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Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted from power early on Sunday in a stunning bloodless coup by Islamist rebels who took control of Damascus, the Syrian capital after a 13-year civil war that has caused more than 500,000 deaths and forced millions of Syrians to leave their homeland.

The rebels, who are called the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters, moved swiftly, entering Damascus and taking over the city as government military fled, hours after Assad had absconded.

The rebels’ fast-paced offensive was facilitated by a changing geopolitical scenario in which Assad was no longer able to rely on support from Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, according to several analysts.

State TV in Iran, which has been Assad’s main backer in recent years, reported that Assad had left the Syrian capital for an undisclosed location, while Syrian state television aired a video statement saying that he had been overthrown and...

Leading documentary sales outfit Autlook Filmsales has appointed Stephanie Fuchs as new CEO.

Fuchs takes over from Salma Abdalla, who is stepping down after almost a decade at the helm of the Vienna-based company.

Abdalla is credited with expanding Autlook’s international reach – most recently entering the US market through a collaboration with LA-based senior executive Jason Resnick – while cultivating a strong network of partnerships and championing some of the strongest filmmakers in the sector.

Among the many award-winning documentaries Abdalla spearheaded for sales are Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin, The Mother Of All Lies and For Sama.

On Feb. 6, 2023, after a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Turkish-Syrian border, becoming the deadliest disaster in the region’s modern history, Syrian director Waad Al-Kateab was in London fretting about her family and friends, and feeling helpless.

The activist and helmer of “For Sama” – the Oscar-nominated civil war diary that traveled around the world – was unable to reach the stricken area, having fled the Bashar Assad regime. But she immediately reached out to people on the ground, including her friends Fadi Al Halabi, a cinematographer on Oscar-winning short “The White Helmets,” and Fuad Sayed Issa, founder of Syrian refugee-led humanitarian group Violet.

Shortly thereafter Al-Kateab got a call from prominent producer Sheila Nevins. This led to her directing “Death Without Mercy” the powerful observational doc from MTV Documentary Films that premiered at Sheffield DocFest in June. It weaves together intimate first-hand footage with TV news reports, social media, CCTV, drone shots,...

In her 2022 Toronto curtain raiser “The Swimmers,” telling the true story of two Syrian sisters and their emotional and gruelling journey to Europe to escape the civil war, director Sally El-Hossaini went to great lengths to ensure authenticity, using real-life refugees both in-front of and behind the camera.

For Counterpoints Arts, the U.K. charity that focusses on culture and migration, “The Swimmers” offered a great example of how projects involving refugees and migrants could — and should — be developed. As the organization’s co-founder and director Almir Koldzic explains to Variety, El-Hossaini made sure that “people with lived experiences were represented on every level of production and were respected in that process.”

Since it launched in 2012, Counterpoints has worked alongside the U.K. arts scene as part of its efforts to “inspire social change and enhance inclusion and cultural integration,” putting on numerous film screenings concerning the subject, many during the annual Refugee Week,...

The massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023 produced catastrophic damage and loss of life – killing more than 55,000 thousand people and leveling huge swaths of cities.

Perhaps most devastating of all was the knowledge that the destruction didn’t need to be so extreme. Poor construction caused many buildings to implode, collapsing into clouds of dust. Inadequate rescue efforts left many who survived the initial quake and aftershocks to perish in the rubble.

The new documentary Death Without Mercy, directed by Oscar-nominated Syrian filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab, captures what happened when tranquility was shattered at 4:17 a.m. local time on February 6, and the extraordinary scenes of destruction and suffering that followed in the hours and days afterwards. The film, from MTV Documentary Films, just premiered at Sheffield DocFest.

‘Death Without Mercy’

“At the beginning, we couldn’t really understand this scale of death,” says Al-Kateab. “In that time...

Waad al-Kateab’s documentary Death Without Mercy collects agonising experience from the aftermath of 2023. She reflects on a natural disaster made much worse by politics, and how she is trying to help

Waad al-Kateab has always looked for hope, but when it came to making her latest documentary, Death Without Mercy, the moments were difficult to find. After the nightmarish earthquake shook Turkey and Syria in February 2023, she felt hopeless counting the passing seconds, hours and days from her home in east London as she waited for an emergency visa to visit her family in Gaziantep city, near the Syrian border she crossed years earlier fleeing the Assad regime. “It could have been us,” the film-maker, now a refugee in the UK, tells me with tears in her eyes.

At 32, al-Kateab has a talent for making the devastatingly personal universal. In her debut film, For Sama, she documented life under...

The Hexagonal Hive And A Mouse In A Maze Photo: Courtesy of Sheffield DocFest Sheffield DocFest has announced its full film programme, along with its Alternate Realities exhibitions, and public talks for this year's festival, which has the theme Reflections on Reality.

Among the notable entries in this year's line-up is The Hexagonal Hive And A Mouse In A Maze, which marks the directorial debut of Tilda Swinton, directing alongside Bartek Dziadosz. It is one of 48 world premieres, which also include the latest film from For Sama director Waad Al-Kateab, Death without Mercy.

Events at the festival will include playwright, screenwriter, novelist and director Hanif Kureishi will joining a live and remote conversation with director Nigel Williams following the world premiere of In My Own Words: Hanif Kureish, a portrait of him and his career in both the arts and public sphere.

The Signature Talk will be presented by Jiabao Li.

Keshet International has acquired exclusive worldwide distribution rights to the feature-length documentary “2024: A Hundred Days That Rocked the Royals” from Oscar-nominated banner ITN Productions.

Commissioned by Channel 5, where it will premiere in the U.K. on Saturday at 1 p.m., the documentary “retells the unprecedented series of crises faced by the royal family in the first three months of 2024 — crises that threatened the very fabric of the monarchy,” according to its synopsis. “A king fighting cancer, a princess undergoing preventative chemotherapy and an heir torn between privacy and duty are just some of the struggles the royal family had to endure.”

Directed by Myles Judd and executive produced by Daniel Smith, “2024: A Hundred Days That Rocked the Royals” features interviews with royal commentators and journalists who explain how the recent royal crises have sparked countless conspiracy theories and predict what could be next for the British crown.

Manchester Film Festival (March 15-24) has unveiled its industry talks line-up with Oscar-nominated director Waad Al-Kateab and executives from Curzon Film and Altitude Film Entertainment among the speakers.

Al-Kateab - a 2020 Oscar nominee, and Bafta and Bifa winner for her documentary For Sama - will close the programme with an in-conversation session before screening her latest film We Dare To Dream, which debuted at Tribeca Film Festival last year.

Discussing the current UK film landscape will be Curzon’s head of theatrical sales Jamie Mendonca; Bulldog’s head of distribution and acquisitions Philip Hoile; Altitude’s head of publicity Mark Jones...

Yorgos Lanthimos. Christopher Nolan. Justine Triet. Jonathan Glazer.

What do these four directors have in common? They were all among the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards, and none of them were born in the United States. Lanthimos is Greek, Triet is French, and Nolan and Glazer are British. Among the nominees, only New Yorker Martin Scorsese is American-born.

The last time only one American-born director made it to that year’s Best Director lineup was back in 1997, when Miloš Forman (Czech), Scott Hicks (Australian), Mike Leigh and Anthony Minghella (both English) received Oscar nominations. Of course, this is only technically true. Joel Coen was the one American in the category, yet it was due to a guild rule that he received sole credit for directing despite his helming “Fargo” with his brother Ethan, who would’ve been the second American among the nominees.

SEEOscars: Justine Triet is 8th...

Discovery-owned Eurosport has acquired streaming rights in 54 countries to Olympic refugee documentary “We Dare to Dream” by Waad Al-Kateab, the Oscar-nominated Syrian director of “For Sama.”

“We Dare to Dream” is the story of the refugee Olympic team that competed at the 2020 games in Tokyo, which featured stateless athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Cameroon who swim, run and fight their way to safety in host nations across the world. It’s told through the personal prism of Al-Kateab while she is coming to terms with the reality that she can never return to Aleppo, where she shot “For Sama.” The doc premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June and had an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run at New York City’s IFC Center in October.

After the doc premiered at Tribeca, Angelina Jolie joined “We Dare to Dream” as an executive producer to help with its Oscar push.

Peacock has acquired U.S. rights to Waad Al-Kateab’s second feature-length documentary “We Dare to Dream.”

The pact comes after the 93-minute film made its world premiere in June at the Tribeca Film Festival and had a Oscar qualifying theatrical run at New York City’s IFC Center in October. The docu, about the refugee Olympic team at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, will begin streaming on Peacock on Dec. 1.

“The fact that Peacock has now acquired our film gives me hope that millions of people will be able to understand our story, and that we, the world’s refugees, are not the crisis,” says Al-Kateab. “We are a consequence of multiple crises in the world from climate instability to political conflict that are causing millions, like me and my children, to lose their homes and their way of life. With new crises at a breaking point today, I think...

This film from the Oscar-nominated director of For Sama follows athletes at the Tokyo Games and looks at how they’ve escaped persecution to reach sport’s top table

There’s nothing that Waad Al-Kateab – the citizen-journalist turned Oscar-nominated director of For Sama – needs to do to make her latest documentary more affecting. The resilience and strength of character of the athletes she films competing for the Refugee Team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics reaches for your heart and gives it a good twist. The team was first introduced at the Rio Games in 2016 in response to the refugee crisis and gives athletes a scholarship to pay for living costs and training – as well as a flag to compete under.

And what a team they are. Kimia Alizadeh Zonoozi was 18 when she became Iran’s first female summer Olympic medallist, winning a bronze in Taekwondo at Rio. But she couldn’t...

Industry veterans Amanda Sherwin, Mike Messina and Seth Needle are teaming up to launch Blue Harbor Entertainment, a new distribution, marketing and consulting company. The news comes as the American Film Market kicks off this week in Santa Monica where the executives will be on the ground looking for partners. Blue Harbor is looking to distribute 10 to 15 feature film releases per year, as well as provide advisory services to third parties. The trio are currently negotiating multiple deals.

“Blue Harbor provides an alternative path for filmmakers — the opportunity to hire their distributor, and work with them, collaboratively and transparently, to bring their films to audiences,” said Needle. “Whether that’s something they decide once they have a completed picture, during the packaging stage or somewhere in between, we are here to help them craft a strategy for success.”

Blue Harbor Entertainment says it will offer marketing and distribution services, overseeing...

John Legend is lending his voice to “We Dare to Dream,” a documentary about the refugee Olympic team at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Legend will write, compose and record “Don’t Need to Sleep,” an original song for the docu, which will open theatrically Oct. 20 at New York’s IFC Center.

Legend as well as his Get Lifted Film co-founders Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorius will serve as executive producers on the project alongside Angelina Jolie.

“I am honored to contribute an original song to ‘We Dare to Dream,'” says Legend. “Waad Al-Kateab has created an important film and I hope “Don’t Need to Sleep” does the documentary and its extraordinary subjects justice.”

“We Dare to Dream” is director Waad Al-Kateab’s second feature doc. In her first film, “For Sama,” which was nominated for an Academy Award, the Syrian director used her camera to capture her daily...

Oscar-winning actor and activist Angelina Jolie has signed on as an executive producer on We Dare to Dream, the new documentary from Oscar-nominated director Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama).

We Dare to Dream tells the story of the young, stateless athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Cameroon who competed together under the banner of the Ioc Refugee Olympic team at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. We Dare to Dream has its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on Sunday.

Jolie has long been a vocal advocate for the rights of refugees. The actor and filmmaker served as a goodwill ambassador for Un refugee agency the Unhcr from 2001 to 2012 and as a special envoy from 2012 to 2022.

“I have long admired Angelina’s clear-sighted and principled approach to human rights and refugee issues,” Al-Kateab said in a statement. “She has been a true ally to the refugee community and to me personally over the last two years.

Two films by Arab women directors are sharing the L’Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) prize for the best documentary in Cannes. Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa) by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania and The Mother of All Lies (La Mère de tous les mensonges) by Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir were announced as the winners at a joint ceremony this morning at the Palais in Cannes.

“It’s huge,” Ben Hania told Deadline after the announcement. “I’m very happy and I’m also very happy to share this prize with Asmae from Morocco. And I think that it means something for the region, for the storytellers, for us women directors… It’s so special.”

Both Ben Hania and El Moudir were on hand for the presentation at the Salon des Ambassadeurs. It the second prize in two days for El Moudir. On Thursday, she won best director in...

The documentary is directed by Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moud.

Vienna-based documentary sales outfit Autlook has snapped up world rights for The Mother Of All Lies, which will receive its world premiere in Un Certain Regard at this month’s Cannes Film Festival.

The documentary is directed by Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir. In the film, El Moudir painstakingly recreates her Casablanca neighbourhood on a handmade set, enlisting family and friends to help solve the troubling mysteries of her childhood.

Autlook Filmsales acquired global rights, not including all rights on the Mena region and France.

“The audience and the market...

Red Zed Films and October Films’ documentary “My Name Is Happy” will have a limited U.K. theatrical run from May 21.

Directed by Ayse Toprak (“Mr Gay Syria) and Emmy and BAFTA nominated Nick Read (“Bolshoi Babylon”), the film follows Mutlu Kaya, a Kurdish woman and promising singer from southeastern Turkey whose dreams were about to come true in 2015 when she reached the finals of “Turkey’s Got Talent.” Days before the final she was gunned down by a man whose marriage proposal she had refused. She survived – with a bullet in her brain. After years of rehabilitation from life threatening injuries, the family was again struck by violence. This time, Mutlu’s carer, her sister Dilek, did not survive a murder attempt by another jilted suitor.

The film observes the close-knit musical family through their turbulent ordeals, their struggle to recover, and their fight for justice and the rights...

Some in the industry might be irked that the Oscars and SXSW are colliding on the same weekend this year, however, it’s a win-win for both tonight: For a year ago, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once blasted off here in Austin, TX as the festival’s opening night film. The movie becomes the first world premiere to debut at SXSW and win Oscar’s Best Picture.

Overall, Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven Oscars including Best Picture, the Daniels for Director, Jamie Lee Curtis for Best Supporting Actress, Michelle Yeoh for Best Actress, Key Huy Quan for Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing and Original Screenplay.

Related: Oscar Winners List

Said SXSW head Claudette Godfrey beamed tonight, “It’s so meaningful to have been a part of the Daniels’ journey and the journey of Everything Everywhere All at Once. We could not be more thrilled that their...

India’s All That Breathes followed up its victory at the Sundance Film Festival by winning top documentary honors in Cannes.

The film directed by Shaunak Sen, which documents a pair of Muslim brothers in Delhi who devote countless hours to restore the health of ailing black kite birds, earned the L’Œil d’or (“Golden Eye”) award in a ceremony on Saturday.

“From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement, the ‘kite brothers’ care for thousands of these mesmeric creatures that drop daily from New Delhi’s smog-choked skies,” notes a description of the documentary. “As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between this Muslim family and the neglected kite forms a poetic chronicle of the city’s collapsing ecology and rising social tensions.”

The Golden Eye jury, headed by filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, saluted All That Breathes for reminding “us that every life matters, and every small action matters.

Syrian-American actor Jay Abdo (“Hologram for the King”) is set to play the lead in “Broadcast,” a drama about the atrocities of the Syrian civil war that will mark the directorial debut of U.S. actor and producer Grant Cramer.

Cramer has produced several indie pics of various genres, including Afghanistan-set Special Forces thriller “Lone Survivor,” which was shot in New Mexico. He more recently produced the Nicolas Cage horror-comedy “Willy’s Wonderland.”

Cramer initially came on board “Broadcast” as a producer and subsequently made it his passion project and directorial debut, according to a statement.

Abdo (pictured) was a big star in Syria before fleeing his homeland for the U.S. to escape persecution after speaking out against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The actor is boarding “Broadcast” as both the pic’s protagonist and co-producer.

Once in the U.S., Abdo changed his first name from Jihad...

The Academy announced Kelley Kali and Waad al-Kateeb as domestic and international recipients, respectively, of the 2021 Academy Fellowship for Women — with Kali receiving $35,000 and al-Kateeb receiving the equivalent of £20,000.

Part of the Academy Gold global talent development and inclusion initiative, the fellowship for women is a one-year program that provides direct financial support, mentorship and access to filmmakers. Additionally, fellows will also receive career achievement support through the Alumni Gold Program — which provides professional development and education for alumni of Academy Gold Programs, including Gold Rising, Student Academy Awards and the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.

Both Kali and al-Kateeb were selected from a group of 11 finalists, including Kimberlee Bassford, Vigil Chime, Shaina Ghuraya, Amy Tofte, Gordon West, Farah Abushwesha, Rienkje Attoh-Wood, Prano Bailey-Bond and Dionne Edwards.

Kali is a graduate of Howard University and USC School of Cinematic Arts. Credits include being selected to work with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer...

When people talk about diversifying the entertainment industry, it almost always centers on race, gender or sexuality. But one of the most radical shifts in Hollywood has gone largely unnoticed: The Oscars’ documentary branch more than doubled its membership over the past five years, and around half of its new voters are based outside the U.S.

The move hasn’t just turned more foreign docs into Oscar finalists and nominees. It’s now influencing which films get funded and distributed, and determining winners in categories as big as international feature and best picture.

“We have an effect on what wins in other categories, so when you see a [South Korean] film like ‘Parasite’ win best picture, our branch probably played a big role in that,” says Roger Ross Williams, a documentary branch governor.

“We have a huge block of 26% international members, and they’re not necessarily voting for the same U.

When PBS launched “Frontline” in 1983, the docuseries was considered the “the last best hope for broadcast documentaries.” While these days the longform investigative-journalism series is certainly not the only hope for docus looking for a home on the small screen, the program remains one of the cornerstones of not only PBS’ documentary efforts, but also of the nonfiction industry.

Despite a rapidly shifting landscape that introduced big money streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, “Frontline,” produced by Wgbh Boston, has managed to maintain its prominence in the industry over the last decade. Thus far, the program has garnered 100 Emmys and two Oscar nominations. “Frontline’s” success over the last seven years is due in large part to Raney Aronson-Rath, who joined “Frontline” in 2007 as a senior producer. She was named deputy executive producer in 2012, and then became executive producer in 2015. A journalist at ABC News and the Wall Street Journal before joining “Frontline,...

Ben de Pear is stepping down as editor of Channel 4 News after almost ten years in the post. The widely respected editor will continue to oversee the British news programme until the end of the year.

UK vet De Pear is ITN’s most-decorated editor and under his leadership Channel 4 News has won a bevvy of awards including Rts News Programme of the Year four times; six International Emmys, five BAFTAs and has been nominated for an Oscar.

He led the Channel 4 News team from the newsroom throughout the pandemic — which included a six-year audience high in March 2020 — and was at the helm for notable undercover exposés including that of Cambridge Analytica.

De Pear joined Channel 4 News as foreign producer in 2005, winning multiple awards for coverage of conflicts in Lebanon, Congo, Somalia, and Afghanistan. He became foreign editor in 2008 and was appointed editor in August 2012.

Following his departure, ITN...

The Ioc Refugee Olympic Team competing in the Tokyo Olympics is set to be the subject of a feature documentary from For Sama director Waad Al-Kateab.

Al-Kateab, who was nominated for an Oscar for her Syrian Civil War documentary, is helming the doc, which is produced by The White Helmets and Virunga producer Joanna Natasegara, who runs Violet Films, and Bryn Mooser and his non-fiction studio Xtr.

The doc is backed by Airbnb founder Joe Gebbia, who exec produces alongside Jason Ropell and Nevine Mabro and Xtr’s Justin Lacob and Kathryn Everett.

Al Kateab and Natasegara have had unprecedented access to the Ioc Refugee Olympic Team before, during and after the 2020 Games, which saw 29 athletes competing in Tokyo, originating from 11 countries, and residing in 13 host nations.

“I am so honored to have the opportunity to capture the stories of these inspirational athletes on their way to competing at the...

“For Sama” director Waad Al-Kateab is in Tokyo filming a documentary about the Ioc Refugee Olympic Team for Xtr.

Al-Kateab, a Syrian filmmaker who received an Oscar nomination for “For Sama,” is working with Oscar-winning producer Joanna Natasegara on the project. They have had access to the Ioc Refugee Olympic Team before and during the 2021 Games. The team consists of 29 athletes competing in Tokyo, originating from 11 countries, and residing in 13 host nations.

“I am so honored to have the opportunity to capture the stories of these inspirational athletes on their way to competing at the biggest sports event in the world,” said Al-Kateab. “So much of their experience I recognize in my own journey as a refugee and I feel very committed to representing their heart, determination and resilience in a way that they deserve. Despite the hardship for anyone leaving their homeland behind, the Refugee Olympic Team stories are a moving contribution of ambition,...

Oscar-nominated director Waad Al-Kateab will direct a documentary feature following the Ioc Refugee Olympic Team, Xtr announced Wednesday morning.

The film is in production at the Tokyo Olympics, where Al-Kateab and producer Joanna Natasegara are following the team consisting of 29 athletes originating from 11 countries, and residing in 13 host nations.

Director Al-Kateab made her Oscar-nominated directorial debut with “For Sama,” which followed her own experience as a journalist who elected to stay with her husband and young daughter in the embattled city of Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War. After “For Sama” won four BAFTA awards, making it the most nominated documentary in BAFTA’s history, Al-Kateab started the “Action For Sama,” advocacy campaign which raises awareness on Syrian conflicts.

Oscar-winning producer Natasegara will produce the film alongside Bryn Mooser, a former Peace Corps worker and Oscar-nominated producer who founded the nonfiction film and television studio Xtr in 2019.

“I am so...

Rather than using the excuse of a pandemic to slow down, the indefatigable and hugely prolific director Mark Cousins has instead speeded up his output. This is the first of two films he has screening in Cannes, while two more finished films are in the pipeline. It was fitting that his latest venture, a follow-up to The Story of Film: An Odyssey, was the first screening of the Cannes Film Festival for it is a celebration of this millennium’s cinema and is a sweeping, vast and loving look at the recent past and potential future of film.

Cousins has taken a slightly different approach with this instalment: gone are the interviews with filmmakers. In their stead, we have a slew of film clips – from 97 films! – that speak for themselves. While Cannes critics and film buffs will recognise a host of winners from previous festivals – Shoplifters and Parasite making notable...

A decade after producing his epic 15-hour series “The Story of Film: An Odyssey,” Mark Cousins has created another cinematic survey of Homeric proportions.

In ”The Story of Film: A New Generation,” whose international distribution is handled by Dogwoof Sales, the writer and filmmaker applies a wide lens to the last 10 years of cinema, asking where filmmakers have pushed the language of storytelling, and where they have blown it up entirely.

Using snippets from Hollywood and Bollywood bangers like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Pk,” from VR masterpieces like “The Deserted,” and from urgent docs like Syria’s “For Sama,” Cousins fashions a compelling, ultimately optimistic collage on where cinema has been, and where it’s going next.

Cousins is set to unveil “A New Generation” at a special Cannes Film Festival screening on Tuesday, but before that, he caught up with Variety to discuss the challenges of making his...

Ten years after the Syrian revolution that rapidly turned into civil war, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, tens of thousands have disappeared — believed to have been tortured and killed in government prisons — and an estimated 13 million, more than half of Syria’s prewar population, have been forcibly displaced. Filmmakers on the front lines have played a crucial role in raising awareness beyond the din of TV news. Has it all been in vain?

“If we look at where we are now as Syrians, nobody can ignore the pain and the suffering and the death and destruction,” says Waad Al-Kateab, co-director of “For Sama,” the 2020 Oscar-nominated civil war diary that traveled around the world. But at the same time, she says, “For me and all the people that I know, we’ve never said: ‘I wish it had never happened.’”

Al-Kateab mentions a friend who is still waiting to again see her father,...

Deborah Turness is leaving NBC News after eight years to become the CEO of ITN, the UK news producer.

Turness first joined NBC News in 2013, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to be president of a network news division. She moved over to become president of NBC News International in 2017 after the company took a stake in Euronews.

NBC sold its stake in Euronews last April to focus on the launch of an international television news channel, named NBC Sky World News. Four months later, NBC abandoned plans to launch the channel, citing commercial challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Her switch to ITN represents a homecoming of sorts after she was the editor of ITN-produced ITV News prior to her time at NBC News. She rose through the ranks at ITN having first joined the company on a post-graduate journalism course in France in her early twenties.

Italy’s arthouse cinemas are celebrating International Women’s Day by symbolically reopening to stage “closed door” screenings of films and documentaries directed by female filmmakers in empty venues across the country.

The symbolic initiative is being launched by the country’s association of arthouse cinemas, called Fice. In a statement, the org noted that besides being International Women’s Day, March 8, 2021, also marks exactly one year from the date in 2020 when Italian cinemas were forced to shutter due to the coronavirus crisis. Thus, the move is also a preamble of sorts to the hoped for — though still uncertain — real opening of some Italian movie theaters later this month.

Fice president Domenico Di Noia has launched an appeal to Italy’s 500-member arthouse cinema network to “symbolically” reopen for one closed-door screening at 8 p.m. of films either directed or co-directed by women directors. Titles being proposed include Susanna Nicchiarelli’s “Miss Marx,...

Sioban Sinnerton, executive producer of Oscar-nominated and BAFTA, Emmy and Cannes-winning documentary “For Sama,” has joined Hillary Clinton, Sam Branson and Chelsea Clinton’s production outfit HiddenLight Productions.

Sinnerton will take on the newly created role of creative director and senior VP unscripted, and will report into CEO Johnny Webb. She joins from U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 where she was commissioning editor, news and current affairs and immersive content. At HiddenLight, she will be responsible for growing the company’s slate of premium unscripted content globally.

The executive’s credits also include the BAFTA-nominated “The Hunt for Jihadi John”; Rory Peck award-winner “The Battle for Hong Kong”; BAFTA and Rts award-winning “Myanmar’s Killing Fields”; multiple award-winning “Children on the Frontline”; and the Emmy-winning “Escape from Isis.”

Sinnerton has served as commissioner on factual and consumer series, including “Supershoppers,” “Life After Lock-up” and “24 Hours In Police Custody.” She...

Clintons’ HiddenLight Hires ‘For Sama’ EP

HiddenLight Productions, the production outfit co-founded by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sam Branson, and Chelsea Clinton, has hired BAFTA and Emmy-winning executive producer Siobhan Sinnerton to the role of creative director and SVP of unscripted. She joins from Channel 4, where she commissioned and executive produced the Oscar-nominated documentary For Sama. Sinnerton has worked at Channel 4 for more than a decade, with her other credits including The Hunt for Jihadi John, BAFTA-winning Myanmar’s Killing Fields, and Emmy-winning Escape from Isis. Sinnerton will report to HiddenLight CEO, Johnny Webb, who said: “Siobhan’s love for premium storytelling, impact and innovation makes her a very exciting addition to our senior team.” Sinnerton added: “The need to create programmes that have real purpose, but that also entertain and reach the widest possible audience, is more pressing now than ever before. HiddenLight is one of the most exciting...

This year’s contenders are a crew of motley, scrappy, more-indie-than-usual films, led by frontrunners “Nomadland” (Searchlight) and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (Paramount/Netflix). Which factors will determine those that cross the nomination finish line?

Here’s what I have gleaned about what’s likely in the two-months delayed voting period (March 5-10), when 9,362 Oscar voters (up 893 from 2020) from 17 branches may pick the final contenders in 23 categories. Nominations come March 15, ahead of the latest-ever Oscars on April 25.

1. Besides actors, international Academy voters carry the most sway.

This year, 49 percent of invited new Academy members came from overseas, including such Europeans as the music branch’s Bernie Taupin (“Rocket Man”), director Ladj Ly (“Les Miserables”), and actors Florence Pugh (“Little Women”) and Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”).

Look at overseas awards for clues of which films have support. It helps to know that Denmark’s “Another Round,” starring popular Mads Mikkelsen,...

This year’s contenders are a crew of motley, scrappy, more-indie-than-usual films, led by frontrunners “Nomadland” (Searchlight) and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (Paramount/Netflix). Which factors will determine those that cross the nomination finish line?

Here’s what I have gleaned about what’s likely in the two-months delayed voting period (March 5-10), when 9,362 Oscar voters (up 893 from 2020) from 17 branches may pick the final contenders in 23 categories. Nominations come March 15, ahead of the latest-ever Oscars on April 25.

1. Besides actors, international Academy voters carry the most sway.

This year, 49 percent of invited new Academy members came from overseas, including such Europeans as the music branch’s Bernie Taupin (“Rocket Man”), director Ladj Ly (“Les Miserables”), and actors Florence Pugh (“Little Women”) and Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”).

Look at overseas awards for clues of which films have support. It helps to know that Denmark’s “Another Round,” starring popular Mads Mikkelsen,...

PBS won four prizes in the 2021 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Awards, an annual recognition of some of the best work in the reaml of audio and video journalism. Radiolab won two of the contest’s coveted silver batons, and other winners included NBC News, Vice and and Netflix.

Fifteen honorees were named Tuesday evening in a ceremony that was made available via PBS’ digital venues. The event was hosted by Anderson Cooper, the CNN anchor, and Michele Norris, the Washington Post opinion columnist, in an hour-long presentation. Special guest presenters included Dr. Anthony Fauci, Professor Jelani Cobb and 2019 duPont winner Mariska Hargitay

For the first time, the duPont jury selected 30 finalists, who were announced in November 2020.

“Courageously documenting the turbulent events of 2020, journalists performed a critical public service by reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic, social justice, the role of the internet in our

politics, and much more,” said Cheryl Gould, duPont...

A feature-length documentary examining the life and times of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is in the works from U.K. network Channel 4 and Roast Beef Productions, the Oscar-nominated banner behind such films as The Square, Hell and Back Again and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.

Who Is Ghislaine Maxwell? is being directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Erica Gornall (Saudi Women’s Driving School) and marks the first major project from multi-award-winning U.K. TV veteran Dorothy Byrne (Leaving Neverland, For Sama) since stepping down as Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs last year.

Set to include interviews with Maxwell’s friends,...

A feature-length documentary examining the life and times of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is in the works from U.K. network Channel 4 and Roast Beef Productions, the Oscar-nominated banner behind such films as The Square, Hell and Back Again and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.

Who Is Ghislaine Maxwell? is being directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Erica Gornall (Saudi Women’s Driving School) and marks the first major project from multi-award-winning U.K. TV veteran Dorothy Byrne (Leaving Neverland, For Sama) since stepping down as Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs last year.

Set to include interviews with Maxwell’s friends,...

Both films won three prizes each at Sweden’s top film awards.

Henrik Schyffert’s Run Uje Run has won best film at the 2021 Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s top film accolade, which also saw Amanda Kernell’s Charter score a hat-trick including best director.

Run Uje Run, written by and starring Swedish musician Uje Brandelius, is an autobiographical comedy-drama that centres on a pop star who is diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The feature, which won the audience award and Fipresci prize when its debuted at Goteborg Film Festival last year, also scored the...

Crip Camp, the Netflix documentary about a unique summer camp for disabled kids and its role propelling the disability rights movement, won Best Feature at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Awards, in something of an upset.

The film directed by Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht (the latter attended the titular camp as a teen) also won the ABC News VideoSource Award, recognizing its skillful use of archival video from the 1970s to 1990s.

“I want to thank everybody at Camp Jened, the staff, the counselors and the campers,” said an emotional LeBrecht as he, Newnham and producer Sara Bolder accepted the award. “My life set a course when I went there and you all are responsible for this–you are so much a part of this award.”

Newnham added, “The hippie teens and counselors of Camp Jened could never have imagined the wide-reaching impact that their brief utopian community...

The Oscars are no stranger to current events when it comes to Best Documentary Feature. The award has often gone to films that address pressing social or political issues, and in 2020 you could hardly get more pressing than the Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected just about every industry on Earth, including the film business. “76 Days” takes an especially close look at the pandemic, chronicling the weeks when the disease locked down Wuhan, China, the city where the novel coronavirus was thought to have originated. Voters may be impressed by that journalistic and cinematic achievement, especially when the subject matter hits so close to home.

Over the last 20 years the motion picture academy has awarded several nonfiction films that spoke to pressing societal concerns, from gun violence (2002’s “Bowling for Columbine”) to climate change (2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth”), torture (2007’s “Taxi to the Dark Side”), the Great Recession (2010’s “Inside Job...

For film festivals and markets, all is chaos. Some say the show will go on, or at least some of the show; others are pivoting to a virtual experience, or postponing, or wait-and-seeing, or canceling altogether. Some are open only to industry members, while others offer free and paid programming for the general public. Some are restricted only to residents of specific countries. And all is subject to change.

It’s a lot to track, and we’ll keep doing just that in the weeks and months ahead. Here’s a list of film festivals and markets that have offered some indication about their plans; those not on the list are not necessarily canceled. Many continue to accept submissions, but are mum on how they plan to move forward. The list will be updated as event organizers release information on their plans.

November

Sheffield Doc/Fest and Marketplace

Sheffield, UK...

Leading the International Documentary Association Documentary Awards nominees with five nominations is “Crip Camp,” Netflix’s look back at an influential activist summer camp for the disabled, followed by Garrett Bradley’s poetic black-and-white “Time” (Amazon Studios) and Sam Pollard’s 60s archival dive “MLK/FBI” (IFC Films) with four noms each.

“The Truffle Hunters” (Sony Pictures Classics) scored three nods. All four films landed nods for Best Feature and Director, along with Jerry Rothwell’s “The Reason I Jump.” Netflix also landed multiple nominations for “Dick Johnson Is Dead” And “My Octopus Teacher.”

The IDAs are among the most reliable bellwethers of the Oscar documentary feature race. Last year’s IDA Best Feature winner, “For Sama,” was among the final five Oscar nominees, along with three out of 10 IDA nominees, including eventual Oscar-winner “American Factory.”

Starting December 7, IDA members are invited to vote online for Best Feature and Best...

Leading the International Documentary Association Documentary Awards nominees with five nominations is “Crip Camp,” Netflix’s look back at an influential activist summer camp for the disabled, followed by Garrett Bradley’s poetic black-and-white “Time” (Amazon Studios) and Sam Pollard’s 60s archival dive “MLK/FBI” (IFC Films) with four noms each.

“The Truffle Hunters” (Sony Pictures Classics) scored three nods. All four films landed nods for Best Feature and Director, along with Jerry Rothwell’s “The Reason I Jump.” Netflix also landed multiple nominations for “Dick Johnson Is Dead” And “My Octopus Teacher.”

The IDAs are among the most reliable bellwethers of the Oscar documentary feature race. Last year’s IDA Best Feature winner, “For Sama,” was among the final five Oscar nominees, along with three out of 10 IDA nominees, including eventual Oscar-winner “American Factory.”

Starting December 7, IDA members are invited to vote online for Best Feature and Best...

Indian series Delhi Crime takes best drama prize in New York ceremony.

British programmes Responsible Child and Elizabeth Is Missing and India’s Delhi Crime were among the top honourees in this year’s International Emmy Awards.

Netflix offering Delhi Crime was named best drama series and Responsible Child, aired by BBC Two in the UK, best TV movie/miniseries when the awards were announced by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences during a live ceremony in New York on Monday (November 23). Socially distanced presenters on stage announced the awards while winners accepted their statuettes via remote feeds.

The...

Michaela Coel, Lenny Abrahamson’s “Normal People” and “The Masked Singer” were among the winners of the U.K.’s Royal Television Society (Rts) Craft & Design Awards.

Coel won the 2020 Rts special award for her groundbreaking BBC/HBO show “I May Destroy You.” In presenting the award to Coel, the judges said: “This piece sits in the true spirit of the craft and design Awards. The astonishing level of detail in all aspects of this production was humbling to see. A truly distinctive, highly creative and exemplary piece of work, in which the winner had also corralled outstanding demonstrations of expert craft skills across all the production disciplines.”

Lenny Abrahamson won best director of drama for smash hit BBC/Hulu show “Normal People.” “Beautiful, stylish and confident. This was the work of an elite director, skilfully providing the space for his actors to shine and their chemistry to transmit through the lens.

Netflix’s “Delhi Crime” won best drama series at the 48th International Emmy Awards while iconic British actor Glenda Jackson and 13-year-old Billy Barratt won the acting categories.

The awards were announced during a live ceremony hosted by actor Richard Kind on Monday.

Jackson added to her BAFTA leading actress win for BBC TV movie “Elizabeth is Missing,” while Barratt won for another BBC TV movie, “Responsible Child,” which also won the TV movie/mini-series category.

Netflix’s “Nobody’s Looking” won the comedy award while Oscar nominee “For Sama” won the documentary category.

The non-English language U.S. primetime program category saw a tie between “La Reina del Sur” season 2 and the 20th annual Latin Grammy awards.

Elsewhere, “Vertige de la Chute” (Ressaca) won the arts programming category, “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds” won non-scripted entertainment, and “Órfãos Da Terra” (Orphans of a Nation) won the telenovela category.