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Tag: Documentary

  • In Oscar-Nominated Documentary ‘The Perfect Neighbor,’ Police Catch—But Never Stop—a Killer

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    When Ajike Owens was alive, she dreamed of becoming a famous entrepreneur. “You laugh at me,” she’d tell her mother, Pam Dias, “but one day the whole world’s going to know my name.” Years later, filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir thought about Owens’s avowal while sifting through the 30-plus hours of police body-camera footage and audio recordings that make up The Perfect Neighbor, her Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary about the two years leading up to Owens’s killing.

    The documentary tells the story of Susan Lorincz, who regularly called police to the otherwise tight-knit Florida community where Owens was raising her four children to complain about neighborhood kids playing near her rented property. On June 2, 2023, Lorincz rang authorities over a dispute involving Owens’s children, roller skates, and a missing iPad. Minutes later, the white 58-year-old Lorincz fatally shot her Black neighbor, 35-year-old Owens, through her closed front door.

    Susan Lorincz tells her side of a neighborhood dispute, as captured in police body-cam footage that fuels much of The Perfect Neighbor.Courtesy of Netflix

    As the case against Lorincz was coming together, attorneys for Owens’s family gained access to hours of police body-camera footage through the Freedom of Information Act. Reviewing it alongside her producing partner and husband, Nikon Kwantu (whose cousin was Owens’s best friend, Kimberly Robinson-Jones), Gandbhir said it “reminded us of films like The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity. The community had lived a real-life horror film. So we wanted to create something that placed you in the community.” To raise both media awareness around Owens’s killing and money for the family, Gandbhir and her editor, Viridiana Lieberman, made a film in which cops inadvertently serve as cinematographers.

    Image may contain Adult Person Face Head Photography Portrait Senior Citizen and Hair

    Geeta Gandbhir is a double Oscar nominee for The Perfect Neighbor (best documentary feature) and The Devil Is Busy (best documentary short).Bryan Derballa/Getty Images

    Some have argued that watching a film told largely through the very same system that failed Owens could make viewers identify too closely with law enforcement. “We were really not that concerned with the perspective of the police. They were just the vehicle to showcase this community as they were. When the police come into communities of color, surveillance can be used to criminalize,” Gandbhir tells Vanity Fair in response. “We wanted it to humanize.”

    She doubles down on the belief that “our society essentially failed this community. [The police] didn’t see them as worth protecting. Susan was able to weaponize her race and privilege. And by not realizing she was a danger to the community and probably herself, her life is ruined too,” Gandbhir continues. “She’s ostensibly spending the rest of her life in jail. And as an abolitionist at heart, I really wish that on no one.”

    Lorincz attempted to utilize Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law as a defense, arguing that she was legally allowed to use deadly force because she feared for her life when Owens banged on her door demanding to speak after her son said Lorincz threw a pair of skates at him. This was also the successful legal tactic of Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, who was acquitted in 2013. In 2024, Lorincz was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison. She has appealed her conviction.

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    Savannah Walsh

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  • Melania Trump Says Her Documentary Is Not a Documentary

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    The Trumps.
    Photo: Craig Hudson/Variety via Getty Images

    Like an art-school student talking about their first animated short, First Lady of the United States Melania Trump is promising to defy genre conventions. At the premiere of her new nonfiction film Melania at the (Trump-)Kennedy Center, FLOTUS tried to explain that the film, which she executive-produced, was not what it appeared to be. “Some have called this a documentary,” Trump said onstage while presenting the film, per the New York Times. “It is not.” Okay, then what is this thing? “It is a creative experience that offers perspectives, insights, and moments,” Trump said.

    The “creative experience” was directed by Brett Ratner, who was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct by six women in 2017, and goes into wide release this weekend. It is Ratner’s first project since being dropped from his Warner Bros. partnership after the allegations surfaced, and his next will be Rush Hour 4, which President Trump reportedly pushed Paramount to make. Melania is currently aiming to make $3 to $5 million in box-office returns on opening weekend, per Variety. That’s frankly a disastrous amount for Amazon after it spent $75 million on the project. Trump herself is not worried. “I’m very proud of the film, so people may like it, may don’t like it, and that’s their choice,” she told CNN on the red carpet. She added, “We achieved what we want to achieve. For myself, it’s already successful. I’m very proud of what we did.” Just two opening-day screenings in the country, one in Florida and one in Missouri, were entirely sold-out, per Wired. That’s 1/25 a Charli XCX.

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    Jason P. Frank

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  • Watch the trailer for the KCRA 3 documentary “Liberty and Limits: Guns in California”

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    I have these Black Panthers up here with guns on the 2nd floor. Is this the way the racist government works? Don’t let *** man, uh, exercise his, his, his constitutional rights. They never gave the party credit for anything. We were the boogeymen. It’s become, um, you know, *** very complicated, interesting area of law. Is it about who has the guns, who has the guns, you know, it’s, it’s plain to see. It’s what we call *** sentinel event. It’s not just that the event happened, it’s that that event was in everybody’s living room. There’s another one in California, and that was the mass shooting at Cleveland School in Stockton. Shortly before 120 Tuesday. *** lone gunman, Patrick Edward Purdy, walked onto the playground at Cleveland Elementary armed with 2 pistols and *** semi-automatic rifle. 18 bullets came through my wall. The whole room turned white. Mass shootings were not *** thing. School shootings were unheard of. I tried to find out where they were where they were hit. I tried to stop the bleeding. Her leg was shattered. All her bones in her leg was shattered, but this year there’s an all-out push by certain lawmakers to ban all semi-automatic military-type weapons. From my cold dead hands. Like this one, the Soviet designed AK-47 assault rifle. There is absolutely no reason why out on the street today *** civilian should be carrying *** loaded weapon. The Constitution says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. You can turn back in time and you can say right there. It’s where the course of events change.

    Watch the trailer for the KCRA 3 documentary “Liberty and Limits: Guns in California”

    Our documentary looks at two major California events that have shaped how we talk about and regulate guns in the U.S.

    Updated: 10:23 AM PST Jan 11, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ


    Special Projects Producer

    On May 2, 1967, the Black Panther Party came to the California State Capitol armed in protest of a bill eliminating open carry in California.On Jan. 17, 1989, Patrick Purdy opened fire on a Stockton schoolyard, killing five children and injuring dozens. The dates of two of Northern California’s biggest historical events may seem unrelated but they both inform a discussion about one thing: guns.The KCRA 3 documentary “Liberty and Limits: Guns in California” looks at how these two events, decades apart, have rippled across time to inform us still today. In 1967, then-Gov. Reagan was on the steps of the California Capitol pushing for gun control. He switched his position in the 1980s. The documentary also shows how the tragic killing of schoolchildren may have helped reduce the death rate in California.”Liberty and Limits: Guns in California” takes a look at the impact on the law and the U.S. Constitution that came as a result of each event. How the Black Panthers were talking about the Second Amendment right to bear arms, leading to a law we’re still debating today: open carry. The first internationally known school shooting, in Stockton, would push lawmakers across the country to reflect on gaps in regulations.Our documentary, airing Sunday, Jan. 18, at 8 p.m. on KCRA 3, explores how these events continue to inform us and the legacy the people involved are leaving for others.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    On May 2, 1967, the Black Panther Party came to the California State Capitol armed in protest of a bill eliminating open carry in California.

    On Jan. 17, 1989, Patrick Purdy opened fire on a Stockton schoolyard, killing five children and injuring dozens.

    The dates of two of Northern California’s biggest historical events may seem unrelated but they both inform a discussion about one thing: guns.

    The KCRA 3 documentary “Liberty and Limits: Guns in California” looks at how these two events, decades apart, have rippled across time to inform us still today. In 1967, then-Gov. Reagan was on the steps of the California Capitol pushing for gun control. He switched his position in the 1980s. The documentary also shows how the tragic killing of schoolchildren may have helped reduce the death rate in California.

    “Liberty and Limits: Guns in California” takes a look at the impact on the law and the U.S. Constitution that came as a result of each event. How the Black Panthers were talking about the Second Amendment right to bear arms, leading to a law we’re still debating today: open carry.

    The first internationally known school shooting, in Stockton, would push lawmakers across the country to reflect on gaps in regulations.

    Our documentary, airing Sunday, Jan. 18, at 8 p.m. on KCRA 3, explores how these events continue to inform us and the legacy the people involved are leaving for others.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • Experience Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT Tour In 3D! Here’s Everything We Know

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    We spent all of 2025 following Billie Eilish around on the HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR. Now, we get to relive all our favorite moments from tour on the big screen…in 3D? HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D) is no longer a hopeful wish from fans, but a real documentary of one of the biggest tours of the year. Here’s everything we know about Billie’s new documentary, including the release date and how you can watch.

    Image Source: Courtesy of Paramount

    The Trailer

    Most importantly, we have a full-length trailer already. Billie announced the new documentary at her last HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR stop in San Francisco a few months ago, and let fans in the crowd get a first look at the trailer. From what we can tell, the documentary (yes, it’s filmed in 3D!) will include live clips from her shows in Manchester along with some behind-the-scenes shots from Billie and her crew on the road and backstage.

    Were you at the shows in Manchester? Will we see you in the documentary?

    The Director(s)!

    Every Billie Eilish fan knows that she directs all of her music videos, which means it’s only fitting that she plays a role in directing this 3D film as well. She’ll be co-directing with iconic director James Cameron. You may know him from some of your favorite movies like Titanic and Avatar. If that gives you any idea of the scale and production of Billie’s new documentary…you’re in for a treat! We are looking forward to seeing how the two creatives collaborate, especially for the exciting 3D moments.

    This might just be the most exciting project Billie has ever been a part of, and we’re so proud of her!

    Image Source: HENRY HWU @HENRYHWU

    The Release Date

    Okay, we’re finally getting to the key details. The release date! Lock it in, honeybees. HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D) releases on March 20, 2026. Now is the time to start planning with your fellow Billie friends. What will you wear? Will you be traveling to see the documentary? How many tickets will you be buying? Our fangirl theories have been cooking up, and we predict that the film will be available to stream after its release date. Given the fact that Paramount is producing the film, we can only cross our fingers that it’ll be available to stream on Paramount+ sometime next year!

    Although we don’t know any information about how to actually purchase the tickets yet, we hope to know more soon in the following months. In the meantime, get your hands on this special HIT ME HARD AND SOFT gift card, exclusively to see the new film with your friends and family.

    Are you just as excited as we are for HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D)? Which song from the tour are you most excited to re-live again? Is it ‘Guess’ or ‘WILDFLOWER?’ Let us know down in the comments or by buzzing with us about all things Billie Eilish on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

    Searching for more Billie Eilish content? We’ve got you, honeybee!

    TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BILLIE EILISH:
    FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE

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    Alana

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  • Oscars: Academy Reveals Full Lists of Qualifying Documentary, International and Animated Features

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    A total of 201 documentary features, 86 international features and 35 animated features are eligible for Oscar recognition this season in the best documentary feature, best international feature and best animated feature categories, respectively, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Friday.

    The only time more documentaries were deemed eligible — 238 — was the year in which the pandemic led to an extension of the period of eligibility from 12 to 14 months (Jan. 1, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021) and docs that did not play in theaters were considered.

    This year’s list of eligible documentary features includes titles that have dominated at the doc community’s precursor awards, including Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor and Apocalypse in the Tropics, Apple’s Come See Me in the Good Light and Neon’s Orwell: 2+2=5. It also includes two acclaimed films made by celebrities about their famous parents, HBO’s My Mom Jayne and Apple’s Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which were directed by Mariska Hargitay and Ben Stiller, respectively. And there are several titles related to recent turmoil in the Middle East, including Hemdale/Metallux’s Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on New York City Streets and the self-distributed Coexistence, My Ass!, Holding Liat and Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.

    The most glaring omission from the list: The Eyes of Ghana, a documentary directed by the two-time Oscar-winning documentarian Ben Proudfoot, which is still seeking distribution. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that a late decision was made to hold the film for next awards season. Other high-profile docs that were expected to be on the list but are not, either because they were not submitted or because they failed to meet the eligibility requirements, include A24’s Marc by Sofia, Oscar winner Sofia Coppola’s portrait of Marc Jacobs, and Oscar winner Questlove’s Hulu film Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius).

    The list of eligible international features includes five widely lauded films that are being distributed in the U.S. by Parasite backer Neon and could conceivably all earn nominations: Norway’s Sentimental Value, Brazil’s The Secret Agent, South Korea’s No Other Choice, Spain’s Sirāt and France’s It Was Just an Accident. It Was Just an Accident, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, was directed by Jafar Panahi, a filmmaker from Iran but does not reflect well on the country; as a result, Iran submitted the much lower-profile Cause of Death: Unknown, while France submitted It Was Just an Accident, on the basis that much of the film’s financing was French.

    Other countries that made interesting submissions include Japan (GKIDS’ Kokuho, a film about Kabuki performers, which is now the highest-grossing non-animated film in that country’s history); Iraq (Sony Classics’ The President’s Cake won two prizes at Cannes); Belgium (Music Box’s Young Mothers could bring the brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne the first Oscar noms of their distinguished careers); and Taiwan (Netflix’s Left-Handed Girl, which was co-written by Anora Oscar winner Sean Baker).

    Meanwhile, at least three countries submitted acclaimed documentaries for best international feature consideration: Ukraine (PBS’ 2000 Meters to Andriivka, a doc about a Ukrainian platoon’s fight to retake a city from Russian invaders, which was directed by Mstyslav Chernov, who won the best doc feature Oscar two years ago); North Macdeonia (Nat Geo’s The Tale of Silyan, from Tamara Kotevska, whose 2019 film Honeyland was nominated for best international feature and doc feature Oscars); and Denmark (Mr. Nobody Against, a film about Vladimir Putin’s propaganda efforts, which is still seeking U.S. distribution).

    And the list of animated features includes giant blockbusters like Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, which is now the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time and the highest-grossing international film in the U.S. of all time, as well as the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2025; streaming hits like Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, which is now that streamer’s most watched film ever; acclaimed indies like Neon’s Arco, a French-language critics’ darling that counts Natalie Portman among its producers; and highly-anticipated forthcoming titles like Disney’s Zootopia 2.

    Among the animated films that were expected to contend but are not on the list of eligible titles, either because they were not submitted or because they failed to meet the eligibility requirements, are A24’s Ne Zha 2, Sony’s Paddington in Peru and Paramount’s Smurfs.

    The documentary feature and international feature categories are winnowed down to shortlists before nominations, while the animated feature category goes straight to nominations. Shortlist voting will span Dec. 8-12, 2025, and the announcement of the shortlists will come on Dec. 16. Nominations voting in all categories will span Jan. 12-16, 2026, and the announcement of the nominations will come on Jan. 22, 2026.

    A full list of eligible animated, documentary and international features follows.

    Eligible animated features

    Thirty-five features are eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 98th Academy Awards. Some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfill that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

    To determine the five nominees, members of the Animation Branch are automatically eligible to vote in the category. Academy members outside of the Animation Branch are invited to opt in to participate and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture. Animated features that have been submitted in the International Feature Film category as their country’s official selection are also eligible in the category.

    “All Operators Are Currently Unavailable”

    “Arco”

    “The Bad Guys 2”

    “Black Butterflies”

    “Boys Go to Jupiter”

    “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc”

    “ChaO”

    “Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing”

    “David”

    “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle”

    “Dog Man”

    “Dog of God”

    “Dragon Heart – Adventures Beyond This World”

    “Elio”

    “Endless Cookie”

    “Fixed”

    “Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie”

    “In Your Dreams”

    “KPop Demon Hunters”

    “The Legend of Hei 2”

    “Light of the World”

    “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain”

    “Lost in Starlight”

    “A Magnificent Life”

    “Mahavatar Narsimha”

    “Night of the Zoopocalypse”

    “Olivia & las Nubes”

    “100 Meters”

    “Out of the Nest”

    “Scarlet””Slide”

    “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants”

    “Stitch Head”

    “The Twits”

    “Zootopia 2”

    Eligible documentary features

    Two hundred one features are eligible for consideration in the documentary feature film category for the 98th Academy Awards. Some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfill that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

    Documentary features that have won a qualifying film festival award or have been submitted in the international feature film category as their country’s official selection are also eligible in the category. Films submitted in the documentary feature film category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including best picture. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.

    “Abby’s List, A Dogumentary”

    “Ada – My Mother the Architect”

    “Afternoons of Solitude”

    “The Age of Disclosure”

    “Ai Weiwei’s Turandot”

    “The Alabama Solution”

    “All God’s Children”

    “The Altar Boy, the Priest and the Gardener”

    “Always”

    “Amakki”

    “American Sons”

    “Among Neighbors”

    “animal.”

    “Antidote”

    “Apocalypse in the Tropics”

    “Architecton”

    “Are We Good?”

    “Art for Everybody”

    “Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse”

    “The Art Whisperer”

    “Artfully United”

    “Assembly”

    “BTS ARMY: Forever We Are Young”

    “Becoming Led Zeppelin”

    “Being Eddie”

    “Below the Clouds”

    “Benita”

    “Between the Mountain and the Sky”

    “Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue”

    “Billy Idol Should Be Dead””BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions”

    “Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny”

    “Bodyguard of Lies”

    “Brothers after War”

    “Can’t Look Away: The Case against Social Media”

    “Caterpillar”

    “Champions of the Golden Valley”

    “Checkpoint Zoo”

    “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie”

    “Child of Dust”

    “Chronicles of Disney”

    “Coexistence, My Ass!”

    “Come See Me in the Good Light”

    “Complicated”

    “Cover-Up”

    “Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution”

    “Cutting through Rocks”

    “Dalit Subbaiah”

    “The Dating Game”

    “Deaf President Now!”

    “Democracy Noir”

    “Diane Warren: Relentless”

    “Dog Warriors”

    “Drop Dead City”

    “The Duel We Missed”

    “El Canto de las Manos”

    “Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire”

    “The Encampments”

    “Endless Cookie”

    “Europe’s New Faces”

    “Facing War”

    “Fatherless No More”

    “Fiume o Morte!”

    “Folktales”

    “Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea”

    “For the Living”

    “14 Short Films about Opera”

    “From Island to Island”

    “Ghost Boy”

    “Girl Climber”

    “Go to the People”

    “Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus””Grand Theft Hamlet”

    “Heaven. Poste Restente”

    “Heightened Scrutiny”

    “Holding Liat”

    “I Know Catherine, the Log Lady”

    “I, Poppy”

    “I Was Born This Way”

    “If You Tell Anyone”

    “I’m Not Everything I Want to Be”

    “I’m Only Blind”

    “Imago”

    “In Limbo”

    “In Waves and War”

    “In Whose Name?”

    “Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958 -1989”

    “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley”

    “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence”

    “The King of Color”

    “The Last Class”

    “The Last Holocaust Secret”

    “The Last Philadelphia”

    “The Last Twins”

    “Li Cham (I Died)”

    “The Librarians”

    “Life After”

    “Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story”

    “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story”

    “Love+War”

    “Mahamantra – The Great Chant”

    “The Man Who Saves the World?”

    “A Man with Sole: The Impact of Kenneth Cole”

    “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore”

    “Meanwhile”

    “Men of War”

    “Mighty Indeed”

    “Mr. Nobody against Putin”

    “Mistress Dispeller”

    “Monk in Pieces”

    “My Armenian Phantoms”

    “My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay”

    “My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow”

    “Natchez””The New Yorker at 100”

    “Night in West Texas”

    “1985: Heroes among Ruins – The Triumph of the People”

    “Norita”

    “Of Mud and Blood”

    “One to One: John and Yoko”

    “Orwell 2+2=5”

    “Our Time Will Come”

    “Out of Plain Sight”

    “Paint Me a Road Out of Here”

    “Paparazzi”

    “The Parish of Bishop John”

    “Pavements”

    “The Perfect Neighbor”

    “The Pool”

    “Predators”

    “Prime Minister”

    “The Prince of Nanawa”

    “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk”

    “Rebel with a Clause”

    “Remaining Native”

    “Riefenstahl”

    “Rise Up! 14 Short Films about Alliance for Positive Change”

    “River of Grass”

    “The Road between Us: The Ultimate Rescue”

    “The Rose: Come Back to Me”

    “Row of Life”

    “Sanatorium”

    “A Savage Art”

    “Schindler Space Architect”

    “Secret Mall Apartment”

    “Seeds”

    “Selena y Los Dinos”

    “Sensory Overload”

    “76 Days Adrift”

    “Shari & Lamb Chop”

    “The Shepherd and the Bear”

    “Shoot the People”

    “Shuffle”

    “The Six Billion Dollar Man”

    “67 Bombs to Enid”

    “Slumlord Millionaire””Songs from the Hole”

    “Soul of a Nation”

    “Speak.”

    “Stans”

    “Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere”

    “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost”

    “Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter”

    “Story of My Village”

    “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror”

    “The Stringer”

    “Suburban Fury”

    “Sudan, Remember Us”

    “Supercar Saints”

    “Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted”

    “The Tale of Silyan”

    “Thank You Very Much”

    “There Was, There Was Not”

    “Third Act”

    “This Ordinary Thing”

    “Through the Fire (The Eaton Fire: The Aftermath)”

    “Torn: The Israel -Palestine Poster War on New York City Streets”

    “Trade Secret”

    “Trains”

    “Twin Towers: Legacy”

    “2000 Meters to Andriivka”

    “Unbanked”

    “UnBroken”

    “Under the Flags, the Sun”

    “Unseen Innocence”

    “Viktor”

    “Viva Verdi!”

    “WTO/99”

    “Walk with Me”

    “Walls – Akinni Inuk”

    “We Were Here – The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe”

    “Welded Together”

    “The White House Effect”

    “Who in the Hell Is Regina Jones?”

    “Wisdom of Happiness”

    “The Wolves Always Come at Night”

    “Worth the Fight”

    “Writing Hawa”

    Eligible international features

    Eighty-six countries or regions have submitted films that are eligible for consideration in the International Feature Film category for the 98th Academy Awards.

    An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States with a predominantly (more than 50 percent) non-English dialogue track.

    Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.

    Albania, “Luna Park”

    Argentina, “Belén”

    Armenia, “My Armenian Phantoms”

    Australia, “The Wolves Always Come at Night”

    Austria, “Peacock”

    Azerbaijan, “Taghiyev: Oil”

    Bangladesh, “A House Named Shahana”

    Belgium, “Young Mothers”

    Bhutan, “I, the Song”

    Bolivia, “The Southern House”

    Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny”

    Brazil, “The Secret Agent”

    Bulgaria, “Tarika”

    Canada, “The Things You Kill”

    Chile, “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo”

    China, “Dead to Rights”

    Colombia, “A Poet”

    Costa Rica, “The Altar Boy, the Priest and the Gardener”

    Croatia, “Fiume o Morte!”

    Czech Republic, “I’m Not Everything I Want to Be”

    Denmark, “Mr. Nobody against Putin”

    Dominican Republic, “Pepe”

    Ecuador, “Chuzalongo”

    Egypt, “Happy Birthday”

    Estonia, “Rolling Papers”

    Finland, “100 Liters of Gold”

    France, “It Was Just an Accident”Georgia, “Panopticon”

    Germany, “Sound of Falling”

    Greece, “Arcadia”

    Greenland, “Walls – Akinni Inuk”

    Haiti, “Kidnapping Inc.”

    Hong Kong, “The Last Dance”

    Hungary, “Orphan”

    Iceland, “The Love That Remains”

    India, “Homebound”

    Indonesia, “Sore: A Wife from the Future”

    Iran, “Cause of Death: Unknown”

    Iraq, “The President’s Cake”

    Ireland, “Sanatorium”

    Israel, “The Sea”

    Italy, “Familia”

    Japan, “Kokuho”

    Jordan, “All That’s Left of You”

    Kyrgyzstan, “Black Red Yellow”

    Latvia, “Dog of God”

    Lebanon, “A Sad and Beautiful World”

    Lithuania, “The Southern Chronicles”

    Luxembourg, “Breathing Underwater”

    Madagascar, “Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story”

    Malaysia, “Pavane for an Infant”

    Mexico, “We Shall Not Be Moved”

    Mongolia, “Silent City Driver”

    Montenegro, “The Tower of Strength”

    Morocco, “Calle Malaga”

    Nepal, “Anjila”

    Netherlands, “Reedland”

    North Macedonia, “The Tale of Silyan”

    Norway, “Sentimental Value”

    Palestine, “Palestine 36”

    Panama, “Beloved Tropic”

    Paraguay, “Under the Flags, the Sun”

    Peru, “Kinra”

    Philippines, “Magellan”

    Poland, “Franz”

    Portugal, “Banzo”

    Romania, “Traffic”

    Saudi Arabia, “Hijra”

    Serbia, “Sun Never Again”Singapore, “Stranger Eyes”

    Slovakia, “Father”

    Slovenia, “Little Trouble Girls”

    South Africa, “The Heart Is a Muscle”

    South Korea, “No Other Choice”

    Spain, “Sirât”

    Sweden, “Eagles of the Republic”

    Switzerland, “Late Shift”

    Taiwan, “Left -Handed Girl”

    Tunisia, “The Voice of Hind Rajab”

    Turkey, “One of Those Days When Hemme Dies”

    Uganda, “Kimote”

    Ukraine, “2000 Meters to Andriivka”

    United Kingdom, “My Father’s Shadow”

    Uruguay, “Don’t You Let Me Go”

    Venezuela, “Alí Primera”

    Vietnam, “Red Rain”

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    Scott Feinberg

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  • If Selena Quintanilla Had Lived Past 23, What Might She Be Doing Now?

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    The new Netflix documentary Selena y Los Dinos tells an inspirational story of a hard-working family band’s ascent from playing tiny restaurant back rooms to selling out the Houston Astrodome. It’s also difficult to watch without wondering what Selena Quintanilla, the preternaturally gifted lead singer of Los Dinos, might be doing now had she not been killed in 1995 at the age of 23. How many more Grammys would she have under her belt? Would she have moved into films, shooting them in between albums? Would she have a clothing line at Fashion Week, or financially fruitful Target collabs? Would she be touring with her own children, or even grandchildren, just as her parents toured with her?

    To tell the story of Selena and her family, Emmy-nominated director Isabel Castro (Mija) sifted through family archives and previously unseen footage from the Quintanillas’ private home videos. Castro also conducted candid interviews with Selena’s parents, Marcella and Abraham; her sister and drummer, Suzette; her bassist-songwriter brother, A.B.; and her guitarist husband, Chris Pérez.

    Suzette is now the steward of Q Productions, the Quintanilla family’s hometown HQ. For this project, she wanted to find a director who could sift through the family’s massive archive to tell a story that would resonate with the generations of fans who still make the pilgrimage to visit the Selena Museum in Corpus Christi, Texas, and wider audiences as well. Castro is a lifelong fan herself who found she had “really great chemistry” with Suzette in their first Zoom conversation. For Suzette, the vibe was mutual. “She reminded me of home, like I’d known her for a long time,” she says of Castro. “Before we hung up on the call, I texted my lawyer, ‘She’s the one.’” The child of Mexican immigrants and raised in Connecticut, Castro could relate to how the Quintanillas had a foot in two cultures: “Selena was so inspiring to me because of her unapologetic confidence in her identity.”

    Over the course of two years, Castro and producer J. Daniel Torres spent about 10 hours a day, five days a week, poring through the material, clocking moments that would best serve the story. The sheer volume was daunting. “Suzette opens the door to this room with floor-to-ceiling bookcases of VHS tapes, CDs, flash drives, original film, albums, and boxes with photos,” she says. “It felt like we entered a sacred space, and I found it overwhelming in this way I’d never experienced in my career—both in terms of process and deciding how to distill this into a film. But the responsibility of access to that archive is what drove me and the whole team to work as hard as we did.”

    Interviews with the Quintanilla family were a delicate process that took six months. Marcella, the family matriarch, was especially reluctant about participating. Says Suzette, “My mother suffers from depression from losing my sister. She gets extremely emotional, and I didn’t think she was going to do it. I had to tiptoe around it and do the whole cute face on her, like, ‘Please, Mom, it’s important for you to be a part of this, because you played a huge role in keeping us grounded and showing us the way we deserve to be as women.’”

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    Vivian Manning-Schaffel

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  • Opinion | What Does ‘White Guilt’ Mean in 2025?

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    Victim politics gave us pro-Hamas activism and a powerful reaction in the form of Donald Trump, argue Shelby Steele and his son, Eli.

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    Tunku Varadarajan

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  • Film Review: John Candy: I Like Me

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    John Candy: I Like Me is more than a documentary, it’s a heartfelt thank-you letter to one of comedy’s most beloved figures. The film opens by tracing Candy’s rise from his humble Canadian improv beginnings to his legendary Hollywood career, showing how his everyman charm and selfless spirit made him a household name.

    It’s a beautiful tribute to an incredible man. A true icon. A man who never lost touch of who he was or where he came from. He was never too famous for anybody or anything. A true comedian who would invite any and all to share the stage with him. A man with a heart of gold built from his own traumas. 

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    Ryder

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  • A Tim Burton Docuseries Hits Streaming This Week

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    Tim Burton has been a constant in the hearts of general audiences thanks to hits like Edward Scissorhands and Nightmare Before Christmas. After a shaky 2010s, the 2020s have been much kinder to him with Wednesday and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and now the filmmaker’s getting a documentary charting his decades-long career.

    Directed by Tara Wood, who previously helmed documentaries for Richard Linklater and Quentin Tarantino, the four-part Tim Burton: Life in the Line series promises never-before-seen footage and artwork from Burton’s past and present works, along with “untold stories of those who know him best.” Interviewees include longtime Burton alums Johnny Depp, Michael Keaton, and Helena Bonham Carter, and more recent additions like Jenna Ortega. As seen in the trailer, the series promises to explore everything, from his early time at Disney to Batman, Dumbo, and Wednesday.

    Life in the Line is an independent production, and as such is built on a custom “direct-to-fan” platform that makes it “one of the largest independent streaming launches ever,” according to the press release. This method “gives audiences unprecedented access to Burton’s world — uncut, unfiltered, and overflowing with never-before-seen footage, interviews and artwork.” Wood later told Forbes the docuseries is “a project for the fans [and] artists, the freaks, the dreamers and the misunderstood — the ones who’ve always seen themselves in Tim’s world. It’s a love letter to Tim and to creative freedom.”

    If you’re a Burton head and want to watch, Life in the Line drops on Thursday, October 23 for $40, or $24 to rent for five days. There’ll also be a premium version for $75 that includes, according to Deadline, “hours of bonus content.”

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Justin Carter

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  • How’s Martin Scorsese as a Documentary Subject?

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    Documenting the life and work of Martin Scorsese would be a daunting task for any filmmaker. But it’s one that Rebecca Miller threw herself into after pitching herself for the job.

    After interacting with the iconic filmmaker behind Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas a few times over the years, Miller contacted his documentary producing partner to see if anyone was doing a documentary on him. Directors had been trying, she heard, but Scorsese hadn’t given anyone the green light. So Miller threw her hat in the ring. “I had a meeting, and by the end of that meeting, it felt to me like maybe we were making this film,” she says.

    It turns out, they were. Releasing on Apple TV on Friday, her five-part docuseries Mr. Scorsese chronicles the director’s trajectory from his boyhood in lower Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood, observing the wise guys that ultimately suffused his later gangster films, all the way to prep on 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s informed by around 20 hours of interviews with Scorsese as well as many more hours with a star-studded array of figures from his past and collaborators, Leonardo DiCaprio and Thelma Schoonmaker among them. The series covers the highs and lows, on a spectrum from winning his best director Oscar for The Departed to periods of drug abuse and depression.

    That even Scorsese has had an up-and-down journey “sort of gives hope to all of us that there’s a way you can redefine yourself always,” says Miller.

    In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Miller discussed the underappreciated films she wanted to highlight in the series, her treatment of Scorsese’s faith and bringing the filmmaker together with his New York boyhood pals for catch-up sessions that appear in the series.

    Did you as a director have any trepidation about tackling Martin Scorsese’s life and work?

    I think I was excited about it. Very often I sublimate fear when I’m working because if I allowed myself to feel fear and anxiety, I would never do anything. So I have to kind of pretend it’s not there. Now in retrospect, I’m nervous, but I’m very glad that I did it. I just took it on thinking, I think I can do something here. I think I have a way in and then just put one foot in front of the other, really.

    Where did the idea originate to bring together some of Scorsese’s boyhood pals for conversations with him for the film?

    So what happened was that he had these photographs of his childhood with him for the first interview. And a few of them were these dear childhood friends and it became clear to me that these people were hugely important in his formation and the raw material for his later work. So I started talking to him about is he still in contact with them? Was there any way I could find them? And in fact, he was still in touch with Robert Uricola and John Bivona and a few others who were his really close friends. I ended up contacting them and in a couple of cases going to Florida to talk to them. And then we also had these two amazing shoots, one in a cafe and one in a restaurant, where he talked to his oldest friends. And it was a real privilege because it’s also an anthropological journey of people. Robert Uricola is no longer alive, and he was the key to a lot of the memories.

    How open and voluble did you find Scorsese from the jump or did it take some time to get him to open up? 

    I really wasn’t manipulating the situation at all. I came in full of curiosity, not knowing very much about his private life, but knowing a lot about his films, having studied his films pretty carefully, and the time around his films. In other words, every year I knew what was being made, I understood the film business and what the whole culture of film was around him, but a lot of the personal things I was really surprised by or didn’t know, I just didn’t know, even the details of his childhood. And so it was me being curious and him having decided, I think, to be honest.

    Scorsese’s producing partner, his manager, the sister of his manager and a financial backer of the manager’s company all served as different kinds of producers on this project. How did that come about and did that put any creative limitations on what you could depict in the film?

    I’m glad you asked that. So essentially what happened was when we started out, it was like Marty said “yes,” he wants to do it, and then it was the pandemic literally three days later, the shutters came down. And so we started by self-financing and just doing it on my porch. We did that a couple of times, about four-hour interviews each, and then we did a little light editing to really get a sense of where we were, what we had, what we wanted to do. By this time, of course, Rick Yorn knew about the project because he’s Marty’s manager and producer, and we were going to go out to all the usual suspects and try and get financing. But he suggested that he go to Apple. First of all, he gave some gap financing through his company. And then Apple came on board and [he] really made that introduction because they have that relationship with Apple. But we were like, okay, if that works, then we’re fine, we’ll just continue working on it.

    Part of it is that I have creative control on the film and I don’t really work unless I have creative control, so that was a prerequisite for me. And he was incredibly respectful. And I guess not incredibly, because he really took his cue from Marty. So that’s your answer. I didn’t have any artistic interference, but he did get involved on that financial level as gap financing and then finally finding us Apple, which was lovely because then we didn’t have to go to absolutely everybody and do it.

    Are there any films that you think were underappreciated or under-recognized that you particularly wanted to highlight in this series or talk to?

    Yeah, I feel like Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is a film that a lot of people haven’t seen, but it’s just a wonderful film, really a tremendous film. And also The Age of Innocence is perhaps one of my favorite films of his. And it’s interesting because Mark Harris says something that I think is really interesting in the film, which is that because of the great success of his movies about the mob, he became “the mob director.” But really his subject is worlds, distinct worlds, and he wants to go in and he wants to understand them. So there’s a part of Marty that is an anthropologist and wants to understand and say, “This is how we lived at this time” to the next generation or whatever. He’s really into what really happened, what did people really do? And you can feel that the detail of that in each of the films, I think.

    The series really hammers home Scorsese’s exploration of good and evil in his work. Is that something that you came to the film wanting to look at, or a theme you discovered along the way?

    Well, I’d say that from the beginning I was very interested in what I thought was his spiritual life, which I had the feeling was very important to his films, but I didn’t really know how exactly. [In] some of the more overtly religious films, it’s obvious, but how does that jive with Raging Bull? How does it jive with Goodfellas and so on? But you realize that it’s all these questions, these big questions about good and evil and what are we are kind of sewn into all his work. And that was something that I was really interested in exploring and that was kind of my way in, essentially.

    A lot of people have an idea of who Martin Scorsese is. What do you hope they discover as a result of watching this series?

    I read something where somebody describes the series as a crazy ride in a hot air balloon where you’re up, then you’re down, then you’re up, then you’re down, you think you’re crashing into the water, then all of a sudden you’re up over the hills. And that’s what I think, is you realize that there were so many times where he really felt like it was over. He had crashed out to the bottom and then all of a sudden he’s back again, he’s alive. I mean, literally he had near-death experiences. I think it sort of gives hope to all of us that there’s a way you can redefine yourself always. And the other thing, of course, the most important thing perhaps, is that it brings people back to the films that they either rewatch or discover films. They thought they knew him but no, there’s another aspect. His project in the largest way of looking at it is kind of like our country, all these decades of our country and how it’s reflected in his work, for better and worse — the beauty and the greed and the violence and the love. So much of it is reflected in this work.

    Was there anything left on the cutting room floor that you were kind of devastated to leave behind on this one?

    There’s one thing that I still would like to put out as its own little thing, which is the story of how he [Scorsese] essentially saved the great director Michael Powell from complete obscurity, living in a trailer in the Cotswalds, and brought him to the United States and he got a teaching job. Marty really enabled people to discover him [and] his films, and also he met Thelma Schoonmaker, who is obviously Marty’s longtime collaborator and editor, and they got married. And it’s just a very beautiful story, but it just didn’t fit in a documentary about Marty. And it’s something that I think is beautiful and also says a lot about Marty, but sometimes in order to make something good, you have to lose things.

    Are there any films that you discovered or rediscovered as a result of doing this film?

    I didn’t know his early films. One thing that’s really extraordinary is if you look at It’s Not Just You, Murray!, which he made when he was something like 22 or 21 years old, it has the keys to Goodfellas in it. I mean, it’s really mirroring Goodfellas in terms of its approach to form, its energy and its relationship to language and voiceover. Not only that, but he had storyboards that he made when he was nine or 10 years old that contain a shot that he is still attempting to make. And we actually animated his little storyboards when he was a child and you realize, oh my god, he’s still making [these], and we show the shots. He was, in a way, a complete person as a filmmaker. He was so complete in his understanding of the language. But at the same time, it took him so long and he’s still discovering, he’s still developing. He still has the same hunger as he did when he started out.

    This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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    Katie Kilkenny

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  • Drugs, Divorce, and Directors Jail: Martin Scorsese Unpacks His Darkest Chapters in New Documentary

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    One of the most surprising realities of Martin Scorsese’s success is just how often he was on the brink of losing it. The 82-year-old auteur’s setbacks occupy as much real estate as his victories do in Mr. Scorsese, a five-part docuseries covering his film career, now streaming on Apple TV.

    Directed by Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis (who starred in Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York), Mr. Scorsese follows the director from his rough-and-tumble adolescence in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood to his making of the 10-time Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)—touching on every set in between. Scorsese discusses his oeuvre in great detail—with assists from family, friends, and former collaborators such as Day-Lewis, Francesca Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Steven Spielberg, Jodie Foster, and Cate Blanchett, as well as Casino’s Sharon Stone and The Wolf of Wall Street’s Margot Robbie, both of whom speak candidly about working on their respective male-dominated Scorsese projects.

    After exploring the Mob violence he grew up near on film, Scorsese was often reduced to his gangster dramas (Mean Streets, Goodfellas), but nearly as much of the filmmaker’s work is rooted in his Catholic religion (The Last Temptation of Christ, Silence). Even Scorsese’s otherwise secular titles ponder questions like, “Who are we? What are we, I should say, as human beings?” as he says in the series’ opening. “Are we intrinsically good or evil?… This is the struggle. And I struggle with it all the time.”

    That dichotomy is reflected in some of Scorsese’s darker chapters, which range from a drug addiction during the 1970s to four divorces before his marriage to his current wife, Helen Morris, in 1999. “The problem is that you enjoy the sin!” Scorsese says in the series. “That’s the problem I’ve always had! I enjoy it. When I was bad, I enjoyed a lot of it.” Ahead, some of the most revealing moments from Mr. Scorsese.

    Scorsese credits his childhood asthma with facilitating his love of cinema.

    “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster,” Ray Liotta’s character memorably declares at the end of Goodfellas’ opening scene. But Scorsese himself actually pursued the priesthood before his love of movies took root. He grew up first in Corona, Queens, then in New York City’s Lower East Side after witnessing an altercation between his father, Charles, a Garment District worker, and their landlord. “There was an axe involved. I remember seeing an axe,” Scorsese says in the doc, without elaborating much further. “Violence was imminent all the time.”

    When not braving the mean streets or finding refuge in the Catholic Church, an asthmatic Scorsese often visited air-conditioned movie theaters and engaged in people-watching from his apartment window. In the series, Scorsese even credits that particular vantage point with instilling his love of high-angle shots in movies.
    “Marty’s life depended upon going to movies,” says Goodfellas and Casino screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi. “That’s where he could breathe.” Or as Spike Lee more colorfully puts it: “Thank God for asthma!”

    Scorsese fantasized about destroying the rough cut of Taxi Driver after it received an X rating.

    After helming the Roger Corman–produced exploitation film Boxcar Bertha (1972), his first De Niro gangster epic, Mean Streets (1973), and Ellen Burstyn’s Oscar-winning turn in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Scorsese had his major industry breakthrough with Taxi Driver in 1976—which had a fraught journey to the screen.

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    Savannah Walsh

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  • Mr. Scorsese Brings the Director’s Genius to Life on Apple TV

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    The first time Rebecca Miller witnessed Martin Scorsese working on set, he seemed edgy.  

    “Marty’s demeanor was so anxious and nervous and alive,” she recalls. Miller had been living in Rome with her husband, actor Daniel Day-Lewis. The couple were overseas while he filmed in Scorsese’s historical crime epic, Gangs of New York, and a visit to set put the director in a whole new light.  

    “I remember thinking, ‘My God, this is a man who’s made all these masterpieces, and yet he’s as nervous as if he’s never made a film before.’ And yet it did occur to me later that, in a way, that is part of his secret is he’s so alive. He hasn’t gotten complacent. There’s no part of him that is resting on his laurels. He’s always only as good as… what he’s doing now.”  

    Miller captures the duality of Scorsese as a living legend and human artist in Mr. Scorsese, her docuseries about the famed director that begins streaming globally on Apple TV on Oct. 17. The five episodes offer an unrestricted look into his entire personal and professional life, scoping in on his extensive private archives and robust filmography. She also captures a number of unprecedented interviews with friends, creative collaborators, and family members. The star-studded lineup includes, among others, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Isabella Rossellini, Steven Spielberg, Sharon Stone, Jodie Foster, Paul Schrader, Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett, longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker and, of course, Scorsese himself.  

    The Oscar-winning filmmaker in action
    Credit: Courtesy Apple TV

    After Gangs of New York wrapped, Miller got to know Scorsese more as filmmaking peers. While getting ready to make Personal Velocity — a drama based on the book of the same name that she wrote — she asked for some advice from Scorsese about using voiceover while at his daughter’s first birthday party. “The minute you asked Marty for advice on films, the floodgates open.” 

    Over the next two decades, Miller and Scorsese didn’t see much of each other, but she continued to screen her films for him, and he would privately pass along his thoughts. Then, as early 2020 set in, she wondered to her producing partner, Damon Cardasis, about making another documentary (her first, 2017’s Arthur Miller: Writer, captured her father). 

    “The first person that came to mind was Martin Scorsese,” she says. “I was sort of fascinated by the dichotomy of Catholicism and his fascination with violence and how those two things go together… I had a sense that his spiritual life was very key to actually reading his films.” 

    Scroll to continue reading

    Leonardo DiCaprio and
    Scorsese on the set of The Aviator
    Credit: Brigitte Lacombe

    She inquired with Scorsese’s documentary producing partner Margaret Bodde if someone was already working on a documentary about him. No one was, and one letter and a meeting later, the documentary was underway. “That was [my] last hug of anyone before the pandemic,” Miller remembers. “That’s why some of our interviews are outside.”  

    From the start of COVID-19 to 2025, Miller and her team went to work. She estimates they had at least 200 hours of footage to edit down, about 20 hours of which was just Scorsese. 

    Five hours into interviewing Scorsese, he was only at 12 years old in his life story. It became clear that the planned two-hour documentary needed a longer runtime. Early on, she interviewed filmmaker Brian De Palma, who warned, “You can’t do it in two hours. There’s no way. Maybe you can get to Taxi Driver.”  

    Grateful for the flexibility of Apple TV, Miller expanded it from two hours to two parts to five parts, each of which runs about one hour. “His whole nerve center, in a way, as an artist, is in the neighborhood [he grew up in,]” she explains. The Catholicism, the machismo, the moral complexity and violence and crime of his films — it all bubbles to the surface in the examination his Little Italy childhood. 

    Martin Scorsese as a child
    Scorsese spent much
    of his childhood indoors due to asthma
    Credit: Courtesy Apple TV

    Scorsese’s exuberant passion for filmmaking is reflected in electrifying needle drops, many courtesy of The Rolling Stones. Sure, the music choice was a technicality: the English rock legends’ songs pepper many of his movies, not to mention he directed their 2008 concert film, Shine a Light. But it also kicks up the pulse of the docuseries.  

    “He has such a deep, visceral connection to the stones, to The Stones…That was the Holy Grail in terms of music,” Miller says. “It’s an intelligent but very anarchic energy in that music.” 

    Given the richness of his life and art, Scorsese is a dream documentary subject. But what made the process run smoothly was his openness. No topic goes untouched, from filmmaking fun and his love for cinema to religion, drugs, relationship turbulence and career peaks and valleys.  

    “He was so wanting to say things in a new way,” Miller notes. “He really made such an effort. Because, of course, he’s somebody that has spoken endlessly and people know a lot about him, but he was just trying to create a new angle or a new way of saying something that he hadn’t quite said, and he was very, very considerate in that way.” 

    “I really did follow Marty in these interviews,” she adds. “I think the fact that I wasn’t coming out with an agenda actually helped him to probably be open. And after all, he’s probably the most, one of the most, honest filmmakers in existence.” 

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    Haley Bosselman

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  • Michael Jackson Bombshell! FIVE Siblings Who Defended MJ For Years Say He Molested Them, Too! – Perez Hilton

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    Michael Jackson’s relationship with children is once again being called into question.

    Prior to his death in 2009, the King of Pop was accused of child abuse at two separate points in his career. Once in 1993, a case which was settled outside of court, and again in 2005, when he was acquitted in court. But throughout it all, the Cascio family stood behind him.

    The Cascio Family

    If the name sounds familiar, it’s because they’re the bunch Michael dubbed his “second family.” Back in the ‘80s, he met patriarch Dominic Cascio while staying at the Helmsley Palace in New York. They quickly became friends, and Dominic introduced the Thriller singer to his family, which included wife Connie, and their two sons. The husband and wife went on to have three more children: two boys and one girl, and Michael remained an active presence in all of their lives.

    Over the years, the family has been open about the dinners they shared with Michael in their New Jersey home, Christmas gift exchanges, shopping sprees, Disneyland trips, and stays at Neverland Ranch in California for the kids. All along they said it was innocent.

    Related: Priscilla Presley Hit With Lawsuit Claiming She Lied To IRS About MILLIONS

    The eldest boy, Frank Cascio, authored a book called My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship With An Extraordinary Man — a 2011 memoir about the nature of his relationship with Michael, where he vehemently defended the singer. He wrote:

    “I want to be precise and clear, on the record, so that everyone can read and understand: Michael’s love for children was innocent, and it was profoundly misunderstood.”

    He continued:

    “In all the years that I was close to him, I saw nothing that raised any red flags, not as a child and not as an adult.”

    Frank went on to claim Michael “was being attacked by liars”, maintaining:

    “There was nothing ambiguous about the whole thing. These people were after Michael’s money. But he was innocent, and we were going to destroy them in court.”

    However, Frank’s tune has now changed.

    The Accusations

    Over the weekend, DailyMail.com reported that all five Cascio children came together earlier this month to file a bombshell suit in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Michael of of grooming, sexually abusing, and “brainwashing” their family for 25 years. Of the alleged abuse, a source told the outlet:

    “It was everything sexual: sex with under-age children. When they all realized what had been going on it was the most traumatic thing. Their story is insane.”

    According to filings seen by the outlet, the siblings claim:

    “From the early 1980s until at least 2009, Michael Jackson had intimate contact with the Cascio children. This abusive contact occurred over a span of decades and involved hundreds of instances. Each of the Cascio children were groomed, brainwashed and severely manipulated to believe that each was uniquely ‘special’ to Michael and that their relationship with him was exclusive.”

    The docs continue:

    “This emotional manipulation was designed to secure each family member’s loyalty and ensure their silence, making them feel indebted to Michael and isolated from any source of protection or perspective. Through years of psychological conditioning, Michael cultivated dependence and fear in the Cascios, making respondents believe they had no choice but to comply and no safe way to break free. The effects of this conditioning persisted into adulthood, leaving respondents with a deeply ingrained belief that speaking out would constitute betrayal — a dynamic the estate has continued to exploit in its dealings with them.”

    Wow.

    We know there are many MJ fans out there who never wanted to believe any of the allegations from longtime accusers James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who participated in the shocking 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland. But the Cascio family were some of his biggest defenders, and now even they’ve switched sides.

    What Sparked The Lawsuit

    Speaking of Leaving Neverland, multiple insiders tell DM it was the HBO doc that first sparked movement in the case. Safechuck and Robson, now both in their 40s, accused the Beat It star of subjecting them to years of abuse — Safechuck from 1988 to 1992, and Robson from 1990 to 1996. The doc changed things for the general public AND for the Cascios.

    According to sources earlier this year, when the Cascio family raised alarms, the Jackson estate attempted to get ahead of more public accusations in January 2020. Instead they tried to settle behind the scenes.

    The involved parties reportedly reached a confidential settlement that included payouts over five years. However, the Cascio family’s attorney allegedly demanded an additional $213 million in 2024 against a threat the family would “expand the circle of knowledge” to negatively impact the Jackson estate’s business dealings, per the New York Post. The estate has since responded by calling the case a “civil extortion scheme” before initiating arbitration in September 2024, accusing the family of breach of contract and civil extortion.

    However, the filings further accuse the Jackson estate of “exploiting the same patterns of trust, fear and conditioned loyalty” employed by Michael in order to get them to sign the agreement in 2020.

    Family Fallout

    This shocking about-face from the Cascio family follows an implied change even closer to home. Fans noticed Paris Jackson recently got her MJ tattoo covered up. And she’s since raised even more suspicion that she believes the worst allegations against her father.

    When one of the actors in an upcoming Jackson Family biopic said Paris and her family were “very much in support of our film,” she hit back hard! She not only said she “wasn’t involved at all,” she told everyone why:

    “A big reason why I haven’t said anything up until this point is because I know a lot of you guys are gonna be happy with it. A big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they’re gonna be happy with it.”

    The fantasy… of his innocence? Did things change for her because of the documentary? Because of the Cascios?? Will she speak out against him, too??

    This is some seriously troubling stuff! What do YOU make of it? Let us know in the comments down below!

    [Images via Michael Jackson/YouTube & WENN]

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    Perez Hilton

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  • Secrets of the Beckham Marriage, According to Victoria

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    Victoria Beckham walks the runway during the Victoria Beckham Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2024 fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week on September 29, 2023 in Paris, France.

    Victor VIRGILE/Getty Images

    To do so, Victoria says she transformed into “a simpler, more elegant version of myself” and debuted her first collection—10 dresses shown in a Waldorf-Astoria hotel suite—sans David, to eliminate any distraction. After earning rave reviews, Victoria gained a foothold in the fashion industry. But despite the professional respect, financial strain crept in. David was “investing a lot” in her business, and “we were tens of millions of pounds in the red,” Victoria explains in the documentary.

    “I was panicked by it. Because I never saw anything coming back,” David says of his investment in the business. “We always agreed that we would support each other no matter what, but it worried me. This isn’t sustainable.”

    Though her business recovered, the scars of that experience remained. But in the new series, David makes it clear to Victoria that he’ll support her no matter what she does. “You are so driven, so passionate, dedicated,” he tells her in the documentary, growing teary-eyed. “It makes me quite emotional because you are always trying to prove yourself to people. But who are you trying to prove it to?”

    “Maybe to you,” Victoria replies, wiping away a tear. “Of course, I feel bad. About all those times I’ve had to ask you to bail me out. When I saw your face and the kids’ faces [during her Paris fashion show], I saw for the first time how proud of me you were.”

    “You could make a cheese sandwich, and we’d be proud of you,” David replies.

    “Actually, I couldn’t,” she laughs, to which he responds, “I know.”

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    Savannah Walsh

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  • As ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ celebrates its jubilee year, a new documentary explores its roots – Orlando Weekly

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    Credit: courtesy of Andreas Zerr

    Ever since the Disney–Fox merger, I consider Dr. Frank N. Furter — Tim Curry’s iconic Sweet Transvestite from the Rocky Horror Picture Show — to be an official Disney princess (fight me), so it’s only appropriate that Orlando is celebrating the film’s 50th anniversary like a royal jubilee. This Sunday, a screening at Dr. Phillips Center will feature stars Barry Bostwick, Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn with the local Rich Weirdoes shadowcast, whom I recently watched while bouncing around in my moving seat during Pointe Orlando’s bonkers 4DX screening. They’ll also be at the Plaza Live on Halloween, and a live Rocky Horror cabaret is coming to downtown’s Darkroom at The Dust on Oct. 26.

    Among the many releases associated with the anniversary — including a restored 4K release of the film and a book of Mick Rock photographs — is the unauthorized documentary Sane Inside Insanity, available on streaming and screening Oct. 17 at Fort Lauderdale’s OUTshine Film Festival. Director Andreas Zerr spent nearly a decade researching Rocky Horror and pursuing elusive interviewees, so you’d expect him to be a superfan, but when I interviewed him via video from his home in Hamburg, Germany, the opposite turned out to be true.

    “I’m not a Rocky Horror fan myself. I never was, and I doubt that I will ever be,” says Zerr, who first encountered RHPS on VHS as a teen. “I liked the music, but Rocky Horror per se did not actually appeal to me. It did not speak to me like it spoke to other people in the community especially, so I forgot about it for 30 years.”

    Then, 10 years ago, Zerr heard a Rocky Horror song on the radio and began wondering what happened to the people involved. “I started to investigate with the intention of more like a 30-40 minute feature, [but] the deeper we dug within the investigation we researched, the more interesting the story became.” 

    Richard O’Brien — who wrote the the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, co-wrote the screenplay for the movie version, and appeared in it as Riff Raff — didn’t participate in Zerr’s film, but Sane Inside Insanity dives deeply into his creation’s birth and makes a convincing argument that the original London show that launched the entire phenomenon was a team effort. “Without Sue Blane’s costumes, without Brian Thompson’s set design, without Richard Hartley’s [musical arrangements], without Jim [Sharman] directing it and giving his input, I think the show would have failed after a week,” Zerr says.

    Zerr notes that modern mountings of the musical — such as the never-ending European tours and a limited run coming next spring to Broadway’s Studio 54 — have rewritten the original show to make it more like the movie, because “people going to the show after the film cult has evolved are expecting more to see the film live on stage than the original stage play.” His film documents these big-budget productions’ popularity with audiences, while also eulogizing the scrappy punk-rock lark buried beneath the bombast.

    “It’s much more business now, which might be a good thing for some, and might be a bad thing for others,” says Zerr, adding, “People who have seen the Stones in a 100-person bar in the ’60s would say the same thing about the Rolling Stones now playing Wembley Stadium.”

    The other major thread in Sane Inside Insanity is the unique relationship between Rocky Horror and its interactive audience, which became a worldwide community. The soul of these segments is the late Sal Piro, founding president of the official Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club.

    “To see his emotions and what he feels for Rocky Horror, even almost 50 years after seeing it the first time, that was very precious for us and also his sister,” says Zerr. Piro, who passed away in 2023 shortly after recording his interviews, was “the bearer of the torch,” before passing the torch on to Larry Viezel, current club president, current club president and my friend since we met at a convention in 1993.

    “People yelling stuff, throwing stuff, saying stuff back to the screen, was kind of amazing for me,” Viezel recalls of his first exposure to the movie at Cinema 35 in Paramus, New Jersey, where we performed together during college breaks. “I had a great time, and I thought I’d never go back again … and it’s kind of been 33 years ever since.” 

    That first convention we attended inspired Viezel to host his own in upstate New York. “No one said, ‘No, you can’t do that. No, you shouldn’t do a convention,’” says Larry. “I was 18 years old, a stupid college sophomore at the time, and I had 500 people descend on Albany.”

    After staging a successful series of cons and amassing a massive memorabilia collection, he found that stars of the film were actively seeking him out. “There was a point where I crossed the threshold from just being a guy that did Rocky Horror, to being the Rocky Horror guy.” Although he’d been helping run the fan club since 2012, Viezel didn’t take the top role until the pandemic, when a BBC reporter wanted to know his title. “I called Sal, and I asked him, ‘What do you think I should call myself?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Larry, I don’t give a fuck, call yourself the president.’”

    One thing that Zerr, Viezel and I all share is a debt of gratitude to costumer Sue Blane, who is “to blame” (according to callback lines) for giving our projects essential support. Zerr’s very first interview was an “amazing” afternoon with Blane, who “gave us a lot of insights, which actually triggered the production as you can see it now,” by sharing contact information for other key players. Similarly, Blane was the guest of honor at an Orlando convention Viezel and I produced in 2001, mere days after 9/11. Instead of canceling, she showed up for the fans; that event led to the Rich Weirdoes’ two-decade run at CityWalk.

    Although RHPS’ influence can be felt in everything from 4D theme-park attractions to immersive art installations, “It’s impossible to create something like the phenomenon of Rocky Horror again, even if you try, because it’s lightning in the bottle, and you cannot create a cult,” says Zerr, attributing the fandom’s unique evolution to an era predating internet and cable TV. “I think real people being around you … and real people in front of the screen … are the missing ingredient which you cannot reproduce by advancing technology.”

    Even more important for Zerr is the sometimes life-saving impact Rocky Horror left on the LGBTQ+ community that first embraced it. “It spoke to the people who saw it as first-generation fans, and it triggered something [during] a time when homosexuality was illegal in some states in the United States,” says Zerr. “We’re trying to highlight what it meant for the people in the ’70s and ’80s, for their sexuality, and what kind of safe haven Rocky Horror provided for them.”

    That safe haven seems more necessary now than ever, so it’s ironic that Viezel likens Rocky Horror’s storyline — and the experience of its first-time viewers — to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden. 

    “That’s what keeps it going: It has become a rite of passage. You go into this movie an innocent virgin, as it were, and you come out somewhat corrupted by this film. And I think that that cycle repeats itself,” says Viezel. “I’ll never go back to that first time I saw it, which was amazing, but there are new and different kinds of amazing that this show is continuously showing me.”

    Orlando’s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.

    This article appears in Oct. 8-14, 2025.



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    Seth Kubersky
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  • The Onion Wants an Oscar for ‘Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile’—Coming to a Theater Near You

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    This, Collins believes, is not only a testament to The Onion’s quality, but a referendum on Trump himself. “People do not like what’s going on, and people vote with their dollars,” he says. “It’s not purely capitalistic. We are making art for the sake of art, absolutely, but there is sort of a protest-vote element in showing up to this thing.”

    Even beyond Kimmel, comedy has become increasingly politicized in Trump’s second term. In recent days, the internet erupted after comedy A-listers like Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, and Whitney Cummings agreed to headline the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia. “I’m going to say something really brave: I think Jeffrey Epstein is bad, and I also think 9/11 was bad,” says Collins, alluding to the Saudi government’s alleged ties to the terror attacks. “I think both those things were bad, and I wouldn’t hang out with either of those people—the 9/11 people or the Jeffrey Epstein. Somebody’s going to make a statue of me with that as the placard: ‘I think 9/11 was bad, and I think Jeffrey Epstein was bad.’”

    On a more serious note, Collins thinks the Riyadh lineup reflects something dire about both American politics and the bifurcated woke-versus-anti-woke comedy scene. Collins says there’s “a lot of money” behind enticing anti-woke comics to shill for the political project on the right. “I also like money, but I think getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell jokes for 10 minutes about ‘airline food is bad’ is actually illustrative of a much larger thing: The stuff that’s getting greenlit is not necessarily popular with the populace. It’s popular with rich people who are sick of being yelled at in the media. They are using some of these people as vehicles for whatever the comedy equivalent of greenwashing is.”

    There’s a parallel to be drawn between the Riyadh Comedy Festival and Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile—the ultra-wealthy getting whatever they want. “George Carlin said it best: ‘It’s a big club and you ain’t in it,’” quotes Collins. “That is just the truth. Now more than ever, the club has stopped pretending they’re a club; it’s a bunch of rich guys who want to maintain this. I would ask people gently to not fall for it.”

    And he’s doing so by asking people to watch Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile. What’s more, Collins says he’s submitting Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile to the best-live-action-short category at the Oscars this year. And while Collins admits that this is a shot in the dark, he has already come up with a pretty compelling Oscar campaign. “The Academy: Do you like pedophiles? I don’t think you do.” He smiles. “You know what you could do to prove it?”

    Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile premieres in select theaters on October 2nd.

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    Chris Murphy

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  • Netflix’s ‘Who Killed the Montreal Expos?’ Aims to Place Blame for Baseball Team’s Demise

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    A new Netflix documentary aims to get to the bottom of why the Montreal Expos struck out.

    The streamer has released the trailer for Who Killed the Montreal Expos? ahead of the film debuting on the platform Oct. 21. Who Killed the Montreal Expos? is set to premiere at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal on Oct. 9.

    Director Jean-François Poisson’s film centers on the lingering questions and mysteries surrounding the demise of the Expos. The team was the first in Major League Baseball to call Canada home and remains popular with many Quebecois despite playing its last game in 2004.

    Hall of Famers and former Expos players Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero Sr. and Larry Walker are interviewed for the documentary, along with former manager Felipe Alou and a number of journalists, fans and team employees.

    “As good as we are in hockey, Montreal is a baseball city,” Martinez says in the trailer.

    “The Expos’ death is kind of like a big game of Clue,” one participant explains in the footage. “Lots of motives. Lots of suspects. We have a long list.”

    The Expos debuted as a part of the National League East division in 1969. After decades of ups and downs, the MLB purchased the team, and it moved to Washington, D.C., following the 2004 season to become the Washington Nationals.

    Who Killed the Montreal Expos? is set to make its streaming release three days before the 2025 World Series begins on Oct. 24. This year’s MLB playoffs begin Tuesday.

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    Ryan Gajewski

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  • MSNBC Acquires Rachel Maddow-Produced ‘Andrew Young: The Dirty Work’ (Exclusive)

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    Rachel Maddow has set up her next documentary project at her home network.

    MSNBC has acquired Andrew Young: The Dirty Work, the second documentary from the host’s Surprise Inside production company, which focuses on the eponymous Civil Rights Movement leader who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and later became a Congressman and mayor of Atlanta.

    The Matt Kay-directed film will air on MSNBC on Friday, Oct. 17 at 9 pm ET after a special edition of The Rachel Maddow Show dedicated to Young’s life and legacy.

    “At a time when confrontations with the government and grassroots protests are back at the center of American political life, the civil rights movement is more than just a moral cornerstone for our country — it’s a living, breathing, practical manual for how to fight for what’s right, and win that fight, and maybe even save your own soul in the process,” Maddow said in a statement. “Andrew Young’s story is not gauzy or romantic, it’s the gritty truth of what it takes to build and sustain a winning movement. Andrew Young: The Dirty Work is about how hard it is to be a hero, and how beautiful, too.”

    An extended first look at the project will debut at the network’s yearly fan event, “MSNBCLIVE ‘25: This Is Who We Are,” on Oct. 11 in New York.

    Co-produced by Left/Right and executive produced by Maddow, the film will see the 93-year-old Young tell his story in his own words, from his start as a pastor to his pivotal work during the Civil Rights Movement (Young was portrayed by André Holland in the 2014 film Selma) to his debut in national politics as a U.S. representative from Georgia.

    Later, Young served as an American ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter and as the mayor of Atlanta for two terms. Looking back on his career, he reflects in the film on “the dirty work,” or “the quiet, difficult labor that makes landmark change possible,” according to MSNBC.

    “I was born at the right time and happened to be at the right places to be part of the Civil Rights movement that helped change America,” Andrew Young said in a statement about the film.

    The film follows the first release from Maddow’s production company, From Russia With Lev, which premiered in 2024, two years after Surprise Inside launched. The film debuted to 2.2 million viewers and was later nominated for a 2025 News & Documentary Emmy award.

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    Katie Kilkenny

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  • Disney’s ‘Lilith Fair’ Doc Premiere: Sarah McLachlan Says Musical Performances Canceled Amid Calls for Free Speech Following Jimmy Kimmel Suspension

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    The musical performances scheduled to take place at Sunday night’s premiere of Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery have been canceled as Disney — parent company of the doc’s distributor, ABC News Studios — continues to deal with the fallout from last week’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.

    “While the previously scheduled musical performances will not take place, we invite you to stay for a reception following the screening to celebrate the documentary,” organizers said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

    At the premiere, Lilith Fair co-founder Sarah McLachlan, who also appears in the documentary, introduced the film ahead of the screening. She announced that the performances were canceled in a move of solidarity to support free speech.

    McLachlan began her remarks by noting that she struggled with what to say.

    “It’s a gift for all of us to see [this film], but also I’ve grappled with being here tonight and around what to say about the present situation that we are all faced with, the stark contraction to the many advances we’ve made watching the insidious erosion of women’s rights, of trans and queer rights, the muzzling of free speech,” McLachlan said. “I think we’re all fearful for what comes next, and none of us know, but what I do know is that I have to keep pushing forward as an artist, as a woman to find a way through, and though I don’t begin to know what the answer is, I believe we all need to work towards a softening to let in the possibility of a better way, because I see music as a bridge to our shared humanity, to finding common ground.”

    She continued: “If Lilith taught me anything, it taught me there is a great strength in coming together to lift each other up instead of tearing each other down. So I really hope this documentary inspires everyone to continue to try and create positive change in your communities, to keep lifting each other up, keep championing the causes you believe in with kindness and empathy because ultimately we’re all in this together.”

    Toward the end of her remarks, she broke the news about the performances being canceled.

    “I know you’re expecting a performance tonight, and I’m so grateful to all of you for coming, and I apologize if this is disappointing, but we have collectively decided not to perform but instead to stand in solidarity in support of free speech,” McLachlan said, receiving loud applause in support. She added, “Thank you for your understanding.”

    While the invitation to the event did not specify who was planning to perform — it teased only that “special surprise performances” were scheduled — a source tells The Hollywood Reporter that McLachlan and Jewel were the artists set to take the stage, along with another surprise guest. THR has reached out to reps for the event for more information. Puck’s Matt Belloni reported that Olivia Rodrigo was the surprise guest set. Rodrigo appears in the final moments of the documentary in an interview segment during which she praised the Lilith Fair artists as her “North stars.”

    Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery retraces the iconic music festival that went on tour in the late 1990s and featured female solo acts and bands. A portion of the 1-hour, 39-minute documentary was dedicated to how the artists faced protests, backlash and even a free speech fight during stops of the tour. While in Houston, organizers had partnered with Planned Parenthood to set up a booth on the venue grounds with reps handing out condoms. Conservative pro-life groups criticized the move as did venue officials by attempting to ban the organization from participating. Joan Osborne explained that Planned Parenthood was eventually allowed in but artists were prohibited from discussing or promoting the organization during their sets. Osborne resisted, saying she didn’t enter into such an agreement, so she wore a Planned Parenthood T-shirt.

    Before Sunday’s screening, a slide noted that ABC News Studios and Hulu support the Downtown Women’s Center, which helps homeless women and gender diverse individuals; LGBTQ+ advocacy group PFLAG; and the Geena Davis Institute, which works to improve representations of women and girls in media. QR codes for each organization were displayed for moviegoers to find out more.

    Also in the audience at the event, taking place at The Ford in Los Angeles, are singer Lisa Loeb, actor-comedian Mae Martin and actor Charlie Barnett. Meanwhile, the event hosted a red carpet ahead of the screening, but it did not include any members of the press.

    The news comes as Disney continues to deal with the fallout from the suspension of Kimmel following the ABC late-night host’s remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

    After station owners Nexstar and Sinclair said they would not be airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the wake of those comments, Disney made the decision to suspend Kimmel indefinitely. The company has faced backlash from Hollywood A-listers, current and veteran late-night hosts, politicians and the public for its decision, with many accusing Disney of bowing to pressure from the Trump administration.

    Ally Pankiw directed the doc. Dan Levy is a producer on the film, and Diane Sawyer is executive producer. All three, along with McLachlan, were on hand at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month for the film’s premiere.

    The documentary was released Sunday on Hulu and Disney+.

    Stacey Wilson Hunt contributed to this report.

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    Kimberly Nordyke

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  • How Meghan and Harry’s Royal Exit Inspired the Norwegian Royals’ Tell-All Netflix Documentary

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    “Being a shaman and marrying a member of the royal family is very, very surreal,” an exceedingly candid shaman named Durek Verrett, who last year married Princess Märtha Louise of Norway, says in the new Netflix documentary Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story.

    Filmed in the months leading up to their August 2024 wedding, the film is the couple’s attempt to reclaim the narrative about their love story after years dodging quite critical tabloid headlines about their romance. It offers a rare and frank window into the pair’s private life, featuring several on-camera statements from the newlyweds across the nearly 100-minute runtime.

    Durek Verrett and Märtha Louise in Rebel Royals.

    Netflix

    In addition to the more colorful aspects of Princess Märtha Louise and Verrett, the documentary also delves into more sobering topics—like the racism Verrett has faced in the spotlight. After Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah in 2021 where they aired similar experiences, Märtha Louise’s father King Harald asked Verrett, “Do you think we treated you like that?” the shaman recounts in the film. “When I told him yes, they called a family meeting [to sort things out].” The monarch later publicly condemned the racist remarks lobbied against his son-in-law. Says Märtha Louise in the doc: “My parents have always been willing to learn and adapt.”

    The documentary also explores the origins of Märtha Louise and Verrett’s headline-making love story. Norway’s princess, fourth in line to the Norwegian throne, had been divorced for a couple of years from Ari Behn (whose subsequent tragic death and previous relationship are also covered in the documentary); and the shaman was famous for working with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow when they first crossed paths. The royal’s three daughters with Behn recount that when their mother introduced them to Verrett, they thought he was “one of her gay friends.” The shaman defines himself as bisexual and “almasexual,” explaining, “I am attracted to people’s souls.” In the case of Märtha Louise, “I didn’t care which body she came in,” he says. “I fell in love with the person.” Adds Märtha Louise: “I am a Scorpio, and when I fall in love it is for life.”

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    JAVI SÁNCHEZ

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