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On the eve of the EFM Screen has learned that US distributor Giant Pictures is launching an international sales division.

Giant Pictures general manager, Nick Savva, Tom Bairstow formerly of Sony Pictures Television Europe, and former Cinedigm president Bill Sondheim will lead the new venture and head to Berlin with an inaugural slate that includes Alex Braverman’s 2023 Venice and Telluride Andy Kaufman documentary Thank You Very Much.

The sales roster includes martial arts action title Absolute Dominion from Green Street Hooligans director Lexi Alexander, 2023 Lido selection and boxing drama The Featherweight from Robert Kolodny, and absurdist comedy and 2024 Fantastic...

No list of the most recognisable, memorable and beloved singers of all time can be considered valid without the inclusion of Luther Vandross. So, it’s mildly surprising that it’s taken until now — almost 20 years after his passing — for there to be a definitive documentary about the life and legacy of the soul and R&b legend. Thankfully, veteran documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter is more than up to the task, carving out a celebratory space for us to revel in his timeless music while sensitively illuminating the man behind it.

Helpfully steered by first-person interviews with Vandross’ close friends and collaborators like Fonzi Thornton, Carlos Alomar and Robin Clark, we are first taken on a journey through how Luther learned his craft and refined his style. Cutting his teeth on the likes of Sesame Street — the archival footage Porter utilises here is sensational — coming up with catchy jingles for...

A feature-length documentary about the multi-platinum R&b singer does justice to his talents and tactfully handles the issue of his sexuality

All of the mystery and certainty of love is carried in Luther Vandross’s radiant singing voice. On uptempo tracks he seems suffused with joy; on ballads he’s less sure, singing melodies that search high and low but still with hope in his heart. Those performances, and the complex life that informed them, are rightly given a feature-length canvas in this documentary by Dawn Porter, a US film-maker known for her studies of presidents, lawmakers and social movements, here making a rare foray into pop culture.

Porter rolls out an unbroken chronology of Vandross’s life, juxtaposing archive material with contemporary talking heads. That traditional approach is validated by both kinds of footage: old Vandross performances and interviews have been expertly filleted, while the talking heads are well-chosen,...

Disney’s “A Complete Unknown” held its spot at the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office for a second weekend, earning £1.6 million ($2 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The cumulative total of the Bob Dylan biopic, starring Timothée Chalamet, now stands at $7.3 million.

In second place, Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” added $1.7 million in its sixth weekend, raising its total to $34.7 million. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” from Paramount remained steady in third, collecting $1.09 million during its fifth weekend and pushing its total to $29 million.

Lionsgate U.K.’s “Flight Risk,” directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg, debuted in fourth place with a solid $1.01 million. Universal’s awards season favorite “The Brutalist” debuted in fifth, earning $938,452 in its opening weekend.

Universal’s “Nosferatu” dropped to sixth with $666,526 in its fourth weekend. The gothic horror reboot has reached $15.1 million overall and continues to attract genre enthusiasts.

OWN will premiere “OWN Spotlight: Luther: Never Too Much,” a documentary celebrating the life of music icon Luther Vandross, on Friday, February 7, 2025, at 9 Pm Et/Pt. Oprah Winfrey will provide a special introduction, underscoring the significance of the project and her personal respect for the late singer. Directed by Dawn Porter, the film […]

Oprah to Introduce Luther Vandross Documentary on OWN...

"My head, my heart, everything was immersed in this [music] business." Giant Pictures & CNN Films have released this music documentary called Luther: Never Too Much by director Dawn Porter. It premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival a year ago and was already released in US theaters in the fall. A new UK trailer has debuted for Luther: Never Too Much as well for its upcoming release in UK cinemas this month. This music doc film chronicles the life story of a vocal virtuoso. Using a wealth of rarely seen archives, iconic musician / singer Luther Vandross tells his own story with assistance from his closest friends and many musical collaborators including Mariah Carey, Dionne Warwick, Valerie Simpson and Roberta Flack. The film relives the many stunning moments of Luther’s musical career, while exploring his personal life, health struggles & weight gain, and a lifelong battle to earn the respect his music deserved.

RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys and Malcolm Washington’ The Piano Lesson dominated the nominations for the 25th Black Reel Awards with 13 and 12 noms, respectively. The films will square off in 10 categories including Outstanding Film, Director, Screenplay and Ensemble.

Titus Kaphar’s Exhibiting Forgiveness is next with nine nominations, followed by Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice with seven. See the full list spanning 22 categories below.

Winners will be honored during the silver anniversary ceremony held virtually on February 10 and streaming live on BlackReelAwards.com.

Related: 2024-25 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More

“As we commemorate 25 years, we are proud to highlight the transformative power of Black cinema,” Black Reel Awards Founder Tim Gordon said. “This year’s nominees represent not only excellence in storytelling but also groundbreaking achievements that push boundaries and elevate our culture.”

Presented by Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film, the Black...

“Nickel Boys” leads the nominations at the 25th annual Black Reel Awards, a ceremony exclusively dedicated to recognizing African American contributions to cinema.

The Amazon MGM Studios film garnered 13 nominations, followed closely by Netflix’s “The Piano Lesson” with 12; both films were nominated for outstanding film and outstanding director, plus their stars earned individual nods.

Rounding out the best film nominees are “Challengers,” “Exhibiting Forgiveness” and “Sing Sing” and joining Ross and Washington in the outstanding director category are Titus Kaphar (“Exhibiting Forgiveness”), Zoë Kravitz (“Blink Twice”) and Steve McQueen (“Blitz”). Other top-performing films include “Exhibiting Forgiveness” (nine nominations), “Blink Twice” (seven nominations) and “Sing Sing” (six nominations).

Key individual nominees include Zendaya, who earned dual recognition as an actor and producer of “Challengers,” as well as Ellis-Taylor, who got two nominations in the outstanding supporting performance category for “Nickel Boys” and “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” and Brian Tyree Henry, nominated in...

Black Box Diaries, Queendom and Instruments of a Beating Heart are among the films that got good news Tuesday, earning places on the coveted Oscar shortlists – Diaries and Queendom for Documentary Feature and Instruments for Documentary Short.

At the 40th IDA Documentary Awards in Los Angeles a few days ago, those films also came up winners. Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast went live at the event at the historic Orpheum Theater, speaking with victorious filmmakers and executives right after they accepted their honors.

Black Box Diaries’ Shiori Ito tells us what she packs in her luggage to keep balanced during the insanely...

No Other Land won the best feature documentary award at the 2024 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards on Thursday night.

No Other Land, which paints a portrait of life under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, also won the best director for award for Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham, and the IDA Pare Lorentz Award. The film previously won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it premiered, as well as at the Gotham Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the National Board of Review Awards.

Other winners include Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, which won three awards including best editing and writing, as well as Queendom, We’re Here and Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, among others.

When nominations were announced last month, Sugarcane, a film about the abusive legacy of Catholic-run Native American missionary schools, racked up five nods,...

For the 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards Ceremony, the International Documentary Association returned to a live event held December 5 at The Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. The show was also livestreamed on IDA’s YouTube channel. (The nominees and winners are here.)

The ceremony, this year hosted by Adam Conover, has long served as an annual celebration for the documentary community.

The IDA received more than 700 entries from 77 countries, an increase over last year both in the total number of entries and the countries represented. IDA Documentary Awards entries were reviewed by jurors consisting of 300 documentary professionals from more than 40 countries. IDA members had access to stream nominees and winners in the Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary categories until December 31, 2024.

At this year’s ceremony, American documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter received the Career Achievement Award; Shiori Ito (“Black Box Diaries”) received the Emerging Filmmaker Award; and the four...

It’s been an extraordinary week for No Other Land, the timely documentary directed by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers.

The film set in the occupied West Bank won Best Feature Documentary at the 40th IDA Documentary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday and it also won the Best Director prize for the work of Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, and Yuval Abraham. The quartet of filmmakers also received the IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award, a previously announced honor recognizing the difficult and dangerous conditions in which the film was made.

No Other Land swept most of the awards announced this week: on Monday, it won Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards, and on Tuesday, the New York Film Critics Circle named it the best documentary of the year. It won the National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award on Wednesday, although Sugarcane won the...

“No Other Land,” a documentary shot over five years in Gaza by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, was named the best documentary of 2024 at the International Documentary Association’s 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards.

The film also won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it premiered, and at the Gotham Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the National Board of Review Awards.

At the IDA Awards, it came out on top in a category that also included “Black Box Diaries,” “Dahomey,” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” “Sugarcane” and “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.”

Its four directors — Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor & Yuval Abraham — won in the IDA’s directing category as well. At the beginning of the program, the film was also given the Pare Lorentz Award and the Courage Under Fire Award.

Documentary writing and editing awards went to “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,...

The 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards took place Dec. 5, 2024 at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony was hosted by actor and comedian Adam Conover, and celebrated the best nonfiction films and programs of the year. See the full list of 2024 IDA Awards winners below.

Heading into the evening, “Sugarcane” led all nominees with five, including Best Feature Documentary, followed by “Soundtrack to Coup d’Etat” with four. The ceremony takes place from 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Pt and we will continue to update winners throughout the night. You can live stream the ceremony on documentary.org and on the IDA’s YouTube channel.

The ceremony started with presenting “No Other Land” with two special honors: The Pare Lorentz Award and the Courage Under Fire Award. The Emerging Filmmaker Award went to “Black Box Diaries” director Shiori Itô. The ABC News Video Source Award went to “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.

On Thursday December 5 2024, ABC broadcasts Tamron Hall!

Behind the Music Season 6 Episode 62 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Tamron Hall,” titled “Behind the Music,” promises to be an emotional and insightful journey into the life and legacy of the legendary Luther Vandross. This episode will feature special guests who have personal connections to Vandross, sharing their stories and experiences.

Marcus Miller, a renowned bassist and producer, will talk about his time working with Vandross and the impact the singer had on his career. Fonzi Thornton, a background vocalist who collaborated closely with Vandross, will also join the discussion, adding his unique perspective on their relationship. Documentarian Dawn Porter will be present to discuss her new film, “Luther: Never Too Much,” which explores the life and artistry of Vandross. Together, they will reflect on the influence of Vandross’s music and the lasting impression he left on the industry.

In addition to the heartfelt conversations,...

“What? There’s no Luther doc?,” asked award-winning documentarian Dawn Porter upon meeting with Sony Music to discuss which artists from their catalog deserved their own film. Anyone familiar with R&b icon Luther Vandross would be just as surprised, as his music remains prevalent two decades after his death, yet his personal life is forever shrouded by unanswered questions about his personal life. “He’s the most famous singer a lot of people don’t know,” said the director to IndieWire ahead of a screening of her new film “Luther: Never Too Much” at the Virginia Film Festival 2024 where it won the Audience Award for Documentary.

Though Porter had not come into said Sony meeting with an idea of who she specifically wanted to make a film about, the director of acclaimed projects like “Trapped,” “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” and “Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court” — which all...

Sugarcane earned a leading five nominations as the IDA Documentary Awards announced its nominees today, followed closely by Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat with four.

Black Box Diaries, My Sweet Land, and Queendom earned three nominations apiece. Also earning multiple nominations were Agent of Happiness, No Other Land, Seeking Mavis Beacon, and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin – each with two nominations.

Sugarcane’s nods came for Best Documentary Feature and Best Director, recognizing the work of Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, as well as nominations for cinematography, editing, and score. The National Geographic documentary investigates the systematic abuse of Indigenous children who attended a so-called “Indian Residential School” in British Columbia.

‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’s recognition came in the Best Documentary Feature category, as well as Best Director for Johan Grimonprez, Best Editing, and Best Writing. The film from Kino Lorber looks at how the U.

CNN will debut Luther: Never Too Much, Dawn Porter’s documentary about the life of Luther Vandross, on New Year’s Day.

The film will debut at 8 p.m. Et. Per CNN, the project “chronicles the story of Vandross from his formative years in Harlem, appearing in the Apollo Theater house band and the first episodes of Sesame Street, through his ascendance to become the indisputable master of the love song.” Vandross’ own voice is featured to tell the story via archival clips, along with interviews with Mariah Carey, Dionne Warwick, Valerie Simpson and Roberta Flack. Vandross died in 2005.

In a statement, Porter said, “We combed through hundreds of hours of interviews, concert footage and images to develop this one-of-a-kind portrait.” Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent, CNN Originals and creative development, CNN Worldwide, noted that the network has had a tradition of showcasing music documentaries on New Year’s Day,...

The 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards has officially unveiled its list of nominees, including this year’s most beloved and buzziest documentary features. The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the nominations in 14 categories for the 2024 awards ceremony, which will take place December 5 at The Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be streamed live on documentary.org and on the IDA YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram channels. The awards show will be hosted by actor, comedian, and writer Adam Conover.

This year, IDA received more than 700 entries in all categories from 77 countries, an increase over last year both in the total number of entries and the countries represented. All IDA Documentary Awards entries were selected by jurors from over 40 countries; the shortlists for the Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary categories were previously announced on October 24.

The IDA will honor prolific documentarian Dawn Porter with the Career Achievement Award.

Sugarcane leads the International Documentary Association’s 2024 IDA Documentary Awards nominees.

The film about the abusive legacy of Catholic-run Native American missionary schools racked up five nods, including for best feature.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat scored four nods and three titles — Queendom, Black Box Diaries and My Sweet Land — landed three nominations apiece.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, Queendom and Black Box Diaries are up for best feature alongside Dahomey and double nominees Agent of Happiness, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, No Other Land, Seeking Mavis Beacon and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.

And the directors of Sugarcane, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, Queendom, Black Box Diaries and No Other Land are all up for best director.

This year’s IDA Documentary Awards nominees were selected from more than 700 entries from 77 countries, both up from last year, and, in the feature and shortlist categories, were chosen from shortlists announced on Oct.

The 37th annual Virginia Film Festival has tallied up the votes to determine its 2024 Audience Award winners. After 138 films and events over a five day period, the Narrative Feature that won over the most attendees was Tracie Laymon’s “Bob Trevino Likes It,” while Dawn Porter’s “Luther: Never Too Much” won for Documentary Feature, and “Makayla’s Voice” and “Irma” won the Narrative Short and Documentary Short categories, respectively.

Additionally, the festival put on by the University of Virginia welcomed a series of individuals winners to its Charlottesville setting, including “Anora” star Mikey Madison accepting the Vaff’s Achievement in Acting Award after a sold-out screening at the Paramount Theater, “Saturday Night” star Lamorne Morris receiving the Virtuoso Award as part of the festival’s Saturday night programming, and “Pavements” filmmaker Alex Ross Perry accepting the Directorial Achievement Award for the film, and participating in a Q&a alongside Pavement drummer Steve West.

Nearly 20 years after his death, it’s easy to forget the ways that R&b legend Luther Vandross impacted pop music. His suavely rhythmic hits, many from the Eighties, don’t get the same amount of airplay as New Wave classics of the same period. It’s also easy to forget how complex and mysterious his life was: For most of his career, Vandross was dogged by rumors about his sexuality and the reasons for his ongoing weight issues. He was both in our faces and behind a curtain at the same time.

The independent film fall festival love affair with moviegoers continues with A Real Pain posting the year’s third best per screen average. Anora continues its standout run as does Conclave. The Ralph Fiennes-starring Vatican thriller is no. 4 at the box office in week 2. A24’s We Live In Time is no. 6.

Searchlight Pictures’ A Real Pain debuted to $240k at just 4 theaters for a $60k PSA, in the top three for 2024 after Kinds Of Kindness earlier in the year (also from Searchlight) and Anora, from Neon last month. The comedy written and directed by Eisenberg stars The Social Network star with Succession’s Kieran Culkin as cantankerous cousins exploring their family roots on a road trip in Poland. Won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Best Screenplay at its Sundance premiere.

Neon’s Anora by Sean Baker is pushing $1.9 million over the three days on 253 screens in...

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

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

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

Luther Vandross passed away in 2005, but unreleased music from the R&b icon was made available Friday — a cover of The Beatles’ ‘60s hit “Michelle.”

Vandross’ close friend and vocal collaborator, Fonzi Thornton, discovered the tape following the singer’s death when he visited his family to look through his music archives, unseen videos, cassette tapes, personal effects, stage costumes and more. He then moved the archives to a room in his apartment for safekeeping.

“I found two cassettes labeled ‘Michelle’ in his handwriting — [I had] no idea what it was [and then I] played it! I realized it was a beautiful rendition of the Beatles classic that had been vocally and musically Lutherized,” Thornton tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I played Luther’s version for Jeff James, A&r at Sony and Dave Gottlieb, manager of the Vandross Estate, and we agreed it was such a find. We decided to save it until the right time — which is now.

Apple TV+’s Girls State and HBO’s Ren Faire scored three nominations apiece to lead all broadcast nominees announced Thursday for the 18th Cinema Eye Honors. The group, which recognizes the year’s outstanding nonfiction and documentary films and TV series, also revealed the 16-film longlist for its annual Audience Choice Prize, won last year by National Geographic’s Bobi Wine: The People’s President, which went on to get nominated for the Documentary Feature Oscar.

The past six winners of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar — this year’s winner 20 Days in Mariupol, Navalny, Summer of Soul, My Octopus Teacher, American Factory and Free Solo — were all Audience Choice Prize nominees. Fans voting will whittle the list to 10 beginning next week, with winners in that and all categories to be announced at an awards ceremony January 9 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem.

The full list...

Cinema Eye Honors today shared a string of announcements, including the 16 films on its Audience Choice Prize Longlist, the unveiling of this year’s Unforgettables Honorees, nominees in its five Broadcast categories, and its annual Shorts List — spotlighting 11 of the year’s top documentary short films — at its 7th annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch in Downtown Los Angeles on October 24, 2024.

Spotlighted on the film side are several major Best Documentary Feature contenders including “Will & Harper,” “Black Box Diaries,” and “No Other Land,” which all also factored into the organization’s list of Unforgettables — standout on-camera collaborators from eight feature documentaries. This next ceremony will be the first time those honorees, like Harper Steele, Shiori Ito, and Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham for those respective films, receive a special medallion honoring their contribution to their Cinema Eye-winning films.

Highlights among the Broadcast nominees include filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, nominated for both...

The Apple TV+ documentary “Girls State” and the HBO doc series “Ren Faire” led all projects in nominations in the Cinema Eye Honors broadcast categories, which were announced on Thursday in Los Angeles.

“Girls State” was nominated in the Broadcast Film category and also for its editing and cinematography. “Ren Faire” was also nominated in those last two categories, as well as for Nonfiction Series.

Other broadcast films and series with multiple nominations included Netflix’s “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Apple’s “The Enfield Poltergeist,” HBO’s “Telemarketers” and National Geographic’s “Photographer.”

At its annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles, the New York-based organization also announced the Audience Choice Award Long List, 16 films that will compete for the audience-voted award; 11 semi-finalists in the short doc category; and “The Unforgettables,” its annual list of the year’s most interesting documentary subjects.

The Audience...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) has revealed which 20 feature-length and 20 short documentaries have made it onto the shortlists for the 40th IDA Documentary Awards.

Among the films that have a shot at becoming a nominee at the upcoming awards ceremony set to take place on December 5, 2024 at The Orpheum Theater in Downtown Los Angeles are major Best Documentary Feature contenders like “Sugarcane” and “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” as well as titles that have been harder to come by, like “Brisa” and “Kamay.”

As part of the announcement, Dominic Asmall Willsdon, IDA’s Executive Director, said via statement, “The 40th IDA Documentary Awards continues the tradition of celebrating the best of international nonfiction media of the year. We are grateful to all filmmakers who shared their work for consideration this year, representing a record amount of countries in the award’s history. The impressive shortlist for Best Features and Best...

Update: Joe Biden got several standing ovations as he presented the National Medals of Arts and Humanities, including a moment when he referenced the presidential race as he talked about the power of women.

“I know the power of women to get things done, and also help the next generation of pioneers, proving a woman can do anything a man can do and then some. That includes being president of the United States of America.”

The remark drew large cheers and a standing ovation from the audience in the East Room, where Biden was joined by First Lady Jill Biden, National Endowment for the Arts chair Maria Rosario Jackson and National Endowment for the Humanities chair Shelly C. Lowe.

Among the recipients present were Steven Spielberg, LeVar Burton, Spike Lee, Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah, Idina Menzel, Jon Meacham. Aaron Sorkin and Bruce Cohen.

“The power of the arts and matters.

Entertainment greats Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah, Steven Spielberg, and the late Selena Quintanilla will be honored by the White House this year. On Monday, Joe Biden’s administration announced the cohort of stars set to receive the 2022 and 2023 National Medals of Arts and Humanities.

Elliott, Latifah, and Spielberg are among the honorees for the National Medal of Arts, along with musicians Idina Menzel, Leonardo “Flaco” Jiménez, and Herb Ohta, Jr.; actress Eva Longoria; and filmmakers Ken Burns and Spike Lee.

Quintanilla joins a group of three late honorees to be given the award posthumously,...

Alexis Bloom’s “The Bibi Files,” Raoul Peck’s “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” and Johan Grimonprez’s “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” are among the 15 documentary films that have received a coveted spot on Doc NYC’s feature shortlist.

Launched in 2012, the Doc NYC feature shortlist, which this year includes several streamer-backed docs as well as films with minimal or no distribution, has become known for being an award season bellwether. The last three feature docus that garnered an Oscar — “20 Days in Mariupol”, “Navalny” and “Summer of Soul” — made the Doc NYC shortlist.

In all the Doc NYC film festival has screened 53 of the last 60 Oscar-nominated documentary features. The feature shortlist election process is overseen by fest’s artistic director Jaie Laplante and director of special projects Thom Powers, who also serves as the lead documentary programmer at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

“We start thinking about the...

The International Women’s Media Foundation (Iwmf) hosted the 35th annual Courage in Journalism Awards in New York City.

Now in its 35th year, the awards remind news media audiences worldwide of the sacrifices women journalists make, and the odds they face, simply to report the truth.

Hosted by Linsey Davis (ABC News), the event honored Lauren Chooljian, an American journalist with New Hampshire Public Radio (Nhpr) and Mónica Velásquez Villacís, an Ecuadorian journalist with La Posta with the Courage in Journalism Awards for their remarkable bravery in the pursuit of reporting. As the principal award in journalism solely dedicated to women’s contributions in the field, the Courage Award stands as a pillar of thanks for the role diversity plays in upholding press freedom.

Presenters during the program included Deborah Roberts (ABC News), Suzanne Malveaux (CNN), Marites Vitug, Anna Nemtsova, Lydia Cacho and Iwmf Deputy Executive Director Nadine Hoffman.

In addition,...

Exclusive: Doc NYC today unveiled its main slate for the 15th anniversary of America’s biggest documentary festival, a lineup that includes 31 world premieres and 24 U.S. premieres.

The festival, running from November 13-21 in Manhattan (and continuing online until Dec. 1) will open with the U.S. premiere of Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story, directed by Sinead O’Shea, a portrait of the acclaimed Irish writer who died in July at the age of 93. Closing the festival on Nov. 21 will be the world premiere of Drop Dead City – New York on the Brink in 1975, directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn, “a look back at the circumstances and players involved in NYC’s mid-70s financial crisis.” (The film’s title refers to a legendary headline in the New York Daily News reporting on then-Pres. Ford’s promise in October 1975 to veto any federal bailout of the Big Apple...

Today, the International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the recipients who will receive honorary awards on December 5, 2024, at the 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards. The show will be held at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles and will be live-streamed on the IDA’s social media. From the press release: International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the honorary awards to be presented at the 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards, which will be held on December 5, 2024, at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. The show will be streamed live on IDA’s social media channels. At this year’s ceremony, American documentary filmmaker Dawn […]

The post IDA Honors Dawn Porter, Shiori Ito and No Other Land Directors Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Today, the International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the recipients who will receive honorary awards on December 5, 2024, at the 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards. The show will be held at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles and will be live-streamed on the IDA’s social media. From the press release: International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the honorary awards to be presented at the 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards, which will be held on December 5, 2024, at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. The show will be streamed live on IDA’s social media channels. At this year’s ceremony, American documentary filmmaker Dawn […]

The post IDA Honors Dawn Porter, Shiori Ito and No Other Land Directors Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Now in its 40th year, the International Documentary Association (IDA) announced its three honorary awards on Wednesday, which will be presented at the organization’s annual gala on Dec. 5 at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles.

American documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter will receive the Career Achievement Award. After working as a litigator before moving into filmmaking, she has directed eight feature documentaries over the past decade, including “Gideon’s Army” and “John Lewis: Good Trouble.”

Journalist, activist and director Shiori Itō, whose recent film “Black Box Diaries” chronicled her own sexual assault investigation against a newspaper publisher in Japan, will receive the Emerging Filmmaker Award.

Additionally, the four directors of this year’s “No Other Land” — the Israeli-Palestinian collective of Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham — will be presented with the Courage Under Fire Award. The doc was filmed over a five-year period in Palestine’s West Bank.

The Virginia Film Festival is kicking off its 37th year with a lineup featuring a couple of Cannes winners that are now taking the fall festival circuit by storm.

Located in Charlottesville, and set for October 30 through November 3, the festival has chosen Sean Baker’s “Anora” as its Opening Night Film. The dramedy, which stars Mikey Madison as a Brooklyn sex worker who enters into a whirlwind romance with the son of a Russian oligarch, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was a runner-up for the coveted People’s Choice Award at TIFF. In addition to special guests from the cast set to be in attendance, Tom Quinn, Founder and CEO of Neon, the film’s distributor, will be on hand to receive the inaugural Impresario Award on behalf of the company.

For the Centerpiece Film, the festival has programmed Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” which has had...

MSNBC has announced a new docuseries titled “The Sing Sing Chronicles,” a four-episode investigative piece that will tell the story of Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez, an actor from A24’s “Sing Sing” who was exonerated of his wrongful murder conviction on Monday after serving nearly 24 years in prison. The docuseries, directed by Dawn Porter and built on more than 20 years of investigative reporting by NBC News’ Dan Slepian, will also look into the wrongful convictions of five other men who served time at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

“The Sing Sing Chronicles” will debut on MSNBC on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24 at 9 p.m. Et. The four-part series will have its world premiere at Doc NYC earlier in November.

“With unprecedented access to one of America’s most well-known prisons, the series sheds light on the criminal justice system by following a journalist and a man convicted of murder and the connection they...

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez has been exonerated.

The 48-year-old Sing Sing actor, who served nearly 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, was exonerated of his wrongful murder conviction on Monday morning (September 30) in a Manhattan courthouse in New York City.

The actor “held back tears, pounded his chest and pumped his fist as he hugged friends and family,” via Variety, and “hugged his mother as she wept and cried out, ’27 years!’ in reference to how long it has almost been since Velazquez was first convicted.”

He co-stars with Colman Domingo in the A24 prison drama that follows a group of incarcerated men who find purpose in acting in theater productions. The ensemble features formerly incarcerated actors, and takes place at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where he was falsely imprisoned.

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Sing Sing star Clarence Maclin, director Greg Kwedar and Brent Buell,...

After serving nearly 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, “Sing Sing” actor Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez has been exonerated of his wrongful murder conviction.

The 48-year-old Velazquez held back tears, pounded his chest and pumped his fist as he hugged friends and family after he was officially cleared by the judge in a downtown Manhattan courthouse Monday morning. He hugged his mother as she wept and cried out, “27 years!” in reference to how long it has almost been since Velazquez was first convicted.

Velazquez co-stars with Colman Domingo in the A24 prison drama that follows a group of incarcerated men who find purpose in acting in theater productions. Featuring an ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors, “Sing Sing” takes place at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, which is where Velazquez was falsely imprisoned.

Among those at the court showing support for Velazquez were “Sing Sing” star Clarence Maclin,...

There’s no act quite like Cirque du Soleil. For nearly 25 years, their largest production, “O,” has dazzled audiences in Las Vegas with acrobatics, choreography, and stunts amidst a shimmering stage and 1.5 million gallons of water. No words could do justice to describing the awe of witnessing “O” live, from the first glimpse of a diver piercing the surface from 30 feet up to the climactic routines executed with precision above the pool.

It was hard to imagine this flying spectacle ever truly stopping. Yet in March 2020, the pandemic forced Cirque’s world to abruptly halt. Shows closed; staff were let go. For over a year, the massive theater sat silent. All wondered if Cirque could rebound from such a shutdown.

Enter Dawn Porter’s Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net. The documentary offers a backstage pass as Cirque prepares “O” for its comeback in August 2021. Over compressed rehearsals, we meet...

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

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

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

A new Luther Vandross documentary will be released in 2024. The documentary will tell the life story of the popular R&b singer/songwriter and will hit theaters this year. However, there are also big plans to stream and watch it at home.

Here is what you need to know about Luther: Never Too Much, including when it hits theaters and when it will come to streaming to watch at home.

Luther Vandross Documentary: What To Know

Luther Vandross is a famed soul and R&b singer/songwriter who sold over 40 million albums over his 35-year musical career. While he died relatively young at 54 in 2005, his musical career was one that almost anyone would strive to have. The documentary Luther: Never Too Much will tell his story.

Luther Vandross | YouTube

Rolling Stone Magazine named Luther Vandross one of the 200 greatest singers of all time, and his output warrants the praise. He...

On Saturday, August 24, the African American Film Critics Association honored the winners for its sixth annual television awards. Among the list of champions were Emmy nominees “Masters of the Air,” Apple TV+’s limited series about a bomber group during World War II, and Ayo Edebiri, the female star of FX’s cooking dramedy “The Bear.” Wendell Pierce (“Elsbeth”) and Josiah Cross (“Masters of the Air”) were also recognized with trophies. Gold Derby’s associate editor Latasha Ford hit the red carpet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to chat with the stars, honorees and presenters heading into the ceremony.

See 2024 Aafca TV Awards winners: ‘Masters of the Air,’ Ayo Edebiri, Wendell Pierce …

Watch each Aafca TV Awards red carpet interview by clicking their name below:

Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood: Winners for Best Limited Series/Special (“Genius: MLK/X”)

Nkechi Okoro Carroll: Salute to Excellence Award...

Only a politician as focused and high-minded as Barack Obama can make a joke about Donald Trump’s anatomy and it’s the other guy that looks crass.

That’s what happened tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as the 44th President of the Untied States addressed a fired up United Center on why the insecure 45th Potus needs to be denied a return to the White House by Kamala Harris in November.

“He’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he wrote down his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama said in his classic circumspect style of his Republican successor. “It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala.”

Since being endorsed by Joe Biden when the 81-year-old current Potus announced he was stepping aside in late July,...

The first night of the DNC in Chicago had an Academy Awards feel — right down to the overruns and snubs.

On a night when Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Aoc and others brought the United Center crowd to its feet with rousing podium speeches — and Kamala Harris made a raucously received surprise appearance — a number of other scheduled moments failed to come off.

Dawn Porter, the documentarian who had produced a short about President Biden for the convention, saw a planned broadcast ahead of the president’s speech shelved.

It was unclear when the decision was made to cut the film from the program, but the expectation from the filmmaker’s camp coming into the night was that the piece would run just ahead of the president’s address. Biden’s speech was pushed out of primetime by scheduling overruns that had his address not start until about 10:30 p.m.

“America, I love you,” declared President Joe Biden tonight in his keynote speech at the first night of the Democratic National Convention as delegates from across the land cheered “We love Joe!” over and over.

Even with his constant evocation of Irish poetry over the decades, Biden has never been anyone’s idea of a great orator. However, on Monday, the 46th President of the United States gave one of the best speeches of his long stint in public life.

Combative, on-point, evocative and relatively succinct for Biden, the valedictory had a job for the campaign. A job that Biden obviously enjoyed. Ripping his 2020 antagonist Donald Trump as a “loser” and “a liar,” Biden went on to lament how “sad” his predecessor is “putting himself first and America last.”

“I’ve got five months left in my presidency and I’ve got a lot to do,” Biden told the crowd,...

Mickey Guyton, Jason Isbell and James Taylor will perform at the Democratic National Convention this evening.

Taylor practiced You’ve Got A Friend in the afternoon to a largely empty United Center arena. His rehearsal came about a half hour before President Joe Biden did a walk through of the stage, in advance of his speech, which will be the finale of tonight’s proceedings.

A DNC official also said that Jeffrey Wright will narrate a convention film short to be shown this evening. Dawn Porter and his production company, Trilogy Films, are producing a movie about Biden and the Democratic party.

Taylor also performed at the 2012 Democratic convention in Charlotte.

Tony Goldwyn will host the first night, which also will feature Hillary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gov. Andy Beshear.

Exclusive: Vice President Kamala Harris has turned to an old friend and Hollywood veteran to help reintroduce her to the nation and the world at the Democratic National Convention this week.

Reginald Hudlin has directed the short film on Harris that will precede the VP taking to the stage on Thursday for her acceptance speech as the party’s historic presidential candidate. Tracing Harris from her childhood in Oakland, CA to the corridors of power in Sacramento and Washington D.C., the August 22-debuting biopic is about 10 minutes long, we’ve learned.

“Reggie is the perfect person to do this,” an insider at the convention in Chicago says. “He knows her (Harris) well, they’re friends, and he clearly has the chops.”

Related: Democratic National Convention Lineup For Monday: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Karen Bass And Aoc Among Speakers

The acclaimed CAA-repped filmmaker’s spouse Chrisette Hudlin was the...