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Disney ha publicado el nuevo tráiler y póster de la nueva serie original de Lucasfilm, “Star Wars: The Acolyte”.

En “Star Wars: The Acolyte”, la investigación de una espeluznante ola de crímenes enfrenta a un respetado Maestro Jedi (Lee Jung-jae) con una peligrosa guerrera de su pasado (Amandla Stenberg). A medida que van apareciendo más pistas, se adentran en un oscuro camino en el que fuerzas siniestras revelan que no todo es lo que parece…

La serie cuenta con un elenco estelar, incluyendo a Amandla Stenberg (“Los Juegos del Hambre”), Lee Jung-jae (“El Juego del Calamar”), Manny Jacinto (“The Good Place”), Dafne Keen (“Logan”), Charlie Barnett (“Men in Black 3”), Jodie Turner-Smith (“After Yang”), Rebecca Henderson (“Appropriate Behaviour”), Dean-Charles Chapman (“1917”), Joonas Suotamo (“Star Wars”) y Carrie-Anne Moss (“The Matrix”).

Leslye Headland (“Rusian Doll”) ha creado la serie, basada en “Star Wars” de George Lucas...

New York University has revealed its 2024 picks for its Black List-inspired Purple List of the best production-ready screenplays from Tisch School of the Arts graduate film students and recent alumni.

The four screenplays, selected via a blind reading process by industry insiders, are Blue Comedy by Vincent Lee Accettola, Little Phnom Penh by Chheangkea, Rubber Hut by Hanna Gray Organschi and Satoshi by Sara Crow and David Rafailedes.

Blue Comedy follows a celebrity comedian who recently came out of the closet who returns to the Boston stand-up scene to mentor a straight comedian for whom he’s developed feelings. Little Phnom Penh explores a Cambodian woman’s personal desires and changing family roles over two decades in a story that spans across the U.S. and Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Rubber Hut centers around a former ex-Pam Am stewardess who opens a drive-thru condom shop...

La batalla entre el bien y el mal alcanza un nuevo nivel en ‘The Acolyte’. © Disney Plus+

¡La espera ha terminado para los fans de Star Wars! El primer tráiler y el emocionante póster de la nueva serie original de Lucasfilm, “Star Wars: The Acolyte”, ya están aquí.

En “Star Wars: The Acolyte”, la investigación de una espeluznante ola de crímenes enfrenta a un respetado Maestro Jedi (Lee Jung-jae) con una peligrosa guerrera de su pasado (Amandla Stenberg). A medida que van apareciendo más pistas, se adentran en un oscuro camino en el que fuerzas siniestras revelan que no todo es lo que parece…

La serie cuenta con un elenco estelar, incluyendo a Amandla Stenberg (“Los Juegos del Hambre”), Lee Jung-jae (“El Juego del Calamar”), Manny Jacinto (“The Good Place”), Dafne Keen (“Logan”), Charlie Barnett (“Men in Black 3”), Jodie Turner-Smith (“After Yang”), Rebecca Henderson (“Appropriate Behaviour”), Dean-Charles Chapman (“1917”), Joonas Suotamo...

New York University has revealed its 2023 picks for its Black List-inspired Purple List of the best production-ready screenplays from Tisch School of the Arts graduate film students and recent alumni.

The four screenplays, selected via a blind reading process by industry leaders, are Burnout by Swetha Regunathan, Fate Moreland’s Widow by Joshua Foster, Haazer by Pepi Ginsberg and May You Outlive Us by Isabelle Mecattaf.

Burnout is a family drama set on an illegal cannibis farm. Fate Moreland’s Widow is based on a 2015 novel of the same name and explores a drama set in a Blue Ridge Mountain mill town. Haazer is a campus psychological thriller involving a student athlete and a fraternity. And May You Outlive Us follows four women as they recover from the 2020 Beirut explosion.

Prominent filmmakers whose work was included on past editions of the Purple List, now in its 12th year, include Chloé Zhao (Nomadland,...

New sales agent and financier Architect has come on board to represent international sales on writer-director Laurel Parmet’s Sundance-premiering “The Starling Girl.”

The film was acquired for North America by Bleecker Street in a deal negotiated by UTA and WME, and will release in cinemas later this year. Architect will launch international sales at this week’s European Film Market, which runs alongside the Berlin Film Festival.

“The Starling Girl” premiered at Sundance to strong reviews, and will screen in the Festival Favourites section at SXSW next month. It stars Eliza Scanlen (“Sharp Objects”), Lewis Pullman (“Top Gun: Maverick”), Jimmi Simpson (“Westworld”), Wrenn Schmidt (“Nope)” and Austin Abrams (“Paper Towns|). The film is produced by Kevin Rowe and Kara Durrett.

The drama follows 17-year-old Jem Starling (Scanlen), who struggles to find her place in the fundamentalist Christian community that raised her. According to the film’s official synopsis, “even...

The producers of Focus Features’ “Polite Society” have launched their next project with “Lollipop,” the fiction debut feature of Daisy-May Hudson, which stars Posy Sterling, TerriAnn Oudjar and newcomer Idil Ahmed.

The film, which has wrapped after a five-week shoot in London, is the first major title for new sales agent and financier Architect, set up by former Embankment Films executives Calum Gray and Max Pirkis. The company will launch the title at this month’s European Film Market, which runs alongside the Berlin Film Festival.

A BAFTA Breakthrough, Grierson and BIFA-nominated documentary director, Daisy-May Hudson’s previous film was the acclaimed documentary feature “Half Way.”

“Lollipop” follows Molly (Sterling), a young woman who having just been released from prison struggles to regain custody of her children from the state. When she bumps into her childhood friend Amina (Ahmed) the two women soon realize their only chance is to join...

“The Alienist’s” Rosy McEwen has boarded Georgia Oakley’s upcoming feature “Blue Jean” in the lead role.

McEwen, who was named one of Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch 2020, will play the eponymous Jean, a teacher who finds herself grappling with her identity during the tail-end of the 1980s.

Oakley, whose debut short film “Little Bird” was nominated for best narrative short film at Tribeca Film Festival, is directing the film from her original screenplay.

“Jean is a woman forced to wear multiple masks in the different areas of her life, and as such she has this sort of taut, cloistered energy that Rosy has absolutely mastered,” Oakley said in a statement. “I think it takes an actor such as Rosy, with such intelligence and poise to communicate these kinds of complex emotions; I can’t wait to work with her to bring Jean to life.”

McEwen said of the...

Patton Oswalt is toplining and starring alongside writer-director James Morosini in I Love My Dad, a dramatic comedy that just wrapped principal photography in Syracuse, NY. Claudia Sulewski, Rachel Dratch, Ricky Velez also star along with Lil Rel Howery and Amy Landecker.

Inspired by Morosini’s real-life experiences, the pic follows Chuck (Oswalt), an estranged father who desperately wants to reconnect with his depressive son, Franklin (Morosini). Blocked on social media and concerned for his son’s life, Chuck impersonates a waitress (Sulewski) online and starts checking in with Franklin. But things begin to spiral when Franklin falls for this imaginary girl and wants nothing more than to meet her in person.

Bill Stertz and Sean King O’Grady produce for Atlas Industries alongside Dane Eckerle, Daniel Brandt and Burn Later Productions’ Phil Keefe and Sam Slater. Lauren Hantz and John Hantz are executive producers via their Hantz Motion Pictures, which fully financed.

The director and star of The Bisexual, Appropriate Behaviour and The Miseducation of Cameron Post imagines an event without phones, loos or discussion panels

I have always hated festivals. I get overwhelmed by the crowds, the schedules, the one-size-fits-all amusement park vibe of being milked of money while you chase the fun. This is my antidote to all the things I hate about festivals.

Much has been made in recent years of the need to support, uplift, and, for the love of God — finance —more women filmmakers, but how many lesbian films have shaken out from all that hand-wringing? It’s heartening to see a woman at the helm of a comic book movie, but when was the last great lesbian rom-com? (Even more pressing: Where is the next one?) As in the struggle for queer liberation, lesbians —and lesbian films — are often an afterthought. That’s one of the many salient points covered in the peppy new documentary, “Dykes, Camera, Action!,” which while offering yet more proof that no one does catchy titles like the queers.

At a breezy 60 minutes, the film has much in common with that other lesbian tradition, the potluck, in terms of the topics it covers. There’s a little o’ this, a little o’ that, plus plenty of vegan and gluten-free options.

Harvey Weinstein-inspired drama received an early digital release in the UK due to cinema closures.

UK streaming platform Curzon Home Cinema (Chc) has recorded its biggest weekend to date following the early digital release of Harvey Weinstein-inspired drama The Assistant.

The film, starring Julia Garner (Ozark), helped the platform generate a 7.4% revenue boost on its previous best weekend and was 340% up on Chc’s equivalent weekend in 2019.

It marks an ongoing success story for the streaming platform, which has seen a consistent rise in figures following the closure of all cinemas in mid-March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’, ‘And Then We Danced’ lead Mubi, BFI Player charts.

Oliver Hermanus’ Moffie topped UK streaming platform Curzon Home Cinema’s (Chc) most-watched films over the weekend, after sidestepping a theatrical release due to the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.

The gay military drama, which had its world premiere in the Horizons section of Venice, was originally due to receive a UK day-and-date release on April 24. But the continued closure of cinemas meant the film launched exclusively on Chc and performed strongly as audiences continue to seek out home entertainment during quarantine.

From April 24-26, Chc reported...

‘Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’ leads Mubi chart.

Safy Nebbou’s Who You Think I Am has topped UK streaming platform Curzon Home Cinema’s (Chc) most-watched films for a second week as audiences continue to seek home entertainment during the lockdown.

A month after all cinemas closed across the UK, in a bid to stem the spread of Covid-19, Curzon’s streaming platform reported a 211% revenue increase on the equivalent weekend in 2019.

However, income from April 17-19 was down 31% on the previous weekend, highlighting the importance of launching strong, new titles on a weekly basis.

Romantic drama Who You Think I Am,...

‘Bait’ and ‘Knives Out’ lead BFI Player charts.

UK streaming platform Curzon Home Cinema (Chc) has reported a record digital opening for Safy Nebbou’s Who You Think I Am.

The romantic drama, starring Juliette Binoche, delivered the platform’s biggest three-day opening for a premium VoD title to date.

It benefitted from Curzon bringing forward the release of the film from May 8, implemented as part of a larger reshuffle to bolster its online offering while cinemas remain closed, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The performance helped Chc record a 630% increase on the equivalent weekend in 2019 and revenue generated from...

Desiree Akhavan.

Desiree Akhavan, a Us writer, director and actor best known for her queer cult classic Appropriate Behaviour and the TV series The Bisexual, is coming to Australia.

At two In Conversation sessions she will address such topics as working in film and episodic TV, acting in one’s own own work vs directing without acting, choosing projects and how diversity issues have affected her career.

The daughter of Iranian parents, she played Shirin, who is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her breakout feature Appropriate Behaviour, which premiered at Sundance.

Her second feature The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a drama starring Chloë Grace Moretz as a teenager who is forced into a gay conversion therapy centre by her conservative guardians, won the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic at Sundance.

The Bisexual, which she created, wrote, directed and starred in,...

Reframe Rise — Career Acceleration Leads to Commerical Features and High Profile TV for Female DirectorsThe Inaugural Class of ReFrame Rise Directors Announced at the 2019 Women In Film Annual Gala in June.

Hulu Signs on as ReFrame Rise Co-Sponsor

ReFrame™, a collaborative initiative of Women I Film La and Sundance Institute, announced the inaugural class of ReFrame Rise™ directors at the 2019 Women In Film Annual Gala on June 12 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel. The inaugural class of ReFrame Rise directors include Desiree Akhavan, Haifaa al-Mansour, Patricia Cardoso, Hanelle Culpepper, Sydney Freeland, Zetna Fuentes, Tina Mabry and Meera Menon.

ReFrame Rise is a comprehensive and customized 2-year sponsorship that provides endorsement and support to accelerate high-level sustainable careers for experienced female directors who are poised to lead studio and independent features, pilots, and episodic television across all platforms.

During the Women In Film Annual Gala, actor, director, and producer, Kyra Sedgwick, introduced...

Exclusive: The Athena Film Festival said Time’s Up co-founder Nina Shaw, The Miseducation of Cameron Post writer-director Desiree Akhavan and Toronto Film Festival co-chief Cameron Bailey have been selected as this year’s honorary award winners, bestowed to celebrate women leaders in the entertainment industry and those who support them.

The ninth annual Athena Film Festival, co-founded by the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College and Women and Hollywood with a focus on telling amplifying stories of fierce and fearless females, runs February 28-March 3 at Barnard in New York. It will open with Julia Hart’s Fast Color, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and closes with the New York premiere of the Sundance buzz documentary Knock Down the House in its New York premiere.

Shaw, a Barnard undergrad and founding partner at Los Angeles entertainment legal powerhouse Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano, where she has repped talent for more than 40 years,...

From Dear White People and Sorry to Bother You star Tessa Thompson, Oscar winning director Damien Chazelle, Palme d’Or winner and Top of the Lake director Jane Campion, there are a lot of Sundance alums named today as jurors for the 112-film festival kicking off next week.

As well as who will decided the victors in the seven juried categories, another Sff veteran and Glow actor Marianna Palka was revealed as the host of the February 2 awards ceremony in sure to be chilly Park City the day before the Super Bowl.

As they have in the past, Sundance attendees will help decide the Audience Awards winners in the World competition, U.S. competition and Next categories.

Having braved the inevitable show and cold for their love of cinema, TV and what could be the next big thing at the Robert Redford-founded fest, ticket holders will once again be...

When the Sundance Film Festival kicks off next week, the annual event will flood Park City, Utah with plenty of high-powered talent, and it seems that this year’s jury members might offer up as much notoriety and star power as the people on the big screen. The Sundance Institute has announced the “20 celebrated and revered expert voices across film, art, culture, and science” who will make up this year’s juries, designed to award feature-length and short films shown at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with 12 prizes. Those names include filmmakers Jane Campion, Damien Chazelle, Yance Ford, Rachel Grady, Ciro Guerra; screenwriters Phyllis Nagy and Sev Ohanian; actors Tessa Thompson, Sheila Vand, and Corey Stoll; and many more.

All this year’s winners, save for the short film awardees (which are announced at a separate ceremony on January 29), will be announced at a ceremony on February 2 that will be lives​treamed at ​sundance.

In the same dark comedy spirit of Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U, a woman experiences her demise over and over again in the trailer for the new series Russian Doll, premiering on Netflix on February 1st.

"Russian Doll follows a young woman named Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) on her journey as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City.

Russian Doll is co-created by Natasha Lyonne, Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, who all serve as executive producers, with Headland and Lyonne as writers for the series. Additional cast include Greta Lee (“KTown”), Yul Vazquez (“Captain Phillips”), Tony Award-winner Elizabeth Ashley (“Ocean’s 8”) and Charlie Barnett (“Chicago Fire”). Golden Globe® winner and Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny (“Lizzie”), SAG Award winner Dascha Polanco (“Orange is the New Black”), Brendan Sexton III, Rebecca Henderson (“Appropriate Behavior”), Jeremy Bobb (“The Knick”), Ritesh Rajan (“Stitchers...

Set to the tune of “Crimson and Clover”, the new trailer for the Netflix comedy Russian Doll starts over not once, not twice, but three times… and it makes sense considering the main character relives death on an endless loop.

Created by Natasha Lyonne, Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland, Russian Doll, which debuts Feb. 1, follows a young woman named Nadia (Lyonne) on her journey as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City. As you can see from the trailer above she dies repeatedly while at this party and she is just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

In addition to the female trifecta of female creators leading the Russian Doll charge, the series features an all-female writing and directing team, with all episodes directed by Headland, Lyonne, and Jamie Babbit.

Lyonne, Poehler, and Headland serve as executive producers,...

Natasha Lyonne has had an epic career, beginning with her early days as a child star and continuing with roles like the lead role of “Slums of Beverly Hills” and the most sardonic inmate at Litchfield in “Orange Is the New Black.” But her newests Netflix series could be the showcase she’s been looking for since the beginning. “Russian Doll,” co-created by Lyonne, Amy Poehler, and Leslye Headland, is set to premiere February 1, 2019, on Netflix.

The official synopsis reads as follows: “‘Russian Doll’ follows a young woman named Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) on her journey as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City.”

Vague, but intriguing. What that means for Nadia and her sanity is a question that the show will have to answer, but considering that playwright and filmmaker Headland co-created it, the story will be accompanied by the writer/director’s trademark wry wit,...

“Sex is complicated,” Leila, the hero of Hulu’s The Bisexual, tells her best friend Deniz in the show’s premiere episode. “Like, you strategize how you’re gonna get it, and then you anticipate it, and then once it’s finally happening don’t you wish you could just flash-forward because all the pressure’s on you to come and you’d rather just give head than worry about your own orgasm?”

“Nope, not at all,” Deniz replies.

“Well, good for you.”

Played by creator/director/co-writer Desiree Akhavan,...

“It was the most honest depiction of life as a teenager that I had ever read,” recalls Desiree Akhavan about the novel “The Miseducation of Cameron Post.” “It reminded me a lot of a John Hughes film” in the way it “captured that moment in life where you realize the adults don’t know what the hell they’re doing,” and you look to your “family of friends” to “decide together what’s right and wrong.” The fact that it also happened to be about the effects of gay conversion therapy on a young woman (Chloe Grace Moretz) was almost secondary. Watch our exclusive video interview with the director and writer above.

See Chloe Grace Moretz (‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’) on fighting gay conversion therapy in era of Mike Pence [Exclusive Video Interview]

“To me, gay conversion therapy was a metaphor for what it means to be a teenager,” Akhavan explains, “that no matter who you are,...

When Desiree Akhavan was doing press for her first film, 2014 Sundance debut “Appropriate Behavior,” people kept citing her sexuality. She was “the bisexual director,” noted for writing and acting in her own frank, semi-autobiographic feature about an Iranian-American in the throes of hapless young adult romance with both men and women. But while Akhavan was unapologetic in her bisexuality on-screen, she found herself inwardly cringing all through Sundance.

Continue reading ‘The Bisexual’: Desiree Akhavan’s Masterful New Series Is As Harrowing As It Is Hilarious [Review] at The Playlist.

Television is hitting its annual homestretch. As the film world gears up for another contentious awards season, the TV realm continues ever onward, filling up the pre-holiday calendar with plenty of new offerings on streaming and cable.

Perhaps subconsciously matching the Academy-chasing stories on the feature side, plenty of this month’s brand new TV options are adaptations of acclaimed existing stories: November promises an on-screen look at a beloved novel of young friendship and not one but two TV series based on podcasts.

So which of the new offerings for the month are worth checking out? Our overviews of potential new favorites are all gathered below.

(We do this roundup of new shows pretty much every month — if you missed any of those previous picks, here are some notable TV premieres from February, March, April, May, June, July, August, October, and our giant fall preview.)

“Homecoming”

Answers aren’t...

Channel 4 has released the first trailer for “The Bisexual,” the television debut for American filmmaker Desiree Akhavan. Akhavan’s second feature, “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” won the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury prize in 2018, securing her place as a rising star on the Americn indie film scene. But it was her first feature, 2014’s “Appropriate Behavior,” which first introduced her unique comedic voice as a filmmaker, writer, and actor. For fans of “Appropriate Behavior,” “The Bisexual” tells a similar story in episodic form, replete with a location change from Brooklyn to London.

Akhavan plays Leila, a New York transplant adjusting to life in London while also navigating her complex sexuality. Her attempts to understand her sexuality are hindered by skeptics and friends — but mostly by her own neuroses.

After striking out securing development in Los Angeles, Akhavan moved to London, where she was surprised to find herself wholly embraced by the industry.

Girl Talk is a weekly look at women in film — past, present, and future.

Desiree Akhavan didn’t set out to make a message movie with “The Miseducation of Cameron Post.” Her second feature stars Chloe Grace Moretz as the eponymous teenage Cameron, who is shunted off to gay conversion camp after she’s caught in flagrante with her best friend. For the filmmaker behind the disarmingly honest “Appropriate Behavior,” the film offered the chance to put a different spin on the stories she likes to tell.

“I didn’t make this film to draw attention to gay conversion therapy, but I am happy it’s doing that,” Akhavan said. “It wasn’t my agenda going into it but I think the film will touch different people on different levels. … To me, it was a metaphor for something anyone could relate to, which is the minute you become a teenager,...

“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” opened in select theaters on August 3, adapted from the 2012 novel by Emily M. Danforth about the psychological damage done by the practice of gay conversion therapy. Writer-director Desiree Akhavan; stars Chloe Grace Moretz, John Gallagher Jr., Forrest Goodluck; and anti-conversion therapy activist Mathew Shurka previewed the film at a rooftop screening in Brooklyn, NY, on July 31. Watch Moretz discuss the film above, and see Akhavan and Shurka discuss its themes in the videos below.

It was a long road getting “Miseducation” into theaters. After Akhavan read the novel her girlfriend at the time strongly encouraged her to make it into a film, but at that time Akhavan hadn’t made a film yet and thought, “It’s better than I am. My work is 80-percent fart jokes, and I would not do it service.” But after a few years she relented. “It was the smarter...

“I had a moment two years ago when I was super unhappy with the projects I was putting out,” actress Chloë Grace Moretz said at a Provincetown Film Festival event earlier this year. “I had a really rough time with the studio system and trying to get questions answered. I was confronted with these aggressively large hurdles and I was like — ‘I’m tired of trying to hurdle a system which is set up for me to fail.'”

At 21, Moretz spoke with the world-weary wisdom of that battle-hardened show business veteran that she is. After becoming a successful child actor, Moretz parlayed a string of pulpy horror movies into a career as one of the most sought-after young actresses in Hollywood. She moved into accessible comedies with “500 Days of Summer,” “Hugo,” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” and returned to artier horror like “Let Me In” and “Carrie.

In “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” gay Montana teens are forced into conversion therapy. And it’s likely that arthouse audiences inclined to seek out a Sundance-approved indie about Red State religious dogma will find some of its more brimstoney bits outdated or exaggerated.

But then — and perhaps you’ve also seen “The Handmaid’s Tale”? — reminders of reality will intrude.

Director Desiree Akhavan’s source material (the Ya novel by Emily Danforth) was inspired by the very true story of Zach Stark, who was sent to a Love in Action camp much like the one we see in the movie. Akhavan understands that there’s no need to amplify authenticity, and grounds her story with an admirable, if ultimately frustrating, subtlety.

Also Read: 2018 Sundance Film Festival Awards: The Complete Winners List

Here the camp is called God’s Promise, which is the last thing Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) is...

Before Chloë Grace Moretz turns up in Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” this fall, the 21-year-old actress will be front and center in “The Miseducation of Cameron Post.” The drama marks the second directorial feature from “Appropriate Behavior” breakout Desiree Akhavan and it took top honors at Sundance earlier this year when it was awarded the U.S. Grand Jury Prize.

“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is based on the novel of the same name by Emily M. Danforth and stars Moretz in the title role. When Cameron is caught making out with a fellow female classmate, her religious family sends her to a gay conversion therapy camp in hope of “curing” her sexuality. The camp brings Cameron in contact with a gay community for the first time, and she learns to empower herself after befriending two fellow campers, played by “American Honey” favorite Sasha Lane and newcomer Forrest Goodluck.

In...

When “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” took home the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival this year, Desiree Akhavan was not on hand to accept the prize for her sophomore feature. The director had taped a thank you speech to be played at the festival’s awards Saturday night, but it was not broadcast due to technical difficulties. The reason for her absence was bittersweet; Akhavan was due back in London to resume work on another project, a television series for Channel 4 and Hulu with themes similar to her first feature, “Appropriate Behavior.”

For the series, which bears the working title “The Bisexual,” Akhavan re-teamed with her “Cameron Post” co-writer, Cecilia Frugiuele. The two women accepted the Grand Jury Prize together from the comfort of a couch in London.

Read More:‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ Review: This Beautiful Coming-of-Age Story Is Mike Pence’s Worst Nightmare...

In Desiree Akhavan’s Sundance crowdpleaser “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” Chloe Grace Moretz plays a teenager forced into gay conversion therapy in 1993. Based on Emily M. Danford’s 2011 novel, the movie follows Moretz’s character after she’s caught with her lover on prom night and sent to a remote facility where she bonds with some of the other frustrated teens forced to contend with challenges to their sexual identity. Akhavan’s followup to her 2014 Sundance breakout “Appropriate Behavior” is among the more commercial entries in the 2018 festival’s U.S. competition, a compelling vehicle for the actress with rousing themes of surviving oppression in sync with the zeitgeist.

See More:‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ Review: Desiree Akhavan’s Beautiful Coming-of-Age Story Is Mike Pence’s Worst Nightmare — Sundance 2018

It also marks a big step up for Moretz, whose career first got a lift from genre fare like “Kick-Ass” and “Let Me In.

Sasha Lane, who made waves for her assured and naturalistic performance in 2016’s “American Honey,” discussed her gay identity in an interview for the first time at the Sundance Film Festival. Lane was promoting the new Lgbt film “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” which premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival. While Lane has been out as bisexual since 2015, she has never discussed her sexuality openly in the context of her career before.

In the film, Lane plays Jane, a teenager at a conversion therapy center, who befriends the titular main character, played by Chloe Grace Moretz. The story follows Cameron’s experience at the treatment facility after she is caught having an affair with a female classmate on prom night. Her religious parental guardians (her parents are dead) send her to conversion therapy against her will, where she meets other queer people for the first time.

Read More:19 Movies...

Words have always had great power, but over the course of the last year — a one of massive change and upheaval in Hollywood and the rest of the world — that old chestnut has never seemed more prescient. 2017 saw the rise of believing those who speak out, even if it hurts to hear, and plenty of the industry’s biggest voices had plenty to say. We talk to a lot of Hollywood’s brightest talents, about the projects which have inspired them most and the industry which at times supports, and at times hinders, their efforts to make their best work.

As individuals, we’re often blown away by their insights; in gathering them together, we end up with a portrait of a community of artists and creators who love their art and their industry, for better and for worse, and refuse to keep quiet about it.

Here are some of...

Next year, there will be two dramas about so-called gay conversion. There’s Joel Edgerton‘s awards season primed “Boy Erased,” but arriving first will be “Appropriate Behavior” director Desiree Akhavan‘s “The Miseducation of Cameron Post.”

Read More: 15 Most Anticipated New Films From The 2018 Sundance Film Festival

Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane, Forrest Goodluck, John Gallagher Jr.

Continue reading First Look: Chloë Grace Moretz & Sasha Lane In ‘The Miseducation Of Cameron Post’ at The Playlist.

When Greta Gerwig’s already-lauded “Lady Bird” hits limited release later this week, the actress-writer-director will join a long line of other female filmmakers who used their directorial debut (this one is Gerwig’s solo directorial debut, just for clarity’s sake) to not only launch their careers, but make a huge mark while doing it. Gerwig’s Saoirse Ronan-starring coming-of-age tale is an instant classic, and one that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has enjoyed Gerwig’s charming work as a screenwriter in recent years, bolstered by her ear for dialogue and her love of complicated and complex leading ladies.

While Hollywood still lags when it comes to offering up opportunities to its most talented female filmmakers, many of them have overcome the dismal stats to deliver compelling, interesting, and unique first features. In short, they’re good filmmakers who made good movies,...

Girl Talk is a weekly look at women in film — past, present, and future.

For the vast majority of female filmmakers, the second-film slump is real. Getting that first movie made might sound like the biggest challenge for any fledgling filmmaker, but for so many women in the industry, turning first film buzz into new opportunities is an uphill battle that few can win. For “Appropriate Behavior” filmmaker and star Desiree Akhavan, the realization that her status as a festival darling wasn’t going to automatically translate into a huge Hollywood career came hard. Good thing she didn’t really want that anyway.

“Because I had only made one feature and I was a woman, I didn’t have the best opportunities,” Akhavan told IndieWire. “It’s crazy when I think of men who premiere a first film at Sundance and then get offered franchises. That was not happening to me,...

“Creep 2” is one of the better horror sequels of recent memory. There’s not a lot that I can say about its plot without spoiling some major elements of this oddly innovative film, so I will refrain, in this review, from doing very much plot summary at all.

Suffice it to say that after a brief cold open involving Karan Soni (“Deadpool“) the film contains itself to two characters: Mark Duplass’s Aaron (a name that will have significance to fans of the first “Creep”) and Desiree Akhavan’s (the writer-director-star of 2015’s breakout indie rom-com “Appropriate Behavior”) Sara.

Continue reading ‘Creep 2’ Is A Horror Sequel That Might Make You Cry [Review] at The Playlist.

“Creep 2” barely gets to the end of the first act before Mark Duplass stands naked in front of the camera with a dopey grin on his face. It’s not the actor-director’s first rodeo (he also bared all on HBO’s “Togetherness”), but it’s an unusual decision in the context of goofy found footage horror-comedy, not to mention a sequel to one. That should give you an indication of the peculiar ambitions of this microbudget franchise, which takes the familiar mold of privileged white guy problems and turns them into a nightmare.

Patrick Brice’s 2014 Blumhouse-produced “Creep” stood out from the Paranormal Activities of the world in that the monster was essentially a variation on the Duplassian doofus he’s played in countless freewheeling comedies since he and his brother Jay’s breakthrough directorial debut “The Puffy Chair.” In “Creep,” he spent most of the movie as...

America’s most congenial serial killer is back! Mark Duplass returns as Aaron in Creep 2 available today on Video on Demand!’

Desiree Akhavan (“Girls”, Appropriate Behavior) stars as Sara, a video artist whose primary focus is creating intimacy with lonely men. After finding an ad online for “video work,” she thinks she may have found the subject of her dreams. She drives to a remote house in the forest and meets a man claiming to be a serial killer (Mark Duplass, reprising his role from the previous film). Unable to resist the chance to create a truly shocking piece of art, she agrees to spend the day with him. However, as the day goes on she discovers she may have dug herself into a hole she can’t escape.

Th critics love Creep 2:

“A blackly hilarious, increasingly intense showdown between two very engaging and unusual characters.”

– Meredith Borders,...

The Orchard has released the first trailer for Creep 2, the follow-up to Mark Duplass and director Patrick Brice's chilling 2015 thriller Creep. The original cult hit only featured two cast members, Mark Duplass as the deranged Josef and Patrick Brice as Aaron, who answers an ad for a job as a videographer that turns out to be much more dangerous than he ever imagined. While Mark Duplass returns, he encounters someone with a much different background than his previous victims.

The trailer debuted on The Orchard YouTube today, which shows that the next videographer he meets has her own video series called Encounters, where she hooks up with an array of different men who post online personal ads, to try and figure out their stories. The trailer opens with a few of these different Encounters, who all seem to be both bizarre yet safe, but she gets a strange...

Sara explores some of the strangest corners of cyberspace with her video project Encounters, but even she may not be prepared to meet her latest subject (Mark Duplass) in the official trailer for Creep 2, coming out on digital platforms this October.

From the Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA – August 30, 2017 – The Orchard announced today that the company will be releasing Creep 2, Patrick Brice’s follow-up to his hit 2014 thriller Creep, on all digital platforms on October 24th. The film will star Mark Duplass (reprising his role from the previous film) and Desiree Akhavan (“Girls,” Appropriate Behavior).

The screenplay for Creep 2 was written by Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass. Brice previously directed the first Creep, and the sex comedy The Overnight starring Taylor Schilling, Adam Scott and Jason Schwartzman.

Creep 2 stars Akhavan as Sara, a video artist whose primary focus is creating intimacy with lonely men. After finding...

You have to give it up to Mark Duplass. Not every pioneering indie director is willing to go in front of the camera in order to deliver a freak-you-the-hell-out performance. Duplass mastered the art of the weirdo in Patrick Brice’s “Creep,” and the film turned out to be such an indie horror favorite on Netflix that we’re getting a sequel just in time for Halloween.

Read More:‘Creep 2’ First Look: Mark Duplass Will Scare You to Death All Over Again

“Appropriate Behavior” breakout Desiree Akhavan joins the fun this time as a video artist whose primary focus is creating intimacy with lonely men. She answers an online ad for “video work” that has been posted by Duplass’ Josef, and the two spend the day together as the artist attempts to create a truly shocking piece of art. Let’s just say her project goes terribly wrong.

Not...

Following up on 2014's Creep, filmmaker Patrick Brice returns to the world of one very creepy, supposed serial killer in Creep 2, which The Orchard has announced for an October 24th digital release ahead of a Netflix premiere later this year:

Press Release: Los Angeles, CA – August 30, 2017 – The Orchard announced today that the company will be releasing Creep 2, Patrick Brice’s follow-up to his hit 2014 thriller Creep, on all digital platforms on October 24th. The film will star Mark Duplass (reprising his role from the previous film) and Desiree Akhavan (“Girls,” Appropriate Behavior).

The screenplay for Creep 2 was written by Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass. Brice previously directed the first Creep, and the sex comedy The Overnight starring Taylor Schilling, Adam Scott and Jason Schwartzman.

Creep 2 stars Akhavan as Sara, a video artist whose primary focus is creating intimacy with lonely men. After finding an ad online...

Just when everyone thought the found footage horror movie had reached its end, Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass delivered the goods with the low-fi chiller “Creep.” The 2014 horror film became a favorite thanks to Netflix, and now the duo are returning with “Appropriate Behavior” breakout Desiree Akhavan for the sequel, appropriately titled “Creep 2.” You can check out the first look of Duplass above.

Read More:Review: Scary Good Mark Duplass Midnight Movie ‘Creep’

The official synopsis reads: “Sara (Akhavan) is a video artist whose primary focus is creating intimacy with lonely men. After finding an ad online for ‘video work’ she thinks she may have found the subject of her dreams. She drives to a remote house in the forest and meets a man claiming to be a serial killer (Duplass). Unable to resist the chance to create a truly shocking piece of art, she agrees to spend the day with him.

If there’s one filmmaker we’re happy to see suddenly getting much busier, it’s “Appropriate Behavior” director Desiree Akhavan. It was just a couple of weeks back that she lined up gay conversion drama “The Miseducation Of Cameron Post” starring Chloe Moretz and “American Honey” breakout star Sasha Lane. And now Akhavan is prepping to roll cameras next spring on another movie, also centering on some very timely issues.

Continue reading Desiree Akhavan To Direct Lesbian & Trans Activist Coming-Of-Age Film ‘Adam’ at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Appropriate Behavior director Desiree Akhavan has been tapped to helm Adam, the film based on the novel by Ariel Schrag, who also adapted the screenplay. Howard Gertler will produce with Symbolic Exchange's James Schamus and Joe Pirro serves as executive producer. Production is expected to begin in late Spring of next year. Set in 2006 Brooklyn, the coming-of- age comedy tells the story of an awkward teenager who goes to spend his final summer of high school…...

The distributor has acquired Us rights to Cave Painting Pictures’ horror title directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski.

Screen Media has earmarked a theatrical and VOD day-and-date launch for the first quarter of 2017.

Aaron Poole, Ellen Wong, Kathleen Munroe, Stephanie Belding, and Kenneth Welsh star in The Void, about a series of transformations at a rural hospital.

The Void premiered at Fantastic Fest earlier this year. Screen Media negotiated the deal with Xyz Films and CAA.

Appropriate Behavior creator and star Desiree Akhavan, is set to direct Chloë Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane of American Honey in The Miseducation Of Cameron Post, based on Emily Danforth’s coming-of-age novel set in 1993 about a girl forced into gay conversion therapy. John Gallagher Jr and Jennifer Ehle will also star in the Beachside and Parkville Pictures drama, which Beachside is fully financing. UTA Independent Film Group represents Us rights.FilmRise has acquired worldwide rights from Submarine and Preferred...