Betsy West Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Cinetic Media has signed Aaron Schimberg and Vanessa McDonnell, the filmmaker and producer behind the darkly comedic psychological thriller A Different Man, for management across all media.

Tribeca Film Festival, starts with clips of gender reveal parties. As a male-sung rendition of Ronnie Spector’s “Be My Baby” plays, we see happy couples celebrating their upcoming pregnancies, as pink and blue smoke/confetti/etc swirls in the air.

It’s been a headline-making weekend at the Kelly-Giffords household in Tucson, Arizona.

Addie Morfoot Contributor“Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” an inspirational story about the former Arizona congresswoman’s fight to recover from an assassination attempt in 2011 and lobby for greater gun safety laws, arrives in theaters July 15 amid a troubling surge in mass shootings across the country, underscoring the scope of her challenge. But Giffords, who struggles to speak due to injuries she incurred in that attack, remains undaunted, even in the wake of the July 4 mass shootings in Illinois and the June 23 Supreme Court decision overturning concealed-carry gun restrictions in New York.

UPDATED with trailer: Briarcliff Entertainment on Tuesday dropped the trailer for Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, the upcoming documentary from RBG and Julia directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen.

Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s Julia Child documentary JULIA is to be given a linear TV showing on CNN later this month.

Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, the new documentary from directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAlmost two decades after her death, Julia Child is back in the media spotlight, the subject of a trio of projects.The Sony Pictures Classics documentary “Julia,” from the “RBG” team of Julie Cohen and Betsy West, was first out of the gate when it debuted on the fest circuit in September, followed March 16 by “The Julia Child Challenge” cooking competition on Food Network. The HBO Max scripted series “Julia” will arrive later this month, with Sarah Lancashire portraying the iconic chef.In the reality show, eight self-proclaimed disciples of Child vie for the chance to win an all-expenses-paid, three-month cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu, where she studied in 1950, by whipping up their own spins on her iconic dishes.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that its feature documentary Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story, co-directed by five-time Oscar nominee Frank Marshall (The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) and Ryan Suffern (Mr. A & Mr. M: The Story of A&M Records), will hit theaters in New York and Los Angeles on May 13, before expanding to additional markets in the following weeks. It will open against IFC Films’ horror-thriller The Innocents, Roadside Attractions’ comedy Family Camp and Universal’s horror-thriller Firestarter starring Zac Efron and more.

Lisa Kennedy “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” begins with the former Arizona representative placing flowers in memorial vases for victims of gun violence. With a voiceover rife with potent pauses, her cadence sounds for a moment like a spoken word poem. While her rhythm is indeed intentional and meaningful, it’s not out of a sense of artistry.

In 2011, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords survived an assassination attempt that left her partially paralyzed and unable to walk. Tracing her recovery and activism, the title of Julie Cohen and Betsy West‘s documentary “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” pretty much says it all.

Having its premiere today at SXSW, this CNN Films theatrical documentary Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down is a truly inspirational offering an almost verite kind of fly-on-the-wall account of what can only be termed as a comeback story like no other. In 2011 Giffords, an Arizona congresswoman and rising star in the Democratic party had the wind at her back with talk of possibly a Senate or Governor run in the future, even maybe a Presidential one. She was married to astronaut Mark Kelly, and was even looking at adding a new addtion to their family which included his two daughters from a previous marriage. Then it all came crashing down when at a campaign event, she and several others attending were felled by a gunman run amok. Several died that day including a 12 year old girl who was interested in civic studies and tagged along to the rally. Giffords herself took a single bullet to the head and was actually reported by media as having died. That report was erroneous and in fact doctors told Kelly that she likely would survive, but in what condition they couldn’t say.

Julie Cohen and Betsy West knew they had to make their movie “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” about former U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords when, in their first video call with her, they saw that she and her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, had kept a piece of her skull in a tupperware in their freezer.

Addie Morfoot ContributorAt this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival, three documentaries – Camille Hardman and Gary Lane’s “Still Working 9 to 5,” Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” and  Ron Howard’s “We Feed People” – use a celebrity lens to take a deep dive into hot button political issues.Hardman’s “Still Working 9 to 5” explores the origins and success of the 1980 film “9 to 5,” which addresses gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace and stars Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman. All four stars appear in the docu to discuss the iconic comedy.

Jon Burlingame editorOscar winner Rachel Portman (“Emma”) served up a delightful score for “Julia,” the documentary about cooking personality Julia Child from “RBG” filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen.Curiously, the English composer had never seen Child’s public TV series “The French Chef” and, although she loves to cook, does not own Child’s classic book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”Portman, who recently received a lifetime achievement award from Germany’s SoundTrack Cologne, spoke

Deadline has launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: Documentary, featuring all 25 panels from our Sunday event showcasing the filmmakers behind the buzziest nonfiction feature films of the awards season.

Sony Pictures Classics releases Telluride-darling documentary Julia with a national TV push, culinary events and virtual screenings through November hosted by famous chefs from Alice Waters (San Francisco) and Johnny Spero (Boston) to Jamie Bissonnette (Houston) and luminaries from New York, LA, Philly and Miami.

Clayton Davis Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar and Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories.

The original queen of cuisine, the first rock star foodie, Julia Child became a cooking phenomenon throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, thanks to her PBS series and cookbooks. A trailblazer for sharing her love and enthusiasm for cooking and food in the mediums of books and TV, Child paved the way for today’s culture of 24/7 food programming, passing away before seeing the influx of reality TV cooking, Food Networks, and foodie social media.

“Today, you have rock star chefs; Julia Child was the first,” says renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson (who you might recognize from the cooking reality show “Chopped“) at the beginning of the trailer for “Julia,” a new documentary from Sony Pictures Classics.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterAmazon Studios has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film “My Name is Pauli Murray,” about the trailblazing LGBTQ and civil rights activist, which premiered this year at Sundance.Participant, Drexler Films, and Storyville Films produced the doc, directed by Oscar nominees Betsy West and Julie Cohen (“RBG”).The film follows the overlooked history of Murray, a gender-nonconforming scholar and ordained minister who championed the rights of people of

Directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West first came across the name Pauli Murray while working on their Oscar-nominated documentary “RBG.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg had written “Pauli Murray” on the front cover of her first women’s rights brief before the Supreme Court to give credit for the idea she'd be arguing. Murray had, in 1965, written a law journal article positing that the 14th Amendment could be used to protect gender equality.

Three years ago, filmmakers Julie Cohen and Betsy West got a dream Sundance debut. They premiered their film “RBG” to a sold-out crowd with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg not only in attendance but seeing it for the first time.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the worldwide rights to the Imagine Documentaries and CNN Films documentary Julia,about Julia Child, the celebrity TV chef and cookbook author. The film, directed by Oscar-nominated RBG filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen, will be executive produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

By Dave McNary

By Andreas Wiseman