Diana Nyad Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

It’s been a remarkable past year for Free Solo directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. At Telluride, they premiered their first narrative feature Nyad, a dramatization of the relentless pursuit of extreme athlete Diana Nyad to swim from Cuba to Florida without the safety of a shark cage. The Netflix release has gone on to earn Oscar nominations for its stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.

It could be fifth time lucky for Annette Bening as she heads to this year’s Oscars with yet another nomination – this time for Best Actress for her role in Nyad.

Annette Bening still likes to swim, despite the brutal eight hours a day she spent in the water for her Netflix film Nyad. Bening stars as Diana Nyad, who, at 64, became the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. Bening trained for a year to perfect her stroke, and got to know Nyad herself, with Jodie Foster alongside her, starring as Nyad’s real-life friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll. “I swim all the time, it’s become part of my staying sane,” Bening says now, adding that she learned from Nyad that pushing oneself beyond what you thought you could do is “a way to know yourself, and that’s a way to expand your own idea about yourself in the world, and also increase your joy, and increase your appreciation.” Here, Bening looks back over some favorite moments in her career, from The Grifters, to American Beauty and beyond.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Annette Bening and her “Nyad” co-star Jodie Foster share similar tastes – Bening Foster over with a dog and Christmas decorations. And they once were wore similar gowns to the Oscars. Considering they are two of the greatest actresses working today, one might assume Bening and Foster were friends – or knew each other – prior to working together on the Netflix film.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Maestro” and “Saltburn” took home the main prizes at the Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild (IATSE Local 706) awards. The guild held its 11th annual awards ceremony Sunday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The night kicked off with the honoree awards being presented.

Diego Ramos Bechara editor Actor Annette Bening and filmmaker David O. Russell will receive top honors at the 13th annual Sun Valley Film Festival, which returns Feb. 28 to March 3 with a slate of cinematic programming and film and television premieres.

Sporting events captivate viewers everywhere, whether they are showing a competition or an athlete doing the impossible, but enticing an audience through a sports film in the same way can be a difficult task. It’s up to the cinematographers to bring a unique point of view that will highlight the tension and drama, and put viewers on the edge of their seats. 

Anna Marie de la Fuente The Dominican Republic (DR) has been making bold strides in its film industry, reporting dynamic growth and earning kudos both at home and internationally. Ironically, what spurred its growth was a global pandemic. As many countries remained in lockdown, DR opened its borders to more location shoots by June 2020.

Endurance and single-minded determination have been the focus of filmmaking duo Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin with their documentary films Free Solo, Meru and The Rescue, and now, with Nyad, they examine those themes in a narrative feature, with Annette Bening in the starring role of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, and Jodie Foster as her coach and best friend Bonnie Stoll. Based on Nyad’s memoir, Find a Way, the film follows Nyad’s multiple attempts to make the 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida, dodging sharks and dangerous jellyfish and weathering brutal waves. When Nyad finally succeeds at the age of 64, her message is, “It’s never too late to follow your dream.” Here, Vasarhelyi and Chin look back on how their documentarian skills fed into recreating an epic seafaring experience, and how both their marriage and their working relationship evolved as a result.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s no secret that the independent film game is not for the faint-hearted, with the last decade seeing a number of companies and financiers collapse under the weight of the industry’s constant state of flux. But amidst the turmoil and unprecedented change, Teddy Schwarzman has been quietly building his Black Bear label into a full-fledged independent film studio. 

What To Watch. Today we recommend a mix of new releases and newly available titles, from movies and shows, all available to stream on the most popular platforms.5 Latin horror movies to watch this HalloweenWhat to watch: 7 movies and shows to stream this week — Oct 27The new Netflix mini-series is a curious blend of things. Directed by Shawn Levy, known for his upbeat and nostalgic work in “Stranger Things,” “Free Guy,” and “The Adam Project,” “All The Light We Cannot See” is a tone shift.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi have made a name for themselves in the documentary world as the filmmakers behind “The Rescue” and the Oscar-winning “Free Solo.” So it makes sense that their narrative feature directing debut, “Nyad,” would focus on a true story — that of marathon swimmer Diana Nyad’s attempts to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida in her 60s. Considering the pair’s history, it’s not surprising that “Nyad” is visually impressive and nails the rousing storytelling. But the directors also draw excellent performances out of their actors, particularly the trio of Annette Bening as the prickly Nyad, Jodie Foster as her friend and coach Bonnie Stoll and Rhys Ifans as navigator John Bartlett.

With Halloween out the way and the festive season around the corner, there's plenty to keep you entertained on Netflix this November.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix debuts the first track of Nyad score ahead of the film’s theatrical release. The film is scored by two-time Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water).

Nyad is not your average sports biopic. It centers around a lesbian in her 60s who accomplishes something incredible that no one has before. She faces age discrimination, homophobia, and even sharks as she proves what she can do in open water, and makes history in the process.

Caroline Brew editor The Savannah College of Art and Design’s 26th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival, which will run from Oct. 21-28, has announced its film lineup. “Nyad,” a film based on the life of world-class athlete Diana Nyad, will open the festival on Oct.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Zurich Avenue, headed by producers and former Zurich Film Festival execs Karl Spoerri and Viviana Vezzani, has quickly amassed an impressive slate of projects since launching last year, including Annette Bening starrer “Nyad.” Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s film, which chronicles the attempt by 64-year-old swimmer Diana Nyad to swim from Cuba to Florida, unspools at the Zurich Film Festival. Zurich Avenue co-developed the Netflix film, which was produced by Black Bear Pictures and Mad Chance.

McKinley Franklin editor New York-based LGBTQ+ film festival NewFest has debuted the lineup for its 35th festival, which is set to run from Oct. 12 to Oct. 24.

Carole Horst Oscar-winning doc makers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin chose an appropriate subject for this move into traditional narrative feature: Diana Nyad, the athlete who swam from Cuba to Florida in 2013 at the age of 64. The “Nyad” directing duo won an Oscar for rock climbing doc Free Solo in 2019, and earned much critical praise 2015’s “Mero” and 2021’s “The Rescue” (which, even though it’s not an extreme sports movie, does feature physical acts of courage and daring). Nyad burned with a passion to complete the swim, a feat that she had to abort four times before; her first time in her twenties. So at an age when most people are planning retirement, she planned a hundred-mile swim.

The first trailer for Nyad just debuted online!

TELLURIDE – The life of Diana Nyad is the sort of true story that’s absolutely ripe for a movie biopic. A record-setting distance swimmer in her 20s, she retired at the age of 30 to pursue a career in sports journalism.

The first clip and poster for Nyad have debuted online!

Diana Nyad was a swimming legend, a stellar athlete in the 1970s who achieved the heights of her sport, and then went on to a successful decades-long career in the broadcast booth for ABC Sports, ESPN, and elsewhere.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat has scored the music for Netflix’s “Nyad.” Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Nyad” stars Annette Bening as Diana Nyad, an athlete, who at 60, achieves her lifelong dream of finishing the 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida. In a statement to Variety, Desplat said, “Chai and Jimmy’s direction is very strong.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad” will be the opening night film of the Hamptons International Film Festival. The event will take place on Oct. 5, according to HamptonsFilm, which runs the festival.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International After 15 years running the Zurich Film Festival, directors Viviana Vezzani and Karl Spoerri stepped down in late 2019 to take their expertise to the next level and launch a film financing outfit. And then the pandemic struck. The Los Angeles- and Zurich-based SPG3 Entertainment was formed in 2020 by Spoerri and Urs Wietlisbach and Alfred Gantner, the founders of international private equity outfit Partners Group, with Vezzani as COO. But gaining momentum amid the COVID crisis had its share of challenges, not to mention the creative detachment of being financiers as opposed to hands-on producers on a project. Last year, the duo launched production banner Zurich Avenue in a bid to become more active creatively on feature films, and leverage their strong talent relationships borne out of running the festival.

EXCLUSIVE: Karl Spoerri, Viviana Vezzani and Tobias Gutzwiller are officially launching production label Zurich Avenue, which will sit under the banner of their finance company SPG3.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeInstructional streamer Wondrium has ordered three seasons of “Wondrium Insights,” a new speaker series featuring guests including world champion boxer and Olympic gold medalist Sugar Ray Leonard, swimming legend and host Diana Nyad and singer/songwriter Mary Lambert.The series will be distributed globally on Wondrium later this year. According to the service, “Each speaker will present their personal stories and challenges giving viewers an intimate opportunity to learn and discover tools that can help with perseverance, resilience, and success.”Besides Leonard, Nyad and Lambert, the speakers also include former NBA player Jay Williams, social entrepreneur Shiza Shahid, astronaut/athlete/author Leland Melvin, former NFL linebacker Ryan Shazier, Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Solomon Thomas, STEM education innovator Knatokie Ford, mentor/entrepreneur Ivy McGregor, rock climber Kevin Jorgeson, science and technology journalist David Kushner, Flickr co-founder/venture capitalist Caterina Fake, AI artist/musician/storyteller Taryn Southern and clinical psychologist Dr.

EXCLUSIVE: Rhys Ifans (Spider-Man: No Way Home) has signed on to star alongside Annette Bening and Jodie Foster in the Netflix film Nyad, which marks the narrative directorial debut of Oscar, BAFTA and Emmy winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (The Rescue, Free Solo).

Jodie Foster has joined the cast of “Nyad,” a biopic based on the life of famed long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad that will be directed by the Oscar-winning duo behind “Free Solo.”Annette Bening is set to star as Diana Nyad and the film will tell the story of how Nyad at age 64 became the first person to swim the length of Cuba to Florida without the aid of a cage through waters infested by sharks and poisonous jellyfish. Foster will play Bonnie Stoll, Nyad’s coach and longtime friend.Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin will make their narrative feature debut on the biopic.The film is based on Diana Nyad’s autobiography “Find a Way” and has a screenplay by Emmy-winner Ann Biderman (“Ray Donovan”) with revisions by Black List writer Julia Cox (the upcoming “Do No Harm”).Mad Chance’s Andrew Lazar and Black Bear Pictures’ Teddy Schwarzman developed and will produce.Nyad came to fame as a long-distance swimmer back in the ’70s when she swam around the length of Manhattan, or 28 miles.