News

We are sad to report that legendary African-American actor Louis Gossett Jr. passed away on March 28, 2024 in Santa Monica, CA. He was 87 years old at the time of death, and was on his way to celebrate his 88th birthday in May this year. No official cause of death has been given, but Gosset has had health issues in the recent decade, being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 and being hospitalized for Covid-19 during the pandemic. The news was confirmed by Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett.

A true acting legend, Louis Gossett Jr. was born in New York on May 27, 1936. His mother was a nurse, and his father was a porter. Although he was proficient in sports as well, after his stage debut at the age of 17, his teacher encouraged him to pursue an acting career. Although he obtained a sports scholarship at the NYU and was offered to play basketball,...

Peter Crombie, best known for playing “Crazy” Joe Davola in season four of Seinfeld, has died. He was 71.

The actor’s ex-wife Nadine Kijner took to social media to share that Crombie died Wednesday morning. She told TMZ that he had a brief illness but didn’t share additional details.

“It is with shock and extreme sadness that I share my Ex-husband died this morning,” Kijner wrote on Instagram, followed by photos from their wedding day. “Thank you for so many wonderful memories and being such a good man. Fly free into the Un-boundless source of light, Peter. May you be greeted with love by your parents, and Oliver . So so many people loved you because you were a kind, giving, caring and creative Soul.”

In 1992, Crombie took on the recurring role of “Crazy” Joe Davola pn Seinfeld, where his character terrorizes and threatens Jerry during the plot line that spanned five episodes.

Judith James, producer of “Quiz Show” and “Mad Dog Time” and Richard Dreyfuss’ longtime collaborator, died in Santa Barbara after a bout with cancer. She was 86.

James’ friend, Alex. B Block, confirmed the news to Variety.

James’ was an accomplished producer who worked alongside Dreyfuss on projects including “Funny, You Don’t Look 200: A Constitutional Vaudeville,” “Prisoner of Honor” and “The Lightkeepers.”

“From the minute I met Judy James at the Mark Taper Forum, I knew I had found someone who had the same passion for storytelling that I did,” Dreyfuss said in a statement. “In all the years we were producing partners, we were of like mind, not gender, and we always found a way to agree and wouldn’t have done anything without each other’s approval. She was a wonderful woman and a great friend.”

James was born in Worcester, Mass., and graduated from Vassar College...

Oscar winner Glenda Jackson has passed away. Per Deadline, Jackson's agent, Lionel Larner, confirmed in a statement that the Women in Love star died at her home in London following a brief illness. She was 87 years old.

“Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress, and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side," the statement reads. "She recently completed filming The Great Escaper in which she co-starred with Michael Caine.”

Born in North West England in 1936, Jackson studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before performing on stage, garnering five Laurence Olivier Award nominations for various productions. She also won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 2018 production of Three Tall Women.

With her on-screen work, Jackson was able to win two Oscars. She first picked up the Best Actress award at the...

Brooke Adams in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.Movie-lovers!Welcome back to The Deuce Notebook, a collaboration between Mubi's Notebook and The Deuce Film Series, our monthly event at Nitehawk Williamsburg that excavates the facts and fantasies of cinema's most infamous block in the world: 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. For each screening, my co-hosts and I pick a title that we think embodies the era of 24-hour movie grinding, and present the venue at which it premiered…This month, we welcome our friend and guest writer Madelyn Sutton, whose delicious piece on naughty nuns was featured last September. Madelyn recently spoke with the enigmatic and inimitable actress Brooke Adams—who, in 1978 alone, appeared (at the same time) at both mainstream cinemas and uptown arthouses in Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Malick’s Days of Heaven. This year’s re-release of Michael Roemer’s...

Emmy-winning actress Mary Alice, best known for A Different World and I’ll Fly Away has died. No cause of death has been revealed at this time but was reportedly confirmed by the NYPD. It’s unclear what Alice’s age actually is as conflicting reports claim she was born in 1936 and 1941, making her somewhere between 84 and 80 years old. Best known for playing Leticia “Lettie” Bostic on NBC‘s A Different World, Alice made her mark in several TV titles. In 1993 she won an Emmy for her performance as Marguerite Peck in I’ll Fly Away which also aired on NBC. Mary Alice with Beatrice Winde in Sparkle (Credit: Everett Collection) Over the years Alice appeared in several shows including Cosby, American Playhouse, The Women of Brewster Place, Good Times, Sanford and Son, The Doctors, Oz, and many more. And Alice delivered an unforgettable performance as Effie Williams in the 1976 musical drama...

A few years after her incredible 1978, featuring Days of Heaven and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Brooke Adams starred in Michael Roemer’s Vengeance Is Mine (which premiered under the title of Haunted as part of the PBS anthology series American Playhouse). The 1984 feature, which has long gone unseen since its debut, is now returning in a new 35mm print at Film Forum beginning on May 27 and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer. First, see the official synopsis.

Returning to her East Coast childhood home to heal old familial wounds, Jo (Adams), finds her adoptive mother withdrawn and distant, and a half-sister who has successfully escaped the cold clutches of their family. Impulsively, Jo enters into the troubled life of the neighbors, befriending a couple whose marriage is collapsing under the weight of alcoholism and mental illness.

A melodrama without the traditional indicators, Vengeance Is Mine (originally titled...

Tony and Emmy winner Robert Morse died April 20 at the age of 90.

Morse’s son Charlie confirmed his passing to Los Angeles’ ABC affiliate via Deadline, and Morse’s death was announced on Twitter by writer/producer Larry Karaszewski, a vice president on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

“My good pal Bobby Morse has passed away at age 90,” Karaszewski tweeted. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming ‘People v Oj’ and hosting so many screenings.”

Morse starred in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” on Broadway in 1961, winning a Tony Award. He reprised his role of ambitious window washer J. Pierrepont Finch for the 1967 film adaptation of the musical.

Morse later starred in the 1989 Truman Capote one-man stage show “Tru,” for...

Robert Morse, who translated Broadway stardom into a film career in the 1960s, then re-emerged decades later as one of the stars of “Mad Men,” has died. He was 90.

Writer-producer Larry Karaszewski, who serves as a VP on the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, tweeted news of Morse’s death on Thursday.

“My good pal Bobby Morse has passed away at age 90,” he wrote. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming People v Oj & hosting so many screenings.”

Morse was Emmy nominated five times for playing the sage Bertram Cooper, the senior partner at the advertising firm that was the focus of AMC’s prestigious series “Mad Men,” from 2007 to 2015. In 2010, he shared the SAG Award that “Mad Men” won for outstanding performance by...

Julian Fowles, a film and television producer who worked at Kcet and Esparza/Katz Productions, died in a hospital in Miami, Flor. on Saturday while recovering from a stroke. He was 76 years old.

Fowles’ death was confirmed to Variety by his colleague William Immerman.

Before operating in entertainment, Fowles graduated from Harvard Law School and worked as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. His legal career led him to California, where he began to work as a contract attorney in the legal departments of Universal, Columbia and 20th Century Fox.

Fowles eventually began to pursue his dream of producing, joining the local Los Angeles public broadcasting station Kcet as an executive producer of local programming. His credits include “Eleanor: In Her Own Words,” a one-woman show starring Lee Remick as Eleanor Roosevelt. “Eleanor” was the first local production to be picked up by PBS for the network’s “American Playhouse” series.

Robert Allan Ackerman, the director whose television work scored five Emmy nominations and who directed acclaimed Broadway productions including Bent and Extremities, died Jan. 10 of kidney failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 77.

His death was announced by family through a spokesman.

“I love Bob. I loved being around him, his aurora, his steady peace,” said actor Al Pacino, who starred in Ackerman’s 1992 Broadway staging of Oscar Wilde’s Salome. “To work with him was joyous. He understood the language of theater art and communicated it with such ease. His gift was intangible and there’s no way of understanding how he created. When an artist has that special gift it is unexplainable, it just happens. When he stopped directing, he started writing again and his writing also had that same magic. He will be missed.”

In 2016, Pacino would re-team with Ackerman in a Pasadena Playhouse production of God Looked Away,...

The acclaimed Broadway musical, Sunday in the Park With George, famously lost the Best Musical Tony Award to La Cage Aux Folles in 1985, even as it picked up the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. But the years since the show’s debut have only seen the reputation grow for Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical about Georges Seurat’s creation of pointillist masterpiece “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”

The original production spawned a successful cast recording, was preserved on film for a 1986 episode of PBS...

Anyone expecting another sweeping and passionate period piece from the director of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” should begin recalibrating their expectations for Céline Sciamma’s follow-up, “Petite Maman.”

Intimately focused on a handful of characters, with a single fantastical event setting up its direct narrative through-line, this feature plays like a novella, or a short film, or both — it’s the kind of piece that was once the bread-and-butter of PBS’ “American Playhouse” anthology series. And while “Petite Maman” is a vastly different from than “Portrait,” it furthers writer-director Sciamma’s reputation as a storyteller with a keen understanding of character and human emotion.

The film opens with young Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) bidding farewell to the residents of a nursing home where her namesake grandmother has just died. This passing is devastating for Nelly’s mother, Marion (Nina Meurisse), a woman given to moments of melancholy even under normal circumstances.

Jon Jost's All the Vermeers in New York is exclusively showing on Mubi starting December 28, 2020 in the series Rediscovered.

I lived in New York for a year before shooting this film, observing, nosing around, and researching. While much of the research is present in the film, fortunately it is nearly invisible—the tulip proffered by Mark on meeting Anna at a café, the mere conjunction of choosing Vermeer as a topic in a city once called, in his time, New Amsterdam—each carries a submerged bit of information utterly unnecessary for the viewer.But the research was needed for me as a kind of invisible spine on which to place a totally improvised film, which from its formalistic appearance, and the seeming exactitude of its talk, its images and its structure, would seem to have been highly calculated. But there was never a word of dialog on paper, nor...

Legendary theatrical director George C. Wolfe launched his screen career with adaptations of plays for PBS series like “Great Performances” and “American Playhouse,” and he brings that same politely reverential energy to August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” But even if this version never shakes off its stage roots, it does act as a stately jewel box that houses an extraordinary ensemble of performances.

Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman get the meatiest roles here — and make the most of absolutely every second they’re on camera — but this Netflix feature is just as much a showcase for the talents of the always-brilliant Colman Domingo and the legendary Glynn Turman. Wolfe not only guides his top-flight cast to greatness, but he also keeps the plays themes of art vs. commerce and representation vs. exploitation front and center.

It’s 1927 Chicago, and legendary blues singer Ma Rainey (Davis) and...

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

That haunting line opened Daphne Du Maurier’s treasured 1938 romantic thriller “Rebecca,” which was published in 1938. Lauded by critics, it quickly became a best-seller and has been in print ever since. And for good reason.

Du Maurier wraps readers around her little finger with this addictive tale of a timid young woman-her name is never mentioned-who meets and falls in love with an enigmatic wealthy widower, Maxim de Winter, while in Monte Carlo working as a paid companion to the obnoxious American, Mrs. Van Hopper. Max and the young woman soon fall in love. They marry and he takes her home to his gothic estate Manderley run with an iron-fist by the tightly wound housekeeper Mrs. Danvers who is obsessed with the late, charismatic Rebecca, the late wife of Maxim.

Two years after its publication, “Gone with the Wind” producer David O. Selznick...

“Hamilton” won 11 Tonys, a Pulitzer and a Grammy, and the filmed version on Disney Plus was the talk of social media throughout July 4 weekend — but it won’t be headed to the Oscars.

Disney had planned a theatrical release in October 2021 before dropping it early on its streaming service, but that’s not enough to qualify it for Oscar consideration. Though eligibility rules were amended in April to allow films with planned theatrical releases to compete, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “Recorded stage productions are not eligible for consideration.”

While “Give ‘em Hell, Harry,” a recording of the one-man stage play of the same name, earned an Oscar nomination for best actor for James Whitmore in 1976, the rules changed in 1997 when language was added to the documentary category that disqualified recorded stage performances.

Disney still has plenty to celebrate the release on Disney Plus.

The...

Actor Mel Winkler, known for his work across film, TV, theater and voice acting, died in his sleep on Thursday of unknown causes. He was 78.

Most notably, Winkler played Joppy, the best friend of Denzel Washington’s character Easy Rawlins in the 1995 thriller “Devil in a Blue Dress.” He also held minor roles in films such as “Doc Hollywood” in 1991 and 2005’s “Coach Carter.”

Winkler was born in St. Louis, Mo., on Oct. 23, 1941, and served as a captain in the U.S. Army prior to becoming an actor. Winkler began his career in 1969 on the TV show “The Doctors,” appearing in a total of 68 episodes. He also had guest roles on series like “American Playhouse,” “As the World Turns,” “The Cosby Show,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” “ER” and “NYPD Blue.”

Besides acting in film and TV, Winkler voiced several animated characters, including that of Lucius Fox in “The New Batman Adventures” from...

Editor’s note: Filmmaker Nancy Kelly made her feature directorial debut in 1990 with the Western drama “Thousand Pieces of Gold.” A new 4K restoration by IndieCollect can currently be seen in virtual theaters via Kino Marquee. On the occasion of its new release, Kelly (along with IndieCollect’s Sandra Schulberg) wanted to share her reflections on her career both before and after its release.

Three years before I discovered Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s novel “Thousand Pieces of Gold,” I was making my living as a ranch hand. What was it that impelled me — from a working class background in a Massachusetts textile town — to pack up and head West? I had never even ridden a horse before, but I wanted an adventure. It was an impromptu decision that changed my life forever.

The cowboys didn’t know what to make of me — not much. But I broke my own horse,...

It’s been years since Edward James Olmos last saw “Stand and Deliver,” the 1988 movie that made him the first Mexican-American actor to secure an Academy Award nomination. But watching a 30th anniversary screening at this month’s Panama International Film Festival, the actor was deeply moved.

“It was very emotional. I openly wept,” the actor said, recalling his feelings about portraying the young East L.A. math teacher Jaime Escalante — and the impact the sleeper hit biopic had on audiences worldwide.

“Ninety-five percent of my life is bringing awareness to the difficulties of people’s plights,” he said during an interview at the chic Central Hotel in Panama City’s colonial-era Casco Viejo the following day. “There is such imbalance. I’ve received so much support from life itself. I live a very privileged life. I mean, I’ve been able to live as an artist my entire life.

Warren Adler, author, playwright and poet, whose novels The War of the Roses and Random Hearts were adapted into feature films, has died. Adler died Monday of complications from liver cancer, the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 91.

His 1981 novel The War of The Roses was turned into the 1989 dark comedy feature starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. In both the novel and the film, the married couple’s family name is Rose, and the title is an allusion to the battles between the Houses of York and Lancaster (English Civil War) during the Late Middle Ages.

His novel Random Hearts also was adapted into a film starring Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas in 1999. His published manuscript Private Lies sparked an unprecedented bidding war between TriStar Pictures, Warner Bros. and Columbia. According to a report in Newsweek, TriStar Pictures won the rights for $1.2 million, at that time...

Warren Adler, the novelist, playwright and poet whose novel “The War of the Roses” was adapted into the dark comedy starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, has died. He was 91.

His son, David Adler, said that his father died on Monday of complications from liver cancer.

Adler was the author of 50 novels, and sold the rights to a number of them for film, TV and stage adaptations. They included “Random Hearts,” which was turned into a 1999 movie directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas; and “The Sunset Gang,” which was adapted into a PBS “American Playhouse” in 1991, with Jerry Stiller, Uta Hagen, Harold Gould and Doris Roberts in the cast. “The Sunset Gang” was later adapted into an off-Broadway musical.

Another novel, “American Quartet,” part of his Fiona Fitzgerald mystery stories, was optioned by NBC and Lifetime.

Four months before his 1991 novel “Private Lies,...

In October, the entertainment industry lost a powerful friend, Richard Barclay, a celebrated singer/actor and producer/director who passed away after an eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer. On May 26, Richard Skipper is presenting a celebration of Barclay's life and reuniting two soap opera legends in the progress. The Richard Barclay Memorial show will feature Frank Basile, Julie Budd, Eileen Fulton, Richard Holbrook, Ilene Kristen sharing memories and musical entertainment, led by musical director Rolf Barnes.

The Saturday night show will start at 8 p.m. at Don't Tell Mama in New York (343 W 46th St). There is a $25.00 cover charge and a 2 drink minimum per person. Proceeds will benefit Career Bridges. Reservations can by made after 4 p.m. daily at (212) 757-0788 after 4 Pm or online at donttellmamanyc.com.

Barclay was more than a great artist ... he was a kind, compassionate, and generous mentor.

Richard Barclay started his long career in...

Production scheduled to start later in year for 2019 series debut.

Extending the 25-year run of TV adaptations of Armistead Maupin’s groundbreaking literary saga, Netflix has ordered a limited series based on Maupin’s Tales Of The City novels from Working Title Television and NBCUniversal International.

Set in the present day, the new 10-part series, titled Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City, will see Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis reprise their roles from the three previous Tales mini-series.

Ellen Page joins the cast and production is expected to start later this year for a series debut in 2019.

Orange Is The New Black...

Production scheduled to start later in year for 2019 series debut.

Extending the 25-year run of TV adaptations of Armistead Maupin’s groundbreaking literary saga, Netflix has ordered a limited series based on Maupin’s Tales Of The City novels from Working Title Television and NBCUniversal International.

Set in the present day, the new 10-part series, titled Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City, will see Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis reprise their roles from the three previous Tales mini-series.

Ellen Page joins the cast and production is expected to start later this year for a series debut in 2019.

Orange Is The New Black...

Ron Medico, a film editor who worked on reality TV series, documentaries and the features The Lady in Red and Alligator, has died. He was 71.

Medico died April 12 after suffering a heart attack in Jacksonville, Florida, his husband, Kevin Cooke, said.

Early in his career, Medico edited the gangster film The Lady in Red (1979) and the cult horror classic Alligator (1980) — two films written by John Sayles and directed by Lewis Teague — then worked on TV's Unsolved Mysteries and American Playhouse.

He also helped put together...

Jeremy Cameron writes: The film-maker Jonathan Demme had a huge interest in Haitian culture: he bought art and sponsored artists, helping to promote their work particularly in the Us. When he knew I was going there with my sister Sarah in the 1990s for her Caribbean Islands Handbook, he gave us contacts and arranged a guide. His name magically opened doors for us all over the country, where he was massively respected and indeed revered for his very genuine love of its art and his great generosity.

Bob Jacobson writes: A production that deserves to be added to your fine account of Jonathan Demme’s work is his version of Kurt Vonnegut’s Who Am I This Time?, shown in PBS’s American Playhouse series in 1982. It features a shy Christopher Walken alongside Susan Sarandon and Robert Ridgely in a quirky romantic comedy set in small-town America. This 53-minute piece...

Jonathan Demme has passed away at age 73, leaving behind a legacy of amazing films. Thanks to modern technology, you can now host your own Demme film festival by streaming many of his biggest hits. Check out where to stream the cream of the crop below.

Read More: Jonathan Demme Remembered: Barry Jenkins, Ron Howard, Edgar Wright & More Mourn On Twitter

Netflix:

*”The Manchurian Candidate” (2004) — Watch it Here

*”Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids” (2016) — Watch it Here

Amazon Prime Video:

*”Who Am I This Time?” (from “PBS’ American Playhouse”) (1982) — Watch it Here

FilmStruck:

*”A Master Builder” (2014) — Watch it Here

Amazon Video Rental:

*”Citizen’s Band” (1977) — Rent it Here

*”Stop Making Sense” (1984) — Rent it Here

*”Swing Shift” (1984) — Rent it Here

*”Married To The Mob” (1988) — Rent it Here

*”The Silence of the Lambs” (1991) — Rent it Here

*”Philadelphia” (1993) — Rent it Here

*”Beloved” (1998) — Rent it Here

*”Storefront Hitchcock” (1998) — Rent it Here

*”The Truth About Charlie...

Check out these essentials even if you don’t catch the new movie.

Another week, another live-action remake of an animated classic. Well, you could argue that most of Ghost in the Shell isn’t really live action, since there’s so much that’s CG. You could also say it’s not a remake so much as a new adaptation of a Japanese comic book. Regardless, a lot of it is a pretty faithful copy, so a good percentage of this week’s list of Movies to Watch could apply to the manga or the anime versions of the story (I’m making it a given that you should see the original). That’s good for any of you boycotting the new movie due to its whitewashing controversy.

These 12 titles are worth seeing either way:

The Creation of the Humanoids (1962)

Despite being a cheap, cheesy sci-fi B movie, this is a significant work for being possibly...

Chicago – Iconic and historical are the two apt terms for a film directed by an African American woman, the first to be distributed theatrically, Was it the 1920s? 1940s? It had to be the 1970s. No, it was 1992 when that barrier was broken, with the film “Daughters in the Dust,” directed by Julie Dash.

“Daughters of the Dust” is a lyrical cinematic poem about transition and pride. In the early 20th Century, the children of slaves were making their first movements from the South during “The Great Migration” – when African Americans sought more independence in the industrial North. “Daughters” highlights the residents of St. Simons Island in Georgia, a settlement for a freed family named Peazant – who practiced Creole “Gullah” ancestry, which observed African tribal traditions during their time in America. The older and more established residents are wary of the traveling ways of the new generation, and the presence...

Doris Roberts, best known for her Emmy-winning role as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, died on Sunday, April 17, TMZ reports. She was 90.

A cause of death has not been released.

Roberts garnered 11 Emmy Award nominations over her long career, including seven nods and four wins for her work on Raymond. She won her first Emmy in 1983 for a guest appearance on St. Elsewhere, and also earned nominations for her work as receptionist Mildred Krebs on Remington Steele, as well as her work on Perfect Strangers and American Playhouse.

The actress’ career began in the 1950s and ’60s, and included memorable turns on Soap,...

A playwright, screenwriter, poet and essayist, he was an adjunct professor of Screenwriting at Columbia University's School of the Arts and Barnard College, as well as Nyu's Tisch School of the Arts. Among his former students are James Mangold ("Girl Interrupted," "Walk the Line") and Greg Mottola ("Superbad," "Adventureland"). After receiving his Mfa from the Yale School of Drama in 1982, Gallo met Huston, who was impressed by his adaptation of Malcolm Lowry's novel, and made the film version. Starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset, it was released in 1984 and was a selection of the Cannes Film Festival. Gallo wrote over a dozen feature screenplays, and had four others produced. Among them was an adaptation, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Part I, which American Playhouse broadcast in 1986; its cast included Lillian Gish and Geraldine Page. Born February 16, 1955 in New Orleans, Louisiana,...

Cult movie classic ‘Pretty Poison’ filmmaker Noel Black dead at 77 (photo: Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins in ‘Pretty Poison’) Noel Black, best remembered for the 1968 cult movie classic Pretty Poison, died of pneumonia at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital on July 5, 2014. Black (born on June 30, 1937, in Chicago) was 77. Prior to Pretty Poison, Noel Black earned praise for the 18-minute short film Skaterdater (1965), the tale of a boy skateboarder who falls for a girl bike rider. Shot on the beaches of Los Angeles County, the dialogue-less Skaterdater went on to win the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film and tied with Orson Welles’ Falstaff - Chimes at Midnight for the Technical Grand Prize at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. Besides, Skaterdater received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Short Subject, Live Action category. (The Oscar winner that year was Claude Berri’s Le Poulet.) ‘Pretty Poison’: Fun and games and...

After her debut in 1990 on PBS's “American Playhouse,” the gorgon mother known as Katharine Gerard is not a character most people would care to revisit, least of all in a full-length Broadway play. But there she is on stage at the Golden Theatre, where Terrence McNally's “Mothers and Sons” opened Monday, now inhabited by Tyne Daly and acting every bit the human refrigerator that the late Sada Thompson presented in that 1990 episode titled “Andre's Mother.” Did McNally bring Katharine back just to beat her up again? Maybe. Whatever, this public trashing is a riveting show. Of course, by play's end Katharine.

The Warriors star Roger Hill has died, aged 65

Hill passed away in New York City last Thursday (February 20), but Variety reports that a cause of death has not been disclosed.

He is survived by his son Chris W Hill, a film editor.

The actor is best known for playing the bombastic gang leader Cyrus in director Walter Hill's cult 1979 action thriller The Warriors.

He later appeared in the soap opera One Life to Live from 1983 to 1984.

Roger also appeared in The Leatherstocking Tales, American Playhouse and The Education of Sonny Carson.

With the premiere of HBO’s Looking still over a week away, this is the perfect time to remember another TV series about a group of gay (and straight) friends in San Francisco. It was 20 years ago today that Tales Of the City made its American television debut.

Based on the newspaper column–later book series–by Armistead Maupin, Tales centers around a found family living together in a boarding house at 28 Barbary Lane. Tenants include Mary Anne Singleton, a naive girl fresh off the bus from Cleveland, Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, a gay emigré from Florida, his best friend Mona Ramsey, a frustrated feminist copywriter, and Brian Hawkins, a leftie lawyer who dropped out and became a waiter. They all live under the eye of enigmatic landlady Anna Madrigal. Tales stars Laura Linney as Mary Anne, Marcus D’Amico as Mouse, Chloe Webb as Mona, Paul Gross as Brian and Olympia Dukakis as Mrs.

You’ve written the screenplay, raised the money, shot and edited your film, and your movie is finally ‘in the can.’ Congratulations! But now what? It’s time to get your film seen and distributed. Whether you live in New England or anywhere else on the globe, you must navigate your next steps wisely.

This month I speak to Sydney Levine, president of SydneysBuzz -- whose tagline for her company -- “Pulling Back the Curtain on the International Film Industry” -- precisely does just that. Levine focuses on international film industry developments and analysis of the international film market related to buyers, sales agents, filmmakers, film festivals and distribution. Traveling extensively on the international film market circuit, Levine is a hired panel moderator, educator, consultant for filmmakers, the Cannes Film Market, the Berlinale’s European Film Market and Talent Campus, Deutsche Welle Akademie and others. Her company covers events, panels, buying, selling and educational initiatives at Toronto, Sundance, Berlin and Cannes, regularly reporting on who is buying, who is selling, which films stand out, and how the films were created.

Prior to establishing FilmFinders, she helped start the profitable video rental division of Republic Pictures as Vice President of Acquisitions and Development after having spent three years acquiring such feature films for Lorimar as My Beautiful Laundrette, Letter to Brezhnev, Tampopo, and Sugar Baby as part of a wide variety of international artistic and commercial genres. Levine has worked in international distribution for Twentieth Century Fox in Amsterdam, in Ross Perot’s start up video company Inovision, in marketing for ABC Video Enterprises, at Public Media Inc. the social issue documentary division of Films Inc. and Pyramid Films, the award-winning short film distribution company in Santa Monica, California. During her tenure at all these companies she acquired features and documentaries for international and domestic distribution.

Susan Kouguell: You and your partner, Peter Belsito, are known throughout the international film festival circuit for having the finger on the pulse of independent filmmaking for over twenty-five years. The independent film movement has certainly changed dramatically from the early celluloid days -- American Playhouse, the onset of the Sundance Film Festival, Harvey Weinstein at the ‘original’ Miramax Films -- to digital filmmaking and the increase of ancillary markets and venues, to Harvey Weinstein at The Weinstein Company. One thing that hasn’t changed is the quest for filmmakers to get their work seen and distributed. For filmmakers not living in New York City or Los Angeles, their quest can be even more challenging. What tips can you offer to assist filmmakers on their quest for getting their work seen and noticed?

Sydney Levine: Actually you can make that 38 years. When I started at 20th Century Fox International in ’75, I was the first and only woman in international film distribution except for one Dutch woman living in Germany whose company, Cine International, sold independent German films to distributors around the world but whose films never entered the United States. Theatrical and television were the only platforms in those days.

In this day of digital technology, a filmmaker can reach every corner of the world. That means the filmmaker must create a Persona with a personal digital platform which serves as an integral part of mapping out a curriculum vitae. The films are one part of who the Persona is, and the created website and blog must offer more than just the film in order to create the Persona one presents to the world. Secondly, the target audience for one’s films and for one’s other interests must be located and addressed by the Persona on the many levels of their interests. A film cannot stand alone and be noticed. It must be part of a larger picture, whether personal or affiliated with a larger brand.

Sk: What are the current trends in promoting short and feature films at festivals and markets that you find successful and not so successful?

Sl: Festivals have their own websites and use YouTube channels. The brand your film can distinguish itself by might be a festival, such as Sundance or Tribeca (or many others), which have their own platforms to promote and show films, or Cannes whose platform (called Cinando.com) shows the films of the festival and market as well as films of Sundance, Afm (American Film Market), Ventana Sur (the Argentinean market for Latino films), Busan,San Sebastian, Toronto, Deauville and Karlovy Vary film festivals. Cinando is known to the trade (and is only open to the trade) but still has not caught on as broadly as it is intended. Sundance has experimented with showing its shorts on YouTube where it has a channel, as does Tribeca. Tribeca on Demand is also a distribution platform for features which it takes on for distribution. Other festivals also use YouTube to showcase films or trailers…Karlovy Vary, Cinequest, Locarno has The Pardo Channel on You Tube. Some act as distributors and some are only promoting. Again finding these may be an issue -- or not -- depending on their purpose and how they market.

Definitely social networking is an important way to promote films. Subscription newsletters using mail chimp might work over a long trajectory.

Sk: What are the pros and cons of posting a film on platforms such as Vimeo and YouTube before it gets accepted into a film festival or has distribution?

Sl: On the pro side, it can build up a following which might persuade the distribution company to get on board. I think that if an entire film is posted before a film festival, it will destroy its chances to get in the premiere festivals which insist on premieres and it might degrade the pristine discovery element for any other festivals. Other arguments against showing the entire film, is that if it is free, no one will ever need to pay for it again. The purpose of a film is to be seen, but the purpose of the filmmaker should be to have a commercial success which speaks to the business world of distribution about the ability of the film and filmmaker to make money to repay investors and bring financial gain to the distributor. Film is, after all, a commercial art not a “fine art” which also, in fact, must show some financial gain in the end. Film is public and you must have a public that pays.

Sk: Navigating film festivals and film markets can be overwhelming for those trying to get attention for their projects. What tips do you recommend for filmmakers to make the most of their time there?

Sl: Be sure to choose the first festival as the one with the trade attending and looking to acquire films like yours. Be sure not to disqualify the film because you have it already shown it elsewhere. You can use your film as a passport to travel the world or you can use your film to promote your career in the international or in the domestic market. Be conscious of what your end goal is and then create a smart strategy to reach your objective.

Before you arrive, have a one-sheet or postcard with relevant information on you and the film. Know who from the trade is attending and write to them in a way to persuade them to see your film. Make appointments with them to discuss your film after the screening. When you are there, carry your cards and your promotion. Have a 30-second pitch and a longer pitch ready to deliver in the appropriate moments. Be aware of who you are speaking to and speak to them about them, before pitching your own agenda. Attend workshops if there are any.

Sk: Getting an offer from a film distributor to distribute a filmmaker’s project is exciting and a possible foot-in-the door to success. However, filmmakers need to proceed with caution. What should filmmakers look for before they sign on the dotted line?

Sl: First they need to have an experienced entertainment attorney review the contract carefully with them. Actually that is not the first step. The first step is saying how interesting and exciting the offer is and before saying yes, ask for the contract to review with your attorney. Filmmakers also should know how distributors and sales agents work a film so they can ask the right questions about how they will market the film.

Sk: What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers?

Sl: Read books on the subject, take courses on the film business, attend seminars, join Ifp or Film Independent or San Francisco Film Society and network, stay abreast of new technology. Read at least one trade every day, preferably one that covers the international as well as the U.S. film business. Get to know who is who, and what role they play in the film business, so that when you meet them, you will be able to hold an intelligent conversation with them about what they do. Learn to pitch your film and yourself.

Sk: Anything you would like to add?

Sl: Proceed with passion and with caution. Take good care of yourself and recognize there is another life beyond film. Exercise, meditate, socialize, don’t take too many drugs or drink too much. In the film business it always seems like success is just around the corner. If you are lucky and meet it, your next film will be just as difficult as the first. If you go around too many corners without getting anywhere, give it up and try something new. If you succeed, don’t believe you have it made; don’t believe you are your Persona. Realize you have a human life with human needs and don’t ignore that blessing.

To learn more about Sydney Levine, SydneysBuzz, their consulting services and more, visit:

http://www.sydneysbuzz.com.

Watching Steve McQueen’s widely acclaimed 12 Years a Slave, you may find yourself wondering why it took so long for someone to film Solomon Northup’s remarkable life story. After all, the dramatic story is based on a memoir that was published way back in 1853. Then you find out that it has been filmed before, by one of America’s most legendary multi-hyphenate artists, the photographer-writer-director-musician Gordon Parks (Shaft, Leadbelly). Produced for public television, Solomon Northup’s Odyssey was broadcast on American Playhouse. (Out-of-print videos of it sell for a lot of money nowadays, but you can stream it on Amazon Instant, under a different title.) As a made-for-tv movie from the mid-eighties, it had a very modest budget and could never come close to the brutality of McQueen’s film. Yet Parks’s film is beautiful in its own right, lacking the ferocious immediacy of McQueen’s work, but...

Before it became an acclaimed feature film from Steve McQueen, the autobiography "Twelve Years a Slave" was the basis for an "American Playhouse" television movie for PBS directed by famed director Gordon Parks ("Shaft"). Based on the same source material as the McQueen feature, the TV version, which aired in 1984, was known as "Solomon Northup's Odyssey."  Avery Brooks plays the leading role of Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery. After first airing on PBS, the film was later released on video under the title "Half Slave, Half Free." You can see a clip of the movie below or watch the whole thing by subscribing to Fandor.

12 Years A Slave is a remake. What’s more, the original television film was directed by the celebrated Gordon Parks. Why no one seems to remember this is a mystery to me, yet all too typical of what I’ll call media amnesia. It first aired on PBS in 1984 as Solomon Northup’s Odyssey, reached a wider audience the following year when it was repeated as an installment of American Playhouse, and made its video debut under the title Half Slave, Half Free. It’s readily available from Monterey Media or for instant viewing at Amazon.com. I write this not to cast aspersions on Steve McQueen’s excellent new film, but to do justice to a production that doesn’t deserve to be forgotten or...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...

Susan Lacy, creator and executive producer of PBS‘ American Masters series, has signed a multi-year deal to produce and direct documentaries for HBO. PBS said today it plans to continue the docu series Lacy created in 1986. She has produced a library of more than 190 titles in that stretch, exploring the lives and creative journeys of American writers, musicians, artists, filmmakers and actors. It just landed its latest Emmy nomination for its most recent profile Inventing David Geffen. “It’s exciting to have someone as talented as Susan Lacy bring fresh ideas to HBO,” said HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins in a release today announcing the hire. “I’ve long admired her film portraits, which have been consistently stellar over the years. We look forward to great things from her.” Lacy is longtime PBS veteran, first with key roles in Great Performances and American Playhouse, and she later left to...

Blandings Acorn Media

Kieran Kinsella

Prepare to be amused because on 3 September, Acorn Media are releasing the BBC’s hysterically funny Blandings on DVD. The six-part character-based comedy is based on the Blandings Castle stories by P.G. Wodehouse (Jeeves and Wooster). Like most of his work, Blandings pokes fun at the aristocracy and the class divisions that formed the backbone of Downton Abbey-era Britain.

Timothy Spall (The Syndicate) is the king of the castle as it were. He plays Lord Clarence Emsworth — the pig-loving, Lord of the Manor who dreams of leading a quiet life. His biggest problem is his domineering younger sister Connie, Lady Keeble (Jennifer Saunders). Widowed some years before, she has taken to creating and enforcing rules in the Blandings Castle. While Connie is a stickler for the rules, Clarence’s second son Freddie Threepwood is anything but. He is a profligate who can’t behave...

Want to learn more about "The Following"'s Ryan Hardy? You can on June 4th when The Paley Center for Media hosts an event in NYC featuring popular actor Kevin Bacon in a one-on-one conversation discussing the complex character.

Kevin Bacon on Being Ryan Hardy

Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - 6:30 pm Et

The Paley Center for Media

25 West 52 Street

New York, NY 10019

Moderator: Damian Holbrook, Senior Writer, TV Guide Magazine

Exactly how many degrees of separation are there between Kevin Bacon and "The Following"'s Ryan Hardy? Find out at this one-on-one conversation with the Golden Globe–winning actor, who will explore his acclaimed portrayal of the exceedingly dark and damaged erstwhile FBI agent in Fox’s first-year serial-killer drama, the leading candidate for top-rated new show of the season. Bacon’s TV career extends back into the late Seventies and early Eighties, when he appeared on the daytime soap "Guiding Light...

Latest McQueen directorial effort gets a North American release date Twelve Years a Slave, Steve McQueen's drama based on real-life events, will open in North America on December 27, 2013, Fox Searchlight Pictures has announced. In addition to directing the film, McQueen also co-wrote the screenplay with John Ridley (whose All Is by My Side, about Jimi Hendrix's early years, may also come out this year). (Pictured above: Chiwetel Ejiofor, this year's Best Actress Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis, and Kelsey Scott in TYaS. Please scroll down to check out the film's late-year competition.) Based on the autobiography of a man forced into slavery in the mid-19th century, Solomon Northup, Twelve Years follows the story free man Northup, kidnapped in Washington in 1841, only to be sold as a slave at a Louisiana cotton plantation where he was kept for twelve years. (Hence the film's and autobiography's title.) The film reportedly...

Award-winning actress Kyra Sedgwick has been married to Kevin Bacon for 24 years in what's shaping up to be of the most enduring and beloved relationships in Hollywood, and in the latest issue of Good Housekeeping, The Closer star dishes on what keeps the two so committed to one another.

"I don't know how he does it, but he always makes me feel like I'm the most beautiful woman in the room – the only girl in the room," she says about Bacon. "He says 'Honey, you look beautiful. You are sexy!' Always, always, always!"

Video: Pop Culture Rewind -- On the Set of 1983's 'Footloose'

The pair married in 1988, and are clearly still smitten with one another.

"He is so honorable. He is so ethically true. He has high moral standards, and he doesn't lie and he doesn't cheat – and I find that sexy!," Kyra says. "I am constantly in awe of Kevin's levelheadedness and his...

Sophisticated and witty actor who triumphed on Broadway and won an Oscar

Celeste Holm, who has died aged 95, was the original Ado Annie in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's groundbreaking musical Oklahoma! which opened on Broadway in 1943. In I Cain't Say No, she sang: "I cain't be prissy and quaint / I ain't the type that can faint." Annie was a none-too-bright farm girl, but Holm was a smart, witty and sophisticated actor, whom everybody seemed to like. Many years later, during the interval of a Broadway show, she came out on stage and made a plea for her mental-health charity. It was done with such sincerity and passion that the audience could not fail to pay up.

On screen, Holm was the first woman to sing the Cole Porter song Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, sharing the delightful duet with Frank Sinatra in High Society (1956). Holm and Sinatra...

Sometimes hitting the multiplex just isn’t in the cards. That’s when cable, the web and streaming step in to provide an instant movie fix. But how to separate the wheat from the chaff? I’m happy to help; every week I’ll pick a flick and see if it’s worth your time. This week? “For Colored Girls”.

The Story: Based on the award-winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange, it’s a story of several women whose lives intersect. Rich, poor, married, single, saint and sinner, they all come together to show the difficulties of being an African-American woman. This is no pleasure cruise; the topics touch on abortion, rape, promiscuity, abuse, neglect and murder. But Shange’s beautiful prose delivers hope for a better day through the strength of friendship and sisterhood.

The Good: Shange, Shange,...

The competition for the 2011 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series can be broken into two distinct categories: Those who’ve already won an Emmy, and those who got their very first nomination just this year.

In the former group, we’ve got five-time Emmy winner Michael J. Fox (The Good Wife) and three-time winner Beau Bridges (Brothers & Sisters), both of whom are veterans of the Guest Actor wars, albeit for different series than the ones for which they’re nominated in 2011. (Bridges scored nods in 2010, 2009, 2007, and 1995 for The Closer, Desperate Housewives, My Name Is Earl, and The Outer Limits...

A couple of weeks ago it was reported that Lionsgate Films had tapped Tyler Perry to write, direct and produce an adaptation of the 1975 play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf." The film is slated to be the first project for Perry's 34th Street Films production company, housed at Lionsgate.

Well during that time we discovered that "For Colored Girls" will begin shooting in Atlanta in November, with Lionsgate planning a release next year. In case you hadn't heard the play is a series of 20 poems telling stories of love, abandonment, domestic abuse and other issues faced by black women.

Since the news broke about For Colored Girls, we have heard a rumor about the casting of the film, and rumor has it that Halle Berry, Oprah Winfrey, Cicely Tyson, Kimberly Elise, Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou, Angela Bassett, Thandie Newton, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys,...

Bryce Dallas Howard in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

Photo: Paladin I just received a press release from the new independent film company Paladin, announcing they have picked up and will release The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Ellen Burstyn, Oscar nominee Ann-Margret, Meryl Streep's daughter Mamie Gummer and Will Patton. The drama is based on a heretofore unproduced original screenplay by legendary writer Tennessee Williams and directed by Jodie Markell, in her feature debut. In one of the few reviews of the film coming out of the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, Joe Leydon at Variety offered up mixed feelings with the following intro: The fragrant aroma of magnolias is undercut by the distinct smell of mothballs throughout "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond," an admirably earnest but curiously flat attempt to film a long-unproduced scenario by Tennessee Williams. Although Williams penned...