News

In Barbara Kopple’s 40-plus year career as one of America’s greatest documentary directors, she has won Academy Awards for the seminal 1976 documentary “Harlan County, U.S.A.” a portrait of a Kentucky coal mining town in crisis, and for “American Dream,” a 1990 examination of a meatpackers’ strike at a Hormel plant in Austin, Minn. A pioneer of cinema vérité that got her start with the Maysles brothers (directors of “Gimme Shelter” and “Grey Gardens”), she was most recently nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy award for “Desert One,” a doc about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Kopple will be a keynote speaker at Variety and Rolling Stone’s Truth Seekers Summit on Thursday. She spoke to Variety about her decades-long career in nonfiction filmmaking.

When you look at the documentaries you’ve made, what’s the through line that connects them?

I don’t know if there’s a through line.

Do a little turn because Apple TV+ has ordered “The Supermodels,” a docuseries about Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington’s time on the catwalk.

Per the streaming service, the event series will feature interviews with the four legends, “who will revisit their iconic modeling careers and collective disruption of the ’90s fashion scene, which continues to reverberate today.”

See above for a photo of the quartet at the finale of Gianni Versace’s fall show in 1991, mouthing the lyrics to “Freedom! ’90,” a shoutout to the David Fincher-directed, George Michael video in which the four starred.

Here’s the official description for “The Supermodels,” courtesy of Apple:

“The Supermodels” travels back to the 1980s, when four women from different corners of the world united in New York. Already forces in their own right, the gravitas they achieved by coming together transcended the industry itself. Their...

Kelly Clarkson is ready to shake things up on The Voice.

Et spoke with Clarkson backstage at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles during her Meaning of Life album release party on Friday -- airing Monday on Et -- where she talked about her experience so far on the hit NBC show.

"I got to steal," Clarkson told Et's Kevin Frazier about fighting for the most promising contestants during the blind auditions of The Voice.

Clarkson joins fellow coaches Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Alicia Keys on the singing competition next year, where she picked up some strategy from her fellow coaches.

"It was surprising just seeing who all people would pick in the blind auditions," she said. "Literally, it is hard to get people sometimes because they are so set on, like, 'No, indie goes to Adam and country goes to Blake.'" 

"But I will say Alicia and I, especially Alicia, did really...

When Amanda Lipitz started making her Sundance sensation documentary “Step,” she began speaking with a group of inner-city Baltimore high school students before they entered high school. When the girls, who were forming a step team, were in 10th grade, she began filming interviews. When they entered 11th grade, she began filming them verite-style.

Then Freddie Gray was killed.

“I knew I had to throw out everything I’d shot until that point,” she said after a screening of the Michelle Obama–approved film at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series.

Read More:‘Step’ Review: This Dance Documentary Uplifts The Girls, But Is a Better Story About Community — Sundance 2017

Instead of an exploration of the art of step dancing through the eyes of these girls, “Step” became more than that. It became an exploration of how the young women were able to process such a horrific event, how...

Kelly Clarkson is stunning!

The 35-year-old singer wowed in a curve-hugging black gown at Variety's Power of Women event at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on Friday. 

Clarkson, who was an honoree at the event, accessorized her look with gold hoop earrings. 

Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Related: Kelly Clarkson Opens Up About Clive Davis Feud: 'I Was Told I Should Shut Up and Sing'

The Grammy winner wasn't the only one bringing her fashion A-game. Viola Davis made an entrance in a bold, orange suit.

Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Priyanka Chopra opted for a black-and-white look, sporting a belted floral coat. 

Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Exclusive: Priyanka Chopra on Creating Content for Women in Hollywood: 'Never Gonna Settle'

Nikki Reed, meanwhile, walked one of her first red carpets since giving birth, in a flowy, ruffled ensemble. 

Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

See...

Don’t be surprised — she will still rise.

Katy Perry opened up about her emotional reunion with Hillary Clinton at this week’s Unicef Snowflake Ball in a new impassioned Instagram post on Thursday.

Clinton made an unannounced appearance at the charity gala on Tuesday to present Perry with the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund’s Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award. Perry, who is a Unicef goodwill ambassador, was a vocal supporter of the former secretary of state during her campaign for the presidency this year.

“Slowly, I am coming down from the beautiful cloud that was Tuesday night’s @Unicef Snowflake Ball,...

While not all receive the golden ticket for a Park City premiere, the invaluable support available at the Sundance Institute is ongoing and takes several shapes and forms. Last year’s batch of Documentary Edit and Story Labs attendees included Anna Sandilands & Ewan McNicol who trimmed Uncertain, while Lyric Cabral & David Felix Sutcliffe spliced into shape (T)Error. As underlined in the press release, this year’s eight projects touches of subjects of transgender parents, the aftermath of Sandy Hook tragedy, exonerated death row inmates and AIDS. Among the noteworthy names attending (June 19-27 and July 3-11) we find Lost in La Mancha duo of Keith Fulton & Lou Pepe (see pic above) and Informant director Jamie Meltzer’s tentatively titled Freedom Fighters. Here are the participants and creative folk for ’15.

Editors serving as Creative Advisors for the June 19-27 session are Marshall Curry (Point and Shoot), Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The...

Sundance Institute today announced the eight projects selected for its annual Documentary Edit and Story Labs, taking place in two sessions at the Sundance Resort in Utah from June 19-27 and July 3-11. The Documentary Edit and Story Labs support projects in later stages of post-production work to hone story, structure and character development. Director and editor teams unite under the stewardship of world-class doc filmmakers and Sundance Institute staff. Projects that have gone through these labs include "(T)Error," "The Queen of Versailles," "Rich Hill" and "The Kill Team." Editors serving as Creative Advisors for the June 19-27 session are Marshall Curry ("Point and Shoot"), Ra’anan Alexandrowicz ("The Law In These Parts"), Tom Haneke ("Where Soldiers Come From"), Mary Lampson ("Harlan County"), Geoffrey Richman ("Racing Extinction") and Jean Tsien ("Shut Up and Sing"). Editors...

"Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation," the latest film from two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple, will have its world premiere as the closing night film of the Documentary Fortnight 2015: MoMA's International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media on Friday, February 27. Kopple, who won Academy Awards for "Harlan County U.S.A." and "American Dream," has also directed "Shut Up and Sing" about the Dixie Chicks, "Wildman Blues" about Woody Allen's New Orleans-style jazz band, "Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson," "Running from Crazy" and many other acclaimed documentaries. Kopple recently spoke to Indiewire about her latest project, which tells the story of The Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States, now in its 150th year. The film captures the daily life of staff writers and editors as well as reporters covering stories in the field, from Haiti to...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kanye_West_Lollapalooza_Chile_2011_2.jpg

Over the years musicians have been great advocates for change in the world. Legendary performers like Bob Marley have preached love and togetherness while punk bands have never stopped writing songs about the things we as a society could be doing better. It goes without saying then that musicians have a great platform to effect change and fight causes with their music. Be it in their lyrics, album notes, live shows or in the press, most are sensible with their platform. Some though have a tendency to take it a few steps too far and abuse their public position.

Fighting worthy causes is an admirable trait but this is a collection of a few people who go about it the complete wrong way. There is a right way to draw attention to causes but these people are probably turning people...

Decca Aitkenhead meets Hollywood's Mr Nice to talk politics, parenting and his latest film Elysium

Matt Damon's politics owe a great deal to his mother. The first time Nancy Carlsson-Paige saw her son featured in a glossy magazine, she was appalled. "My beautiful boy is being used to sell products," she told a newspaper. "He is just a cog in the capitalist system." She'd never even read a magazine like Vanity Fair before, her son explains. "She's a professor. If it's not the Nation, she doesn't read it. And she said, 'This thing is nothing but page after page of adverts for products that nobody needs!'" He chuckles. I'd love to know what his mother makes of his latest film, Elysium, a big-budget sci-fi action thriller packed with set-piece fights and expensive pyrotechnic violence. "Hmm, well, my mom's big on non-violent conflict resolution," he grins.

Damon has travelled...

Hard to believe it's been almost ten years since the Bush administration led the invasion of Iraq, and sometime-Austinite/Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines made her controversial comment during a 2003 London concert: "We're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." Documentary directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck use behind-the-scenes from that notorious Dixie Chicks concert and others from their 2003 tour, then follow the pop-country trio as they work on their album Taking the Long Way in Shut Up and Sing.

The first time I saw this film was in 2006 at a free screening put on by Norman Lear's liberal org People for the American Way. Those were some angry, frustrated days. Since then I've spotted Natalie Maines at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar (while her dad Lloyd accompanied Terri Hendrix) and the Dixie Chicks have gone on hiatus. 

read more...

Downtown Community Television Center (Dctv) will temporarily convert its landmark firehouse in New York's Chinatown into a party space October 11 to celebrate the center's 40th anniversary. Among the evening's honorees will be Sheila Nevins and the HBO Documentary Films team, plus Dctv board chair Cora Weiss. HBO stalwart James Gandolfini will act as honorary chair. Since its founding in 1972, Dctv has become one of the country's most prominent documentary film centers, lending support to filmmakers and students alike by providing everything from equipment rentals to post-production assistance. The host committee is expected to include such documentary luminaries as Joe Berlinger ("Paradise Lost"), Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side") and Barbara Kopple ("Shut Up and Sing"), among many others. Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman and the novelist Pete Hamill will also be on hand. Tickets to the Dctv 40th Anniversary...

YouTube Ted Nugent

Ted Nugent is hitting the pavement for Gop presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. The rocker called for attendees of the National Rifle Association’s convention to go out and recruit thousands of people to vote for Romney in the coming election. Nugent said, ”Our government is wiping its a– with the Constitution.” During an on-site interview, he also told the crowd, ”We’ve got four Supreme Court justices who don’t believe in the Constitution. Does everybody here...

I like this title, so I found the news.

During our recent interview with Ellis Perez, the Director General of the Dominican Republic's film organization DGCine which you can read tomorrow, he mentioned an interesting factoid about Dr. Aside from its being the site of Christopher Columbus' second landing in 1492 and his naming the country Hispanola, its being the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, its sharing 1/3 of the island with Haiti, and its reign of terror by the dictator Trujillo from 1930 until his assassination in 1961, there was one good act performed by El Jefe. That was his open-door policy which accepted Jewish refugees from Europe, Japanese migration during the 1930s, and exiles from Spain following its civil war. In 1939 Trujillo took in German and Austrian Jewish refugees and gave them a safe haven in Puerto Plata province's town Sosua where many still live or have returned after being educated abroad. Another coincidental connection of the Dr to the Jews is that the current President Leonel Fernandez spent most of his childhood and teenaged years in Washington Heights during its transition from being a German Jewish neighborhood to becoming the Dominican neighborhood it is today.

And speaking of New York, here is a second Jews in the News item which also includes a doc about Sosua!

The New York-based Foundation for Jewish Culture has granted finishing funds to six documentaries.

Finishing funds ranging between $12,000 and $40,000 have recently been granted to six documentaries. The funds are designed to enable the filmmakers to pay licence fees for music and archival footage, complete additional editing and shooting and build audience awareness through outreach and engagement strategies.

The grants fall under the Foundation’s Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film which supports projects expanding understanding of the Jewish experience. 80 projects made applications this year and the final six recipients were selected by a panel including Moma’s Sally Berger, filmmaker Nicole Opper, film critic George Robinson and Daniella Tourgeman from the Jerusalem Cinematheque/ Israel Film Archive.

The fund has supported the completion of over 80 films since 1996 including Waltz With Bashir, Budrus, William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe and The Rape Of Europa.

The winning projects are:

· Sosua: Dare To Dance Together directed and produced by Peter Miller and Renee Silverman, which follows Jewish and Dominican teenagers over the course of the year as they create a musical theatre piece about German Jews finding refuge in the Dominican Republic in the late 1930s.

How To Re-Establish A Vodka Empire directed by Dan Edelstyn, which traces the history of the film-maker’s Jewish grandmother who fled the Bolshevik revolution and settled in strife-torn Belfast.

· Miss World directed by Cecilia Peck (Shut Up And Sing), which is the story of Israeli beauty pageant queen Linor Abargil and her crusade to combat sexual violence against women.

· My Father Evgeni directed and produced by Andrei Zagdansky, follows the filmmaker’s history working with his father for the Kiev Popular Science Film Studios.

· The Return directed and produced by Adam Zucker (Greensboro: Closer To The Truth), which follows four young Polish women who were raised Catholic only to discover that they were born Jewish.

· Watchers Of The Sky directed by Edet Belzberg (Children Underground) which interweaves stories of four visionaries with the journey of lawyer Raphael Lemkin who drafted and pushed through the Un Genocide Convention.

Seth Gordon has quickly made a name for himself in the world of film. He started as a cameraman for the documentary, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing and eventually produced and edited the documentary, New York Doll, which was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize in documentary at Sundance Film Festival in 2005. But most people know him best for his feature directing debut with the 2009 hit documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Since he has kept busy directing a video series focusing on the threat posed by cybercrime to Internet users, H*Commerce: The Business of Hacking You. He’s also directed various music videos and commercials, as well as an episode each of Modern Family and Community, two episodes of The Office, and multiple episodes of Parks and Recreation.

But the man behind the cameras of this weekend’s Horrible Bosses can’t escape...

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, U.S.A., American Dreams, Shut Up and Sing) is premiering her latest, HBO Documentary's Gun Fight, on HBO April 13, three days before the fourth anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting (33 people killed) and a week before the 12 year anniversary of the Columbine Massacre (12 people killed). In true Kopple form, Gun Fight is provocative and hard-hitting. Michael Moore's Oscar-winning 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine looked at the state of guns and "gun control" in America (trailer below). Now Kopple's film investigates where the issue stands in 2011. Below is our interview with Kopple, in which she states: "It’s such a hot button issue that elicits passion from all sides, and often times reason is lost." Also ...

Country Strong is an unintentionally ironic drama coded in the tenants of country music: the film is as much a Nashville production as it is a soap opera. Advice is given from one country star to another – may the best song win, the film allows plot points to win, substituting popular entertainment for a profound meditation. The film however is entertaining in its presentation of a paradox: in an effort climb the charts, acquiring wealth and fame that comes with success; any artist becomes disconnected from their roots. It’s hard to feticide a rough and tumble good time in a small town honkey tonk bar when your rockin’ a custom designed dress.

Written and directed by Shana Feste, Country Strong features four strong and convincing performances. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kelly Canter, a country star that has fallen from grace, five months pregnant she is arrested for drunken disorderly conduct.

The Sundance Institute have announced the Fellows for 2010 Documentary Edit and Story Lab - some of these projects will find themselves on the public television, some may tour the film festival circuit starting with a debut at Sundance, and in the rare case, might turn out to be an acclaimed such as Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's Trouble the Water. This year's batch comes from the U.S., China, Israel/Palestinian Territories and the Philippines. - The Sundance Institute have announced the Fellows for 2010 Documentary Edit and Story Lab - some of these projects will find themselves on the public television, some may tour the film festival circuit starting with a debut at Sundance, and in the rare case, might turn out to be an acclaimed such as Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's Trouble the Water. This year's batch comes from the U.S., China, Israel/Palestinian Territories and the Philippines.

The Sundance Institute have announced the Fellows for 2010 Documentary Edit and Story Lab - some of these projects will find themselves on the public television, some may tour the film festival circuit starting with a debut at Sundance, and in the rare case, might turn out to be an acclaimed such as Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's Trouble the Water. This year's batch comes from the U.S., China, Israel/Palestinian Territories and the Philippines. Here is the press release:. Lab Fellows in alphabetical order are: Ra'anan Alexandrowicz (Directing Fellow), Michael Collins (Directing Fellow), Heather Courtney (Directing Fellow - see pic above), Ramona Diaz (Directing Fellow), Ron Goldman (Editing Fellow), Kyle Henry (Editing Fellow), Stephen Maing (Directing Fellow), Leah Marino (Editing Fellow), Eric Daniel Metzgar (Editing Fellow), Jonathan Oppenheim (Editing Fellow), Trina Rodriquez (Editing Fellow), Marty Syjuco (Directing Fellow). These Fellows will be joined by six Creative Advisors, including Directors and Editors,...

Christian Newswire have hit out at American Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres, blaming her shameless promotion of “homosexuality as a virtue”, for the ratings decline which has affected the show.

No it wasn’t due to the tired format, or the fact that some people missed former judge Paula Abdul, according to Gary McCullough, people tuned out of the Fox talent show, because Ellen DeGeneres was offending them with her lesbian jokes.

Gary, a writer for Christian Newswire wrote:

I am confident that the producers of American Idol will be shocked when their market share has cratered, and will in all honesty find a dozen other reasons for the drop in ratings. After all, what successful television producer could have a clue what wholesomeness is as long as they see promoting homosexuality as a virtue.

DeGeneres’ “Yes, I have loved a woman,” comment from the May 11th show, was the most obvious lesbian-one-liner,...

Scientists (and Michael Slezak) are still struggling to understand exactly what went wrong with this last season of American Idol. Was it the lack of talent? Was it all the judicial activism? Was it just the cultural hangover from the unbeatable season 8? Well, my friends, wonder no longer: it’s the homosexuality, stupid! According to Gary McCullough, the director of Christian Newswire and probably a laugh riot at parties, Idol’s ratings decline is directly linked to Ellen DeGeneres, who spent the whole season rubbing her lesbian activism right in our helpless faces.

Yes, the charming McCullough (who has an...

You ever get that shaky-violent palsy where you're so overwhelmed with rage that you can't form coherent thoughts? That you turn into John Goodman's character YouTubing it on "Treme?" All that comes to mind is a long series of fuck yous that you can't push back. You want to rant eloquently, but the only phrase that comes to mind is: Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.

That's how I felt when I read an op-ed (via Jezebel) from the self-righteous, pompous homophobic nutsack director of the Christian Newsire, Gary McCullough, who blames "American Idol's" recent ratings drop on Ellen Degeneres. Or more specifically, the fact that she's a lesbian.

In January, he made this bold prediction:

"I am confident that the producers of American Idol will be shocked when their market share has cratered, and will in all honesty find a dozen other reasons for the drop in ratings.

Sundance Institute at BAM returns to the Brooklyn Academy of Music from May 31-June 10, featuring award-winning feature and short films, live performances and panel discussions.

The series opens with The Savages, Tamara Jenkins' comic drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco.

This year's dramatic features include Tom DiCillo's Delirious, Sterlin Harjo's Four Sheets to the Wind, JJ Lask's On the Road With Judas, Christopher Zalla's Padre Nuestro, Jeffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, David Gordon Green's Snow Angels and Dror Shaul's Sweet Mud.

The series also will highlight musical performances by Ljova, the Blue Jackets with Bradford Reed, Rhythm Republik and Sussan Deyhim. New York-based theater company Mabou Mines will perform selections from "Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting," directed by Ruth Maleczech, which is scheduled for full production in September.

The closing weekend will feature Barbara Kopple's Shut Up & Sing, Raoul Peck's Lumumba and Nick Broomfield's Soldier Girls, followed by a discussion on social issues and documentary filmmaking.

The full program for the Sundance Institute at BAM will be announced in April.

 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has winnowed the list of feature length documentaries competing in the 79th Annual Academy Awards down to a short list of fifteen films. The titles range from Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil, a portrait of a pedophile priest to Davis Guggenheim's warning about global warming An Inconvenient Truth to the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing, directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck.

 The complete list of films includes: Blindsight, Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?, Deliver Us From Evil, The Ground Truth, An Inconvenient Truth, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple, My Country, My Country, Shut Up & Sing, Sisters in Law, Storm of Emotions, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, An Unreasonable Man, and The War Tapes.

The Weinstein Co. has blasted NBC and CW Network for refusing to accept a commercial spot for its new documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, about the political firestorm stirred up in 2003 when the Dixie Chicks criticized President Bush during a performance in London.

In a press release issued late Thursday, the Weinstein Co. said that NBC had rejected a spot for the docu, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles, because the spot included material that "disparages President Bush." The Weinstein Co. distributed documents that appeared to be from NBC's advertising standards division rejecting the spots and with the handwritten remarks about President Bush.

NBC executives could not be reached for comment late Thursday. CW Network reps criticized the Weinstein Co. for what the network said was a distortion of the situation. The Weinstein Co. distributed a document from CW that referred to "concerns (that) we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot." A CW spokesman said the network had been in conversations with the Weinstein Co. about taking the spot, but those talks never progressed beyond where on the CW schedule the spot would run.

"The release is flat-out inaccurate," CW spokesman Paul McGuire said. "The whole matter is rather a mystery to us."

According to a source, the spot has been cleared for broadcast on CBS, MTV and on local NBC, CW, ABC and Fox affiliates in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on local cable systems, including local spots on Fox News and CNN. The commercial, posted at www.shutupandpost.com, features footage of Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines making the comment that the band is "ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas" as well as footage of Bush reacting to the controversy and scenes of anti-Dixie Chicks protests that erupted after Maines' comment was publicized.

The Weinstein Co. has blasted NBC and CW Network for refusing to accept a commercial spot for its new documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, about the political firestorm stirred up in 2003 when the Dixie Chicks criticized President Bush during a performance in London.

In a press release issued late Thursday, the Weinstein Co. said that NBC had rejected a spot for the docu, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles, because the spot included material that "disparages President Bush." The Weinstein Co. distributed documents that appeared to be from NBC's advertising standards division rejecting the spots and with the handwritten remarks about President Bush.

NBC executives could not be reached for comment late Thursday. CW Network reps criticized the Weinstein Co. for what the network said was a distortion of the situation. The Weinstein Co. distributed a document from CW that referred to "concerns (that) we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot." A CW spokesman said the network had been in conversations with the Weinstein Co. about taking the spot, but those talks never progressed beyond where on the CW schedule the spot would run.

"The release is flat-out inaccurate," CW spokesman Paul McGuire said. "The whole matter is rather a mystery to us."

According to a source, the spot has been cleared for broadcast on CBS, MTV and on local NBC, CW, ABC and Fox affiliates in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on local cable systems, including local spots on Fox News and CNN. The commercial, posted at www.shutupandpost.com, features footage of Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines making the comment that the band is "ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas" as well as footage of Bush reacting to the controversy and scenes of anti-Dixie Chicks protests that erupted after Maines' comment was publicized.

The audience awards at the Woodstock Film Festival, which wrapped Sunday in Woodstock, N.Y., resulted in a pair of ties. The award for best narrative feature went to Susanne Bier's After the Wedding and Udi Aloni's Forgiveness, and the award for best documentary feature went to Barbara Kopple's Shut Up & Sing and Rachel Libert's Beyond Conviction. The audiences at the Mill Valley Film Festival, which wrapped Sunday in California, were more decisive. They voted awards to Phillip Noyce's Catch a Fire as best dramatic feature, Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil as best feature-length docu and Wolfgang Murnberger's Lapislazuli: In the Eye of the Bear as best children's film.

NEW YORK -- The Woodstock Film Festival, which runs Oct. 11-15, unveiled a program Monday boasting top indie films and industry heavyweights -- from the East Coast premiere of Douglas McGrath's Infamous to awards for IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring and documentarian Barbara Kopple. Notable panelists at the upstate New York festival include Steven C. Beer, Arianna Bocco, Andrew P. Hurwitz, Timothy Hutton, Jason Kliot, Bingham Ray, John Sloss, David Strathairn, Lemore Syvan, Joana Vicente and Diane Weyermann. Infamous opens the fest along with Rachid Bouchareb's Days of Glory (Indigenes). Susanne Bier's After the Wedding takes the fest's centerpiece slot, and Kopple's documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing closes the event. Kopple will take home the Maverick Award for her decades of documentary filmmaking. Sehring will accept the Maverick Award for his part in founding the Independent Film Channel, IFC Prods., IFC Films and IFC First Take along with IFC's co-founding of the digital production company InDigEnt with partners Gary Winick and John Sloss.

A first-time director from Mexico has shocked critics by picking up the top award at this year's Toronto Film Festival in Canada for his romantic drama Bella. Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, 29, was voted favorite by movie-goers and his film scooped the prestigious People's Choice award on Saturday. The stunned director said, "I really hope that this is not a dream and that I don't wake up at film school. This festival is my first festival, it's my first film, it's my first everything." Bella beat out stiff competition from Patrice Leconte's Mon Meilleur Ami and the politically charged Dixie Chicks: Shut Up And Sing. The critics' best film prize went to the controversial mock documentary Death Of A President, which imagines the assassination of Us President George W. Bush. The jury said it was noted "for the audacity with which it distorts reality to reveal a larger truth."...

The 28th annual Aspen Filmfest, set for Sept. 26-Oct. 1 in Aspen, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, Colo., will honor Harrison Ford with its Independent by Nature Award. The fest, which will close with Stephen Frears' The Queen, will feature such documentaries as Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, and David Leaf and John Scheinfeld's The U.S. vs. John Lennon.

NEW YORK -- Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's politically charged documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing has been picked up for worldwide distribution by the Weinstein Co. A release is tentatively scheduled for the fall, possibly right before the November elections. The film revolves around the aftermath of singer Natalie Maines' statement at a 2003 London concert, where she said, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." It chronicles death threats, political attacks and radio boycotts against the band, and that could make the film a political hot potato as well as potential ammo should longtime Democratic party supporter Harvey Weinstein become involved in the fall political campaigns. Asked why Cabin Creek chose to go with the Weinstein Co., Peck said, "They made a great offer," though no figures were disclosed. Such companies as Focus Features and Picturehouse expressed interest in the docu a few months ago.