At this stage in the season, when it is entirely too early to make any meaningful predictions about what the Oscar nominees (much less the winners) will be, I like to look back at the Academy’s recent history to identify trends that can give us an idea of what voters are into, generally speaking. It’s not an exact science, of course — the contenders are drastically different every season — but there is one trend that I’ve noticed shaking out over the last decade or so: The Oscars for best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay are more likely to go […]

The post Considering the Oscar Best Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay Categories first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The latest venture from MEMORY — the 25 New Face-selected production company of producers Sebastian Pardo and Riel Roch-Decter — has kicked up a bit of mainstream attention this week, with TMZ, People Magazine and Daily Telegraph, among others, covering coded comments by The 1975’s Matty Healy on a certain ex. But the project – the Doomscroll political talk show series/podcast hosted by artist and writer Joshua Citarella and featuring Healy as the latest guest — is not another celebrity chat fest but rather a series of long-form discussions on contemporary politics, culture and theory — “‘Lex Fridman for the […]

The post Production Company MEMORY Launches New Doomscroll Political Talk Show Podcast with Joshua Citarella first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Shiori Ito’s Black Box Diaries is a film the Japanese journalist should never have had to make. Based on her international bestseller, the Sundance-premiering doc is a dogged investigation into a rape perpetrated by another Japanese journalist, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a longtime friend of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose biography the offender penned as well. It’s also a somewhat surreal journey, given that the brave survivor in the purposely stalled case is Ito herself. Through an engaging mix of secret recordings, vérité shooting and confessional video, we’re invited along on an increasingly maddening odyssey through the shockingly antiquated Japanese […]

The post “A Deep Dive Into My Trauma”: Shiori Ito on Black Box Diaries first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Titus Kaphar’s artwork can be found across the nation at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Yale University and the Mississippi Museum of Art; his painting Yet Another Fight for Remembrance might be his most recognizable, as it was commissioned by TIME Magazine as a response to the Ferguson unrest following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer. The MacArthur Fellowship recipient continues to examine contemporary Black life in his feature film debut, Exhibiting Forgiveness.   Actor André Holland stars as Terrell, an acclaimed painter living with his singer-songwriter wife Aisha (Andra Day) and young son […]

The post “When I’m a Director, I’m a Painter”: Titus Kaphar on Exhibiting Forgiveness first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Alfred Hitchcock, the director as well as self-analyzing critical observer, is evoked in the latest documentary from Mark Cousins, titled, appropriately, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock. During the pandemic lockdown, Cousins was invited by producer John Archer to make a film about the great director timed to the 100th anniversary of his debut film. Cousins set about watching all of Hitchcock’s films in chronological order, reading various critical book as well as works by his daughter and The Birds actress Tippi Hedren, all the while filling up notebooks of thoughts, reflections and details. That research and viewing produced a script, […]

The post Watch: An Exclusive Clip from Mark Cousins’s Forthcoming My Name is Alfred Hitchcock first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced today the 20 feature-length and 20 short documentaries shortlisted for the 40th IDA Documentary Awards, to be held December 5, 2024, at The Orpheum Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. Dominic Asmall Willsdon, IDA’s Executive Director, said in a press release, “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 Shorts reflects on […]

The post Seeking Mavis Beacon, Dahoney Among IDA Shortlist Nominees first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

There’s an honesty to Rap World, the feature debut of co-directors Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharar, beyond its vérité stylings. With Scharar playing the director, Ben, Rap World is a mockumentary following three friends—Matt (O’Malley), Casey (Jack Bensinger) and Jason (Eric Rahill)—from Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, as they trudge through one long night in a quixotic attempt to make a rap album. It is January 11th, 2009: a month earlier The Dark Knight was released on home video, in nine days George W. Bush will leave office, the Great Recession looms and America feels like it is on the cusp of some […]

The post “Nostalgia for When Things were Terrible”: Conner O’Malley, Danny Scharar and Jack Bensinger on Rap World first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

A TikTok trend called “Stick Nation” has become one of my favorites. Folks around the world introduce themselves with a simple “what’s up, Stick Nation?,” then present a stick they’ve found. We’ll usually get to hear where they found said stick and if it’s oak, birch or pine. Over the past few weeks, sticks were my route to escapism until I saw a more meaningful use for them in Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau’s DIRECT ACTION.  The movie begins with a desktop screen as we start to jump back and forth between protests from 2016 and 2018 in Notre-Dames-des-Landes. Since […]

The post Revolution and TikTok Stick Nation: On Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau’s DIRECT ACTION first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Catapult Film Fund, which provides non-fiction filmmakers with early stage funding and mentorship,  announced today its 2024 Development Grant recipients. Through its flagship program, the California-based nonprofit will help launch 15 new projects from around the world, including stories from China, India, Iran, Mexico, Russia, and across the United States. As noted in a press release, half of the projects are by film teams of color and more than 80% are directed by women and nonbinary filmmakers. The projects were selected from a competitive pool of 900 applications, a record high for the organization. Each film team will receive a […]

The post Catapult Reveals 2024 Development Slate with 15 New Projects first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Actor, director, coach, teacher, Maria Dizzia is a perpetual student of the craft of acting, which makes her celebrated and in-demand for all those jobs. The movie My Old Ass and the play Pre-Existing Condition are a couple of her most recent projects. On this incredibly dense and gold-filled episode, she generously gives us a peek into the aspects of the work that she deems important to focus on, worth struggling with, or where she simply finds the most fruit. She talks about the huge importance of those first subconscious “offerings,” how to use the discoveries made when “alive” to […]

The post “‘Knowing’ is Such a Sh*tty Place To Be — It Just Cancels Out All These Other Possibilities”: Maria Dizzia, Back To One, Episode 314 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.