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For generations, people have come to Hot Springs, Arkansas to enjoy its thermal springs and elegant bathhouses. But around this time of year, they’re drawn to the historic spa town for another attraction – the longest running documentary film festival in North America.

The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival wraps up its 33rd edition this weekend with a screening of Luther: Never Too Much, Dawn Porter’s film about the late singer-songwriter Luther Vandross.

Over the course of nine days, Hsdff, a program of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute, has screened world premieres, works in progress, Oscar-contending films, and more – a slate from as far away as Bhutan and Ethiopia, and as close as Arkansas itself.

Exclusive: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival will host the world premiere of American Coup: Wilmington 1898, about a forgotten chapter in American history that saw a white supremacist mob terrorize Black residents of a North Carolina city, overthrowing an elected city government.

The film directed by Yoruba Richen and Brad Lichtenstein is among the highlights of the 33rd edition of Hsdff, the oldest all-documentary film festival in North America. Directors Richen and Lichtenstein and two of the film’s main participants are expected to attend the festival, which runs October 18-26 in the Arkansas resort town. [Scroll for the full lineup]

Hsdff, presented by Oaklawn, will kick off with Space Cowboy, directed by Marah Strauch and Bryce Leavitt, fresh from its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film tells the story of Joe Jennings, a man who has pulled off some of the most amazing skydiving stunts in cinema history, some that...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has a full slate of programming set for this year, as the classic movie home celebrates its 30th anniversary.

The 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in April will honor film historian Jeanine Basinger with the Robert Osborne Award, and pay tribute to actor Billy Dee Williams and makeup artist Lois Burwell.

Additionally, The Plot Thickens, TCM’s official podcast about movies and the people who make them will debut later in the year following the release of Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast, TCM’s latest podcast in tandem with Max.

Extending beyond the screen, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood will introduce a WB/TCM Classic Movie Tour in April.

“With the 30th year of TCM upon us, we both look back at all that’s been built over the last several decades and look ahead at what is undoubtedly one of the most exciting times in TCM’s history,...

Another person has stepped forward with allegations against singer Lizzo in the wake of a sexual harassment and hostile workplace lawsuit from former backup dancers.

Documentary filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison, an Oscar nominee for her 2019 documentary short, A Love for Latasha, alleged on social media today that she was “treated with such disrespect” by Lizzo that it caused her to walk away from the project.

Allison claimed that she left the documentary project after two weeks of shadowing the singer because of “arrogant, self-centered, and unkind” behavior from Lizzo. Allison added she was “thrown into a sh*tty situation with little support.”

The post references the lawsuit against Lizzo and her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, filed Tuesday by three former backup dancers. The plaintiffs alleged a pattern of sexual, religious, and racial harassment from Lizzo and members of her production company.

“I usually do not comment on anything pop culture related,...

As Lizzo has been hit with a sexual harassment and hostile workplace lawsuit from her former backup dancers, documentary filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison has come forward with her own claims of bad behavior from the pop star. Allison, an Oscar nominee for her 2019 documentary short “A Love for Latasha,” alleged on social media Wednesday that she left the directing position for a Lizzo documentary after “being treated with such disrespect” by the Grammy winner.

Allison shared her allegations via an Instagram story she posted on Wednesday and on Twitter. In the story, Allison claimed that she shadowed Lizzo for two weeks in order to direct a documentary about her. However, Allison said she left the project because of “arrogant, self-centered, and unkind” behavior from Lizzo, claiming she was “thrown into a shitty situation with little support.”

“I usually do not comment on anything pop culture related,” Allison wrote in her post.

Sophia Nahli Allison, a filmmaker who said she worked with Lizzo several years ago, said she was “treated with such disrespect” by the pop star that she left the job after only about two weeks.

Allison shared her claims on social media Tuesday night, not long after news broke that three of Lizzo’s former dancers had sued the singer over sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. The claims in the lawsuit stem from incidents that allegedly took place between 2021 and 2023, while Allison said she worked with Lizzo in 2019.

In her post,...

New allegations against Lizzo have come to light in the wake of the lawsuit filed by several of the “Truth Hurts” singer’s dancers.

Filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison took to social media on Tuesday to share her alleged experiences with the 35-year-old musician while briefly working on her documentary.

Posting a photo of herself seemingly filming Lizzo on stage, Allison noted that she was sharing her experiences “because validating other Black women’s experiences is deeply important to me.”

“In 2019, I traveled a bit with Lizzo to be the director of her documentary. I walked away after about two weeks,” Allison claimed. “I was treated with such disrespect by her. I witnessed how arrogant, self-centred, and unkind she is.”

Calling the situation “s***ty,” Allison added, “My spirit said to run as fast as you f**king can and I’m so grateful I trusted my gut. I felt gas lit and was deeply hurt,...

It was more than a little heartening to see Roger Corman paid tribute by Quentin Tarantino at Cannes’ closing night. By now the director-producer-mogul’s imprint on cinema is understood to eclipse, rough estimate, 99.5% of anybody who’s touched the medium, but on a night for celebrating what’s new, trend-following, and manicured it could’ve hardly been more necessary. Thus I’m further heartened seeing the Criterion Channel will host a retrospective of Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations running eight films and aptly titled “Grindhouse Gothic,” though I might save the selections for October.

Centerpiece, though, is a hip hop series including Bill Duke’s superb Deep Cover, Ghost Dog, and numerous documentaries––among them Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, making Michael Rapaport a Criterion-approved auteur. Ten films starring Kay Francis and 21 Eurothrillers round out series; streaming premieres include the Dardenne brothers’ Tori and Lokita,...

Though she had already begun documenting her meteoric 2019 breakout when Live Nation asked her about becoming the subject of a documentary, pop-rap superstar Lizzo said, “We didn’t really know what it was gonna be about. I was afraid it would be boring.” Three years, two Grammy-winning albums, and one historic, Emmy-winning reality competition series later, her Max film “Love, Lizzo” proved that her life has been anything but.

Looking cozy on a long brown leather sofa inside a Burbank recording studio, wearing an all-black Yitty ensemble she had previewed on Instagram an hour before the interview, Lizzo told IndieWire that the original concept for her documentary was to take the footage they had of her planning her 2019 Coachella and VMAs sets (a process that inspired her Prime Video series “Watch Out For The Big Grrls“) and bring in director Doug Pray (“Hype!”) to help tell her origin story, and...

Ahead of his upcoming scripted television debut with the streamer, Netflix has announced a three-part docuseries about Arnold Schwarzenegger set to release on June 7. The documentary, Arnold, will offer an in-depth, intimate look at the life of Schwarzenegger and the experiences, struggles, and mentality that led him to conquer bodybuilding, acting, and politics. “This series chronicles Arnold Schwarzenegger’s journey from the countryside of Austria to the highest echelons of the American dream,” according to the streamer. “In a series of candid interviews, Schwarzenegger, his friends, foes, co-stars, and observers cover everything from his days pumping iron to his triumphs in Hollywood, his time governing the state of California, and both the joys and turbulence of his family life in a tale that matches his larger-than-life persona.” Netflix Arnold is directed by Lesley Chilcott and executive produced by Allen Hughes, Peter Nelson, Lesley Chilcott, Paul Wachter, and Doug Pray, with...

Netflix released a trailer for a new documentary about the life and career of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The three-part series, Arnold, chronicles the action icon’s body-building success, Hollywood box office rise and political career as the governor of California.

The official description: “This three part documentary series chronicles Arnold Schwarzenegger’s journey from the countryside of Austria to the highest echelons of the American dream. In a series of candid interviews Schwarzenegger, his friends, foes, co-stars and observers cover everything from his days pumping iron to his triumphs in Hollywood, his time governing the state of California and both the joys and turbulence of his family life in a tale that matches his larger-than-life persona.”

The documentary will come out May 9 — right on the heels of Netflix’s release of Schwarzenegger’s first TV series, the action-comedy Fubar, which is released May 25. In the meantime, the streamer has loaded up...

Exclusive: Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting the documentary treatment.

The Terminator star has sat for a series of candid interviews that form part of a three-part documentary series for Netflix.

The streamer is launching Arnold on June 7 and it comes from director Lesley Chilcott and executive producer Allen Hughes. The documentary series comes as Netflix is preparing to launch scripted series Fubar, created by Nick Santora, where he plays a veteran CIA operative on the verge of retirement in his first ever TV role.

Arnold will chronicle Schwarzenegger’s journey from the countryside of Austria to the highest echelons of the American dream. It will cover everything from his days pumping iron to his triumphs in Hollywood, his time governing the state of California and both the joys and turbulence of his family life in a tale that matches his larger-than-life persona.

It will also feature interviews from his friends, foes,...

Lizzo opened up like never before in her HBO Max documentary Love, Lizzo from director Doug Pray —even going so far as introducing viewers to her partner Myke Wright, who appears in the film.

Going into this project, the four-time Grammy winner admits that she didn’t plan out what she was willing to share, saying “it would have been a disservice to the film.”

“I didn’t really have a story in mind; I was just living,” Lizzo said during a panel for the Apple TV+ series at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted event. “It was important that I move as if there are no cameras here, that I live my life and be authentically myself because these are memories for me. Who wants to look back at all this footage and see that I was faking it or I was holding back? That’s not even fun for me to watch.

After her No. 1 single “About Damn Time” was touted among the songs of the summer, Lizzo is now staking her claim on the holiday season. The Grammy and Emmy-winning star is set to debut her intimate documentary “Love, Lizzo” on HBO Max for Thanksgiving, with a “Live in Concert” special to follow on New Year’s Eve.

When Variety caught up with the entertainer on Thanksgiving eve — just a few hours before the documentary’s midnight debut — Lizzo’s recently acquired Emmy trophy was positioned just outside of the Zoom frame.

“It’s by my bed normally,” she says, explaining. “I won the Emmy and went straight on tour, so I never got to put it on my shelf. Then this morning I did the ‘Today’ show, and they mentioned my Emmy, so I brought it over for their cameras, so that’s funny that she’s just right there.

An untitled documentary about Grammy-winning artist Lizzo is coming to HBO Max this fall, she announced at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront on Wednesday, while unveiling the first teaser of the film. The doc will follow the singer, songwriter, rapper, flutist and actor from her humble beginnings to her history-making career in music and culture, as she balances the challenges of stardom.

“Growing up I never dreamed I’d get to experience all of the things I’ve accomplished in my life, and I’m just getting started,” Lizzo said in a statement. “I’m so excited I get to share and relive my journey with my fans and HBO Max. From ‘Cuz I Love You’ to my dramatic world tour, losing and gaining love, and creating my new album ‘Special,’ y’all get to see the amount of time, patience, blood, sweat and tears that went into this process.

Lizzo will share her life story in her own words in a new documentary heading to HBO Max this fall.

The film was announced on Wednesday at the streaming service’s upfront event with the tongue-in-cheek title Untitled Lizzo Documentary, though it’s unclear if it will stick. The documentary tells “the inspirational story behind her humble beginnings to her meteoric rise with an intimate look into the moments that shaped her hard-earned rise to fame, success, love, and international stardom,” HBO Max said.

“Growing up I never dreamed I...

It’s been a busy few months for Lizzo and there’s no sign of slowing down. The “Good As Hell” pop star is to be the subject of a documentary heading to HBO Max.

The doc is directed by Doug Pray, exec producer of HBO’s The Defiant Ones and director of Seattle grunge doc Hype! The film has been long in the works with Deadline teasing the series in December 2020.

Lizzo announced the project at Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront in New York.

Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront: Deadline’s Complete Coverage

The film will follow the star and explore her humble beginnings to her meteoric rise with an intimate look into the moments that shaped her hard-earned rise to fame, success, love and international stardom.

It comes after her Amazon series – where she signed a first-look deal in 2020 – Watch Out For The Big Grrrls launched in March and she hosted SNL.

HBO Max has lined up a documentary on music superstar Lizzo for the fall.

Currently untitled, the doc charts the Grammy winner’s rise to fame, and becoming an influential superstar.

“To get the chance to work with someone we have admired and adored for so long is a dream come true. Lizzo’s formidable talent has entertained and inspired millions, and we are ecstatic to help share her incredible journey,” Sarah Aubrey, head of original content, HBO Max, said in a statement.

Here’s the logline: “Every once in a while, an artist changes not only music, but culture as well. Lizzo has done both. This is the journey of a trailblazing superstar who has become the movement the world desperately needed just by being herself. The HBO Max documentary shares the inspirational story behind her humble beginnings to her meteoric rise with an intimate look into the moments...

Paramount+ has set Thursday, May 6 for the premiere of From Cradle To Stage, a six-part series from Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and his mother Virginia Hanlon Grohl, inspired by her critically-acclaimed book, From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars.

The Live Nation Productions series is a dynamic personal exploration of the special relationship between successful musicians and their moms, and will feature famous performers along with their mothers including Brandi Carlile, Miranda Lambert, Geddy Lee, Tom Morello, Dan Reynolds and Pharrell Williams.

Paramount+ also released a first-look promo (above) which airs during the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards today on CBS and Paramount+.

Honest, humorous and emotional, each episode features a famous performer and their mother, alongside Dave and Virginia, as they take an impassioned journey home and explore each artists’ upbringing and the tools they received as...

The music documentary resurgence is alive and well and set to continue into 2021 with an insatiable appetite for weird and wild movies about bands and artists. The release over recent years of films such as Amy and Searching For Sugar Man kicked off a trend that has been amplified by interest from the streaming services.

This year, there have been fantastic rock docs including Laurel Canyon, The Beastie Boys Story, The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, The Go-Go’s, Creem: America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine, The Changin’ Times of Ike White, Coachella: 20 Years In the Desert, The Bee Gees: How You Can Mend a Broken Heart, Blind Melon’s All I Can Say, Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan, Song Exploder, Other Music and Zappa.

While there has been the regular churning of promotional films masquerading as documentaries, there have been more well researched deep dives into artists than ever before.

Exclusive: The Defiant Ones, the four-part documentary series from Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, is headed to Peacock.

The streamer has acquired the exclusive U.S. rights to the series, which launched on HBO in 2017. It is currently available on HBO Max and HBO’s other existing digital services.

It will launch on NBCUniversal’s nascent service on September 4.

Written by Allen Hughes, who directs, Lasse Järvi And Doug Pray and produced by Sarah Anthony, Steven Williams, Fritzi Horstman and Gene Kirkwood, The Defiant Ones tells the story of Beats co-founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine across four decades.

It tells the pair’s individual stories as well as how they worked together a number of times before selling their headphone company to Apple for $3B. Dre was a founding member of Fuck The Police stars Nwa before venturing out on his own, while Iovine produced the likes of Tom Petty,...

Eva Longoria and Forest Whitaker have teamed up to produce the “epic, multi-generational” immigrant family drama “Chicano” at ABC.

The series centers on the Sandovals, a Mexican-American family that immigrates to Los Angeles in pursuit of the American Dream. Described as “inspirational and timely,” “Chicano” follows the struggles and triumphs of the Sandovals from 1920 through present and explores the question of what it means to be American. It is inspired by the classic novel by Richard Vasquez.

The project, written by “Queen of the South” alum Natalie Chaidez, has been given a script order with penalty at the network. It hails from 20th Century Fox Television.

Also Read: 'Grown-ish' Star Yara Shahidi Signs Overall Deal With ABC Studios

Longoria will serve as an executive producer on the project alongside Ben Spector of her UnbeliEVAble Entertainment. Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi will also executive produce for Significant Productions. Doug Pray is also an executive producer.

After taking heat for its cancellation of Baker and the Beauty, ABC is putting into development a new hourlong Latinx drama from exec producer Eva Longoria.

Titled Chicano, the potential series centers on the Sandovals, a Mexican-American family that immigrates to Los Angeles in pursuit of the American Dream. The multi-generational project — inspired by Richard Vasquez’s 1970 novel — will follow the family from 1920 to present day.

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ABC is developing a drama series with both Eva Longoria and Forest Whitaker attached as executive producers.

Titled “Chicano,” the series is inspired by the novel of the same name Richard Vasquez. It tells the multi-generational story of the Sandovals, a Mexican-American family that immigrates to Los Angeles in pursuit of the American Dream. It follows the struggles and triumphs of the Sandovals from 1920 through present and explores the question of what it means to be American.

ABC has given the project a script plus additional development material order with a penalty attached. Natalie Chaidez will write and executive produce. Longoria and Ben Spector will executive produce via UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, while Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi will executive produce via Significant Productions. Doug Pray will also executive produce. 20th Century Fox Television, where Chaidez is under an overall deal, will produce.

“’Chicano’ is just the first of many projects that...

ABC has put in development family drama Chicano, inspired by Richard Vasquez’s novel, from Queen of the South showrunner Natalie Chaidez, Eva Longoria and Forest Whitaker.

20th Century Fox Television is the studio on the project, which is being produced in association with Longoria and Ben Spector’s UnbeliEVAble Entertainment and Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi’s Significant Productions. Doug Pray, who exec produced Apple doc Home and HBO’s The Defiant Ones, is also an exec producer.

Written by Chaidez, who has also worked on 12 Monkeys, Hunters and The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the drama is a multi-generational saga of the Sandovals, a Mexican-American family that immigrates to Los Angeles in pursuit of the American Dream. It will follow the struggles and triumphs of the Sandovals from 1920 through present and explores the question of what it means to be American

ABC has handed the project a script and...

In a bucolic setting in rural Sweden, a handcrafted log cabin nestles within a grove, home to a family of four. The surrounding forest supplied the wood, the amber beams fastened with dowels, not nails. But what’s most remarkable about the dwelling is something else—it’s built inside a greenhouse.

Sweden’s winters are frigid, but within the temperate space, plants, flowers, vegetables and even people thrive, cocooned in a Mediterranean climate.

“A special silence [reigns] inside,” an architect says of the home, “that’s very beneficial for the mind, for the soul.”

The Nature House, built by Anders Solvarm, is just one of the stunning and innovative dwellings explored in the Apple TV+ series Home, a contender for Emmy recognition as Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.

“It’s pretty awesome to be living in a greenhouse,” comments filmmaker Doug Pray. He directed two of the episodes of Home,...

Apple TV+ is exploring innovative houses on “Home,” the streaming service’s latest docuseries.

Per Apple, “Home” transports viewers into the minds of the visionaries who dared to dream and redefine the meaning of home all around the world. From bamboo palaces in Bali, to a 3D-printed community built to help an impoverished town in Mexico, this visually dazzling docuseries spans the globe to explore the world’s most innovative homes, and the boundary-pushing individuals who are rethinking domestic architecture.

More from IndieWireNetflix Puts 10 Educational Documentaries on YouTube for FreeBest Shows to Stream on Apple TV+ Right Now

Apple released a trailer to coincide with the docuseries’ premiere early Friday. Unlike most Apple TV+ projects, the streaming service released the full season of “Home” at once.

“Home” is executive produced by Matthew Weaver , Doug Pray (“The Defiant Ones”), Bruce Gersh, Ian Orefice (“A Year in Space”), Collin Orcutt, Matt Tyrnauer...

Apple TV+ revealed the premiere dates for new series and docuseries “Home,” “Trying,” “Defending Jacob” and “Dear…” Sunday at the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour.

The streaming service also announced that “Central Park,” an animated musical comedy from Loren Bouchard (“Bob’s Burgers”), Josh Gad and Nora Smith, will launch this summer.

“Central Park” is an animated musical comedy about the Tillermans, a family that lives in, and are the caretakers of, Central Park, according to its logline. Owen, the park manager, and Paige, his journalist wife, raise their kids Molly and Cole in the world’s most famous park, while fending off a hotel heiress Bitsy Brandenham and her long suffering assistant Helen, who would love nothing more than to turn the park into condos.

The “Central Park” voice cast includes Gad, Leslie Odom, Jr., Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Tituss Burgess, Daveed Diggs and Stanley Tucci. The series is...

Apple TV Plus announced the premiere dates for a number of upcoming series, including Steven Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories.”

“Amazing Stories,” a reimagining of the original anthology series, will debut five episodes on Mar. 6. One of these is “The Rift,” a first look from which can be seen above, that stars Kerry Lynn Bishe, Whitney Coleman, Trisha Mashburn, Austin Stowell, Edward Burns and Juliana Canfield and was directed by Mark Mylod.

“‘Amazing Stories’ is a beloved show that has captured our imaginations, and we couldn’t be more excited to share its next thrilling iteration with a global audience of all ages on Apple TV Plus,” said Matt Cherniss, head of development for Apple TV Plus.

Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz are showrunners on the series. In addition to Mylod, episode directors include Chris Long, Michael Dinner, Susanna Fogel and Sylvain White.

“Alongside our partners Universal TV and our showrunners Eddy and Adam,...

Apple TV+ has set spring premiere dates for its docuseries Home and Dear…, and unveiled two first-look images for Home.

Home, from MediaWeaver, Four M Studios and Altimeter Films, will premiere April 17, and Dear…, executive produced by Emmy and Peabody Award winner R.J. Cutler, will debut on June 5. The dates were announced Sunday at Apple TV+’s presentation at the TCA winter press tour.

Home, part of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival lineup, takes a never-before-seen look inside the world’s most innovative homes. Per Apple, each episode in the nine-episode first season unveils the boundary-pushing imagination of the visionaries who dared to dream and build them. You can see two first-look images below.

Home is executive produced by Joe Poulin, Matthew Weaver, Bruce Gersh, Ian Orefice, Doug Pray, Collin Orcutt, Matt Tyrnauer, Corey Reeser and Kim Rozenfeld. Nick Stern serves as co-executive producer.

Inspired by Apple’s groundbreaking “Dear Apple” spots,...

“For a week I thought my film was done,” declares director Allen Hughes about the chaos that erupted several weeks after he began filming “The Defiant Ones” for HBO (watch the exclusive video above) back in 2014. Word had leaked that Beats by Dr. Dre, the audio electronics company founded by Dr. Dre and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine, was about to be acquired by Apple for $3.2 billion. The impending deal was then indirectly confirmed by both Dre and Tyrese Gibson, who posted a video of both them bragging about Dre becoming the first billionaire in hip hop. Things ended up working out and Hughes was able to continue filming the doc but still refers to that period of time as a “nightmare.”

“The Defiant Ones” showcases the journeys of both Dre and Iovine as they came up through the ranks of the music business beginning with Dre as a DJ and a member of N.

Musicians are natural-born documentary subjects: They say outrageous things, they look fabulous doing it, and they might just let you license their music for free (if they like you). Anyone who rises to rock star level fame is either a tortured soul or a creative genius — or, sometimes, both. The challenge in making a music documentary is to rise above mere hagiography and tell a story most fans have never heard before, which can be tricky when you’re dealing with people as obsessively beloved as Kurt Cobain or Amy Winehouse.

In some cases, the best stories are discovered behind the scenes: the forgotten backup singers, the recluse who discovers his fame decades later, the brother living in the shadows of the rock star. Whether famous or unknown, there is nothing quite as daring as getting on a stage and singing your guts out — and no creative skill as revered...

This morning, the American Cinema Editors announced their nominees for 68th annual Ace Eddie Awards. This is one of the most important guilds to take notice of, due to how Best Film Editing at the Academy Awards can often link up to Best Picture. It’s not a perfect correlation, but when looking for hints as to what voters might do, anything helps. Here, they’ve nominated almost all of the likely Best Picture nominees, so that’s a help. In fact, outside of Baby Driver and Molly’s Game, I’d say the other eight contenders here are among the favorites to make the big lineup. Time will tell, of course, but Ace is working from a list of frontrunners this year, that’s for sure. Below you can see the nominees for the Ace Eddie. Last year, the big winners were Arrival and La La Land, though Hacksaw Ridge...

The American Cinema Editors (Ace) have announced nominations for the 68th Annual Ace Eddie Awards. The ceremony recognizes outstanding editing in 10 film, television, and documentary categories. Nominated for best edited feature film this year are “Dunkirk” and “Blade Runner 2049” in the dramatic category and “Baby Driver” and “Get Out” in the comedy category.

Read More:2018 Oscar Predictions: Best Editing

Emmy winners such as “Veep,” “Big Little Lies,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” will also compete for Ace prizes this year. “Fargo,” “Better Call Saul,” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” all have multiple Ace television nominees.

Winners will be revealed on January 26. Check out the full nominations list below.

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)

“Blade Runner 2049,” Joe Walker

“Dunkirk,” Lee Smith

“Molly’s Game,” Alan Baumgarten, Josh Schaeffer & Elliot Graham

“The Post,” Michael Kahn & Sarah Broshar

“The Shape of Water.” Sidney Wolinsky

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy)

“Baby Driver,” Jonathan Amos & Paul Machliss

“Get Out,...

The documentary film and television community came together to honor their own at the festive 33rd Annual Ida Documentary Awards celebration Saturday night at the Paramount Studio Theatre. The evening’s top prizes went to Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s Sundance-jury-winning love story “Dina” for Best Feature, and Laura Checkoway’s Oscar-shortlisted “Edith+Eddie” for Best Short.

Other winners included Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin’s Oscar-shortlisted “La 92” for the ABC News VideoSource Award, PBS’ Independent Lens for Best Curated Series, HBO’s “The Defiant Ones” for Best Limited Series, BBC’s “Planet Earth II” for Best Episodic Series, The New York Times Op-Docs for Best Short Form Series (which boasts three Oscar-shortlisted shorts), and Joel Fendelman’s “Man on Fire” for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award.

Charles Burnett presented the Emerging Filmmaker Award to Yance Ford, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling,...

The documentary film and television community came together to honor their own at the festive 33rd Annual Ida Documentary Awards celebration Saturday night at the Paramount Studio Theatre. The evening’s top prizes went to Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s Sundance-jury-winning love story “Dina” for Best Feature, and Laura Checkoway’s Oscar-shortlisted “Edith+Eddie” for Best Short.

Other winners included Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin’s Oscar-shortlisted “La 92” for the ABC News VideoSource Award, PBS’ Independent Lens for Best Curated Series, HBO’s “The Defiant Ones” for Best Limited Series, BBC’s “Planet Earth II” for Best Episodic Series, The New York Times Op-Docs for Best Short Form Series (which boasts three Oscar-shortlisted shorts), and Joel Fendelman’s “Man on Fire” for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award.

Charles Burnett presented the Emerging Filmmaker Award to Yance Ford, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling,...

The International Documentary Association has announced its initial round of nominees for the 2017 Ida Documentary Awards, including special mentions and nods for limited series, curated series, episodic series, and more. Nominees for Best Feature and Best Short, and awards for creative recognition, will be announced on November 1. The Ida will honor director Marcel Mettelsiefen’s “Watani: My Homeland” with the Pare Lorentz Award. Also receiving a special mention in the category is Joe Berlinger’s “Intent to Destroy.”

Other standouts from this first list of nominees include Bryan Fogel’s controversial “Icarus,” Ryan White’s Netflix series “The Keepers,” Ken Burns’ revelatory miniseries “The Vietnam War,” and many more of the year’s best in documentary offerings.

Read More:Joan Didion and Arthur Miller Get the Documentary Treatment From Family Members, And That Makes All the Difference — Nyff

The 33rd edition of the annual ceremony will take place Saturday, December...

Seattle and Grunge Two Decades Later: A Conversation with Filmmaker Doug Pray...

The definitive grunge documentary HypeI came out 20 years ago, and the new blu-ray edition—out September 29—features not only a new transfer of Doug Pray’s film about Seattle rock, but also a bunch of new features. We’ve got an exclusive peek at Hype! 20 Years After that features new chats with members of Soundgarden,…

Read more...

[Editor’s Note: The following contains light spoilers for the included series.]

“The Defiant Ones”

Season 1, Episode 3

Written by: Allen Hughes, Lasse Jarvi, Doug Pray

Directed by: Allen Hughes

Allen Hughes’ well-cut music documentary is populated with enough industry giants that just listening to them babble for four hours would’ve been well worth the time. But Hughes skillfully incorporated historical footage with those fascinating reflections, and never is the combination more captivating than in Episode 3.

Taking us back to the release of Dr. Dre’s “Chronic” album, Episode 3 features vital discussions about free speech, how rap was a misunderstood tool of rebellion, and why Jimmy Iovine and Dre persevered despited persecution. It’s not just about overcoming censorship and catering to the demand of customers: “The Defiant Ones” shows and tells us why this was a make-or-break moment for the most popular music in the country (especially as coastal rap battles turned deadly).

Where to Watch: HBO Now

Read MoreWhy ‘The Defiant Ones...

Sometimes, when you’re documenting history, you still have to make your own moments.

“When the camera’s rolling and when I yell cut, I made sure my team knew, ‘Don’t ever cut until the subject is off the set,'” Hughes said.

Some of the most satisfying moments in the new HBO docuseries, “The Defiant Ones” — an expansive, four-part history of the last four decades of popular music, premiering Sunday night on HBO — are candid ones. Interview subjects occasionally tinker away on a keyboard or wander around a living room. Stevie Nicks plunks out a tune on a baby grand. Eminem strolls right onto set and starts dishing. As Hughes described in a recent interview with IndieWire, those moments were part of the plan from the beginning.

“There’s always a veneer,” Hughes said. “People are being guarded about their image. From early on, I said, ‘Start the...

TransFatty Lives is a stunning personal documentary directed by Patrick O’Brien aka DJ Transfatty, an artist/filmmaker living with Als. Produced, written and co-edited by Doug Pray, known best to me for his transcendent musical documentary Scratch and his documentaries about artists, he’s intensely interested in the process. Here he transforms O’Brien’s material into an accessible and […]...

Andrew Renzi‘s directorial debut about a third wheel starring Richard Gere, Dakota Fanning and Theo James, Reed Morano‘s relationship testing drama featuring Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson, Onur Tukel‘s secret unleashed on the airwaves and Gregory Kohn‘s hallucinatory tale with Eléonore Hendricks topling are part of the American independent offerings at the 14th Tribeca Film Festival. Renzi’s Franny and Morano’s Meadowland will be competing in the dozen selected in the World Narrative Competition while Tukel’s Applesauce and Kohn’s Come Down Molly are among the in the Viewpoints sidebar. Here are the selected titles below sans synopsis.

World Narrative Feature Competition (12)

The Adderall Diaries, directed and written by Pamela Romanowsky. (USA) – World Premiere.

Bridgend, directed by Jeppe Rønde, co-written by Jeppe Rønde, Torben Bech, and Peter Asmussen. (Denmark) – North American Premiere.

Dixieland, directed and written by Hank Bedford. (USA) – World Premiere

Franny, directed and written by Andrew Renzi.

Caged Heat screens Saturday November 22nd at 8pm as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival. There will also be a concert by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who play an album of songs inspired by Roberta Collins, one of the film’s stars. The Venue is Kdhx (3524 Washington Boulevard‎ St Louis, Mo 63103)

I love Women’s prison films – Chained Heat, Hellhole, Ilsa She Wolf Of The SS, The Big Bird Cage, The Big Doll House, Reform School Girls, and The Concrete Jungle all sit proudly on my Wip (Women in Prison) DVD shelf. One of the very best of this beloved subgenre is Caged Heat (1974), a wonderful exploitation masterpiece and the directing debut of Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme, that has everything you could possibly hope for in a Women-In-Prison movie: nudity, shower catfights, lesbian coupling, race wars, murder, chain-swinging, switch-blade slashing, and shock therapy!

Wow! You’re probably...

Caged Heat screens Saturday November 22nd at 8pm as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival. There will also be a concert by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who play an album of songs inspired by Roberta Collins, one of the film’s stars. The Venue is Kdhx (3524 Washington Boulevard‎ St Louis, Mo 63103)

I love Women’s prison films – Chained Heat, Hellhole, Ilsa She Wolf Of The SS, The Big Bird Cage, The Big Doll House, Reform School Girls, and The Concrete Jungle all sit proudly on my Wip (Women in Prison) DVD shelf. One of the very best of this beloved subgenre is Caged Heat (1974), a wonderful exploitation masterpiece and the directing debut of Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme, that has everything you could possibly hope for in a Women-In-Prison movie: nudity, shower catfights, lesbian coupling, race wars, murder, chain-swinging, switch-blade slashing, and shock therapy!

Wow! You’re probably...

Oscar bait performances by Reese Witherspoon, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Timothy Spall, a Tenacious Eats “Movies for Foodies” event, and a tribute to the St. Louis-born silent film star King Baggot are some of the many highlights of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Cinema St. Louis announced the 2014 line-up today and it’s the usual hi-quality mix of independent films, foreign films, locally-made films, end-of-year studio awards product, and retro programming.

The 23rd Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (Sliff) will be held Nov. 13-23. Sliff will screen 389 films: 89 narrative features, 76 documentary features, and 224 shorts. This year’s festival has 239 screenings/programs, with 69 countries represented. The fest will host more than 125 filmmakers and related guests, including honorees Doug Pray (Contemporary Cinema Award), Katie Mustard (Women in Film Award), and Timothy J. Sexton (Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award).

The festival will open on Thursday, Nov. 13, with the...

Zero Motivation, a dark comedy about the lives of Israeli female soldiers, was named the top film at the 13th Tribeca Film Festival. Writer/director Tayla Lavie accepted the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature, as well as the Nora Ephron Prize, which goes to the female filmmaker who best embodies Ephron’s spirit and vision. “In her unique and ambitious first feature, deftly handled such difficult themes as the military, sexism, love, ambition, and friendship,” the jury noted. “This filmmaker also pulled off the awesome feat of managing multiple characters and storylines. In what was definitely the most hilarious...

This year’s Tribeca Film Festival jury features 33 members, including Whoopi Goldberg, Lake Bell, as well as The Hunger Games director Gary Ross.

The 33 jury members will be split into seven groups, one for each competition category: World Narrative Competition, World Documentary Competition, Best New Narrative Director, Best New Documentary Director, Narrative Short Film, Documentary and the Student Visionary Award. Two other awards, the Bombay Sapphire Award for Transmedia and the Norah Ephron Prize, will also be awarded. Winners of the seven festival categories will receive $150,000 and prizes, and eight of the winners will also get to take home an original artwork. Winner of the second annual Nora Ephron Prize, which recognizes a female writer or director, will receive $25,000.

Seven Juries Will Award Prizes At 2014 Tribeca Film Fest

Lake Bell, the How to Make It In America actress whose directorial debut, In A World, was a festival hit at Sundance...

The Tribeca Film Festival announced its jurors for this year’s event, which runs from April 16-27. The list includes Toni Collette, Lake Bell, Whoopi Goldberg, Catherine Hardwicke, Heather Graham, Anton Yelchin, Paul Wesley and 26 other leaders of the filmmaking community.

In addition to the Festival’s main competition juries in seven categories, Tribeca named Delia Ephron, Natasha Lyonne, and Gary Ross to select the second annual Nora Ephron Prize, which awards $25,000 to a female writer or director.

Click below for the entire list of jurors, with biographical information courtesy of the Tribeca festival:

World Competition Categories

The jurors for...

We have noticed recently with seemingly endless proliferation of film fests here and worldwide how many of them hew to very specific business and content areas for their films and, obviously, audiences. This is a good example of this tendency.

Recent films about architecture and design and panel discussions on urban design, restoration and more are part of L.A.'s first Architecture & Design Film Festival, which began Wednesday (March 12-16).

The photo is a still from Telos: The Fantastic World of Eugene Tssui, one of 30 films screening during this week's Architecture & Design Film Festival.

The Los Angeles edition of the Architecture & Design Film Festival kicks off its five-day salute to art, architecture, design, fashion and urban planning Wednesday with showings of If You Build It, Design Is One: Massimo & Leila Vignelli and 16 Acres.

The L.A. film festival, running through Sunday, will feature 30 recent feature-length and short films from around the world. "There is something for everyone who likes design at the festival," said the festival's founder and director, architect Kyle Bergman.

The films will screen at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St.

Several documentaries in the series will focus on designs specific to California, including The Oyler House, a film about the Lone Pine retreat designed by Richard Neutra; Coast Modern, a look at West Coast Modernist architecture; and Telos: The Fantastic World of Eugene Tssui, making its world premiere.

Director Kyung Lee said she hoped her documentary on Tssui, considered by some to be an eccentric nature-based architect, would challenge viewers' perception of what architecture should be.

"So many people have opinions about architecture and what they like and what they don't like," she said. "I'd like people to come and see for themselves. Maybe it's not practical, but we should be able to extend our idea of architecture."

The festival also will feature question-and-answer sessions with the filmmakers, including Kyung Lee and Eugene Tssui (Telos: The Fantastic World of Eugene Tssui), Aimee Madsen (Paolo Soleri: Beyond Form) and Doug Pray (Levitated Mass), as well as five hourlong panel discussions.

Thursday

Clifford Pearson, deputy editor of Architectural Record, will moderate "Remaking the City," a panel on population, scale, urban design and Danish architect and urban planner Jan Gehl, whose work is featured in the film The Human Scale. Panelists are architect Jonathan Ward, Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne and Mina M. Chow, professor at the USC School of Architecture. 7 p.m.

Saturday

Frances Anderton, host of Kcrw's "DnA: Design and Architecture"; Knud Erik Hansen, chief executive of Danish furniture company Carl Hansen & Son; architectural historian Barbara Lamprecht; and others will discuss "No Easy Chair: Architects and the Design of Furniture." 2:30 p.m.

Saturday

Architect Alice Kimm, professor at USC's School of Architecture, will moderate "Learning Culture: Embedded Architecture," a discussion on the current state of architectural education, with Kevin Kennon, founding principal of United Architects; architect and educator Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter; professor and designer Amy Murphy; and urban historian Norman Klein. 4:30 p.m.

Sunday

Architecture critic Michael Webb will moderate "Purism and Pragmatism: Restoring Classic Modern Houses," a panel on the restoration and delicate balance between idealism and practicality. He will be joined by actress and preservationist Kelly Lynch, who owns Richard Neutra's Oyler House; designer Michael Boyd of Boyd Design; and architect Frank Escher, partner at Escher GuneWardena Architecture and an expert on John Lautner. 2:30 p.m.

Sunday

Mimi Zeiger, critic, curator and founder of the architecture zine and blog Loud Paper, will present "Hands-on, Ground-up: Community and Design/Build" with Steve Badanes, director of the Neighborhood Design Build Studio at the University of Washington; artist Jenna Didier; and Dave Sellers, architect and co-creator of the utopian Prickly Mountain enclave in Vermont. 5:30 p.m.

For more information visit Here...