Doc Royalty Alex Gibney, Errol Morris and Raoul Peck Discuss the Importance of Film Festivals

EXCLUSIVE: Leonine Studios’ Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion has hired international doc expert Martin Pieper from public network ZDF.

Jaden Thompson The Newport Beach Film Festival, which will run from Oct. 12-19 this year, has announced their opening and closing night films. Marco Perego’s “The Absence of Eden,” which stars Zoë Saldana, will open the festival on Oct.

Maja Hoffmann has been officially confirmed as President of the Locarno Film Festival following a vote at an Extraordinary General Assembly on Wednesday.

A first-time filmmaker has claimed the top prize at the 19th Annual Camden Film Festival in Maine, one of the country’s foremost all-documentary festivals.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Three documentaries have been selected to to participate in the inaugural Diane Weyermann fellowship program, which will kick off Sept. 15 at Maine’s 19th edition of the Camden Intl.

Organizers of the Camden International Film Festival in coastal Maine are moving ahead with regular programming today, as Hurricane Lee – downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone – aims further north towards Nova Scotia.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Talk about ending with a flourish. Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” a critically acclaimed look at the dramatic life and career of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, will close the 2023 edition of the Hamptons International Festival. “Maestro,” which co-stars Carey Mulligan, will screen on Oct.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The first thing to say about Alex Gibney’s “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon” is that it’s three-and-a-half hours long. Normally I wouldn’t lead with that daunting fact, especially since the film is mostly marvelous: a documentary that every Paul Simon fan on earth should want to see and experience. But will they? I raise the issue only because “In Restless Dreams” has come into the Toronto Film Festival without a distributor, and let’s just be honest: The 209-minute running time, when you hear about it, doesn’t exactly sound…user-friendly.

Welcome to the premiere episode of Doc Talk, our new podcast hosted by Oscar-winning writer-director John Ridley and Deadline’s documentary editor Matt Carey. We’re kicking off with a deep dive into a signature power of documentary: The capacity to right a grave wrong in the criminal justice system by freeing a wrongfully convicted prisoner. Only a handful of major nonfiction filmmakers has achieved this extraordinary feat, springing men and women who faced Death Row or life sentences.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Academy-Award winning documentarian Errol Morris explores the life and career of former British spy David Cornwell — better known as John le Carré, author of such classic espionage novels as “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “The Constant Gardener.” Set against the backdrop of the Cold War leading into present day, the 94-minute docu spans six decades. Archival footage, dramatized vignettes and Morris’ expert interviewing skills allow viewers to see and hear the late spy and author in a very candid light. (Cornwell died in December 2020.)“The Pigeon Tunnel,” which draws on Cornwell’s bestselling memoir of the same name, is an Apple Original Films production.

Paul Simon has revealed that while he hasn’t “accepted” his hearing loss, he is in the process of finding a new solution which will help him return to touring.The Simon and Garfunkel star opened up about his hearing loss in his left ear at a Q&A at the Toronto Film Festival yesterday (September 10) – something which has affected him in recent years and left him struggling to perform live.Here, he said that while he hasn’t yet come to terms with the impairment, he is due to start work with two guitarists, who could potentially fill in some of his musical parts during a live show and help him return to touring.“I haven’t accepted it entirely, but I’m beginning to,” he began (via The Hollywood Reporter). “Usually, when I finished an album I went out and toured with it, and then I have the opportunity to really investigate the piece.

Van Morrison‘s 1968 album ‘Astral Weeks’. Other non-jazz albums that featured Davis’ playing include Bruce Springsteen‘s ‘Born to Run’ (on the track ‘Meeting Across the River’), Paul Simon‘s ‘There Goes Rhymin’ Simon’ (on ‘Something So Right’) and Bo Diddley‘s ‘Where It All Began’.Davis often served as bandleader within ensembles he performed in, which includes the band put together to record ‘Astral Weeks’ with Morrison. It is believed that Davis had over 3,000 album credits across his decades as a working musician.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In his latest documentary “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon,” Alex Gibney explores the singer-songwriter’s six-decade career. The Oscar winning director also captures Simon creating his latest album, “Seven Psalms,” which he made while losing hearing in his left ear. Although Gibney is mostly recognized for his rigorously researched investigative exposes (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”), he is also skilled in creating portraits of cultural icons like Simon.

From every perspective, John le Carré lived a highly enviable life, a sense confirmed over and over again in The Pigeon Tunnel, Errol Morris’ elaborate, super-smart sizing up of one of the most successful writers of the past century. The author gained fame as a novelist fine-tuned to examine the many layers of intrigue, rivalry, deception, ruthlessness and intelligence employed in the epic battle between East and West in the second half of the 20th century, one that, rather remarkably, never exploded into World War III.

It is never a normal “opening night” when it comes to the Toronto Film Festival which is offering numerous films including the much anticipated Hayao Miyizaki film The Boy And The Heron which is the key opening night gala, but there are others including two exceptional directorial debuts from celebrated veteran stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Patricia Arquette making it all a very memorable kickoff for TIFF on many fronts.

UPDATED with latest: The Toronto Film Festival began September 7 in Ontario with opening-night movie The Boy and the Heron, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. It kicks off a lineup for the fest’s 48th edition that includes world premieres of GameStop pic Dumb Money, Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Scarlett Johansson pic North Star, Chris Pine’s Poolman, Michael Keaton-directed Knox Goes Away, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils, Michael Winterbottom’s Shoshana, Grant Singer’s Reptile, Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert and Alex Gibney’s doc In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.

Lee” to the Michael Keaton-directed thriller “Knox Goes Away”) given the uncertainty about what has been agreed to. Still, buyers seem impressed with what’s available to purchase.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Before cameras ever start rolling on a RadicalMedia movie, staffers are already busy strategizing about where it should eventually premiere. The company, which boasts “The Fog of War” and “Summer of Soul” among its many credits, routinely consults an exhaustive chart that lays out the deadlines to submit a movie to major festivals like Cannes, Sundance and Toronto.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Neon has acquired worldwide rights to Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The movie, starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, will also screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Origin” will be released in theaters later this year.