BREAKING: MGM and Annapurna Pictures have branded a joint venture United Artists Releasing. The revived label will pool the distribution resources of Annapurna, MGM and Orion into a cohesive apparatus that will release films generated by all three, supplemented by select third party films. The hope is to create a more…

Annapurna has promoted Sue Naegle to chief content officer of Annapurna, where she will expand her role as president of the Megan Ellison company’s television division to oversee development and production the film slate. She will also have the company's Theatre division in here purview and will manage the…

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.

Welcome to a special Monday edition of Notes on the Season.

Hey, Academy members, you have just moments left to make your mark on this year’s increasingly heated Oscar race. Ballots for nominations for the 91st annual Academy Awards are due today at 5…

Tuesday’s news about Annapurna shockingly pulling out of two projects –Jay Roach’s untitled Roger Ailes movie and the Jennifer Lopez feature Hustlers — in addition to its head of production Chelsea Barnard exiting, has raised serious questions in Hollywood about the independent studio’s financial livelihood moving…

Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this occasional column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business.

BART: Summer forecasts are risky. In the year-end stories of 2016, studio mavens predicted that summer 2017 would embrace a…

EXCLUSIVE: Annapurna has set The Shallows helmer Jaume Collet-Serra to direct Waco, a drama scripted by Zero Dark Thirty's Mark Boal and Kubo and the Two Strings' Marc Haimes about the 1993 standoff between the FBI and Texas state law enforcement and the David Koresh-led Branch Davidians that turned the sleepy town of…

In only a few short years, Megan Ellison—who started up Annapurna in 2011—has taken a small, vibrant, indie production company and methodically turned it into an impressive mini-major. Those in town are comparing Annapurna to the heyday of Harvey and Bob Weinstein's Miramax, which dominated the '90s, but a more…

First Look Media's Topic has acquired U.S. rights to Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudry's documentary Death in the Terminal, exec produced by Zero Dark Thirty's Megan Ellison and Mark Boal.

The doc, which has won prizes at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and Israel's Academy Awards, was produced via Boal…

As Deadline predicted last month, the deal is done and Plan B — coming off Best Picture Oscar winner Moonlight — has moved its production deal to Annapurna. The company has signed a three-year deal, and Annapurna is poised to start the new relationship by taking on the film about polarizing former Vice President Dick C…

Killer Content CEO Adrienne Becker is joining Annapurna to be its Chief Operating Officer, the latest exec movie at Megan Ellison’s growing operation. Becker will be tasked with leading the company's business strategy across Annapurna Pictures, Annapurna TV and Annapurna Interactive. She will report to Ellison.

In May…

MGM is partnering with Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures to distribute all of Annapurna's films in select international territories. The multi-year partnership will kick off with Annapurna's first distribution title, Kathryn Bigelow's Untitled Detroit Project, which is slated for an August 4 release in the U.S.

Bigelo…

Adriene Bowles, who ran publicity all through the various gyrations Focus Features went through over the past few years, is leaving to become president of publicity at Annapurna Pictures. It’s the latest signal Megan Ellison’s company is ready to step up as a substantial distributor as well as financier/producer of…