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Although Hulu has plenty of original series and narrative films that have garnered acclaim over the years, it's also become a magnet for documentary filmmaking. From true crime dramas to political exposés and everything in between, the streamer has established itself as one of the genre's most prominent homes. Sure, everyone loves a little bit of popcorn entertainment to cozy up to on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but there's a lot to be said about films that interact with the real world, as the best documentaries do. 

With documentary filmmaking, viewers get the opportunity to educate themselves on topics as varied as public health crises, forgotten comic book artists, shocking scandals, and even murder trials. Ever wanted to learn more about very specific subjects, but in a palatable, easy-to-digest way? These documentaries will keep you enthralled throughout their entire runtime and leave you with a little bit more knowledge in...

Exclusive: The Gotham Film & Media Institute has named the seven fellows set for the 2025 edition of its Festival De Cannes Producers Network Program. They are Caroline Clark (The Wedding Banquet), Chester Algernal Gordon (The Inspection), Dan Kagan (Longlegs), Leslie Norville (The First Wave), Joe Pirro (We Grown Now), Ani Schroeter (This Closeness), and Daniel Tantalean (In the Summers).

As the sole U.S. Partner Organization for the Festival de Cannes Producers Network, a program taking place in person at Cannes this year from May 14-19, The Gotham annually selects U.S. fiction and nonfiction producers to participate. Running concurrently with the Cannes Film Festival and the Marche du Film, the program is specifically designed for experienced producers to build up their international networks and learn more about international production, financing, legal and packaging.

In tandem with its work on the program, The Gotham supports Gotham Edu partners Colgate University...

U.S. content management, financing and sales banner Cinetic Media has secured world rights to the life affirming doc “Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other,” about legendary photographer Joel Meyerowitz and artist and author Maggie Barrett, his wife.

Rising filmmaking duo Manon Ouimet and Jacob Perlmutter of London-based Manon et Jacob are making their documentary debut, with Ouimet serving as producer alongside multi-Oscar nominated Danish producer Signe Byrge Sørensen of Final Cut Four Real.

“Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other” is having its world premiere March 16 in the Dox:award main competition at Copenhagen’s leading documentary festival Cph:dox, and also screen in the international competition section of Thessaloniki Documentary Festival on the same day.

Pedigree co-producing partners attached include Fremantle-owned doc label Undeniable, helmed by Mandy Chang, and long-time Final Cut for Real U.S. partners Louverture Films.

The character-driven documentary chronicles the loving yet...

Variety is premiering the trailer (below) for feature documentary “Transition,” which follows Australian filmmaker Jordan Bryon, a trans man, as he embeds with a Taliban unit as they retake control of Afghanistan.

The film, directed by Monica Villamizar and Bryon, will be released in the U.S. on March 26 by Gravitas Ventures. The film is available now for pre-order on Apple. AGC International is selling it at the European Film Market this week.

“Transition” is produced by Villamizar and was financed by AGC Unwritten and Our Time Projects. Academy Award-nominated documentary director Matthew Heineman (“Cartel Land”) is executive producing with Stuart Ford, Lourdes Diaz, Joel Zimmer, Bj Levin, Sebastian Hernandez, Juan Manuel Betancourt and Joedan Okun.

The film’s primary subjects are Bryon, Afghan cinematographer Farzad Fetrat (“Teddy”) and Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Kiana Hayeri.

“Transition” had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival to audience and critical acclaim and was...

When director Matthew Heineman and musician Jon Batiste began their second collaboration after The First Wave — a harrowing documentary in which Heineman embedded himself in a New York hospital during the early days of the Covid pandemic, and for which Batiste provided the score — the project was much less fraught than its predecessor.

Jon Batiste (left) and Matthew Heineman, whose American Symphony was shortlisted in three Oscar categories.

American Symphony follows the former Late Show With Stephen Colbert bandleader during a career high: receiving a monumental 11 Grammy nominations for his 2021 album We Are (which won album of the year and four other prizes in April 2022) and preparing for a one-night performance of the titular composition at Carnegie Hall. Batiste, by all assumptions, was on top of the world.

But privately, things were much more complex. His partner, writer and musician Suleika Jaouad, was afflicted with a rare form of cancer that,...

One of the more fascinating aspects of “American Symphony” is that both Oscar- and Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste and his wife ​​Suleika Jaouad, the bestselling author of “Between Two Kingdoms,” would have made compelling documentary subjects at any point in their careers. It just so happens that when the former “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” band leader had the idea to recruit his “The First Wave” collaborator Matthew Heineman to make a film about his symphony’s Carnegie Hall debut, the Oscar-nominated director fell upon more poignant material than they all could have imagined.

A month into production, Batiste became the first musician to be nominated in seven different Grammy categories. That same day in November 2021, Jaouad began treatment for leukemia after years of being in remission. “It became an even broader aperture of what a documentary of this period of time would be. And we had to decide, all three of us,...

Six directors of standout 2023 documentary features gathered at The Hollywood Reporter’s Los Angeles offices in mid-November for THR’s annual Documentary Roundtable.

Among them were two revered veterans with Oscars to their name: Davis Guggenheim (2006’s An Inconvenient Truth), who helmed Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, a film about the life and struggles of the beloved actor who was stricken at a young age with Parkinson’s disease; and Roger Ross Williams (2009’s Music by Prudence), director of Stamped From the Beginning, a film about the history of anti-Black racism in America. Meanwhile, a first-time filmmaker, twice-Grammy-nominated producer D. Smith, profiled four Black transgender women who have performed sex work in Kokomo City.

Oscar nominee Nicole Newnham (2020’s Crip Camp) made a documentary portrait of a person once famous but now largely forgotten: The Disappearance of Shere Hite, about the titular sex researcher and her landmark 1976 book about female sexuality.

There are times when one’s world unexpectedly shifts off its axis, and everyone involved must scramble and find a new center of gravity. November 10, 2021 was such a day for Jon Batiste and his life partner, Suleika Jaouad. That morning, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and bandleader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert learned he’d been nominated for a stunning 11 Grammy awards — including Album of the Year — for his sixth studio LP, We Are. It was also the morning that Jaouad, a New York Times bestselling author for her memoir, Between Two Kingdoms, began chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that had re-emerged after more than a decade in remission.

Suleika Jaouad and Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’

The highs and lows of an extraordinary year in the couple’s life are captured by director Matthew Heineman in the Oscar-contending Netflix documentary American Symphony...

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

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

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

Aka Mr. Chow

(HBO Documentary Films)

This portrait directed by Nick Hooker follows the life and career of painter turned restaurateur Michael Chow, the owner of the Mr Chow restaurant chain, as he returns to the art world with his first solo show in nearly 60 years.

American Symphony

(Netflix)

Matthew Heineman switches gears from following the front lines of the Mexican drug war (the Oscar-nominated Cartel Land) and the early days of the Covid crisis in New York City (The First Wave), this time helming an intimate profile of Late Night With Stephen Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste as he balances an incredible year of professional success while aiding his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, through her battle with a rare form of cancer.

Anonymous Sister

(Long Shot Factory/Gravitas Ventures)

Emmy Award-winning director Jamie Boyle chronicles her family’s collision with the opioid epidemic. The film, currently holding a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes,...

Recently we had the pleasure of sitting down with Jon Batiste, Suleika Jaouad and filmmaker Matthew Heineman to talk about their new film American Symphony, which hits home on Netflix today.

Linda Marric chartered their long journey in a series of interviews about their unforgettable documentary centring around the multi-Grammy winning artist who, whilst celebrating a triumphant year in music learns that his beloved wife’s long dormant cancer has returned.

Early in 2022, multi-instrumentalist Jon Batiste finds himself the most celebrated artist of the year with eleven Grammy nominations including Album of the Year. In the midst of that triumph, Jon is immersed in his most ambitious challenge yet: composing “American Symphony”, an original symphony that thrillingly reimagines the classical traditions of the form, bringing together an expansive and inclusive diaspora of music for a performance at storied Carnegie Hall. This extraordinary trajectory is upended, however, when Batiste’s life...

Ross McDonnell, an Irish filmmaker known for his Emmy-winning cinematography on “The Trade,” has died, his family confirmed more than a week after his body was reportedly found on a New York City beach. He was 44.

McDonnell died “unexpectedly” on Nov. 5, according to a notice on Rip.ie. NBC News reported Monday that the “remains appeared to be of filmmaker Ross McDonnell.”

The police received a 911 call on Nov. 17 about a torso with human legs attached found lying in the sand at Queens’ Breezy Point Beach. McDonnell disappeared earlier this month and was last seen on Nov. 4 leaving his apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn on his bicycle — which was later discovered locked at Fort Tilden Beach in Queens on the Rockaway Peninsula next to Breezy Point.

The cause of death will be determined by the New York City medical examiner’s office. NBC’s sources reported that no foul play is suspected,...

The family of Emmy-winning filmmaker Ross McDonnell has confirmed his death after remains were discovered on a beach in New York City.

Police in New York did not confirm or deny initial reports about McDonnell when a dismembered body was found on a beach in Queens. McDonnell has been missing since November 4, when he went for a bike ride in his Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. His bike was later found locked up at Fort Tilden Beach in Queens. That’s a mile or two away from Breezy Point Beach, where the headless and armless body was found on Friday.

His family announced his death in a notice on Rip.ie.

“He will be very sadly missed by his loving parents, sister, niece, aunt, uncles, cousins, extended family and his many dear friends, Lj, and also his colleagues in Ireland, USA and around the world,” said the notice.

Earlier friends told police about...

After media speculation about a dismembered body found on a beach in Queens on Friday, CNBC and other outlets, citing “police sources,” are saying the remains “may be” those of Emmy-winning Irish filmmaker Ross McDonnell, 44. Police have not yet publicly confirmed or denied those reports.

McDonnell has been missing since November 4, when he went for a bike ride in his Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. His bike was later found locked up at Fort Tilden Beach in Queens. That’s a mile or two away from Breezy Point Beach, where the headless and armless body was found on Friday.

McDonnell’s friends reportedly later found some of his clothes on the beach, and the thought is he might have gone swimming. A police source told the New York Daily News they believe the body was dismembered by the sharp rocks, waves and marine life over the past two weeks before it washed ashore.

"We both see survival as a creative act." So create and create again. Netflix has revealed the official trailer for an acclaimed documentary film titled American Symphony, which premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival recently. It will be available for streaming at the end of November. In the intimate American Symphony, Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning director Matthew Heineman delivers a portrait of two inimitable artists at a crossroads and a profound meditation on art, love, and the creative process. The film follows a year year in the life of iconic musician Jon Batiste, chronicling his career in music and struggles with his wife's diagnosis, as his partner Suleika Jaouad must battle leukemia. The doc film is exec produced by Barack Obama & Michelle Obama through their Higher Ground Productions label. Reviews from the festival state that American Symphony is "sometimes joyful, sometimes somber celebration of spirit." A heartfelt story about tenacity,...

AGC International launching international sales at AFM.

Tinder Swindler studio AGC Unwritten has sold US rights to Monica Villamizar and Jordan Bryon’s feature documentary Transition to Gravitas Ventures.

The film follows Australian filmmaker Bryon, a trans man, as he embeds with a Taliban unit as they retake control of Afghanistan.

The primary subjects of the story are Bryon, Afghan cinematographer Farzad Fetrat (Teddy) and Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Kiana Hayeri.

AGC International will screen Transition and launch international sales at the AFM next week, and Gravitas Ventures plans a March 2024 release.

The documentary received its world premiere at Tribeca Festival and...

“Tinder Swindler” studio AGC Unwritten has sold U.S. rights to Monica Villamizar and Jordan Bryon’s feature documentary “Transition” to Gravitas Ventures.

The film follows Australian filmmaker Jordan Bryon, a trans man, as he embeds with a Taliban unit as they retake control of Afghanistan. AGC International will screen the film and launch international sales at the American Film Market next week. Gravitas will release the film in March 2024.

“Transition” is produced by Villamizar and was financed by AGC Unwritten and Our Time Projects. Academy Award-nominated documentary director Matthew Heineman (“Cartel Land”) is executive producing with Stuart Ford, Lourdes Diaz, Joel Zimmer, Bj Levin, Sebastian Hernandez, Juan Manuel Betancourt and Joedan Okun.

The film’s primary subjects are Bryon, Afghan cinematographer Farzad Fetrat (“Teddy”) and Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Kiana Hayeri.

“Transition” had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival to audience and critical acclaim and was an official selection at Sheffield DocFest,...

Netflix announced Monday that it has acquired the distribution rights to “American Symphony,” Matthew Heineman’s documentary about Oscar- and Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.

The film follows Batiste in 2022 as his already decorated career reaches even greater heights — including six Grammy wins — at the same time that his wife Suleika Jaouad is battling leukemia.

Netflix acquired the film alongside Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground and will release it later this year.

“The themes of resilience and love at the heart of ‘American Symphony’ resonate deeply with us — and we’re thrilled to bring the film into the Higher Ground family,” the Obamas said in a statement. “Jon and Suleika’s journey of grace and strength echoes the experience of so many families who are forced to navigate the complications that surface when dreams meet adversity.”

“For many years, Jon...

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

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

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

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

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

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

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

For director Matthew Heineman, that road was a very roundabout one that went across the United States, journeyed into the Mexican drug cartels, ran in and out of Syria, stayed with healthcare workers during the worst days of the Covid-19 pandemic and braved the chaotic Kabul airport during the final days of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But with “American Symphony,” which had its world premiere on Friday at the Telluride Film Festival, Heineman and his cameras settle in with musician Jon Batiste as he prepares for the Carnegie Hall debut of a major composition that mixes a classical orchestra with jazz, folk, blues, gospel and Native American music. Where Heineman’s earlier films were about violence, conflict and death, his new one deals with the creation of art.

There’s more to it than that, of course. “American Symphony” is about the...

National Geographic documentary films specialize in telling stories of adventurers whose journeys put themselves at great risk, but few are more unbelievable than “The Mission.” NatGeo has released the official trailer for the upcoming documentary, set for theatrical release October 13.

The documentary focuses on the story of John Chau, an American evangelical Christian missionary. In 2018 and at the age of 26, Chau traveled to the extremely remote Andaman Islands, claimed by India but closer to Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal, on an unsanctioned missionary trip. There, he repeatedly visited North Sentinel Island, which is restricted by the Indian government to outside visitors because of the indigenous Sentinelese, a voluntarily “uncontacted people,” who live there. They’re considered so vulnerable to contamination from outside influences that the Indian government has armed marine patrols around the island to prevent landings. Chau somehow made it ashore, nonetheless. It did not go well.

The film,...

In his latest documentary, “American Symphony,” Oscar-nominated director Matthew Heineman delivers a portrait of two artists — Grammy winner and former “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” bandleader Jon Batiste and his wife, author Suleika Jaouad.

Heineman is known for putting his life on the line to make documentaries about the Mexican drug wars (“Cartel Land”), the initial explosion of Covid-19 in the U.S. (“The First Wave”) and the final months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan (“Retrograde”). But in “American Symphony,” which makes its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on Aug. 31, the helmer captures a more intimate battle.

In early 2022, after receiving 11 Grammy nominations including album of the year, Batiste sets out to compose “American Symphony,” an original symphony that reimagines the classical traditions of the form at Carnegie Hall. But life turns upside down when Jaouad learns that her long-dormant cancer has returned. Heineman’s 103-minute...

Execs discuss social outreach strategy at CineLink Industry Days panel in Sarajevo.

How do cash-strapped indie documentary producers pay for social outreach and impact campaigns? That was one of the questions asked at Sarajevo’s CineLink Industry Days panel, “Shaping Change: Unleashing the Transformative Power of Impact Producing and Outreach in Documentary Filmmaking” this week.

The talk was held shortly after Sarajevo launched a new impact award of its own – its CineLink Impact Award presented by Think-Film Impact Production. The award comes with €20,000 of in-kind support to develop a comprehensive impact campaign for a project in the post-production phase participating...

Selections include Fremantle sales title Alice & Jack with Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson; Netflix series All The Light We Cannot See from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight.

TIFF brass have announced the Primetime section, a nine-strong roster of series which includes Expats, Lulu Wang’s follow-up to The Farewell for Prime Video starring Nicole Kidman in the saga of a close-knit group of Hong Kong expatriates.

The selection includes Fremantle sales title Alice & Jack (UK) a Channel 4 romance from Victor Levin starring Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson; and All The Light We Cannot See (USA) from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight,...

In order to cover more ground and focus on more characters, TV episodes normally jump across several hours, days, or even weeks. However, some shows like The Flash and even Brooklyn Nine-Nine feature episodes when events were shown to occur in real-time. A minute in the running time was thus equal to a minute in the show’s fictional world.

Related: 10 Popular Shows With More Bad Episodes Than Good

Such a format means only a single event can be addressed at a time, but it not only helps in fleshing out the characters more but also creates the opportunity for a show to dive into little details that normally get glossed over. So far, a number of small-screen projects have handled this concept more convincingly.

“Mike The Pacifist” (All In The Family) Season 7, Episode 21

As one of the most progressive sitcoms, All In The Family never aims to be funny all the time.

Last year, 144 documentary features were eligible for an Academy Award, but in reality, less than a third of those docs had a chance of making the 15-film shortlist. That, in part, is because garnering a spot on that competitive list requires not only a beautifully crafted film constructed by a talented director and crew, but also money.

In the past decade, platforms with deep pockets — Amazon, Apple TV+, Disney +, Netflix — began to spend on documentary award campaigns in ways that, prior to 2010, were unfathomable to the nonfiction film community. Before streamers came onto the scene, lobbying and marketing a doc during award season meant, if you were lucky, that a distributor took out a few “For Your Consideration” ads and hosted a handful of screenings. Now, depending on who the distributor is, FYC ads are plentiful, and small screenings have been transformed into events at New York’s Crosby and Whitby hotels,...

Where can you watch The Territory, and what will you gain? Too often we remain ignorant of the plights that people in other parts of the world face. While we all try to stay up-to-date and be educated members of society who are conscious of what goes on outside of our “own backyard,” many of us are not able to even scratch the surface in learning about all of the unfortunate battles people are currently facing. National Geographic’s The Territory shines light on a current event you may not know was occurring but is beneficial to learn about.

The Territory is a documentary produced by the Oscar-Nominated filmmaker, Darren Aronofsky and the Oscar-Nominated and Emmy Award-winning Sigrid Dyekjaer. It was directed by Alax Pritz, who has worked on My Dear Kyrgyzstan and The First Wave. The documentary provides a rare glimpse into the battle that the Brazilian Amazon’s...

A documentary film 20 Years in the making and shot over the 9-month period between the orders to withdraw from Afghanistan and the chaotic moments of the final withdrawal, Retrograde is a documentary well-described as “mournful” by critics. The emotional story follows the experience of Afghan General Sami Sadat, a man the Afghan people long considered heroic in his attempts to lead the Afghan army in their fight to hold back the Taliban. The future of the nation rests on one man’s shoulders as the U.S. special operations forces prepare to pull out after 20 years, 2 trillion, and 2,500 American lives lost.

With long moments of silence in the film directed by Matthew Heineman, no words are needed to describe the strong emotions facing the Green Berets and the Afghan soldiers they’d trained and prepared for the inevitable moment during two long decades.

We all witnessed what happened in the end,...

Paul McCartney is getting the documentary treatment from Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville.

Neville helped announce the news Saturday afternoon inside Milk Studios, host of Universal Music Group’s star-studded artist showcase, an annual Grammy weekend event presented by chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge that typically features a packed program of musical performances mixed with some breaking news on Uni film projects. Today’s installment, the first showcase in three years due to the pandemic, was no different with news on McCartney, a feature documentary on Grammy winner Jon Batiste from Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman and a spring release date on HBO for Love to Love You, Donna Summer.

The McCartney project is titled Man on the Run and comes from Mpl Communications (the umbrella company for McCartney’s business interests) and Polygram Entertainment (the film and TV division of Umg). Per official intel, the film will focus on...

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

Regardless of politics, we can all agree that the U.S. military’s exit from Afghanistan, a country our armed forces had occupied for two decades, turned into a shitshow. Not the exit itself, which was orderly and swift in the manner of a rehearsed tactical operation, but the aftermath, which saw nearly an entire country retaken by the very enemy the U.S. had assisted them in fighting for twenty years. Matthew Heineman’s documentary “Retrograde” watches the doom unfold.

The film starts by following a troop of American Green Berets deployed to Camp Shorab whose orders are to train the Afghan military in modern combat, teaching them how to use the weapons they’ll need to continue fighting the Taliban on home soil. The camp is outfitted with attack helicopters, surveillance blimps, tanks, rockets, and everything the local army needs to be taught how to use.

The operation had barely begun when,...

National Geographic Documentary Films has announced the acquisition of worldwide rights to Bobi Wine: The People’s President, following its Venice Festival premiere.

The film, directed by Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp and produced by double Oscar winner John Battsek, follows Ugandan opposition leader, activist and musical star Bobi Wine as he uses his music to fight the regime led by Yoweri Museveni, who has led the country for 35 years and changed the constitution to enable another five-year term.

NatGeo Doc Films will roll out the film at global festivals throughout the rest of the year and release it in theaters in 2023.

Wine said: “My people, the Ugandan people, are familiar with my journey through music, politics, imprisonment and torture, but this film is a microcosm of my country’s larger struggles under an unrelenting dictatorship that has been operating with impunity for decades. I can’t wait for...

One of the most anticipated documentaries of the fall festival season is “Retrograde,” Matthew Heineman’s new National Geographic film about the final days of the United States’ military presence in Afghanistan. After two decades of fighting the War on Terror, the withdrawal quickly became one of the biggest foreign policy debacles in American history. The Taliban made massive gains almost immediately after American troops left, leaving many to wonder if anything was gained from the entire endeavor.

While the high-level political decisions have been debated at length, “Retrograde” promises to give audiences an unprecedented look at what happened on the ground as American troops wrapped up their operation and prepared to leave. The harrowing footage was captured at great risk to Heineman’s safety, but the documentarian is no stranger to risking his life to make films.

He recently braved the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic to make “The First Wave,...

Neon in association with National Geographic Documentary Films said director Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love will cross 1 million at the box office this weekend, becoming the biggest documentary release of the year for combined domestic and international gross. The film opened this summer and is entering its ninth week in theaters nationally. It will stream on Disney+ later this year.

National Geographic Documentary Films acquired the worldwide rights to Fire of Love following its Sundance debut (awarded the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award). Produced by Shane Boris, Ina Fichman and Dosa, the Miranda July-narrated film explores the passionate lives and work of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft through their striking, rare archival footage.

Executive Producers are Greg Boustead and Jessica Harrop of Sandbox Films, Carolyn Bernstein of National Geographic Documentary Films and Josh Braun and Dan Braun of Submarine.

The intrepid scientists captured some of the most spectacular imagery...

Abramorama and Roco Films have co-acquired U.S. distribution rights to Cynthia Lowen’s abortion documentary “Battleground.” The film premiered in the documentary competition category at the Tribeca Festival in June. The doc follows three women in charge of anti-abortion organizations devoted to overturning Roe v. Wade.

Abramorama and Roco Films will co-release “Battleground” in hundreds of theaters across the country beginning Oct. 7 for an official Academy Award qualifying run. The film will also be simultaneously released in schools, non-profit spaces and corporate board rooms, both in-person and virtually. In addition, impact agencies Together Films and Red Owl will deliver a comprehensive national impact campaign alongside the release.

The doc is timely given the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, effectively striking down the ruling that has guaranteed basic abortion rights in the U.S. since 1973.

“We are at a profound turning point in American...

Chicago – The Amazon Rainforest, in the country of Brazil in South America, is often called the heartbeat of the world … its ecosystem is a regulator for climate and nature. As this natural land – and the native people who have called it home – is threatened by development, the story is told by director Alex Pritz in “The Territory.”

Rating: 4.0/5.0

“The Territory” is a shorthand for what is at stake in that part of the world. Not only are farmers and other “property” structures infiltrating the Amazon, but the indigenous native people (the Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe) – who have occupied the rainforest for generations – are dwindling and being forced out. The country of Brazil are coercing their laws onto the law of nature and tribal survival, and this “heartbeat of the world” is being slowly co-opted for the commercialization of human greed. It’s also up to the Uru-eu-wau-wau to save their land, against...

Two lovers, countless volcanoes, and hundreds of hours of footage: “Fire of Love” has an engulfing heat that viewers, much like the documentary’s subjects Maurice and Katia Krafft, can’t help but run toward.

As IndieWire can exclusively announce, National Geographic Documentary Films and Neon will debut the Sundance award-winning documentary “Fire of Love” in theaters July 6. Directed by Sara Dosa (“The Seer and the Unseen”) and narrated by filmmaker Miranda July (“Kajillionaire”), “Fire of Love” centers on married couple Maurice and Katia Krafft who, after meeting on a blind date, share a fascination with explosive volcanoes. IndieWire also shares the exclusive trailer below.

After debuting at 2022 Sundance, “Fire of Love” won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award. After its July 6 theatrical premiere in select cities, the film will roll out in theaters nationwide before eventually streaming on Disney+. (IndieWire featured the film on its list of 35 Movies to Know for the 2023 Oscar Race.

Exclusive: The team behind Gloria: I Will Survive, a feature documentary about the artist, has grown strong and learned how to get along.

Storyville Entertainment, the production company behind the doc, founded by Betsy Schechter, has brought on board editor David Zieff, who worked on seminal rock doc Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, and producer Pippa Lambert, as it heads to the finish line.

The doc looks at how Gaynor, who, despite incredible hardship, has wielded her musical talent to change the course of her life, having surmounted illness, paralysis, her sister’s murder, a 25-year traumatic marriage (and divorce) and a cleaned-out bank account. She rebuilt her life by earning a psychology degree at 69 and investing her own resources to self-produce gospel record Testimony – which won Gaynor her second Grammy 40 years after her first.

It will explore the five-year period it took to record the album and features her...

Neon will partner with National Geographic to release Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love” documentary, following a successful Sundance debut earlier this year. Neon is planning a theatrical release for this summer, with a streaming release on Disney+ set for later this year.

Dosa’s documentary follows the lives and work of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft through rare archival footage. The love story is tinged with passion and tragedy, as the two died while exploring and photographing a volcanic explosion, doing the very thing that brought them together. The film kicked off Sundance’s U.S. documentary competition, and won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award. National Geographic Documentary Films acquired the worldwide rights following the film’s Sundance premiere.

Narrated by Miranda July, the film is produced by Shane Boris, Ina Fichman and Dosa. Executive producers are Greg Boustead and Jessica Harrop of Sandbox Films, Carolyn Bernstein of...

Distributor plans summer theatrical release ahead of Disney+ streaming launch.

Neon has reteamed with National Geographic Documentary Films to releasee Sara Dosa’s Sundance hit Fire Of Love.

The distributor plans a summer theatrical release ahead of a streaming debut on Disney+ later this year. National Geographic acquired worldwide rights during the festival on the winner of Sundance’s Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award.

Fire Of Love centres on French volcanologists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft ,who had a lifelong obsession with volcanoes and died capturing spectacular imagery of volcanoes. Miranda July narrated the film, which is produced by Shane Boris,...

Neon said Wednesday that it has come aboard Fire of Love, Sara Dosa’s documentary that world premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. That’s where Deadline boke the news that National Geographic Documentary Films acquired worldwide rights to the pic, which explores the lives and work of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft through rare archival footage.

Nat Geo and Neon previously partnered on the release last year of Matthew Heineman’s Covid documentary The First Wave. As part of the new deal, Neon will release Fire of Love in the summer ahead of a planned streaming bow on Disney+.

Shane Boris, Ina Fichman and Dosa produced Fire of Love, which is narrated by Miranda July. Executive Producers are Greg Boustead and Jessica Harrop of Sandbox Films, Carolyn Bernstein of National Geographic Documentary Films, and Josh Braun and Dan Braun of Submarine.

The feature doc is a Sandbox Films,...

The Covid-19 pandemic was hard on everyone, not least Judd Apatow. Among the many casualties was his last movie, “The King of Staten Island,” which was supposed to open the SXSW film festival but had to cancel after America went into lockdown. When faced with such challenges, creative people create. Some made bread. Others grew out their beards. Judd Apatow made a movie. A very bad movie. In not-even-the-worst-thing-to-launch-on-Netflix-lately “The Bubble,” a team of insufferable Hollywood actors quarantine together on the set of a massively disorganized franchise movie and proceed to drive each other crazy. But hey, what did you do during Covid?

During her Oscar opening monologue, co-host Amy Schumer (star of Apatow’s far-better 2015 “Trainwreck”) took a moment to congratulate the audience. “During a raging pandemic, you made a movie. Give yourselves a hand,” she said. “And yet they weren’t all great. … You know who you are.

On the eve of the 11th annual Sun Valley Film Festival, Vision Award honorees Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler are both experiencing a bit of déjà vu.

For three-time Oscar nominee Harrelson, it’s because he has just learned that his role in the reboot of his 1992 big-screen breakthrough, “White Men Can’t Jump,” will be played by rapper Jack Harlow.

“I don’t know him, but it’s fine with me,” Harrelson says. “I’ll look him up now. I don’t see [myself] being in it, but I feel great about them doing a remake. I just hope he’s a better ball player!”

For Poehler, talking about the fest, which takes place March 20-April 3 in Sun Valley and Ketchum, Idaho, makes her feel a bit like history is repeating. The Emmy-winning “SNL” co-host and “Parks and Recreation” alumna was set to receive the Vision Award in March 2020, but Covid...

Apple TV+ film boosts prospects ahead of March 27 Oscar ceremony.

(L-r): Daniel Durant, presenter Kristen Stewart and writer-director Sian Heder, producers Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger and Philippe Rousselet with Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur

Coda delivered a surprise win at the 33rd Annual Producers Guild Awards (PGA) on Saturday night (19) and made history as AppleTV+ became the first streamer to claim the guild’s top film prize heading into the final week of awards season.

Sian Heder’s family story upset favourite The Power Of The Dog at rival platform Netflix to win the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for...

Apple Studios emerged the big winner of what some say is an important Oscar precursor on Saturday night, as “Coda” took the top film prize at the annual Producers Guild Awards.

What began as a Sundance sales sensation directed by Sian Heder — the heart-tugging story following the only hearing family member in a tribe of charismatic New England fishermen — won the Darryl F. Zanuck award for best motion picture producing. Other notable film winners at Los Angeles’ Fairmont Hotel were Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” for documentary feature, and the musical juggernaut “Encanto” for best producers of an animated film.

“Succession” took home the Norman Felton Award for outstanding episodic drama. Apple’s “Ted Lasso” continued its trophy collection spree by claiming the Danny Thomas Award for outstanding television comedy. HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” won the David L. Wolper award for outstanding producer of a limited series.

Power players...

“Coda” has been named the best produced film of 2021 at the Producers Guild Awards, throwing the Oscar race for Best Picture into complete turmoil only eight days before that show takes place on March 27.

The win comes at the only awards show besides the Oscars that uses ranked-choice or preferential voting in its best picture category, and it reinforced a feeling that the longtime Oscar favorite, “The Power of the Dog,” might be too divisive to win under a system that looks for a film with broad support.

Coupled with its SAG Awards win for ensemble, a category in which “The Power of the Dog” wasn’t even nominated, “Coda” now has to be considered a very strong Oscar contender and maybe even the new front runner, even though it is missing some of the nominations once thought necessary for a Best Picture winner.

The Oscars will now find PGA...

The 2022 Producers Guild of America Awards took place on Saturday, March 19 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. So who prevailed? Scroll down for the complete 2022 PGA Awards winners list in all 14 categories.

The PGA represents over 8,000 producers in film, television and new media and, since 2009, both the PGA and the Academy Awards have picked Best Picture with ranked choice voting.The PGA has been one of the most reliable Oscar predictors around, thanks in large part to the fact that both the guild and the academy use the the preferential ballot to determine a Best Picture victor. Since 2009, the PGA has forecast 9 of 12 Oscar champs.

Special honorary awards were also handed out to distinguished guests on Saturday. George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy received the Milestone Award. Rita Moreno was bestowed the Stanley Kramer Award. Issa Rae took home the Visionary Award. Mary Parent accepted the David O. Selznick...

The 33rd Producers Guild of America Awards will take place Saturday, March 19, honoring the best achievements in TV and film production. Wondering who will take home prizes when the PGA announces its winners? Scroll down for our racetrack odds in 10 categories, which are based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. The predicted winners are in gold.

The PGA represents over 8,000 producers in film, television and new media and, since 2009, both the PGA and the Academy Awards have picked Best Picture with ranked choice voting. As the only major precursor to use this voting system, the PGA Awards could foresee the winner of this year’s nail-biting Best Picture race at the Oscars.

Best Picture

The Power of the Dog — 13/2

Belfast — 15/2

Coda — 15/2

West Side Story — 8/1

King Richard — 9/1

Dune — 9/1

Licorice Pizza — 19/2

Don’t Look Up — 11/1

tick, tick…Boom! — 13/1

Being the Ricardos — 14/1

Best Animated Feature

Encanto — 31/10

The Mitchells vs the Machines...

The Danish animated documentary “Flee” has been named the best nonfiction film of 2021 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, which were streamed in a virtual ceremony on Friday night.

The film, in which director Jonas Poher Rasmussen uses animation to disguise the identity of an Afghan refugee who fled to Russian and then Denmark, scored an unprecedented trifecta when it was nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film categories.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won the IDA award in the Best Director category for “Summer of Soul,” his directorial debut. The film also won in the Best Music Documentary and Best Editing categories, making it the only film to win more than one award at the ceremony.

Other winners included Jimmy Goldblum’s “A Broken House” in the Best Short category, the series “Independent Lens” for Best Curated Series,...