White,” “We Are Lady Parts” and “Reservation Dogs.”

The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors announced this year’s nominees for entertainment, documentaries, news, podcast/radio, children’s & youth, public service and arts. A total of 60 nominees were revealed as “an array of stories that poignantly and powerfully help us make sense of the challenges we face as a nation and world,” according to Jeffrey Jones, Peabody Awards executive director.

Once again, PBS led the field with 13 programs qualifiying as finalists, followed by HBO with eight and Hulu and Netflix with five apiece.

A unanimous vote by the Peabody Awards...

The 2022 Peabody Awards have officially announced nominations for this year’s honors.

The Entertainment category includes TV series “Hacks,” “Dopesick,” “Pen15,” “Only Murders in the Building,” and “Yellowjackets,” as well as the Netflix comedy special “Bo Burnham: Inside” among the contenders. Meanwhile, the Documentaries segment features “9to5: The Story of a Movement,” HBO Max’s “Exterminate All the Brutes,” and the Oscar-winning short documentary “The Queen of Basketball,” executive produced by Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry.

Meanwhile, Academy Award Best Documentary winner “Summer of Soul…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised” is nominated in a Peabody category of its own, winning the Arts segment automatically.

The 2022 Peabody nominees were chosen by a unanimous vote of 19 jurors from over 1,200 entries from television, podcasts/radio, and the web in entertainment, news, documentary, arts, children’s/youth, and public service.

This year’s nominated programs encompass a wide range of pressing issues,...

GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, today announced the nominees for the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 finalist Gottmik announced nominees in select GLAAD Media Awards categories live via GLAAD’s TikTok channel.

The GLAAD Media Awards honor media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues. Since its inception in 1990, the GLAAD Media Awards have grown to be the most visible annual LGBTQ awards show in the world, sending powerful messages of acceptance to audiences globally. The 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards are presented by Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Ketel One Family Made Vodka.

The 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards nominees were published, released, or broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2021. The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies, which fund GLAAD’s work to accelerate LGBTQ acceptance, will be held in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday,...

National Geographic’s “The First Wave” is a harrowing documentary that covers the first four months of Covid-19 at one of New York’s hardest-hit hospitals, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. It was a film that Matthew Heineman, who’s helmed the docs “Cartel Land” (2015) and “City of Ghosts” (2017), knew he had to make as the virus erupted stateside in March 2020.

“I think I woke up sort of in early March as this issue started to become plastered across headlines and we were inundated with stats and misinformation, I just felt this huge obligation to tell this story,” Heineman tells Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: Film Directors panel (watch above). “Like previous films I’ve made, I wanted to try to humanize this issue, put a human face to it. And so I sought hospitals around the country to try to get access and ultimately gained...

Matthew Heineman’s powerful documentary captures the most acute weeks of the crisis as a Long Island hospital struggles to cope

Shot inside a New York hospital at the start of the pandemic, this documentary is an overwhelming emotional watch. In March last year, City of Ghosts director Matthew Heineman started filming on the wards of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center; he stayed for four months, through the worst of it.

It looks like a war zone: death everywhere, pagers buzzing, constant tannoy announcements of “code blue” critical emergencies, medics sprinting to the next crisis. Anyone watching who had to say goodbye over FaceTime (a nurse holding up a phone in a clear plastic bag for their dying loved one) will find this traumatising. What is comforting is how the hospital’s overworked exhausted staff pay attention to the human life in front of them – holding hands with the dying,...

Augustine Frizzell is set to direct “The Invisible Life of Addie Larue,” a feature film adaptation of V.E. Schwab’s fantasy novel.

Frizzell will also write the script with her husband, filmmaker David Lowery. Schwab was initially on board to pen the screenplay from an initial draft by Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage. Though she’s no longer adapting her words for the big screen, Schwab will remain involved on the project as a producer.

“The Invisible Life of Addie Larue” follows a woman who makes a Faustian bargain to live forever. But in return, she’s cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. That all changes 300 years later, when Addie Larue stumbles upon a man who remembers her name. After the book was published, it remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 43 weeks and sold more than 1 million copies in its first year.

Frizzell made...

With his breathless, soul-piercing “The First Wave,” director Matthew Heineman makes a tough cinematic proposition. He asks his audience to travel back to March 2020 and relive the early, frightening days of the Covid-19 crisis in New York City, when the Big Apple quickly became the world’s coronavirus epicenter through four deadly months.

More graphic in its approach than two similarly themed nonfiction films — Nanfu Wang’s “In the Same Breath” and Hao Wu and Weixi Chen’s “76 Days” — Heineman’s documentary is indeed a hard one to consent to at first, considering that the globally ruinous pandemic is far from over. But even when the high-adrenaline “The First Wave” gets a touch too explicit for its own good with shots of morgue truck interiors, glimpses at newly sealed body bags and close-ups of eyelids flickering on the verge of lifelessness, it is also a necessary and undeniably moving...

Most people know Matt Dillon as an actor who grew up in front of the cameras. He won two Indie Spirit Awards for “Drugstore Cowboy” and for “Crash;” that one also yielded a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Dillon also made a strong directing debut in 2003 with moody thriller “City of Ghosts” co-starring James Caan, Gerard Depardieu, and Stellan Skarsgård.

None of that addressed an all-consuming passion for world music with a vast collection of vinyl and shellac 78s (sorted alphabetically by artist or label), and making a documentary about Cuban scat singer Francisco Fellove that took him 20 years to complete. “The Great Fellove” debuted to rave reviews at San Sebastian 2020, and more recently, Telluride 2021.

in the film, Cuban rumba performer Chan Campos describes Fellove: “He was a drum from his feet to his head.” (See our clip below.) Dillon’s documentary captures the scat maestro who gave us the original “Mango Mangue,...

At a certain point in the 1980s, there was no bigger movie star than Matt Dillon. Exploding into the cultural stratosphere with a trio of popular S.E. Hinton film adaptations, the young actor transitioned from heartthrob to dynamic leading man in the space of a decade. Roles in Gus Van Sant’s masterful Drugstore Cowboy, Cameron Crowe’s Singles, and Tim Hunter’s The Saint of Fort Washington followed, each one wildly different from the other.

Thirty years later, Dillon finds himself at the Telluride Film Festival as the director of the breezy, illuminating documentary El Gran Fellove, which tells the story of Francisco Fellove Valdés, the underappreciated Cuban scat singer and showman. The film also highlights the “Feeling” Movement that came out of Cuba in the 1940s, a jazz-inspired musical shift of which Fellove was essential. The musician––like many Cuban artists––would soon move to Mexico, where he found an abundance of success.

“The Show,” as the Telluride Film Festival programmers refer to its annual feature program, is back this year with a wide array of documentary award season contenders.

Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Jacques Cousteau, Anthony Fauci, Francisco Fellove and the Velvet Underground are the subjects of various docus in this year’s lineup. The nonfiction lineup also includes films about cows, rivers, caves, and family dynamics.

The secretive Telluride team unveiled the 2021 program just 24 hours before the festival begins. “The festival directors are always dedicated to programming what they believe to be the best films of the year,” a fest spokesperson said. “And our documentary lineup reflects that.”

Liz Garbus and Sam Pollard were supposed to attend last year’s fest with “All In: The Fight for Democracy” and “MLK/FBI,” respectively. This year, both of the Oscar-nominated helmers will be in the small Colorado community for the premieres of their latest...

Exclusive: Baby Driver and I Care a Lot actress Eiza González, Oscar-nominated/Emmy-winning director Matthew Heineman and Linden Entertainment have partnered with the estate of the iconic Mexican film star Maria Felix to bring her story to life. The team is looking for a Latin American writer to adapt Felix’s life for the screen.

González will portray Felix and also produce the film alongside Dana Harris and Nicole King for Linden Entertainment. Walter Rivera will executive produce the film on behalf of Felix’s estate.

Felix was one of the most successful Mexican stars of all time, and this is the first time her estate will be involved in telling her story. The actress starred in 47 movies in Mexico, France, Italy and Argentina and was the queen of the silver screen in Mexico, becoming known as “La Dona.” Felix’s story is one that follows her from the rough Northern town of Sonoa,...

Netflix will expand its children’s animation programming slate with the addition of A Tale Dark & Grimm, Dogs In Space and Super Giant Robot Brothers.

The first in the trio of animated series is A Tale Dark & Grimm, based on the best-selling book by Adam Gidwitz. The series follows Hansel and Gretel as they

run away from home to find better parents…or at least ones who won’t chop off their heads! As Hansel and Gretel leave their own story and venture through other classic Grimm fairy tales, unexpected narrators’ guide us through their encounters with witches, warlocks, dragons and even the devil himself.

The series, which features Raini Rodriguez, Andre Robinson, Nicole Byer and Adam Lambert, is produced in partnership with Boat Rocker Studios in association with Novo Media Group and Astro-Nomical Entertainment. Animation services by Boat Rocker’s Jam Filled Entertainment.

Executive producers are David Henrie, James Henrie,...

March brings breezes loud and shrill/stirs the dancing daffodil. Bit of poetry for you there. What Sara Coleridge fails to mention is that March also brings season seven of Brooklyn Nine-Nine to Netflix UK, more weekly episodes of Riverdale season five, a brand new sci-fi series from the creators of Misfits, a new film directed by Amy Poehler and a host of cool animated series.

The One (pictured above) is an eight-part British series created by Howard Overman about a near-future world in which a DNA test can track down your perfect partner. It’s adapted from John Marrs’ novel of the same name, and yes, has a strikingly similar premise to US anthology sci-fi Soulmates. Another fun new UK addition is The Irregulars, a period supernatural fantasy set in the Sherlock Holmes universe in which a bunch of ragtag kids not only have to save the world from darkness,...

The streaming wars are just as fiery and competitive as ever. Disney+ now has one Marvel TV show under its belt (WandaVision), with another one to come in March (The Falcon and The Winter Soldier). In response, Netflix is broadening its reach with its list of new releases for March 2021.

Netflix always features plenty of international options for viewers across the globe, but March is the first month where it seems as though international releases make up roughly half of Netflix’s originals. And that’s great! China’s The Yin Yang Master and Spain’s Coven of Sisters both look to be intriguing films this month.

Read more Movies Pacific Rim 3 and Expanded Universe Possible By Don Kaye TV Best Anime On Netflix to Stream By Daniel Kurland

On the U.S. domestic side of things, however, pickings are bit slimmer. March 3 sees the release of the intensely American-sounding...

Kids (and children at heart), prepare to be mystified: Netflix has summoned “Daniel Spellbound,” a new CG-animated series about a young seller of rare magical goods to sorcerers and sorceresses in modern-day New York City. The show will be produced in collaboration with creator and director Matt Fernandes, co-founder of Toronto-based studio Industrial Brothers.

The upcoming Netflix series, made in partnership with Industrial Brothers and Boat Rocker Media, joins the streamer’s expanding slate of kids and family animated programs on the platform, including “Kid Cosmic” from PowerPuff Girls creator Craig McCracken, which debuted on Feb. 2. Other titles arriving in 2021 are “City of Ghosts” from “Adventure Time” and “Phineas & Ferb” alum Elizabeth Ito, and “Maya and the Three” from Mexican animator and writer Jorge Gutierrez, most known for his work on the Emmy-award winning “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera” Nicktoon and on the Golden Globe-nominated film “The Book of Life.

Netflix has given a series order to Daniel Spellbound, a CG animated series from Matt Fernandes and Boat Rocker Studios. The 20 x 22-minute animated epic adventure series will debut globally on Netflix in 2022.

Created by Fernandes, in Daniel Spellbound, set in modern-day New York City, magic is real… it’s just hidden from the public by sleight of hand and misdirection. But Daniel Spellbound knows where to find it – as a tracker of magical ingredients he makes his living selling rare goods to sorcerers and wizards for their spells. But when he discovers a strange ingredient, Daniel catches the attention of dangerous alchemists and he suddenly must test his skills on an adventure around the globe, while the magical world hangs in the balance!

“I wanted to create a contemporary fantasy world that reflected urban culture – not just set in a magical world, but...

"He will transcend this game..." HBO has unveiled the first teaser trailer for an epic biopic documentary titled Tiger, a monumental and definitive look at the life and times of golf legend Tiger Woods. The doc will be released as a two-part "series" premiering together in January 2021 - a look at the life, success and scandals of golfer Tiger Woods. Co-directed by doc filmmakers Matthew Hamachek & Matthew Heineman. "Few global icons are more visible and less understood than Tiger Woods," EVP of HBO Sports Peter Nelson states. "His prodigy came with painstaking sacrifice; his perfected athleticism immobilized him in agony before the age of 40; his self-made fame enabled a self-destructive world of secrecy; and his redemptive reemergence posed as many questions as it answered — not only about one of the greatest sportsmen ever to live, but also the greater American society that engulfed him... Directors ...

The Storyville commissioning team will report to BBC Film head Rose Garnett.

BBC documentary strand Storyville is moving under the remit of BBC Film, as part of a broader restructuring of the BBC’s filmmaking output.

Storyville commissioning editor Mandy Chang and assistant commissioner Hayley Reynolds will now report to BBC Film director Rose Garnett, effective immediately.

Chang and Jo Lapping will work in factual acquisitions across the BBC’s channels and iPlayer, while co-ordinator Hollie Gibson will work across both teams.

The news was announced in an email to staff from Clare Sillery, head of documentaries commissioning at the BBC.

Netflix has given a series order to the YA vampire drama “First Kill,” with Emma Roberts set to executive produce.

The one-hour show is based on the short story of the same name by Victoria “V.E.” Schwab that was published in the Imprint story collection “Vampire Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite” back in September. Netflix has ordered eight episodes.

In the show, when it’s time for teenage vampire Juliette to make her first kill so she can take her place among a powerful vampire family, she sets her sights on a new girl in town named Calliope. But much to Juliette’s surprise, Calliope is a vampire hunter, from a family of celebrated slayers. Both find that the other won’t be so easy to kill and, unfortunately, way too easy to fall for.

Schwab created the series and will serve as co-writer and executive producer.