“The Magician’s Elephant” Director Wendy Rogers on Her Charming Pixelated Pachyderm
Even in the time of Domee Shi, director of Pixar’s Oscar-nominated feature Turning Red, women as sole directors of animated features are a rare thing. This is partly what makes it so refreshing to see Netflix’s The Magician’s Elephant is helmed by veteran VFX supervisor Wendy Rogers in her feature directorial debut.
Adapted from Kate DiCamillo’s award-winning novel and animated by Animal Logic, the story follows Peter (Noah Jupe),
Director Haifaa Al-Mansour on Casting a Spell in “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches”
Though Haifaa Al-Mansour is known as the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia by virtue of her award-winning 2012 feature Wadjda, she has since become a go-to director inside and outside Hollywood through both features and projects on the small screen. The writer/director’s releases Mary Shelley and The Perfect Candidate were lauded by critics and audiences, and her artistic contributions to shows like The Good Lord Bird,
Documentarian Sam Pollard on Courting an Icon in “Bill Russell: Legend”
This week, LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time NBA scoring record, but one superstar stat seems unlikely to be eclipsed any time soon: the late Bill Russell’s collection of 11 NBA Championship rings. One of the league’s first Black players, Russell led the Boston Celtics from 1957 through the sixties. The team’s reign culminated in 1969 after Russell became the league’s first Black player-coach and led the Celtics to a come-from-behind victory over arch-rivals the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Alice, Darling” Director Mary Nighy on Her Chilling, Emotionally Resonant Feature Debut
Alice, Darling, Mary Nighy’s feature film directorial debut explores an insidious form of emotional and psychological abuse: coercive control. In its stirring portrait of Alice, a young woman in denial about her partner’s manipulative and oppressive behavior — played with dazzling depth by Anna Kendrick — the film takes an honest look at the unsettling impact of such abuse. When Alice spends a few days away with her two best friends, she is forced to face her reality and make a life-altering choice.
Sundance 2023: Filmmaker Razelle Benally on Her Showtime Doc Series “Murder in Big Horn”
The Sundance staff and execs have always believed it essential to honor Indigenous people as part of their film festival and institute, as exampled by their Native Lab and Indigenous Program. This year, there is an even greater focus on Native cultures, both inside and outside the cinemas, with 11 Indigenous films as part of the program. 2023 also marked the inaugural year for The Indigenous House, which provided a gathering space for community members and allies,
Writer/Director Elegance Bratton on His Breakout Film “The Inspection”
Writer/director Elegance Bratton’s autobiographical The Inspection is one of the year’s breakout films. Bratton stuck with the project for years because it most reflected who he is: a gay Black man who was homeless as a teenager, a Marine Corps veteran, and a Columbia University and NYU-educated filmmaker.
Bratton’s struggles began practically at birth with that unusual, magnificent name. “My mother named me Elegance but had a problem with me being gay,” Bratton said over the phone from his home in Baltimore.
Best of 2022: “The Woman King” Director Gina Prince-Bythewood on Her Singular, Sweeping Historical Epic
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
When director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s most recent film, The Old Guard, premiered on Netflix in July of 2020, the critically acclaimed action drama became one of the top 10 original launches in the platform’s history. Prince-Bythewood is following that with one of the most anticipated films of 2022,
Best of 2022: “Succession” Director Mark Mylod on Season 3 & TV’s Most Irresistibly Twisted Family
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
Succession director Mark Mylod knows his way around family drama. Mylod’s been with the series since the first season, directing the second episode (the pilot was helmed by co-creator Adam McKay), and is now the most tenured Succession director of them all, with 12 episodes to his credit.
Best of 2022: Bill Hader on Bringing Up “Barry”
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
For eight seasons, Bill Hader gained a legion of fans with the hilarious characters he brought to life on Saturday Night Live. Since then, his popularity has only grown with his Emmy-winning portrayal of the manic hitman/aspiring actor in the HBO series Barry. But to hear Hader tell it,
Best of 2022: “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Writer/Director Rian Johnson Unpeels His Whodunit
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
When released in 2019, Rian Johnson’s star-studded, deliciously delightful who-done-it Knives Out was met with universal acclaim and became a smash hit. In it, star Daniel Craig shed all remnants of his Bond persona to play the quirky Southern genius detective Benoit Blanc in a performance so winning and a film so enjoyable even a character’s sweater became a sensation.
Best of 2022: MPA Creator Award Recipient Writer/Director Nikyatu Jusu on her Stunning Debut Feature “Nanny”
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
Deploying West African folklore to interrogate the myth of the American dream, writer/director Nikyatu Jusu‘s debut feature Nanny is a remarkably assured genre-melding experience. Nanny also gives viewers something that’s sadly still quite rare—it evocatively places us inside the head, heart, and aching soul of Aisha (Anna Diop),
“Devotion” Director J.D. Dillard on Leading Jonathan Majors in His Emotional War Epic
The new historic war epic Devotion is based on the bestselling book by Adam Makos of the same name. The true story centers on the first Black aviator in Navy history, Jesse Brown (played by Jonathan Majors), and his fellow fighter pilot Tom Hudner (Glen Powell, who also acts as producer on the film), and their heroic actions during the Korean War.
Director J.D. Dillard, who helms this exciting and emotional film,
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Writer/Director Rian Johnson Unpeels His Whodunit
When released in 2019, Rian Johnson’s star-studded, deliciously delightful who-done-it Knives Out was met with universal acclaim and became a smash hit. In it, star Daniel Craig shed all remnants of his Bond persona to play the quirky Southern genius detective Benoit Blanc in a performance so winning and a film so enjoyable even a character’s sweater became a sensation. (Granted, that character, the spoiled viper Ranson Drysdale,
“Raymond & Ray” Writer/Director Rodrigo Garcia Digs Deep With Ewan McGregor & Ethan Hawke
Writer/director Rodrigo Garcia‘s initial idea for Raymond & Ray was simple—a trumpet player is digging his father’s grave—but something wasn’t quite working. “I can’t even remember if the digging of the grave was his idea or the father’s requirement,” Garcia admits, reflecting on the first draft of what would become his surprisingly funny, raw look at father/son relationships in his new Apple TV film. “The reverend was there, and a woman showed up with a child,
Sinéad O’Shea on her Unflinching & Award-Winning Documentary “Pray For Our Sinners”
Dublin-based filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea wasn’t sure what she’d find when she returned to her small hometown of Navan, north of Dublin, last year to interview Mary Randles, who’d been a local doctor alongside her late husband Patrick. O’Shea did not expect to discover that, in addition to the Randles, other residents in Navan years ago stood up to injustices inflicted by the Catholic Church, which then controlled all aspects of life in their tiny town.
Filmmaker & TV Creator Mann Robinson on Getting it Done in Georgia
Mann Robinson gets it done. The former rapped-turned-filmmaker and television creator can do it all—write, direct, produce, edit—with a tirelessness that would seem inhuman if he wasn’t so even-keeled about how he approaches his work.
“What’s allowing me to have so many things coming up?” he says when we spoke toward the end of summer, as he took a rare break to chat about his career. “First thing I do in the morning is write whatever project I may be on at the time,
“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” Director Kat Coiro on Taking on The Trolls Head-On
For fans of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, everyone can agree the last episode was quite a wild ride and something never seen before in the extended MCU. As per the comic book series, breaking the 4th wall is part of the She-Hulk tradition, and so it makes sense the filmmakers behind the show would go all out and incorporate that into creating a satisfying ending for Jen Walters. Embraced by critics,
“Los Espookys” Co-Creator/Writer/Director/Star Ana Fabrega Does it All (Literally)
Los Espookys, the surreal HBO comedy, has returned for a second season. Unlike anything currently on television, the series, created by Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, and Fred Armisen, follows four horror-loving friends who run Los Espookys — a business that stages supernatural scenes and tricks people into thinking they are real.
Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco), Los Espookys’ leader, is also its heart and soul. Ursula (Cassandra Ciangherotti) is its makeup master.
“Blonde” Director Andrew Dominik on Painting a Different Kind of Portrait of Marilyn Monroe
Visually, writer-director Andrew Dominik wanted to surface the iconic imagery of Marilyn Monroe for his fictional adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s Blonde (now streaming on Netflix.) What found its way to the screen is a nearly three-hour collection of novellas that poetically paint Norma Jean’s life from childhood to stardom.
“The big visual idea of the movie was to have it almost look like a Google search of Marilyn Monroe,” Dominik shares with The Credits.
“Moonage Daydream” Director Brett Morgen on Following David Bowie Down the Rabbit Hole
It’s a bit of a miracle that director Brett Morgen survived creating Moonage Daydream, his kaleidoscopic deep dive into David Bowie’s unique sound and vision.
Morgen was six months into editing the film, the first project that had the full cooperation of Bowie’s estate. But assembling the massive volume of footage, some of it never before seen, was taking its toll on the filmmaker.
“It was traumatic because we’d run out of funding,
