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Exclusive: Tioleja Films optioned author Gabriel Souleyka’s novel My Soul Is a Witness for cinematic adaptation. Gabriel will also pen the script and Andrew Dosunmu will direct. Yasmina F. Edwards is attached to produce.

My Soul is a Witness unfolds in the heart of colonial Senegal, moving to the devastating battlefields of Europe during WWII. It tells the poignant story of Awa and Ibrahim, a young couple whose lives are upended by war. Their love story takes a tragic turn when Ibrahim is conscripted and later presumed dead in 1940. Driven by love and hope, Awa embarks on a perilous journey to Paris in January 1942, seeking any trace of Ibrahim.

She finds refuge in the Paris city mosque, alongside Jews evading Nazi persecution. However, her quest leads her to Auschwitz, where, in a twist of fate, she miraculously finds Ibrahim alive. Their reunion in the...

Winston Duke is in talks to star as the renowned political activist Marcus Garvey in “Marked Man,” a political actioner package that Amazon Studios has picked up, according to an individual with knowledge of the project.

Andrew Dosunmu will direct and executive produce the film. Jesse Williams and DeWanda Wise (“She’s Gotta Have It”) are also in talks to star.

“Marked Man” is partly inspired by Colin Grant’s biography, “Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey,” who was a key figure of Black nationalism in the 20th century. The studio also holds rights to the book.

Acclaimed playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah wrote the screenplay, which Esther Douglas developed with the support of the BFI Film Fund. He will also serve as an executive producer.

Set in the 1920s, “Marked Man” follows a young black man who joins J. Edgar Hoover’s Bureau of Investigation, and then...

Synonymous with Sundance as all of his works have premiered there, Andrew Dosunmu‘s could technically see his fourth feature land in the Premiere section portion of the fest and essentially follow in the footsteps of a beautiful body of work in Restless City (2011), 2013’s Mother of George (read review) and Where Is Kyra? (2017). A queer, romantic drama is based on a screenplay by the one and only Lena Waithe, Beauty features Gracie Marie Bradley and Aleyse Shannon (2019’s Black Christmas) with supporting players in Giancarlo Esposito and Sharon Stone. Production began in the fall of 2019 in New York City, and somewhere along the way, the project landed on Netflix’s doorstep.…...

Exclusive: We’ll be seeing more of Kofu and Goodwin on Bob ♥ Abishola. Anthony Okungbowa (Kofu) and Bayo Akinfemi (Goodwin), who have been recurring all season, have been promoted to series regulars on Chuck Lorre’s CBS comedy.

Kofu (Okungbowa) and Goodwin (Akinfemi) are both Nigerian immigrants and loyal MaxDot employees. They’re often Bob’s (Billy Gardell) go-to guys when he needs capable helping hands at work, and occasionally serve as his expert counsel as he navigates his first relationship with a Nigerian woman.

In Bob ❤ Abishola, after having a heart attack, Bob (Gardell) falls in love with his Nigerian nurse and sets his sights on getting her to give him a chance.

Folake Olowofoyeku, Christine Ebersole, Matt Jones, Maribeth Monroe, Vernee Watson, Shola Adewusi, Barry Shabaka Henley, Travis Wolfe, Jr. and Gina Yashere also star.

Created by Lorre, Al Higgins, Yashere and Eddie Gorodetsky, the series is produced...

The 2020 Sundance Film Festival has broken a record weeks before it begins: Of the 16 films in Dramatic Competition, seven tell stories primarily about the lives of black characters: “The 40-Year-Old Version,” “Charm City Kings,” “Farewell Amor,” “Miss Juneteenth,” “Nine Days,” “Sylvie’s Love” and “Zola.”

Surveying the last 30 years of Sundance, there’s usually been at least one in-competition film with black leads. In 1992 and 1989, there was one black film in competition, while 1993 had two. But prior to 2020, there had never been more than five.

Black filmmakers saw a renaissance in the late ’80s and early ’90s, a period that introduced Spike Lee, Wendell B. Harris Jr, Robert Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Julie Dash, Matty Rich, the Hudlin Brothers, Leslie Harris, and others. Some of their films premiered and competed at Sundance, but even then they never composed a significant presence.

Between 1989 and 1993, a total of 10 films with black leads...

In the early days of Hollywood’s adaptation of digital cinematography, there were those artists, like Michael Mann and cinematographer Dion Bebe, or David Fincher and Harris Savides, who explored the unique properties of the medium, rather than simply try to make it look like celluloid. Even in 1080 HD-shot movies like “Zodiac” we saw how in low light and a night setting we could peer into this low contrast edge of exposure. While digital couldn’t, and still doesn’t, approach the incredible dynamic range that film negative can produce in rounding out an image’s highlights, there was incredible latitude filmmakers could find in the “toe” of exposure of a digital file.

There is one cinematographer, in particular, who has not only continued to explore the dark edges of the digital image, but used it as a canvas to paint. Bradford Young’s remarkable body of work this decade started off shooting on film,...

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is out with its 2018 list of invitations for membership. Here is the list of the record 928 folks from 59 countries. Note that 10 individuals (noted by an asterisk) have been invited to join the Academy by multiple branches; they must select one branch upon accepting membership.

New members will be welcomed into the Academy at invitation-only receptions in the fall.

Actors

Hiam Abbass – “Blade Runner 2049,” “The Visitor”

Damián Alcázar – “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” “El Crimen del Padre Amaro”

Naveen Andrews – “Mighty Joe Young,” “The English Patient”

Gemma Arterton – “Their Finest,” “Quantum of Solace”

Zawe Ashton – “Nocturnal Animals,” “Blitz”

Eileen Atkins – “Gosford Park,” “Cold Mountain”

Hank Azaria – “Anastasia,” “The Birdcage”

Doona Bae – “Cloud Atlas,” “The Host”

Christine Baranski – “Miss Sloane,” “Mamma Mia!”

Carlos Bardem – “Assassin’s Creed,” “Che”

Irene Bedard – “Smoke Signals,” “Pocahontas”

Bill Bellamy – “Any Given Sunday,” “love jones”

Haley Bennett – “Thank You for Your Service,...

Inside her character’s recently deceased mother’s apartment, Michelle Pfeiffer is barely visible. The room is lit by a single lamp; the light that does find her gives the contours of her face a dim highlight that is as beautiful as it is bleak. In a wide shot, with the camera a good distance from Pfeiffer and the lamp, the same light provides hints of old-style wood panelling and furnishings.

These dark images define “Where Is Kyra,” a moody thriller directed by Andrew Dosunmu, perfectly capture the interior life of Kyra (Pfeiffer) who can’t find work or cash her mother’s checks after nursing her up until to the very moment of her death. Dosunmu, best known for the Sundance-winning breakout “Mother of George,” re-teamed with cinematographer Bradford Young to deliver one of the boldest visual movies of the year. Their process on the new drama provide further...

From Dee Rees’ “Pariah” to David Lowery’s “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” to the films of Ava Duvernay (“Middle of Nowhere”) and Andrew Dosunmu (“Mother of George”), no cinematographer in recent memory brings a visual boldness and mastery of craft to independent film quite like Bradford Young. And while Young has demonstrated the ability to work on a larger canvas — most notably with his Oscar-nominated cinematography for Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” — signing up for a franchise film like “Solo: A Star Wars Story” didn’t necessarily seem like a natural career trajectory.

“I still consider myself an independent, low-budget filmmaker,” said Young. “‘Star Wars’ is like a once in a lifetime, unexpected opportunity that you take because [there] might be space for your voice in there, but it’s not something I was asking for, or even envisioned for myself.”

Young made it clear he would never pitch Lucasfilm anything...

In his previous two features, Restless City and Mother of George, Nigeria-born photographer-turned-filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu has placed vivid human dramas within ultra-specific pockets of New York City. His films have examined how immigrant characters find their lives shaped by the often very subtle clashes that come from their retaining their own identities within the larger melting pot of the city. Working continually with the great cinematographer Bradford Young, Dosunmu also makes extraordinarily beautiful films, full of arresting images that convey the rhythms, exuberances but also pathos of these city streets. With his new picture, Where is Kyra?, opening today from […]...

In his previous two features, Restless City and Mother of George, Nigeria-born photographer-turned-filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu has placed vivid human dramas within ultra-specific pockets of New York City. His films have examined how immigrant characters find their lives shaped by the often very subtle clashes that come from their retaining their own identities within the larger melting pot of the city. Working continually with the great cinematographer Bradford Young, Dosunmu also makes extraordinarily beautiful films, full of arresting images that convey the rhythms, exuberances but also pathos of these city streets. With his new picture, Where is Kyra?, opening today from […]...

Do you remember the first time Michelle Pfeiffer showed up on your radar? Was it courtesy of one of her gangster molls, available in both coke-snorting (Scarface) and gum-snapping (Married to the Mob) varieties? Or was it via her costume dramas, playing passive heartbreakers (The Age of Innocence) and the aggressively heartbroken (Dangerous Liaisons)? Taking zero amounts of shit in Dangerous Minds? Slinking across a piano in The Fabulous Baker Boys? Licking faces in Batman Returns, the movie that inspired a thousand Halloween costumes and prepubescent fetishists? Pfeiffer has played...

In 1997, Amos Kollek made a movie called “Sue,” a tiny arthouse drama that surely still haunts those who were lucky enough to catch it. The unforgettable Anna Thomson played the titular lost soul, a fragile beauty who falls into a chasm of poverty.

There’s a good chance contemporary audiences will have the same response to Andrew Dosunmu’s “Where is Kyra?” — another deceptively modest indie in which an incandescent actress embodies one woman’s increasingly muted life.

Michelle Pfeiffer plays Kyra, in a bit of unexpected casting that adds a potent cruelty to an already heartbreaking story. There is no hiding Pfeiffer’s beauty, but it feels almost mocking here, like a promise held just out of reach.

Watch Video: 'Where Is Kyra?' Director on Casting Michelle Pfeiffer, Keifer Sutherland as Destitute New Yorkers

The film opens with a touching delicacy, but there are hints of inevitable loss. Kyra moved to Brooklyn to care for her aging mother (Suzanne Shepherd, “The Sopranos”), which has become an all-encompassing responsibility. And when it ends, she finds herself without any resources at all.

Looking for work becomes her work; Kyra gets up and dressed every day despite increasing evidence that her efforts will lead to nothing. Since she’s down to her last savings, she can’t afford a single mistake. But of course we all make errors constantly, tiny ones that can be fixed with just a little time, or care, or cash. These are luxuries Kyra doesn’t have.

She does find a new boyfriend in Doug (Kiefer Sutherland), who holds the only promise in her dim life. He’s sweet and thoughtful, and has recently made his own way out of a personal crisis. He’s got the perspective she needs, but calm clarity is just another extravagance for those in the midst of calamity.

Also Read: Michelle Pfeiffer Blasts Hollywood for 'Systemic' Sexual Harassment: 'I've Had Some Experiences'

Despite the high-wattage leads, Dosunmu and screenwriter Darci Picoult (who also made the excellent “Mother of George” together) have fashioned a determinedly miniscule drama. Doug is a little too movie-perfect, but Sutherland provides a crucial respite from so much misery. And Pfeiffer is here not as a luminous star but as an accomplished actor, burrowing into the dusty loneliness of her character’s life.

This is such an intimate story that cinematographer Bradford Young (“Arrival”) often shoots Pfeiffer in closeup even when she’s talking to someone else. In fact, there’s so much anxiety suffusing every scene — in Kyra’s taut face, in Young’s spare compositions, in the ominous and overwrought score (by Philip Miller) — we might as well be watching a thriller.

Also Read: Michelle Pfeiffer Says There Was Almost a Catwoman Movie Back in the '90s

When Kyra goes to the bank, or gets on the bus, or hears her doorbell ring, things that mean almost nothing to most people, there’s always potential for something to go wrong. And her margin of safety is so thin, each decision is made in the moment without concern about long-term consequences.

Doug, a health-care aide, chastises her for smoking, but we know better. Every carefully-crafted scene reminds us that Kyra is deeply unimportant in the world, according to the world. Life goes on whether she exists or not, a fact made achingly clear during a poignant visit to her ex-husband.

With no job, no family, and no backup plan, each dwindling day serves as the only protection she has between herself and an unsparing abyss. That we watch the ticking moments of “Where Is Kyra?” with so much concern is a testament to the filmmakers and cast determined to elevate her unnoticed life.



Read original story ‘Where Is Kyra?’ Film Review: Michelle Pfeiffer Shines in Dark Indie Drama At TheWrap...

Identification of a Woman: Dosunmu’s Exacting Arthouse Drama of Suffocation and Alienation

Nigerian born director Andrew Dosunmu branches out with an unexpectedly somber portrait of Brooklyn for his funereal third feature, Where is Kyra? (previously known as Beat-Up Little Seagull when the project was in production). Reuniting with Darci Picoult, the scribe of his underrated 2013 sophomore film Mother of George, the title also marks the onscreen return of actress Michelle Pfeiffer following a four year hiatus (last seen in Luc Besson’s The Family) who stars as a woman struggling to put her life back together despite some considerable economical… Read the rest

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A year after it premiered at Sundance, “Where Is Kyra? has a trailer. Michelle Pfeiffer stars in Andrew Dosunmu’s follow-up to “Mother of George,” which has earned praise for its lead performance as well as the cinematography of Bradford Young (who shot “Mother of George” as well as “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” “Selma,” “Arrival,” and the upcoming “Solo: A Star Wars Story”). Watch the trailer below.

Here’s the synopsis: “Andrew Dosunmu’s ‘Where Is Kyra?’ tells the story of Kyra Johnson, a middle-aged divorcee who moves into her elderly mother’s Brooklyn apartment while she looks for work and tries to get back on her feet. When her mother suddenly dies, Kyra is left without any support, both emotional and financial, and finds herself with very few options–none of them good. Despite a blossoming affair with a sympathetic neighbor (Sutherland) with struggles of his own, Kyra...

After giving one of the best supporting performances in last year’s mother!, Michelle Pfeiffer’s next leading role will finally arrive in theaters this spring following a Sundance premiere. Where is Kyra?–the latest film from Mother of George director Andrew Dosunmu, reteaming with the incredible Dp Bradford Young–follows the actress as a divorcee adrift in NYC trying find some semblance of clarity in her life.

“I could have gone the Tilda Swinton route,” Dosunmu told us when it comes to casting. “But you expect them to do this film. To me, the reason for doing this film was to add to the conversation, about our society. And what better way than to use Michelle, which is an American household face, because then it resonates with the audience, with the people. This can happen to anyone, and who is ‘anyone?’”

Dan Mecca said in his review from last year’s Sundance,...

Stop the presses! The latest Sundance Film Festival contained few late-night, seven-figure sales for potentially commercial movies. Clearly, something disastrous has happened to the movie industry when major companies avoided making huge business decisions within the confines of a hectic and snowy 10-day window. At least, that’s the popular narrative that a slow Sundance market tends to invite, and it’s an industry perception as a whole. As consumer habits and delivery methods continue to evolve, and the culture undergoes radical shifts in the stories it tells, both the market and the movies are moving in a million directions at once.

See More:Sundance 2018: A Slow Marketplace For Commercial Movies is Good News for a Festival Overwhelmed By Hype

There are countless reasons why only a handful of big sales happened at Sundance this year. Netflix, which closed out the 2017 edition by spending a jarring $12.5 million on “Mudbound,” faces...

by Murtada

The year of Michelle Pfeiffer continues. We’ve seen the trailer and pictures from Murder on the Orient Express. We've seen the poster for mother! (sacrilege she’s not on it). We’ve seen her on HBO as Ruth Madoff. And now her Sundance film, Where is Kyra?, made its way to Brooklyn and played at BAMCinemaFest last weekend.

Andrew Dosunmu (Mother of George) collaborates once again with Bradford Young to gorgeous results. This time Pfeiffer’s transfixing visage supplements their beautiful frames with movie star magic...

Director Andrew Dosunmu made a splash at Sundance in 2013 with his film Mother of George, a Brooklyn-set story concerning a Nigerian couple trying to have a child. Four years later, the man is still in New York City with Where Is Kyra?, this time exploring how a metropolis can swallow up its older members whole, without a second thought. We spoke with Dosunmu about where this idea came from, how he collaborates with his great cinematographer Bradford Young and if his top-notch lead actors were aware of how often the camera was not focused on them at all.

The Film Stage: How did the project come together?

Andrew Dosunmu: After I finished my last film Mother of George, I wanted to do something different. And I live in the city (New York City), and people are out there. And for me, it’s like, there’s this guy on...

Nigerian-born director Andrew Dosunmu (“Mother of George”) said that even though his new film, “Where Is Kyra?” stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Kiefer Sutherland, the inspiration was anything but glamorous. “Living in New York, walking by people every day, homeless people, I just wanted to document that,” Dosunmu told TheWrap’s Matt Donnelly at the Sundance Film Festival. “I wanted to tell a story about these people that are disenfranchised that we see every day. We don’t ask ourselves the question, ‘Why are they here?'” Also Read: 'Water & Power' Director Talks Threat to Us Water Supply (Exclusive Video) Pfeiffer plays Kyra,...

It’s been years since we’ve been treated to a great Michelle Pfeiffer performance, and “Where Is Kyra” finally gives her that platform. The tragic, understated character study from “Mother of George” director Andrew Dosunmu constructs a hypnotic portrait of despair out of Pfeiffer’s sullen expression; opposite Kiefer Sutherland as her romantic interest, Pfieffer anchors this shadowy New York mood piece about a despondent middle-aged woman wrestling to find a modicum of stability.

Dosunmu’s atmospheric approach, which derives much of its style from long takes and lengthier pauses, provides both actors with the most experimental cinematic challenge of their resumes to date, and they tackle the assignment with palpable depth. “Where Is Kyra” falls short of channeling their performances into a fully satisfying whole, but it nevertheless fuses the talent of an ambitious filmmaker with actors eager to operate on his wavelength. “Mother of George” and “Restless City...

True story: I started our new "Pfandom" series specifically for two reasons. The second was to cheer myself up in these awful democracy-losing times. The first though was to welcome our pfavorite, Michelle Pfeiffer, back. The twitter debate rages on what we shall call this year ("The Pfeiffersance? Michellaisance?" any other suggestions?). The first of her pfour roles this year is the title character in Where is Kyra?, which just premiered at Sundance. I will not be reading any reviews as I'd like to experience it pfresh but my understanding is that it's Oscar nominated cinematographer Bradford Young (Arrival) and Michelle herself winning the raves while people are less jazzed about the movie itself? Regardless, Tfe's official stance is that it's very unfortunate that Pfeiffer did not show to support her movie. Director Andrew Dosunmu (Mother of George) had to go it alone. If she doesn't leave home to promote her movies this year,...

Poverty and destitution never looked as gorgeous as they do in the moody arthouse drama Where is Kyra? The third fiction feature from Sundance regular Andrew Dosunmu, after Mother of George and Restless City, casts Michelle Pfeiffer as an unemployed New Yorker whose money troubles grow exponentially after the death of her mother, who received a disability pension. This leads Kyra to do something rather radical that her sort-of boyfriend, played by Kiefer Sutherland, does not approve of.

Shot by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young (Arrival) in what is arguably his career-best work in terms of the camerawork’s sheer breathtaking beauty,...

Marvel Studios and director Ryan Coogler have been putting together an incredible cast for Black Panther, but one of the most exciting additions has to be The Walking Dead‘s Danai Gurira. While it would be easy to assume that the Creed helmer probably chose the actress based on her role in the critically acclaimed AMC series, it turns out that wasn’t the case.

Gurira will play a member of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje in Black Panther, but Coogler most definitely didn’t choose her because he wanted a carbon copy of Michonne.

“The filmmaker had never watched it. I’m not saying that everyone else that was involved hadn’t, but Ryan Coogler had never watched The Walking Dead. He’d watched me in something completely different. It’s quite amazing to hear, but these are African women roles. He’d watched me in an independent film, Mother of George.

To the vast majority of us, Danai Gurira is best known for playing Michonne in The Walking Dead. However, one person who didn't know the actress for her work in the hit AMC series was Black Panther director Ryan Coogler. Of course, many assumed that it was her role as Michonne which probably landed her role in the highly anticipated Marvel movie, but it doesn't sound like that was the case.  "The filmmaker had never watched it," Gurira tells ComicBook.com. "I'm not saying that everyone else that was involved hadn't, but Ryan Coogler had never watched The Walking Dead. He'd watched me in something completely different. It's quite amazing to hear, but these are African women roles. He'd watched me in an independent film, Mother of George. He's never seen The Walking Dead." The site then asked the actress how Michonne and Okoye compare, and while they're clearly going to be very different characters,...

Echo Park is an understated indie romance starring Mamie Gummer and Tony Okungbowa as Sophie and Alex, a pair whose shifting lives and relationships mirror the gentrification shifts in their Los Angeles neighborhood. They find themselves drawn to each other as Sophie contemplates the end of a previous relationship and Alex considers a move back to his native London. Okungbowa, who also produced and co-starred in Andrew Dosunmu's acclaimed dramas Restless City and Mother of George and is familiar to some as the former in-house DJ on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, made time to talk with Shadow And Act about his role in the new film. As a British-Nigerian native who grew up in both...

Opening April 15 at the IFC Center and L.A.’s Independent Downtown is Echo Park, the directorial debut of celebrity photographer Amanda Marsalis. A relationship drama starring Mamie Gummer (The Good Wife, Cake) and Anthony Okungbawa (Mother of George), the film is based on a number of incidents occurring in Okungbawa’s life. The actor is a resident of the titular neighborhood — a diverse, pedestrian-friendly swatch of L.A. that forms a microcosm of sorts for this film’s characters-in-transition. The script was written by AFI Grad Catalina Aguilar Mastretta. Check out the trailer above. Echo Park is released by Array Releasing.

After a sold-out run Off-Broadway at The Public Theater last fall, Danai Gurira's critically-acclaimed play "Eclipsed" (starring Lupita Nyong'o) opened on Broadway just last night (March 6) at the Golden Theater. But the playwright and actress ("The Walking Dead," "Mother of George") is also shepherding the run of her next play, Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, titled "Familiar," which also just opened (March 3). She's certainly going to be active during the next few weeks. Meanwhile "The Walking Dead" recently returned for the second half of the season on February 14. This is the New York premiere for "Familiar," which is...

After a sold-out run Off-Broadway at The Public Theater last fall, Danai Gurira's critically-acclaimed play "Eclipsed" (starring Lupita Nyong'o) next heads to Broadway, opening in February at the Golden Theater. But the playwright and actress ("The Walking Dead," "Mother of George") is already prepping the run of her next play, Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, titled "Familiar."  Preview performances begin Friday, February 12, in advance of a March 3 opening and will run through March 27, which will also be around the same time that "Eclipsed" will be on Broadway, so Gurira will be busy during that time. Meanwhile "The...

Alma Har’el broke out big in 2011 when Bombay Beach hit the Berlin Film Festival. Winner of the Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival and nominated for the Independent Spirit “Truer than Fiction” award and Cinema Eye Honors “Best Film Debut” and “Best Cinematography” awards we’ve been patiently waiting for a follow up since. A good morsel of LoveTrue was divulged (this snip-it is pure beauty) this past April at Tribeca as a work-in-progress and naturally Berlin and Tribeca are both lieus where this could shore up, but Sundance could be a good fit as well. Shia Labeouf who performed for her in the music video for Sigur Rós, supported this project.

Gist: This offers a unique exploration of the challenges that love can present and how our past and present experiences shape the decisions we make when the fantasy of True Love dissipates. Using cinematic expressions of past memories and possible futures,...

Pfeiffer aged up to play grey haired Ruth Madoff in "Wizard of Lies"The McConaissance ended with an Oscar and an Emmy nomination. The Reeseurgence went well, too, even if it's pop cultural impact wasn't so Wild. Can't we get a Pffeiffival now? (I'll have to work on the name but renaissance and resurgence were already taken so I'm going with revival).

As previously reported our favorite M.I.A. movie goddess Michelle Pfeiffer, Susie Diamond herself, is back at work. She and Robert De Niro are currently filming their roles as The Madoffs in HBO's telefilm "Wizard of Lies". It will be Pfeiffer's first major television role in over 30 years. Among the top bakers dozen of female movie stars of the 1980s (roughly speaking that's: Streep, Close, Lange, Spacek, Midler, Keaton, Basinger, Pfeiffer, Turner, Weaver, Field, Hawn, and Winger in no particular order) only Pfeiffer and Hawn have refused to do television since.

Beat-Up Little Seagull

Michelle Pfeiffer will star opposite Kiefer Sutherland in "Mother of George" helmer Andrew Dosunmu's indie drama "Beat-Up Little Seagull" for Killer Films and Great Point Media. Christine Vachon is producing and shooting begins on Monday in New York.

Darci Picoult's script follows a sensitive and fragile woman (Pfeiffer) who struggles to find footing in a fast-paced world. When her mother dies, she faces a crisis in which she must find a means for survival, all the while hiding her struggles from her new lover (Sutherland). [Source: THR]

Untitled Sci-Fi Project

Patricia Arquette ("Boyhood") will join Robert Pattinson ("Twilight") and Mia Goth ("The Survivalist") in the cast of "White Material" and "Beau Travail" director Claire Denis' anticipated untitled sci-fi project which marks her English-language debut.

Nick Laird and UK novelist Zadie Smith penned the script which follows a group of skilled criminals who, in a bid to escape their long sentences,...

Michelle Pfeiffer is taking an indie turn. The actress, who has worked almost exclusively in studio films throughout her career, will star opposite Kiefer Sutherland in the drama Beat-Up Little Seagull for Killer Films and financier Great Point Media. Mother of George helmer Andrew Dosunmu is directing from a screenplay written by Darci Picoult. Beat-Up Little Seagull follows the life of a sensitive and fragile woman (Pfeiffer) who struggles to find footing in a fast-paced world. When her mother dies, she faces a crisis in which she must find a means for survival, all the while hiding her struggles

read more...

Are there any cinematographers currently working today who are getting more attention and acclaim than Bradford Young? With 2 films he shot now in release - "A Most Violent Year" and "Selma" - and with a very impressive list of past credits, including "Pariah," "Mississippi Damned," "Mother of George" and, upcoming, Ed Zwick’s "Pawn Sacrifice," Young has become a cinematographer who raises the quality level of every film he works on. No wonder he’s on practically every filmmaker’s short list of cinematographers they most want to work with. But how did he get his start? What is it like being one of the very few black...

Bradford Young’s work on Ava DuVernay’s civil rights biopic Selma and Jc Chandor’s A Most Violent Year landed him on Hollywood’s radar this Oscar season, but it also illuminates the diversity lacking year after year within the film industry and the Academy that represents it. Critics and DuVernay have praised Young’s aptitude for lensing African-American faces onscreen as beautifully as he does in Selma, a film about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s private and public struggles to turn the tide of the voting rights movement. “I’m never satisfied with the way I see my people photographed in movies,” Young confessed to me over the phone before the holidays. “I think it comes from a lack of consciousness – if you grew up in a community where you don’t know black people, I wouldn’t suspect you would photograph them in a concerned way.”

Few...

Year of Living Stressfully: Chandor Returns with Slow-Boil Scald

Baby, it may be cold outside, but the climate’s sure changing in J.C. Chandor’s flashback to 1981 New York City in A Most Violent Year, the director’s third and most iniquitous portrayal yet of humans struggling for survival or ascension among the ranks. Following the success of his talky yet effective 2011 debut, Margin Call, a slick examination of the viperous tendencies amongst Wall Street’s elite and the 2008 crash, and 2013’s Robert Redford against the elements flick All Is Lost, Chandor extends his dexterity to a period piece that’s already drawn comparison to the heyday of Lumet and the underrated familial dramas of James Gray. With a little luck, Chandor’s title won’t be treated to the same ambivalence as Gray’s films tend to be, but in line with his previous two titles, it’s an equally difficult,...

Imagine if we ranked the best directors of photography of the year or the best-shot movies of the year… Oh boy, that list would be long. Near the top of that list would likely be a cinematographer you may not know by name yet, but he’s soon going to be ranked up there with the Roger Deakinses of the world. Dp Bradford Young already turned heads with his distinctive look for Sundance pictures like “Ain't Them Bodies Saints," "Mother Of George" and "Middle Of Nowhere." And now he’s one of 2014's Mvp shooters for lensing “Selma” and “A Most Violent Year.” The latter was directed by J.C. Chandor and stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain as a power couple trying to stay above the moral ugliness of the oil industry and the rise of crime in early 1980s New York. Our A-grade review from earlier in the year said,...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Though he may sound unfamiliar to folks at home, Bradford Young is one of the names to emerge during recent Oscar discussions for his cinematographic work on two films this year: J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year and Ava DuVernay‘s Selma. Both films premiered at AFI Fest.

The 37-year-old director of photography was first recognized for his work at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for Dee Rees’ Pariah (2011), which took home the excellence in cinematography award. He won the award a second time in 2013 for David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Andrew Dosunmu’s Mother of George (2013). He most recently received a Spirit Award nomination for Selma, which was also nominated for best picture and director, and he may very well land his first Oscar nomination this year.

Young previously worked with DuVernay on Middle of Nowhere (2012), which put DuVernay on the map.

Director of photography Bradford Young, 37, has been turning a lot of heads in recent years. He earned cinematography awards at Sundance in 2011 (Pariah) and in 2013 (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Mother of George). And now the Louisville, Kentucky native’s latest films, Selma and A Most Violent Year, are both generating awards season attention. On Monday, best picture hopeful Selma (which opens in limited release Dec. 25) earned a place on AFI's list of 2014's best films. And, it recently received Spirit Award nominations in categories including best picture, director and cinematography. Meanwhile, hopeful A Most Violent Year (which debuts

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Bradford Young is easily one of the most exciting cinematographers working today. Since igniting on the indie scene with films like "Pariah," "Middle of Nowhere," "Mother of George" and "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," his stock has continued to rise. This holiday season he'll have two very distinct, rich and exquisite films on display in theaters nationwide: Ava DuVernay's Martin Luther King biopic "Selma" and J.C. Chandor's NYC crime drama "A Most Violent Year." So it was with great pleasure that I finally wrangled a chat with the low-key 37-year-old, who makes his home outside of the industry fray in Washington, D.C. Each of these films represents such striking confidence, yet they feel wholly different from one another. They examine darker reaches of the frame with their own curiosity, each of them very specifically influenced by photographers who captured the human face in specific and, in their separate eras,...

Turnin’ the Beat Around: DuVernay’s Poignant, Passionate Mlk Portrait Revitalizes Notions of Biopic

Eschewing what’s come to resemble a traditional route in downplaying both the significant violence and vile truth concerning historical depictions of racial injustices, Ava DuVernay throws all the euphemisms out the window for her excellent third feature, Selma. A depiction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mounting of the civil rights marches in 1965, DuVernay’s entry is the most significant cinematic depiction of the famed historical figure to date, though the film explores only one (significant) moment from his esteemed career. Those who may sniff at such material arriving just in time for awards superbaiting should be made aware that the film is anything but a carrot poised conveniently in front of the film industry’s chomping mandible, as it’s the kind of material that transcends such accolades whether they are bestowed upon it or not.

On Monday night (Nov. 17, 2014) in NYC, Ava DuVernay and cinematographer Bradford Young presented a festival cut of "Selma," which premiered last week at AFI Fest to rave reviews and a standing ovation. (The NYC audience had an equally enthusiastic reaction.) This period drama offers an intimate look at the events leading up to the famous civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Al., including the devastating events known as Bloody Sunday.

David Oyelowo stars as Martin Luther King, Jr., alongside Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon B. Johnson, and a star-studded cast playing storied civil rights activists and leaders.

1. It's called "Selma" for a reason.

This isn't your typical biopic; while obviously a great deal of the narrative is focused on Martin Luther King, Jr., "Selma" is about all of the people involved in the events leading up to the legendary marches. "Selma" offers the human...

An instrumental and influential American independent film promoter/curator/supporter/taste-maker in the business, Rooftop Films creator and artistic director Mark Elijah Rosenberg (pictured above) moves from open air cinema, to open space possibilities. While the current outer space talk is the Nolan Imax film, I’m more excited about the prospects for Ad Inexplorata: Toward the Unknown, which has been welcomed by the Sundance folks with open arms: landing support via the Indian Paintbrush Fellowship (2011), Creative Producing Summit (2011), Creative Producing Feature Film Lab (2011), 2011 June Screenwriters Lab (2011), 2012 Screenplay Reading Series (2012) and finally some coin from the San Francisco Film Society before landing the Sundance Nhk Filmmaker Award (2014). Production began earlier this year with Mark Strong toplining. Supporting players include Sanaa Lathan, Charles Baker and Bettina Skye.

Gist: Captain William D. Stanaforth (Strong), is a Nasa pilot alone on a one-way mission toward the unknown. Faced with mechanical problems, physical...

No one could accuse writer-director J.C. Chandor of going an easily predictable route with his filmography to date. Margin Call, his 2011 feature debut that earned him an Oscar nomination, was an ensemble piece about the recent financial crisis, and he followed that with 2013′s All Is Lost, which only featured one actor (Robert Redford, giving a largely wordless performance). His new effort, A Most Violent Year, sees him venturing into period crime drama territory, with a story mostly centered on a husband and wife pairing played by Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.

Co-starring David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Albert Brooks, A Most Violent Year is set in 1981 and concerns the ambitious immigrant head of an oil business clashing with the criminal underworld of New York City in 1981. One of the more appealing elements of the film’s second trailer, which you can view below, is...

Nigerian producer-director-actor, Kunle Afolayan's latest work, the crime drama "October 1" (also the official date Nigeria declared its independence from the UK in 1960), is set to make its USA premiere at the Cultural Confidence event presented by The Nollywood Diaspora Film Series, which is a platform for Nigerian films to be showcased for international audiences.  Taking place in New York City, at the Nyu Kimmel Center, on 60 Washington Square South, the series will also include screenings of other films covered on this blog including "The Supreme Price," "Mother of George," and "Half of a Yellow Sun," as well as workshops and...

The Academy welcomes its new members at an invite only event in September, just as we begin to feel the rumblings of Oscar buzz everywhere.

While not every person nominated for the first time for an Oscar in any given year is invited to join the next year (isn't that weird?) it's common practice that they are. So new names like Lupita Nyong'o, Barkhad Abdi, and more established actors like Sally Hawkins and June Squibb will all be voting for the first time this coming season after walking the red carpets as nominees. That's expected. What's far more interesting is the people invited in any given year that have not been nominated.

Here are ten names I want to highlight because they're interesting invitations for one reason or another.

Sean Bobbitt - Cinematographer (12 Years a Slave) - egregiously snubbed last year which might have done it but that's not his only beautifully shot film.

Premiering on Saturday, June 14th at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Echo Park is an understated indie romance starring Mamie Gummer and Tony Okungbowa as Sophie and Alex, a pair whose shifting lives and relationships mirror the gentrification shifts in their Los Angeles neighborhood. They find themselves drawn to each other as Sophie contemplates the end of a previous relationship and Alex considers a move back to his native London. Okungbowa, who also produced and co-starred in Andrew Dosunmu's acclaimed dramas Restless City and Mother of George and is familiar to some as the former in-house DJ on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, made time to talk with Shadow And Act about his role...

Paramount Pictures and Path&#233 today announced that principal photography has commenced on Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere) The film is shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery and Selma, Alabama.

The screenplay was written by Paul Webb (Four Nights in Knaresborough). Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce through their Plan B banner (World War Z, 12 Years a Slave), with Christian Colson through his Cloud Eight Films (127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire), and Oprah Winfrey (The Hundred-Foot Journey, Beloved) through her Harpo Films. Ava DuVernay, Paul Garnes, Cameron McCracken and Nan Morales are executive producing.

Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures

"This story will resonate deeply with not only those brave men and women who fought for voting rights alongside Dr. King, but also the countless millions of people who continue to fight against discrimination in voting today. This talented group of filmmakers, led by Brad Pitt...

Paramount Pictures and Pathé today announced that principal photography has commenced on Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay (Middle Of Nowhere.) The film is shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery and Selma, Alabama.

The screenplay was written by Paul Webb (“Four Nights in Knaresborough”).

Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce through their Plan B banner (“World War Z,” “12 Years A Slave”), with Christian Colson through his Cloud Eight Films (“127 Hours,” “Slumdog Millionaire”), and Oprah Winfrey (“The Hundred-foot Journey,” “Beloved”) through her Harpo Films.

Ava DuVernay, Paul Garnes, Cameron McCracken and Nan Morales are executive producing.

Selma is the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic struggle to secure voting rights for all people – a dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with the epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and led to President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Paramount is handling the film’s domestic distribution,...

A project whose Kickstarter campaign we featured on this site in 2011, looks to be getting back on track, but with what looks like a fresh team behind the camera, as well as a new cast. When we first mentioned it 3 years ago, producer Nekisa Cooper (Pariah) and cinematographer Bradford Young (Mississippi Damned, Restless City, Mother Of George, Middle of Nowhere) were both attached to the project, written and to be directed by Maris Curran. Curran is still the writer and director of the film - titled Five Nights in Maine - but Carly Hugo and Matt Parker are now listed as producers, alongside Curran and David Oyelowo’s Yoruba Saxon...