Latest in Documentaries

Just because the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been quiet about its inner workings—a museum fund-raising announcement here, an Oscar press release there—doesn't mean it's been quiet inside. Every once in a while, rumblings from the Wilshire Blvd. headquarters are loud enough to be heard out…

While an all-male list of director contenders and a mostly white actors roster caught the eye of the diversity-conscious on Oscar nominations day, another blip signaled deep change within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That is, four out of five documentary feature nominees—The Cave, The Edge Of Democr…

At first blush, I thought that John Ford moment in Roland Emmerich's Midway was surely over-the-top, a parody, like the semi-silly Bruce Lee bit in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But why interrupt a deadly serious war film with what seemed to be a comic walk-on by a famous movie director, shouting…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences certainly isn't short on documentarians. Atop its existing 400 or so documentary branch members, the Academy in July invited almost 100 additional doc-makers to join. Despite some internal concern that a few invitees might need help with the dues, now $450 a year, it…

EXCLUSIVE: The singular career and the sprawling pursuits of Todd McFarlane are the subject of McFarlane: A Documentary, a new Syfy Wire production that will air on Syfy channel and via online platforms by year’s end. The trailer (above) is available today here exclusively at Deadline. McFarlane, one of the special…

EXCLUSIVE: Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to the Sundance documentary Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, an ode to the firebrand journalist whose blistering political wit made her an outsized legend in the Lone Star State. Magnolia is eyeing a theatrical release by year’s end for the…

Armstrong, an evocative new documentary that features previously unseen home-movie footage Neil Armstrong’s family, Is set to launch in theaters and through on-demand platforms on July 12th, eight days before the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. When Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong stepped off…

Emmy-winning documentary specialists Alex Gibney and Blair Foster say their A&E series The Clinton Affair delved into a political scandal that seems just as timely and topical on ts 20-year anniversary as it did in real time in 1998. Moreover, the #metoo movement is an essential context for revisiting the scandal and…

When last seen (by me, anyway), Steven C. Barber had just decided to defer buying a Lexus. Instead, he invested his savings in a Variety "for your consideration" ad to boost his 2012 film Until They Are Home, about the recovery of military remains from the World War II battle of Tarawa. Barber still doesn't have that…

For no obvious reason, the reality mini-surge continues: By next weekend, at least three feature documentaries will have sold more tickets at the domestic box-office than any documentary without pandas that was released last year. The panda doc was Disney's Born In China, which took in $13.8 million after it opened in…

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reveals its list of new invitees next month, shrewd observers will have an eye on the documentary branch. Lately, attention has fallen mostly on race and gender, as the Academy scrambles to reach its goal of doubling female and ethnic minority membership by 2020…

On proud display at a Toronto festival session with the documentarian Raoul Peck on Tuesday morning was the first requisite of any successful, old-school filmmaker: a healthy sense of self. "When I have people trust me with their money, I am obligated to give them a great film, I am not obligated to give them a…