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Zoë Chao’s acting career has gathered steady momentum over the past three years thanks in part to her close collaboration with filmmaker Mia Lidofsky on the Facebook Watch series Strangers. After landing a role in Richard Linklater’s underrated dramedy Where’d You Go Bernadette, Chao has her biggest film role to date in Downhill, a remake [...]

The post Zoë Chao Relished Thrilling ‘Downhill’ Experience With Will Ferrell And Julia Louis-Dreyfus appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

After moving to New York City at 18 years old, Meredith Hagner has been busy working her way from one-time soap actress on As the World Turns -- which, after all, is where Julianne Moore got started -- to one of 2017’s breakouts. As star of the TBS dark comedy series, Search Party, and Facebook’s first scripted series, Strangers, and a recurring role on Younger’s fourth (and highest-rated) season, one could argue the actress is something of a millennial TV “It Girl.”

In fact, Strangers, which is now streaming in full on Facebook’s original video content platform, Watch, is very much a show about what’s happening now. Loosely inspired by creator Mia Lidofsky’s experiences of renting out her NYC apartment on Airbnb, the dramedy tells the emotional, sexual and professional adventures of two friends, Isobel (Zoe Chao) and Cam (Hagner), whose lives are impacted by the rotation of eccentric guests staying in their...

Mia Lidofsky has an impressive roster of mentors for having just helmed her first episodic series: After interning for Nicole Holofcener and John Cameron Mitchell early in her career, Lidofsky assisted Jesse Peretz on shows such as “New Girl,” “Nurse Jackie,” and two seasons of “Girls.” “Working for [Peretz] was my film school,” Lidofsky said of her de facto mentor, who is an executive producer on her “Strangers.” The seven-episode series follows a young woman living in Los Angeles who rents out her extra room on Airbnb. She finds herself in need of extra cash after boyfriend moves out when she cheats on him with a woman. As Isobel (Zoe Chou) struggles to make sense of her shifting sexuality, an eccentric cast of characters rotate through her house, bringing both inconveniences and unexpected wisdom.

“Airbnb became the perfect vehicle me to explore and to tell stories of people in their most vulnerable,...

Mia Lidofsky is the creator and executive producer of Strangers, a strikingly profound seven-episode series now in its first season on an intriguing new platform, Facebook Watch. Lidofsky is a former assistant to her series executive producer Jesse Peretz (director of The Chateau and My Idiot Brother and a producer on Girls), and an associate producer of People Places Things and Tig. In 2015, Lidofsky was selected for the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women, where she created the series pilot. The director and co-director of several episodes of the first season (along with partner/filmmaker Celia Rowlson-Hall, a 25 New […]...

The 2017 Outfest Los Angeles Lgbt Film Festival will kick off July 6 with Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country, a drama about a Yorkshire sheep farmer and his relationship with a Romanian immigrant, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

The fest, celebrating its 35th anniversary, will close July 16 with IFC’s Freak Show, Trudie Styler’s directorial debut starring Abigail Breslin, AnnaSophia Robb, Laverne Cox and Bette Midler.

Additional gala screenings include the U.S. centerpiece Strangers, written and directed by Mia Lidofsky; the international centerpiece Close Knit,...

Bryan Fuller will receive Achievement Award.

The 2017 Outfest Los Angeles Lgbt Film Festival presented by HBO will be held from July 6-16.

Outfest has announced Bryan Fuller as its 2017 Achievement Award recipient and revealed the opening and closing night galas.

Francis Lee’s feature debut God’s Own Country starring Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu, will open the festival, while Trudie Styler’s comedic Freak Show, starring Bette Midler, Alex Lawther, AnnaSophia Robb, Abigail Breslin, Ian Nelson, Larry Pine and a cameo from Laverne Cox, will close the festival.

The Achievement Award will be presented to Fuller during a ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre on July 6 and is Outfest’s highest honour. It is presented to those who have made a significant contribution to Lgbt film and media.

Fuller is behind such shows as Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, Hannibal and most recently American Gods.

Gala screenings include the West Coast premiere of the TV...

Film historian B. Ruby Rich credits the 1992 Sundance Film Festival as the cradle of New Queer Cinema, and a quick survey of this year’s festival lineup confirms that Lgbt films stand an excellent chance of attracting audiences. Lesbian filmmaker Dee Rees’ “Mudbound” is one of the most talked about films of the year, trans director Yance Ford’s deeply personal “Strong Island” has been years in the making, and we may have the British “Brokeback Mountain” (but better) with Francis Lee’s “God’s Own Country.”

Perusing the slate of queer films, filmmakers, and performers at Sundance this year, 2017 is set to be the best year queer cinema has seen in a long time. Here’s 10 reasons why:

Read More: 10 Surprises and Hidden Gems from the 2017 Sundance Lineup

Dee Rees is About to Become the Most Successful Black Lesbian Director in Hollywood

Queer audiences have known Dee Rees since...

The Sundance Film Festival continues to embrace the diversity of great content being made today, with a full roster of special events programming that features established festival favorites like Jill Soloway, Rashida Jones and Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Read More: Sundance 2017 Announces New Frontier Lineup, Including 22 Vr Experiences and 11 New Installations

Making its world premiere at the fest is “I Love Dick,” Soloway’s Amazon comedy featuring Kevin Bacon as the titular Dick, a “charismatic artist” who upends the marriage of Kathryn Hanh and Griffith Dunne. In addition, the Netflix documentary “Hot Girls Wanted” gets a sequel directed by Rashida Jones; “Turned On” explores “the intersection of sex and technology,” per the official release.

Broadcast networks find themselves surprisingly well-represented in the line-up, with the ABC comedy “Downward Dog” (featuring Allison Tolman as a young woman with a special relationship with her dog) as well as the Fox limited series “Shots Fired,...

On Sunday, Oct. 2, a group of dancers, choreographers, and enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporters got together for a truly amazing flash mob in Union Square Park in New York City. Partners Mia Lidofsky and Celia Rowlson-Hall organized and directed the event in just one week, and the end result is sure to put a huge smile on your face. The pair dubbed their project the "Pantsuit Power Dance" - paying homage to the presidential nominee's penchant for colorful two-piece suits - and their group of over 200 dancers the "Pantsuit Posse." The giant brigade included adults and children of all ages, races, and backgrounds - including a few pregnant women. Of the choreography, which is set to Justin Timberlake's feel-good hit "Can't Stop the Feeling," Mia said, "Every movement had a political reason behind it and was founded in Hillary's policies, and what she means to us," adding, "The dance was...

“UnREAL” may wildly chronicle the difficulties attached to working in TV — specifically for women — but Lifetime’s highly-touted drama is doing everything it can to help real-life female filmmakers realize their dreams.

In December 2015, Lifetime and AFI struck a deal to create and offer production jobs for each graduate of the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women. That meant each member of the illustrious class would be getting hands on experience during production of Season 2, shadowing professional directors and creating behind-the-scenes projects of their own.

And, as if there was any doubt, it’s been a raging success.

Read More: ‘UnREAL’s’ Shiri Appleby is a Way Bigger Badass Than Rachel, and Here’s Why

Eight graduates were helped throughout production of Season 2, thanks to the efforts of AFI and co-creator Sarah Shapiro. Shapiro graduated from the AFI Director’s Workshop for Women in 2012 after directing a short film that...

The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced its annual AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women (Dww) Showcase set for Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 7pm, at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) in Los Angeles. The event provides an opportunity for the program’s 2015 participants to premiere their work to an invitation-only audience of representatives and working artists from throughout the creative community. This year’s 10 episodic and short film directors in attendance will be: Amy Barrett, Christine Boylan, Dime Davis, Claire Fowler, Mia Lidofsky, Erica Liu, Bella Monticelli, Rebecca Murga, Philiane Phang and Chelsea Woods. Bios can be...

Project Name: Strangers

Asking For: $15,000 on Indiegogo

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $7,365

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 29

Description: A good comedy web series needs its fair share of weirdos, and what better place to find those weirdos than on Airbnb? The room renting service is the central plot device for Strangers, an upcoming web series from creator Mia Lidofsky.

Strangers centers around Isobel (Zoe Chao), a young, frenetic woman who is forced to rent out a room in her apartment after breaking up with her boyfriend. She proceeds to find her home occupied by a rotating procession of colorful characters, who drive the plot in each episode. "There will be a birth, there will Tinder dates, there will be so much dancing, and lots of love, and a lot of pain," explains Lidofsky in her pitch video.

Creator Bio: Lidofksy cut her...