Canadian Producer Bonnie Thompson Honored at Hot Docs With Don Haig Award

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wilfredo Manalang, who was one of the producers of last year’s Cannes’ Japanese hit “Plan 75,” has come on board Vietnamese film project “Don’t Cry, Butterfly.” Manalang (aka Will Fredo) and partners in his Philippines-based Fusee consortium will join as an executive producer. Written and to be directed by Duong Dieu Linh, “Don’t Cry, Butterfly” follows a Vietnamese housewife who finds out that her husband is cheating on her. Instead of confronting him, she uses voodoo on him so he falls back in love with her. Production of “Don’t Cry Butterfly” is by Tan Si En at Singapore-based Momo Film Co. The company was founded in 2018 by Tan and writer-director Kris Ong. In 2021, Beach House Pictures, part of Canada’s Blue Ant Media, acquired a majority stake in Momo.

A.D. Amorosi Perhaps without you realizing it, there’s a strong chance that the last 12 months of your life have been graced by the classic, sequenced electronic disco of Italian songwriter, producer and soundtrack composer Giorgio Moroder. If 2022-2023 winds up as one of Moroder’s biggest years, that will have happened nearly by accident. Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer’s mega-box office winner “Top Gun: Maverick” used the composer’s “Danger Zone,” as the original film did. Then there is the fact that Beyoncé sampled his “I Feel Love” for “Summer Renaissance” as part of her 2022 album, “Renaissance.” He was rendered as a big-screen character with Sebastian Maniscalco’s cartoonish portrayal of Moroder in director-writer Timothy Scott Bogart’s “Spinning Gold” biopic (Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote that Maniscalco’s Moroder “sounds like a character out of Hogan’s Heroes'”). The Italian producer and composer who now lives in Los Angeles is better-represented in the new documentary on the life of his old friend, HBO Max’s “Love to You Love You, Donna Summer.”

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Producers Guild of America will hold its next PGA Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 25, 2024, presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald DeLine announced on Wednesday. The 2024 installment will mark the 35th annual PGA Awards ceremony. Here is this year’s PGA Awards calendar: Eligibility Period for 2024 Producers Guild Awards Notice of Producing Credits Form Deadline

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Sabina Smitham has joined Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin’s Blueprint Pictures, the producer of “Banshees of Inisherin,” as head of development. Reporting to head of film, Ben Knight, the new role will see Smitham manage the company’s development team and take the lead on expanding the company’s development slate. Smitham, an alumnus of the U.K.’s prestigious National Film and Television School’s master in producing program, joins from Disney+, where she oversaw the development of a range of projects for the Europe, Middle East and Africa Original Productions team. Prior to Disney she was a development producer at Faye Ward’s Fable Pictures.

This has to be the weirdest sentence you’ll read today: The Village People are currently feuding with former President of the United States Donald Trump.Victor Wills, the lead singer of The Village People, is reiterating his request to Trump, imploring him to stop using the band’s music. Only this time, things have gone a bit further, and he and the group seem ready to escalate things further if they must.

Tristan Thompson fan club came out in full force on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, where Kim Kardashian and North West not only showed him love with their presence but also with a thoughtful sign.The mother-daughter duo sat courtside for a pivotal Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals between the Golden State Warriors-Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers ultimately routed the Warriors, 122-101, to win the series, 4-2, and advance to next week's conference finals in Denver against the Nuggets.For his part, Thompson logged only four minutes in the game and recorded two defensive rebounds. Kim's become a familiar face at Lakers games since the team signed Thompson on April 9. During Game 4, Kim made a fashion statement when she declared she loves nerds. Just a few weeks ago, Kim, Saint, Kris Jenner and Corey Gamble all showed up courtside for the Grizzlies-Lakers game to cheer on Khloe Kardashian's ex.Kim had fun with her oldest son, snapping selfies with Saint, who was wearing a Lakers jersey with Tristan's new number on it.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper devoted a portion of his primetime program to address the backlash against the network for its town hall with Donald Trump, in which the Republican spewed lies and misinformation before a friendly, cheering audience.

Jennie Punter Hot Docs has wrapped its 30th anniversary edition, handing out its top cash prize and announcing the audience top picks after an 11-day festival, which presented 214 films from 72 countries at 308 live screenings at venues across Toronto. Philippe Falardeau’s “Lac-Mégantic—This Is Not an Accident” topped the overall audience poll to win the 2023 Hot Docs Audience Award. The four-part series from the Oscar-nominated director explores the causes of one of Canada’s worst rail disasters and what’s needed to prevent such accidents in the future. “Someone Lives Here,” by Zack Russell, won the Rogers Audience Awards for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. $50,000 cash, and also claimed the second-highest spot in the overall audience poll. The film also won the inaugural Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary, a jury-chosen prize, at the main awards ceremony held Saturday.

Jennie Punter Last year, during an online panel at Hot Docs film festival featuring Ukrainian documentary filmmakers who were staying in place, Oksana Karpovych told attendees how she’d gained knowledge working alongside foreign media crews covering the war, and was now applying that to her own creative documentary projects. This year, at the festival’s 30th anniversary edition, Karpovych attended the in-person Forum market event to pitch “Intercepted” — her observational doc exploring the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — which ended up winning the 2023 CMF-Hot Docs Canadian Pitch Prize. With Ukraine in the spotlight at Hot Docs this year, both audiences and industry attendees are getting wide exposure to the films and ideas of leading Ukrainian documentary creators. The timing of this programming is perfect, said Hot Docs programmer Myrocia Watamaniuk, not only for the obvious reason.

Jennie Punter Danish filmmaker Christian Einshøj’s “The Mountains” has won Hot Docs’ Best International Feature Documentary Award and a Cnd. $10,000 cash prize, it was announced this morning in Toronto at the festival’s awards ceremony, held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Produced by Made In Copenhagen, the film is an autobiographical family portrait using 30 years of home video, 75,000 photos, and a superhero road trip to explore the tragedy that led to the emotional distance between the men in the family. “The Mountains,” which premiered earlier this year at CPH:DOX, now automatically qualifies for consideration in the Academy’s Best Documentary Feature category without the standard theatrical run, provided it complies with Academy rules. Cats and Docs is handling sales.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Monte-Carlo Television Festival has revealed the nominees for its Golden Nymph Awards. The festival will open June 16 with the world premiere of the first episode of “Harlan Coben’s Shelter.” Hollywood producer and writer Howard Gordon (“The X-Files,” “24,” “Homeland,” “Accused”) will receive the Honorary Golden Nymph Award, the festival’s highest accolade, bestowed on a professional for their contribution to the entertainment industry. In the Fiction competition are “Poker Face” (U.S.), starring Natasha Lyonne, “The Warrant: Breaker’s Law” (U.S.), “Ten Pound Poms” (U.K./Australia), “The Seed” (Germany, Norway, Czech Republic), “Chorus Girls” (Denmark), “Fence” (Japan), “Le Colosse aux pieds d’argile” (France), “Miró” (Spain) and “Trust No One” (Israel).

The National Music Council of the United States will honor music and event producers Ray Chew and Vivian Scott Chew at the organization’s 39th annual American Eagle Awards on Sunday, June 25 at the American Federation of Musicians Convention in Las Vegas. 

The National Music Council of the United States will honor music and event producers Ray Chew and Vivian Scott Chew at the organization’s 39th annual American Eagle Awards on Sunday, June 25 at the American Federation of Musicians Convention in Las Vegas. 

Jennie Punter With Hot Docs’ marquee market event the Forum and its sidebar operations back to live action, and the festival’s 30th anniversary adding a layer of buzzy excitement, docmakers and industry pros from Western Canada are hauling out a bumper crop of adventurous docs for audiences and buyers, and chatting in the real world about new projects with potential Canadian and international partners and funders. Nine Western Canada-made doc features span Hot Docs’ programs, with stories that go deeper into landscapes and beyond cultural stereotypes. Kathleen Jayme’s and Asia Youngman’s “I’m Just Here for the Riot” (ESPN 30 for 30), about violence that erupted after the Vancouver Canucks’ loss of the Stanley Cup final in 2011, is one of three titles world-premiering in the Canadian Spectrum competition.

Addie Morfoot Contributor “I of the Water,” one of 20 projects presented at Hot Docs’ marquee market event, the Forum, has won the First Look first prize of Can. $50,000 ($36,700), one of four pitch prizes announced Wednesday at the festival. Kimberlee Bassford’s “I of the Water” focuses on acclaimed Samoan writer Sia Figiel’s hidden past of sexual abuse and journey toward healing. The film is produced by Bassford, Marilyn McFadyen, Vilsoni Hereniko, Leanne K. Ferrer, Cheryl Hirasa, and Linda Goldstein Knowlton. The second First Look prize, worth Can. $15,000, was awarded to Kenya-Jade Pinto “The Sandbox,” a Canadian production with a vague tagline: “Your future is being written in the sand.” The doc is produced by Shasha Nakhai, Kenya-Jade Pinto, Jennifer Baichwal, and Rich Williamson.

A stunned schoolkid has told how Donald Trump let him dine in style at his Turnberry golf resort this afternoon.

Jennie Punter As its industry confab kicks into full gear, Hot Docs is giving 1,800-plus delegates from more than 40 countries something extra to chatter about this morning with the announcement that leading media executive Marie Nelson has been tapped as the organization’s new president after a months-long international search. Nelson—who mingled with local and international doc players at the opening bash of the festival’s 30th edition last Thursday—will begin helming the strategic leadership and management of Hot Docs’ annual festival, conference, and market as well as its evolving year-round industry and public activities and initiatives, effective June 1, 2023.

A young boy comes of age after his father’s sudden death in Christophe Honoré’s “Winter Boy.” A bleak portrait of grief, the film may earn points for crafting an empathetic, subjective portrayal of one boy’s emotional spiral. Yet, the film also makes several odd formal and aesthetic choices that, ultimately, make Honoré’s film feel more hackneyed than resonant.

Harry Potter actress Bonnie Wright has excitedly announced that she's expecting her first child. The star, who played Ginny Weasley in the hit film franchise, shared the news by posting two pictures with her husband Andrew Lococo as she showed off her bump on Instagram. The 32 year old added in the caption: "We’re having a baby! So excited to share this beautiful land with them.

Queen of Disco in the ’70s, the suicidal singer hit rock bottom.“The most dismal days of my existence were at the height of my career,” says the late legend in the new documentary “Love To Love You, Donna Summer,” which premieres on HBO and HBO Max May 20. In fact, while Summer was riding high from the success of her breakout hit, the orgasmic classic “Love To Love You Baby,” she was enduring an abusive relationship with artist Peter Mühldorfer. One severe beating even left her unconscious, with a black eye and broken ribs.“I hit her, and I never could forgive myself,” says Mühldorfer in the doc.And having grown up in a deeply religious household — her father smacked her for wearing red nail polish because “that’s what whores wore” — Summer was highly conflicted about her image as a sex goddess from hits such as “Love To Love You Baby,” “I Feel Love” and later “Hot Stuff.” In reality, she was more church girl than “Bad Girl.”“You’re looking at me, but what you see is not what I am,” she says in the film, which is co-directed by her daughter Brooklyn Sudano and Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams.