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Despite any prescience on behalf of its subject matter, I’m sure even the playwright himself, Jonathan Larson, would have looked back on his big-budget, science fiction Broadway hopeful “Superbia” with enough hindsight to acknowledge there was no way it would ever see the light of day. As the relatable cartoon shared by artists all over the internet of an iceberg attests: the amount of work produced to get to the one piece that finds an audience (in any medium) is too high a multiplier to even begin hypothesizing. And any creator who isn’t made aware of this fact in school has been done a disservice by their educators. That doesn’t, however, mean you shouldn’t dream or that your first try won’t get funded. Lightning does strike for some.

It didn’t for Larson. Not right away. Not even for the musical tick, tick … Boom! (as...

“The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks” is set to be framed in a new documentary on Peacock, from award-winning directors Yoruba Richen and Johanna Hamilton and produced by Emmy Award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien’s So’B Productions.

Currently in production, the project marks the first ever full-length documentary about the civil right icon, which expands Parks’ story beyond her historic bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala. Using a wealth of video footage and exclusive audio of Parks, plus interviews with activists, celebrities and Parks’ own family, the film aims to “reveal the intent behind her activism, her radical politics and the true extent of her courage.” The film also paints a picture of how Parks’ legacy lives on in the continued fight for justice and equality.

“I’m thrilled to bolster Peacock’s growing documentary slate with premium content like the story of Rosa Parks,” Rachel Smith, NBC Universal Streaming & Cable...

Tribeca and Chanel have set participants, masterclass advisors, mentors and jurors for their seventh annual Through Her Lens program, supporting women filmmakers, announcing that it will take place from October 12-14.

The creatives and short film projects chosen for the three-day mentorship program, designed to provide industry support, artistic development and funding to “emerging U.S. based self-identifying women and non-binary writers and directors,” include director Annalise Lockhart and writer/producer Mary Glen Fredrick (Anything Valuable), writer/director Maya Tanaka and producer Shuchi Talati (Honolulu), director Caroline Lindy and writer/producer Kate Hamilton (How Did I Get Here), writer/director Tiye Amenechi and producer Satchel Lee (Night Bloom), and writer/director Phumi Morare (Why the Cattle Wait).

Each will benefit from a combination if virtual and in-person, one-on-one mentorship—along with masterclasses focused on script-to-screen development, music composition, costume design, producing, and directing—working with mentors to shape and refine their pitches and projects.

HBO Max Pa’lante!, the social-first audience initiative aimed at driving culturally-relevant programming on HBO Max is launching the Pa’lante! Promise. Through a creative partnership with OneFifty — WarnerMedia’s artistic studio — the goal is to support Latino creatives whose work has a strong cultural aesthetic and features Latinos in front of and behind the scenes. The initiative includes a slate of original projects and a roster of OneFifty-acquired Latin films that will premiere on HBO Max.

“Visibility and opportunity is everything,” said Jessica Vargas, Director of Multicultural Marketing, HBO Max and HBO. “The Pa’lante! Promise and WarnerMedia OneFifty is a great example of a network creating a platform where Latin creatives and their work are supported and elevated, through promotional campaigns that resonate with our audience in an authentic way.”

“We are thrilled and excited to be collaborating with HBO Max Pa’lante! on this exciting and powerful slate of projects.

Besides accredited as the first Singaporean horror, Kelvin Tong’s second feature “The Maid” also broke the local horror genre box office record during its weekend opening release. It went on to win the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation Asian Film Award at the then Puchun International Fantastic Film Festival held in Bucheon, South Korea.

At the start of “The Maid”, Rosa Dimaano (Alessandra De Rossi) a young eighteen-year-old girl from the Philippines arrives in Singapore to work as a domestic maid for Mr. and Mrs. Teo. It’s also the first day of the Chinese Seventh Month, the start of the Hungry Ghost Festival. The Chinese believe that during this month, the opening of the gates of Hell enables the dead to come back and walk among the living. Therefore, they set up alters everywhere to offer food to their beloved, returning ancestral spirits. Conversely there...

Pilar Palomero’s coming of age drama The Girls has won the 2021 Goya Award for best film, Spain’s top film honor.

Palomero, who is a first-time feature director, was also awarded Goyas for best new director and best screenplay for her drama set in a convent school.

Netflix drama Adú was the frontrunner leading up to the ceremony with 14 nominations, and director Salvador Calvo was awarded the best director trophy. His sophomore feature follows three interconnected stories all set in Africa.

The Goya 2021 best film nominees included Ane Is Missing from David Pérez Sañudo, Icíar Bollaín’s La boda de Rosa (Rosa’...

Pilar Palomero’s coming of age drama The Girls has won the 2021 Goya Award for best film, Spain’s top film honor.

Palomero, who is a first-time feature director, was also awarded Goyas for best new director and best screenplay for her drama set in a convent school.

Netflix drama Adú was the front-runner leading up to the ceremony with 14 nominations, and director Salvador Calvo was awarded the best director trophy. His sophomore feature follows three interconnected stories all set in Africa.

The Goya 2021 best film nominees included Ane Is Missing from David Pérez Sañudo, Icíar Bollaín’s La boda de Rosa (Rosa’...

Pilar Palomero’s coming-of-age story The Girls took home the top prizes, including best picture, at the 35th annual Goya Awards on Saturday. The annual Spain awards show, hosted by Antonio Banderas, also saw Palomero’s drama win the prizes for new director, original screenplay and cinematography.

The 35th Goya Awards adopted a hybrid format due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and featured talent present and receive awards virtually or on-site at an audience-less Teatro del Soho CaixaBank. Among the Hollywood names presenting the event’s various awards were Pedro Almódovar, Penélope Cruz, J.A. Bayona, Alejandro Amenábar and Paz Vega. The ceremony also featured pre-recorded messages from a number of Hollywood names including Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern and Charlize Theron.

1492: Conquest of Paradise and Broken Embraces actress Angelina Molina took home the ceremony’s Honorary Goya award.

See the full list of winners at...

I'll never stop encouraging audiences to seek out short films, either at a dedicated short film festival, or shorts at a general festival. Not only can you see films by the best up-and-coming filmmakers (and have the pleasure to tell your friends you were aware of them before they were 'discovered'), short films can and do provide some of the best narratives, tales that need to be told succiently, in a way that keeps them strong, and cut quick to their emotional core. For Rosa and The Name of the Son are two such shorts. Both look at the body of its characters, how the body is loved, used, abused, working for and against its person. They are stories of moments of love, pain, and...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Running from Dec. 11 through Dec. 12, NewFilmmakers (Nfmla) is partnering with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present an online film festival showcasing the latest work from Middle Eastern, Arab and Dutch filmmakers. Other presenting partners include Dutch Culture USA (Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York) and the Arab Film and Media Institute (Afmi).

Comprising three short film programs and a slate of up and coming talent, the weekend-long event will include virtual screenings, industry panels and q & a’s with artists from countries such as Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, France, the Netherlands and the United States. Among the featured films are “So I Stay,” from Dutch director Marieke de Zwaan, Arab director Suha Araj’s “Rosa” and Rami Kodeih’s Oscar-qualifying short “Alina.”

“In all three of these programs we are seeing a lot of stories that reflect on freedom and integrity, on an individual,...

Long before writer Malorie Blackman conceived of the story of the Doctor and her companions meeting civil rights hero Rosa Parks in Doctor Who’s “Rosa,” she imagined another alternate version of history and racism. Noughts + Crosses, the BBC and Mammoth Screen-produced series based on Blackman’s bestselling U.K. Ya book series of the same name, is making its U.S. debut on Peacock Friday, and it’s likely already on many a hardcore Whovian’s radar. However, for the rest of the American viewing public, this may be the first time you’re hearing of Noughts + Crosses. Or not. Last week, Peacock dropped a not-great U.S. trailer for the show, causing some controversy on social media, and alienating some of the audience most likely to watch this show. Here’s why Black viewers and science fiction dystopia fans should consider giving Noughts + Crosses a chance…...

Halted by Covid-19, and now part of Locarno’s The Films After Tomorrow competition, Lav Diaz’s “When the Waves Are Gone” looks set to mark the first time the Filipino auteur will enjoy the upsides of full-force international co-production.

That co-production involve, moreover, some of highest-profile art film producers currently working in Europe.

Winner of Locarno Golden Leopard (2014’s “From What Is Before”) and a Venice Golden Lion (2016’s “The Woman Who Left”), Díaz movies have been set apart not only by their extraordinary lengths – 2016’s “A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery” clocked in at just over six hours – but also their lack of resources.

“It’s understood that Diaz’s low-budget techniques involve a certain suspension of belief: thus, we accept that a powerful dictator only seems to have a staff of two,” critic Jonathan Romney wrote of last year’s “The Halt,” a low-fi sci-fi drama set in a 2034 dystopia.

Are you kept awake every night by the fear of your favorite Netflix movies vanishing without warning? Constantly checking and rechecking when every individual title will be leaving? Well, fear not, as those days of terror are over.

Provided for your benefit here is a list of every movie that’ll be leaving the service in the month of July. Ready to dive in?

Leaving July 4

Blue Valentine

Leaving July 5

The Iron Lady

Leaving July 8

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Leaving July 8

47 Metres Down

Leaving July 11

A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III

The Adderall Diaries

Enemy

Ginger & Rosa

Locke

The Spectacular Now

Under the Skin

Leaving July 12

Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain

Leaving July 15

Forks Over Knives

Leaving July 18

A Most Violent Year

Laggies

Life After Beth

Obvious Child

Room

Tusk

Leaving July 21

Bolt

Inglourious Basterds

Lucasfilm Drops More Than A Dozen Bts Star Wars Pics From The Last Jedi,...

Does “Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker” work to intentionally undo everything in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi?” As many have noted, there’s an alarming number of examples of how J.J. Abrams’ film seemingly tries to tear down everything established in Rian Johnson’s predecessor.

Read More: ‘Rise Of Skywalker’ Co-Writer Chris Terrio Says People That Think The Film Is An Argument Against ‘The Last Jedi’ Are “Missing The Point”

Academy Award-winning writer and ‘Rise Of Skywalker’ screenwriter Chris Terrio (“Argo”) has been making the rounds basically defending a lot of those decisions, and honestly, he makes a lot of good points about lineage, reclamation and things of that nature.

Continue reading Chris Terrio Walks Back Blaming Carrie Fisher’s VFX For Absence Of Rose In ‘Rise Of Skywalker’ at The Playlist.

It’s only a matter of time before Doctor Who continues its TV tradition of era crossover and sees Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor encounter some of her past selves, but for now, the custom is being utilized in comic book series Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Season 2, the first images from which have finally been released.

The story takes place in London in the 1960s and has been described as a reimagining of “Blink,” the now-iconic episode that introduced the terrifying Weeping Angels into the series. That tale featured comparatively little of the Doctor, as he and Martha had been knocked back in time by one of the Angels, with the mystery instead unfolding in 2007 as it was investigated by Sally Sparrow, a young woman who discovers cryptic messages addressed to her.

The pages show Thirteen discovering Ten’s presence in the same time and place that she and her companions travelled to,...

Jennifer Kent’s thriller The Nightingale has taken home a trio of prizes at the 2019 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in Sydney.

Kent’s period piece won Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Film, making Kent, who also produced, the first woman to receive awards across all three categories for the same film in the same year. The film’s female lead, Aisling Franciosi, received the Best Lead Actress prize.

The Nightingale follows a young Irish convict who chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family.

Bong Joon Ho’s lauded Cannes winner Parasite scored the Aacta Award for Best Asian Film. The award was presented to the South Korean film’s producer Kwak Sin-ae by Simu Liu, star of Marvel Comics’ upcoming film Shang-Chi and the Legend Of The Ten Rings,...

Following on a line of titles that venture into social drama, Globo’s new telenovela “Orphans of a Nation,” presented at Mip Cancun, has just won a Rose D’Or for Best Soap Opera.

That marks the first time that a Brazilian production wins in the category and validates once more – after prizes for “Jailers” and “Under Pressure” – the Brazilian TV giant’s bet on content that tackles head on current issues with clear, progressive, social commentary.

The show, fruit of the long collaboration between Thelma Guedes and Duca Rachid-who have already won an Intl. Emmy for “Precious Pearl,” centers around Laila (Julia Dalavia), a Syrian refugee trying to get to Brazil with her family, and Jamil (Renato Góes)the right hand man of a brutish, dastardly Sheik who fall in love as Laila is forced to marry the Sheik to save her little brother.

Kicking off in Syria,...

Exclusive: We can reveal a first look at Peaky Blinders actress Sophie Rundle in Rose, a feature horror pic that sales outfit Great Point Media will be debuting first footage from at Afm.

The debut feature from director Jennifer Sheridan stars Rundle with Matt Stokoe (Jamestown) in the story of a woman who, gripped by a violent and terrifying illness, lives in seclusion with her husband. However, the arrival of a young stranger shatters the fragile refuge they have built.

Producers are April Kelley and Sara Huxley of Mini Productions, Robert Taylor of The Development Partnership and Sophie Rundle and Matt Stokoe of Bone Garden.

Great Point’s Afm slate also features the market debut of Toronto premiere A Bump Along The Way, and upcoming titles Sergio Mendes In The Key Of Joy and Wildfire.

The Russell T. Davies years of Doctor Who were a true golden era of the series. The acclaimed showrunner oversaw Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s runs as the Doctor and is responsible for bringing the much-loved program back to our screens in 2005 and earning it a whole new generation of fans. Needless to say, Whovians everywhere would love to see him write an episode for Jodie Whittaker’s Time Lord, but it sounds like it’s not something we should hold our breath for.

While speaking about potentially returning to Who at the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival, Davies ruled out the possibility. As much as he remains a fan of the series and enjoyed his time running it, the writer/producer likened the idea of coming back as returning to an old job you did a decade ago.

“It’ll be like coming back to a job I did 10 years ago,...

As previously revealed, Billie Piper’s returning to the world of Doctor Who as iconic companion Rose Tyler for her own spinoff series. An audio spinoff series, that is, from the good people of Big Finish Productions, and now, we have a full rundown of what to expect from the four-episode boxset.

Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon fills in the gap between Rose’s exit from the show as a regular back in the season 2 finale and her surprise return in season 4. As fans well know, Rose was thought to be trapped in a parallel world before she found a way to (temporarily) reunite with the Doctor in time to help defeat Davros and the Daleks’ plan to destroy the multiverse. Now, this series will explore Rose’s adventures as she uses the titular dimension canon to hop between universes.

The unique twist of the boxset is that it won...

Great Point Media and The Development Partnership, the development and production arm of the talent agency the Artists Partnership, are joining forces to develop, package, and co-produce multiple films, kicking off with three projects, including “Chasing Agent Freegard,” starring James Norton (“War & Peace”).

“Chasing Agent Freegard,” which is being produced by “Captain Phillips” co-producer Michael Bronner, is based on the gripping true story of Robert Hendy-Freegard, a con man who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled several people into going underground for fear of assassination by the Ira. Norton, who stars in upcoming Berlin competition title “Mr. Jones” by Agnieszka Holland and will be seen next in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of “Little Women,” will executive produce “Chasing Agent Freegard” through his recently launched banner, Rabbit Track Pictures.

The other two projects to be developed under the agreement are “Let It Go” and “Rose.” Produced by Damian Jones...

★★★☆☆ Having recently found himself in harsh and grim post-war Poland for Wojciech Smarzowski's sombre Rose (Róza, 2011), Marcin Dorocinski is back again in award-winning wartime drama, Manhunt (Oblawa, 2012). On this occasion, he is part of the Polish resistance during the conflict rather then attempting to build a life after it, but the results are similarly bleak in Marcin Krzysztalowicz's third feature film. A compelling central presence the thespian may once again prove to be, but the overall film is too confused to be truly powerful despite its unflinching portrayal of the varying greys of conflict morality.

Read more »...

★★★☆☆ Originally populated by Polish settlers, the rural villages of Masuria were aggressively Germanised in the half-century leading up to the advent of World War II, which ultimately led to them being considered as one of the most loyal regions to the Fatherland. Their ethnic autonomy was largely stamped out during this period, and was utterly eradicated as the province was enveloped back into Poland after the Second World War had ended. This particularly difficult post-war period is the focus of Wojciech Smarzowski's harrowing drama Rose (Róza, 2011), which follows the fortunes (or lack thereof) of a specific homestead during this time of upheaval.

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