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Everything from classical music to the conversation around climate change will be explored in the five new documentaries to share $2.2 million of funding from Screen Australia. Of the three documentaries funded through the Commissioned Program and two projects through the Producer Program, there is The Idea of Australia, a deep dive into the nation’s past and raises provocative questions about the future; The C Word, which tackles how the discourse around climate change has shifted over the years; and...

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Nexstar continues to make its mark on The CW.

The station group on Tuesday announced that longtime CW head of communications Paul Hewitt is leaving the network after a 22-year run. Beth Feldman, a former partner at Beyond PR Group, is taking over the role. The change is effective immediately, reporting to new CW president Dennis Miller. Sources say Hewitt was among the dozens of staffers who were laid off Tuesday as Nexstar continues to reshape the network.

“For the past 20 years, I have been incredibly fortunate to have played a role, albeit a small one, in helping shape, influence and even define popular culture with the series we created and shared with our passionate fans,” Hewitt said. “This job has been an absolute gift, and I’m eternally grateful for all of my colleagues in our CW family, the producers and talent...

Fresh from her career-defining turn in Michael Pearce’s Beast in 2017, Jessie Buckley is back with yet another outstanding performance which is set to confirm once and for all that she is one of the most promising talents right now as she stars in Tom Harper’s excellent new film Wild Rose. Written by Nicole Taylor and set in Glasgow, Wild Rose offers a simply told, and beautifully crafted story about a young Scottish Country music singer who dreams of one day making big in Nashville.

After her release from a Glasgow jail on drug charges, single mother-of-two Rose-Lynn Harlan (Buckely) can’t wait to pick up where she left off. Feeling reinvigorated by her new-found freedom, the feisty young singer can’t wait to jump back on stage with her band at the Country music themed pub where she had been a regular fixture prior to her arrest. However,...

Writer-director Richard Billingham (Ray & Liz), writer Nicole Taylor (Wild Rose) and writer-director Harry Wootliff (Only You) are the three names on the shortlist for the Iwc Schaffhausen Filmmaker Bursary Award worth £50k ($65k), which the eponymous luxury watch brand gives in conjunction with the BFI.

Photographer and Turner Prize-nominated artist Billingham’s well-reviewed first feature Ray and Liz is based on his memories of his parents Ray and Liz, their relationship, and its impact on Richard and his younger brother Jason.

Taylor recently wrote drama series, Three Girls for BBC1, which won five BAFTAs including mini-series and writer: drama. Prior to that, she wrote The C Word, starring Sheridan Smith for BBC1, which was also BAFTA-

nominated. Wild Rose, which was snapped up by Neon out of Toronto, is about a young woman from Glasgow who wants to escape Scotland for Nashville where she dreams of making it as a country singer.

Piers Morgan, one of Donald Trump’s most trusted cheerleaders, is heading back to the U.S. after Svod service BritBox picked up daily British breakfast news program Good Morning Britain.

The digital platform is also set to debut a raft of British dramas including Tom Riley’s Dark Heart and BAFTA Award-winning drama Three Girls as part of its latest slate of acquisitions, announced as part of its TCA presentation.

Morgan, who previously hosted a talkshow on CNN, fronts Good Morning Britain, which runs on ITV, alongside Susanna Reid. Morgan has courted controversy on the light entertainment format recently with his interview with Trump aboard Air Force One as well as recent run ins with communists. The show will form part of BritBox’s ‘Now’ offering, alongside This Morning, which is hosted by Phillip Schofield & Holly Willoughby.

Elsewhere, Dark Heart, which stars Da Vinci’s Demons’ Riley as Detective...

BritBox subscribers will soon be able to get a daily news and entertainment fix from the U.K., served up by Piers Morgan. The BBC and ITV owned streaming service is bolstering its news and current affairs output with the addition of daily breakfast news program “Good Morning Britain,” which is fronted by Susanna Reid and Morgan.

He is known to U.S. viewers after landing his own show on CNN that ran for three years until 2014. He has also been a judge on “America’s Got Talent,” and was the winner of Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice.” Morgan has maintained a relationship with Trump, interviewing him on Air Force One during his recent controversial trip to the U.K.

Britbox will also run highlights from “This Morning,” a daily magazine show and stalwart of ITV’s daytime schedule in the U.K. Both programs will be packaged together for...

Three Girls Photo: BBC

Edinburgh International Film Festival announced Glasgow-born screenwriter Nicole Taylor, whose Three Girls recently aired on BBC1, as the new Eiff Screenwriter-in-Residence.

Taylor will receive a bursary of £7,500 and access to the four Edinburgh universities between now and June 2018, when the 72nd edition of the festival will take place. During this time she will have the opportunity to develop project ideas with science and humanities researchers.

Nicole Taylor Taylor's three-part Three Girls, about the Rochdale grooming scandal, garnered a strong critical response and a consolidated audience of 8.1 million on BBC1 and more than 9.3 million requests for the series were made on BBC iPlayer.

Prior to that Taylor’s multi-bafta nominated single drama, The C Word, starring Sheridan Smith, was produced for the channel. She has also written on numerous series, including Indian Summers for Channel 4, The Hour for BBC2, and Ashes to Ashes for BBC1.

Her.

Filmmaker Meghan L. O’Hara was the recipient of more than two dozen awards and nominations for producing Sicko, a film about healthcare, when she learned that her own health was in dire jeopardy: She was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. Using her own experience as a jumping-off point, The C Word, her first theatrical documentary as a director, looks at the ways that orthodoxy about cancer treatment has turned into a harmful closed-mindedness, with lives at stake.

Against the odds, the film is as vibrant as it is personal and urgent. Working with three editors, O’Hara interweaves her interviews...

A total of 145 feature documentaries were submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration for the 89th Academy Awards.

Out of those films the members of the Academy’s documentary branch will select a shortlist of 15 features that will be announced in December, and the five nominations will be announced on January 24.

Read More: Documentary, Now: Three Rock Stars Who Run the Fast-Changing Non-Fiction World

Among the titles included in the list are Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner “Weiner” by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, Raoul Peck’s Toronto Film Festival Audience Award winner “I Am Not Your Negro,” the visually stunning “Voyage of Time: The Imax Experience” by Terrence Malik and Otto Bell’s “The Eagle Huntress.”

Read More: Oscars 2017: 10 Documentary Shorts Vie for Nominations

This year Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees’ film “Amy” about British singer Amy Winehouse...

Freeform has put in development Stuff, a single-camera comedy series from The C Word creator Darlene Hunt and producer Aaron Kaplan (Friends With Better Lives) of Kapital Entertainment, I have learned. Sony Pictures TV is the studio. Written by Hunt, Stuff is about the family of women who own and run a consignment shop in Kentucky called Been There Wore That. Hunt executive produces with Kaplan. Kaplan previously executive produced two series for Freeform and its…...

It's part of "30 Rock" lore that the episode "The C Word," in which Lutz (John Lutz) uses the titular terrible epithet in reference to Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), was inspired by an actual encounter between Fey and a previously-unnamed male writer on the "Saturday Night Live" staff. Now, Fey has revealed his identity, but says they've long since buried the hatchet over the offensive incident.

In an interview with Howard Stern in promotion of her new movie, "Sisters," Fey said that it was former Weekend Update anchor Colin Quinn who used that horrible word during a heated (and one-sided) phone call while she was the head writer on "SNL."

"I was trying to help him with a show that he was working on, and I think his anxiety about the writing of the show spilled over," Fey told Stern about the incident. "'Cause It was very random. I was like,...

Read More: 10 Must-See Documentaries at Doc NYC 2015 In "The C Word," personal stories of cancer and cancer research are paired with a systematic investigation of the institutions that contribute to cancer's prevalence in the United States. The documentary is directed by Meghan O'Hara, a cancer survivor and a frequent producer on films by Michael Moore. "The C World" also heavily features notable brain surgeon Dr. David Shervan-Schreiber and is narrated by Morgan Freeman. In an exclusive clip from the film, Freeman discusses the links between stress and cancer.  "The C Word" is slated to screen at Doc NYC on November 15 and 16. Check out the clip above. Read More: Doc NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Alex Hammond - 'Lucha Mexico'...

Exclusive: Rising Scottish actress Karen Gillan is in talks to come on board producer Faye Ward’s Country Music as a young singer from Glasgow who dreams of making it to Nashville. Nicole Taylor (The C Word) has written the script with Dominic Cooke (Hollow Point), making his feature directorial debut with the project. The BFI, Creative Scotland and Film4 are financing. Ward is producing through her ambitious upstart banner Fable Pictures with Eugenio Perez co-producing…...

Exclusive: Film4 has revealed plans for a refugee drama from acclaimed writer Zadie Smith to be made by Ex Machina producer DNA Films.

Described as “half-adaptation, half original story”, the film has been written by husband and wife writer duo Smith and Nick Laird and is inspired by Smith’s 2013 novella The Embassy Of Cambodia, charting a Gambian woman’s boat journey to the UK via Libya and Italy.

Film4 is keen to move the project into production soon so it could vault the long-gestating adaptation of Smith’s novel On Beauty.

The untitled project is one of a series of upcoming titles from Film4, the movie division of UK broadcaster Channel 4, which has six features at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 10-20) including the world premiere of Ben Wheatley’s Jg Ballard adaptation, High-Rise.

In an exclusive interview with Screen, Film4 director David Kosse, head of commercial and brand strategy Sue Bruce-Smith and head...

Paul Nicholls, Emma Rigby and Heida Reed are to guest star in 'Death in Paradise'. The 36-year-old actor - who is best known for his roles in 'Holby City', 'The C Word' and 'Law & Order: UK' is one of a number of stars who has signed up to appear in the fifth series of the BBC One drama. He said: ''I'm very excited to have the opportunity to work with the fantastic cast and crew on the upcoming series of 'Death in Paradise'. I play a fashion photographer in my episode which is very different from many of my previous...

Paul Nicholls, Emma Rigby and Poldark's Heida Reed are heading to the Caribbean for Death in Paradise.

The trio will guest star in the lighthearted crime drama's upcoming fifth series next year on BBC One.

Death in Paradise star Kris Marshall Q&A: 'It's been my hardest job'

Paul Nicholls, who appeared on The C Word as well as EastEnders, said: "I'm very excited to have the opportunity to work with the fantastic cast and crew on the upcoming series of Death in Paradise.

"I play a fashion photographer in my episode which is very different from many of my previous roles so was a great challenge. Filming in Guadeloupe was incredible too. We had so much fun!"

Rigby is known for her performances in Hollyoaks and Prisoner's Wives, while Icelandic actress Reed starred in One Day before taking on the role of Elizabeth Chynoweth in Poldark.

Other guest...

Exclusive: Discussions to cover development, financing, exhibition and sustainability, and will include a new distribution market.

The Edinbugh International Film Festival (Eiff) has unveiled the line-up of industry events set to take place alongside this year’s festival.

Nine days of events will be held at the Eiff Delegate Centre at the Traverse Theatre from June 18.

Topics to be discussed will range from development and financing through to exhibition and sustainability.

There will be a number of events aimed at offering support and advice to emerging writers, directors and producers including two sessions hosted by partners of the BFI Net.Work looking at progressing from shorts to features.

Representatives from Creative England, Film London and the Scottish Film Talent Network will take part in the events including an opportunity for filmmakers to practice their feature pitch to get feedback on making their future applications stronger.

There will be events focussing on areas of interest specifically for producers...

The Enfield Haunting opened to over 750,000 viewers on Sky Living on Sunday night, overnight data suggests.

Timothy Spall's supernatural thriller was the second most-watched broadcast on the multichannels with 752k (3.4%) at 9pm.

ITV's new Women's Institute drama Home Fires rallied 4.82m (21.8%) at 9pm (519k/3.1% on +1), while Sheridan Smith's The C-Word on BBC One was seen by 3.79m (17.4%) at 8.30pm.

Earlier on in the evening, Celebrity Squares and Sunday Night at the Palladium entertained 1.77m (9.3%) and 4.0m (18.9%) respectively (45k/0.2% and 228k/1.0%).

As usual, Countryfile topped the night's ratings with 5.42m (30.8%), while Antiques Roadshow collected 5.22m (26.1%).

On Channel 4, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown returned with 1.09m (5.0%) at 9pm (320k/2.0%), and Henning Wehn's An Immigrant's Guide to Britain pulled in 780k (4.3%) from 10pm (214k/1.9%).

Channel 5 aired Legally Blonde to 813k (4.1%) at 7.10pm (133k/0.6%) and Resident Evil: Afterlife to 801k (4.1%) at 9pm (108k/0.8%).

BBC Two's Snooker World Championship coverage pocketed 1.95m (9.5%).

Elsewhere,...

Sheridan Smith has opened up about playing Lisa Lynch in The C-Word, saying it was an "honour" to play her.

The drama is based on the real-life experiences of Lynch, who published a book about her battle with breast cancer.

Smith stars in the one-off 90-minute drama as Lynch, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 33 after assisting in the casting of the actress.

"Except this was never a job. It's been a different kind of project altogether," Smith told The Radio Times.

"What an honour. I couldn't believe she wanted me to do it," she added.

"I was so moved by the script, by her courage. Not that Lisa saw it that way. She didn't want to be seen as a 'cancer victim', ever. She didn't even call it 'cancer'; she called it 'the Bullshit'.

"She was so clever and witty and honest. I couldn't help but love her.

Sheridan Smith has shaved her head and eyebrows for her latest role. The 33-year-old actress took the plunge for her part in 'The C-Word', in which she portrays her late friend, terminal cancer-sufferer Lisa Lynch, who penned the eponymous book on which the show is based. The new drama will air on BBC One later this year and was described by Sheridan as ''bittersweet'', as Lisa won't get to see the final result. The 'Mrs. Biggs' star - who appeared on ITV's 'This Morning' sporting a long blonde wig earlier today (15.09.14) - admitted: ''I'm wearing a wig... A friend...

“The fact that it’s an episode that I have a bunch of serious stuff to do, I’m comforted to know the director is someone I know pretty well,” shares Robert Sean Leonard of next week’s Hugh Laurie-directed House, titled “The C-Word.”

The episode picks up where last night’s episode left off — with Leonard’s Wilson coming to grips with his Stage 2 cancer diagnosis. “This episode contains an immensely powerful storyline for Wilson,” notes Laurie in the following behind-the-scenes featurette.

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