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Exclusive: The inaugural Henry Awards for Public Interest Documentary has named its 15 semifinalists, with the winner set to receive $100,000.

The new prize, created by the Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, recognizes “nonfiction films that advance public understanding of the critical issues of our time while demonstrating outstanding cinematic achievement,” according to a release. “Guided by the hallmarks of ethical practice, rigorous investigation, and courageous storytelling, the Henry Awards are intended to honor and encourage a documentary filmmaking practice grounded in its essential role to a thriving society and focused on the public good.”

‘Four Daughters’

Among the 15 semifinalists announced Tuesday are the Oscar nominated documentary Four Daughters, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, and the Oscar-shortlisted documentaries Queendom, directed by Agniia Galdanova, and Hollywoodgate, directed by Ibrahim Nash’at. Scroll for the full list of semifinalists.

Oscar contenders September 5 and The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and Andreas Dresen’s historic drama From Hilde, With Love are the frontrunners for this year’s German Film Awards, also called the Lolas, Germany’s equivalent of the Oscars.

September 5, Tim Fehlbaum’s real-life thriller based on the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, picked up 10 nominations, including for best film and best director, as well as a supporting actress nom for Leonie Benesch, who plays a translator for the U.S. television network broadcasting the attacks live to the world.

Second and third in the running are Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love, which picked up seven Lola nominations, including for best film and best director, with Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig right behind with six.

Rasoulof’s depiction of an Iranian family torn apart by conflicting loyalties to an increasingly oppressive Tehran regime,...

Nominees for the 2025 Oscars will be announced on Jan. 23 — and one category that’s notoriously difficult to forecast is Best Documentary Feature. The Academy shortlist winnowed down the potential nominees to 15 films, but this year’s precursor awards have been all over the map. We’re also dealing with the Documentary Branch of the Academy — a group that has proven to be unpredictable.

In 2024, Gold Derby’s combined odds were able to forecast just two of the five nominees: The eventual winner, 20 Days in Mariupol, and Four Daughters. Scratched from the list were the Producers Guild of America’s top choice, American Symphony, along with Beyond Utopia, which had stacked PGA, Directors Guild of America, and BAFTA nominations, and the Emmy and National Board of Review winner, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. So what have we learned?

Why we can’t count on the guilds

Last year, the...

Sean Baker for “Anora,” Brady Corbet for “The Brutalist,” James Mangold for “A Complete Unknown,” Jacques Audiard for “Emilia Pérez,” and Edward Berger for “Conclave” have been nominated for the Feature Film directing prize from the DGA Awards on behalf of the Directors Guild of America.

The winner for the top prize will be announced at the 77th Annual DGA Awards ceremony held on February 8.

Also announced on Wednesday are the five nominees for the Michael Apted Award for First-Time Theatrical Feature Film. Those nominees are: Payal Kapadia for “All We Imagine As Light,” Megan Park for “My Old Ass,” RaMell Ross for “Nickel Boys,” Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel for “Armand,” and Sean Wang for “Didi.”

DGA Awards nominees in the TV, reality, commercial, and documentary categories were unveiled on Tuesday, with “Shōgun,” “The Bear,” and “The Penguin” leading the way with three directing nominations each. In the documentary category, the...

As winter awards season has kicked into full gear, it already seems like voters on the television side of things are looking toward the past more so than anticipating what new series will be feted in the next year.

A look at the nominations for the DGA Awards 2025 show that members of the Directors Guild are still keen on shows like “Shōgun,” “Ripley,” and the 96th Oscars, which all won the Emmys for Directing last year. Same goes for “The Bear” and “Saturday Night Live,” in the Comedy and Variety Series categories, respectively, though this time for episodes from the Emmy winners’ latest seasons (the guild awards and the Emmys abide by different eligibility windows.)

The DGA’s recognition of the third season of the Chicago-set FX series is particularly notable, as the sentiment coming out of the 2024 Emmys, where “The Bear” broke a record for most wins, yet lost Outstanding Comedy Series,...

“Shōgun,” “The Bear,” and “The Penguin” were each nominated for three DGA Awards on Tuesday, when the program also recognized its nominees for the Best Documentary directors of the year, selecting the behind-the-camera work for “Porcelain War,” “Sugarcane,” “Daughters,” “Hollywoodgate,” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.”

The full list of this first wave of DGA nominees can be found below.

The remaining nominees for Feature Film and the Michael Apted Award for First-Time Theatrical Feature Film will be announced tomorrow, January 8. The 77th DGA Awards will be held on February 8.

FX’s “Shōgun” and Max’s “Hacks” brought home trophies at Sunday’s Golden Globes; Colin Farrell won for his starring role on “The Penguin.”

Last year, “Succession” earned four of the five directing nominations in the DGA’s Drama Series category, but those episodes split the vote and the series lost out to the sole nomination for “The Last of Us...

“Shōgun” and “The Bear” are among the leaders in nominations by the Directors Guild of America, which announced its TV and documentary nominations on Tuesday.

In the Dramatic Series category, “Shōgun” received three of the five nominations, with “The Diplomat” and “True Detective: Night Country” receiving the other two. Nominated directors were Hiromi Kamata, Frederick E.O. Toye and Jonathan Van Tulleken for “Shōgun,” Alex Graves for “The Diplomat” and Issa López for “True Detective.”

In the Comedy Series category, Christopher Storer, Duccio Fabbri and actress-director Ayo Edebiri were all nominated for “The Bear,” while the category’s other nominees were Lucia Aniello for “Hacks” and Jeff Schaffer for “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

“The Penguin” had the same three-out-of-five feat in the Movies for Television and Limited Series category, receiving a trio of nominations to one each for “Disclaimer” and “Ripley.”

The guild also announced documentary nominations, with nods going to the directors of “Porcelain War,...

Festival Flourishes

BookMyShow‘s Red Lorry Film Festival has landed two Academy Award-shortlisted films to anchor its sophomore edition, set for March 21-23, in Mumbai and Hyderabad. “Hollywoodgate,” from the producers of “Navalny,” shortlisted for documentary feature, offers an on-the-ground examination of Taliban-ruled Kabul. “Universal Language,” contending in the international feature category, presents an absurdist comedy-drama weaving multiple storylines between Tehran and Winnipeg.

The fest will showcase over 120 titles across both cities, marking its expansion with “Red Lorry Film Festival: Parallel Verse” in Hyderabad running alongside Mumbai’s “Take 2” edition. Notable selections include “When The Light Breaks,” which opened Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2024, and “999: The Forgotten Girls,” winner of the Miami Jewish Film Festival’s audience award.

New for 2025, the festival introduces a competition segment open to filmmakers, with submissions closing Jan. 7. Programming spans multiple languages including Spanish, French, German, Korean, Dutch, and Icelandic. BookMyShow COO, cinemas, Ashish Saksena...

(L-r): Noa (played by Owen Teague), Soona (played by Lydia Peckham), and Anaya (played by Travis Jeffery) in 20th Century Studios’ Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced shortlists in 10 categories for the 97th Academy Awards®: Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short Film, International Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound and Visual Effects.

Documentary Feature Film

Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. One hundred sixty-nine films were eligible in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“The Bibi Files”

“Black Box Diaries”

“Dahomey”

“Daughters”

“Eno”

“Frida”

“Hollywoodgate”

“No Other Land...

Awards season is officially up and running, with the announcement of the official Oscars shortlist for the 2025 Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed 10 of their award show's categories today, with international feature film Emilia Pérez garnering the most appearances on the shortlists below.

Featuring in six of the below 10 categories (which we first saw reported on over at Deadline), the Jacques Audiard-directed film looks like it will be a serious contender when the 97th iteration of the awards ceremony airs on March 2, 2025 on ABC and Hulu. The show will be hosted by beloved comedian Conan O'Brien, in what will surely be a lively and entertaining showcase of the best the cinematic community around the world has to offer. Update your Oscars Predictions lists accordingly.

What Films Are On the 2025 Academy Awards Shortlist for the Oscar So Far?

It's an interesting and eclectic mix of films on the list,...

Oscar shortlists are like exit polls released on Election Day before balloting has ended: they’re the best information yet available about how actual voters are feeling, but they don’t necessarily tell you the whole story.

In Tuesday’s announcement of this year’s 10 shortlists — which were, as always, chosen by different branches of the Academy, not the full membership — we saw a terrific show of strength from Netflix’s Emilia Pérez, with a field-leading six mentions; and very solid showings from Universal’s Wicked, with four; and Fox’s Alien: Romulus, Apple’s Blitz, Warners’ Dune: Part Two, Paramount’s Gladiator II and Universal’s The Wild Robot, with three each.

But the fact that, say, Neon’s Anora, Searchlight’s A Real Pain and Amazon/MGM’s Nickel Boys showed up on none of the shortlists is actually not an indication that they are failing to resonate with the Academy.

It’s almost that magical time of the year when the Academy announces the final list of nominees for the 97th Academy Awards! The Oscars represent what many consider the biggest night in Hollywood, as celebrities and filmmakers dress to the nines and walk a red carpet on their way to recognizing some of the best the industry offers. Before the Academy unveils the final list of nominees on January 17, shortlists for 10 Oscar categories have arrived!

The 10 shortlists include considerations for the following categories: documentary feature film, documentary short film, international feature film, makeup and hairstyling, music (original score), music (original song), animated short film, live-action short film, sound and visual effects.

Voting for the 97th Oscars begins at 9 a.m. Pt on January 8 and lasts until 5 p.m. Pt on January 12. The final list of nominees posts on January 17, with final voting at 9 a.m. Pt on February 11 and ending at 5 p.

Porcelain War Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

There's a forthright quality to the choices in this year's Oscar documentary shortlist, with challenging themes and controversial politics tackled upfront in a way we haven't always seen from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Relatively few cater to the comfort narratives of which Hollywood is fond, and there's some low budget indie work getting well-deserved attention.

Curiously, Kneecap, which has done really well elsewhere and dominated the BIFAs, didn't make this shortlist but does appear as Ireland's submission on the Best International Feature Film Shortlist.

The final set of nominations will be narrowed down on 17 January.

The full shortlist:

The Bibi Files Black Box Diaries Dahomey Daughters Eno Frida Hollywoodgate No Other Land Porcelain War Queendom The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat Sugarcane Union Will & Harper ...

Will Ferrell and Harper Steele in ‘Will & Harper’ (Photo Courtesy of Netflix © 2024)

15 documentary feature films and 15 international films made the cut and are shortlisted for the upcoming 97th Academy Awards set for Sunday, March 2, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. Nominees for the 2025 Oscars will be announced on Friday, January 17th.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a total of 10 shortlists including Documentary Short Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound, and Visual Effects.

2025 Oscars Shortlists

Documentary Feature Film

Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. One hundred sixty-nine films were eligible in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

“The Bibi Files”

“Black Box Diaries”

“Dahomey”

“Daughters”

“Eno”

“Frida”

“Hollywoodgate”

“No Other Land”

“Porcelain War”

“Queendom”

“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin...

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has released the shortlist of films that will move forward in 10 categories in the awards race for the upcoming 2025 Oscars.

While hundreds of movies were eligible for awards this year, the Academy narrowed down the field in these 10 categories ahead of the voting period, which begins on January 8.

Wicked, Dune: Part Two, Gladiator II, and Emilia Perez are among the films eligible in multiple categories.

Nominations for the Oscars will be announced on January 17 ahead of the televised ceremony on March 2, which will be hosted by Conan O’Brien and aired lived on ABC.

The shortlist categories include Best Documentary Feature Film, Best Documentary Short Film, Best International Feature Film, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Animated Short Film, Best Live Action Short Film, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects.

Head inside to check out the shortlist…

Documentary...

“Sugarcane,” “No Other Land,” “Will & Harper,” “Dahomey” and “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” are among the 15 films that made the shortlist in the Oscars’ Best Documentary Feature category, one of 10 shortlists that the Academy announced on Tuesday.

The doc shortlist includes many of the most acclaimed nonfiction films of 2024, including Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie’s “Sugarcane,” which led all nominees at the IDA Documentary Awards, the Cinema Eye Honors and Critics Choice Documentary Awards; Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham’s “No Other Land,” which went on to win at the IDA doc awards; and Mati Diop’s “Dahomey,” which also landed a spot on the International Feature Film list, representing Senegal.

As always, there were snubs, including “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” a well-reviewed look at the late actor who famously played the Man of Steel, directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui.

As the industry readies for the holiday break between Christmas and New Year’s, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is sharing its final big announcement for the year.

The Academy revealed on Tuesday the 10 shortlists for the 97th Oscars, with frontrunners named for categories including Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature and Short Subject, Best Original Song, Original Score, Makeup and Hairstyling, Visual Effects, Sound, and more. Voting took place last week for participating branches specific to their categories.

“Emilia Pérez,” representing France in the International Feature Film race, earned six spots across these lists, including two for Original Song, for “El Mal” and “Mi Camino.” The Jacques Audiard Netflix musical also received nods for Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, and Sound — as well as International Feature, which was all but a given. “Wicked,” one of its Best Picture competitors, has four in the crafts races,...

If the Oscars shortlist is the equivalent of mid-term exams for awards contenders, then Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez” and Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” just received passing grades.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 97th Oscars ceremony.

“Emilia Pérez” landed six mentions overall, including makeup, sound, original score, international feature, and two for original song (“El Mal” and “Mi Camino”). The musical was followed another behometh in the race, Universal Pictures’ “Wicked,” which landed four.

The preliminary voting applies to animated short film, documentary feature, documentary short, international feature, live action short, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, sound and visual effects.

Oscar voting to determine the nominees in all 23 categories opens on Wednesday, Jan. 8, and concludes on Sunday, Jan. 12. Nominations will be announced on Friday, Jan. 17.

There are five 2024 Student Academy Award-winning films shortlisted: “Keeper” (documentary short), “Au Revoir...

He couldn’t avoid church music, but that doesn’t mean he had to totally embrace it. Writing the score for Edward Berger’s thriller “Conclave,” set inside the Vatican during the election of a new pope, composer Volker Bertelmann knew that any film that takes place within those walls would have to find a way to nod to the sound of ecclesiastical music over the centuries. “It absolutely needed to be part of it,” said the German composer. “This is one of the oldest places in Christianity, and the seat of power and mystery. I wanted to find music that was reflecting the holy halls. And obviously, the first thing you might want to do is use a choir or organ music.”

But Bertelmann, who has worked in the fields of hip-hop and classical music as well as almost two dozen albums of his often experimental compositions, didn’t...

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

Alien: Romulus (Fede Alvarez)

It’s a dire, inhospitable environment, wherein corporate interests can give way to ghoulish monstrosities, and those just trying to navigate the chokehold of capitalism are doing their best to survive. In a way, Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus may be the most meta Alien film to date. No stranger to playing in others’ sandboxes, the Evil Dead helmer is, at first glance, an encouraging fit for the sci-fi horror franchise. Like the original, 2017’s Alien: Covenant––an underrated high point for these films––was at its peak when threading its headier notions with gleefully mean-spirited cynicism towards its human subjects. Alvarez has that same kind of nasty streak in him, and much of Romulus’ mandated fan service...

The Academy has unveiled the list of feature films that are eligible for consideration in the animated feature, documentary feature Film, and international feature at the 2025 Oscars.

In animation, 31 films will vie for one of the five spots, including “The Wild Robot,” “Inside Out 2,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “Flow,” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.”

In documentary feature, 169 films are eligible. Among them are “No Other Land,” “Daughters,” “Martha,” “I Am: Celine Dion,” and “Dahomey,” which is Senegal’s submission for international feature.

In international feature, there are 85 hopefuls, including frontrunner “Emilia Pérez” (France), “I’m Still Here” (Brazil), “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Germany), “Kneecap” (Ireland), and “Flight 404” (Egypt).

The shortlists of 15 films for documentary and international features will be released on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Friday, Jan. 17. The 97th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, will be held on Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.

Cinema Eye Honors, an organization that celebrates the artistic achievements of nonfiction and documentary filmmakers, has unveiled the feature film nominees for its 18th annual award ceremony, which takes place Jan. 9 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem, N.Y.

“Sugarcane,” from co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, led the pack with six nods, including nominations for outstanding nonfiction feature and direction. The film investigates abuses and forced separations of families within a Canadian Indigenous community.

“Dahomey,” from Mati Diop, and “No Other Land,” from Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor, also landed nods for outstanding nonfiction feature and direction. Both films pulled in five nominations each.

Nominees for the outstanding production category include Paula DuPre’ Pesman’s “Porcelain War.” Pesman previously won in the category at the 3rd Cinema Eye Honors in 2010 for “The Cove.” Shane Boris and Odessa Rae, who took...

The Cinema Eye Honors, an Oscar bellwether that often predicts the Best Documentary Feature race, has unveiled its 2025 nominations.

Leading the pack is “Sugarcane,” Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie’s documentary about abuse in an Indian residential school in Canada. The film earned rave reviews out of Sundance, and here earned six nominations. It’s followed by two hits from the 2024 Berlin Film Festival: “Dahomey,” Mati Diop’s exploration of the artifacts of colonial Africa, and Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor’s Israel-Palestine conflict documentary “No Other Land,” which each received five nominations. Two portraits of major 20th-century artists, Carla Gutiérrez’s “Frida” and Gary Hustwit’s “Eno,” also received five nominations a piece.

The 18th annual Cinema Eye Honors will take place on Thursday, January 9 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem. Keep reading for a complete list of nominees.

Nonfiction...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) has revealed which 20 feature-length and 20 short documentaries have made it onto the shortlists for the 40th IDA Documentary Awards.

Among the films that have a shot at becoming a nominee at the upcoming awards ceremony set to take place on December 5, 2024 at The Orpheum Theater in Downtown Los Angeles are major Best Documentary Feature contenders like “Sugarcane” and “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” as well as titles that have been harder to come by, like “Brisa” and “Kamay.”

As part of the announcement, Dominic Asmall Willsdon, IDA’s Executive Director, said via statement, “The 40th IDA Documentary Awards continues the tradition of celebrating the best of international nonfiction media of the year. We are grateful to all filmmakers who shared their work for consideration this year, representing a record amount of countries in the award’s history. The impressive shortlist for Best Features and Best...

Afternoon Insiders, glad to have you back during what’s been a busy old week. Max Goldbart here bringing you the latest. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Mamma Mia!

A trip to the Barberini: Deadline was in Italy this week, as top players from European and North American film and TV descended on the annual Mia Market conference. October is a busy month for Rome, with the film festival also kicking off on Wednesday with a premiere screening of Andrea Segre’s La Grande Ambizione at the Auditorium della Musica. Over at the Cinema Barberini, Mia got underway on Monday with Jesse interviewing Among Us showrunner Owen Dennis on stage about the creative process of turning the Covid-19 pandemic’s favorite mobile game into a comedy-horror animation for CBS Studios. “The game can be unsettling,” Dennis told us in a pre-interview. “You’re walking around what is mostly...

The 15th annual Doc NYC festival unveiled the titles in its Short List sections, an early precursor lineup in advance of the Oscar nominations next January in the categories of Best Documentary Feature and Documentary Short.

America’s largest documentary festival, based in the Chelsea and Greenwich Village neighborhoods of New York City, launches on Nov. 13 with the opening night premiere of “Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story.”

The titles in the Short Lists include Benjamin Ree’s “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” Raoul Peck’s “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” Carla Gutiérrez’s “Frida,” Mati Diop’s “Dahomey” and “No Other Land,” directed by a four-person collective of Israeli and Palestinian artists.

Additional films, nearly all screening with filmmakers in person for Q&As, include “Will and Harper,” about the friendship between Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, “The Last of the Sea Women,” produced by Nobel Peace Prize winner...

For its 27th year, the Scad Savannah Film Festival will take place October 27-November 2 — with Scad, of course, standing for Savannah College of Art and Design. The festival opens with Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” and closes with Pablo Larraín’s “Maria.” Honorees of the Scad Savannah Film Festival were previously announced.

This year’s edition will screen 162 films, including 123 narrative feature films, 31 documentary feature films, and 69 shorts, with 10 world premieres, and six U.S. premieres in Georgia. The lineup is sectioned into galas, signature screenings, special presentation, professional and student competition films, Docs to Watch, Pixels and Pencils, and the Behind the Lens and Below the Line panel series.

Gala screenings include: “Blitz,” “Better Man,” “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez,” “The Fire Inside,” “Juror #2,” “The Last Showgirl,” “Maria,” “Nickel Boys,” “Nightbitch,” “The Piano Lesson,” “A Real Pain,” “September 5,” “Sweethearts,” and “Unstoppable”

Special presentations include: “All We Imagine as Light,” “The End,...

Predicting the winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar becomes a lot easier on December 17 when the academy announces the 15 films that make the shortlist. Those semi-finalists will be culled from the more than 100 titles that qualified this year for consideration. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Documentary Feature.)

To winnow those down to a manageable number, the academy adds newly eligible documentary feature to a virtual screening room available to all 500-plus members of the documentary branch. While all members are encouraged to watch as many of these as they can, one-fifth of the voters are assigned each title. Each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.

All of these ballots are collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members are then encouraged to watch films on that list which they haven’t seen yet before casting another preferential ballot with their top five choices.

Ibrahim Nash’at took a huge risk in venturing to Afghanistan to document the emergence of Taliban rule following the withdrawal of US forces. As an outsider with no connections in the country, he must have wondered if any doors might open to a filmmaker amid such a tumultuous political landscape.

Through perseverance and more than a small measure of luck, Nash’at found an unlikely entry point—two Taliban officials stationed at the abandoned Hollywood Gate CIA base just outside Kabul.

There, tucked away on the outskirts of the city within the ruins of America’s former operations, Nash’at was afforded a year of unprecedented access, traversing makeshift barracks and gaining a fly-on-the-wall view of the daily realities confronting the new regime.

His resulting film, Hollywoodgate, presents a revealing, and at times unnerving, immersion into life under the Taliban, captured through Nash’at’s ever-watchful lens.

Inside the Enemy...

The Oscar hopes of almost a dozen documentaries will be getting a lift from the International Documentary Association.

The IDA announced the first 11 films in its FallDocs screening series, traditionally an important FYC showcase for documentaries with awards ambitions. Among the 11 are Sugarcane and Blink, both from National Geographic Documentary Films; Frida and I Am: Celine Dion, from Amazon MGM Studios; Black Box Diaries from MTV Documentary Films; Hollywoodgate from Fourth Act Film; The Last of the Sea Women, an Apple TV+ documentary that is about to make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, from Kino Lorber. Scroll for the full list of films.

As it has done for several years running, FallDocs is also making room for several films without distribution to date: The Brink of Dreams (winner of the L’Oeil d’or prize at the Cannes Film Festival); The Flats,...

Disney blockbuster Alien: Romulus crawls into 676 cinemas at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, as the first title in the franchise since 2017’s Alien: Covenant.

Directed by Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus is set between the events of 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens, and sees a group of young space colonists scavenging a derelict space station and coming face-to-face with a xenomorph alien.

Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues wrote the script, based on characters by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett. Civil War and Priscilla star Cailee Spaeny leads the cast, alongside Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced and Screen Stars of Tomorrow David Jonsson and Spike Fearn.

Sony’s “It Ends With Us” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office, with £4.5 million ($5.7 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

However, the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni drama-romance faced stiff competition from Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which held onto second place in its third week with £4 million, bringing its cumulative total to £42.9 million.

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” continues to draw audiences in its fifth week, securing third place with £1.5 million and pushing its total to £35.5 million. Warner Bros. saw success with its new release “Trap,” which opened at No. 4, pulling in £1.1 million.

Lionsgate U.K.’s “Borderlands” rounded out the top five in its opening weekend, earning £843,159. Warner Bros.’ “Twisters” maintained its appeal in sixth place during its fourth week, adding £619,801 to surpass the £12 million mark.

Disney’s “Inside Out 2” demonstrated remarkable staying power, holding the seventh position in its ninth week with £618,055, bringing its total to £54.1 million.

Ibrahim Nash’at knew exactly the moment to flee the Taliban.

It was July 31, 2022, and the militant regime now running Afghanistan had just staged for him and assembled foreign dignitaries a parade showing off their military might — including U.S. aircraft and other military tech abandoned by the American forces a year earlier, which the Taliban had repaired and put back into service for their own use.

“I was clocked by the secret service of the Taliban,” Nash’at told IndieWire in a new interview about his documentary “Hollywoodgate,” about the fundamentalists’ first year back in power. “And they came to me and said, ‘You have to come to our office tomorrow and show us all your footage,’ and for me this was a meaning that my mission here is completed. I was filming the transformation of a militia into a military regime, and I realized at that moment the transformation was complete.

"Stop filming now, all of you." Fourth Act Film has revealed an official trailer for an acclaimed documentary film called Hollywoodgate, a chilling look at this moment in Afghanistan's history. This doc premiered at the 2023 Venice & Telluride Film Festivals last year to positive reviews, and also played at the Woodstock, Zurich, and Stockholm Film Festivals. Hollywoodgate, which has nothing to do with Hollywood anyway, is Egyptian director Ibrahim Nash'at's unprecedented and audacious look at the Taliban's transition from an insurgent militia into a military regime. Immediately after the US pullout from Afghanistan, Taliban forces occupied the Hollywood Gate complex, which is claimed to be a former CIA base in Kabul. Helicopters and fighter jets that were thought to be destroyed now lethally bomb the opposition, creating untold collateral damage in the process; and the use of international documentarians for the purposes of propaganda is now underway. Over the course of one year,...

Dubai-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired Mena distribution rights to Hollywoodgate, Ibrahim Nash’at’s acclaimed documentary about the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US troops.

Front Row struck the deal directly with the producers and is planning a limited release in the Gulf ahead of August 30, which marks the third anniversary since American and NATO forces left Kabul in 2021.

The film takes place in Afghanistan and is a portrait of the head of the Taliban airforce commander and a Taliban lieutenant, revealing how the Taliban established its regime in the country and discovered...

Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region distribution rights to Ibrahim Nash’at’s doc “Hollywoodgate” on the takeover of a former U.S. military base in Kabul during the first year after the American withdrawal.

The potent doc – which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival and launched into the Middle East from the Amman International Film Festival earlier this month – will now be getting special screenings across alternative cinema circuits in the Mena region.

These screenings will possibly take place on Aug. 30, 2024, which marks the three-year anniversary of the day the U.S. Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan. However a Front Row said this tentative plan for the Middle East “Hollywoodgate” theatrical release has not been fully confirmed.

As Variety’s Christopher Vourlias put it in his Venice interview with Nash’at, “When the last American transport plane...

Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired Middle East and North African rights for documentary Hollywoodgate, capturing Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal in August 21.

Egyptian filmmaker and journalist Ibrahim Nash’at’s audaciously takes spectators behind the scenes of the first year of the Taliban’s return to power.

The doc takes its title from the abandoned U.S. base Hollywoodgate, which is shown in the film as Taliban forces take control of the site.

“We believe that Hollywoodgate is a crucial documentary that sheds light on the ongoing struggles within Afghanistan,” said Front Row Filmed Entertainment CEO Gianluca Chakra.

“It is our responsibility to bring socially conscious films to the forefront, and Hollywoodgate provides an essential perspective on the complex realities faced by the Afghan people. This film aligns with our mission to support and distribute thought-provoking and impactful cinema across the Mena region.

One of our favorite films coming out of Venice Film Festival last fall is finally getting a release this month. Director Ibrahim Nash’at spent a year closely embedded in the inner circle of the Taliban after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, as they took back power and picked up the many (expensive) pieces our government left behind. The result is a fascinating, often wild, and even occasionally humorous look at shifting power. Ahead of a theatrical release beginning next week on July 19, the first trailer has now arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Unprecedented and audacious, Hollywoodgate is the riveting result of the year director Ibrahim Nash’at spent with the Taliban in the wake of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Risking his life in the war-torn nation, Nash’at is on the ground with the Taliban when they enter an American base loaded with a portion...

After a year-long hiatus the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 26th edition, which will take place in Durham, N.C., from April 4-7. The festival will kick things off with “Girls State,” the Apple Original docu that premiered at Sundance earlier this year.

It’s been five years since Full Frame, often referred to as “a filmmaker’s festival,” was held as an in-person event. Full Frame was held entirely online for the 2020–22 festivals due to Covid-19. Then in 2023 the festival was put on hold last year due to financial struggles and leadership turnover at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies (Cds), a nonprofit affiliate of the university that puts on the fest. Notably, Cds executive director Opeyemi Olukemi resigned last year. As reported by The Assembly, Olukemi, who took the role in 2021, was criticized as the Cds staff shrank and a bulk of...

South Korean director Hong Sang-soo was awarded the El Gouna Gold Star for best narrative film for his meditation on art and relationships, “In Our Day,” as the delayed edition of the El Gouna Film Festival held its closing ceremony on Thursday. The Italian animated film “A Greyhound of a Girl,” directed by Enzo D’Alò, and the Brazilian director Guto Parente’s “A Strange Path” picked up the Silver and Bronze Stars respectively.

The jury comprised of Indian director Anup Singh, Jordanian actress Saba Mubarak, Palestinian actress Yasmine Al-Massri, French Lebanese actress Manal Issa and Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy.

In the non-fiction category, Ibrahim Nash’at’s acclaimed documentary “Hollywoodgate” took the top prize, with “Seven Winters in Tehran” and Mila Turajlić’s Serbian film “Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels” sharing the Silver Star, and “On the Adamant,” directed by French director Nicolas Philibert, taking the Bronze Star. The...

Iranian drama film “Empty Nets” was Monday named winner of the Aff Feature Fiction Award at the Adelaide Film Festival. Directed by Behrooz Karamizade, it collected an A$10,000 cash prize.

The festival’s competition section is one of the oldest in Australia and seeks to reward bold filmmaking. This year’s competition mostly comprised films by directors making their feature debuts. They included “Blaga’s Lessons,” from Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev; “Embryo Larva Butterfly,” by Greek-Cypriot writer-director Kyros Papavassiliou; “On The Go,” from directors Julia de Castro and Maria Gisele Royo; “Sahela,” directed by Australia’s Raghuvir Joshi; and “You’ll Never Find Me,” from Adelaide-based duo Josiah Allen and Indianna Bell.

“’Empty Nets’ is a searing portrait of the bleak socioeconomic reality for young people without family money in contemporary Iran, distinguished by atmospheric visuals, an evocative sense of place, stirring lead performances and a powerful grasp of the sea as...

The jury included ‘The Royal Hotel’ director Kitty Green.

Behrooz Karamizade’s Empty Nets and Ibrahim Nash’at’s documentary Hollywoodgate have scooped the top prizes at Adelaide Film Festival (Aff)

Empty Nets received the Aff Feature Fiction Award, with Iranian-born German filmmaker Karamizade winning a cash prize of $6,300.

The Germany-Iran co-production centres on a young couple fighting for the survival of their relationship in the forbidding world of contemporary Iran. The film previously won the special jury prize at Karlovy Vary and premiered at Filmfest München.

The five-strong jury, which included filmmakers Kitty Green and Goran Stolevski, described the film...

Each of the winners takes home festival’s Golden Eye trophy and a Chf 20,000 cash prize.

Turkish drama Hesitation Wound by Selman Nacar has won the Feature Film Competition prize at the 19th Zurich Film Festival.

Hesitiation Wound, which world premiered last month in Venice’s Horizons section, is the story of a female Turkish lawyer fighting both a murder case and her own personal issues.

The Swiss festival awarded the top prize in its Focus competition, which is for films from Switzerland, Germany and Austria, to the Afghanistan set documentary Hollywoodgate by Ibrahim Nash’at.

Hollywoodgate, which world premiered out...

“Hesitation Wound” and “Hollywoodgate” were named winners at the Zurich Film Festival, as the 19th edition of the Swiss festival came to a close.

Selman Nacar’s drama “Hesitation Wound” impressed the Feature Film Competition jury.

“Moral issues are a frequent underlying theme in many films, but the dilemma facing the main character in this film is really strongly felt here,” argued the jury, which comprised president Anton Corbijn, Finola Dwyer, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Juho Kuosmanen and Bryce Nielsen.

Praising “wonderful” Tülin Özen, cast as a lawyer struggling at home and at work – “a woman forever on the verge of either breakthrough or breakdown,” wrote Variety – they added: “It’s a film that stayed with the majority of the jury throughout the festival and even though it was a fight with two other contenders, it became our favorite. Selman Nacar, thank you so much for this delicious film.”

Iris Kaltenbäck...

Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival is back after a one-year hiatus with a rich mix of Arabic and international titles launching into the Middle East and plenty of promising projects from Arab countries set to be unveiled to prospective partners at its CineGouna industry side.

The event launched in 2017 by Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib Sawiris – whose brother Samih built the El Gouna resort in a swathe of desert near the tourist town of Hurghada 250 miles south of Cairo – was put on pause in 2022 ostensibly due to the country’s economic crisis following five editions during which fest co-founder Amr Mansi and chief Intishal Al Timimi had managed to rapidly put El Gouna on the international festival map while also making it a favourite with the local crowd.

“If there is a positive from the fact that we were forced to skip a year it’s that we were sorely...

Woodstock Film Festival has added Tony Goldwyn’s comedy drama “Ezra,” starring Bobby Cannavale and Robert De Niro to its 2023 lineup.

In the film, which made its world premiere earlier this month at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Cannavale stars as Max, a stand up comic who after recently blowing up his career and marriage is living with his father Stan (De Niro). When Max’s autistic son Ezra is expelled from yet another school, Max makes the controversial decision to take him on a cross-country road trip.

In addition to Cannavale and De Niro, “Ezra” stars Rose Byrne, Vera Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg and Rainn Wilson. (Mister Smith Entertainment and CAA are handling sales.)

“I am so excited that the Woodstock Film Festival chose to screen ‘Ezra,'” says Goldwyn. “Woodstock is one of the coolest festivals in the country for a filmmaker. After such an enthusiastic reception at TIFF last week,...

Swiss festival programmes 148 films for this year’s edition.

The Zurich Film Festival (Zff) has unveiled a line-up of 148 films for its 2023 edition which takes place from September 28 to October 8.

The festival’s Focus Competition – which showcases feature films and documentaries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland - has six world premieres. They include Swiss films The Driven One by Piet Baumgartner, a long-term study of students at the elite university Hsg St. Gallen, and road movie Return To Alexandria by Zurich-based Tamer Ruggli, which stars Nadine Labaki and Fanny Ardant.

Scroll down for Focus and Feature Film Competition line-up

Other...

A scene early in Ibrahim Nash’at’s chilling new documentary “Hollywoodgate” makes clear the stakes of Nash’at’s undertaking. Invited by the Taliban to film a top leader, the new air force commander Malawi Mansour, and a lower-ranking Taliban Mukhtar, after the departure of American Troops from Afghanistan in 2021, Mansour makes clear his feelings about the documentary and Nash’at. Speaking with an underling, he notes, “if his intentions are bad, he will die soon.” It’s a scene that, like the rest of the film, is viewed at a distance, a prerequisite for Nash’at’s undertaking.

Continue reading ‘Hollywoodgate’ Review: Ibrahim Nash’at’s Terrifying Film Documents The Taliban’s Takeover Of Afghanistan [Venice] at The Playlist.

If you witnessed the chaos unfold in Kabul airport two years ago, it probably won’t come as much of a surprised to learn the US Army left a helicopter or two in Afghanistan. More alarming might be the news, calmly delivered at the start of this profoundly unreassuring documentary, that the cache of weapons and equipment that remains is estimated to be worth somewhere in the region of $7,000,000,000. In Hollywoodgate, an out-of-competition premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week, the Egyptian journalist and filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at risks life and limb to achieve the improbable: nestling his way in with the Taliban fighters in charge of an abandoned U.S. base and observing their attempts to utilize what the Army left behind. “The Americans left us an enormous treasure,” one General observes; Nash’at’s film offers a worrying insight into what they might decide to do with it all.

A Taliban air force commander walks into a big, empty gym with his men and hops onto a treadmill. He burns a few calories, cracks a couple of muted jokes, and steps off before lifting a couple of dumbbells. “This was fun,” he says without affect, and moves on to bigger things, like figuring out how to use some of the more than $7 billion worth of American weaponry left behind when U.S. forces left the country. Hannah Arendt was writing about Adolf Eichmann when she waxed philosophic on “the banality of evil,...