News

Women In Film Los Angeles has selected the first class of participants for its new Emerging Producers Program, which is designed to provide women and non-binary people access to master classes, mentorship and advising early in their producing careers.

Participants looking to build careers across various producing tracks in both film and TV were selected by a jury of industry leaders and veteran producer mentors, a list that includes Jenn Asaro (VP Physical Production Finance, Warner Bros), Chelsea Barnard (Booksmart, If Beale Street Could Talk), Yolanda Cochran (SVP Live-Action Long-Form Production, Nickelodeon & Awesomeness), Linda Goldstein Knowlton (We Are the Radical Monarchs, Code Black), Niija Kuykendall (EVP Film Production, Warner Bros), Monica Levinson (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, The Trial of the Chicago 7), Lyn Sisson-Talbert (Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, Bookmarks) and Jeanette Volturno.

The inaugural class:

Apoorva Charan an L.A.-based producer who was born in India,...

Dionne Harmon is moving from her role as Vice President of Development to Executive Vice President of Content & Strategy at Jesse Collins Entertainment. The announcement was made by Jce CEO Jesse Collins.

In her previous position, Harmon built the company’s development department from the ground up and expanded its scope. Harmon will now oversee the development and production of Jce’s slate of unscripted and scripted content as well as continue to play a key role in the internal and external growth strategy of the company.

Harmon played a pivotal role on BET hits such as The New Edition Story, The Bobby Brown Story, and American Soul. She also developed and executive produced competition shows including Hip Hop Squares on VH1 and Nashville Squares on CMT, and the Netflix series Rhythm + Flow. Most recently, she served as an executive producer on the Facebook Watch series Cardi Tries ___, the...

Netflix said Thursday that it is turning Sulwe, the bestselling children’s book by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, into an animated musical, the latest move by the streamer to bolster its feature animation slate that already includes Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10½: A Space Age Adventure, Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild, Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio among others.

Sulwe, written by Nyong’o with illustrations by Vashti Harrison, follows Sulwe, a child who has skin darker than anyone she knows — and all she wants is to be beautiful and bright. One night, she is visited by a shooting star sent by the Night and embarks on a magical journey where she learns the eye-opening story of the sisters Night and Day. The book tells a story about colorism, self-esteem and learning that true beauty comes from within.

92nd Oscars®

Emmy®-nominated producer Jesse Collins, Oscar®-nominated producer Stacey Sher and Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh will produce the 93rd Oscars®, Academy President David Rubin announced today. It will be their first involvement with the Oscars, which airs live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, April 25, 2021.

“The upcoming Oscars is the perfect occasion for innovation and for re-envisioning the possibilities for the awards show. This is a dream team who will respond directly to these times,” said Academy President David Rubin and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson. “The Academy is excited to work with them to deliver an event that reflects the worldwide love of movies and how they connect us and entertain us when we need them the most.”

“We’re thrilled and terrified in equal measure. Because of the extraordinary situation we’re all in, there’s an opportunity to focus on the movies and the...

“This is a dream team who will respond directly to these times.”

Producers Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh will produce the 93rd annual Academy Awards on April 25, 2021.

“The upcoming Oscars is the perfect occasion for innovation and for re-envisioning the possibilities for the awards show,” said Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson

“This is a dream team who will respond directly to these times. The Academy is excited to work with them to deliver an event that reflects the worldwide love of movies and how they connect us and entertain us when we need them the most.

Director Steven Soderbergh and producers Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins will produce the 93rd Academy Awards on April 25, 2021, the Academy announced on Tuesday.

The announcement did not specify whether the show would be in-person or virtual, a decision that will not be made until the course of the Covid-19 pandemic is clearer.

While Collins is a television producer with a long history of producing live awards shows like the Grammys, BET Awards and Soul Train Awards and Sher is a veteran producer with Oscar nominations for “Django Unchained” and “Erin Brockovich,” the presence of Soderbergh on the producing team is a surprise and something of a coup for Academy president David Rubin.

Soderbergh, who won the Best Director Oscar for “Traffic” in 2000, is an adventurous and iconoclastic film and television director whose work includes “sex, lies and videotape,” “Contagion,” “Out of Sight,” the “Oceans” movies, “Magic Mike” and the recent...

The Academy has chosen three first-time Oscar producers for the delayed 2021 show: Emmy-nominated Grammy Show producer Jesse Collins will team with filmmakers Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh, who worked together on Oscar-winner “Erin Brockovich,” to produce the 93rd Oscars which, due to the pandemic will air live on ABC and around the world on Sunday, April 25, two months later than usual.

There has been some debate about what form the Oscar show will take, whether in-person or in hybrid form like the Emmys. Clearly, the Academy will do what it takes to keep participants safe. Directing Oscar winner Soderbergh (“Traffic”) has earned recent praise, not only for his filmmaking, but for leading the taskforce at the Directors Guild of America that has set Covid safety guidelines for the industry.

“The upcoming Oscars is the perfect occasion for innovation and for re-envisioning the possibilities for the awards show,” stated Academy President...

The Academy has chosen three first-time Oscar producers for the delayed 2021 show: Emmy-nominated Grammy Show producer Jesse Collins will team with filmmakers Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh, who worked together on Oscar-winner “Erin Brockovich,” to produce the 93rd Oscars which, due to the pandemic will air live on ABC and around the world on Sunday, April 25, two months later than usual.

There has been some debate about what form the Oscar show will take, whether in-person or in hybrid form like the Emmys. Clearly, the Academy will do what it takes to keep participants safe. Directing Oscar winner Soderbergh (“Traffic”) has earned recent praise, not only for his filmmaking, but for leading the taskforce at the Directors Guild of America that has set Covid safety guidelines for the industry.

“The upcoming Oscars is the perfect occasion for innovation and for re-envisioning the possibilities for the awards show,” stated Academy President...

Marley Dias had just finished speaking at the Democratic National Convention when she had to prepare for the official trailer release of her new Netflix show Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices just hours later.

“It was super fun to go from the DNC and all these new people hearing about what I do to then the Bookmarks trailer coming out 12 hours after that. So it was a whirlwind, but definitely one of the most unforgettable,” Dias tells The Hollywood Reporter.

In her new show, Dias hosts and executive produces a live-action series similar to Reading Rainbow, which features stars and artists reading children’s books from ...

Marley Dias had just finished speaking at the Democratic National Convention when she had to prepare for the official trailer release of her new Netflix show Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices just hours later.

“It was super fun to go from the DNC and all these new people hearing about what I do to then the Bookmarks trailer coming out 12 hours after that. So it was a whirlwind, but definitely one of the most unforgettable,” Dias tells The Hollywood Reporter.

In her new show, Dias hosts and executive produces a live-action series similar to Reading Rainbow, which features stars and artists reading children’s books from ...