News

It’s a testament to the emotional power of “Titanic” that 20 years after its release, fans are still debating whether or not Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Jack, had to die at the end of the Oscar-winning blockbuster. With a famed “Mythbusters” episode offering scientific proof that the wooden door floating in the icy North Atlantic should […]...

The Islands and the Whales, which recently had its North American theatrical premiere at IFC Center and broadcast premiere on Pov, is one of the most innovative documentaries on marine conservation I’ve seen in years. Director Mike Day is carving out a niche for himself by addressing the interstices where traditional cultures butt against modern conservationist ideals, resulting in nuanced interactions that defy expectations. The Islands and the Whales, for instance, shows the people of the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic — Viking descendants who have lived off of the sea for generations — and how they are struggling […]...

Dave Lawrie Aug 4, 2017

Blackfish, The Act Of Killing - we celebrate the great documentaries distributed by the UK's Dogwoof...

Did you know that around 20 percent of the films released in the UK are documentaries? It’s a surprisingly large figure. I think the reason behind it might be that ‘documentary’ is considered to be a genre in and of itself. “And the Academy Award for best documentary feature goes to…”. They're all lumped into the same bracket. Also, they're relatively cheap to make and can be assembled independently by a team of only a few people. Success at the box office is often down on the priorities list for creators wanting to spread a message, tell a story or get a point across and, when they only need to recoup that small amount to be considered successful, documentary cinema becomes fertile ground for ambitions to grow in.

See related Preacher...

A 97-year-old vet who survived the battle of Dunkirk spoke through tears after watching the premiere of the new Christopher Nolan movie.

Ken Sturdy, a native of Wales who currently lives in Calgary, Canada, donned a suit jacket adorned with medals when he headed to Calgary’s Westhills Cinemas on Friday to watch the World War II drama that he lived through nearly 80 years ago.

“I never thought I would see that again,” Sturdy told Canada’s Global News. “It was just like I was there again.”

The film tells the story of the historic battle that took place between...

With a 94 on Metacritic and a $50 million debut at the box office, Dunkirk is already one of Christopher Nolan’s most well-received films. It isn’t just critics and fanboys who appreciate his tense new World War II drama, however, as at least one veteran of the battle itself is now signing its praises as well: “I never thought I would see that again,” said 97-year-old Ken Sturdy. “It was just like I was there again.”

Read More‘Dunkirk’ and ‘Girls Trip’ Prove the Box-Office Value of Original Ideas; ‘Valerian’ Does Not

“It didn’t have a lot of dialogue. It didn’t need any of the dialogue because it told the story visually and it was so real,” he continued. “Dunkirk” is light on conventional plotting and dialogue, as Nolan opted for an experiential, you-are-there approach that favors action over words. Sturdy, who was 20 at the time, served as...

With the July 16 premiere of “Game of Thrones” Season 7 quickly approaching, HBO has been amping up marketing for the show. There have been action-packed new trailers, clips of the main cast cheekily singing “I Will Survive,” and a series of posters showing the cast bathed in icy blue, reminiscent of the Night King and his army of undead. With just 13 episodes left until the last hurrah, the hype for “Game of Thrones” is at a fever-pitch.

Read More: ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7: Watch This Supercut of Every Trailer HBO Has Released So Far

To capitalize on this, Time magazine has released a “Game of Thrones” issue filled with exclusive photos and behind-the-scenes coverage of Season 7 from television critic Daniel D’Addario. Although HBO is notorious for keeping a lid on spoilers when it comes to one of their most prized properties, there are plenty of interesting tidbits in the...

What's the Russian equivalent of Kool-Aid? Whatever it is, it's definitely red – and Oliver Stone has eagerly drunk it down. The trailers for The Putin Interviews, Showtime's four-part series documenting a series of conversations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Stone, would have you believe that you're going to hear some pretty hard-hitting stuff as the autocrat and the filmmaker face off, Frost-Nixon style. What we got instead was a series of softballs lobbed lovingly in the direction of one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the world.

Even President Donald Trump needs someone to figure out what “covfefe“ means.

Trump caused a social media stir when he tweeted, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” on Tuesday night. The post remained up for several hours before it was deleted early Wednesday morning and replaced by another one about the faux word.

“Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe” ??? Enjoy!” he wrote.

Twitter attempted to figure out the meaning of “covfefe” as the word began trending, with celebrities, journalists and authors weighing in and taking a stab as they attempted to decipher Trump’s now-deleted tweet.

Who...

What did President Donald Trump mean on Tuesday night when he tweeted the word “covfefe“?

That’s what most of Twitter tried to figure out as the word began trending, with celebrities, journalists and authors weighing in and taking a stab as they attempted to decipher Trump’s tweet, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”

I'm gonna try and go back to sleep now. Everyone stay #covfefe

— James Corden (@JKCorden) May 31, 2017

Finally figured out what Bill Murray whispered in Scarlett Johansson's ear at the end of "Lost in Translation" #covfefe pic.twitter.com/fDFJUYlEz8

— Jordan VanDina (@Shrimptooth) May 31, 2017

When "covfefe" is your activation word.

While President Donald Trump has met with many male heads of government, First Lady Melania Trump has often mingled with their wives. But on Thursday, Mrs. Trump was introduced to the First Gentleman of Luxembourg.

Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, joined Trump and other spouses for a dinner while their significant others attended a gathering as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) conference in Brussels, Belgium.

Prime Minister Bettel, 44, and Belgian architect Destenay entered a civil partnership in 2010 and married in 2015 after Luxembourg’s legislators approved gay marriage. Bettel became the first...

President Donald Trump is under fire for appearing to shove Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic aside to get to the front of a group of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) leaders.

While gathering at Nato’s new headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, a group of members are seen walking together to get to a meeting. From behind, Trump emerges pushes Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic aside, stepping in front of him. The president then smugly straightens in his jacket.

In his first address as president to the Nato leaders minutes later, the frequent critic of Nato during his campaign...

We are, at the time of writing, exactly one month out from the launch of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales – known as Salazar’s Revenge across the choppy waters of the North Atlantic – and in an effort to ensure everyone is up to speed on the history of the franchise, Disney has unearthed a new promo for Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning’s soft reboot that presents a welcome history lesson on Jack Sparrow and his death-defying adventures.

From The Curse of the Black Pearl all the way up to 2011’s On Stranger Tides, this featurette is perhaps the perfect primer for Dead Men Tell No Tales, which opens at a time when Johnny Depp’s erratic anti-hero is couped up in hiding. That self-imposed exile doesn’t last terribly long, though, particularly when Javier Bardem’s Salazar claws his way out of the Devil’s Triangle seeking revenge.

Multi-talented filmmaker of such awesome films as The Evil Dead, Darkman, and Drag Me To Hell, Sam Raimi, is set to direct the Bermuda Triangle mystery thriller being spearheaded by Skydance Productions. Currently, Skydance is busy developing one of three Bermuda Triangle projects, with the others being set up by Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures. The films will center around the area of the North Atlantic... Read More...

Sam Raimi of Oz The Great and Powerful has come attached to the untitled Bermuda Triangle movie at Skydance, which is one of three competing projects currently simmering in development.

The other two, according to The Hollywood Reporter, have set up shop across Universal and Warner Bros., though with Raimi now in talks to helm the mystery thriller, it seems Skydance’s movie is the furthest along even at this early stage in development.

Centering on the infamous stretch of sea between Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, the Bermuda Triangle (Aka the Devil’s Triangle) has a long history of aircraft and ships venturing into its waters, only to disappear without a trace. Estimations are all over the place, and ever since the phrase Bermuda Triangle was first coined in 1964, that relatively small channel in the North Atlantic has become something of a worldwide phenomenon among conspiracy theorists, with potential...

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has joked about the size of President Donald Trump’s hands at a fundraising event in London.

May made the crack at the Black and White Ball after being applauded by guests, The Telegraph reports. “I don’t think I have received such a big hand since I walked down the colonnade at the White House,” she said in response, apparently referencing a photo of herself and the U.S. president walking hand-in-hand during her visit to Washington last month.

As a candidate, Donald Trump called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “obsolete.

Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Jean-Luc Godard's La gai savoir (1969) is showing from January 18 - February 17, 2017 in many countries around the world as part of the retrospective For Ever Godard.Le gai savoir (Joy of Learning, 1969) is a film by Jean-Luc Godard which, unlike classics such as Breathless (1960) or Contempt (1963) is hardly a household name. Godard’s Weekend (1967) gives us an inkling of what is to come in its postscript production credit: What translates to mean “End of story” and then “End of cinema” flashes in blue lettering on a black backdrop; a moment later, we see that this word game has been created using a statement of the film’s visa control number. Of course, Godard had already been engaging in this kind of word play for years in his credits and intertitles. Although these statements could also be taken as being typical,...

Bulgarian-Danish-French drama previously won festival awards in Locarno and Sarajevo.

Ralitza Petrova’s Godless has won this year’s Golden Puffin, the top award at the 13th Reykjavik International Film Festival (Riff)

The jury, comprised of Goteborg artistic director Jonas Holmberg, Rams director Grimur Hákonarson and bestselling Icelandic novelist Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, said, “The Golden Puffin goes to a bleak but beautiful film with poignant acting and atmospheric cinematography. The film combines the downbeat suspense of an medicalised crime story with a subtle portrayal of the agony in a post communist society where redemption is only glimpsed in the sacral world of music.”

Godless, which is a Bulgarian-Danish-French co-production, previously won the Golden Leopard in Locarno and the Special Jury Award and the Heart of Sarajevo for best actress (Irena Ivanova) at Sarajevo Film Festival. It also won five national awards at the Golden Rose National Film Festival in Bulgaria.

Petrova is a graduate of the UK’s National...

Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut “American Pastoral,” an adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-wining 1997 novel, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival yesterday to mostly negative reviews. The film follows Seymour “Swede” Levov (played by McGregor), a former high school athlete and successful businessman whose family falls apart amidst the turmoil of the 1960s. Critics have described the film as yet another ill-advised Roth adaptation and more proof that the writer’s work doesn’t translate well to the screen, save for James Schamus’ “Indignation” released earlier this year.

Read More: Tiff Reveals First Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Magnificent Seven,’ ‘American Honey,’ ‘La La Land’ and ‘Birth of A Nation’

IndieWire’s own David Ehrlich describes “American Pastoral” as a “disaster,” calling McGregor’s direction “competent but uncreative,” and his fidelity to Roth’s text “asphyxiating:”

“As it stumbles towards its hero’s decline… ‘American Pastoral’ increasingly feels like...

It’s the end of the world. Finally, a legitimate reason for a man to experience emotion. We’ve seen this all before… except not quite so ridiculous. I’m “biast” (pro): big science fiction fan

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

End of the world, for real. No heroes to save the day. No reprieve. A big-ass meteor has hit in the North Atlantic, and Australia has 12 hours before the planet-scouring firestorm hits. (There may be some scientific problems with this scenario: an Earth-killing strike would perhaps wrack even the other side of the planet instantly with unendurable quakes and the like? But never mind.) Everyone has known for quite a while that this has been coming, and James (Nathan Phillips: Snakes on a Plane) has plans: to be as wasted as possible when armageddon hits, because “it’s...

The world grieved for Paris last November after a series of coordinated terrorist attacks claimed by the Islamic group Isis left 130 people dead. But when the smoke cleared, attention soon shifted to neighboring Brussels, specifically the heavily Muslim-immigrant suburb of Molenbeek - where security officials say the attackers met to build bombs and hatch their plan. "These acts of war have been decided and planned in Syria, they have been organized in Belgium and perpetrated on our soil with French accomplices," French president Francoise Hollande said in the wake of the attacks. On Friday, counter-terrorism authorities arrested the final suspect...

Last November, all eyes were on the city of Paris after facing an attack from Isis-associated jihadists, killing 130 people. But after Paris, the focus went to the neighboring country of Belgium, where authorities said they believed the plans for the attacks were conceived. "These acts of war have been decided and planned in Syria, they have been organized in Belgium and perpetrated on our soil with French accomplices," French president Francoise Hollande said in the wake of the attacks. Fast-forward four months, and Belgian terrorists have struck on their own territory, killing 34 and wounding at least 187. It's attack that may...

The Trip to Italy was, by most estimates, no inferior companion to 2011’s generally beloved The Trip, and so it would only make sense that Michael Winterbottom, Steve Coogan, and Rob Brydon have a third feature — with a third series of locations — in the works. Next on their plate, according to NME, is a “venture from the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean coast,” the latest set of antics taking place within “Cantabria, the Basque region, Aragon, Rioja, Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia.”

As was the case with the first two installments, this will also be shot, edited, and presented as a television series for BBC2; it’s uncertain whether this will be before (as in the original outing) or after (as in the second) the feature premieres. Shooting begins sometime this year, perhaps after Coogan completes production on An Ideal Home, which Variety tells us he’s leading alongside Paul Rudd.

Telling a true story on film doesn’t relieve the writer or the director from portraying that event in a way that feels dramatically honest and coherent. This might seem like an obvious rule, but in a calendar year that opens with Michael Bay‘s “13 Hours” and now “The Finest Hours,” it seems like one that needs to be part of every film school curriculum. There’s plenty of suspense and human drama to be gleaned from the story of a handful of plucky Coast Guard rescuers who save dozens of men from a sinking oil tanker in the stormy,...

Ever since he drowned in the North Atlantic, Leonardo DiCaprio’s road to Oscar gold is one fraught with troubles. Not even becoming Martin Scorsese’s Bff got him any closer to the podium. Nope. Leo has never held an Academy Award at the actual ceremony unless it was Kate Winslet’s — but maybe this year will be different.

Leo had the foresight to work with Alejandro González Iñárritu on Oscar Attempt #3,876 – The Revenant. Iñárritu won the big prizes from the Academy last year, going home with both Best Director and Best Picture forBirdman, starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, and Edward Norton.

This passed Sunday, Iñárritu’s The Revenant won Best Picture at the Golden Globes, with Leonardo taking Best Actor for his bison-liver-eating troubles. Will their winning formula translate into Oscar gold? Their nominations this morning gets them one step closer, but we’ll have to see how it...

Ever since he drowned in the North Atlantic, Leonardo DiCaprio’s road to Oscar gold is one fraught with troubles. Not even becoming Martin Scorsese’s Bff got him any closer to the podium. Nope. Leo has never held an Academy Award at the actual ceremony unless it was Kate Winslet’s — but maybe this year will be different.

Leo had the foresight to work with Alejandro González Iñárritu on Oscar Attempt #3,876 – The Revenant. Iñárritu won the big prizes from the Academy last year, going home with both Best Director and Best Picture forBirdman, starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, and Edward Norton.

This passed Sunday, Iñárritu’s The Revenant won Best Picture at the Golden Globes, with Leonardo taking Best Actor for his bison-liver-eating troubles. Will their winning formula translate into Oscar gold? Their nominations this morning gets them one step closer, but we’ll have to see how it...

Left at the mercy of mother nature, in 1952 oil tanker SS Pendleton was left stricken off the eastern seaboard in the face of a fierce nor’easter, tossed about like a kite dancing in hurricane-force winds and 60-foot high waves. Such an intense storm lead to one of the most daring small boat rescues in coast guard history, and it’s little wonder why it hasn’t been projected onto the silver screen long before Craig Gillespie and The Finest Hours appeared on the horizon.

Nevertheless, with little over two weeks until release, Disney has debuted a new promo for the real-life maritime thriller, placing first assistant engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) in the eye of the storm so to speak as the only senior officer on board. When disaster strikes, the crew quickly realize that they have three hours tops before the ravaged ship plunges to the depths of the North Atlantic,...

Bethesda Fallout 4 Review

It already feels like an age since the explosive launch of Fallout 4, and many are now familiar with the Boston Wasteland’s cities, vaults and hidden corners. That’s not to say that fans have seen all there is to see, but as we approach 2016, it’s time to start piecing together the information around what we can expect in the new year.

Bethesda have an excellent track record of Dlc with their RPGs (they’ve come a long way since Oblivion’s Horse Armor). Fallout 3 and New Vegas had five and four Dlc packs respectively, featuring whole new locations, intriguing new storylines that in some cases fed back into the main quest, and an array of new perks and weapons.

There’s no reason to think Bethesda shouldn’t meet their own high Dlc bar with Fallout 4, and there are already hints in the base game...

See Full Gallery Here

Come January, Craig Gillespie’s real-life drama The Finest Hours will whisk moviegoers back into the year 1952, telling the gruelling tale of a sinking oil tanker in the bitter-cold waters of the North Atlantic. Before that, though, the award-winning director Ron Howard is primed to take us further back in time with In The Heart of the Sea, which is set to tell a very different tale of life on the high seas.

Arriving not long after the latest – and final – trailer for the Warner Bros.’ epic, today’s batch of screenshots are intended to spotlight some of the leading cast members, particularly those aboard the doomed Essex whaling ship. Upon encountering a sperm whale of gargantuan size, In The Heart of the Sea then unfolds into a survival pic, charting a Herculean tussle between humanity and nature that would eventually go on to seed Herman Melville’s seminal novel,...

Uncanny Inhumans #2

Writer: Charles Soule

Penciler: Steve McNiven

Inker: Jay Leisten

Colorist: Sunny Gho

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Inhumans are complicated. Charles Soule’s mastery over the royal family, Johnny Storm, Beast, and the ever corrupting Kang shines in the second (technically third) issue of the flagship Inhuman title. In a series that involves time-travel, numerous plot threads and characters bleeding in and out of other titles, to have an opener featuring a love triangle is the most mundane this issue will get. For a man that can “crack the moon in half”, Steve McNiven, Jay Leisten, and Sunny Gho give Black Bolt all of the emotion and range he needs to get his silent point across. The expanded cast gets down to business to hear Medusa and about the impending threat of Kang doubled with Black Bolt’s apparent deal with Kang concerning their son Ahura.

McNiven...

Real-life brother-in-laws and soon to be brothers outside the law in film, Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck are re-teaming for new outlaw western flick Far Bright Star, with the latter on board to direct.

Set against the sun-kissed outback of 1916, Affleck’s new drama will be based on a novel by Robert Olmstead, and it’s understood Damien Ober has been brought on board to transition the bandit story onto the silver screen.

As for Phoenix’s role within Far Bright Star, he’ll lead the western as a grizzled calvary man who, upon recruiting a ragtag bunch of scoundrels to help his plight, sets his crosshairs on a devious Mexican revolutionary known as Pancho Villa. Plans soon take a turn for the worst, however, and when his men are butchered, he’s cast astray in the desert and left fighting for survival.

Details at this stage are thin on the dusty ground,...

Braving hurricane-force winds and 60-foot high waves, earlier this week we got a peek at the fierce intensity that Craig Gillespie is bringing to real-life maritime drama The Finest Hours, but what of the real heroes that scrambled to save the survivors of the SS Pendleton in 1952?

Walt Disney Pictures has answered that question today with a new featurette for the Oscar hopeful, chronicling the unflinching bravery and courage displayed by the North Eastern coast guard who risked their lives in order to pluck the seaman from the bitter cold waters of the North Atlantic. Leading the charge is Chris Pine’s Captain Bernie Webber, who literally goes through Hell and high water in order to rescue first assistant engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) and his trapped, frightened crew.

Assembling an impressive cast to hit the high seas, Gillespie has welcomed aboard Ben Foster, and Holliday Grainger, while the ensemble...

Based on the incredible true story is a phrase so often affixed to a hearty Oscar contender, and Craig Gillespie’s upcoming maritime thriller The Finest Hours is no different. As a matter of fact, in bumping Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book into April of next year, Disney steered Gillespie’s feature into the thick of awards season.

It’s by no means the only thriller of its kind competing for Oscar glory, though, with Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea also eyeing Academy recognition, though rather than coming face-to-face with a sperm whale of colossal size, The Finest Hours reads like a more focused, real-life thriller, charting the phenomenal bravery of the North Eastern coast guard in 1952.

It was here that a fierce storm hit New England and ripped the SS Pendleton into two, scattering its crew into the bitter-cold waters of the North Atlantic.

When I was a kid, I used to love a scary movie. I remember catching the original The Haunting (1963) one night on Channel 9’s Million Dollar Movie when I was home alone. Before it was over, I had every light in the house on. When my mother got home she was screaming she’d been able to see the house glowing from two blocks away. The only thing screaming louder than her was the electricity meter.

That was something of an accomplishment, scaring me like that. Oh, it’s not that I was hard to scare (I still don’t like going down into a dark cellar). But, in those days, the movies didn’t have much to scare you with. Back as far as the 50s, you might find your odd dismemberment and impaling, even an occasional decapitation, but, generally, the rule of the day was restraint. Even those rare dismemberments,...

The Fox network has given a script commitment for "These Final Hours," a U.S. cable television series adaptation of 2013's Australian apocalyptic drama feature of the same name.

Nathan Phillips, Angourie Rice, Jessica De Gouw and Daniel Henshall starred in the original film which is set in Perth, Australia and starts ten minutes after a meteor hits the North Atlantic. With just twelve hours left until the subsequent global firestorm reaches, the story follows a group of twenty-somethings as they celebrate the last hours of their lives.

EuropaCorp TV Studios USA is producing the small screen version with original film writer/director Zak Hildizactch on board to serve in the same capacities. The new take shifts the action to the San Francisco Bay Area and follows three siblings who srace to get to their estranged father's bomb shelter that can withstand the end of days.

Matthew Gross, Edouard de Vesinne...

A look at the list of my favorite movies from 2014 reveals the presence of six extraordinary nonfiction films, and that’s just a taste of the seeming hundreds of docs released last year-- not all of them extraordinary, of course, but all of them indicative of a trend toward the making of the availability of more nonfiction filmmaking than it seems we’ve likely ever seen in this country. And speaking of availability, the six I listed—Ron Mann’s Altman, Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson’s Milius, Orlando von Einsidel’s Virunga, Chaplain and Maclain Way’s The Battered Bastards of Baseball, Stephanie Spray and Pancho Velez’s Manakamana and Errol Morris’s The Unknown Known— were all pictures I caught courtesy of Netflix Streaming. (Virunga was actually produced under the company’s auspices.)

I have a special place in my cinematic heart for nonfiction, both bound between covers and on the screen,...

Initally, a source had informed us they believed Kenny Baker was in Portmagee yesterday. While they were correct in the little person info they sent, they got Baker wrong, and as a result, we got it wrong. Turns out the "little person" that came ashore was none other than Jimmy Vee. He stands at 3' 8" and has starred in a number of Doctor Who episodes. He'll also be starring in Pan alongside Hugh Jackman this October. However, Vee is not listed anywhere for Star Wars Episode VIII which is now shooting in Skellig Michael off the Kerry coast. We've seen the photographic proof of Vee coming ashore this morning, however, we don't have permission to publish the image. Skellig Michael is a tough hike at the best of times, once you brave the North Atlantic and choppers aside, I'd imagine that Kenny Baker (at the fantastic age of 81) may not be up the location,...

Here's your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress -- at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. Atlantic Salmon: Lost at Sea Logline: "Atlantic Salmon - Lost at Sea" takes the viewer on an epic journey through the oceanic kingdom of the Atlantic Salmon – king of fish – in an attempt to unravel the mystery of their life at sea. Elevator Pitch: Populations of salmon are plummeting to critical levels, even going extinct in some southern rivers. Despite conservation efforts worldwide, populations continue to fall. The cause is mortality at sea. For the very first time, through advanced DNA technology and acoustic tagging, scientists are able to track the salmon from the rivers, through the estuaries and into the vast...

Sundance Institute has announced the participants for its weeklong Creative Film Producing Initiative at the Sundance Resort in Utah, July 27 – August 3, including nine feature film and documentary projects for the Creative Producing Labs and more than 50 industry leaders for the Creative Producing Summit.

The Institute’s Creative Producing Initiative encompasses a year-round series of Labs, Fellowships, granting and events focusing on nurturing the next generation of independent producers and renewing the community of veteran producers who sustain the vibrancy and vitality of independent film.

The Feature Film Creative Producing Lab (July 27 – July 31) identifies emerging producers and, under the guidance of Creative Advisors, allows them to develop their creative instincts and evolve their communicating and problem-solving skills at all stages of their feature film project. This year’s Creative Advisors include producers Lindsay Doran ("Sense and Sensibility"), Lynette Howell Taylor (The Place Beyond the Pines), Gina Kwon ("Me You and Everyone We Know"), Paul Mezey ("Beasts of the Southern Wild"), Jay Van Hoy (

"Beginners" ) and director Matthew Ross ("28 Hotel Rooms" ).

The Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab (July 27 – August 1) brings together documentarians with award-winning Advisors to focus on their current projects to explore the wide range of creative approaches to distribution, outreach and impact strategies. This year’s Creative Advisors include producers Julie Goldman ( "Best of Enemies"), Bonni Cohen ("3 1/2 Minutes," "10 Bullets"), Ryan Werner (Cinetic), Maxyne Franklin (Britdoc), and Wendy Cohen (Picture Motion).

The Creative Producing Summit takes place immediately following the Labs, July 31 – August 3. More than 50 industry leaders will participate in a series of curated panels, case studies, roundtables, and one-on-one meetings addressing critical issues producers face including financing, distribution, audience engagement, marketing and sustainability. Panelists this year include Len Amato (HBO Films),

Michael Barker (Sony Pictures Classics), Dori Begley (Magnolia Pictures), Josh Braun (Submarine), Dan Cogan (Impact Partners), Victoria S. Cook (Frankfurt Kurnit), Danielle Di Giacomo (The Orchard), Fred Dust (Ideo), Ted Hope (Amazon), Micah Green (CAA), John Hoffman (Discovery Channel), Marcus Hu (Strand Releasing), Charles King (MacRo), Jessica Lacy (ICM Partners), Stephanie Langhoff (Duplass Brothers), David Magdael (Tcdm Associates), Victor Moyers (Broad Green), Annie Roney (ro*co Films), John Sloss (Cinetic Media), Graham Taylor (William Morris Endeavor), and Jay Van Hoy (Parts & Labor).

The Fellows and projects selected for the 2015 Feature Film Creative Producing Lab are:

"50 Miles From Boomtown"

Producing Fellow: Alex Scharfman

After years of saving for her hard-earned dream, the only woman working on the fracking fields of North Dakota can finally quit but unexpectedly finds herself falling in love with the young man she's training to take her place. (writer/director Flo Linus Baumann).

Alex Scharfman is a New York-based producer whose past feature credits include "The Heart Machine" and "Lyle," as well as the short film "Superior," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015, and the WGA Award-nominated webseries "F to 7th." He is an executive at Parts & Labor Films where he worked on films including "Keep The Lights On" and "Loitering with Intent." He has also produced content for Vice, Google, the Ford Foundation, and At&T. Alex received his BA from Cornell University, is a former Mfa candidate from Nyu’s Tisch School of the Arts, and received his Mba from Nyu’s Stern School of Business.

"Bexar County"

Mark Silverman Honorees and Producing Fellows: Blake Pickens and Stephen Love Jr.

In sunny San Antonio, Texas, where nothing ever changes, a town is turned on its head when a delusional Texas housewife accidentally poisons her son’s fiancée, learning that killing people is an efficient way to solve her problems. (Co-writer/director Catherine Grieve, co-writer Dylan Slocum)

Blake Pickens is from the south side of Oklahoma City, from a neighborhood known as the Flats. Despite the community’s rampant drug use and gang wars, Blake found his way into storytelling with a writing position at National Lampoon. He later attended the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC where he and his producing partner, Stephen Love Jr., formed their company Bs Pictures. They are currently in pre-production on the Steven Caple Jr.’s film The Land and in development on "The Friendship Nine" with producer Nina Yang Bongiovi. Blake’s aspirations are to tell the stories that make people laugh, cry, and ultimately impact their lives.

Stephen Love Jr. grew up in the rural towns of Filbert and Bennettsville, South Carolina. During his time as a business major at Morehouse College, Love founded the Morehouse Filmmakers' Association, for which Spike Lee is the honorary advisor. He also received his Mfa from USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program and formed Bs Pictures with fellow graduate Blake Pickens. Love’s primary career goal is to produce film and television that gives "a voice to the voiceless" while challenging the confines of the business of filmmaking.

"Dolores"

Producing Fellow: Drew Houpt

A restless teenager becomes obsessed with a mysterious Colombian woman who exploits his desire and lures him into her plot for revenge. (Writer/director Mary Angélica Molina)

Drew Houpt is an independent producer based in Brooklyn. For over ten years he was the head of operations at Mike Zoss Productions, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Tribeca-based production company. During that time he worked on the Academy Award-winning "No Country For Old Men" and the Academy Award-nominated "A Serious Man" and "True Grit." He served as Associate Producer on the Coens’ Grand Prix-winning "Inside Llewyn Davis" and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Academy Award-winning film "Birdman: or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance." This past year he co-produced Maris Curran’s directorial-debut "Five Nights in Maine" and produced "Every Day,' a short documentary for Espn’s 30 for 30 Shorts series that had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015. He has also produced music videos for the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang and an experimental documentary, "When A Priest Marries A Witch," by Suzanne Bocanegra.

"Rita Mahtoubian Is Not A Terrorist"

Producing Fellow: Deanna Barillari

When Iranian-born Rita Mahtoubian sets out to change her life from ordinary to extraordinary, she accidentally captures the attention of a homeland security agent in this satirical comedy about romance, terrorism and trying to be a better person. (Co-writers/directors Roja Gashtili & Julia Lerman)

Upon graduating Nyu Tisch, Deanna Barillari co-founded a non-profit theater company producing Off-Off-Broadway plays, including the NYC premiere of Leslye Headland's "Cinephilia" (2008), which funded in-school arts initiatives in the NYC Public School system. She then went on to work in TV on NBC's "Mercy" (2009), CBS’ "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior" (2010), ABC’s "Pan Am," 86th Oscars (Ellen DeGeneres; 2014) and in Drama Development at Universal Television. Recently, she collaborated with AFI Dww Fellows Roja Gashtili and Julia Lerman, producing their web-series K(ID) starring Caterina Scorsone ("Grey's Anatomy") and their short "Rita Mahtoubian Is Not A Terrorist" starring Patrick Fugit ("Almost Famous") which made its World Premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. She also produces for the La based Ovation Award-winning Iama Theatre Company.

"The Space Between"

Producing Fellow: Angela C. Lee

A female body builder devotes her life to turning ‘pro’ when she unexpectedly falls in love, forcing her to confront her fractured past with her dying father. (Writer/director Philiane Phang)

Angela C. Lee is a Los Angeles based independent producer. She produced "Songs My Brothers Taught Me," which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and recently screened in the Directors’ Fortnight program at the Cannes Film Festival. Angela is also the Artist Development Manager at Film Independent, where she oversees the selection process and curriculum for the Filmmaker Labs program, including Screenwriting, Directing, Producing, and Documentary Labs, the Fast Track Finance Market and the Fox Writers Intensive, managed in conjunction with Fox Audience Strategy. Previously, Angela served as Director of Creative Affairs at New York based Vox3 Films. Prior to her career in film, Angela was an Associate at Goldman Sachs. A native Chicagoan, Angela graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Economics and is on the Board of Directors for the University of Chicago National Arts Alumni Network.

The Fellows and projects selected for the 2015 Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab are:

"Brick"

Co-Directors/Producers: Jessica Dimmock & Christopher Lamarca

"Brick" reveals the raw emotional and physical experience of being a middle aged to senior transgender woman coming out for the first time in the Pacific Northwest. The film follows three intersecting stories of individuals who have lived their whole lives as men and decided this burdensome secret is one they can no longer keep.

Jessica Dimmock is the recipient of the 2013 World Press Photo Multimedia Contest as the director and cinematographer of the online feature, "Too Young to Wed." In 2010, Dimmock won Kodak's Best Cinematography Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival for "Without." The film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, received an Independent Spirit Award, and was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award. Dimmock contributed two short films to Doctors Without Borders' Emmy-nominated campaign, “Starved for Attention.” Her first photojournalism project, “The Ninth Floor” was published as a monograph. Most recently, she worked as photographer and videographer for Emmy-nominated HBO series, "The Weight of the Nation." She is represented by VII agency.

Christopher Lamarca is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker and based in Portland, Oregon. Lamarca has recently entered post-production on his first feature length film, "Boone." In 2012, it was chosen as one of eight films for Film Independent's Documentary Film lab. Lamarca's monograph, “Forest Defenders: The Confrontational American Landscape ” was published by PowerHouse Books in 2008. He was chosen to participate in the International Center of Photography’s triennial exhibition (2007), New York Photo festival (2009) and Lishui photo festival in China (2010). He reported on environmental and energy issues for magazines such as Rolling Stone, GQ, Fortune, and Newsweek.

"The Island and the Whales" (working title)

Directore/Producer: Mike Day

The pilot whale hunters of the Faroe Islands believe that hunting is vital to their way of life, but when a local professor makes a grim discovery about the effects of marine pollution, and the seabirds populations collapse, environmental changes threaten to change the community and their way of life forever.

Mike Day is a Scottish director and producer. Formerly a lawyer in London and the Middle East he founded Intrepid Cinema in 2009 before heading out into the North Atlantic to make his previous film. His debut documentary "The Guga Hunters of Ness" broadcast on the BBC in 2011 and screened at festivals internationally to critical acclaim. It was while at sea in the Atlantic that he met a group of Faroese sailors, leading to his next film. Mike was listed as one of '10 Filmmakers to Watch' by Filmmaker Magazine, he was one of Edn's ’12 for the Future 2012’, and is supported by the Scottish Documentary Institute's Docscene programme. Intrepid Cinema also has two other feature documentaries in development.

"The Road From Hainan"

Director/Producer: Nanfu Wang

State surveillance. Harassment. Imprisonment. Human rights activist Ye Haiyan, Aka Sparrow, knew she faced these risks when she went to Hainan Province to seek justice for six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal. But the scale and intensity of the government's reaction surprised even the most seasoned activists across China.

"The Road From Hainan" follows Sparrow as she was chased from town to town by local governments, national secret police, and even her own neighbors. Nanfu Wang is a documentary filmmaker based in New York. Originally from a remote village in China, Wang overcame poverty and lack of access to formal secondary education and went on to earn graduate degrees in communications and documentary film from universities in China and the United States. Her work often features the stories of marginalized or mistreated people, from Chinese blood donors stricken with HIV after being issued used needles by the government to the left-behind children of migrant laborers. During the production of her first full-length documentary, Wang lived on the streets of Miami with a homeless former drug dealer who relied on the kindness of strangers for his survival. Wang’s short films have been distributed on many platforms and translated into several languages, and she continues to seek out and tell the stories of people who have been ignored by their societies.

"Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four"

Director/Producer: Deborah Esquenazi

"Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four" excavates the nightmarish persecution of Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez — four Latina lesbians wrongfully convicted of allegedly gang-raping two little girls in San Antonio, Texas. The film also unravels the sinister interplay of mythology, homophobia and prosecutorial fervor which led to this modern day witch hunt during the 'Satanic Sexual Abuse Panic' of the late-80's and early-90's in the United States.

Deborah S. Esquenazi is an Austin, Texas-based documentary film and radio producer, instructor, and journalist. Her in-progress documentary feature, "Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four," has received international attention for its investigation into this controversial criminal case, and has been mentioned in Forbes Magazine, New York Times, Texas Observer, Vice Magazine, among others. Her film and radio documentaries have been funded by Chicken & Egg Pictures, Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program | John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Initiative, Humanities Texas, Astraea Global Arts Fund, and many others.

June 9 Update: The studio confirmed on Tuesday it has never shot nor does it plan to shoot its Roald Dahl adaptation on the Faroe Islands as an anti-whale hunt petition focused on the North Atlantic settlement neared 50,000 signatures.

Animal rights campaigners have urged Steven Spielberg and others to stay away from the islands, however a spokesperson for the studio stressed the petition had no actual relevance to the filmmaker, studio or The Bfg production.

It is understood the Faroe Islands was at one point among a number of locations under consideration for second unit footage before DreamWorks heads opted to stay away from it and other locales for various reasons.

Principal photography continues in Vancouver. Disney will distribute children’s The Bfg in the Us in 2016 and handles select international territories alongside Mister Smith Entertainment.

A story on Screendaily on Monday implied The Bfg was set to shoot on the Faroes and we are happy to set...

Activists say more than 35,000 people have signed a petition urging Steven Spielberg to shelve plans to shoot the Roald Dahl adaptation in the Faroe Islands in protest over an annual whale hunt.

The Care2 petitioners want co-financiers and co-producers DreamWorks and Walden Media to relocate the production, set to commence next month.

They are protesting over the North Atlantic islanders’ annual hunt of long-finned pilot whales and occasionally white-sided dolphins.

“These intelligent, empathic, sentient & [sic] emotional mammals don’t die instantly and often suffer prolonged agony in the blood-stained waters,” Care2 petition author Kellie Mcleod wrote on the petition website.

“These animals need not be killed for the people of the Faroe Islands to subsist. They already boast one of Europe’s best average standards of living, thus having enough meat to survive is not a major concern of the population.”

According to reports a “large” pod of possibly 150 pilot whales were killed in a June 6 hunt – known...

Universal Pictures

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (again), and as usual it’s getting to those last few weeks before the big day when creative ideas and planning make way for frantic grabs at whatever is left on the shelves after the Black Friday zombie hordes have cleared everything out.

But fear not: because the best of Christmas is watching movies, re-watching old TV specials and trying hard to forget that George Lucas ever decided that anyone wanted a Star Wars Christmas show, there’ll always be a helping hand round these parts for those who want it.

So if you’re buying for a difficult brother, a picky sister or just for the film, gaming or TV fan in your life, what follows is a compendium of the finest gift ideas for this year’s festivities, as usual there are massive opportunities to win most of what has been included…...

Ubisoft

To celebrate the release of Assassin’s Creed Rogue, we’ve teamed up with Ubisoft to offer three lucky WhatCulture.com readers the chance to win a copy of the game on Xbox 360.

18th century, North America. Amidst the chaos and violence of the French and Indian War, Shay Patrick Cormac, a fearless young member of the Assassin Brotherhood, undergoes a dark transformation that will forever shape the future of the American colonies. After a dangerous mission gone tragically wrong, Shay turns his back on the Assassins who, in response, attempt to end his life. Cast aside by those he once called brothers, Shay sets out on a mission to wipe out all who turned against him and ultimately become the most feared Assassin hunter in history.

Introducing Assassin’s Creed Rogue, the darkest chapter in the Assassin’s Creed franchise yet. As Shay, you will experience the slow...

Check out the last trailer being released before the game hit's store shelves!

The trailer is rather neat, I'm not sure how much more they can show off before showing off too much! Let us know what you think in the comments or on our Facebook pages!

From Ubisoft:

Set in the middle of the 18th century during the Seven Years’ War, Assassin’s Creed Rogue gives players new locations across North America to explore, including the frozen North Atlantic, the Appalachian River Valley and New York. In Assassin’s Creed Rogue, players experience the Assassin’s Creed universe through the eyes of a Templar. As Shay Patrick Cormac, players suffer the brotherhood’s betrayal and transform into an Assassin hunter. Assassin’s Creed Rogue will be available on November 11 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. The game will also...

Ubisoft has released an all new, and very cinematic style trailer for Assassin's Creed Rogue, going into more detail on the characters, their motives, and the overall story for the game itself. Come inside to check it out!

I'm not big on the Assassin's Creed franchise, despite tyring my hardest to get into it. That being said, Ubisoft sure as hell knows how to market these games and make me want to play them. Today they've revealed a new story trailer for the previous generation only game, Assassin's Creed Rogue, and it looks pretty interesting:

In Assassin’s Creed Rogue, you’ll learn the dark secret that led Shay to leave the Brotherhood and follow the path of the Templar Order. From the streets of New York to the thrilling naval combat and exploration in the perilous Arctic, Shay will chase down new foes, and even a few familiar faces.

Jimmy Fallon holds three things sacred: his family, his freedom and board games. On Tuesday night's episode of The Tonight Show, the comedian-host focused on the latter – but instead of bringing out his guests for a round of Clue or Risk, he explored ridiculous board game "stinkers" for a hilarious new segment called "Do Not Game." The funniest bit – available above – finds Fallon and Roots frontman Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter trying out the Vanilla Ice Electronic Rap game, which allows players to rap random phrases over a "beatbox machine."

It's...

Ubisoft has released an all new gameplay trailer for the upcoming previous-generation only Assassin's Creed Rogue, in which is showcases the new lead character, Shay, has he hunts down assassins with impunity! Come inside to check it out!

For years, Shay was a faithful follower of The Creed, a loyal member of The Brotherhood, and practitioner of their deadly trade. Then everything changed. Betrayed by the Brotherhood he had served for so long, Shay sets out on a mission to make them all pay. In Assassin’s Creed Rogue, Shay follows his own creed and turns from Assassin to Assassin hunter, with one goal: Eliminate the Brotherhood.

Set in the middle of the 18th century during the Seven Years’ War, Assassin’s Creed Rogue gives players new locations across North America to explore, including the frozen North Atlantic, the Appalachian River Valley and New York. In Assassin’s Creed Rogue,...

Today, Ubisoft has revealed a handful of new screenshots from their upcoming pair of new Assassin's Creed games: Rogue and Unity. If you've been itching for another look at these games, then today's your day. Come inside to check them out!

Let's start off with the new screens from the current-gen only, Assassin's Creed: Unity.

Assassin’s Creed Unity will be released on November 11 for Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. Set in a once-magnificent Paris, Assassin’s Creed Unity plunges into the terror of the 1789 French Revolution and features the most dense and immersive Assassin’s Creed city ever created. Through the streets of Paris, the starving inhabitants are set to take up arms for freedom and equality. In this time of chaos and brutality, a young man named Arno, wounded by the loss of those he loved,...

Us actress best known for her work in Coen Brothers’ movies including Fargo to receive talent award.

Us actress Frances McDormand is to be awarded the Persol Tribute to Visionary Talent Award 2014 at the 71st Venice International Film Festival (Aug 27 - Sep 6).

The prolific actress is best known for her collaborations with the Coen Brothers in films including Fargo, Raising Arizona, Burn After Reading and her first ever film role, Blood Simple.

McDormand will receive the honour on Sept 1 in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema) and will be followed by the out of competition screening of Olive Kitteridge directed by Lisa Cholodenko.

The four-part HBO miniseries adaptation of the eponymous Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Elizabeth Strout co-stars Richard Jenkins, Bill Murray, John Gallagher Jr. and Zoe Kazan.

The Playtone / As Is production will debut on HBO in the Us in November and is executive produced by McDormand alongide Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks and [link...

Assassin’s Creed Rogue is a newly announced game exclusively for PS3 and Xbox 360 (last-gen consoles) coming out November 11th. Assassin’s Creed Unity is exclusive to the PS4 and Xbox One and coming out October 28th. So if you're a fan of Assassin’s Creed and you have both generations of consoles, it looks like you've got a lot of gaming to look forward to. While I'm very excited for Assassin’s Creed Unity, I don't yet own a PS4. I'm glad Ubisoft has made a game specifically for people with last-gen consoles.

Via Ubisoft:

Play as Shay, an Assassin who finds himself at a crossroads and ultimately turns his back on The Brotherhood in order to hunt them down.• Play as an all-new type of Assassin in the throes of a dark transformation from an adventurous Assassin to a loyal Templar committed to hunting down his former allies in the Assassin’s Brotherhood.

Assassin's Creed: Rogue

The 360/PS3 only "Assassin's Creed" game for this year has been revealed. "Assasin's Creed: Rogue" will release on November 11th and is set in the frigid North Atlantic during the mid-18th century. Specifically it happens during the Seven Years' War, with events mostly before though some are in parallel to those in "Assassin's Creed III".

You play as Shay Patrick Cormac, a former assassin-turned-templar hunting “those [he] previously called brothers from the streets of New York City to the frozen and fractured glacial landscapes of the Arctic Circle." 'Rogue' is said to be the last of the 'North American trilogy' following AC3 & AC4: Black Flag.

The game is single-player only, no multiplayer option is available. There's a significant naval component and your ship will include prototype machine guns for combat. New weapons include an air rifle, grenade launcher, and smoke grenades, and you can hunt polar bears and narwhals.