News

The entertainment industry and fans all across the world are mourning the sudden passing of Hollywood legend Maggie Smith, who had a phenomenal career spanning over seven decades and delivered beloved performances in celebrated film and television franchises, including Harry Potter and Downton Abbey, as well as acclaimed roles in hits like Othello, Death on the Nile, Hook, and Sister Act.

The recipient of numerous prestigious accolades such as two Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, and five BAFTA Awards, Smith was one of the silver screen and theater's most prolific performers and continued finding success and adoration up until her death at 89 on September 27, 2024. While many audiences may recognize the late seasoned star for her brilliant portrayals of both Professor Minerva McGonagall in the enchanting Harry Potter films and Violet Crawley in the acclaimed period drama Downton Abbey, some may be surprised to discover that Smith didn't find her most iconic roles satisfying.

British stage and screen actress Maggie Smith, the “Downton Abbey” and “Harry Potter” star who numbers two Oscars, three Emmys and countless stage awards to her credit, died Friday in London. She was 89.

“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith,” her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin said in a statement. “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.”

In her late 70s, Smith drew an entirely new legion of fans thanks to her starring role in...

“You know animals are hairy?,” sang the Talking Heads David Byrne. “They say animals don’t worry…” Well, in David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset, forthcoming from Bleecker Street Pictures, the latter statement is definitely not correct as the filmmakers — Filmmaker 25 New Faces from back in 2008 — wring wonder and joy but also anxiety and fear of encroaching humankind in their story of a family of Sasquatch living undetected in the wilds of Colorado. Bleecker Street’s redband trailer leans hard into Sasquatch sex while cleverly underlining that there’s name talent (Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough) in this movie. […]

The post (Redband) Trailer Watch: The Zellner Brothers’s Sasquatch Sunset first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

“You know animals are hairy?,” sang the Talking Heads David Byrne. “They say animals don’t worry…” Well, in David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset, forthcoming from Bleecker Street Pictures, the latter statement is definitely not correct as the filmmakers — Filmmaker 25 New Faces from back in 2008 — wring wonder and joy but also anxiety and fear of encroaching humankind in their story of a family of Sasquatch living undetected in the wilds of Colorado. Bleecker Street’s redband trailer leans hard into Sasquatch sex while cleverly underlining that there’s name talent (Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough) in this movie. […]

The post (Redband) Trailer Watch: The Zellner Brothers’s Sasquatch Sunset first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Exclusive: Fox has handed a script commitment to animated workplace comedy Taskmasters, from Brian Keith Etheridge (The Neighborhood), Brendon Walsh (Crank Yankers), cartoonist Johnny Ryan, Fox Entertainment Studios and Fox’s Bento Box Entertainment.

Co-written by Etheridge, Walsh and Ryan, Taskmasters is a half-hour animated workplace comedy that follows a crew of lovable wackos navigating the gig economy at a fly-by-night, “we’ll do any job,” business. The show incorporates prank calls to real life customers, so beware – the next time you get a weird phone call at work, it might be an animated character from Taskmasters!

Etheridge, who also serves as showrunner, executive produces with Walsh and Ryan. The project is produced by Fox Entertainment Studios and Fox’s Bento Box Entertainment.

Etheridge is currently a co-executive producer on Apple’s workplace comedy Mythic Quest. He was previously a co-executive producer on The Neighborhood on CBS, The Ranch at Netflix,...

Hannah Berner grew up dreaming of being a professional tennis player before becoming a viral sensation with comedy bits like “Han on the Street.” Nimesh Patel turned his experience with being diagnosed with testicular cancer into a heralded comedy special, “Lucky Lefty.” And Kurtis Conner was working at Starbucks when a frequent customer encouraged him to get into comedy.

These were among the hilarious, surprising and touching revelations that emerged when Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch for 2023 were celebrated with a panel discussion and cocktail reception sponsored by Cohen Gardner Llp at last week’s Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival. The comedians also performed in a packed showcase at the festival. Variety has been presenting the 10 Comics at Just for Laughs since 2000 and over the years the list has included such luminaries as Tiffany Haddish, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Taylor Tomlinson and Quinta Brunson.

Nine of the 10 selected comics...

Inga Swenson, the two-time Tony-nominated singer and actress who as the dictatorial German cook Gretchen Kraus sparred with Robert Guillaume‘s character on the 1980s ABC sitcom Benson, has died. She was 90.

Swenson died Sunday night of natural causes in hospice care in Los Angeles, her son, Mark Harris, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Swenson also sparkled in two critically acclaimed 1962 films released seven weeks apart — as the mother of Helen Keller (Patty Duke) in Arthur Penn’s The Miracle Worker (1962) and as the wife of a U.S. senator with a dark secret (Don Murray) in Otto Preminger’s political thriller Advise & Consent (1962).

On the strength of those performances, the Nebraska native — no, she was not born in Germany — was cast in 1963 as the spinster Lizzy in 110 in the Shade, based on N. Richard Nash’s play The Rainmaker. She received a Tony nomination for best actress in a musical for that performance,...

The Just For Laughs Comedy Festival has unveiled its list of top up-and-coming comedians in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere, who are set to participate in the New Faces of Comedy showcase later this week. The event is a traditional launch pad for major Hollywood talent like Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer, Kumail Nanjiani and Jimmy Fallon.

The success of their careers makes New Faces the industry’s biggest coming-out party for rising stand-up talent serious business. Young hopefuls eyeing Hollywood development deals grab the microphone at Just For Laughs in Montreal to draw laughter from a club audience as Los Angeles talent scouts, comedy agents and managers, TV execs and club bookers look on.

No pressure there. Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson, who will receive the best comedy person award at the Just For Laughs ComedyPro conference later this week, was part of the New Faces comic discovery program in 2017.

Over three days,...

Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson will receive the best comedy person award at the upcoming Just For Laughs ComedyPro conference, organizers said Thursday.

Brunson, who also stars in her mockumentary spin on an underserved Philadelphia grammar school in the ABC comedy, will be in Montreal for the honor after she was part of the Jfl’s New Faces comic discovery program in 2017.

And Bert Kreischer will pick up the best stand-up comic prize at the Montreal festival after his latest comedy special, Razzle Dazzle, debuted on Netflix. Also a veteran of Jfl, Kreischer starred in and produced The Machine, a movie based on his own experiences with Russian mobsters on a college trip.

The ComedyPro conference, which will hold its awards show on July 28, will also give Ronny Chieng the breakout comedy star of the year trophy, while Feel Good star Mae Martin will receive the rising comedy star of the year prize.

Twenty years after its first season aired on MTV, Clone High has returned to the airwaves to make audiences laugh, shiver and cry. Season 2 sees angst-filled teens Abe Lincoln (Will Forte), Joan of Arc (Nicole Sullivan) and JFK (Christopher Miller) revived in the modern era, facing a new world of changing social landscapes and new technology. Joining them on this journey are new clones of Frida Kahlo (Vicci Martinez), Harriet Tubman (Ayo Edibiri), Confucius (Kelvin Yu) and Christopher Columbus (Neil Young), who tries to distance himself from his controversial "clonefather" by taking the name Topher Bus.

However, not all of Clone High's main students have made the transition to 2023. Ghandi (Michael McDonald) has been written out of the series, owing to the controversial nature of the character. His absence is explained by the rest of the cast simply forgetting to unfreeze him along with the other students. Cleopatra, meanwhile, has made the jump to modernity,...

Comedians Ali Wong, Jonathan Van Ness and Anthony Jeselnik have joined the lineup for the Just for Laughs comedy festival’s 41st edition this summer.

The comedy festival in Montreal that revolutionized stand-up comedy by discovering top comics like Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle and Jimmy Fallon has seen its earlier move into programming solo touring shows pay off as veterans of Netflix comedy specials, like Wong, Van Ness and Jeselnik, dominate its first lineup announcement for its upcoming July 14 to 29 run.

Comedy special veteran Wong, whose latest project, Beef, has just bowed on Netflix, will be joined for her one-night stand at Just for Laughs on July 26 by special guest Sheng Wang after his own Netflix comedy special, Sweet & Juicy, premiered on the streaming giant. Wong was part of Just for Laughs’ New Faces discovery series in 2011, and the festival named her breakout comedy star of the year in 2017.

Van Ness,...

Today, the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York announced the festival lineup for First Look 2023, which will take place from March 15-19. Featuring 38 films (including 19 features) from around the globe, the twelfth edition of the festival will showcase new work from long-renowned directors as well as exciting work from emerging filmmakers. Maid, a short from Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel, will accompany the Dardenne brothers’ Tori and Lokita. We’re also excited to see New Strains, from filmmakers (and 25 New Faces alums) Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan, screening at First Look shortly after winning a […]

The post Museum of the Moving Image Announces First Look 2023 Festival Lineup first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Today, the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York announced the festival lineup for First Look 2023, which will take place from March 15-19. Featuring 38 films (including 19 features) from around the globe, the twelfth edition of the festival will showcase new work from long-renowned directors as well as exciting work from emerging filmmakers. Maid, a short from Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel, will accompany the Dardenne brothers’ Tori and Lokita. We’re also excited to see New Strains, from filmmakers (and 25 New Faces alums) Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan, screening at First Look shortly after winning a […]

The post Museum of the Moving Image Announces First Look 2023 Festival Lineup first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Following on last week’s announcement of its feature slate for the 2018 edition, the Sundance Film Festival has announced the selections for its indie episodic, shorts and special events selections. In that middle category Filmmaker readers will spot two of this year’s 25 New Faces of film, Robin Comisar and Alexa Lim Haas. Indie Episodic America To Me / U.S.A. (Director: Steve James, Segment Directors: Bing Liu, Rebecca Parrish, Kevin Shaw) — This limited series captures a year-long look at one of Chicago’s most progressive and diverse public schools, located in suburban Oak Park. Unprecedented in scope, the series is both […]...

Jenny Morrill Nov 17, 2016

From The Running Man and Trainspotting, through to Rainbow: the fictional game shows that make you run for the comforts of Bullseye.

Everyone loves a good game show. Where else can you watch Steve from Redditch win a canteen of cutlery just for knowing the capital of Tobago?

See related Humans series 2 interview: Gemma Chan, Emily Berrington, Will Tudor Humans series 2 episode 3 review Humans series 2 episode 2 review Humans series 2 episode 1 review

Game shows are a light hearted staple of our TV schedules. We can rely on them to be entertaining without demanding too much in return (apart from Only Connect). They are the TV equivalent of a warm bath or a nice pair of slippers. And what's more, the whole family can enjoy them. 92 year old grandma visiting? Best leave Game Of Thrones and opt for some Bullseye instead. Kids up late? Stick on some Family Fortunes...

Is a Castle shake-up ahead? How will a Haven hero handle big Troubles? Is there hope for a Teen Wolf twosome? Which new face will support Bones‘ Booth? Read on for answers to those questions plus teases from other shows.

PhotosCastle First Look: Can Linda Park’s Hong Kong Cop Outgun Beckett?

I’d love to read anything new you have for Castle! Please?! –M.

This is a bit interesting: I asked showrunner David Amann – on behalf of a reader, maybe? I forget – if there might ever be an episode that pits the men against the women, sort of...

Britain's Got Talent returns for its eighth series this weekend with the usual band of oddballs and aspiring stars trying out for the formidable judging panel.

Digital Spy got the chance to experience what it must be like for the contestants when we went backstage during auditions in Hammersmith, meeting four acts who were taking to the stage later that very day. Do any of them stand a chance of Bgt success? Here's what we think...

Wett 'n' Wilde

Things didn't get off to the best of starts with this act. It is never appropriate to ask a pair of pensioners: "Who is wet(t) and who is wild(e)?" and we messed up by keeping quiet after Pamela revealed herself to be 66 1/2, to which she responded, "You're supposed to say, 'You don't look it'". But once we'd got over that awkwardness, Wett 'n' Wilde were an absolute pleasure and...

Filmmaker is delighted to be streaming exclusively Ian Clark’s third feature, Mmxiii, on our site until February 27. Clark was one of our “25 New Faces” in 2012, off the back of his gorgeous short Searching for Yellow. A resident of La Grande, Oregon, where he also co-programs the Eastern Oregon Film Festival, Clark beautifully captures, in quiet moments and small details, the essence of small-town life in the Pacific Northwest. Clark previously made the features Pool Room and Country Story, and now with Mmxiii has made an expansive third feature that was described as follows on the Eoff website: An experimental self-portrait, […]...

Filmmaker is delighted to be streaming exclusively Ian Clark’s third feature, Mmxiii, on our site until February 27. Clark was one of our “25 New Faces” in 2012, off the back of his gorgeous short Searching for Yellow. A resident of La Grande, Oregon, where he also co-programs the Eastern Oregon Film Festival, Clark beautifully captures, in quiet moments and small details, the essence of small-town life in the Pacific Northwest. Clark previously made the features Pool Room and Country Story, and now with Mmxiii has made an expansive third feature that was described as follows on the Eoff website: An experimental self-portrait, […]...

Les Dennis isn't exactly in our day-to-day thoughts, truth be told, but the news yesterday (January 23) that the light entertainment legend would be joining Coronation Street still managed to put a massive smile on our face. Les on the cobbles! Amazing!

To celebrate Les's biggest gig in quite some time, we look back at the celebrity good egg's life and career in order, and come up with eight reasons why we absolutely love him...

He's a talent show king!

Way back before Britain's Got Talent, The X Factor et al, there was New Faces, a notoriously tough competition where a panel of judges - including a youthful Noel Edmonds - marked variety acts on their "star quality", usually without chucking water over each other or trying to get into the papers with a particularly daring dress, as all that palaver is a modern talent show invention.

After doing the rounds...

Les Dennis is joining the cast of 'Coronation Street.' The former 'Family Fortunes' presenter and comedian is set to play a petty criminal called Michael Rogers on the ITV soap, who gets caught up in the lives of a family after he breaks into their home. Speaking about his new role, the 60-year-old star, who first came to prominence when he won the ITV talent show 'New Faces' in 1974, said: ''I am so thrilled to be joining the cast of 'Coronation Street.' It has always been my favourite television programme as it mixes high drama with some of the best comedy...

Les Dennis is joining the cast of 'Coronation Street.' The former 'Family Fortunes' presenter and comedian is set to play a petty criminal called Michael Rogers on the ITV soap, who gets caught up in the lives of a family after he breaks into their home. Speaking about his new role, the 60-year-old star, who first came to prominence when he won the ITV talent show 'New Faces' in 1974, said: ''I am so thrilled to be joining the cast of 'Coronation Street.' It has always been my favourite television programme as it mixes high drama with some of the best comedy...

A pair of titles in our Most Anticipated Films for 2012 in #39. Andrew Dosunmu (Ma George) and #30. Mark Jackson (Untitled Sicily Project) are two of the lucky fifteen filmmakers to have received coin in the shape of 2012 Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute grants. Recipients include a trio of titles that we caught in Park City back in January in Terence Nance’s An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, Ira Sach’s Keep the Lights On, and Destin Daniel Cretton’s I Am Not a Hipster. Here’s the press release.

Post-Production Feature Film Grants

Keep the Lights On

Writer/director: Ira Sachs

The story of a tumultuous, decade-long relationship between two men in New York City. Keep the Lights On premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Ira Sachs is a writer and director based in New York City. His films include Married Life (2007), The Delta (1997) and the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winning Forty Shades of Blue.

Producer Ted Hope, who has been running a regular independent film screening series at Goldcrest for the last few years, is moving uptown — he’s the inaugural curator of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s monthly Indie Night showcase. And for the series opening film, he’s picked a favorite of ours here at Filmmaker: Mark Jackson’s Without. On the basis of this first feature, Jackson was selected as one of our 2011 25 New Faces. In his write-up, Brandon Harris wrote:

Comprised of shots that make you feel as if you’re glimpsing the most private of moments, a fly on the wall for one young woman’s haunting meltdown, Without may suggest some of the greats of world cinema (he is willing to site the influence of Michelangelo Antonioni and Marco Ferrari, filmmakers he ironically missed out on while studying in Italy), but Jackson has little interest in quoting them.

Jim Davidson has hit out at ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, claiming that he doesn’t think the judges are good enough and doesn’t approve of how they take advantage of less able contestants.

The 57-year-old, who hit the big time after appearing on ITV’s talent show New Faces in the 1970s, claimed that the show has gotten worse this year and told The Sun:

“Britain’s Got Talent has got worse. What does that panel know about talent?

“Pretty and talented actress (who married Les Dennis) Amanda does have a great talent.

“But be fair, love, what do you know about this showbiz lark?”

He then turned his attention to fellow panellists David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre.

He added: “An American actor who drove a talking car and a superstar comedian with a speech defect, who five years ago nobody had heard of.”

“When Lenny Henry...

For Project Runway fans wondering what distinguishes the L.A. season from the past, Thursday's episode provided a sunny answer: the beach! The 14 remaining designers met up with Tim Gunn (in flip-flops! [1]) on a sandy spot overlooking the Pacific to receive their surf and swimwear-inspired challenge. Split into seven teams of two, with one designer randomly selected the leader, the cast met with surfers to receive instructions and inspirations. The teams (with team leader's name first) were: Shirin with Carol Hannah Logan with Christopher Nicolas with Gordana Mitchell with Ra'mon Althea with Louise Qristyl with Epperson Johnny with Irina It's a Match: Team challenges always bring the drama, but in the case of Logan and Christopher; Althea and Louise; and Shirin and Carol Hannah, the pairings worked. True, none of these duos produced a winning look -- or even made it to the top 2 -- but their work qualified them...