Clement Virgo Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: XYZ Films has taken global distribution rights, excluding Canada, on the eco-thriller The Well, the first narrative feature by Academy Award-nominated documentary director Hubert Davis. 

Kiana Madeira, best known for her role in Netflix’s hit trilogy Fear Street, has signed with Luber Roklin Entertainment for management.

Rene Rodriguez The spirit of Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” weighs heavily, both thematically and stylistically, on “Brother,” a drama about two brothers growing up in a low-income Toronto suburb that lacks the grace and eloquence of the 2016 Best Picture Oscar winner. But even if writer-director Clement Virgo, adapting David Chariandy’s 2017 novel, can’t achieve the sustained aura of ineffable melancholy he’s striving for, the film still hits some lovely notes of grace and poignance that rise above the script’s manipulative nature.

“Follow my every move:” Based on the award-winning novel of the same name by David Chariandy, “Brother,” the latest film from Clement Virgo, is a sweeping and mesmerizing story about familial bonds, the power of music, and the resilience of community. Set against the backdrop of the early days of the Toronto hip-hop scene, a movement fueled by the children of Caribbean immigrants, brothers Francis (Lamar Johnson, “The Last of Us“) and Michael (Aaron Pierre, “Old“) find themselves amidst sweltering temperatures and rising tensions, setting off a series of events that change their lives forever.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Vertical has nabbed U.S. rights to Clement Virgo’s feature film, “Brother,” following its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Virgo wrote the screenplay and adapted the story of two brothers facing questions of masculinity, family, race and identity from David Chariandy’s novel of the same name. The film stars Lamar Johnson (“The Hate U Give,” “The Last of Us”), Aaron Pierre (“The Underground Railroad,” “Foe”), Kiana Madeira (“Fear Street” franchise) and Marsha Stephanie Blake (“When They See Us”). The film is slated for a day-and-date release this summer.

On Friday, April 14, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television celebrated the final presentation of the 2023 edition  Canadian Screen Week, wrapping up four days of in-person events honouring the year’s best Canadian  film, TV and digital media.

Amber Dowling The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television has named its batch of 2023 film and TV winners ahead of Sunday night’s broadcast of the Canadian Screen Awards on CBC and CBC Gem. During the weeklong celebration, which was broken up over four days, “The Porter” and “Brother” emerged with the most victories in their respective TV and film categories. “Brother” had 13 nominations heading into Thursday night’s film celebrations and triumphed in 12 categories — including best motion picture. Clement Virgo also picked up wins for directing and adapted screenplay, while Lamar Johnson won for performance in a leading role and Aaron Pierre won for performance in a supporting role.

ET Canada is kicking off Canadian Screen Week with a bang! Our team is proud to be the recipient of three CSA awards, received today, on day one of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s annual week-long celebration of the best in Canadian film, TV and digital media.

‘Riceboy Sleeps’ Scoops Top Canadian Film AwardAnthony Shim’s Riceboy Sleeps has won Canada’s biggest film award, the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. The prize, decided by the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA), comes with a CAN$100,000 ($72,000) cash prize. Riceboy Sleeps beat nominees Clement Virgo’s Brother and David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future. The semi-autobiographical film explores the challenges of living between two cultures through the tale of a Korean immigrant single mother raising her son in Canada. Shot in the Greater Vancouver area and Korea, the feature world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022, winning its Platform Prize, and then played in Busan and a raft of other festivals. The win comes as Toronto-based distributor Game Theory Films gears up for the title’s Canadian release on March 17. The feature will also be released in Korea, Singapore and the US in the coming months.  “The Toronto film community has been so good to us since TIFF where this crazy journey first began and I hope to make more films in the future that will warrant the same type of support,” commented Shim.

It’s the end of the line for “The Porter”.

The very first email Toronto filmmaker Clement Virgo received on Wednesday morning was from Scarborough author Catherine Hernandez.

The 2023 Canadian Screen Awards nominations are in.

There is an abundance of Black dramas that chronicle trauma without the care it deserves. Rife with anti-Black stereotypes, the cinematic elite often celebrates these narratives while independent films (that are usually 10 times better) are thrown to the wayside and forgotten. Clement Virgo’s latest project, Brother, which is based on David Chariandy’s novel and had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, has a delicate balance of story, acting and violence that sends a message that even though the struggle is real, compassion for one another will prevail. 

Manori Ravindran International Editor The London Film Festival has revealed its jury line-up for this year’s awards. The Official Competition jury is led by “Power of the Dog” and “Cold War” producer Tanya Seghatchian (pictured), while the First Feature Competition (Sutherland Award) jury will be headed up by director and actor Nana Mensah whose directorial debut “Queen of Glory” won the Best New Narrative Director prize at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. Elsewhere, Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini will lead the jury selecting the winner of the Grierson Award for Best Documentary after winning the award in 2018 for his film “What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire.”

Jennie Punter Stoked by raves and strong receptions to their world-premiering Toronto festival films, “Brother” producers Damon D’Oliveira and Clement Virgo, “Black Ice” producer Vinay Virmani, and “Alice, Darling” producer Noah Segal are warming up a new basketball-themed crime series, “The Count,” for this fall’s marketplace, Variety has learned. A modern spin on French author Alexandre Dumas’ classic 19th-century novel of wrongful imprisonment “The Count of Monte Cristo,” the TV drama will bounce between Toronto’s basketball milieu and Haiti’s cultural mélange as it follows the transformation of a Haitian basketball player facing a life sentence for murder into to justice-seeking saboteur.

Jennie Punter As Toronto director Clement Virgo and the cast of “Brother” took the stage at the Princess of Wales Theatre on the night of Sept. 9 to soak in the hometown standing ovation after film’s world premiere, a delegation of Black producers from across Canada was settling in for a week of networking ops curated by the Black Screen Office (BSO).   This year has seen Black-led CBC and BET+ historical drama series “The Porter” (recently renewed for Season two) connect with audiences and critical kudos beyond Canada; Black talent empowerment and training organizations extend their reach; and the BSO forge platforms and alliances to strengthen and amplify its advocacy, research and funding development work. 

Two Jamaican-Canadian brothers hailing from Scarborough, a neighborhood in Toronto, look up at a soaring transmission tower. The older sibling Francis (Aaron Pierre, “The Underground Railroad”) explains to his younger brother Michael (Lamar Johnson, “The Hate U Give”) that the higher you climb, the more the reverberations of the electricity buzz and shake you.

Jennie Punter The Toronto Film Festival has programmed one of its strongest Canadian feature slates in recent years — films with head-turning performances, eye-catching artistry, and global market and audience appeal, from filmmakers who are subverting stereotypes, challenging or bypassing power structures, or transforming the industry ecosystem from the grassroots on up.  “Right now in our industry, tons of high-paying service work lets people pay their bills, but the quality work is coming through the Canadian independents,” says Conquering Lions Pictures’ Damon D’Oliveira, who has produced the Canadian work of director Clement Virgo, from his 1995 Cannes-premiering feature “Rude” to the series “The Book of Negroes” to their latest, “Brother.” 

Naman Ramachandran The BFI London Film Festival has revealed eight titles that will be in official competition. The films include Santiago Mitre’s political drama “Argentina, 1985” (Argentina); Clement Virgo’s brotherly love tale “Brother” (Canada); Marie Kreutzer’s irreverent period drama “Corsage” (Austria-Luxembourg-Germany-France); Fyzal Boulifa’s atmospheric domestic drama “The Damned Don’t Cry” (France-Belgium-Morocco); Mark Jenkin’s folk horror tale “Enys Men” (U.K.); Hlynur Palmason’s historical epic “Godland” (Denmark-Iceland-France-Sweden); Soudade Kaadan’s poignant family film “Nezouh” (U.K.-Syria-France); and Alice Diop’s courtroom drama “Saint Omer.”

GALA PRESENTATIONS 2022*Previously announcedAlice, Darling Mary Nighy | Canada, USAWorld PremiereBlack Ice Hubert Davis | CanadaWorld PremiereButcher’s Crossing Gabe Polsky | USAWorld PremiereThe Greatest Beer Run Ever Peter Farrelly | USAWorld PremiereThe Hummingbird Francesca Archibugi | Italy, FranceWorld PremiereHunt Lee Jung-jae | South KoreaNorth American PremiereA Jazzman’s Blues Tyler Perry | USAWorld PremiereKacchey Limbu Shubham Yogi | IndiaWorld PremiereMoving On Paul Weitz | USAWorld PremiereParis Memories Alice Winocour | FranceNorth American PremierePrisoner’s Daughter Catherine Hardwicke | USAWorld PremiereRaymond & Ray Rodrigo García | USAWorld PremiereRoost Amy Redford | USAWorld PremiereSidney Reginald Hudlin | USAWorld PremiereThe Son Florian Zeller | United KingdomNorth American PremiereOpening Night Film*The Swimmers Sally El Hosaini | United KingdomWorld PremiereWhat’s Love Got To Do With It? Shekhar Kapur | United KingdomWorld Premiere*The Woman King Gina Prince-Bythewood | USAWorld PremiereSPECIAL PRESENTATIONS 2022*Previously announcedAllelujah Sir Richard Eyre | United KingdomWorld PremiereAll Quiet on the Western Front Edward Berger | USA, GermanyWorld PremiereThe Banshees Of Inisherin Martin McDonagh | United Kingdom, Ireland, USANorth American PremiereBlueback Robert Connolly | AustraliaWorld PremiereThe Blue Caftan Maryam Touzani | Morocco, France, Belgium, DenmarkNorth American PremiereBroker Hirokazu Kore-eda | South KoreaCanadian Premiere*Brother Clement Virgo | CanadaWorld Premiere*Bros Nicholas Stoller | USAWorld Premiere*Catherine Called Birdy Lena Dunham | United KingdomWorld PremiereCauseway Lila Neugebauer | USAWorld PremiereChevalier Stephen Williams | USAWorld PremiereCorsage Mari

In a nice change of pace, the Toronto International Film Festival has announced many of its world premieres over the past few weeks instead of one traditional deluge. There is Steven Spielberg’s “The Fablemans,” Michael Grandage’s “My Policeman” with Harry Styles, Clement Virgo’s “Brother,” “Bros” written and starring Billy Eichner, Sanaa Lathan’s “On The Come Up,” and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King” with Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu.

Clement Virgo’s adaptation of a coming-of-age novel set in Toronto’s hip hop scene is bound for the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Clement Virgo directed movie Brother will make its world premiere at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival which runs Thursday, Sept. 8  through Sunday, Sept. 18.

Angelique Jackson The life and career of legendary cyclist Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor will receive the biopic treatment with the feature drama “Black Cyclone,” helmed by Canadian filmmaker Clement Virgo.The film depicts the life story of the pioneering bicycle racer, best known to the world as “Major” Taylor. At the turn of the 20th century, Taylor made history when he became the world’s fastest man, as well as America’s first Black world champion, at the height of the Jim Crow era.

EXCLUSIVE: Rising actors Lamar Johnson (The Hate U Give), Aaron Pierre (The Underground Railroad), Marsha Stephanie Blake (When They See Us), and Kiana Madeira (Fear Street Trilogy) have been set to star in feature drama Brother, which is now filming in and around Toronto and Scarborough, Canada.