This is not the documentary renaissance we hoped for. Despite its 2023 Oscar win for “Navalny,” CNN pulled back on non-fiction production. Non-fiction programming at Showtime Networks, which produced Oscar-nominated “Attica” in 2022, is no more.
“The New York Times Presents” series, which produced titles like “The Killing of Breonna Taylor” and “Framing Britney Spears,” is being phased out in favor of integrating non-fiction video into the media brand. Hot Docs is on the ropes; Participant, which produced documentaries like “An Inconvenient Truth,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” and “American Factory,” closed last month.
And then there’s Netflix, which is still very much in the documentary game under Adam Del Deo, Netflix VP of original documentary films and limited series — and can afford to be with nearly 270 million global subscribers. However, it’s a specific sort of gameplay: For tight, high-quality nonfiction work that’s heartwarming, or thrilling, or stars a celebrity,...
“The New York Times Presents” series, which produced titles like “The Killing of Breonna Taylor” and “Framing Britney Spears,” is being phased out in favor of integrating non-fiction video into the media brand. Hot Docs is on the ropes; Participant, which produced documentaries like “An Inconvenient Truth,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” and “American Factory,” closed last month.
And then there’s Netflix, which is still very much in the documentary game under Adam Del Deo, Netflix VP of original documentary films and limited series — and can afford to be with nearly 270 million global subscribers. However, it’s a specific sort of gameplay: For tight, high-quality nonfiction work that’s heartwarming, or thrilling, or stars a celebrity,...
- 5/6/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Roku and Demi Lovato are teaming up on “A Very Demi Holiday Special,” a new holiday celebration starring the singer that will stream Dec. 8 exclusively on The Roku Channel.
The special will feature Lovato performing classic holiday songs like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and “Jingle Bell Rock” — plus a surprise duet as well as a few of Lovato’s own original hits. She will also be joined throughout by a group of celebrity guests, who will be revealed at a later date.
“The holidays are such a special time of year, and I can’t wait to put my special twist on the celebrations,” Lovato said in a statement.
“A Very Demi Holiday Special” is produced by Michael Ratner’s Obb Pictures. Lovato, Michael and Scott Ratner, Kfir Goldberg, Simone Spira and Todd Yasui serve as executive producers.
“Together with Demi and the Obb Pictures team,...
The special will feature Lovato performing classic holiday songs like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and “Jingle Bell Rock” — plus a surprise duet as well as a few of Lovato’s own original hits. She will also be joined throughout by a group of celebrity guests, who will be revealed at a later date.
“The holidays are such a special time of year, and I can’t wait to put my special twist on the celebrations,” Lovato said in a statement.
“A Very Demi Holiday Special” is produced by Michael Ratner’s Obb Pictures. Lovato, Michael and Scott Ratner, Kfir Goldberg, Simone Spira and Todd Yasui serve as executive producers.
“Together with Demi and the Obb Pictures team,...
- 10/3/2023
- by Lucas Manfredi
- The Wrap
Streamer takes worldwide rights in reported $7m deal.
Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to Azazel Jacobs’ His Three Daughters in its fourth acquisition of a 2023 TIFF film.
‘His Three Daughters’: Toronto Review
The streamer reportedly paid in the $7m region following negotiations with CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers.
Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, and Carrie Coon star in the story of sisters who gather at the family homestead for the last days of their father’s life.
The film garnered strong reviews out of Toronto and would appear to be be a likely awards season play. At...
Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to Azazel Jacobs’ His Three Daughters in its fourth acquisition of a 2023 TIFF film.
‘His Three Daughters’: Toronto Review
The streamer reportedly paid in the $7m region following negotiations with CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers.
Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, and Carrie Coon star in the story of sisters who gather at the family homestead for the last days of their father’s life.
The film garnered strong reviews out of Toronto and would appear to be be a likely awards season play. At...
- 10/2/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Netflix has acquired Azazel Jacobs’ sisterhood drama His Three Daughters, which stars Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne and bowed at the Toronto Film Festival.
The trio play estranged sisters forced to reunite when their father becomes seriously ill. The family drama sees the sisters converge as their father’s health steadily declines.
The deal, with a price tag north of $6 million, according to sources, represents Netflix’s third acquisition out of Toronto after the streaming giant picked up Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, for around $11 million after a world premiere at the festival. Netflix also nabbed the worldwide rights to Lucy Walker’s documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa after it was presented as a work-in-progress screening at TIFF.
After Toronto Netflix also paid around $20 million for the Richard Linklater-directed Hit Man, which bowed in Venice and stars Glen Powell and Adria Arjona.
The trio play estranged sisters forced to reunite when their father becomes seriously ill. The family drama sees the sisters converge as their father’s health steadily declines.
The deal, with a price tag north of $6 million, according to sources, represents Netflix’s third acquisition out of Toronto after the streaming giant picked up Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, for around $11 million after a world premiere at the festival. Netflix also nabbed the worldwide rights to Lucy Walker’s documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa after it was presented as a work-in-progress screening at TIFF.
After Toronto Netflix also paid around $20 million for the Richard Linklater-directed Hit Man, which bowed in Venice and stars Glen Powell and Adria Arjona.
- 10/2/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: In its fourth deal for films that played last month’s Toronto Film Festival, Netflix has acquired His Three Daughters for just under $7 million, sources said. Scripted, directed and edited by Azazel Jacobs, the film stars Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen and Carrie Coon.
CAA Media Finance brokered the deal for worldwide rights.
This marks the fourth major deal for a Toronto title by Netflix, which paid around $20 million for the Richard Linklater-directed Hit Man with Glen Powell and Adria Arjona and north of $10 million for the Anna Kendrick-directed Woman of the Hour, a drama inspired by the true story of a contestant on TV’s The Dating Game who won a date with a serial killer who turned creepier and creepier as the date approached. It also picked up Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, a documentary about the first Nepali woman to completely summit and survive Mount Everest.
CAA Media Finance brokered the deal for worldwide rights.
This marks the fourth major deal for a Toronto title by Netflix, which paid around $20 million for the Richard Linklater-directed Hit Man with Glen Powell and Adria Arjona and north of $10 million for the Anna Kendrick-directed Woman of the Hour, a drama inspired by the true story of a contestant on TV’s The Dating Game who won a date with a serial killer who turned creepier and creepier as the date approached. It also picked up Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, a documentary about the first Nepali woman to completely summit and survive Mount Everest.
- 10/2/2023
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
When it comes to the buzzier titles at any film festivals, traditional narrative cinema often hogs the spotlight. But the Toronto International Film Festival, held in Toronto, Canada in September 2023, has also provided an impressive array of non-fiction films, movies that take a look at the real-life workings of humanity. From sports documentaries and intimate explorations of war, to films about legendary musicians and meditative dives into family history, this year's crop of TIFF documentaries has a little something for everyone.
The best documentaries offer audiences a new perspective on the world around them, shedding light on important issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, or even just paying homage to the careers of beloved stars. Without the dramatic flourishes of narrative films, which embellish even stories based on real life, documentaries are able to prevent a much more authentic vision of the world -- albeit subject to the specific viewpoint of their filmmakers.
The best documentaries offer audiences a new perspective on the world around them, shedding light on important issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, or even just paying homage to the careers of beloved stars. Without the dramatic flourishes of narrative films, which embellish even stories based on real life, documentaries are able to prevent a much more authentic vision of the world -- albeit subject to the specific viewpoint of their filmmakers.
- 9/24/2023
- by Audrey Fox
- Slash Film
Film will release globally later this year.
Netflix has made another fall festival acquisition, swooping with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground on worldwide rights to Matthew Heineman’s Telluride documentary American Symphony.
The film follows a year in the life of musician and Late Show bandleader Jon Batiste as he navigates the stresses and struggles of his meteoric rise winnings six Grammys and preparing the American Symphony for Carnegie Hall, while his wife and bestelling author Suleika Jaouad is diagnosed with the return of Leukemia.
Heineman, Lauren Domino, and Joedan Okun produced American Symphony, and executive producers are Alice Webb,...
Netflix has made another fall festival acquisition, swooping with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground on worldwide rights to Matthew Heineman’s Telluride documentary American Symphony.
The film follows a year in the life of musician and Late Show bandleader Jon Batiste as he navigates the stresses and struggles of his meteoric rise winnings six Grammys and preparing the American Symphony for Carnegie Hall, while his wife and bestelling author Suleika Jaouad is diagnosed with the return of Leukemia.
Heineman, Lauren Domino, and Joedan Okun produced American Symphony, and executive producers are Alice Webb,...
- 9/19/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Netflix spent big at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, picking up Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut “Woman of the Hour” for $11 million and Richard Linklater’s well-reviewed “Hit Man” for $20 million. But other than that and despite an unusually numerous 50 titles for sale, the TIFF market at large was muted.
The lack of activity was in sync with the festival season for 2023 so far, as Sundance and Cannes went off with a smattering of deals compared to years past.
“In this marketplace, the studios and streamers, aside from Netflix, would rather spend big bucks on one or two movies that they are passionate about versus spending a boatload of money to fill a slate or clog up the pipeline with regular content,” a high-level distribution executive told TheWrap who declined to be named.
According to multiple executives who spoke to TheWrap, shifting priorities for the streamers, ongoing challenges...
The lack of activity was in sync with the festival season for 2023 so far, as Sundance and Cannes went off with a smattering of deals compared to years past.
“In this marketplace, the studios and streamers, aside from Netflix, would rather spend big bucks on one or two movies that they are passionate about versus spending a boatload of money to fill a slate or clog up the pipeline with regular content,” a high-level distribution executive told TheWrap who declined to be named.
According to multiple executives who spoke to TheWrap, shifting priorities for the streamers, ongoing challenges...
- 9/19/2023
- by Scott Mendelson
- The Wrap
’Mr. Dressup: The Magic Of Make Believe’ wins doc award, ’Dicks: The Musical’ wins Midnight Madness.
The satire American Fiction starring Jeffrey Wright has won the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) 2023 People’s Choice Award, boosting the crowd-pleaser’s Oscar credentials heading into awards season.
‘American Fiction’: Toronto Review
Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut for Amazon/MGM stars Wright as a frustrated Black author whose deliberately dumbed-down novel about cliched Black characters becomes a hit. There are multiple screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox today (September 17) from 2:30pm-9:30pm Et.
American Fiction follows last year’s recipient...
The satire American Fiction starring Jeffrey Wright has won the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) 2023 People’s Choice Award, boosting the crowd-pleaser’s Oscar credentials heading into awards season.
‘American Fiction’: Toronto Review
Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut for Amazon/MGM stars Wright as a frustrated Black author whose deliberately dumbed-down novel about cliched Black characters becomes a hit. There are multiple screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox today (September 17) from 2:30pm-9:30pm Et.
American Fiction follows last year’s recipient...
- 9/17/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
’Mr. Dressup: The Magic Of Make Believe’ wins doc award, ’Dicks: The Musical’ wins Midnight Madness.
The satire American Fiction starring Jeffrey Wright has won the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) 2023 People’s Choice Award, boosting the crowd-pleaser’s Oscar credentials heading into awards season.
‘American Fiction’: Toronto Review
Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut from Orion and MRC stars Wright as a frustrated Black author whose deliberately dumbed-down novel about cliched Black characters becomes a hit. There are multiple screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox today (September 17) from 2:30pm-9:30pm Et.
MGM distributes American Fiction in the...
The satire American Fiction starring Jeffrey Wright has won the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) 2023 People’s Choice Award, boosting the crowd-pleaser’s Oscar credentials heading into awards season.
‘American Fiction’: Toronto Review
Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut from Orion and MRC stars Wright as a frustrated Black author whose deliberately dumbed-down novel about cliched Black characters becomes a hit. There are multiple screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox today (September 17) from 2:30pm-9:30pm Et.
MGM distributes American Fiction in the...
- 9/17/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
’Mr. Dressup: The Magic Of Make Believe’ wins doc award, ’Dicks: The Musical’ wins Midnight Madness.
The satire American Fiction starring Jeffrey Wright has won the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) 2023 People’s Choice Award, boosting the crowd-pleaser’s Oscar credentials heading into awards season.
‘American Fiction’: Toronto Review
Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut from Orion and MRC stars Wright as a frustrated Black author whose deliberately dumbed-down novel about cliched Black characters becomes a hit. There are multiple screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox today (September 17) from 2:30pm-9:30pm Et.
MGM distributes American Fiction in the...
The satire American Fiction starring Jeffrey Wright has won the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) 2023 People’s Choice Award, boosting the crowd-pleaser’s Oscar credentials heading into awards season.
‘American Fiction’: Toronto Review
Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut from Orion and MRC stars Wright as a frustrated Black author whose deliberately dumbed-down novel about cliched Black characters becomes a hit. There are multiple screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox today (September 17) from 2:30pm-9:30pm Et.
MGM distributes American Fiction in the...
- 9/17/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
“American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson’s blistering satire of race and media, captured the Toronto International Film Festival’s people’s choice award, bolstering its Oscars chances.
TIFF’s people’s choice award is considered to be among the best predictors of eventual awards success, though the 2023 festival hosted a weaker lineup than most years due to the writers and actors strikes that saw some prominent contenders skip a Canadian premiere. In the past, winners of the prize such as “Green Book,” “12 Years a Slave” and “Nomadland” went on to be named best picture at the Academy Awards. Other recipients, including “Belfast,” “La La Land,” “Jojo Rabbit,” and 2022’s winner, “The Fabelmans,” were all best picture nominees.
The people’s choice category was created in 1978. Seven recipients won best picture at the Oscars, with five of those victories coming in the past two decades.
Alexander Payne’s boarding school dramedy...
TIFF’s people’s choice award is considered to be among the best predictors of eventual awards success, though the 2023 festival hosted a weaker lineup than most years due to the writers and actors strikes that saw some prominent contenders skip a Canadian premiere. In the past, winners of the prize such as “Green Book,” “12 Years a Slave” and “Nomadland” went on to be named best picture at the Academy Awards. Other recipients, including “Belfast,” “La La Land,” “Jojo Rabbit,” and 2022’s winner, “The Fabelmans,” were all best picture nominees.
The people’s choice category was created in 1978. Seven recipients won best picture at the Oscars, with five of those victories coming in the past two decades.
Alexander Payne’s boarding school dramedy...
- 9/17/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction picked up the top People’s Choice honor Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival, which wrapped up a 48th edition with little Hollywood star wattage amid the uncertainty of dual Hollywood strikes.
Jefferson’s feature directorial debut, an adaptation for Orion of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure, had its world premiere in Toronto at the Princess Alexandra Theatre on Sept. 8. MRC is the film’s studio and financier.
The American drama about U.S. racial dynamics portrays a Black academic, played by Jeffrey Wright, who grows frustrated that the only “Black books” that seem to find a wide (and white) audience are those that tread on stereotypes.
“My gratitude towards everyone who watched American Fiction [and] discussed it afterwards among friends and colleagues is endless. The film is now in your hands, and I’m so grateful that it was embraced in this way,” Jefferson said in a statement Sunday morning.
Jefferson’s feature directorial debut, an adaptation for Orion of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure, had its world premiere in Toronto at the Princess Alexandra Theatre on Sept. 8. MRC is the film’s studio and financier.
The American drama about U.S. racial dynamics portrays a Black academic, played by Jeffrey Wright, who grows frustrated that the only “Black books” that seem to find a wide (and white) audience are those that tread on stereotypes.
“My gratitude towards everyone who watched American Fiction [and] discussed it afterwards among friends and colleagues is endless. The film is now in your hands, and I’m so grateful that it was embraced in this way,” Jefferson said in a statement Sunday morning.
- 9/17/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“American Fiction” has won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards brunch on Sunday.
The Orion/MGM film by first-time director Cord Jefferson is a barbed satire that stars Jeffrey Wright as a writer who, to his dismay, achieves enormous success after as a joke writing a book filled with what he feels are the worst and most pandering cliches of Black representation. In its review, TheWrap called the film “an outlandishly assured directorial debut, a beautifully modulated film that takes a great actor, Jeffrey Wright, and gives him a spectacular showcase.”
While the film did not come into the festival as one of its highest profile selections, it was an immediate sensation after its Friday night premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, drawing some of TIFF’s most positive reviews. It currently stands at 86% positive on Rotten Tomatoes...
The Orion/MGM film by first-time director Cord Jefferson is a barbed satire that stars Jeffrey Wright as a writer who, to his dismay, achieves enormous success after as a joke writing a book filled with what he feels are the worst and most pandering cliches of Black representation. In its review, TheWrap called the film “an outlandishly assured directorial debut, a beautifully modulated film that takes a great actor, Jeffrey Wright, and gives him a spectacular showcase.”
While the film did not come into the festival as one of its highest profile selections, it was an immediate sensation after its Friday night premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, drawing some of TIFF’s most positive reviews. It currently stands at 86% positive on Rotten Tomatoes...
- 9/17/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The People’s Choice Award from the just-wrapped 2023 Toronto Film Festival has gone to Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction. First Runner-Up is Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. Second Runner-Up is Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. The Documentary Award goes to Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe, and the Midnight Madness winner is Dicks: The Musical.
Orion and MRC’s American Fiction stars Jeffrey Wright and comes from writer-director Jefferson. It is a scathing satire on the publishing industry and its treatment of serious works by Black writers, one whose name is Thelonious “Monk” Ellison. He travels back to his hometown of Boston to attend a book festival, but the turnout is low in favor of another book seminar with author Sintara Golden’s (Issa Rae) bestseller We Lives in Da Ghetto. It is scheduled to be released in theaters in November.
Voted by audience members since 1978 and...
Orion and MRC’s American Fiction stars Jeffrey Wright and comes from writer-director Jefferson. It is a scathing satire on the publishing industry and its treatment of serious works by Black writers, one whose name is Thelonious “Monk” Ellison. He travels back to his hometown of Boston to attend a book festival, but the turnout is low in favor of another book seminar with author Sintara Golden’s (Issa Rae) bestseller We Lives in Da Ghetto. It is scheduled to be released in theaters in November.
Voted by audience members since 1978 and...
- 9/17/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix buys Lucy Walker’s TIFF doc ‘Mountain Queen’ as heat builds on handful of acquisition titles
Wicked Little Letters, Hit Man, Knox Goes Away also generating interest.
Netflix has picked up worldwide rights to Lucy Walker’s TIFF documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits Of Lhakpa Sherpa in its second buy of the festival.
The streamer plans a 2024 launch for the story of the first Nepali woman to scale Mount Everest. Sk Global Entertainment, Obb Pictures, Avocados and Coconuts produced and CAA Media Finance represented the filmmakers in the deal.
On Monday night Netflix snapped up US and select territories on Woman Of The Hour in a deal understood to be valued at $10m.
At time of...
Netflix has picked up worldwide rights to Lucy Walker’s TIFF documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits Of Lhakpa Sherpa in its second buy of the festival.
The streamer plans a 2024 launch for the story of the first Nepali woman to scale Mount Everest. Sk Global Entertainment, Obb Pictures, Avocados and Coconuts produced and CAA Media Finance represented the filmmakers in the deal.
On Monday night Netflix snapped up US and select territories on Woman Of The Hour in a deal understood to be valued at $10m.
At time of...
- 9/12/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Netflix has nabbed the worldwide rights to Lucy Walker’s documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa after a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
“It’s actually a fairy tale. You work for decades, and sometimes you have decades you’re doing everything wrong or nearly right, and then you have moments where you say I’m so glad I kept going,” Walker said of premiering the doc at TIFF during a Visionaries session sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter.
“Netflix is particularly good as it’s so global,” Walked added. A 2024 streaming release is planned for the documentary about Lhakpa Sherpa, the first Nepali woman to completely summit and survive Mount Everest. She climbed Mount Everest while bringing up two teenage daughters and recovering from an abusive marriage.
The film was shown as a work-in-progress at Toronto a year ago, before Walker returned for the world premiere.
“It’s actually a fairy tale. You work for decades, and sometimes you have decades you’re doing everything wrong or nearly right, and then you have moments where you say I’m so glad I kept going,” Walker said of premiering the doc at TIFF during a Visionaries session sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter.
“Netflix is particularly good as it’s so global,” Walked added. A 2024 streaming release is planned for the documentary about Lhakpa Sherpa, the first Nepali woman to completely summit and survive Mount Everest. She climbed Mount Everest while bringing up two teenage daughters and recovering from an abusive marriage.
The film was shown as a work-in-progress at Toronto a year ago, before Walker returned for the world premiere.
- 9/12/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Netflix has picked up worldwide rights to the documentary “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa” out of the Toronto International Film Festival, TheWrap has learned. The sale comes on the heels of another high-profile pickup from Netflix, Anna Kendrick’s serial killer directorial debut “Woman of the Hour.”
The streamer will release the film in 2024.
Directed by Lucy Walker (“Of Night & Light”), the film tells the story of Lhakpa Sherpa, the first Nepali woman to summit and descend Mount Everest who is now a single mom working at a Connecticut Whole Foods.
“Lhakpa grew up in Nepal, illiterate and rejected by her family, and emigrated to the US without speaking English,” the official synopsis from TIFF reads. “When we meet her, she’s working as a dishwasher at Whole Foods in Connecticut, raising her teenage daughters, Sunny and Shiny, in a small apartment. She’s a single mom and spousal-abuse survivor.
The streamer will release the film in 2024.
Directed by Lucy Walker (“Of Night & Light”), the film tells the story of Lhakpa Sherpa, the first Nepali woman to summit and descend Mount Everest who is now a single mom working at a Connecticut Whole Foods.
“Lhakpa grew up in Nepal, illiterate and rejected by her family, and emigrated to the US without speaking English,” the official synopsis from TIFF reads. “When we meet her, she’s working as a dishwasher at Whole Foods in Connecticut, raising her teenage daughters, Sunny and Shiny, in a small apartment. She’s a single mom and spousal-abuse survivor.
- 9/12/2023
- by Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to the documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa out of the Toronto Film Festival, Deadline can exclusively reveal.
The deal is the second in quick succession for the streamer, which less than 12 hours ago snapped up Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of The Hour, for $11 million. No details as to the financial terms were disclosed.
Pic’s subject, Lhakpa Sherpa, was the first Nepali woman to completely summit and survive Mount Everest. For anyone else, that might be the greatest challenge and achievement of their life. But for the unforgettable Lhakpa — now a single mother of three, based in Connecticut — it was just the start.
Hailing from Sk Global Entertainment, Obb Pictures, and Avocados and Coconuts, the doc was directed by Lucy Walker, the 2x Oscar nominee previously at TIFF with another tale of a female Everest climber in 2006’s Cinema Eye Honors Award-nominated Blindsight.
The deal is the second in quick succession for the streamer, which less than 12 hours ago snapped up Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of The Hour, for $11 million. No details as to the financial terms were disclosed.
Pic’s subject, Lhakpa Sherpa, was the first Nepali woman to completely summit and survive Mount Everest. For anyone else, that might be the greatest challenge and achievement of their life. But for the unforgettable Lhakpa — now a single mother of three, based in Connecticut — it was just the start.
Hailing from Sk Global Entertainment, Obb Pictures, and Avocados and Coconuts, the doc was directed by Lucy Walker, the 2x Oscar nominee previously at TIFF with another tale of a female Everest climber in 2006’s Cinema Eye Honors Award-nominated Blindsight.
- 9/12/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
A documentary about women who accused Louis C.K. of sexual harassment and the consequences those accusations had on their careers is one of 22 documentaries from 12 countries heading to the 2023 Toronto Intl. Film Festival.
The docu titled “Sorry/Not Sorry,” previously intended for Showtime, is one of several films in TIFF’s nonfiction program that focus on women who have been unjustly ignored for their achievements. TIFF Docs opening night film, “Copa 71,” tells the story of the lost legacy of a 1971 international women’s soccer tournament that had record setting crowds in Mexico City but was largely erased from sports history. The film’s producers include Venus and Serena Williams as well as soccer super star Alex Morgan. Lucy Walker, a two-time Oscar nominee, is bringing “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” about a single mother working as a dishwasher at a Connecticut Whole Foods, who has another life as a record-breaking mountain climber.
The docu titled “Sorry/Not Sorry,” previously intended for Showtime, is one of several films in TIFF’s nonfiction program that focus on women who have been unjustly ignored for their achievements. TIFF Docs opening night film, “Copa 71,” tells the story of the lost legacy of a 1971 international women’s soccer tournament that had record setting crowds in Mexico City but was largely erased from sports history. The film’s producers include Venus and Serena Williams as well as soccer super star Alex Morgan. Lucy Walker, a two-time Oscar nominee, is bringing “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” about a single mother working as a dishwasher at a Connecticut Whole Foods, who has another life as a record-breaking mountain climber.
- 7/26/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
This year, non-fiction titles will be front and center at the Toronto International Film Festival, as many writers and actors will not be on hand due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Opening night at the 2023 festival brings a documentary world premiere, Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine’s “Copa 71” (seller: Dogwoof), about an historic international women’s soccer tournament lost to sports history. The filmmakers bring us back to the record-setting crowds assembled in Mexico City in 1971. U.S. soccer star Alice Morgan and athletes Venus and Serena Williams are among the film’s executive producers.
That’s the sort of unexpected story that veteran TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers sought for this year’s documentary program of 22 titles from 12 countries. While it’s always painful to whittle down the selection from 800 feature submissions (the post-pandemic production boom continues), Powers looked at giving a boost to sales titles...
Opening night at the 2023 festival brings a documentary world premiere, Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine’s “Copa 71” (seller: Dogwoof), about an historic international women’s soccer tournament lost to sports history. The filmmakers bring us back to the record-setting crowds assembled in Mexico City in 1971. U.S. soccer star Alice Morgan and athletes Venus and Serena Williams are among the film’s executive producers.
That’s the sort of unexpected story that veteran TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers sought for this year’s documentary program of 22 titles from 12 countries. While it’s always painful to whittle down the selection from 800 feature submissions (the post-pandemic production boom continues), Powers looked at giving a boost to sales titles...
- 7/26/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
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