New Zealand’s Auckland Film Studios Opens New Stages As Production Boom Continues After ‘LOTR’ & ‘Sweet Tooth’

Edyth “Edie” Landau, producer of The David Susskind Show and Long Day’s Journey Into Night as well an executive at National Telefilm Associates, died in her home on December 24, 2022. She was 95.

“I had a bit of a crisis of faith as we were cutting the movie together,” admitted James Cameron of his billion-dollar-grossing Avatar: The Way of Water. “It was too violent. I wanted a balance between the beauty, the epiphany, the kind of spiritual aspect of the film, with the action, and I felt it had gotten a little too grim.”

Tom Pelphrey isn’t slowing down — and his next role is anyone’s guess. The chameleon actor made his Broadway debut in 2012, won accolades for his role on the daytime soap Guiding Light and recently portrayed a real-life fugitive in this year’s true-crime movie American Murderer. And audiences won’t soon forget his standout arc on Ozark as Ben Davis, which landed the New Jersey native an Emmy nomination.

The Black Film Critics Circle (BFCC) has voted The Woman King Best Film of 2022, Danielle Deadwyler Best Actress for Till and Brendan Fraser for The Whale. For Best Director Gina Prince-Bythewood for The Woman King The announcement was made today by Mike Sargent, co-president, BFCC. Votes were cast and tabulated in New York City at the organization’s annual meeting on December 17, 2022.

Jaclyn Philpott has been named executive director of the Association of Film Commissioners International – a newly created post that she’ll assume on January 3. As the new leader of the organization, she succeeds former AFCI President Eve Honthaner, who stepped down in September for personal reasons.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power started setting records before a frame of it had been released when word came out of New Zealand last year that its eight-episode first season cost a record $465 million to produce (not factoring in tax rebates and start-up costs amortization.)

EXCLUSIVE: Kanoa Goo (The Rookie) has signed on to star in the indie Chaperone, written and to be directed by Zoë Eisenberg in her solo feature debut.

The DGA today announced the winners of its 28th annual DGA Student Film Awards for African American, Asian American, Latino & Women directors. The awards were created in 1995 “to address the severe underrepresentation of directors of color and women in feature filmmaking by honoring, encouraging and bringing attention to exceptional diverse directors in film schools and universities across the country.”

The Library of Congress has unveiled its annual list of 25 movies to make the cut for the National Film Registry. The selection, considered among America’s most influential motion pictures, features titles ranging from an 1898 documentary of the Mardi Gras Carnival parade in New Orleans to the 1950 Cyrano de Bergerac — which made José Ferrer the first Hispanic actor to win an Oscar for Best Actor — and more recent classics like Super Fly (1972), Carrie (1976), Hairspray (1988), The Little Mermaid (1989), When Harry Met Sally (1989), House Party (1990) and Iron Man (2008). Scroll down for the full list.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards are being announced today and we’re updating the list live.

Iraqi filmmaker Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji picked up the Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film at the Red Sea Film Festival with his debut feature Hanging Gardens.

The Cherokee Nation Film Office and the state of Nebraska are helping filmmaker Andrew Troy bring the journey of Ponca Chief Standing Bear to the big screen.

Yul Vázquez is teaming up with Forest Whitaker in the upcoming third season of Godfather of Harlem as a new series regular.

Writer and stand-up comedian Mo Amer was the latest Hollywood name to pass through Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea film festival Wednesday where he discussed his varied career as part of the festival’s ‘In Conversation’ series and the potential of a second season of his well-received Netflix comedy Mo.

Checking in on the crew. Bravo and Peacock viewers were in for a treat with the premiere of Below Deck Down Under — with many of the show’s stars leaving a lasting impression.