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Exclusive: Make way for the return of fan-favorite character Marshmallow on Fox’s Bob’s Burgers, featuring the voice of Jari Jones.

On this Sunday’s episode, titled “Hope N’ Mic Night,” the kids host an open-mic night at the restaurant, but as the hidden costs keep mounting Bob worries that it will ruin them. Viewers are also in for a big treat as they will learn Marshmallow is not only Bob’s fashionable, wise-beyond-her-years transgender friend, but also a sensational singer.

The person behind the dulcet tones is also Jones, a talented singer in her own right.

Jones is an Afro-Filipina transgender actress and model who most recently posed for Calvin Klein as part of the brand’s historic Pride campaign. Her acting credits include roles in Amazon’s Transparent, Netflix’s Tales of the City, the Sundance film Adam, and the Oscar-shortlisted and Emmy-nominated documentary Coded, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Pete Davidson just made a rare appearance on Saturday Night Live!

The 30-year-old comedian and actor took part in a sketch with good friend John Mulaney, who hosted the show on Saturday night (November 2).

Titled “Port Authority Duane Reade,” the sketch saw a Duane Reade cashier (Mulaney) ringing up two customers, when the cast then started to parody different showtunes and NYC topics.

Keep reading to find out more…

Kenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim performed a Lion King parody about the milk Pete was buying, Marcello Hernandez and John did a Sound of Music parody about shampoo being locked up, Bowen Yang, who is missing the Sydney premiere of Wicked, sang a tune set to “Master of the House” from Les Misérables, while Chloe Fineman and others poked fun at the Timothee Chalamet look-a-like contest.

Check out the full sketch right here!

This is the second time Pete has been...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has invited 487 artists and executives to become members, with Sandra Huller, Justin Triet, Celine Song and Da’Vine Joy Randolph among the high profile invitees.

Also invited to join are actors Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Fiona Shaw, directors Alice Diop, David Yates and S S Rajamouli, and writers Arthur Harari and Tony McNamara.

Executives invited to join that branch of the Academy include British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts and Fifth Season co-CEOs Chris Rice and Graham Taylor.

Among those invited to join the costume designers branch are Holly Waddington and Małgorzata Karpiuk.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has invited 487 artists and executives to become members, with Sandra Huller, Justin Triet, Celine Song and Da’Vine Joy Randolph among the high profile invitees.

Also invited to join are actors Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Fiona Shaw, directors Alice Diop, David Yates and S S Rajamouli, and writers Arthur Harari and Tony McNamara.

Executives invited to join that branch of the Academy include British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts and Fifth Season co-CEOs Chris Rice and Graham Taylor.

Among those invited to join the costume designers branch are Holly Waddington and Małgorzata Karpiuk.

Emma Laird, Fionn Whitehead, Zar Amir and Adwoa Aboah star in psychological drama “Satisfaction.”

The film is the narrative feature debut of theater and commercial director Alex Burunova, who is also known for the acclaimed shorts “Pale Blue” and “Lonely Planet.” Set against the backdrop of the Greek isles, the film follows Lola (Laird) who takes revenge against her sexual partner Philip (Whitehead). Things begin to unravel when they encounter the enigmatic Elena (Amir), who intoxicates Lola with her uninhibited way of being and emboldens her to face the roots of her pain. Amir, best actress winner at Cannes 2022 for “Holy Spider,” also serves as executive producer for the female empowerment tale.

The film, which has wrapped principal photography, is shot by Budapest-based cinematographer Mate Herbai (Oscar-nominated “On Body and Soul”). The film is a Ukrainian co-production with Ukrainian companies Constant Production and Kristi Films.

Burunova said: “I wanted to...

Eimi Imanishi is thematically expanding her Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival winner, “Battalion to My Beat,” as a narrative feature film titled “Doha – The Rising Sun.”

The film, written and directed by Imanishi, will follow Mariam, a young woman who is forced to return home to Western Sahara when she is deported from Europe. Adrift in the very place that was once her home, she desperately searches for the means to assert agency over her own life.

Imanishi participated in Film Independent’s directors lab, followed by the Sundance Institute’s screenwriting and directing labs in 2018. She then met New York-based producer Shrihari Sathe who came on board to produce “Doha.” The producing team has since expanded to include Eric Dupont (“Last Film Show”), who was Oscar-nominated for “Ave Maria”; Virginie Lacombe (“Port Authority”) from France; and Barcelona-based Belén Sanchez (“Tobacco Barns”). Yacine Laloui from the Algiers-based Lunja Productions will...

Hillary Clinton’s HiddenLight Productions has partnered with Roger Ross Williams and “The Inspection” director Elegance Bratton on a feature documentary about 1979’s Disco Demolition Night in Chicago.

Known as one of the darkest days in American music history, the incident saw 50,000 white teenagers descend on Chicago’s Comiskey Park to blow up records made by mostly Black artists.

The doc, which is called “The Night Disco Died,” is a co-production between HiddenLight and One Story Up, and will be presented by Impact Partners and Los Angeles Media Fund (Lamf).

The film will be directed and produced by Bratton, produced by Chester Algernal Gordon (“The Inspection”) and executive produced by Oscar winner and One Story Up’s Williams (“Life Animated”), Geoff Martz, and HiddenLight Productions’ Siobhan Sinnerton, Johnny Webb and Brenda Robinson.

Executive producers include: Andrew Blau, Morgan Earnest, Nina and David Fialkow, Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch, Melony and Adam Lewis,...

“The Inspection” tells a heartbreaking story about surviving intense military training as a closeted gay man.

Tony and Emmy-nominated actor Jeremy Pope (“One Night in Miami”) stars as Ellis French, a homeless youth who joins the Marine Corps after his mother (Gabrielle Union) disowns him for being gay. Yet during training, Ellis falls for his superior (Raúl Castillo) while enduring the wrath of his sergeant (Bokeem Woodbine) after his sexual orientation is exposed.

Written and directed by Elegance Bratton, the A24 film “The Inspection” premieres at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and is set to close the New York Film Festival.

Bratton’s semi-autobiographical film was part of the Tribeca Film Institute project, with Bratton’s bio listing him as being thrown out of his mother’s house in New Jersey at age 16, leading him to be homeless for a decade prior to joining the U.S. Marine Corps as a combat cameraman.

GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, today announced the nominees for the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 finalist Gottmik announced nominees in select GLAAD Media Awards categories live via GLAAD’s TikTok channel.

The GLAAD Media Awards honor media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues. Since its inception in 1990, the GLAAD Media Awards have grown to be the most visible annual LGBTQ awards show in the world, sending powerful messages of acceptance to audiences globally. The 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards are presented by Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Ketel One Family Made Vodka.

The 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards nominees were published, released, or broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2021. The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies, which fund GLAAD’s work to accelerate LGBTQ acceptance, will be held in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday,...

Exclusive: Transgender actress, model, activist and creative Jari Jones has signed with CAA for representation.

Jones made history with the film Port Authority at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. In addition to playing the role of Naomi, Jones also served as a producer and script consultant, marking the first time a Black trans producer had a film in competition at the fest.

As an actress, Jones can be seen in guest-starring roles in Amazon’s Transparent and Netflix’s Tales of the City, among other credits.

Jones has been featured in publications such as British Vogue, The Washington Post and The New York Times. She also was featured on the covers of Teen Vogue and Paper magazine following a historic collaboration with Calvin Klein in 2020. She has modeled for brands including Dove in their “Goodbye Judgement, Hello Underarms” campaign and Elizabeth Suzann’s “Clothing is Political” campaign.

CAA recently closed deals...

Before publicly revealing she was trans, actress Leyna Bloom was terrified of people finding out about her true identity.

“To be trans and being a person of color and to be Asian, you have to constantly protect yourself, you have to constantly protect your voice because people hear you and they want to attack you,” Bloom says on the latest episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “They see how you move, they see your magic [and] they want to hurt you. And I had to protect those nuances about my identity. I knew the world was not ready for me to say, ‘Hey, I’m here, too.’”

But in 2014, she came out as part of a magazine shoot featuring her and other trans women. Five years later, Bloom made history as the first trans woman of color to star in a movie at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, “Port Authority,...

We might finally see some light returning to the specialty box office this Memorial Day weekend.

Bố Già (Dad, I’m Sorry) is a comedy-family drama directed by comedian and Vietnam television host Trấn Thành and Vũ Ngọc Đãng. The movie is an adaptation of a hit web drama that was originally released on YouTube, where it garnered more than 90 million views for its five-episode run.

The film follows the story of Sang, an old motorbike taxi driver from a low-class neighborhood in downtown Saigon, as he struggles to make ends meet for his family.

It was planned to hit domestic screens during the Lunar New Year holidays but was postponed by Covid-19 until this weekend.

Estimates have Bố Già earning between $350-380 thousand dollars on 20 screens, give or take. If the Galaxy Studio-distributed film closes out strong this 4-day weekend, the Vietnamese-language comedy-drama will average $15-20K per screen.

While gems like “Lingua Franca,” “Tangerine,” and “Pose” have given face to transgender women of color through open, real love stories, trans romance movies are still in short supply. Director Danielle Lessovitz, a queer woman, attempts to expand that scope with her film “Port Authority,” starring Fionn Whitehead and Leyna Bloom.

Continue reading ‘Port Authority’ Leaves Its Trans-Led Love Story Stranded [Review] at The Playlist.

While our massive summer preview will give you an in-depth look at the films we’re most looking forward to over the next four months, it’s time to dive a bit deeper into May. As theaters reopen, more films than ever will head exclusively to the silver screen first, but there’s still plenty of at-home offerings for those awaiting their vaccination. Check out our preview below.

13. Those Who Wish Me Dead (Taylor Sheridan)

After scripting the acclaimed Sicario and Hell or High Water, Taylor Sheridan embarked on his second directorial feature, Wind River, which I was fairly mixed on at its Sundance premiere. However, I am curious about his follow-up, Those Who Wish Me Dead, starring Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Aidan Gillen, Finn Little, Jon Bernthal, and Tyler Perry. Based on Michael Koryta’s novel, it’s a survival thriller set amongst the Montana wilderness as a fire blazes.

It’s pretty rare that the legendary Martin Scorsese puts his name on something that ends up being bad. In addition to his directing credits over the past few years, he’s executive produced things like Uncut Gems, The Souvenir, Pretend It’s a City, Shirley, and Happy as Lazzaro, and he’s done the same thing for Port […]

The post ‘Port Authority’ Trailer: Martin Scorsese Exec Produces This New York-Set Love Story appeared first on /Film.

Premiering back at Cannes Film Festival in 2019, Danielle Lessovitz’s drama Port Authority will finally be arriving this summer. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese and starring Leyna Bloom, Fionn Whitehead, and McCaul Lombardi, the film follows a young man who arrives to NYC with nowhere to go. A momentary encounter with Wye (Leyna Bloom), a trans woman of color, leads him to seek her out, but things soon get more complicated as their relationship blossoms. Ahead of a May 28 release, the first trailer and poster have arrived.

Ed Frankl said in his review, “A deceptively simple romance doesn’t take away that there is something quietly radical at work in the New York love story Port Authority, set in the underground Kiki ballroom dance community. This is grounded in a believable reality, directed by first-timer Danielle Lessovitz, executive produced by Martin Scorsese and starring a promising Fionn Whitehead and Leyna Bloom,...

Momentum Pictures has debuted a new trailer for the executive produced by Martin Scorsese, trans love story, ‘Port Authority’.

After getting kicked out of his home in central Pennsylvania, Paul (Fionn Whitehead) arrives at NYC’s dizzying central station with nowhere to go. A momentary encounter with Wye (Leyna Bloom), a trans woman of colour, leads him to seek her out. Transfixed by her beauty and confidence, a love soon blossoms. But as the two learn more about each other, Paul’s false narratives begin to surface and the double life he lives must be reconciled.

Written and directed by Danielle Lessovitz and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the film stars Leyna Bloom (the first black/Asian trans woman to be featured in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition (coming out this Summer 2021), the first trans woman of colour to lead a feature film at the Cannes Film Festival and...

"Who says I like you?" Momentum Pictures has released an official US trailer for the indie titled Port Authority, which originally premiered back in 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. Marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Danielle Lessovitz, Port Authority is a love story set in New York's kiki ballroom scene. The story follows Paul, a 20 year old from Pennsylvania, who arrives at NYC's central bus station and quickly catches eyes with Wye, a Black trans girl voguing on the sidewalk. After Paul seeks her out in secret, an intense love between them blossoms. But when Paul discovers Wye is trans, he is forced to confront his own identity and what it means to belong... Fionn Whitehead stars as Paul, and Leyna Bloom stars as Wye, with a small cast including McCaul Lombardi, Louisa Krause, and William Dufault. It's also executive produced and presented by Martin Scorsese!

Global distributor, producer and streamer Mubi has snapped up major European markets for hot Sundance title “Pleasure,” which delves into the world of the porn industry in Los Angeles.

The service has acquired all rights to the provocative film in the U.K., Ireland, Italy and Turkey. Directed by Ninja Thyberg, the film recently received its world premiere as part of Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Starring newcomer Sofia Kappel, “Pleasure” tells the story of a young woman (Bella Cherry) who moves from a small town in Sweden to Los Angeles in pursuit of stardom, and lands squarely in the porn industry. Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised “Pleasure” in his review, calling it an “intentionally stark” and “disturbingly authentic” look at what the porn industry has become.

“A movie like ‘Pleasure’ jerks the skeevy, compulsive porn world out of the closet in a way that few movies have,...

Arthouse streaming service Mubi has snapped up rights to Toronto International Film Festival title “Shiva Baby” for the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, India, Turkey and Latin America.

Written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Emma Seligman, “Shiva Baby” follows a young bisexual Jewish woman at a shiva — a mourning tradition in the Jewish community — at which she must confront her over-achieving ex-girlfriend as well as her sugar daddy, his girlfriend and their baby.

Utopia Media boarded the film ahead of its Toronto premiere.

“Shiva Baby” — which began life as a short written and directed by Seligman while studying film at New York University — screened in the narrative feature competition at SXSW, and received its public premiere at last month’s TIFF. Variety critic Tomris Laffly said of the movie, “Think of this late-coming-of-age farce as a funny ‘Krisha’ or the indoor apocalypse that takes place in ‘Mother!’ — but with broken glass objects,...

Sundance winner and upcoming BFI London Film Festival title “Farewell Amor” will bow in December on curated streaming service Mubi.

Mubi has acquired worldwide VOD rights, excluding North America, Africa, China and Israel, on the film. IFC has acquired the North America rights.

Producer Huriyyah Muhammad won the Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for narrative features at the Sundance Film Festival, where the film received its world premiere in the U.S. dramatic competition section in January. It will play at the BFI London Film Festival’s ‘Love’ strand in October.

Written and directed by feature debutant and Sundance Institute fellow Ekwa Msangi, the film follows an Angolan immigrant reunited with his family in New York City after 17 years. Now strangers sharing a one-bedroom apartment, they discover a shared love of dance that may help them overcome the distance between them.

Stars include Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (“Blood Diamond...

CAA has signed actress, model and activist Leyna Bloom.

Bloom became a prominent name in the New York City ballroom community as a member of the legendary House of Miyake-Mugler. In 2017, she went from serving face in ballroom to serving fierceness on the catwalk, becoming one of the few openly transgender models to walk the runway during New York Fashion Week. She also became the first transgender woman of color to appear in Vogue India.

She continued to break ground as the only transgender model to walk the runway at Paris Fashion Week for Tommy Hilfiger x Zendaya’s Fall/Winter collection.

Bloom pivoted to acting and made her big-screen debut in Danielle Lessovitz’s Port Authority, which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and competed in the Un Certain Regard competition. The film was backed by executive producer Martin Scorsese and, once again, Bloom made history as Port Authority...

Talia Ryder gives a remarkable performance opposite Sidney Flanigan in her very first feature film, Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always. It’s the kind of subtle, assured, measured work you wouldn’t expect from a teenager. She talks about the benefits of getting vulnerable with Flanigan before shooting and how being deliriously tired actually came in handy when shooting all night in Port Authority. Plus she explains what’s up with that suitcase, and much more! Later this year you can see her in Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated remake of West Side Story. Back To One can be found wherever you get […]...

Talia Ryder gives a remarkable performance opposite Sidney Flanigan in her very first feature film, Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always. It’s the kind of subtle, assured, measured work you wouldn’t expect from a teenager. She talks about the benefits of getting vulnerable with Flanigan before shooting and how being deliriously tired actually came in handy when shooting all night in Port Authority. Plus she explains what’s up with that suitcase, and much more! Later this year you can see her in Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated remake of West Side Story. Back To One can be found wherever you get […]...

While the cinematic fare of 2019 casts a wide-ranging net, a largely male-centric line-up dominates the awards season buzz. But from Martin Scorsese’s mature mobster saga “The Irishman” (Netflix) to Todd Phillips’ dark comic-book spinoff “Joker” (Warner Bros.), many of the year’s masculine-leaning picks were either led or significantly aided by women storytellers’ vision and craftsmanship behind the camera.

With the enormous task of producing both of the aforesaid films, as well as executive-producing Josh and Benny Safdie’s manic crime tale “Uncut Gems” (A24), Emma Tillinger Koskoff is among the year’s most prominent creative forces. (Her 2019 credits also include two notable female-driven films: Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir” and Danielle Lessovitz’s “Port Authority.”) Koskoff has been Scorsese’s collaborator for 17 years, and “The Irishman” had been on the filmmaker’s plate for over a decade. From the early days, Koskoff responded to the story’s unflinching...

International sales outfit Orange Studio has boarded Los Angeles-based Indian director Pan Nalin’s “Last Film Show” and will commence sales at the upcoming American Film Market.

The film follows the 10-year-old son of a poor tea seller in India who begins a magical journey into the world of 35mm with the help of a film projectionist friend. It is currently shooting in remote parts of India.

“The ‘Last Film Show’ for me is a cinematic mission,” said Nalin. “I have spent years developing and preparing it. Now, it’s impossible to believe that we are actually halfway through filming in these spectacular vistas where lambs and lions roam freely.”

Nalin’s 2001 feature “Samsara” won numerous awards globally, and more recently, his “Angry Indian Goddesses” won the Audience Choice Award at Rome and the 1st Runner Up Audience Choice Award at Toronto in 2016.

Orange Studio is a subsidiary of French telecom giant Orange.

Exclusive: Ad Astra and Call Me By Your Name producer Rt Features, the growing indie production force based in Brazil, is launching Rt Television in partnership with Anonymous Content and CAA. The latter will provide development funding, marking their first ever investment in an overseas film or TV operation.

The TV division will be based in São Paulo, Brazil, and will develop premium series for the local market and Latin America. The venture is being led by Rt Features Head of Television Barbara Teixiera. Rt Features CEO Rodrigo Teixeira will act as board member, with a hands-on role in curating IP and talent.

All Rt TV projects, including potential English-language IP generated from the operation, will be produced by Rt Features and Anonymous Content, as well as third party partners. CAA will focus on local-language programming.

Barbara Teixeira joined the company earlier this year. Prior to joining Rt, she was...

French director Olivier Assayas paid tribute to Kristen Stewart, whom he directed in “Clouds of Sils Maria” and “Personal Shopper,” at the Deauville American Film Festival on Friday evening.

Stewart received a honorary award in Deauville before the French premiere of Benedict Andrews’s “Seberg” in which the actress stars as Jean Seberg, a French New Wave icon who starts supporting the Black Panthers and becomes the target of an agressive counter-intelligence program put in place by the FBI.

The Deauville tribute highlighted Stewart’s eclectic acting career through a montage of clips from her key roles in films, including “Panic Room,” “Into The Wild,” “The Twilight,” “The Runaways,” “On The Road,” “Café Society,” “Clouds of Sils Maria,” “Personal Shopper” and the upcoming “Charlie’s Angels.”

“When I think of filmmaking I think family, I imagine great gaps being bridged; messy, gorgeous, ebbs and flows of thoughts and impulse connecting us,...

Festival celebrating Us cinema unveils full line-up of 45th edition.

The Deauville American Festival has unveiled a female-focused programme spotlighting women behind and in front of the camera for its 45th edition.

The festival, unfolding in the luxury northern French resort of Deauville Sept 6-15, courted controversy earlier in the week when it announced it was opening with Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York.

It will be the feature’s biggest festival screening after backers Amazon cancelled its release after its 2017 shoot when molestation allegations by the director’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow resurfaced amid the rise...

Nate Parker’s politically charged drama “American Skin” is set to play at the 45th edition of the Deauville American Film Festival following its world premiere at Venice.

“American Skin,” which tells the story of a Gulf War veteran whose son is killed by a police officer, marks Parker’s first feature film since the news resurfaced that he had once been charged and acquitted of rape. His debut film, “The Birth of a Nation,” won a prize at Sundance in 2016 but flopped at the box office.

Parker directed and stars in “American Skin.” News of the film’s inclusion in Deauville’s lineup comes a day after it was revealed that “A Rainy Day in New York” by Woody Allen, who has also confronted allegations of sexual assault, would open the festival.

At the same time, Deauville will showcase six films directed by women, the most in the feet’s history,...

Karim Aïnouz’s “The Invisible Life,” which won the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes and screens this week at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, begins with two sisters, not much over 20, Eurídice (Carol Duarte) and Guida (Julia Stockler) sitting by the shore of one of the multiple bays around Rio de Janeiro, a lush tropical forest behind.

They have all their lives in front of them. Guida suddenly dashes off clambering uphill barefoot through the trees; Eurídice, more reflective, two years younger, a talented pianist, tries to follow, is overwhelmed by the sensuality of the setting.

Set over 1951-58, with a modern-day coda, “The Invisible Life” begins with the last time the sisters are caught together in a moment of quiet intimacy. Soon after, Guida elopes with a sailor to Greece. In classic melodrama mode, she returns alone from Europe, pregnant, is thrown out by their father, who makes...

Karim Ainouz’s “The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao” has been named the best film in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a jury headed by director Nadine Labaki announced on Friday.

The Brazilian family drama was adapted from a decades-spanning novel by Martha Batalha but focuses on the 1950s, when the status of women in Brazilian society was undergoing change. It deals with two women who cause family upheaval by challenging the patriarchy.

Other awards in the Un Certain Regard section were Oliver Laxe’s “The Fire Will Come,” Jury Prize; Kantemir Balagov for “Beanpole,” Best Director; Chiara Mastroianni for “On a Magical Night,” Best Performance; and Michael Angelo Covino’s “The Climb” and Monia Chokri’s “A Brother’s Love,” Un Certain Regard Heart Prize.

Also Read: 'I Lost My Body,' 'Vivarium' Win Prizes in Cannes Critics' Week Section

Bruno Dumont...

In “Port Authority,” a gritty New York-set coming of age drama with a tender romance at its heart, for once it’s not the trans character who is hiding something. Wye (Leyna Bloom) has never made a secret of her gender identity; instead, as she points out to her paramour Paul (Fionn Whitehead), it is he who made an assumption about who she was. “You gotta look around you,” she tells him. The rest of the film, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section to raves, is more interested in what Paul is hiding, and whether he could ever be accepted into Wye’s world of queer balls and familial houses. When she challenges him to name which ball category he would walk, he answers: “White boy realness.”

The phrase is a challenge, both to Paul and the viewer. Ball categories are aspirational and performative by their very nature.

by Nathaniel R

Leyna Bloom at Cannes

Cannes buzz never ends. So after the jump let's talk about how a handful of new films directed by women have been received including but not limited to Un Certain Regard titles like the trans drama Port Authority, and two very buzz competition titles (Atlantique and Portrait of a Lady on Fire) that sound like Palme contenders. Exciting times ahead...

Competition Titles...

Leyna Bloom, who stars in Un Certain Regard selection “Port Authority,” sat down in Cannes Monday to talk about what it means to her to be the first trans actress of color starring in a festival selection.

At the Variety and Kering talk moderated by Ramin Setoodeh, the first-time actress said that when she heard the film was coming to Cannes, it was a dream come true, but she realized, “There’s still so much work to be done, even in this moment.”

“Port Authority,” directed by Danielle Lessovitz, is set in the kiki ballroom scene in New York, in which various “houses” perform in drag dance competitions. Bloom started out in the ballroom scene when she was a teenager in Chicago, moving to New York at 17.

“When you arrive at Port Authority, you have this hope in mind that someone will see you,” she said, describing her first days in New York.

French writer/director Axelle Ropert is set to direct “Petite Solange,” a film that will star Léa Drucker and Philippe Katerine, who won the best acting nods at this year’s Cesar Awards for their performances in “Custody” and “Sink or Swim,” respectively.

MK2 films will handle international sales. Haut et Court has acquired rights for French distribution.

Produced by Aurora Films with a budget of 1.5 million euros ($1.675 million), “Petite Solange” follows a vibrant and sentimental 12-year-old girl whose world starts to crack when her parents’ marriage falls apart.

“‘Petite Solange’ is a gentle and tender drama with a much needed point of view; that of a young girl surrounded by love but also caught in her parents’ break up, and the impact of their divorce on her own search for love,” said Juliette Schrameck, managing director at MK2 films. “Petite Solange” is set for delivery in 2020.

Ropert, who is...

Launched just over 50 years ago by Marin Karmitz and now headed by his sons, Nathanael and Elisha, Paris-based MK2 films accomplished a double deed at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Not only does it have five movies playing in competition for the second consecutive year, it represents in international markets three of the four female-directed films competing, Mati Diop with “Atlantics,” Justine Triet’s “Sybil” and Celine Sciamma with “Portrait of a Young Lady on Fire.”

Aside from the competition, MK2 also has Monia Chokri’s “A Brother’s Love” and Danielle Lessovitz’s “Port Authority” playing in Un Certain Regard.

Nathanael Karmitz and Juliette Schrameck, the managing director of MK2, said the company was not following any quota or positive discrimination to ramp up their roster of female-directed films but were simply drawn to the originality and quality of the projects.

“Three of the four women directors in...

Danielle Lessovitz’s “Port Authority” is a coming-of-age story for the “Pose” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” era. Set in New York City’s Lbgt ball scene in the current day, the film, which premiered on Saturday in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, explores a key question put to its protagonist late in the film: “What are you looking for in a family?”

That search for family in all its forms is at the heart of “Port Authority,” the feature debut from Lessovitz. With Martin Scorsese on hand as an executive producer, she has made a rough but vital film about the ways in which we strive to make the mean streets a little less mean.

Also Read: 'Pain and Glory' Film Review: Antonio Banderas Plays Pedro Almodóvar - Sort Of

“Port Authority” begins in the bus depot that gives the film its name,...

Selling realness. That’s the essence of Harlem’s tight-knit drag ball scene, where dazzling kiki competitions — made popular in 1991’s landmark Lgbt documentary “Paris Is Burning,” and still raging strong all these years later via “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and Ryan Murphy’s “Pose” on TV — celebrate the art of passing as something other than whatever labels society has given you: man as woman, gay as straight, street kid as supermodel. Writer-director Danielle Lessowitz’s likable debut feature, “Port Authority,” arrives decades late to the party, spinning a simple but effective romance in which that same goal of self-transformation is what separates two star-crossed lovers whose worlds collide on the steps of New York’s busiest bus terminal.

Wye, pronounced like the letter Y, is just being herself, cheering on the queer kids as they practice voguing on the Port Authority steps. But as far as straight-identifying Paul (“Dunkirk” discovery Fionn Whitehead) is concerned,...

Nearly 30 years after “The Crying Game” depicted a man’s revulsion at discovering his partner was trans, “Port Authority” sets the record straight. When Paul (Fionn Whitehead) learns that ballroom dancer Wye (Lenya Bloom) is a “femme girl” soon after their romance has blossomed, he doesn’t retch or try to flee. The pair engage in a levelheaded debate about the ethics of communication, and then he more or less gets over it.

Director Danielle Lessovitz’s proficient debut follows a lot of familiar beats, with the template for a gritty, naturalistic New York City love story about inner-city troublemakers done many times before. Yet her ability to address the drama’s specific hook in measured terms enables this scrappy little movie to strike a quietly progressive note.

“Kids” by way of “Paris is Burning,” Lessovitz’s story reorients the perspective of a straight white guy from the midwest by turning him into the outsider.

Streaming service Mubi — whose first production, transgender love story “Port Authority” from first-time director Danielle Lessovitz, is in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard — is stepping up film production activity. It now has plans for a 10-picture slate, including a film from French director Rachel Lang.

Mubi has boarded Lang’s “Mon Legionnaire,” her follow-up to “Baden Baden,” which launched in 2016 at Berlin and was Mubi’s first U.S. theatrical release. “Legionnaire,” a drama set against the backdrop of the Foreign Legion, is currently shooting.

Efe Cakarel, CEO of the arthouse streaming service, said he was delighted with Un Certain Regard’s plum Saturday evening slot for the premiere of “Port Authority,” which Mubi boarded in the development stage and co-financed with Rodrigo Teixeira’s Rt Features and Martin Scorsese’s Sikelia, which executive produced. Wme and France’s MK2 are selling the pic in Cannes, handling U.S. and international,...

Rt Features has pulled off quite a feat. The producer of “Call Me By Your Name” and “The Witch” has three films debuting in Cannes Film Festival’s official selection, a nearly unheard-of accomplishment.

“It’s a dream,” said Rodrigo Teixeira, the production company’s founder. “We shot three films last year and all three films are premiering in Cannes.”

The movies in question include Danielle Lessovitz’s “Port Authority,” a story of sexual identity set in New York’s “ballroom” scene; Karim Aïnouz’s “The Invisible Life Of Eurídice Gusmão,” a drama about two sisters that spans three decades; and Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” a black-and-white horror film starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe.

That’s not the only way that Teixeira made a splash at this year’s festival. He also announced plans to make James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” a coming-of-age drama that will feature Donald and Fred Trump as characters.

Leyna Bloom is about to shatter an important glass ceiling.

On Saturday, she will become the first transgender woman of color to star in a movie that premieres at the Cannes Film Festival. In “Port Authority,” directed by Danielle Lessovitz, Bloom plays a trans woman from New York’s kiki ballroom scene who falls in love with a lost drifter (Fionn Whitehead).

“This is the moment that I’ve dreamed about,” says Bloom, a first-time actress and model who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “This moment is a door that has been opened for a lot of people to sit at the table. How do you see something like this? It’s never happened. I just want to take it all in and know that there’s still work to be done.”

In its 72-year-history, the Cannes Film Festival has been a prestigious — but stodgy — club that has elevated mostly male story tellers.

James Gray is going back to school for his next feature.

“The Lost City of Z” filmmaker will write and direct “Armageddon Time,” a memoir about growing up in Queens, New York, in the mid-1980s. In a twist, Fred Trump, the Queens-based real estate developer who sired Donald Trump, and the current president will appear as characters, although the events will unfold long before there was ever a Trump in the White House.

The movie reunites Gray with Rt Features, the producer of his upcoming sci-fi epic “Ad Astra.” Rt Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira will produce “Armageddon Time.” Gray pitched Teixeira on the idea while they were shooting “Ad Astra.” It draws on his experiences as a student at the Kew-Forest School in Queens. Fred Trump served on the board of the private school and Donald Trump was an alumnus. The school’s principal will be a central character.

“It...

Led by “Bacurau,” directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, and Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” both playing Cannes competition, Brazil has five movies selected for this year’s Cannes, seven if including Acid, the best result in living memory. It also makes Brazil Cannes’ fourth-biggest national cinema presence, after France (46 productions), the U.S. (11) and Belgium (nine).

One more title can be partly chalked up to Brazil: Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” produced by Rodrigo Teixeira at Sao Paulo-based Rt Features, which, extraordinarily enough, also has “The Invisible Life” and “Port Authority” in Un Certain Regard.

Yet most of these selections came on April 18, the same day that Christian de Castro, head of Brazil’s all-powerful film-tv agency head Ancine, recommended staff to halt new and recently approved incentive awards, in a memorandum leaked to the press.

Ancine contributes some $300 million a year into Brazil’s film-tv industries.

The...

On March 26, Apex, the state-run Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, announced that it was pulling key financing for Cinema do Brasil, Brasil’s private-sector equivalent of France’s trade body UniFrance.

With a new top management set to settle in at Apex from mid-May, film export org Cinema do Brasil may be pulled back from the brink, the government informing the org in late April that it would be interested in renewing Apex funding.

Cannes may not be CdB’s last market. Brazil’s left-leaning industry is light years away from President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government. Even so, according to Andre Sturm, CdB topper, the government recognizes that film gives a good image of Brazil abroad.

The Apex scare underscores the current volatility of Brazilian politics. Its resolution would reflect one of the biggest revolutions shaping cinema in this century: the dramatic development in world cinema production, of...

On March 26, Apex, the state-run Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, announced that it was pulling key financing for Cinema do Brasil, Brazil’s private-sector equivalent of France’s trade body UniFrance.

With a new top management set to settle in at Apex from mid-May, film export org Cinema do Brasil may be pulled back from the brink, the government informing the org in late April that it would be interested in renewing Apex funding.

Cannes may not be CdB’s last market. Brazil’s left-leaning industry is light years away from President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government. Even so, according to Andre Sturm, CdB topper, the government recognizes that film gives a good image of Brazil abroad.

The Apex scare underscores the current volatility of Brazilian politics. Its resolution would reflect one of the biggest revolutions shaping cinema in this century: the dramatic development in world cinema production, of...

Just a few years ago, it would’ve been tough to imagine bankable movie stars such as Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep booking lead roles on TV series. Yet dealmakers arriving in Cannes looking to assemble indie features, while buoyed by a robust economy, are saddled with a painful Achilles’ heel: dozens upon dozens of streaming services, cable and pay TV channels are competing for the same top talent, both behind and in front of the camera. While independents are strategizing ways to fill their pipelines with quality content and recognizable faces, it’s a tough battle.

Even once-reliable supporting actors in features, like Cannes vet Margo Martindale (who stars with Melissa McCarthy in Warner Bros.’ upcoming “The Kitchen” and toplines the CAA/Secret Engine-repped acquisition title “Blow the Man Down”), feels “where movies are being made now are on 10-episode or streaming shows” like her Amazon series, “Sneaky Pete.

The 2019 Cannes Film Festival announced its official lineup of films on Thursday, April 18. The 72nd annual event is one of the most prestigious showcases for films from around the world, and this year’s selections include familiar festival names like Terrence Malick, Pedro Almodovar, Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers. But what about women? Last year, 82 women, including Cannes jury president Cate Blanchett, protested the fest’s gender inequality. Women are better represented in 2019, but is it enough? Scroll down for the full list of titles.

There are 13 films from female directors scheduled for the festival, but only four out of the 19 films in competition for the Palme d’Or (21%) are by women: “Atlantique” by Mati Diop, “Little Joe” by Jessica Hausner, “Portrait of a Young Lady on Fire” by Celine Sciamma and “Sibyl” by Justine Triet. Despite making up less than a quarter of the competition, that actually ties...

The 2019 Cannes Film Festival lineup has arrived, and with it, the most exciting crop of cinema unveiled so far this year. For over seven decades, Cannes has been the most anticipated film event on the calendar for a reason: No other gathering of cinephiles puts the art form on such a dazzling pedestal, with thousands of discerning members of the media and industry scrutinizing the contents of its program from every possible angle. The latest edition is no exception.

While film festivals have proliferated around the globe, Cannes has maintained its status as the most discerning of highbrow movie havens. Over the years, the festival’s stature has been threatened by a number of complications, as American studios have grown wary of the risk involved in subjecting a movie to Cannes hype, and Oscar hopefuls tend to hold out for fall slots at Venice and Telluride. Cannes has also contended with the changing entertainment landscape,...