Symphony Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

It was a very good night for Michael J. Fox Apple TV+’s Davis Guggenheim-directed documentary on the star’s life and battle with Parkinsons Disease won in all five categories for which it was nominated at the 8th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards. It swept the board for Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Editing for Michael Harte, Narration for Fox himself, and Biographical Documentary.The Critics Choice Documentary Awards, held tonight at the Edison Hotel in New York City and live streamed, recognizes the year’s finest achievements in documentaries released in theaters, on TV and on major digital platforms, as determined by the voting of qualified CCA members. 20 Days in Mariupol winning for Best First Documentary for director Msyyslav Chernov and Best Political Documentary picked up a pair of wins as did Netflix’s docus  American Symphony, and The Deepest Breath which each took home two awards. Jon Batiste was the subject of American Symphony which had a leading six nominations and won a prize as Best Music Documentary as well as for Batiste’s score. The Deepest Breath prevailed as Best Sports Documentary and for its Cinematography.

The Hollywood News Run by film fans for film fans! The Hollywood News A new trailer has landed for American Symphony, a new documentary heading to Netflix very soon. The score focusses on musician Jon Batiste who attempts to compose a symphony as his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, undergoes cancer treatment.Official synopsis is as follows:It’s 2022 and musician Jon Batiste is at the peak of his music career while also embarking on his most ambitious challenge – composing an original symphony. In the midst of this meteoric rise, Batiste’s wife – best-selling author Suleika Jaouad – learns that her long-dormant cancer has returned. AMERICAN SYMPHONY is an intimate portrait of two artists and the healing power of love and creativity.This one comes to Netflix from November 29th and you can watch the trailer below.The Hollywood News – For Film Fans By Film Fans (c) 2023

Ava Duvernay‘s Origin and Matthew Heineman‘s American Symphony were among the top winners at the Virginia Film Festival, the four-day Charlottesville event that ran from Oct. 25-29.

Matthew Heineman’s documentary profiling Grammy and Oscar winning musician Jon Batiste and the medical struggles for his wife that have marked trying times in their marriage leads the pack of nominees for the 8th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards with six. The inspiring docu from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground was picked up by Netflix after premiering and winning acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival last month. Not far behind are a trio of docus each with 5 mentions including 20 Days In Mariupol, Kokomo City, and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. And not to be ignored, this weekend’s boxoffice champ, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which landed a nomination as Best Music Documentary. The CCDA nod marks the first awards recognition for the film (however it is not eligible for a Documentary Oscar) which only just had its first premiere screening on Wednesday of last week and came in just under the eligibility wire.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This contains spoilers from “The Changeling”, now streaming on AppleTV+ “The Changeling’s” latest episode steps back in time to New York — in 1982, to be precise. For production designer Lester Cohen, he needed to find a place where he could build his red-light area and seedy hotel. The episode begins with Lillian (Adina Porter) walking through the red-light district in New York where peep shows cost 25 cents.

Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert have been enjoying wedded bliss for just over a month now, but the next question on some minds is, “When are they having kids?”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Stories about nonverbal autistic teens rarely galvanize the public imagination. But when one such youth has made the transition in a few short years from having a limited ability to communicate to having co-written a symphony, people are going to take notice, and be touched.

Castlevania has received renewed popularity through its animated TV series.Based on Konami’s video game series, Castlevania’s TV adaptation originally debuted in 2017 from writer Warren Ellis and executive producers Kevin Kolde, Fred Seibert and Adi Shankar. The series came to an end after four seasons in 2021.A follow-up series, Castlevania: Nocturne, debuted in September 2023.

Catherine Bray In a typical scene from “An Endless Sunday,” three teenage delinquents wander beside a canal. They end up killing a frog with a brick. Another group of children slightly younger than they are are also mucking about, and one of them is playing the recorder, blasting out a wobbly but recognizable version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the second movement.

Travel blog by Travels of Adam (Hipster Blog) – Travels of Adam (Hipster Blog) - Travel & Lifestyle Hipster Blog Planning the perfect picnic is an art in itself, and choosing the right food and drinks can make it an absolute blast. Hosting hundreds of park picnics, rooftop barbecues and spontaneous outdoor get-togethers, I thought I’d share my guide to hosting the perfect summer picnic. Things to Consider When Planning a Picnic Party Planning the perfect picnic is like orchestrating a symphony of flavors, laughter, and sunshine.

Sophia Scorziello editor Virginia’s Middleburg Film Festival, now in its 11th year, is set to open this October with Netflix’s Bayard Rustin biopic “Rustin” starring Colman Domingo. Director George C.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It’s almost cosmic, the way kids start out as nothing more than a twinkle in their mother’s eye. Then they’re born into heavenly little bodies, orbiting the adults who made them like tiny moons, until such time that they overcome their parents’ gravitational pull. So it is with “Janet Planet,” one of those intensely personal portraits of childhood that we’ve come to expect — and appreciate — from A24, the indie studio behind “Moonlight” and “Lady Bird” and “Aftersun” and “Eighth Grade” (the example this one most resembles).

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Be kind, because everyone you meet is fighting a great battle” — that popular maxim (or some variation thereof) is often brought up in the context of remembering to have some sympathy for jerks. But it could also be applied to people whose lives seem too charmed to be true.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In his latest documentary, “American Symphony,” Oscar-nominated director Matthew Heineman delivers a portrait of two artists — Grammy winner and former “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” bandleader Jon Batiste and his wife, author Suleika Jaouad. Heineman is known for putting his life on the line to make documentaries about the Mexican drug wars (“Cartel Land”), the initial explosion of COVID-19 in the U.S.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Not a Word,” which is being sold by international sales agency Beta Cinema, will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the competitive Platform section. Variety speaks to the film’s writer-director, Hanna Slak, and debuts its trailer. “Not a Word” tells the story of a relationship crisis between a parent and her teenage son.

Naman Ramachandran Prime Video India has set a global premiere date for crime thriller series “Bambai Meri Jaan,” produced by Excel Media and Entertainment’s Ritesh Sidhwani, Kassim Jagmagia and Farhan Akhtar. Created by Rensil D’Silva (“Dial 100”) and Shujaat Saudagar (“The Underbug”) and directed by Saudagar, the Amazon original 10-episode series is based on a story by S. Hussain Zaidi (“Lahore Confidential”).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Olivér Rudolf’s “My Mother, the Monster” has won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink, its industry section that featured projects from Southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Hungarian feature film project, which is produced by Genovéva Petrovits at Kino Alfa, received a cash prize of €20,000 ($21,727). The film focuses on Éva, a mother in her forties who is disappointed with her life and tired of feeling insignificant.

Truck Festival last weekend has gone viral for moshing to an orchestra performance in the rain.During the Oxfordshire festival, the Oxford Symphony Orchestra performed on the festival’s main stage and got a raucous response.After the performance, videos of the crowd have gone viral, which see the crowd creating a rowdy moshpit to the sedate music.Songs given the moshpit treatment included the orchestra’s versions of John Williams’ ‘Indiana Jones Theme’ and Gioachino Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’.See footage of the proceedings below.

Liam Payne is opening up about his sobriety and in a new video on YouTube, revealed to fans that he’s now six months sober.

PBS is gearing up for a star-studded and explosive celebration for the Fourth of July!

The Fourth of July holiday on Tuesday features several traditional music and fireworks special presentations on TV and streaming online in primetime. Here is a rundown:

Alissa Simon Film Critic Bulgarian multi-hyphenate Stephan Komandarev completes his trilogy on social problems and moral ills in contemporary Bulgaria with “Blaga’s Lessons,” world premiering in Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Crystal Globe competition. Heretic is the sales agent. After “Directions” (2017), which centers on tough times for some Sofia taxi drivers over a long and eventful night, and “Rounds” (2019), about police officers patrolling the capital, Komandarev and his co-writer Simeon Ventsislavov use an older woman duped by a telephone scam to look at issues afflicting their parents’ generation. Komandarev says: “The Bulgarian pensioners turned out to be the real victims of the so-called ‘transition’ (the time from 1989 to today.) These people, who have worked and created persistently all their lives, have lost basic safety and security, normal food, adequate medical care, heating, etc.”

Emiliano De Pablos Banijay’s Shine Iberia and Mexican studio Dopamine are joining forces with renowned Spanish composer Lucas Vidal (“Elite,” “Fast & Furious 6”) on musical interview travel series “Tu vida en 3 minutos” (“Your Life in 3 Minutes”). Created by Shine Iberia’s Begoña Marín in partnership with Dopamine’s writers-directors Xevi Aranda and Sebastián Reyes, “Your Life in 3 Minutes” is one of the four projects selected at Conecta Fiction & Entertainment 2023’s Pitch Feelgood Formats sidebar. The seventh edition of Conecta Fiction runs June 26-29 in Toledo, the capital of Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha. 

Love The Weekender? Share it with a friend and spread the word!Sign Up For The WeekenderSwitzer Falls HikeI’ve never understood the universal attraction to waterfalls. They’re thunderously loud and also, I feel like if you’ve seen one waterfall, you’ve seem them all. I hiked through a jungle for hours to get to a well-known waterfall in Bali.

Tara Karajica On Tuesday, Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing” opened the 2nd Evia Film Project, in the presence of the two-time Oscar-winning director. The green initiative was launched by the Thessaloniki Film Festival last year to offer support to Northern Evia following the devastating 2021 wildfires. The event runs to June 24 with an enhanced program. The films of this year’s edition are a mix of both classics and recent hits, feature films and documentaries. They have been selected to raise awareness, inform, incite to action, bring to light the repercussions of human-driven activities and mankind’s relation to the environment and, last but not least, praise nature’s magic.

Derek Hough is staying in shape for the summer!

Disney is celebrating their 100th anniversary!

Alfonso Ribeiro will host PBS’s A Capitol Fourth, the annual Independence Day celebration on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

Derek Hough let the cat out of the bag.

Lewis Capaldi is currently outselling the rest of the Official Albums Chart Top 20 combined as he surges towards Number 1 with Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent.