The Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Festival, North America’s largest, has unveiled its programming team for its upcoming 2025 edition. The Toronto festival said Heather Haynes has been promoted to director of programming, and her team for the 2025 edition includes programmers who abruptly resigned in March amid financial woes and the departure of artistic director Hussain Currimbhoy. As
Documentary
The so-called “troubled teen industry” is facing a fresh round of scrutiny this summer with the July premiere of Teen Torture, Inc., the new Max documentary about the billion-dollar industry associated with the kidnapping, abuse and brainwashing of young Americans. Paris Hilton spoke last week before Congress to advocate for the Americans without the means
Nishta Jain’s Farming the Revolution, a film about Indian farmers rising up against new laws, picked up the best international feature documentary prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on Friday night. The top jury prize win at the festival means Jain’s film, which world premiered at Hot Docs, will qualify for consideration
HBO has released the first trailer (below) for its upcoming documentary chronicling the rise and fall of one of the most controversial and disgraced voices in American media: Alex Jones. In The Truth vs. Alex Jones, filmmaker Dan Reed (Leaving Neverland, Four Hours at the Capitol) shows how Jones built an empire peddling supplements to
EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic Documentary Films is bringing Bobi Wine: The People’s President back to the big screen in some major markets Friday for President’s Day weekend. The film follows Bobi Wine, the Ugandan opposition leader, former member of parliament, activist and national superstar musician during the country’s 2021 presidential elections where he risks his life to fight
EXCLUSIVE: MTV Documentary Films has announced a return theatrical engagement for its Oscar-nominated documentary The Eternal Memory, beginning today and extending throughout the month of February. Maite Alberdi’s film, a love story that Deadline has compared to the narrative features Amour and Doctor Zhivago, will play exclusively at IFC Center in New York and in
Taylor Swift: ‘The Eras Tour concert film has become the highest-grossing concert film of all time, earning an impressive $178 million domestically since its debut on Thursday, October 12. Among the list of the top-grossing concert films at the domestic box office are the recently rereleased Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, Talking Heads concert film
EXCLUSIVE: Byron Allen’s Freestyle Digital Media has picked up the North American VOD rights to Emmy winning filmmaker Kern Konwiser’s documentary, Still a Black Star about Japanese artist and environmental activist Mago Nagasaka. The pic will debut on VOD platforms and on DVD on Nov. 7 before a theatrical premiere at Laemmle Theaters in Los
Two experimental films executive produced by Steven Soderbergh — Eddie Alcazar’s Divinity and Godfrey Reggio’s Once Within A Time – join Neon’s anticipated Anatomy Of A Fall, Cannes Palme d’Or winner, in theaters today, a bit of counter-programming on a weekend dominated by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. Divinity, in a dark and creepy future populated by bodybuilders hooked on an
Fans of The Name of The Rose author Umberto Eco turned out in NYC, boosting the documentary on medieval scholar turned novelist and social commentator to over $9.1k on one screen – a nice showing by The Cinema Guild for a foreign language documentary on a solid weekend for some indie and arthouse fare. Umberto
Sony Pictures Classics said it’s planning to release Sean Mullin’s documentary on baseball superstar Yogi Berra, It Ain’t Over, in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on May 12, expanding over following weeks. The film is produced by Natalie Metzger, Matt Miller, Peter Sobiloff and Mike Sobiloff with Vanishing Angle and Off Media, and
EXCLUSIVE: One of the most honored documentaries of the year is heading to the very big screen. National Geographic Documentary Films and Neon announced today they are bringing Fire of Love to select Imax locations on October 16 and 17, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Washington D.C. The film, directed
Roadside Attractions has taken domestic rights for To The End, the follow-up film from Rachel Lears (Knock Down The House), and set a Dec. 9 theatrical-only release date. The deal was announced by Co-Presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff. The film, which premiered at Sundance, covers three years of both hope and crisis leading to
Neon in association with National Geographic Documentary Films said director Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love will cross $1 million at the box office this weekend, becoming the biggest documentary release of the year for combined domestic and international gross. The film opened this summer and is entering its ninth week in theaters nationally. It will stream
“People are catching up on films,” is how one arthouse executive described the current moment in specialty, which echoes the slowdown in studio wide releases. August can be slow ahead of a trio of festivals – Venice, Toronto, New York – and a ramp up to awards season. It can also offer an less obstructed
Imax and Imagine Documentaries have formed a five-year production and distribution agreement, a slate which will include movies on the subjects of space, exploration, natural sciences, music, civilization, society and more. The first title to be released under the agreement is Eliza McNitt’s Mars 2080 in 2022, produced by Apollo 13‘s Brian Grazer and Ron Howard,
Sony Pictures Classics has made some tweaks to its release schedule for four upcoming pics and one that’s already in theaters. The distributor run by co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard said that Dror Moreh’s documentary The Human Factor, which opened last month in Los Angeles and New York, will go nationwide in theaters on May 7.
Focus Features will release Participant’s documentary Final Account which is directed and produced by the late Luke Holland, setting a date of May 21. Focus has global rights outside of Israel. Universal International will distribute the feature abroad. The announcement comes today on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Filmed over ten years, Final Account is a portrait of the
The past year — and even the events of the past week in this country has been a struggle for a lot of people. More specifically, the pandemic and Covid-19 has claimed the lives of over 360,000 people and there are thousands of families in mourning. They are grieving — and this includes children. The
Amazon is set to find the beat with the upcoming Sound of Metal starring Riz Ahmed which hits select theaters today before moving to Prime Video on December 4. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Darius Marder, who co-wrote the movie with Abraham Marder. Sound of Metal follows punk-metal drummer Ruben (Ahmed) who begins to experience intermittent hearing
Focus Features and Magnolia Pictures said Tuesday that they will rerelease their respective Ruth Bader Ginsburg features On the Basis of Sex and the documentary RBG, in tribute to the late Supreme Court justice. Both pics will play in 1,000 theaters this Friday, and also be available on-demand, with net proceeds from both pics’ box office going to
As box offices start to test the waters, Roger Michell’s family drama Blackbird starring Susan Sarandon is set to open in theaters and on demand starting today. Known for My Cousin Rachel and Notting Hill, Michell directs a script by Christian Torpe, who wrote the 2014 Danish film, Silent Heart on which the family drama is based. In it,
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences certainly isn’t short on documentarians. Atop its existing 400 or so documentary branch members, the Academy in July invited almost 100 additional doc-makers to join. Despite some internal concern that a few invitees might need help with the dues, now $450 a year, it seems safe to
After Judy opened to nearly $3 million last weekend, the specialty box office has a hard act to follow this frame. But there are a couple of films that could possibly match Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment’s biopic about musical legend Judy Garland. Fox Searchlight is releasing Lucy in the Sky today. The space drama stars
This week, Justin Chon’s Ms. Purple will make its Los Angeles debut at the Nuart, attempting to gain some traction when it expands to New York and other markets in the following weeks. The film premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim and was acquired by Oscilloscope shortly after. The intimate storytelling of Ms. Purple, which tells the
Three documentaries that likely will be awards-season contenders begin their theatrical rollouts Friday. Magnolia Pictures is opening Sundance Film Festival pickup Mike Wallace Is Here in New York and Los Angeles. The company is hoping to tap the timeliness of the U.S. president’s ongoing attacks on the press to drive audiences to celebrate a legend