Deadline’s Contenders Film: International Streaming Site Launches

Afternoon all, it’s nearly Xmas but we’re not slowing down. Here’s Max Goldbart with your weekly dose of international news and analysis from the International Insider. To get this sent to your inbox every Friday, sign up here.

I’m more than halfway into my stay in Saudi Arabia for the Red Sea International Film Festival and what is becoming more apparent with each day that passes is that what this first-time event lacks in experience and organization, it makes up for in ambition.

Deadline has launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: New York, its movie awards-season showcase that took place Saturday at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. A total of 23 Oscar-buzzed films were on display across the day of panel presentations, a one-stop shop for Academy and guild voters as they sort out their ballots.

Being the Ricardos writer-director Aaron Sorkin and stars Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda joined Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York showcase to discuss the Amazon Studios biopic of sorts about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, played by Kidman and Bardem, respectively.

In 2019, the series 'The President’s Concubine' was released on Netflix to lots of positive reviews. Although it was from a small production company, the series had an audience of millions from different parts of the world.

Legendary music exec Clarence Avant‘s wife Jacqueline “Jackie” Avant has been shot and killed at home during a home invasion.

Deadline has launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: Documentary, featuring all 25 panels from our Sunday event showcasing the filmmakers behind the buzziest nonfiction feature films of the awards season.

Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event, our virtual showcase of the year’s leading nonfiction, gets underway Sunday beginning at 9 a.m. PT. This year’s lineup of 25 movies reflects the growing availability of documentary content across a variety of platforms: Showtime and HBO, streamers HBO Max, Netflix, Discovery+, Hulu, Amazon Studios, and Apple TV+, as well as theatrical distributors Neon, Focus Features, Searchlight Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics.

Marking their third collaboration in 20 years, filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa and Oscar winner Javier Bardem reteamed for The Good Boss, which is representing Spain in this year’s International Feature Oscar race. The duo joined Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event to discuss the movie and their enduring relationship.

Deadline’s Contenders Film: International kicks off this morning, offering up the opportunity to hear from filmmakers who have been making waves around the world in 2021. The second annual event spotlighting international feature films begins at 9 a.m. PT and will showcase the cream of the crop from this year’s festival awards winners, box office hits and International Feature Oscar hopefuls as the teams behind them discuss their work and inspirations.

England play their last match of the Autumn Nations Series for 2021 against South Africa this weekend.

Good afternoon International Insiders, Max Goldbart here with the headlines and major talking points of the week. To get this sent to your inbox every Friday, sign up here.

Continuing with the Fall series of Contenders Film events that have already taken place in London and  Los Angeles, and will be offering Virtual presentations this weekend for both Documentary and International movies,  Deadline is bringing an in-person Contenders event back to New York , but with a twist.  Like LA and London it will be hybrid on Saturday December 4 from 8AM ET to 5PM ET live, and also presented virtually between 9:30AM ET and 3:30PM ET.  It also will be in a brand new venue,

Rapper Young Dolph’s life has reportedly been taken too soon, following a fatal shooting on Wednesday.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentCheryl Boone Isaacs has been named founding director of the newly established Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State U. Boone Isaacs will be director of the three-campus film school starting Jan. 1.

Deadline has launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: Los Angeles, featuring the full panels from all 31 buzzy awards-season movies that made up Sunday’s all-day showcase at the DGA Theater.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentBritish director director Rupert Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) is shooting Saudi Arabia-set actioner “Desert Warrior” featuring a top notch international cast led by “Captain America” star Anthony Mackie and Aiysha Hart (“Mogul Mowgli,” “Colette”).MBC Studios, the production arm of prominent Middle East broadcaster MBC Group, has teamed up with U.S.