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Just one year after Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Lost Daughter”) became the second woman to win the Directors Guild of America’s First-Time Film Director award, Charlotte Wells (“Aftersun”) is set to follow her as the category’s third female champ. The 35-year-old Scottish filmmaker, who helmed three narrative shorts between 2015 and 2017, has already been heavily feted for her feature directing (and writing) debut with accolades such as the Cannes French Touch Prize and the Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Director. Now, the fact that a whopping 96 of Gold Derby’s 2023 DGA Awards predictions odds-makers have her as their top choice in the rookie race should translate to a decisive win.

This category’s current lineup is the only one in its eight-year history to include just one male nominee. Last year’s unprecedented field of six consisted of two men and four women, including Gyllenhaal. Our odds show Wells far outpacing female contenders Alice Diop,...

Byambasuren Davaa’s gorgeous-looking drama examines the rituals and traditions of Mongolia as their very existence comes under threat

Veins of the World sees Mongolian director Byambasuren Davaa, whose debut, The Story of the Weeping Camel, earned an Oscar nomination for best documentary, again turn her evocative, naturalistic lens on to the lives of nomadic tribes in her home country. It’s something of a pity that, having made its festival rounds, the film gets its release during the pandemic, as its arresting, expansive portraiture of Mongolian rural landscapes would have made an indelible impact on the big screen.

Right from the beginning, an alluringly green vista takes over the frame; the potency of the land is breathtaking. Nevertheless, amid this poetic lushness, barren patches slowly appear. Not only the fertile soil but also a traditional way of life is in danger of being eaten away. Shattering changes are seen...

German film and TV company Telepool, jointly owned by Hollywood actor-producer Will Smith and Swiss investor Elysian Fields, is moving forward in multiple areas of the entertainment business, CEO André Druskeit tells Variety. Druskeit reveals a major new acquisition for its German distribution arm, and Julia Weber, head of theatrical sales and acquisitions at Telepool’s world sales arm Global Screen, speaks about the films making their market premieres at this month’s European Film Market in Berlin.

Last year Telepool launched into theatrical distribution in Germany, and continues this year with titles such as “Ironbark,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Now the company has acquired the German distribution rights for the next Will Smith movie, “King Richard,” about the father of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, Druskeit says. The film is fully financed by Warner Bros., but co-produced by Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment.

Referring to “King Richard,” Druskeit says: “This...

The following remembrance was written by Deborah Davis, Mark Urman’s wife.

From Anatole Litvak’s “Anastasia,” the first movie he saw as a child at a picture palace in the Bronx, to Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” (his choice for this year’s Best Picture), Mark Urman was a man with a boundless passion for cinema. In the course of his nearly 50 years in film, Mark felt blessed to work with some of the greatest luminaries in the business, from Joseph Losey, David Lean, and Bernardo Bertolucci to Roman Polanski, Sydney Lumet, and Julian Schnabel.

He also delighted in encouraging talents as they emerged, including Ryan Gosling, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Lynette Howell, Jamie Patricof, Christian Bale, Liv Tyler, Marc Forster, Natasha Richardson, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Kevin Smith, Cary Fukunaga, Lee Daniels, and Bill Condon.

Mark was born in the Bronx on November 24, 1952, the...

Mark Urman, a veteran independent film distributor who headed Paladin Films for the past decade, died on Saturday after a short illness. He was 66.

Urman executive produced “Monster’s Ball” and “Murderball,” and was involved in campaigns for Oscar contenders “Half Nelson,” “Affliction,” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.” He broke into the entertainment business in the 1980s by working in publicity at United Artists in New York, followed by Columbia Pictures’ Triumph Films and Dennis Davidson Associates.

In 1997, he became a distribution executive at Cinepix Film Properties, which became Lionsgate. He moved to ThinkFilm in 2001 to head theatrical distribution and oversaw the release of “Half Nelson,” for which Ryan Gosling received a best actor Academy Award nomination; Oscar-winning documentaries “Taxi to the Dark Side” and “Born Into Brothels”; and docs “Spellbound,” “The Story of the Weeping Camel,” “Murderball,” and “War/Dance.”

After a brief stint at Senator,...

Veteran independent film executive Mark Urman died Saturday after a short bout with cancer, IndieWire has confirmed. He was 66. His family requests privacy, and advised a statement will be coming in the next few days.

The Union College graduate started out in the international publicity department at United Artists in New York, followed by publicity posts at Columbia Pictures and the studio’s Triumph Films, and PR firm Dennis Davidson and Associates. In 1997, he left Dda to join Cinepix Film Properties, then just acquired by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., as the head of U.S. distribution.

That was the start of a passionate career in specialized film, including multiple Oscar contenders like “Monsters Ball,” “Affliction,” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.”

As distribution president at New York indie distributor ThinkFilm, Urman delivered seven Academy Award nominations in six years. Alex Gibney’s “Taxi to the Dark Side” and...

Veteran independent film executive Mark Urman died Saturday after a short bout with cancer, IndieWire has confirmed. He was 66. His family requests privacy, and advised a statement will be coming in the next few days.

The Union College graduate started out in the international publicity department at United Artists in New York, followed by publicity posts at Columbia Pictures and the studio’s Triumph Films, and PR firm Dennis Davidson and Associates. In 1997, he left Dda to join Cinepix Film Properties, then just acquired by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., as the head of U.S. distribution.

That was the start of a passionate career in specialized film, including multiple Oscar contenders like “Monsters Ball,” “Affliction,” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.”

As distribution president at New York indie distributor ThinkFilm, Urman delivered seven Academy Award nominations in six years. Alex Gibney’s “Taxi to the Dark Side” and...

New York-based independent film company Paladin, formed last fall by distribution veteran Mark Urman, announced today that it will release Angela Ismailos’ Great Directors, a celebration of films and filmmaking starring ten of the world’s most acclaimed, provocative, and individualistic living directors. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, and was produced through Ismailos’ Anisma Films. Paladin will open the film in NY, Los Angeles, and other top markets in late Spring.

A deeply personal and intimate look at the art of cinema and the artists who create it, Great Directors features original, in-depth conversations with world-class filmmakers Bernardo Bertolucci (The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor, The Dreamers), David Lynch (The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive), Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, The Queen, High Fidelity), Agnes Varda (Vagabond/Without Roof or Rule), Ken Loach (Hidden Agenda, Land and Freedom, Land and Freedom...

NEW YORK -- Byambasuren Davaa's The Cave of the Yellow Dog swept several top honors at the 13th annual Hamptons International Film Festival's Golden Starfish Awards on Saturday night, taking home awards for best narrative feature, best original movie score and best cinematography. In East Hampton's Guild Hall, HIFF executive director Denise Kasell, board chairman Stuart Match Suna, programr Rajendra Roy and emcee Bob Balaban presided over the ceremony, which presented more than $150,000 in goods and services to the top prize winner, Cave, while Daniel Schoenauer's cinematography and Dagvan Ganpurev's score earned $6,000 and $5,000, respectively, in further goods and services. Their awards were presented by Kodak's Mary Manard Reed and Artemis Records' Daniel Glass. Davaa garnered a documentary Oscar nom this year for co-directing The Story of the Weeping Camel, another film shot in Mongolia using nonactors. Cave is about a girl who finds a puppy and how it affects her nomadic family.

TORONTO -- The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on Wednesday said it has hired Sean Farnel away from the Toronto International Film Festival to become its first-ever director of programming. Farnel, who most recently programd documentaries at the Toronto festival since 2000, will join Hot Docs, North America's largest documentary festival, in November. Over the last five years, Farnel brought a host of award-winning docs to TIFF, including Spellbound in 2002, The Story of the Weeping Camel and The Yes Men in 2003, and Gunner Palace last year. In between his TIFF duties, Farnel programd Hot Docs' monthly documentary series, Doc Soup, which he will continue to do. The 13th edition of Hot Docs is set to run from April 28 to May 7.

Clint Eastwood has become the odds-on favorite to claim the Best Director Oscar next month after beating rival Martin Scorsese again at the Directors Guild Awards (DGA) on Saturday. Eastwood claimed the Best Picture prize over Scorsese, Taylor Hackford, Marc Forster and Alexander Payne for his acclaimed boxing movie Million Dollar Baby. Only six DGA winners in the past 57 years have failed to go on to win Oscar gold. Other directors who were recognized by the Guild jury at this year's awards ceremony were Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni, whose gripping Story Of The Weeping Camel earned them the Documentary prize; Walter Hill, who claimed the honor of Best Dramatic Series for TV western series Deadwood; and Tim Van Patten, who was honored in the Best Comedy Series category for Sex And The City. Meanwhile, longtime Oscars producer Gil Cates, a former DGA president, became only the third recipient of the DGA Presidents Award at the Beverly Hilton hotel gala.

In something of a surprise victory, Clint Eastwood took home the Directors Guild award this weekend for the up-and-coming boxing drama Million Dollar Baby. It was the strong signifier that Baby, which just opened wide this weekend on the heels of seven Oscar nominations, is becoming a force to be reckoned with at this year's Academy Awards, where it's up for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, and Director among others. It was also the first major stumbling block for Martin Scorsese, whose The Aviator, with 11 Oscar nominations, is considered by many to be the movie to beat this year. Most everyone was considering this year to be the one for Scorsese, who has yet to win an Academy Award, and his surprise DGA loss puts a damper on the upcoming fortunes for The Aviator this awards season. While the DGA isn't a 100% reliable predictor, it's a pretty darn accurate barometer of who's going to win the Best Director Oscar, as only six of its past 56 winners haven't gone on to take home the Academy Award. Adding insult to injury, Scorsese has been nominated for the DGA award six times but has never won; Eastwood has been nominated three times, and won previously for Unforgiven.

Other DGA winners including feature documentary The Story of the Weeping Camel (which bested Fahrenheit 9/11) and over on the TV side, three efforts from HBO: TV movie Something the Lord Made, drama Deadwood and now-gone comedy Sex and the City. Genius: A Night for Ray Charles won the TV musical variety award.

The DGA named the nominees Wednesday for its documentary filmmaker award, a field that includes the most profitable docu ever, Fahrenheit 9/11. The nominees were Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni for The Story of the Weeping Camel; Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski for Born Into Brothels; Ross McElwee for Bright Leaves; Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11; and Jehane Noujaim for Control Room. All but Noujaim are first-time nominees for this award. It was Noujaim's second nomination; she won the award in 2001 for Startup.com. The winner will be announced Jan. 29 at the 57th annual DGA Awards dinner at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

BERLIN -- Fatih Akin's Golden Bear winner Head-On picked up another honor Wednesday when the film's editor Andrew Bird was nominated for Germany's top editing award, the Schnitt Prize. Bird will go up against Natali Barrey for her work on Jan Krueger's Rotterdam Tiger winner En Route; Bettina Bohler for Christian Petzold's thriller Wolfsburg; Christian Lonk for rural melodrama Hierankl from director Sebastian Steinbichler; and Jurgen Winkelblech for Norbert Baumgarten's east-west comedy Liberated Zone. In the documentary category, Anja Pohl was nominated for editing the sleeper hit The Story of the Weeping Camel; alongside Mona Brauer for Pepe Danquart's Tour-de-France doc Hollentour; Benjamin Ikes for Jorg Siepmann's music documentary Golden Lemons; Inge Schneider for Andres Veiel's drama school portrait Addicted to Acting; and Valerie Smith for 7 Brothers by director Sebastian Winkels. Winners of the Schnit Prize -- which is backed by regional subsidy board Filmstifftung NRW and film association VG Bild-Kunst -- will be announced at a ceremony in Cologne on Nov. 29.

NEW YORK -- A host of faves from festivals over the past year -- including the Sundance standout DIG! and Toronto pickups Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring and The Story of Weeping Camel -- have been selected to screen in this year's New Directors/New Films Festival, thrown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The festival launches March 24 -- with Jim McKay's Everyday People, from HBO Films, serving as the opening-night feature -- and runs through April 4. A total of 22 features were selected.

NEW YORK -- "Flabbergast" is not a foreign word -- it's etymology is unknown -- but it certainly can be used to describe some of the likely reactions to choices -- and omissions -- the Academy made this year in the foreign-language film category. Canadian helmer Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions (Miramax Films) and Ondrej Trojan's Zelary (Sony Pictures Classics) from the Czech Republic had been bandied by those following the foreign film race as likely shoo-ins to nab nominations. But Wolfgang Becker's German feature, Good bye, Lenin! was also expected to find a place in the class photo too, but it was nowhere to be found when the noms were unveiled. In fact, a whole host of titles that have begun developing a following were among the missing. Among them, Bent Hamer and IFC Films' Kitchen Stories (Norway); Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni and ThinkFilm's The Story of the Weeping Camel (Mongolia) and Kim Ki-duk's and SPC's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring (Korea).

MILAN -- Hong Kong licenser Celestial Pictures has sold Spanish television, home video and DVD rights for its Shaw Brothers collection of classic martial arts films to Spain's Manga Film, the two companies said Tuesday at MIFED. The deal follows a similar agreement inked Monday with South Korea distributor Spectrum DVD at the Milan market (HR 11/10). "Thanks to the huge success of films such as 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, ' 'The Matrix' and most recently 'Kill Bill-Vol. 1, ' the world has developed an increasing interest and appetite for Hong Kong cinema," Manga Films vp Xavier Catafal said. ... Australian distributor Dendy has picked up hot indie documentary The Story of the Weeping Camel from Neil Friedman's Menemsha Entertainment, Menemsha said Tuesday at MIFED. The German-Mongolian co-production, directed by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni, was a surprise hit in Toronto and has been picked up by THINKFilm for the United States and Canada, ARP for France, UGC for the United Kingdom and ProKino for Germany. Set in southern Mongolia, Camel is an emotional tale of a baby camel whose mother refuses to nurse her. The local herdsmen enlist a violinist to coax the mother to care for her offspring. Mongolia's official Academy Award entry, the picture has also been nominated for best documentary at the European Film Awards. ... Danish sales group Nordisk Film has signed multiple territory deals for Christoffer Boe's Reconstruction and Mikael Hafstrom's Evil, the official foreign-language Oscar entries from Denmark and Sweden, respectively, on Tuesday at MIFED. Reconstruction sold in all-rights deals to A. Film Distribution for the Benelux territories, the Korea Film Arts Center for South Korea, Alfa Film for Argentina and Chile and Cineplex for Mexico and Central America. Cineplex also picked up all Spanish-speaking rights in Latin America for Evil. New Age Entertainment nabbed the dark comedy for Portugal as well as taking all rights in the territory for Nordisk's The Green Butchers, from director Anders Thomas Jensen.