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Exclusive: The Margaret Mead Film Festival – the longest-running documentary showcase in the U.S. – has announced its 2025 lineup, a slate that includes Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Seeds.

Director Brittany Shyne is expected to be on hand as the festival kicks off Friday, May 2 with Seeds, which has earned rave reviews beginning in Park City. “It’s a work of political activism through sheer lyricism,” Rolling Stone’s David Fear wrote, “and exactly the kind of discovery you come to Sundance to see.”

The festival, running May 2 to Sunday, May 4 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, will present 17 feature documentaries, among them one U.S. premiere and 15 New York premieres. This year’s theme, “We Are the Story,” illuminates “the diverse ways we connect with one another, our environments, and shared histories,” according to a release. Scroll for the full schedule.

Additional highlights from the...

Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi and director Amber Fares took home the Golden Alexander at the 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival for “Coexistence, My Ass!,” a film that follows Shuster-Eliassi’s sharp, satirical approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The win secures the film’s eligibility for Academy Award consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category.

The Thessaloniki jury praised the documentary’s construction, calling it a “fearless challenge to every taboo in the region,” noting how Shuster-Eliassi’s humor allows audiences to confront deep-seated biases. The comedian, whose one-woman show serves as the foundation for the film, uses her multilingual fluency in Arabic and Hebrew to highlight the contradictions of the conflict and the limits of coexistence in Israel. During her acceptance speech, she reflected on her family’s activist background, acknowledging her father, who was imprisoned for refusing military service in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Shuster-Eliassi also referenced the recent...

It takes a staggering amount of arrogance and privilege to even momentarily consider using a phrase like “Ukraine War Documentary Fatigue.” Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has resulted in the bloodiest war on European soil since WWII, and represents the largest threat to the post-Cold War international order that we’ve seen to date. It could very well end up being viewed as the genesis of an age of autocrats battling each other to expand their territories, with potentially catastrophic results looming in the near future. Not to mention the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have already died in the war, and countless more who have had their homes destroyed and their lives permanently altered. The fact that brave documentarians have been able to capture so much of it is a remarkable achievement for humanity. When one’s biggest complaint is that they’re making prestigious film festivals feel repetitive,...

When thinking of animation, anime might be the first thing that comes to mind. Whether it’s a visual or narrative masterpiece, the surge in anime’s popularity has taken the world by storm. It’s all thanks to the efforts of their animators. However, is Japanese anime the only beautiful medium?

Viktor, the Machine Herald, from Arcane. [Credit: Netflix]

While the more classic examples of Western animation may stem from Disney and Pixar films, many more studios do a brilliant job. Even so, it seems their reputation hasn’t been fixed, even though more unique projects have graced our eyes. Samuel Deats, however, reminds us otherwise.

Recently, Western animation has captivated its audience with its unique art style and approaches. It’s hardly realistic to say it’s declining in the 2000s when we have amazing franchises like Netflix’s Castlevania, the Spider-Verse franchise, Arcane, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and many more.

The following contains spoilers for Arcane season 2 Act 2, now streaming on NetflixArcane's season 2 act 2 finale sees Jayce kill another major character in the show, setting up a potentially cataclysmic turn of events going forward. Jayce has been one of Arcane's more overtly heroic figures, struggling with questions of power and responsibility as opposed to the more complex motivations of characters like Caitlyn or Jinx. Especially in contrast to the machinations of the Black Rose or the secretive plans of Ambessa, Jayce has been a relatively straightforward character, especially in his friendship with Viktor.

However, things take a much darker turn in Arcane season 2 Act 2. After being pulled into the Arcane alongside Heimerdinger and Ekko in Act 1, Jayce returns to the material world alone. While this raises plenty of mysteries about what happened to his companions, the focus remains solely on Jayce and why he's returned. With a clouded mind but driven motivation,...

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has signed on to star in Pendulum, a new feature produced by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and directed by Mark Heyman (Black Swan).

The film will start principal photography in March 2025 in New Mexico. Black Bear is repping international rights on the film and will introduce the project to buyers at the American Film Market next week. UTA Independent Film Group, CAA Media Finance, and WME Independent hold domestic rights.

Described as a “terrifying new genre film,” the film follows the young couple Patrick (Gordon-Levitt) and Abigail on a journey to a new-age retreat in New Mexico, drawn by the possibility of healing after a traumatic event. Patrick is willing to do anything to help his wife but becomes distrustful of the retreat’s enigmatic leader even as Abigail falls under her spell. As paranoia builds, the couple must determine if the group’s unconventional spiritual practices offer genuine...

The 32nd Hamptons International Film Festival (Hiff) has officially unveiled its 2024 winners.

The festival, which took place from October 4 through October 14, marked the U.S. premiere of John Crowley’s “We Live in Time,” with screenings of “Nightbitch,” “A Real Pain,” “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” and R.J. Cutler’s Martha Stewart Netflix documentary “Martha” among the acclaimed features.

Now, IndieWire can exclusively announce the films that the Hiff jury and audience members selected for the top awards. “Armand,” also Norway’s 2025 Oscar submission, won the Hiff Award for Best Narrative Feature. “Armand” stars “A Different Man” and “Worst Person in the World” breakout Renate Reinsve as a mother of a seemingly disturbed six-year-old; the film debuted at Cannes before screening at Hiff. “Armand” is directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the grandson of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. IFC Films has U.S. distribution rights for “Armand.”

“’Armand’ is...

The Joker movie that came out back in 2019 was a perfect blend of the emotional yet psychotic life of Arthur Fleck. The storyline pretty much displayed Fleck’s unfortunate upbringing and the struggles he faced as an adult, leading him to become the attention-seeking criminal mastermind who wanted to seek revenge on the entire world. And to no surprise, Todd Phillips managed to pull in over a billion dollars at the box office.

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker | Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures

Having had so much success in its first installment, Phillips’ sequel was a major letdown to fans all over the world and it doesn’t seem like Joker: Folie à Deux will generate as much revenue as the first movie. But it’s safe to say that the movie gods are on the Joker’s side considering that there’s actually a film that’s done worse than Phillips’ release.

When Imagine Documentaries president Sara Bernstein pitched New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams on making a film about her career, even the veteran journalist didn’t understand why Bernstein was interested. “What do you want to make a doc about me for?” Adams asked the “Jim Henson: Idea Man” producer. “Everybody has a documentary. My dentist has a documentary!”

Good line — and she must have a great dentist.

An incomplete list of this year’s celebrity docs includes Simone Biles, Celine Dion, Steve Martin, Roger Federer, Stevie van Zandt, Brian Eno, Frida Kahlo, Devo, Christopher Reeve, Sue Bird, Andrea Bocelli, Elton John, Martha Stewart, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Paul Anka, Pharrell Williams, and Bruce Springsteen.

The appetite seems nearly endless, but producers say it’s increasingly difficult to find famous people whose lives haven’t flashed before our eyes. Said Bernstein, “The challenge today is, who hasn’t had a documentary?...

“Silence is not emptiness. It is not the absence of something. It is the presence of the self, and nothing else,” says the riveting titular protagonist in “Viktor.” “In this silence, I find my peace.”

One of the unexpected gems of this year’s fest, “Viktor” is a (Darren Aronofsky-produced) doc from the multi-award-winning director/Dp Olivier Sarbil, a globetrotting conflict photojournalist who’s now chosen to set his latest in Ukraine., a nail-biting investigative look at the former Philippines strongman Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly “war on drugs” through both its mostly addict victims and chillingly remorseless perpetrators.) But what makes the film so extraordinary is that the ongoing invasion is not the focus but merely backdrop for a window into a truly unique Pov on the Russian assault.

For like Sarbil, Viktor is himself a photojourno and cinephile, his taste leaning towards samurai flicks, which he watches on...

The Toronto International Film Festival will be placing an ever larger emphasis on the international in its name.

Outlined to Variety by Toronto chief programming officer Anita Lee, the move comes in response to the emergence of younger audiences driving the post-pandemic box office rebound, reshaping audience tastes in both U.S. independent cinemagoing and at film festivals.

“Our festival audiences have become younger, and younger audiences are coming out for the non-English international arthouse films,” Lee told Variety, adding it was Toronto’s “biggest growth and shift” in audience attendance.

Drivers for this evolution abound, Lee said, such as the fact that audiences are consuming more international content. In the last few years, a new breed of “crossover or slightly more accessible international arthouse films” has emerged, she added, citing Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness.” “That’s on the rise. There’s more industry attention to films which could work in this way,...

Documentary specialist Cinephil has acquired international sales rights for the feature documentary “Viktor,” which will have its world premiere in the Platform program of the Toronto Film Festival next month.

The film is directed and produced by French filmmaker and cinematographer Olivier Sarbil, who won Emmys for “Retrograde” and “Mosul,” and a Royal Television Society award for “On the President’s Orders.” Darren Aronofsky is a producer on the film.

In “Viktor,” Viktor Korotovskyi, a young Deaf man in Kharkiv, watches warily during the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A fan of samurai films and raised on stories of war, he dreams of becoming a warrior but is repeatedly denied when he tries to enlist. Eager to find purpose, Viktor embarks on a quest to find his place in the midst of a war he cannot hear.

Sarbil said: “My hope is that this film transcends language...

Documentaries about the rise and fall of media company Vice, former Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger and disability rights activist Patrice Jetter are heading to the Toronto Film Festival.

TIFF’s Docs program gets underway Sept. 5 and will feature 21 nonfiction films from 24 countries. The program will open with the world premiere of Eddie Huang’s “Vice Is Broke,” an investigation into the once high-flying digital news outlet that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year after boasting a valuation of $5.7 billion in 2017.

Huang, the former host of Vice’s “Huang’s World” has a unique perspective on the story, said Thom Powers, lead TIFF documentary programmer. “Eddie gives an insider account of what happened at Vice Media,” said Powers. ” He has a personal axe to grind because when the company filed for bankruptcy, he was one of its many creditors. The film is both funny and poignant as he interviews...

Ex-gop Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a prominent critic of Donald Trump, will get a major platform at the Toronto International Film Festival just weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

TIFF announced its full documentary lineup this morning and among the standouts is The Last Republican, about Kinzinger’s vigorous repudiation of the former president after the January 6 insurrection. It’s a world premiere at TIFF, directed by Steve Pink – best known for the comedy Hot Tub Time Machine.

“That’s probably not a director you expect to see in TIFF docs,” admits Thom Powers, the festival’s chief documentary programmer. “Kinzinger served on the January 6th Congressional Committee alongside Liz Cheney, chose not to run again as a congressman because he could see the political writing on the wall. But he chooses to give access to a Hollywood left winger in Steve Pink to tell his story. And why does...