‘The Woman King’s’ Viola Davis Set For Chairman’s Award At Palm Springs Film Festival

For director Gina Prince-Bythewood, making the historical epic The Woman King was a dream come true. Despite dealing with a seven-year-long development process, Prince-Bythewood was determined to prove that Hollywood stories centering on powerful Black women deserve to be seen. Based on a real all-female faction of West African soldiers known as the Agojie, the film follows its leader Nanisca (Viola Davis), and her fierce tribe of warriors as they defend the kingdom of Dahomey from a violent neighboring empire and Europeans capitalizing on the slave trade. Here, Prince-Bythewood talks about creating a sisterhood of warriors, world-building, and the importance of seeing yourself on screen.

Brendan Fraser will receive the Spotlight Award, Actor at the Palm Springs Film Festival’s awards ceremony, taking place in person at the Palm Springs Convention Center on January 5. The award comes in recognition of the actor’s performance in the critically acclaimed A24 drama The Whale from filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.

Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.

The Les Arcs Film Festival in the French Alps kicked off its 14th edition last weekend amid sub-zero temperatures and freshly laid snow, to run from December 10 to 17  

With 14 nominations, five of them for actors, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once racked up the highest total among films in contention for the 28th annual Critics Choice Awards for Film. Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans was next, also grabbing five noms for its cast out of 11 overall to score the including three for Spielberg as producer, director and co-writer of his autobiographical story.

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival is almost a month away and this morning the Sundance Institute revealed the Indie Episodic and Short Film slates for the festival. 64 shorts were selected from 10,981 submissions, the highest on record.

Former enfant terrible of British rock Peter Doherty and keyboard playing producer-filmmaker wife Katia de Vidas gave a surprise private concert at the Les Arcs Film Festival in the French Alps on Monday evening.

“Till” star Danielle Deadwyler will receive the Breakthrough Performance Award, Actress at the 2023 Palm Springs International Film Awards on Jan. 5, Palm Springs International Film Festival organizers announced Monday.The award will be presented at the Palm Springs Convention Center in the desert resort town east of Los Angeles, at the beginning of a film festival that will run through Jan.

I was joined at today’s Contenders Film LA3C event by the key people behind the hit epic The Woman King, which was just named to the prestigious list of AFI’s Top 10 Movies of the Year. It also scored a rare A+ Cinemascore during its opening weekend in September, proving it has not only critical acclaim but also that from the audience. The funny thing is this story of a band of all-female African warriors defending their kingdom in the 1800s was turned down by every studio the filmmakers approached until they finally got a yes from Sony’s TriStar Pictures. It was a smart move for the studio as it clearly has an Oscar contender here.

Iraqi filmmaker Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji picked up the Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film at the Red Sea Film Festival with his debut feature Hanging Gardens.

Jackie Chan made a rare on-stage appearance at the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, where he told fans that he is currently in talks to make a fourth Rush Hour movie.

Three years after “Minari,” “Zola” and “Promising Young Woman” rocked Sundance, America’s greatest Film Festival is finally returning to live audiences in Park City. This morning, the Sundance Institute revealed a majority of the lineup for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival which features new works from notable filmmakers such as Nicole Holofcener (“You Hurt My Feelings”), Ira Sachs (“Passages”), Sebastian Silva (“Rotting in the Sun”), Brandon Cronenberg (“Infinity Pool”), Nida Manzoor (“Polite Society”), Susanna Fogel (“Cat Person”), Davis Guggenheim (“Still: A Michael J.

Back to in-person attendance for the first time since 2020, the Sundance Film Festival is leaning into its independent roots with a timely 2023 line-up that examines the Russian invasion of Ukraine, conflict in Iran and the dangers of technology, as well as documentaries on author Judy Blume, Michael J Fox, Brooke Shields and the Emperor of Rock’n’Roll himself, Little Richard. 

The Palm Springs Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 34th annual edition, announcing that Paramount Pictures’ 80 for Brady will world premiere as its opening night film on January 6, with IFC Films’ The Lost King closing it out on January 15.

Bollywood megastar Akshay Kumar revealed that he is making a feature on the theme of sex education that he hopes to release next spring during an In-Conversation event at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival on Saturday.

UPDATED, 8:16 AM: Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will receive the Vanguard Award at the 2023 Palm Springs Film Festival’s gala in January.

The Queen is getting crowned at the 2023 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.