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The world may seem pretty bleak at the moment, but at least we have the Academy Awards to look forward to. No, really. While the Oscars may have an unfortunate history of rewarding garbage movies, celebrating terrible people and indulging the musical whims of Billy Crystal, this year could be different.

For starters, instead of giving the hosting job to Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel, nobody at all or Jimmy Kimmel, the Academy has thankfully hired Conan O’Brien. And we have no doubt that Conan will ultimately prove to be the anti-Franco.

While we’re still over a month away from the actual ceremony, the Oscar nominations are set to be announced this Thursday, at the least convenient time possible for every U.S. time zone, as per tradition.

Further indicating that the Academy has good hiring instincts this year, the nominations will be announced by two funny, likable young stars:...

Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang will announce the nominations for the 97th annual Academy Awards.

The announcement will take place starting at 5:30 a.m. Pt on Thursday in a live presentation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The two actor-writer-comedians will announce nominees in all 24 Oscar categories. The announcement will also be live streamed globally on Oscar.com, Oscars.org and the Academy’s digital platforms (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook). It will also be broadcast on ABC’s Good Morning America and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

Sennott’s credits include Jason Reitman’s film Saturday Night, which goes behind the scenes of the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live in 1975. Yang, meanwhile, currently stars on NBC’s SNL.

Sennott’s credits also include Shiva Baby, Bodies Bodies Bodies and I Used to Be Funny.

After a slight postponement, the Oscars will get back on track on Thursday when Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott announce the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards.

Starting at 5:30 a.m. Pst, the “Wicked” actor and the “Bottoms” actress will reveal the nominees for all 23 categories via livestream and on social media. The nominations were originally supposed to be read on Jan. 17, but were postponed due to the Los Angeles wildfires.

Final voting will begin on Feb. 11 through Feb. 18. Conan O’Brien will then host (for the first time) on March 2. Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan are producing.

In addition to postponing the initial nominations announcement, the 2025 Oscar Nominees Luncheon has been canceled altogether, per the AMPAS.

Yang is known for his work on “Saturday Night Live” as well as his “Las Culturistas” podcast with Matt Rogers, while Sennott has starred in “Shiva Baby,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” “I Used to Be Funny” and “Saturday Night.

To his 700,000 TikTok followers and thousands of online fans, Caleb Hearon is a stand-up comedian, podcaster, actor, and screenwriter known for his absurdist take on zillennial comedy. Take, for instance, one of his most famous viral clips: When an anonymous troll commenter wrote that Hearon looks like “he broke into a bakery and ate all the pies,” Hearon responded on an episode of Drew Afualo’s podcast The Comment Section: “Ate all the pies? Like an 18th-century limerick? You’re so soft. I’ll kill you to death with a gun.

Writer and director Ally Pankiw's I Used To Be Funny features a cast of new and notable names in the entertainment industry who show new sides of their abilities in the Canadian comedy-drama. I Used To Be Funny focuses on a young comedian with Ptsd, who debates whether to help search for a missing teenager she used to babysit. Premiering in 2023 at SXSW before being released in theaters on June 7, 2024, reviews of I Used To Be Funny have commended the cast's emotional performances.

From completely new faces in the industry to ones that are familiar to keen comedy fans, I Used To Be Funny utilizes its cast's comedic background to deliver an emotionally deep story with moments of comedic flair. As such, many of these actors show a completely new side of their acting abilities as comedy actors who nail dramatic roles. This fresh-faced cast brings I Used To Be Funny...

Our top pick this week already won an Academy Award: “The Boy and the Heron,” the 2024 winner for Best Animated Feature, is now available on Max, where it joins the rest of the streamer’s Studio Ghibli collection, alongside classics like “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke.”

“The Boy and the Heron” comes from anime legend Hayao Miyazaki, and may be the 83-year-old filmmaker’s last film. It’s an allegorically autobiographical film about a boy named Mahito Maki (voiced by Luca Padovan in the English-language dub). He is grieving the death of his mother when a trickster heron tells him he can reunite with her, sparking an unpredictable journey into a spirit realm. It’s a thematically rich and beautifully animated film that moves with Miyazaki’s inimitable dream logic. The voice cast also includes Christian Bale, Florence Pugh, Mark Hamill, and Willem Dafoe, among many others.

Here are some...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)

Cinema at its most boundlessly imaginative, The Boy and the Heron is a journey of thrilling, pure dream logic chock full of images that feel conjured from the deepest corners of Miyazaki’s mind. Considering the painstaking, hand-drawn labor it takes to pull off an animation this encumbered by standard narrative conventions, the feat of Miyazaki being able to corral such a vision feels miraculous. For the sake of the medium, here’s hoping the 82-year-old legend has one more in him.

Where to Stream: Max

Coup! (Austin Stark and Joseph Schuman)

Let’s talk about the pandemic for a moment. No, not the Covid-19 Pandemic. The pandemic that, 100 years ago, killed millions and shuttered...

After making a splash last fall with her debut album Snow Angel, Reneé Rapp has revealed that she’s back to work on a new album.

“Are you currently working on a new album?” actress Rachel Sennott asks Rapp in a new installment of Instagram’s Close Friends Only podcast. Rapp, who recently graced the big-screen in the musical adaptation of Mean Girls, confirms that she is in the studio working on new material and goes on to explain the inspiration.

“[Age] 23 to 24 has been a massive difference for me,” Rapp tells the actress, star of such films as Shiva Baby, Bottoms and I Used to Be Funny. “It’s also about, like, a reflection on my, like, 23rd year specifically.”

Sennott then jumps in to offer her experience on her early 20s as someone who is now 28. “23 is fucking crazy,” she says. “It was like the most insane year of my life.

2023’s I Used To Be Funny is like eating a rainbow cake made of bitter gourd. Underneath the facade of a non-linear screenplay that pushes us to trust that our protagonist was at her A-game in the standup comedy scene before a traumatizing incident gave her crippling depression and Ptsd, is a simple story about a young woman who can’t seem to find her footing in the world that constantly pushes her deeper and deeper into the ground until she disappears completely. The film is a lesson in using humor as a gateway into a person’s darkness. A beautiful exploration that keeps you watching to make sure the protagonist, Sam, is able to say “I am funny” rather than “I Used To Be Funny” again. Sam is a comedian who has been off the grid for several months because of a terrible incident. So much so that her roommates and besties,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)

One of the 2022’s most resonant films, Aftersun looks at the scratchy dynamics between a father and daughter while on vacation. It’s about memory, the finite nature of the relationships in our lives, and the difficulties of a parent’s diminishing mental health. Charlotte Wells knows where to put the camera in her debut—undeterred from taking risks, from placing her characters outside of the frame, from looking at shadows instead of the people themselves. Aftersun is a rare, tremendous first film, full of heart and focused melancholy; it breaks you down and fills you up simultaneously. The consistent inclusion of camcorder footage, and the fact that it enhances the story rather than becoming a distraction, further proclaims...

During her time in journalism school, writer-director Ally Pankiw discovered documentary studies and broadcast news, and immediately fell in love with video editing and production.

Although she didn’t attend traditional film school, she taught herself the basics of Final Draft after graduating and started writing. After directing Season 1 of Netflix’s “Feel Good,” the “Joan Is Awful” episode of “Black Mirror” and more, Pankiw finally got funding for her first feature film: “I Used to Be Funny,” starring “Shiva Baby” breakout Rachel Sennott.

The film is in select theaters via Utopia and was released digitally on June 18. Sennott stars as Sam, a stand-up comedian struggling with Ptsd after being sexually assaulted. She tries to decide whether or not to look for Brooke (Olga Petsa), a missing teenage girl she used to nanny. The story swaps between past and present, where Sam navigates her trauma.

Pankiw tells Variety that the...

I Used to Be Funny, starring Rachel Sennott, tackles the complex themes of trauma and healing through a stand-up comedian's story. Ally Pankiw's film blends humor and drama to highlight how women are silenced after experiencing violence. The movie explores the impact of trauma on creativity and the importance of reclaiming humor and joy in the face of adversity.

I Used to Be Funny, a smart and contemplative movie that recently received high praise at Tribeca Film Festival, is now available to watch in theaters or from home. Written and directed by Ally Pankiw (who has previously written for Schitt's Creek and directed episodes of The Great), the movie stars Rachel Sennott, best known for her star-making turn in Bottoms. Sennott plays Sam, a stand-up comedian who hasn't felt like getting up on stage since her recent traumatic experience.

Though it does veer more toward drama than comedy, I Used To Be Funny...

It was an Inside Out specialty weekend, fairly quiet and with a stream of indies films and more wide releases. The schedule is starting to recover from a strike-induced slump that, however, provided oxygen to some indies.

Small films have been competing for screens with majors at arthouses from Alamo Drafthouse to Landmark since theaters reopened post-Covid and the more of them there are, the harder it is. It’s nice to see major back and the broader box office on a solid footing. But it would also be nice to see more indie breakouts like Civil War, Late Night With The Devil, Immaculate, Wicked Little Letters, One Life or Love Lies Bleeding.

“June is crowded” with indies now, says one distributor. And theaters “don’t have space to support indies in a meaningful way.”

Others are heartened by recent wide-release blowouts. “It’s still a tough market. But I...

Rachel Sennott shines in a nuanced role. I Used to Be Funny balances comedy and drama effectively. The film's ending feels rushed despite strong filmmaking.

For a movie about Ptsd, I Used to Be Funny is anything but "used to." The film is funny in the here and now, constantly reminding the audience that, while laughter isn't the best medicine, sometimes it's the only way to move forward in the wake of the unimaginable. Starring Rachel Sennott, best known for her comedic turn in Bottoms, I Used to Be Funny gets the actress to flex the dramatic muscles she used in her earlier project, Shiva Baby. She plays Sam, the stand-up comedian who can't seem to shake her past with the family she nannied for.

I Used to Be Funny (2024)

DirectorAlly PankiwRelease DateJune 7, 2024CastCaleb Hearon, Sabrina Jalees, Olga Petsa, Rachel Sennott, Jason JonesRatingNRRuntime105 MinutesGenresDrama, Comedy Expand

It's not difficult to guess what happened to Sam,...

Ally Pankiw finds it hilarious that her debut feature, “I Used to Be Funny,” isn’t centering on a queer character, despite her own orientation.

While writer/director Pankiw, who is a queer filmmaker, noted that inherently all of her work has a “queer perspective” given her identity. “I Used to Be Funny” is about a stand-up comic, played by Rachel Sennott, who grapples with Ptsd after a teen she used to nanny goes missing.

Pankiw wants to see more queer filmmakers to tell stories that aren’t only queer — and not feel pigeonholed to make only “coming out” dramas.

“Dramedy and dark comedies, that’s really the world that I like playing in,” Pankiw told IndieWire. “Stuff that obviously centers around women and queer people and isn’t just about coming out. It’s always nice…You know, look, I’ve been out for 16 years. So the things that...

Cardio is good. Sony Pictures Classics’ 4k rerelease of Run Lola Run had a healthy weekend, opening to an estimated $154k on 275 screens. This is the 25th anniversary of the U.S. debut of Tom Tykwer’s German experimental thriller that sees flame-haired Lola (Franka Potente) on the move in Berlin, pounding the pavement to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend’s life. (This was before the euro arrived). See Deadline interview here. A handful of rereleases/restorations have been box office stars post-Covid and this is another indie win.

A24’s Tuesday, a modern-day fairy tale with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, launched to $26k on two screens. Daina O. Pusic’s directorial debut premiered at Telluride. The modern-day fairy tale had sold out Q&As shows throughout the weekend and expands to a moderate nationwide footprint next week.

Utopia reunited with Shiva Baby (and Bottoms) star Rachel Sennott...

Theaters will live to fight another day. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” (Sony) provided more than half of the gross this weekend, taking #1 with $56 million. That isn’t a record for the franchise (with previous films at lower ticket prices), but it is a critical victory for the industry at a time it desperately needs them.

Will Smith’s first wide release since his catastrophic Oscar behavior in 2022 represents a triumph for star power, franchise filmmaking, action titles, and titles that draw from minority audiences (over two thirds for the weekend were Black and Latino). Most of all, it was a vital sign that underperformance for highly touted summer films isn’t a given.

In the face of rising industry panic, an under-$40 million opening for “Ride or Die” (its 2020 predecessor opened to $62 million) could have ratched the doom and despair to toxic levels. Instead, it blew past tracking projections...

It’s a big weekend for critically acclaimed indies in limited release as well as a handful of moderate openings, including Richard Gere’s latest film Longing. The provenance of that is unusual as the film from Lionsgate/Grindstone is a Canada-set remake of a 2017 Israeli drama. The original was quite well received, but the film opening this weekend has been thoroughly skewered by critics.

After winning screenplay and audience awards in Israel, the original film premiered in Venice, taking the Bnl People’s Choice Award, then played Toronto.

Both versions are written and directed by Savi Gabizon. Characters and story are identical: a successful single American businessman (Gere) meets up with a 20-year-old old flame (Suzanne Clément) and learns that he has a son, and, a beat later, that the young man has just died in a car accident. Trying to process that and find a connection,...

It’s not a joke: Ally Pankiw spent 10 years making “I Used to Be Funny” into the dog whistle of a dark comedy for millennial women.

As Pankiw told IndieWire, the film is a “nightmare of what it is to be a young woman in the world,” with Rachel Sennott playing Sam Cowell, an aspiring stand-up comedian grappling with Ptsd after an assault. Sam is haunted by the memories of working as an au pair for teen girl Brooke (Olga Petsa), who recently disappeared. The film premiered at the 2023 SXSW Festival.

Writer/director Pankiw’s debut feature, which already landed her among IndieWire’s female filmmakers to watch list, has topped IndieWire’s must-see films of the summer in part due to the “no-brainer” casting of buzzy star Sennott in the lead role.

“Rachel is such an exceptional talent because she makes everything feel like it’s her, [and] like it’s effortless,...

The Shiva Baby and Bodies, Bodies, Bodies standout goes serious in an uneven and at times frustrating combination of disparate tones and genre

There’s a particular, distinctly online note – dead-eyed, chaotic, teetering between hyper self-consciousness and delusional confidence – that comedian Rachel Sennott can hit so effectively it will temporarily and memorably spark its container: Twitter, where she rose to prominence as a self-aware zillennial comedy It Girl; Bodies Bodies Bodies, where she provided the bulk of the horror comedy’s actual zingers; The Idol, where her bit part as a pop star’s assistant was one of the misbegotten HBO series’ few highlights. As a lead – in Emma Seligman’s claustrophobic feature Shiva Baby and, less successfully, in Seligmans’ follow-up comedy Bottoms – Sennott stretched her shtick but remained most successful in this familiar, self-deprecating zone, though she has hinted at something darker and less irony-pilled.

I Used to Be Funny,...

Clockwise from top left: “Weapon Of Choice,” Fatboy Slim feat. Bootsy Collins; “Karma Police,” Radiohead; “Losing My Religion,” R.E.M.; “Vogue,” MadonnaScreenshot: Fatboy Slim; Radiohead; Remhq; Madonna (YouTube)

In a post-MTV world, it’s easy to write off the music video as an eternally lost art. While that may be true in some ways,...

For many viewers, the scenes hardest to take in viral streaming cringefest “Baby Reindeer” weren’t the ones of overt stalking or abuse, but those depicting the Doa stand-up comedy of Richard Gadd’s alter ego — moments whose flop-sweating public failure seemed to stretch into tortuous infinity. Canadian feature “I Used to Be Funny” likewise hinges on a paralyzing intersection between stand-up, anxiety and depression. Mercifully, however, here it’s not the protagonist’s stage act that is the cause of massive self-doubt. Instead, it’s a host of external problems that conspire to make her incapable of performing …as well as eating, sleeping and leaving her apartment.

Ally Pankiw’s big-screen debut recalls such prior indie features as “The Big Sick,” “Sleepwalk With Me” and “Obvious Child” in successfully using a comedy milieu to place a leavening frame around some very serious issues. In this case, an aspiring comedian...

Rachel Sennott is funny, and her character in I Used to be Funny, a stand-up comedian named Sam, is too—or at least she used to be. Writer-director Ally Pankiw’s debut feature weaves two eras of Sam’s life together, with Sennott fully embodying both the bubbly, brassy person Sam once was and the shut-in she became in the wake of a traumatizing event. The nimble way that she hops between these two versions of the character easily makes up for the odd narrative misstep that I Used to Be Funny makes along the way.

The film begins with Sam cooped up in a house she shares with her two besties, fellow comedians Paige (Sabrina Jalees) and Philip (Caleb Hearon). They’re both worried about how reclusive Sam has become, as well as her refusal to get back on stage, though it’s some kind of progress when they...

I Used To Be Funny Image: Utopia Rape jokes are never funny, except when a survivor gives you permission to laugh. In the rearview of a hard-earned recovery, it is pretty funny that the joke-teller went to bed in a sopping wet towel, commended by their friends because at least...

I Used To Be FunnyImage: Utopia

Rape jokes are never funny, except when a survivor gives you permission to laugh. In the rearview of a hard-earned recovery, it is pretty funny that the joke-teller went to bed in a sopping wet towel, commended by their friends because at least they took a shower for once.

Rachel Sennott delivers an impressive performance that takes her impressive skills to new levels in I Used to Be Funny. The film balances humor with sensitive subject matter and cleverly withholds information, resulting in an emotionally affecting and surprising story. I Used to Be Funny may get too melodramatic or even cheesy near the end, but the phenomenal acting keeps things grounded.

Anyone who pays attention to the rising stars of young Hollywood will have kept tabs on Rachel Sennott, the extremely talented, multifaceted, and funny actor from Tahara, Shiva Baby, Bodies Bodies Bodies, and Bottoms. I Used to Be Funny, writer-director Ally Pankiw's feature debut, stars Sennott as Sam, a comedian whose career has been stopped in its tracks by Ptsd. To make matters worse, the girl she was previously a nanny for, Brooke (Olga Petsa), has gone missing, and Sam seems to be the last person to have seen her.

Who says this summer is light on blockbuster fare, despite the strikes holding productions and release dates up?

Big movies coming to theaters in the next hot few months include favorite IP getting a 2024 burnish, from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” to “Alien: Romulus” and “Twisters”. Oh, and a little movie called “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (May 24), which George Miller will first bring to the Cannes Film Festival before opening it in theaters later that month. Plus, poised to be a Netflix hit this summer is Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man” (May 24 in theaters), playing for a couple of weeks in select cities before the crime comedy starring Glen Powell hits the streaming platform.

But those bigger-ticket titles aside, summer 2024 is a time for indies to shine, from Annie Baker’s long-awaited festival hit “Janet Planet” (June 14) to India Donaldson’s wonderful Sundance premiere “Good One” (August...

While her performance in Bottoms may have gotten the most buzz out of South by Southwest Film Festival last year, Rachel Sennott also brought a dramedy to the festival. Ally Pankiw’s debut I Used to Be Funny follows that actor as an aspiring stand-up who struggles with attempting to search for a missing teenager she used to nanny. Also starring Olga Pesta, Jason Jones, Sabrina Jalees, Caleb Hearon, and Ennis Esmer, the first trailer has now arrived ahead of a June 7 release from Utopia.

Here’s the synopsis: “I Used To Be Funny is a dark dramedy that follows Sam Cowell (Rachel Sennott), an aspiring stand-up comedian and au pair struggling with Ptsd, as she decides whether or not to join the search for Brooke (Olga Petsa), a missing teenage girl she used to nanny. The story exists between the present, where Sam tries to recover from her trauma and get back on stage,...

I Used To Be Funny Screenshot: Utopia/YouTube Even though the world is still recovering from her earth-shaking delivery of “your parents are upper middle class” in Bodies Bodies Bodies, Rachel Sennott is back with yet another sardonic but personally miserable protagonist in I Used To Be Funny, the feature-length debut from director Ally Pankiw.

I Used To Be FunnyScreenshot: Utopia/YouTube

Even though the world is still recovering from her earth-shaking delivery of “your parents are upper middle class” in Bodies Bodies Bodies, Rachel Sennott is back with yet another sardonic but personally miserable protagonist in I Used To Be Funny, the feature-length debut from director Ally Pankiw.

"I'm worried that you're still not leaving the house." "I showered today..." Utopia has revealed the official trailer for an indie dark comedy titled I Used to be Funny, the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Ally Pankiw. This premiered at last year's SXSW Film Festival and played at the Woodstock, Nashville, Calgary, and Stockholm Film Festivals as well. The film is about Sam, a stand-up comedian struggling with Ptsd, who weighs whether or not to join the search for a missing teenage girl she used to nanny. "Writer / director Ally Pankiw's debut feature is both funny and heartbreaking in its honest and refreshing look at trauma and recovery, and how they affect the relationships and communities that shape us." Starring Rachel Sennott as Sam, with Olga Pesta, Jason Jones, Sabrina Jalees, Caleb Hearon, and Ennis Esmer. This seems a bit odd and off-beat, due to the weight of all these...

Rachel Sennott always has her finger on the pulse of indie films, and her latest feature “I Used to Be Funny” is no exception.

The “Shiva Baby,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” and “Bottoms” star leads highly anticipated dark dramedy “I Used To Be Funny,” directed by rising talent Ally Pankiw who has helmed episodes of “Black Mirror” and “The Great,” plus a recent short film titled “Decades of Confusion” for fashion brand Loewe.

Sennott stars as aspiring stand-up comedian Sam Cowell who works as an au pair by day. Yet after the disappearance of Brooke (Olga Petsa), a teen girl she used to nanny, Sam begins to struggle with Ptsd and grapples with whether or not to join the search. The film is split between two timelines as Sam tries to recover from her past trauma and get back on stage while also reliving memories of Brooke.

Writer/director Pankiw marks...

Is anyone’s star rising faster right now than Rachel Sennott‘s? Thanks to the success of “Shiva Baby” and “Bottoms,” the comedic actress is attached to several buzzy projects, including “SNL 1975” and Mimi Cave‘s sophomore feature “Holland, Michigan.” But before those, Sennott stars in what could be a star-making vehicle for her, or at least a movie that showcases her singular range and versatility.

Continue reading ‘I Used To Be Funny’ Trailer: Rachel Sennott Is A Comic Grappling With Trauma In New Indie at The Playlist.

It's difficult to encapsulate the importance of Lana and Lilly Wachowski as directors. While the queer crime thriller "Bound" marked the sisters' directorial debut, it was their 1999 hit "The Matrix" that completely changed the landscape of science-fiction cinema forever. In 2021, the franchise's fourth installment, "The Maxtrix Resurrections" was released, but the film was a solo directorial venture from Lana Wachowski. Lilly has not directed a film since 2015's "Jupiter Ascending," but spent time directing season 1 of "Sense 8" and serving as the showrunner for "Work in Progress." The former was yet another sci-fi epic, but the latter is a sweet, semi-autobiographical queer dramedy starring Abby McEnany. It seems that working on this series must have inspired Lilly to continue similar creative ventures because according to a report from Collider, her next feature film is "Trash Mountain" starring Caleb Hearon.

Hearon co-wrote the film with Ruby Caster ("Bleeding Love"), and the...

"I Used To Be Funny" is a comedy-drama starring Rachel Sennott as a stand-up comedian struggling with Ptsd. The film explores themes of trauma, recovery, and the ripple effects they have on relationships and communities. Utopia has acquired the U.S. rights to the film, partnering with writer-director Ally Pankiw to share this nuanced story with audiences.

We have a new look at actor and Bottoms star Rachel Sennott in her upcoming movie I Used To Be Funny. The film is written and directed by Ally Pankiw, who will be making her feature film directorial debut. I Used To Be Funny is a comedy-drama starring Sennott as a standup comedian, a profession that she had some experience in prior to becoming an actor. Several new images from I Used To Be Funny have now been released, which you can check out below courtesy of X/Twitter:

New look at...

Exclusive: Michel Gondry’s Partizan and Rtg Features have tapped Christopher Makoto Yogi (I Was a Simple Man) to direct Merv and the Miracles, a feature-length doc that explores the legendary college basketball game between Chaminade and number-one ranked Virginia in 1982.

The film, currently in the early stages of production, is being co-produced and co-financed by Partizan and Rtg Features, with Julie Fong (Dave Chappelle’s Block Party), Brian Yang (Linsanity), and Justin R. Ching (Ritual) producing.

During the opening weekend of the 43rd annual Hawai’i Film Festival, Artistic Director Anderson Le will give attendees an early first look at the film during a panel conversation with Yogi, who is himself an Hiff alum. Pic will be one of two Hawaiian indies spotlighted during the 90-minute program taking place on Saturday, October 14th at Entrepreneurs Sandbox in Honolulu.

Merv and the Miracles picks up on December 23, 1982 with Coach Merv...

The movie Bottoms features a talented cast of dynamic and hilarious characters, played by both veteran and newer actors. Rachel Sennott shines as Pj, a misfit with an unapologetically big personality, while Ayo Edebiri brings depth to the role of Josie, a shy high school student going along with Pj's antics. The supporting cast, including Kaia Gerber, Havana Rose Liu, Ruby Cruz, and Nicholas Galitzine, adds depth and diversity to the story.

The movie Bottoms includes a compelling cast of characters played by both veteran and newer actors. This raunchy teen comedy follows two lesbian best friends, Pj and Josie, who start a fight club to get the attention of their cheerleader crushes, even though they regard the pair as losers. The hilarious movie hit theaters on August 25, 2023. Ayo Edebiri's comedy Bottoms gained a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the best movies in 2023 right after its release.

Image Source: HBO

In her short career, Rachel Sennott has already done it all. She has dabbled in comedy, written and produced feature films, and starred in several projects, including movies and TV shows. After graduating from NYU's esteemed Tisch School of the Arts (known for its extensive pool of celebrity alums ranging from Martin Scorsese to Adam Sandler), Sennott began doing comedy performances at open mic nights, which led to her doing her own shows online like "Puke Fest" and "Ur Gonna Slp Rlly Well Tonight."

"I like juggling multiple projects," Sennott told Forbes in 2020 about balancing comedy and her movie and television projects. "It makes me feel less stuck. If I am frustrated in one area, I can always push myself in another."

The success of Sennott's comedy opened up opportunities for her to act in larger-scale television shows and movies, including an episode of HBO's "High Maintenance" in 2018. From there,...

Magnolia Pictures International has acquired worldwide sales rights – including U.S. sales rights – to suspense-drama “Hesitation Wound” from Turkish writer-director Selman Nacar. The film will world premiere in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section.

The film follows Canan (Tülin Özen), a criminal lawyer who divides her time between the courthouse and her mother’s hospital bed at night, who has to make a moral choice that will affect the lives of her mother, the judge, and her murder suspect client – whose defense is turning in his favor.

The cast also includes Ogulcan Arman Uslu, Gülçin Kültür Şahin, Vedat Erincin and Erdem Senocak. The film is produced by Burak Cevik (Fol Sinema), Diloy Gülün (Karma Films), Selman Nacar (Kuyu Film), and co-produced by Trt (Turkey), Bkm Mutfak (Turkey), Sev Yapim (Turkey), Nephilim Producciones (Spain), Point Film (Romania) and Arizona Films (France).

Lorna Lee Torres, head of international sales at Magnolia and Austin Kennedy,...

After distributing Rachel Sennot’s breakout movie Shiva Baby, Utopia has landed the U.S. rights to the SXSW feature I Used to Be Funny starring The Idol actress.

The comedy-drama follows Sam (Sennott), an aspiring stand-up comedian struggling with Ptsd, as she decides whether or not to join the search for a missing teenage girl she used to nanny. Jason Jones, Sabrina Jalees, Caleb Hearon, Olga Petsa, and Ennis Esmer round out the cast

Ally Pankiw, whose credits include The Great and Black Mirror, made her feature directorial debut on the film, which was produced by James Weyman, Jason Aita and Breann Smordin of Barn 12. Li-Wei Chu of Partizan, Judy Holm of Markham Street Films and Alcina Pictures’ Paul Barkin executive produced, along with Pankiw.

“It was so fulfilling to see how I Used to Be Funny and its honest portrayal of recovery from trauma resonated with audiences at...

Ally Pankiw is a Canadian writer and director who has made a name for herself in the entertainment industry. She is best known for directing the entire first season of the Netflix series “Feel Good,” as well as directing episodes for TV shows like “Shrill” and “The Great” on Hulu. Pankiw has also worked as a writer on the popular TV show “Schitt’s Creek” and is currently developing a new original series for Hulu and 20th Century Fox Animation with the show’s star and creator, Dan Levy.

In addition to her work in television, Pankiw has also directed and written an indie feature film called “I Used To Be Funny,” a dramedy that premiered at SXSW film festival in 2023. The film was produced with support from Telefilm, Ontario Creates, and WME Independent. Pankiw has also directed music videos for top artists such as Ariana Grande, Janelle Monae, and Phoebe Bridgers,...

Best Canadian Feature winner Supporting Our Selves Photo: courtesy of Inside Out

There was great news for Argentinian filmmaker Juan Sebastián Torales last night as his semi-autobiographical blending of drama and folklore Almamula won the International Jury Prize for Best First Feature at Inside Out in Toronto. The jury also gave a special mention to Something You Said Last Night, directed by Luis De Filippis.

Inside Out has a special commitment to supporting the voices of Canadian filmmakers, and this year's Canadian Jury favourite was Lulu Wei's Supporting Our Selves, a documentary exploring networks of support and advocacy within Toronto's queer community. Meanwhile, the Audience Awards went to Ally Pankiw's tale of a traumatised stand-up comedian on a mission, I Used To Be Funny.

Those awards in full:

Canadian Juried Awards

The jurors for the 2023 Canadian jury were filmmakers Odu Adamu, Dylan Glynn, and Alice Wang

Best Canadian...

The winners of the 2023 Inside Out 2Slgbtq+ Film Festival Awards were announced this weekend in Toronto where $32,000 in prizes were handed out to various 2Slgbtq+ filmmakers. Top honours went to Juan Sebastián Torales’ Almamula (Best First Feature), Lulu Wei’s Supporting Our Selves (Best Canadian Feature), Beth Warrian’s Adore (Best Canadian Short), and Karimah Zakia Issa with Scaring Women At Night (Emerging Canadian Artist).

The Audience Award winners are Ally Pankiw’s I Used To Be Funny for Best Narrative Feature, Loveleen Kaur’s Leilani’s Fortune for Best Documentary Feature, and Zeppelin Zeerip’s Apayauq for Best Short Film.

The festival is also proud to announce director Judith Schuyler’s upcoming project There Is Light won the annual “Pitch, Please!” contest. The “Pitch, Please!” competition took place in person on June 3, 2023, with competitors from across the globe presenting a short, two-minute pitch to a jury and audience. Prizes...

Fest runs May 25-June 4 in-person and online.

The 33rd annual Inside Out Toronto 2Slgbtq+ Film Festival will open with Ira Sachs’ love triangle drama Passages and close with Tom Gustafson’s musical summer romance Glitter & Doom featuring the Indigo Girls and Missi Pyle.

The festival runs May 25-June 4 in-person and online and will showcase 107 films from 30 countries including 33 feature films and seven world premieres.

This year’s Re:Focus Gala selection is the Sundance Next Audience Award and Berlin Panorama Audience Award winner Kokomo City by D. Smith.

The Centerpiece Gala will host the world premiere of Lulu Wei’s Canadian documentary Supporting Our Selves,...

The Ira Sachs film Passages is set to open the Inside Out 2Slgbtq+ Film Festival after screening at Sundance.

The French romantic drama, which stars Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski and Adèle Exarchopoulos, will receive a gala treatment in Toronto. And the 33rd edition of Inside Out will close with Tom Gustafson’s Glitter & Doom, a musical love story based on the song lyrics by the Indigo Girls and featuring Alex Diaz, Missy Pyle and Tig Notario.

The festival’s lineup, unveiled Friday, also includes screenings for Supporting Our Selves, a documentary about AIDs activists by Lulu Wei that will receive a world premiere, and director Ally Pankiw’s I Used to be Funny, a dramedy about a stand-up comedian struggling with Ptsd who consider joining the search for a missing teenage girl she used to nanny.

There’s also a gala screening for D. Smith’s Kokomo City after it played at Sundance and Berlin.

Titles join Cannes Un Certain Regard selection The Delinquents, others.

Magnolia Pictures International has bulked up its Cannes sales slate by adding international sales rights to SXSW selections I Used To Be Funny and Cora Bora.

Ally Pankiw wrote and directed the dramedy I Used To Be Funny which follows an aspiring stand-up comedian and au pair grappling with Ptsd from an experience that is revealed gradually.

Rachel Sennott from Shiva Baby stars with newcomer Olga Petsa, Jason Jones, Sabrina Jalees, Caleb Hearon, Ennis Esmer, and Dani Kind.

Pankiw makes her feature directorial debut. She previously directed and served as...

To paraphrase dear Hannah Horvath from “Girls,” Rachel Sennott may not be the voice of her generation, but she certainly is a voice of a generation.

And oh, what a voice. Smart, vulnerable, slightly neurotic, frequently ironic, always compelling. It’s a delicious style of comedy honed on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms, where the 27-year-old Sennott first developed a following with her wry observations on dating and personal finance. Then crystalized in starring roles in “Shiva Baby” (a masterclass in awkward humor) and the horror film “Bodies Bodies Bodies” (surprisingly amusing despite the gore). But with the one-two punch of “Bottoms” and “I Used to Be Funny,” both of which premiered at this year’s SXSW, Sennott has further demonstrated how rich and malleable her comic persona can be.

“I’m guided by my gut,” Sennott says of her process for choosing projects. “When I’m reading something and...

The problems with Rare Objects, Katie Holmes’ limp third directorial feature, aren’t immediately apparent. The film, which the actress also co-wrote and stars in, lures you with the potential of the biographical details revealed in the first scene. Benita, played by Julia Mayorga, sits before an attending doctor (Matthew Lawler) at the unnamed hospital from which she is being discharged. He recounts a mix of mundane and distressing facts: Benita was previously a student at the City University of New York; she had an abortion; and she checked herself into the hospital for Ptsd and anxiety. These notes do not define a life, but they do promise a story far more involving than what Rare Objects ultimately offers.

Holmes and her co-writer Phaedon A. Papadopoulos adapted their screenplay from Kathleen Tessaro’s novel of the same name. Tessaro’s Rare Objects takes place in Depression-era Boston, where its main character,...

Rachel Sennott continued her impressive run as a quick-witted, creatively vulgar comic in Bottoms, which premiered during South By Southwest’s second night. But she does something more impressive in Ally Pankiw’s I Used to Be Funny, her second starring turn in this festival that highlights her full dimensionality. Though she still gets to show off her standup skills here––Sennott garners laughs in a series of scenes performing in comedy clubs, something movies and television are rarely able to achieve––this character study about trauma’s unpredictable ripple effects doesn’t foreground too many jokes. As the title implies, this is a movie about losing (and attempting to regain) a defining characteristic due to circumstances out of one’s control.

When the movie opens, Sam (Sennott) has just discovered and become distressed over a 14-year-old (Olga Petsa) who’s gone missing. The significance of their relationship is unclear...

Rachel Sennott is ideally cast in the leading role of Ally Pankiw’s “I Used to Be Funny” because this is a character who sort of can’t help but make you laugh, even without trying, even in tremendously difficult situations. Her name is Sam, and she’s a stand-up comedienne, and you see why. The bone-dry wit and killer-diller timing Sennott displayed in “Shiva Baby” and “Bodies Bodies Bodies” means that even her littlest throwaway lines and deliveries are giggle-worthy, while her insults land like body blows (“I feel like his hair somehow got more incel-y”).

Continue reading ‘I Used To Be Funny’ Review: Rachel Sennott Shines In A Narratively Tricky Seriocomic Drama [SXSW] at The Playlist.