In the sprawling favela of Santo Amaro in Rio de Janeiro, Duvo (first-time actor Daniel Fernando do Prado Dorea Lima) currently sits at the top of the pecking order. Under the guise of enriching the community, Duvo and his armed militia regularly engage in illicit activity that, while lucrative, often culminates in death. When it comes to Duvo’s attention that the “help” he’s providing is anything but—in part by a cigarette-smoking guardian angel, whose untimely death was the product of police brutality—he becomes obsessed with a new, much more kid-friendly venture: he decides to finance a kite festival for the […]

The post “A Brutal Honesty That Still Feels Poetic”: Walter Thompson-Hernández on His Tribeca World Premiere Kites first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Back in 2022, a scrappy feat of independent filmmaking came across my radar. Written and directed by Florida native Justin Zuckerman, Yelling Fire in an Empty Theater is a Mini-DV shot journey of a young woman attempting to create space for herself amid the cacophony of New York City; it harkens to mumblecore while remaining entrenched in the unique hostility that young (even would-be) creatives currently face amid price-gouging and the decimation of DIY communities.  This film was the first feature project undertaken in part by 5th Floor Pictures—the production collective co-founded by Ryan Martin Brown and Paula González-Nasser—itself an […]

The post “Two Strangers Meeting Over Something So Unusual”: Paula González-Nasser on Her Tribeca World-Premiering Feature Debut The Scout first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

When it comes to streaming series, it’s better to have too little of a great show than too much. With a finite amount of time to work with before the events of Andor collide with their preordained conclusion in Rogue One, the Disney Plus prequel series opted not to spin its wheels for a superfluous three or four extra seasons like so many shows that lurch onward past what should be their expiration date. The second and final season of Andor picks up a year after season one, with each three-episode block then jumping another year into the future as […]

The post Space in 40mm: DP Christophe Nuyens on Andor Season Two first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Kudos to Anonymous Content and Fremantle for putting together a project focused on the most wholesome of beauty pageants and thinking, “We need the director of Hail, Satan? for this!” Indeed, while the idea might seem absurd on its surface, it’s no more so than the notion of married women from 18 to 80 (and up) going toe to toe (or heel to heel) in evening gowns and swimsuits, sacrificing precious time and exorbitant amounts of money for the chance to wear the Mrs. America crown. And veteran filmmaker Penny Lane, whose 2023 doc Confessions of a Good Samaritan followed […]

The post “So Many Sequins!”: Penny Lane on Her Tribeca-Debuting Docuseries Mrs. America first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Ole Juncker’s Tribeca-premiering Take the Money and Run follows Jens Haaning, a Danish conceptual artist to whom the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg loaned $83,000 — money that was to be tangibly incorporated into a specific commission for their 2021 group exhibition centered on the future of working life. (Which was not so creatively titled “Work it out.”) Unfortunately for the museum, Haaning decided to incorporate the dollars into his own personal life instead, though he did deliver a piece called Take the Money and Run — a pair of empty frames — along with an email explaining the […]

The post “It Became More a Story About How the Artwork, and All the Commotion Around It, Affected His Mental Health”: Ole Juncker on His Tribeca-Debuting Take the Money and Run first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In a contemporary take on Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard depicts a woman who lives amongst wolves being whisked away and plunged into human society. Director David Verbeek presents this jarring story as a kind of apocalyptic fairytale, in which a feral woman learns what it means to be human while humanity itself is bracing for the end of the world as they know it. Mostly set on a repurposed offshore oil rig, the film explores how the interests of men and nature inevitably clash in the face of impending […]

The post “The Best is Always Zero Budget”: David Verbeek on Tribeca 2025 Premiere The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Although the heat has yet to properly arrive, today’s kickoff of the annual Tribeca Festival, now firmly ensconced in its post-Cannes calendar slot,  signals the unofficial start to the summer season among the New York City cinema-going sect. Running from June 4 through 15, the program this year boasts 118 feature films with an impressive 95 world premieres among them.  Even if the word “film” is no longer centered in the festival’s actual title, it certainly remains the concerted programming focus. Though there are also plenty of offerings in their TV, games, audio, interactive and Tribeca X sections—the latter of […]

The post Our 16 Most Anticipated Films of the 2025 Tribeca Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Metrograph, the New York repertory and first-run cinema, announces today the hiring of Edo Choi as Film Programmer. Choi was most recently the Associate Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image and begins at Metrograph immediately. A New York-based film programmer, projectionist, and critic, between 2014 and 2019 Choi worked as a projectionist and then programmer for the Maysles Documentary Center. From late 2019 to early 2025, he was the Assistant—later Associate—Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image, as well as the Senior Programmer of the Museum’s annual festival First Look, which celebrated its […]

The post Metrograph Announces Edo Choi as Film Programmer first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The legendary Ian McShane has been acting for more than 60 years, from The Wild and The Willing, The Last of Shelia, and Jesus of Nazareth to Lovejoy, Sexy Beast, and the John Wick films. His two latest films are Ballerina, set in the John Wick universe, and and the action comedy Deep Cover. On this episode he talks about what made his time as Al Swearengen on Deadwood (perhaps his most iconic role) so special, and tells a story about an unforgettable suggestion from creator David Milch. He explains what sets Wick’s Chad Stahalski apart as a director/producer, why […]

The post “It Was Like Being on a Cliff and You Just Leapt Off It, with Whatever You Had to Give”: Ian McShane, Back To One, Episode 344 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Netflix’s limited series Adolescence picked up three prizes at the second annual Gotham TV Awards, held on June 2 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Among those awards were breakthrough limited series, lead performance in a limited series (Stephen Graham), and supporting performance in a limited series (Owen Cooper). Accepting the top prize, actor and co-creator Graham expressed surprise that Adolescence has already become a worldwide phenomenon. “We’re overwhelmed for you to embrace us the way you have … . This was a small colloquial piece that was made with love, respect, humility and dignity, and we treated […]

The post Adolescence Sweeps 2nd Annual Gotham TV Awards first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.