Independent best films

MTV Documentary Films has acquired worldwide rights to Sundance world-premiering love story The Eternal Memory , director Maite Alberdi ’s follow-up to Oscar nominated doc The Mole Agent. The price is said to be approaching $3 million in a competitive situation with a number of bidders. The film, which screened in the Sundance Film Festival World Documentary Competition section,  will have its international premiere at the Berlinale next month in the Panorama Section and the company is planning a theatrical release and robust awards campaign later this year. The Eternal Memory was produced by Maite Alberdi, Juan De Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín and Rocío Jadue. Executive producers are Marcela Santibañez, Daniela Sandoval, Nicholas Hooper, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Chandra Jessee and Rebecca Lichtenfeld. RELATED: Sundance Film Festival: Deadline’s Complete Coverage In the film, Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for 25 years. … [Read more...] about MTV Documentary Films Acquires Worldwide Rights To Maite Alberdi’s ‘The Eternal Memory’ Out Of Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival has begun unveiling its Jury and Audience Award winners for 2023. Jurors present for the announcement, livestreamed to the festival’s social media channels from The Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah, included Jeremy O. Harris and Marlee Matlin for U.S. Dramatic Competition, Ramona Diaz and Carla Gutierrez for U.S. Documentary Competition, Funa Maduka for World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and Madeleine Olnek for NEXT. Deadline will update this story with the list of winners as they come in. The 2023 festival featured 111 features and 64 shorts, selected from 15,856 submissions, which were screened in Park City, Salt Lake City, and at the Sundance Resort. Over 75% of both short and feature-length works, along with many selected Indie Episodics, will be available for streaming via the fest’s online platform through January 29. Sundance’s first in-person festival since the Covid pandemic was marked by a number of major sales — most of which we were … [Read more...] about Sundance Film Festival Sets ‘The Persian Version’ And ‘Beyond Utopia’ For U.S. Audience Awards — Updating Live

EXCLUSIVE : How Long Gone , a culture and interview podcast founded by Chris Black and Jason Stewart, is going full Hollywood. The podcast, which is closing in on 500 episodes, having launched in the nascent stages of the pandemic, has signed with CAA . The move will see the agency explore opportunities across television, film and publishing for the pair, who are currently taking the show on the road with live shows in London. It’s full circle for the pair, who have often joked on the podcast about the desire to move into television and secure A-list representation. You could easily imagine a How Long Gone interview television series given the pair’s conversational style, appealing to hipsters around the country and internationally. Early interviews included the likes of Jeremy O. Harris, Whitney Port, Jake Lacy, Lili Anolik and Lena Dunham and they have followed that up with the likes of Bret Easton Ellis and B.J. Novak Black previously managed pop punk band … [Read more...] about As ‘How Long Gone’ Nears 500 Episodes, Culture Podcast Signs With CAA, Eyes TV & Film Opportunities

On September 11, 2020, The New York Times published an obituary for Shere Hite, the renowned sex researcher and author, noting that her work “helped awaken women to their sexual power and advance the Second Wave of feminism.” One of the readers of that obituary was filmmaker Nicole Newnham , and it became the spark that set her on a journey to document a woman who sold almost 50 million books worldwide but who faced such a backlash over her research that it drove her into exile. The result of that cinematic quest is the film The Disappearance of Shere Hite , which just premiered in U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. For Newnham, the Oscar-nominated director of Crip Camp (co-directed with Jim LeBrecht), the new film amounted to a rediscovery of Hite. She first became acquainted with the author’s taboo-shattering work, The Hite Report , as an adolescent. “I found it in my mom’s bedside chest where she would stick the books she didn’t … [Read more...] about Sundance Doc ‘The Disappearance Of Shere Hite’ Focuses On Famed Sex Researcher Canceled By Conservatives And Defensive Men

Joe Cornish ’s teen ghosthunter drama Lockwood and Co. launches on Netflix globally today. The show, the streamer’s latest young-adult scripted series from the UK, stars Ruby Stokes ( Bridgerton ) and newcomers Cameron Chapman and Ali Hadji-Heshmati as a teen trio who run an independent ghost fighting agency in London while competing with adult-run corporate rivals. The eight-part series, from Cornish’s Complete Fiction banner, is based on Jonathan Stroud’s books about an alternate modern world in which murderous ghosts have been attacking people since the 1960s, and only teenagers have the ability to see and repeal them. Netflix ordered it as one of seven British originals announced in December 2020. Several of these have been canned but anticipation around Lockwood has grown and reviews this week have been sparkling. “We have these brilliant books to draw on,” said Cornish in an interview with Deadline this week. “The challenge is to get it on screen with the … [Read more...] about Joe Cornish Talks Netflix Ghost Hunter Series ‘Lockwood & Co’ & Updates On ‘Attack The Block 2’

English actress Sylvia Syms has passed away in the UK aged 89, according to her family. Syms was best known for roles in movies including Ice Cold Alex , Victim , The Tamarind Seed and Stephen Frears’ The Queen , in which she played The Queen Mother. Syms passed away this morning at Denville Hall, a care home in London for those in the entertainment industry. In a statement shared with The Sun , Syms’ family said: “She has lived an amazing life and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end. Just yesterday we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed. “We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Denville Hall for the truly excellent care they have taken of our Mum over the past year.” Syms was born in London in 1934 and attended The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1958, she landed a role in BAFTA-nominated film Ice Cold in Alex . A year later she starred in Expresso Bongo alongside Cliff … [Read more...] about Sylvia Syms Dies: ‘The Queen’ & ‘Victim’ Star Was 89

Drew Barrymore , the original Firestarter from the 1984 film of that name is burning mad over the Razzie nomination (now withdrawn) of the new Firestarter, 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong . Speaking out on both her own program, The Drew Barrymore Show , as well as CBS Mornings , Barrymore said her “blood boiled” after learning that the young actress was nominated for a worst actress Razzie Award. On CBS Mornings she called the Razzie nomination of a child “bullying.” On her own show – watch both clips below – Barrymore said, “Listen, I get poking fun at ourselves. I mean come on, fair game, bring it on, but Ryan is 12 years old.” The original Firestarter continued, “Razzie co-founder John Wilson has since apologized and removed her from the category and said they’re implementing a new rule precluding anyone 18 years or younger.” Barrymore said on CBS Mornings that she was hearted by the overwhelmingly supportive social media response for Armstrong. “I’m glad … [Read more...] about One Firestarter Defends Another: Drew Barrymore Slams Razzies For Nomination Of 12-Year-Old Ryan Kiera Armstrong

EXCLUSIVE : Activist Artists Management has signed award-winning Mongolian filmmaker Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir . She’ll be represented at the full-service music and talent management firm by Bernie Cahill and Jon Kanak. Purev-Ochir has generated buzz around town after winning Best Short Film Prizes from both the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals in 2022, for her sophomore effort, Snow in September . She’s been celebrated for exploring the contradictions of modern-day Mongolia, having previously seen her debut short, Mountain Cat , win the Sonje Award for Best Asian Short Film at the 25th Busan Film Festival, also screening in the short films competition at Cannes 2020. Purev-Ochir is currently in post-production on her debut feature, ZE , set in the Yurt districts of her hometown of Ulaanbaatar. The coming-of-age film, starring Tergel Bold-Erdene and Nomin-Erdene Ariunbyamba, examines shamanism and sexual awakening between two teens as they attempt to navigate … [Read more...] about Activist Artists Management Signs Venice & Toronto Prize-Winner Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir

EXCLUSIVE : Nicole Kidman is back at HBO with another high-profile limited series based on a novel, The Perfect Nanny . Kidman and Pen15 co-creator and co-lead Maya Erskine are set to star in the project, which HBO landed in a very competitive situation. Erskine is the creator and writer of the limited series, based on the book of the same name by Leïla Slimani. Legendary Entertainment is the co-studio with HBO. In The Perfect Nanny , a seemingly perfect nanny goes to work for a couple with two young children, but her helpful personality eventually deteriorates into something sinister. Kidman and Per Saari executive produce for Kidman’s Blossom Films; Erskine also executive produces alongside Pascal Caucheteux for Why Not Productions, and Philippe Godeau for Pan-Européenne. Kidman previously starred and executive produced HBO’s Big Little Lies , which originated as a limited series and earned her an acting and producing Emmy award, and The Undoing . … [Read more...] about Nicole Kidman & Maya Erskine To Headline & EP ‘The Perfect Nanny’ Limited Series In Works At HBO From ‘Pen15’ Co-Creator & Legendary

EXCLUSIVE: Amelia Brown, Managing Director of Britain’s Got Talent , The X Factor and Too Hot to Handle producer Thames , is leaving after two decades to set up an entertainment production company. Brown handed her resignation in several weeks ago and will exit in July. She has been with Thames since 2003 and became MD when the company merged with Talkback in 2017 – a merger that was undone two years later at which point she kept her post. She will launch her own production company later this year and becomes the second Fremantle label boss to be revealed to be leaving in the past fortnight, following Fatima Salaria , who is exiting The Apprentice indie Naked in the spring . During her lengthy stint with Thames, Brown has shepherded ITV stalwarts The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent , for which she was a key creative on almost every series. The Simon Cowell creations are co-produced with Cowell’s Syco shingle and while The X Factor has not … [Read more...] about Amelia Brown To Exit ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ Label Thames & Launch Indie