Latest in AFI Fest

EXCLUSIVE: Focus Features is following other studios such as Netflix, Annapurna and 20th Century Fox this week and canceling the red carpet for their AFI Fest premiere Mary Queen of Scots which is the event’s closing night title tomorrow night. This is out of respect to those impacted and fighting the wildfires here…

AFI Fest closes this week, marking the end of the Fall Festival season that began with a bang with the August/September triple-feature that is Venice, Telluride and Toronto, at which the vast majority of major Oscar hopefuls were unveiled. Which is not to say there weren't a few films from the first eight months of…

AFI Fest has added a special screening of the long-delayed Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace to its lineup, organizers the American Film Institute said Tuesday. The screening is set for Thursday at 8 PM PT at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood and will be the West Coast premiere of the mostly concert…

Shortly after Annapurna canceled their AFI Fest red carpet for Destroyer tonight due to the raging Southern California fires, 20th Century Fox just announced that they will not be holding a red carpet for its Wednesday night festival premiere of Steve McQueen’s Widows at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Widows is the fourth…

In the wake of the fires that have been affecting Los Angeles, Netflix announced Sunday that they have decided to cancel the red carpet for the AFI Fest screening of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, Deadline has learned. However, the screening will go on as scheduled. The western…

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit. Welcome to a new Oscar season of Notes on the Season, my weekly column and roundup of various events and interviews from the endless awards circuit. For the next few months, right up to Oscar night February 24, look to this space for all kinds of fun…

AFI Fest’s World Cinema section unveiled Tuesday includes seven films that have been officially submitted for the Foreign Language Film Oscar, from Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum and Matteo Garrone’s Dogman to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away and the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters by Hirokazu…

The American Film Institute today unveiled its full lineup of galas that will screen at this year’s AFI Fest, and judging from the list it looks like Netflix is conquering yet another fall film festival with no less than three of the five screenings announced this morning. The Netflix list includes the world premiere…

AFI Fest said Tuesday that it has added “An Evening With Nicole Kidman” to its 2018 lineup of events next month, which will be followed by a gala screening of the gritty Kidman-starring cop drama Destroyer directed by Karyn Kusama. The tribute and event and screening are set for November 13 at the TCL Chinese Theatre…

The AFI Fest said today that the world premiere of Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex will be its opening-night gala on Thursday November 8. The Focus Features release of the Participant Media film will open Christmas Day in a prime spot for awards season. Ginsburg is already a major commodity in the Oscar…

The 32nd annual AFI Fest is set for November 8–15 and is now accepting entries for feature, documentary, experimental, animated and short films. The festival has played a key role in launching awards-season contenders into the marketplace and is recognized by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an…

EXCLUSIVE: In an unprecedented bold move, director Ridley Scott, along with Imperative Entertainment’s Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas, have decided to remove Kevin Spacey from their finished movie All The Money In The World. Christopher Plummer has been set to replace Spacey in the role of J Paul Getty. Re-shoots of…