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The documentary streaming boom is officially over, according to Academy Award-winning producer and Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous.

“The market for streamers is not coming back,” Dreyfous said during a panel discussion at Chicago’s Doc10 film festival over the weekend. “To go into these film festivals like Sundance and think that you are going to get a big sale is la la land (thinking). The numbers are just not there. One of 20 films is being bought out of Sundance. When we started Impact Partners, eight out of 10 of our films were being bought. That’s gone. Gone! We have to create new distribution models.”

Dreyfous, whose credits include “The Invisible War,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and “Navalny,” helped launch Jolt, an AI-driven, direct-to-consumer streaming platform, in 2024. Meant to give a literal jolt to indie docs that might have been a success at festivals across the world but have not found traditional distribution,...

Elegance Bratton’s “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House” will open the 10th edition of Chicago’s Doc10 documentary film festival on April 30.

The doc, which premiered at Sundance 2025, charts the rise of house music. The film recounts how the Disco Sucks movement led to the infamous Disco Demolition Night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, which resulted in thousands of people throwing records, mostly by Black artists, into a bonfire. The doc highlights Vince Lawrence, who was working as an usher at Demolition Night. Lawrence reveals how the event led him to become one of the founding innovators of house music.

Doc10, a five-day fest running April 30-May 4, will feature a selection of 11 of the past year’s most acclaimed feature documentaries. They include Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim and Nyle Dimarco’s recent SXSW audience award winner “Deaf President Now!” and Elizabeth Lo’s “Mistress Dispeller,” which premiered at...

An elderly woman turns to a camera over her shoulder and, staring into the lens, says without self-pity, “I’m dying.” Incarcerated men, unaccustomed to wearing suits and ties, anxiously adjust their attire in preparation for a daddy-daughter dance behind bars. A drag performance artist walks through Moscow streets, duct-taped in the colors of the Russian flag. Argentinian gauchos traverse a landscape at thrilling speed, photographed in black and white. A histrionic Nikita Khruschev bangs his shoe on a desk, synched to a jazz rhythm.

These are some of the startling images that remain with me as I think back on the year in documentary film. Despite the sluggish acquisition market, nonfiction filmmakers continued to unveil remarkable work, whether they landed distribution or not.

Typically, I can tell within the first minute or less if I’m in the hands of a filmmaker with the confidence and skill to create...

One of documentary filmmaking's greatest strengths is the genre's ability to confront real-world issues in real-time. Unlike fictional cinema, which often dissects ongoing social stigmas and underrepresented experiences through drama, the best documentaries of all time shine a light directly on moments in a community's history that are still relevant to the present. Between Blackfish exposing SeaWorld's animal cruelty and other hard-hitting productions like 2012's The Invisible War, documentaries can often inspire progressive action and expedite long-overdue consequences, and those searching for a demonstration of the art form's power should look no further than one of the most gut-wrenching productions of 2008.

Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s abortion documentary “Zurawski v Texas” garnered the inaugural Artemis Rising Foundation Award for Social Impact at the Hamptons International Film Festival. The new award honors one film that transforms our culture and challenges the status quo.

Executive produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence, “Zurawski v Texas” follows a group of women who, in 2023, band together to sue the state of Texas after being denied abortions despite pregnancy health risks.

Crow and Perrault will receive a $15,000 cash award, which the directors can use in whatever capacity they choose. The 98-minute doc, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September, is seeking distribution.

“Our hope for this film has always been to reach as wide an audience as possible to educate, challenge, and inspire viewers through our film participants’ vulnerability and strength,” Crow and Perrault said in a joint statement. “This award...

Argentina’s Natalia Smirnoff and Alberto Lecchi and Money Heist’s Alejandro Bazzano are among the directors with projects selected for Iberseries & Platino Industria’s Co-production and Financing Forum, which is takeing place in Madrid from October 1-4.

The fourth edition of Iberseries & Platino Industria, an industry meeting point for the Spanish and Latin American cinema and TV sectors, will host more than 2,000 professionals from 50 countries this year.

The Coproduction and Financing Forum features 10 film and 11 TV series projects.

They include veteran Argentinian filmmaker Alberto Lecchi’s A Distant Place, with an attached cast that includes Ernesto Alterio and Soledad Villamil.

Sanfic Industria, the industry section of the Santiago International Film Festival running over August 18-25, is showcasing a slew of promising new fiction and non-fiction projects at its Santiago Labs. “We were overwhelmed by the number of entries this year, a 55% uptick from 2023,” said Sanfic Industria director Gabriela Sandoval, a co-founder of the festival.

Out of the 28 selected Santiago Lab projects, 12 are directed by women. “Among our many objectives, we have always aimed to expand opportunities for women filmmakers by equipping them with the essential tools and creating pathways for their success,” said Sandoval, a producer herself at Storyboard Media alongside festival co-founder Carlos Nuñez. She added that nearly 50% of the Santiago Lab projects are produced by women.

Some projects are presented by established producers like Chile’s Lucas Engel, who backed such notable dramas as “Tengo Miedo Torero” and “Los Huesos.” Lauded filmmaker Nicolás Videla, who identifies himself as binary,...

Documentary veterans Natalie Bullock Brown, Kirsten Johnson, Mary Lampson and Jacqueline Olive are the inaugural documentary film fellows for the documentary film in the public interest research initiative by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center.

As the first cohort of doc film fellows, the foursome will join the center for the fall 2023 semester. There, each fellow will conduct research and do public education activities about questions facing the documentary film field and civic information.

Led by Shorenstein Center’s director Nancy Gibbs and doc filmmaker Sara Archambault, the initiative, which was established in March, will work to examine the challenges facing the documentary field and their impacts on civic life and information.

“In this challenging moment for media and our information ecosystem, we are excited that the Shorenstein Center can provide the support and infrastructure to drive renewed and creative thinking about complex issues in the documentary film space,” says Gibbs.

Archambault...

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...

“I woke up one day and realized that, just by virtue of being born lucky, I had so much more than everyone else,” says Abigail Disney. “And I don’t think I’ve slept well since I figured that out.”

Disney, the granddaughter of The Walt Disney Company co-founder Roy O. Disney, has used her considerable means to make the world a better place since the ‘90s, backing a string of non-profits and producing documentaries that shine a light on societal injustices. These have included Pray the Devil Back to Hell,...

Rise Films is nearing the end of what has been a monumental month for the London-based production outfit. Last week, HBO Max launched the company’s two-part documentary George Carlin’s American Dream, which chronicles the life and five-decade career of the comedian with Judd Apatow in the director’s seat.

The Oscar and Emmy-winning company also saw its documentary, All That Breathes, from Shaunak Sen, sell to HBO Documentary films earlier this week before it was shown in the Cannes Special Screening section last night. Last week, Deadline revealed that the company would be producing landmark Sky documentary Once Upon A Time In Londongrad with Hulu’s WeWork helmer Jed Rothstein. The NBCUniversal project explores 14 mysterious deaths in the UK with alleged connections to Russia over the last two decades.

It marks the culmination of the company’s 15-year climb to forge itself as one of the key indie...

Jennifer Rainsford’s documentary looks at the human resilience of the planet.

UK-based company Taskovski Films has acquired world sales rights to Jennifer Rainsford’s documentary All Of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars, which has its world premiere at Visions du Reel in Switzerland next week.

In the context of the March 2011 tsunami which devastated the Japanese coastline, the film looks at how people, plants and animals continue to coexist in the aftermath of this tragedy.

All Of Our Heartbeats… is produced by Michael Krotkiewski, Mirjam Gelhorn and David Herdies for Sweden’s Momento Film, in association with...

Laurane “Lala” Sheehan, a longtime corporate entertainment publicist and events planner, died Nov. 11 of a sudden heart attack.

Sheehan was a senior accounts supervisor at Maggie Begley Communications for 30 years, where she worked with clients including Laika, Locksmith Animation, the Gotham Group, the Oneida Indian Nation, Vista Group, Movio, Cinedigm, Anheuser-Busch, children’s author Tony Diterlizzi and Benenson Productions.

She helped promote films including “Kubo and the Two Strings,” “Missing Link,” “Coraline,” “The Invisible War,” “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World” and “Beasts of No Nation.”

Her longtime friend and colleague Maggie Begley said, “What a joy it is to work with your best friend. We laughed with abandon every single day. I thought that kind of laughter was the ticket to a long life…but the universe had other plans for our beautiful and talented Laurane. She’s with her parents now, her beloved Elvyra and Roy…and...

Laurane “Lala” Sheehan, the actor-turned-corporate entertainment publicist and events planner who had worked at Maggie Begley Communications for 30 years, died November 11 of a sudden heart attack. She was 61.

Sheehan was a Senior Accounts Supervisor at entertainment marketing and PR firm Mbc, working with clients across three decades including Laika and the animation studio’s string of Oscar-nominated films; Locksmith Animation; The Gotham Group; Cinedigm; and Anheuser-Busch, among others. She worked on movies including Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link and Coraline; The Invisible War; Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World; and Beasts of No Nation.

She also had stints as a publicist at entertainment PR firms Mahoney/Wasserman and Pmk/Hbh.

“What a joy it is to work with your best friend,” said Begley. “We laughed with abandon every single day. I thought that kind of laughter was the ticket to a long life…but the...

Fork Films, a New York production company co-founded by Abigail Disney, has announced 11 grantees for its 2021 round of documentary funding. Topics explored in the slate of films include social justice, the impact of the pandemic on historically marginalized communities, climate gentrification and maternal mortality.

The company has funded over 100 projects over 14 years, adding up to over $4.5 million in documentary grants and support. With an aim to elevate justice-driven filmmakers, Fork Films has funded critically acclaimed projects in the past such as “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” “One Child Nation,” “Cameraperson,” “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” “Strong Island,” “The Square” and “The Invisible War.”

This year, along with financial support, Fork Films is offering grantees the opportunity to participate in workshops titled Collective Lens: An Impact Roadmap led by nonprofit organization Peace is Loud. The workshops will cover impact producing strategies, building campaigns and designing distribution plans with impact in mind...

Exclusive: Freida Pinto is expanding her relationship with eOne, signing a first-look deal with the indie studio for her Freebird Films Entertainment. Under the pact, Freebird Films, run by Pinto and her producing partner Emily Verellen Strom, will develop series for broadcast, cable and streaming with a focus on content highlighting the experience of women – especially among diverse and underrepresented groups.

The deal comes as Pinto and Strom are developing as executive producers a limited series adaptation of Anuradha Bhagwati’s memoir Unbecoming for eOne, with Pinto attached to star. Freebird Films is also in negotiations for additional books and articles to adapt.

“We are delighted to partner with Freida and Emily in their vision to prioritize diverse stories about women for all audiences,” said Jacqueline Sacerio, eOne’s EVP Scripted Television. “Their combined world view and creative insight will mesh well with our goal of creating content that resonates with viewers everywhere.

Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have teamed up on some of the most acclaimed and impactful documentary projects of the 21st century. While Dick’s first Oscar nom came for a doc he made apart from Ziering, 2004’s Twist of Faith, which explored sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, they have experienced their greatest successes on collaborations that also tackled subjects related to sexual misconduct: 2012’s The Invisible War, for which they were Oscar-nominated and won a Peabody Award, shined a light on sexual assault in the military; 2015’s The Hunting Ground, for which they received the Producers Guild’s Stanley Kramer Award, exposed the epidemic ...

Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have teamed up on some of the most acclaimed and impactful documentary projects of the 21st century. While Dick’s first Oscar nom came for a doc he made apart from Ziering, 2004’s Twist of Faith, which explored sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, they have experienced their greatest successes with projects they made together, which also tackled subjects related to sexual misconduct: 2012’s The Invisible War, for which they were Oscar-nominated and won a Peabody Award, shined a light on sexual assault in the military; 2015’s The Hunting Ground, for which they received the Producers Guild’s Stanley Kramer Award,...

“Allen v. Farrow” directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering never set out to make a movie about the allegations of sexual assault made by Dylan Farrow against her father Woody Allen. And nobody – even Dylan – expected her mother Mia Farrow to ever cooperate.

“I always like to say, our films find us, we don’t find them,” Ziering tells Variety’s Award Circuit podcast. She and Dick were interviewing people who had spoken up following the #MeToo movement, which is how they met Dylan Farrow: “Dylan was just one interview that we were doing that day; we had five a day. And in the course of her interview, we were listening to her and going, ‘Wait…I thought I knew her story. That’s not exactly what I remember – or how it was portrayed in the media or public.”

Following that interview, their producer Amy Herdy said she wanted to investigate further.

“Us Kids,” a documentary set in the aftermath of the tragic 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has been acquired by New York-based global documentary film sales agent ​Cargo Film & Releasing​.

On Feb. 14, 2018, a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 17 more. After the events of that day, the students went from experiencing a mass tragedy to launching a global youth movement against gun violence that included more than ​800 groups​ across the U.S. and around the world, including in London, Madrid, Rome and Tokyo.

Director Kim Snyder documents the story of a whole new generation of youth leaders who chose to overcome their trauma and try to make the world a safer place. The film includes many of the central figures in the movement, including Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg. It premiered at Sundance 2020.

Snyder...

In making her Academy Award-shortlisted documentary Dick Johnson is Dead, Kirsten Johnson was keen to ask questions of what cinema can do.

The filmmaker has worked for decades as cinematographer, with 50+ credit list that boasts films such as the Oscar-winning Citizen Four and Oscar-nominated The Invisible War.

In 2016, she helmed Cameraperson, an autobiographical collage that used footage from her cinematography career.

Dick Johnson is Dead is her follow up, a celebration and commemoration of her father, who has Alzheimer’s.

As Johnson tries to cope with his disease, she stages, with the assistance of stunt people, ways for her father to die. We see him get hit by a falling air conditioner, fall down a flight of stairs, and even attend his own funeral. She creates fantastical scenes of her father in heaven.

Described as a love letter between father and daughter, it was made with the hope that the...

In “Allen v. Farrow,” the four-part docuseries that premiered on HBO Sunday night, documentarians Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering and Amy Herdy have tackled an especially daunting and divisive subject, even for them. The filmmakers behind the documentaries “The Hunting Ground,” “The Invisible War” and “On the Record,” have investigated Dylan Farrow’s 1992 allegations that her father, Woody Allen, sexually abused her when she was 7 years old.

Dylan Farrow’s harrowing accusations played out in court during the lead-up to the vicious custody battle between Allen and his ex-partner Mia Farrow — and every day, they were also splashed on the pages of the New York Post. Simultaneously, Allen’s then-newly revealed sexual relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s older daughter, ensured the tabloid press was fully engaged, something Allen weaponized against Mia Farrow, whom he painted as a manipulative hysteric. In “Allen v. Farrow,” she talks on camera for the first...

For approximately the last three years, Woody Allen has been known as an alleged child abuser first and a filmmaker second. His last feature to land American distribution was 2017’s “Wonder Wheel,” and even that release was hindered by the rise of the #MeToo movement. Since then, Allen has had to seek funding for new movies from foreign producers, he’s seen his two finished features kept out of the most respected film festivals, and though he’s still working and still profiting, the ostracized Oscar winner has been trying to repair his public image through his adopted son, Moses Farrow, with his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, and in his 2020 memoir, “Apropos of Nothing.”

Little, if anything, has made a difference. Allen’s reputation remains exactly where it belongs — in the trash heap — but in case the once-vindicated auteur thought he could spin, wait out, or once again dodge the charges...

For the past decade, filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have been on a righteous crusade, casting light on institutional failures to confront sexual abuse and giving a platform to survivors. They’ve exposed rot in the military (The Invisible War), on college campuses (The Hunting Ground) and in the music industry (2020’s On the Record). Each documentary has concluded with a list of the accused and implicated who declined to be interviewed — unsurprisingly, as one can hardly imagine how it would behoove an alleged predator to appear in these movies. Dick and Ziering are filmmaker-advocates who may have begun their ...

For the past decade, filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have been on a righteous crusade, casting light on institutional failures to confront sexual abuse and giving a platform to survivors. They’ve exposed rot in the military (The Invisible War), on college campuses (The Hunting Ground) and in the music industry (2020’s On the Record). Each documentary has concluded with a list of the accused and implicated who declined to be interviewed — unsurprisingly, as one can hardly imagine how it would behoove an alleged predator to appear in these movies. Dick and Ziering are filmmaker-advocates who may have begun their ...

Exclusive: Oscar and Emmy-winning British production company Rise Films is developing the first major television drama series on the phone-hacking scandal that shook the very foundations of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in the early noughties.

Rise Films, which made Oscar-winning Netflix doping documentary Icarus, will use the series to provide an insider’s perspective on the industrial-scale illegal information gathering at British tabloid newspaper, the News Of The World, after securing exclusive access to the journalists and private investigators who intercepted the voicemails of Hollywood stars, politicians, and murder victims.

The series will be penned by Luke Neal, the breakout writer behind ITV’s David Tennant drama, Des, which told the story of British serial killer Dennis Nilsen and was the broadcaster’s highest-rated drama of 2020. Saul Dibb, the helmer of The Salisbury Poisonings, BBC One’s most-watched drama in six years, has been attached to direct the phone-hacking series.

Exclusive: The filmmakers behind acclaimed Cannes 2018 documentary Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché are re-teaming on a narrative biopic about their subject, the little-known but remarkable cinema pioneer, who was the first ever female film director, screenwriter, producer, and studio owner.

Active from the late 19th century, Frenchwoman Guy-Blaché was in the room when the Lumière brothers held the first ever cinema screening in Paris in 1895. Inspired by what she saw, the Gaumont secretary went on to become an in-house film-maker at the French studio.

Guy-Blaché would travel to the U.S. where she became artistic director and a co-founder of Solax Studios in Flushing, New York, and a prominent investor in a new studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which was the center of American filmmaking prior to the establishment of Hollywood.

During her career, she made more than 1,000 short and silent films, including comedies, westerns and dramas,...

“This is not just our film. This is Drew’s film and the other survivors as well. They take us into this experience,” says Kirby Dick about “On the Record,” the documentary he directed with his filmmaking partner Amy Ziering. It’s their latest film to explore the subject of rape culture in America — in this case the story of Drew Dixon, a music executive who, along with many other women, came forward with allegations of sexual harassment and assault against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. Dick and Ziering joined us for our “Meet the Experts” documentary panel. Watch our interview with them above.

Dick and Ziering previously made “The Invisible War” (2012), an Oscar-nominated investigation into the epidemic of rape in the US military. A few years later they released “The Hunting Ground” (2015), which explored the prevalence of rape on college campuses. Tragically, there is still no shortage of stories about...

Six top film documentary directors will reveal the secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with key 2021 guild and Oscar contenders this month. Each person will participate in two video discussions to be published on Tuesday, December 15, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Daniel Montgomery and a group chat with Daniel and all of the group together.

RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2021 guild and Oscar contenders:

“All In: The Fight for Democracy” (Amazon Prime): Liz Garbus

Garbus is a two-time Oscar nominee for “What Happened, Miss Simone?...

“On the Record,” the HBO Max documentary centering on music producer Drew Dixon and the other women who accused hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual assault, is receiving some major notices heading into this award season. The film just made it onto the exclusive shortlist at Doc NYC, the most prominent documentary festival in America. “On the Record” is among 15 films chosen by festival programmers that are expected to be “among the year’s strongest contenders for Oscars and other awards,” as stated in the official press release. Considering the festival’s history with foretelling future Oscar success in the Best Documentary Feature race, this could be a sign that the film could indeed be on the path to awards glory.

See‘On the Record’ documentary from HBO Max gives a platform to Black women’s experiences in music industry

What may help “On the Record” earn attention from Academy...

Maggie Betts (Novitiate) to direct from screenplay by Olivia Hetreed (Girl With The Pearl Earring).

UK-based Maven Screen Media, screenwriter Olivia Hetreed and director Maggie Betts are developing a dramatic thriller about the pro-choice pioneer and activist Rebecca Gomperts.

Maven’s Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler will produce the timely feature alongside Thomas Benski of Pulse Films, Teddy Leifer of Rise Films, and James Ferrari.

Maven reunites with Betts, whose Novitiate premiered at Sundance 2017, and continues to forge ahead with the company’s mandate to increase representation of women behind and in front of the camera.

The film will tell the true story of Gomperts,...

Maggie Betts (Novitiate) to direct from screenplay by Olivia Hetreed (Girl With The Pearl Earring).

UK-based Maven Screen Media, screenwriter Olivia Hetreed and director Maggie Betts are developing a dramatic thriller about the pro-choice pioneer and activist Rebecca Gomperts.

Maven’s Celine Rattray and Trudie will produce the timely feature alongside Thomas Benski of Pulse Films, Teddy Leifer of Rise Films, and James Ferrari.

Maven reunites with Betts, whose Novitiate premiered at Sundance 2017, and continues to forge ahead with the company’s mandate to increase representation of women behind and in front of the camera.

The film will tell the true story of Gomperts,...

Other winners with the documentary group include Time director Garrett Bradley.

The International Documentary Association (Ida) has named the winners of its annual honourary awards, with veteran documentarian Sam Pollard getting the career achievement nod.

Documentary producer/director and feature and TV editor Pollard most recently made MLK/FBI, which premiered at the this year’s Toronto festival. Over his career, Pollard has edited a number of Spike Lee’s films including Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever and Bamboozled. His other documentaries include the Oscar-nominated Four Little Girls and Emmy-winner When The Levees Broke.

The Ida’s Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award goes to Garrett Bradley,...

Three-time Emmy winner Sam Pollard has been selected for the career achievement award by the International Documentary Association.

He will be honored at the 36th annual Ida Documentary Awards’ digital ceremony in January. The nominees for all categories will be revealed on Nov. 24.

Pollard won two Emmys for “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” and another for “By the People: The Election of Barack Obama.” He received an Oscar nomination in the documentary category for “4 Little Girls.” His most recent film “MLK/FBI” premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Pollard has also edited Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Jungle Fever” and “Bamboozled.”

His credits include “Slavery by Another Name,” “August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand,” “Two Trains Runnin,’” and “Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me.” Pollard co-directed the six-part series “Why We Hate” and 2020 HBO series “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children.

Producer-directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, previously known for “The Invisible War” and “The Hunting Ground,” are back with another documentary about the #MeToo movement via HBO Max called “On the Record.” The Oscar contender for Best Documentary Feature predominantly centers on record producer Drew Dixon, who in December 2017 accused music mogul Russell Simmons of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s while working together at Def Jam Recordings. In the film we follow Dixon as she considers the ramifications of finally telling her story, reaching out to The New York Times and trying to process the aftermath. We also meet some of the other 19 women who came forward with accusations against Simmons.

See‘Time’: Garrett Bradley’s Sundance award-winning documentary about love and incarceration could make Oscar history

While Simmons may be the common thread in “On the Record,” Dick and Ziering deftly shift focus onto the women rather than the hip hop producer,...

Exclusive: Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s Jane Doe Films have promoted Ryan Mazie as VP of Development and Communications.

Mazie – who has been serving as a consultant for the Oscar lauded Jane Doe Films over the past two years and as a co-producer on their acclaimed doc On The Record – is being tasked with spearheading the development and production of film and television projects, scripted and non-scripted, in multiple formats for the company.

In addition to his duties as VP of Development, Mazie will continue his role in strategizing communication and awards strategy around Jane Doe’s titles. Mazie was responsible for spearheading campaigns for Jane Doe with Netflix’s The Bleeding Edge and HBO Max’s On The Record. On the Record made a big splash back in January with its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival.

Dick and Ziering have expanded their footprint into docuseries in their...

An unconventional Oscar contender for Best Documentary Feature premiered on Netflix on October 2: “Dick Johnson is Dead,” in which filmmaker Kirsten Johnson directs her father, retired clinical psychologist Richard Johnson, in a series of death enactments as a means of coping with his actual impending death. What do critics think of this unique, tragicomic approach to mortality?

Well, they love it. As of this writing the film has a MetaCritic score of 88 based on 21 reviews counted thus far, all of them positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film is just as universally loved with a perfect 100% freshness rating based on 43 reviews. The Rt critics consensus says that the film “celebrates a life with bittersweet humor and grace, offering a deeply resonant perspective on mortality in the bargain.”

SEE2021 Oscars: ‘Crip Camp,’ ‘Boys State,’ ‘Time’ among leading documentary feature contenders

The film is being described as “weird,” “disarming,” “slippery,” “lightly blasphemous and inventive.

HBO Max is out with its list of everything new coming to the streaming service in October and everything leaving at the end of the month.

The list includes HBO Originals like the limited series “The Undoing” starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, out Oct. 25, and David Byrne’s “American Utopia” special event about Byrne’s Broadway show that electrified audiences, out Oct. 17.

There is also Nathan Fielder’s comedic docuseries “How To With John Wilson,” out Oct. 23, and the first season finale of “Lovecraft Country” on Oct. 18.

Among the things leaving at the end of the month are “Amelie,” “Ocean’s 11,” “V For Vendetta,” “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.”

Read the full list here:

Oct. 1

A World of Calm, Documentary Series Premiere

Akeelah And The Bee, 2006 (HBO)

All-Star Superman, 2011

American Dynasties: The Kennedys, 2018

American Reunion, 2012 (HBO)

Analyze That,...

With Lovecraft Country still providing HBO and HBO Max with its horror content through October, the streamer is looking elsewhere for its spooky season offerings. HBO Max’s new releases for October 2020 feature some truly awesome horror library titles.

Jordan Peele’s Us, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and David Fincher’s Se7en all arrive on Oct. 1. That alone should be enough to last you through spooky season. And if it doesn’t, It: Chapter Two is right there as well. October is also a big month for Batman and Superman with Man of Steel arriving on Oct. 1 along with a whole of animated specials dropping that same day.

In relation to the library titles, this isn’t HBO Max’s strongest month from an original perspective. But there is still plenty to like here. The West Wing election special arrives on Oct. 15. That will be followed by David Byrne...

AFI Fest, taking place online from Oct. 15-22, is honoring Sofia Coppola, Kirby Dick, Rita Moreno and Mira Nair each with an evening of conversation celebrating their careers.

“Artists of this caliber are essential players in our global culture,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI President & CEO. “To honor each of them – and all of them – at AFI Fest will prove a symphony of talent at a time the world needs it most.”

Coppola has her recent reteam with Bill Murray, On the Rocks, opening next weekend in theaters with a debut on AppleTV+ on Oct. 23. Her last Murray movie, Lost in Translation, scored her a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. The movie reps the first co-production between Apple and A24.

Two-time Oscar nominated and Emmy award winning investigative filmmaker Kirby Dick has the HBO Max movie with his co-collaborator Amy Ziering, On the Record, about the women who allegedly were sexually harassed by music mogul Russell Simmons.

HBO Max is serving up a lot of great new movies this October. Fittingly for the spooky season, the Warner Bros. streaming service is adding a fair few classic horrors to its library next month, but there’s really something for everyone going up – from comedies to romances to sci-fi to superhero films.

Speaking of that last genre, DC lovers will be pleased to note that 2013’s Man of Steel, the movie that kicked off the Dceu, is among the titles arriving on October 1st. Besides that, there’s a bunch of animated DC pics dropping the same day, including Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and All-Star Superman. 2005’s Constantine featuring Keanu Reeves, meanwhile, also debuts on the service from the 1st.

That’s not the only film starring the beloved actor headed to the platform, though, as probably the highlight of October’s haul is the addition of the...

Exclusive: HBO is teaming with Knocked Up creator Judd Apatow to make a two-part documentary on legendary U.S. comedian George Carlin, with UK outfit Rise Films producing alongside Apatow Productions.

HBO Documentary Films has commissioned Apatow and his longtime collaborator Michael Bonfiglio to direct the films, which will feature interviews with Carlin’s family and friends, material from his stand-up specials and TV appearances, as well as material from his personal archive.

Born in New York City in 1937, Carlin became renowned for his razor-sharp observational comedic style on language, politics, religion and the world. He filmed the first of his 14 HBO stand-up specials in 1977 and appeared on The Tonight Show more than 130 times. As well as filling comedy venues, he also wrote a number of books, which sharpened his credentials as a social critic. Carlin died in 2008 at age 71.

Apatow has talked about the project previously, though he did...

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has added Emmy-winner Ryan Murphy and five other new members to its Board of Trustees, AMPAS announced on Thursday.

The other new members for the museum, set to open on April 30, 2021, are Patricia S. Bellinger, Arnaud Boetsch, Olivier de Givenchy, Ray Halbritter and Regina K. Scully.

The board oversees the museum’s strategic vision, maintains its financial health and ensures the museum meets its mission of serving film lovers.

Also Read: Spike Lee, Pedro Almodóvar to Curate Inaugural Academy Museum Exhibitions

“We are thrilled to welcome these six remarkable leaders to our board of trustees. Their achievements in their respective fields demonstrate the passion and leadership that they will contribute to the Academy Museum. We look forward to working together on the world’s premier institution dedicated to the art and science of movies,” Ron Meyer, board chair and vice chairman of NBCUniversal, said in a statement.

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, along with their production company, Jane Doe Films (fka Chain Camera Pictures), have signed with Wme.

Dick and Ziering are an award-winning film team known for their groundbreaking and change-making investigatory work. Their latest film, On the Record, which examines the sexual assault allegations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, premiered to rave reviews at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It was released today, May 27 on HBO Max.

Their film, The Bleeding Edge, a Netflix original investigative feature on the medical industry that catalyzed sweeping changes in the field, was the recipient of 2019’s George Polk Award for Special Achievement in Investigative Journalism and the 2020 DuPont Award. Their previous film, The Hunting Ground, an exposé of rape culture on college campuses, was released by Radius and CNN. It is the 2016 recipient of the PGA’s Stanley Kramer Award, and received an...

Director Kirby Dick and producing partner/co-director Amy Ziering have spent the better part of the last decade deeply involved in exposing areas of American society where sexual assault runs rampant. They have the mechanics of the rape culture procedural doc down to a science, yet nothing in their films feels formulaic. Dick and Ziering’s latest foray into the field, “On the Record,” takes a more personal angle than their previous documentaries “The Invisible War” and “The Hunting Ground.” Rather than spotlighting individual stories as evidence of institutional failure, they follow one woman from the music industry and explore the cultural contexts undergirding her journey from survivor to warrior.

Continue reading ‘On The Record’ Is A Refreshingly Intersectional & Moving #MeToo Documentary [Review] at The Playlist.

One of the most anticipated films at Sundance is getting a premiere on new service HBO Max Wednesday — after a highly publicized dustup in which original backers Oprah Winfrey and Apple dropped their support right before its premiere at the festival.

Helmed by veteran filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, On the Record was filmed largely during the height of #MeToo and takes aim at Russell Simmons, the music mogul accused by multiple women of sexual assault and harassment. (Simmons has denied all charges.)

At this year’s Sundance festival,...

This piece originally ran as part of 2020 Sundance Film Festival coverage.

Even if you didn’t know Drew Dixon’s name, you definitely knew the fruits of her labor. The daughter of Washington, D.C., mayor Sharon Pratt and a Stanford alumna, she was an unabashed music fan. Dixon especially loved hip-hop, which is why, when she managed to secure an A&r job at Def Jam Records in the early Nineties, she felt like she’d won the lottery. Her instincts for spotting new artists were peerless; she was...

HBO Max’s “On the Record” is a searing look at sexual harassment allegations against music mogul Russell Simmons.

The documentary follows former Def Jam Records executive Drew Dixon, who has accused Simmons of rape and sexual harassment. Other survivors — Sil Lai Abrams and Sheri Hines — and academic thought leaders — Kimberelé Crenshaw, Joan Morgan, and Tarana Burke — also share their stories in the doc.

Directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, the team behind “The Hunting Ground” (about rape on American college campuses) and “The Invisible War” (about rape in the military), are no strangers to lensing stories on the tough subject.

As Dixon lets us into the powerful world of hip-hop, she exposes the ugly truth behind closed doors, recalling how Simmons exposed himself to her and persuaded her to come to his apartment on another occasion.

The film (streaming beginning May 27) received rave reviews out of the Sundance Film...

In the first trailer for the explosive #MeToo documentary “On The Record,” Drew Dixon talks about how she found the strength to publicly accuse hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual assault and how enduring that attack made her feel like she was “reduced to nothing.”

“I didn’t say anything about what happened with Russell. He just grabbed me. He just grabbed me. And on saying no, I was reduced to nothing in that moment,” Dixon says in the trailer. “Nothing about anything that makes me who I am mattered.”

“On The Record” is the latest film directed and produced by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, who brought you “The Hunting Ground” and “The Invisible War.” And their film follows Dixon and accusers Sil Lai Abrams and Sheri Sher as they recount their time at Def Jam Records and the emotional struggle they went through in choosing to speak to the New York Times,...

HBO Max has released the first official trailer for “On the Record,” Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s investigative documentary about the sexual assault allegations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. The film focuses mainly on music executive Drew Dixon, a producer of hit records by 2Pac, Method Man, and Mary J. Blige, who became the first woman of color to go on the record with her allegations.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where it prompted backlash from Simmons supporters.

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Here’s the official logline from HBO Max: “Directed and produced by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, and first reported by The New York Times, ‘On the Record’ presents the haunting story of music...