News

If you thought our collective true crime fascination would have wound down at some point over the past few years, you've probably been pretty surprised at just how enduring our appetite for this stuff really is. We might only be a month and a half into 2024, but this year has already proven the true crime genre continues to captivate audiences worldwide, especially when Netflix is the purveyor.

Earlier this year, there was the "sickening" documentary "Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare," which chronicled the suffering of dozens of teenagers who were kidnapped and taken to a "wilderness therapy camp" which was basically an excuse to abuse them over the course of several months — and all with their parents' blessing. Lovely stuff. After that little appetizer, we all apparently became fascinated with Netflix's "American Nightmare," which told the story of a woman who was blamed for her own kidnapping. Now, the streamer has...

Netflix's Lover Stalker Killer takes a deep dive into the dangers of online dating and its unexpected consequences. 

Directed by Sam Hobkinson, the latest true crime documentary series tackled the love triangle story of Dave Kroupa, Shanna "Liz" Golyar, and Amy Flora and how it shockingly led to years of stalking, arson, and even murder. 

Lover Stalker Killer premiered on Netflix on February 9.

Read full article on The Direct.

Online dating can be a minefield. Your feelings can get hurt. Your confidence can be shaken. Your time can be wasted. And you can wander into a maelstrom of murder, arson, and identity theft that leaves you questioning your previously established reality. This is the point at which a situation morphs from social annoyance to Netflix true crime documentary.

Lover, Stalker, Killer, whose title practically screams “edgy true crime doc!,” is a sort of tech-age cautionary tale about what can happen when you go looking for love on all the wrong websites.

Netflix is teasing their TV show and movie slate with a teaser video, and we’re highlighting some of the movies featured! You can see our full article about Netflix’s TV show slate for 2024 here.

The video features clips from various movies, and other original films have been given release dates that were just revealed!

Keep reading to find out more…

Some of the films teased in the video include Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz‘s Back in Action, Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon: Part Two the Scargiver, Eddie Murphy‘s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (out on July 3),

Scroll down for the entire 2024 film slate…

Orion And The Dark (Feb 2)

Orion seems a lot like your average elementary school kid –– shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush. But underneath his seemingly normal exterior, Orion is a ball of adolescent anxiety, completely consumed by irrational fears of bees, dogs, the ocean,...

The Netflix streaming service has just unveiled their 2024 line-up of film and TV show releases – and the list is so long, we’ve had to split it into two separate articles. While the TV show line-up can be found in another article here on JoBlo.com, in this one we’re focusing on the films Netflix will be releasing, including the long-awaited fourth entry in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, a sequel to The Platform, a time travel slasher movie, Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, an animated film scripted by Charlie Kaufman, Zack Snyder’s second Rebel Moon movie, and much more.

Here we go, with thanks to Deadline:

Orion And The Dark (Feb 2)

Orion seems a lot like your average elementary school kid –– shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush. But underneath his seemingly normal exterior, Orion is a ball of adolescent anxiety, completely consumed by irrational fears of bees,...

Here, in all its glory, is Netflix’s long list of movies premiering on the streamer in 2024, and there’s quite a few gems. While Netflix tries to program an event film each quarter, there’s clearly more star-studded pics than that as that’s what gets subscribers to click.

Of note, dates have been announced for five features including the Eddie Murphy fourthquel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (July 3), the animated Nickelodeon Latino title The Casagrandes Movie, (March 22), the cartoon movie Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp (April 12), the Mark Waters-directed Brooke Shields and Miranda Cosgrove title Mother of the Bride (May 9), and the Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry action title The Union (August 16).

Also on deck is Amblin’s first movie under its Netflix deal, the Taron Egerton Tsa thriller Carry On, the Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz action movie Back in Action, franchise movies like Zack Snyder...

Trying to find a pattern in the chaos. I found something that was missed by the original investigators..." Netflix has revealed an official trailer for yet another unsettling true crime documentary film called Lover, Stalker, Killer, streaming in February on Netflix. This feature doc from Curious Films (Running with the Devil) and director Sam Hobkinson, deftly assembles the pieces of a mind-bending true tale of harassment, digital deception, and murder in America’s heartland. Lover, Stalker, Killer tells the twisted tale of a modern-day love triangle gone murderously wrong. Following up other docs like The Tinder Swindler, this one examines how Nebraska auto mechanic Dave Kroupa's 2012 attempt to get into the online dating put him in a digital love triangle that ended in murder. This looks crazy! I don't like the way they over-stylize this incident and add all the dramatic music, but it still seems like a fascinating...

Exclusive: Leonine Studios’ Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion has hired international doc expert Martin Pieper from public network Zdf.

The experienced exec will exit Zdf after 20 years to join the German production house on October 1 as International Producer.

Gebrueder Beetz is known for docs such as Sky’s Juan Carlos – Downfall of the King and Netflix’s first German doc-series Perfect Crime and is considered as one of mainland Europe’s top factual producers.

Pieper, who has a reputation as an expert on the international doc market, led numerous Zdf/Arte’s editorial departments, namely its Culture and Science, Thema and, most recently News/Arte units. During his time at Zdf, he worked with Gebrueder Beetz on Armenian Academy Award entry Aurora’s Sunrise and docs Gaza and The Land of the Enlightened, both of which were nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Pieper will lead international co-production activities...

A documentary series about the disgraced former 1970s British pop star Gary Glitter (real name Paul Francis Gadd) is in the works at Netflix, the streamer has confirmed.

The three-part series, with the working title “Hunting Gary Glitter,” will feature previously unseen photographs and archive footage and will cover Glitter’s life story and his later conviction for child sex abuse and a series of sexual offences.

The series will have exclusive access to the journalists who pursued Glitter over several years across the world in order to bring him to justice and alerted authorities to his whereabouts in Southeast Asia, ultimately leading to his arrest. It will also feature conversations with some of Glitter’s victims. It is directed by Sam Hobkinson and being produced by Cammy Millard (“The Puppet Master”).

The production has been underway for a number of months, Netflix said. The production company is Voltage Films,...

Journalists’ hunt for disgraced pop star Gary Glitter in the 1970s has been confirmed as the subject of a new Netflix documentary.

Amazon Prime Video and ITV are also working up projects on Glitter, according to The Times.

Hunting Gary Glitter [working title] will cover Glitter’s conviction for child sex abuse and a series of sexual offences.

With exclusive access to the journalists who pursued Glitter over several years across the world in order to bring him to justice, and alerted authorities to his whereabouts in Southeast Asia, ultimately leading to his arrest, the production has been underway for a number of months.

Voltage Films, which is also behind Netflix’s upcoming dramatization of the Prince Andrew interview scandal, is producing, Sam Hobkinson is directing and producer is Cammy Millard.

Former pop star Glitter achieved huge success in the 1970s and 80s but was imprisoned first for downloading child pornography in...

Netflix is in production on a documentary series about the global hunt for disgraced pop star and convicted pedophile Gary Glitter, one of the most notorious figures in British public life.

Following reports that emerged this weekend, the streamer has now confirmed its series on Paul Francis Gadd, who rose to fame in the 1970s and ’80s as one of the leading stars of the glam rock scene under the stage name Gary Glitter, but in 2006 was convicted of child sexual abuse, and a series of sexual offenses — including attempted rape — in 2015. He was recently released after serving half of his sentence.

The three-part series — set to cover his life story and later conviction — features previously unseen photographs and archive footage, and has exclusive access to the journalists who pursued Glitter across the world over several years in order to bring him to justice. It was their work that would...

Amazon’s push into true crime continues with several new UK originals unveiled here at the Edinburgh TV Festival today.

Fake Sheikh and The Greatest Show Never Made come from Voltage TV and Factual Fiction, respectively, and will launch on the streamer next year. They will be joined by a previously announced ITN Productions doc, whose titles been revealed as The Confession, Firecrest Films’ three-part series Three Mothers (working title), a film about YouTuber Ksi and Ben Stokes: Phoenix From the Ashes.

Fake Sheikh tells the story of maverick British reporter Mazher Mahmood, whose exposés generated headlines by his use of false identities to ensnare royals, sports stars, politicians, celebrities and members of the public. The three-part documentary series will track his meteoric rise (he was twice winning Reporter of The Year at The British Press Awards) and subsequent downfall and imprisonment.

Members of Mahmood’s inner circle are among...

MetFilm Sales has boarded Sheffield Doc Fest feature “A Bunch Of Amateurs.” The film is set to have its world premiere at the U.K. festival on Friday (Jun 24).

Directed by Kim Hopkins (“Voices of the Sea”), “A Bunch of Amateurs” tells the story of the world’s oldest amateur film club, Bradford Movie Makers, which is desperately trying to survive.

“Desperately clinging to their dreams, and to each other, this hilarious and moving portrait of artistic folly speaks to the delusional escapist dreamer in us all,” reads the official logline.

“MetFilm Sales is the perfect home for ‘A Bunch of Amateurs,'” Hopkins said. “The company’s track record and unique sensibility in the documentary world speaks for itself. We’re very excited to be approaching our world premiere at Sheffield DocFest, and are proud to be the only British title in their incredible International Competition line-up.”

Mitch Clare...

MetFilm Sales has acquired worldwide rights for filmmaker Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s feature documentary “Body Parts” ahead of its world premiere Sunday in Tribeca Film Festival’s Spotlight section.

The pic shows the evolution of desire and sex on screen from a female perspective, “allowing women to reclaim the parts of themselves that have been objectified and exploited for decades,” according to a statement. It uncovers the processes involved in creating intimacy for mainstream American film and television, the toll these scenes exact on those directly involved, and the impact on women and girls in the real world.

The documentary features candid interviews with actors and creators who are advocating for real change, including Jane Fonda, Rosanna Arquette, Joey Soloway, Angela Robinson, Karyn Kusama, Rose McGowan, Alexandra Billings, Emily Meade and David Simon.

It highlights the voices of women like Sarah Scott and Sarah Tither-Kaplan who spoke out against abusive behavior on their sets,...

Exclusive: Face/Off and Hacksaw Ridge producer David Permut has acquired Steve Lillbuen’s true crime book The Devil’s Cinema about Canadian filmmaker Mark Twitchell who was convicted of first degree murder in 2011.

Twitchell is serving a life sentence for the murder of John Brian Altinger, whom he lured into a “kill room” set up in his garage-turned-film-studio. Twitchell bludgeoned and stabbed Altinger, before cutting him apart and then dumping his remains in garbage bags. His arrest and trial attracted substantial media attention since his crimes were inspired by TV series Dexter and lead character Dexter Morgan, prompting some outlets to refer to Twitchell as the “Dexter Killer”.

The shocking story will be featured this month on an upcoming episode of CBS’s true crime series 48 Hours.

Brit filmmaker Sam Hobkinson, whose credits include true-crime doc Kleptocrats, Netflix factual feature Misha And The Wolves and the same streamer’s mob series Fear City,...

The BBC’s Storyville strand, which sets out to showcase the world’s best international documentaries, has picked up a new slate of eight films.

They will be screened on BBC Four and iPlayer over eight weeks starting Jan. 26.

“We’re excited to offer U.K. audiences this eclectic range of documentaries from around the globe,” Philippa Kowarsky, commissioning editor of Storyville, said in a statement.

“These stories deal with the issues of our times, from mistrust of political systems to the challenges of educational attainment, and from class and racial discrimination to the fight for women’s rights. They shine a light on some truly inspirational, and some controversial, characters, as well as some appealing canines!”

Check out the full slate below:

“Final Account” [Pictured above]

About the last living generation of everyday people to participate in the Third Reich

Filmed and Directed by Luke Holland

Produced by John Battsek, Luke Holland,...

19 films on international, 14 on documentary list.

Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane and Andrea Arnold’s Cow have made the longlists for best international independent film and best documentary respectively at the 2021 British Independent Film Awards (Bifa).

Titane is one of 19 titles on the international list, alongside fellow Cannes 2021 titles A Chiara, Compartment No. 6, Drive My Car, Great Freedom, Paris, 13th District and Red Rocket.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

Six of the 19 international titles hail from North America, with 12 from Europe and one from Japan. Nine of the 19 directors are women.

Alongside Cow on...

Netflix’s awards hopefuls Robert Greene’s “Procession” and Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “A Cop Movie” are heading to Manhattan’s Paris Theater as part of its “New Directions in Documentary” series.

Both hybrid features, which are vying for a spot on this year’s Academy Award doc shortlist, will screen alongside previously celebrated form-bending docus in the upcoming series beginning Oct. 15.

Since 2019 Netflix has operated the 571-seat venue, which the streaming company uses year-round for exclusive theatrical engagements, premieres, special events, retrospectives, and filmmaker appearances.

Curated by Paris Theater programmer David Schwartz, the five-day public event will highlight and celebrate docus that combine elements of fiction and non-fiction into the fabric of their storytelling.

“ ‘Procession’ and ‘A Cop Movie’ are exciting and inventive movies that heighten the documentary form,” says Schwartz. “They find innovative ways to explore truth through deeply personal and dramatic subjects. Their work transcends the formulaic with rigorous fidelity to vision,...

"They were engaged and absolutely enthralled by this story," says one contributor to Sam Hobkinson's documentary - and there is a solid chance you will be too, particularly if you come to this with no knowledge of the book Misha: a Mémoire Of The Holocaust Years. So, if you want to remain entirely spoiler free before watching, may I encourage you not to read on at this time, as to talk about this film in any sort of detail requires at least a little revelation.

"Engaging and enthralling" is certainly one way of putting it and one can only imagine what it must have been like sitting in a Massachusetts synagogue on Holocaust Remembrance Day only to have a member of the congregation open her heart about her childhood experiences. Belgian Misha Defonseca told the attendees - in a story that would go on to grow and develop and be published.

Awards

Siân Heder’s “Coda,” an Apple original film, has won the 2021 Sundance Film Festival: London Award presented by BIFA.

The award was voted for by 40 leading professionals from the British film industry assembled by the British Independent Film Awards.

The film follows Ruby, a Coda or Child of Deaf Adults, who is torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents. The film stars Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, and Marlee Matlin, and is produced by Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger.

It had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S., where it won best director U.S. dramatic, U.S. grand jury prize: dramatic and the audience award: U.S. dramatic. Walsh-Peelo attended the London event with Heder joining virtually for a Q & A.

The film will debut in cinemas and on Apple TV Plus on Aug.

When The Imposter premiered at Sundance back in January 2012, it set a new benchmark for narrative documentaries, especially those with a mysterious or investigative angle. The story’s brazen absurdity did much of the work fordirector Bart Layton, but he packaged it into a narrative that remains taut, artfuland painfully suspenseful. So, how does Misha and the Wolves compare to this seminal documentary?

Well, it’s a very curious story. The ‘Misha’ in the title refers to Misha Defonseca, a US-based Belgian writer who published Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, which recounted how she, as a seven-year-old Jewish girl, survived the Holocaust after searching for her parents across Belgium, Germany and Poland. At some point during this vast journey, Misha was adopted by a roving pack of wolves that provided ample leftovers for the diminutive child, who managed to fatally stab a German soldier ‘twice her size’.

Sounds far-fetched,...

Series

The U.K. premiere screening of Ninja Thyberg’s feature debut “Pleasure” and a masterclass with “Herself” director Phyllida Lloyd have been added to the Sundance Film Festival: London program.

“Host” director Rob Savage joins the previously announced horror panel, “Scare Tactics – Making Modern Horror,” which also includes “Censor” director Prano Bailey Bond.

“Pleasure,” a deep dive into the world of adult entertainment, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema – Dramatic category at the Sundance Film Festival in January and won the Fipresci Award at the Göteborg Film Festival.

The “Shaping The Truth – Discussing Documentary Ethics and Filmmaking” panel hosted by Doc Society’s Shanida Scotland will feature guests including directors Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri (“The Most Beautiful Boy In The World”) and Sam Hobkinson (“Misha and the Wolves”).

The festival will open with Edgar Wright’s rockumentary “The Sparks Brothers” and the program also includes “Zola” and “Coda.

Republic Film Distribution has acquired the title.

Republic Film Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Sam Hobkinson’s Sundance 2021 documentary Misha And The Wolves.

The distributor has set an exclusive theatrical release for September 3 across the territory; the film will then be broadcast by BBC Storyville later in the year. Netflix previously acquired US rights on the film.

Misha And The Wolves follows a woman whose Holocaust memoir took the world by storm, before a fallout with her publisher – who turned detective – revealed a deception created to hide a darker truth.

The film is produced by Arts Alliance and MetFilm from the UK,...

15 films have been selected for the UK offshoot of Sundance this year.

The UK premiere of Janicza Bravo’s Zola will close the 2021 edition of Sundance Film Festival: London (July 29-August 1).

Fifteen feature films have been selected for the UK offshoot of Sundance this year, with Edgar Wright’s debut documentary The Sparks Brothers previously announced to open the event.

Zola stars Taylour Paige and Riley Keough and was inspired by stripper Aziah “Zola” King’s viral tweet storm about a wayward road trip. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Spwa) is handling international rights.

Further UK premieres include Fran Kranz’s Mass,...

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...

Netflix will be the North American streaming home for the Sundance documentary “Misha and the Wolves,” MetFilm Sales was announced on Monday.

In addition, Netflix will debut the film exclusively in North America and several other markets — a licensing deal that was brokered before the Sundance Film Festival.

Also on board to stream the film overseas are BBC Storyville (UK), Zdf Arte (Germany & France), Vpro (the Netherlands), Vrt (Belgium), Svt (Sweden), Dr (Denmark), Nrk (Norway), Yle (Finland), Ruv (Iceland), Movistar+ (Spain), Yes Docu (Israel), Rts (Switzerland), Rtvs (Slovenia), Ert (Greece), and TG4 (Ireland).

“The number of deals attests to the buyers’ appetite for great stories and sophisticated filmmaking that has the power to reach large global audience. We are excited for what lies ahead for this film,” Vesna Cudic, MetFilm Sales said in a statement.

The story follows a woman whose holocaust memoir took the world by storm but who...

Netflix acquired global streaming rights prior to festival, and will debut exclusively in North America, other markets.

London-based MetFilm Sales has closed a raft of territory deals on Misha And The Wolves following its world premiere at Sundance on Sunday (January 31).

Netflix acquired global streaming rights prior to the festival, and will debut the film exclusively in North America and other markets.

’Misha And The Wolves’: Sundance Review

MetFilm Sales has licensed rights for the UK (BBC Storyville), Germany and France (Zdf Arte), Spain (Movistar+), Netherlands (Vpro), Sweden (Svt), Denmark (Dr), Norway (Nrk), Finland (Yle), Iceland (Ruv), Belgium (Vrt...

MetFilms has announced a series of distribution deals for the Holocaust documentary Misha and the Wolves which made its world premiere in the Sundance World Documentary competition on Sunday.

The film, directed by Sam Hobkinson, follows a woman whose Holocaust memoir takes the world by storm. However, a fallout with her publisher-turned-detective reveals her story as an audacious deception created to hide a darker truth.

Netflix picked up the global SVOD window prior to the festival, and will carry the film exclusively in North America and other markets. The pic will not be one of the streamer’s branded documentaries. In addition, on board are BBC Storyville (UK), Zdf Arte (Germany & France), Vpro (the Netherlands), Vrt (Belgium), Svt (Sweden), Dr (Denmark), Nrk (Norway), Yle (Finland), Ruv (Iceland), Movistar+ (Spain), Yes Docu (Israel), Rts (Switzerland), Rtvs (Slovenia), Ert (Greece), and TG4 (Ireland).

Said Vesna Cudic of MetFilm Sales, “The number of...

Ever since “Man on Wire,” in 2008, more and more documentaries have been using visualizations, staged scenes, and other illustrative methods that are meant to bring a true story to life but, to my mind, often end up getting in the way of it. I tend to prefer my documentaries without a speck of cereal, and that made the early sections of “Misha and the Wolves” seem a bit of a challenge. The film employs a great deal of obvious staging to chronicle the life of Misha Defonseca, a Belgian Holocaust survivor with a singular past, one so remarkable that it became both a bestselling book and a movie.

In the early ’90s, while living in the small town of Millis, Massachusetts, Defonseca began to talk, first to friends and neighbors and then to the congregation of Temple Bel Torah, about what happened to her when she was a child during World War II.

In the early 1990s, an unassuming Belgian immigrant named Misha Defonseca went up to the bima of her Holliston, Ma temple on Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — and told an incredible story that no one in the congregation had ever heard before. Trembling but defiant, Defonseca revealed that she was a survivor, herself. She said that she had been separated from her parents at seven years old and placed in the care of a Catholic family who might be able to keep her safe from the Nazis; she said they rechristened her “Monique,” a life-saving deception that nevertheless severed the young girl from her nascent sense of self just when she was first coming to understand what it meant to have one. She couldn’t even remember her own last name. And so Defonseca, armed with nothing but a pocket knife and a child’s naiveté, stole away in the...

“Misha checked every box for the type of woman we seek to interview,” states a radio host with a pleasingly mellifluous voice at the start of Misha and the Wolves, a twisty documentary that made its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. “Sometimes a story is so astonishing,” the host adds, that “it feels unbelievable.” Indeed, the story of Misha Defonseca checks a number of boxes on the documentary checklist. Serious surprises? Juicy legal proceedings? Jaw-dropping historical details? Check, check, check. And there is one more box to check: Stories that were too good to be true.

That is not exactly a spoiler; there is no hiding the knowledge that all in Misha and the Wolves is not what it seems. Even the film’s Sundance description makes no attempt at subterfuge: “Author Misha Defonseca’s memoir took the world by storm, but fallout with her publisher-turned-detective exposes the...

Something like a documentary “Inception” with a story inside of a tale that is itself part of a narrative, “Misha and the Wolves” boasts several layers, all of them fascinating. Concerned with notions of legacy, trauma, memory, and deceit, the documentary by director Sam Hobkinson juggles multiple stories, people, and time periods with seeming ease, weaving a fascinating, multi-faceted tale in a tight 85 minutes.

Continue reading ‘Misha and the Wolves’ Transcends Documentary Format To Tell A Remarkable Story Within A Story [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

The gripping Sundance documentary Misha and the Wolves, premiering at the festival today, possesses a fairy tale-like quality, beginning with its title. Those four words evoke ancient stories of children deep in the woods, threatened by menacing animals, as in Little Red Riding Hood.

The similarities go further. The documentary tells the story of Misha Defonseca, a woman living inMassachusetts who purported to be a Holocaust survivor. She told neighbors a remarkable tale of growing up a young Jewish girl in Belgium during the war, saying she was secreted with a Catholic family after her parents were deported. She said her foster parents hated her.

Desperate to reunite with her mother and father, she told of setting out on foot for Germany, with little more than a compass and a knife, keeping to the woods. On her way she encountered a female wolf,...

Fox Mulder made the slogan “I Want To Believe” iconic with his UFO poster on The X-Files, but the reason it has spawned so much memorabilia and so many memes is that it speaks to a very human desire.

We’re a credulous species, even if we’re aware that con men and fraudsters abound. It’s programmed into us to want to believe, no matter how outlandish a bill of goods we’re being sold.

Sam Hobkinson’s documentary Misha and the Wolves is about one particularly notorious tall tale, but it’s really much more about the reasons ...

Fox Mulder made the slogan “I Want To Believe” iconic with his UFO poster on The X-Files, but the reason it has spawned so much memorabilia and so many memes is that it speaks to a very human desire.

We’re a credulous species, even if we’re aware that con men and fraudsters abound. It’s programmed into us to want to believe, no matter how outlandish a bill of goods we’re being sold.

Sam Hobkinson’s documentary Misha and the Wolves is about one particularly notorious tall tale, but it’s really much more about the reasons ...

Starting today, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival gives us a first glimpse at the year in cinema, and this year it’s available to a wider audience than ever before in virtual form. With many tickets still available, we’re now providing our yearly trailer round-up for those interested in a preview of the lineup.

Ahead of our coverage, bookmark this page for a continually-updated round-up of trailers and clips, kicking off with Taming the Garden, A Glitch in the Matrix, Land, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, Life in a Day 2020, and more.

Check out the trailers (and clips) below thus far in alphabetical order and we’ll be published reviews soon, so follow along here.

Coming Home in the Dark (James Ashcroft)

The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet (Ana Katz)

Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen)

A Glitch in the Matrix (Rodney Ascher)

In the Same Breath (Nanfu Wang...

European Film Promotion, a network of film agencies and institutes from 37 European countries, and the Sundance Film Festival have kicked off their first ever collaboration. The partners have launched an online showcase, Europe! Hub at Sundance, that puts the spotlight on the European films premiering in competition at the festival (Jan. 28-Feb. 3).

Next year, the partners are planning to host an onsite edition of the venture at the festival, with the target audience being North American distributors.

In a statement, Efp managing director, Sonja Heinen, underscored the importance of the festival, especially during a “challenging” time. She said Efp would work closely with the Sundance team “to raise the awareness and increase the visibility of European films and talent at the festival.” She added that Efp was looking forward to “an on-going and growing relationship” with the festival in order to support European films and talent.

Twelve European feature films...

“It’s been an absolute beast,” says festival director Tabitha Jackson.

Rebecca Hall’s feature directorial debut Passing starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, Metro Manila director Sean Ellis’ horror Eight For Silver, and Nikole Beckwith’s comedy Together Together starring Ed Helms are among 72 features selected for 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which runs online and in select US arthouse venues from January 28-February 3.

The line-up, announced on Tuesday (December 15), includes One For The Road, Thai filmmaker Baz Poonpiriya’s follow-up to Bad Genius; Edgar Wright’s music documentary The Sparks Brothers; Robin Wright’s feature directorial debut Land; Ben Wheatley...

Director Sam Hobkinson’s Fear City: New York vs The Mafia details the historic investigation and prosecution of New York’s criminal Commission. The resulting convictions of the law enforcement actions marked an end of an era. New York was no longer under the thumb of mob bosses; businesses maintained control of their goods, manufacturing and trafficking; the thin blue line thickened.

As the documentary points out, the Mafia was untouchable when they controlled illegal street trade, but when they made offers which legitimate business couldn’t refuse, law enforcement stepped in and cleaned up. Fear City: New York vs The Mafia depicts this specific period in New York as a war zone. “The Bronx was burning every night,” Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa says in the documentary.

While much of the day-to-day peril of city living has been exaggerated into legend, this is what drew a British...

Netflix‘s limited docu-series Fear City: New York vs The Mafia tells the story of one of law enforcement’s biggest wins. During the 1970s and 1980s, New York City’s construction, cement, hotel, and garment industries, among others, paid an informal tax to a secret Commission. The Five Families of the New York mafia – Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luccese – diversified their income, which had come from traditional vices like gambling, prostitution, numbers, drugs and loan sharking, and started dipping their beaks in legitimate business.

Directed by Sam Hobkinson, Fear City: New York vs The Mafia details how the feds took apart the upper echelon of organized crime. The takedown was historic in that it prosecuted New York’s top mob bosses. The documentary talks with the investigators, prosecutors, former mob associates, and some of the defense to give the inside story a twist on the usual police procedural.

As police forces across the country are held under tighter scrutiny for crimes against the people they swore to serve, Netflix will feature a previous victory law enforcement can brag about. The three-part series, which premieres July 22, presents the prosecution’s case for the Mafia takedown in New York City during the 1970s.

“Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, the ‘Five Families’ of the New York mafia—Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luccese—held a powerful, and seemingly insurmountable, grip on the city,” according to the official synopsis. Directed by award-winning documentarian Sam Hobkinson, Fear City: New York vs The Mafia details “the incredible story of the history-making organized crime investigation and subsequent prosecution case brought against New York’s most formidable mob bosses.”

Fear City was created by the Raw and Brillstein Entertainment, the same production companies which made the docuseries Don’t F*ck With Cats. The documentary series...

Netflix has released the trailer for Fear City, a three-part series about the Mafia takedown in New York City during the 1970s. The series premieres July 22nd on the streaming platform.

Created by the same production company as the docuseries Don’t F*ck With Cats, Fear City explores a derelict time in New York’s history, where the five Mafia families took control of Manhattan. The series follows the FBI’s concerted effort to take down all five families at the same time.

“I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s in the UK.

Comcast’s European pay-tv broadcaster Sky has hired Three Identical Strangers development producer Poppy Dixon to the newly created role of director of documentaries and factual commissioning.

Dixon joins Sky from Arrow Pictures and will be responsible for commissioning across Sky’s portfolio of UK services, including new factual channels Sky Documentaries and Sky Nature, which launch on May 27.

Dixon has worked on a Sam Hobkinson-directed feature since joining Arrow last year. Prior to joining Arrow, she worked at Lightbox and Raw TV, where she was involved in documentaries including Three Identical Strangers and Harvey Weinstein film Untouchable.

Zai Bennett, the managing director of content for Sky in the UK, said: “Poppy brings a wealth of experience in producing quality factual programs and documentaries and she knows exactly what makes a gripping documentary. She is the perfect fit to help us build a world class slate of original factual shows for our customers.

The BBC has picked up a slew of feature docs including Oscar-nominated Minding The Gap and Sundance titles One Child Nation and Maiden.

This comes as the British public broadcaster has revamped its feature doc strand Storyville with films launching on youth-skewing network BBC Three for the first time as it looks to appeal to younger audiences.

The pick ups were unveiled today at the Sheffield Doc/Fest by BBC Storyville Commissioning Editor Mandy Chang.

Minding the Gap will air on BBC Three alongside true crime doc Roll Red Roll and music doc Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl.

Bing Liu’s Oscar nominated Minding the Gap is the coming-of-age saga of three skateboarding friends in their Rust Belt hometown, hit hard by decades of recession. In his quest to understand why he and his friends ran away from home as teenagers, Bing tracks 23-year-old Zack as he becomes a...

Dogwoof has notched the first international deals for “Without Compromise,” the feature documentary about enigmatic fashion designer Martin Margiela, and “Women Make Film,” Mark Cousins’ 16-hour tribute to female filmmakers.

Film-meets-fashion feature documentary “Without Compromise” tells the story of Margiela, who was part of the avant-garde Antwerp movement and founded the Maison Margiela fashion house. The elusive designer has cooperated with the producers of the film, which reveals his creative process with exclusive access to his personal archive.

U.K.-based Dogwoof has sold it to Uplink in Japan, DDDream in China, and Pioneer in the Cis region and the Baltics. In Germany, Nfp will release it.

Dogwoof has also registered the first deals for “Women Make Film.” Avalon has done an all-rights agreement for Spain and DDDream for China. The project was part of the official docs selection at Toronto. It is narrated by Tilda Swinton and other key female figures in cinema,...

Exclusive: UK sales outfit Dogwoof has picked up world sales rights to doc The Kleptocrats about the scandal surrounding the Malaysian wealth fund 1Mdb, whose embezzlement sparked a major international corruption investigation and was linked by U.S. authorities to the funding of Red Granite movies including The Wolf Of Wall Street.

Directed by Sam Hobkinson (The Vatican: Saints) and Havana Marking (Afghan Star) and written by investigative journalist Louise Story with Hobkinson and Marking, the film will gets its world premiere next month at Doc NYC. Dogwoof will be selling at Mip and Afm. Mike Lerner (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer) produces for Roast Beef Productions, executive producers are philanthropist Alex Soros, Louise Story, Mike Lerner and Anna Godas for Dogwoof.

Pic will chart the ongoing, major white-collar crime investigation which has uncovered government corruption at the highest level in Malaysia and pointed towards international money laundering. The film...

Exclusive: Documentary about art project Treasures From The Wreck Of The Unbelievable also gets UK deal.

Park Circus will begin sales at the Efm in Berlin on a documentary about new Damien Hirst art project Treasures From The Wreck of the Unbelievable.

Classics specialist Park Circus will also handle distribution in the UK.

The Oxford Film and Television (Channel 5’s Henry VIII And His Six Wives) production, made in association with Hirst’s Science Limited, will be directed by Sam Hobkinson (BBC mini-series Venice).

Conceptual artist Hirst, best known for his series of artworks in which dead animals are preserved in formaldehyde, is understood to feature in the film.

The long-gestating project Treasures From The Wreck of the Unbelievable will culminate in an exhibition displayed at the Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy from April, 2017.

Hirst said of the project in 2010: “It’s a story of a ship. It is called...

It's hard to believe, but it's been almost a year since the Boston Marathon bombings killed three people and injured 264 others.  Because the way we mark tragic anniversaries in this media-saturated age is with television programming, Nat Geo will bow a special two-hour documentary, "Inside the Hunt for the Boston Bombers" on Sun. April 13 at 9:00 p.m. Et., of which I was given an early look.  It's worth noting that the gears of justice grind more slowly than those of television -- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the bombings, has not yet gone to trial. The obvious question, then, is whether or not it's too soon to put together what Nat Geo calls a "definitive account" of the events surrounding last year's Boston Marathon, a grab bag of first-person interviews, re-enactments and news footage? For some people, it might be. It's also safe to say that this isn't actually definitive,...

Go ahead and scoff, but I defy you to watch this show at home alone in the dark and not get just a little freaked out. The tag line for Syfy‘s docudrama Paranormal Witness is “Scary. Because it’s True” and they are dead-on right about that. Here’s the info:

Syfy’S Paranormal Witness Returns For Its Third Season

On June 5 At 10 Pm Et/Pt

New York – May 24, 2013 – Syfy’s original series Paranormal Witness returns on Wednesday, June 5 at 10 Pm Et/Pt with the first of 20 new episodes featuring chilling first-person accounts of real-life hauntings told through terrifying dramatic reenactments.

Season 3 begins with “The Long Island Terror,” featuring intense demonic activity at a house in Long Island, NY. Following the tragic death of her husband, the widow of a New York City Fire Department lieutenant killed in the line of duty, attempts to rebuild her life in a newly constructed home.

Summer used to be the time that we’d see Warehouse 13, Haven, and – sigh – Eureka return with new seasons, but that’s all changed. Warehouse 13 returns for the second half of its giant 20-episode season on Monday, Haven is now a fall series, and Eureka… well, you know.

But chin up! We have Season 2 of Continuum and standalone seasons of Sinbad and Primeval: New World coming our way, along with the return of Face Off, Ghost Hunters, and many other competition and nonscripted series, not to mention a Twilight Zone marathon, a Roger Corman marathon, and more Original Movies with excellent titles. Check em all out below; series broadcast info will be updated on the SciFiMafia.com Spring and Summer Primetime TV Schedule.

Syfy Launches A Summer Of Imagination And Adventure Premieres Of Reality Series Joe Rogan Questions Everything, Cosworld, Notorious Hauntings And Exit All-new Episodes Of Face Off,...