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Julia opens to the raucous, back-and-forth guitar licks of Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” — a decidedly unanticipated and seemingly outside-the-box choice for co-directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s genial nonfiction assaying of author and celebrity chef Julia Child, which otherwise trades largely in traditional rhythms, and unfolds in expected ways. But then again, maybe, given its lyrical evocation of “only one burning desire,” it appropriately captures the singular passion of its subject.

In the olden days, actors were expected to be all-around performers. Singing and dancing were requirements that even those we think of as heavy dramatic actors were forced to learn.

In awards season speeches for his lauded performance in Joker, in 2020, Joaquin Phoenix first thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for recognizing the link between animal agriculture and climate change by serving a plant-based meal at the Golden Globes. One month later, in his Academy Award acceptance speech, he condemned speciesism (and specifically the dairy industry taking baby calves from their mothers), connecting the issue to broader fights against injustice and the belief that any one nation, people, race, or gender has the right to dominate, control, use, and exploit another with impunity.

With Between Mountains, director, writer, producer Vineesha Arora Sarin has created a lyrical visual journey depicting the internal struggle that is so relevant in the time of Covid: the effort not to succumb to our emotional pain as we struggle to overcome grief in a society that discourages expressions of psychological hurt. Starring Bollywood sensation and the director’s husband, Amit Sarin, the film follows a man dealing with the loss of his family and the stages of grieving, from guilt, overwhelming sadness, to the ethereal ability of nature to heal.

Justine Bateman, former child star of 80s sitcom Family Ties, makes her feature film directorial debut with the thought-provoking drama, Violet, at the Toronto Film Festival. The success of the film rests on the shoulders of Olivia Munn, playing a successful Hollywood executive, Violet, who battles multiple insecurities exacerbated by the voice in her head (otherwise known as ‘the committee’) voiced by Justin Theroux, who takes her to task at every opportunity.

Sonia Nassery Cole’s father always told her that she could do anything. Afghan-born American filmmaker and human rights activist Nassery Cole tells HFPA journalist Patricia Danaher that attitude was embedded in her.

Arguably, one of the most anticipated films of the Venice Film Festival, The Last Duel, is the latest historical drama by iconic Golden Globe-winning director, Ridley Scott, based on the book of the same name by Eric Jager, and boasts a stellar cast including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Adam Driver, and Jodie Comer. This 14th-century saga is set in 1386, based on the true account of a feud between good friends and fellow noblemen, Jean de Carrouges (Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Driver).

La premiere mundial de Lo invisible en el Festival de Toronto marca un retorno para el cine ecuatoriano en el importante evento cinematográfico, pero también es casi como un traspaso de la antorcha, porque el último director de ese país que estuvo allí es Sebastián Cordero, quien fue, casualmente, profesor de cine de Javier Andrade y también el director de Ratas, ratones, rateros, el filme en el que éste tuvo un pequeño papel como actor. Protagonizada por Anahí Hoeneisen, quien es también la coguionista, Lo invisible muestra la descomposición emocional y psicológica de una mujer de la alta sociedad que no puede superar la depresión post-parto.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) today announced the selection for the first time of three non-members to the Board of Directors responsible for overseeing the ongoing reform plan to restructure the organization along the lines of accountability, ethics, and greater inclusion of the diversity of world journalism. This new Board includes 15 total directors – 12 active members and three non-members.

The opening credits of the new documentary Fauci alternates between footage venerating Dr. Anthony Fauci and heated news and radio clips suggesting the world-renowned immunologist and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases should be fired, jailed, or even executed, and have his head “put on a pike to serve as an example to other bureaucrats.