Frank Moreno Dies: Noted Independent Film Executive Was 82

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterNeon has acquired North American rights to Céline Sciamma’s latest feature, “Petite Maman,” following its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.The sale reunites Sciamma with Neon, the New York-based independent studio that released her acclaimed drama “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”Written and directed by Sciamma, “Petite Maman” follows 8-year-old Nelly, who loses her beloved grandmother and goes to help her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home.

Thanks in no small part to the presence in of its lead actor in Potsdamer Platz, Minamata was among the starrier titles premiering at the 2020 Berlinale (which was, incredibly, an in-person event just a year ago). The drama, directed by Andrew Levitas, featured Johnny Depp asnoted American photographer Eugene Smith, who in the 1970s would document the devastating effects of mercury poisoning in coastal Japan.

Margaret Maron was a mystery novelist known for books including her Sigrid Harald series.Maron began her writing career with a short story, “The Death of Me,” published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. She began writing novels and published her first, “One Coffee With,” in 1981.

Former United States Gymnastics coach John Geddert, who had ties to Dr. Larry Nassar, died on Thursday, February 25. He was 63.

The White House, the 100-day review aims to “help create more resilient and secure supply chains for critical and essential goods”.

President Biden is marking a grim moment in the fight against COVID-19.

Laura Marano has released the music video for her new song “Something To Believe In” and you can watch it right here!

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentThe recent success of “CODA,” a drama adapted from César-winning French film “La Famille Bélier” that sold to Apple in a record-breaking deal at Sundance, may herald a new era for remakes spearheaded by French producers with Hollywood ties and European financing.U.S. remakes of French movies have had a checkered history.

This is the worst news…

Robert B. “Bob” Steuer, a film production and distribution executive for more than 50 years, died Friday, Feb. 5 at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, Calif. He was 86 and died from dementia complications.  

Hustler founder Larry Flynt has died at 78. The Washington Post confirmed the news with his brother Jimmy. No cause of death was given.

French In Motion Sets Up In LAEXCLUSIVE: French In Motion, the non-profit that brings together French and American professionals from the film and TV industry is launching a new chapter in Los Angeles. Headquartered in New York with an existing chapter in Washington DC, the org supports international co-productions and collaborations between France and the United States through its partnership with the Gotham Film & Media Institute and has been doing so since 2016.

pic.twitter.com/i3xHjkKNtiBorn in St. Louis in 1953, Spinks served in the United States Marine Corps from 1973 until 1976, when he won Olympic gold as a light heavyweight in Montreal.

The Miami Film Festival is set to go ahead with a hybrid 2021 edition in March with physical theater and online screenings amid the pandemic. The Festival's March 5-14 run this year will open with an in-theater world premiere of Edson Jean’s Ludi — about a hardworking and exhausted nurse chasing the American Dream in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood — and close with the debut of Jayme Gershen’s Birthright.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorCheech Marin is one of the foremost collectors of Chicano art in the United States. The comedian, best known as one-half of Cheech & Chong, has a collection that’s so highly regarded that the city of Riverside, just outside Los Angeles, is set to open the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry of the Riverside Art Museum in the fall.

Marina has shared a brief preview of what appears to be the melody of an upcoming track, and announced an Empress Of remix of her November single ‘Man’s World’.The artist shared the news on social media, along with artwork depicting herself, Empress Of, and Brazilian pop star and drag queen Pabllo Vittar, who features on the new version.The remix will arrive this Thursday (February 4), a month after a separate remix by American pop trio MUNA was released.Coming Thursday.

You don't find subjects much more disarming than Rita Moreno, whose seven-decade career on stage and screen is described in Mariem Pérez Riera's celebratory documentary as both the essence of the American Dream and the tenacious attainment of it despite dispiriting obstacles. "You must never really believe anything about your fame and all that kind of bullshit," says Moreno with characteristic unfiltered charm.