‘Small Axe’ Filmmaker Steve McQueen to Executive Produce BBC Films on Black Power, Education Scandal

Naman Ramachandran BBC dramas “Normal People,” “I May Destroy You,” and “Small Axe” and ITV dramas “Quiz” and “Des” lead the nominations at the 47th edition of the U.K.’s Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) TV and streaming Awards.“Normal People” is nominated for best drama series (5+ episodes), and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal as best actor and actress and for the ‘BPG breakthrough award.’ “Small Axe” receives nominations for best drama series (5+ episodes), best writer, best actor

Steve Carell is hard at work on the upcoming season of The Morning Show!

Steve McQueen's BBC and Amazon anthology series Small Axe has been racking up awards — along with some confusion. The series that follows West Indian immigrants in London comprises five short films, varying in length from 64 minutes to 128 minutes.

All season long, Steve McQueen’s unique project Small Axe, billed as a collection of five films, has been puzzled over. Not due to quality, of course, since it’s quite good, but as to whether this production with Amazon was a series of movies, or a work of television? For example, the Academy deems it TV, and so has the Golden Globes, various critics groups have recognized it as cinema.

Antonio Ferme editorThe Portland Art Museum and the Northwest Film Center announced the annual Cinema Unbound Awards honorees on Thursday. This year’s honorees include Steve McQueen, Garrett Bradley, Gus Van Sant, Mollye Asher and Alex Bulkley.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeAmazon Studios head Jennifer Salke doesn’t expect Jeff Bezos to turn his attention to producing as he steps down as Amazon CEO — but she doesn’t rule it out either.Variety took the opportunity on Wednesday morning to ask Salke — calling in to chat about the Golden Globes 2021 nominations — about Bezos’ big news.

Prince Harry in the 2017 TV movie “King Charles III," and was in an episode of filmmaker Steve McQueen's 2020 “Small Axe” anthology.Glowing reviews met those and other performances, including in the three-part “The Long Song,” which aired in Britain in 2018 and makes its U.S. debut Sunday on PBS (check local listings for time).

Steve McQueen is to executive produce two documentaries for the BBC that were conceived while shooting Small Axe. One will examine Black power in Britain, while the second film investigates how Black children in the 1960s and 1970s were disproportionately sent to schools for the so-called “educationally subnormal.”

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterVariety will host a virtual 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards event with the Palm Springs International Film Society on Feb. 26 at 10:00 a.m.

Naman Ramachandran Industry executive Julien Leroux has launched London-based outfit Paper Entertainment, a London-based company focused on development, finance and production.Paper Entertainment is on board as a co-producer on the recently announced second season of Apple TV Plus hit series “Tehran.” Leroux served as an executive producer on season 1, and struck the co-production deal with Apple, which was announced in June.Paper Entertainment has several other projects in development, which

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar and Emmy-winning British production company Rise Films is developing the first major television drama series on the phone-hacking scandal that shook the very foundations of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in the early noughties.

Ava DuVernay has boarded Oscar contender A Concerto Is A Conversation as executive producer. Co-directed by  Emmy-winning composer Kris Bowers and Emmy-winning filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, the 13-minute short subject documentary follows Bowers as he tracks his family’s lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather Horace Bowers from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Keke Palmer has been tapped as host of Disney+’s upcoming unscripted build competition series Foodtastic. Palmer also will executive produce the series in which contestants are challenged to create Disney-inspired works of art made out of food. NYC’s City Cakes founder Chef Benny Rivera and Flour Shop founder Amirah Kassem will serve as judges for Foodtastic. The 11-episode series started production this week and is slated to premiere on Disney+ later this year.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla Keke Palmer is inviting you to be her guest… and she’s putting your service to the test!Disney Plus has tapped superstar Palmer to host “Foodtastic,” an unscripted build competition series where teams are challenged to cook and bake Disney-inspired works of culinary art.The quadruple threat — acting, singing, daytime talk show hosting and activism— can also now add a fifth accomplishment to her résumé: executive producing.

Angelique Jackson Ava DuVernay is reuniting with “When They See Us” composer Kris Bowers for the documentary short “A Concerto Is a Conversation.”DuVernay will executive produce the film, which was co-directed and produced by Bowers and Ben Proudfoot. “A Concerto Is a Conversation” was selected to premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which has shifted to a virtual model amid the ongoing pandemic.

Manori Ravindran International EditorThe International Documentary Association (IDA) has announced grants for seven films through its Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, totalling $115,000.Seven documentary projects will receive grants of up to $20,000 each through the fund, which received more than 180 applications in 2020.

John Boyega is an actor that knows a thing or two about franchises. Having starred in the recent “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, the actor knows what it’s like to have 5 years of your life dominated by fandom’s reaction to your performance, the grueling production process, and the aftermath of franchise films that might not land with audiences.