News

Exclusive: Film tech firm Gathr, known for its “direct to audience” services for specialty film releases, is expanding and has hired a trio of senior executives.

The new arrivals include Neil Creque Williams, Head of Filmmaker Relations & Concierge Services; Jeffrey Abramson, Head of Strategic Partnerships & Brand Marketing; Chris Horton, Senior Strategist, Business Development & Film.

Williams previously produced the Independent Spirit Award and Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominated film Miss Juneteenth. He is an alum of the Sundance Creative Producing Lab, The Gotham Cannes Producer Fellowship and has been supported by the Austin Film Society and Cucalorus. Williams was an inaugural 2023 Blumhouse/K Period Screamwriting fellow for his horror script The Plat-Eye.

Abramson has more than 25 years of experience leading creative business teams at the intersection of storytelling, culture, technology, and brand marketing. He is Deputy Director of Bridge Entertainment Labs, a non-profit dedicated to promoting social cohesion in America. Previously,...

A love letter to the the people and places of the New York borough for which it’s named, “Love, Brooklyn” is also a showcase for the talents of its three attractive lead actors. In this entry at Sundance’s US dramatic competition, Andre Holland, Nicole Beharie and DeWanda Wise play upwardly mobile creative New Yorkers in a complicated love triangle. First-time filmmakers, director Rachael Abigail Holder and screenwriter Paul Zimmerman weave a low-key romantic odyssey that simmers with intimate heat while acting as a loving character study of the beloved, always evolving neighborhood.

Casey (Beharie) and Roger (Holland) used to be an item but are now just friends. Or are they? They seem to still carry a torch for each other and treasure the time they spend together. At the same time, Roger’s casual fling with grieving widow Nicole (Wise) takes a turn for the serious when her...

“Miss Juneteenth” filmmaker Channing Godfrey Peoples is getting support to develop her second feature film as part of a month-long residency from Neon and filmmaker support organization UFO.

Peoples is the inaugural recipient of the Neon x UFO Second Feature Development Residency, in which she will spend a month in a living and work space developing her next feature. During her time in residence, Peoples will continue developing the script and participate in curated meetings with industry professionals facilitated by Neon and UFO. The program also includes a screening of “Miss Juneteenth,” Peoples’ debut feature that premiered at Sundance in 2020, followed by a conversation with Peoples as moderated by UFO.

Peoples was “selected for her exceptional vision and storytelling,” per the press statement.

Peoples is already set to direct the upcoming Otis Redding film, “Otis & Zelma,” starring John Boyega and Danielle Deadwyler, but the residency will go towards the...

Neon, the Oscar-winning studio behind “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” and UFO, a nonprofit organization that supports filmmakers, are launching a new residency program to help artists making their sophomore features.

The first participant will be filmmaker Channing Godfrey Peoples, who garnered widespread acclaim for her 2020 debut feature “Miss Juneteenth.”

Dubbed the Neon X UFO Second Feature Development Residency, the month-long program was designed to support underrepresented filmmakers and stories. It focuses on filmmakers who have yet to direct a second feature in the years following the release of their promising independent feature debut. It provides a living and work space at the Silver Sun Residence and culminates with a week in New York City this month. During her time in residence, Godfrey Peoples will continue developing the script for her next project and participate in curated meetings with industry professionals facilitated by Neon and UFO. This program will...

Star Wars actor John Boyega will appear alongside Till's Danielle Deadwyler in a biopic following the iconic career and tragic demise of soul artist Otis Redding. The film, titled Otis & Zelma, was announced just a few days before Redding's posthumous reception of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame a ceremony that is set to occur this Friday on October 4th.

Directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples, an up-and-coming American filmmaker whose debut project Miss Juneteenth received critical acclaim, the Redding biopic will follow the singer-songwriter's short but star-studded career, as well as the incredible resilience of his widowed wife, Zelma (via Variety). Redding's powerful legacy includes hits like "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," "Respect," and "Try a Little Tenderness," but the artist's life was tragically lost in a 1967 plane crash. He was only 26 years old at the time of his death, survived by his wife of only nine years,...

John Boyega and Danielle Deadwyler will soon ask voters to try a little tenderness come Oscar season. Variety reports that Boyega and Deadwyler have signed on to star respectively as legendary soul singer Otis Redding and his wife, Zelma Redding, in a biopic called “Otis & Zelma.”

The film will be directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples (“Miss Juneteenth”) from a script by Donnetta Lavinia Grays, with revisions by Godfrey Peoples. It’s produced by Fifth Season, Homegrown Pictures and Kinfolk Management + Media. It will tell the Reddings’ love story, which started when Redding was on his ascent to stardom, continued through his finding success with era-defining hits like “These Arms of Mine” and “Try a Little Tenderness,” and was cut tragically short when Otis died in a plane crash in 1967 at age 26, leaving Zelma a widow with three children.

Zelma is still alive and has kept her husband’s legacy...

Four years ago, Channing Godfrey Peoples announced herself as one of the most exciting young filmmakers working today, thanks to her directorial debut, “Miss Juneteenth.” However, since then, we haven’t gotten a sophomore feature from her. Instead, she’s directed episodes of TV shows such as “Genius,” “Generation,” and “Roar.” But that’s soon going to change, as she is set to direct “Otis & Zelma,” and she’s found her lead actors.

Continue reading ‘Otis & Zelma’: John Boyega & Danielle Deadwyler To Star In Otis Redding Biopic at The Playlist.

John Boyega and Danielle Deadwyler are set to portray late soul legend Otis Redding and his widow Zelma Redding in Fifth Season’s forthcoming biopic “Otis & Zelma.”

Directed by breakout filmmaker Channing Godfrey Peoples and produced by Fifth Season, Homegrown Pictures and Kinfolk Management + Media, the music-based film chronicles the life of Otis Redding, who is considered to be one of the most impactful singer-songwriters of our lifetime, with indelible hits including “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “Respect,” “These Arms of Mine,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” and “Hard to Handle.” Redding’s burgeoning superstar career was tragically cut short when he died in a 1967 plane crash, leaving behind Zelma and three young children. He was 26 years old.

With revisions by Godfrey Peoples, “Otis & Zelma” is written by acclaimed playwright, screenwriter and actor Donnetta Lavinia Grays. The film “celebrates the 10 short years Otis and Zelma had together,...

It’s not often that one gets to speak to someone that was involved in one of the most important films in the history of horror. But every now again, these lucky opportunities arise, and this time it’s with one of the stars of one of my all-time favourite films – Halloween.

While Sandy Johnson is indelibly linked to her role as Judith Myers in John Carpenter’s 1978 classic slasher, the path Sandy walked before and after this iconic performance remains shrouded in relative obscurity and only the most curious horror fan will know much about it. This interview aims to shed light on the enigmatic life and career of this horror film icon.

Sandy Johnson’s journey to Hollywood began in the modest confines of Texas, marked by both hardship and resilience. Despite facing a challenging upbringing, her innate strength and determination propelled her into the world of modelling...

Apple TV+ released a sneak peek clip from the upcoming live-action family series “Me,” an elevated cinematic coming-of-age story from Barry L. Levy premiering globally on Friday, July 12.

“Me” follows a 12-year-old kid named Ben who is in the throes of middle school, as he adjusts to a newly blended family, And just realized he has super powers. Throughout the 10-episode season, Ben will go on a journey of self-discovery about what having super powers truly means. He finds an ally in his step sister Max, who helps him harness these powers and uncover the secrets behind the mysteries and tragedies of his community… all while trying to come to terms with what it means to be Ben.

The series stars Lucian-River Chauhan (“Encounter”) as Ben Vasani, Abigail Pniowsky (“Arrival”) as Max Davis, Dilshad Vadsaria (“Second Chance”) as Elizabeth Vasani, Amanda Reid (“Miss Juneteenth”) as Carter Kennedy, Jessy Yates (“Pulse...

Apple TV+ has announced the programming that will be added to the streaming service next month. The Apple TV Plus July 2024 lineup includes the thriller series Sunny, the family series Me, the limited series Lady in the Lake, the docuseries Omnivore, the comedic adventure series Time Bandits, and the crime drama Women in Blue (“Las Azules”).

Apple’s production Fly Me to the Moon, starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, will also be released in theaters in July by Sony Pictures and will later be available on Apple TV+.

Apple TV+ offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment. It is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens.

Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung,...

Before I ever saw William Friedkin's classic horror film "The Exorcist," my mother gleefully shared with me all of the horrific urban legends and unexplained mysteries that surrounded the film's production. She believed, as do countless others, that "The Exorcist" was one of many cursed films. The face of a possessed Regan MacNeil was terrifying, to be sure, but movie magic meant to scare me couldn't hold a candle to the inexplicable dread that had me convinced filmmakers daring to tell this story made them a target for actual evil. While I'm old enough now to know better than to believe in cursed films, it's still a fascinating rabbit hole to fall into. Hell, the horror movie streaming app Shudder even has a two-season documentary series called, you guessed it, "Cursed Films" discussing cinema's most controversial and conspiracy-surrounded film sets. Now, a new narrative horror film is dabbling in the world of cursed films,...

Revered civil rights movement leaders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Malcolm X (Aaron Pierre) come together in the full trailer for Genius: MLK/X, which was released on Thursday.

The above sneak peek depicts a chance meeting between both icons while waiting for a press conference on March 26, 1964. Both men had ventured to Washington D.C. to hear the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The encounter only lasted a minute, and they never saw each other again.

More from TVLineGiancarlo Esposito Takes the Wheel in New Trailer for AMC's Parish - Plus,...

“Past Lives” is the overwhelming favorite to win Best Feature at the 2023 Gotham Awards, which will be presented tonight at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. That’s according to the predictions of more than 1,000 Gold Derby users who have placed their bets here in our predictions center. Those predictions were combined to generate our official racetrack odds in all 10 competitive categories. Scroll down to see those odds with our projected winners highlighted in gold.

SEEGotham Awards will present ‘Ferrari’ with Icon and Creator Tribute for Innovation

A romantic drama about childhood friends separated for years, “Past Lives” is the front-runner for Best Feature and Breakthrough Director for its first-time filmmaker Celine Song. Could it achieve a clean sweep by winning its third nomination for lead performer Greta Lee? It’s possible, but she’s in a tight race with front-runner Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction“) for that award.

Elsewhere,...

Exclusive: Amidst critical raves for her work on The Morning Show Season 3, actress Nicole Beharie has signed with Sugar23 for management.

One of the newest additions to Apple TV+’s Emmy-winning drama, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the cutthroat world of morning news at a time of dramatic cultural change, Beharie joined in September as Chris Hunter, an Olympic gold medalist who takes on the morning anchor position of Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson at the network Uba. When racist emails at her expense emerge, on the part of Uba board member Cybil Richards (Holland Taylor), Christina is put in the uncomfortable position of interviewing the offender on-air about the messages, and how they reflect on the organization.

Beharie joined Jon Hamm, Stephen Fry, and Tig Notaro in coming aboard the series, which was renewed for a fourth season before its third debuted.

Beharie previously won a Gotham Award as...

“Genius: MLK/X” has set its premiere date at Nat Geo, the network announced Wednesday.

The first two episodes of the eight-episode fourth season of “Genius” will premiere on Feb. 1 on Nat Geo and will stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. Two episodes will then drop weekly thereafter on all platforms. The announcement was made by Carolyn Bernstein, Nat Geo’s executive vice president of scripted and documentary films, as part of Nat Geo’s content showcase at Hall des Lumières.

Unlike past seasons, this season of “Genius” will tell the story of two geniuses — Civil Rights Movement leaders Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. A behind-the-scenes first look at the season can be seen below.

The official description of the season states it will follow “both King and X from their formative years, where they were molded by strong fathers and traumatic injustices, to their rich,...

October is the time for horror, which makes it a great time for independent movies.

As long as independent movies have existed, horror movies have provided a huge bulk of the films made by artists outside the studio system. It’s one of the cheapest and easiest genres to make, with some of the best potential to make a profit, and has unsurprisingly thrived in the independent film market. Many of the most important and acclaimed American horror movies were independent productions. “Night of the Living Dead” practically created the zombie film, while the original slasher “Halloween” was a tiny budget indie made for just $300,000. Sure, there are plenty of quality horror films made by studios, but nothing beats the grit and pure terror that great indie horror films can provide.

For the latest in our monthly column of streaming independent film recommendations, we took a look at the plethora...

Aya Furukawa as Tina, Kate Siegel as Camille L’Espanaye, and Igby Rigney as Toby in The Fall of the House of Usher’ (Photo Cr. Eike Schroter / Netflix © 2023)

Netflix’s October 2023 lineup includes Mike Flanagan’s much-anticipated horror series The Fall of the House of Usher, starring Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, and Kate Siegel. The documentary series Beckham provides a peek into soccer superstar David Beckham’s personal life and soccer career, and Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul delves into the controversial company.

Netflix’s October schedule also includes comedy specials, a new dinosaur series, and season seven of the adult animated comedy Big Mouth.

Netflix’s October 2023 Calendar:

10/1/23

60 Days In: Season 4

A Beautiful Mind

American Beauty

Backdraft

Casper

Catch Me If You Can

Cinderella Man

Colombiana

Drake & Josh: Seasons 1-3

Dune (2021)

Elysium

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Gladiator

Hot Tub Time Machine

Kung Fu Panda...

Jennifer Aniston spoke to WSJ Magazine and expressed disapproval of cancel culture, emphasizing that not everyone should be condemned like Harvey Weinstein. Aniston shared her personal experience with Weinstein, describing him as someone unpleasant to be around and recalling a time when he pitched her a movie and she had someone stay in her trailer. The upcoming season of The Morning Show will move away from cancel culture and explore the future of the network, with unexpected alliances and characters confronting their core values. New cast members, including Jon Hamm and Nicole Beharie, will join the show.

Jennifer Aniston is not happy with cancel culture. Earlier this year, the Friends alum reflected on how shows like the acclaimed and popular sitcom that made her famous has become offensive for new generations, and how things are harder now for comedians. After being at the eye of the storm a few days...

The Academy Screening Room is now open to all eligible AMPAS members, with the first wave of films uploaded for Oscar consideration for the upcoming awards season.

Nine notable titles are among the films, including Ben Affleck’s “Air” from Amazon Studios, Michael B. Jordan’s “Creed III” from MGM, Kelly Fremon Craig’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” and Chad Stahelski’s “John Wick: Chapter 4,” both from Lionsgate.

The Academy performs a heavy vetting process for each film that chooses to submit for consideration. In 2022, nine movies were among the first added to the members’ portal while in 2020, eight films kicked off that season. Historically, over 300 movies are in the running for best picture consideration. Obviously, more films will be added, and in greater batches, over the next several months. Distributors are the ultimate decision makers on when a movie is placed on the Academy Screening Room for viewing.

The pandemic changed the world of filmmaking. The shutdown of large productions and larger studios resulted in a shift towards independent filmmaking, specifically small crews, casts, and minimal locations. While blockbusters weren't premiering in theaters every week, more space was created for diverse and personal stories that usually would never have seen the light of day.

Indie filmmaking promoted unsung voices, leaving behind traditional Hollywood and turning writers into directors, producers, and even actors. Doors that spent over a century leaving people out suddenly broke open, exposing the world to stories that were a long time coming. And only a few years into the 2020s, indie films helped keep filmmaking alive.

Related: 10 Best Indie Films Of The 2010s

Promising Young Woman

Written, co-produced, and directed by Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman is a black comedy thriller that gained acclaim after its Sundance premiere. Starring Carey Mulligan, the film follows Mulligan's character,...

The media was not quick to embrace Black creatives nor has Juneteenth long been something on its radar. But as different voices enter the culturally and politically shifting landscape, the newly recognized federal holiday — which honors the emancipation of the last enslaved people here in the United States on June 19 — could, or at the very least should, pop up more on screens large and small.

Channing Godfrey Peoples made her directorial debut against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 with “Miss Juneteenth“: a feature film starring Nicole Beharie and Alexis Chikaeze as a mother-daughter pair navigating their opposing dreams for the young girl’s future. Before that, “Juneteenth” was the title of Season 1, Episode 9 in Donald Glover’s beloved “Atlanta”: a boundary-breaking FX dramedy about Blackness and celebrity with a surrealist twist.

From tentpoles that changed the box-office game (see “Get Out” and...

Nicole Beharie is joining Apple TV’s “The Morning Show” Season 3 cast, the streamer announced on Wednesday.

The “Miss Juneteenth” actor will star in the upcoming installment as Christina Hunter, a new competitive and charismatic anchor on the series’ fictional morning show. Christina works hard, plays hard and navigates the Teacup with good-humored irreverence.

In Season 2, viewers found “The Morning Show” team dusting themselves off following the havoc wreaked by Alex (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley (Reese Witherspoon), and entering a new Uba and a world in flux, where identity is everything and the chasm between who we present as and who we really are comes into play.

Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Bel Powley, Desean Terry, Janina Gavankar, Tom Irwin and Marcia Gay Harden also joined Aniston and Witherspoon among the cast. New additions for Season 2 included Greta Lee, Ruairi O’Connor, Hasan Minhaj, Holland Taylor, Tara Karsian,...

There’s a new anchor coming to The Morning Show for Season 3. Apple TV+ has announced that Nicole Beharie has joined the cast of the drama for its third season. She’ll be playing Christina Hunter, a grounded, competitive, and charismatic Millennial who is a new anchor on The Morning Show. She works hard, plays hard, and navigates the Teacup with good-humored irreverence. Beharie is just the latest casting news for the series. Jon Hamm is also joining the case for Season 3, playing Paul Marks, a corporate titan who sets his sights on the Uba network and pulls Cory (Billy Crudup), Alex (Jennifer Aniston), and Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) into his powerful orbit. And Beharie’s casting comes two days after it was announced that Julianna Margulies will continue to play Laura Peterson, after recurring in the second season as the Uba News anchor. Season 3, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon,...

Nicole Beharie is headed to Uba.

In what marks her most high-profile TV gig since leaving Fox’s Sleepy Hollow in 2016, Beharie has joined the Season 3 cast of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, opposite Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

More from TVLineJulianna Margulies Officially Returning to The Morning Show in Season 3Jon Hamm Joins The Morning Show as 'Corporate Titan' in Season 3The Morning Show Looks a Lot Different Than We Last Left It - Watch First Season 3 Trailer

Beharie will play Christina Hunter, “a grounded, competitive, and charismatic millennial who is a new anchor on The Morning Show,...

Exclusive: Nicole Beharie (Miss Juneteenth) has been tapped as a new lead opposite Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon in the upcoming third season of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show.

Beharie will play Christina Hunter,’ a grounded, competitive, and charismatic Millennial who is a new anchor on The Morning Show. Christina works hard, plays hard, and navigates the Teacup with good-humored irreverence.

She joins another high-profile new Season 3 series regular addition,Jon Hamm, as well as and the return of Julianna Margulies who was introduced last season. Production is currently underway.

The Morning Show follows the professional and personal lives of employees of media conglomerate Uba, focusing on the group that puts together the network’s morning show. Season 2 found the team emerging from the wreckage of hosts Alex (Aniston) and Bradley’s (Witherspoon) actions, to a new Uba and a world in flux, where identity is everything and the...

First published June 18th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.

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Pride Month continues! A wonderful way to commemorate the not-yet-completed, very-much-ongoing battle for dignity and respect for all the downtrodden, oppressed, and marginalized...

Roar is what happens when a group of five-star chefs combine their talents, roll up their sleeves, and wind up making a garbage plate. All the ingredients are there, and all the skill, but it somehow adds up to a muddled creation that’s less than the sum of its parts.

The Apple TV+ anthology series (all eight episodes streaming now) is essentially a collection of modern fairy tales about female empowerment, based a 2018 short story collection by Irish author Cecelia Ahern. The episodes open with bright typographic title cards...

The worst part of “Roar” is also its most consistent. While every episode of Apple’s new anthology show tackles an entirely different story with a different cast to match, they each open with a neon graphic of a woman’s mouth screaming out of a blooming flower. With this image, “Roar” underlines its logline as a feminist scream of a series that, as based on Ceceila Ahern’s book of short stories, explores “what it means to be a woman today.” Watching its trailer, which leans heavily on wackier moments like Nicole Kidman shoving photographs down her throat, you’d be excused for assuming it’s an exaggerated comedy of girlboss errors. Watching the actual show, though, makes for a bit of a more scattered experience.

From Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, “Roar” tells eight stories of eight women whose dissatisfaction with their situations — whether rooted in shame, guilt,...

Exclusive: The feature adaptation of Melissa Hill’s novel Something From Tiffany’s, which is already shooting in New York City, has added four to the Amazon Original and Hello Sunshine movie: Kendrick Sampson, Ray Nicholson, Shay Mitchell, and Leah Jeffries.

As Deadline first reported, Zoey Deutch is starring and executive producing Something from Tiffany’s with Daryl Wein directing from Tamara Chestna’s script. The film reps the first full studio feature from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Witherspoon is producing with Lauren Neustadter for Hello Sunshine.

The holiday romantic comedy will debut exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories around the world. In the movie, a woman’s life is upended when an engagement ring meant for someone else leads her to the person she’s meant to be with.

Sampson currently stars in Insecure. He has also appeared in The Flash, How to Get Away with Murder...

The Gotham Awards named Netflix’s The Lost Daughter its Best Feature during a Monday night ceremony in lower Manhattan honoring the best independent films of 2021 with a vaccinated, Covid-tested, in-person fest at its longtime Cipriani Wall Street home. The drama written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal swept to a leading four wins overall out of five nominations.

Gyllenhaal won twice individually tonight, for Breakthrough Director and Best Screenplay and Olivia Colman took Outstanding Lead Performance. That was one of two ties for the evening in the event’s first year of gender-neutral acting categories. The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain star Frankie Faison also won for outstanding lead, while on the TV side both Thuso Mbedu for The Underground Railroad and Ethan Hawke for The Good Lord Bird had their names called for Outstanding Performance in a New Series.

In other movie awards handed out tonight, Emilia Jones took the...

The Gotham Awards took place on November 29 in Lower Manhattan, back in their usual prime slot at the start of the awards season. The event marks the first significant awards ceremony of the season, ahead of most critics groups and guilds.

Films with budgets exceeding $35 million are automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix, such as Jane Campion’s Venice winner “Power of the Dog,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut “Tick Tick Boom,” Jeymes Samuels’ “The Harder They Fall,” and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” did not make the cut.

Kristen Stewart received this year’s Performer Tribute thanks to her performance in “Spencer.” Other...

Now in their 31st year, the Gotham Awards are back in their usual prime slot at the start of the awards season. This year’s ceremony takes place on Monday, November 29, kicking off another long-ish awards season all the way to the Academy Awards on March 27 next year.

The Gotham Film and Media Institute is making the live stream of the ceremony (which takes place in New York City) available on the organization’s Facebook page on Monday. The ceremony and the stream begin at 8:00 p.m. Et. that evening. IndieWire will embed the stream below once it’s made available on the Gotham Facebook page. The event marks the first significant awards ceremony of the season, ahead of most critics groups and guilds.

Films with budgets exceeding $35 million are automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix, such as Jane Campion’s...

A group of friends discover that a deadly urban legend is all too real in Lantern's Lane, and with the new horror thriller coming to North American digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms this Friday, November 5th, via Vertical Entertainment, we've been provided with an exclusive clip to share with Daily Dead readers!

Check out our exclusive clip below, and read the official press release for more details on Lantern's Lane:

Press Release: Los Angeles, CA – Vertical Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Justin Lareau’s horror thriller Lantern’s Lane. The film will be available in theaters and to rent and own on North American digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms through Vertical Entertainment on November 5, 2021.

A recent college graduate and her estranged high school friends return to Lantern’s Lane, the home of a real urban legend and must fight to survive the night.

The annual Gotham Awards is, once again, the first prominent awards ceremony out of the gate during Oscar season, thanks to this morning’s nominations announcement. Films with budgets exceeding $35 million are automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix, such as Jane Campion’s Venice winner “Power of the Dog,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut “Tick Tick Boom,” Jeymes Samuels’ “The Harder They Fall,” and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” did not make the cut.

Prior to the nominations announcement, the Gotham Awards confirmed that Kristen Stewart would be the recipient of this year’s Performer Tribute thanks to her performance in “Spencer.” Other honorees include Eamonn Bowles (who is receiving the Industry Tribute), the cast of “The Harder They Fall” (receiving the Ensemble Tribute), and Campion (who is receiving the Director’s Tribute).

The Gotham Awards don’t always line up with the Oscars,...

The Gotham Film and Media Institute will announce nominations for the 2021 Gotham Awards on Thursday at 7 a.m. Pt. The award show will take place on Nov. 29 at Cipriani Wall Street.

The nominations will be hosted on Variety.com and throughout Variety’s social media platforms.

The event will take place in New York, where winners selected by a jury will be honored for their achievements in independent projects. At last year’s ceremony, “Nomadland” won best feature, Riz Ahmed won best actor for “Sound of Metal” and Nicole Beharie won best actress for “Miss Juneteenth.”

The 2021 Gothams have already announced some special awards, including Kristen Stewart receiving a Performer Tribute, Eamonn Bowles receiving the Industry Tribute, the cast of “The Harder They Fall” receiving the Ensemble Tribute and Jane Campion receiving the Director’s Tribute

One new element of this year’s show is that the organization has gotten rid of gendered awards.

The Austin Film Festival has announced new additions to its 2021 lineup, including the Kristen Stewart-starring “Spencer” and Stephen Karam’s “The Humans.” The festival will take place in Austin, Texas and online from Oct. 21-28.

“Spencer” will be the festival’s closing night piece. Directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Steven Knight, the biopic follows Princess Diana (Stewart) as she processes her decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles.

As the culmination of Aff’s writers’ conference, the centerpiece film will be “The Humans,” written and directed by Karam and adapted from his Pulitzer-winning play of the same name. “The Humans” takes place on Thanksgiving as a family comes together despite hidden secrets, past trauma and nightmares coming to life. Beanie Feldstein, Amy Schumer, Steven Yeun, Richard Jenkins, Jayne Houdyshell and June Squibb star.

The inaugural spotlight film slot will showcase the North American premiere of “Down With the King,...

Vertical Entertainment — the distributor behind such movies as “Miss Juneteenth,” “Shadow in the Cloud” and “Ava” — has acquired the distribution rights for “The Estate” in North America, the U.K. and Ireland. The thriller, the feature directing debut of James Kapner, and written by Chris Baker (who also co-stars in the film), will be released in theaters and on VOD day-and-date this fall.

“The Estate” stars Eliza Coupe (“Happy Endings”), Greg Finley (“The Flash”), Baker, Heather Matarazzo (“Welcome to the Dollhouse”), Eric Roberts (“Runaway Train”) and Lala Kent (“Vanderpump Rules”). Baker’s character aligns with his stepmother (Coupe) to hire a hitman (Finley) to kill the family patriarch (Roberts), a move “initiating a psychosexual love triangle that spirals into more than anyone bargained for,” according to its logline.

Josh Spector, the SVP of acquisitions for Vertical Entertainment, said, “We couldn’t be prouder to be partnering with this talented filmmaking team on “The Estate,...

The Gotham Awards, which honor the best achievements in independent film every year, announced on August 5 that they would eliminate gendered acting categories. That follows other awards that have either eliminated gendered awards or never had them in the first place, ranging from the Grammys and Television Critics Association Awards to the MTV Movie and TV Awards and Video Music Awards. As the tide gradually turns and acceptance of transgender and non-binary identities increases, should the Oscars follow suit? Scroll down to vote in our poll at the bottom of this post.

See‘A Star is Born’ again at 2022 Oscars? Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper could return to lead acting races

The Gothams previously handed out prizes for Best Actor and Best Actress, which this past year went to Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) and Nicole Beharie (“Miss Juneteenth”), respectively. Now the acting awards they present will be Outstanding Lead Performance and Outstanding Supporting Performance.

Actor and activist Kendrick Sampson has signed with M88, the independently operated representation firm founded in 2020 by Phillip Sun and Macro’s Charles D. King.

Alongside M88, the star will also be represented by the firm’s sister company Uncmmn, which spotlights disruptive talent rooted in new media. Under the new partnership, M88 and Uncmmn will work together to holistically amplify Sampson’s career, in another example of their combined mission to represent diverse creators in a full-spectrum capacity.

Sampson is best known for his role as Nathan on HBO’s “Insecure,” and is set to return for the Emmy-nominated show’s fifth and final season. Most recently, the actor starred opposite Nicole Beharie in Channing Godfrey Peoples’ award-winning movie “Miss Juneteenth.”

After landing his breakout role on the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” the actor also booked major roles on ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder,” Showtime’s “White Famous,...

The Gotham Film & Media Institute, formerly IFP, has slated the Gotham Week Project Market for September 19 to 24 in a virtual format.

The annual event, held for 43 years under different names, will this year feature 135 fiction and non-fiction features, series and audio projects. Each is looking to move a little more quickly down the development track through the institute’s resources and network. Attendees include a cross-section of distributors, financiers, production companies, festival programmers and sales and talent agents. The venue offers a rare setting for international co-productions to take root.

In recent years, works like Crip Camp, American Factory, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Miss Juneteenth and The Truffle Hunters, among many others, have made important strides during the market.

Gotham Week will feature panels, workshops, case studies, and keynote conversations, hosted online. Covid-19 forced last year’s event to adopt a virtual format, as did the organization’s flagship event,...

Previous selections include Crip Camp, Miss Juneteenth, Swallow, The Truffle Hunters.

Gotham Film & Media Institute has announced the announced its slate of 135 international and US features, series and audio projects for this year’s virtual event that runs September 19-24.

The meetings-driven forum says it is the only international co-production market in the US featuring stories for multiple platforms, and hosts scheduled artist and industry meetings dedicated to furthering the work and careers of independent artists.

Previous selections include Crip Camp, (pictured), Miss Juneteenth, Monos, Swallow, My Salinger Year, and The Truffle Hunters.

Gotham Week will also feature a roster of panels,...

Exclusive: Emmy-Award winning producer and director Daniel Minahan and Oscar winning producer Peter Spears are teaming with Ley Line Entertainment to develop the feature film On Swift Horses based on the Shannon Pufahl novel of the same name.

On Swift Horses follows Muriel and her husband Lee who are beginning a bright new life when he returns from the Korean war. However, this newfound stability is upended by the arrival of Lee’s charismatic younger brother, Julius, a wayward gambler with a secret past. A dangerous love triangle is quickly formed. When Julius then takes off in search of the young card cheat he’s fallen for, restless Muriel embarks on a secret life of her own, gambling on racehorses and discovering a love she never thought possible.

Minahan will direct off Bryce Kass’ adapted screenplay. Minahan and Spears will produce the project, joined by Ley Line’s Tim Headington. Ley Line’s Theresa Steele Page and Nate Kamiya will serve as EP.

Kass is the screenwriter of Lizzie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, starring Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart and was released by Roadside Attractions. He is currently writing the film Alone for HBO/Max with Laura Bickford producing, based on Leslie Kean’s best-selling non-fiction book UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record, and is also at work on a five-episode limited series with Gus Van Sant who is set to direct. He recently completed writing an updated Saturday Night Fever feature for Daft Punk. Other screenplays by Kass include Dark Star for director Scott Cooper and Oscar-winning producer John Lesher, The Real All Americans for producers Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger and two for George Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures: Pioneer and Monster of Florence. His television project Lights, is set up at Working Title/ Universal TV with Andrew Stearn producing.

Minahan most recently directed and executive produced the entirety of Netflix’s limited series Halston. He made his feature directorial debut with Series 7: The Contenders, which screened in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and in the Panorama at the Berlin Film Festival. For his work on the film Minahan was nominated for the Gotham Award’s Open Palm Award for Outstanding Directorial Debut and the film won the Audience Award at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival. On the television side, Minahan won an Emmy Award as an EP of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace for which he also directed several episodes. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for directing and executive producing Deadwood: The Movie and has directed multiple episodes of Game of Thrones, True Blood, Six Feet Under and The Newsroom.

Spears recent shared an Oscar Best Picture win for Nomadland. The Searchlight pic also won Academy Awards for director Chloé Zhao and star Frances McDormand and won the Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award, BAFTA, PGA and Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture. Spears produced Luca Guadagnino’s film Call Me By Your Name, for which he was also nominated for the Oscar in 2017. He is currently in production on Bones and All, reuniting with Guadagnino and star Timothée Chalamet.

Ley Line Entertainment is a content development, production, and financing company with projects spanning film, television, stage, and music. Highlights include a documentary on Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Long Promised Road which premiered at Tribeca; David Lowery’s upcoming The Green Knight; Everything Everywhere All At Once from The Daniels; the original West End musical & Juliet (featuring the international megahits of Max Martin and writer David West Read (Schitt’s Creek); Miss Juneteenth - a TV series (and the original film) from Channing Godfrey Peoples; and Sundance’s Strawberry Mansion from Albert Birney and Kentucky Audley.

Minahan is represented by UTA and Circle of Confusion. Kass is repped by Circle of Confusion. Pufahl is repped by UTA.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced the 395 artists and executives that have been invited to join this year — about half the number of last year’s class. The 2021 class is comprised of 46% women, 39% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and 53% international from 49 countries outside the United States. Of the 395 invitees, 89 are former Oscar nominees, including 25 winners.

Eight individuals have been invited to join by multiple branches and must select one branch upon acceptance. They include Leslie Odom Jr, Kaouther Ben Hania, Craig Brewer, Lee Isaac Chung, Emerald Fennell, Shaka King, Alexander Nanau, Florian Zeller.

Other big names among the newly invited include Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek, “Promising Young Woman” original screenplay winner Emerald Fennell and “Minari” stars Steven Yeun, Ye-ri Han and recently crowned supporting actress Yuh-Jung Youn.

In the directing category, new invitees include Janicza Bravo, Nia DaCosta, Cathy Yan, Darius Marder, Michael Almereyda, Lizzie Borden,...

Oscar winner Yuh-Jung Youn, who took Supporting Actress in April for Minari, along with a number of her recent fellow acting nominees including Maria Bakalova, Andra Day, Vanessa Kirby, Leslie Odom Jr., Paul Raci, and Steven Yeun, are among the new class of 395 artists and executives who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. A number of other recent winners and nominees including both of the latest screenwriting victors, Emerald Fennell and Florian Zeller, Music Score winner Jon Batiste, and all three writers of Oscar winning song “Fight For You” including H.E.R. are also on the list from the 17 branches of the Academy. Overall, there are 89 Oscar nominees, including 25 winners, among the new class. 46% are women, 39% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53% coming from countries outside of the U.S. this time around.

Although receiving an Oscar and/or a nomination is a big plus,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has extended invitations for 395 artists and executives working in film to join the ranks of a growing membership of more than 9,000 film industry figures. Per AMPAS, “membership selection decisions are based on professional qualifications, with representation, inclusion and equity remaining a priority of Academy Aperture 2025.”

Statistically, the 2021 class is comprised of 46 percent women, 39 percent underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53 international members from 49 countries outside of the United States. Among the new class are 89 Oscar nominees and 25 winners, including “Minari” Best Supporting Actress winner Yuh-jung Youn, Best Actor nominee Steven Yeun, multi-nominated director/writer Lee Isaac Chung, and co-star Ye-ri Han, plus “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” Best Actress nominee Andra Day, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” Supporting Actress nominee Maria Bakalova, “Pieces of a Woman” Best Actress nominee Vanessa Kirby, and Supporting Actor nominees Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”) and Paul Raci...

Oscar-nominated actors Leslie Odom Jr., Maria Bakalova and Steven Yeun are among the 395 people who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy announced on Thursday.

Also on the list of invites: actors Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Nicole Beharie, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Carrie Coon, Laverne Cox, Andra Day, Vanessa Kirby, Nathan Lane, Jonathan Majors, Robert Pattinson and Issa Rae; directors Lee Isaac Chung, Sean Durkin, Emerald Fennell, Jonathan Glazer, Shaka King, Darius Marder and Florian Zeller; and musicians Jon Batiste, H.E.R., Janet Jackson and Emile Mosseri.

Eight people were invited by two different branches: Chung, Fennell, King, Zeller, Kaouther Ben Hania and Craig Brewer were invited by both the directors and writers branches, while Alexander Nanau was invited by the directors and documentary branches, and Odom Jr. by both the actors and music branches. If they accept the invitations, double invitees must choose a single branch...

Following recent voting in Congress, Juneteenth is finally a federal holiday. It's been too long in coming. And speaking of since this is a film site ... Have you caught up with last year's Miss Juneteenth yet? It's so good and Nicole Beharie is just perfect in the leading role, as a former beauty queen who has to learn to let go of trying to strictly mold her daughter into a new version of herself. She won the Gotham Award and was a medalist here at Tfe as well. For our money she was better than the bulk of Oscar's acting nominees last season...

Our road to box office recovery has had its ups and downs, and after a few weekends in a row of $20+ million openers, it feels as if we’ve taken a step backward again as In The Heights and Peter Rabbit 2 under-performed, both opening in the low teens. Despite those soft openings, though, the overall weekend box office of $57 million was still the fourth best this year. Even if this weekend backslides below $50 million, an unthinkable number pre-pandemic, it will still be far ahead of where we were one month ago, and only one week remains until F9 hits, hopefully giving the industry the blockbuster opening it has been waiting for.

This week has just one new wide release offering: The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. The sequel to 2017’s The Hitman’s Bodyguard is packed with stars, with Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, and Salma Hayek returning from the original, while Antonio Banderas,...

This may be a year in which the national mood on the Juneteenth holiday is one of outrage and anger, but the movie “Miss Juneteenth” is interested in different emotions altogether. It may be timely because of its title and its examination of an entirely African-American community, but it’s a quiet, character-driven film that lets personal stories give insight into larger issues.

Set in Texas, where the Juneteenth holiday originated, the film draws on the memories of writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples. She grew up in Fort Worth and remembered the annual Miss Juneteenth beauty pageant where one young woman would win a full scholarship to the historically black college or university of her choice.

The pageant serves as backdrop, and also as a symbol of hope for young mother Turquoise – not hope for herself, but hope for her 14-year-old daughter, Kai. “I’m gonna make sure she’s something we ain’t,...