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On Oct. 17, families at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles received news they must have been dreading for more than a year.

A ninth grader had died at home that morning. “It is important for us to share with you” that the student took his own life, the school said.

The death of a 15-year-old, whom a classmate later described as someone who “defined the meaning of greatest friend,” would have been tragic at any school. But at Harvard-Westlake, popular among the Hollywood elite, it was the fourth student to die this way since March 2023. Other community members had recently ended their lives too.

Young people are taking their own lives at higher rates than before, and at Harvard-Westlake, the rate appears to be even higher. Sheila Siegel, a former Harvard-Westlake parent and longtime psychologist at the school, recalls experiencing just one student suicide in her more than two decades there,...

Exclusive: In the immediate aftermath of October 7, Oscar-nominee Dror Moreh and producer Uri Shinar started working on a documentary that would show how everyday Israelis were transformed into “a collage of heroes” in the space of just a few hours.

On the anniversary of that fateful day, Deadline can reveal Even the Walls Cry, a feature almost solely created by volunteers that Fremantle has backed and will be selling at next month’s MIPCOM Cannes.

October 7 was one of the deadliest days of fighting ever in Israel, with around 1,200 people killed after Hamas launched its attack and 250 taken hostage – many of whom have either died in captivity or not yet released. By October 9, Shinar had “asked myself where I should be” and headed to a headquarters for hostages’ families, which had been set up by some friends.

Telling the ordinary stories of those who faced “crimes against humanity,” according to Shinar,...

One of my personal favorite horror movies of all time, 1987’s gateway horror classic The Gate is opening back up on May 14 with a brand new Blu-ray SteelBook release from Lionsgate!

The new release will feature fresh SteelBook artwork from Vance Kelly, seen below.

Special Features, all of which were previously released, include…

Audio Commentaries Director Tibor Takacs, Writer Michael Nankin, and Special Effects Designer & Supervisor Randall William Cook Special Effects Designer & Supervisor Randall William Cook, Special Make-Up Effects Artist Craig Reardon, Special Effects Artist Frank Carere, and Matte Photographer Bill Taylor Isolated Score Selections and Audio Interview Featurettes: The Gate: Unlocked Minion Maker From Hell It Came The Workman Speaks! Made in Canada From Hell: The Creatures & Demons of The Gate The Gatekeepers Vintage Featurette: Making of The Gate Teaser Trailer Theatrical Trailer TV Spot Storyboard Gallery Behind-the-Scenes Still Gallery

When best friends Glen (Stephen Dorff) and Terry (Louis Tripp...

Investigative journalists specializing in crime and corruption reporting will pitch their stories to filmmakers and series at the first Floodlight Summit, which kicks off in Cartagena, Colombia, on Thursday, Nov. 30, and runs through Dec. 3.

Curated and organized by Oscar-nominated producer Philippa Kowarsky (The Gatekeepers, Sweet Mud) and Alesia Weston, the summit is set up as a pilot for a planned long-term alliance aimed at connecting international investigative journalists with the film and television industry.

Erin Brockovich writer Susannah Grant, The Big Short and Bombshell writer Charles Randolph, Slow Horses and The Americans producer Graham Yost, Toni Erdmann producer Janine Jakowski and No Man’s Land director Danis Tanovic are among the confirmed industry attendees.

The Floodlight summit brings together the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (Occrp) and the Gabo Foundation, set up by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Marquez to promote quality journalism in South America.

“This is the kind...

BBC Sounds continues to champion the growing UK podcast sector as it joins Spotify’s Megaphone, an industry leading podcast publishing and monetisation platform.

With Megaphone’s technology, we will be able to dynamically recommend relevant content to audiences on other podcast platforms in the UK, helping listeners discover more brilliant audio they’ll love from across the BBC, wherever they listen. Thanks to this new approach, we will transform the way we highlight BBC programmes on other podcast platforms, demonstrating our commitment to the growing podcast listenership in the UK.

Podcasting icon Jon Ronson announces the return of the phenomenally popular and acclaimed BBC Radio 4 podcast Things Fell Apart for a second series in 2024, and the long awaited Chapter Four of George The Poet’s groundbreaking Peabody Award winning Have You Have You Heard George’s Podcast? launches this autumn.

Plus details of a raft of exciting new...

Documentary specialist Autlook Filmsales closed a raft of sales at a vibrant market during the Copenhagen documentary festival Cph:dox.

“Subject,” directed by Camilla Hall and Jennifer Tiexiera, got picked up by Sweden’s Svt, Denmark’s Dr, Norway’s Nrk, Norway’s Vgtv, The Netherlands’ Vpro, Israel’s Yes Doc, and Madman for Australia and New Zealand. Dogwoof released the film early this month in the U.K.

“Subject” is an examination of the relationship between nonfiction filmmakers and their subjects. It raises important ethical questions during a golden of age for documentaries, when docs are screened by millions of viewers. The film re-visits protagonists of some of the most viewed documentaries of today – “The Staircase,” “The Square,” “Hoop Dreams,” “The Wolfpack” and “Capturing the Friedmans.”

Australia and New Zealand distribution powerhouse Madman Entertainment and Spanish broadcaster Movistar have acquired “The Corridors of Power,” a documentary and upcoming eight-part series.

An exceptional and, one might venture, unprecedented group of politicians, diplomats, policy wonks, elected officials and veteran Washington insiders expound on the effectiveness of international military intervention—and the lack thereof—in The Corridors of Power. Israeli director Dror Moreh made one of the great political documentaries of recent times in The Gatekeepers (2012), as well as the excellent The Human Factor (2019), and this time he has assembled an all-star cast of more than 30 political heavyweights including Henry Kissinger, Hilary Clinton, George Shultz, Madeleine Albright and Condoleeza Rice, who in deep, original interviews, help to build a picture of how and why the best intentions can come unglued. The film deserves to be seen in any and all venues by audiences interested in the state of the world and clarity about how we got here.

“You will have to find a new enemy,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell...

Click here to read the full article.

Dror Moreh, the Oscar-nominated director of The Gatekeepers and another doc about the Middle East, The Human Factor, broadens his scope productively in his new documentary, The Corridors of Power, which had its world premiere screenings in Telluride. Doreh assembled an impressive array of diplomats from several administrations over the past 40 years, and he comes up with a deeply disturbing examination of genocide during recent decades.

The film opens by recalling the Nazi genocide of the Jews, with a reminder of how little the United States did to try and halt the slaughter. After the war ended and the United Nations was formed, the cry of “Never again!” echoed throughout the world. Given the dark side of human nature, that was always an optimistic credo, but people probably did not realize how many horrific instances of genocide would emerge in the decades that followed,...

The Telluride Film Festival’s emphasis on documentary has not wavered in recent years. But the prominence of nonfiction fare at the 49th edition has arguably made this year’s Telluride the autumn Sundance, where some of the biggest buzz is for docs.

The lineup, kept under wraps until the eve of the fest’s opening on Sept. 2, includes 16 docs from novice and veteran documentarians, including Steve James (“A Compassionate Spy”), Matthew Heineman (“Retrograde”), Chris Smith (“Sr.”) Ondi Timoner (“Last Flight Home”) and Ryan White (“Good Night Oppy”). (Additional “secret” screenings have yet to be announced.)

The rising level of documentaries at the Colorado fest is largely due to the influence of Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger.

“This year, there is almost parity with the narrative features in the [main feature] program,” says Huntsinger, who co-directs Telluride with Tom Luddy. “It’s not us actively seeking it. For lack of a better word,...

Philippa Kowarsky is leaving her role as Commissioning Editor of BBC’s Storyville documentary strand after a year in post.

In an internal post, BBC Films Director Eva Yates told colleagues Kowarsky would be “leaving the team to pursue other ventures outside of the BBC.

“I would like to personally thank Philippa for her contribution to the success of Storyville over the past year, during which time she has built a rich and varied slate of films. I wish her all the best for her future plans.”

Kowarsky’s commissions while at the BBC included The Earth is as Blue as an Orange, which followed a Ukrainian family living under siege in 1997.

Yates said she would update “soon on next steps for Storyville.” She is taking on oversight and commissioning duties for Storyville in the interim.

Kowarsky has joined from Cinephil, the international sales and advisory firm which she founded...

BBC Storyville commissioning editor Philippa Kowarsky is departing the corporation to pursue other ventures. Director of BBC Film Eva Yates will be the interim commissioning contact for BBC Storyville until a replacement for Kowarsky is found.

In a notice to BBC staff, seen by Variety, Yates wrote: “I’m writing to let you know that Philippa Kowarsky will be leaving the team to pursue other ventures outside of the BBC. I would like to personally thank Philippa for her contribution to the success of Storyville over the past year, during which time she has built a rich and varied slate of films. I wish her all the best for her future plans.”

“We will update you soon on next steps for Storyville. In the interim, please come to me with any issues or commissioning decisions that may arise,” Yates added.

As director of BBC Film, Yates already had oversight of Storyville.

Philippa Kowarsky, executive producer of 2021 Sundance winner “Flee,” has been appointed commissioning editor of prestigious documentary brand BBC Storyville.

Kowarsky’s focus will be identifying and co-producing outstanding original documentary feature films from around the world. She will report to Rose Garnett, director of BBC Film.

Kowarsky joins the BBC from Cinephil, the international sales and advisory firm which she founded in 1997 and where she is currently MD. At Cinephil she represented and oversaw a diverse slate of films including Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn’s BAFTA winning “The Act of Killing” and Alexander Nanau’s Academy and BAFTA and Oscar nominated “Collective.”

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s, “Flee,” which Kowarsky executive produced, won the grand jury prize in the world cinema documentary section at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was in the official selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. Kowarsky’s credits also include Dror Moreh’s Oscar nominated “The Gatekeepers...

The BBC has appointed Philippa Kowarsky to the role of Commissioning Editor of Storyville, the org’s international documentary strand.

Kowarsky joins from Cinephil, the international sales and advisory firm which she founded in 1997. During her time at the company she worked on films including the BAFTA winning The Act Of Killing and the Oscar nominated Collective. Kowarsky has also worked as a producer on the Oscar nominated The Gatekeepers, the Emmy winning Night Will Fall, and the Sundance award winner Flee.

At the BBC she will report to Rose Garnett, director of BBC Film. Her focus will be identifying and co-producing doc features from around the world.

Storyville’s Jo Lapping has been upped to Head of Factual Acquisitions, reporting to Sue Deeks, Head of Programme Acquisition. Lapping will acquire both documentary films and factual programming for the BBC, working closely with Kowarsky.

Philippa Kowarsky said: “Crossing over from Cinephil,...

Left to right: Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat at Camp David, in July 2000.

Photo credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable the world has seen. The Human Factor focuses on the effort to bring a resolution to that conflict through negotiations mediated by the U.S., but particularly on the human side, the human factor, in that effort. Interestingly, it is also presented from the viewpoint of the guys in the middle, the American mediators, rather than the two sides in the conflict. The result is an engrossing, surprisingly gripping documentary that makes one ache for what might have been.

The Human Factor is also a revealing documentary about the long-running effort to resolve the conflict, that offers up remarkable insights, some unexpected humorous moments, and many fascinating details about the process and the personalities involved.

Arriving at an energizing time in American history (the arrival of a new administration looking to reset certain international priorities), Dror Moreh’s The Human Factor, which premiered at a few 2019 fall festivals––a time when Jared Kushner was tasked with solving piece in the Middle East––is an enlightening and engaging look at fragile peace processes the U.S. worked towards since the early ’90s. Israeli director Moreh, whose previous film The Gatekeepers explored his country’s internal security force, again allows subjects to pull back the curtain and speak freely on matters of importance to national security within and outside Israel’s boarders.

Here the focus is largely on American negotiators caught in the middle, often finding themselves negotiating as “Israel’s lawyer,” as interviewee Aron David Miller laments later in the in the film. The negations and steps towards Middle East peace and prosperity aren’t unilaterally tied to U.

The UK Jewish Film Festival (November 6 – 21) has revealed its 2019 lineup, including galas for Taika Waititi’s Nazi satire JoJo Rabbit and Diane Kruger thriller The Operative.

Toronto Audience Award winner JoJo Rabbit, about a young boy in Hitler’s army who finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home, will be the festival’s closing night gala, a choice that could stir debate. Waititi, who is Jewish, plays Hitler. Also starring are Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Rebel Wilson.

The festival’s Centerpiece Gala will be the UK premiere of The Operative, about a woman who is recruited by the Mossad to work undercover in Tehran. Directed by Yuval Adler, the Berlin Film Festival debut stars Diane Kruger and Martin Freeman.

Films in competition for the Dorfman Best Film Award are Dolce Fine Giornata, Flawless, Jojo Rabbit, festival opener My Polish Honeymoon, Stripped and The Unorthodox.

There’s a certain group of documentary-loving policy wonks who’ll be clamoring for “The Human Factor,” with its nostalgic spotlight on a time when the U.S. understood the value of international diplomacy (how quaint that now sounds!). For director Dror Moreh, making a film about the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations was a natural follow-up to his well-received “The Gatekeepers,” in which Israeli security agents spoke of their work and Moreh exposed conflicting rationales and troubling moral relativity. His latest documentary, while potentially more sellable, is far more problematic, on multiple fronts.

First, there’s his decision to see the conflict only through the eyes of six negotiators for the Americans, several of whom admit to a latent Israeli bias. Then there’s the problematic way Yasser Arafat is presented, depicted as usual as petulant and childish, with no recognition that his insistence on being treated with respect was at...

Docaviv, Israel’s only festival devoted exclusively to documentary filmmaking, will celebrate its 20th birthday in May with a jam-packed screening schedule focusing on women’s empowerment, refugees and the ever-complicated politics of globalization. In the lineup are films about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

The festival, considered one of the most prestigious documentary festivals in the world, takes place annually in Tel Aviv, with screenings across the city. This year, 121 films – both from promising Israeli documentarians and established international directors – will be shown at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and a number of other locations.

Among the highlights: Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski will present “The Prince and the Dybbuk,” which won Best Documentary at the Venice Film Festival last year; Switzerland’s Markus Imhoof will compete in the international competition with “Eldorado,” his hard look at the current refugee crisis in Europe; and Maryam Ebrahimi,...

Stars: Stephen Dorff, Louis Tripp, Chrsita Denton, Kelly Rowan, Jennifer Irwin, Deborah Grover, Scot Denton, Ingrid Veninger, Sean Fagan | Written by Michael Nankin | Directed by Tibor Takacs

“We accidentally summoned demons who used to rule the universe to come and take over the world,” says Terry (Louis Tripp), the troubled best friend of pre-teen Glen (Stephen Dorff in his film debut). He’s not joking. A steaming hole has opened up in Glen’s back garden, and while his parents are away for the weekend he’ll have to defend his home from a demonic invasion.

Glen’s main guardian is his older sister, Al (Christa Denton). Together, the siblings and Terry will face ghosts, poltergeists, zombies, moths and hordes of ankle-biting mini trolls. The ancient evil needs two human sacrifices in order to unleash its full power on the world. Any two will do. Can the kids survive the night?...

Agnes Varda and Jr’s documentary film Faces Places (Visages Villages) has taken the Golden Eye prize, which recognizes a documentary from across all sidebars.

The film screened out of competition in the official selection.

The prize was awarded by a jury of French actress Sandrine Bonnaire, Oscar-nominated The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom director Lucy Walker, Oscar-nominated The Gatekeepers director Dror Moreh, Toronto Film Festival programmer Thom Powers and film critic Lorenzo Codelli.

“Our jury has been deeply moved by Agnes and Jr’s decision to meet local people, aimed by this movie-tale about consideration for Human throughout Art. This combined...

Dylan Leiner, Alison Thompson discussed the distribution, VOD and the future of cinema culture during a festival panel.

Dylan Leiner, Evp acquisitions and production at Sony Pictures Classics (Spc), and Alison Thompson, head of sales company Cornerstone Films, shared their experiences as industry heavyweights at Jerusalem Film Festival on Friday (July 8), with Philippa Kowarsky, head of sales company Cinephil, moderating.

The panel was titled ‘Commercial Distribution of Documentary Cinema’ but Leiner and Thompson used the forum to address wider challenges in the industry, including the changes wrought by VOD and the future of cinema culture and curation.

Thompson, who ran Focus Features International for eight years before launching Cornerstone, which helped take Asif Kapadia’s Amy [pictured] from initial sales pitch at Cannes 2013 to best documentary Oscar winner, agreed her industry was in the midst of painful reconfiguration. But she also expressed confidence that “the nadir” had been reached, and felt optimistic about what the next five years...

By Patrick Shanley

Managing Editor

When it comes to this year’s Academy Awards, no word is more buzzworthy than “diversity”. For the second year in a row the Oscars have nominated only white actors in their four main acting categories, sparking backlash and, as a result, inciting the Academy to announce new changes to tackle its “diversity problem”.

Amidst another year of #OscarsSoWhite trending on Twitter, however, the fact that 2015 has been an exceptionally strong year for women has been largely overlooked. Three of this year’s best picture nominees (Brooklyn, Room, Mad Max: Fury Road) are female-centric and feature strong female protagonists in the center of the action. In fact, even outside of those films and their performances, a number of women are nominated for best picture as producers, as well. Kristie Macosko Krieger is nominated for Bridge of Spies, Blye Pagon Faust is nominated for Spotlight, Dede Gardner...

Documentary from Australian war artist George Gittoes centres on street kids in Afghanistan.

Tel Aviv-based sales company Cinephil has acquired the worldwide right to George Gittoes’ Snow Monkey ahead of its international premiere in competition at Idfa (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) (Nov 18-29).

The film is a portrait of daily life in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where art activist Gittoes recruited gangs of war-damaged children to shoot local, Pashto-style films - vibrant, colorful and infused with the violence they experience on a daily basis.

Gittoes will return to Idfa, which runs Nov 18-29, having previously screened Miscreants of Taliwood, shot in Peshawar with Taliban-besieged filmmakers, some of which have helped create Snow Monkey.

Cinephil MD Philippa Kowarsky negotiated the deal with producers Gittoes and Lizzette Atkins of Unicorn Films.

Executive producers are Norway’s Torstein Grude and Bjarte Mørner Tveit for Piraya Film.

Kowarsky said the film “offers an unprecedented understanding of the lives of the people of Jalalabad...

The Isa of the Day segment of SydneysBuzz resumes for the Cannes Film Festival 2015. ISAs, or International Sales Agents, help to bring films into global distribution by selling distribution rights to distributors worldwide. Topics include new trends in distribution and sales, inspirational success stories, film slates and more. A worthy read for any serious filmmaker looking to have a better understanding of the chain of business between producing a film and sharing it with the world.

Philippa Kowarsky is the Managing Director of Cinephil, an international sales company that is renowned for securing financing and distribution for documentaries from all around the world. Kowarsky started Cinephil 18 years ago on the first of January in 1997.

Cinephil has a solid history of working with award winning films including Academy Award nominee, “The Gatekeepers“ (for which Kowarsky was a nominee, with Cinephil as the producer); the 2014 Academy Award nominee, “The Act of Killing, and Dror Shaul’s “Sweet Mud”, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Kowarsky, the first ever film sales agent of Israel, shares more about her background and the success of Cinephil:

I’ve was doing sales, marketing and production before I started Cinephil. I worked for some studios in Israel, and got into sales because there were no companies dedicated to sales only. I was representing films at the previous company I worked at — when I left, people just kept coming to me, saying “Will you take my film?” I started Cinephil and we got a film into Rotterdam’s mocumentary section. It was the first Cinephil festival. I didn’t even have a proper concept or mission for my company, but I did meet sales agents from around the world, and thought, “Perhaps we could have some sales agents in Israel!” Then it became a bit more formal.

We started doing everything - features, children’s programming, and documentaries -working with Israeli and Palestinian films. Over the years, we decided to drop children’s programming, and then let go of feature films (which I still love). Now Cinephil focuses on documentaries.

About 8 years ago, we decided to go International to represent films to the world, from the world – everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you’re based: Tel Aviv, Paris, Montreal or New York. Everyone is traveling to all the festivals, and everything is done by emails and phone. Thanks to technology, we have a very international career and life, and to make matters better, we also have Heather Wyer working for us out of Montreal. Having a North American base is great!

How did you enter the film industry?

A lot of this happened to me by chance. I received an Ma in London for communication policy studies. At the end of the day, it’s been helpful, because it has given me a deeper understanding of the media world. That’s been a strong part of Cinephil – being able to strategize with all this know-how.

When I started 20 years ago, there was very little international film and television activity in Israel. In the meantime, the Israeli industry has developed, but getting Israeli films into festivals was a big deal back then. Now our cinema is well received everywhere. There are fabulous agencies based in Israel, including our TV channels which selling product around the world.

How is Cinephil expanding?

We do sales and distribution and act as Ep’s on films. We’ve always been into development and raising finance for films, but recently the films we’ve been working with are of a higher profile. One of the highlights is when we came in as producers for “The Gatekeepers”, for which we were nominated for an Academy Award in 2012. In 2013, we were back in Los Angeles with “The Act of Killing”, which was nominated as well. We are proud to work with Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sorensen again on “The Look of Silence”, which premiered in competition in Venice last year and won the Grand Jury Award on top of four other awards. Since then, it has won countless awards worldwide. We’re now working with Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi on “The 50 Year Argument”.

Please discuss your slate for Cannes.

We‘re thrilled to be working on a Cannes Classics premiere “By Sidney Lumet” by Nancy Buirski. Cinephil will present several films in the market. One is “Invasion”, by Abner Benaim, about the USA’s invasion of Panama.

Another is a film that we just picked up in Tribeca where it made headlines, titled “Among the Believers”, which follows the growth of the Red Mosques in Pakistan. It portrays a system that offers young children free food and accommodation, and, in return, the young adepts are force fed the principles of radical Islam from the moment they can read.

Other films in the Cannes Market include “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon”, which premiered in Sundance, and “The Yes Men are Revolting”, which will open in the Us this summer.

“Thank You for Playing”, follows a family struggling with a terminally ill boy. Ryan, his Dad, an indie video game developer, is building a poetic, autobiographical video game to document his pain and to tell the story of his baby. It’s sophisticated, touching and timely.

Learn more about Cinephil’s new releases here.

See Cinephil’s full catalogue here.

More About Cinephil:

Cinephil is an international sales and advisory firm, which has a strong reputation for securing international distribution, broadcasting and financing deals for documentaries from all over the world on behalf of film producers and directors.

With a history of selling unique and award-winning films,Cinephil also acts as a strategic advisor and co-producer.

Cinephil has facilitated the sale and financing of well over a hundred films. Cinephil represented (and produced) the 2013 Academy Award nominee, “The Gatekeepers“; the 2014 Academy Award nominee, “The Act of Killing“, executive produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris; “Cathedrals of Culture“, a 3D project executive produced by Wim Wenders and including films by Wim Wenders and Robert Redford, and Martin Scorsese’s new documentary, “The 50 Year Argument“, about The New York Review of Books. Managing director, Philippa Kowarsky, has co-produced many films, including 2014 Academy Award nominee, Dror Moreh’s, “The Gatekeepers“, Dror Shaul’s “Sweet Mud”, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, “Defamation” by Yoav Shamir, “Watermarks” by Yaron Zilberman and the award-winning “Trembling Before G-d” by Sandi DuBowski.

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

This year’s Oscar race could make history with two possible best picture nominees directed by women — Ava DuVernay’s Selma and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. If both women are nominated for best director, that would also be a historical moment. But though these accomplishments in the narrative field are possible, more women directors are breaking into the documentary categories. Four of the 15 shortlisted documentaries feature women at the helm: Jennifer Grausman (co-directed with Sam Cullman and Mark Becker) with Art and Craft, Tia Lessin (co-directed with Carl Deal) with Citizen Koch, Laura Poitras with Citizenfour and Rory Kennedy with Last Days in Vietnam. Additionally, three of the eight shortlisted documentary shorts feature female directors: Ellen Goosenberg Kent with Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Aneta Kopacz with Joanna and Lucy Walker with The Lion’s Mouth Opens. More often than not, women directors tend to...

The relationship between a Shin Bet operative and a Palestinian informer makes for an absorbing documentary

With just two talking-head interviews, Nadav Schirman’s gripping and intimate documentary recounts Mosab Hassan Yousef’s extraordinary double-life as the son of a Hamas radical who turned informer for Israel’s shadowy Shin Bet. Accepting from the outset that his actions would be interpreted as an unforgivable betrayal (someone who “raped their own mother” would seem less shameful, says Yousef), our edgily eloquent subject explains how he supplied information both to prevent terrorist attacks and also to protect his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef. Meanwhile, former Shin Bet agent Gonen Ben Yitzhak describes the bond of trust that grew between him and Yousef – a bond that saw the informant’s “handler” turned upon by his own organisation, leaving both men out in the cold. It’s a remarkable story, told with slick thriller flair,...

1. How to Win an Oscar for Your Documentary: During the "Race for the Documentary Oscar" panel at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, the panelists revealed some quick ways to get your documentary film to win (or at least have a shot at winning) an Oscar. Panelists included Philippa Kowarsky, founding and managing director of Cinephil, a sales and co-productions company ("The Gatekeepers," "The Act of Killing"), Academy-award winning producer Simon Chinn ("Man on Wire," "Searching for Sugar Man") and Nick Fraser, commissioning editor at BBC Storyville ("Man on Wire"). Read five of the top things we learned from the panel here. 2. Joe Berlinger's Master Class: The acclaimed director, known for his Oscar-nominated "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" as well as his most recent documentary, "Whitey: United States of America V. James J Bulger," hosted a master class at the Sheffield Doc/Fest about documentary filmmaking. In the class we learned a bit about Berlinger's.

Of course, anyone who tells you they know the secret to winning an Oscar is lying because there is no one guaranteed path to the Academy Awards, but as the panelists at yesterday's "The Race for the Documentary Oscar" session at Sheffield Doc/Fest acknowledged, there are some fast paths to get there. In a panel featuring Philippa Kowarsky, founding and managing director of Cinephil, a sales and co-productions company ("The Gatekeepers," "The Act of Killing"), Academy-award winning producer Simon Chinn ("Man on Wire," "Searching for Sugar Man") and Nick Fraser, commissioning editor, BBC Storyville ("Man on Wire"), the discussion ranged from the cost of qualifying theatrical runs, the value of a publicist and other considerations for an Oscar run. After a clip from "Searching for Sugar Man," which Chinn produced, he took a moment to acknowledge the recent tragic loss of the film's director Malik Bendjelloul.  "It's very difficult...

Producers at Sheffield Doc/Fest talk about Oscars race for documentaries.

Producer Simon Chinn paid tribute to Malik Bendjelloul, the 36-year-old director of Oscar winning documentary Searching For Sugar Man who died in May, at a panel which took place during Sheffield’s Doc/Fest (June 9).

Sitting on the panel entitled “The Race For the Documentary Oscar,” Chinn described the moment the young Swedish director walked into his office with the idea for Searching for Sugar Man.

“He completely won me over, he was a wonderful, infectious enthusiast and he had this story that he thought could go all the way. I remember in our first meeting he uttered the word Oscar,” said Chinn, who added that he would “like to dedicate my contribution today to Malik’s memory.” [He is pictured with Bendjelloul on the night of their Oscar win.]

Also on the Doc/Fest panel were Israeli distributor Cinephil’s Philippa Kowarsky, which was behind this year’s divisive Oscar nominated documentary The Act of Killing and 2012 shortlisted...

If Dror Moreh’s The Gatekeepers gave us four decades worth of Shin Bet’s tactile approach to the Middle East, Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince further cracks the safe, giving viewers an insider’s perspective in twin, “enemy” territories. Dubbed as a taut docu-thriller and crowd-pleaser, TheWrap reports that Music Box Films has picked up the docu film that opened the Sundance Film Festival. The doc also played at the Full Frame fest and will be released theatrically this year.

Gist: Based on New York Times non-fiction best seller “Son of Hamas,” this real life thriller tells the story of one of Israel’s prized intelligence sources, the son of a top Hamas leader. Under the code name “The Green Prince”, he is recruited to spy on his own people for over a decade. Focusing on his complex relationship with his handler, this is a gripping account of terror,...

‘Stories We Tell,’ ‘Blackfish’ out of the Oscar 2014 race: Academy’s Documentary Branch ‘anti-female’? (Photo: Sarah Polley [with camera] directing ‘Stories We Tell’) Besides Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson, among the other glaring Oscar 2014 absentees were Robert Redford and Golden Globe-winning composer Alex Ebert for All Is Lost; Joel and Ethan Coen’s well-received Inside Llewyn Davis from the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay shortlists; Daniel Brühl and his movie, Ron Howard’s Rush, which was completely shut out; two Weinstein Company releases that were also completely shut out, Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, and their respective stars Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, and Michael B. Jordan; Guillermo del Toro-Charlie Hunnam’s Pacific Rim and Marc Forster-Brad Pitt’s World War Z from any of the technical categories; and finally, Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell and Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s...

Chicago – Every year, the movie stars, actor/actresses and filmmakers come knocking, and HollywoodChicago.com is there to answer. Film Critics Brian Tallerico and Patrick McDonald have combined their best-of interviews for 2013, and it’s an intriguing and eclectic mix.

With so many promotional tours, conventions and shows coming through Chicago, the opportunity to get a wide range of celebrities, filmmakers and up-and-comers is one of the privileges of covering TV and film here. The following interviews – enhanced (except for two interviews) by the photography of Joe Arce – were significant for their background stories, promotional circumstance and memorable quotes.

Sheryl Lee of “Twin Peaks”

Sheryl Lee at Wizard World Chicago Comic Con

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Interviewer: Patrick McDonald

Opening Note: Before getting started, there are so many arresting interviews I participated in during 2013, and if you plug these names in the search engine,...

Following in a recent film fest trend, the 7th Annual Other Israel Film Festival has announced that it will include the North American premiere of "The Gatekeepers," the five-hour Israeli television series on which Dror Moreh's Oscar-nominated 2012 documentary of the same name. Like the film, Moreh's series follows six former directors of the Israeli Secret Service Agency, who look back on their decisions. Moreh will introduce the screening of an episode of the series on November 16th, and will participate in a conversation about it afterward. This is the seventh iteration of the Other Israel Film Festival, which is presented by the Jcc in Manhattan, and will also include a storytelling event from The Moth on the topic of being "a fish out of water," a screenplay reading of soon-to-be-produced Israeli film "Here Comes the Sun," and seven U.S. and six New York premieres of films by and...

The 7th annual Other Israel Film Festival (Oiff), running November 14-21 in Manhattan, announced today that this year’s fest has nabbed the North American premiere of Dror Moreh’s new television series, "The Gatekeepers," expanded from the director's eponymous Oscar-nominated 2012 documentary on the chillingly complex world of the Israeli Secret Service. Moreh will attend the premiere to speak to audiences after the screening. Other guests and presenters at this year’s festival include "60 Minutes" host Bob Simon; Daily Beast columnist Peter Beinart, and Oscar- winning filmmaker Michael Moore.Our Toh! interview with Moreh out of the 2012 Telluride Film Festival is here.

Picture sold by Wild Bunch has enjoyed healthy international career, drawing 3 million cinemagoers worldwide.

Gilles Bourdos’ Renoir, revolving around the impressionist artist’s obsession with a young model who re-fired his passion for painting as an old man, has been selected as France’s 2014 Foreign Language Oscar candidate.

Based on the true story of the relationship between Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Andrée Heuschling, the sumptuously shot picture unfolds against the backdrop of the artist’s estate in the South of France during World War Two.

Heuschling would marry Renoir’s son, the film director Jean Renoir, appearing in a number of his early silent films but the picture mainly focuses on how the beautiful young woman enraptured the elderly artist.

The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2012, sold some 500,000 tickets at home and another 3 million internationally. It grossed more than $2m in the Us making it one of the most successful foreign language films there this...

A scene from Ukraine is Not a Brothel..

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Ukraine is Not a Brothel, Australian director Kitty Green.s debut documentary on the country.s topless feminist movement Femen, caused a stir at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

The reason: the doco reveals the group was founded by a man, Victor Svyatski, who left the collective a year ago.

Founded in 2008, Femen.s members have destroyed Ukrainian Orthodox crucifixes and staged nude stunts targeting political and religious figures including Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin, protesting against sexism, discrimination and authoritarianism.

Green, who is 28, first read about Femen in a discarded tabloid newspaper during a trip to her grandmother.s native Ukraine. She was intrigued by the caption .Topless Feminists. and decided to spend year sharing a two-bedroom flat in Kiev with five Femen activists, filming protests and getting arrested with them. At one point she was abducted by...

★★★★☆ Dror Moreh's Oscar-nominated debut is one of the best documentaries to emerge so far this year. Presenting a troubling vision of Israeli counter-terrorism, The Gatekeepers (2013) excels in its political rigour and clear-eyed pessimism. The film's chief coup lies not only in getting the men who headed Israel's intelligence operations for the second half of the twentieth century to speak, but to do so with such candour and honesty. By challenging his subjects on their reticence or moral culpability, Moreh intelligently manages to strike an admirably fair-minded tone despite the absence of dissenting voices among the subjects.

The Gatekeepers is essentially constructed entirely around in-depth interviews with six former heads of Shin Bet, a secretive counter-terrorism agency set up in 1949 by the government of David Ben-Gurion. Answering directly to the prime minister, they are separate from Israel's military forces and political establishment, a status which provides them with sufficient independence to conduct clandestine operations,...

The Place Beyond the Pines; Passion; Evil Dead; Spring Breakers; The Gatekeepers

After the affectingly low-key musings of Blue Valentine, director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance reunites with Ryan Gosling for a sprawling quasi-epic tale that combines the vérité observational feel of its predecessor with the sweeping pan-generational structure of a Greek tragedy.

In The Place Beyond the Pines (2012, StudioCanal, 15), Gosling plays a hot-headed stunt rider who discovers that he has fathered a child for whom he determines to provide, by fair means or foul. Turning to robbery, his path crosses with that of Bradley Cooper's lawman, who in turn takes up the narrative thread – until the sins of the fathers come to be revisited upon their respective sons. Those seduced by the dreamy intimacy of Sean Bobbitt's cinematography may find the third act contrived, as realism gives way to archetype, but the performances remain utterly believable throughout. Eva Mendes...

Chicago – Dror Moreh’s “The Gatekeepers” stands among the best documentaries of the last several years, warranting comparison to the film that its director admits most inspired its existence, Errol Morris’ amazing “The Fog of War.” They’re both must-sees and Morris’ film dissects the American approach to warfare over the last century and Moreh’s serves as a fascinating and powerful Israeli counterpart.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Six former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli equivalent of the CIA, detail their times in charge of one of the most important organizations in the world over a period of time in which approachs to terrorism in the Middle East were changing on a nearly day to day basis. The formation of Shin Bet served a much different purpose than how the organization was forced to operate when the press became involved or when it entered the period in which assassination of the country...

Sarajevo Film Festival’s documentary competition will include seven world premieres. Non-competitive sidebar Kinoscope will feature 17 films.Scroll down for full lists

The documentary competition at the the 19th Sarajevo Film Festival is to include 20 shorts and features, with seven world premieres and four international debuts.

World premieres include Escape by Serbian director Srdjan Keča, whose previous film Mirage won the Best Central and East European Documentary Award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and Best Short Documentary award at London Short Film Festival; and A Slave by Bosnia’s Pjer Žalica, best known for fiction films Fuse and Days And Hours.

International premieres include Marta Popivoda’s Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body, which screened in Berlinale’s Forum Expanded section; and Here… I Mean There by Laura Capatana-Juller, winner of the Romanian Days Award For Feature Film at the Transylvania International Film Festival.

Among regional premieres, there are three...

Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week

"Spring Breakers"

What's It About? Four small-town college girls (Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine) want to -- no, need to -- go on spring break in Miami. They rob to party, they party and get arrested, and they make bail only to land in the hands of a ghetto-talking local white drug lord (a remarkable James Franco).

Why We're In: Harmony Korine excellently captures college girl culture and youth's craving for chaos in "Spring Breakers" with the right mix of satire, humor, and authenticity. "Spring Breakers" is genius for putting the audience on trial, making you unsure whether to laugh or not as you uncomfortably watch the ludicrousness unravel. If you own this on DVD/Blu-ray you too can have, in the words of James Franco's Alien, "spring break fo-eva."

Watch an Exclusive Scene from the "Spring Breakers" Blu-ray

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The Shin Bet, the Israeli Secret Service, are charged with overseeing Israel’s war on terror. Their activity and membership are regarded as state secrets. Those who have headed the agency have never before spoken of the controversial events of the last few decades, that is, until now. Filmmaker Dror Moreh dared to do what others have not by sitting down with six former heads of the organization and discussing their actions during the war between Israel and Palestine in his latest documentary The Gatekeepers. What they have to say can be shocking at times, but their insights are equally mesmerizing.

The documentary primarily deals with how the Shin Bet reacted to certain acts of terrorism, but it begins with an event that Moreh felt was an appropriate starting point. In 1967, the Six-Day War between Israel and Palestine resulted in an occupation of the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and other lands by Israel.

Dror Moreh's Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers plays at both Seret and Sheffield Doc/Fest this week. The film uses the direct testimony of the six living former heads of Israel's secret service Shin Bet - Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter, Yuval Diskin, Carmi Gillon, Yaakov Peri and Avraham Shalom - to explore the men's views on the ongoing conflict between their country and the Palestinians. The men, despite their differences, speak in one voice on that issue at least, arguing that dialogue and a two-state solution are the only constructive way forward.

Catching up with Moreh over the phone this week, we talk about the difficulties of interrogating men who have built their careers on asking questions rather than answering them.

"Of course, I was very, very nervous in the beginning but it was a few interviews with each one. The more you know them...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 9, 2013

Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Secrets behind the Middle East conflict between Isreal and Palestine are exposed in the documentary movie The Gatekeepers.

Directed by Dror Moreh (Sharon), the film features interviews with six former heads of Shin Bet, Isreal’s secret service. The head of Shin Bet is charged with overseeing Isreal’s war on terror, both Palestinian and Jewish, and The Gatekeepers examines their successes and failures.

Ultimately, the movie explains the reasons that each man individually and all six as a group have come to reconsider their previous hard-line positions and advocate for a more conciliatory approach toward their enemies based on a two-state solution.

Rated PG-13, for violent content and disturbing images, the 97-minute movie was awarded Best Documentary by the Los Angeles Film Critics and was an official 2012 sellection of the Telluride, Toronto, New York and Venice film festivals.

Director rejects charge that Oscar-nominated secret services documentary is one-sided

By the time Dror Moreh had finished filming more than 70 hours of interviews with six former chiefs of Israel's shadowy Shin Bet secret service agency, the director knew he had "dynamite in my hands".

The result, The Gatekeepers, a 97-minute documentary which has just opened in the UK, is indeed explosive. The Oscar-nominated film has played to packed audiences in Israel, many of whom emerged stunned at what they had seen and heard.

"I thought if I could manage to get all [six] to speak openly about their experience in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it will create a shockwave," Moreh told the Observer. "I was right – it created a huge storm."

The recollections and reflections of the former chiefs weave a riveting narrative of Shin Bet's activities throughout Israel's 46-year occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. But the punch comes from their conclusions.

Dror Moreh's first-rate film has rightly been compared with The Fog of War, Errol Morris's revealing documentary on Us secretary of defence Robert S McNamara. His austere The Gatekeepers briefly intersperses newsreel material among the expressive talking heads of six former chiefs of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, the equivalent of our MI5. It's less well known than the Mossad, the Israeli equivalent of MI6, but since the six-day war of 1967 Shin Bet has been altogether more influential, as it has had the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to control.

The sextet talk with admirable frankness about their successes and failures over the past 45 years in a war against terrorism, where there has been "no strategy, only tactics". "Forget about morality," one of them says. But that's only a short-term policy in a seemingly hopeless conflict where the intransigence of both sides and the increasing pig-headedness...

The Place Beyond The Pines | Oblivion | Simon Killer | The Gatekeepers | Flying Blind | Scary Movie 5 | Bafta Shorts 2013 | First Position | Theorem | Nautanki Saala!

The Place Beyond The Pines (15)

(Derek Cianfrance, 2012, Us) Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper. 141 mins

Fans might be disappointed to hear it, but this has bigger ambitions than just drooling over Ryan Gosling. His criminal stunt-biker is merely one part of a weighty cross-generational triptych: a study of fathers, sons, sins and justice that seeks a place beyond standard storytelling structure, even if there's not quite enough meat on the bones, especially of the Gosling variety.

Oblivion (12A)

(Joseph Kosinski, 2013, Us) Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko. 125 mins

Cruise is in his familiar anchorman role for this big-budget sci-fi, set on a devastated future Earth where all is not what it seems with his drone repairman's job. It's potentially a Philip K Dick-style thriller, though the lack of advance screenings is a danger sign.

Dror Moreh’s second political documentary feature The Gatekeepers – after 2008′s Sharon – comes to British audiences with the fortunate endorsement of an Oscar nomination, as a daring piece of cinema that takes a candid insight into Shin Bet – the Israeli security agency that had previously been clouded with mystery, as we gain unprecedented access to all of the surviving former heads of the organisation. However, although certainly affecting and important, this is not quite on the same level as the The Imposter, for instance, which was disregarded at this year’s Academy Awards.

Moreh efficiently – and frankly – interviews six former heads of Shin Bet, the internal intelligence agency that is behind the vast majority of any key decisions in regards to the ongoing conflict the nation has with Palestine, bringing light to some of the most controversial and closely guarded state secrets, and taking a devastating yet hugely informative look...

Long before its December release in his native Israel, Dror Moreh's documentary The Gatekeepers was one of the most hotly debated movies in years. "The number of articles about the film was unprecedented", says Moreh. Given the incendiary nature of his film, he can hardly have been surprised by the reaction. Interviewing all six living former heads of Israel's Shin Bet counterterrorism agency, The Gatekeepers is a startling study of how Israeli state-sanctioned violence has derailed the peace process. Fuelled by remarkably frank confessions from these expert tacticians, not least regarding their involvement in selective terrorist assassinations, it makes for grim, if compelling, viewing.

Oscar nominated documentary The Gatekeepers may be a somewhat solemn and immensely politically charged feature film, where we delve into the lives of a series of former heads of Israeli secret service organisation Shin Bet. However, such a grave atmosphere certainly isn’t one that extends to the director Dror Moreh – as we sat down to discuss the feature with the film enthusiast and self-proclaimed Lord of the Rings fanatic.

Moreh also discusses his delight at being nominated for an Academy Award, as well as his take on the controversial reaction this film has received worldwide. He also tells us what he plans on doing next – with a host of offers made to him from Hollywood. With a passionate and driven personality – not even allowing for our interview with him to end at the desired time – here is a filmmaker we may well be hearing a lot more of in the future.