How Vietnamese Filmmaker Bui Kim Quy Faced Death, Real & Imagined, in Her Film “Memoryland”

When her second film Memoryland held its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents competition last month, Vietnamese director Bui Kim Quy had to give it a miss due to her health conditions.

“I was diagnosed with lung cancer after the shoot wrapped in late 2018. Since then I have been undergoing treatment (which also explains why we had a drawn-out post-production). This pre-existing medical condition prevented me from getting the vaccines.

“Encanto” Writer/Director Charise Castro Smith On Breaking Boundaries

With the release of Disney’s Encanto, Charise Castro Smith (The Haunting of Hill House, Devious Maids) has broken through not one but two ceilings: as the first Latina to receive a directing credit on a Disney animated feature, and only the second woman ever to do so.

“I am glad this milestone has been reached. I wish it had been reached earlier and I wish this weren’t such a small club,” said Castro Smith,

“Hawkeye” Director & Executive Producer Rhys Thomas Hits His Mark

Let’s say you’re a director, and you’ve been called in for a “general meeting” at Marvel Studios. A general meeting is a chance for studio executives to get to know a particular filmmaker, see what they’re like and what they’re interested in, but they’re not pegged to a specific project. Not yet. Obviously, a general meeting with Marvel is a big deal, and the number of Marvel projects percolating at any given moment is massive,

“Sort Of” Co-Creator/Writer/Director Fab Filippo on This Groundbreaking New HBO Max Series

When you start watching the groundbreaking new HBO Max series Sort Of (debuting on HBO Max November 18), you might imagine that it’s yet another precocious-Millennial-auteur-driven show, starring its own creator/writer. After all, Sort Of’s real-life creator/writer/star, Bilal Baig, is a stylish, non-binary, Pakistani denizen of queer Toronto – just like Sabi Mehboob, the lead character they play in Sort Of.

As the story unfolds over eight episodes,

“Red Notice” Writer/Director Rawson Marshall Thurber on Re-Teaming With The Rock

In Red Notice, now streaming on Netflix in tandem with its theatrical run, a top FBI profiler (Dwayne Johnson) and a career criminal (Ryan Reynolds) find themselves unlikely partners to thwart a high-stakes heist and the alluring art thief (Gal Godot) at the center of it all. Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodge Ball, The Millers) wrote and directed the action-comedy, which reunites him with Johnson after the two worked together previously on Central Intelligence and Skyscraper.

“Belfast” Writer/Director Kenneth Branagh’s Riveting Return to his Childhood

Writer/director Kenneth Branagh has mined his childhood experiences in Belfast to create a riveting, sumptuous film. Belfast (opening November 12), which is shot in black and white, captures a time in the summer of 1969 directly following the first riots in the northern part of the city often cited as the beginning of the Troubles. Branagh and his family were in the thick of it, and the film is shot from his perspective through the 9-year-old character Buddy,

Director Eva Husson on Capturing Grief & Trauma in “Mothering Sunday”

Loss and grief permeate Mothering Sunday, a class-crossed romance set in 1924 England as it reels from the collective trauma of the Great War. Director Eva Husson says the movie’s somber mood matched that of the cast and crew since the film was shot in 2020 between pandemic lockdowns.

“I think all of us felt deeply connected to the emotions of the story. It had an effect on us. We were going through the pandemic so it was surreal how close it mirrored the sense of grief in our lives,

“Spencer” Director Pablo Larraín on the Horror & Humanity in His Princess Diana Movie

Director Pablo Larraín did not set out to make a horror movie with Spencer. But his unconventional portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales (Kristen Stewart), set over Christmas weekend in the early 1990s as her marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) is unraveling along with her psychological state, offers an eerie interpretation of the British royal’s turbulent inner world.

“It’s not that I wanted to make a horror movie. I wanted to make a movie from her perspective and the difficulties she was facing,” says Larraín in a Zoom interview the day before Neon released Spencer in theaters.

“We’re Here” Director Peter LoGreco on Season Two of HBO’s Joyous Unscripted Series

“Drag heals the world!”

So declares drag queen Eureka O’Hara on the new season of HBO’s Emmy-nominated unscripted series We’re Here. Even the most diehard skeptic will find it hard to disagree with her.

Season 2 of We’re Here launches today and coincides with National Coming Out Day, which celebrates the act of coming out as LGBTQ and reassures those who cannot that they are loved.

“The Many Saints of Newark” Director Alan Taylor Pictures a Young Tony Soprano

When writer David Chase created HBO’s The Sopranos in 1999, he ushered in the age of what is now fondly known as Peak TV. Often staged by director Alan Taylor, Chase’s contemporary crime drama, led by the late James Gandolfini as mob boss Tony Soprano, picked up 111 Emmy nominations including 21 wins by infusing a crew of New Jersey Mafiosi with gritty eloquence, Shakespearean-level betrayal, homicidal rage, family dysfunction and loads of psychological nuance.

Emmy Winner Jessica Hobbs on Why Directing “The Crown” is a Royal Treat

The 73rd Emmys shined bright over the weekend with a number of fresh faces taking home a statue, including Michaela Coel accepting the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series in a rousing speech for I May Destroy You. It was the first time a woman of color won the award.

The Crown director Jessica Hobbs was also among the newly enshrined during the live broadcast,

Writer/Directors Aron Gaudet & Gita Pullapilly on Their Couponing Caper “Queenpins”

“Two buddy comedies for the price of one,” says Aron Gaudet about Queenpins, the quirky indie escapade set in the thrift-minded world of extreme couponing that he co-wrote and co-directed with Gita Pullapilly. Starring Kristen Bell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Paul Walter Hauser, and Vince Vaughn, the film follows two best friends who wittingly become embroiled in a multimillion-dollar counterfeit coupon scam, and the loss prevention officer and U.S. postal inspector hot on their tails.

Director Kay Cannon on Bringing the Modern & the Funny to “Cinderella”

With her hilarious and critically acclaimed feature-directing debut Blockers, Kay Cannon expanded her renown beyond being the writer of the Pitch Perfect blockbuster franchise and writer/producer on hit shows like 30 Rock, New Girl, and Girl Boss. Cinderella, which premiered in theaters and on Prime Video this past September 3rd, is her sophomore release as director and looks like another crowd-pleasing hit.

Vietnamese Filmmaker Le Binh Giang on His New Film “Who Created Human Beings” and Vietnam’s Growing Film Industry

Despite strict travel restrictions imposed against the ongoing pandemic, Vietnamese director Le Binh Giang made it in-person to Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival. He traveled from Vietnam, along with his Vietnamese producer Le Quynh Anh, to present his latest project Who Created Human Beings at the festival’s international co-production platform Open Doors Hub, which ran from August 6-10.

The new project, which touches on local sensitive issues such as abortion and religion,

“Untold: Breaking Point” Creators Examine Tennis Star Mardy Fish’s Battle With Severe Anxiety

Mardy Fish knows that he and others benefit when he tells his life story. Still, he’s not quite ready to watch someone else tell it for him.

Breaking Point — the latest installment in Netflix’s sports documentary series Untold, which will be released September 7 — recounts Fish’s descent from his perch as the No. 1 American tennis player in 2011 into a years-long battle with severe anxiety disorder.

Documentarian Morgan Neville on “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”

Charismatic author, chef, and world traveler Anthony Bourdain went from relative obscurity working in a New York restaurant to international success at the age of 43 when his memoir Kitchen Confidential was released. It started a meteoric rise to fame and led to Anthony Bourdain becoming a household name. When he killed himself at 61, his suicide shocked fans all over the world. Now Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville has created a fascinating, poignant portrait of the complicated man in Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain.

“Werewolves Within” Director Josh Ruben on His Hilarious Creature Feature

Werewolves Within invites you to the cozy town of Beverfield, Vermont, where things that go bump in the night are manifold. They might be a creature out to get you, or, they might be your neighbor, out to bother the crap out of you. Director Josh Ruben has crafted a deliciously nimble murder mystery/monster story/comedy in the comfy (if cold and often creepy) confines of this wooded would-be paradise. Based on Mishna Wolff’s script, 

Oscar-Nominated Producer Rachel Winter on Her Directorial Debut “The Space Between”

Oscar-nominated producer Rachel Winter worked for years to help get Dallas Buyers Club made, deploying a cheerful tenacity that she’s again and again in her career. The tireless Winter has made a career of finding and shepherding projects, sometimes for years, that she believes in. Or, it might be more accurate to say that Winter has gotten projects made that she herself can’t shake, that she thinks about over and over again.

“In The Heights” Director Jon M. Chu on Capturing a Neighborhood’s Magic

Director Jon M. Chu had to become “a complete listener” to bring the story of the largely Latinx community of In the Heights to life. In an interview, Chu talked about the connections he felt between his Chinese heritage and the characters in the film. He also brought the exuberance that made his previous films, like Crazy Rich Asians and Step Up 2, so vibrant.

How did you focus on the specifics of the Latinx culture for the film?

“WandaVision” Director Matt Shakman on Landing His Dream Job

So many of director Matt Shakman‘s worlds collided when he took on Marvel Studios WandaVision. “I come at it from this bizarre perspective, as I’ve been a lifelong Marvel fan, a comic book fan, I’ve been in the audience for all of Marvel’s movies, but I’m also a sitcom kid, I grew up in Hollywood as an actor on sitcom sets,” Shakman says of his fortuitous role as the series director.