Kareem Abeed, the producer of the Oscar-nominated feature documentary Last Men in Aleppo, has been granted a travel visa to the U.S. so that he can attend the Oscars on Sunday. Previously, the Syrian native who lives in Turkey, was denied entry due to the Trump administration’s ban on eight Muslim countries, but the…

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit And you thought Washington D.C. was bad! It is nothing compared to the Oscars when every vote is on the line. With voting going on in force, it seems it is prime time for political controversy and headline-grabbing attempts at making a last-minute…

In a year of firsts for the Academy Awards, more history is being made in the ranks of Best Documentary Feature than perhaps any other category. Take Agnès Varda, for starters—co-director of Faces Places with artist-photographer JR. At age 89 she may well qualify as the oldest nominee in a competitive category in…

Syria's brutal civil war does not lack for villains—President Bashar al-Assad, for example, who according to the UN, has blistered his people with chemical weapons. Or Russian President Vladimir Putin—many would argue—whose warplanes have obliterated countless Syrian civilians. But the conflict has produced valiant…

A documentary about the world’s leading expert on chimpanzees and another about the cats of Istanbul took two of the top prizes tonight at the second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. Jane, about chimp maven Jane Goodall, won Best Documentary at the Penn Gillette-hosted ceremony in Brooklyn, and Kedi dragged…

So far, 2017 has not produced many Specialty box office stars, though this weekend's wave may signal renewed momentum. Laura Poitras, who won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2015 for Citizenfour, returns with Risk. The feature is much different from the rendering she gave as a sneak at last year's Cannes Film Festival…

The trailer for the Sundance Film Festival World Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner Last Men In Aleppo just dropped from Grasshopper Film. From Syrian writer-director Feras Fayyad, the film is the second documentary to come along about the White Helmets, the first responders who rush in to rescue victims of the…

Indie distributor Grasshopper Film has acquired U.S. rights to Last Men In Aleppo, the feature-length film that that won the World Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, where it had its world premiere in January. Grasshopper plans a May platform release in New York (the Metrograph) and Los…