A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit The calendar has turned to February, and that means the final stretch of this six-month awards season has begun — as if you couldn’t guess by the flurry of activity heating things up just as the outside temperature in many places is all about the big…

Thelma & Louise Oscar winner Callie Khouri, Sorry To Bother You‘s Boots Riley and Vida creator/executive producer Tanya Saracho will be the honorees at this year’s 14th annual Final Draft Awards. Khouri will be presented the Hall of Fame Award for her contribution to the art of screenwriting and devotion to writers…

Lakeith Stanfield is headed home. That is, if he can remember where he lives. "I forgot my street," he chuckles to the driver. He snaps his fingers once, twice, three times, and like magic, summons his address to mind. To be fair, he hasn't been living there long. Since his career started to click, the 27-year-old…

Sorry To Bother You director Boots Riley has issued a long Twitter critique of Spike Lee’s new BlacKkKlansman film, attacking its politics and timing. Warning: The article contains spoilers on BlacKkKlansman and Riley’s tweets. While allowing that Lee has been “a huge influence” on his career, Riley took issue with…

On the heels of the strong boxoffice opening for Boots Riley’s feature debut, Sorry To Bother You, the musician-turned-filmmaker is making a foray into TV with a script deal at Michael Ellenberg’s studio Media Res. The project, whose premise is not being revealed, will be packaged and shopped to premium outlets later…

Musician-turned-filmmaker Boots Riley was presented with the Sundance Institute’s Vanguard Award Thursday night in front of a sold-out house at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles for his debut feature Sorry to Bother You. Before the preview screening of surrealistic socially conscious Sundance Festival fave…

“I think I broke some of the structure that we’re told to put narrative film into,” said Boots Riley, writer and director of the much buzzed about film, Sorry To Bother You, which screened at SXSW. Before the screening, Riley, along with some of the cast — Steven Yeun, Omari Hardwick, Armie Hammer, and Jermaine Fowler…

The first look trailer for Annapurna Pictures seven-figure, buzzy acquisition Sorry To Bother You has been released in advance of its SXSW showcase. Lakeith Stanfield, Armie Hammer, and Tessa Thompson star in the comedy/fantasy/sci-fi film, marking the directorial debut of rapper/producer Boots Riley, who wrote and…

EXCLUSIVE: Hot off the Sundance premiere of his film Sorry To Bother You and the splashy world rights deal by Annapurna that followed, writer, director and composer Boots Riley has signed with WME to be repped in all areas. Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Armie Hammer and Tessa Thompson, Sorry To Bother You is an…

EXCLUSIVE: Their films have been accepted into competition at the Sundance Film Festival four times — and now a fifth, with today’s news of the acceptance of first-time director Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You. Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker have been business partners for seven years through Significant Prod…

EXCLUSIVE: Omari Hardwick and Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Terry Crews have come aboard Boots Riley written-directed first-feature Sorry To Bother You, from Significant Productions, MNM Creative and MACRO. The two join previously announced cast Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Lakeith Stanfield, Jermaine Fowler, and Steven Yeun…

EXCLUSIVE: Jermaine Fowler, exec producer and star of the CBS comedy Superior Donuts, has been added the cast of Sorry to Bother You, from first-time writer-director Boots Riley. He joins Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Lakeith Stanfield, and Steven Yeun. The drama centers on a black telemarketer with self-esteem issues…