Stanley Nelson Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

The Oscar race came into sharper focus at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, with actors like Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh cementing their lead contender status, and big-budget studio efforts like The Fablemans and Glass Onion premiering to raves.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Could A24 wrestle another Oscar contender into the mix while already having two strong candidates with “Past Lives” and “The Zone of Interest”? At the beginning of “The Iron Claw,” the narrator says the Von Erich family is cursed. Towards the latter half of the film, when the supposed curse has reared its ugly head, a man sitting directly in front of me with a woman begins to weep physically and audibly intensely. The woman grabbed his head to comfort him, but it was proving too much for the gentleman, who grabbed his crutches and walked out of the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

EXCLUSIVE: Stanley Nelson’s Firelight Films and Hulu have set Julianna Brannum (Now I Lay Me Down), Ivan MacDonald (Breaking the Silence) and Juan Carlos Dávila Santiago (When Reggaeton Was a Crime) as the first filmmakers to benefit from their new Hulu/Firelight Kindling Fund. Through the initiative, each will be awarded $25,000 to develop their original documentary feature or limited series for a first look by the companies.

EXCLUSIVE: The International Documentary Association announced the lineup for its prestigious FallDocs 2023 program, featuring a slew of Oscar contending nonfiction films as well as more than two dozen films that haven’t yet nailed down distribution.

The 75th annual Directors Guild Awards are being handed out at the Beverly Hilton, and Deadline is updating the winners as they are announced. Check out the list below.

The Directors Guild of America has nominated Tár‘s Todd Field, Top Gun: Maverick‘s Joseph Kosinski, Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Martin McDonagh and The Fabelmans’ Steven Spielberg for the top feature film prize at its 75th annual DGA Awards.

EXCLUSIVE: Firelight Media has today named its latest cohort of Fellows for its flagship mentoring program, the Firelight Documentary Lab, which is now in its thirteenth year.

Michaela Zee editor DCTV’s new documentary-dedicated theater, “Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film,” will open its doors Sept. 23. Located in DCTV’s historic Chinatown firehouse building in New York, the nonprofit theater will begin its opening week with an exclusive screening of Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes’ “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.” “I’m so excited that my new documentary, ‘The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,’ will kick off the opening of DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema,” Disney said in a statement. “I can’t wait to meet the first audiences who will be enjoying and shaping this vital new addition to New York City’s arthouse film scene.”

ABC News Studios unveiled a slate of narrative non-fiction projects as part of its official launch, with three feature documentaries and 15 series and specials in production.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy nominee Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid’s Tale) has signed on to star alongside Peyton Kennedy, Anjali Bhimani, Jeremy Radin, Akilah Hughes and Ben Gleib in the indie Pruning.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed award-winning writer, director and producer Andre Gaines (After Jackie), as well as his production company Cinemation Studios, for worldwide representation in all areas. The agency will now look to help expand his business across film, television, podcasts and gaming, also working with him on several hosted programs based on popular brands.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Showtime’s Attica) is teaming up with Jacqueline Olive (Lincoln’s Dilemma) to direct the feature documentary, The Color of Cola.

**WINNER.Theatrical Feature FilmPaul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza”Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast”Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”Steven Spielberg, “West Side Story”Denis Villeneuve, “Dune”First-Time Feature Film DirectorMaggie Gyllenhaal, “The Lost Daughter”Rebecca Hall, “Passing”Tatiana Huezo, “Prayers for the Stolen”Lin-Manuel Miranda, “tick, tick…BOOM!”Michael Sarnoski, “Pig”Emma Seligman, “Shiva Baby”DocumentaryJessica Kingdon, “Ascension”Stanley Nelson, “Attica”Raoul Peck, “Exterminate All the Brutes”Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin, “The Rescue”Drama SeriesKevin Bray, “Succession”: “Retired Janitors of Idaho”Mark Mylod, “Succession”: “All the Bells Say”Andrij Parekh, “Succession”: “What It Takes”Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, “Succession”: “Lion in the Meadow”Lorene Scafaria, “Succession”: “Too Much Birthday”Comedy SeriesLucia Aniello, “Hacks”: “There Is No Line”MJ Delaney, “Ted Lasso”: “No Weddings and a Funeral”Erica Dunton, “Ted Lasso”: “Rainbow”Sam Jones, “Ted Lasso”: “Beard After Hours”Mike White, “The White Lotus”: “Mysterious Monkeys”Movies for Television and Limited SeriesBarry Jenkins, “The Underground Railroad”Barry Levinson, “Dopesick”: “First Bottle”Hiro Murai, “Station Eleven”: “Wheel of Fire”Danny Strong: “Dopesick”: “The People vs. Purdue Pharma”Craig Zobel, “Mare of Easttown”Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled ProgrammingPaul G.

“It didn’t have to end this way.”

Addie Morfoot ContributorThis year’s documentary Academy Award feature race is historical on many fronts. Four of the five nominated films were directed by people of color; Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee” made history by scoring three Oscar nominations: not only the doc feature category but also in the animated feature and international feature categories; Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas’ “Writing With Fire” became the first feature doc from India to earn a nom in the race; and four of the six nominated helmers are first-time feature docu directors.But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this year’s nonfiction feature Oscar race is the dominance of nascent doc distributors and production units.

Angelique Jackson The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) announced the recipients of their special achievement honors — “Attica” filmmakers Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry; producer and Hidden Empire Film Group co-founder Roxanne Avent-Taylor; Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning composer Terence Blanchard; John Gibson, the Motion Picture Association’s VP of external and multicultural affairs; and Sony Motion Picture Group.The honors will be presented at the 13th annual AAFCA Awards, held on March 2 at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, co-hosted by Charlamagne tha God and Alesha Reneé.AAFCA’s Stanley & Karen Kramer Award for Social Justice will be awarded to “Attica” director Stanley Nelson and co-director Traci A.

The Directors Guild of America has announced its nominations in its television categories, with “Succession” sweeping the drama-series category by landing all five nominations for different episodes. In the comedy series category, “Ted Lasso” took three of the five slots, with “Hacks” and “The White Lotus” taking the remaining two.The DGA’s television nominations typically focus on returning programs in the drama and comedy series categories, rarely nominating more than one first-year show in a category.

PBS today announced several new long-term initiatives to support diversity in public media. They include a commitment to create a pipeline of diverse documentary filmmakers and a pledge to include more diverse perspectives in key production roles. PBS also announced it will launch on the video-focused social media platform TikTok. PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger announced the initiatives Tuesday at the TCA Winter Press Tour.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAmid numerous exits of top talent of color at fellow pubcaster NPR and ongoing backlash to the lack of diversity within its roster of filmmakers, PBS’ top exec revealed the service’s plan to make significant changes to its own operations and public broadcasting in general.“In engaging in conversations with filmmakers, it was very clear that there were filmmakers that were having difficulty bringing their work forward,” PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger told reporters Tuesday during her executive session at the the pubcaster’s first day of virtual Television Critics Association winter press tour. “Some of it is, in part, the structure of public broadcasting, which is very decentralized,” she said “We’re a federated system.

Short List: Features“Ascension” Dir/Prod: Jessica KingdonProd: Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell Winner of the Best Documentary Feature Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, “Ascension” is an impressionistic portrait of China’s industrial supply chain that depicts a thriving capitalism in a communist state.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterStanley Nelson has been set to direct a feature-length documentary on the life of Charlie Sifford, the first Black golfer to play on the PGA Tour.Sifford, who has been called the Jackie Robinson of golf, was instrumental in getting the biggest professional golf tournament in the U.S.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorIn the 1980s, it took Stanley Nelson seven years to make “Two Dollars and a Dream: The Story of Madame C.J. Walker,” his first documentary film.

Selome Hailu editorThe Toronto International Film Festival announced which films will fill the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness, and Wavelength sections at this year’s edition of the event, which runs from Sept. 9-18.

TIFF DOCSAttica Stanley Nelson | USAWorld Premiere – Opening Night FilmBeba Rebeca Huntt | USA/MexicoWorld PremiereBecoming Cousteau Liz Garbus | USAInternational PremiereBurning Eva Orner | AustraliaWorld PremiereComala Gian Cassini | MexicoWorld PremiereThe Devil’s Drivers Mohammed Abugeth, Daniel Carsenty | Qatar/France/Lebanon/GermanyWorld PremiereFlee Jonas Poher Rasmussen | Denmark/France/Sweden/NorwayCanadian PremiereHold Your Fire Stefan Forbes | USAWorld PremiereListening to Kenny G Pen

. Meanwhile, the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 led to the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and ignited a conversation about the connection between these two incidents. “One of the things we have to understand is that this history was purposefully erased.

Christopher Vourlias Having chronicled countless landmark moments in African-American history, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson (“The Black Panthers,” “The Murder of Emmett Till”) understands the stakes at a time when both the culture at large, as well as the documentary industry, are in the midst of a wholesale reckoning.

Director Stanley Nelson (“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution“) is known for his work examining Black history. He won Emmys for examining subjects such as Emmett Till, the Black Panthers, and the Civil Rights movement.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterFirelight Media, headed by veteran documentarian Stanley Nelson, has set the inaugural list of grant recipients for two programs designed to help develop documentary film projects.Earlier this year Nelson launched the William Greaves Fund to help mid-career filmmakers get a lift toward producing their second film project.

Tulsa hosted a Juneteenth block party on Saturday to remember the 155th anniversary of the day slavery was abolished in the U.S. in 1865 and celebrate the culture of African-American communities in Tulsa and around the country.

NBA superstar Russell Westbrook is set to executive produce the latest TV series to mark the upcoming 100th anniversary of the infamous Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Westbrook has partnered with Blackfin, the unscripted producer behind ID's I Am Homicide and History's Brothers in Arms, on the docuseries Terror in Tulsa: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street, to be directed and produced by Stanley Nelson.