Kobe Bryant, the former Los Angeles Laker MVP shoot guard and Oscar winner for the animated short film Dear Basketball, unveiled the upcoming 2019 projects for his multi-platform entertainment company Granity Studios this morning . Granity is zeroing on creating and producing inspiring, youth-oriented…

Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault allegations from 2003 are coming back to haunt him in the #MeToo and Time’s Up era. He recently was removed from the jury at the Animation Is Film Festival after a petition called for his removal. The petition was started by Women and Allies on Change.org and reads: “We, women and allies…

No stranger to countdown clocks, basketball great Kobe Bryant was nonetheless brought up a little short, time-wise, on the Oscar stage this past Sunday, and last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live he told Kimmel what he would have said, as he accepted his trophy for Dear Basketball, if he’d had more seconds. “The most…

Kobe Bryant has scored again. The retired Laker took home the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Dear Basketball, his love letter to the game he played so well in the NBA for 20 years. Created on the eve of his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers, the short is narrated by Bryant and describes his love…

“This is better than any All-Star Game I was ever in,” said Kobe Bryant, a first-time Oscar nominee (for the animated short Dear Basketball), as he dropped by my table at the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon today to say hello to Netflix’s Ted Sarandos. In a room full of heavyweights from Streep to Spielberg, Kobe was…

Kobe Bryant Oscar winner? The basketball great is one step further along to that improbable feat, with his first attempt at filmmaking since his retirement from the game and the Los Angeles Lakers has been shortlisted as a finalist for Best Animated Short this year. Ten films were named, and Dear Basketball…

“If you asked me when I was 10 years old if I would be here now—that I would be here—I would have said, 'You're absolutely nuts,'” Kobe Bryant admits, sitting down at Deadline’s Tribeca Studio to discuss his animated short film Dear Basketball. “But that's the beautiful thing about life, isn't it?” One of the greatest…

Deadline is holding its Tribeca Film Festival portrait and video interview studio at the festival hub in NYC, opening its doors to this year’s most riveting and groundbreaking filmmakers. Guests stopping by the Deadline Studio on Day 3 included Andie MacDowell (Love After Love), Joseph Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale), El…

The 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival has announced its schedule for the Tribeca Talks portion of the event which runs April 19-30. These are conversations between pivotal creatives, filmmakers, musicians, stars and media personalities. "It is an incredible privilege to get a glimpse into the creative process of some…

The 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival has unveiled the list 57 short films in competition this year, chosen out of a whooping 4,385 submissions. Of the selected shorts, which will be presented in ten distinct programs, 40% were directed by women and 40% are international films as 18 countries are represented. The…

ESPN has teamed up with Kobe Bryant on Canvas, an NBA-focused shortform video series that premieres on Christmas Day, during the 2 PM ET edition of NBA Countdown on ABC. The Los Angeles Lakers legend creates, directs and writes the six short video presentations, each focused on an NBA on-court topic as seen through…

“When [AFI board chair] Sir Howard Stringer rang me about this event my first thought was, ‘I’m really much too young for a thing like this’,” 84-year-old maestro John Williams told a heavyweight industry crowd packed into the Dolby Theatre on Thursday night for the presentation of the 44th AFI Life Achievement Award…