Guillermo del Toro to Host ‘Weekend of Animation’ for American Cinematheque, Including 35mm ‘Pinocchio’ Screening (EXCLUSIVE)

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Native filmmaker Billy Luther heads to SXSW this weekend to premiere his narrative feature debut, “Frybread Face and Me” on March 11. Set in the ‘90s, the coming-of-age story follows Benny (Keir Tallman), a young Native American boy who plays with dolls, sports a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and watches soap operas. Forced to spend his summer on the reservation with his grandmother, Benny finds himself impressed by his cousin “Frybread” (Charley Hogan) who opens his eyes to life on the rez. Featuring an entirely Native cast and predominantly Native crew, Luther says it was important to cast Navajo kids at the core of his film. He says, “With the help of Midthunder Casting, which also worked on FX ‘Reservation Dogs,’ we were able to find these incredible kids. The amount of Indigenous talent – Martin Sensmeier, MorningStar Angeline, and Jeremiah Bitsui came on. And we also brought on some amazing new faces from Indian country that are making their feature debut.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The American Society of Cinematographers handed out its best visual storytelling in feature film award to “Elvis” on Sunday night, and in doing so, Mandy Walker has become the first woman to win the top prize in the society’s history. Walker triumphed over Greig Fraser (“The Batman”), Darius Khondji (“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”), Claudio Miranda (“Top Gun: Maverick” and Roger Deakins (“Empire of Light”) in a very competitive race.  Walker‘s win comes as Oscar voting ends on March 7, where she is also nominated. She became only the third woman ever nominated for cinematography for her work on “Elvis.” Rachel Morrison (“Mudbound”) made history as the first female DP to land a nom in 2018, while Ari Wegner was nominated last year for “The Power of the Dog.”

Lana Del Rey hailed Olivia Rodrigo and SZA during an acceptance speech for the Visionary Award at the 2023 Billboard Women In Music event.The singer paid tribute to her fellow female stars at the ceremony at Los Angeles’ YouTube Theater last night, saying that she was thrilled to be handed the prize from 20-year-old Rodrigo.“I really don’t deserve her giving me this award, this wonderful award. I can’t tell you how much it means that someone [Olivia] who wrote ‘Drivers License’ is standing next to me,” Del Rey said.She also said of SZA, who was this year’s Woman Of The Year recipient: “SZA, from the minute I heard you, I knew I wanted to know you.

Rosalía showed her appreciation for Lana Del Rey at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music. The singer accepted the Inaugural Producer of the Year Award and took a moment to deliver a heartfelt speech about her journey in the music industry, including the many hours she has spent in the studio perfecting her sound and the ways she has fought to make her voice heard.It’s no doubt that Rosalía has reached worldwide success, after recently being honored at the Grammys and Latin Grammys, and she also proved that she is very supportive of the rest of the women in the industry.Rosalía took a moment to send some love to Lana Del Rey, who was there to receive the Visionary Award.

Lana Del Rey was a vision in yellow at the Billboard Women in Music awards Wednesday. The «A&W» singer shined in a semi-sheer yellow lace dress, which featured a paisley pattern and fringe, floral details at the sleeves, neck and hem.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer One of Austin’s hometown filmmakers is bringing his next movie to SXSW. Director Robert Rodriguez will screen a work-in-progress cut of his crime thriller “Hypnotic,” starring Ben Affleck, for fans at the SXSW Film Festival in the Texas capital on March 12. In the film, written by Rodriguez and Max Borenstein (“Godzilla vs. Kong,” HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”), Affleck plays a detective who is investigating a series of inexplicable crimes while searching for his missing daughter, whose disappearance is somehow involved with a secret government program.

Last year, Karina Longworth’s hit Hollywood podcast You Must Remember This looked at the Erotic ‘80s. Longworth is now delving into the same topic of sex in film and TV across the 1990s for the next season.

After joining Guillermo del Toro on the project over 10 years ago, producers Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico finally got to see the fruits of their labor when Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio premiered last year. Del Toro’s Netflix adaptation of the Carlo Collodi story takes place in 1930s Italy, during the Fascist reign of Benito Mussolini. In this story, woodcarver Geppetto (David Bradley) loses his son Carlo in an aerial bombing and carves Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) from the tree at his son’s grave. Bulkley and Campodonico’s animation studio, ShadowMachine, was responsible for the stop-motion animation of the film, and the pair were incredibly excited to go on this long journey with del Toro.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from Episode 7 of “The Last of Us,” now streaming on HBO Max. “The Last of Us” production designer John Paino’s biggest challenges is bringing the much-beloved world of the video game to life and populating the HBO show with easter eggs. This week, Paino delivers one of his most significant nods yet in a “blink-and-you-miss-it moment.” Named after the game’s downloadable expansion pack, Episode 7, titled “Left Behind,” explores Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) backstory before she meets Joel (Pedro Pascal) and reveals what happened the night she discovered she was immune to cordyceps infection. In the present, Ellie is desperately trying to save Joel’s life after he was stabbed last episode. In doing so, she remembers one of the happiest, and saddest, days of her life. The episode flashes back to when Ellie’s friend and crush Riley (Storm Reid) snuck her through an abandoned mall. Tragically, the two are attacked and bitten by clickers after a night of fun. It was that night that Ellie discovered she was immune, but Riley was sadly not as lucky.

Terry Flores “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” has picked up another award on its march to the Oscars, nabbing the feature prize at the 50th Annie Awards, presented by ASIFA-Hollywood, on Saturday evening. In addition to being named the top film by the animation industry, “Pinocchio” led the winners’ list with five trophies overall, including the award for best direction for del Toro and fellow director Mark Gustafson. The stop-motion movie also picked up wins for music (Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, del Toro and Patrick McHale), production design (Curt Enderle and Guy Davis) and character design (Tucker Barrie). Del Toro, who came directly from the PGA Awards where he received the trophy for producing ‘Pinocchio,’ was thrilled to win the Annie for direction alongside Gustafson. “Can I say this? I wanted the fucking Annie so much. It’s the most gorgeous thing in the world!” He noted that the Annies ceremony was the one place that he didn’t have to point out that animation is a medium and not a genre. “What I can say is about ‘Pinocchio’ is that it was done by artists, and the animators were treated like cast and not technicians.”

Best Feature: “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”Best Indie Feature: “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On”Best Special Production: “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse”Best Animated Short Subject: “Ice Merchants”Best Animated Sponsored Project: “Save Ralph”Best Animated Television Production for Preschool Children: “The Tiny Chef Show”Episode: “Pancakes”Best Animated Television/Media Production for Children: “Abominable and the Invisible City”Episode: “Everest Returns”Best Animated Television/Media Production for Mature Audiences: “Bob’s Burgers”Episode: “Some Like It Bot Part 1: Eighth Grade Runner”Best Animated Television/Media Production, Limited Series: “Oni: Thunder God’s Tale”Episode: “The Demon Moon Rises”Best Student Film: “The Soloists”Student directors: Mehrnaz Abdollahinia, Feben Elias Woldehawariat, Razahk Issaka, Celeste Jamneck & Yi LiuBest Animated Effects in a Television/Media Production: “Love, Death + Robots”FX Team: Kirby Miller, Igor Zanic, Joseph H. Coleman, Steven Dupuy, Josh SchwartzEpisode: “Bad Traveling”Best Animated Effects in an Animated Feature Production: “Avatar: The Way of Water”FX Team: Johnathan M.

UPROXX, a since-deleted blurb about the album from Rough Trade reads: “Rob Grant releases his debut album, Lost At Sea via Decca Records. An accidental recording artist, Grant has never had a lesson on any instrument in his life.

EXCLUSIVE: Hot on the heels of a Best Animated Feature nomination for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Netflix is back in business with del Toro on another major animated film that he will direct.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Film Independent has partnered with the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts to present a live reading of “Triangle of Sadness.” Oscar-nominated director Ruben Östlund will helm the reimagined and recast stage reading at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts’ Bram Goldsmith Theater on Feb. 27. The cast will be led by Fred Armisen, Nicholas Braun, Alison Brie, Tia Carrere, Ayo Edebiri, Jordan Firstman, Brett Goldstein and Kumail Nanjiani. “What a joy to do a table read with this group of fine actors. Together we are planning for some surprises. I don’t want to scare anyone off, but there will be some risk involved in attending this,” said Östlund.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The 27th Annual Art Director’s Guild Awards returned to an in-person ceremony at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown on Saturday evening, with “Babylon” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” among the top honors. “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” took home the award for animated feature. “Pachinko,” “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” and “Severance” were among the main TV winners. The eventual winner of the production design Oscar has landed an ADG nomination. Nicole Kidman presented the Art Directors Guild’s Cinematic Imagery award to “Elvis” director Baz Luhrmann and his longtime producing partner and Oscar-winning production and costume designer Catherine Martin. Their 30-year collaboration includes films such as “The Great Gatsby,” “Australia,” “Romeo + Juliet,” “Strictly Ballroom” and “Moulin Rouge!”

“I saw the Disney film when I was very, very young, and it made a huge impression,” Guillermo del Toro said during a panel for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio at Deadline’s Contenders: The Nominees event, where he was joined by director Mark Gustafson. “What sat wrong with me was the idea that you needed to be obedient to be a real boy, and that you needed to be transformed into something you were not to be loved.”

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “A Cielo Abierto,” the latest film from Oscar-nominated Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (“Babel”), is being brought onto Berlin’s European Film Market by Film Factory Entertainment. Produced by Argentina’s K&S Films, whose credits include “Wild Tales,” “The Clan” and “The Summit” — the last by “Argentina, 1985” director Santiago Mitre — “A Cielo Abierto” is directed by Mariana Arriaga and Santiago Arriaga, Guillermo Arriaga’s daughter and son, making their feature film debut.   “A Cielo Abierto” turns on two teen brothers who take a road trip to the Mexico-U.S. border to track down the man responsible for the car accident that caused their father’s death. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Brazilian animated feature “Perlimps,” Alê Abreu’s follow up to Oscar-nominated “Boy and the World,” has been sold in key territories by Best Friend Forever ahead of the European Film Market. “Perlimps” has been picked up for Japan (Child Film and New Deer), China (DDDream), CIS and baltics (Kinologistica), Sweden (Njutafilm) and Portugal (Films4you). BFF is in advanced discussions to close German Speaking territories, Benelux, Spain, Italy and North America. As previously announced, UFO Distribution will release the feature in France. “Perlimps” was just released last week in Brazil by leading independent outfit Vitrine Filmes and Sony Pictures, which holds Latin American rights.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Avatar: The Way of Water” topped the 21st Annual VES Awards with nine wins, including for photoreal feature. Meanwhile, Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” was named best animated feature and took home three awards total. On the TV side, Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” won three awards and was named best photoreal episode. Rian Johnson, Domee Shi, Tig Notaro, Jay Pharoah, Tyler Posey and Randall Park were among the presenters for the night. James Cameron presented the VES Lifetime Achievement award to acclaimed producer Gale Anne Hurd. Former VES executive director Eric Roth received the Board of Directors Award from the current board, which includes Lisa Cooke, current VES Chair; Jim Morris, VES, president of Pixar Animation and founding VES Chair; and former Chairs Jeffrey A. Okun, VES; Mike Chambers, VES; Carl Rosendahl, VES; and Jeff Barnes.