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Director Nanette Burstein is known for bringing bold, intimate portraits of iconic figures to life, and her latest work, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, is no exception. The HBO documentary takes audiences on a revealing journey through the life of one of Hollywood’s most iconic actresses, using never-before-heard audio tapes recorded with journalist Richard Meryman, alongside personal footage from Taylor’s archive.

Burstein’s involvement in the documentary was serendipitous. When asked how she was chosen for this ambitious project, Burstein explains, “Originally the tapes themselves were found by Richard Meryman's estate — his wife found them. A producer had approached me about making this film, and I was very interested because I've always been an Elizabeth Taylor fan, and I thought, 'What a treasure trove of potential, very confessional recordings that she had.'”

Separately, Taylor’s estate realized the tapes existed and approached Burstein to create the documentary...

Exclusive: Propagate Content has promoted four across key divisions.

Jack Katkavich has been promoted to Head of Sports Programming and Nonfiction, with Grant McCall being promoted to Director of Scripted Development and Partnerships. Noah Nusinow will continue in his current role as Head of Finance, while adding oversight of Corporate Development and M&a to his responsibilities, with Belle Raymundo elevating to Vice President, Finance & Accounting.

A pivotal member of the unscripted and documentary development teams since joining Propagate in 2018, Katkavich now reports directly to Co-CEO Howard T. Owens and continue to oversee a diverse slate of sports programming, including projects in production with Amazon Sports, History Channel, Netflix, Apple, and Discovery ID. Already, he’s worked on the Netflix sports franchise Untold, which is set to release its fourth volume later this year, as well as the Emmy-nominated sports documentary Lfg (HBO Max), Jackie Robinson: Get to the Bag (Fox Sports), and God. Family. Football.

ESPN has aired over 150 films in its sports doc strand 30 for 30 including The Two Escobars, Four Falls of Buffalo and Lance as well as Ezra Edelman’s O.J: Made In America.

To celebrate its 15th anniversary, the Disney-owned sports broadcaster is airing a one-hour special.

Hosted by Roy Wood Jr., the former Daily Show correspondent who now hosts CNN’s Have I Got News For You reboot, the special will feature a countdown of the top films that have defined the series since its inception in 2009.

It will air on October 6 on ESPN2 and will then be available on ESPN+.

The special will revisit some of the most impactful and beloved films from the series and will feature interviews with co-creators and original executive producers Bill Simmons, Connor Schell, and John Dahl, along with directors and contributors including Michael Bonfiglio, Nanette Burstein, Billy Corben, Marcus Dupree, Jason Hehir, Jonathan Hock,...

She was the most famous woman in the world. Her marriages (there were eight), affairs, jewelry and medical disasters were all exhaustively chronicled by the tabloids and paparazzi. But away from the klieg lights, a different side of Elizabeth Taylor — witty, wounded, desperate to prove herself — was shared with the tight circle of confidants who surrounded her during her tumultuous life.

And it’s one that Nanette Burstein, director of the new HBO documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” was able to highlight after the Taylor Estate contacted her and allowed her to sort through 40 hours of unreleased audio from interviews the screen legend conducted in the 1960s with journalist Richard Meryman.

“It’s extremely rare to have a legendary movie star be so candid about their inner life,” Burstein says. “It was an opportunity to not only understand this revered person in cinema history, but also to chart the...

The fourth annual Truth Seekers Summit, presented by Paramount+ is only days away, live on August 15th from New York City. In celebration of the event, Rolling Stone and Variety are releasing their third annual Truth Seekers special issue for those who value journalism and documentary filmmaking.

The special issue will showcase interviews with some of the most distinguished professionals in the field. CNN foreign correspondent Clarissa Ward, known for her fearless reporting from conflict zones such as Ukraine and Gaza, shares her insights and experiences. Additionally, filmmaker Jamila Wignot...

If you had to pinpoint the start of the 1960s — that is, the counterculture revolution — two events are almost universally agreed on as the era’s formative earthquakes. One was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The other (the real spark to the tinderbox) was the first appearance of the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan,” which happened only 11 weeks later, and which all but answered the assassination by saying, “Here is joy. Here is hope. Here’s a new way to be.”

Yet there was another global media phenomenon that took place over a slightly longer period of time, and it was one that was just as defining of the era’s new energy. That was the scandalous romance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. We tend to think of that saga as, simply, the apotheosis of celebrity gossip. Yet as it plays out in Nanette Burstein’s luscious and enveloping...

The HBO Original documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, directed by award-winning filmmaker Nanette Burstein, debuted on Saturday, August 3rd on HBO and streaming on Max. An official selection of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, the film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes allows Elizabeth Taylor’s own voice to narrate her story, inviting audiences to rediscover not just a mega star of Hollywood’s Golden Age but a complex woman who navigated lifelong fame, personal identity, and public scrutiny on a global stage from early childhood. Through newly recovered interviews with Taylor and unprecedented access to the movie star’s personal archive, the film reveals the complex inner life and vulnerability of the Hollywood legend while also challenging audiences to recontextualize her achievements and her legacy.

In 1964, at the height of her fame, Elizabeth Taylor sat down with journalist Richard Meryman for a candid,...

Hollywood will get to hear Elizabeth Taylor’s voice once more in the newly-released HBO documentary, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes. Nanette Burstein helms the project that relies on 40 hours of lost interviews of the actress throughout 1984. One of the most devastating topics covered in the documentary is the death of her third husband Mike Todd.

Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra | 20th Century Fox

The death of the producer came at a time when Taylor was acting in the 1958 film, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production of the film was already going through several troubles and Taylor’s husband’s death halted it for a month. She was allegedly forced to return to the film by MGM, the studio behind the film.

Elizabeth Taylor Was Forced To Film One Of Her Most Prominent Films Amidst A Personal Tragedy Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | MGM

Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times,...

In 1964, at the height of her career, megastar Elizabeth Taylor sat down with journalist Richard Meryman for a combined 40 hours of audio interviews discussing the highs and lows of her work and life. Now, 60 years later, award-winning “Hillary” filmmaker Nanette Burstein offers “the most intimate portrait of the actress to date” with a new feature-length documentary with Taylor in her own words, in addition to personal photos, home movies, news footage, film clips, and more. “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” premieres on Saturday, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. Et on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. You can watch with Subscription to Max.

How to Watch “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” When: Saturday, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. Et Where: HBO, Max Stream: Watch with a Subscription to Max. Sign Up $9.99+ / month Max.com About “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes”

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Nanette Burstein, “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes...

Time is flying faster than Rhaenys fell to her death this season on “House of the Dragon,” which is to say, wow, somehow the Season 2 finale of the “Game of Thrones” spin-off is already upon us.

Despite multiple clips leaking on social media earlier this week after what HBO referred to as an “unintentional release from an international third-party distributor,” the finale (airing Sunday at 9/8 on HBO and Max) is still the most anticipated watch of the weekend that isn’t related to the Summer Olympics. In the penultimate episode, Emma D’Arcy’s Queen Rhaenyra was last seen gathering an unconventional group of dragonriders — including a blacksmith and a drunk — to set the stage for the finale’s major conflict with Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), who fled to King’s Landing when he saw Rhaenyra’s growing forces. If you’ve read the source material, you likely know how this will end.

“It was truly like an eclipse of the sun,” Hollywood producer Samuel Marx is heard gushing about his first glimpse of Elizabeth Taylor, whom he helped launch to movie stardom when he cast the precocious beauty at age 10 in 1943’s Lassie Come Home. Few stars blazed so brightly, with as much electrifying glamour, as Taylor (1932-2011). Her tumultuous life in the public spotlight was even more the stuff of legend. It’s her voice we mostly hear, speaking candidly, with the occasional girlish — dare we say flirtatious? — giggle in director Nanette Burstein’s fascinating documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, culled from 40 hours of newly discovered audio recordings during interviews with journalist Richard Meryman. “Maybe because of my personal life, I suggest something illicit,” Taylor muses. “But I am not illicit. I am not immoral. I have made mistakes, and I have paid for all of them.” As she speaks,...

A new documentary assembles hours of the famed actor unpacking her life and career – and reveals the misogyny she faced

Imagine the conversation Elizabeth Taylor could have had with Taylor Swift; a generational tete-a-tete between the Cleopatras of their times (to name drop Taylor’s most famous role).

The impossible scenario (Taylor died in 2011) comes to mind as I’m discussing the new HBO documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes with its director, Nanette Burstein. We’re comparing the two icons: the musician behind the Eras Tour and the screen star featured in Burstein’s biography, whose “blinding” beauty was celebrated across eras.

Beat the summer heat with the latest additions at Max! This August, truth is stranger than fiction, and HBO will premiere multiple documentary series and films, including the four-part Original “Chimp Crazy,” a new installment of the Emmy-winning “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Chicago Bears,” and the streaming premiere of the recent Cannes and Tribeca entrant “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes.”

The rest of the month at Max includes the Season 3 premiere of the HBO/BBC One finance industry drama “Industry,” returning after a two-year hiatus, and the surprise “City of God” follow-up series “City of God: The Fight Rages On.” All of the new titles, from new series premieres to classic films joining the library, as well as any new games and matches available this month on Bleacher Report, will be available on either an ad-supported Max plan beginning at $9.99 per month or an ad-free plan beginning at $16.99 per month.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes director Nanette Burstein on Eddie Fisher and Susan Oliver with Elizabeth Taylor in Daniel Mann’s BUtterfield 8: “They cast Eddie Fisher in the film and his love interest looks exactly like Debbie Reynolds.”

In Nanette Burstein’s Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes (Cannes Film Festival world première and a Spotlight Documentary selection of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival), written and edited by Tal Ben-David, we hear, through the audio tapes of journalist Richard Meryman, Elizabeth Taylor in her own words as she discusses her career and life, including her first five husbands, Conrad Hilton Jr. (Nick), Michael Wilding, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton.

Oscar nominees Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor with Montgomery Clift in Joseph L Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer

The tapes start in 1964. Elizabeth Taylor offers her interviewer a drink. “I’m not illicit, not immoral,” she...

With the Truth Seekers Summit presented by Paramount+ less than a month away—August 15th in The Big Apple—Rolling Stone and Variety have added more esteemed names to an already star-studded lineup.

In an era where truth and integrity in journalism are more crucial than ever, journalist and author E. Jean Carroll will be honored with the Truth Seeker Award. This accolade celebrates the extraordinary achievements of journalists and documentary filmmakers dedicated to unearthing the truth, and Carroll’s steadfast commitment to truth and justice is documented (most notably,...

Netflix Announces “Bridgerton” Season 4

The most eligible Bridgerton bachelor is set to become the beau of the ball! Netflix and Shondaland have officially announced the fourth season of its beloved regency series “Bridgerton.” Season 4 will focus on the love story of Benedict Bridgerton (played by Luke Thompson), the bohemian second son of the title Bridgerton family. Despite witnessing his brothers’ happy marriages, Benedict is loath to settle down… until he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball.

Watch the announcement video for “Bridgerton” Season 4 below:

“Bridgerton” wrapped up its third season on June 13 with the second of its two batch drops. The season centered on the friends-to-lovers arc of Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) opposite other returning cast members Claudia Jessie, Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh, Ruth Gemmell, Lorraine Ashbourne, Hannah Dodd, and more. A Season 4 premiere date has yet to be announced.

Netflix Announces “Bridgerton” Season 4

The most eligible Bridgerton bachelor is set to become the beau of the ball! Netflix and Shondaland have officially announced the fourth season of its beloved regency series “Bridgerton.” Season 4 will focus on the love story of Benedict Bridgerton (played by Luke Thompson), the bohemian second son of the title Bridgerton family. Despite witnessing his brothers’ happy marriages, Benedict is loath to settle down… until he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball.

Watch the announcement video for “Bridgerton” Season 4 below:

“Bridgerton” wrapped up its third season on June 13 with the second of its two batch drops. The season centered on the friends-to-lovers arc of Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) opposite other returning cast members Claudia Jessie, Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh, Ruth Gemmell, Lorraine Ashbourne, Hannah Dodd, and more. A Season 4 premiere date has yet to be announced.

Elizabeth Taylor’s iconography as a Hollywood starlet, activist, and sex symbol is narrated by the late, legendary actress herself in documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes.”

The HBO original film is directed by Nanette Burstein. The feature had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and screened at Tribeca 2024.

Taylor’s 1964 interview with journalist Richard Meryman is the crux of the documentary. The film uses 40 hours of the newly unearthed audio and has access to personal photos, home movies, archival interviews, and news footage. “The Lost Tapes” is billed as the “most intimate portrait of the actress to date,” as Taylor charts her own filmography from her debut in 1943’s “Lassie Come Home” to “Giant,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Butterfield 8,” and “Cleopatra.”

Taylor’s personal life is also discussed, with her fifth marriage to Richard Burton a centerpiece of the documentary.

The synopsis reads: “The...

The HBO Original documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, directed by award-winning filmmaker Nanette Burstein, debuts Saturday, August 3 (8:00 p.m.–9:45 p.m. Et/Pt) on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. An official selection of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, the film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes allows Elizabeth Taylor’s own voice to narrate her story, inviting audiences to rediscover not just a megastar of Hollywood’s Golden Age but a complex woman who navigated lifelong fame, personal identity, and public scrutiny on a global stage from early childhood.

Photo Courtesy of HBO

Through newly recovered interviews with Taylor and unprecedented access to the movie star’s personal archive, the film reveals the complex inner life and vulnerability of the Hollywood legend while also challenging audiences to recontextualize her achievements and her legacy.

In 1964, at the height of her fame,...

Exclusive: Keegan-Michael Key, his multi-hyphenate partner Elle Key, and their Bigger Picture Media Group banner have signed with CAA.

An Emmy, Peabody, and Webby Award-winning actor, writer, and producer, Keegan-Michael Key is perhaps best known for co-creating and starring opposite Jordan Peele on Comedy Central’s Emmy-winning sketch series Key & Peele. Recently, he’s been seen starring in Apple TV+’s acclaimed musical comedy series Schmigadoon!; Illumination and Nintendo’s smash hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie; holiday hit Wonka, opposite Timothée Chalamet; and John Krasinski’s If, alongside Ryan Reynolds.

Next up, Key will be seen in Amazon MGM Studios’ crime thriller Play Dirty from Shane Black, and the Farrelly brothers’ Paramount Christmas comedy Dear Santa alongside Jack Black. He’s also the voice of Bumblebee in the upcoming animated film Transformers One.

Additional credits for Key include Hulu’s Reboot, created by Steven Levitan; Judd Apatow’s...

In a year—a critical election year, at that—where the concept of “truth” is tested daily, Rolling Stone and Variety have teamed up again to host the fourth annual Truth Seekers Summit, presented by Paramount+. Taking place on August 15th in New York City, the exclusive invitation-only event will celebrate the journalists, documentarians, creatives, and notable figures in the media and entertainment industry who honor the truth with every fiber of their being.

Featuring a range of keynotes and panel discussions, the Summit will focus on excellence in documentary storytelling,...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.As part of our Cannes 2024 coverage, we invited critics and programmers to share their thoughts on one moment from a film they've seen at the festival so far.Sign up for the Weekly Edit to receive exclusive reports from the Croisette straight to your inbox.Miriam BaleElizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes by Nanette Burstein (co-director of The Kid Stays in the Picture) is in some ways a straightforward chronological documentary of the movie star's fascinating, tabloid-centric life. What makes the film formally interesting, though, is the separation of voice and image. Burstein’s reliance on audio recordings of Taylor made in 1964 and 1985 foregrounds her remarkable voice over her blinding beauty, seen in stills and film clips. Taylor's voice, even at ages 32 and 53, can range from girlish and flirtatious to bawdy and shrill, sometimes within the same statement. When she describes how the AIDS crisis led...

Being away from home allows room for perspective, and for a group of U.S.-based documentary experts who made the trip to Cannes, the glass remains half full, despite the headwinds. The closure of Participant, Showtime Docs, CNN Films scaling back and belt-tightening across the board have led many to posit that a Golden Age of documentary films has ended. A discussion in the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival begged the question: If the Golden Age is over, what comes next?

For the assembled speakers, there was an acceptance of the challenges, but also a desire to take a long view and to look to the future.

“With the market retracting and some distribution outlets not being replaced by others, we’re forced to be creative again about how we get these films out to market, how we find audiences,” said Cinetic Media’s Jason Ishikawa during the Deadline-hosted panel.

A celebrity from the age of 11, Elizabeth Taylor was practiced at public relations for almost all her life, so there aren’t many personal revelations in Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes. But Nanette Burstein’s elegantly constructed documentary, mostly in Taylor’s own words backed by illuminating archival images, works as a lively bit of film history about movie stardom in the volatile 1960s as the studio system was fading and the media exploding.

The film — which premiered at Cannes in the Cannes Classics sidebar — is based on 40 hours of recently rediscovered audiotapes, recordings Taylor made in the mid-1960s for a ghost-written memoir (long out of print). It was the most frenzied moment of her fame, when she was coming off the paparazzi-fueled scandal that was Cleopatra. Taylor, who died in 2011, recalls her many marriages — four when she made these recordings, since she was on the first of two...

There have been countless books written about the immortal star Elizabeth Taylor, even some credited to her as both memoir or autobiography including 1989’s Elizabeth On Elizabeth. But a book released on January 1, 1965, probably comes closest to a pure autobiography, and the cover simply says, Elizabeth Taylor by Elizabeth Taylor. It is a by-the-numbers account of her life through her own words up until that point, but it actually was written by Richard Meryman, a journalist credited with among other things the last interview with Marilyn Monroe.

Meryman got Taylor to sit for some tape-recorded sessions in 1964, so he would be able to write the book as if Taylor did it herself. Sixty years later, those presumed “lost” recordings have been found and cleared for release by Taylor’s and Meryman’s estates. They have been in Meryman’s wife’s possession all these years,...

Cannes is not lacking for glamor this year, even in the documentary lineup.

Among the films premiering at the festival is Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, an HBO feature documentary directed by Nanette Burstein and produced by J.J. Abrams, Glen Zipper, Sean M. Stuart, and Bill Gerber. The documentary draws on conversations with the star recorded decades ago for an autobiography.

“Entirely through the efforts of the [Taylor] estate, they were able to track those tapes down and reclaim them,” Zipper explained in an interview just before he flew to Cannes. “I remember getting an email from one of the trustees of the estate of a picture of the tapes in a box on a private jet on their way back to Los Angeles, strapped in with a seatbelt.”

Director Nanette Burstein

Zipper tells Deadline his production company, Zipper Bros Films, brought Burstein onto the project, a filmmaker known for Hulu’s 2020 docuseries about Hillary Clinton,...

The 2024 Tribeca Festival has added even more films, including eight world premieres, to its lineup.

The annual New York event will now include the world premieres of two sports documentaries: Roger Federer’s Twelve Final Days, directed by Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia, about the 20-time Grand Slam tennis champion’s decision to retire from the sport, and Dawn Porter’s Power of the Dream, about the WNBA’s fights for fair pay, better airtime and social justice. Both docs are set to stream on Amazon’s Prime Video.

And it’s adding the North American premiere of Nanette Burstein’s Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes as well as the world premiere of Sabrina Van Tassel’s Missing From Fire Trail Road, about the efforts to find out what happened to missing Native American woman Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis, who disappeared more than two years ago from the Tulalip Indian reservation near Seattle.

New York’s Tribeca Festival has added eight world premieres to its 2024 line-up, including Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia’s Federer: Twelve Final Days.

The behind-the-scenes sports documentary, which will screen in Tribeca’s Spotlight Documentary section, is about tennis champion Roger Federer and his decision to retire from the sport.

Also set for the festival, which runs June 5-16, is the world premiere, in the International Narrative Competition, of The Freshly Cut Grass, a dramedy directed by Celina Murga and executive produced by Martin Scorsese.

Other world premieres joining the programme are: Power of the Dream, a documentary about women’s professional basketball,...

The 2024 Tribeca Festival has added 11 new feature films to its lineup — including a Hannah Einbinder standup special from Max — and has also set a world premiere of Michael Sarnoski’s A Quiet Place: Day One on June 26 in partnership with Paramount Pictures and Imax just ahead of the film’s theatrical release. The red carpet event is for Tribeca members as part of the organization’s push into year-round programming. It’s after the festival, which runs June 5-16.

Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go, features the actress and comedian best known for her role as Ava Daniels in the HBO hit Hacks with Jean Smart.

Other new word premieres include sports documentaries Federer: Twelve Final Days, directed by Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia — a behind-the-scenes film of the 20-time Grand Slam tennis champion Roger Federer and his emotional decision to retire from the sport — as well as Power of the Dream,...

The 2024 Tribeca Festival has just unveiled new additions to its already star-studded lineup.

IndieWire can confirm that the New York premiere of “A Quiet Place: Day One” will take place as part of the festival, which runs June 5 through 16. The film will have a special screening June 26 in partnership with Paramount Pictures in IMAX.

The festival, presented by Okx, announced the addition of 11 new feature films, including eight world premieres. Documentaries “Federer: Twelve Final Days” and “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” produced by J.J. Abrams, are among the highlights, plus Dawn Porter’s “Power of the Dream.”

Hannah Einbinder’s first-ever stand-up comedy special “Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go” will also have its world premiere at the festival.

“At our core, we are an activist festival, united by the belief that art can inspire change,” Tribeca Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “We’re excited to add 11 new films to our Festival lineup,...

Cannes Classics, the festival’s selection for tributes and retrospectives, has announced the rest of its program after the previously-announced opening night film “Napoleon Par Abel Gance.”

Among the highlights are a restoration of Charles Vidor’s 1946 “Gilda” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, with Tom Rothman, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, attending. Wim Wenders will be on hand for a 40th anniversary screening of Palme d’Or winner “Paris, Texas,” while Faye Dunaway will be present for the screening of “Faye,” the first documentary about her life.

Ron Howard will present his documentary “Jim Henson Idea Man,” while Nanette Burstein brings the premiere of her documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes.”

See the full program of Cannes Classics below.

100 years of Columbia Pictures

“Gilda”

Charles Vidor

1946, 1h50, United States

A Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation. Restoration from the original 35mm nitrate negative and a 35mm nitrate internegative.

The Nantucket Film Festival has set the lineup for its 2024 edition and will honor Emmy-nominated writer-producer Kerry Ehrin, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Roger Ross Williams and Girls5Eva showrunner Meredith Scardino.

The 29th edition of the festival will open with Josh Margolin’s June Squibb-starrer Thelma, close with Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s Christopher Reeve documentary Super/Man and Jeff Zimbalist’s documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story, about a daredevil couple who secretly filmed themselves climbing the world’s last super skyscraper. The festival will also continue its tradition of screening a Disney or Pixar film on its opening day, with a festival screening of Inside Out 2.

The festival also announced several honorees: Ehrin will receive the Excellence in Television Writing Award; Williams will receive the Career Achievement in Filmmaking Award and his latest feature Stamped From the Beginning, based on the book of the same name by Ibram X. Kendi,...

Exclusive: Keegan-Michael Key and his multi-hyphenate partner Elle Key, along with their Bigger Picture Media Group banner, have signed with Range Media Partners for management.

An Emmy, Peabody, and Webby Award-winning actor, writer, and producer, Keegan-Michael Key last year starred in projects including Illumination and Nintendo’s smash hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie, top holiday movie Wonka opposite Timothée Chalamet, and the second season of the award-winning comedy series Schmigadoon! for Apple TV+. He will next be seen in John Krasinski’s If, the Farrelly brothers’ Christmas comedy Dear Santa alongside Jack Black, and the animated sci-fi pic Transformers One — all for Paramount. Additionally, he’ll be seen coming up on ABC’s Emmy-winning sitcom Abbott Elementary and in Amazon MGM Studios’ crime thriller Play Dirty, opposite Mark Wahlberg and more.

Key came to worldwide attention as the co-creator and co-star, alongside Jordan Peele, of Comedy Central’s Emmy-winning sketch series Key & Peele.

ESPN Films is working on a docuseries about the legendary Gracie family, Variety has learned exclusively.

Titled “Gracie,” the series will delve deep into the family’s history and dissect how they became the founders of Brazilian jiu jitsu, which serves as a major cornerstone of modern mixed martial arts (Mma).

The official description of the series states: “Featuring larger-than-life personalities, triumphs and tragedies, deep loyalties, passionate loves and deadly feuds, ‘Gracie’ will explore the essence of family, honor, legacy, and humanity’s innate desire to fight. Told through the eyes of key Gracie family members, the series will dive deep into an epic family saga that takes audiences from Scotland and Japan, to Brazil and America.”

The series is directed by Chris Fuller (“Loren Cass”) and is executive produced by ESPN Films. The project is being produced by Solaris Entertainment. Gregory O’Connor, Nanette Burstein, Guy Ritchie and Ivan Atkinson...

Although coming-of-age films have been entertaining for their dramatized version of high school, Oscar-nominated director Nanette Burstein took a different approach to make American Teen, a 2008 documentary and Sundance Film Festival Winner that used five real students as the subjects to represent life in Indiana. Their different personalities fighting it out among their friends and temporary love interests showed the youthful dynamic on full display. They may see their status as independent or strict, but these become extensions of who they are and who they will be. While the Hollywood version may be more appealing, the hierarchy of the high school placed these teens on an emotional ride filled with romance, identity, and freedom.

Gigi Pritzker’s entertainment company Madison Wells and veteran doc maker Nanette Burstein have signed a co-production deal to develop premium unscripted projects together.

The two-year agreement will see Burstein, a director, producer and writer best known for the Oscar nominated On The Ropes film, develop documentaries and docuseries with backing from Madison Wells.

“I am thrilled to be partnering with longtime collaborators, Madison Wells, on this new venture. Documentary filmmaking is the love of my life. It is high time I formed my own company to produce not only my own work but support new, up and coming talent in this burgeoning field,” Burstein said in a statement on Tuesday.

Longtime unscripted producer and network exec Lesley Goldman will oversee development across projects that will aim to spotlight pressing issues facing women today.

“We have a long-standing relationship with Nanette and her interests align with our own: telling stories...

Exclusive: Legendary astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan, who expanded scientific understanding of the universe and helped millions appreciate the wonders of the cosmos, will be the subject of an upcoming documentary feature from National Geographic Documentary Films.

The Untitled Carl Sagan Film will be produced by Fuzzy Door’s Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins, Emmy and Peabody winner Ann Druyan – Sagan’s life partner – and Academy Award nominee Nanette Burstein, with Burstein directing. Also producing is production company Hungry Man.

Dr. Carl Sagan during an interview with ‘The Tonight Show’ host Johnny Carson on September 16, 1976.

Sagan’s contributions to planetary science were equaled only by his capacity to spread an infectious joy of the marvel and immensity of space. His 1980 book Cosmos became the best-selling science book ever published in English, and he appeared frequently on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (amusing the host and the viewing public with...

The second part of this documentary portrait of the tennis star’s rise and fall does fill out the story but it sure takes its time

It is a pleasure, as well as a relief, to be able now to see the second part of Alex Gibney’s documentary about the disgraced German tennis legend who astonished the sports world by winning the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 1985 at just 17, and has wound up in middle age going to prison in the UK for hiding assets after bankruptcy.

Very unfortunately and confusingly, the Berlin film festival showed just the first half of this Apple TV+ documentary (like showing half a movie) – an even more perplexing decision given that the festival showed Charles Ferguson’s Watergate documentary in its four-hour entirety in 2019 and all 252 minutes of Nanette Burstein’s Hillary Clinton documentary in 2020. And what’s more, the film’s...

Just one year after Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Lost Daughter”) became the second woman to win the Directors Guild of America’s First-Time Film Director award, Charlotte Wells (“Aftersun”) is set to follow her as the category’s third female champ. The 35-year-old Scottish filmmaker, who helmed three narrative shorts between 2015 and 2017, has already been heavily feted for her feature directing (and writing) debut with accolades such as the Cannes French Touch Prize and the Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Director. Now, the fact that a whopping 96 of Gold Derby’s 2023 DGA Awards predictions odds-makers have her as their top choice in the rookie race should translate to a decisive win.

This category’s current lineup is the only one in its eight-year history to include just one male nominee. Last year’s unprecedented field of six consisted of two men and four women, including Gyllenhaal. Our odds show Wells far outpacing female contenders Alice Diop,...

Universal’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ and Sony’s ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song’ both out.

Two modern music icons face off at UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend, with the release of David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream and Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song.

Opening in 50 sites, most of which are Imax, Universal’s Moonage Daydream is a journey through Bowie’s creative and musical output. The film, which launched as an out-of-competition Midnight Screening in Cannes this May, is written, directed, edited and produced by US filmmaker Brett Morgen.

Moonage Daydream has the backing of the David Bowie estate...

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The incredible life and death story of John McAfee — who passed away in 2021 — is getting the feature doc treatment at Netflix.

The streamer has ordered Running With The Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee from London-based Curious Films, marking their Netflix debut.

The original computer genius gone rogue, McAfee famously invented of one of the most successful — and hated — pieces of software of all time with the McAfee Anti-Virus. At his peak, he was worth 100 million. But when his neighbor was murdered, he went on the run — cashed in his fortune, left civilization and moved to the jungle in Belize, where he set up a Colonel Kurtz-like compound of guns, sex and madness. But he invited a film crew to join him.

Claiming that he was running for his life and chased by armed gunmen, McAfee and the film crew traveled deep into the rainforest,...

Hulu has passed on “Rodham,” the scripted alternate history series about Hillary Clinton that has been in development since 2020, TheWrap has learned.

A source close to the 20th Television project confirmed to TheWrap on Friday that they are still trying to find a home for the series, which now has Claire Danes and Dakota Fanning attached to play Clinton at different points in her life.

Writer-producer Sarah Treem, who was the showrunner on Showtime’s “The Affair,” was set to executive-produce the write the adaptation of Curtis Sittenfeld’s 2020 novel, in which Hillary Rodham never married Bill Clinton. The deal included James Ponsoldt as director and Warren Littlefield’s Littlefield Co. as producer.

In 2020, Hulu aired Nanette Burstein’s four-part docuseries “Hillary,” after it premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Clinton was last played on screen by Edie Falco in the FX series “Impeachment: American Crime Story.”

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Nearly three decades after making her film acting debut at age 14, Maggie Gyllenhaal has now added her first feature writing and directing credits to her resume. Since its Venice International Film Festival premiere last September, her “The Lost Daughter” has won her numerous accolades, from the festival’s Golden Osella to the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Feature, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Gyllenhaal is also nominated for the Directors Guild of America’s First-Time Film Director award. According to our DGA Awards odds, she is widely expected to prevail and thereby become only the second woman to receive the honor.

This particular glass ceiling was broken by Alma Har’el, who took the 2020 prize for helming “Honey Boy.” Since the category’s establishment in 2015, 11 women and 25 men have vied for the award, making for a 1:2.3 ratio. The first female contender was inaugural nominee Marielle Heller. Aside from her and Har’el,...

What brings documentaries to life? For an increasing number of them, it’s colorful characters — literally. Animation is making docs more accessible to a wider audience, allowing filmmakers to dramatize scenes that can’t be shown with footage and bringing them into once-unimagined awards categories.

No film has demonstrated this more clearly than Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s refugee saga “Flee.” The Neon/Participant release made Oscar shortlists for both documentary feature and international feature film, won a Gotham Award for documentary and Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. But it also scored a Golden Globe nom and Boston, Chicago and Detroit critics group award wins for animated feature, paving the way for an Academy Award nomination in that category as well.

The critical success of this Danish/French/Swedish/Norwegian co-production is igniting interest in other animated docs at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, but this...

Brett Morgen, the freewheeling director behind “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” “Jane” and “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” is finalizing a top-secret David Bowie project based on thousands of hours of rare performance footage of the musician, most of it previously uncirculated, sources confirm to Variety.

Morgen has been at work on the Bowie film, for which an official title has not been disclosed, for the last four years. A source close to the production cryptically describes it as “neither documentary nor biography, but an immersive cinematic experience built, in part, upon thousands of hours of never before seen material.”

Sources say live concert footage plays a central role in the film, and that Morgen is eyeing an IMAX release. The filmmaker wears a number of hats on the project, taking on editing, writing and producing duties, in addition to directing.

A Sundance Film Festival premiere in late January could be in the cards.

In honor of Women’s Equality Day (August 26), HBO Max announces the launch of its “So She Did” campaign, which champions the network’s female pioneers in front of and behind the camera.

The campaign kicks off with a film that celebrates the women who have been told they are “too much” and break all the rules to be who they authentically are.

The film features nine female-identifying talent: Jordan Alexander (“Gossip Girl”), Laura Donnelly (“The Nevers”), Susie Essman (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Myha’la Herrold (“Industry”), Martha Plimpton (“Generation”), Lisa Ling (CNN’s “This is Life with Lisa Ling”), Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”), Zion Moreno (“Gossip Girl”) and Eyricka Lanvin (“Legendary”).

Ling kicks off the promo video, saying “When we were little, they told us we could be anything.”

“But when we became everything, that was too much for some folks,” Alexander chimes in. “When we push the boundaries. Sometimes the boundaries push back.

Exclusive: Last spring, New York City became the global epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic, its hospitals struggling to cope with a surge of patients, while temporary morgues filled up with victims.

That grim period, and the health care workers who bravely tended to the sick, are the focus of an upcoming documentary produced by Convicts studio that has reached a global distribution deal with Propagate International.

The untitled film directed by Jonny Kapps foregrounds three medical workers at Mount Sinai Health System in New York who fought in the trenches as the novel coronavirus overwhelmed the city.

“With unprecedented access into Mount Sinai Health System and its team,” Convicts and Propagate tell Deadline, “the documentary provides a rare and intimate window into the harrowing plight of frontline healthcare workers as they care for ill patients and navigate personal hardships amidst the greatest public health crisis of our generation.”

New Yorkers,...

With such a wide array of potential awards contenders in film and television, awards groups like the Cinema Eye Honors help to cull the field. This year, HBO Documentary Films leads the broadcast categories with 10 nominations, including three each for Liz Garbus’ serial killer series “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” and David France’s Oscar contender “Welcome to Chechnya.” Cinema Eye also unveiled 10 short documentary semifinalists for the short filmmaking honors.

The Outstanding Broadcast Film nominees also include “Bully. Coward. Victim.: The Story of Roy Cohn,” directed by Ivy Meeropol, 2020 Oscar winner “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” directed by Carol Dysinger, “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” and “Sea of Shadows,” directed by Richard Ladkani.

Outstanding Series Nominees include “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,” directed by Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, and Sam Pollard, “Hillary,...

With such a wide array of potential awards contenders in film and television, awards groups like the Cinema Eye Honors help to cull the field. This year, HBO Documentary Films leads the broadcast categories with 10 nominations, including three each for Liz Garbus’ serial killer series “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” and David France’s Oscar contender “Welcome to Chechnya.” Cinema Eye also unveiled 10 short documentary semifinalists for the short filmmaking honors.

The Outstanding Broadcast Film nominees also include “Bully. Coward. Victim.: The Story of Roy Cohn,” directed by Ivy Meeropol, 2020 Oscar winner “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” directed by Carol Dysinger, “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” and “Sea of Shadows,” directed by Richard Ladkani.

Outstanding Series Nominees include “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,” directed by Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, and Sam Pollard, “Hillary,...

David France’s “Welcome to Chechnya,” a documentary about LGBTQ activists trying to help during the Chechnya government’s brutal crackdown on gays and lesbians, leads all films in nominations in the Cinema Eye Honors’ broadcast categories, which were announced on Thursday during a virtual edition of its annual fall lunch.

Cinema Eye, a New York-based organization founded in 2007 to recognize all aspects of nonfiction filmmaking, also announced its new Stay Focused initiative. The program spotlights 12 films by up-and-coming filmmakers who lost the chance for theatrical exhibition and film-festival exposure because of the coronavirus pandemic. Cinema Eye has pledged to find “in-person opportunities” for the filmmakers once the pandemic subsides, starting with theatrical screenings at the new Vidiots Theatre in Los Angeles in late 2021.

The 12 films include Cecilia Aldorondo’s “Landfall,” which recently won a jury award at Doc NYC; David Osit’s “Mayor,” about the Christian mayor of a...