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Exclusive: The inaugural Henry Awards for Public Interest Documentary has named its 15 semifinalists, with the winner set to receive $100,000.

The new prize, created by the Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, recognizes “nonfiction films that advance public understanding of the critical issues of our time while demonstrating outstanding cinematic achievement,” according to a release. “Guided by the hallmarks of ethical practice, rigorous investigation, and courageous storytelling, the Henry Awards are intended to honor and encourage a documentary filmmaking practice grounded in its essential role to a thriving society and focused on the public good.”

‘Four Daughters’

Among the 15 semifinalists announced Tuesday are the Oscar nominated documentary Four Daughters, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, and the Oscar-shortlisted documentaries Queendom, directed by Agniia Galdanova, and Hollywoodgate, directed by Ibrahim Nash’at. Scroll for the full list of semifinalists.

BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival (March 19-30) has unveiled its full line-up, with 56 features across three strands, exploring subjects such as Kenya’s ballroom scene and the appeal of dating apps.

The programme has films and shorts from 41 countries, with six world premiere features. These include Kenyan filmmaker Njoroge Muthoni’s documentaryHow To Live, which explores Nairobi’s vibrant ballroom scene and celebrates queer African joy.

In Yu-jin Lee’s Manok, the owner of a South Korean lesbian bar must return to her small hometown after clashing with the city’s younger queer community.

Buenos Aires-set comedy drama Few...

With “Enigma,” director Zackary Drucker (“The Stroll”) makes another intriguing film about trans history. From the sidewalks of New York, this time she takes the audience to glamourous Parisian

nightclubs and the fringes of British aristocracy to tell the story of Amanda Lear and April Ashley. The film is a straightforward chronological documentary relying on archival footage and media interviews from that era. Most fascinating is Drucker’s interview with Lear, which gives “Enigma” much-needed tension and conflict to balance out the conventionality of the rest of the proceedings.

Dubbed the “white queen of disco,” Lear was a famous performer and celebrity in the 1970s, while Ashley started as a model and became a pioneer of trans rights advocacy in her native Britain. According to Ashley, on whose book and recollections most of the film is constructed, they met as showgirls in the late 1950s in the Parisian cabaret Le Carrousel.

The 2025 line-up for the Sundance Film Festival has been announced.

This year’s fest features the latest projects from Oscar winners, studio filmmakers, and indie stalwarts like Justin Lin, Ira Sachs, Barry Levinson, and Questlove while the U.S. Dramatic Competition section is made of selections from directors new to the Park City fest.

“The combination of these new voices and some of these filmmakers who might be more household names, speaks to the the power of independent cinema and how, no matter where you are in your career, you are drawn to this community that Sundance has helped build over the years,” Sundance director of programming Kim Yutani told The Hollywood Reporter. Of the 87 feature films announced thus far, 36 titles (41 percent) are directed by first-time feature film directors.

Across the line-up, talents like Jennifer Lopez, Dev Patel, Bowen Yang, Chloë Sevigny, Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Ayo Edebiri star in fest films,...

Mubi has officially made history with the iconic Whitney Museum.

This Whitney Biennial, eight films from the program will be able to be streamed during the show across the U.S., Canada, and UK beginning this Friday, April 12. The forthcoming film program is part of the “Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing” for the 81st edition of the Museum’s landmark exhibition series.

“Film has been an important component of Whitney Biennials since the 1970s, and we are thrilled to continue our commitment to film in a new online initiative partnering with Mubi, giving an even greater platform to artists and allowing us to reach wider audiences beyond the Museum,” Whitney curators Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli said in a press statement.

The program is additionally co-organized by guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr., and Zackary Drucker. Select films include Siku Allooloo’s “Spirit Emulsion,...

John Cameron Mitchell has signed on to produce the upcoming biopic about trans legend Candy Darling!

The 60-year-old Hedwig and the Angry Inch star will serve as an executive producer on the untitled project about the life of the Andy Warhol Superstar directed by Zackary Drucker starring Barbie actress Hari Nef as the trans icon.

Keep reading to find out more…The film follows Candy Darling’s “childhood in Long Island through her years alongside underground icons Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis in Warhol’s Factory scene, and her influence on musicians including Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground and Patti Smith. She was immortalized in popular songs including Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ and The Velvet Underground’s ‘Candy Says,’” according to Variety.

Candy also starred in Warhol’s cult film Women In Revolt before she died of leukemia in 1974 at age 29.

“Legendary trans icon Candy Darling has...

Zackary Drucker will direct the upcoming biopic about Andy Warhol superstar Candy Darling starring Hari Nef. John Cameron Mitchell also joins the untitled film about the transgender icon as executive producer.

It was previously announced that Nef (“Barbie”) will star in the movie.

The film traces Darling’s childhood in Long Island through her years alongside underground icons Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis in Warhol’s Factory scene, and her influence on musicians including Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground and Patti Smith. She was immortalized in popular songs including Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and The Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says.”

Darling also starred in Warhol’s cult film “Women In Revolt” before she died of leukemia in 1974 at age 29.

“I’ve dedicated my life and career to amplifying the history of trans and queer icons, and their impact in shaping art and culture for everyone,” Drucker said in a statement.

Director Josh Greenbaum was known as a documentary filmmaker before he shifted gears for “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” and with “Will & Harper” — a nonfiction buddy comedy in which Will Ferrell drives across the country with a beloved colleague — he returns to his nonfiction roots in order to confront a series of questions that seem as far from his comfort zone as they are from Ferrell’s. Questions like: How does a straight cis male of a certain age come to terms with the fact that one of his oldest friends has just come out as trans? And what will happen to their friendship when said trans woman refuses to stop for donuts?.

Of course, the more important character in this story is the much less famous — if equally titular — Harper Steele, the Emmy-winning “SNL” senior writer behind such gonzo Ferrell efforts as “EuroVision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.

The Cinema Eye Honors announced the winners for its documentary films and series competition Friday in Manhattan, with “32 Sounds” taking the honor for outstanding nonfiction feature. Maite Alberdi won outstanding direction for “The Eternal Memory” together with Kaouther Ben Hania for “Four Daughters,” while “Paul T. Goldman” won outstanding nonfiction series.

See all the winners below:

—Outstanding Nonfiction Feature

32 Sounds

Directed by Sam Green

Produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann

—Outstanding Direction

Maite Alberdi

The Eternal Memory

Kaouther Ben Hania

Four Daughters

—Outstanding Editing

Michael Harte

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

—Outstanding Production

Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath, Derl McCrudden and Vasilisa Stepanenko

20 Days in Mariupol

—Outstanding Cinematography

Ants Tammik

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

—Outstanding Original Score

Jd Samson

32 Sounds

—Outstanding Sound Design

Mark Mangini

32 Sounds

—Outstanding Visual Design

Thomas Curtis and Sean Pierce

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

—Outstanding Debut

Kokomo...

Exclusive: The Gotham Film and Media Institute and HBO Documentary Films have set the cohort and mentors for the second edition of their Documentary Development Initiative. Launched in 2022, the initiative was designed for storytellers who identify as Bipoc, LGBTQ+, and/or storytellers with disabilities, the goal being to provide resources to develop thought-provoking, character-driven, contemporary ideas for documentary films and limited series.

This year’s participants are Rolake Bamgbose, Dan Chen, Elizabeth Lo, Andy Sarjahani, Krystal Tingle, and Monica Villamizar. Distinguished creatives serving as mentors will include Anthony Caronna, Zackary Drucker, David France, Dawn Porter, Fernando Villena, and Nanfu Wang.

Taking place throughout the fall of 2024, the second annual program will see selected filmmakers receive grants of $50,000 for research and creative development at an early stage. HBO and The Gotham will provide resources and mentorship to support the development of documentary projects and select grantees will have the opportunity to receive additional funding.

For many years, Taja Cheek lived two lives. As L’Rain, she made acclaimed music that was warm yet weird, steeped in exhilarating experimentation and heavy emotions. At the same time, she was navigating the art world, working at New York non-profit institutions like Creative Time and the Kitchen; she eventually landed at MoMA PS1, where she helped curate performance series like the Warm Up parties and Sunday Sessions. Cheek did her best all along to keep these two career paths separate. She worried one might be seen as a mark...

Open Television and the Sundance Institute have joined forces for a new initiative aimed at expanding support for intersectional storytellers.

Launching amid the fifth anniversary of the annual #OTVFellows program, Pitch, Please! will serve as a launching pad for fellowship participants — a collection of independent artists marginalized by their race, gender, sexuality, class, disability or nationality — and their creative projects. As part of the program, selected members of the cohort will pitch their series, short films and video art concepts to a panel of creative advisors and a live audience.

“We are thrilled to expand our partnership with the Sundance Institute to bring Pitch, Please! to life,” Elijah McKinnon, co-founder and executive director of Open Television, said. “Feedback is the ultimate gift when you are crafting your skill as a storyteller and this initiative provides an intentional opportunity for our fellows to share their pitches in an innovative format that...

Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl offers a nostalgic look into the early 2000s pop culture, shedding light on the problematic aspects of that era and the impact of society blogs on socialites' lives. The documentary received mixed reviews, with some praising its emotional depth and heartfelt storytelling, while others felt it lacked balance and depth in its portrayal of celebrities and wannabes. Despite the polarizing nature of the content, Queenmaker is worth watching for its compassionate exploration of misogyny and hate in popular culture, as well as its shocking reveals and clear emotional intent.

Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl is a Hulu documentary that shines a light on the troublesome aspects of 2000s pop culture, but is it worth watching? Released in 2023 and directed by Zackary Drucker (The Lady and the Dale) the film explores the extremely popular New York City society blogs of the early...

The Hulu series The 1619 Project and the Showtime feature Nothing Lasts Forever scored a leading three nominations apiece today as the Cinema Eye Honors announced its first round of contenders for the prestigious documentary-focused awards.

The 1619 Project, based on Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of slavery in North America and its impact up until the present day, earned nominations for Best Anthology Series, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Oprah Winfrey, Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams and Hannah-Jones are among the producers of the six-part series.

‘Nothing Lasts Forever’

Nothing Lasts Forever, director Jason Kohn’s glittering examination of the world of diamonds – the real kind and the emergence of undetectable “synthetic” diamonds – earned nominations for Best Broadcast Film, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Scroll for the full list of nominations announced today.

Other films and series that scored multiple nominations include Hulu’s Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields...

Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead all broadcast documentaries in nominations for the 17th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which were announced on Thursday during the Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles.

Each of the programs received three nominations in the five broadcast categories, with “The 1619 Project” nominated in the Anthology Series, cinematography and editing categories and “Nothing Lasts Forever” singled out in Broadcast film, cinematography and editing categories.

Other programs with multiple nominations include the broadcast movie “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” the nonfiction series “Dear Mama” and “Paul T. Goldman” and the anthology series “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin” and “Our Planet II.”

Hulu led all networks and platforms with eight nominations, followed by Netflix with five and Showtime with four.

Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based organization devoted to honoring all facets of nonfiction filmmaking, also...

A series of portraits of Black trans sex workers and the men who lust after them, D. Smith’s Kokomo City plays as a hyper-stylized companion to Zackary Drucker and Kristen Lovell’s recent The Stroll. But where The Stroll elaborates on the relationship between New York City, particularly the Meatpacking District, and trans women’s hustle using rather formulaic storytelling, Kokomo City’s look at trans sex work in Atlanta is more original.

The film’s most significant accomplishment is the mood it crafts with its cool black-and-white images, fast-paced editing, unorthodox camera angles, handheld camera, and overall jazzy atmosphere. But Smith’s investment on surfaces can only sustain the documentary for so long, as the discourse level of its interviewed subjects—a mix of trans sex workers and, to a lesser extent, trans-attracted men—never quite catches up to the euphoria of the visuals.

Kokomo City begins as...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be launching 10 new scientific and technical investigations in 2023. The investigations will be completed by an Academy committee ahead of the upcoming Scientific and Technical Awards on Feb. 23, 2024.

Investigations currently underway cover the following areas: onboard remote driving apparatus; reusable cable-cutting devices for motion picture squibs; post-process depth of field software; mathematically lossless encoding of motion picture camera raw files; motor-stabilized motion picture camera support systems for hand/body-supported operation; interactive renderers that provide a representative approximation of final offline renders during post-production; volumetric surface reconstruction; pattern-based 3D clothing creation software; layerable hierarchical 3D scene description frameworks; and digital image processing film restoration software utilized for theatrical re-release and archival preservation.

Individuals and companies with devices or claims of innovation that fall under the umbrella of any of these categories are welcomed by the Academy to submit their achievements for review. The...

Hello and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen podcast. I am Valerie Complex, and today we’re talking about the HBO documentary The Stroll with its directors Kristen Lovell (in her directorial debut), and Zackary Drucker, and one of the film’s subjects Carey Smith about the making of the film, how “The Stroll” became a tight knit community, and the repercussions of changes that exist in the Meatpacking District today. Here is a bit more info regarding today’s guest!

When Lovell moved to New York City in the 1990s and began to transition, she was fired from her job. With so few options to earn money to survive, Kristen, like many transgender women of color during this era, began sex work in an area known as “The Stroll” in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan. There is where trans women congregated and forged a deep camaraderie to protect each other from harassment and violence.

Gender, identity, sexuality, and “life” finding a way to survive are a few of the ambitious yet wonderfully presented ideas that occupy Biosphere, the new film directed by Mel Eslyn, who shares co-writing duties with one of its two stars, Mark Duplass. Biosphere is part post-apocalyptic sci-fi romp, part buddy film. It is also one of the best films to hit the screen this year, a thought-provoking ride that’s bound to spark conversation.

Meet Billy (Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown), two lifelong pals — "brothers from another mother,” we’re told — who happen to be the last two men on Earth. Their survival is credited to Ray, the shrewd scientist who designed the domed structure they’ve lived in after the planet ceased to sustain life.

The biosphere comes with perks — basic necessities and all that — but when fish in their fishpond begin dying, the duo faces an ominous future.

There is a raw, dangerous yet distinctly unapologetic demeanor to the grainy archival footage in the documentary film The Stroll, now streaming on HBO, where transgender sex workers bravely walk the streets of New York City and solicit potential customers cruising by in their cars. Winner of the Special Jury Award – Clarity of Vision at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, The Stroll is the story of director Kristen Lovell’s experience living on the streets in the ‘90s and making money as a sex worker in the Meatpacking District of lower Manhattan.

When Lovell began her transition in New York in the 1990s she was fired from her job, a common occurrence for transgender women of color. Lacking other professional opportunities, and to make ends meet, she began doing sex work in an area known as “the stroll.”

“It’s where trans women congregated and forged a deep camaraderie to protect...

At the “Biosphere” premiere on Tuesday, Sterling K. Brown teased his television series reunion with “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman.

It has been reported that the new series will be a thriller with Brown starring as the head of security to a president. Brown earned an Emmy for his work as Randall on “This Is Us” in 2017.

“It’s not Randall. The character is completely different, completely different milieu.” Brown said of the new series. “But you know Dan — he can’t help but throw some heart in there. There is always going to be heart.”

Brown also touched on working with Jennifer Lopez in the sci-fi thriller, “Atlas,” not long after she married Ben Affleck.

“JLo was cool, as all could be,” Brown said. “She was fresh off her nuptials and very much in love.”

He then joked, “And her husband’s cool, too.”

“Biosphere,” directed by Mel Eslyn,...

Queer history is an act of excavation. Telling stories about the LGBTQ community — and of transgender people in particular — necessarily requires sifting through archives that are outright hostile to those they document. In “The Stroll,” a new HBO documentary directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, the filmmakers excavate decades’ worth of images to tell the story of trans sex workers in the Meatpacking District of New York City. Ostensibly a slice of local history of an increasingly gentrified city that sees marginalized folks as handily disposable, “The Stroll” is an empathetic portrait of a community still fighting for its own survival.

The film opens on footage of a young Lovell, taken from the 2007 doc “Queer Streets,” in which she speaks about how she first turned to sex work to make money — more money, in fact, than what she made at her day job. Her eyes are a bit glazed...

In a new documentary, two trans film-makers aim to shed light on a community often stereotyped and undervalued

For trans film-maker Kristen Lovell, her new documentary The Stroll – co-directed with another trans film-maker, Zackary Drucker, and premiering on HBO this week – was about including an ignored chapter of trans history, one that she herself lived. Young, Black and trans in 90s New York, Lovell was fired from her job when she began to live her truth and was forced to sustain herself via sex work. The Stroll is a testament to what she went through just to be herself and the stories of so many other women like her that she met along the way.

“It was just time to tell this story,” Lovell told me. “There was a void, a generational void, where we went from the likes of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson to this new generation...

Necropolitics and trans poetics never quite become one in Zackary Drucker and Kristen Lovell’s The Stroll, which recounts the history of the titular area of New York’s Meatpacking District where trans women went to make a living as sex workers between the 1970s and ‘90s. The documentary’s activist ethos takes up all of its space, and while Drucker and Lovell attest to the resilience of trans women in the face of relentless violence, they unfortunately opt for the most formulaic kind of visual storytelling. Which makes it difficult for ambiguity, the very stuff that desire is made of, to ever creep into the mix.

Apart from a few animated sequences dramatizing a predictable pattern of trans living that begins with a sex worker’s police arrest and ends with her returning to the streets, the film’s stylistic commitment is rooted in an apparent will to pass for routine streaming fare.

Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-premiering The Stroll is a beautifully and lovingly crafted time capsule of NYC’s Meatpacking District that mostly spans from Giuliani’s infamous “broken windows” reign of terror through Bloomberg’s post-9/11 “gentrification on steroids,” as one knowledgeable interviewee ruefully reflects (seconds after I coincidentally yelled those same words at my screener). Unsurprisingly, our billionaire mayor did indeed view unrestrained capitalism as the solution to every problem, including that of the “undesirable” communities—starving artists and sex workers—that called the neighborhood home. For me, the most revelatory aspect of this heartfelt walk down memory lane isn’t that it’s offered from […]

The post “A Call to Action for Everybody To Preserve Their History Before It’s Gone”: Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-premiering The Stroll is a beautifully and lovingly crafted time capsule of NYC’s Meatpacking District that mostly spans from Giuliani’s infamous “broken windows” reign of terror through Bloomberg’s post-9/11 “gentrification on steroids,” as one knowledgeable interviewee ruefully reflects (seconds after I coincidentally yelled those same words at my screener). Unsurprisingly, our billionaire mayor did indeed view unrestrained capitalism as the solution to every problem, including that of the “undesirable” communities—starving artists and sex workers—that called the neighborhood home. For me, the most revelatory aspect of this heartfelt walk down memory lane isn’t that it’s offered from […]

The post “A Call to Action for Everybody To Preserve Their History Before It’s Gone”: Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker on The Stroll first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Egyptt, Lady P, Ceyenne, Cashmere: they’re all on intimate terms with The Stroll, a strip of 14th Street in the Meatpacking District once popular with Black trans sex workers in pre-yuppified Manhattan. It was a dangerous life; the streetwalkers often didn’t know if they’d be beaten up by the johns or the cops. But at the end of the day they knew they had each other, and it’s this sense of community and camaraderie that stands out in The Stroll, the new HBO documentary from stroller-turned-filmmaker Kristen Lovell.

A pair of essential documentaries from Sundance Film Festival this year examined the lives of trans sex workers through their own perspectives, and now both will be arriving this summer. Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s The Stroll, coming to HBO and Max next week, explores 1990s sex work in NYC’s now-gentrified Meatpacking District, while D. Smith’s Kokomo City, opening in theaters later next month, gives the spotlight to four trans sex workers from Atlanta and NYC. Ahead of both releases, the first trailers have now arrived.

John Fink said in his review of The Stroll, “A frank celebration of a pre-Giuliani New York, Kristen Lovell and Zachary Drucker’s The Stroll explores a unique period from the inside. Lovell––an actress, activist, and the producer of the seminal trans film The Garden Left Behind––knows the streets well, and after being the subject of a 2007 documentary about...

Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown are seeking best friends for the end of the world.

The duo star as lifelong pals who are the last survivors on the planet after the apocalypse in Mel Esyln’s debut feature film “Biosphere,” which premiered at 2022 TIFF. The film is set to be released by IFC Films.

Per the official synopsis, in the not-too-distant future, the last two men on Earth must adapt and evolve to save humanity. Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown) are lifelong best friends, brothers from another mother — they also happen to be the last two men on earth. Their survival is largely due to Ray, a brilliant scientist who designed the custom biosphere they call home, outfitting it with both creature comforts and the necessities to sustain life on a doomed planet. When the population of their fishpond — which supplies essential protein — begins waning, the...

Corporate consolidation, along with shrinking publicity budgets and streaming services’ willingness to bury their own content, have made film festivals and series increasingly desirable to documentary filmmakers who are not only seeking distribution, but also to those nonfiction helmers who have found a platform for their work.

The rocky landscape has made the competition fierce for a slot at not only top-tier festivals, but also regional film events like New York’s Rooftop Films’ Summer Series.

Over the course of the last year, Rooftop Films president Dan Nuxoll received 3,500 film submissions for the nonprofit organization’s 27th annual Summer Series, which kicks off on May 25. Only 23 feature films were accepted. (Not all films have been announced.)

Fourteen of the 23 features Nuxoll chose are documentaries. include high profile docs like Chris Smith’s “Wham!” (Netflix), Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s “The Stroll” (HBO Documentary Films), Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues...

The first half of the Hulu documentary Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl is a passable overview of the turn-of-the-21st-century heiress-celebrity scene, plus some of the bloggers who made their names as barnacles on the gilded ship. You probably know most of the boldfaced names: Paris and Nicky Hilton, Nicole Richie, Tinsley Mortimer. You might even know their most fervent chroniclers, including Perez Hilton and Gawker’s Emily Gould, professional gossips who made a meal ticket out of the usually blond, always-rich pretty young things they covered. It’s an intriguing enough story,...

A new documentary looks back on the New York social scene of the late 2000s when glamorous high society women dominated the headlines for better and worse

Lose weight. Have money. Give away money. Hire a publicist, even if it bankrupts your daddy. The no-bake recipe for becoming an icon of the 2000s is laid out in the opening salvo of Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl, Zackary Drucker’s fizzy documentary about the founding daughters of a social revolution.

It girls, armed with appurtenances both flashy and furry, have swarmed the earth since the creation of capital. But privacy used to be a cornerstone of privilege, and the gilded-age dictum held that the names of respectable ladies were only to appear in the newspaper when they were born, married or died. Drucker’s film chronicles the precise moment when a multitude of women of means dared to court the public’s attention.

New York’s NewFest has announced the full lineup for their third annual NewFest Pride Summer Film Series. The event kicks off LGBTQ+ Pride Month from June 1-5 in New York, and will feature a mix of exclusive in-person premieres/panels, virtual screenings, and social events. The announcement came today from NewFest’s Executive Director David Hatkoff and Director of Programming Nick McCarthy.

“The LGBTQ+ community is once again under attack, making it all the more essential that NewFest continue to loudly and proudly amplify queer voices,” said NewFest Executive Director David Hatkoff. “We can’t wait to kick off Pride month by bringing the community together for bold new films, necessary conversations, and celebratory social gatherings. Think you can silence us? Ha. Think again.”

“From family dramas to documentaries to absurdist comedies, this year’s line-up includes an expanse of highly anticipated films that capture the varied ways our...

A new doc, Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl, examines the rise of socialite celebrities like Paris Hilton and Tinsley Mortimer in the mid 2000s — and the subsequent blogger backlash to the phenomenon. The film, by director Zackary Drucker, features interviews with socialites including Mortimer and Olivia Palermo, as well as photographers, publicists, and bloggers. It premieres on Hulu on May 17.

“All these photographers, I just remember thinking, ‘I want to be part of this,'” Mortimer says in a trailer for the film. “This looks cool.” Other talking...

It’s almost summer in the city, and you might as well rot in the sun with some of the year’s best indie films.

Rooftop Films, one of the longest-running outdoor showcases for indie films globally, has revealed its 2023 lineup, which IndieWire shares exclusively below.

Throughout New York City parks and outdoor landmarks, the Summer Series runs May 25 through August 24 with over 45 events featuring new independent feature films, short film programs, and live performances. Highlights include screenings of Bill Pohlad’s Donnie and Joe Emerson biopic “Dreamin’ Wild,” Savanah Leaf’s A24 drama “Earth Mama,” Eva Longoria’s directing debut “Flamin’ Hot,” and Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo’s “Bobi Wine: The People’s President.”

But you can also catch festival favorites like Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema) winner “Scrapper” from writer-director Charlotte Regan, Laura Moss’s horror entry “birth/rebirth,” D. Smith’s Sundance Award-winning trans documentary “Kokomo City,...

Hulu is adding three new titles to its growing lineup of original docs: “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told,” “Queenmaker: The Making of An It Girl,” and “The Jewel Thief.”

“Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told” “recounts the rise and fall of a small Atlanta Hbcu picnic that exploded into an influential street party and spotlighted Atl as a major cultural stage,” per Hulu’s description. “Can the magic of Freaknik be brought back 40 years later?

Executive producers include showrunner Geraldine L. Porras and director P Frank Williams, as well as Jermaine Dupri, Luther Campbell, Peter Bittenbender and Melissa Cooper for Mass Appeal, Eric Tomosunas for Swirl Films, Terry Ross and Alex Avant. Nikki Byles and Jay Allen are producers.

From MRC, “Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl” reveals the story behind the now-defunct “Park Avenue Peerage” blog. “In the height of heiress-era NYC, an anonymous blogger infiltrated Manhattan’s elite,...

GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, announced recipients for 15 of this year’s 33 categories for the 34th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.

Ricky Martin speaks onstage during the GLAAD Media Awards

Credit/Copyright: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for GLAAD

The event featured appearances by Angelica Ross, Betty Who, Billy Eichner, Brian Michael Smith, Brooke Eden, Chase Joynt, Gabrielle Union, Geena Rocero, Harvey Guillen, Isis King, Jen Richards, Joel Kim Booster, Jordy, Rafael Silva, Ronen Rubinstein, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ts Madison, Zackary Drucker, Vanessa Williams, Michelle Visage, Zaya Wade, and GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis

Christina Aguilera received the Advocate for Change Award, introduced by Club Q shooting survivor, Michael Anderson, Bad Bunny received the Vanguard Award, presented by Ricky Martin, and Jeremy Pope received the Stephen F. Kolzak Award presented by Gabrielle Union, at the star-studded ceremony at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

The festival ran from March 15-26.

Admissions to screenings and events at the 37th edition of the British Film Institute (BFI) Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival, increased by 16% year on year, with 57% of the audience attending for the first time.

Overall, BFI Flare saw 28,923 audience attendances across BFI Southbank screenings, events and on BFI Player, compared to 25,023 attending the BFI Southbank and on BFI player last year.

Over the first four days of the festival, 800 attendees experienced the first BFI Flare Expanded programme, a selection of five immersive art and virtual reality works from boundary-pushing Lgbtqia+ artists working across emerging technologies.

Sessions to run from March 27-29.

Six transgender storytellers of colour have been selected for the second edition of Sundance Institute’s Trans Possibilities Intensive programme which runs March 27-29.

The 2023 Fellows are: Seyi Adebanjo, Rajvi Desai, Malik Ever, Nick Janaye, Jamie John, and Tee Park Jaehyung.

Moi Santos will lead the sessions and is founder of the Trans Possibilities Intensive. Leadership includes creative advisors including Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest), Aitch Alberto (Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe), Félix Endara (Inseen) and Chase Joynt (Framing Agnes), as well as Sundance Institute’s Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program.

Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown have survived the apocalypse. Now what?

The “Safety Not Guaranteed” star and “This Is Us” alum actor play the two last men on Earth who must adapt and evolve to save humanity in Mel Eslyn’s debut feature “Biosphere.” The film premiered at 2022 TIFF and is executive produced by Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass.

Per the official synopsis, Billy (Duplass) and Ray (Brown) are lifelong best friends, brothers from another mother —they also happen to be the last two men on Earth. Their survival is largely due to Ray, a brilliant scientist who designed the custom biosphere they call home, outfitting it with both creature comforts and the necessities to sustain life on a doomed planet. When the population of their fishpond — which supplies essential protein — begins waning, the men find themselves facing an ominous future. But life may yet find a way…

Director...

GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, has announced that for the third consecutive year, Hulu will serve as the official streaming destination for the GLAAD Media Awards.

The Awards will be held in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 30, 2023 and will be available to stream on Hulu beginning Wednesday, April 12, 2023.

Emmy and Grammy nominated comedian and actress Margaret Cho will host the 34th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles which will feature performances by GLAAD Media Award Nominees for Outstanding Music Artist, Fletcher and Orville Peck at the Beverly Hilton on Thursday, March 30, 2023.

The GLAAD Media Awards honor media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues. Since its inception in 1990, the GLAAD Media Awards have grown to be the most visible annual LGBTQ awards show in the world, sending powerful messages of acceptance to audiences globally.

Special guests include Angelica Ross,...

Outfest Fusion, LA nonprofit Outfest‘s film festival dedicated to queer Bipoc storytelling, has unveiled the full lineup of films for its 20th anniversary festival.

10 features, 93 short films, and four TV presentations will screen during the March festival in Los Angeles, including Sundance documentaries “Little Richard: I Am Everything” and “The Stroll.” Documentary “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn,” produced by Xpedition and Al Roker, and featuring Lee Daniels, will make its North American premiere during the festival; in total, 23 films will make world premieres, five will make their U.S. premiere, four their international premieres, and three their North American premieres. Over half of all films were directed by women, non-binary, two spirit, or gender-nonconforming filmmakers.

“We are at a moment where our industry is ready to have an honest dialogue about inclusion, investment and representation of people of color and yet our entire LGBTQ+ population is facing a...

Outfest is gearing up for the 20th anniversary of its Outfest Fusion Qtbipoc Film Festival.

The organization revealed on Tuesday the lineup of films that will screen during the 10-day festival as well as the news that The Inspection filmmaker Elegance Bratton has been selected to receive the Fusion Achievement Award at the opening night gala on March 24.

The honor recognizes “an individual who has made a significant contribution to LGBTQ+ visibility in stories, arts and media,” per Outfest. Bratton has been making the rounds as of late for A24’s The Inspection starring Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union. Inspired by his own story, The Inspection follows a gay Black man who is rejected by his mother and left with few options for his future. He then decides to join the Marines where he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of...

Outfest has announced its feature lineup for its 2023 Outfest Fusion Qtbipoc Film Festival, which will run from March 24 through April 2.

Outfest Fusion will be celebrating its 20th anniversary by showcasing Lgbtqia+ filmmakers and their various films depicting queer and transgender stories. There will be nine features, including two 2023 Sundance documentaries, “Little Richard: I Am Everything” from Lisa Cortés and “The Stroll” from Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker. Cortés documentary explores how Richard “Little Richard” Penniman worked through his struggles with his sexuality, all while he made his mark on rock n’ roll. While Lovell and Drucker follow transgender women of color as they detail the community’s history of sex work in New York City.

In addition, the Outfest Fusion lineup includes Dawn Mikkelson, Keri Pickett’s “Finding Her Beat;” Fábio Leal’s “Follow The Protocol;” Timothy Harris’ “Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn;” Joseph Amenta’s “Soft;” Lorena Zilleruelo...

The queer festival runs from March 15-26.

The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival (March 15-26) has set its industry programme, including events on queer filmmaking in Nigeria and a spotlight on South Korean films screening at BFI Flare.

‘For Tomorrow: Queer Filmmaking In Nigeria’ invites a delegation of filmmakers creating queer content in Nigeria today to explore what it’s like to create queer cinematic stories in environments that are hostile towards queer people and the barriers to creating film outside of the structures of Nollywood.

This year’s BFI Flare showcases four features and a short (Butch Up!

Judd Apatow, Gabrielle Union, Tommy Dorfman and Wilson Cruz are among the members and allies of Hollywood’s LGBTQ community calling on The New York Times to stop reporting “bias, fringe theories and dangerous inaccuracies” in its coverage of transgender people.

The letter, which was expected to be delivered to the paper Wednesday morning, includes more than 100 individual and organizational signatories declaring a need for significant changes to how the Times reports on the trans community across its desks. Other entertainment signatories include Hannah Gadsby, Jameela Jamil, Jazz Jennings, Jen Richards, Joey Soloway, Johnny Sibilly, Jonathan Van Ness, Lena Dunham, Margaret Cho, Peppermint and Zackary Drucker.

“The Times has repeatedly platformed cisgender (non-transgender) people spreading inaccurate and harmful misinformation about transgender people and issues,” the letter reads. “This is damaging to the paper’s credibility. And it is damaging to all LGBTQ people, especially our youth, who say debates about...

The Lgbtqia+ festival takes place March 15-26.

The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 37th edition which takes place March 15 – 26.

The programme features 58 features, six of which are world premieres, spread across three thematic strands – Hearts, Bodies and Minds.

Scroll down for full line-up

World premiering at the festival is John Hay’s documentary Willem & Frieda which is presented by Stephen Fry and explores how a gay man and a lesbian woman led the anti-Nazi resistance in Holland.

The other world premieres are Timothy Harris’ documentary Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn about the...

Mel Eslyn’s feature directorial debut stars Sterling K. Brown, Mark Duplass.

Blue Fox Entertainment will kick off international sales at EFM next week on Mel Eslyn’s TIFF 2022 sci-fi comedy Biosphere starring Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass.

Eslyn and Duplass wrote the screenplay set in not-too-distant future where the last two men on earth must adapt and evolve to save humanity.

Producers are Zackary Drucker, Eslyn, Maddie Buis, and Shuli Harel. Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass serve as executive producers through their Duplass Brothers Productions.

Blue Fox Entertainment is screening Biosphere in the market. Head of international Lisa Gutberlet...

Festival

The 37th edition of BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival (March 15-26) will open with Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance-winning documentary “The Stroll,” which tells the history of New York City’s Meatpacking District from the point of view of the trans women of color who lived and worked there.

Hannes Hirsch’s debut feature, coming-of-age film “Drifter,” fresh off its world premiere at the Berlinale, will close the festival. Tünde Skovrán’s documentary “Who I am Not,” a portrait of the lives of two intersex South Africans and the challenges they face navigating binary sex and gender systems, will be the centerpiece presentation. All filmmakers are expected to be in attendance.

Michael Blyth, BFI Flare’s senior programmer said: “The opening, closing and centerpiece presentations at this year’s BFI Flare offer a fascinating cross section of queer identities, each radically different in both style and content.

The Lgbtqia+ festival runs March 15-25.

Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s documentary The Stroll will open the 37th edition of the BFI’s Lgbtqia+ festival Flare on March 15.

The film will have its international premiere at Flare, after world premiering at Sundance last month where it picked up the US documentary special jury award: clarity of vision.

The Stroll explores the history of New York’s meatpacking district through the eyes of the trans women of colour working there.

Closing the festival on March 25 is the UK premiere of Hannes Hirsch’s debut feature Drifter which follows a recently...