All posts tagged: Directors

ACID Lineup of Bold Films Has Two From Iran-Born Directors

ACID Lineup of Bold Films Has Two From Iran-Born Directors

Published by Daniella Wilson

ACID, the Cannes Film Festival sidebar run by France’s association of film directors whose goal is promoting the theatrical distribution of independent films, unveiled its 2026 lineup on Tuesday, with general delegate Pauline Ginot promising a selection of nine “adventurous” and “bold” films from emerging voices from such countries as Iran, Switzerland and, of course, France. Launched in 1992, ACID has made a reputation for itself for discovering up-and-coming directing talents. Among others, it brought to Cannes the first features of such auteurs as Anatomy of a Fall director Justine Triet, who premiered Age of Panic there, Radu Jude, who unveiled The Happiest Girl in the World in the program in 2009, and Kaouther Ben Hania (The Voice of Hind Rajab), who screened her feature debut, The Blade of Tunis, at ACID in 2014. ACID has previously also championed early works by the likes of Guy Maddin, including My Winnipeg. More than 600 films were submitted this year for one of the coveted nine spots in the ACID program, Ginot tells THR. “We watched all of …

Meryl Streep on Directors She Was Imitating For Devil Wears Prada Role

Meryl Streep on Directors She Was Imitating For Devil Wears Prada Role

Published by Daniella Wilson

While most people assume Meryl Streep was channeling Anna Wintour for her Devil Wears Prada character, the Oscar winner says she was actually “imitating” two top Hollywood filmmakers. The actress — who first played cynical fashion editor Miranda Priestly in the 2006 film and later reprised her role for the upcoming sequel — made a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where she revealed that she actually drew inspiration from Mike Nichols and Clint Eastwood for the role. “I was basically imitating Mike Nichols that whole time,” Streep told the host. “If Mike Nichols and Clint Eastwood had a baby… it would be Miranda Priestly.” This may come as a surprise to some fans, as many have likened Priestly to Wintour since The Devil Wears Prada was based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel of the same name, which was inspired by her own experiences working as an assistant to the former editor in chief of Vogue (Wintour now serves as chief content officer for Condé Nast and global editorial director of Vogue). Streep explained that Nichols’ commanding directing …

‘Drama’ Director’s Essay on Age-Gap Romance Sparks Controversy

‘Drama’ Director’s Essay on Age-Gap Romance Sparks Controversy

Published by Daniella Wilson

A resurfaced Norwegian magazine essay by Kristoffer Borgli — now drawing attention on Reddit — is raising fresh questions about the filmmaker just as his profile in Hollywood continues to rise. Borgli, the director behind the upcoming feature The Drama starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, has been the subject of a viral thread on the platform, where users have shared scans of a 2012 print article from D2, the weekend magazine of Dagens Naeringsliv — Norway’s leading financial daily, comparable to the Wall Street Journal. D2 is its glossy culture and lifestyle supplement known for longform essays and profiles. The piece, written by Borgli himself, then 27, reflects on a recent relationship he had with a teenage girl. The scans, which are not widely available online, have begun to circulate and have been translated by users. The renewed attention comes as Borgli transitions from cult indie filmmaker to a more mainstream presence. Borgli’s The Drama — his latest English-language project, following 2023’s Dream Scenario starring Nicolas Cage — features two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Zendaya …

Live Nation Directors Mocked Customers in Explosive Just-Released Messages, Saying They’re “Stupid” for Allowing Themselves to Be Gouged

Live Nation Directors Mocked Customers in Explosive Just-Released Messages, Saying They’re “Stupid” for Allowing Themselves to Be Gouged

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech If you’ve ever been to a live event in the past few decades, you probably have a low opinion of Live Nation — or for that matter Ticketmaster, its subsidiary it merged with to form a sprawling entertainment monopoly. Rest assured that the feeling is mutual. Explosive internal messages, revealed in a lawsuit, show two Live Nation directors mocking its “stupid” customers for paying the service’s jacked-up fees, and openly gloating about “robbing them blind,” per new reporting from Bloomberg and The New York Times. The messages come from a series of Slack exchanges in 2022 between Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold, two regional directors of ticketing for Live Nation. Baker is head of ticketing for Venue Nation, and Weinhold is senior ticketing director for the DMV area around Washington, DC. Across the exchanges, the pair bragged about shamelessly jacking up the cost of “ancillary fees” that include parking, lawn chair rentals, and VIP passes, and getting concertgoers …

Which Films Would’ve Won Best Casting Oscar: Casting Directors Voted

Which Films Would’ve Won Best Casting Oscar: Casting Directors Voted

Published by Daniella Wilson

For all the talk about how much the Academy Awards have changed in recent years, one key facet has remained remarkably constant: the category lineup. Aside from the two sound categories merging, there have been no changes to the list of Oscar categories since best animated feature was introduced in 2001. This year, that changes. Casting directors are finally getting their due. This poses a rather unique challenge for forecasters. This is my 15th year predicting the Academy Awards using only math, so what’s an Oscar prognosticator to do when the historical data simply doesn’t exist? Training data is the meal that feeds the model! I decided to try and build up that data. To do so, I turned to the experts: the casting directors themselves. I reached out to the Casting Society, and to my deep gratitude, they were happy to help. They allowed me to poll their membership, and 92 casting directors took time out of their days to respond. For each year from 2010-2025, I provided a shortlist of the 15 films …

The “Best Casting” Oscar is Brand New This Year. Here’s How Casting Directors Finally Got Their Due

The “Best Casting” Oscar is Brand New This Year. Here’s How Casting Directors Finally Got Their Due

Published by Jenni Sidey

As the buzz around this year’s Best Picture and Best Actor races reaches deafening levels, there’s another narrative going into the 98th Academy Awards that’s a little more inside baseball but no less exciting. After many years of lobbying, 2026 marks the long-fought-for debut of a brand-new category: Best Casting. The competition for the first-ever Best Casting Oscar (AKA the Academy Award for Achievement in Casting) is comprised of the same movies that have been duking it out all awards season—Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent and Sinners—but this award will put a spotlight for the first time on the actual work of assembling an Oscar-worthy ensemble, from the top of the call sheet to that one super-memorable bit part. To talk about this long-overdue achievement, what it took to get here, and the life and work of a casting director overall, GQ got on the phone with Kim Taylor-Coleman, a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors and a veteran casting director with nearly one hundred credits to her name. …

The Mummy 4 directors reveal why Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz chose to return

The Mummy 4 directors reveal why Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz chose to return

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Mummy 4 directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have opened up about why Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz chose to return to the franchise. Fraser, who has been enjoying a brilliant career comeback in recent years with his Oscar-winning part in The Whale, a key supporting role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and an acclaimed turn in upcoming film Rental Family, is set to reprise his role as adventurer Rick O’Connell in the upcoming sequel. And he’s set to be joined by Weisz, who recently starred in Prime Video’s Dead Ringers and Marvel’s Black Widow, who’s reprising her role as librarian Evelyn Carnahan. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, the directing duo known as Radio Silence, shared how they made it happen, revealing that they were working with producer William Sherrick on the set of Abigail (2024) when the subject of The Mummy came up. “William’s always way ahead of us,” Gillett said. “Matt and I, what we’re doing next is we’re finishing the day, we have …

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Directors on Oscars, Film’s Sequel and Their Crew

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Directors on Oscars, Film’s Sequel and Their Crew

Published by Daniella Wilson

KPop Demon Hunters directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans are reflecting on their long journey to the Oscars. The film, which was released in June on Netflix, has become the streamer’s most-watched title. The sleeper hit spawned toy lines and food tie-ins, along with a theatrical run for its sing-along companion. “It’s beyond anything I could have ever imagined this concept becoming,” Kang tells The Hollywood Reporter. The film has catapulted the team into the spotlight, led by the film’s lead singing voice and songwriter for multiple songs, EJAE. But Kang and Appelhans are quick to emphasize that the film is only possible because of the large team behind it. “Animation is such a collaborative process,” Kang says. KPop Demon Hunters is up for best animated feature and best original song at the 2026 Academy Awards. It’s undoubtedly a big moment for Kang and Appelhans, but the directors are keen to share this moment with their team that brought the film to life over its seven-year incubation period. “We honestly haven’t had much time to …

One Battle After Another, KPop Demon Hunters Win: Art Directors Guild

One Battle After Another, KPop Demon Hunters Win: Art Directors Guild

Published by Daniella Wilson

One Battle After Another, Frankenstein and The Fantastic Four: First Steps were the big winners at the Art Directors Guild awards Saturday night, winning the top three live-action awards in production design. KPop Demon Hunters landed the prize for best production design in an animated film. The three live-action films — which won in contemporary, period and fantasy categories respectively — now have a leg up for the production design award at the Oscars. though Fantastic Four may be in the strongest position: The fantasy winner has nabbed the Academy Award in three of the past four years. Meanwhile, Apple TV+ was the big winner on the television side. The streamer landed three of the top prizes, for episodes of Severance, Palm Royale and The Studio. (They won for one-hour contemporary single-camera, one-hour period single-camera, and half-hour single camera, respectively.) The ADG awards, the organization’s 30th, honor “the visionary production design teams behind the year’s most visually ambitious films, television series and music projects,” according to the organization. At a moment when human-led design is under threat by AI and computer models, the awards stand as a kind of …