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Exclusive: MTV Documentary Films’ Oscar-contender I Am Ready, Warden, directed by Smriti Mundhra, will premiere on Paramount+ November 22. The short documentary, about a death row inmate seeking the possibility of redemption as his execution date approaches, earned its latest award over the weekend at the Woodstock Film Festival.

The project reunites MTV Documentary Films with Mundhra; they teamed up for the 2019 short documentary St. Louis Superman, which earned the first Academy Award nomination for MTV’s nonfiction banner. It also brought the first Oscar nom to Mundhra and her fellow director on that film, Sami Khan.

I Am Ready, Warden, which premiered earlier this year at Montana’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, “tells the harrowing and emotionally charged story of John Henry Ramirez, a man convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Texas,” according to a release. “Through his time on death row, the film offers a rare...

On Feb. 6, 2023, after a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Turkish-Syrian border, becoming the deadliest disaster in the region’s modern history, Syrian director Waad Al-Kateab was in London fretting about her family and friends, and feeling helpless.

The activist and helmer of “For Sama” – the Oscar-nominated civil war diary that traveled around the world – was unable to reach the stricken area, having fled the Bashar Assad regime. But she immediately reached out to people on the ground, including her friends Fadi Al Halabi, a cinematographer on Oscar-winning short “The White Helmets,” and Fuad Sayed Issa, founder of Syrian refugee-led humanitarian group Violet.

Shortly thereafter Al-Kateab got a call from prominent producer Sheila Nevins. This led to her directing “Death Without Mercy” the powerful observational doc from MTV Documentary Films that premiered at Sheffield DocFest in June. It weaves together intimate first-hand footage with TV news reports, social media, CCTV, drone shots,...

In her 2022 Toronto curtain raiser “The Swimmers,” telling the true story of two Syrian sisters and their emotional and gruelling journey to Europe to escape the civil war, director Sally El-Hossaini went to great lengths to ensure authenticity, using real-life refugees both in-front of and behind the camera.

For Counterpoints Arts, the U.K. charity that focusses on culture and migration, “The Swimmers” offered a great example of how projects involving refugees and migrants could — and should — be developed. As the organization’s co-founder and director Almir Koldzic explains to Variety, El-Hossaini made sure that “people with lived experiences were represented on every level of production and were respected in that process.”

Since it launched in 2012, Counterpoints has worked alongside the U.K. arts scene as part of its efforts to “inspire social change and enhance inclusion and cultural integration,” putting on numerous film screenings concerning the subject, many during the annual Refugee Week,...

The massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023 produced catastrophic damage and loss of life – killing more than 55,000 thousand people and leveling huge swaths of cities.

Perhaps most devastating of all was the knowledge that the destruction didn’t need to be so extreme. Poor construction caused many buildings to implode, collapsing into clouds of dust. Inadequate rescue efforts left many who survived the initial quake and aftershocks to perish in the rubble.

The new documentary Death Without Mercy, directed by Oscar-nominated Syrian filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab, captures what happened when tranquility was shattered at 4:17 a.m. local time on February 6, and the extraordinary scenes of destruction and suffering that followed in the hours and days afterwards. The film, from MTV Documentary Films, just premiered at Sheffield DocFest.

‘Death Without Mercy’

“At the beginning, we couldn’t really understand this scale of death,” says Al-Kateab. “In that time...

Waad al-Kateab’s documentary Death Without Mercy collects agonising experience from the aftermath of 2023. She reflects on a natural disaster made much worse by politics, and how she is trying to help

Waad al-Kateab has always looked for hope, but when it came to making her latest documentary, Death Without Mercy, the moments were difficult to find. After the nightmarish earthquake shook Turkey and Syria in February 2023, she felt hopeless counting the passing seconds, hours and days from her home in east London as she waited for an emergency visa to visit her family in Gaziantep city, near the Syrian border she crossed years earlier fleeing the Assad regime. “It could have been us,” the film-maker, now a refugee in the UK, tells me with tears in her eyes.

At 32, al-Kateab has a talent for making the devastatingly personal universal. In her debut film, For Sama, she documented life under...

Exclusive: Io Capitano, the latest feature from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, and Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border have joined the lineup of this year’s Refugee Week arts and culture festival, running June 17 to 23.

The theme for Refugee Week 2024 is “Our Home”, which organizers have said will focus on thinking about our bodies as our homes, how we can make whole neighborhoods more welcoming, and how to care for our collective home, planet Earth.

Mubi has joined the festival this year and will launch Garrone’s Io Capitano on its platform during the festival. BFI Player has compiled a Refugee Week collection of free films and rental films. Other major events during the week include:

Key Screenings (London):

● Io Capitano by Matteo Garrone: This Oscar-nominated film follows two Senegalese teenagers, Seydou and Moussa, as they journey from Dakar to Italy, facing deserts, detention centers, and perilous seas in pursuit of a better life.

For the second year in a row, the L’Oeil d’or prize – the top award for documentary at the Cannes Film Festival – is being shared by two films.

The award announced on the Croisette today went to Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck, and The Brink of Dreams, directed by Ayman El Amir and Nada Riyadh.

Peck’s film centers on the titular South African photographer who documented life under apartheid for his country’s oppressed Black population. Actor Lakeith Stanfield voices writings from the late artist in the film. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found premiered in the Special Screenings section of Cannes.

Director Raoul Peck at the Deadline Studio during the 77th Cannes Film Festival presented by Neom on May 22, 2024.

The L’Oeil d’or jury – comprised of president Nicolas Philibert, as well as Dyana Gaye, Elise Jalladeau, Francis Legault and Mina Kavani – wrote,...

The Hexagonal Hive And A Mouse In A Maze Photo: Courtesy of Sheffield DocFest Sheffield DocFest has announced its full film programme, along with its Alternate Realities exhibitions, and public talks for this year's festival, which has the theme Reflections on Reality.

Among the notable entries in this year's line-up is The Hexagonal Hive And A Mouse In A Maze, which marks the directorial debut of Tilda Swinton, directing alongside Bartek Dziadosz. It is one of 48 world premieres, which also include the latest film from For Sama director Waad Al-Kateab, Death without Mercy.

Events at the festival will include playwright, screenwriter, novelist and director Hanif Kureishi will joining a live and remote conversation with director Nigel Williams following the world premiere of In My Own Words: Hanif Kureish, a portrait of him and his career in both the arts and public sphere.

The Signature Talk will be presented by Jiabao Li.

Tilda Swinton‘s feature directorial debut is up for an award at Sheffield DocFest where it will get its world premiere as part of a lineup of 48 world premieres from 56 different countries.

The U.K. documentary festival, taking place June 12-17, revealed its full program on Wednesday. Its theme for the 31st edition this year will be “Reflections on Realities.”

Swinton’s debut alongside filmmaker Bartek Dziadosz, The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze, will have its world premiere at the event in England, following them as “they travel the world to understand what it means to learn, and along the way uncover playful food for thought.”

Stand-out music documentaries at Sheffield DocFest 2024 include the world premiere of the documentary on English rock band Blur, titled blur: To the End, and the European premiere of Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound.

The event’s film program totals...

Keshet International has acquired exclusive worldwide distribution rights to the feature-length documentary “2024: A Hundred Days That Rocked the Royals” from Oscar-nominated banner ITN Productions.

Commissioned by Channel 5, where it will premiere in the U.K. on Saturday at 1 p.m., the documentary “retells the unprecedented series of crises faced by the royal family in the first three months of 2024 — crises that threatened the very fabric of the monarchy,” according to its synopsis. “A king fighting cancer, a princess undergoing preventative chemotherapy and an heir torn between privacy and duty are just some of the struggles the royal family had to endure.”

Directed by Myles Judd and executive produced by Daniel Smith, “2024: A Hundred Days That Rocked the Royals” features interviews with royal commentators and journalists who explain how the recent royal crises have sparked countless conspiracy theories and predict what could be next for the British crown.

Manchester Film Festival (March 15-24) has unveiled its industry talks line-up with Oscar-nominated director Waad Al-Kateab and executives from Curzon Film and Altitude Film Entertainment among the speakers.

Al-Kateab - a 2020 Oscar nominee, and Bafta and Bifa winner for her documentary For Sama - will close the programme with an in-conversation session before screening her latest film We Dare To Dream, which debuted at Tribeca Film Festival last year.

Discussing the current UK film landscape will be Curzon’s head of theatrical sales Jamie Mendonca; Bulldog’s head of distribution and acquisitions Philip Hoile; Altitude’s head of publicity Mark Jones...

In the opening moments of 20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov’s chilling account of the siege of the Ukrainian port city, a Russian tank marked with the ominous ‘Z’ swivels its turret toward a hospital. On an upper floor of the building, Chernov and his small team record as the cannon slowly rotates towards them, preparing to fire.

“The tank did shoot the hospital right above the floor we were at,” he says. “It hit between the fifth and sixth floors and a patient was killed with that shell.”

It was one of many times he put his life at risk to show the Russian army’s destruction of the city and its systematic targeting of civilians. He remembers feeling his life was about to end.

“Exactly in that moment in the film, this moment of uncertainty, the moment when tanks are shooting at the residential areas, when the hospital...

John Legend is wide awake and dreaming on his latest single “Don’t Need to Sleep.” The song appears in Waad Al-Kateab’s recently released documentary We Dare to Dream, now streaming on Peacock, which the musician executive produced alongside Angelina Jolie.

“But tonight/I don’t need to close my eyes/I don’t need to fall asleep/I don’t need to sleep to dream no I don’t,” Legend sings on the record, co-written with Justin Tranter and producer Oak Felder. “Bent but not broken/Down but...

Peacock has acquired U.S. rights to Waad Al-Kateab’s second feature-length documentary “We Dare to Dream.”

The pact comes after the 93-minute film made its world premiere in June at the Tribeca Film Festival and had a Oscar qualifying theatrical run at New York City’s IFC Center in October. The docu, about the refugee Olympic team at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, will begin streaming on Peacock on Dec. 1.

“The fact that Peacock has now acquired our film gives me hope that millions of people will be able to understand our story, and that we, the world’s refugees, are not the crisis,” says Al-Kateab. “We are a consequence of multiple crises in the world from climate instability to political conflict that are causing millions, like me and my children, to lose their homes and their way of life. With new crises at a breaking point today, I think...

This film from the Oscar-nominated director of For Sama follows athletes at the Tokyo Games and looks at how they’ve escaped persecution to reach sport’s top table

There’s nothing that Waad Al-Kateab – the citizen-journalist turned Oscar-nominated director of For Sama – needs to do to make her latest documentary more affecting. The resilience and strength of character of the athletes she films competing for the Refugee Team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics reaches for your heart and gives it a good twist. The team was first introduced at the Rio Games in 2016 in response to the refugee crisis and gives athletes a scholarship to pay for living costs and training – as well as a flag to compete under.

And what a team they are. Kimia Alizadeh Zonoozi was 18 when she became Iran’s first female summer Olympic medallist, winning a bronze in Taekwondo at Rio. But she couldn’t...

Emma Watson wore a daring look during her latest red carpet appearance!

The 33-year-old wore a peekaboo cut-out bra while walking the carpet at the premiere screening of We Dare to Dream on Sunday (November 26) at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, England.

Emma was joined on the red carpet by activist Malala Yousafzai and director Waad Al-Kateab. During the Q&a session for the movie, she was seen asking a question.

We Dare to Dream is a new sports documentary that shows us the dramatic challenges faced by refugee athletes who competed for a place in the 2020 Olympic Games. Narrated in first person and often asking herself difficult questions, Al-Kateab listens to the athletes who have seen their dreams vanish and accompanies them through their suffering.

Fyi: Emma is wearing an Alexander McQueen suit.

John Legend is no stranger to documentaries. Last month, he and his Get Lifted Films’ co-founders Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorius announced that they would serve as executive producers on Oscar-nominated Waad Al-Kateab’s latest docu “We Dare to Dream.”

This month, Legend is behind HBO Documentary Films’ “Stand Up & Shout: Songs From a Philly High School.” About an annual music program in the city’s Hill-Freedman World Academy, the 54-minute docu features 10th-grade students learning to write, compose, produce, and perform original songs. Together with local musicians, the students pitch concepts, work out arrangements, and eventually create an album that captures the challenges they are living through and the joy music brings to their respective lives.

Director Amy Schatz spent one school year following a group of students from the program as they came up with song ideas, went through the recording process, and release their collaborative album.

John Legend is lending his voice to “We Dare to Dream,” a documentary about the refugee Olympic team at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Legend will write, compose and record “Don’t Need to Sleep,” an original song for the docu, which will open theatrically Oct. 20 at New York’s IFC Center.

Legend as well as his Get Lifted Film co-founders Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorius will serve as executive producers on the project alongside Angelina Jolie.

“I am honored to contribute an original song to ‘We Dare to Dream,'” says Legend. “Waad Al-Kateab has created an important film and I hope “Don’t Need to Sleep” does the documentary and its extraordinary subjects justice.”

“We Dare to Dream” is director Waad Al-Kateab’s second feature doc. In her first film, “For Sama,” which was nominated for an Academy Award, the Syrian director used her camera to capture her daily...

Oscar-winning actor and activist Angelina Jolie has signed on as an executive producer on We Dare to Dream, the new documentary from Oscar-nominated director Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama).

We Dare to Dream tells the story of the young, stateless athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Cameroon who competed together under the banner of the Ioc Refugee Olympic team at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. We Dare to Dream has its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on Sunday.

Jolie has long been a vocal advocate for the rights of refugees. The actor and filmmaker served as a goodwill ambassador for Un refugee agency the Unhcr from 2001 to 2012 and as a special envoy from 2012 to 2022.

“I have long admired Angelina’s clear-sighted and principled approach to human rights and refugee issues,” Al-Kateab said in a statement. “She has been a true ally to the refugee community and to me personally over the last two years.

The documentary is directed by Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moud.

Vienna-based documentary sales outfit Autlook has snapped up world rights for The Mother Of All Lies, which will receive its world premiere in Un Certain Regard at this month’s Cannes Film Festival.

The documentary is directed by Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir. In the film, El Moudir painstakingly recreates her Casablanca neighbourhood on a handmade set, enlisting family and friends to help solve the troubling mysteries of her childhood.

Autlook Filmsales acquired global rights, not including all rights on the Mena region and France.

“The audience and the market...

The 2023 Tribeca Festival feature film lineup has been unveiled.

This year’s festival takes place June 7 — 18 and includes a range of feature narrative, documentary, and animated films. The 2023 Tribeca Festival launches 109 feature films from 127 filmmakers across 36 countries, with 93 world premieres, one international premiere, eight North American premieres, one U.S. premiere, and six New York premieres.

There are 43 first-time directors and 29 directors returning to Tribeca with their latest projects. A total of 41 percent of all feature films are directed by women and, for the first time, more than half of competition feature films are directed by women at 68 percent. Additionally, 36 percent of feature films are directed by Bipoc filmmakers, including two Indigenous filmmakers.

This season, it’s all about the actor-director, with films from a slew of A-list stars behind the camera. Highlights include the world premieres of Chelsea Peretti’s meta-comedy “First Time Female Director” and John Slattery’s...

Tribeca Festival has announced the lineup of its 2023 festival, which includes new films from actors Chelsea Peretti and David Duchovny and documentaries about Rock Hudson and news anchor Dan Rather.

This year’s event, which takes place from June 7-18, will feature 109 feature films from 127 filmmakers across 36 countries. There will be 93 world premieres, one international premiere, eight North American premieres, one U.S. premiere and six New York premieres.

Among the lineup, there are offerings from 43 first-time directors and 29 directors returning to Tribeca with their latest projects. For the first time, more than half of feature films in competition (68%) are directed by women, while 41% (45) of all feature films are directed by women. Additionally, 36% (39) of feature films are directed by Bipoc filmmakers, including two indigenous filmmakers.

This year’s festival also spotlights a number of films directed by actors, such as “First Time Female Director” by Peretti; “Maggie Moore(s)” by...

The 22nd edition of the Tribeca Festival unveiled a 2023 lineup with a record number of female helmers and heavy on films directed by actors like Chelsea Peretti’s First Time Female Director, John Slattery thriller Maggie Moore(s) with Tina Fey and Jon Hamm, David Duchovny’s Bucky F*cking Dent and Steve Buscemi’s The Listener.

Marvel also screens its first original documentary, Stan Lee by David Gelb, as the fest unspools June 7-18 in New York City. Also making an appearance: Downtown Owl by Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater, and Eric Larue by Michael Shannon.

In all, 109 feature, narrative, documentary and animated films from 127 directors across 36 countries will showcase emerging and household names.

Tribeca is expanding its Midnight offering this year, and will also present its second annual Human/Nature award for environmental storytelling to world-premiering Common Ground by Rebecca and Josh Tickell.

Related music and live events...

Some in the industry might be irked that the Oscars and SXSW are colliding on the same weekend this year, however, it’s a win-win for both tonight: For a year ago, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once blasted off here in Austin, TX as the festival’s opening night film. The movie becomes the first world premiere to debut at SXSW and win Oscar’s Best Picture.

Overall, Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven Oscars including Best Picture, the Daniels for Director, Jamie Lee Curtis for Best Supporting Actress, Michelle Yeoh for Best Actress, Key Huy Quan for Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing and Original Screenplay.

Related: Oscar Winners List

Said SXSW head Claudette Godfrey beamed tonight, “It’s so meaningful to have been a part of the Daniels’ journey and the journey of Everything Everywhere All at Once. We could not be more thrilled that their...

Brad Pitt, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Lulu Wang are among 900 new members inducted into the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) since 2020.

The global intake also includes Akua Gyamfi, Anna Dick, Bobby Krlic, Caroline O’Neill, Fiona Shaw, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Jennifer Hampson, Kate Herron, Mark Bridges, Micheal Ward, Roger Clark, Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù, Vanessa Kirby, Waad Al-Kateab and Woody Jackson.

Individuals selected for BAFTA’s new talent initiatives, Breakthrough and Elevate, are also welcomed as new members.

On Thursday, BAFTA opened applications for its new membership tier, Connect, created for emerging and mid-level professionals across the U.K. and North America to join the academy at an earlier point in their careers.

BAFTA chair Krishnendu Majumdar said: “BAFTA continues to be committed to driving more inclusive industries and promoting unheard voices in the screen arts. Members are at the heart of everything we do and we’re always looking for talented...

BAFTA has revealed that 900 new members have joined the org since 2020, including a roster of high-profile names from across both sides of the pond.

Among the new membership are Brad Pitt, Vanessa Kirby, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fiona Shaw, Kate Herron, Michael Ward, Sope Dirisu, and Waad Al-Kateab, all of whom join as full voting members.

The awards body is today, March 17, launching BAFTA Connect, a new tier of membership targeted at people in the early stages of their careers.

Connect is the latest endeavor from BAFTA to improve the diversity of its membership, a key target for Chair Krishnendu Majumdar.

Since September 2020, BAFTA has invited more than 500 people from underrepresented groups across film, games and television to join its membership and is on target to invite 1,000 in two years.

“BAFTA continues to be committed to driving more inclusive industries and promoting unheard voices in the screen arts. Members are at the...

The Academy awards fellowships for both the US and international.

Four Screen UK & Ireland Stars of Tomorrow have been selected as finalists for the Gold Fellowship for Women, an award offered for emerging female filmmakers by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS).

Fellowships will be given in two categories: one for the US, and one for international. Six finalists have been selected for the domestic fellowship, with five – including all four former Screen Stars – for the international award.

Among them are producer Farah Abushwesha, a Screen Star in 2017, who is creative director at emerging talent showcase Rocliffe and...

When PBS launched “Frontline” in 1983, the docuseries was considered the “the last best hope for broadcast documentaries.” While these days the longform investigative-journalism series is certainly not the only hope for docus looking for a home on the small screen, the program remains one of the cornerstones of not only PBS’ documentary efforts, but also of the nonfiction industry.

Despite a rapidly shifting landscape that introduced big money streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, “Frontline,” produced by Wgbh Boston, has managed to maintain its prominence in the industry over the last decade. Thus far, the program has garnered 100 Emmys and two Oscar nominations. “Frontline’s” success over the last seven years is due in large part to Raney Aronson-Rath, who joined “Frontline” in 2007 as a senior producer. She was named deputy executive producer in 2012, and then became executive producer in 2015. A journalist at ABC News and the Wall Street Journal before joining “Frontline,...

The Ioc Refugee Olympic Team competing in the Tokyo Olympics is set to be the subject of a feature documentary from For Sama director Waad Al-Kateab.

Al-Kateab, who was nominated for an Oscar for her Syrian Civil War documentary, is helming the doc, which is produced by The White Helmets and Virunga producer Joanna Natasegara, who runs Violet Films, and Bryn Mooser and his non-fiction studio Xtr.

The doc is backed by Airbnb founder Joe Gebbia, who exec produces alongside Jason Ropell and Nevine Mabro and Xtr’s Justin Lacob and Kathryn Everett.

Al Kateab and Natasegara have had unprecedented access to the Ioc Refugee Olympic Team before, during and after the 2020 Games, which saw 29 athletes competing in Tokyo, originating from 11 countries, and residing in 13 host nations.

“I am so honored to have the opportunity to capture the stories of these inspirational athletes on their way to competing at the...

“For Sama” director Waad Al-Kateab is in Tokyo filming a documentary about the Ioc Refugee Olympic Team for Xtr.

Al-Kateab, a Syrian filmmaker who received an Oscar nomination for “For Sama,” is working with Oscar-winning producer Joanna Natasegara on the project. They have had access to the Ioc Refugee Olympic Team before and during the 2021 Games. The team consists of 29 athletes competing in Tokyo, originating from 11 countries, and residing in 13 host nations.

“I am so honored to have the opportunity to capture the stories of these inspirational athletes on their way to competing at the biggest sports event in the world,” said Al-Kateab. “So much of their experience I recognize in my own journey as a refugee and I feel very committed to representing their heart, determination and resilience in a way that they deserve. Despite the hardship for anyone leaving their homeland behind, the Refugee Olympic Team stories are a moving contribution of ambition,...

Oscar-nominated director Waad Al-Kateab will direct a documentary feature following the Ioc Refugee Olympic Team, Xtr announced Wednesday morning.

The film is in production at the Tokyo Olympics, where Al-Kateab and producer Joanna Natasegara are following the team consisting of 29 athletes originating from 11 countries, and residing in 13 host nations.

Director Al-Kateab made her Oscar-nominated directorial debut with “For Sama,” which followed her own experience as a journalist who elected to stay with her husband and young daughter in the embattled city of Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War. After “For Sama” won four BAFTA awards, making it the most nominated documentary in BAFTA’s history, Al-Kateab started the “Action For Sama,” advocacy campaign which raises awareness on Syrian conflicts.

Oscar-winning producer Natasegara will produce the film alongside Bryn Mooser, a former Peace Corps worker and Oscar-nominated producer who founded the nonfiction film and television studio Xtr in 2019.

“I am so...

Rather than using the excuse of a pandemic to slow down, the indefatigable and hugely prolific director Mark Cousins has instead speeded up his output. This is the first of two films he has screening in Cannes, while two more finished films are in the pipeline. It was fitting that his latest venture, a follow-up to The Story of Film: An Odyssey, was the first screening of the Cannes Film Festival for it is a celebration of this millennium’s cinema and is a sweeping, vast and loving look at the recent past and potential future of film.

Cousins has taken a slightly different approach with this instalment: gone are the interviews with filmmakers. In their stead, we have a slew of film clips – from 97 films! – that speak for themselves. While Cannes critics and film buffs will recognise a host of winners from previous festivals – Shoplifters and Parasite making notable...

Ten years after the Syrian revolution that rapidly turned into civil war, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, tens of thousands have disappeared — believed to have been tortured and killed in government prisons — and an estimated 13 million, more than half of Syria’s prewar population, have been forcibly displaced. Filmmakers on the front lines have played a crucial role in raising awareness beyond the din of TV news. Has it all been in vain?

“If we look at where we are now as Syrians, nobody can ignore the pain and the suffering and the death and destruction,” says Waad Al-Kateab, co-director of “For Sama,” the 2020 Oscar-nominated civil war diary that traveled around the world. But at the same time, she says, “For me and all the people that I know, we’ve never said: ‘I wish it had never happened.’”

Al-Kateab mentions a friend who is still waiting to again see her father,...

Both films won three prizes each at Sweden’s top film awards.

Henrik Schyffert’s Run Uje Run has won best film at the 2021 Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s top film accolade, which also saw Amanda Kernell’s Charter score a hat-trick including best director.

Run Uje Run, written by and starring Swedish musician Uje Brandelius, is an autobiographical comedy-drama that centres on a pop star who is diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The feature, which won the audience award and Fipresci prize when its debuted at Goteborg Film Festival last year, also scored the...

Sweden’s Guldbagge Awards

Sweden’s primary national film awards, the Guldbagge Awards, were held in Stockholm last night. Henrik Schyffert’s comedy drama Run Uje Run won Best Film as well as Best Actor (Uje Brandelius) and Best Screenplay (also for Brandelius). Amanda Kernell’s drama Charter was another of the big winners, taking Best Director, Best Actress (Ane Dahl Torp), and Best Cinematography (Sophia Olsson). Waad Al-Kateab’s For Sama won best International Feature, while I Am Greta took Best Documentary Film.

Fremantle-Backed Podcast Producer Storyglass Hires Audible Exec

Storyglass, the Fremantle-backed podcast production company, has hired Audible originals executive Steve Carsey as its managing director. He will report to Storyglass chairman Bob McCourt and will be responsible for overseeing Storyglass’ projects across all scripted and unscripted genres. Storyglass was fully-owned by Fremantle until last year, when it was spun out into a standalone company within the Bertelsmann Group.

For film festivals and markets, all is chaos. Some say the show will go on, or at least some of the show; others are pivoting to a virtual experience, or postponing, or wait-and-seeing, or canceling altogether. Some are open only to industry members, while others offer free and paid programming for the general public. Some are restricted only to residents of specific countries. And all is subject to change.

It’s a lot to track, and we’ll keep doing just that in the weeks and months ahead. Here’s a list of film festivals and markets that have offered some indication about their plans; those not on the list are not necessarily canceled. Many continue to accept submissions, but are mum on how they plan to move forward. The list will be updated as event organizers release information on their plans.

November

Sheffield Doc/Fest and Marketplace

Sheffield, UK...

Endemol Shine Australia’s Old People’s Home For 4 Year Olds has snared the International Emmy Award for non-scripted entertainment.

The series, a social experiment which demonstrates the physical and mental benefits of bringing together the very young and very old in a retirement home, beat out Masterchef Thailand, The Public Enlightenment – Make Lillestrøm Great Again (Norway) and Canta Comigo, a reality music competition from Endemol Shine Brazil.

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the awards during a live ceremony hosted by actor Richard Kind in NYC.

Originally commissioned by the ABC, Old People’s Home For 4 Year Olds is executive produced by Debbie Cuell and produced by Brooke Hulsman.

Based on a UK format, the show narrated by Annabel Crabb has already won the 2019 Aacta Award for Best Documentary or Factual Program, and two gongs at the 2020 New York Festivals TV and Film Awards.

Michaela Coel, Lenny Abrahamson’s “Normal People” and “The Masked Singer” were among the winners of the U.K.’s Royal Television Society (Rts) Craft & Design Awards.

Coel won the 2020 Rts special award for her groundbreaking BBC/HBO show “I May Destroy You.” In presenting the award to Coel, the judges said: “This piece sits in the true spirit of the craft and design Awards. The astonishing level of detail in all aspects of this production was humbling to see. A truly distinctive, highly creative and exemplary piece of work, in which the winner had also corralled outstanding demonstrations of expert craft skills across all the production disciplines.”

Lenny Abrahamson won best director of drama for smash hit BBC/Hulu show “Normal People.” “Beautiful, stylish and confident. This was the work of an elite director, skilfully providing the space for his actors to shine and their chemistry to transmit through the lens.

This year’s crop of Intl. Emmy nominees across categories feature strong and diverse showings for series and performers alike. Here, Variety breaks down the races.

Drama

Few categories sum up current trends in global TV better than drama series, which also continues to be the biggest prize at the ceremony. Three of the four titles come from big, global-reaching companies, and three of are also crime thrillers, still the stock-in trade of much high-end international drama. On paper, any of the four titles could win, with interrogation room-set “Criminal: U.K.” from “Killing Eve” writer George Kay, pitting cops against suspects played in memorable turns by a stone-faced David Tennant and swanking Hayley Atwell. “The Bronze Garden 2” has Argentina’s Joaquín Furriel take on a new case to honor his dead friend Doberti (Luis Luque). Set in Berlin’s renowned Charité university hospital, the second season of “Charité” unspools...

Portuguese film distributor Midas Filmes has picked up a slew of new acquisitions, including Nanni Moretti’s upcoming “Three Floors,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria” and Daniele Luchetti’s “The Ties,” which opened this year’s Venice Film Festival.

The Lisbon-based company, which is taking part in this year’s International Classic Film Market (Mifc) focus on Portugal in Lyon, France, has also recently picked up Belgian helmer Lucas Belvaux’s “Home Front,” starring Gérard Depardieu; “The Woman Who Ran,” by Hong Sang-Soo; and “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue,” Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke’s documentary about a local literature festival in Shanxi, China, which premiered at this year’s Berlinale.

Launched in 2006, Midas Filmes has released more than 60 films and boasts a DVD catalog of more than 200 films. Catalog titles and classics play major roles in the distributor’s repertoire, some 85% of which comprises international films, about 10% Portuguese titles and 5% U.

While the world will eventually recover from the Covid-pandemic, the same cannot be said about many of the conflicts in Arabic states, with Syria being perhaps the most problematic and disastrous. After the spark of hope that came with the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, the world stood in (silent) shock as dictators and authoritarian regimes took drastic measures to ensure their rules remained. In Syria, the revolution was eventually met with the regime of president Assad, supported by his Russian allies, bombarding his own people, resulting in an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. With much of the media being censored or downright banned by the regime, the world only got to know about the revolution as well as the eventual siege thanks to people like citizen journalist Waad al-Kateab and her husband Hamza al-Kateab, a doctor who gave many interviews during the siege for Western media outlets.

“For Sama” is...

Nominations for the 48th annual British Documentary Awards, known as the Griersons, include episode two of Netflix docuseries “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning “For Sama,” and a best presenter nod for David Olusoga for “The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files.”

The awards are given by The Grierson Trust. Of the 52 nominated films, 21 were broadcast on BBC channels. Netflix has nine nominations and Channel 4 has five. ITV and Al Jazeera have two apiece while YouTube Originals, Channel 5, National Geographic and Discovery have one each.

Lorraine Heggessey, chair of The Grierson Trust, said: “This has been a difficult year for the production community and particularly for freelancers, so it’s more important than ever to recognize and celebrate the excellence of so many talented filmmakers, whether they are newcomers or established global names. These nominations demonstrate the relevance and versatility of documentaries,...

Entry deadline extended to September 25.

The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) has postponed the entry deadline for its 2020 awards following changes to the festival calendar and uncertainty surrounding release dates.

Entries for the 2020 awards will now remain open until September 25, extended from August 28.

The late feature entry deadline now stands at Friday, October 2; with the deadline for entry materials at October 9; and the screening deadline (by when all films must be available to voters) at October 19.

Consequently, the reveals of the longlists, nominations, and winners are also being pushed back, with dates for those events - including the ceremony -...

The Gsa BAFTA student film awards acknowledged achievements in animation, documentary and live-action with Uc Berkeley’s Lucas Guilkey taking the prize for doc “What Happened to Dujuan Armstrong?,” which follows a woman’s search for justice after her son dies in a Santa Rita jail.

The animation trophy went to “Sous la Glace” made by a team of from France and “Mum’s Hairpins” from Russia winning the live-action award.

A special prize was also voted on by a jury made up of actors Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Clarke Peters, directors Isabel Coixet and Reinaldo Marcus Green and filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab. The prize was awarded to “Making Waves,” a film following one woman’s work in marine wildlife conservation.

The BAFTA-gsa Grant Jury, which launched last year, also awarded $12,000 grants to filmmakers of two projects, “Witness” and “Premature.” The grants are issued to give creators a platform for encouraging awareness...

Special jury prize awarded to Laura Zéphirin for Making Waves.

Films by students from France, the US and Russia were among the winners of the 2020 Gsa Bafta Student Film Awards presented at a digital ceremony hosted by actor Elliot Knight.

The Gsa Bafta Student Film Awards celebrate the next generation of filmmakers from around the globe and nine finallists were selected from close to 700 submissions from film schools in 35 countries across Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

The Bafta Student Film Award for Animation was awarded to Milan Baulard, Ismaïl Berrahma, Flore Dupont, Laurie Estampes, Quentin Nory...

Special jury prize awarded to Laura Zéphirin for Making Waves.

Films by students from France and the US were among the winners of the 2020 Gsa Bafta Student Film Awards presented at a digital ceremony hosted by actor Elliot Knight.

The Gsa Bafta Student Film Awards celebrate the next generation of filmmakers from around the globe and nine finallists were selected from close to 700 submissions from film schools in 35 countries across Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

The Bafta Student Film Award for Animation was awarded to Milan Baulard, Ismaïl Berrahma, Flore Dupont, Laurie Estampes, Quentin Nory and...

Votes were cast by 141 Arab and international critics from 57 territories.

Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven has scooped best film and director in the fourth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.

The comedy originally premiered in Cannes Competition in 2019, garnering a special mention, and was Palestine’s submission for the 2020 Academy Awards.

In other awards, Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabry was feted with best actress for her performance in Tunisian director Hinde Boujemaa’s Noura’s Dream as a woman trying to escape the clutches of a violent husband.

French-Tunisian actor Sami Bouajila was named best actor...

The festival ended with very positive viewing rates for its films screening on Festival Scope, its ceremonies aired on CNN Turk, its live talks and interviews on Instagram and its online exhibitions. From 14 to 21 June the first International Migration Film Festival took place online. Over 30 million people watched the diverse and powerful movies on Festival Scope, saw the ceremonies on CNN Turk, visited the online exhibitions and followed live talks and interviews on Instagram. According to the festival's organisers, the event's intention was to create understanding towards refugees and migrants through film, as confirmed by acclaimed Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, head of the jury of the International Feature Film Competition. The winner of the International Feature Film Competition was acclaimed documentary For Sama, by director and producer Waad Al-Kateab and director Edward Watts, who give intimate insights into war torn Aleppo in Syria, all the while...

Fourth edition is based on votes of 142 Arab and international critics hailing from 57 countries.

Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven and Maryam Touzani’s Adam received four nominations each in the first round of voting in this year’s Critics Awards for Arab Films.

A total of 142 Arab and international film critics from 57 countries are participating in the fourth edition of the awards, organised by the Arab Cinema Centre (Acc).

Suleiman’s comedy-drama It Must Be Heaven, which premiered in Cannes Competition in 2019, has been nominated for best film, director, actor (Suleiman) and screenplay.

Moroccan filmmaker Touzani’s feature directorial debut Adam,...

For its first edition the International Migration Film Festival has assembled a diverse lineup of eight titles tackling the plight of refugees and migrants around the world and running the gamut from feelgood comedy to gut-wrenching dramas and docs.

They will vie for a best feature film award worth €15,000 and also a prize for most inspiring script worth €5,000, both to be decided by a prestigious international jury comprising Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who serves as jury president, American actor Danny Glover, Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini, Bosnian actor Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig, and British costume designer Sandy Powell.

The selection, which will be visible in Turkey June 14-21 on the FestivalScope platform, serves as a nice primer of recent pics tackling the topic, but also as “a reminder to not let people forget about refugees” during this time when the coronavirus pandemic – which has also greatly added to...