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Danny Huston, a Golden Globe nominee for his acting, was only 25 years old when he made his feature film debut directing Mr. North with a script written by his father, John Huston, from the 1973 novel Theophilus North by Thornton Wilder.

Back in the dawn of cinema, in the silent era, a star died young – 31 years old – as a result of something that seemed to follow the new industry: serious safety risks on set. In 1919, Wallace Reid, a rising actor whose goal was to become a director, was seriously injured in a train wreck while on his way to the set of The Valley of the Giants in Portland, Oregon.

For five years the HFPA Global Residency program has been bringing emerging filmmakers from around the world to Hollywood and fulfilling the HFPA’s mission as ambassadors between the American film industry and world cinema by partnering with some of the world’s premiere film festivals. This year once again the Residency endeavored to give participating fellows a first-hand glimpse of American independent filmmaking.

As part of the 2023 HFPA Residency program, participating film makers introduced their films at a Los Angeles screening, followed by a Q&A moderated by an HFPA journalist.   LA-based Azeri actor/director Tahmina Raffaella screened Banu, an affecting chronicle of a woman’s quest to obtain a divorce and custody of her son, along with a personal emancipation from an abusive marriage, in a lonely struggle against the patriarchal mores that stack the game against her.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a dark stop-motion musical adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s “The Adventures of Pinocchio”. The book was published in 1882.

Barely three years ago, her first fiction feature film, Yo, Impossible, was selected by Venezuela to compete for the Oscar for the best international feature. This week, Patricia Ortega will present her next film at the Sundance Film Festival, Mamacruz, a Spanish production.

There is a great sense of nostalgia for many filmmakers settling into Park City, Utah for the 2023 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. Not only are they fondly recalling the last in person edition of the world’s most famous independent showcase of films, which was 2020 right before the pandemic hit, but more so; there is a sense memory to the plethora of dollars showered on films as studios and streamers looked to buy movies to fill their release calendars.

The probability is pretty high that, before 2020, Sofia Alaoui had no idea where Utah was. Born in Casablanca, the filmmaker spent her childhood between Morocco and China before moving to Paris after high school to study cinema.

Partying in the snow is back! So are the long lines in the freezing cold. And for the couch potatoes among us, there’s always online watching.

The Banshees of Inisherin won three Globes – Best Picture – Musical/Comedy; Colin Farrell, Best Actor – Motion Picture – Musical/Comedy, and Martin McDonagh, Best Screenplay – Motion Picture in the 80th Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton. A film centering on the failing bromance of two middle-aged men on a random island off the west coast of Ireland may not have worked in any director’s hands.