Month: November 2022

Douglas McGrath, the Oscar and Tony-nominated writer, actor and director, died Thursday in New York City. He was 64. McGrath died of a heart attack, according to a report from the New York Times. McGrath was born and raised in Texas before moving to New Jersery to attend Princeton. He began his career at “Saturday

Netflix’s animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” has gotten a trailer and a release date. The animated feature, which is set to debut on the streamer on Dec. 2, features the voice of Luke Evans (“Beauty and the Beast”) as Scrooge as well as Olivia Colman (“The Crown”), Jessie Buckley (“Men”) and

Italian A-list actor Pierfrancesco Favino, who just scored a European Film Award nomination for his role in “Nostalgia,” is set to play heroic Sicilian World War II naval officer Salvatore Todaro in “Comandante.” Directed by rising auteur Edoardo De Angelis, the film is an ambitious anti-war epic that has required the construction of a life-size

Sales agent M-Appeal has released the trailer (below) for “A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On,” the second feature film by Gentian Koçi. It will world premiere in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival later in November, and is Albania’s entry for the Academy Awards. “A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On”

OH BABY The Singapore International Film Festival (Nov. 24- Dec. 4, 2022) has added R21 rated biographical film “Baby Queen” to its lineup. The screening will also anchor the festival’s annual fund-raising evening event. The film is directed by Lei Yuan Bin, who previously made “03-Flats” in 2014 and “I Dream of Singapore” which premiered

Audiences who click play on Netflix’s “Falling for Christmas” will be the ones doing most of the falling over Lindsay Lohan’s much-anticipated comeback vehicle. Director Janeen Damian’s light-hearted feature, centered on a spoiled hotel heiress tumbling into a character-enriching circumstance, isn’t necessarily served up as the average cup of holiday cheer and rom-com charm. There’s a lot more to

Prior to the advent of streaming, documentaries had a reputation for being, as Jerry Seinfeld put it at the 2007 Oscars, “incredibly depressing.” Politics, the environment, warfare, and the farming industry were all topics routinely explored by documentary filmmakers for several decades. But Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, and Disney have effectively altered the nonfiction landscape

In just 13 yearsDOC NYC has become America’s most influential documentary festival. The nine-day affair, which runs Nov. 9-17, will feature more than 124 short docus and 112 feature-length nonfiction films that will screen at New York City’s IFC Center, SVA Theater and Cinépolis Chelsea. (The 2022 version will be both in person in New

EnergaCamerimage, the cinematography-focused film festival about to take place in Torun, Poland on Nov. 12-19, will bestow one of its highest honors to writer-director Jerzy Skolimowski, who will receive the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region Film Award 2022. Skolimowski, a longtime stalwart of Polish cinema, made news in Cannes earlier this year when “EO,” which

“Capturing the Killer Nurse” is a documentary about Charles Cullen, the serial killer whose chilling story is the basis of the Eddie Redmayne/Jessica Chastain movie “The Good Nurse.” Both films are being released by Netflix, in what has become a synergistic system of true-crime-as-cross-promotion (see the drama! then the documentary that, with its proliferation of

Australia’s screen production industry enjoyed all-time record levels of spending in the 2021-2022 period to June. There was increasing spend on locally-produced scripted content as international streamers invested in Australian drama, but a decrease in the value of inbound foreign film and TV productions. The annual “Drama Report,” published Thursday by Screen Australia, showed a

Something or someone is definitely haunting the grassy Calgary ravine where much of Graham Foy’s ambitiously amorphous debut takes place. But whether it’s the roaming spirits of local teenagers taken before their time, or the grief of the friends they leave behind, or the lingering shadow of a large swathe of Gus Van Sant’s noughties

Though the field of women’s athletics has evolved and expanded considerably in recent years, it still seems well-nigh impossible for even the most elite competitors to get more than a tiny fraction of the recognition routinely accorded star sportsmen. That equation certainly seems borne out in “Maya and the Wave,” Stephanie Johnes’ portrait of leading

A former Macy’s in Chicago’s historic Water Tower Place is now the site of a massive Harry Potter interactive experience that looks to draw scores of wizards and muggles of all ages. “Harry Potter: Magic at Play” is the newest collaboration between Warner Bros. and Original X Productions, which also has created three other traveling

AFI FEST 2022 announced the three winners of this year’s short film Jury awards on Nov. 7, spotlighting the live action short “Birds,” the documentary short “Haulout” and the animated short “Sierra” for creating art that can “bring people together,” AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale said. “Birds,” directed by Katherine Propper, is a 14-minute

After being subpoenaed by the prosecution, a social media influencer reluctantly took the stand, after she was given assurances that she would not be charged as Harvey Weinstein’s accomplice. Claudia Salinas, a dancer and influencer who met Weinstein in the early 2000’s, was called by the prosecution, who questioned Salinas as to whether she led

Jury deliberations will begin on Thursday after tense closing arguments in the New York civil rape trial of Paul Haggis, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a former film publicist nearly a decade ago. It’s unclear how long it will take to reach a verdict, but since it’s a civil trial, the Oscar-winning filmmaker

Steven Spielberg said in a new interview with The New York Times that streaming services like HBO Max have thrown filmmakers “under the bus” by “unceremoniously” dumping high profile new releases on streaming and not in theaters. The Oscar winner is referring to Warner Bros.’ decision to release all of its 2021 film slate both