Latest in Birth Of A Nation

The Venice Film Festival has added Birth Of A Nation filmmaker Nate Parker’s American Skin to its Sconfini section, a move that is likely to draw increased attention to the Lido event. The drama about police violence and racism in America is directed, written by and stars Parker and is his first feature since news of…

Bowling Green State University has removed actress Lillian Gish’s name from a campus theater because of her part in D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. Gish starred in the 1915 silent film, which was adapted from a novel and play, The Clansman. It is considered a landmark of film history, with many firsts – first…

Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman premiered in August, on the one year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. This was no accident. Lee's film, based on the memoir of black police officer Ron Stallworth, who successfully infiltrated the David Duke-run KKK in the 1970s, had so many rhetorical…

The nominees for the NAACP Image Awards were announced today, with Nate Parker of The Birth of a Nation and Atlanta star Donald Glover receiving three noms apiece (for writing, acting and directing). Beyonce led all nominees with nine including in the marquee Entertainer of the Year category, where her fellow nominees…

Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this weekly column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business. BART: Women rule the world. So how do you break the news to the guys? I've been in Europe for a couple of weeks, where female power…

6TH Write-thru, Monday: Updated with actual B.O. figures Hurricane Matthew wasn’t that much of a threat after all, as 125 theaters reopened yesterday for business, a majority of them in Florida. What business was curbed was limited to the coast with moviegoing gradually increasing inland. For a No. 1 grossing title…

President Obama says that Hurricane Matthew will have “a devastating effect” when it hits landfall, but as of right now for exhibitors and distributors, it’s commerce before chaos. Currently, no major chains, including Regal and AMC, are planning to close this weekend. Calls made to southeastern theaters by Deadline…

Gabrielle Union, who will be at the Toronto Film Festival later this month when Nate Parker’s Birth Of A Nation is screened and will take part in the press junket afterward, wrote an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times today. She noted that when she read all 700 pages of court documents from the 1999 rape charge…

In a new interview with Ebony magazine, Birth of a Nation director Nate Parker says his comments from two weeks ago – when he spoke to Deadline, Variety and on Facebook – about the now-infamous 1999 college rape charges were made “from a standpoint of ignorance.” In today’s Ebony Q&A, he says, “It's like, if I don't…

EXCLUSIVE: Legendary has acquired an original feature film idea from Nate Parker, and has made a deal with him to write, direct and produce it. There is no title and the story is being kept under wraps, but it involves creating a world. The deal comes before what is expected to be a very interesting autumn for Parker…

UPDATE, 7:45 PM writethru: It's a double win for The Birth Of A Nation tonight at the Sundance Film Festival awards. First the film written, directed, produced by and starring Nate Parker won the U.S Dramatic Audience Award, and now it has scored the prestigious U.S. Dramatic Jury Award. "Sundance is like a great…

UPDATE with more details: Nate Parker’s slave rebellion drama The Birth Of A Nation swept the Grand Jury and Audience Award prizes in the U.S. Dramatic competition Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival awards. The ceremony wrapped the 1o-day fest which was stamped for good by Parker’s debut feature film, which b…