Steve McQueen unveils an anthology of racism and resistance

With three weeks to go until Election Day, new public opinion polls in two key battleground states that President Trump flipped four years indicate that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden holds sizeable leads over the president. The New York Times surveys conducted by Siena College show the former vice president topping Trump 48%-40% among likely voters in Michigan, and Biden leading the president 51%-41% among likely voters in Wisconsin.

Small Axe anthology on the BBC have been revealed.Mangrove, the first of five original films, will premiere on BBC One and iPlayer on November 15.

Legendary comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Martin discussed the historic snubbing of comedies at the Oscars. The two comedians got together for an hour-long virtual discussion about their careers as part of the New Yorker Festival Wednesday night, where the duo mentioned how Netflix has helped comedians gain a little recognition in the movie industry.

Steve McQueen helped raise the curtain on the 2020 BFI London Film Festival on Wednesday night, with his feature Mangrove — one of his five films in the BBC/Amazon Small Axe anthology — getting its European premiere in London and simultaneously across select cinemas around the U.K.

Steve Martin has commented on the absence of comedy films at the Academy Awards.The actor, who has starred in hit comedies such as Father of the Bride and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, was speaking at a virtual session at the New Yorker Festival on Wednesday night (7 October), when he said: “It’s a lifetime of dismissal of comedy.

Jill Goldsmith Co-Business EditorJerry Seinfeld gave a shout out to Netflix for helping shift perceptions of comedians — and their paydays — as he and Steve Martin trash talked the genre-snubbing Oscars.“I think for a long time, and actually until Netflix, comedians were just not as important, not as valuable, not considered major artists or real artists.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorIt’s been more than six years in the making, but Steve McQueen’s anthology drama Small Axe finally has a date for when it will land on British TV screens.The BBC has announced that it will premiere the five-part series on November 15 on BBC One and iPlayer.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticIn “Red, White and Blue,” the fifth and final film of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology (and the third to be shown at this year’s New York Film Festival, after the lilting reggae house-party movie “Lovers Rock” and the wrenching social-protest courtroom drama “Mangrove”), Leroy Logan (John Boyega), a British research scientist, figures that he’s had enough of the lonely work of staring at tissue specimens through a microscope, so he decides to become a member

Todd McCarthy Red, White and Blue, the third and final installment of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe quintet of films about racial issues specific to Great Britain being world premiered at the New York Film Festival, zeroes in on the ordeal of a young black Londoner set on helping to definitively break the color barrier at London’s Metropolitan Police Force in the early 1980s.

One of the great joys of the New York Film Festival has been watching Steve McQueen’s new film anthology “Small Axe.” Composed of five works set between the late-’60s and early-’80s, the two recently screened films — “Lovers Rock” and “Mangrove” — are intimate slices of life of a little-represented community, British Black folks from the West Indies, resiliently thriving amidst a racially hostile environment.

One of the great joys of the New York Film Festival has been watching Steve McQueen’s new film anthology “Small Axe.” Composed of five works set between the late-’60s and early-’80s, the two recently screened films — “Lovers Rock” and “Mangrove” — are intimate slices of life of a little-represented community, British Black folks from the West Indies, resiliently thriving amidst a racially hostile environment.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterSteve Barnes, a personal injury lawyer who built a Buffalo firm into a national franchise with partner Ross Cellino Jr. through an aggressive TV advertising strategy complete with an infectious jingle, died Friday in a plane crash in Western New York.Barnes was flying the small plane that crashed in Pembroke, N.Y., 30 miles northeast of Buffalo.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios sells Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe”; ZDF commissions natural history series “Africa From Above”; “Married at First Sight” gets live wedding; ITV orders game-show format “Game of Talents”; travel format “Heads and Tails” goes to Spain; Jellyfish promotes Natalie Llewellyn; German Film Office opens in New York; and Monte-Carlo TV Festival sets 2021 dates.BBC Studios has secured several global pre-sales for Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen‘

A West Indian proverb holds, “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe.” “Lovers Rock,” the first film made available of Steve McQueen’s Amazon miniseries “Small Axe,” first interpreted the saying as a metaphor for the joyous spirit in the Black British community. But his newest installment, “Mangrove” swings a different emphasis on the rebellious phrase.

Todd McCarthy If Lovers Rock provided a sensuous, feel-good vibe to the opening night of this year’s unusual New York Film Festival, Mangrove supplies a follow-up thwack to the head and punch to the gut.

Lovers Rock, one of the five films in Steve McQueen's Small Axe anthology drama series for the BBC/Amazon about London's West Indian Community, has been added to this year's BFI London Film Festival. The film —starring newcomer Amarah-Jae St Aubyn and BAFTA Rising Star winner Micheal Ward (Blue Story) —will be one of the few films given a physical-only screening at the BFI Southbank, which much of the festival moved online due to the ongoing pandemic.

“If you are the big tree, we are the small axe,” states a Jamaican proverb, inspiring the title of “Small Axe”, an upcoming anthology series from director Steve McQueen for Amazon Prime Video.

“If you are the big tree, we are the small axe,” this is the Jamaican proverb that has inspired filmmaker Steve McQueen‘s, “Small Axe,” a collection of five films inspired by real-life events about ordinary people showing courage, belief, and resilience to overcome injustice and achieve something transformative in their West Indian community.