Diane Warren on Her Oscar Contenders, Releasing Her First Solo Album and the Importance of Owning Her Songs

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the U.S. distribution rights for Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin, Tunisia’s short-listed entry for Best International Film for the 93rd Academy Awards.

Kelly Clarkson, host of Daytime Emmy-winning The Kelly Clarkson Show, will sit down with Dr. Jill Biden for her first solo broadcast interview since becoming First Lady. The one-on-one socially distant interview will take place later this month at the White House.

Alissa Simon Film CriticNow shortlisted in the international feature category, Tunisia’s ambitious entry “The Man Who Sold His Skin” from female writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania (“Beauty and the Dogs”) offers a provocative contemporary take on a Faustian bargain.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterHulu has three documentaries — “WeWork,” “Kid 90” and “Sasquatch” — slated to release on the streaming service this spring.“Kid 90,” an intimate look at young Hollywood starlets growing up in the 1990s, will be available to stream on March 12.  Directed by Soleil Moon Frye, the film uses hundreds of hours of footage captured by the child actress after she became known to the world as Punky Brewster.

John Legend, H.E.R., Janelle Monae, Leslie Odom, Jr., and Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell? Yes, the shortlist for the 2021 Original Song Academy Award is full of surprises. But, happily, few snubs this time around.

After releasing Lu Over the Wall to critical acclaim, director Masaaki Yuasa was met with a similar brief for his next feature, Ride Your Wave, by Japanese animation studio Science Saru.

Maleonn, also known as Ma Liang, has become one of China’s leading conceptual artists, producing works of stunning imagination that span photography, video, drawing, installations, set design and mechanical puppetry.

Hello, and welcome to International Insider, Jake Kanter here. In the week that Jeff Bezos announced that he is stepping down as the CEO of Amazon, scroll on for the biggest headlines from global film and TV. Want to get in touch? I’m on [email protected], or my DMs are open on Twitter. And sign up here to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Bill Cunningham, the renowned chronicler of fashion, once wrote of himself, “I just loved to see wonderfully dressed women…That’s all there is to it.”

The Kenyan film Softie is gaining momentum as documentary features make their closing arguments for inclusion on the Oscar shortlist, with preliminary voting set to wrap up Friday. The film was nominated Tuesday for a Producers Guild Award, honoring the work of director-producer Sam Soko and producer Toni Kamau.

NEW YORK -- Golden Globe nominations for best original song are full of Black Girl Magic, with nominees including R&B singers H.E.R., Celeste and Andra Day, who also earned an acting nod for her portrayal of Billie Holiday.Veteran songwriter Diane Warren and Grammy and Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr. — also a double nominee — round out the nominees for best original song at the Globes, which will air live on Feb.

For writer/director Borja Peña Gorostegui and executive producer Amanda Miller, Lost & Crowned marked the culmination of years of hard work, bringing their creative content studio, Psyop, into the Oscars conversation for the first time.

Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease who became the top U.S. medical official addressing the coronavirus pandemic, is getting the feature documentary treatment.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorVariety’s Peter Debruge called ‘A Sun’ a “world cinema stunner” in his review of Chung Mong-Hong’s drama, and it was also hailed as one of the best movies of 2020 in his year-end roundup.The film has now been named by Taiwan as its contender for the best international feature film section at the Academy Awards.

On Pixar’s latest Oscar-contending feature Soul, writer/director Pete Docter grappled with worlds both real and imaginary, looking to bring each to life with the same level of care, thought and meticulous detail.

Of the 238 feature documentaries to qualify for Oscar consideration this year, two of the most acclaimed contenders come from Romania—an impressive achievement for the Eastern European nation.

Alissa Simon Film CriticAn endangered musician in a Syrian town controlled by ISIS must sell his beloved piano in order to escape the country in the gripping drama “Broken Keys.” It marks the feature debut of Columbia U.-trained, Lebanese writer-director Jimmy Keyrouz.

When fire erupted at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest, Romania in 2015, the blaze killed 26 people on the spot. But the worst, in many respects, was yet to come.

Netflix to continue churning out content from its deep arsenal of movies and series.Last year, Netflix put forth no fewer than eight original song contenders, including contributions from Taylor Swift and John Legend. What are the chances the streamer will dominate, and ultimately win, in the category? Two words: Diane Warren.The legendary songwriter has been nominated for original song 11 times, but never won.

In a year of pandemic, social unrest and political polarization, one Oscar-contending documentary arrived to lift people’s spirits, not just in the U.S. but around the world.