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Cata Balzano The 10th anniversary edition of Miami’s Gems Film Festival will get underway in November, promising a four-day line-up of 26 films that feature diversity and highlight more than famous faces from the awards season circuit. The festival, a fall offshoot of the Miami Film Festival hosted by Miami Dade College, will run from Nov. 2-5 this year.

North West is starring in her first solo magazine cover!

Callum McLennan Cementing its reputation as a harbinger of emerging talent, Madrid-based Latido Films has acquired the international sales rights to “Tras el Verano,” the debut film from Yolanda Centeno picked out as one of Variety’s 10 Women Directors to Watch from Spain, compiled in 2021. Alfa Pictures is handling distribution in Spain.

K.J. Yossman Taron Egerton is set to front a new crime thriller from Black Bear Pictures and Fifth Season. Titled “She Rides Shotgun,” it is based on the blockbuster novel of the same name by acclaimed crime author Jordan Harper and directed by Nick Rowland (“Calm With Horses”).

Regarding movie runtimes, Alexander Payne apparently likes short and lean and “sharklike” in their efficiency. IndieWire reports that the director of “The Holdovers” had some choice words about inflated runtimes of recent film releases at the Middleburg Film Festival last weekend.

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke is relieved that the festival he founded in the ancient walled city of Pingyao in China’s Shanxi province is back on track after a tricky few years during the pandemic. 

Paul McCartney, Aurora, The Chemical Brothers and more will feature on ‘War Child Presents Secret 7”’ – a collection of seven songs by seven musicians on 700 records with each featuring unique artwork.Celeste, Hozier, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Specials will also feature on the new project, with all records set to be exhibited and free to view at NOW Gallery from March 2 to 17, 2024.The concept of the charity initiative, which initially ran from 2012-2021, takes seven tracks by seven musicians, pressing each one to seven inch vinyl 100 times, creating 700 records.The sleeves for each are then designed by 700 creatives, ranging from renowned artists to newcomers. All sleeves will then be available to purchase via auction after the exhibition. However, the designer’s identity is only revealed after the record is sold.Previous sleeve designers include the likes of Ai Weiwei, Sir Peter Blake, Yoko Ono, David Shrigley, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Martin Parr and more.Check out the ‘War Child Presents Secret 7”’ tracklist below.1. Aurora – ‘A Different Kind of Human’2. Celeste – ‘Stop This Flame’3. Hozier – ‘Swan Upon Leda’4. Siouxsie & The Banshees – ‘Lullaby’5. Paul McCartney – ‘Pipes of Peace’6. The Chemical Brothers feat. Beck – ‘Skipping Like A Stone’7. The Specials – ‘We Sell Hope’“We are delighted to announce the return of the iconic Secret 7” project, which will help raise funds to support War Child’s crucial work in conflict zones around the world,” Head of War Child Records, Rich Clarke, said in a press statement.“War Child operates in some of the most challenging, hard-to-reach places to help children and families who are most severely affected by war.

Angelique Jackson Tyler Perry has formalized a new creative partnership with Netflix to write, direct and produce feature films under a multi-year, first-look deal. The pact spans eight pictures over four years. Perry already has five films under his belt at the streamer: “A Fall From Grace,” “A Madea Homecoming,” the period drama “A Jazzman’s Blues” (his longtime passion project produced from his first screenplay, written 27 years prior), the upcoming World War II-set drama “Six Triple Eight” and the thriller “Mea Culpa.” Endeavor and TKO CEO Ari Emanuel teased the new pact at Bloomberg Media’s Screentime conference on Oct.

’s premise is an intriguing one. Opposite-sex couples get engaged without ever laying eyes on one another before finally meeting and returning to the “real world” to find out if they’re actually compatible as partners. For people whose dating experience has predominantly taken place on mobile apps, taking things away from the screen—and away from appearance-based swiping—holds obvious appeal.

EXCLUSIVE: The Black List has named the six projects and seven screenwriters invited to their 2023 Annual Lab. The program, now in its eleventh year, provides creative mentorship and career support to promising feature writers as they further develop their scripts during a weeklong workshop in Ojai, CA.

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor EnergaCamerimage, the cinematography-focused film festival that will take place in Torun, Poland, Nov. 11-18, has announced three more films for its Main Competition: “El Conde,” “Filip” and “Ferrari.” “El Conde,” helmed by Chilean director Pablo Larraín (“Jackie,” “Spencer”), is billed as a dark comedy/horror picture that imagines a parallel universe in which Chile’s late fascistic dictator Augusto Pinochet is a vampire hiding away in a ruined mansion.

Nigeria has submitted CJ Obasi’s Sundance title Mami Wata as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film in the 96th Academy Awards.

EXCLUSIVE: Kate del Castillo (La Reina Del Sur, Weeds) is set to lead the ViX comedy feature Es Por Tu Bien which just kicked off production in Mexico. The project is produced by 3Pas Studios.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor PBS’ “20 Days in Mariupol,” IFC’s “The Disappearance of Shere Hite” and MTV’s “The Eternal Memory” are among DOC NYC‘s 14th edition featuring 114 features and 129 short films. The shortlist for DOC NYC, the largest documentary festival in the U.S., was launched in 2012 and has become a key indicator and predictor for the Academy Awards’ best documentary feature category. Ten out of the last 11 winners for documentary feature were screened at the festival.

Most people know Alice Englert as the daughter of the great New Zealand auteur Jane Campion. And some may know her as an actress from films like “Them That Follow,” “Body Brokers,” and Campion‘s “The Power Of The Dog.” But Englert is a filmmaker, too, and her feature debut, “Bad Behavior,” is ready for its theatrical release in New Zealand next month.

Paris Fury has been mum-shamed for her baby son's cot after fans of the star noticed a 'dangerous feature' within the lavish item.

Katcy Stephan Wheaties is changing the game – literally. The General Mills cereal brand is taking its tagline, “the breakfast of champions,” to a new level by honoring Miles Morales and Peter Parker, the superheroes of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The collaboration with Sony Interactive Entertainment, Insomniac Games and Marvel marks the first time in the food brand’s history it has featured video game characters on its iconic boxes.

EXCLUSIVE: The Israeli music festival in which hundreds of young people were killed by Hamas, providing the spark for this week’s bloody conflict, is to be spotlighted in a documentary.

The tracklisting for Jung Kook‘s upcoming debut solo album Golden has just been revealed!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sarah Jessica Parker is set to executive produce “Front Row,” a gripping documentary feature following a group of talented Ukrainian ballet dancers. Directed by Miriam Guttmann, the award-winning filmmaker of “Seeds of Deceit,” the documentary is produced by Scenery (“Human Playground”), a joint venture with Banijay Benelux. Parker and Alison Benson are exec producing via Pretty Matches Productions, alongside The Ruderman Foundation.

Bella Ramsey‘s wish for voice notes on Threads has come true!

Ben Croll Acclaimed Romanian animator Anca Damian has lined up her next live-action feature. The filmmaker behind Annecy top prizewinner “Crulic: The Path to Beyond” and “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” will write and direct “First People on Earth,” a tragicomic family saga about a biracial woman re-experiencing her native Namibia after decades in Europe. Returning to her birth country for a family funeral, and bringing her non-verbal, pre-adolescent son in tow, the heroine falls in with a troupe of theatrical Bushmen – an Indigenous tribe, divorced from their historic lands, forced to re-enact ancestral myths for tourist dollars.

Madonna‘s upcoming ‘Celebration Tour’ is set to feature “over 40 songs”, and will not include an onstage band.The Queen Of Pop is due to begin the UK and European leg of her 40th-anniversary tour at The O2 in London this Saturday (October 14). She will play six concerts at the arena in total.Ahead of the first show, Madonna’s musical director Stuart Price spoke to BBC News about what fans can expect.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After making four documentary features about border conflicts, ethnicity, prostitution and human rights, Thai director Nontawat Numbenchapol picks up many of the same themes in his first fiction feature “Doi Boi.” The film, which premieres this week in the Jiseok competition section of the Busan International Film Festival, is the story of three young men living on the margins of society in Thailand and their common quest for justice. The characters are an illegal immigrant from Myanmar working, despite his own heterosexuality, as a gay prostitute in Chiang Main, a customer and an on-the-run political activist he is trying to help. The narrative takes in a large number of the social and political problems that have beset seemingly idyllic Thailand in recent years – undocumented workers, illegal immigrants fleeing the civil war in Myanmar, an oppressive political power structure, enforced ‘disappearance’ of those who the government’s political opponents and critics, police brutality – and traffic jams. “I was surprised to find so many immigrant men [from Myanmar’s Shan region] as sex workers in Chiang Mai.

Taylor Swift and football are brought together once again in a new ad bowing this weekend. Travis Kelce is not seen.

Naman Ramachandran Celebrated Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua and emerging Philippines talent Rafael Manuel have teamed on “Filipinana,” a selection at the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Project Market this year. The film will follow 17-year-old girl Isabel, who spends her whole day teeing-up balls for golfers at a country club.

Stephen Gerard Kelly and Garry Keane’s documentary In The Shadow of Beirut has been submitted as Ireland‘s entry for the 2024 Oscar International Feature Film race.

EXCLUSIVE: J. Mills Goodloe has been hired to adapt Michael Thompson’s novel How To Be Remembered into a feature film. MRC will finance and Elizabeth Cantillon will produce.

*NSYNC, New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys has been greenlit by Paramount+.According to Variety, the as-yet untitled documentary will trace the legacy of boy bands during the height of their fame in the ‘90s and early-2000s, and will feature interviews with boy band members as well as archival music footage.The project will be directed by Tamra Davis, whose credits include the music videos for New Kids on the Block’s ‘Call It What You Want’ and Hanson’s ‘MMMBop’, among others. The documentary is co-produced by Johnny Wright, who previously served as the tour manager for both New Kids on the Block and *NSYNC member, Justin Timberlake.“The Nineties boy band era was an extraordinary chapter in music where harmonies and beats came together,” Wright said of the documentary, per Rolling Stone.

The Darkness are set to become the subject of a feature-length documentary, Welcome To the Darkness. The film will arrive in cinemas for one night only on November 9 and will then be available on Blu-Ray and digital download from December 4.Per a press release, the new documentary follows the band as they try to resurrect their career and get back to the fame they had attained in the early 2000s, having split up in 2006 and reformed in 2011.Directed by Simon Emmett, Welcome To The Darkness offers unprecedented access to the band’s lives at this period, as well as unseen archive footage, and intimate interviews filmed over six years,The press release describes the documentary as “a unique account of a band of brothers who are still haunted by the demons that ripped them apart.

me — oh, and *NSYNC!*NSYNC fans are a little put off by Justin Timberlake seemingly giving himself his own feature on the boy band’s first new song in over 21 years, “Better Place.” Performers on the track, which was released Friday and is included on the upcoming “Trolls Band Together” movie soundtrack, are listed as “*NSYNC and Timberlake” on some platforms — even though *NSYNC consists of Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, and Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick.“NSYNC ft Justin Timberlake!?? I think the f–k not,” one fan wrote Friday on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. “I’ve loved Nsync since childhood, and Justin was always my guy, but seeing the song say “N*Sync & Justin Timberlake” is like wtf?” another added.

EXCLUSIVE: After locking a docuseries based on Oceangate and the submersible tragedy, MindRiot Entertainment has now set a fiction project, also based on the tragedy, with E. Brian Dobbins (The Blackening, Black-ish) signed on to co-produce. 

Jordan has submitted Amjad Al-Rasheed’s female inheritance rights drama Inshallah A Boy for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Kenya has selected Daudi Anguka’s drama Mvera to represent it for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Donald Trump once again is skipping the second Republican presidential debate, but his presence was apparent at the venue, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a (virtual) trip to the Upside Down to pitch his company’s latest effort to make virtual and augmented reality a thing. The company on Wednesday announced the Meta Quest 3 mixed-reality headset, set to ship Oct.