Director Debra Granik on How She Wove Ex-Cons and the Fitness Industry Into Sundance Doc Series ’Conbody VS Everybody’

is a woman who likes to feel every grain of grit and gravel beneath her soles. She first liberated her digits from the arcane rule of shoes while appearing on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert in 2018, when she peeled off her stilettos to rapturous applause.

Wow, Rachel Leviss has gotten close enough to look accountability in the eye… and run the other way!

Marta Balaga Finnish director Tiina Lymi decided to “go big” for “Stormskerry Maja,” set in the 19th century. Based on a series of books by Anni Blomqvist, it has been selected for International Film Festival Rotterdam and Goteborg. “It had to be done this way.

Since helming the Academy Award-nominated “Winter’s Bone” in 2010, Debra Granik has enjoyed shifting between a further dabble into feature-length filmmaking (“Leave No Trace”) in addition to documentary work (“Stray Dog”), which, when coupled with her eclectic decades-strong filmography clearly showcases an overabundance of ability and flair for skillfully adapting to any subject that comes her way. Another comfortable entry on her resume exists in “Conbody VS Everybody, “a six-part docu-series with a concept unlike anything she’s tackled prior while continuing to demonstrate her knack for creating something compelling while also supremely relevant to this day and age.

EXCLUSIVE: The Ford Foundation is coming through for documentary filmmakers in a big way.  

Wilson Bethel, who played Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye on Netflix’s Daredevil, is reprising his role on Disney+‘s upcoming Daredevil: Born Again, sources confirm to Deadline. I hear he is set to appear in three episodes of the series, which is now filming. A rep for Marvel declined comment.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Women filmmakers hit a milestone with this year’s 2024 Oscar nominations. For the first time in history, three of the 10 movies nominated for best picture — Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Celine Song’s “Past Lives” — were directed by a female auteur, the most recognized in the Academy Awards’ 96-year history. The other best picture nominees are: “American Fiction,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppehneimer,” “The Holdovers,” “Poor Things,” and “The Zone of Interest.” Before this year’s best picture nominees, 591 movies were nominated by the Academy.

Angelique Jackson When basketball legend Sue Bird decided to let a team of filmmakers capture her final season after playing 21 years in the WNBA, she wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from watching her career be contextualized on film, but it turned out to be wonderful. “You play such a long time — so many different moments, so many different memories — and to have it now, in this one film is amazing,” Bird said, visiting the Variety Studio presented by Audible at the Sundance Film Festival.

Gregg Goldstein In an election year when civil rights are being threatened, authoritarianism is spreading around the globe and minorities are a popular political target, it’s no wonder that films exploring the U.S. criminal justice system are everywhere you look in the Sundance Film Festival lineup. “There’s so much inequality and injustice in the justice system,” says “God Save Texas: Hometown Prison” director Richard Linklater.

Marta Balaga Thea Hvistendahl’s “Handling the Undead,” fresh off its Sundance premiere, has already scared multiple buyers into submission, Variety has found out exclusively. Starring “The Worst Person in the World’s” Renate Reinsve and sold by TrustNordisk, it has been picked up by Hungary (Vertigo Media), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), France (KinoVista), Spain (Avalon Distribution), Korea (Pancinema), Japan (Tohokushinsha Film Corp.), Taiwan (Swallow Wings Films) and ANZ (Signature Entertainment). Neon Rated acquired North American and U.K.

Storm Isha is set to batter Greater Manchester and the rest of the UK this weekend.

Tom Sandoval has a message for his ex! Rachel Leviss, whom he cheated with, not Ariana Madix whom he cheated on.

Gregg Goldstein When you’ve spent the most memorable years of your career battling gods and single-handedly defeating an army, what’s left for a warrior to do? For “Xena: Warrior Princess” star Lucy Lawless, the answer was making her directorial debut with a doc about a fellow New Zealand icon, daredevil CNN war camerawoman Margaret Moth. Her spellbinding feature, “Never Look Away,” which premieres Jan. 18 at Sundance, was selected for the fest’s World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Taylor Swift knows a thing or two about being catnip.Indeed, the pop superstar worked all of her flirtatious feline wiles as Bombalurina in “Cats,” the much-maligned 2019 movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical.But Swift had a different kind of kitty persuasion on “Argylle,” the upcoming spy thriller starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, John Cena, Samuel L. Jackson and more.Director Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass,” “X-Men: First Class” and the “Kingsman” films) says that it was the “Anti-Hero” singer who was “responsible” for the scene-stealing Scottish Fold cat featured in the film, which hits theaters Feb. 2.It all started when Vaughn’s two daughters with his supermodel wife, Claudia Schiffer, convinced their mother to buy them a Scottish Fold for Christmas after seeing Swift’s cat in her 2020 “Miss Americana” documentary.

Karen Idelson Though there are still those who view animation primarily as a kids or family form of entertainment, over the last year many of the most challenging, risky stories have been told by the modern masters of animation. Films like “Suzume,” “The Peasants” and “The Boy and the Heron” have all been lauded for taking on compelling stories that often attract more adult audiences or even becoming crossover hits that draw diverse viewers. Makoto Shinkai’s “Suzume” earned well over $300 million in international box office.

Jennifer Lawrence is opening up about her “stressful” wedding day, including a moment when she told Robert DeNiro to leave. Lawrence married art dealer Cooke Maroney in 2018, hosting a wedding with her closest friends and family. Jennifer Lawrence revealed why she would prefer not to work in theater: ‘It would be terrible’Why Jennifer Lawrence refused to lose weight for her breakout role in ‘The Hunger Games’"You're not having fun.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “The Holdovers” production designer Ryan Warren Smith pieced together five school locations for Alexander Payne’s latest. In the retro movie, set in the early 1970s at the fictional prep school Barton Academy, Paul Giamatti’s grumpy teacher Paul Hunham is left to look after students who have no place to go over the Christmas break. Smith studied Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord” and “The Last Detail,” both released around that period, while creating the production design for “The Holdovers.” He observed everything in those films were stripped down, at least when it came to production design.

“E! News” at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards, the 33-year-old actress revealed that her wedding became super “stressful” when the weather at the reception was less than desirable, causing the “No Hard Feelings” star to worry about her guests.“It’s so stressful,” she recalled. “You’re not having fun.

EXCLUSIVE: Captain Lee Rosbach, who spent ten years as the sassy leader of Below Deck, has found a new ship.

Rachel Leviss is dishing on Scandoval — on her own terms.