Writer/Director Ziad Doueiri on Earning Lebanon’s First Ever Oscar-Nomination With His Film The Insult

When writer/director Ziad Doueiri got word that his film The Insult earned an Oscar nomination in the foreign language category, the first time that a movie from Lebanon was recognized with that honor, he felt joy.

“It is a beautiful present for a tiny country that’s never been to the Oscars. It’s like Jamaica winning the bobsled at the Olympics, remember?” says Doueiri, who is now an American citizen living in Paris.

Oscar-Nominated Disaster Artist Screenwriters on the Art of Adaptation

Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter have a history of bringing character-driven stories to the big screen. They co-wrote the 2009 drama (500) Days of Summer together and they’ve successfully adapted several beloved books into screenplays.

In 2013, their cinematic adaptation of Tim Tharp’s novel The Spectacular Now arrived in theaters to rave reviews. A year later, their adaptation of John Green’s bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars opened to critical and commercial success.

Damon Cardasis on Bringing Authenticity to His Coming-of-Age LGBTQ Musical Drama Saturday Church

From interning for a casting director in Los Angeles, to working with producer Scott Rudin back in his native New York, to serving as an on-set assistant and post supervisor for and later as a co-producer with producer/director/writer Rebecca Miller, Damon Cardasis has experienced the in and outs of the filmmaking business. He is perhaps best known for producing Maggie’s Plan, starring Greta Gerwig and Ethan Hawke, through the production company he formed and still operates with Miller called Round Films — until now that is.

Actress Daniela Vega & Writer/Director Sebastian Lelio on Their Oscar-Nominated Film A Fantastic Woman

Chile-bred, Berlin-based director Sebastian Lelio has become an international filmmaker who moves between styles and countries. He’s also exceptionally prolific, with not one but three movies awaiting release. First up is A Fantastic Woman, one of this year’s five foreign-film Oscar contenders, which will be released today, Feb. 2, in the U.S. It’s the tale of a transgender woman, played by Daniela Vega, who fights for her right to grieve her older lover after his sudden death.

Writers/Directors The Spierig Brothers on Their Deliciously Detailed Horror Winchester

What makes an enduring haunted house classic? Much can be said for dread-inducing camera work, eerie sound design or clever ghostly effects, but for the Spierig brothers, it’s the human story underneath that can transform a horror flick from simply scary to downright legendary. Enter Winchester, a dramatization of the curious true-life mystery of Sarah Winchester and her fascinating, illogical home known as the Winchester Mystery House. And while the details of the true story are sketchy at best,

Screenwriter Michael Golamco on Please Stand By’s Heroine on the Spectrum

Wendy, the blonde heroine of Please Stand By, lives in northern California and writes Star Trek fan fiction. Played by Dakota Fanning, she’s hardly the only pretty, Trekkie protagonist in film history, but she is likely the first one dealing with autism and living in a group therapy home. Ben Lewin directs this Magnolia Pictures film, out tomorrow, which co-stars Toni Colette as Scottie, Wendy’s no-nonsense therapist, and Alice Eve as Audrey,

Writer Ed Solomon Puts the Pieces Together for HBO Thriller Mosaic

As the guy who broke rules to mesh comedy and sci-fi with his now-classic Men in Black script, Ed Solomon knows how to pull off experiments in entertainment. Still, when he and Steven Soderbergh co-created Mosaic, Solomon had to wrap his head around a lot of unknown variables. The murder mystery debuted this past Monday on HBO for five consecutive nights in tandem with a free app that re-structures the same whodunit in interactive flow chart form for smart phones.

Sundance 2018: Writer/Director Babis Makridis on Exploring an Addiction to Sadness in his Surprisingly Funny Pity

Chatting with Greek filmmaker Babis Makridis is a little like being in one of his films. He’s dry, soft spoken, casually funny, and very smart. In his latest film, Pity, about a man who can only experience happiness by being unhappy, Makridis has delivered that rare treat—a story that doesn’t flinch at life’s paradoxes, absurdities and miseries, yet still manages to get a theater full of people laughing. No small feat there.

Makridis has the distinction of having his last feature, 

Sundance 2018: Trans Filmmaker Luis De Filippis on Their Bracing Directorial Debut For Nonna Anna

Toronto-based filmmaker Luis De Filippis’ short film For Nonna Anna focuses on the intergenerational relationship between a trans grandchild and their aging, ailing grandmother.  Selected for Sundance’s Shorts Program, For Nonna Anna is a tender, achingly wrought stunner in miniature, one told by a filmmaker of remarkable skill and compassion.

“It is imperative as Trans people that we tell our own stories on screen,” De Filippis explained in For Nonna Anna‘s press materials.

The Strange Ones Directors Play With Your Perceptions

Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein’s feature-length debut The Strange Ones is a slow burning, twisted coming-of-age story co-starring Alex Pettyfer and 14 year old James Freedson-Jackson, who won SXSW’s Special Jury Prize for breakthrough performance. He’s immensely deserving of the accolade, delivering a performance of almost unnerving poise for a 14-year-old actor. The film had begun its life as a short six years ago, but patience is a virtue in the filmmaking game,

Writer Extraordinaire Aaron Sorkin on his Directorial Debut Molly’s Game

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is famed for writing the words uttered by The West Wing’s imaginary president and the semi-fictionalized tech magnates of Steve Jobs and The Social Network. For his first film as a director, Sorkin scripted the dialogue of a criminal: Molly Bloom, a skier who turned to running big-money poker games after an injury ended her Olympic aspirations. Hardly a desperado, the title character of Molly’s Game is a thoughtful young woman played by Jessica Chastain.

Greta Gerwig On Moving Behind the Camera for her Solo Directorial Debut Lady Bird

*We’re sharing some of our favorite interviews of the year this week in our ‘Best of 2017’ roundup.

Fans of Greta Gerwig know her as the go-to muse of indie filmdom’s mumblecore movement  and for her collaborations with such notable  directors as Joe Swanberg  (LOL,

Writer/Director Edgar Wright Talks his Brilliant new Film Baby Driver

*We’re sharing some of our favorite interviews of the year this week in our ‘Best of 2017’ roundup.

It’s is odd that British auteur and fan-boy fave Edgar Wright, 43, known for spoofing horror flicks (2004’s Shaun of the Dead), buddy-cop procedurals (2007’s Hot Fuzz) and sci-fi thrillers (2013’s The World’s End) has produced his most mature and satisfying spin on a popular genre – this time,

Writer/Director Martin McDonagh on his Dark, Brilliant Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

*We’re sharing some of our favorite interviews of the year this week in our ‘Best of 2017’ roundup.

With his thrillingly raw new film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri just released, writer/director Martin McDonagh is happy to chat about the movie,

I, Tonya Screenwriter Steven Rogers on the Many Sides to one of the ’90s Most Infamous Antiheroes

Steven Rogers remembers watching Tonya Harding at the televised 1994 Olympics when she complained to judges about a broken shoe lace a few weeks after being accused of ordering an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan. “I thought, ‘Oh, she just wants attention, anything for attention,’ because that’s what I was being fed,” says Rogers. “That’s what we were all being fed.”

Two decades later, Rogers burrowed beneath the scandalous surface and wrote I,

Writer/Director Dan Gilroy on Bringing Roman J. Israel, Esq. to Life

Writer/director Dan Gilroy “can’t conceive of directing a movie I didn’t write.” Although Gilroy has written a number of scripts for other directors  —  from 2012’s The Bourne Legacy to 2017’s Kong: Skull Island  —  he says that the ones he chooses to direct himself tend to be more personal.

“If I’m going to spend a year of my life on something it’s got to be personal,” he told The Credits.

Coco’s Story Supervisor on Bringing Children to the Land of the Dead

In Pixar’s Coco, a Mexican boy named Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) visits the Land of the Dead and meets his ancestors. The look and storyline are based on Mexican traditions, including Día de Muertos, when families invite their ancestors back for a visit with photographs, stories, and food.  Story supervisor Jason Katz talked with us about what inspired the dazzling visuals and heartwarming relationships in the film, and how Pixar’s latest is connected to classic Disney and Pixar films throughout the years.

Writer/Director Martin McDonagh on his Dark, Brilliant Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

With his thrillingly raw new film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri just released, writer/director Martin McDonagh is happy to chat about the movie, which has received critical acclaim and film-fest accolades, including Best Screenplay at Venice and People’s Choice at Toronto.

Writer/Director Richard Linklater on his Timely, Devastating Last Flag Flying

Richard Linklater originally tried to get war veterans’ drama Last Flag Flying off the ground 12 years ago, shortly after reading Daryl Ponsican’s novel of the same. “The timing wasn’t right,” he says. But the timing for the now-completed movie, which opened this past Friday, couldn’t be much more attuned to national concerns. Shot last fall, the film gained unexpected resonance two weeks ago when White House chief of staff John Kelly described the exact same process dramatized in Last Flag Flying,

Chatting With Call Me By Your Name‘s Legendary Screenwriter James Ivory

What Mercedes is to cars and Tiffany is to diamonds, Merchant Ivory is to art-house films. The brand whose heyday was in the ‘80s and the ‘90s with such titles as A Room With a View, Howards End and Remains of the Day still is synonymous with tony period pieces, top-of-line acting and a story often adapted from a literary source that engages both the head and the heart.