Jimmy Chin Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Oscar-winning documentarian filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have made an entire career out of making nerve-wracking feats-of-athleticism documentaries like the incredible, Oscar-winning “Free Solo,” “Meru” and 2021’s “The Rescue,” about the death-defying race against time to rescue the boys trapped in the caves of Thailand that made international news. Naturally, given the intensity of their films, Hollywood has come knocking for them to try their hand at non-documentaries and dramas.

Addie Morfoot Contributor After making their first narrative feature “Nyad,” which debuted last year and earned Oscar nominations for the film’s stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, Academy Award winning directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (“Free Solo”) are returning to their documentary roots with “Photographer.” The six-part National Geographic docuseries features seven photographers — Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen, Dan Winters, Campbell Addy, Krystle Wright, Muhammed Muheisen, and Anand Varma. Vérité footage of each subject’s current mission is interwoven with interviews and archival footage to demonstrate how each photographer approaches their work, the intention behind that work, their process, and how they each discover, see and experience the world.

EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV+ is staying in business with one of the men behind its latest sports docuseries The Dynasty: New England Patriots.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Four documentary filmmakers have been selected to participate in Yeti’s inaugural Pretty Wild fellowship program, which supports documentaries that give a fresh perspective on the outdoors and the people and stories that live there. The projects are: Tasha Van Zandt’s “The Arctic Woman,” Mike Day’s “Baby Highlander,” Emily Cohen Ibañez’s “River” and Juliana Schatz Preston’s “Rare Bird.” The four filmmakers, chosen from 330 submissions spanning 30 countries, are currently in Austin, Texas, for the first of two immersive retreats featured in the eight-month program.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has landed the Sundance Film Festival buzz title documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story. The film premiered January 18 at The Ray Theatre.

The Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild (MUAHS) Awards will honor actress Annette Bening with the Distinguished Artisan Award at their 11th annual ceremony.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events After diving in to play Diana Nyad’s best friend and swim coach in the real-life Netflix sports drama, “Nyad,” Jodie Foster is ready for her next cinematic adventure. “I really like doing things where I learn stuff,” Foster tells me. “I don’t know how to play any musical instruments.

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.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Plan B Entertainment has set a joint venture with Oscar-winning documentarian and filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, known for movies including Touching The Void, One Day In September, Whitney, The Last King Of Scotland and State Of Play. 

The Hulu series The 1619 Project and the Showtime feature Nothing Lasts Forever scored a leading three nominations apiece today as the Cinema Eye Honors announced its first round of contenders for the prestigious documentary-focused awards.

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.

After sitting it out last year, Deadline’s Contenders film series returns to London this weekend with a strong lineup featuring Ridley Scott, Emerald Fennell, Todd Haynes and Michael Mann among the panelists on tap to attend the awards-season event.

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.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Yeti has launched a $200,000 grant to support emerging documentary filmmakers. The global outdoor brand’s Pretty Wild fellowship will support four directors as they create short docs that give a fresh perspective on the beauty, grandeur, and vulnerability of the outdoors and the people and stories that live there.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic The loftier and more dangerous the goal, the finer the line that separates the Guinness Book of World Records from the Darwin Awards. At a certain point, surviving is the only real difference. Do-or-die marathon swimmer Diana Nyad dreamed of swimming from Cuba to Florida.

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.

Oscar-winning documentarian filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have made an entire career out of making nerve-wracking feats-of-athleticism documentaries like the incredible, Oscar-winning “Free Solo,” “Meru” and 2021’s “The Rescue,” about the death-defying race against time to rescue the boys trapped in the caves of Thailand that made international news. Naturally, given the intensity of their films, Hollywood has come knocking for them to try their hand at non-documentaries and dramas.

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.

UPDATED with latest: The Telliride Film Festival began August 31 with a lineup for the Rockies event’s 50th edition that includes world premieres of Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (Focus Features), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (Amazon) and Free Solo filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative feature Nyad (Netflix).

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.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor In “Nyad,” the titular character is entitled, mean, self-centered and treats people around her terribly… and she’s our hero? Supporting actors Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans manage to keep the film moving along, but the main subject, played passionately by Annette Bening, is one who is difficult to connect with and root for in this modern take on a sports drama. A still Oscar-less Bening could be a possibility for traction in the best actress race – at least, Netflix hopes so.

Naman Ramachandran The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, which includes galas and special presentations of films by contemporary masters. As previously announced, Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” will open the festival and Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s “The Kitchen” will close it.

The Telluride Film Festival, a key part of the fall festival circuit launching awards season and perhaps some major Academy Award contenders, announced the wide-ranging lineup of films for its landmark 50th edition. The fest kicks off Thursday and runs through Labor Day and will feature world premieres of Oscar winners Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (Focus Features), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (Amazon) and Free Solo filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative feature Nyad (Netflix).

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.

Michaela Zee Bell Canada is ending its long-standing sponsorship of the Toronto International Film Festival, Variety has confirmed. The telecommunications company, a lead sponsor since 1995, will not continue its partnership with TIFF after the festival’s 48th edition this year. “Bell has had a terrific partnership with TIFF for the past 28 years,” the company said in a statement shared with Variety on Saturday.

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.

**Spoiler alert: There’s no way to really discuss this documentary without spoilers, at least for me, so be forewarned, and if you don’t want to be spoiled, please watch “The Deepest Breath” doc first.** Thanks in part to filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin— the directors behind the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo” and daring extreme adventuring and peril docs like “Meru,” “The Rescue,” “Wild Life”— plus the recent thriving docu-drama engagement boon on streaming, athletes pushing themselves to the limits and beyond have seemingly entered a new golden age.

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.

The filmmaking couple Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have earned a reputation for making documentaries about people who accomplish the unthinkable – the no-ropes climber Alex Honnold in the Oscar-winning Free Solo, or the divers of The Rescue who, against all odds, saved a group of Thai kids stranded in a flooded cave.

Clouds of gloom have settled over much of the documentary field, brought on by multiple factors: a sluggish acquisition market, cutbacks in the executive ranks at Netflix and Showtime, uncertainty around Hulu’s future, CNN Films taking doc production in house, sharper scrutiny of budgets and content needs, and… well, the list goes on. 

Beau Is Afraid posted the top per-screen average of the year so far and the best limited opening for distributor A24 since Uncut Gems, grossing an estimated $320,396 at four locations in New York and LA for a hefty per-screen average of $80K+ in sold-out shows on both coasts. (Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler had a $105k PSA on five screens in 2019 — a limited-opening record at the time.)

Addie Morfoot Contributor At Tuesday’s New York City premiere of Nat Geo’s documentary “Wild Life,” Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, shed light on his 2022 decision to donate the entire apparel brand, worth $3 billion, to a trust dedicated to fighting the climate crisis.“I’m kind of pessimistic about the fate of this planet,” Chouinard said. “We’ve been giving one percent of our sales for a long time. We’ve given away $200 or $300 million over the years, but I’m always thinking, ‘What more can I do?”Directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Wild Life” chronicles the decades-long efforts by conservationist Kris Tompkins and her late husband and the North Face founder, Doug Tompkins, to create national parks throughout Chile and Argentina. The couple helped Chouinard, who appears in the doc, create and run Patagonia.Chouinard, who joined Vasarhelyi, Chin and Tompkins onstage after the MoMA screening, added that his decision to give the planet $3 billion also had to do with his two children, who have “simple lives” and no desire to inherit Patagonia.  “When we found a way to basically make earth our stockholder, it seemed real logical,” he continued. “It’s a way for Patagonia as a company to give a lot more money. We’ve given away $33 million since November. We’re going to give away another $40 or $50 [million] within the next couple months. It’s a pretty good system. I can tell you this: it’s not a burden. It’s really a lot of fun.”