Newport Beach, CA (October 25, 2021) – On Sunday the Newport Beach Film Festival celebrated eight honorees and four of Variety’s Top Ten Actors to Watch with a star-studded red carpet, brunch and ceremony at the beautiful beach-front location, The Balboa Bay Resort. Honorees at the festival included Rosanna Arquette (Icon Award), Regina Hall (Artist of Distinction), Harvey Keitel (Lifetime Achievement Award), Ray Liotta (Icon Award), Jeffrey Wright (Legend Award), Simon Rex (Spotlight Award), and Thomasin McKenzie (Breakout Performance Award), Justin H. Min (After Yang), Saniyya Sidney (King Richard), Filippo Scotti (The Hand of God), and more. After the red carpet and reception, the award ceremony began with opening remarks by festival founders Todd Quartararo and Gregg Schwenk and by the mayor of...

The 2021 Film Fest 919 was enthusiastically received this week as audiences began to venture out to the movies to enjoy 6 days of extraordinary and compelling independent film for their 4th edition. “We were so happy to return to the theater and see these terrific movies together on the big screen,” commented founders Randi Emerman and Carol Marshall. “Nothing beats seeing a movie with an audience, to feel the reaction of those around you and be able to talk about them afterwards...and we were able to do so safely!” The Film Fest 919 audience has spoken, voting both KING...

IDA Documentary Awards 2021 Features Shortlist: Ailey (USA / NEON. Director: Jamila Wignot. Producer: Lauren DeFilippo.) Apenas el sol (Nothing but the Sun) (Switzerland, Paraguay/ Film republic. Director/Producer: Arami Ullón. Producer: Pascal Trächslin.) Ascension (USA. Director/Producer: Jessica Kingdon. Producers: Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell.) Black Power: A British Story of Resistance (United Kingdom / Amazon Studios. Director: George Amponsah. Producer: Helen Bart.) Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters (USA / Kino Lorber. Director: Tom Hurwitz. Director/Producer: Rosalynde LeBlanc. Producer: Duana C. Butler.) Charm Circle (USA. Director/Producer: Nira Burstein. Producer: Betsy Laikin.) Convergence: Courage in a Crisis (USA / Netflix. Director/Producer: Orlando von...

Belfast opened the 2021 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, which returned to in-person screenings this year. During the opening night of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, Kenneth Branagh accepted SCAD's Lifetime Achievement Award to a standing ovation. In his acceptance speech, he acknowledged that he'd been in Savannah 25 years prior to film the Robert Altman film The Gingerbread Man, which of course produced applause. "So you were the ones that saw that film," he quipped. Branagh's award kicked off a great night for the writer/director/actor, whose film Belfast premiered at the Trustees Theater. (Photo by Cindy...

One of the things I have focused on for the past decade is the Academy's date change. The Oscars pushed their ceremony up by one month, from late March to late February. This, I have always thought, put the race in the hands of the critics and the tastemakers rather than actual ticket buyers and industry voters. But I haven't focused as much on the rise of Oscar coverage during that same time, and how that has managed to game the entire system so much that the fix is kind of in before what was used to be considered "Oscar...