EXCLUSIVE: The documentary film team at Netflix might be popping champagne corks together right about now, if Covid didn’t inhibit the whole in-person office scenario. They’ve got a lot to celebrate.
08.02.2022 - 04:39 / variety.com
Angelique Jackson When “Nanny” writer-director Nikyatu Jusu got a message from the Sundance team in late January asking to jump on a call, the first time filmmaker realized that the project must’ve won an award, which would be presented publicly the next day.First, Jusu thought that the prize might go to the film’s star Anna Diop, who’d been earning rave reviews for her performance as Aisha, a Senegalese woman who recently immigrated to America and begins working for a wealth family on the Upper East Side in New York City. Then, she speculated the prize could be for cinematographer Rina Yang’s work lensing the film, which would be a win for the whole team.
But she didn’t imagine that the film would instead win one of Sundance’s grand jury award in the U.S. dramatic category — and she certainly didn’t expect her reaction to be captured in real time.
“I thought I had an evening to put together a comprehensive coherent speech. I was like ‘Okay, I’m gonna be poised,’” Jusu tells Variety, reflecting on the winning moment during a Zoom interview with the filmmaking team a few days later.But after she clicked on a link to the “survey” she’d been sent by the Sundance team, Jusu was completely shocked to hear producer Chelsea Barnhard, a member of the U.S.
dramatic competition jury, reveal that “Nanny” had won the top prize.“I started sobbing as she was talking, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, did I even hear what we won?’” Jusu recalls. “I really didn’t think that we would win the top prize and I feel so grateful that we did.”Despite being visibly overwhelmed by the news, the budding filmmaker pulled herself together enough to deliver a heartfelt speech.
EXCLUSIVE: The documentary film team at Netflix might be popping champagne corks together right about now, if Covid didn’t inhibit the whole in-person office scenario. They’ve got a lot to celebrate.
Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts are making history. The 52-year-old actress and her 39-year-old bride cover the March/April 2022 «Black Women in Hollywood» issue of , becoming the first same-sex couple to cover the magazine.On the cover, Nash and Betts both pose topless, with the former looking at the camera as the latter lovingly cradles her face.
Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorApple tapped Park Chan-wook, among Korea’s most successful and critically acclaimed directors, to make a movie shot entirely on its latest iPhones.Park’s “Life Is But a Dream” is the first project in Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” marketing campaign to be produced, shot and edited entirely in Korea. (Watch Park’s film below or at this link.)The film blends martial arts with romance, dark comedy and pansori (판소리) — Korea’s traditional musical storytelling technique — to tell a surreal tale featuring both a wedding and a funeral.In the 21-minute movie, an undertaker digs up an abandoned grave to steal a coffin for the burial of “White Marten,” a warrior who had died saving a village.
Emilio Mayorga Carla Simón’s first feature “Summer 1993” was a knockout; a Generation Kplus and Best First Feature award winner at the 2017 Berlinale and Spain’s 2018 Oscars submission, winning three Spanish Academy Goya Awards. The director has since become a reference within a new wave of Catalan women filmmakers that have broken out to considerable box office and festival success.Now, Simón competes in Berlin’s main competition with her sophomore effort “Alcarràs,” exploring her own roots through her adoptive mother’s family.Set in the so-called Catalan Far West, in a small village near Lleida, the film is shot entirely using non-professional actors.
Congratulations are in order for Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim!
Steven Spielberg is making Oscars history with his Best Director nomination for “West Side Story”.
Zack Sharf Jane Campion has entered the Oscars history books following the 2022 nominations, as the New Zealand helmer is now the first woman filmmaker to boast two career nominations in the best director category.Campion is nominated for directing this year thanks to her acclaimed work on the Netflix-backed “The Power of the Dog,” which also won her the directing prize at last year’s Venice Film Festival and nabbed her a nomination at the Directors Guild of America Awards. Campion’s first Oscar nomination for directing came in 1994 when she was nominated for “The Piano” at the 66th Academy Awards.
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Neon film Flee made history this morning, as it became the first ever to score a trifecta of Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film.
We Don’t Talk About Bruno continues its domination of the UK’s Official Singles Chart, settling in for a third consecutive week at Number 1.
We Don’t Talk About Bruno continues its domination of the UK’s Official Singles Chart, settling in for a third consecutive week at Number 1.
last week, the emotion was palpable when juror Chelsea Bernard announced that “Nanny” director and screenwriter Nikyatu Jusu had won for her harrowing story of an undocumented nanny working for a privileged couple in New York City while also dealing with the pending arrival of the son she left behind in Senegal.Jusu burst into tears as she heard the news. “You guys shouldn’t have done it to me like this!” she exclaimed, smiling through her tears.
EXCLUSIVE: Hot off the heels of her Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Universal and Monkeypaw have won the rights to Nikyatu Jusu’s next project which she will co-write with Fredrica Bailey. The untitled horror film is set up under Monkeypaw’s overall deal at Universal and the logline, based on an original idea by Jusu, is being kept under wraps
Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, or Apple TV.The film, which was released after over a year of delays due to the coronavirus, features a star-studded cast of Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes', Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas and Rami Malek, and is the first James Bond film to to be shot with Imax film cameras. Not only does it feature over an hour of scenes in the large format expanded aspect ratio, but there will also be an exclusive Q&A featuring Daniel Craig and director Cary Joji Fukunaga broadcasted before select Imax screenings. picks up after James Bond has recused himself from his work and is attempting to live a quiet life in Jamaica.
including here at TheWrap), but has drawn fire on social media for the fact that the film calls the men “terrorists,” and because the filmmaker herself is not Muslim. One typical tweet by writer Jude Chehab of Turkish news website TRT World says: “When I, a practising Muslim woman say [the film’] is problematic, my voice should be stronger than a white woman saying it’s not.”Smaker, who spent five years making the film, told TheWrap that the movie challenges assumptions about people Americans regard as terrorists, while also offering a never-before-seen perspective into the men who embraced the ideology of groups like al Qaeda.
Premiering in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at this year’s all-virtual Sundance Film Festival, Nikyatu Jusu’s unsettling “Nanny” is a supernatural thriller that weaves together strands of domestic drama and West African folklore.
said in a video, as the crowd cheered and applauded.Letterman, who hosted the NBC show from its very beginning in 1982, departed in 1993 to host CBS’ “Late Show,” which is currently hosted by Stephen Colbert.Prior to his stint at CBS, Letterman was vying to host “The Tonight Show” in 1993 upon former host Johnny Carson’s departure. But much to his dismay, competing show host Jay Leno snatched the coveted spot instead, prompted Letterman’s exit from “Late Night.”The 74-year-old late night talk show veteran left CBS’ “Late Show” in 2015, announcing a retirement from television, only returning to the screen for his own Netflix series “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” in 2018.Throughout his more than 30 years in his late show career, Letterman’s quirky charm and anti-humor earned him brownie points with his audience, landing him amongst the most well-known talk show hosts.