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Robert Downey Jr. is officially on Broadway and a lot of his celeb friends showed up to support him on opening night!

The Oscar-winning actor was joined by wife Susan Downey on the red carpet at the McNeal opening night performance on Monday (September 30) at Lincoln Center Theater in New York City.

Jason Bateman, Justin Theroux, Will Arnett, Paul Rudd, and Matt Damon posed for photos together while stepping out for the performance.

Also in attendance were Steven Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw, Oscar Isaac and wife Elvira Lind, Matthew Rhys, and F. Murray Abraham, as well as Justin‘s fiancee Nicole Brydon Bloom.

Robert was joined on the carpet by his co-stars: Tony winners Andrea Martin and Ruthie Ann Miles, as well as Melora Hardin, Rafi Gavron, Brittany Bellizeare, and Saisha Talwar.

Here’s a synopsis: “Jacob McNeal (Downey Jr.) is a great writer, one of our greatest, a...

It seems that the vampire genre is coming back in style! A once popular subgenre of horror and fantasy movies, the vampire genre became less popular after 2010 and not many filmmakers opted to make such movies anymore. But, it seems that we’re going to see a resurgence of vampire films in the near future. We have already reported on the upcoming vampire flick by Ryan Coogler, we’ve had several such movies recently, and there is another one coming up in 2025. Namely, Italian-Canadian filmmaker Panos Cosmatos is working on an original vampire thriller titled Flesh of the Gods, and it has been confirmed that the film will star Kristen Stewart and Oscar Isaac!

Panos Cosmatos is best known as the director of the action-horror Mandy (2018), which starred Elijah Wood. The filmmaker is now back after a 7-year break, as his Flesh of the Gods is scheduled to be released...

Six years have already gone by since the release of Mandy, which instantly became a cult favorite, and it looks like director Panos Cosmatos might finally be almost ready to go into production on another film. While it was announced in 2022 that he would be making a science fiction fantasy film called Nekrokosm for A24 and XYZ Films, that project remains in development. Moving ahead of it is the “hedonistic ’80s vampire thriller” Flesh of the Gods, which has Kristen Stewart (Love Lies Bleeding) and Oscar Isaac (Dune) attached to star.

Variety reports that WME Independent, CAA Media Finance, and XYZ Films will be presenting Flesh of the Gods to potential buyers at the Cannes Film Festival. Adam McKay and Betsy Koch of Hyperobject Industries are producing the film alongside Isaac, who is producing with Gena Konstantinakos through his company Mad Gene Media, which he set up with his wife Elvira Lind.

Kristen Stewart and Oscar Isaac are set to star in Flesh of the Gods, a vampire thriller to be directed by Panos Cosmatos, the filmmaker best known for his hallucinatory 2018 horror movie Mandy.

Adam McKay is producing this new feature along with Betsy Koch via the duo’s Hyperobject Industries production company. Isaac is also producing via his partner Gena Konstantinakos via their banner Mad Gene Media.

CAA and WME will handle domestic rights sales with XYZ Films handling international sales at this year’s Marché du Film at Cannes.

Written by Andrew Kevin Walker, best known as the screenwriter behind 1990s classic Se7en, and based on a story by Cosmatos and Walker, Flesh is set in Los Angeles during the glittering 1980s.

Per the producers, the story follows a married couple, Raoul (Isaac) and Alex (Stewart), who descend each evening from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into an...

‘We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity’

Riz Ahmed, Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart, Cherien Dabis and Rooney Mara are among Hollywood and entertainment celebrities urging US president Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.

Andrew Garfield, Jessica Chastain, James Schamus, Joaquin Phoenix, Mahershala Ali, Jon Stewart, and Dua Lipa have also added their names to an open letter on Friday urging Biden and all world leaders to call for “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost”.

It is estimated that more than 5,000 Palestinians and Israelis...

A long list of big-name actors released a letter today directed to President Biden asking him to call for a cease fire in Gaza and Israel.

Among the signatories are Mark Ruffalo, Jessica Chastian, Cate Blanchett, Quinta Brunson, Rosario Dawson, Oscar Isaac, Joaquin Phoenix, Alyssa Milano, Jon Stewart and many more. The list includes prominent Jewish, Muslim and Christian actors

The full text of the letter is below.

Dear President Biden,

We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.

We ask that, as President of the United States, you call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half – a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred,...

Elvira Lind has proven to be a versatile and talented director, with projects ranging from documentaries to short films to TV series episodes. Her work, such as the documentary "Bobbi Jene," has received critical praise and won awards, showcasing Lind's compelling storytelling abilities. Lind's short film "The Letter Room," featuring A-list actors like Oscar Isaac and Alia Shawkat, was critically acclaimed and even received an Oscar nomination, solidifying Lind's talent and potential in the industry.

In her short career, Elvira Lind has already proven to be an incredibly capable and talented filmmaker. Lind is a Danish filmmaker who is currently based in New York City and has directed a total of six projects ranging from documentaries to short films to episodes of a TV series to even a music video featuring a talented musical artist and Inside Llewyn Davis actor Oscar Isaac. Lind and Isaac married in February 2017 and have...

Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including events for New York Fashion Week and the Soho House Awards.

Chanel’s Lucky Chance Diner

Chanel hosted a party on Wednesday to debut the Lucky Chance Diner, a unique fragrance experience in Williamsburg. Guests included Ava Phillippe, Chase Sui Wonders, Lil Nas X, Meadow Walker, Molly Gordon, Rainey Qualley and Lori Harvey.

Lil Nas X Molly Gordon

Breitling Bash

Breitling brand ambassadors Charlize Theron and Misty Copeland co-hosted a launch party in NYC on Wednesday to celebrate the debut of two new lines in the Breitling Navitimer collection: 36 mm and 32 mm. They were joined by fellow Breitling ambassadors — basketball superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Chloe Kim.

Breitling USA CEO Georges Kern, Charlize Theron and Breitling USA president Thierry Prissert Giannis Antetokounmpo and Charlize Theron

Nylon Nights

Bdg,...

Berlin- and Paris-based Salaud Morisset, a leading short film production and distribution outfit, has acquired two feature films for world sales – one selected by Karlovy Vary Film Festival and the other by Locarno Film Festival – as the company accelerates into feature film sales and production.

Salaud Morisset has taken world sales rights on Cyril Aris’ feature documentary “Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano,” which premiered in the main competition at Karlovy Vary this week and received a Special Jury Mention, and Una Gunjak’s fiction feature “Excursion,” just announced as the opener of Locarno Film Festival’s Filmmakers of the Present section. Salaud Morisset, which is also a co-producer on “Excursion,” aims to continue fostering synergies between its production and sales operations as it commits to a full slate of feature projects.

“Dancing on the Edge of the Volcano”

Salaud Morisset will also continue handling selected shorts and represents...

New York City Mayor Eric Adams with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro on the opening night of the 22nd edition of the Tribeca Film Festival before the screening of Nenad Cicin-Sain’s Kiss the Future, edited by Eric Burton Photo: Arturo Holmes, Getty Images

Tribeca co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal attended with Brendan Fraser (Oscar-winner for Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale), Shirin Neshat, West Duchovny, Elvira Lind, Alfredo Jaar, Patty Jenkins, Mark Ruffalo, and Peter Coyote the Opening Night Gala of the 22nd edition of the Tribeca Film Festival screening of Nenad Cicin-Sain’s terrific documentary Kiss The Future, which includes on-camera interviews with U2 members Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton, plus Bill Clinton, Christiane Amanpour, Enes Zlatar (Sikter), Srdan Gino Jevdević (Kulture Shock), Vesna Andree Zaimović (journalist), and Senad Zaimović (editor-in-chief of Rat Art).

Eric Burton with Anne-Katrin Titze on the multicultural diversity in Sarajevo:...

The Tribeca Film Festival has announced the 2023 jury members in the 15 different competition categories for this year’s event. Those categories include film, immersive “storyscapes,” games, audio storytelling and more. Among the jury members are Brendan Fraser, Stephanie Hsu, Zoey Deutch, Dianna Agron, Zazie Beetz, Kate Siegel, Mark Duplass, Stephen Kay, Nina Dobrev, Clea DuVall, Piper Perabo, Chance the Rapper, Noah Centineo, Jeremy O. Harris, Andrew Ahn and Chloe Grace Moretz.

Alongside the competitive awards, the fest will present the Nora Ephron Award — created to honor the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer. The winning films, projects, filmmakers, storytellers, and actors in each category will be announced at the Tribeca Festival ceremony on June 15th.

“We are thrilled to announce the jury for the 2023 Tribeca Festival,” said Tribeca Festival Executive Vice President of Artist Relations and Special Events Nancy Lefkowitz. “The diversity of perspectives and experiences across...

Newly minted Oscar winner Ed Berger, director, co-writer and producer of All Quiet On the Western Front, which was named Best International Film last night, is set to direct and executive produce Helltown, an eight-episode crime thriller in development at Amazon Studios from Mohamad El Masri (Severance), Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey’s Team Downey. Oscar Issac (Moon Knight) is in discussions to star in and executive produce the project, based on the book of the same name by Casey Sherman.

Casey Sherman and Mohamad El Masri

Written by El Masri, who serves as executive producer and showrunner, Helltown centers on Kurt Vonnegut (Isaac) before he was a renowned author and cultural lightning rod. In 1969 Kurt was a struggling novelist and car salesman living life with his wife and five children on Cape Cod. When two women disappear and are later discovered murdered underneath the sand dunes on the outskirts of Provincetown,...

It’s time to commit Fifth Season to memory. The production and distribution company working across film, scripted TV and nonfiction spent five years building a brand as Endeavor Content. After the WGA victory over talent agency packaging fees and ownership, however, Endeavor Content was stripped of its sales department and sold a majority stake to Cj Enm (the producer of “Parasite”).

Despite Hollywood’s ever-shifting business landscape, the team at Fifth Season is emerging from its corporate transition with its DNA intact – as a creator of premium, provocative indie films – and scaling its ambitions up to mid-budget features made for theatrical and streaming TV.

In 2022, the company’s film unit made 10 projects with an approximate production spend of 152 million (their highest to date). They’ve got buzzy, female-led titles on deck for the first half of 2023, including Emma Roberts’ and Diane Keaton’s “Maybe I Do,” the Focus Features...

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Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including red carpets for M3GAN, Pinocchio, 1923, The Best Man: The Final Chapters and The Recruit.

People’s Choice Awards

Kenan Thompson hosted the awards show live from Santa Monica on Tuesday, where Ryan Reynolds accepted the People’s Icon Award, Shania Twain received the Music Icon Award, Lizzo accepted the People’s Champion Award and Ellen Pompeo and the cast of Grey’s Anatomy reunited onstage to accept the drama show of 2022 award.

Ryan Reynolds Lizzo and James Corden James Pickens Jr., Kelly McCreary, Ellen Pompeo, Caterina Scorsone, Chandra Wilson, Jake Borelli and Camilla Luddington

Pinocchio NY premiere

On Tuesday, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio celebrated its New York premiere at the Museum of Modern Art with stars Finn Wolfhard and Gregory Mann.

Amy Adams has signed a multi-year first-look television deal with Fifth Season, formerly Endeavor Content, through her production company Bond Group Entertainment.

As part of the deal, Adams will collaborate with Fifth Season’s TV studio team to develop series across platforms, primarily originating from best-selling book IP. She will work with her manager Stacy O’Neil, as well as Kathleen Clifford, Head of Development, and Eddie Adams, Director of Development.

Adams previously signed a first look deal with HBO upon launching Bond Group Entertainment in 2019.

Bond Group Entertainment is currently in development on Kings of America for Netflix as well as Willa of the Wood, Finding the Mother Tree, Nightbitch and Outlawed. Adams executive produced HBO’s miniseries Sharp Objects and the upcoming sequel to Enchanted titled Disenchanted, both of which she also stars in.

“Amy’s passion as an artist and her commitment to illuminating our shared humanity through...

Click here to read the full article.

Amy Adams is putting down roots for her Bond Group Entertainment banner.

The six-time Oscar nominee has signed a multiple-year, first-look TV deal with Fifth Season, the studio formerly known as Endeavor Content.

Under the pact, Adams, manager Stacy O’Neil and Bond Group’s vp TV development Kathleen Clifford and director of development Eddie Adams will work with Fifth Season’s TV studio team to create new projects for the studio, with a focus on best-selling books and on amplifying underrepresented voices.

“Amy’s passion as an artist and her commitment to illuminating our shared humanity through complex characters in all genres aligns perfectly with what we want to do here at Fifth Season,” said Joe Hipps, president of TV development and production at Fifth Season. “We look forward to working with Amy, Stacy and the rest of the Bond Group team.”

Bond...

Actor Oscar Isaac is teaming up with Bob Johnson, John Alvey, Christian Ward, and Brian Buccellato for a brand-new graphic novel from his wife, Elvira Lind, and his production company Mad Gene Media. Head Wounds: Sparrow is the first comic book project for the Moon Knight actor and his company's first foray into the comic book space.

We spoke to Oscar Isaac, Bob Johnson, and John Alvey about how their childhood friendship led to the creation of the Head Wounds: Sparrow graphic novel, what it was like for the actor to explore different mediums, and their own personal histories with comic books. Check out the full interview below!

Mad Gene Media is a growing publisher with planned and released podcasts, short films, films, and more. What was it like to explore a different medium in comics?

Oscar Isaac: Yeah! My wife, Vera Lynn and I started this company really because...

After making his Marvel debut with Disney+’s “Moon Knight,” Oscar Isaac produced a graphic novel of his own.

Partnering with Legendary Entertainment, Isaac led a Kickstarter campaign for “Head Wounds: Sparrow,” a noirish tale about a Louisiana detective named Leo who is torn between the battle between good and evil…quite literally.

Isaac, alongside longtime friends and fellow members of on-and-off ska band The Worms John Alvey (co-story writer) and Bob Johnson (creator and co-story writer), detailed the cinematic inspiration behind the graphic novel, featuring artwork by Christian Ward and story by Brian Buccellato.

“I grew up really loving movies in the ’70s, where the antihero took center stage,” Isaac explained during a Q&a at Barnes & Noble Union Square. “‘Serpico,’ ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘Dog Day Afternoon,’ these are some of my favorite films. I think you’re allowed to see more of the gray areas of life. It...

Fifth Season, formerly known as Endeavor Content, has elevated three executives to president across its TV divisions.

Prentiss Fraser has been promoted to president of TV distribution, while Joe Hipps has been named president of TV development and production. Todd Sharp will now be president of production and current.

“Joe, Prentiss and Todd lead the TV Studio with such care and passion for stories and storytelling,” said said Graham Taylor and Chris Rice, co-CEOs of Fifth Season. “It’s a blast to build Fifth Season with friends that are incredible human beings as well as the best execs in their field.”

Fraser will continue to oversee operations, and partnerships across scripted and non-scripted content for the studio’s distribution team. Her role will also new include marketing and international television productions, as well as P&l oversight investments in international production. The team is based in London with executives also working out of New York,...

Kasee Calabrese has been tapped for the dual roles of executive vice president and chief financial officer at Endeavor Content.

The finance executive previously served as EVP of Global Finance at AMC Networks.

In her newly created senior leadership position, Calabrese will be responsible for the TV and film studio’s finances, along with its distribution, documentary, music and live experiences divisions. She will report to co-CEOs Chris Rice and Graham Taylor.

Also Read:

Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind’s Mad Gene Media Signs First-Look Deal With Endeavor Content

“As Endeavor Content continues to expand around the world, Kasee’s leadership in both corporate and operational finance, her deep experience in business development and highly sought-after international perspective will be invaluable as we build on our success to date,” Rice and Taylor said in a joint statement.

“Endeavor Content has a rich legacy of working with the best storytellers and creative talent in the world,...

Endeavor announced Wednesday that it is merging talent agency Img’s events division, Img Events, with hospitality firm On Location.

Paul Caine, who has led On Location since 2020, has been named president of the newly combined company. Jon Lavallee, who served as chief operating officer at ticketing company PrimeSport when it was acquired by On Location in 2017, will be the chief financial officer of the merged division.

“Bringing together these two dynamic businesses will serve to supercharge our consumer experiences within our extraordinary global events portfolio,” Endeavor president Mark Shapiro said in a statement. “Paul and Jon have brilliantly led On Location’s resurgence from the pandemic and I’m confident they will elevate these two highly complementary businesses with the full support of the Endeavor network at their backs.”

Also Read:

Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind’s Mad Gene Media Signs First-Look Deal With Endeavor Content

The two units...

Click here to read the full article.

Mad Gene Media is making moves.

Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind’s production company has signed a first-look deal with Endeavor Content that will see the married pair collaborate with the studio’s TV, film and documentary teams to develop and produce content for all platforms. At the same time, Mad Gene Media has scooped up its first executive, hiring Gena Konstantinakos to serve as head of development and production.

The deal marks the first production pact for the company, founded in 2019 and announced in November 2020 by Lind on Instagram with a post teasing that they had “podcasts, shorts, docs, fiction and graphic novels in the making.” They made a splash with one of their first projects, a live-action short film titled The Letter Room, written and directed by Lind (Bobbie Jene) and starring Isaac.

The Letter Room went on to be nominated...

Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind’s Mad Gene Media has secured a first-look deal with Endeavor Content, marking the production company’s first studio partnership.

Under the terms of the deal, Mad Gene will develop premium content for all platforms in collaboration with the global content studio’s TV, Film and Documentary teams.

“Oscar and Elvira are multi-disciplined artists with huge hearts who personify that content is King and Queen,” said Graham Taylor and Chris Rice, Co-CEOs of Endeavor Content. “Storytelling that drives audiences while doing it with humanity is in their blood.”

Also Read:

UTA Acquires Analytics Firm MediaHound

The company, which the married filmmaker duo founded in 2019, has also hired Gena Konstantinakos as its new Head of Development and Production.

“Starting Mad Gene Media a few years ago was a natural progression of the collaboration we have always had as artists,” said Isaac and Lind. “Bringing on Gena,...

Their first joint production received an Academy Award nomination. Now Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind are ramping up Mad Gene Media under a first-look deal with Endeavor Content, hoping to build on the success of “The Letter Room” with a wide array of future projects. The married couple, who are raising two children together, are building this banner while Isaac stars in high-profile offerings such as “Moon Knight” and “Scenes From a Marriage.”

“We’re not always on 24/7; I’d say 23/7,” Isaac says.

“We never sleep,” Lind adds.

The couple launched Mad Gene Media in 2019, and recently hired Gena Konstantinakos as head of development and production, after working with her on their Oscar-nominated short film.

Konstantinakos was formerly VP of originals for First Look Media’s Topic and executive produced “The Letter Room,” which starred Isaac as a warm-hearted prison officer and was written and directed by Lind. Isaac also...

Art imitates life, which can sometimes be a problem for actors like Oscar Isaac. The actor admitted to peers Michael Keaton, Quincy Isaiah, Samuel L. Jackson and Brian Cox that he knew he needed to create more "boundaries" after starring in Scenes From a Marriage. As he explained in the Hollywood Reporter roundtable, "I have kids, and time is the most valuable commodity. And I think with Scenes From a Marriage, the scenes themselves, that was what was so harrowing about it, not so much the character." Isaac, who shares kids Eugene and Mads with wife Elvira Lind, felt like he was living in the character's world "a little too much,"...

Britt Lower on Ava in Tribeca Film Festival highlight Circus Person: “She’s discovering who she is in this new chapter of her life.”

Britt Lower’s Circus Person, starring the director/writer with Philip Smithey, Jessica Marks, and Ramona Young; Héctor Silva Nuñez’s Home_ with Doris Amen, Andrew Zawacki, Arbie Goings, Remy Guerrien, and Micah Sudduth and Keylee Koop-Sudduth’s Backsliders, join Elvira Lind’s Oscar-nominated The Letter Room, starring Oscar Isaac as the four shorts screening in the 2020: Now Showcase A: Soul Connection program on the closing day of the 20th anniversary edition of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021.

Britt Lower with Anne-Katrin Titze on the sound design: “It was a very collaborative process with the editor Alex Knell and our sound designer Cem Dursun.”

In his seminar on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Purloined Letter, Jacques Lacan stated that a letter always arrives at its destination.

Two Distant Strangers directors Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe won their first Oscar for Best Live-Action Short tonight at the 93rd Academy Awards.

In his acceptance speech, Free exclaimed that “God is good,” before launching into a statement on policing in America. “Today, the police will kill three people, and tomorrow, the police will kill three people—and the day after that, police will kill three people,” he said, “because on average, the police in America everyday kill three people, which amounts to about 1,000 people per year.”

Noting that “those people happen to disproportionately be Black people,” he then went on to reference iconic writer James Baldwin, who once said, “The most despicable thing a person can be is indifferent to other peoples’ pain.”

“So, I just ask that you please not be indifferent,” Free pleaded, in closing. “Please don’t be indifferent to our pain.”

Roe followed this...

Debate is underway in Turkey’s film community over similarities between the award-winning 2019 Turkish feature “Passed by Censor” and Elvira Lind’s “The Letter Room,” which is nominated for the Best Live Action Short Oscar. Both films revolve around similar lead characters: prison guards tasked with scanning inmates’ mail for objectionable content. Now the Turkish filmmaking team has lawyered up and wants to negotiate with their American counterparts.

Financed by Topic, the streaming service owned by First Look Media, “The Letter Room” stars Lind’s husband Oscar Isaac and Alia Shawkat. After debuting at Hollyshorts in November 2020, it appeared on the Oscars shortlist in February; several more distribution deals followed.

On April 11, a column by film critic Vecdi Sayar of the Turkish newspaper BirGün cited the similarities between “Passed by Censor” and “The Letter Room” as the latest example of a Turkish film that hasn’t gotten its due for influencing other productions.

The current odds in our predictions center indicate that “The Letter Room” is out front to win this year’s Oscar for Best Live Action Short. These odds are calculated based on the forecasts made by our Expert film journalists, Gold Derby Editors, Top 24 Users and the thousands of regular Gold Derby readers making their predictions.

But is there a chance that one of the other nominees could upset this frontrunner? Let’s examine all five of this year’s nominees, in order by their current Gold Derby odds.

“The Letter Room” (odds of winning: 71/20)

Richard (Oscar Isaac) is a correctional officer who is transferred to a new position in the prison’s mail room. As he scans letters for prohibited content, he finds himself becoming drawn to the letters a death row prisoner receives from his girlfriend that are never replied to.

This marks the first Oscar nomination for Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan.

Elvira Lind on The Letter Room and Bobbi Jene and her children with Oscar Isaac: “It’s different kinds of babies. The human babies and the film babies. They tend to come at the same time somehow.”

In her Oscar-nominated Live Action Short The Letter Room, starring Oscar Isaac with John Douglas Thompson, Alia Shawkat, Brian Petsos, Tony Gillan, and Eileen Galindo, Elvira Lind explores loneliness in a variety of facets. Oscar Isaac’s poignant performance as corrections officer Richard pulls us in from the get-go. In the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, Elvira’s Bobbi Jene on performer Bobbi Jene Smith won all three Documentary Awards.

Corrections officer Richard (Oscar Isaac) in The Letter Room

The finely perceived details give The Letter Room wings. There is Cris (Petsos), a man on death row who receives the most poetic love notes from a woman named Rosita (Shawkat) and there is Jackson...

Denmark-born, New York-based director is nomated for short ’The Letter Room’, starring Oscar Isaac.

Danish filmmaker Elvira Lind, who is Oscar nominated for her short The Letter Room, is now readying her debut fiction feature to shoot later this year in New York.

The Denmark-born, New York-based director is collaborating with playwright Amy Herzog on the film. It will be produced by Sofia Sondervan, who also produced The Letter Room and whose credits include Cadillac Records and The Man Who Knew Infinity.

Details about the feature are under wraps but Lind told Screen it is inspired by elements from one...

Exclusive: Following its Oscar nomination, Elvira Lind’s short film The Letter Room has been racking up the sales. The movie, which stars Oscar Isaac and Alia Shawkat, has sold to France and Germany (Arte France), Spain (Telefonica), Denmark (TV2), Russia (Shot TV), Poland (New Europe Film Sales), Airlines (JetBlue) as well as an international deal with Kanopy for the educational circuit. Paris and Berlin based Salaud Morisset is handling sales and struck the deals. Pic is currently screening in U.S. theaters through ShortsTV and is also streaming via First Look Media’s new VOD service Topic.

This is the first project from married couple Isaac and Lind’s multimedia production company Mad Gene Media. The Letter Room follows an empathetic corrections officer (Oscar Isaac) who finds escape in the deeply personal letters written to an inmate on death row. It played at fests including Telluride and Palm Springs International.

Short films rarely get the attention they deserve throughout the year, but the 15 that get nominated for Oscars across three categories are the exception to the rule. Representing an entire art form is a lot to ask any one film, but luckily this year’s batch of nominees is well positioned to do the short form justice. This year’s five Best Live-Action Short Film contenders all follow traditional narrative structures, making each humanitarian tale easily accessible to those less familiar with short form.

The shorts category often highlights certain sociopolitical issues, and this year is no different. From racist police brutality to disability to the everyday struggles of a Palestinian family, the five nominees hold a mirror up to the world’s most egregious injustices. While each filmmaker takes a different tact, whether uncomfortable satire to understated drama, all five films address their respective issues with finesse. Here’s...

Documentarian Elvira Lind made her first venture into the world of narrative short films with “The Letter Room,” and she just earned her first Oscar nomination for it in the Best Live Action Short Film category. The film stars Oscar Isaac, Lind’s husband and business partner, as a corrections officer named Richard who is transferred to the prison’s mailroom and finds himself subsequently invested in the inmates’ personal lives. The film is Lind and Isaac’s first project as part of their production company, Mad Gene. “It’s great to have the first thing we make out of this company be nominated for an Academy Award,” says Lind in an exclusive new interview for Gold Derby. Watch the full interview above.

Lind wanted to tell a different kind of prison story than we typically see in film and television, one more grounded in the day-to-day realities of prison life.

The Oscar-nominated live action shorts come from filmmakers based in the U.S., U.K, and the Mideast. They all center on the human desire to be seen as people.

Feeling Through

Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski

Roland’s entry into the deaf-blind community came through a chance meeting about 10 years ago with a man holding up a sign asking for help to cross the street late one night in New York City. He was so struck by the encounter that he wrote the script for “Feeling Through” and completed it in 2019 with the help of the Helen Keller National Center and its now CEO, Ruzenski, who is nominated with him. Authenticity matters to Roland, so he cast Robert Tarango, whom he discovered working in the cafeteria at the Hknc. “I’m really happy that there is some strong disability representation this year,” he says, referencing his fellow nominees like “Sound of Metal.

Jameela Jamil is celebrating the one-year anniversary of “I Weigh,” the podcast offshoot of her activist mental health organization of the same name.

Guests have included Billy Porter, Demi Lovato, Beanie Feldstein and Diane Guerrero, as well as doctors and experts in various fields. During Reese Witherspoon’s emotional interview, the Oscar winner teared up while discussing mental health. “Reese cried on my podcast,” Jamil tells me during a break from filming the second season of “Legendary,” the HBO Max voguing competition show. “It was such an extraordinary moment for her. To have someone like Reese, who is such a shining powerhouse and inspiration, still talk about the fact that she’s still not treated like enough, she’s still not allowed to feel like she’s doing enough, like she’s worthy of the respect that she has fully worked for, it’s just the humanity that people expose...

Under executive director Roger Durling, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (March 31 through April 10) has thrived by surfing the awards season wave, programming tons of onstage interviews with Oscar contenders. In this pandemic edition, the tributes and panels will be live-streamed, while films will be shown online and at two free ocean-front drive-in theatres.

Every year, screenwriters, directors, and producers promote their films on panels, and the likes of Brad Pitt, Bong Joon Ho, Adam Driver, Renee Zellweger, Laura Dern, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, Saoirse Ronan, Bruce Dern, Jeff Bridges, Melissa McCarthy, Isabelle Huppert, Viggo Mortensen, Rami Malek, Glenn Close, Ben Affleck, Christopher Nolan, and Sam Elliott submit to in-depth tributes from Scott Feinberg, Leonard Maltin, and Pete Hammond, among others.

The annual Producers Panel, moderated by the Los Angeles Times’ Glenn Whipp, assembles top producers to dig into the business and creative sides of producing the year’s top films.

Under executive director Roger Durling, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (March 31 through April 10) has thrived by surfing the awards season wave, programming tons of onstage interviews with Oscar contenders. In this pandemic edition, the tributes and panels will be live-streamed, while films will be shown online and at two free ocean-front drive-in theatres.

Every year, screenwriters, directors, and producers promote their films on panels, and the likes of Brad Pitt, Bong Joon Ho, Adam Driver, Renee Zellweger, Laura Dern, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, Saoirse Ronan, Bruce Dern, Jeff Bridges, Melissa McCarthy, Isabelle Huppert, Viggo Mortensen, Rami Malek, Glenn Close, Ben Affleck, Christopher Nolan, and Sam Elliott submit to in-depth tributes from Scott Feinberg, Leonard Maltin, and Pete Hammond, among others.

The annual Producers Panel, moderated by the Los Angeles Times’ Glenn Whipp, assembles top producers to dig into the business and creative sides of producing the year’s top films.

Every year, ShortsTV brings the best in short film to the big screen, with a presentation of Oscar nominated shorts in the Animated, Live-Action and Documentary arenas. While movie theaters only recently reopened in Los Angeles and Orange County—with Covid cases, hospitalizations and fatalities on the descent—the distributor has already set theatrical and virtual premiere dates in both counties, for the Oscar Nominated Shorts of 2021.

ShortsTV’s live-action and animated short film programs will be released theatrically and virtually on Friday, April 2. Its documentary program, meanwhile, will become available virtually on April 2, with a theatrical opening scheduled for April 9.

Nominees in the category of Best Live-Action Short Film that will screen for LA audiences include Feeling Through (directed by Doug Roland), Oscar Isaac-starrer The Letter Room (Elvira Lind), The Present (Farah Nabulsi), Two Distant Strangers (Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe) and White Eye (Tomer Sushan).

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As usual, the Oscar contenders for live-action short include a range of social issue films, addressing topics from police brutality to disability. This year’s nominees employ a lighter touch than in years past, addressing weighty topics with an accessible levity and emphasizing shared humanity. Voters will likely be able to better appreciate the ambitious subject matter when handled with a — albeit respectful — sense of humor.

Inspired by the George Floyd protests, rapper Joey Bada$$ stars in “Two Distant Strangers,” which refocuses attention to police brutality and the BLM movement through a “Groundhog Day” inspired storyline. The high-concept 30-minute film marks the first narrative written and directed by comedian and “The Daily Show” writer Travon Free, and counts Sean “Diddy” Combs, Adam McKay, and NBA star Kevin Durant as producers. Free applies a satirical lens to the dark scenario, but very deliberately doesn’t let anyone off the hook.

Doug Roland...

In the Oscar-nominated Live Action Short The Letter Room, Elvira Lind (her Bobbi Jene in 2017 swept the Tribeca Film Festival documentary awards) explores loneliness in a variety of facets. Corrections officer Richard (Oscar Isaac) has long wanted a transfer to the communications department of the prison where he works. There is Cris (Brian Petsos), a man on death row who receives the most poetic love notes from a woman named Rosita (Alia Shawkat) and there is Jackson (John Douglas Thompson) who longs to hear from his estranged daughter.

Wishes oftentimes come true in unexpected ways and ideas of what communication work entails vary. Richard’s suggestions about improving inmates’ lives through animal-assisted therapy technique, fall on the deaf ears of the Warden (Eileen Galindo). Still he quickly embraces the challenges he is presented with as master of the letter room, where he scans correspondence for...

Elvira Lind on Richard (Oscar Isaac) in her Oscar-shortlisted The Letter Room: “He has aspirations and that incredible need to become someone who can change things and do something that is good.”

Corrections officer Richard (Oscar Isaac) has long wanted a transfer to the communications department of the prison where he works. Be careful what you wish for. His suggestions about improving inmates' lives through animal-assisted therapy technique, fall on the deaf ears of the Warden (Eileen Galindo). Still he quickly embraces the challenges he is presented with as master of the letter room. Ordered to wear gloves at all times, his gestures make it clear that Richard has never used a letter opener in his life before. A new world opens up. There is Cris (Brian Petsos), a man on death row who receives the most poetic love notes from a woman named Rosita (Alia Shawkat) and there is...

Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind’s first film under Mad Gene Banner, the Academy Award-shortlisted short film “The Letter Room,” has set a North American premiere with First Look Media’s streaming service Topic worldwide distribution to be led by Salaud Morisset. The short will debut exclusively on Topic March 11.

“The Letter Room,” directed by Lind, who previously helmed several award-winning documentaries, stars Isaac and Alia Shawkat, and is the first project under Lind and Isaac’s new multimedia production company Mad Gene. It’s a dark prison comedy about the secret life of a correctional officer who gets transferred to a job in the letter room, where a new world suddenly opens to him.

“I was eager to tell a story about prison life that, instead of the suspense and drama we often see, explores one of the daily tasks, the letter censuring that further robs people who live...

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars from Film Awards Editor Clayton Davis. Following Academy Awards history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar predictions are updated regularly with the current year's contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four phases, running all year long: Draft, Pre-Season, Regular Season and Post Season. Eligibility calendar and dates of awards will determine how long each phase lasts and will be displayed next to revision date.

To see all the latest predictions, of all the categories, in one place, visit The Collective

Draft>>>Pre Season>>>Regular Season>>>Post Season

2021 Oscars Predictions:

Best Live Action Short Film

Updated: Feb. 25, 2021

Awards Prediction Commentary: There seems to be a strong three films at the top Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Human Voice” (with Tilda Swinton), Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe’s “Two Distant Strangers” (with Joey...

There will be no Telluride Film Festival this Labor Day in Colorado, but the programmers have unveiled what this year’s selections would have been. Much like the Cannes Film Festival’s 2020 lineup, this year’s Telluride films can at least carry the imprimatur of the festival as we head into the fall circuit. The 47th edition of the Telluride Film Festival was scheduled for September 3-7. See the full lineup, as revealed on Monday, below.

The idea in presenting the Telluride selections is to recommend the best in film this year in hopes that audiences will seek out these movies at other fall festivals (or what remains of them) down the line. With the 2021 Academy Awards pushed way out to April 25, there’s at once less pressure on these films to perform for awards but also a crush of movies backlogged since quarantine hit, making for a competitive season.

As a happily married woman, it's extremely rare for me to stop what I'm doing to completely gawk over a man. However, as soon as Oscar Isaac sauntered onto the red carpet at the Oscars, I did just that. Known for his recent role in Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, the 40-year-old is presenting the award for best sound mixing and editing, and to say he looks sharp would be the definition of an understatement.

The father of two attended the award show with his wife, Elvira Lind, by his side, and in case you were wondering, I am 1,000 percent jealous. Read through to get an up-close-and-personal look at Oscar's salt-and-pepper hair that has the internet collectively drooling.

Related: These Gorgeous Oscars Red Carpet Looks Are Ending Award Season With a Bang...

It’s a big date night for Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind!

The spouses stepped out Sunday night for the 2020 Oscars in Hollywood, California, where they walked the red carpet and posed for photos at the Dolby Theatre ahead of the big ceremony.

Isaac told E! that even though he was supposed to be remaining “impartial” in his role as a presenter, he was secretly rooting for his Star Wars: The Last Jedi costars Adam Driver and Laura Dern, who are up for acting awards.

As for what the tuxedo-clad actor, 40, and his filmmaker wife (in a flowing yellow floor-length...

Simon Lereng Wilmont on Oleg Afanasyev and his grandmother Alexandra Ryabichkina in The Distant Barking Of Dogs: "It has been a cinematic blessing to be let into Oleg and Alexandra's life from the very beginning." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Last Thursday night at the Cinema Eye Awards, Simon Lereng Wilmont, director/cinematographer of the Oscar-shortlisted The Distant Barking Of Dogs was presented with the Spotlight Prize by Bing Liu, Sandi Tan (who won with Lucas Celler in the Graphic Design or Animation for Shirkers), and RaMell Ross

Simon Lereng Wilmont with Oleg Afanasyev and his grandmother Alexandra Ryabichkina Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

I spoke with Simon about the score by Uno Helmersson (Elvira Lind's Bobbi Jene) and Erik Enocksson (Paul Wright's For Those in Peril) with additional music by Karsten Fundal (Feras Fayyad and Steen Johannessen's Last Men In Aleppo), the sound design, editing with Michael Aaglund, the...

Filming has wrapped on writer-director Georgia Parris’ feature debut.

Screen can reveal a first look at Mari, the Film London Microwave feature starring acclaimed dancer Bobbi Jene Smith.

The project, which recently wrapped its shoot in Sherborne, Dorset and London, is the debut feature from writer-director Georgia Parris and producer Emma Duffy.

It was commissioned through Film London’s Microwave scheme, the low-budget feature initiative which is backed by the BFI and BBC Films, with support from Creative Skillset. Further backing came from Intermission and Boudica Films.

Mari, a drama with dance elements, also stars Phoebe Nicholls (The Elephant Man...

For Oscar Isaac, tying the knot with his then-pregnant girlfriend Elvira Lind was a no brainer.

The Annihilation actor, who’s on the latest cover of GQ Style, told the magazine that there were “tons of reasons” why he popped the question to the documentary filmmaker.

“She’s Danish — she’s not a citizen, and she was very pregnant, and there was an element of figuring out, ‘Well, where are we going to be?’ And us wanting to be a family unit a bit more,” he explained. “But, you know, at the time, right before it happened, my mom was ill,...