Oscar-winning ‘Brokeback Mountain’ screenwriter Larry McMurtry dead at 84

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Parasite distributor Neon has come out on top for North American rights to Ryan Gosling package The Actor, the next movie from Anomalisa director Duke Johnson. We hear the pre-buy is in the mid 7-figure range.

Nomadland emerged as the clear overall winner on the second and final night of the 2021 BAFTA film awards weekend on Sunday. Chloe Zhao’s critically-acclaimed exploration of the nomad community in the American West took home the best film award, plus leading actress for Frances McDormand, director for Zhao and best cinematography for Joshua James Richards.

The 21st Annual Black Reel Awards took place today with Warner Bros’ rousing drama, Judas and the Black Messiah, taking the marquee Outstanding Film award. In addition, stars Daniel Kaluuya and Dominique Fishback were bestowed with the Outstanding Supporting Actor and  Outstanding Supporting Actress award, respectively. Producers Charles King, Ryan Coogler, and Shaka King become the first all-African American team to win Outstanding Picture.

Time’s Garrett Bradley has become the first African-American woman recognized with an Oscar nomination for directing a feature documentary.

In the Oscar-nominated documentary short A Concerto Is a Conversation, acclaimed composer Kris Bowers traces a line from his family history to the premiere performance of his original concerto "For a Younger Self" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2019. Following that line is Horace Bowers Jr., Kris Bowers' 91-year-old grandfather, who sits down with his grandson to tell the story of his journey out of the Jim Crow-era South in the pursuit of his American Dream.

NEW YORK -- James McBride's latest honor for the novel “Deacon King Kong” is a real New York story.McBride's fictional snapshot of a Brooklyn neighborhood in late 1969 has won the inaugural Gotham Book Prize, given for outstanding writing about New York City.

By Sarah MillsLONDON (Reuters) - American musician Jon Batiste says he was born to work on "Soul", a hit Pixar animation about a Black music teacher, which has already won him a Golden Globe. Along with fellow composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Batiste has also been nominated for an Oscar and BAFTA for the film's score.

The Walking Dead‘s 11th and final season will begin in August, it has been confirmed.The last instalment of season 10’s six bonus episodes (also known as season 10C) concluded on Sunday (April 4), with viewers getting a closer look at Negan’s backstory.The last-ever season of the original Walking Dead TV series will premiere in the US on August 22, it has now been confirmed.

NEW YORK -- Ron Nixon, global investigations editor at The Associated Press, has won the first-ever News Leader of the Year award from the News Leaders Association.Nixon's investigative team produced an award-winning series on labor abuses in the palm oil industry.

Evelyn Sakash, an Emmy-winning production designer who was known to be a hoarder, has been found dead under a pile of garbage in her New York City home. She was 66.

Also Read: G Gordon Liddy, Watergate Scandal Operative, Dies at 90Sakash’s TV and film credits include “Orange Is the New Black,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” 1990’s  “Mermaids,” 2014’s “Still Alice” and and 2003’s “Between the Lines,” for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award.Sakash’s sister, Ellen Brown, told the New York Daily News she didn’t want her sister to be remembered for how she was found.“She had a full life,” Brown said. “She was so extraordinarily talented.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinema Guild has acquired North American distribution rights to Rock Bottom Riser, a documentary that received a Special Mention from the Encounters jury at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival where it premiered earlier this month. It’s the first film by Fern Silva, who wrote, directed, and produced the documentary. Cinema Guild has slated it for a 35mm theatrical tour planned for 2022.

Beverly Cleary penned award-winning books for children and young adults including the popular “Ramona” series, notably the National Book Award-winning “Ramona and Her Mother” as well as “Ramona the Brave,” “Ramona Quimby, Age 8,” and “Ramona Forever.”Born Beverly Atlee Bunn April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon, in the heart of the Willamette Valley, Cleary initially didn’t seem destined for a career of writing beloved classics for young readers.

Focus Features said Friday that it will release its thriller Stillwater, directed by Spotlight Oscar winner Tom McCarthy and starring Matt Damon, in domestic theaters on July 30, 2021.

DALLAS (AP) — Larry McMurtry, the prolific and popular author who took readers back to the old American West in his Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lonesome Dove" and returned them to modern-day landscapes in works such as his emotional tale of a mother-daughter relationship in "Terms of Endearment," has died. He was 84.