While it’s hardly news that most of us are under some form of surveillance any time we’re in public, the extent of Big Brother’s activities still has the capacity to astound. That’s nowhere truer than in the People’s Republic of China, whose efforts to monitor its citizens’ every action (public or otherwise) would make Orwell blush. “One Child Nation” co-director Jialing Zhang once again turns the camera on her home country in “Total Trust,” the kind of eye-opening documentary that makes you realize you know far less about its subject than you thought you did — however bad you may think China’s surveillance state is, Zhang can assure you it’s far worse.
Taking its title from a dubious news report claiming that public trust in the government reached a staggering 98% at the height of the pandemic, the film’s very existence runs counter to that claim.
Taking its title from a dubious news report claiming that public trust in the government reached a staggering 98% at the height of the pandemic, the film’s very existence runs counter to that claim.
- 12/15/2023
- by Michael Nordine
- Variety Film + TV
In his 2013 book “Who Owns the Future?” author, scientist and musician Jaron Lanier states that only few “people realize the degree to which they are being tracked and spied upon”. It is certainly true that with the advent of big data and tracking technology, following a flu outbreak, for example, is much less time-consuming and more reliable, but on the other hand, we are experiencing the abuse of such technology all over the world. Authoritarian states and employers have been caught using said technology to monitor other people, often under the pretense of national security or increasing efficiency. In her new documentary “Total Trust”, director Jialing Zhang takes a look at how big data and the Chinese government work hand in hand to perfect their control over Chinese citizens, and how this example may serve as a grim vision of a possible future going far beyond the borders of the country.
- 12/11/2023
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The number of people credited as “Anonymous” in Jialing Zhang’s documentary “Total Trust” is chilling. Banned from China after making the documentary “One Child Nation,” Zhang relied on those in the country to help bring to life this examination of life in a surveillance state. The fear is real; in a coda at the end, we’re told that Sophia Xueqin Huang, a reporter critical of the government and one of the three women upon which the documentary focuses, was arrested on her way to study in the U.K. on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”
In ways big and small, “Total Trust” tells audiences, the Chinese government is watching its citizens. Cc TV does its part; biometrics also plays a major role. But the true villains turn out to be the Chinese citizens who eagerly police their own neighbors.
Zhang doesn’t spend enough time on...
In ways big and small, “Total Trust” tells audiences, the Chinese government is watching its citizens. Cc TV does its part; biometrics also plays a major role. But the true villains turn out to be the Chinese citizens who eagerly police their own neighbors.
Zhang doesn’t spend enough time on...
- 12/7/2023
- by Mark Peikert
- Indiewire
After co-directing the Oscar shortlisted One Child Nation and producing In the Same Breath, Jialing Zhang is back with another documentary portrait of contemporary China, this time exploring the country’s pervasive and invasive total surveillance of its population. Total Trust, which premiered at Cph:dox and recently played at Doc NYC, will open at Film Forum on December 8 and we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the first U.S trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: “For two decades, China has implemented cutting-edge security and surveillance to monitor its citizens. In this fascinating and chilling documentary, Jialing Zhang (co-director of One Child Nation) immerses us in this daily reality: half a billion cameras pointed at the populace, invasive neighborhood watch programs (“Sharp Eyes”), employees monitored for stress levels, and a “social credit” point system that rewards for community service and penalizes perceived societal infractions. With the assistance of dozens of anonymous locals,...
Here’s the synopsis: “For two decades, China has implemented cutting-edge security and surveillance to monitor its citizens. In this fascinating and chilling documentary, Jialing Zhang (co-director of One Child Nation) immerses us in this daily reality: half a billion cameras pointed at the populace, invasive neighborhood watch programs (“Sharp Eyes”), employees monitored for stress levels, and a “social credit” point system that rewards for community service and penalizes perceived societal infractions. With the assistance of dozens of anonymous locals,...
- 11/14/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A 17% increase in the number of delegates compared to 2022.
Maciek Hamela’s Ukrainian documentary In The Rearview won the main grand jury award in the international competition at Sheffield DocFest, which recorded a 17% increase in its delegate attendance for 2023.
In The Rearview, a Poland-France-Ukraine co-production, follows Ukrainian people fleeing their country in the days following last year’s invasion by Russia.
Scroll down for the feature film winners
A debut feature film for Polish director Hamela, it debuted at Poland’s Docs Against Gravity Film Festival in May, before screening in the Cannes Acid sidebar. Israel-based sales company Cinephil handles world sales.
Maciek Hamela’s Ukrainian documentary In The Rearview won the main grand jury award in the international competition at Sheffield DocFest, which recorded a 17% increase in its delegate attendance for 2023.
In The Rearview, a Poland-France-Ukraine co-production, follows Ukrainian people fleeing their country in the days following last year’s invasion by Russia.
Scroll down for the feature film winners
A debut feature film for Polish director Hamela, it debuted at Poland’s Docs Against Gravity Film Festival in May, before screening in the Cannes Acid sidebar. Israel-based sales company Cinephil handles world sales.
- 6/18/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
“It’s the place to be for non-fiction,” as one attendee put it.
A high-quality Dox:Award competition is augmenting Cph:dox’s position as the go-to documentary event of the season according to industry attendees, as its 2023 edition came to a close this weekend.
“With some festivals becoming more cutting-edge politically and artistically, we do need a place we can distribute titles, where there is a demand for the best programmes for existing and new audiences,” said Esther van Messel, founder and CEO at Swiss production, sales and distribution company First Hand Films, who said the event is ”gearing up to...
A high-quality Dox:Award competition is augmenting Cph:dox’s position as the go-to documentary event of the season according to industry attendees, as its 2023 edition came to a close this weekend.
“With some festivals becoming more cutting-edge politically and artistically, we do need a place we can distribute titles, where there is a demand for the best programmes for existing and new audiences,” said Esther van Messel, founder and CEO at Swiss production, sales and distribution company First Hand Films, who said the event is ”gearing up to...
- 3/27/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Documentary filmmaker Jialing Zhang, who was nominated for an Emmy for “One Child Nation,” spoke to Variety about her latest film, “Total Trust,” which is running in the main competition at Cph:dox, the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Festival.
It tells the chilling story of three women and their families fighting for their human rights in China, where state control is ubiquitous thanks to high technology surveillance, such as facial recognition, big data analysis and points systems that mean citizens gain or lose points depending on their behavior.
Zhang’s intimate footage offers unprecedented access to the impact of this all-controlling system on the protagonists’ everyday lives.
“We didn’t just want to do a film about surveillance but about the people living in this kind of society. We wanted to reach a certain emotional depth and complexity – to try to grasp the anger, the horror, but also the hope, through the...
It tells the chilling story of three women and their families fighting for their human rights in China, where state control is ubiquitous thanks to high technology surveillance, such as facial recognition, big data analysis and points systems that mean citizens gain or lose points depending on their behavior.
Zhang’s intimate footage offers unprecedented access to the impact of this all-controlling system on the protagonists’ everyday lives.
“We didn’t just want to do a film about surveillance but about the people living in this kind of society. We wanted to reach a certain emotional depth and complexity – to try to grasp the anger, the horror, but also the hope, through the...
- 3/17/2023
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
The Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, also known as Cph:dox, has unveiled the full program of its 20th edition, which includes 200 new films, more than half of which are world premieres, sealing Cph:dox’s reputation as one of the leading events of its kind in Europe.
For the first time, all 13 films competing for the top Dox:Award are world premieres.
These include “A Storm Foretold,” the long-awaited doc on Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone by Danish political journalist Christopher Guldbrandsen; established filmmaker Margreth Olin’s highly anticipated epic film “Songs of the Earth”; “A Tiger in Paradise,” a surreal journey into Swedish singer José González’ inner world by Ruben Östlund’s regular creative partners Mikel Cee Karlsson and Erik Hemmendorff; and “Total Trust” by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), described as “the first major film about the Chinese surveillance state (…) – a disturbing tale of technology, (self-) censorship and...
For the first time, all 13 films competing for the top Dox:Award are world premieres.
These include “A Storm Foretold,” the long-awaited doc on Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone by Danish political journalist Christopher Guldbrandsen; established filmmaker Margreth Olin’s highly anticipated epic film “Songs of the Earth”; “A Tiger in Paradise,” a surreal journey into Swedish singer José González’ inner world by Ruben Östlund’s regular creative partners Mikel Cee Karlsson and Erik Hemmendorff; and “Total Trust” by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), described as “the first major film about the Chinese surveillance state (…) – a disturbing tale of technology, (self-) censorship and...
- 2/21/2023
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
For the first time, all 13 titles in the festival’s main competition are world premieres.
Cph:dox has selected 13 titles for its main Dox:Award competition, including the world premiere of Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s A Storm Foretold, about Roger Stone, former advisor to Donald Trump.
For the first time, all 13 titles in the Dox:Award selection will have their world debuts in Copenhagen.
Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles
Written and directed by Guldbrandsen, A Storm Foretold takes Stone as its central character in documenting how Trump’s presidential period reached a logical conclusion with the attack on the US...
Cph:dox has selected 13 titles for its main Dox:Award competition, including the world premiere of Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s A Storm Foretold, about Roger Stone, former advisor to Donald Trump.
For the first time, all 13 titles in the Dox:Award selection will have their world debuts in Copenhagen.
Scroll down for the full list of Dox:Award titles
Written and directed by Guldbrandsen, A Storm Foretold takes Stone as its central character in documenting how Trump’s presidential period reached a logical conclusion with the attack on the US...
- 2/15/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Oscar winning filmmakers Asif Kapadia (“Amy”) and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (“Free Solo”), Oscar nominees Maite Alberdi (“The Mole Agent”) and Jessica Kingdon (“Ascension”), and Emmy nominee Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”) are among the lineup of speakers at Cph:conference, which runs during Cph:dox, Copenhagen’s documentary film festival.
The discussion program, which runs under the banner “Future at Our Fingertips,” also features Veronika Châtelain from Open Society Foundation and Anadil Hossain from Unhcr.
Cph:conference, which is curated in partnership with the training initiative Documentary Campus, has unveiled the full lineup of events (see here). The conference organizers said this year’s edition is aiming to “gather the international non-fiction community to collectively envision the future of the industry, discover and unlock the currently available resources, possible solutions, and transformative potential of the industry of tomorrow.”
The mornings are dedicated to the art of filmmaking and the creative challenges it brings.
The discussion program, which runs under the banner “Future at Our Fingertips,” also features Veronika Châtelain from Open Society Foundation and Anadil Hossain from Unhcr.
Cph:conference, which is curated in partnership with the training initiative Documentary Campus, has unveiled the full lineup of events (see here). The conference organizers said this year’s edition is aiming to “gather the international non-fiction community to collectively envision the future of the industry, discover and unlock the currently available resources, possible solutions, and transformative potential of the industry of tomorrow.”
The mornings are dedicated to the art of filmmaking and the creative challenges it brings.
- 2/6/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
2023 conference has the theme ‘Future At Our Fingertips’.
Diego Maradona director Asif Kapadia and The Mole Agent filmmaker Maite Alberdi are among the speakers for Cph:Conference, the industry talks programme of Cph:dox film festival in Copenhagen (March 15-26).
Running from March 20-24, this year’s Conference programme has the theme ‘Future At Our Fingertips’, taking the changed post-pandemic distribution and financing landscape as its launching point. It will centre on questions of inclusivity, freedom and sustainability of documentary as an art form.
UK director Kapadia, who won the Oscar for best documentary in 2016 for Amy, will participate in one of three ‘Mornings With Filmmakers’ sessions,...
Diego Maradona director Asif Kapadia and The Mole Agent filmmaker Maite Alberdi are among the speakers for Cph:Conference, the industry talks programme of Cph:dox film festival in Copenhagen (March 15-26).
Running from March 20-24, this year’s Conference programme has the theme ‘Future At Our Fingertips’, taking the changed post-pandemic distribution and financing landscape as its launching point. It will centre on questions of inclusivity, freedom and sustainability of documentary as an art form.
UK director Kapadia, who won the Oscar for best documentary in 2016 for Amy, will participate in one of three ‘Mornings With Filmmakers’ sessions,...
- 2/6/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Among the filmmakers taking center stage at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival’s financing and co-production platform, Cph:forum, is China’s Jialing Zhang with her new project “The Total Trust” (a working title).
Her previous doc, “One Child Nation” (pictured), which she produced and co-directed with Nanfu Wang, picked up the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance in 2019.
Shot in China, “The Total Trust” explores the Chinese government’s digital social control system – the most sophisticated in the world – and the effect it is having on the population.
Its producers say most of the filming is complete and they will be seeking to fill the €350,000 funding gap out of the film’s total budget of €1 million ($1.1 million) at Cph:forum.
Described by its makers as “a cautionary tale of technology in the hands of unchecked power,” the film lends a voice to those who stand in defiance of it.
“It’s...
Her previous doc, “One Child Nation” (pictured), which she produced and co-directed with Nanfu Wang, picked up the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance in 2019.
Shot in China, “The Total Trust” explores the Chinese government’s digital social control system – the most sophisticated in the world – and the effect it is having on the population.
Its producers say most of the filming is complete and they will be seeking to fill the €350,000 funding gap out of the film’s total budget of €1 million ($1.1 million) at Cph:forum.
Described by its makers as “a cautionary tale of technology in the hands of unchecked power,” the film lends a voice to those who stand in defiance of it.
“It’s...
- 3/25/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, which runs March 21-April 3, has revealed the lineup for its international financing and co-production event Cph:forum.
Women are taking central stage in the lineup both as characters and storytellers, and the Forum will feature new projects by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), Ilinca Calugareanu (“Chuck Norris vs. Communism”), Tova Mozard (“Psychic”), Elizabeth Lo (“Stray”) and Lana Wilson (“Miss Americana”) among others.
The selection of 30 projects in this year’s Cph:forum represents a variety of topics, genres and artistic approaches from a diverse group of filmmakers. According to the festival, “Seeking to demonstrate the richness and heterogeneity of the documentary genre, Cph:forum presents a curated slate of films that speak to the major issues of the world we live in.”
Topics of race, equity and colonial legacy connect a personal film of Barbadian filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (“Papa Machete”), and the newest project of the Dutch...
Women are taking central stage in the lineup both as characters and storytellers, and the Forum will feature new projects by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), Ilinca Calugareanu (“Chuck Norris vs. Communism”), Tova Mozard (“Psychic”), Elizabeth Lo (“Stray”) and Lana Wilson (“Miss Americana”) among others.
The selection of 30 projects in this year’s Cph:forum represents a variety of topics, genres and artistic approaches from a diverse group of filmmakers. According to the festival, “Seeking to demonstrate the richness and heterogeneity of the documentary genre, Cph:forum presents a curated slate of films that speak to the major issues of the world we live in.”
Topics of race, equity and colonial legacy connect a personal film of Barbadian filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (“Papa Machete”), and the newest project of the Dutch...
- 2/10/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
There are 30 projects in first physical event since 2019.
New works from One Child Nation director Jialing Zhang and Chuck Norris vs. Communism filmmaker Ilinca Calugareanu are among the 30 projects participating in Cph:forum, the financing and co-production market of Cph:dox film festival.
The Forum will run from March 28-31, and will be the first in-person edition since 2019.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Massachusetts-based Chinese filmmaker Zhang is participating with German-Dutch co-production The Total Trust (working title), produced by Knut Jager through Germany’s Filmtank. The documentary will examine the growth of surveillance culture in China, from cameras to AI profiling.
New works from One Child Nation director Jialing Zhang and Chuck Norris vs. Communism filmmaker Ilinca Calugareanu are among the 30 projects participating in Cph:forum, the financing and co-production market of Cph:dox film festival.
The Forum will run from March 28-31, and will be the first in-person edition since 2019.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Massachusetts-based Chinese filmmaker Zhang is participating with German-Dutch co-production The Total Trust (working title), produced by Knut Jager through Germany’s Filmtank. The documentary will examine the growth of surveillance culture in China, from cameras to AI profiling.
- 2/10/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Filmmaker received Academy’s honorary Gordon Sawyer Award in 2012.
Douglas H. Trumbull, the VFX pioneer who worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey and earned three Oscar nominations for his work on Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Blade Runner and Star Trek – The Motion Picture, has died. He was 79.
Trumbull’s wife Julia said the filmmaker passed away on Monday (7) from complications from mesothelioma.
He was born on April 8, 1942, in Los Angeles, to Marcia Hunt, an artist, and Donald Trumbull, an engineer who had received his start in Hollywood as a special effects rigger on The Wizard Of Oz. Trumbull...
Douglas H. Trumbull, the VFX pioneer who worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey and earned three Oscar nominations for his work on Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Blade Runner and Star Trek – The Motion Picture, has died. He was 79.
Trumbull’s wife Julia said the filmmaker passed away on Monday (7) from complications from mesothelioma.
He was born on April 8, 1942, in Los Angeles, to Marcia Hunt, an artist, and Donald Trumbull, an engineer who had received his start in Hollywood as a special effects rigger on The Wizard Of Oz. Trumbull...
- 2/8/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Encanto, Raya And The Last Dragon, The Mitchells vs. The Machines among animated feature nominees.
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced its feature film land animated feature nominees with The Power Of The Dog, Dune, Belfast all in the running.
Netflix films led the way on three nods in the feature category for The Power Of The Dog, Don’t Look Up and tick, tick…Boom, while Amazon Studios’ Being The Riccardos was the surprise addition.The PGA nominations are a strong bellwether of a best picture Oscar nomination.
However while Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Tragedy Of Macbeth...
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced its feature film land animated feature nominees with The Power Of The Dog, Dune, Belfast all in the running.
Netflix films led the way on three nods in the feature category for The Power Of The Dog, Don’t Look Up and tick, tick…Boom, while Amazon Studios’ Being The Riccardos was the surprise addition.The PGA nominations are a strong bellwether of a best picture Oscar nomination.
However while Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Tragedy Of Macbeth...
- 1/27/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
New films from Cristian Mungiu, Abderrahmane Sissako, Bertrand Bonello and Nikolaj Arcel have also receieved funding.
French director Houda Benyamina’s All For One and Austrian Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero are two of the 37 European co-productions set to receive of a share of Eurimage’s latest round of funding, totalling €9.1m ($10.3).
Benyamina’s All For One will receive €500,000, the largest share of funding, The co-production between France and Belgium (Versus Production) is the second feature from from Benyamina, whose debut Divines won the Caméra d’Or in Cannes 2016. Her latest title is a Three Muskateers-style adventure, with a female focus.
French director Houda Benyamina’s All For One and Austrian Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero are two of the 37 European co-productions set to receive of a share of Eurimage’s latest round of funding, totalling €9.1m ($10.3).
Benyamina’s All For One will receive €500,000, the largest share of funding, The co-production between France and Belgium (Versus Production) is the second feature from from Benyamina, whose debut Divines won the Caméra d’Or in Cannes 2016. Her latest title is a Three Muskateers-style adventure, with a female focus.
- 12/10/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
New films from Cristian Mungiu, Abderrahmane Sissako, Bertrand Bonello and Nikolaj Arcel have also receieved funding.
French director Houda Benyamina’s All For One and Austrian Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero are two of the 37 European co-productions set to receive of a share of Eurimage’s latest round of funding, totalling €9.1m ($10.3).
Benyamina’s All For One will receive €500,000, the largest share of funding, The co-production between France and Belgium (Versus Production) is the second feature from from Benyamina, whose debut Divines won the Caméra d’Or in Cannes 2016. Her latest title is a Three Muskateers-style adventure, with a female focus.
French director Houda Benyamina’s All For One and Austrian Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero are two of the 37 European co-productions set to receive of a share of Eurimage’s latest round of funding, totalling €9.1m ($10.3).
Benyamina’s All For One will receive €500,000, the largest share of funding, The co-production between France and Belgium (Versus Production) is the second feature from from Benyamina, whose debut Divines won the Caméra d’Or in Cannes 2016. Her latest title is a Three Muskateers-style adventure, with a female focus.
- 12/10/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Fork Films, a New York production company co-founded by Abigail Disney, has announced 11 grantees for its 2021 round of documentary funding. Topics explored in the slate of films include social justice, the impact of the pandemic on historically marginalized communities, climate gentrification and maternal mortality.
The company has funded over 100 projects over 14 years, adding up to over $4.5 million in documentary grants and support. With an aim to elevate justice-driven filmmakers, Fork Films has funded critically acclaimed projects in the past such as “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” “One Child Nation,” “Cameraperson,” “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” “Strong Island,” “The Square” and “The Invisible War.”
This year, along with financial support, Fork Films is offering grantees the opportunity to participate in workshops titled Collective Lens: An Impact Roadmap led by nonprofit organization Peace is Loud. The workshops will cover impact producing strategies, building campaigns and designing distribution plans with impact in mind...
The company has funded over 100 projects over 14 years, adding up to over $4.5 million in documentary grants and support. With an aim to elevate justice-driven filmmakers, Fork Films has funded critically acclaimed projects in the past such as “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” “One Child Nation,” “Cameraperson,” “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” “Strong Island,” “The Square” and “The Invisible War.”
This year, along with financial support, Fork Films is offering grantees the opportunity to participate in workshops titled Collective Lens: An Impact Roadmap led by nonprofit organization Peace is Loud. The workshops will cover impact producing strategies, building campaigns and designing distribution plans with impact in mind...
- 11/22/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
In January 2020, New Jersey-based filmmaker Nanfu Wang traveled to her native China with her young son to visit family. As fate would have it, the country was about to face the explosion of Covid-19, a public health emergency that would, of course, go on to envelop the entire globe.
Wang, recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, quickly embarked on a film exploring the crisis. In the Same Breath, from HBO, pays particular attention to how the Chinese government—and later the U.S. government—instinctively responded to Covid by using propaganda to shape the narrative around the pandemic.
Appearing at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event, Wang explained that her motivation for making the film “was really witnessing the discrepancy between what the Chinese government was telling the world was happening and what the reality actually was.”
Chinese government officials downplayed the severity of the burgeoning illness and at first...
Wang, recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, quickly embarked on a film exploring the crisis. In the Same Breath, from HBO, pays particular attention to how the Chinese government—and later the U.S. government—instinctively responded to Covid by using propaganda to shape the narrative around the pandemic.
Appearing at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event, Wang explained that her motivation for making the film “was really witnessing the discrepancy between what the Chinese government was telling the world was happening and what the reality actually was.”
Chinese government officials downplayed the severity of the burgeoning illness and at first...
- 11/21/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event, our virtual showcase of the year’s leading nonfiction, gets underway Sunday beginning at 9 a.m. Pt. This year’s lineup of 25 movies reflects the growing availability of documentary content across a variety of platforms: Showtime and HBO, streamers HBO Max, Netflix, Discovery+, Hulu, Amazon Studios, and Apple TV+, as well as theatrical distributors Neon, Focus Features, Searchlight Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics.
Click here to register and watch the livestream.
If Sunday’s Contenders event came with a soundtrack, it would be a chart topper for the ages. No fewer than four of the films in our panel lineup today throb to a musical beat: Summer of Soul recovers the long-forgotten Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 that welcomed incredible artists, from a teenage Stevie Wonder to Mahalia Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Fifth Dimension.
Click here to register and watch the livestream.
If Sunday’s Contenders event came with a soundtrack, it would be a chart topper for the ages. No fewer than four of the films in our panel lineup today throb to a musical beat: Summer of Soul recovers the long-forgotten Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 that welcomed incredible artists, from a teenage Stevie Wonder to Mahalia Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Fifth Dimension.
- 11/21/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Summer of Soul is picking up steam as awards season accelerates.
The documentary directed by Amir “Questlove” Thompson, which showcases the long-forgotten music-powered Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969, earned a leading four nominations for the International Documentary Association Awards today, a day after winning the top prize at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. The IDA recognition came for Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Music Documentary and Best Editing.
Earning three IDA nominations apiece were Faya Dayi, director Jessica Beshir’s poetic evocation of Ethiopia, where she spent part of her youth, and Not Going Quietly, director Nicholas Bruckman’s documentary about liberal activist Ady Barkan, who was diagnosed with Als in 2016. Bruckman and Beshir will compete for Best Director with Thompson, Jacinta’s Jessica Earnshaw and Flee’s Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Jacinta and Flee also scored Best Documentary nominations [see full list of nominations below].
Ten films were nominated for Best Feature,...
The documentary directed by Amir “Questlove” Thompson, which showcases the long-forgotten music-powered Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969, earned a leading four nominations for the International Documentary Association Awards today, a day after winning the top prize at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. The IDA recognition came for Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Music Documentary and Best Editing.
Earning three IDA nominations apiece were Faya Dayi, director Jessica Beshir’s poetic evocation of Ethiopia, where she spent part of her youth, and Not Going Quietly, director Nicholas Bruckman’s documentary about liberal activist Ady Barkan, who was diagnosed with Als in 2016. Bruckman and Beshir will compete for Best Director with Thompson, Jacinta’s Jessica Earnshaw and Flee’s Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Jacinta and Flee also scored Best Documentary nominations [see full list of nominations below].
Ten films were nominated for Best Feature,...
- 11/15/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The 2021 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards has revealed the nominations for Best Feature and Best Short. In a year crowded with festival hits and critically hailed nonfiction (see the Critics Choice Documentary Award winners), with more debuts unspooling at Doc NYC, every reputable nonfiction awards group helps to curate the sprawling list of eventual Oscar contenders, and the IDA is no exception.
A number of films, including nominations leader “Summer of Soul” (four nominations), “Faya Dayi” and “Not Going Quietly” (three) and animated Danish Oscar submission “Flee” (two), keep turning up on early awards lists. But top dog NatGeo’s high-profile, well-reviewed titles “The Rescue,” “Becoming Cousteau,” and “Fauci” were left out in favor of an international selection of less-hyped titles. (“First Wave” scored the Pare Lorentz award plus a cinematography nomination.) PBS earned 14 nominations across its programming strands, followed by Netflix and Hulu each with seven nominations and HBO with six nominations.
A number of films, including nominations leader “Summer of Soul” (four nominations), “Faya Dayi” and “Not Going Quietly” (three) and animated Danish Oscar submission “Flee” (two), keep turning up on early awards lists. But top dog NatGeo’s high-profile, well-reviewed titles “The Rescue,” “Becoming Cousteau,” and “Fauci” were left out in favor of an international selection of less-hyped titles. (“First Wave” scored the Pare Lorentz award plus a cinematography nomination.) PBS earned 14 nominations across its programming strands, followed by Netflix and Hulu each with seven nominations and HBO with six nominations.
- 11/15/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The 2021 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards has revealed the nominations for Best Feature and Best Short. In a year crowded with festival hits and critically hailed nonfiction (see the Critics Choice Documentary Award winners), with more debuts unspooling at Doc NYC, every reputable nonfiction awards group helps to curate the sprawling list of eventual Oscar contenders, and the IDA is no exception.
A number of films, including nominations leader “Summer of Soul” (four nominations), “Faya Dayi” and “Not Going Quietly” (three) and animated Danish Oscar submission “Flee” (two), keep turning up on early awards lists. But top dog NatGeo’s high-profile, well-reviewed titles “The Rescue,” “Becoming Cousteau,” and “Fauci” were left out in favor of an international selection of less-hyped titles. (“First Wave” scored the Pare Lorentz award plus a cinematography nomination.) PBS earned 14 nominations across its programming strands, followed by Netflix and Hulu each with seven nominations and HBO with six nominations.
A number of films, including nominations leader “Summer of Soul” (four nominations), “Faya Dayi” and “Not Going Quietly” (three) and animated Danish Oscar submission “Flee” (two), keep turning up on early awards lists. But top dog NatGeo’s high-profile, well-reviewed titles “The Rescue,” “Becoming Cousteau,” and “Fauci” were left out in favor of an international selection of less-hyped titles. (“First Wave” scored the Pare Lorentz award plus a cinematography nomination.) PBS earned 14 nominations across its programming strands, followed by Netflix and Hulu each with seven nominations and HBO with six nominations.
- 11/15/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The International Documentary Association has announced nominations for its 37th annual awards, with “Summer of Soul” picking up four noms and “Not Going Quietly” nabbing three.
Winners will be announced Feb. 5 at the awards ceremony at Paramount Studios.
“Summer of Soul,” Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s look at 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, picked up nominations for Thompson for director in addition to best feature, best music doc and best editing. “Not Going Quietly,” about healthcare activist Ady Barkan, received noms for Nicholas Bruckman for best director along with best feature and best writing.
IDA members may vote online for the best feature and best short categories starting Dec. 13.
PBS earned 14 nominations, followed by Netflix and Hulu with seven nominations each and HBO with six. This year’s submissions included 314 documentary features, 137 shorts, 172 series, 54 student films, 29 music docs and 41 audio documentaries or podcasts.
Here’s the full list of 2021 nominees:
Best Feature...
Winners will be announced Feb. 5 at the awards ceremony at Paramount Studios.
“Summer of Soul,” Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s look at 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, picked up nominations for Thompson for director in addition to best feature, best music doc and best editing. “Not Going Quietly,” about healthcare activist Ady Barkan, received noms for Nicholas Bruckman for best director along with best feature and best writing.
IDA members may vote online for the best feature and best short categories starting Dec. 13.
PBS earned 14 nominations, followed by Netflix and Hulu with seven nominations each and HBO with six. This year’s submissions included 314 documentary features, 137 shorts, 172 series, 54 student films, 29 music docs and 41 audio documentaries or podcasts.
Here’s the full list of 2021 nominees:
Best Feature...
- 11/15/2021
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s singular animated doc Flee and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Summer of Soul will head into the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors as the leaders in nominations, Cinema Eye announced today.
Flee led all films with seven nominations, with Summer of Soul claiming six. Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi and E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s The Rescue followed with five noms apiece, with Todd Haynes’ Apple pic The Velvet Underground claiming four. HBO led all distributors with 16 nominations, with Hulu notching 12. Nat Geo and Neon followed with 11 each.
Of particular note with regard to the noms list was a newly introduced category for Outstanding Sound Design, which will see All Light, Everywhere contending alongside Faya Dayi, Flee, Summer of Soul and The Velvet Underground.
The award ceremony recognizing...
Flee led all films with seven nominations, with Summer of Soul claiming six. Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi and E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s The Rescue followed with five noms apiece, with Todd Haynes’ Apple pic The Velvet Underground claiming four. HBO led all distributors with 16 nominations, with Hulu notching 12. Nat Geo and Neon followed with 11 each.
Of particular note with regard to the noms list was a newly introduced category for Outstanding Sound Design, which will see All Light, Everywhere contending alongside Faya Dayi, Flee, Summer of Soul and The Velvet Underground.
The award ceremony recognizing...
- 11/10/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Doc NYC gave a boost to 15 Oscar-contending documentaries Tuesday, naming them to its prestigious shortlist of the year’s best nonfiction films.
Early favorites Flee, Summer of Soul, The Rescue, Ascension, and Becoming Cousteau made the Doc NYC shortlist, as did Introducing, Selma Blair, the intimate documentary about actress Selma Blair’s battle with Ms, and The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes’ film on the influential avant-garde rock band fronted by Lou Reed.
Doc NYC has earned a reputation as an accurate predictor of Oscar success. Last year, the festival gave shortlist recognition to three of the docs that went on to claim Oscar nominations: Time, Collective, and Crip Camp.
“For eight of the last nine years, Doc NYC has screened the documentary feature that went on to win the Academy Award,” the festival noted. “The festival has also screened 39 of the last 45 Oscar-nominated documentary features.
Early favorites Flee, Summer of Soul, The Rescue, Ascension, and Becoming Cousteau made the Doc NYC shortlist, as did Introducing, Selma Blair, the intimate documentary about actress Selma Blair’s battle with Ms, and The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes’ film on the influential avant-garde rock band fronted by Lou Reed.
Doc NYC has earned a reputation as an accurate predictor of Oscar success. Last year, the festival gave shortlist recognition to three of the docs that went on to claim Oscar nominations: Time, Collective, and Crip Camp.
“For eight of the last nine years, Doc NYC has screened the documentary feature that went on to win the Academy Award,” the festival noted. “The festival has also screened 39 of the last 45 Oscar-nominated documentary features.
- 10/27/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The International Documentary Association came out with its shortlist of the year’s best documentaries today, a list as notable for what was left out as what made it in.
A total of 29 feature films earned a spot on the IDA shortlist, including some considered Oscar frontrunners: Summer of Soul, Ascension, and Flee—each of which earned nominations last week for both the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and the Gotham Awards. But several other films making a strong bid for Oscar attention were snubbed, among them The Rescue, Becoming Cousteau, Attica, Procession, and My Name Is Pauli Murray.
The IDA gave recognition to several documentaries with an international dimension, like Faya Dayi, from Mexican-Ethiopian director Jessica Bashir, Chinese-born filmmaker Nanfu Wang’s Covid-19-related doc In The Same Breath, and Miguel’s War, the story of a gay Lebanese man who exiles himself to Spain. The IDA-shortlisted President focuses on...
A total of 29 feature films earned a spot on the IDA shortlist, including some considered Oscar frontrunners: Summer of Soul, Ascension, and Flee—each of which earned nominations last week for both the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and the Gotham Awards. But several other films making a strong bid for Oscar attention were snubbed, among them The Rescue, Becoming Cousteau, Attica, Procession, and My Name Is Pauli Murray.
The IDA gave recognition to several documentaries with an international dimension, like Faya Dayi, from Mexican-Ethiopian director Jessica Bashir, Chinese-born filmmaker Nanfu Wang’s Covid-19-related doc In The Same Breath, and Miguel’s War, the story of a gay Lebanese man who exiles himself to Spain. The IDA-shortlisted President focuses on...
- 10/25/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
This year’s batch of Emmy nominated filmmakers for both documentary and nonfiction encompass a wide spectrum that include veterans who have greatly influenced the genre and younger creatives getting their first dose of wide exposure. In getting to talk with them, it was incredible to hear them not only talk about the works that influenced their decision to go into nonfiction storytelling, but also the nonfiction works that have stood out to them in more recent years. Gold Derby recently had these discussions with Kirby Dick (“Allen v. Farrow”), Amanda McBaine (“Boys State”), Steve James (“City So Real”), Tom Campbell (“RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked”) and Jeff Orlowski (“The Social Dilemma”) during our recent “Meet the Experts” panel.
You can watch the documentary and nonfiction group panel above with these five creative helmers. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to their individual interview.
See Watch...
You can watch the documentary and nonfiction group panel above with these five creative helmers. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to their individual interview.
See Watch...
- 8/10/2021
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
Sundance Film Festival: London has revealed that “Zola” and “Coda” will be among the 2021 lineup, when the festival returns to Picturehouse Central next month.
“Coda” — an acronym meaning “Child of Deaf Adults” — features Marlee Matlin (“The West Wing”) and 19-year-old Emilia Jones (“Locke & Key”) navigating their relationship, while “Zola” is based on a 148-tweet viral Twitter thread from 2015 by Aziah “Zola” Wells. It stars Taylor Paige (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) and Riley Keough (“Max Max: Fury Road”) and will close the 4-day festival.
Edgar Wright’s rockumentary “The Sparks Brothers,” described as a “musical odyssey,” opens the festival on July 29.
Other feature film offerings, which have been selected from the longer line-up shown at the Sundance Film Festival, include “The Nest,” starring Jude Law (“Sherlock Holmes”), animation “Cryptozoo,” which features Lake Bell (“BoJack Horseman”) and Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”), and documentary “Writing With Fire,” about a female-run Indian newspaper, which...
“Coda” — an acronym meaning “Child of Deaf Adults” — features Marlee Matlin (“The West Wing”) and 19-year-old Emilia Jones (“Locke & Key”) navigating their relationship, while “Zola” is based on a 148-tweet viral Twitter thread from 2015 by Aziah “Zola” Wells. It stars Taylor Paige (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) and Riley Keough (“Max Max: Fury Road”) and will close the 4-day festival.
Edgar Wright’s rockumentary “The Sparks Brothers,” described as a “musical odyssey,” opens the festival on July 29.
Other feature film offerings, which have been selected from the longer line-up shown at the Sundance Film Festival, include “The Nest,” starring Jude Law (“Sherlock Holmes”), animation “Cryptozoo,” which features Lake Bell (“BoJack Horseman”) and Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”), and documentary “Writing With Fire,” about a female-run Indian newspaper, which...
- 6/2/2021
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Director Nanfu Wang proved adept at using her own personal story as a jumping off point for wider documentary considerations in Hooligan Sparrow and One Child Nation (co-directed with Jialing Zhang) and she employs the technique again with her latest, In The Same Breath, to help us to step into the world of Wuhan's Covid pandemic.
As Wang pointed out yesterday, ahead of her film's world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, last year, the news that Wuhan was locking down broke on the eve of the event - when she was in Utah with her husband, ready for jury duty, and her young son was having a holiday with his gran in Wuhan. This small story - which ended with her husband fetching their son home quite quickly - is just one of many, much more tragic, experiences related here but it's the reason why this film became a personal project.
As Wang pointed out yesterday, ahead of her film's world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, last year, the news that Wuhan was locking down broke on the eve of the event - when she was in Utah with her husband, ready for jury duty, and her young son was having a holiday with his gran in Wuhan. This small story - which ended with her husband fetching their son home quite quickly - is just one of many, much more tragic, experiences related here but it's the reason why this film became a personal project.
- 1/29/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The latest project from celebrated filmmaker Nanfu Wang, about the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in China and its spread to the U.S., will release this year from HBO Documentary Films.
Titled “In the Same Breath,” HBO came on board as a producer and distributor at the start of production of the film with Wang, who won Sundance’s grand jury prize for documentary in 2019 with the acclaimed “One Child Nation.” The film will debut at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday.
Wang assembled a brave team of field producers, camera operators and subjects on the ground of a heavily-censored China to investigate the shadowy media campaign executed by the government in alleged attempts to conceal early knowledge of Covid-19’s deadly potential.
Wang, who was born in China and now lives in the U.S., also brings her narrative stateside, where virus control has failed significantly and...
Titled “In the Same Breath,” HBO came on board as a producer and distributor at the start of production of the film with Wang, who won Sundance’s grand jury prize for documentary in 2019 with the acclaimed “One Child Nation.” The film will debut at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday.
Wang assembled a brave team of field producers, camera operators and subjects on the ground of a heavily-censored China to investigate the shadowy media campaign executed by the government in alleged attempts to conceal early knowledge of Covid-19’s deadly potential.
Wang, who was born in China and now lives in the U.S., also brings her narrative stateside, where virus control has failed significantly and...
- 1/28/2021
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
The Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States, celebrates bold, creative, and distinctive voices. The upcoming 2021’s edition will offer an online platform featuring seven days of premieres, events, artist talks, and cutting-edge Xr exhibitions. It will also be partnering with independent cinema communities across the U.S. to safely host in-person events. From January 28 through February 3, adventurous audiences and indie film lovers everywhere will come together to be the first to discover exciting new creative visions that people will be talking about all year.
This year the Festival will downsize to 72 feature films (from last year’s 128) but still including a 50% of the total of female directors, more than 50% of the total of filmmakers of color and a number of genderqueer artists.
The full line-up includes few interesting Asian titles. Here they are:
“Fire in the Mountains“
a searing portrait of the power dynamics...
This year the Festival will downsize to 72 feature films (from last year’s 128) but still including a 50% of the total of female directors, more than 50% of the total of filmmakers of color and a number of genderqueer artists.
The full line-up includes few interesting Asian titles. Here they are:
“Fire in the Mountains“
a searing portrait of the power dynamics...
- 12/17/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
The International Documentary Association has unveiled 13 films receiving $850,000 in funds as part of its Enterprise Documentary Fund production grants.
The titles, announced Monday at the Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival in Washington, D.C. are “After Sherman,” “Aftershock,” “Body Parts,” “Driver,” “Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard,” “Hossain,” “Magic & Monsters,” “Razing Liberty Square,” “Riotsville, USA,” “Testament,” “Untitled Amazon Documentary,” “Untitled Free Speech Project” and “Untitled Stasi.”
Nausheen Dadabhoy and Jialing Zhang were named as recipients of the Logan Elevate Grants of $25,000 each. Supported by The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Logan Elevate Grants support emerging women filmmakers of color.
“With unique vision and voice, these grantees confront us with complicated truths about our pasts, presents and futures, recalling for me Maya Angelou’s famous quote: Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better,” said Carrie Lozano, who was director of the Ida Enterprise Documentary Fund...
The titles, announced Monday at the Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival in Washington, D.C. are “After Sherman,” “Aftershock,” “Body Parts,” “Driver,” “Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard,” “Hossain,” “Magic & Monsters,” “Razing Liberty Square,” “Riotsville, USA,” “Testament,” “Untitled Amazon Documentary,” “Untitled Free Speech Project” and “Untitled Stasi.”
Nausheen Dadabhoy and Jialing Zhang were named as recipients of the Logan Elevate Grants of $25,000 each. Supported by The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Logan Elevate Grants support emerging women filmmakers of color.
“With unique vision and voice, these grantees confront us with complicated truths about our pasts, presents and futures, recalling for me Maya Angelou’s famous quote: Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better,” said Carrie Lozano, who was director of the Ida Enterprise Documentary Fund...
- 10/19/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Emmy-nominated filmmaker Nanfu Wang is unusual for someone of her generation in China—she’s got a sibling. She was born in 1985 in the midst of China’s one child policy, which limited women to having a single baby. The only exception was for people in rural areas, like Wang’s parents, who were permitted to have a second child so long as they waited five years between having them.
In her film One Child Nation, a contender in the prestigious Emmy category of Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, Wang describes how she felt attending middle school in the nearest city, surrounded by kids with no siblings.
“Whenever someone found out that I had a brother, I felt embarrassed,” she recalls, “as if our family had done something wrong.”
Social pressure kept some from disobeying the policy, but One Child Nation exposes in chilling detail how much further the Chinese...
In her film One Child Nation, a contender in the prestigious Emmy category of Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, Wang describes how she felt attending middle school in the nearest city, surrounded by kids with no siblings.
“Whenever someone found out that I had a brother, I felt embarrassed,” she recalls, “as if our family had done something wrong.”
Social pressure kept some from disobeying the policy, but One Child Nation exposes in chilling detail how much further the Chinese...
- 8/17/2020
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
New projects also selected from Oscar nominees and a Venice-winning duo.
Cph:dox has unveiled the 34 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event from March 24-26.
Scroll down for full list of titles and descriptions
The selection includes new projects from Oscar-nominated Laura Nix (Walk Run Cha-Cha) and Talal Derki (Of Fathers And Sons), Berlinale winner Adina Pintilie (Touch Me Not), Sundance winners Jialing Zhang (Born In China) and Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The Law in These Parts) and Venice winning team Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski (The Prince and the Dybbuk).
Titles include Her, a documentary about...
Cph:dox has unveiled the 34 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event from March 24-26.
Scroll down for full list of titles and descriptions
The selection includes new projects from Oscar-nominated Laura Nix (Walk Run Cha-Cha) and Talal Derki (Of Fathers And Sons), Berlinale winner Adina Pintilie (Touch Me Not), Sundance winners Jialing Zhang (Born In China) and Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The Law in These Parts) and Venice winning team Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski (The Prince and the Dybbuk).
Titles include Her, a documentary about...
- 2/13/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Sam Mendes has been named the best feature-film director of 2019 by the Directors Guild of America, which handed out its annual awards on Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton in Los Angeles.
The win makes the “1917” director a commanding front-runner in the Oscar race for Best Directors — and coupled with his film’s victory at the Producers Guild Awards last week, makes the World War I drama the favorite to win Best Picture winner as well.
Mendes beat his fellow Oscar nominees Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”) and Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), as well as “Jojo Rabbit” director Taika Waititi.
The DGA Award is one of the most reliable Oscar predictors, with the winner going on to win the Academy Award for Best Director for the last six years in a row, 15 times in the last 16 years and 62 times in 71 years.
In addition, the film...
The win makes the “1917” director a commanding front-runner in the Oscar race for Best Directors — and coupled with his film’s victory at the Producers Guild Awards last week, makes the World War I drama the favorite to win Best Picture winner as well.
Mendes beat his fellow Oscar nominees Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”) and Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), as well as “Jojo Rabbit” director Taika Waititi.
The DGA Award is one of the most reliable Oscar predictors, with the winner going on to win the Academy Award for Best Director for the last six years in a row, 15 times in the last 16 years and 62 times in 71 years.
In addition, the film...
- 1/26/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The 2020 Directors Guild of America Awards wrapped Saturday night in downtown Los Angeles, with winners spanning television and film. IndieWire has rounded up all the night’s big winners, below. Films “1917,” “Honey Boy,” and “American Factory” all took home the night’s film prizes, while “Chernobyl,” “Watchmen,” and “Barry” claimed the television honors.
The DGA prize is often considered a bellwether for the Best Director Oscar and the last six DGA winners all went on to repeat at the Academy Awards: Alfonso Cuarón for “Roma,” Guillermo del Toro for “The Shape of Water,” Damien Chazelle for “La La Land,” and Alejandro G. Iñárritu for both “The Revenant” and “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2019
Bong Joon Ho
“Parasite”
(Neon)
Sam Mendes
“1917”
(Universal Pictures) *Winner
Martin Scorsese
“The Irishman”
(Netflix)
Quentin Tarantino
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
(Sony)
Taika Waititi
“Jojo Rabbit...
The DGA prize is often considered a bellwether for the Best Director Oscar and the last six DGA winners all went on to repeat at the Academy Awards: Alfonso Cuarón for “Roma,” Guillermo del Toro for “The Shape of Water,” Damien Chazelle for “La La Land,” and Alejandro G. Iñárritu for both “The Revenant” and “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2019
Bong Joon Ho
“Parasite”
(Neon)
Sam Mendes
“1917”
(Universal Pictures) *Winner
Martin Scorsese
“The Irishman”
(Netflix)
Quentin Tarantino
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
(Sony)
Taika Waititi
“Jojo Rabbit...
- 1/26/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
When the winners of the 72nd Directors Guild of America ceremony were handed out Saturday, January 25, all eyes were on the feature film category. (Read our live blog here.) Would Sam Mendes (“1917”) continue his winning streak after claiming the Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award? Would Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”), who tied Mendes with the critics, prevail with the directors guild? Or would Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) or Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”) triumph instead? Scroll down to see who won all of the film and TV categories at the 2020 DGA Awards, which took place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.
SEEJanuary 25 is busiest day on 2020 Oscars calendar: DGA Awards plus cinematographers, sound mixers and Annies
DGA voters have a great track record with predicting what will ultimately win the Oscar for Best Director, including the past six in a...
SEEJanuary 25 is busiest day on 2020 Oscars calendar: DGA Awards plus cinematographers, sound mixers and Annies
DGA voters have a great track record with predicting what will ultimately win the Oscar for Best Director, including the past six in a...
- 1/26/2020
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
Sam Mendes is predicted to win the top prize at this weekend’s Directors Guild Awards for his work on the World War I drama “1917.” Scroll down for our forecasts in seven categories listed in order of our racetrack odds, with our projected winners highlighted in gold.
Our odds are based on the combined predictions of more than 1,600 registered Gold Derby users who have placed their bets here in our predictions center as of this writing. They think Mendes has the narrow advantage against Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”). Both of their movies were big winners last weekend when “1917” claimed the Producers Guild Award for Best Picture and “Parasite” took the Screen Actors Guild Award for its ensemble cast. A win here may solidify one film or the other as the Oscar front-runner.
Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
At the very least, the winner here...
Our odds are based on the combined predictions of more than 1,600 registered Gold Derby users who have placed their bets here in our predictions center as of this writing. They think Mendes has the narrow advantage against Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”). Both of their movies were big winners last weekend when “1917” claimed the Producers Guild Award for Best Picture and “Parasite” took the Screen Actors Guild Award for its ensemble cast. A win here may solidify one film or the other as the Oscar front-runner.
Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
At the very least, the winner here...
- 1/24/2020
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Awards are reliable bellwether of best picture Oscar triumph.
1917 boosted its best picture Oscar prospects on Saturday (January 18) after it won the Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) top film award at the 31st annual PGA Awards at Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
By claiming the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, the First World War thriller capped a fine two weeks that has brought 10 Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes, and a DGA nod for Globe winner Sam Mendes, who was knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours list.
The PGA awards are regarded as a...
1917 boosted its best picture Oscar prospects on Saturday (January 18) after it won the Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) top film award at the 31st annual PGA Awards at Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
By claiming the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, the First World War thriller capped a fine two weeks that has brought 10 Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes, and a DGA nod for Globe winner Sam Mendes, who was knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours list.
The PGA awards are regarded as a...
- 1/19/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Moments ago, the Producers Guild of America finished up their annual awards show, highlighted by the Darryl F. Zanuck Award, their version of Best Picture. The PGA top prize is a reliable indicator of future Oscar success, since eight of the last ten winners here have gone on to take the Academy Award as well. Are we in line to see that happen again? Considering that the Producers Guild opted to reward Sam Mendes’ 1917, and the fact that that film is currently surging, we very well might be seeing just that. Read on for more, as well as the rest of the winners… PGA not only went for 1917 in their top category, but they rebuffed the Academy with their Documentary prize, going with Apollo 11, despite it not being nominated in Best Documentary Feature. In the Animated field, they picked Toy Story 4, arguably keeping it the slight Oscar favorite in Best Animated Feature.
- 1/19/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
The directors of this awards season’s documentary hopefuls explain the ticking hearts at the center of their shortlisted films.
Apollo 11, Director: Todd Douglas Miller
Setting the Scene: The pre-launch sequence for the first mission in which humans landed on the moon, featuring Nasa workers and regular citizens alike.
“It encapsulates everything and highlights a lost time — a hot day in 1969 in a fidelity that hasn’t been captured before,” says Miller. “It’s the bridge between what is coming and what’s come before. It’s kind of the pinnacle of human evolution.”
American Factory, Directors: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Setting the Scene: Chinese billionaire and factory owner Cao Dewang reveals doubt in his life’s purpose.
“He says, ‘I’m not sure if I’m a contributor or a sinner,’” says Reichert. Adds Bognar: “He’s been a hard-charging entrepreneur, and now he’s questioning his whole life’s journey.
Apollo 11, Director: Todd Douglas Miller
Setting the Scene: The pre-launch sequence for the first mission in which humans landed on the moon, featuring Nasa workers and regular citizens alike.
“It encapsulates everything and highlights a lost time — a hot day in 1969 in a fidelity that hasn’t been captured before,” says Miller. “It’s the bridge between what is coming and what’s come before. It’s kind of the pinnacle of human evolution.”
American Factory, Directors: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Setting the Scene: Chinese billionaire and factory owner Cao Dewang reveals doubt in his life’s purpose.
“He says, ‘I’m not sure if I’m a contributor or a sinner,’” says Reichert. Adds Bognar: “He’s been a hard-charging entrepreneur, and now he’s questioning his whole life’s journey.
- 1/17/2020
- by Randee Dawn
- Variety Film + TV
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Watchmen,” and “Game of Thrones” lead the Directors Guild of America nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television Dramatic Series; Comedy Series; and Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials for 2019. Winners will be announced at the 72nd Annual DGA Awards on Saturday, January 25, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.
The nominees span comedy and drama categories for the year’s best television, and also include “Veep,” and “Barry.” Other nominated programs include the 91st annual Academy Awards, as well as Norman Lear’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” ABC specials, plus comedy specials directed by Spike Jonze, Stan Lathan, and Linda Mendoza
See the full list of Directors Guild of America Award television nominees below, and stay tuned for DGA Awards analysis from IndieWire. This year’s DGA Award nominations for film, announced earlier this week, are here. They’re led by Bong Joon Ho,...
The nominees span comedy and drama categories for the year’s best television, and also include “Veep,” and “Barry.” Other nominated programs include the 91st annual Academy Awards, as well as Norman Lear’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” ABC specials, plus comedy specials directed by Spike Jonze, Stan Lathan, and Linda Mendoza
See the full list of Directors Guild of America Award television nominees below, and stay tuned for DGA Awards analysis from IndieWire. This year’s DGA Award nominations for film, announced earlier this week, are here. They’re led by Bong Joon Ho,...
- 1/11/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The Directors Guild of America has announced its nominations for the 2019-20 awards season. The DGA prize is often considered a bellwether for the Best Director Oscar and the last six DGA winners all went on to repeat at the Academy Awards: Alfonso Cuaron for “Roma,” Guillermo del Toro for “The Shape of Water,” Damien Chazelle for “La La Land,” and Alejandro G. Iñárritu for both “The Revenant” and “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).” The last DGA winner that did not win the Oscar was Ben Affleck for “Argo.” Affleck was famously snubbed by the Academy, but “Argo” did go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
This year’s DGA race features two of the season’s biggest heavyweights: Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”). It’s important to note that the five DGA nominees don’t always...
This year’s DGA race features two of the season’s biggest heavyweights: Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”). It’s important to note that the five DGA nominees don’t always...
- 1/7/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
The Directors Guild of America announced only a handful of nominations on the TV front on January 6, after a glitch in voting. Jill Soloway, who won in 2015 for helming “Transparent,” was left off the ballot for the series finale. So the guild is letting its members recast their votes in that category. The DGA will reveal the results of that on Friday, along with the nominees for drama series and specials. (The feature film nominations are still a go for Tuesday.)
Among Monday’s nominations, “Fosse/Verdon” led the way with three bids in the TV Movie or Limited Series race: Emmy nominees Thomas Kail and Jessica Yu are joined by Minki Spiro. Emmy champ Johan Renck (“Chernobyl”), Emmy nominee Ava DuVernay (“When They See Us”) and Vince Gilligan (“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie”) round out the race.
See Over 100 interviews with 2020 Oscar contenders
Conspicuously absent from the documentary category...
Among Monday’s nominations, “Fosse/Verdon” led the way with three bids in the TV Movie or Limited Series race: Emmy nominees Thomas Kail and Jessica Yu are joined by Minki Spiro. Emmy champ Johan Renck (“Chernobyl”), Emmy nominee Ava DuVernay (“When They See Us”) and Vince Gilligan (“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie”) round out the race.
See Over 100 interviews with 2020 Oscar contenders
Conspicuously absent from the documentary category...
- 1/6/2020
- by Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
It was a strange morning for the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) Monday, as the organization announced some — but not all — of the TV nominations for the 2020 DGA Awards.
A note included in the official nomination statement explained that the nods for the Comedy Series, Dramatic Series, and Variety/Talk/News/Sports — Specials categories will be announced on Friday, rather than today as scheduled, due to an error related to the organization’s newly implemented electronic entry submissions process. The categories in question require a re-vote, the DGA explained. Variety reported last week that the DGA sent members an email stating that “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway had been mistakenly omitted from the comedy series ballot for her direction of “Transparent Musicale Finale,” and advising members to recast their vote in the category if they so chose.
Still, there were plenty of accolades to go around in the official announcement,...
A note included in the official nomination statement explained that the nods for the Comedy Series, Dramatic Series, and Variety/Talk/News/Sports — Specials categories will be announced on Friday, rather than today as scheduled, due to an error related to the organization’s newly implemented electronic entry submissions process. The categories in question require a re-vote, the DGA explained. Variety reported last week that the DGA sent members an email stating that “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway had been mistakenly omitted from the comedy series ballot for her direction of “Transparent Musicale Finale,” and advising members to recast their vote in the category if they so chose.
Still, there were plenty of accolades to go around in the official announcement,...
- 1/6/2020
- by Libby Hill
- Indiewire
The Directors Guild of America has announced nominations in several television categories, including movies and limited series, and documentary categories for the 72nd annual Directors Guild Awards, which will be handed out on Saturday, Jan. 25.
The limited series nominees include three different episodes of “Fosse/Verdon,” as well as “When They See Us,” “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” and “Chernobyl.”
The commercial nominees include Ridley Scott for a Hennessy ad and Spike Jonze for commercials for Squarespace and Mekanism.
Also Read: Golden Globes Winners by the Numbers: HBO Tops Netflix With 4 Wins
In the documentary category, nominations went to the directors of “American Factory,” “The Cave,” “Maiden,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation.”
The nominees:
Movies For Television And Limited Series
Ava DuVERNAY, “When They See Us”
Vince Gilligan, “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie”
Thomas Kail, “Fosse/Verdon,” “Nowadays”
Johan Renck, “Chernobyl”
Minkie Spiro, “Fosse/Verdon,” “All I Care About Is Love”
Jessica Yu,...
The limited series nominees include three different episodes of “Fosse/Verdon,” as well as “When They See Us,” “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” and “Chernobyl.”
The commercial nominees include Ridley Scott for a Hennessy ad and Spike Jonze for commercials for Squarespace and Mekanism.
Also Read: Golden Globes Winners by the Numbers: HBO Tops Netflix With 4 Wins
In the documentary category, nominations went to the directors of “American Factory,” “The Cave,” “Maiden,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation.”
The nominees:
Movies For Television And Limited Series
Ava DuVERNAY, “When They See Us”
Vince Gilligan, “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie”
Thomas Kail, “Fosse/Verdon,” “Nowadays”
Johan Renck, “Chernobyl”
Minkie Spiro, “Fosse/Verdon,” “All I Care About Is Love”
Jessica Yu,...
- 1/6/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Chicago Indie Critics announced their nominees Saturday for the group’s fourth annual film awards, with Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women leading with eight nominations, including Best Studio Film and Best Director.
Following next with seven nominations each were The Irishman, Marriage Story, 1917, and Parasite.
Winners will be announced on January 4, at the Cards Against Humanity Theater in Chicago. Stand-up comedian and former film critic Katie Baker is set to host the ceremony, which will stream live on YouTube.
Following next with seven nominations each were The Irishman, Marriage Story, 1917, and Parasite.
Winners will be announced on January 4, at the Cards Against Humanity Theater in Chicago. Stand-up comedian and former film critic Katie Baker is set to host the ceremony, which will stream live on YouTube.
- 12/29/2019
- by Anita Bennett
- Deadline Film + TV
Director Nanfu Wang’s achievements in the documentary sphere are well known in the U.S., but in her native China it’s a different story. When her latest film, One Child Nation, made the Oscar documentary feature shortlist earlier this month, Wang says, the news was censored in China.
“A lot of Chinese media outlets… reported on the shortlist titles for the Academy Awards, but instead of 15 on the [documentary feature] shortlist, they only reported 14. So One Child Nation is not on it,” Wang says. “I find it a little absurd.”
There’s an obvious explanation for the apparent decision to scrub One Child Nation from Chinese media—it paints a devastating picture of the way the Chinese government enforced its one-child policy, in effect from 1979-2015. The policy, designed to curb population growth, banned couples from having more than one child (with very limited exceptions).
Wang and co-director Jialing Zhang...
“A lot of Chinese media outlets… reported on the shortlist titles for the Academy Awards, but instead of 15 on the [documentary feature] shortlist, they only reported 14. So One Child Nation is not on it,” Wang says. “I find it a little absurd.”
There’s an obvious explanation for the apparent decision to scrub One Child Nation from Chinese media—it paints a devastating picture of the way the Chinese government enforced its one-child policy, in effect from 1979-2015. The policy, designed to curb population growth, banned couples from having more than one child (with very limited exceptions).
Wang and co-director Jialing Zhang...
- 12/27/2019
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.