Eliza Hittman Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

A high-politicized edition of the Berlin Film Festival ended Saturday, but divisions surrounding political messaging during the festival appear to be ongoing. 

The Zone Of Interest filmmaker Jonathan Glazer has reinforced his support for the virtual Cinema For Gaza campaign auction, pledging a new personalized gift to the fundraiser alongside first-time donors Spike Lee, Olivia Colman, and Paul Mescal. 

Alex Ritman Donations from the likes of Spike Lee, Paul Mescal and Olivia Colman have been added to a growing list of items being sold off as part the Cinema for Gaza auction, which has so far raised over £90,000 ($113,000). A framed “Malcolm X” poster signed by Lee, an “Aftersun” poster signed by Mescal and a personalized video message from Colman are among the auction lots launching on Monday, alongside additional items including a “beer on Zoom” with Tessa Thompson with memorabilia from “The Marvels,” a “Worst Person in the World” poster signed by Joachim Trier and the cast and the chance to talk to Susan Sarandon over Zoom about your favorite of her films (plus a signed “Rocky Horror Picture Show” t-shirt).

Festival season 2024 is well underway, Insiders, as our team decamps to Berlin. That and plenty more news to report from around the world to follow. Jesse Whittock with you. Sign up for the Insider newsletter here.

EXCLUSIVE: Film Independent on Wednesday named the eight screenwriters set for the 25th edition of their Screenwriting Lab. The latest cohort of the intensive program, designed to provide individualized story and career development for screenwriters with fiction feature screenplays, includes Bri Brooks, Karina Dandashi, Thais Drassinower, Chloé Hung, Adam Meeks, Nat Moonhill, Veronica Moonhill and Richard Van.

Charna Flam The Sun Valley film festival announced Emilio Estevez is set to receive the Pioneer Award at the festival’s upcoming pioneer party.  Estevez joins previously announced Sun Valley film festival honorees including Variety‘s 10 Producers to Watch, Josh Brolin, Sophie Thatcher and Nina Yang Bongiovi, who are set to receive the Vision Award, the Rising Star Award and the Variety Creative Impact Award in Producing, respectively.  On March 31, Estevez will receive his Pioneer Award, and on April 1, will host a special screening of his 2011 feature, “The Way.” 

Sundance U.S. dramatic competition jury members — including Marlee Matlin– chose to leave after the festival fell short of providing proper captioning for deaf and hearing impaired audience members during the Eccles Theatre premiere of Magazine Dreams last night.

The Sundance Institute has named the participants and projects set for the 2023 editions of a pair of its flagship programs: the Screenwriters Lab and Screenwriters Intensive.

The Sundance Institute has today named the jurors who will preside over awards for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The 16-person lineup features everyone from CODA star Marlee Matlin to We Need To Talk About Cosby‘s W. Kamau Bell, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton and actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan.

“A Friend of the Family” showrunner and executive producer Nick Antosca is no stranger to the gritty world of true crime, having previously been a writer for the Hulu series “The Act.” Antosca’s latest project comes in the form of a web series based upon the popular 80’s horror franchise “Chucky” and is currently in its second season. “A Friend of the Family” is based on the tragically true story of the Broberg family.

EXCLUSIVE: Sidney Flanigan (Never Rarely Sometimes Always), Frederick Weller (BlacKkKlansman), D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservation Doggs) and Will Ropp (The Greatest Beer Run Ever) will topline the indie thriller Only the Good Survive, from writer-director Dutch Southern, which has wrapped production.

Selome Hailu Ella Jay Basco has been cast in Nick Antosca’s upcoming Peacock limited series “A Friend of the Family,” Variety has learned exclusively.The crime series is based on the true story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan (Hendrix Yancey) was kidnapped multiple times over a period of years by Robert “B” Berchtold (Jake Lacy), a charismatic, obsessed family “friend.” The Brobergs — devoted to their faith, family and community — were utterly unprepared for the sophisticated tactics their neighbor used to exploit their vulnerabilities, drive them apart and turn their daughter against them. “A Friend of the Family” follows how their lives were permanently altered and how they survived.

EXCLUSIVE: Joe Chrest (Stranger Things) has been tapped for a heavily recurring role in A Friend of the Family, Peacock’s limited series From Nick Antosca and UCP.

Peacock’s limited drama series A Friend Of The Family continues to build its cast, adding Austin Stowell (The Hating Game), Patrick Fischler (American Crime Story: Impeachment), Bree Elrod (Red Rocket) and Philip Ettinger (First Reformed). They will join previously announced stars Anna Paquin, Jake Lacy, Lio Tipton, Mckenna Grace and Hendrix Yancey. A Friend Of The Family comes from Nick Antosca, who serves as showrunner, writer and executive producer.

Wyatte Grantham-Philips editorThe Sun Valley Film Festival, which will be returning in-person for its 11th annual event from March 30 to April 3, has announced additional awards and films that will be screened this year.Variety will present this year’s Pioneer Award to Danny Strong on April 1. As a writer, director, actor and producer, Strong has earned two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two WGA awards, a PGA Award and a Peabody Award — with credits ranging from both parts of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” to “Dopesick.” Previous Pioneer Award winners include Shaka King, Aaron Paul, Eliza Hittman and Mark Duplass.Also on April 1, the Rising Star Award will be given to Netflix’s “Outer Banks” cast members Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, Rudy Pankow, Austin North, Drew Starkey and Carlacia Grant.

The streaming wars have seen both ups and downs, with Disney+ and HBO Max making significant strides by adding subscribers in the shadow of Netflix that looms large. Peacock and other budding streaming services are still trying to grow their audience, and that means putting together more exclusive original content to get eyeballs with compelling television shows.

 chronicled the stranger-than-fiction story about the multiple kidnappings of Jan Broberg, the story is being revisited as a scripted, true-crime series starring Anna Paquin and Jake Lacy.Adapted by showrunner and executive producer Nick Antosca and directed by executive producer Eliza Hittman, will recount the real story of the teenage girl who was abducted not once, but twice by the same man in several years. That man was the Broberg family’s trusted neighbor, Robert Berchtold, who ended up manipulating and exploiting the parents before turning their daughter against them. “Nick Antosca has created a compelling series in that explores one family’s unimaginable experience with great insight and sensitivity,” said Lisa Katz, president scripted content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.

ChloéZhao won best director for Nomadland at the 36th annual Independent Spirit Awards on Thursday. Accepting the award, Zhao said she was "humbled" to be in the company of her fellow nominees —Lee Isaac Chung (Minari), Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman),Eliza Hittman (Never Rarely Sometimes Always), and Kelly Reichardt (First Cow).

Never Rarely Sometimes Always writer-director Eliza Hittman and its star Sidney Flanigan sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss their acclaimed film in a THR Presents Q&A powered by Vision Media. Newcomer Flanigan stars as Autumn, a pregnant teenager in small-town Pennsylvania who is seeking an abortion.

EXCLUSIVE: Never Rarely Sometimes Always writer-director Eliza Hittman said she found inspiration for the Focus Features film in 2012, when she read about a woman who died after being denied a life-saving abortion.

Starring newcomer Sidney Flanigan, Eliza Hittman’s film Never Rarely Sometimes Always tells the harrowing story of a young woman who must travel from Pennsylvania to New York City in order to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

It came close with both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, but the National Society of Film Critics came through for “Nomadland.” The acclaimed Searchlight Pictures release won Best Picture, Best Director (Chloé Zhao), Best Actress (Frances McDormand) and Cinematography (Joshua James Richards). In an incredibly close Best Picture race, NYFCC winner “First Cow” was just two points behind.

Also Read: Steve McQueen's 'Small Axe' Series Named Best Picture of 2020 by LA Film CriticsThe screenplay award went to writer-director Eliza Hittman for “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”This year, in a rule change prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, any film that opened in 2020 in theaters or on streaming platforms was eligible for awards.The National Society of Film Critics consists of 60 critics from around the country, though a handful opted not to vote if they hadn’t seen enough films.

As we end a truly extraordinary year of movie-going (or movie-staying, maybe), and to add to our comprehensive array of Best of 2020 coverage, Be Reel assesses which directors broke through their indie roots to become household names, distinct voices, and burgeoning auteurs in 2020.

Kelly Reichardt's First Cow earned a leading four nominations for the 2020 Gotham Independent Film Awards. In the category of best feature, where for the first time all of the nominees are directed by women, Reichardt's film will face off against Kitty Green's The Assistant, Eliza Hittman's Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Chloé Zhao's Nomadland and Natalie Erika James' Relic.

Sidney Flanigan never really thought about becoming an actor, but after meeting director Eliza Hittman through tangential ties to the Insane Clown Posse, she took on the lead role in the filmmaker's latest film Never Rarely Sometimes Always with the hope of using the drama as a platform to speak out about abortion rights.

Only three features into her filmmaking career, writer-director Eliza Hittman has established herself as an astute chronicler of contemporary female teendom, and her new film is her most accomplished in that regard. But it had the misfortune of opening March 13, just in time for the coronavirus-necessitated shutdown of theaters.

It’s not often that a piece of cinema is essentially required viewing for teenagers. Largely, they’re a moviegoing audience that takes in spectacle, though they certainly don’t go to the theaters as a monolith.

Maggie Gyllenhaal cozies up to husband Peter Sarsgaard while arriving at the premiere of Never Rarely Sometimes Always held at Metrograph on Monday night (March 9) in New York City.

Julia Holter has scored the movie Never Rarely Sometimes Always, as Film Music Reporter notes. The film, directed and written by Eliza Hittman, premieres at Sundance on January 24, followed by a wide release on March 13 (via Focus Features). According to Sundance’s synopsis, Never Rarely Sometimes Always follows a teenager named Autumn who heads to New York following an unintended pregnancy.