Avatar actress Cch Pounder and Academy Award-nominated producer Paul Garnes will attend the inaugural Cross Continental International Co-production Forum (Ccf) in Barbados.
They’ll join media executives and high level producers from Canada, the UK, South Africa and several Caribbean countries at the event, which aims to encourage collaboration, business development, and co-productions.
Pounder and Garnes will add some heavyweight fire power to proceedings. Known for roles in the likes of ER, NCIS: New Orleans, The X Files and The Shield, she has picked up four Primetime Emmy nominations.
Garnes is best known for his work on 2014 feature Selma, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. He was a producer on Ava DuVernay’s 2023 feature Origin, a drama on the life of Isabel Wilkerson that will be screened at the Ccf.
The CeventCF is being billed as a first-of-its-kind venture established by CaribbeanTales Media Group, Imagine Media International,...
They’ll join media executives and high level producers from Canada, the UK, South Africa and several Caribbean countries at the event, which aims to encourage collaboration, business development, and co-productions.
Pounder and Garnes will add some heavyweight fire power to proceedings. Known for roles in the likes of ER, NCIS: New Orleans, The X Files and The Shield, she has picked up four Primetime Emmy nominations.
Garnes is best known for his work on 2014 feature Selma, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. He was a producer on Ava DuVernay’s 2023 feature Origin, a drama on the life of Isabel Wilkerson that will be screened at the Ccf.
The CeventCF is being billed as a first-of-its-kind venture established by CaribbeanTales Media Group, Imagine Media International,...
- 4/9/2024
- by Hannah Abraham
- Deadline Film + TV
Update: After this story was published, the “Origin” Twitter account was deleted.
Previously: After the release of her latest film “Origin,” director Ava DuVernay was vocal about her disappointment that the movie failed to garner widespread attention or awards buzz. Now, the X/Twitter account for “Origin” is taking aim at the distributor Neon, calling out the company for not inviting the filmmakers to its Oscar party.
Quote-tweeting a photo from the party, the account posted one day after the Academy Awards: “Is it odd that the filmmakers of Neon’s current film in theaters weren’t invited to this Neon celebration? Nope. Standard operating procedure for [founder Tom] Quinn and team. That’s how Neon rolls. More on this later.”
The event was hosted at the Hollywood Athletic Club by Neon, which touted its Oscar win for “Anatomy of a Fall,” which picked up best original screenplay on Sunday and was also nominated for best picture,...
Previously: After the release of her latest film “Origin,” director Ava DuVernay was vocal about her disappointment that the movie failed to garner widespread attention or awards buzz. Now, the X/Twitter account for “Origin” is taking aim at the distributor Neon, calling out the company for not inviting the filmmakers to its Oscar party.
Quote-tweeting a photo from the party, the account posted one day after the Academy Awards: “Is it odd that the filmmakers of Neon’s current film in theaters weren’t invited to this Neon celebration? Nope. Standard operating procedure for [founder Tom] Quinn and team. That’s how Neon rolls. More on this later.”
The event was hosted at the Hollywood Athletic Club by Neon, which touted its Oscar win for “Anatomy of a Fall,” which picked up best original screenplay on Sunday and was also nominated for best picture,...
- 3/12/2024
- by Ethan Shanfeld
- Variety Film + TV
Lionsgate horror Imaginary opens in 516 UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend, as the first challenger to Dune: Part Two’s box office supremacy.
Directed by Jeff Wadlow who wrote the screenplay with Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, Imaginary stars DeWanda Wise as a woman who returns to her childhood home, to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is real and unhappy at his abandonment.
It is the eighth feature from US filmmaker Wadlow, who has worked predominantly in the genre space with titles including 2018’s Truth Or Dare and 2020’s pandemic-afflicted Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (£392,999; £763,958). His highest-grossing title is 2013’s Kick-Ass 2,...
Directed by Jeff Wadlow who wrote the screenplay with Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, Imaginary stars DeWanda Wise as a woman who returns to her childhood home, to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is real and unhappy at his abandonment.
It is the eighth feature from US filmmaker Wadlow, who has worked predominantly in the genre space with titles including 2018’s Truth Or Dare and 2020’s pandemic-afflicted Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (£392,999; £763,958). His highest-grossing title is 2013’s Kick-Ass 2,...
- 3/8/2024
- ScreenDaily
[Editor’s note: this story was originally published in January 2024. We updated and recirculated it in advance of the 96th Academy Awards on March 10.]
The Oscars are a cruel, selective beast. With only 10 movies recognized in the Best Picture race, and five entries in every other category, it’s an unfortunate reality that many high quality, deserving films each year will end up with nothing on nomination day.
The 2024 Oscar class is no different, with plenty of cries of snubbery coming out after their January 23 announcement. Most of the discussion has been taken up by the shocking blanks for Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig, who missed out on Best Actress and Best Director respectively for their work on “Barbie,” the indisputable film juggernaut of the year. Other major surprises included Charles Melton missing out for his breakout turn in “May December,” and Leonardo DiCaprio getting left out of the Best Actor race for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Other surprises proved of the more pleasant sort, with on-the-bubble contenders making it in like Robbie...
The Oscars are a cruel, selective beast. With only 10 movies recognized in the Best Picture race, and five entries in every other category, it’s an unfortunate reality that many high quality, deserving films each year will end up with nothing on nomination day.
The 2024 Oscar class is no different, with plenty of cries of snubbery coming out after their January 23 announcement. Most of the discussion has been taken up by the shocking blanks for Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig, who missed out on Best Actress and Best Director respectively for their work on “Barbie,” the indisputable film juggernaut of the year. Other major surprises included Charles Melton missing out for his breakout turn in “May December,” and Leonardo DiCaprio getting left out of the Best Actor race for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Other surprises proved of the more pleasant sort, with on-the-bubble contenders making it in like Robbie...
- 3/4/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
Origin, Ava DuVernay's 2024 biographical drama, is almost ready for its online release as fans wait to find out when it will be available to watch on streaming.
DuVernay's latest big-screen effort centers on Isabel Wilkerson as she writes her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, traveling worldwide to research social class systems from across the world.
Origin debuted at the Venice Film Festival in September 2023 before making a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles, California on December 8. It then hit theaters nationwide under Neon distribution on January 19, receiving critical acclaim as it currently sits at an 83% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Read full article on The Direct.
DuVernay's latest big-screen effort centers on Isabel Wilkerson as she writes her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, traveling worldwide to research social class systems from across the world.
Origin debuted at the Venice Film Festival in September 2023 before making a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles, California on December 8. It then hit theaters nationwide under Neon distribution on January 19, receiving critical acclaim as it currently sits at an 83% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Read full article on The Direct.
- 3/3/2024
- by Richard Nebens
- The Direct
The USC Libraries announced the winners for the 36th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
For the second year in a row, “Slow Horses” took home the prize for episodic series; Cord Jefferson won the 2024 award for film adaptation; both he and the author of the novel he adapted, Percival Everett, were in attendance. Jefferson thanked Everett for trusting him with his 2001 novel, which he felt was written just for him. “He has managed to mine my novel for the material he needed to make this film,” said Everett, who teaches at USC. “And then I sat back and did nothing. So good job. Thank you.”
“I wouldn’t be here without without him,...
For the second year in a row, “Slow Horses” took home the prize for episodic series; Cord Jefferson won the 2024 award for film adaptation; both he and the author of the novel he adapted, Percival Everett, were in attendance. Jefferson thanked Everett for trusting him with his 2001 novel, which he felt was written just for him. “He has managed to mine my novel for the material he needed to make this film,” said Everett, who teaches at USC. “And then I sat back and did nothing. So good job. Thank you.”
“I wouldn’t be here without without him,...
- 3/3/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The writers behind the feature American Fiction and the TV adaptation Slow Horses took home the top honors at the USC Scripter Awards, which honors the best adapted projects of the year. Both the original authors as well as the screenwriters share the award.
In the film category, American Fiction (Cord Jefferson’s adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel Erasure) topped fellow nominees Killers of the Flower Moon (Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI); Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer); Origin (Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents); and Poor Things (Tony McNamara’s adaptation of Aliasdair Gray’s novel of the same name).
On the TV side,...
In the film category, American Fiction (Cord Jefferson’s adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel Erasure) topped fellow nominees Killers of the Flower Moon (Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI); Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer); Origin (Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents); and Poor Things (Tony McNamara’s adaptation of Aliasdair Gray’s novel of the same name).
On the TV side,...
- 3/3/2024
- by Aaron Couch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The actor’s new film Origin sees him star as the husband of Pulitzer-winner Isabel Wilkerson. He reflects on the fight for social justice and avoiding the new film seeming like a ‘woke agenda’
As Jon Bernthal’s face pings on to the screen from his California home, I’m peering in to his giant living room, looking for his three pit bull terriers. While he was, for a long time, mainly thought of as the square-jawed beefcake Shane Walsh in The Walking Dead, and later as the iron-pecced Punisher in two eponymous series and various episodes of Daredevil, the 47-year-old has become more associated with social conscience, on screen and off.
He has a podcast, Real Ones, where he talks to people on the frontlines of big issues – police officers, gang members, doctors, soldiers. He runs a community empowerment Ngo, Drops Fill Buckets, with his brother Nick, an orthopaedic...
As Jon Bernthal’s face pings on to the screen from his California home, I’m peering in to his giant living room, looking for his three pit bull terriers. While he was, for a long time, mainly thought of as the square-jawed beefcake Shane Walsh in The Walking Dead, and later as the iron-pecced Punisher in two eponymous series and various episodes of Daredevil, the 47-year-old has become more associated with social conscience, on screen and off.
He has a podcast, Real Ones, where he talks to people on the frontlines of big issues – police officers, gang members, doctors, soldiers. He runs a community empowerment Ngo, Drops Fill Buckets, with his brother Nick, an orthopaedic...
- 3/1/2024
- by Zoe Williams
- The Guardian - Film News
Fresh Air radio co-host Tonya Mosley is set to launch the She Has a Name podcast next month, about a young Detroit mother lost amid that city’s economic collapse and crack cocaine epidemic.
The 10-part documentary podcast from Apm Studios will kick off March 28. Mosley, who grew up in Detroit in the 1980s and ’90s and is now co-host of Fresh Air With Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, is joined by her nephew, Antonio Wiley, to tell a story of family disconnection and healing.
The origins of the podcast, which blends investigative journalism and memoir, came in 1987 when Detroit firefighters discovered the remains of an unidentified young woman in a vacant house deliberately set on fire.
Buried in a cemetery as “Unknown Woman 1987,” it took a DNA program 30 years later to identify the young woman’s remains as those of Anita — the mother of Antonio Wiley and the sister...
The 10-part documentary podcast from Apm Studios will kick off March 28. Mosley, who grew up in Detroit in the 1980s and ’90s and is now co-host of Fresh Air With Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, is joined by her nephew, Antonio Wiley, to tell a story of family disconnection and healing.
The origins of the podcast, which blends investigative journalism and memoir, came in 1987 when Detroit firefighters discovered the remains of an unidentified young woman in a vacant house deliberately set on fire.
Buried in a cemetery as “Unknown Woman 1987,” it took a DNA program 30 years later to identify the young woman’s remains as those of Anita — the mother of Antonio Wiley and the sister...
- 2/15/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In an exclusive uInterview, director Ava Duvernay discusses the message behind her new film, Origin.
Origin is an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The film follows the author as she makes sense of her own grief while confronting current events in the United States.
“I’m proud of it,” Duvernay said about the film. “It was really organic. I was reading the book and trying to figure out the most emotional throughline, and that was the story of Isabel Wilkerson herself and what she overcame to write the book.”
“That was the way I approached it,” she continued, “which was a much softer and gentler way than saying ‘I’m going to write a movie about Caste.’ That becomes difficult to wrap your head around, so I just let her be my guide.”
The movie grapples with historical cases of racism and oppression around the world,...
Origin is an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The film follows the author as she makes sense of her own grief while confronting current events in the United States.
“I’m proud of it,” Duvernay said about the film. “It was really organic. I was reading the book and trying to figure out the most emotional throughline, and that was the story of Isabel Wilkerson herself and what she overcame to write the book.”
“That was the way I approached it,” she continued, “which was a much softer and gentler way than saying ‘I’m going to write a movie about Caste.’ That becomes difficult to wrap your head around, so I just let her be my guide.”
The movie grapples with historical cases of racism and oppression around the world,...
- 2/2/2024
- by Ava Lombardi
- Uinterview
A congested awards season rolled into the final stretch Tuesday with nominations unveiled for the 96th Academy Awards. For some, it starts the race to the opening of those envelopes onstage at the Dolby Theatre in March. For others, it’s a non-starter.
No surprise to many, the words Oppenheimer and Barbie were uttered several times as Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid, who is in both the multiple nominated Christopher Nolan-directed picture and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, divulged this morning who is in the running for Oscar glory. Along with the Nolan- and Greta Gerwig-helmed films, Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Lily Gladstone, Rustin’s Colman Domingo and Barbie’s America Ferrera were also given prize spots by the almost 11,000 voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
With nominations in all 23 categories now out, the final round of voting will take place February 22-...
No surprise to many, the words Oppenheimer and Barbie were uttered several times as Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid, who is in both the multiple nominated Christopher Nolan-directed picture and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, divulged this morning who is in the running for Oscar glory. Along with the Nolan- and Greta Gerwig-helmed films, Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Lily Gladstone, Rustin’s Colman Domingo and Barbie’s America Ferrera were also given prize spots by the almost 11,000 voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
With nominations in all 23 categories now out, the final round of voting will take place February 22-...
- 1/23/2024
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
For Ava DuVernay, whose projects like 13th, Selma, and When They See Us challenge viewers to contend with the gut-wrenching racism that’s colored American history, Origin provides a more global perspective on racial inequality and its foundation within social hierarchies.
“I try to make soul food with my movies, not junk food, not fast food,” DuVernay tells Rolling Stone. “Not stuff that goes in and goes straight up the next day, but stuff that sticks to your ribs.”
Origin, which DuVernay wrote and directed, draws inspiration from Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling book Caste,...
“I try to make soul food with my movies, not junk food, not fast food,” DuVernay tells Rolling Stone. “Not stuff that goes in and goes straight up the next day, but stuff that sticks to your ribs.”
Origin, which DuVernay wrote and directed, draws inspiration from Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling book Caste,...
- 1/23/2024
- by Kalia Richardson
- Rollingstone.com
Origin Director Ava Duvernay returns to the big screen with “Origin” based on the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. (See review below) Founder Day Another week, another horror movie but “Founders Day” is a slasher film that’s cut above the rest! (See review below) I.S.S. Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose returns
The post Movie Reviews: “Origin,” “Founders Day,” “I.S.S.” appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.
The post Movie Reviews: “Origin,” “Founders Day,” “I.S.S.” appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.
- 1/22/2024
- by manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday, but “Origin” star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor sounds like she’s already moving on from awards season. Instead, she’s focusing on how the film is impacting audiences.
When asked what it would mean to hear her name called for her second Academy Award nod, Ellis-Taylor paused to thoughtfully consider her words.
“That part of it… that ship has sailed and that’s alright,” Ellis-Taylor said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible while at the Sundance Film Festival. “What I’m excited about is my family members came out in droves to see that film on Friday.”
“Origin” — filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” in which Ellis-Taylor plays the author — opened in limited release this weekend, grossing $875,000 from 125 screens. It had a brief Oscar qualifying run last December.
“It has been…it was overlooked,...
When asked what it would mean to hear her name called for her second Academy Award nod, Ellis-Taylor paused to thoughtfully consider her words.
“That part of it… that ship has sailed and that’s alright,” Ellis-Taylor said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible while at the Sundance Film Festival. “What I’m excited about is my family members came out in droves to see that film on Friday.”
“Origin” — filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” in which Ellis-Taylor plays the author — opened in limited release this weekend, grossing $875,000 from 125 screens. It had a brief Oscar qualifying run last December.
“It has been…it was overlooked,...
- 1/22/2024
- by Angelique Jackson and Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Ava DuVernay’s Origin’s theatrical debut grossed a solid $875k on 130 screens with a $7k per-theater average said to be better than Neon anticipated.
The distributor is “thrilled” with the number.
“Working in close collaboration with Ava and her team at Array we’ve built a multi-tiered release plan that began with a high-profile December qualifying run in NY and LA taking full advantage of the Awards corridor, and now expanding nationally in a less crowded marketplace, priming Origin for wider cross-over appeal,” said Neon distribution chief Elissa Federoff.
“It’s heartwarming to see this film connecting with audiences,” she added.
The film starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is based on The New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 book Caste. Her exploration of the historical roots of racism in ways that it’s not quite ever been done before, was a bestseller.
Its short qualifying run in December...
The distributor is “thrilled” with the number.
“Working in close collaboration with Ava and her team at Array we’ve built a multi-tiered release plan that began with a high-profile December qualifying run in NY and LA taking full advantage of the Awards corridor, and now expanding nationally in a less crowded marketplace, priming Origin for wider cross-over appeal,” said Neon distribution chief Elissa Federoff.
“It’s heartwarming to see this film connecting with audiences,” she added.
The film starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is based on The New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 book Caste. Her exploration of the historical roots of racism in ways that it’s not quite ever been done before, was a bestseller.
Its short qualifying run in December...
- 1/21/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The January Box Office Slump Continues with Little Relief in Sight, as Top 6 Order Remains Unchanged
With a lack of any strong new studio releases, the Christmas holdovers not showing typical stamina (though some of moderate might), and some offbeat releases flexing a bit but not enough, domestic grosses fell to weakened $66 million this weekend.
That’s down 13 percent from last year, which had the benefit of two December releases (“Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”) outgrossing anything in this weekend’s Top 10. 2024 releases, led by “Mean Girls” (Paramount) and “The Beekeeper” (Amazon MGM) at No. 1 and No. 2 again, totaled about $30 million, which is one-third better than new films last year amassed. Still, the year-to-date box office is about 10 percent lower.
When the top six repeat in the same order, a dropoff is to be expected. Bleecker Street attempted to fill the void with their sci-fi acquisition “I.S.S.,” starring Ariana DeBose, but failed to make much impact with a seventh place showing of $3 million.
That’s down 13 percent from last year, which had the benefit of two December releases (“Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”) outgrossing anything in this weekend’s Top 10. 2024 releases, led by “Mean Girls” (Paramount) and “The Beekeeper” (Amazon MGM) at No. 1 and No. 2 again, totaled about $30 million, which is one-third better than new films last year amassed. Still, the year-to-date box office is about 10 percent lower.
When the top six repeat in the same order, a dropoff is to be expected. Bleecker Street attempted to fill the void with their sci-fi acquisition “I.S.S.,” starring Ariana DeBose, but failed to make much impact with a seventh place showing of $3 million.
- 1/21/2024
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
A winter freeze has set in at the domestic box office as theater owners and studios grapple with a slowdown in product due to last year’s labor strikes and resulting production delays.
For the Jan. 19-21 weekend, Paramount’s Mean Girls musical stayed in first place in its second outing with an estimated $11.7 million from 3,826 locations for a domestic total of $50 million. The Tina Fey-penned musical fell more than the filmmakers would have liked, dropping 59 percent.
The only new wide release was Bleecker Street’s I.S.S., a thriller about warring astronauts in their rival space stations. Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the film stars Ariana DeBose and Chris Messina.
I.S.S., playing in 2,250 locations, all but crashed to earth with a $3 million domestic debut to come in at No. 7. The pic could have a second life on home entertainment, as well as do solid business in some overseas markets.
For the Jan. 19-21 weekend, Paramount’s Mean Girls musical stayed in first place in its second outing with an estimated $11.7 million from 3,826 locations for a domestic total of $50 million. The Tina Fey-penned musical fell more than the filmmakers would have liked, dropping 59 percent.
The only new wide release was Bleecker Street’s I.S.S., a thriller about warring astronauts in their rival space stations. Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the film stars Ariana DeBose and Chris Messina.
I.S.S., playing in 2,250 locations, all but crashed to earth with a $3 million domestic debut to come in at No. 7. The pic could have a second life on home entertainment, as well as do solid business in some overseas markets.
- 1/21/2024
- by Pamela McClintock
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The “Mean Girls” movie musical topped a sleepy box office as “I.S.S.,” a sci-fi thriller that takes place aboard the International Space Station, misfired in its opening weekend.
“Mean Girls” added $11.7 million in its second weekend of release, bringing its domestic tally to $50 million. Ticket sales dropped a steep 59% from its debut. However, the film’s decline is cushioned by its modest $36 million budget, which makes its box office performance outsized.
Overall, it’s been a desolate weekend for the movie theater business. To punctuate the box office doldrums, three movies in the top five were released around Christmas.
“With no big studio release, this weekend is the kind of ‘hole’ in the 2024 release schedule left by the strikes and pandemic,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research.
This weekend’s only newcomer “I.S.S.” crash-landed in seventh place, collecting just $3 million from 2,520 theaters in its debut.
“Mean Girls” added $11.7 million in its second weekend of release, bringing its domestic tally to $50 million. Ticket sales dropped a steep 59% from its debut. However, the film’s decline is cushioned by its modest $36 million budget, which makes its box office performance outsized.
Overall, it’s been a desolate weekend for the movie theater business. To punctuate the box office doldrums, three movies in the top five were released around Christmas.
“With no big studio release, this weekend is the kind of ‘hole’ in the 2024 release schedule left by the strikes and pandemic,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research.
This weekend’s only newcomer “I.S.S.” crash-landed in seventh place, collecting just $3 million from 2,520 theaters in its debut.
- 1/21/2024
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Origin, written and directed by Ava DuVernay, is currently playing in theaters and will soon be available to watch at home.
The film covers author Isabel Wilkerson embarking on a journey of worldwide exploration and revelation while crafting her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
In 2020, plans were unveiled for DuVernay to create a film adaptation of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents for Netflix.
Read full article on The Direct.
The film covers author Isabel Wilkerson embarking on a journey of worldwide exploration and revelation while crafting her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
In 2020, plans were unveiled for DuVernay to create a film adaptation of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents for Netflix.
Read full article on The Direct.
- 1/21/2024
- by David Thompson
- The Direct
Neon is opening Origin on 130 screens and plans to expand the Ava DuVernay film, which premiered in Venice and had a excellent qualifying run in December.
Neon took global rights on Origin before its Venice premiere where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and DuVernay became the first Black American woman to have a selection there. Deadline reported the film tested well with audiences, landing a 91 total positive in the top two boxes, with an 81 definite recommend, the highest for both Neon and DuVernay. With the theatrical release, the distributor is looking to pull in the arthouse and “smarthouse” (mainstream crossover) audiences and Black audiences with targeted bookings including theaters in regional markets like Atlanta, Chicago and Baltimore. It’s a hard film to comp but it is everywhere that recent films The Color Purple and American Fiction have done well.
Origin is based on New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning...
Neon took global rights on Origin before its Venice premiere where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and DuVernay became the first Black American woman to have a selection there. Deadline reported the film tested well with audiences, landing a 91 total positive in the top two boxes, with an 81 definite recommend, the highest for both Neon and DuVernay. With the theatrical release, the distributor is looking to pull in the arthouse and “smarthouse” (mainstream crossover) audiences and Black audiences with targeted bookings including theaters in regional markets like Atlanta, Chicago and Baltimore. It’s a hard film to comp but it is everywhere that recent films The Color Purple and American Fiction have done well.
Origin is based on New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning...
- 1/19/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Ava DuVernay says that while “it’s been disappointing” her film Origin “hasn’t had the reach in the Hollywood community” during awards season, she is proud of the “overwhelmingly positive, overwhelmingly connected” response it’s garnered from those who have embraced it.
Starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash-Betts, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood and more, the Neon film is produced, directed and written by DuVernay, based on Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The film adapts Wilkerson’s analytical exploration of how caste can serve as a framework for understanding American racism — alongside the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany — into a biographical drama that has been called poignant, ambitious and possibly “the most important biopic of a book ever made.”
In The Hollywood Reporter’s review, critic Lovia Gyarkye said it “wobbles as it tries to balance” its multiple narratives across continents,...
Starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash-Betts, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood and more, the Neon film is produced, directed and written by DuVernay, based on Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The film adapts Wilkerson’s analytical exploration of how caste can serve as a framework for understanding American racism — alongside the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany — into a biographical drama that has been called poignant, ambitious and possibly “the most important biopic of a book ever made.”
In The Hollywood Reporter’s review, critic Lovia Gyarkye said it “wobbles as it tries to balance” its multiple narratives across continents,...
- 1/19/2024
- by Abbey White and Zoe G Phillips
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The last few years has seen a number of vicious attacks, within the US, on the teaching of Critical Race Theory (Crt), which has been deliberately misrepresented and made into a political football. Where educational institutions are now banned from discussing it in some states, cinema has stepped in. Alongside Netflix offering Stamped From The Beginning, Origin is one of the biggest films to endeavour to fill the void, explaining that racism is not just a matter of some individuals mistreating others, but operates at a systemic level, and is motivated not simply by hate but by the pursuit of economic advantage. Origin, which is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste, goes a step further by putting this in a larger context.
It’s a difficult thing to pitch effectively. In the absence of proper education, everything needs to be explained from first principles in simple, accessible terms, but this needs to.
It’s a difficult thing to pitch effectively. In the absence of proper education, everything needs to be explained from first principles in simple, accessible terms, but this needs to.
- 1/19/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
There’s an aspect of filmmaking that Ava DuVernay thinks we don’t talk enough about and some of her fellow directors overlook to their own detriment.
“I spend a lot of time with background actors and feel like they are a beautiful brush stroke in the painting,” said DuVernay while a guest on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast. “They’re treated so poorly, they make nothing, they have to stand around all day, they don’t know what they’re doing, they’re getting the worst food, they’re the last to be thought of. So [I found] if you give them a little bit of time, I’ve just gotten extraordinary results.”
With her new film “Origin,” DuVernay was particularly dependent on her extras. The film tracks the journey of author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) researching and writing her best-selling nonfiction book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” in which she...
“I spend a lot of time with background actors and feel like they are a beautiful brush stroke in the painting,” said DuVernay while a guest on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast. “They’re treated so poorly, they make nothing, they have to stand around all day, they don’t know what they’re doing, they’re getting the worst food, they’re the last to be thought of. So [I found] if you give them a little bit of time, I’ve just gotten extraordinary results.”
With her new film “Origin,” DuVernay was particularly dependent on her extras. The film tracks the journey of author Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) researching and writing her best-selling nonfiction book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” in which she...
- 1/19/2024
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Much like the earlier reviewed All Of US Strangers, here’s another “indie” film that’s now getting a “wide rollout” after end-of-the-year screenings on the coasts. And yes, it could have been out everywhere in the last couple of months, but it seems that it’s more pertinent now than ever, since the presidential election cycle began with the Iowas caucus just days ago. No, it’s not about someone running for office, but its subject is a major discussion of any political discourse, going back to the beginnings of the US. And that subject is race. Now this new film doesn’t focus on one particular historical event, much like the filmmaker Ava DuVernay did with Selma, now ten years ago. This delves much deeper into it, as she travels the globe, and explores different eras, all in adapting a lauded scholar’s investigation into racism’s Origin.
- 1/19/2024
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Composer Kris Bowers calls the score to Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” “one of the most meaningful” of his career, but there’s one music cue, “Leaves,” which he says “stands out as one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever composed.”
Inspired by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, “Origin” follows Wilkerson’s journey in writing the book. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Isabel as the film explores how caste systems have shaped societies.
“Leaves,” a soaring six-minute piece features the musician on piano. It is first heard when Isabel discovers her husband has passed away. The music captures the emotional heart of the film and Ellis-Taylor’s heartbreaking yet powerful performance.
When DuVernay saw the “Leaves” sequence with music, the filmmaker says, “I broke down in tears. He got inside the story in such an intimate way.” Adds DuVernay, “the beauty and majesty that Kris...
Inspired by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, “Origin” follows Wilkerson’s journey in writing the book. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Isabel as the film explores how caste systems have shaped societies.
“Leaves,” a soaring six-minute piece features the musician on piano. It is first heard when Isabel discovers her husband has passed away. The music captures the emotional heart of the film and Ellis-Taylor’s heartbreaking yet powerful performance.
When DuVernay saw the “Leaves” sequence with music, the filmmaker says, “I broke down in tears. He got inside the story in such an intimate way.” Adds DuVernay, “the beauty and majesty that Kris...
- 1/19/2024
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Origin,” the latest film from director Ava DuVernay of “Selma” and featuring Augunue Ellis-Taylor of “King Richard” portraying author Isabel Wilkerson, as she seeks a thesis for a new book. In theaters January 19th.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
“Origin” has Ellis-Taylor as Wilkerson, who is organizing her latest book, which has an idea but not a foundation. She begins her journey by focusing on the word caste, as in the caste system that is best known in India, but really exists internationally. Her theory is that civilization relies on the exploitation of the caste system, having nothing to do with race, to keep wealth concentrated and elusive for most people. In America it is tied to racial bigotry, but in other parts of the world … including India … race doesn’t matter, but creating a permanent underclass controls society for the wealthy.
“Origin” is in theaters January 19th.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
“Origin” has Ellis-Taylor as Wilkerson, who is organizing her latest book, which has an idea but not a foundation. She begins her journey by focusing on the word caste, as in the caste system that is best known in India, but really exists internationally. Her theory is that civilization relies on the exploitation of the caste system, having nothing to do with race, to keep wealth concentrated and elusive for most people. In America it is tied to racial bigotry, but in other parts of the world … including India … race doesn’t matter, but creating a permanent underclass controls society for the wealthy.
“Origin” is in theaters January 19th.
- 1/18/2024
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
A young Black man (Myles Frost) leaves a convenience store just after making a purchase. He puts the hood on his sweatshirt up, and continues on his way, all the while talking to someone on the phone. He suddenly realizes that a truck has been following him as he walks, looping around the block to pass him several times. It takes a moment, but we realize what we are seeing is the moment just before the murder of Trayvon Martin, an incident that set off rallies and protests across the United States. And it’s a moment that becomes pivotal to Pulitzer Award-winning writer and journalist Isabel Wilkerson (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in the film). She’s asked to write an article about the case in light of the discovery of audio tapes shedding new light on the events of that evening. Wilkerson eventually turns down the request because, for her,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Katherine Matthews
- Bollyspice
The finalists for the 36th USC Libraries Script Awards, honoring the most accomplished films and episodic series adaptations, have been announced. Among the selected are “American Fiction,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer” and “Poor Things,” all top-tier contenders for Oscar attention. Ava DuVernay’s drama “Origin” was a surprise entry in the lineup, making her the second Black woman recognized by the awards body (the first was Dee Rees for 2017’s “Mudbound”).
A strong bellwether for the Oscars’ best adapted screenplay category, previous Scripter winners that have matched the Academy in the last decade include “12 Years a Slave” (2013), “The Imitation Game” (2014), “The Big Short” (2015), “Moonlight” (2016), “Call Me by Your Name” (2017), “Nomadland” (2020) and “Women Talking” (2022). Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” (2019) is the only Scripter-eligible film to win the Academy Award without being nominated by the organization.
One of the notable omissions from the group is Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” but according to the awards team,...
A strong bellwether for the Oscars’ best adapted screenplay category, previous Scripter winners that have matched the Academy in the last decade include “12 Years a Slave” (2013), “The Imitation Game” (2014), “The Big Short” (2015), “Moonlight” (2016), “Call Me by Your Name” (2017), “Nomadland” (2020) and “Women Talking” (2022). Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” (2019) is the only Scripter-eligible film to win the Academy Award without being nominated by the organization.
One of the notable omissions from the group is Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” but according to the awards team,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
The USC Libraries has revealed the finalists for the 36th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
Last year, screenwriter Sarah Polley and novelist Miriam Toews won the film award for “Women Talking,” which was nominated for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay Oscars; Polley won for Adapted at the Academy Awards. Meanwhile, the television prize last year went to English stand-up comedian and screenwriter Will Smith for the episode “Failure’s Contagious,” from “Slow Horses,” based on the novel by Mick Herron. Past winners include “Call Me By Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
Last year, screenwriter Sarah Polley and novelist Miriam Toews won the film award for “Women Talking,” which was nominated for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay Oscars; Polley won for Adapted at the Academy Awards. Meanwhile, the television prize last year went to English stand-up comedian and screenwriter Will Smith for the episode “Failure’s Contagious,” from “Slow Horses,” based on the novel by Mick Herron. Past winners include “Call Me By Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
- 1/17/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The screenwriters and authors behind Oppenheimer, Origin, American Fiction, Poor Things and Killers of the Flower Moon and The Crown, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Last of Us, Winning Time and last year’s TV winner Slow Horses have been nominated for this year’s USC Libraries Scripter Awards.
In its 36th year, the Scripters honor the writers of the year’s best film and TV adaptations.
Last year, Sarah Polley and author Miriam Toews won for Women Talking, which went on to win the Adapted Screenplay Oscar. Will Smith and Mick Harron are back in the hunt this year for Slow Horses, as is Peter Morgan for The Crown, which he adapted based on his stage play The Audience.
The 2024 Scripter selection committee chaired by USC professor Howard Rodman selected the finalists from a field of 80 film and 56 episodic series adaptations. Winners will be revealed March 2 during a black-tie...
In its 36th year, the Scripters honor the writers of the year’s best film and TV adaptations.
Last year, Sarah Polley and author Miriam Toews won for Women Talking, which went on to win the Adapted Screenplay Oscar. Will Smith and Mick Harron are back in the hunt this year for Slow Horses, as is Peter Morgan for The Crown, which he adapted based on his stage play The Audience.
The 2024 Scripter selection committee chaired by USC professor Howard Rodman selected the finalists from a field of 80 film and 56 episodic series adaptations. Winners will be revealed March 2 during a black-tie...
- 1/17/2024
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
After a fantastic MLK Jr. holiday weekend, we’re going into two weekends with either lower-profile releases or no new wide releases at all. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.
As far as the new releases this week, we have Ava DuVernay‘s critically acclaimed drama “Origin,” starring Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard”), which takes a look into the world of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson, and her journey to writing 2020’s best-selling “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”
Co-starring Jon Bernthal, recent Emmy winners Niecy Nash-Betts and Nick Offerman, plus Finn Wittrock, Vera Farmiga and Audra McDonald, the movie has received strong reviews since it debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last September before getting a platform Oscar-qualifying release in early December. It’s currently at 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s an interesting drama that spends equal time covering Wilkerson’s domestic life,...
As far as the new releases this week, we have Ava DuVernay‘s critically acclaimed drama “Origin,” starring Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard”), which takes a look into the world of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson, and her journey to writing 2020’s best-selling “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”
Co-starring Jon Bernthal, recent Emmy winners Niecy Nash-Betts and Nick Offerman, plus Finn Wittrock, Vera Farmiga and Audra McDonald, the movie has received strong reviews since it debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last September before getting a platform Oscar-qualifying release in early December. It’s currently at 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s an interesting drama that spends equal time covering Wilkerson’s domestic life,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Edward Douglas
- Gold Derby
It is a truth universally acknowledged (or at least it should be by now) that America is a country founded upon — as well as cursed, colonized, and fertilized by — a bedrock of racism that continues to this day. Should you be unable to wrap your head around that in 2024, we’re not sure what to say to you. But to chalk up modern social inequity and state-sanctioned violence against certain communities to being “merely” a racially-biased phenomenon and simply leave it at that is insufficient. There’s something deeper going...
- 1/17/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Caste of the Unjust: DuVernay’s Scholarly Drama Traces the Universal Social Ills of Hierarchy
For her fifth narrative feature, Origin, Ava DuVernay takes an inventive approach to adapting Pulitzer Prize Winner Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 nonfiction publication Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by exploring its subject through the personal life of its author. In other words, DuVernay has crafted an adaptation which serves as the genesis of its own source material, the audience experiencing Wilkerson’s creative process in arguing her hypothesis on caste as being the pernicious social structure which is responsible for humankind’s endless social divisiveness.
Wilkerson’s thesis presents race as merely one aspect which falls into the stratification system of caste, exploring how Black people in America are codified into the lower caste similar to the Dalits in India and the Jews under Hitler’s Nazi Germany during WWII.…
Continue reading.
For her fifth narrative feature, Origin, Ava DuVernay takes an inventive approach to adapting Pulitzer Prize Winner Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 nonfiction publication Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by exploring its subject through the personal life of its author. In other words, DuVernay has crafted an adaptation which serves as the genesis of its own source material, the audience experiencing Wilkerson’s creative process in arguing her hypothesis on caste as being the pernicious social structure which is responsible for humankind’s endless social divisiveness.
Wilkerson’s thesis presents race as merely one aspect which falls into the stratification system of caste, exploring how Black people in America are codified into the lower caste similar to the Dalits in India and the Jews under Hitler’s Nazi Germany during WWII.…
Continue reading.
- 1/15/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The African American Film Critics Association on Monday announced the winners of the 15th annual Aafca Awards as well as the organization’s picks for the 10 best films of the year.
Neon’s Origin, Amazon Studios’ American Fiction and Warner Bros.’ The Color Purple all won multiple honors, with American Fiction and The Color Purple leading with four wins apiece.
American Fiction earned wins for best comedy, best supporting actor for Sterling K. Brown and best screenplay and emerging filmmaker for writer-director Cord Jefferson, who adapted Percival Everett’s novel Erasure into a biting satire of the publishing and entertainment industry’s limited view of Black storytelling.
The Color Purple received the awards for best musical, best ensemble and best music. Danielle Brooks also won best supporting actress for her role in the second adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, reprising her role as Sofia, which Brooks played...
Neon’s Origin, Amazon Studios’ American Fiction and Warner Bros.’ The Color Purple all won multiple honors, with American Fiction and The Color Purple leading with four wins apiece.
American Fiction earned wins for best comedy, best supporting actor for Sterling K. Brown and best screenplay and emerging filmmaker for writer-director Cord Jefferson, who adapted Percival Everett’s novel Erasure into a biting satire of the publishing and entertainment industry’s limited view of Black storytelling.
The Color Purple received the awards for best musical, best ensemble and best music. Danielle Brooks also won best supporting actress for her role in the second adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, reprising her role as Sofia, which Brooks played...
- 1/15/2024
- by Tyler Coates
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Angelina Jolie is getting into this year’s Oscar race.
As AMPAS voting enters its final days, the Academy Award winner today threw her support behind Ava DuVernay’s Origin in what looks to be doubling down by any other name.
First of all, Jolie held an invite-only get together at her home Sunday to around two dozen guests With DuVernay and Origin star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in attendance, Jolie spoke passionately about the film, sources say.
Multiple Emmy and Tony winner Debbie Allen and Frances Fisher (Actors branch) were there too. Old Guard 2 director Victoria Mahoney and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women helmer Angela Robinson (Directors branch) and Lost in Translation costume designer Nancy Steiner (Costume Designers branch) were also present, I’ve learned.
Sunday’s soiree is to be followed by a screening of Origin in West Hollywood tomorrow afternoon with Jolie moderating an on-stage panel with director/writer DuVernay and Ellis-Taylor.
As AMPAS voting enters its final days, the Academy Award winner today threw her support behind Ava DuVernay’s Origin in what looks to be doubling down by any other name.
First of all, Jolie held an invite-only get together at her home Sunday to around two dozen guests With DuVernay and Origin star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in attendance, Jolie spoke passionately about the film, sources say.
Multiple Emmy and Tony winner Debbie Allen and Frances Fisher (Actors branch) were there too. Old Guard 2 director Victoria Mahoney and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women helmer Angela Robinson (Directors branch) and Lost in Translation costume designer Nancy Steiner (Costume Designers branch) were also present, I’ve learned.
Sunday’s soiree is to be followed by a screening of Origin in West Hollywood tomorrow afternoon with Jolie moderating an on-stage panel with director/writer DuVernay and Ellis-Taylor.
- 1/15/2024
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Niecy Nash-Betts may be the nicest person in Hollywood.
In a town where getting your next role could be cutthroat, Nash-Betts actually tells her actor friends to audition for roles that she may already be reading for.
“Before I was even cast in ‘Getting On’ on HBO — I had not even gone in yet — I called every actress I knew and was like, ‘This is going to be something. Get in on this,’” Nash-Betts tells me on the latest episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “My daughter was like, ‘Why are you telling all these girls? Somebody’s going to get your part,’ and I said, ’No, my part is my part. If it’s my part, it was meant to be. And if it’s not, how wonderful is it that I was a conduit for one of my friends getting a job?’ No, there’s room. We can all get in there.
In a town where getting your next role could be cutthroat, Nash-Betts actually tells her actor friends to audition for roles that she may already be reading for.
“Before I was even cast in ‘Getting On’ on HBO — I had not even gone in yet — I called every actress I knew and was like, ‘This is going to be something. Get in on this,’” Nash-Betts tells me on the latest episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “My daughter was like, ‘Why are you telling all these girls? Somebody’s going to get your part,’ and I said, ’No, my part is my part. If it’s my part, it was meant to be. And if it’s not, how wonderful is it that I was a conduit for one of my friends getting a job?’ No, there’s room. We can all get in there.
- 1/13/2024
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
“This goes beyond scholarship. This is a lived life for me,” said Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor of playing journalist Isabel Wilkerson in “Origin,” Ava DuVernay’s latest film that both brings the ideas from Pulitzer Prize winner’s 2020 book “Caste,” and the behind the scenes hardships Wilkerson faced while writing it, to movie theaters nationwide on January 19.
Speaking to IndieWire over Zoom, Ellis-Taylor used a moment over the holidays in her native Mississippi to describe the ways in which she challenges the pillars of caste Wilkerson writes about in her book, like terror and cruelty, in her everyday life. “I’ll put it like this: I wanted some catfish,” said the Oscar-nominated “King Richard” actress. However, upon entering the Hattiesburg establishment best known for the southern delicacy, she noticed the state flag on display was the pre-2020 one that still had the Confederate flag incorporated into its design.
Going up to the counter,...
Speaking to IndieWire over Zoom, Ellis-Taylor used a moment over the holidays in her native Mississippi to describe the ways in which she challenges the pillars of caste Wilkerson writes about in her book, like terror and cruelty, in her everyday life. “I’ll put it like this: I wanted some catfish,” said the Oscar-nominated “King Richard” actress. However, upon entering the Hattiesburg establishment best known for the southern delicacy, she noticed the state flag on display was the pre-2020 one that still had the Confederate flag incorporated into its design.
Going up to the counter,...
- 1/12/2024
- by Marcus Jones
- Indiewire
Welcome to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast. I am Valerie Complex, an associate editor and film writer at Deadline.
As schedules go, they could not record together, so we’re having another double episode today, but this time with Origin director Ava DuVernay and the film’s star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
Origin is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 bestseller Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents and tracks the Pulitzer Prize winner’s creative and personal journey over several continents through grief, revelation and the evils of historical stratification. The film draws parallels between historical and modern-day oppression and persecution across the world. By weaving global threads of cruelty and dehumanization together, it underscores the timeless – and timely – dangers of extremist ideology and leaders who exploit prejudice.
King Richard Oscar nominee Ellis-Taylor plays Wilkerson, and she’ll also be featured in Netflix/Lee Daniels’ film The Deliverance opposite Andra Day and Glenn Close,...
As schedules go, they could not record together, so we’re having another double episode today, but this time with Origin director Ava DuVernay and the film’s star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
Origin is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 bestseller Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents and tracks the Pulitzer Prize winner’s creative and personal journey over several continents through grief, revelation and the evils of historical stratification. The film draws parallels between historical and modern-day oppression and persecution across the world. By weaving global threads of cruelty and dehumanization together, it underscores the timeless – and timely – dangers of extremist ideology and leaders who exploit prejudice.
King Richard Oscar nominee Ellis-Taylor plays Wilkerson, and she’ll also be featured in Netflix/Lee Daniels’ film The Deliverance opposite Andra Day and Glenn Close,...
- 1/12/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Ava DuVernay is one of the most fascinating and trailblazing filmmakers in the business.
She’s an Emmy and BAFTA award winner and an Oscar and Golden Globe nominee, whose middle name should be “First.” For 2012’s Middle of Nowhere, she became the first Black woman to win Sundance Film Festival’s best director prize. With 2014’s Selma, the first studio film ever made about Dr. Martin Luther King, she became the first Black woman to direct a film that was nominated for the best director Golden Globe and the first Black woman to direct a film that was nominated for the best picture Oscar. With 2016’s 13th, the first documentary to ever open the New York Film Festival, she became the first Black woman to receive an Oscar nomination as a director in a feature category. With 2018’s A Wrinkle in Time, she became the first Black woman to...
She’s an Emmy and BAFTA award winner and an Oscar and Golden Globe nominee, whose middle name should be “First.” For 2012’s Middle of Nowhere, she became the first Black woman to win Sundance Film Festival’s best director prize. With 2014’s Selma, the first studio film ever made about Dr. Martin Luther King, she became the first Black woman to direct a film that was nominated for the best director Golden Globe and the first Black woman to direct a film that was nominated for the best picture Oscar. With 2016’s 13th, the first documentary to ever open the New York Film Festival, she became the first Black woman to receive an Oscar nomination as a director in a feature category. With 2018’s A Wrinkle in Time, she became the first Black woman to...
- 1/12/2024
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ava DuVernay is speaking out on “Origin” lead star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s grassroots marketing campaign for the film.
DuVernay posted an Instagram video showing Ellis-Taylor handing out flyers for “Origin” at a Los Angeles AMC theater on Sunday, January 7, the same day as the Golden Globes. To note, “Origin” was not nominated during the awards show, and neither DuVernay nor Ellis-Taylor were in attendance.
“Someone posted this footage, and I burst into tears. This was apparently taken last Sunday, Golden Globes day. This is a video of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Our lead actress in ‘Origin.’ She wasn’t nominated that day,” DuVernay wrote. “She was handing out postcards for our film at a local AMC in LA to passersby. She had told me that she wanted to remind herself about what matters. That she wanted to invite people to see our work, and that she would stay low profile, keep on her mask.
DuVernay posted an Instagram video showing Ellis-Taylor handing out flyers for “Origin” at a Los Angeles AMC theater on Sunday, January 7, the same day as the Golden Globes. To note, “Origin” was not nominated during the awards show, and neither DuVernay nor Ellis-Taylor were in attendance.
“Someone posted this footage, and I burst into tears. This was apparently taken last Sunday, Golden Globes day. This is a video of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Our lead actress in ‘Origin.’ She wasn’t nominated that day,” DuVernay wrote. “She was handing out postcards for our film at a local AMC in LA to passersby. She had told me that she wanted to remind herself about what matters. That she wanted to invite people to see our work, and that she would stay low profile, keep on her mask.
- 1/11/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Exclusive: “This is a beautiful piece of art that I had no idea was going to resonate so deeply with me,” Regina King declared at last night’s overflowing tastemaker screening of Ava DuVernay’s Origin. “It’s a film about connectivity,” the Oscar winner added to the heavy hitter crowd. “I believe this is a film that will be studied in Anthropology classes for years and years to come.”
“Stunning, thank you,” King even more bluntly said of Origin to When They See Us vets DuVernay and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and wide applause from influential onlookers.
In a rare public appearance, the acclaimed actor and director took center stage with DuVernay and Ellis-Taylor Thursday to praise and delve into the film based on Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 bestseller Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. The screening at West Hollywood’s London hotel was just the latest in a...
“Stunning, thank you,” King even more bluntly said of Origin to When They See Us vets DuVernay and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and wide applause from influential onlookers.
In a rare public appearance, the acclaimed actor and director took center stage with DuVernay and Ellis-Taylor Thursday to praise and delve into the film based on Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 bestseller Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. The screening at West Hollywood’s London hotel was just the latest in a...
- 1/6/2024
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Many books have been called unfilmable, but in the case of Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 best-seller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, that label would hardly be an exaggeration. To start, it’s a nearly 500-page nonfiction dissertation with a heady, ambitious thesis about the foundations of social hierarchies across human history. As such, it pulls in anecdotes from sources as diverse as the Jim Crow South, 1930s Nazi Germany and an anthrax outbreak in the Siberian tundra in 2016.
But what captivated director Ava DuVernay in the pages was the abundance of intimate human relationships woven throughout. Her last documentary (2016’s 13th) garnered an Emmy and an Oscar nomination, yet as she read Caste, she began envisioning a narrative feature, especially after learning about Wilkerson’s personal journey of love and loss as she researched and wrote the book.
“It’s the life and work of Isabel Wilkerson, and it’s...
But what captivated director Ava DuVernay in the pages was the abundance of intimate human relationships woven throughout. Her last documentary (2016’s 13th) garnered an Emmy and an Oscar nomination, yet as she read Caste, she began envisioning a narrative feature, especially after learning about Wilkerson’s personal journey of love and loss as she researched and wrote the book.
“It’s the life and work of Isabel Wilkerson, and it’s...
- 1/5/2024
- by Rebecca Sun
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In one of the odder twists of this awards season, the script that Ava DuVernay wrote for her film Origin has been deemed an adapted screenplay by the executive committee of the Academy’s writers branch, The Hollywood Reporter has learned, despite being classified as an original screenplay by the Writers Guild of America.
The moving drama, which premiered to acclaim at the Venice and Toronto international film festivals, was inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 best-selling book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent. Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for her 2010 book The Warmth of Other Suns, is not featured at all in Caste, but is the beating heart and soul of Origin, as portrayed by Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (King Richard). The book is about prejudice across vast swaths of history and geography, but the film, meanwhile, chronicles Wilkerson’s path to arriving at those connections.
Origin’s script will...
The moving drama, which premiered to acclaim at the Venice and Toronto international film festivals, was inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 best-selling book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent. Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for her 2010 book The Warmth of Other Suns, is not featured at all in Caste, but is the beating heart and soul of Origin, as portrayed by Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (King Richard). The book is about prejudice across vast swaths of history and geography, but the film, meanwhile, chronicles Wilkerson’s path to arriving at those connections.
Origin’s script will...
- 1/4/2024
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Happy New Year! As we continue to wrap up 2023 in cinema, we’re also looking toward what awaits in 2024. Ahead of more expansive 2024 previews, we’re taking an in-depth look at this first month of the year. We should also note that a batch of December favorites will continue to expand, including All of Us Strangers, The Zone of Interest, The Sweet East, and American Fiction.
10. Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam; Jan. 26)
A selection from Cannes, NYFF, and TIFF, Rosine Mbakam’s narrative feature debut will begin its U.S. run at Anthology Film Archives this month. Edward Frumkin said in his NYFF review, “Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam uses familiar spaces as microcosms of society. After capturing her subjects in one setting, such as a mall in Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) and the protagonist’s home in Delphine’s Prayers (2021), her narrative-feature debut Mambar Pierrette foregrounds the eponymous tailor and love for...
10. Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam; Jan. 26)
A selection from Cannes, NYFF, and TIFF, Rosine Mbakam’s narrative feature debut will begin its U.S. run at Anthology Film Archives this month. Edward Frumkin said in his NYFF review, “Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam uses familiar spaces as microcosms of society. After capturing her subjects in one setting, such as a mall in Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) and the protagonist’s home in Delphine’s Prayers (2021), her narrative-feature debut Mambar Pierrette foregrounds the eponymous tailor and love for...
- 1/2/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In a cinematic landscape filled with talent, certain performances stand out. From the quiet intensity of Greta Lee in Past Lives to the commanding presence of Taraji P. Henson in The Color Purple, this collection of actors make up some of my favorite performances of the year of films I saw. Each actor brings a unique energy and emotional depth to their roles to not only define their characters but elevate them.
These are not in any particular order.
Greta Lee & Teo Yoo, Past Lives
Lee beautifully navigates the delicate emotional journey put forth in Celine Song’s script. She embodies Nora’s quiet longing with a subtlety, her expressive eyes and gentle smile hinting at the depths of unsaid feelings. When faced with the ghosts of the yesterday, Lee unleashes a rawness that both devastates and resonates, reminding us of the vulnerability it takes to confront the paths not taken.
These are not in any particular order.
Greta Lee & Teo Yoo, Past Lives
Lee beautifully navigates the delicate emotional journey put forth in Celine Song’s script. She embodies Nora’s quiet longing with a subtlety, her expressive eyes and gentle smile hinting at the depths of unsaid feelings. When faced with the ghosts of the yesterday, Lee unleashes a rawness that both devastates and resonates, reminding us of the vulnerability it takes to confront the paths not taken.
- 12/31/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has made some changes in her life.
We’ve all grown to know her as the two-time Emmy nominated actress from “When They See Us” and “Lovecraft Country” and her Oscar-nominated performance in “King Richard,” all of which came under her initial professional name: Aunjanue Ellis.
When the first promotional materials were released for her new film “Origin” from writer and director Ava DuVernay, a natural question began circulating regarding the hyphenated addition of “Taylor” to her professional name. What prompted the name change? Turns out, she wanted to honor the most important person in her life posthumously: her mother.
“The love of my life, my mother, gave me my Daddy’s name,” she tells Variety. “I was like, wait a minute, lady, I want your name. This past birthday, I said, ‘What am I doing? I want to carry her with me every day.’ So, how do...
We’ve all grown to know her as the two-time Emmy nominated actress from “When They See Us” and “Lovecraft Country” and her Oscar-nominated performance in “King Richard,” all of which came under her initial professional name: Aunjanue Ellis.
When the first promotional materials were released for her new film “Origin” from writer and director Ava DuVernay, a natural question began circulating regarding the hyphenated addition of “Taylor” to her professional name. What prompted the name change? Turns out, she wanted to honor the most important person in her life posthumously: her mother.
“The love of my life, my mother, gave me my Daddy’s name,” she tells Variety. “I was like, wait a minute, lady, I want your name. This past birthday, I said, ‘What am I doing? I want to carry her with me every day.’ So, how do...
- 12/23/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with the ambitious Ava DuVernay-directed drama Origin, with the script also written by DuVernay inspired by Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s groundbreaking book Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents.
The film explores caste systems around the world as a mode of oppression, with the narrative delving into the deep-seated intricacies of caste and how it underpins much of society’s discrimination, sometimes transcending even race. The film is for those looking to understand the world’s deeply entrenched systems, an ambitious, radical venture that highlights the horrors of caste and its intersections with race.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor stars as the author, which traces the path she took to writing it while also experiencing her own tragedy. The creative and personal journey spans several continents and encompasses grief, revelation and the evils of historical stratification, stretching...
The film explores caste systems around the world as a mode of oppression, with the narrative delving into the deep-seated intricacies of caste and how it underpins much of society’s discrimination, sometimes transcending even race. The film is for those looking to understand the world’s deeply entrenched systems, an ambitious, radical venture that highlights the horrors of caste and its intersections with race.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor stars as the author, which traces the path she took to writing it while also experiencing her own tragedy. The creative and personal journey spans several continents and encompasses grief, revelation and the evils of historical stratification, stretching...
- 12/19/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Ava DuVernay and Michael Mann go way back. In 2003, DuVernay was a publicist on the set of Mann’s “Collateral.” Watching the auteur shoot in her old stomping grounds of East Los Angeles gave her the idea to pick up the camera. “That made me think, ‘Wow, this is possible,’” recalls DuVernay, sitting opposite the Oscar-nominated Mann to discuss where their careers have taken them in the 20 years since.
Now, DuVernay, an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker, tackles her most complex story yet with “Origin,” a sprawling yet intimate adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” The biographical drama follows Wilkerson (portrayed by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) as she writes her book at the same time that she grapples with her grief over a series of deaths. Meanwhile, after three decades, Mann accomplished his dream of bringing race car magnate Enzo Ferrari’s story to the big screen.
Now, DuVernay, an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker, tackles her most complex story yet with “Origin,” a sprawling yet intimate adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” The biographical drama follows Wilkerson (portrayed by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) as she writes her book at the same time that she grapples with her grief over a series of deaths. Meanwhile, after three decades, Mann accomplished his dream of bringing race car magnate Enzo Ferrari’s story to the big screen.
- 12/19/2023
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
“What was interesting to me beyond what I knew of Ms. Wilkerson being just this incredible writer was this idea of caste,” shares “Origin” actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, “and her reintroducing it to us as Americans as a new language for us to consider social divisions in this country. And that was exciting to me.” Watch our exclusive video interview with Ellis-Taylor above.
Written and directed by Ava DuVernay, “Origin” tells the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson (played by Ellis-Taylor), who wrote the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” about the ways in which social hierarchies and oppressions around the world are about more than racial prejudice. They’re really caste systems, from the traditional Indian caste system to the persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust to the subjugation of African-Americans in the US.
See‘Origin’ songwriter Stan Walker on composing and performing ‘I Am...
Written and directed by Ava DuVernay, “Origin” tells the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson (played by Ellis-Taylor), who wrote the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” about the ways in which social hierarchies and oppressions around the world are about more than racial prejudice. They’re really caste systems, from the traditional Indian caste system to the persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust to the subjugation of African-Americans in the US.
See‘Origin’ songwriter Stan Walker on composing and performing ‘I Am...
- 12/19/2023
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
“Origin” is a new dramatic feature, directed by Ava DuVernay, starring Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash-Betts, Nick Offerman and Blair Underwood releasing January 19, 2024 in theatres:
“…grappling with tremendous personal tragedy, writer ‘Isabel Wilkerson’ sets herself on a path of global investigation and discovery…
“…as she writes ‘Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents’…”
Click the images to enlarge…...
“…grappling with tremendous personal tragedy, writer ‘Isabel Wilkerson’ sets herself on a path of global investigation and discovery…
“…as she writes ‘Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents’…”
Click the images to enlarge…...
- 12/16/2023
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
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