Oscar-winning director-producers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth (Chai) Vasarhelyi consistently deliver stunning visuals and compelling documentary content. And following such breakout films as “Meru,” Oscar- and Emmy-winning “Free Solo,” Emmy-winning “The Rescue,” and “Wild Life,” which took advantage of pro climber-cinematographer-NatGeo photographer Chin’s 20 years of athletic cinema and Vasarhelyi’s relentless producer drive for perfection, they moved into feature directing with long-distance swimming drama “Nyad,” which scored Oscar nominations for stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.
Over the years, the filmmakers have established their filmmaking prowess, combining immersive cinema verité visuals with deeply felt personal drama. That is on full display in their latest collaboration with NatGeo, the series “Photographer,” for which the duo matched six of the world’s most renowned shooters with veteran directors Marshall Curry, Kristi Jacobson, and Sam Pollard, plus Sundance alumnae Crystal Kayiza and Rita Baghdadi, and set them loose to return with bespoke...
Over the years, the filmmakers have established their filmmaking prowess, combining immersive cinema verité visuals with deeply felt personal drama. That is on full display in their latest collaboration with NatGeo, the series “Photographer,” for which the duo matched six of the world’s most renowned shooters with veteran directors Marshall Curry, Kristi Jacobson, and Sam Pollard, plus Sundance alumnae Crystal Kayiza and Rita Baghdadi, and set them loose to return with bespoke...
- 3/19/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Endurance and single-minded determination have been the focus of filmmaking duo Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin with their documentary films Free Solo, Meru and The Rescue, and now, with Nyad, they examine those themes in a narrative feature, with Annette Bening in the starring role of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, and Jodie Foster as her coach and best friend Bonnie Stoll. Based on Nyad’s memoir, Find a Way, the film follows Nyad’s multiple attempts to make the 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida, dodging sharks and dangerous jellyfish and weathering brutal waves. When Nyad finally succeeds at the age of 64, her message is, “It’s never too late to follow your dream.” Here, Vasarhelyi and Chin look back on how their documentarian skills fed into recreating an epic seafaring experience, and how both their marriage and their working relationship evolved as a result.
Deadline: How did...
Deadline: How did...
- 11/24/2023
- by Antonia Blyth
- Deadline Film + TV
“Nyad” is the real-life story of Diana Nyad (Annette Bening), a world class swimmer who decided, at age 60, that she wanted to do something that had previously seemed impossible after she’d tried it when she was younger and was unsuccessful – to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.
With her coach and former romantic partner Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) at her side, she made several more attempts, battling box jellyfish, turbulent storms and constant naysayers. Somehow insurmountable feels like too mild a word to describe what she was attempting.
And it feels like filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin were keenly equipped to capture her story. The team, who are also married in real life, are Oscar-winners for their documentary “Free Solo” and have helmed several more movies about human beings pushing themselves to the brink (like “The Rescue” and “Return to Space”). Nyad’s story,...
With her coach and former romantic partner Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) at her side, she made several more attempts, battling box jellyfish, turbulent storms and constant naysayers. Somehow insurmountable feels like too mild a word to describe what she was attempting.
And it feels like filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin were keenly equipped to capture her story. The team, who are also married in real life, are Oscar-winners for their documentary “Free Solo” and have helmed several more movies about human beings pushing themselves to the brink (like “The Rescue” and “Return to Space”). Nyad’s story,...
- 11/7/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
For the ‘Free Solo’ Directors, Making ‘Nyad’ Was Much Harder Than Hanging Off the Side of a Mountain
With
After “Meru,” Oscar-winning “Free Solo,” and “The Rescue,” we knew that directors Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi delivered stunning visuals and provocative storytelling. With festival hit “Nyad”, based on the story of cranky competitive swimmer Diana Nyad and her refusal to abandon her dream, none of their skills were lost in translation to the scripted world
Nyad’s story of swimming 110 miles in open ocean from Cuba to Florida is well aligned with the filmmakers’ own profiles: Chin is a star mountain climber and cinematographer; Vasarhelyi is a relentless producer-organizer who always pushes for perfection. “It’s very true to brand, about someone who can’t give up ever,” Vasarhelyi told me. “Finally she did it on the fifth try, when she was 64.”
This propulsive two-hander stars Annette Bening, who also was 64 when she played the part after a year of training. Jodie Foster portrays her former lover-now-trainer, and...
After “Meru,” Oscar-winning “Free Solo,” and “The Rescue,” we knew that directors Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi delivered stunning visuals and provocative storytelling. With festival hit “Nyad”, based on the story of cranky competitive swimmer Diana Nyad and her refusal to abandon her dream, none of their skills were lost in translation to the scripted world
Nyad’s story of swimming 110 miles in open ocean from Cuba to Florida is well aligned with the filmmakers’ own profiles: Chin is a star mountain climber and cinematographer; Vasarhelyi is a relentless producer-organizer who always pushes for perfection. “It’s very true to brand, about someone who can’t give up ever,” Vasarhelyi told me. “Finally she did it on the fifth try, when she was 64.”
This propulsive two-hander stars Annette Bening, who also was 64 when she played the part after a year of training. Jodie Foster portrays her former lover-now-trainer, and...
- 10/27/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
After sitting it out last year, Deadline’s Contenders film series returns to London today with a strong lineup featuring Ridley Scott, Emerald Fennell, Todd Haynes and Michael Mann among the panelists attending the awards-season event.
Contenders London gets underway this morning at London’s Ham Yard Hotel and will feature panels on 13 of the year’s buzziest films from eight studios and streamers. Deadline will have full coverage of the event all day on the website and on our social channels, where you can follow along using the hashtag #DeadlineContenders.
In challenging times, it’s good to know quality cinema is never too far away, with films from some of the world’s biggest filmmakers on tap today. Along with Scott’s Napoleon, Fennell’s Saltburn, Haynes’ May December and Mann’s Ferrari, J.A. Bayona will present his Society of the Snow, Jeymes Samuel will open The Book of Clarence,...
Contenders London gets underway this morning at London’s Ham Yard Hotel and will feature panels on 13 of the year’s buzziest films from eight studios and streamers. Deadline will have full coverage of the event all day on the website and on our social channels, where you can follow along using the hashtag #DeadlineContenders.
In challenging times, it’s good to know quality cinema is never too far away, with films from some of the world’s biggest filmmakers on tap today. Along with Scott’s Napoleon, Fennell’s Saltburn, Haynes’ May December and Mann’s Ferrari, J.A. Bayona will present his Society of the Snow, Jeymes Samuel will open The Book of Clarence,...
- 10/7/2023
- by Joe Utichi
- Deadline Film + TV
Oscar-winning documentarian filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have made an entire career out of making nerve-wracking feats-of-athleticism documentaries like the incredible, Oscar-winning “Free Solo,” “Meru” and 2021’s “The Rescue,” about the death-defying race against time to rescue the boys trapped in the caves of Thailand that made international news. Naturally, given the intensity of their films, Hollywood has come knocking for them to try their hand at non-documentaries and dramas.
Continue reading ‘Nyad’ Trailer: Jodie Foster & Annette Bening Star In A Swimming Drama From The ‘Free Solo’ Directors at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Nyad’ Trailer: Jodie Foster & Annette Bening Star In A Swimming Drama From The ‘Free Solo’ Directors at The Playlist.
- 9/7/2023
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
The married filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi made their names with docs about extreme athletic accomplishments — see 2015’s Meru, 2018’s Free Solo (for which they won the best documentary feature Oscar) and 2021’s The Rescue — and have now made their narrative directorial debut, Nyad, about one woman’s decades-long pursuit of one of the greatest of all: becoming the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the benefit of a moving cage to keep away sharks, jellyfish and other dangerous sea creatures.
As with, say, Argo, Sully or, well, The Rescue, I suspect that most people will know, going in to Nyad, how it ends. Spoiler alert: Nyad realized her dream, some 35 years after she first tried to, at the age of 64. But I suspect that most will not know, going in, just how many personal and professional obstacles Nyad had to overcome in order to do so.
As with, say, Argo, Sully or, well, The Rescue, I suspect that most people will know, going in to Nyad, how it ends. Spoiler alert: Nyad realized her dream, some 35 years after she first tried to, at the age of 64. But I suspect that most will not know, going in, just how many personal and professional obstacles Nyad had to overcome in order to do so.
- 9/2/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat has scored the music for Netflix’s “Nyad.”
Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Nyad” stars Annette Bening as Diana Nyad, an athlete, who at 60, achieves her lifelong dream of finishing the 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida. Julia Cox penned the screenplay.
In a statement to Variety, Desplat said, “Chai and Jimmy’s direction is very strong. They managed brilliantly to make you share the dangers and emotions that Diana Nyad goes through in her incredible challenge. And the friendship between Diana, Bonnie (Jodie Foster), and the crew reveals a beautiful human experience.”
Desplat, whose credits include “The Shape of Water,” “Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio” and “Grand Budapest Hotel,” prefers the organic approach. He said, “The more I compose for films, the more I try to enter into the screen, as if I was another actor playing on the set with the cast.
Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Nyad” stars Annette Bening as Diana Nyad, an athlete, who at 60, achieves her lifelong dream of finishing the 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida. Julia Cox penned the screenplay.
In a statement to Variety, Desplat said, “Chai and Jimmy’s direction is very strong. They managed brilliantly to make you share the dangers and emotions that Diana Nyad goes through in her incredible challenge. And the friendship between Diana, Bonnie (Jodie Foster), and the crew reveals a beautiful human experience.”
Desplat, whose credits include “The Shape of Water,” “Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio” and “Grand Budapest Hotel,” prefers the organic approach. He said, “The more I compose for films, the more I try to enter into the screen, as if I was another actor playing on the set with the cast.
- 8/29/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
**Spoiler alert: There’s no way to really discuss this documentary without spoilers, at least for me, so be forewarned, and if you don’t want to be spoiled, please watch “The Deepest Breath” doc first.**
Thanks in part to filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin— the directors behind the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo” and daring extreme adventuring and peril docs like “Meru,” “The Rescue,” “Wild Life”— plus the recent thriving docu-drama engagement boon on streaming, athletes pushing themselves to the limits and beyond have seemingly entered a new golden age.
Continue reading ‘The Deepest Breath’ Review: An Unintentional Cautionary Tale About The “Freedom” In Chasing Perilous Obsessions & Dreams at The Playlist.
Thanks in part to filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin— the directors behind the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo” and daring extreme adventuring and peril docs like “Meru,” “The Rescue,” “Wild Life”— plus the recent thriving docu-drama engagement boon on streaming, athletes pushing themselves to the limits and beyond have seemingly entered a new golden age.
Continue reading ‘The Deepest Breath’ Review: An Unintentional Cautionary Tale About The “Freedom” In Chasing Perilous Obsessions & Dreams at The Playlist.
- 7/19/2023
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
With “Wild Life,” the filmmaking team of Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi prove yet again — after “Meru,” Oscar-winning “Free Solo,” and “The Rescue” — that they are nonpareils at delivering consistently stunning visuals and provocative non-fiction content. Unlike most documentary filmmakers these days, they had a juicy NatGeo budget to film in the wildest areas of Chile and Argentina and the opportunity to screen their movie theatrically via Picturehouse before winding up on Disney+ May 26.
The directing duo choose their subjects carefully. In this case, at the center of this dramatic decades-spanning story is Kristine McDivitt Tompkins who, having risen to CEO of Patagonia after 23 years at the company, abruptly left to marry billionaire eco-philanthropist Doug Tompkins and join his mission to save millions of acres of wildlands in Chile and Argentina. In 2015, after he died in a kayak accident, she took on his mission and in 2018 donated 10 million acres as national parkland.
The directing duo choose their subjects carefully. In this case, at the center of this dramatic decades-spanning story is Kristine McDivitt Tompkins who, having risen to CEO of Patagonia after 23 years at the company, abruptly left to marry billionaire eco-philanthropist Doug Tompkins and join his mission to save millions of acres of wildlands in Chile and Argentina. In 2015, after he died in a kayak accident, she took on his mission and in 2018 donated 10 million acres as national parkland.
- 5/27/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Memorial Day brings a smattering of high-profile TV finales — “Succession,” “Yellowjackets,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Somebody Somewhere,” “Barry,” and “Citadel” — but the long weekend leaves plenty of time to slip in a movie or two. Our top choice is an invigorating documentary with ties to the recent hits “Fire of Love” and “Free Solo,” but you can also shell out for the latest installment in one of Hollywood’s great action franchises.
This week’s contender to watch: “Wild Life”
Part love story and part conversation ode, “Wild Life” bows on Disney+ and Hulu after getting a theatrical release in April. It would make for a great double feature with last year’s “Fire of Love,” another documentary about married environmentalists whose passionate romance matched their sense of adventure. In this case, we’re talking about Doug and Kris Tompkins, former corporate executives who used their wealth to preserve the wilderness of Chile and Argentina.
This week’s contender to watch: “Wild Life”
Part love story and part conversation ode, “Wild Life” bows on Disney+ and Hulu after getting a theatrical release in April. It would make for a great double feature with last year’s “Fire of Love,” another documentary about married environmentalists whose passionate romance matched their sense of adventure. In this case, we’re talking about Doug and Kris Tompkins, former corporate executives who used their wealth to preserve the wilderness of Chile and Argentina.
- 5/27/2023
- by Matthew Jacobs
- Gold Derby
With their new film Wild Life, two top filmmakers focused on the outdoor world — Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the directors of well-regarded climbing docs Meru and the Oscar-winning Free Solo — decided to make a film about icons of that very culture. And it felt a little messy at first, as they explain.
“I was really hesitant to make this film,” says Vasarhelyi, noting that her husband and co-director Chin — himself a world-class climber — deeply respected the film’s core subjects, former Patagonia CEO and conservationist Kris Tompkins and climbers and entrepreneurs Doug Tompkins, Yvon Chouinard and Rick Ridgeway. Moreover, as then-former and current company owners, the subjects were “used to making the decisions,” Vasarhelyi says, while the couple’s stringent filmmaking process would require them to cede control over the telling of their story.
Ultimately, though, the filmmakers overcame their misgivings (and the subjects of the film agreed to take part,...
“I was really hesitant to make this film,” says Vasarhelyi, noting that her husband and co-director Chin — himself a world-class climber — deeply respected the film’s core subjects, former Patagonia CEO and conservationist Kris Tompkins and climbers and entrepreneurs Doug Tompkins, Yvon Chouinard and Rick Ridgeway. Moreover, as then-former and current company owners, the subjects were “used to making the decisions,” Vasarhelyi says, while the couple’s stringent filmmaking process would require them to cede control over the telling of their story.
Ultimately, though, the filmmakers overcame their misgivings (and the subjects of the film agreed to take part,...
- 4/21/2023
- by Katie Kilkenny
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
At Tuesday’s New York City premiere of Nat Geo’s documentary “Wild Life,” Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, shed light on his 2022 decision to donate the entire apparel brand, worth $3 billion, to a trust dedicated to fighting the climate crisis.
“I’m kind of pessimistic about the fate of this planet,” Chouinard said. “We’ve been giving one percent of our sales for a long time. We’ve given away $200 or $300 million over the years, but I’m always thinking, ‘What more can I do?”
Directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Wild Life” chronicles the decades-long efforts by conservationist Kris Tompkins and her late husband and the North Face founder, Doug Tompkins, to create national parks throughout Chile and Argentina. The couple helped Chouinard, who appears in the doc, create and run Patagonia.
Chouinard, who joined Vasarhelyi, Chin and Tompkins onstage after the MoMA screening,...
“I’m kind of pessimistic about the fate of this planet,” Chouinard said. “We’ve been giving one percent of our sales for a long time. We’ve given away $200 or $300 million over the years, but I’m always thinking, ‘What more can I do?”
Directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Wild Life” chronicles the decades-long efforts by conservationist Kris Tompkins and her late husband and the North Face founder, Doug Tompkins, to create national parks throughout Chile and Argentina. The couple helped Chouinard, who appears in the doc, create and run Patagonia.
Chouinard, who joined Vasarhelyi, Chin and Tompkins onstage after the MoMA screening,...
- 4/12/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
World class climber Jimmy Chin met his future wife, filmmaker Chai Vasarhelyi, over a mountain – of footage.
He had been working for a number of years on the documentary that would become Meru, the story of an attempt by Chin and his fellow alpinists and friends Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk to become the first to summit the perilous Shark’s Fin peak in the Himalayas. Perhaps because he was so close to the subject matter, the film wasn’t quite cohering.
“I had submitted it to a few film festivals and got turned down,” Chin explained during an Artists & Auteurs conversation at Cph:dox in Copenhagen. He told moderator Thom Powers, TIFF’s documentary programmer and host of the Pure Nonfiction podcast, that while struggling over the film he crossed paths with Vasarhelyi at a conference.
Directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin appear at Cph:dox in Copenhagen on Tuesday, March...
He had been working for a number of years on the documentary that would become Meru, the story of an attempt by Chin and his fellow alpinists and friends Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk to become the first to summit the perilous Shark’s Fin peak in the Himalayas. Perhaps because he was so close to the subject matter, the film wasn’t quite cohering.
“I had submitted it to a few film festivals and got turned down,” Chin explained during an Artists & Auteurs conversation at Cph:dox in Copenhagen. He told moderator Thom Powers, TIFF’s documentary programmer and host of the Pure Nonfiction podcast, that while struggling over the film he crossed paths with Vasarhelyi at a conference.
Directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin appear at Cph:dox in Copenhagen on Tuesday, March...
- 3/24/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin expressed differing opinions on sharing one’s own work.
Oscar-winning Free Solo wife- and- husband directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin debated the niceties of promoting one’s own work in a talk about their filmmaking careers - spotlighting the professional climbers who have been the subject of two of their films.
They were talking at an event in the Cph:Conference Artists & Auteurs series at Cph:Dox on March 21.
“There’s always been those athletes that were really good at self-promotion – leveraged what they did to make their career or start a business,” said Chin,...
Oscar-winning Free Solo wife- and- husband directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin debated the niceties of promoting one’s own work in a talk about their filmmaking careers - spotlighting the professional climbers who have been the subject of two of their films.
They were talking at an event in the Cph:Conference Artists & Auteurs series at Cph:Dox on March 21.
“There’s always been those athletes that were really good at self-promotion – leveraged what they did to make their career or start a business,” said Chin,...
- 3/22/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin expressed differing opinions on sharing one’s own work.
Oscar-winning Free Solo wife- and- husband directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin debated the niceties of promoting one’s own work in a talk about their filmmaking careers - spotlighting the professional climbers who have been the subject of two of their films.
They were talking at an event in the Cph:Conference Artists & Auteurs series at Cph:Dox on March 21.
“There’s always been those athletes that were really good at self-promotion – leveraged what they did to make their career or start a business,” said Chin,...
Oscar-winning Free Solo wife- and- husband directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin debated the niceties of promoting one’s own work in a talk about their filmmaking careers - spotlighting the professional climbers who have been the subject of two of their films.
They were talking at an event in the Cph:Conference Artists & Auteurs series at Cph:Dox on March 21.
“There’s always been those athletes that were really good at self-promotion – leveraged what they did to make their career or start a business,” said Chin,...
- 3/22/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Married in 2013, while Oscar-winning filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin both had been making and shooting films before they met, the power of their collaborative work was instantaneous. 2015’s breathtaking high stakes “Meru” was one of the most harrowing mountain climbing docs ever made up until that point, and they managed to somehow even one-up it with their Oscar-winning doc, the vertiginous and death-defying “Free Solo.”
Read More: SXSW 2023 Preview: 25 Must-See Film & TV Projects To Watch
Since then, the duo has turned their love for the outdoors, the environment and landscape, and their innate curiosity about the natural world into some riveting documentaries, many of them fueled by the same ticking-clock adrenaline of “Meru” and “Free Solo”.
Continue reading ‘Wild Life’ Review: The Directors Of ‘Free Solo’ Craft A Heartfelt Tribute To The Conservationists Behind Patagonia, The North Face & Esprit [SXSW] at The Playlist.
Read More: SXSW 2023 Preview: 25 Must-See Film & TV Projects To Watch
Since then, the duo has turned their love for the outdoors, the environment and landscape, and their innate curiosity about the natural world into some riveting documentaries, many of them fueled by the same ticking-clock adrenaline of “Meru” and “Free Solo”.
Continue reading ‘Wild Life’ Review: The Directors Of ‘Free Solo’ Craft A Heartfelt Tribute To The Conservationists Behind Patagonia, The North Face & Esprit [SXSW] at The Playlist.
- 3/15/2023
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
A dull and airless Netflix documentary by an Oscar-winning duo whose brilliant films about the highs and lows of human exploration have rattled with the heart-in-your-throat intensity of riding a rickety wooden roller-coaster, Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi’s “Return to Space” . While I can’t speak to how this project came about or what purpose it hoped to serve, “Return to Earth” so pungently reeks of sponsored content that it doesn’t matter who actually footed the bill for it.
Which isn’t to suggest that Chin and Vasarhelyi wouldn’t be compelled to Musk on their own accord, or to the astronauts who risked their lives in order to lead SpaceX’s first crewed launch into orbit. The filmmakers’ previous work has been galvanized by a high-intensity approach to Herzogian characters — by a rich affinity for cave divers, free climbers, and anyone else who refuses to settle...
Which isn’t to suggest that Chin and Vasarhelyi wouldn’t be compelled to Musk on their own accord, or to the astronauts who risked their lives in order to lead SpaceX’s first crewed launch into orbit. The filmmakers’ previous work has been galvanized by a high-intensity approach to Herzogian characters — by a rich affinity for cave divers, free climbers, and anyone else who refuses to settle...
- 4/7/2022
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The 37th Annual International Documentary Association Awards, streamed online Friday night, capped a big week for nonfiction awards that also included the 15th Annual Cinema Eye Honors, presented live in New York on Wednesday.
Both awards groups honored Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated immigration saga “Flee” (Neon) with their top honors, while the Danish International Feature Oscar contender’s fellow Oscar nominee “Summer of Soul” (Searchlight/Hulu) notched three IDA awards: Rookie filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won for Best Director, Best Music Documentary, and Best Editing. Oscar nominee Jessica Kingdon’s “Ascension,” an observational look at the class structure in China, won three Cinema Eye Honors awards, the most of the evening, for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, Original Score and Debut Feature.
Oscar nominee “Writing with Fire” nabbed the IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award for the India-based directing team Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh.
The IDA online ceremony, which was pre-recorded,...
Both awards groups honored Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated immigration saga “Flee” (Neon) with their top honors, while the Danish International Feature Oscar contender’s fellow Oscar nominee “Summer of Soul” (Searchlight/Hulu) notched three IDA awards: Rookie filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won for Best Director, Best Music Documentary, and Best Editing. Oscar nominee Jessica Kingdon’s “Ascension,” an observational look at the class structure in China, won three Cinema Eye Honors awards, the most of the evening, for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, Original Score and Debut Feature.
Oscar nominee “Writing with Fire” nabbed the IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award for the India-based directing team Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh.
The IDA online ceremony, which was pre-recorded,...
- 3/5/2022
- by Anne Thompson and Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
“Free Solo” Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are already at work on their next documentary project while back in the awards conversation for their Thai cave doc “The Rescue.” As reported by Variety, the filmmaking duo are now in the edit suite on their upcoming big-screen effort, set as a love triangle that spans decades, and touches on everything from business to romance and, per their usual beat, the great outdoors.
The yet-to-be-titled documentary, eyeing a 2022 launch, will track the complex relationship involving Yvon Chouinard, the rock climber and conservationist who also founded the popular apparel company Patagonia; Douglas Tompkins, the co-founder of North Face and Esprit; and Kristine McDivitt, the former Patagonia CEO who went on to marry Tompkins.
“It’s kind of a love triangle,” Vasarhelyi told Variety. “It’s a big love story with a major female protagonist, which is a big step for us.
The yet-to-be-titled documentary, eyeing a 2022 launch, will track the complex relationship involving Yvon Chouinard, the rock climber and conservationist who also founded the popular apparel company Patagonia; Douglas Tompkins, the co-founder of North Face and Esprit; and Kristine McDivitt, the former Patagonia CEO who went on to marry Tompkins.
“It’s kind of a love triangle,” Vasarhelyi told Variety. “It’s a big love story with a major female protagonist, which is a big step for us.
- 11/21/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
While their most recent doc “The Rescue” – which has a market screening this week at IDFA – continues its festival and award-circuit run, directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have been at work in the edit suite prepping their next big-screen effort – a decades spanning love story mixing business, philanthropy, and the great outdoors.
Speaking with Variety, Vasarhelyi offered new details of the long-in-the-work project, which had previously gone by the title “Tompkins.” Produced by National Geographic and aiming for a mid-2022 launch, the still-untitled doc will follow the complicated relationship between conservationist and climber Yvon Chouinard, founder of apparel brand Patagonia, Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of the North Face and Esprit brands, and Kristine McDivitt, the former Patagonia CEO who later married Tompkins.
“It’s not a proper love triangle, but it’s kind of a love triangle,” says Vasarhelyi. “It’s a big love story with a major female protagonist,...
Speaking with Variety, Vasarhelyi offered new details of the long-in-the-work project, which had previously gone by the title “Tompkins.” Produced by National Geographic and aiming for a mid-2022 launch, the still-untitled doc will follow the complicated relationship between conservationist and climber Yvon Chouinard, founder of apparel brand Patagonia, Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of the North Face and Esprit brands, and Kristine McDivitt, the former Patagonia CEO who later married Tompkins.
“It’s not a proper love triangle, but it’s kind of a love triangle,” says Vasarhelyi. “It’s a big love story with a major female protagonist,...
- 11/21/2021
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
"My heart is still always in the mountains." Be inspired in only six minutes with this lovely little short film made by snowboarder / filmmaker Phil Hessler. The short is called A Conversation, and it is indeed just a meet-and-greet conversation between two iconic people within the outdoor sports industry - Ugandan-born professional snowboarder Brolin Mawejje, who's training for the Olympics; and professional climber / filmmaker Jimmy Chin, also known as the co-director of the doc films Meru, Free Solo, and this year's The Rescue. They meet in Jackson Hole for "an intimate conversation about their unique career paths as minorities in the outdoor industry and how they’ve struggled with pressure, both familial and internal." This originally premiered at the Mountainfilm Festival and it's now online to watch. It's great to hear from these two. More than anything this just makes me want to get up to the mountains to go skiing,...
- 9/17/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
In 2017, mountaineer Chris Bombardier became the first person with hemophilia to scale Mount Everest. “Bombardier Blood,” bowing on demand Aug. 17, captures the remarkable journey in which he attempts to complete his goal of climbing the Seven Summits — the highest mountain on each continent — while raising awareness of the blood disorder.
The film’s shoestring budget of $200,000 meant the production couldn’t bankroll an entire team to make the climb to the top, so Rob Bradford and Joshua Sterling Bragg, the DPs for writer-director Patrick James Lynch’s documentary, knew they would need to entrust Bombardier, a novice with a lens, to handle the camera for the toughest part of the shoot.
Bragg compiled a “cinematography bible” that considered what kind of shots to use on which part of the mountain. He turned to the matter-of-fact style of Renan Ozturk, a climber and Dp on mountaineering films “Valley Uprising,” “Meru” and “Sherpa” for inspiration.
The film’s shoestring budget of $200,000 meant the production couldn’t bankroll an entire team to make the climb to the top, so Rob Bradford and Joshua Sterling Bragg, the DPs for writer-director Patrick James Lynch’s documentary, knew they would need to entrust Bombardier, a novice with a lens, to handle the camera for the toughest part of the shoot.
Bragg compiled a “cinematography bible” that considered what kind of shots to use on which part of the mountain. He turned to the matter-of-fact style of Renan Ozturk, a climber and Dp on mountaineering films “Valley Uprising,” “Meru” and “Sherpa” for inspiration.
- 8/12/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Unlike narrative projects, documentaries are created in the edit suite. There, hundreds of hours of verité footage, archival materials, talking heads and even animated sequences need to be sorted through, digested and culled together to form a comprehensive, succinct and, with any luck, interesting and entertaining nonfiction series or specials.
To get there, docu directors rely on the unsung heroes of cinema — the editors. If making a documentary is like building a house, then the director is the architect, while the editor is the engineer. While some could argue that anyone is capable of picking up a camera and pressing the record button, not everyone can take a vast amount of footage and mold it into a compelling story.
“In documentary filmmaking, the editor is your closest collaborator,” says “Free Solo” co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. “The documentary editor works much like a writer would on a narrative feature.”
Five months...
To get there, docu directors rely on the unsung heroes of cinema — the editors. If making a documentary is like building a house, then the director is the architect, while the editor is the engineer. While some could argue that anyone is capable of picking up a camera and pressing the record button, not everyone can take a vast amount of footage and mold it into a compelling story.
“In documentary filmmaking, the editor is your closest collaborator,” says “Free Solo” co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. “The documentary editor works much like a writer would on a narrative feature.”
Five months...
- 8/14/2019
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Three years ago when married filmmakers Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi (“Meru”) embarked on climbing documentary “Free Solo” (NatGeo), they had no idea what a nailbiter it would finally be. By the time they unveiled the gorgeous 4K spectacle at Telluride over Labor Day weekend and watched it with an audience as well as their crew, they were stunned at how it brought back feelings of Ptsd. “It was crazy,” said Vasarhelyi. “Looking at dailies of the climb, it no longer affected me while we were cutting these scenes over and over again. But seeing it with an audience brought it back. My stomach fell out.”
During filming, the filmmakers weren’t the ones climbing the 3000-foot rock face of El Capitan without a rope, where any misstep would mean certain death. That was mountaineer Alex Honnold. But in some ways watching him and tracking him and not getting...
During filming, the filmmakers weren’t the ones climbing the 3000-foot rock face of El Capitan without a rope, where any misstep would mean certain death. That was mountaineer Alex Honnold. But in some ways watching him and tracking him and not getting...
- 2/15/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
“I’ve made a career of filming and shooting expeditions and some of the top athletes in the outdoors,” says Oscar-nominated “Free Solo” co-director Jimmy Chin, so he has had “the great fortune of working with some of the best athletes at the peak of their career.” So when he first heard that his friend Alex Honnold was planning to climb Yosemite’s 3,000 ft. high El Capitan Wall without ropes or safety gear, he knew he had to document it. Watch our exclusive video interview with Chin above.
See Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi could collect Oscar Iou with ‘Free Solo’
A professional mountain climber himself, Chin thought what Honnold was attempting “almost seemed impossible. Even among the top echelon of climbers and athletes, we’d never really heard of or seen anybody do what Alex is doing, which is essentially executing perfection when the stakes are life and...
See Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi could collect Oscar Iou with ‘Free Solo’
A professional mountain climber himself, Chin thought what Honnold was attempting “almost seemed impossible. Even among the top echelon of climbers and athletes, we’d never really heard of or seen anybody do what Alex is doing, which is essentially executing perfection when the stakes are life and...
- 2/12/2019
- by Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
When legendary “Hoop Dreams” filmmaker Steve James retires from making award-winning documentaries, he could almost certainly fall back on a career in stand-up, or at least hit the circuit as an awards show host. James was in rare comedic form at the 12th Annual Cinema Eye Honors Awards, held Thursday night at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, his energy livening up a somewhat sober crowd. He missed no opportunity to mention his Oscar-nominated film from last year, “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” which lost out to Bryan Fogel’s similarly titled “Icarus.”
“‘Icarus’, ‘Abacus,’ ‘Icarus,’ ‘Abacus,’ and then they gave it to ‘Icarus,'” said James. “So I missed it by a few letters. And it really dawned on me as I was sitting there that most people thought they were voting for ‘Abacus’ when they voted for ‘Icarus.'”
Dad jokes aside, it was a winning...
“‘Icarus’, ‘Abacus,’ ‘Icarus,’ ‘Abacus,’ and then they gave it to ‘Icarus,'” said James. “So I missed it by a few letters. And it really dawned on me as I was sitting there that most people thought they were voting for ‘Abacus’ when they voted for ‘Icarus.'”
Dad jokes aside, it was a winning...
- 1/11/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
RaMell Ross’s debut feature, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” took the top prize at the Cinema Eye Honors Thursday night in New York, winning outstanding nonfiction feature.
Bing Liu’s much-lauded skateboarding doc “Minding the Gap,” which tied the Cinema Eye record for most noms with seven, took home three trophies, including outstanding achievement in direction, editing, and debut. “Free Solo” also won three awards, with “Shirkers” nabbing two honors.
“Hale County’s” win marks the second for producer Joslyn Barnes, who also won last year for “Strong Island.” “Free Solo’s” three wins landed Jimmy Chin the title of most awarded individual in Cinema Eye history, with five awards including his two for 2015’s “Meru.”
See the full list of winners below.
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Bing Liu, “Minding the Gap”
Outstanding Achievement...
Bing Liu’s much-lauded skateboarding doc “Minding the Gap,” which tied the Cinema Eye record for most noms with seven, took home three trophies, including outstanding achievement in direction, editing, and debut. “Free Solo” also won three awards, with “Shirkers” nabbing two honors.
“Hale County’s” win marks the second for producer Joslyn Barnes, who also won last year for “Strong Island.” “Free Solo’s” three wins landed Jimmy Chin the title of most awarded individual in Cinema Eye history, with five awards including his two for 2015’s “Meru.”
See the full list of winners below.
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Bing Liu, “Minding the Gap”
Outstanding Achievement...
- 1/11/2019
- by Variety Staff
- Variety Film + TV
Both the DGA and WGA nominations for documentary feature dropped Monday. While the DGA list overlaps with the previously announced PGA nominations — they both include Oscar-shortlisted box-office hits “Free Solo,” “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” — the WGA’s list of four aren’t on the shortlist at all. (They only consider WGA signatories as eligible.)
Nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2018 are (in alphabetical order):
Morgan Neville
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
(Focus Features)
This is Mr. Neville’s first DGA Award nomination.
Ramell Ross
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
(Idiom Film and Louverture Films)
This is Mr. Ross’s first DGA Award nomination.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin
“Free Solo”
(National Geographic Documentary Films)
This is Ms. Vasarhelyi and Mr. Chin’s second DGA Award nomination. They were previously nominated in this category in 2015 for “Meru.
Nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2018 are (in alphabetical order):
Morgan Neville
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
(Focus Features)
This is Mr. Neville’s first DGA Award nomination.
Ramell Ross
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
(Idiom Film and Louverture Films)
This is Mr. Ross’s first DGA Award nomination.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin
“Free Solo”
(National Geographic Documentary Films)
This is Ms. Vasarhelyi and Mr. Chin’s second DGA Award nomination. They were previously nominated in this category in 2015 for “Meru.
- 1/7/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Both the DGA and WGA nominations for documentary feature dropped Monday. While the DGA list overlaps with the previously announced PGA nominations — they both include Oscar-shortlisted box-office hits “Free Solo,” “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” — the WGA’s list of four aren’t on the shortlist at all. (They only consider WGA signatories as eligible.)
Nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2018 are (in alphabetical order):
Morgan Neville
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
(Focus Features)
This is Mr. Neville’s first DGA Award nomination.
Ramell Ross
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
(Idiom Film and Louverture Films)
This is Mr. Ross’s first DGA Award nomination.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin
“Free Solo”
(National Geographic Documentary Films)
This is Ms. Vasarhelyi and Mr. Chin’s second DGA Award nomination. They were previously nominated in this category in 2015 for “Meru.
Nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2018 are (in alphabetical order):
Morgan Neville
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
(Focus Features)
This is Mr. Neville’s first DGA Award nomination.
Ramell Ross
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
(Idiom Film and Louverture Films)
This is Mr. Ross’s first DGA Award nomination.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin
“Free Solo”
(National Geographic Documentary Films)
This is Ms. Vasarhelyi and Mr. Chin’s second DGA Award nomination. They were previously nominated in this category in 2015 for “Meru.
- 1/7/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Climber Alex Honnold’s feat—ascending the 3,000-foot rock face of Yosemite’s El Capitan without ropes—is one of those spectacular human achievements that almost defy belief. But photographic evidence exists proving it really happened, in the form of the documentary Free Solo, one of the biggest nonfiction hits of this or any year.
The film was directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, a non-climber, and her husband Jimmy Chin, who is not only a climber but an elite one, and therefore in a position to judge the scale of what Honnold accomplished.
“I’ve been filming in this space for the last 20 years, and shooting stills, and really have worked with the best athletes, often at the peak of their careers,” Chin remarks. “And even given that much time and experience I’ve had doing this, there’s nothing I can compare it to. It’s truly one of...
The film was directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, a non-climber, and her husband Jimmy Chin, who is not only a climber but an elite one, and therefore in a position to judge the scale of what Honnold accomplished.
“I’ve been filming in this space for the last 20 years, and shooting stills, and really have worked with the best athletes, often at the peak of their careers,” Chin remarks. “And even given that much time and experience I’ve had doing this, there’s nothing I can compare it to. It’s truly one of...
- 12/21/2018
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
“Free Solo” won the Grand Prize at the Kendal Mountain Festival on Saturday night. A contender in Kendal’s main International Film Competition, the documentary from E. Chai Vasarhelyi, who helmed Sundance hit “Meru,” and Jimmy Chin, a climber in that film, was the overall winner in a lineup of 90 mountain and adventure films.
The audience – despite being predominantly mountaineers and outdoor enthusiasts themselves – still shuddered, flinched and sweated as the story of this unroped climb of the El Capitan rockface by the climber Alex Honnold unfolded. Not only does this film record the extraordinary achievement of a near impossible climb, but it also is not afraid to confront the climber and colleagues with the real possibility of failure and death.
“Wonderful Loser,” from Lithuania’s Arunas Matelis, took the Special Judges Prize. along with Krystle Wright and Toby Pike’s short “Chasing Monsters,” from Australia. Already with a clutch of awards to its credit,...
The audience – despite being predominantly mountaineers and outdoor enthusiasts themselves – still shuddered, flinched and sweated as the story of this unroped climb of the El Capitan rockface by the climber Alex Honnold unfolded. Not only does this film record the extraordinary achievement of a near impossible climb, but it also is not afraid to confront the climber and colleagues with the real possibility of failure and death.
“Wonderful Loser,” from Lithuania’s Arunas Matelis, took the Special Judges Prize. along with Krystle Wright and Toby Pike’s short “Chasing Monsters,” from Australia. Already with a clutch of awards to its credit,...
- 11/19/2018
- by George Bird
- Variety Film + TV
Women directors and producers are consistent winners and well-represented as nominees when it comes to documentaries in awards season. Barbara Kopple is a two-time Oscar-winning documentary director; Freida Lee Mock is an Oscar winner and was the Academy’s first documentary branch governor; Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”) and Zana Briski (“Born Into Brothels”) are the two women who’ve taken home the gold statuette as directors most recently. It’s a field in which women have made their mark in cinematography and editing, too, and are not outliers.
“Women have always been fiercely part of the documentary filmmaking movement,” says Diane Weyermann, Participant Media’s president of documentary film and TV. The barriers to entry are not as high when compared to scripted/narrative features, especially when it comes to financing. Production costs are less and crews are traditionally a fraction of the size. There’s also the longstanding tradition of...
“Women have always been fiercely part of the documentary filmmaking movement,” says Diane Weyermann, Participant Media’s president of documentary film and TV. The barriers to entry are not as high when compared to scripted/narrative features, especially when it comes to financing. Production costs are less and crews are traditionally a fraction of the size. There’s also the longstanding tradition of...
- 11/9/2018
- by Kathy A. McDonald
- Variety Film + TV
For a sensible person, the idea of attempting to climb a sheer, 3,200-foot wall of granite without ropes or safety gear is enough to send shivers down your spine. As directors E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin reveal in “Free Solo,” their documentary about Alex Honnold’s death-defying climb of Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan, Honnold is not one of those people. And to judge by the shots captured by the directors and their crew, neither are they.
Take this three-shot sequence from “The Boulder Problem,” a particularly tricky part of Honnold’s climb.
Shot 1: A vertigo-inducing, high-angle shot points straight down the face of El Capitan. Honnold is in the middle of frame, with the earth 2,050 feet below him in the background. He turns his body slightly diagonal as he reaches for a hand hold. As he pulls himself up, a cut on action to:
Shot 2:...
Take this three-shot sequence from “The Boulder Problem,” a particularly tricky part of Honnold’s climb.
Shot 1: A vertigo-inducing, high-angle shot points straight down the face of El Capitan. Honnold is in the middle of frame, with the earth 2,050 feet below him in the background. He turns his body slightly diagonal as he reaches for a hand hold. As he pulls himself up, a cut on action to:
Shot 2:...
- 10/17/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
On Sunday, Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” won the Toronto International Film Festival’s coveted People’s Choice Award, pushing it ahead in the Oscar race. The ’60s true story about jazz musician Don Shirley (“Moonlight” Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali) and the Bronx bouncer (Viggo Mortensen) who protected him on a concert tour of the deep South played well to critics and audiences. In taking the prize, it beat runners-up “If Beale Street Could Talk” (Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to “Moonlight”), as well as Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white Spanish-language “Roma.”
Expected winner “A Star is Born,” which inspired multiple standing ovations, didn’t place, amid questions about the festival’s new online voting methods, as reports spread that people were voting for “A Star Is Born” via multiple emails. If so, it didn’t work. Artistic Director Cameron Bailey explained in an email:
We analyze the voting data to make sure the votes are legitimate.
Expected winner “A Star is Born,” which inspired multiple standing ovations, didn’t place, amid questions about the festival’s new online voting methods, as reports spread that people were voting for “A Star Is Born” via multiple emails. If so, it didn’t work. Artistic Director Cameron Bailey explained in an email:
We analyze the voting data to make sure the votes are legitimate.
- 9/17/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
On Sunday, Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” won the Toronto International Film Festival’s coveted People’s Choice Award, pushing it ahead in the Oscar race. The ’60s true story about jazz musician Don Shirley (“Moonlight” Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali) and the Bronx bouncer (Viggo Mortensen) who protected him on a concert tour of the deep South played well to critics and audiences. In taking the prize, it beat runners-up “If Beale Street Could Talk” (Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to “Moonlight”), as well as Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white Spanish-language “Roma.”
Expected winner “A Star is Born,” which inspired multiple standing ovations, didn’t place, amid questions about the festival’s new online voting methods, as reports spread that people were voting for “A Star Is Born” via multiple emails. If so, it didn’t work. Artistic Director Cameron Bailey explained in an email:
We analyze the voting data to make sure the votes are legitimate.
Expected winner “A Star is Born,” which inspired multiple standing ovations, didn’t place, amid questions about the festival’s new online voting methods, as reports spread that people were voting for “A Star Is Born” via multiple emails. If so, it didn’t work. Artistic Director Cameron Bailey explained in an email:
We analyze the voting data to make sure the votes are legitimate.
- 9/17/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
On Thursday night, a crowd gathered at a welcome dinner held by the Telluride Film Festival. It was a full day before Senator Marco Rubio made the ridiculous accusation that Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man” was un-American because it omitted Armstrong planting the flag on the moon, but political discourse was everywhere. In one corner, the conversation shifted from some of the anticipated festival movies to a recent episode of The Daily, the New York Times’ news podcast, and why some people can’t appreciate Rachel Maddow’s reporting. A veteran distributor sitting nearby rolled his eyes. “Donald Trump is killing the movies,” he said.
Though our reality-tshow president has yet to launch a blatant cultural war against the moving image, the point resonated nonetheless: The chaotic news cycle stimulated by the lunatic at the top has eclipsed the appeal of more familiar storytelling. Headlines have become the narratives of the day.
Though our reality-tshow president has yet to launch a blatant cultural war against the moving image, the point resonated nonetheless: The chaotic news cycle stimulated by the lunatic at the top has eclipsed the appeal of more familiar storytelling. Headlines have become the narratives of the day.
- 9/2/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
For better or worse, Telluride is the real start of the Oscar conversation. Sure, Sundance launched “Colette” and “Wildlife” and a raft of strong documentaries, and Cannes yielded a rich crop of likely foreign-language contenders, but all these films must withstand a powerful riptide of Oscar-bound movies with massive awards campaigns behind them. Distributors don’t head for Telluride if they aren’t confident that their entries will emerge with buzz and momentum heading into Toronto.
Just how did Telluride become such a crucible? Aren’t the strongest movies also opening in Venice? Sure, Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” (Universal) starring Ryan Gosling as moon-lander Neil Armstrong has already emerged with raves on the order of his prior Oscar-winners “Whiplash” and “La La Land,” but the real conversation will be had when a larger number of film critics and awards pundits weigh in up in the mountains of Colorado.
Netflix...
Just how did Telluride become such a crucible? Aren’t the strongest movies also opening in Venice? Sure, Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” (Universal) starring Ryan Gosling as moon-lander Neil Armstrong has already emerged with raves on the order of his prior Oscar-winners “Whiplash” and “La La Land,” but the real conversation will be had when a larger number of film critics and awards pundits weigh in up in the mountains of Colorado.
Netflix...
- 8/30/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
For better or worse, Telluride is the real start of the Oscar conversation. Sure, Sundance launched “Colette” and “Wildlife” and a raft of strong documentaries, and Cannes yielded a rich crop of likely foreign-language contenders, but all these films must withstand a powerful riptide of Oscar-bound movies with massive awards campaigns behind them. Distributors don’t head for Telluride if they aren’t confident that their entries will emerge with buzz and momentum heading into Toronto.
Just how did Telluride become such a crucible? Aren’t the strongest movies also opening in Venice? Sure, Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” (Universal) starring Ryan Gosling as moon-lander Neil Armstrong has already emerged with raves on the order of his prior Oscar-winners “Whiplash” and “La La Land,” but the real conversation will be had when a larger number of film critics and awards pundits weigh in up in the mountains of Colorado.
Netflix...
Just how did Telluride become such a crucible? Aren’t the strongest movies also opening in Venice? Sure, Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” (Universal) starring Ryan Gosling as moon-lander Neil Armstrong has already emerged with raves on the order of his prior Oscar-winners “Whiplash” and “La La Land,” but the real conversation will be had when a larger number of film critics and awards pundits weigh in up in the mountains of Colorado.
Netflix...
- 8/30/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
This year’s star-studded Telluride Film Festival is mere hours from kicking off in the mountains of Colorado, and as is the annual event’s tradition, it has just now revealed its enviable lineup. As usual, this year’s fest features a range of buzzy fall season movies, including many films also premiering in Venice and Toronto as well as others resurfacing from earlier in the year, just in time for awards season. Filmmakers in this year’s program range from Alfonso Cuarón to Karyn Kusama, Hirokazu Kore-eda to Jason Reitman, and many more. The festival will also honor Cuarón, Emma Stone, and Rithy Panh as part of their long-running tributes section.
Films premiering at this year’s Telluride include a number of features already expected to impact the awards race in a major way, from Cuarón’s “Roma” to David Lowery’s Robert Redford-starring “The Old Man & the Gun...
Films premiering at this year’s Telluride include a number of features already expected to impact the awards race in a major way, from Cuarón’s “Roma” to David Lowery’s Robert Redford-starring “The Old Man & the Gun...
- 8/30/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Sundance has long delivered a few Oscar documentary contenders each year, most recently with “Last Men in Aleppo,” “Icarus” and Strong Island.” This year, the festival introduced a plethora of leading hopefuls, led by Morgan Neville’s heart-tugging portrait of the late PBS children’s host Fred Rogers, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (Metascore: 83), which Focus Features scooped up last summer; it goes into release June 8. The Sundance audience was in tears, slayed by a portrait of a beloved cultural figure who tried to do good. At Sundance, Oscar-winner Neville (“Twenty Feet From Stardom”) told me that he hopes this movie about a well-meaning conservative Republican Presbyterian minister will reach a wider swath than the usual liberal moviegoer. Count on it. This zeitgeist-hitter will be hard to beat.
Two other well-reviewed Sundance biodocs could emerge from the HBO broadcast realm: Susan Lacy biography “Jane Fonda in Five Acts” and...
Two other well-reviewed Sundance biodocs could emerge from the HBO broadcast realm: Susan Lacy biography “Jane Fonda in Five Acts” and...
- 6/6/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Update with photo: Nat Geo just got its Hollywood ending. Rock climber Alex Honnond today pulled off the first-ever free solo climb of famed El Capitan’s 3,000-foot vertical rock face at Yosemite National Park, with National Geographic Documentary Films shooting the historic feat for a new docu feature. Tentatively titled Solo, the pic is from filmmakers Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi, the team behind the 2015 Sundance audience award winner Meru. The pic will get a…...
- 6/3/2017
- Deadline
“Abstract: The Art of Design” is not necessarily a show we’d recommend for binge-viewing. The new Netflix series, streaming now following its Sundance 2017 premiere, is far from bad. Executive produced by Morgan Neville, the documentarians assembled to capture the spotlighted subjects have done a masterful job, by and large, of highlighting the unique sort of artistry at work here. However, episode by episode, every installment strikes such a similar tone and mood that to truly appreciate the difference in aethestics and disciplines on display, you’ll want to space them out.
You might also favor certain installments over others, whether it be because of subject matter or the execution itself. We reviewed the first two installments last month, finding it to be a fascinating approach to the importance of design we might otherwise take for granted. But now that we’ve been able to see all eight episodes, we have our favorites.
You might also favor certain installments over others, whether it be because of subject matter or the execution itself. We reviewed the first two installments last month, finding it to be a fascinating approach to the importance of design we might otherwise take for granted. But now that we’ve been able to see all eight episodes, we have our favorites.
- 2/11/2017
- by Liz Shannon Miller
- Indiewire
★★★☆☆ Anyone with a fear of heights should look away now. Jimmy Chin and Elisabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's Meru is at its dizzying best when the filmmaking duo allow the facts and images of an astonishing feat to speak for themselves. Described by Buddhists as "the centre of the universe," the knife-edge summit atop the Shark's Fin of Mount Meru sits over 20,000 feet up in the northernmost reaches of India. The precarious sliver of snowy ground is the pinnacle, both literal and figurative, of the climbing world. Chin, veteran mountaineering partner Conrad Anker and new recruit Renan Ozturk spent years planning, and a number of weeks in the attempted execution, of the impossible.
- 3/7/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Yay! My favorite film of 2015 was the big winner at the recently concluded Film Independent Spirit Awards taking home the best feature, director (Tom McCarthy), screenplay, and editing. It was previously announced that the film was the winner of the prestigious Robert Altman Award (ensemble) as well.
Oh and kudos to the Film Independent Spirit Awards for bestowing their Best Supporting Actress Award to Mya Taylor for "Tangerine!" Taylor becomes the first transgender performer to receive major acting award! See her acceptance speech right here.
Let's see if this will continue with tonight's Oscars. See my full Oscar predictions right here.
Here's the complete list of winners of the Film Independent Spirit Awards:
Best Feature
Award given to the Producer; Executive Producers are not awarded.
"Anomalisa"
"Beasts of No Nation"
"Carol"
*** "Spotlight" (Winner)
"Tangerine"
Best Director
Cary Joji Fukunaga, "Beasts of No Nation"
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, "Anomalisa"
David Robert Mitchell,...
Oh and kudos to the Film Independent Spirit Awards for bestowing their Best Supporting Actress Award to Mya Taylor for "Tangerine!" Taylor becomes the first transgender performer to receive major acting award! See her acceptance speech right here.
Let's see if this will continue with tonight's Oscars. See my full Oscar predictions right here.
Here's the complete list of winners of the Film Independent Spirit Awards:
Best Feature
Award given to the Producer; Executive Producers are not awarded.
"Anomalisa"
"Beasts of No Nation"
"Carol"
*** "Spotlight" (Winner)
"Tangerine"
Best Director
Cary Joji Fukunaga, "Beasts of No Nation"
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, "Anomalisa"
David Robert Mitchell,...
- 2/28/2016
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
This film of three adventurers braving storms and avalanches to conquer a Himalayan peak will leave non-fanatics at base camp
The top of the Himalayan mountain Meru remained untrampled until 2011, when a team hauled themselves unaided up the “shark’s fin”, the mountain’s sheer peak. Led by Conrad Anker, famed for finding George Mallory’s body on Everest, the three men, including this documentary’s co-director Jimmy Chin, are shown inching to the summit past storms and avalanches, fear and doubt. A calamitous accident sends one of their number to intensive care, but five months later he’s back, hauling and heaving again. It’s an astounding feat, not least because they were shooting the film as they went, but there’s something – perhaps the profligate use of “super” as an adjective – that’s likely to appeal to the extreme sports market and leave the rest of us stranded.
The top of the Himalayan mountain Meru remained untrampled until 2011, when a team hauled themselves unaided up the “shark’s fin”, the mountain’s sheer peak. Led by Conrad Anker, famed for finding George Mallory’s body on Everest, the three men, including this documentary’s co-director Jimmy Chin, are shown inching to the summit past storms and avalanches, fear and doubt. A calamitous accident sends one of their number to intensive care, but five months later he’s back, hauling and heaving again. It’s an astounding feat, not least because they were shooting the film as they went, but there’s something – perhaps the profligate use of “super” as an adjective – that’s likely to appeal to the extreme sports market and leave the rest of us stranded.
- 2/11/2016
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Yes, the Directors Guild of America made history over the weekend at their annual awards ceremony. They decided to award Alejandro G. Iñárritu again this year, making him the first filmmaker to win back to back honors from DGA. His win for The Revenant obviously shakes up the Oscar race in a big way, but it also just shows how respected Iñárritu is by his peers. Many pundits, myself included, had considered him the third or fourth most likely winner, and yet…here he is. Now, it seems like Iñárritu and The Revenant is surging at the perfect time to make a big showing in a few weeks with the Academy. In giving the prize once again to Iñárritu, members of this guild opted not to make a coronation for either The Big Short/Adam McKay or Spotlight/Tom McCarthy. Likewise, they also more or less killed George Miller’s...
- 2/8/2016
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Watch: One-Hour Roundtable with Michael Moore, Alex Gibney and the Year's Most Daring Documentarians
Read More: Watch: Tarantino, Iñárritu and More Reveal Influences and Industry Issues in One-Hour Roundtable The Hollywood Reporter's excellent series of roundtable discussions continues today with the full 58-minute documentary roundtable, which includes six heavyweight panelists: Michael Moore ("Where To Invade Next"), Alex Gibney ("Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" and "Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine"), Amy Berg ("Janis: Little Girl Blue" and "Prophet's Prey"), Kirby Dick ("The Hunting Ground"), Liz Garbus ("What Happened, Miss Simone?") and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ("Meru"). Tackling topics and figures as controversial as college rape, Warren Jeffs, Steve Jobs, Scientology and more, these documentarians have often risked their lives and reputations to bring the truth to the big screen. "I hired a private detective; he was carrying a gun," said Berg...
- 1/25/2016
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
In THR's latest roundtable talk, some of the premier documentarians of 2015 reflect on the state of their chosen form. Michael Moore ("Where To Invade Next"), Alex Gibney ("Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" and "Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine"), Amy Berg ("Janis: Little Girl Blue," "Prophet's Prey"), Kirby Dick ("The Hunting Ground"), Liz Garbus ("What Happened, Miss Simone?") and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ("Meru") sit down to chat for a fascinating talk. Read More: Amy Berg's Brutally Unsettling 'Prophet's Prey' When discussing documentaries, it's easy to forget that for all the stories about the tough production of "The Revenant," these filmmakers are also dealing with situations that could very easily turn dangerous. "Well, yeah, I'm afraid. But I reached a certain point where I had to just stop being afraid, and I got rid of the...
- 1/25/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
A weekend TV-programming note: Check out The Hollywood Reporter's acclaimed roundtable series on SundanceTV. This Sunday is THR's Documentary Roundtable, which features Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine), 62; Michael Moore (Where to Invade Next), 61; Amy Berg (Janis: Little Girl Blue and Prophet's Prey), 45; Kirby Dick (The Hunting Ground), 63; Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?), 45; and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (Meru), 36. For the first time, viewers can watch the roundtable discussion on SundanceTV as part of the cable channel's new original nonfiction series, Close
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- 1/20/2016
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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