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"He's performing for an audience that doesn't know it's watching a show." Drafthouse Films has revealed an official trailer for Thank You Very Much, a documentary film about the iconic loved/hated comedian Andy Kaufman. This originally premiered back in 2023 at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals, and is finally getting released in theaters and on VOD this March from Drafthouse Films. Kaufman appeared in the recent Saturday Night movie last year as played by Nicholas Braun. Director Alex Braverman explains his excitement about making this doc: "The greatest joy of making a documentary about Andy Kaufman is that he is impossible to define. The musicality of his act, his shapeshifting, and wild tonal experimentation gave us a thrilling, enigmatic performer whose influence can still be felt across our entertainment, art, and even politics. But for me, his most indelible legacy is that he wasn't afraid to be the fullest,...

FX has set a March 29 premiere date for Spermworld, a documentary feature on the unregulated online marketplace for sperm, produced by The New York Times and Edgeline Films.

Directed by Lance Oppenheim, inspired by the Times’ article “The Sperm Kings Have a Problem: Too Much Demand” by Nellie Bowles, Spermworld is described as a road movie set inside the new wild west of baby making – online forums where sperm donors connect with hopeful parents.

Per the synopsis: Against the landscape of roadside motels, abandoned shopping malls and suburban bathrooms across the country, the film follows intimate encounters between donors and recipients as they exchange more than just genetic material. Spermworld examines how our fantasies about partnership and parenthood shape our deepest desires. What emerges in this new feature-length documentary directed by Lance Oppenheim is an incisive portrait of the search for human connection in an increasingly alienating world.

Kathleen Lingo...

Exclusive: Wavelength, the NYC and London-based film production and branded content studio has promoted two and hired one.

The studio’s UK Managing Director, Dan Bowen, will now take on the role of Senior Vice President of Branded Content while former Head of Studios, Mike Prall, now serves as Vice President of Productions. Wavelength is also bringing PR efforts in-house and has tapped film and entertainment publicist Lynsey Gray as Head of PR.

As part of the leadership team, the trio works closely with Wavelength’s Emmy-winning duo, Founder, CEO, and Executive Producer, Jenifer Westphal and President and Executive Producer, Joe Plummer to build on the company’s success and global strategy, which is driven by its mantra: We tell great f**king stories.

“We are thrilled to announce these strategic changes as we continue to evolve and expand our global footprint,” explains Jenifer Westphal. “Dan and Mike have been instrumental in shaping our success,...

Exclusive: Wavelength, the award-winning film and branded content studio of Jenifer Westphal and Joe Plummer, has inked an exclusive first-look deal with Steve Zahn, Rick Gomez, and Coby Toland’s banner, Macaroni Art Productions.

Formalizing a creative partnership between the two companies for scripted and non-scripted projects, the deal follows their collaborations on the short documentaries How To Paint a Peace Sign and Lynn’s Fire. Under it, Wavelength will of course receive a first look at all projects generated by Macaroni Art. Already, the companies are developing a sports-focused docuseries, along with a couple of narrative projects.

“We are thrilled to partner with Macaroni Art Productions,” said Wavelength’s Founder, CEO, and Executive Producer, Westphal. “When I first met Steve and Rick it was a true meeting of the minds. Not only do they exemplify how we like to work at Wavelength but they do the work with full commitment,...

Bowen produced Nick Cave documentary 20,000 Days On Earth.

Emmy-winning New York-based Wavelength, the company behind 2023 Andy Kaufman Venice documentary Thank You Very Much, has opened a London office and named former Pulse Films and Vice creative production executive Dan Bowen as UK managing director.

Bowen will work closely with Wavelength’s Emmy-winning duo Jenifer Westphal, founder, CEO and executive producer, and Joe Plummer, president and executive producer, to build on the company’s global strategy.

Bowen will lead the expansion of Wavelength’s burgeoning commercials and branded entertainment division into the UK market. To date, it has created campaigns for clients such as lululemon,...

For more on Venice's standout films, read our dispatch coverage: "Biopics Reloaded" and "Hitmen, A.I., and Dangerous Women."Poor Things.Main Competition(Jury: Damien Chazelle (chair), Saleh Bakri, Jane Campion, Mia Hansen-Løve, Gabriele Mainetti, Martin McDonagh, Santiago Mitre, Laura Poitras, and Shu Qi)Golden Lion: Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)Silver Lion Best Director: Matteo Garrone (Io Capitano)Special Jury Prize: Green Border (Agnieszka Holland)Best Screenplay: Pablo Larraín and Guillermo Calderón (El Conde)Best Actress: Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla)Best Actor: Peter Sarsgaard (Memory)Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress: Seydou Sarr (Io Capitano)Explanation For Everything.HORIZONSJury: Jonas Carpignano (chair), Kaouther Ben Hania, Kahlil Joseph, Jean-Paul Salomé, and Tricia Truttle)Best Film: Explanation For Everything (Gábor Reisz)Best Director: Mika Gustafson (Paradise Is Burning)Special Jury Prize: Una Sterminata Domenica (Alain Parroni)Best Actress:...

With Venice Film Festival wrapping up after quite an epic year, Damien Chazelle’s jury handed out their awards, giving the top prize to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, led by La La Land star Emma Stone. Elsewhere, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Matteo Garrone, Priscilla‘s Cailee Spaeny, and Memory‘s Peter Sarsgaard picked up top prizes.

Check out the list below courtesy of Cineuropa.

Competition

Golden Lion for Best Film

Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos (Ireland/UK/USA)

Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize

Evil Does Not Exist – Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Japan)

Silver Lion – Award for Best Director

Matteo Garrone – Me Captain (Italy/Belgium)

Volpi Cup for Best Actress

Cailee Spaeny – Priscilla (USA/Italy)

Volpi Cup for Best Actor

Peter Sarsgaard – Memory (Mexico/USA)

Award for Best Screenplay

Guillermo Calderón, Pablo Larraín – El conde (Chile)

Special Jury Prize

Green Border – Agnieszka Holland (Poland/France/Czech Republic/Belgium)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Talent

Seydou Sarr...

As many predicted, the 80th annual Venice Film Festival bestowed its top prize, the Golden Lion, to Yorgos Lanthimos’ rapturously received “Poor Things.” The win furthers the film’s increasing Oscar buzz, powered by a performance from star Emma Stone that could bring her a second Oscar for Best Actress. The film will open in limited release from Searchlight on Dec. 8, then slowly roll out nationwide.

However, the leading actress prize went to Cailee Spaeny for her work in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” an intimate look at Priscilla Presley’s early courtship with Elvis Presley. (The film opens in theaters on Nov. 3.) Peter Sarsgaard won leading actor honors for his turn as a dementia-afflicted widower in Michel Franco’s “Memory,” opposite Jessica Chastain.

Matteo Garrone’s immigrant drama “Me Captain” captured two major awards, including the best director prize and the Marcello Mastroianni Young Actor/Actress Award for breakout star Seydou Sarr.

The 2023 Venice Film Festival persevered despite a dimmed Hollywood presence, with much of the onscreen talent sitting this year’s Lido event out due to the strikes. There in Italy, however, were directors like Michael Mann, David Fincher, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Wes Anderson, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Richard Linklater, Sofia Coppola, and even Woody Allen to present their latest films and do the talking on behalf of their sidelined actors.

Saturday at the Sala Grande, the jury headed up by president Damien Chazelle revealed the winners of the 2023 competition awards. Jurors including Martin McDonagh, Jane Campion, and Mia Hansen-Løve saw 23 movies over the last week and a half, including Lanthimos’ raved-about “Poor Things,” Coppola’s well-liked “Priscilla,” Bertrand Bonello’s daring “The Beast,” Fincher’s assassin thriller “The Killer,” Bradley Cooper’s Oscar hopeful “Maestro,” Mann’s gripping “Ferrari,” and more.

Word on the Lido was highest for eventual Golden Lion winner “Poor Things,...

The winners of the 2023 Venice Film Festival are being announced this evening (September 9).

The 80th Venice Film Festival comes to a close today with the awards ceremony, held at the Sala Grande in the Palazzo del Cinema.

Starting at 7pm Cet (6pm BST), viewers can watch the ceremony live in the video above; Screen will be updating this page with the winners as they are announced.

Scroll down for the latest winners

The ceremony will be hosted by Italian actress Caterina Murino, who also hosted the opening ceremony on August 30. A Competition jury led by Damien Chazelle will award eight prizes,...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, a fantastical feminist fable starring Emma Stone as a woman reanimated by a Frankenstein-style Victorian scientist (Willem Dafoe), has won the Golden Lion for best film at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.

The Hollywood Reporter critics praised the film — which includes a potentially career-defining performance by star Emma Stone as Isabella Baxter, the woman who struggles to understand the restrictive patriarchy of the world around her, and then proceeds to dismantle it.

In his acceptance speech, Lanthimos said it took a long time to make the movie, his first since 2018 Oscar winner The Favourite, “until the world, until our industry, was ready for this film.” He singled out Stone for praise.

“Above all, this film is the central character of Isabella Baxter, this incredible creature, and she wouldn’t exist without Emma Stone, another incredible creature. This film is her, in front and behind the camera.

While it was difficult for the world to discern at the time, and maybe even now, to the legendary, notorious absurdist comedian Andy Kaufman, comedy was an art, and the act of performance was an act worth living in beyond the stage. Infamous for his strange, bizarre comedic behavior and erratic and provocative, even goading, live appearances, Kaufman, the subject of the documentary “Thank You Very Much: Andy Kaufman,” was seemingly on a quest for truth.

Continue reading ‘Thank You Very Much’ Review: Gonzo Comedian Andy Kaufman’ Is Finally Understood & Yet Remains An Enigma [Telluride] at The Playlist.

When Andy Kaufman passed away in May 1984, it was the final full stop in a life that seemed to be endlessly self-regenerating. Or was it? Rumors that this was another of his bizarre stunts were rife at the time, so much so that one of the mourners at the comedian’s funeral poked the body that lay in the casket to see if it would move.

Premiering this week in Venice Classics, Alex Braverman’s feature-length documentary Thank You Very Much is an attempt to locate the man behind the myth, and though there’s plenty of firsthand testimony and a treasure trove of archive material, it soon becomes achingly clear that the real Andy Kaufman likely never will be unmasked.

It seems fitting, then, that Kaufman seemed to appear fully formed from nowhere when comedy impresario Budd Friedman, owner of The Improv, booked his first slots in the early ’70s.

“Thank You Very Much” is a documentary about Andy Kaufman that does just what you want it to do. It details Kaufman’s life and career, showcasing all the stage bits he became famous for (and including rare footage of performances and offstage antics that even Kaufman fanatics have never seen). But more than that, the movie understands him. It explores the depths of what Andy Kaufman was about — though that doesn’t mean that we’re subjected to a bunch of talking heads discussing how “conceptual” and punk-the-audience weird he was, and who was the real Andy, anyway?

I mean, there’s some of that. But Alex Braverman, the director of “Thank You Very Much,” grasps the fundamental truth of Andy Kaufman: that what he was up to, in his defiant and Dada screwball way, was showbiz. It was theater. He wanted to tickle you, to make you giggle and squirm,...

Nearly 40 years after outré comedian Andy Kaufman’s death from cancer, there remain fans who are certain that a faked demise was Kaufman’s most ambitious and committed hoax.

Until proven otherwise, this is a ridiculous conviction. That said, it’s probably no more or less absurd than believing that Andy Kaufman is a figure who could be explained or even adequately summarized in a conventional documentary. There are some outsized personalities so cloaked in mythology that even the tallest tales about them seem believable, but Kaufman’s personality was so cloaked in subterfuge that any attempt to deconstruct that personality or his behavior is going to come across as a bit within a bit.

This is the problem that Alex Braverman’s new documentary Thank You Very Much runs into. The documentary is filled with fantastic footage from Kaufman’s fearless performances, mostly familiar but still wildly iconoclastic. It...

For a fan of alternative comedy, seeing a young Andy Kaufman humiliate himself on stage is like showing footage of the Big Bang to a theoretical physicist. As Kaufman creates an awkward silence with a series of lame jokes that quickly give way to a spot-on Elvis impression, you can see everything from the intentional rigidity of Neil Hamburger to the madcap cultural pastiche of “The Eric Andre Show” forming before your eyes. Kaufman set out to make a mockery of the rules of comedy, but ended up building a new sandbox that his medium’s most exciting performers return to again and again.

Alex Braverman’s new documentary “Thank You Very Much” takes viewers on a linear journey through the highs and lows of Kaufman’s career. From his subversive stand-up sets at the Hollywood Improv to his successful run on “Taxi” and provocative turn as a faux-misogynistic wrestling...

Films about Grammy Award winner Jon Batiste, Andy Kaufman and designer John Galliano are part of this year’s Telluride Film Festival documentary feature lineup.

In all, 22 feature and four short documentaries are heading to the 50th edition of Tff, where buzz for docs seeking Oscar consideration frequently takes hold.

The lineup, kept under wraps until the eve of the fest’s opening on Aug. 31, includes docs from novice and veteran documentarians, including Errol Morris (“The Pigeon Tunnel”), Madeleine Gavin (“Beyond Utopia”), Matthew Heineman (“American Symphony”) and Paul B. Preciado.

After premiering “Orlando, My Political Biography” in Berlinale last February, Preciado garnered four awards, including the Teddy award for best documentary. Sideshow and Janus Films acquired North American rights to the doc in March.

In the docu, the first-time director, who is a trans writer and activist, uses Virginia Woolf’s 1928 book “Orlando,” the first novel in which the main...

The Telluride Film Festival, a key part of the fall festival circuit launching awards season and perhaps some major Academy Award contenders, announced the wide-ranging lineup of films for its landmark 50th edition. The fest kicks off Thursday and runs through Labor Day and will feature world premieres of Oscar winners Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (Focus Features), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (Amazon) and Free Solo filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative feature Nyad (Netflix).

50th Anniversary Telluride Film Festival poster designed by Luke Dorman/Meow Wolfe

Other world premieres in the lineup include Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers (Searchlight) with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott; George C. Wolfe’s Rustin (Netflix), starring Colman Domingo in the title role; Ethan Hawke’s Wildcat starring daughter Maya Hawke; Bhutan filmmaker Pawo Choyning Dorji’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated international breakthrough Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom,...