Kino Lorber is expanding its streaming footprint. The boutique art-house distributor just launched its own SVOD platform, the Kino Film Collection.
The new app is available now as a standalone service on Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV, and Roku, and it will feature hundreds of movies from Kino Lorber’s film library of more than 4,000 titles. Subscriptions will begin at $5.99 per month.
In November 2023, Kino Lorber launched an Amazon Prime Video channel; you can still access its titles there. But having its own service puts the company in the race alongside other niche streaming options in the space, like the Criterion Channel ($10.99/month) or Mubi ($14.99/month).
As part of the launch, Kino Film Collection curated a selection of titles that showcase auteurs who have played at Cannes; the 2024 film festival is currently ongoing. The collection includes early movies from Yorgos Lanthimos, Jia Zhangke, and Ken Loach, as well as...
The new app is available now as a standalone service on Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV, and Roku, and it will feature hundreds of movies from Kino Lorber’s film library of more than 4,000 titles. Subscriptions will begin at $5.99 per month.
In November 2023, Kino Lorber launched an Amazon Prime Video channel; you can still access its titles there. But having its own service puts the company in the race alongside other niche streaming options in the space, like the Criterion Channel ($10.99/month) or Mubi ($14.99/month).
As part of the launch, Kino Film Collection curated a selection of titles that showcase auteurs who have played at Cannes; the 2024 film festival is currently ongoing. The collection includes early movies from Yorgos Lanthimos, Jia Zhangke, and Ken Loach, as well as...
- 5/17/2024
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Exterior. Establishing: Film Independent HQ. Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. Prelap the sounds of passionate conversation and laughter. Cut To: Interior, Conference Room, Film Independent HQ. Seven new screenwriting Fellows are arrayed around a table, the Hollywood Sign visible on the distant hills outside the window. They’re here to develop six deeply personal and wholly original feature film projects under the steady guiding hand of Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab. A fun, creative, safe space.
The End.
(Roll credits)
Sorry–we wish our story could’ve been longer but there wasn’t really any dramatic conflict at the Screenwriting Lab this year, just a lot of productive discussion and writing workshops with lead creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy,...
The End.
(Roll credits)
Sorry–we wish our story could’ve been longer but there wasn’t really any dramatic conflict at the Screenwriting Lab this year, just a lot of productive discussion and writing workshops with lead creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent News & More
Exclusive: Film Independent has named Omer Ben Shachar, Mary Dauterman, Mg Evangelista, Naomi Iwamoto, Thomas Kivney, Juan Paulo Laserna and Jhanvi Motla as the screenwriters selected for the 26th edition of its Screenwriting Lab, an intensive program designed to provide individualized story and career development for screenwriters with fiction feature scripts.
Over the course of the program, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy, Amanda Marshall, Josh Peters, Jon Schumacher, Ellen Shanman, Lauren Shelton and Caddy Vanasirikul.
“We are honored to provide the tools and support necessary for these exceptional filmmakers to propel their projects and careers forward,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs for Film Independent.
Over the course of the program, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy, Amanda Marshall, Josh Peters, Jon Schumacher, Ellen Shanman, Lauren Shelton and Caddy Vanasirikul.
“We are honored to provide the tools and support necessary for these exceptional filmmakers to propel their projects and careers forward,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs for Film Independent.
- 4/16/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Kino Lorber has launched a new subscription streaming outlet, Kino Film Collection.
The $6-a-month destination for recent theatrical releases and hundreds of other films drawn from the company’s vast library will be available in the U.S. on Prime Video Channels.
Kino Lorber also operates Kino Now, a platform for rentals and purchases of arthouse and specialty films. The company has made several streaming moves of late. In 2022, it acquired MHz Choice and installed AMC Networks veteran Ed Carroll and former IFC Films head Lisa Schwartz in key management roles. Schwartz, Kino Lorber’s Chief Revenue Officer, will oversee Kino Film Collection. Last spring, Kino Lorber also formed a joint venture with First Look Media to operate both MHz Choice and First Look’s streaming service Topic.
Films available on Kino Film Collection at launch include new 4K restorations of The Conformist as well as key works by contemporary...
The $6-a-month destination for recent theatrical releases and hundreds of other films drawn from the company’s vast library will be available in the U.S. on Prime Video Channels.
Kino Lorber also operates Kino Now, a platform for rentals and purchases of arthouse and specialty films. The company has made several streaming moves of late. In 2022, it acquired MHz Choice and installed AMC Networks veteran Ed Carroll and former IFC Films head Lisa Schwartz in key management roles. Schwartz, Kino Lorber’s Chief Revenue Officer, will oversee Kino Film Collection. Last spring, Kino Lorber also formed a joint venture with First Look Media to operate both MHz Choice and First Look’s streaming service Topic.
Films available on Kino Film Collection at launch include new 4K restorations of The Conformist as well as key works by contemporary...
- 11/1/2023
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Independent film distributor Kino Lorber has officially unveiled streaming service Kino Film Collection, available via Prime Video here.
The Kino Film Collection will be launched in the U.S. on the Amazon Service via Prime Video Channels for $5.99 per month. The Collection will feature new Kino releases fresh from theaters, along with hundreds of films from its expansive library of more than 4,000 titles, with many now streaming for the first time.
New 4K restorations of films like Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi,” Todd Haynes’ “Poison,” Tran Anh Hung’s “The Scent of Green Papaya,” Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,” and Jia Zhangke’s “A Touch of Sin” are among highlights of the first offerings from Kino Film Collection.
Kino canon films like Fritz Lang’s historic “Metropolis,” F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,...
The Kino Film Collection will be launched in the U.S. on the Amazon Service via Prime Video Channels for $5.99 per month. The Collection will feature new Kino releases fresh from theaters, along with hundreds of films from its expansive library of more than 4,000 titles, with many now streaming for the first time.
New 4K restorations of films like Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi,” Todd Haynes’ “Poison,” Tran Anh Hung’s “The Scent of Green Papaya,” Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,” and Jia Zhangke’s “A Touch of Sin” are among highlights of the first offerings from Kino Film Collection.
Kino canon films like Fritz Lang’s historic “Metropolis,” F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,...
- 11/1/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Film Independent has set seven filmmakers for the 2023 edition of its Producing Lab, an intensive program designed to help creative, independent producers develop their skills and further their careers. The list includes Camila Grimaldi & Farah Jabir (AmeriGirl), Rob Cristiano (Gone by Morning), Daniel Tantalean (In the Summers), Valeria Contreras (Not My Name), Annalisa Shoemaker (Obsolete), and Fiona Hardingham (Smoke Country).
Film Independent looks to bolster its Fellows by introducing them to film professionals who can advise them on both the craft and business of independent producing. Each is paired with a Creative Advisor, with whom they’ll look to develop a project over the course of the program. Rebecca Green will serve as lead creative advisor for this year’s program, which will also feature an expansive roster of guest speakers: Jason Michael Berman, Apoorva Charan, Marissa Frobes, Nate Kamiya, Kristen Konvitz, Stephen Lee, Alex Lo, Lauren Mann, Jack Pearkes,...
Film Independent looks to bolster its Fellows by introducing them to film professionals who can advise them on both the craft and business of independent producing. Each is paired with a Creative Advisor, with whom they’ll look to develop a project over the course of the program. Rebecca Green will serve as lead creative advisor for this year’s program, which will also feature an expansive roster of guest speakers: Jason Michael Berman, Apoorva Charan, Marissa Frobes, Nate Kamiya, Kristen Konvitz, Stephen Lee, Alex Lo, Lauren Mann, Jack Pearkes,...
- 10/11/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Even amid the concurrent strikes of the past year, there’s been a lot of bonus hand-wringing over the state of the independent producer. Producers, after all, have no SAG or WGA equivalent. Where then does the workaday, blue-collar movie producer find community support? Or work with peers to advance their collective interests?
Well… linking up with a good Artist Development cohort is a great place to star. Which is why we’re thrilled to announce seven new Fellows representing six new projects to kick off the 2023 edition (and 23rd overall!) of the Film Independent Producing Lab.
“We’re delighted to shepherd this group of devoted creative producers through the Lab and give them a dedicated space to further their projects and careers,” says Dea Vazquez, Film Independent’s Associate Director of Fiction Programs.
“We’re thrilled to have feature films in both development and post-production, to support producers at...
Well… linking up with a good Artist Development cohort is a great place to star. Which is why we’re thrilled to announce seven new Fellows representing six new projects to kick off the 2023 edition (and 23rd overall!) of the Film Independent Producing Lab.
“We’re delighted to shepherd this group of devoted creative producers through the Lab and give them a dedicated space to further their projects and careers,” says Dea Vazquez, Film Independent’s Associate Director of Fiction Programs.
“We’re thrilled to have feature films in both development and post-production, to support producers at...
- 10/11/2023
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent News & More
Award-winning producers Mimi Valdés and Nina Yang Bongiovi are teaming up for a new venture, Fly Green Socks, a multicultural media company focused on producing hip-hop narratives in film.
“Hip-hop is a culture defining superpower, influencing fashion, technology and even politics. But it’s severely underrepresented in Hollywood as its own film genre,” Valdés and Yang Bongiovi said in a statement announcing their partnership. “Our goal with Fly Green Socks is to create a new lane of films dedicated to uplifting the hip-hop ecosystem.”
According to an Ifpi survey, over 1.85 billion people worldwide listen to hip-hop.
The co-founders added: “With hip-hop celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, there’s a goldmine of untapped stories for us to champion with innovative filmmakers. We look forward to using our combined experience and deep relationships in music and film to deliver high-quality storytelling that impacts culture.”
Valdés and Yang Bongiovi first met while producing “Dope,...
“Hip-hop is a culture defining superpower, influencing fashion, technology and even politics. But it’s severely underrepresented in Hollywood as its own film genre,” Valdés and Yang Bongiovi said in a statement announcing their partnership. “Our goal with Fly Green Socks is to create a new lane of films dedicated to uplifting the hip-hop ecosystem.”
According to an Ifpi survey, over 1.85 billion people worldwide listen to hip-hop.
The co-founders added: “With hip-hop celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, there’s a goldmine of untapped stories for us to champion with innovative filmmakers. We look forward to using our combined experience and deep relationships in music and film to deliver high-quality storytelling that impacts culture.”
Valdés and Yang Bongiovi first met while producing “Dope,...
- 8/10/2023
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
When you listen to Chloé Zhao talk about the films that she loves, an obvious pattern emerges. The Oscar-winning director describes her favorite movies by focusing on their scope and the worlds they create. One of her favorite ways to praise a director is by focusing how they approach using their locations: how the tiny details that populate a setting are considered, and how the characters’ interactions with their surroundings establish and reflect their own internal universes.
The films that use their locations successfully, in Zhao’s eyes, can vary widely. Some are massive epics like “Lord of the Rings” or “Interstellar,” while others are intimate romantic dramas like “Happy Together” or “Wuthering Heights.” Zhao’s films are often compared to the works of Terrence Malick, and she’s unsurprisingly a big fan of the director’s absorbing and gorgeous works, especially his 2005 historical epic “The New World.” But Zhao...
The films that use their locations successfully, in Zhao’s eyes, can vary widely. Some are massive epics like “Lord of the Rings” or “Interstellar,” while others are intimate romantic dramas like “Happy Together” or “Wuthering Heights.” Zhao’s films are often compared to the works of Terrence Malick, and she’s unsurprisingly a big fan of the director’s absorbing and gorgeous works, especially his 2005 historical epic “The New World.” But Zhao...
- 5/12/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Film Independent on Wednesday named the eight screenwriters set for the 25th edition of their Screenwriting Lab. The latest cohort of the intensive program, designed to provide individualized story and career development for screenwriters with fiction feature screenplays, includes Bri Brooks, Karina Dandashi, Thais Drassinower, Chloé Hung, Adam Meeks, Nat Moonhill, Veronica Moonhill and Richard Van.
Film Independent also today named Dandashi as the recipient of their latest Mpac Hollywood Bureau Writing Fellowship Grant, who will receive $10,000 in recognition of her script, Out of Water.
Over the course of the Lab, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Andrew Ahn, Javier Fuentes-León, Jeff Stockwell and Robin Swicord. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Angela Cheng Caplan, Kd Dávila, Greta Fuentes, Jordan Hart, Eliza Hittman, Ana Leocha, Ilyse McKimmie, Lauren Mann, Kiva Reardon, Pamela Ribon and Ellen Shanman.
“In our 30th year of...
Film Independent also today named Dandashi as the recipient of their latest Mpac Hollywood Bureau Writing Fellowship Grant, who will receive $10,000 in recognition of her script, Out of Water.
Over the course of the Lab, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Andrew Ahn, Javier Fuentes-León, Jeff Stockwell and Robin Swicord. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Angela Cheng Caplan, Kd Dávila, Greta Fuentes, Jordan Hart, Eliza Hittman, Ana Leocha, Ilyse McKimmie, Lauren Mann, Kiva Reardon, Pamela Ribon and Ellen Shanman.
“In our 30th year of...
- 4/26/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
MGM+ has greenlit a docuseries titled “Hollywood Black” directed by Justin Simien, who executive produces alongside Forest Whitaker.
In four parts, “Hollywood Black” focuses on the history of Black actors, writers, directors and producers who fought for their place in the entertainment industry. The series is based on the book of the same name by historian Donald Bogle.
Simien is best known for writing and directing the 2014 film “Dear White People” and creating the Netflix series of the same name. He also directed and wrote 2020’s “Bad Hair,” and directed “Haunted Mansion,” the 2023 horror film based on the Disney theme park ride, which debuts later this year.
Whitaker’s prominent credits as an actor include “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “The Butler,” “Black Panther” and more. In TV, he has narrated the 2002-2003 revival of “The Twilight Zone,” led the “Criminal Minds” spinoff “Suspect Behavior” and appeared in 11 episodes of “Empire.
In four parts, “Hollywood Black” focuses on the history of Black actors, writers, directors and producers who fought for their place in the entertainment industry. The series is based on the book of the same name by historian Donald Bogle.
Simien is best known for writing and directing the 2014 film “Dear White People” and creating the Netflix series of the same name. He also directed and wrote 2020’s “Bad Hair,” and directed “Haunted Mansion,” the 2023 horror film based on the Disney theme park ride, which debuts later this year.
Whitaker’s prominent credits as an actor include “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “The Butler,” “Black Panther” and more. In TV, he has narrated the 2002-2003 revival of “The Twilight Zone,” led the “Criminal Minds” spinoff “Suspect Behavior” and appeared in 11 episodes of “Empire.
- 4/11/2023
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
MGM+ has given the green light to Hollywood Black, a documentary series from director Justin Simien that aims to serve as “a definitive chronicle of a century of the Black experience in Hollywood.”
The four-part series, based on the work of scholar Donald Bogle, is being produced by Simien’s Culture Machine, Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi’s Significant Productions, and the Academy Award-winning production company RadicalMedia.
“We are thrilled to work with Justin Simien, Jeffrey Schwarz, RadicalMedia, and to expand our prolific creative partnership with Forest and Nina,” Michael Wright, head of MGM+, said in a statement. “Hollywood Black, like other recent MGM+ docuseries, is an entertaining and thoughtful look at a vital part of American culture, examining the evolution of Black cinema and the talented artists who built it. It is a timely and relevant look at the Black experience in Hollywood.”
Simien’s credits include directing the 2014 film Dear White People,...
The four-part series, based on the work of scholar Donald Bogle, is being produced by Simien’s Culture Machine, Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi’s Significant Productions, and the Academy Award-winning production company RadicalMedia.
“We are thrilled to work with Justin Simien, Jeffrey Schwarz, RadicalMedia, and to expand our prolific creative partnership with Forest and Nina,” Michael Wright, head of MGM+, said in a statement. “Hollywood Black, like other recent MGM+ docuseries, is an entertaining and thoughtful look at a vital part of American culture, examining the evolution of Black cinema and the talented artists who built it. It is a timely and relevant look at the Black experience in Hollywood.”
Simien’s credits include directing the 2014 film Dear White People,...
- 4/11/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
After Chloé Zhao’s venture into the Marvel universe, the Oscar winner is taking on the Bard. The “Nomadland” and “Eternals” director will adapt “Hamnet,” the 2020 novel from Irish author Maggie O’Farrell, IndieWire has confirmed.
A work of historical fiction, “Hamnet” tells the story of William Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway (referred in the story as Agnes), and her romance with the man who would become the world’s most famous playwright. The novel particularly focuses on the death of the couple’s son, Hamnet, who died at age 11 in 1596 and has long been speculated to be an inspiration for Shakespeare’s most famous play, the very similarly named “Hamlet.” Upon its release, O’Farrell’s novel received critical acclaim; it won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Fiction Prize from the 2020 National Book Critics Circle, and was named by the New York Times Book Review as one...
A work of historical fiction, “Hamnet” tells the story of William Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway (referred in the story as Agnes), and her romance with the man who would become the world’s most famous playwright. The novel particularly focuses on the death of the couple’s son, Hamnet, who died at age 11 in 1596 and has long been speculated to be an inspiration for Shakespeare’s most famous play, the very similarly named “Hamlet.” Upon its release, O’Farrell’s novel received critical acclaim; it won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Fiction Prize from the 2020 National Book Critics Circle, and was named by the New York Times Book Review as one...
- 4/4/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
Two-time Oscar winner Chloé Zhao does not want to be one of the few exceptions.
From Songs My Brothers Taught Me and The Rider to Nomadland and Eternals, Zhao knows how to make an impact onscreen, but now she’s determined to make a difference offscreen, so that the list of Oscar-winning female directors can someday become significantly longer than just her, Jane Campion and Kathryn Bigelow.
To get the ball rolling, Zhao has now teamed up with Johnnie Walker’s First Strides Initiative and Women in Film to celebrate female filmmakers and create further opportunities for women both in front of and behind the camera. To commemorate their partnership at the upcoming 16th Annual Women in Film Oscar Party, Johnnie Walker commissioned a custom red carpet with panels that pay tribute to other notable women directors including Gina Prince-Bythewood, Ana Lily Amirpour, Janicza Bravo, Christine Choy, Julie Dash, Wanuri Kahiu and Claire Denis.
From Songs My Brothers Taught Me and The Rider to Nomadland and Eternals, Zhao knows how to make an impact onscreen, but now she’s determined to make a difference offscreen, so that the list of Oscar-winning female directors can someday become significantly longer than just her, Jane Campion and Kathryn Bigelow.
To get the ball rolling, Zhao has now teamed up with Johnnie Walker’s First Strides Initiative and Women in Film to celebrate female filmmakers and create further opportunities for women both in front of and behind the camera. To commemorate their partnership at the upcoming 16th Annual Women in Film Oscar Party, Johnnie Walker commissioned a custom red carpet with panels that pay tribute to other notable women directors including Gina Prince-Bythewood, Ana Lily Amirpour, Janicza Bravo, Christine Choy, Julie Dash, Wanuri Kahiu and Claire Denis.
- 3/10/2023
- by Brian Davids
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Variety is set to honor “Fruitvale Station” producer and Significant Productions co-founder Nina Yang Bongiovi with its Creative Impact in Producing Award at the Sun Valley Film Festival in Idaho in recognition of her many achievements.
At 10 a.m. March 31, she will participate in a Coffee Talk, which is the crown jewel of the festival, and a moderated conversation to discuss her career. The event is open to the public. The festival will also celebrate Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch event; they will be announced on March 15.
“Nina Yang Bongiovi is a compelling storyteller with an impressive filmography, and we are excited to celebrate her career achievement at the Sun Valley Film Festival,” said Steven Gaydos, Variety EVP global content and executive editor.
Working under the banner of Significant Productions with producing partner Forest Whitaker, Bongiovi’s credits include “Dope,” “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” “Roxanne Roxanne” and “Passing.” “Fruitvale Station...
At 10 a.m. March 31, she will participate in a Coffee Talk, which is the crown jewel of the festival, and a moderated conversation to discuss her career. The event is open to the public. The festival will also celebrate Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch event; they will be announced on March 15.
“Nina Yang Bongiovi is a compelling storyteller with an impressive filmography, and we are excited to celebrate her career achievement at the Sun Valley Film Festival,” said Steven Gaydos, Variety EVP global content and executive editor.
Working under the banner of Significant Productions with producing partner Forest Whitaker, Bongiovi’s credits include “Dope,” “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” “Roxanne Roxanne” and “Passing.” “Fruitvale Station...
- 2/17/2023
- by Julia MacCary
- Variety Film + TV
If Larry Clark had ever found his way onto the Pine Ridge Reservation, he probably would have come away with a film like “War Pony,” which observes its young Native American characters hustling, skating and stealing drugs from otherwise distracted adults. Presenting such behavior without judgment, first-time directors Gina Gammell and Riley Keough developed this unvarnished portrait in collaboration with their actors, capturing something at once tragic and true about these kids, who are torn between Oglala Lakota traditions and the consumer culture around them.
A few years older than the hero of Chloé Zhao’s recent “The Rider” — a movie this one can’t help but resemble, at least superficially — Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) is like the slacker version of that American dreamer. He siphons gas from strangers’ tanks and goes around asking people if they want to buy a stolen PlayStation. He already has two kids by two different women.
A few years older than the hero of Chloé Zhao’s recent “The Rider” — a movie this one can’t help but resemble, at least superficially — Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) is like the slacker version of that American dreamer. He siphons gas from strangers’ tanks and goes around asking people if they want to buy a stolen PlayStation. He already has two kids by two different women.
- 5/21/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Forest Whitaker also produced Cannes’s title ’For The Sake Of Peace’ which will premiere in Special Screenings.
Academy-award winning US actor, director and producer Forest Whitaker will receive the honorary Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28).
Whitaker first attended Cannes in 1988 as the star of Clint Eastwood’s Bird where he won the best actor prize. He has since returned to the festival for Bill Duke’s A Rage in Harlem, Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers, and Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
Academy-award winning US actor, director and producer Forest Whitaker will receive the honorary Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28).
Whitaker first attended Cannes in 1988 as the star of Clint Eastwood’s Bird where he won the best actor prize. He has since returned to the festival for Bill Duke’s A Rage in Harlem, Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers, and Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
- 5/5/2022
- by Melissa Kasule
- ScreenDaily
Moving Bangladesh wins $20,000 Sloan Fast Track Grant.
Projects from the UK, Bangladesh, Greece and Trinidad & Tobago were among 15 selected for Film Independent’s 19th Fast Track Film Finance Market that took place online from November 15-18, the organisation said on Friday.
The four-day programme connected participating filmmakers with financiers, production companies, agents, managers and other film industry professionals from, among others, A24, Decal, Maven Screen Media, Searchlight Pictures, Venice Film Festival, and Hollywood agencies.
Recent Fast Track projects completed include Bing Liu’s 2019 Oscar-nominated documentary Minding The Gap; Hikari’s 2019 Berlinale jury prize and audience award-winning debut 37 Seconds; Kirill Mikhanovsky...
Projects from the UK, Bangladesh, Greece and Trinidad & Tobago were among 15 selected for Film Independent’s 19th Fast Track Film Finance Market that took place online from November 15-18, the organisation said on Friday.
The four-day programme connected participating filmmakers with financiers, production companies, agents, managers and other film industry professionals from, among others, A24, Decal, Maven Screen Media, Searchlight Pictures, Venice Film Festival, and Hollywood agencies.
Recent Fast Track projects completed include Bing Liu’s 2019 Oscar-nominated documentary Minding The Gap; Hikari’s 2019 Berlinale jury prize and audience award-winning debut 37 Seconds; Kirill Mikhanovsky...
- 11/19/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was shaken up this weekend with Chloé Zhao’s Eternals. Based on Jack Kirby’s epic 19-issue series, The Eternals (1976), the film explores a group of immortal aliens’ relationship to the people of Earth, and each other across millennia. Zhao, fresh off Academy Awards wins for best director and best picture for Nomadland (2020), pitched her concept for the film to Marvel Studios in 2018 and the film was developed as a passion project for the filmmaker, whose previous features, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) and The Rider (2017), were well received indie dramas. So, it came as a surprise ...
- 11/6/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was shaken up this weekend with Chloé Zhao’s Eternals. Based on Jack Kirby’s epic 19-issue series, The Eternals (1976), the film explores a group of immortal aliens’ relationship to the people of Earth, and each other across millennia. Zhao, fresh off Academy Awards wins for best director and best picture for Nomadland (2020), pitched her concept for the film to Marvel Studios in 2018 and the film was developed as a passion project for the filmmaker, whose previous features, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) and The Rider (2017), were well received indie dramas. So, it came as a surprise ...
- 11/6/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Every word that first-time feature filmmaker Rebecca Hall uses to describe the genesis of her “Passing” vibrates with intensity. Her first experience reading the Nella Larsen novella she eventually adapted for the black-and-white period piece was like “being in a fever,” the pages flipping by as if she was “slightly possessed.”
More than 13 years after first reading Larsen’s book, Hall has kept up that same passion for the material, enough to propel her through years of denials from Hollywood brass and the distinct possibility that the film would never get made the way she saw it.
Much has been made of Hall’s personal connection to the material — the film, like Larsen’s seminal work, follows the fraught reunion of a pair of friends (Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga), both of whom are Black, though one of them has crossed the color line and lived her life “passing” as...
More than 13 years after first reading Larsen’s book, Hall has kept up that same passion for the material, enough to propel her through years of denials from Hollywood brass and the distinct possibility that the film would never get made the way she saw it.
Much has been made of Hall’s personal connection to the material — the film, like Larsen’s seminal work, follows the fraught reunion of a pair of friends (Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga), both of whom are Black, though one of them has crossed the color line and lived her life “passing” as...
- 10/28/2021
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Producers Ed Saxon and Nina Yang Bongiovi are taking on new roles in support of the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California.
Saxon will serve as the program’s Chair, with Bongiovi filling a new role, as its Associate Chair and Producer-In-Residence.
Both producers are alums of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. They were chosen following a multi-stage selection process, involving a comprehensive analysis and review of the program’s curriculum, and will take their posts immediately.
As Chair, Saxon will build on the program’s legacy, adapting it to meet the needs of students and the realities of the job market. In her role, Bongiovi will ensure that students are supported and mentored, as they receive on-the-ground training, reflecting current industry practice.
The change in leadership at USC was announced today by Elizabeth M. Daley, who serves as Dean of the School of Cinematic Arts.
Saxon will serve as the program’s Chair, with Bongiovi filling a new role, as its Associate Chair and Producer-In-Residence.
Both producers are alums of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. They were chosen following a multi-stage selection process, involving a comprehensive analysis and review of the program’s curriculum, and will take their posts immediately.
As Chair, Saxon will build on the program’s legacy, adapting it to meet the needs of students and the realities of the job market. In her role, Bongiovi will ensure that students are supported and mentored, as they receive on-the-ground training, reflecting current industry practice.
The change in leadership at USC was announced today by Elizabeth M. Daley, who serves as Dean of the School of Cinematic Arts.
- 7/15/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
In Godfather of Harlem, Forest Whitaker has tapped into one of the complex roles and narratives of a storied career, which has already netted him an Oscar, a BAFTA Award, two SAG statuettes, the Cannes Film Festival’s award for Best Actor and countless other accolades.
The character he plays in the Epix series, created by Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein, is infamous crime boss Bumpy Johnson, who wars with the Italian mob to regain control of his home turf when he gets out of Alcatraz in the early 1960s, aligning himself at the same time with preacher Malcolm X.
Beyond its entertainment value as a crime drama, the series which he also exec produces has real weight and contemporary resonance, exploring the intersection between crime, politics and systemic racism within the U.S.
Interestingly, the themes and ideas explored are ones that Whitaker had already been thinking about for decades,...
The character he plays in the Epix series, created by Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein, is infamous crime boss Bumpy Johnson, who wars with the Italian mob to regain control of his home turf when he gets out of Alcatraz in the early 1960s, aligning himself at the same time with preacher Malcolm X.
Beyond its entertainment value as a crime drama, the series which he also exec produces has real weight and contemporary resonance, exploring the intersection between crime, politics and systemic racism within the U.S.
Interestingly, the themes and ideas explored are ones that Whitaker had already been thinking about for decades,...
- 6/9/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
"Zhao isn't interested in making issue films, she's interested in hopes and dreams." Well said. Just a week ago, filmmaker Chloé Zhao became only the second woman in Academy Award history to win the Oscar for Best Director. She also won another Oscar that night for Best Picture, and Frances McDormand won for Best Actress, in Nomadland. Nomadland is only her third feature film, following Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) and The Rider (2017), but she's already being studied in-depth by cinephiles. UK-based filmmaker Margarita Milne has put together a fabulous video essay titled The Cinema of Chloé Zhao, focusing on various aspects of her films that make them unique. The essay was edited by Lesley Posso, and produced by Birds Eye View. Zhao: "I often feel like an outsider wherever I go, so I'm always attracted to stories about identity and the meaning of home." We recommend watching this to learn more about Zhao's sensibilities.
- 5/2/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
For the first time in more than a decade — and only the second time in history — a woman has won the Oscar for best director.
Chloé Zhao on Sunday night took home the Academy Award for best director for “Nomadland,” a sweeping drama about a widow in her 60s (Frances McDormand) who travels the Western United States in a van after losing her job in the Great Recession. The film — which Zhao wrote, edited and produced, in addition to directing — received six nominations in total, including best picture and actress for McDormand.
Zhao’s victory makes her the first Asian woman and first woman of color to win the top directing prize at the Oscars. Accepting the award onstage, Zhao, donning braids and white sneakers, thanked her fellow nominees and the entire cast and crew that helped bring “Nomadland” to life.
“I have been thinking a lot lately of how...
Chloé Zhao on Sunday night took home the Academy Award for best director for “Nomadland,” a sweeping drama about a widow in her 60s (Frances McDormand) who travels the Western United States in a van after losing her job in the Great Recession. The film — which Zhao wrote, edited and produced, in addition to directing — received six nominations in total, including best picture and actress for McDormand.
Zhao’s victory makes her the first Asian woman and first woman of color to win the top directing prize at the Oscars. Accepting the award onstage, Zhao, donning braids and white sneakers, thanked her fellow nominees and the entire cast and crew that helped bring “Nomadland” to life.
“I have been thinking a lot lately of how...
- 4/26/2021
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
For those who still think the glass is half-empty, I see it filling up
I remember the first time I met Chloé Zhao. She was this tiny thing who showed up to a private Wrap dinner for directors and writers at the Sundance Film Festival on Main Street in 2015, tucked under the protective arm of Forest Whitaker.
She was in competition at the festival with her first feature, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” which Whitaker produced. I remember her and the film especially because it was an unusual combination. Zhao, a Chinese-born filmmaker, telling the story of a Native American family on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, a place I had happened to visit as a reporter and knew to be one of the poorest places on Earth.
Of all places, she chose this one to set her story. And of all stories, she chose to focus on Johnny and his sister Jashuan,...
I remember the first time I met Chloé Zhao. She was this tiny thing who showed up to a private Wrap dinner for directors and writers at the Sundance Film Festival on Main Street in 2015, tucked under the protective arm of Forest Whitaker.
She was in competition at the festival with her first feature, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” which Whitaker produced. I remember her and the film especially because it was an unusual combination. Zhao, a Chinese-born filmmaker, telling the story of a Native American family on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, a place I had happened to visit as a reporter and knew to be one of the poorest places on Earth.
Of all places, she chose this one to set her story. And of all stories, she chose to focus on Johnny and his sister Jashuan,...
- 4/23/2021
- by Sharon Waxman
- The Wrap
“Nomadland” cinematographer Joshua James Richards and director Chloé Zhao met at NYU Film School and have worked together ever since.
“There was a bond formed just through our taste and visually what we were drawn to,” Richards told IndieWire.
Following film school, the collaborators spent a great deal of time traveling the American West, in particular South Dakota, where they made their first two features, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and “The Rider.” Like “Nomadland,” both films feature first-time performers in stories set against expansive western landscapes.
In a far-ranging interview, Richards discusses how their collaboration and filmic language evolved over the three films.
The following interview excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity.
Moving with Fern
Richards: Soon as Chloé started talking about “Nomadland,” I thought, “This is a camera that needs to move with Fern (Frances McDormand). We gotta be in a fluid, mercurial motion through this movie.
“There was a bond formed just through our taste and visually what we were drawn to,” Richards told IndieWire.
Following film school, the collaborators spent a great deal of time traveling the American West, in particular South Dakota, where they made their first two features, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and “The Rider.” Like “Nomadland,” both films feature first-time performers in stories set against expansive western landscapes.
In a far-ranging interview, Richards discusses how their collaboration and filmic language evolved over the three films.
The following interview excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity.
Moving with Fern
Richards: Soon as Chloé started talking about “Nomadland,” I thought, “This is a camera that needs to move with Fern (Frances McDormand). We gotta be in a fluid, mercurial motion through this movie.
- 4/12/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
In a 15-film collection, Pacific Art Movement’s 10th San Diego Asian Film Festival (Sdaff) Spring Showcase will celebrate Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander identity while highlighting stories from communities whose experiences are often unrecognized. In light of current events, the festival will honor the lives of Asian elders by sharing their candid stories of love and pain, happiness and sadness, history and culture in order to remind viewers that there was a time when we were just like them. The festival will take place virtually from April 23 through May 2 — the beginning of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month — and will include a variety of live and pre-recorded Q&a’s from filmmakers.
The 10th Sdaff Spring Showcase strives to uplift Asian voices especially during this time of crisis. The film line-up this year reflects on the current events that have been impacting the Asian and Pacific Islander community. The...
The 10th Sdaff Spring Showcase strives to uplift Asian voices especially during this time of crisis. The film line-up this year reflects on the current events that have been impacting the Asian and Pacific Islander community. The...
- 4/10/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
The Chinese government has reportedly told its local media channels not to transmit live coverage of the Oscars and to downplay the awards ceremony. The move follows the nomination of “Do Not Split,” a 35-minute chronicle of the pro-democracy struggles in Hong Kong, in the documentary short subject category.
The order reportedly came from the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party and instructed Chinese media to only report on non-controversial awards.
Such instructions are not intended for publication or dissemination overseas and are difficult to verify. The matter was first reported by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily and Radio Free Asia, and subsequently also by Bloomberg.
Directed by Norway’s Anders Hammer and produced by Hammer and Charlotte Cook for Field of Vision, the 35-minute film shows footage of the 2019 street protests in Hong Kong against the city government’s planned extradition law. Two marches in June 2019 were reported...
The order reportedly came from the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party and instructed Chinese media to only report on non-controversial awards.
Such instructions are not intended for publication or dissemination overseas and are difficult to verify. The matter was first reported by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily and Radio Free Asia, and subsequently also by Bloomberg.
Directed by Norway’s Anders Hammer and produced by Hammer and Charlotte Cook for Field of Vision, the 35-minute film shows footage of the 2019 street protests in Hong Kong against the city government’s planned extradition law. Two marches in June 2019 were reported...
- 3/17/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Variety’s seventh annual Artisans Awards celebrates those essential to the filmmaking process and who have exhibited the most exciting and innovative work of the year in their respective fields.
The tribute evening will take place in a virtual ceremony on Monday, April 5 that will stream on the Santa Barbara Film Festival website. Variety’s Senior Artisans Editor Jazz Tangcay will moderate conversations with all the Artisan Award recipients.
The Variety Artisans Award will honor the following recipients:
Alan Baumgarten for Netflix’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which sees the editor reunite with screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin. Baumgarten won an Emmy for his work on 2008’s “Recount.” He received an Academy Award nomination for 2013’s “American Hustle.”
Nicolas Becker, who earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Sound for his work on Amazon’s “Sound of Metal.” Becker has over 263 credits which include “Arrival,” “Ex Machina” and “Gravity.
The tribute evening will take place in a virtual ceremony on Monday, April 5 that will stream on the Santa Barbara Film Festival website. Variety’s Senior Artisans Editor Jazz Tangcay will moderate conversations with all the Artisan Award recipients.
The Variety Artisans Award will honor the following recipients:
Alan Baumgarten for Netflix’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which sees the editor reunite with screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin. Baumgarten won an Emmy for his work on 2008’s “Recount.” He received an Academy Award nomination for 2013’s “American Hustle.”
Nicolas Becker, who earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Sound for his work on Amazon’s “Sound of Metal.” Becker has over 263 credits which include “Arrival,” “Ex Machina” and “Gravity.
- 3/12/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
A version of this story about “Nomadland” appears in the Oscar Nominations Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Cinematographer Joshua James Richards, an awards magnet for his gorgeous orangey work on “Nomandland,” has spent most of his career out in the real, rural world. His credits include three features with “Nomadland” director (and his partner in life), Chloé Zhao, all made in the American West or Midwest, where scorpions dance maniacally along the desert floor. (More on that below.)
And sometimes, while working long days in cold, harsh conditions, even something as benign as a light source can be amusing. While filming “Nomadland,” Richards was operating the camera and filming Frances McDormand, playing the main character, Fern, as she rearranged items in the Ford van that is also her home. The scene required more glow, and he attached a tiny LED penlight to the camera. Richards glanced at Zhao,...
Cinematographer Joshua James Richards, an awards magnet for his gorgeous orangey work on “Nomandland,” has spent most of his career out in the real, rural world. His credits include three features with “Nomadland” director (and his partner in life), Chloé Zhao, all made in the American West or Midwest, where scorpions dance maniacally along the desert floor. (More on that below.)
And sometimes, while working long days in cold, harsh conditions, even something as benign as a light source can be amusing. While filming “Nomadland,” Richards was operating the camera and filming Frances McDormand, playing the main character, Fern, as she rearranged items in the Ford van that is also her home. The scene required more glow, and he attached a tiny LED penlight to the camera. Richards glanced at Zhao,...
- 3/4/2021
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
Currently streaming on Hulu, Chloé Zhao's Nomadland has been an award season darling so far, already picking up best director and best drama motion picture accolades at the 78th Golden Globes Awards. The film follows Frances McDormand as a woman named Fern who takes seasonal jobs to make ends meet as she travels across the country after her husband dies. Zhao's movie captures lush and realistic views of the American West, and at times, it even looks like a documentary with tight close-ups of actual nomads. But is Nomadland actually based on a true story? In part, yes.
While Fern's story is fictional, Zhao's script and film are based on Jessica Bruder's 2017 nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. So, which parts of the movie are based on reality? Here's what you need to know.
What Is the Nomadland Book About?
In her book, Bruder closely follows nomads,...
While Fern's story is fictional, Zhao's script and film are based on Jessica Bruder's 2017 nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. So, which parts of the movie are based on reality? Here's what you need to know.
What Is the Nomadland Book About?
In her book, Bruder closely follows nomads,...
- 3/3/2021
- by Stacey Nguyen
- Popsugar.com
“Nomadland” has won the Golden Globe for best picture drama, making history for the Globes, as well as for director Chloé Zhao and for the “Nomadland” producing team.
The win is the first time a film directed by a woman has ever won the top prize in the Globes’ 78 ceremonies. And since Zhao produced “Nomadland” as well, she’s also the first Asian woman to win best picture drama as a producer. Star Frances McDormand, who also produced “Nomadland,” is the second woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe both for producing and acting, and the first to win as a producer.
The victory solidifies the frontrunner status of the Searchlight film as Oscar season begins in earnest. And because Zhao directed, wrote, produced and edited the lauded “Nomadland,” she has become the most-awarded filmmaker in a single awards season.
Zhao accepted the award for best picture drama on behalf of “Nomadland,...
The win is the first time a film directed by a woman has ever won the top prize in the Globes’ 78 ceremonies. And since Zhao produced “Nomadland” as well, she’s also the first Asian woman to win best picture drama as a producer. Star Frances McDormand, who also produced “Nomadland,” is the second woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe both for producing and acting, and the first to win as a producer.
The victory solidifies the frontrunner status of the Searchlight film as Oscar season begins in earnest. And because Zhao directed, wrote, produced and edited the lauded “Nomadland,” she has become the most-awarded filmmaker in a single awards season.
Zhao accepted the award for best picture drama on behalf of “Nomadland,...
- 3/1/2021
- by Kate Aurthur
- Variety Film + TV
In a 2018 interview for Criterion’s “Under the Influence” series, director Chloé Zhao broke down her appreciation of Terrence Malick’s 2005 “The New World.” The “Nomadland” director discussed how Malick’s spirituality, and how the viewer got sense of a bigger world beyond the characters and frame, came through in how he approached nature.
“The filmmaker’s curiosity of trying to talk about humanity through nature because it’s not just us and nature, we’re the same thing,” Zhao told Criterion about “The New World.” “And he’s really asking us to think that way in his filmmaking, and that dictates how he works with his actors and how his cinematography works.”
While she was on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast to discuss her third feature film, the Oscar frontrunner “Nomadland,” IndieWire asked Zhao if her description of Malick doesn’t also apply to her own approach to story and filmmaking.
“The filmmaker’s curiosity of trying to talk about humanity through nature because it’s not just us and nature, we’re the same thing,” Zhao told Criterion about “The New World.” “And he’s really asking us to think that way in his filmmaking, and that dictates how he works with his actors and how his cinematography works.”
While she was on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast to discuss her third feature film, the Oscar frontrunner “Nomadland,” IndieWire asked Zhao if her description of Malick doesn’t also apply to her own approach to story and filmmaking.
- 2/22/2021
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Chloe Zhao’s awards season frontrunner “Nomadland” has been approved for a limited release in China starting April 23 through the country’s arthouse cinema circuit, according to information published on the government-backed distributor China Film’s website.
The date would put its debut just three days ahead of the Academy Awards, where the title is expected to be a top pick. The ceremony will hit on April 26 local time because of the time difference with Los Angeles.
Zhao was born in Beijing but has made her career in the U.S. with projects exploring the American heartland such as “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and “The Rider.” She is the director of the upcoming Marvel superhero extravaganza “Eternals,” which stars Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Salma Hayek and more.
“Nomadland” tells the story of the widow Fern (Frances McDormand) as she wanders the U.S. living out of her...
The date would put its debut just three days ahead of the Academy Awards, where the title is expected to be a top pick. The ceremony will hit on April 26 local time because of the time difference with Los Angeles.
Zhao was born in Beijing but has made her career in the U.S. with projects exploring the American heartland such as “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and “The Rider.” She is the director of the upcoming Marvel superhero extravaganza “Eternals,” which stars Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Salma Hayek and more.
“Nomadland” tells the story of the widow Fern (Frances McDormand) as she wanders the U.S. living out of her...
- 2/22/2021
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” is a tiny indie film on a huge scale, an intimate drama set against the vast spaces of the American West. It’s also a typical production for the young Chinese-American director Zhao in that its cast is made up of non-actors playing themselves, or versions of themselves — except that at the center of the film is a two-time Oscar-winning actress whose very presence, you’d think, would upset the delicate balance that Zhao struck in her films “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and “The Rider.”
Then again, Frances McDormand isn’t your usual two-time Oscar-winning actress. Grounded and devoid of vanity, she’s probably the only double Oscar-winning performer who doesn’t seem out of place pooping in a bucket, as she does on screen in this film.
That’s not to say that she can’t glam it up when the part calls for it.
Then again, Frances McDormand isn’t your usual two-time Oscar-winning actress. Grounded and devoid of vanity, she’s probably the only double Oscar-winning performer who doesn’t seem out of place pooping in a bucket, as she does on screen in this film.
That’s not to say that she can’t glam it up when the part calls for it.
- 2/18/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Chloé Zhao has made three feature films to date, each of them blending narrative storytelling with non-fiction. Her debut, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, told the story of Native American siblings struggling to find their place in a changing world. The Rider cast cowboy Brady Jandreau as a version of himself, reliving the true story of his near-fatal head injury. And while her new film, Nomadland, casts professional actors like Frances McDormand and David Strathairn for the first time, it rounds out its ensemble with real ‘Nomads’; people who have taken to living in camper vans in what would be their retirement, forced instead to seek itinerant labor around the country to make ends meet.
All three films deal with survival and identity, and each of them pack an emotional punch that hits with greater fervor because of the lines Zhao blurs between fact and fiction. Based on Jessica Bruder...
All three films deal with survival and identity, and each of them pack an emotional punch that hits with greater fervor because of the lines Zhao blurs between fact and fiction. Based on Jessica Bruder...
- 2/8/2021
- by Joe Utichi
- Deadline Film + TV
Chloé Zhao made history this week as the first Asian woman to be nominated for a directing Golden Globe — for her film “Nomadland” — and now she’s setting sights on her next project: a science-fiction western spin on Dracula. Zhao will write, direct, and produce via her production banner Highwayman for Universal Pictures, which is expanding its repertoire of monster movies by heading back into its vault of classics.
The Hollywood Reporter has the original scoop, writing, “Zhao’s version is described as an original, futuristic, sci-fi Western. Themes of being on society’s fringes, something Zhao has tackled in her previous work, will course through the project’s veins.”
In a statement, Zhao said she has “always been fascinated by vampires and the concept of the Other they embody.” Universal Pictures president Peter Cramer added that Zhao’s insight into the “overlooked and misunderstood” will fuel the project. Zhao...
The Hollywood Reporter has the original scoop, writing, “Zhao’s version is described as an original, futuristic, sci-fi Western. Themes of being on society’s fringes, something Zhao has tackled in her previous work, will course through the project’s veins.”
In a statement, Zhao said she has “always been fascinated by vampires and the concept of the Other they embody.” Universal Pictures president Peter Cramer added that Zhao’s insight into the “overlooked and misunderstood” will fuel the project. Zhao...
- 2/4/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The clouds have parted over Ojai, California, on November 7th, and Chloe Zhao can’t stop smiling. She’d planned to spend the dismal Saturday hunkered down inside, in postproduction on Marvel’s Eternals, due out later this year. But when the sun broke through, right after the news that Joe Biden had emerged as the winner of the presidential election that took place five agonizing days (or was it centuries?) prior, plans changed. Now, it was time for celebratory pizza and tiramisu from her favorite Italian restaurant — lactose intolerance be damned.
- 1/26/2021
- by Maria Fontoura
- Rollingstone.com
The Palm Springs International Film Awards will honor Chloé Zhao with the Director of the Year award for her film “Nomadland.” She is the first-ever female director to receive this accolade in the 32 years the festival has been running.
The festival and film awards gala will not take place as an in-person event, but honoree selections will recognize the year’s great performances. Entertainment Tonight will air a tribute to the honorees on February 11th and February 25th.
Zhao joins this year’s previously announced honoree Carey Mulligan, who won the International Star Award for her performance in “Promising Young Woman.” “Nomadland” is Zhao’s third feature, having previously directed 2015’s “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and 2017’s “The Rider.” Her next film is the upcoming Marvel superhero pic “Eternals,” which is currently set to debut in theaters Nov. 5, 2021.
Festival chairman Harold Matzner said “Nomadland” captures the triumph of the human spirit.
The festival and film awards gala will not take place as an in-person event, but honoree selections will recognize the year’s great performances. Entertainment Tonight will air a tribute to the honorees on February 11th and February 25th.
Zhao joins this year’s previously announced honoree Carey Mulligan, who won the International Star Award for her performance in “Promising Young Woman.” “Nomadland” is Zhao’s third feature, having previously directed 2015’s “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and 2017’s “The Rider.” Her next film is the upcoming Marvel superhero pic “Eternals,” which is currently set to debut in theaters Nov. 5, 2021.
Festival chairman Harold Matzner said “Nomadland” captures the triumph of the human spirit.
- 1/25/2021
- by Antonio Ferme
- Variety Film + TV
Chloe Zhao’s acclaimed awards contender “Nomadland” is set to be released in select theaters and drive-in venues on Feb. 19, along with simultaneously debuting on Hulu, Searchlight Pictures announced on Thursday.
The film, starring Frances McDormand as a woman who takes the road after falling on hard economic times, is also getting an exclusive run in select Imax theaters beginning Jan. 29.
In his review of the film, TheWrap’s Steve Pond wrote, Zhao’s “Nomadland” is a tiny indie film on a huge scale, an intimate drama set against the vast spaces of the American West. It’s also a typical production for the young Chinese-American director Zhao in that its cast is made up of non-actors playing themselves, or versions of themselves — except that at the center of the film is a two-time Oscar-winning actress whose very presence, you’d think, would upset the delicate balance that Zhao struck...
The film, starring Frances McDormand as a woman who takes the road after falling on hard economic times, is also getting an exclusive run in select Imax theaters beginning Jan. 29.
In his review of the film, TheWrap’s Steve Pond wrote, Zhao’s “Nomadland” is a tiny indie film on a huge scale, an intimate drama set against the vast spaces of the American West. It’s also a typical production for the young Chinese-American director Zhao in that its cast is made up of non-actors playing themselves, or versions of themselves — except that at the center of the film is a two-time Oscar-winning actress whose very presence, you’d think, would upset the delicate balance that Zhao struck...
- 1/15/2021
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
Chloé Zhao’s acclaimed film “Nomadland,” a road drama that’s expected to be a major awards player, has modified its release plan due to the pandemic.
The movie — starring Frances McDormand as a woman who leaves her small town to travel the American west — will debut in select Imax venues on Jan. 29 before opening in traditional theaters and drive-in locations on Feb. 19. On the same day as its wide release in February, “Nomadland” will premiere on Hulu.
Searchlight Pictures, the Disney-owned specialty studio, is distributing the film and plans to premiere it internationally throughout the spring (pandemic permitting) starting on March 4.
Prior to its theatrical rollout, “Nomadland” made rounds on the festival circuit, winning top prizes at Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival. It also landed on many critics’ best of the year lists, including Variety’s Peter Debruge. In his review, Debruge called the film an “ode to American independence.
The movie — starring Frances McDormand as a woman who leaves her small town to travel the American west — will debut in select Imax venues on Jan. 29 before opening in traditional theaters and drive-in locations on Feb. 19. On the same day as its wide release in February, “Nomadland” will premiere on Hulu.
Searchlight Pictures, the Disney-owned specialty studio, is distributing the film and plans to premiere it internationally throughout the spring (pandemic permitting) starting on March 4.
Prior to its theatrical rollout, “Nomadland” made rounds on the festival circuit, winning top prizes at Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival. It also landed on many critics’ best of the year lists, including Variety’s Peter Debruge. In his review, Debruge called the film an “ode to American independence.
- 1/14/2021
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Celebrated Lab graduates include Chloé Zhao, Radha Blank, Eliza Hittman.
Fifteen emerging storytellers from Chile, India, Kenya, Tunisia and the US have been selected to participate in Sundance Institute’s January Screenwriters Lab starting today (January 11).
The fellows will develop 12 original projects in collaboration with creative advisors from the industry, under the leadership of Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program founding director Michelle Satter.
The projects and fellow/s include: Black Comic-Con (USA), Natasha Rothwell (writer/director); The Catch Rishi Chandna (writer/director); Chariot (USA), Alyssa Loh; Fancy Dance (USA), Erica Tremblay (co-writer/director), Miciana Alise (co-writer) ; forward (USA), Mary Ann Anane...
Fifteen emerging storytellers from Chile, India, Kenya, Tunisia and the US have been selected to participate in Sundance Institute’s January Screenwriters Lab starting today (January 11).
The fellows will develop 12 original projects in collaboration with creative advisors from the industry, under the leadership of Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program founding director Michelle Satter.
The projects and fellow/s include: Black Comic-Con (USA), Natasha Rothwell (writer/director); The Catch Rishi Chandna (writer/director); Chariot (USA), Alyssa Loh; Fancy Dance (USA), Erica Tremblay (co-writer/director), Miciana Alise (co-writer) ; forward (USA), Mary Ann Anane...
- 1/11/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
After an awards qualifying run last week, one will have to wait a few more months to see one of the year’s most acclaimed films. Chloé Zhao, following The Rider and Songs My Brothers Taught Me, earned the top prizes at Venice and TIFF for Nomadland, which follows Frances McDormand’s down-and-out character on a journey through the American midwest. Ahead of a February roll-out leading up to the Oscars in April, Searchlight has now debuted the full trailer.
David Katz said in our review, “For all its contemporary elements, the story of Nomadland is as old as America itself. It’s the same hymn about the myth of the open road, stretching onwards in all its infinite possibilities. Once it was traversed by chuckwagons, and yet now we have a different kind of economic migrant, which this film defines as the modern nomad, heading across vast distances with...
David Katz said in our review, “For all its contemporary elements, the story of Nomadland is as old as America itself. It’s the same hymn about the myth of the open road, stretching onwards in all its infinite possibilities. Once it was traversed by chuckwagons, and yet now we have a different kind of economic migrant, which this film defines as the modern nomad, heading across vast distances with...
- 12/14/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
When director Chloé Zhao called on cinematographer Joshua James Richards to shoot “Nomadland,” the two already had a visual language established, having collaborated on “The Rider” and “Songs My Brothers Taught Me.”
For “Nomadland,” available Dec. 4 on virtual cinema, their approach was to plan that look and feel from the inside out. That meant taking a trip together to meet the real-life nomads who would appear in the film, based on the book by Jessica Bruder, about workers impacted by the Great Recession.
The road trip spanned the Badlands of South Dakota; Empire, Nevada; and western Nebraska. During that time, Richards spent hours taking photos. “You’re constantly looking at how people’s faces are in what light, and the scout became a test shoot.”
Frances McDormand stars as Fern, a Nevada widow who packs her bags and decides to become an off-the-grid nomad — “houseless, but not homeless” — when her town’s main industry,...
For “Nomadland,” available Dec. 4 on virtual cinema, their approach was to plan that look and feel from the inside out. That meant taking a trip together to meet the real-life nomads who would appear in the film, based on the book by Jessica Bruder, about workers impacted by the Great Recession.
The road trip spanned the Badlands of South Dakota; Empire, Nevada; and western Nebraska. During that time, Richards spent hours taking photos. “You’re constantly looking at how people’s faces are in what light, and the scout became a test shoot.”
Frances McDormand stars as Fern, a Nevada widow who packs her bags and decides to become an off-the-grid nomad — “houseless, but not homeless” — when her town’s main industry,...
- 12/3/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Critically-acclaimed director Chloe Zhao’s latest film, “Nomadland,” became an early Oscar favorite after bowing at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year, and could see her make history as the first Asian American female to win the best director prize.
The film stars Frances McDormand as Fern, a widow who has been left houseless after the gypsum mine that had propped up the town of Empire closes for good. Fern lives and travels through America in her white van, encountering other real-life nomads on her journey. Zhao spoke to Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast about “Nomadland,” listen below!
Zhao, the critically-acclaimed director behind “The Rider” and “Songs my Brothers Taught Me,” says she had “always wanted to make a road movie,” especially one that looked at the American West. Her new film is based on the nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder, and...
The film stars Frances McDormand as Fern, a widow who has been left houseless after the gypsum mine that had propped up the town of Empire closes for good. Fern lives and travels through America in her white van, encountering other real-life nomads on her journey. Zhao spoke to Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast about “Nomadland,” listen below!
Zhao, the critically-acclaimed director behind “The Rider” and “Songs my Brothers Taught Me,” says she had “always wanted to make a road movie,” especially one that looked at the American West. Her new film is based on the nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder, and...
- 12/3/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” is poised to be named Best Picture at next year’s Oscars, if you track the very early momentum for the bleak meditation on America’s disenfranchised citizens. A pair of nominations at New York’s Gotham Awards on November 12 for Best Picture and Best Actress (Frances McDormand) comes after the film already won the Audience Award at the virtual Toronto Film Festival—a sure-fire indication that you have the inside track to take it all, judging by past winners “Green Book,” “12 Years a Slave” and “The King’s Speech”—and the top prize at the Venice Film Festival have paved the way for the Hollywood elite to anoint the film.
SEEChloe Zhao (‘Nomadland’) on finding ‘peace in solitude’ on the road with Frances McDormand [Watch]
Two-time Academy Award winner McDormand, whose third Best Actress win will be a hotly debated question as she will likely square...
SEEChloe Zhao (‘Nomadland’) on finding ‘peace in solitude’ on the road with Frances McDormand [Watch]
Two-time Academy Award winner McDormand, whose third Best Actress win will be a hotly debated question as she will likely square...
- 11/13/2020
- by Robert Rorke
- Gold Derby
San Francisco Film has selected filmmakers Aaron Sorkin and Chloe Zhao for honors at its annual San Francisco Film Awards ceremonies, due to be livestreamed on Dec. 9.
Sorkin, whose “Trial of the Chicago 7” is streaming on Netflix, will receive the Kanbar award for storytelling. Zhao, the director of awards contender “Nomadland,” will receive the Irving M. Levin award for film direction.
“We are thrilled to honor such exceptional talent at our Sf Film Awards Night and to bring an even wider audience together virtually this year for our annual fundraiser,” said executive director Anne Lai. “Both Aaron and Chloé’s remarkable work resonate deeply for us, not only in their beautiful cinematic expression but also in presenting deep and complex characters and questions for us as a society today. We hope that by celebrating these artists, their films, and these values, Sf Film can have a positive impact on the...
Sorkin, whose “Trial of the Chicago 7” is streaming on Netflix, will receive the Kanbar award for storytelling. Zhao, the director of awards contender “Nomadland,” will receive the Irving M. Levin award for film direction.
“We are thrilled to honor such exceptional talent at our Sf Film Awards Night and to bring an even wider audience together virtually this year for our annual fundraiser,” said executive director Anne Lai. “Both Aaron and Chloé’s remarkable work resonate deeply for us, not only in their beautiful cinematic expression but also in presenting deep and complex characters and questions for us as a society today. We hope that by celebrating these artists, their films, and these values, Sf Film can have a positive impact on the...
- 10/20/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Chloé Zhao talks about longtime collaborator singer/songwriter Cat Clifford and composer Ludovico Einaudi Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
At the Venice Film Festival, the competition jury led by Cate Blanchett with filmmakers Veronika Franz (Goodnight Mommy), Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir) Christian Petzold, actors Ludivine Sagnier (Paolo Sorrentino’s The New Pope), Matt Dillon (Alice Winocour’s Proxima), and novelist Nicola Lagioia (La Ferocia) awarded Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, based on the book by Jessica Bruder, starring Frances McDormand, the Golden Lion as Best Film.
Frances McDormand as Fern in Nomadland
The tone of Nomadland is set from the get go, when we learn about the fate of Empire, a small town in Nevada that ceased to exist within six months after US Gypsum shut down its plant there in 2011 after 88 years. The film follows Fern (Frances McDormand), a widow, who, after a short seasonal stint as a Christmas helper in an Amazon warehouse,...
At the Venice Film Festival, the competition jury led by Cate Blanchett with filmmakers Veronika Franz (Goodnight Mommy), Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir) Christian Petzold, actors Ludivine Sagnier (Paolo Sorrentino’s The New Pope), Matt Dillon (Alice Winocour’s Proxima), and novelist Nicola Lagioia (La Ferocia) awarded Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, based on the book by Jessica Bruder, starring Frances McDormand, the Golden Lion as Best Film.
Frances McDormand as Fern in Nomadland
The tone of Nomadland is set from the get go, when we learn about the fate of Empire, a small town in Nevada that ceased to exist within six months after US Gypsum shut down its plant there in 2011 after 88 years. The film follows Fern (Frances McDormand), a widow, who, after a short seasonal stint as a Christmas helper in an Amazon warehouse,...
- 9/26/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
For all its contemporary elements, the story of Nomadland is as old as America itself. It’s the same hymn about the myth of the open road, stretching onwards in all its infinite possibilities. Once it was traversed by chuckwagons, and yet now we have a different kind of economic migrant, which this film defines as the modern nomad, heading across vast distances with the same purpose: for the pursuit of happiness, or rather just the next paycheck and meal to keep the wolf from the door.
Chloé Zhao established herself across the past decade with The Rider and Songs My Brothers Taught Me, work that touched on these resonances; it was true American cinema telling grounded, lived-in stories of perseverance and family. For her latest project, Nomadland, the director is now entering the modern Hollywood fold, and its more prosaic demands on story, pacing, and visual style. Unlike her first two films,...
Chloé Zhao established herself across the past decade with The Rider and Songs My Brothers Taught Me, work that touched on these resonances; it was true American cinema telling grounded, lived-in stories of perseverance and family. For her latest project, Nomadland, the director is now entering the modern Hollywood fold, and its more prosaic demands on story, pacing, and visual style. Unlike her first two films,...
- 9/11/2020
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
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