With voting set to open soon to determine the Oscar documentary shortlist, Flee continues to make a very strong case for recognition. The Neon release from director Jonas Poher Rasmussen won the Gotham Award for Best Documentary Feature on Monday, burnishing an awards run that began with the top prize for international documentary at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The story, told mostly through animation, centers around Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym used to protect the identity of the real person), who grew up a gender non-conforming kid in Afghanistan. His father was seized as the Mujahideen took over Kabul after the Soviet exit in 1989. The rest of the family attempted to flee to the West, and Amin became separated from his mother and siblings, making it eventually to Denmark as a gay teenager, alone, speaking no Danish. Accepting the Gotham Award, Rasmussen noted it was an eight-year process to make the film. “But the journey we [as filmmakers] …
‘Titane’s Agathe Rousselle On Her Psychopathic Breakout In Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or Winner – Contenders International
Agathe Rousselle is at the center of this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film Titane , in which she plays a psychopathic serial killer experiencing a bizarre pregnancy—a job one might consider best left to the experienced actor. But, surprisingly, despite more than holding her own in the part, Rousselle is brand new to the game, having been plucked from Instagram to take on the role. “There was this casting director that DM’ed me one day and asked me if I wanted to audition for a feature movie,” Rousselle said during a panel discussion for the Neon movie at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event. Titane follows Alexia (Rousselle) as she evades capture for her crimes and hides her pregnancy. Pretending to be a man, she is taken in by Vincent (Vincent Lindon), who believes she is his long-lost son. Reading the script, Rousselle thought it was “like reading a good thriller,” she said. “I couldn’t stop reading. I was just so into it, I …
Get in the Ring: How ‘GLOW’ Recreates the Golden Age of Lady-Wrestling TV
No doubt about it: The 1980s was a strange time to channel surf. Those neon-tinted, big-haired, irony-free days have provided Internet curio-seekers with fodder for infinite terabytes of grainy, colorful ephemera. And one of the cornerstones of weird Eighties television was “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling ” (G.L.O.W. for short), an all-female pro-wrestling league whose exploits were filmed in Las Vegas and syndicated nationwide. It’s the type of retro-kitsch from the Reagan era could have vanished down the YouTube black hole – until Netflix resurrected it, sort of. The cult grappling-females show from yesteryear is monkey-flipping its way back to the surface in GLOW, the new series created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch and executive produced by Orange Is the New Black ‘s Jenji Kohan. Starring Community and Mad Men alum Alison Brie , the ensemble dramedy features a diverse cast of ass-kicking actresses — and enough hairspray and spandex to send you straight back to 1985. …
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Marsai Martin’s ‘Saturdays’ Comedy Pilot Picked Up To Series By Disney Channel
EXCLUSIVE: Disney Channel has given a series order to Saturdays , a roller-skating coming of age comedy series, from black-ish star Marsai Martin and her Genius Entertainment and writer-executive producer Norman Vance Jr. ( Roll Bounce, Girlfriends ). Production is slated to begin in May 2022 for premiere on Disney Channel. Written by Vance, the single-camera comedy was ordered to pilot at Disney Channel in March. It centers on Paris Johnson, played by Danielle Jalade ( Yes Day) , who considers roller skating to be part of her soul – she breathes it in and makes it a lifestyle. She lives for the weekends because that’s when she gets to go to her sanctuary, the neon-lit Saturdays, a seemingly magical wood floor roller-rink where the impossible often manifests. In this wondrous place, Paris can hang with her best friends (the We-B-Girlz skate crew), choreograph exhilarating routines on wheels, banter with her rivals, navigate life with her DJ brother London and work on …