Hillary Clinton, Donna Langley Celebrate Ava DuVernay as a ‘Pathbreaker’ and ‘Change-Maker’ at DVF Awards in Venice

Addie Morfoot Contributor “In Her Hands,” a Netflix documentary produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, has won the 18th Camden Intl. Film Festival’s audience award. While the in-person component of the Maine-based festival ended on Sept.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egyptian-American director Dina Amer’s politically sensitive drama “You Resemble Me,” the story of Hasna Aït Boulahcen who in 2015 was wrongly believed to be Europe’s first female suicide bomber, is getting a Middle East release via Front Row Filmed Entertainment. Amer’s feature debut, which world premiered positively at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, is a deeply researched character study of the fragile young Muslim woman who became linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris even though she didn’t participate in them. Aït Boulahcen died during an anti-terrorism raid alongside her cousin Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was one of the ringleaders of the coordinated assaults that killed 130 people in the French capital, including 90 at the Bataclan theater. 

Hillary Clinton wanted to "show a different side" to Kim Kardashian on her Apple TV+ series 'Gutsy'. The former US Secretary of State's new eight-part documentary sees the polarizing politician and her daughter Chelsea Clinton celebrate the "gutsy" women who have inspired them. And the 'Kardashians' star is one of the women featured for her influence and Hillary wanted to highlight her prison reform work.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras sharply criticized the Toronto and Venice film festivals today for programming documentaries connected with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, suggesting the decision bordered on a “whitewashing” of history.

Adam Benzine Guest Contributor Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras slammed the heads of the Venice and Toronto film festivals for “engaging in a kind of whitewashing” by programming glossy documentaries from the Clinton family. Her comments come as TIFF this week hosted the Canadian premiere of Poitras’s “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” a documentary about the artist and activist Nan Goldin, and just days after the film won Venice’s top prize, the Golden Lion. It is the rare doc to land slots at the superfecta of Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York, and Poitras said she thought “long and hard” about whether or not to voice criticism at the same venues feting her latest work. Nevertheless, she said, “journalists need to ask hard questions.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Gianni Amelio’s “Lord of the Ants,” a biopic of Italian poet and playwright Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law, has reached the top spot at Italy’s box office following its launch from the Venice Film Festival. “Ants” on Monday reached the numero uno position at the local box office roster with a €483,474 ($487,000) intake from more than 300 screens following its September 8 release. While far from stellar in normal times, this result is being hailed as an encouraging sign for the country’s still sagging post-pandemic theatrical sector. Amelio’s film is now ahead of Japanese anime pic “Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo,” which was released as an event on Monday for a three day run, and “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which is at the end of its run, following it’s Aug. 18 Italian outing.

Kelly Clarkson is joined by some special guests as she returns for a star-studded season 4 “Kelly Clarkson Show” premiere on Monday.

Megan Thee Stallion has spoken to Hillary Clinton about the song ‘WAP‘ in the latter’s new docuseries Gutsy.The rapper, who featured on the 2020 Cardi B song that celebrates female sexuality, said to the former US politician that her life’s mission is to “make sure that I am unapologetically me” and that’s why she was happy to make such an explicit statement in the collaboration.In preview clips shared to promote the show that premiered on Friday (September 9),  Clinton admits that she only was introduced to Megan’s music via ‘WAP’.Speaking with People ahead of the series debut, Clinton said that her initial reaction to the song was admiration.Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea Clinton talk about “WAP” with Megan thee Stallion. #GUTSY pic.twitter.com/lwMJO2Gtrp— BU Media (@bu_media) September 10, 2022“I didn’t know what to think, because I’m of a much different generation, but I admired the audacity and the kind of agency that both of those young women were exhibiting, ‘Here I am.

Hillary Clinton had a confession to make on Tuesday’s “Tonight Show”.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, alongside her daughter Chelsea Clinton, 42, on Tuesday night.As part of the interview, the pair took part in a Mother Daughter Challenge, where they had to answer a series of questions asked by Fallon.At one point during the segment, Clinton, 74, was asked about her “craziest family vacation memory.”Taking a second to think, the mom-of-one remembered the time she and Bill managed to leave Chelsea in the Kremlin sometime during Bill’s time in office from 1993 until 2001.“I hope she [Chelsea] doesn’t remember this because it was pretty traumatic,” the former Secretary of State began. “We took her to Russia when we went on a state visit when Bill was president, and there were the formal goodbyes so Bill and I were ushered into the Beast, the big limousine, to head to the airport, not knowing that we had left her behind.

Vogue.In the piece, the actress discussed the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which gave her recurring nightmares about Tucker Carlson and resurfaced political divisions that had existed in her family since 2016. Lawrence said that Trump’s election broke her heart, likening the choice between him and Hillary Clinton to “the choice between a woman and a dangerous, dangerous jar of mayonnaise.”She admitted that years later, she still had difficulty accepting her conservative family members’ political views.“I don’t want to disparage my family, but I know that a lot of people are in a similar position with their families,” said the Kentucky native in reference to the issue of abortion.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Francesco Zippel’s Sergio Leone doc, which premieres on Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival, is the first portrait of the Italian master made with full support of his children Raffaella and Andrea. Titled “Sergio Leone: The Man Who Invented America,” the high-profile doc is premiering in the Venice Classics section for docs on cinema. It features an impressive list of voices holding forth on what makes Leone special for them. Among these are: Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Giuseppe Tornatore, Frank Miller, Darren Aronofsky, Damien Chazelle and Robert De Niro (see clip). But aside from Leone’s visionary talent as a director what emerges is that as his career escalated from the so-called “Dollars Trilogy” to “Once Upon a Time in the West” through to his final masterpiece, “Once Upon a Time in America,” Leone’s life was steeped in two inextricably linked passions: film and family. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Last year Andrea Scrosati – who is group COO and continental Europe CEO of Fremantle – was at Venice with two films. This year Fremantle’s got six pics launching from the Lido, three of them in competition, which is a larger contingent than any of the U.S. studios or streamers.  Fremantle’s business model, which involves a cluster of companies mostly across Europe that they either fully own or are majority investors in, has been bearing fruit on their film side. Their output has grown “from 8 to 32 delivered movies in two years,” Scrosati says.  And the multi-pronged company’s Venice lineup – which includes Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” Emanuele Crialese’s “L’Immensità,” and Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter” – is a reflection of that.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian cinema is having a great year despite the many impediments film directors face there, including being jailed. Reflecting this burst of irrepressible cinematic energy, after strong showing of Iranian cinema at Berlin, Cannes and Karlovy Vary, Venice has five films from the country, two of which are in competition. Also, Leila Hatami, star of Cannes festival jurist Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation,” is a member of Venice’s main jury panel. “We have never received so many submissions from Iran, and many of them are good,” says Venice chief Alberto Barbera. He notes that “the paradox is that this is happening at a time when the Iranian regime is among the most rigidly conservative and repressive in the world,” and is responding to uprisings sparked by the country’s harsh economic conditions by re-incarcerating directors such as Jafar Panahi, whose latest film “No Bears” launches from Venice, fellow dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, and others “who try to freely express their opposing points of view.”

Brendan Fraser’s return to Hollywood at the 79th Venice Film Festival was met with many tears.

The Whale” at the Venice Film Festival is any indication, Brendan Fraser’s return to Hollywood will be met with plenty of cheers — and even more tears. When the credits rolled on the Darren Aronofsky drama, in which Fraser plays a 600-pound gay man confined to a wheelchair, the actor was overcome with emotion.Fraser sobbed throughout the six-minute standing ovation for the film, which will likely put him at the forefront of this year’s best actor Oscars race.Among those spotted inside the Sala Grande Theatre were Pheoebe Waller-Bridge, Nick Kroll and Hillary Clinton staffer Huma Abedin, who was seated a few rows behind Fraser and shed as many tears as he did. Many others inside the theater also broke out a handkerchief during the film’s heartbreaking final scenes.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Cairo-based film marketing and distribution outfit MAD Solutions has acquired rights for Arab territories to Venice competition entry “Les Miens” (“Our Ties”), directed by French actor and filmmaker of Moroccan descent Roschdy Zem. “Our Ties” is co-written by Zem with actor/director Maïwenn (“Polisse,” “Mon Roi”), who co-stars. Zem is a French cinema fixture, having starred in pics including “Other People’s Children” and directed several films including 2019’s “Persona Non Grata.” “Ties” is a drama about family dynamics centered around a man played by Sami Bouajila whose personality changes radically after he suffers a head injury. Zem plays his TV presenter brother.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival’s market is kicking off with an attendance level close to its 2019 pre-pandemic days and strong interest in feature films and VR works being pitched at its gap-financing platform “We already have a total of more than 2,400 industry professionals registered to attend, which is close to pre-pandemic levels since in 2019 the number was 2,700 [at the end of the market],” says Pascal Diot, head of the Venice Production Bridge, as the informal mart is known. Of these, 1,700 are accredited with the VPB’s Golden Trade pass, while the remaining 1,000 are registered as part of film delegations.

Hillary Clinton made a rare red carpet appearance at the 79th annual Venice Film Festival on Wednesday for Noah Baumbach's "White Noise" premiere. The 74-year-old former secretary of state sported a powder blue kaftan with a turquoise collar at the opening ceremony in Italy. Just the day before, her husband, former president Bill Clinton, was spotted enjoying watching tennis matches at the U.S.

SNL cast member Rob Schneider has said he thinks Kate McKinnon’s cover of ‘Hallelujah’ marked the moment the show was “over”.Schneider has said he believes the long-running sketch series went downhill after the 2016 US presidential election, during which McKinnon played Hillary Clinton.After Trump was elected, one episode saw McKinnon as Clinton sing ‘Hallelujah’ in character for a cold open of the show.“I hate to crap on my old show,” Schneider said of the scene in an interview with The Blaze‘s Glenn Beck. “I literally prayed, ‘Please have a joke at the end.