The Toronto International Film Festival is fully underway beginning today, and while the vibe will certainly be different without as many Hollywood stars on the red carpet — a number of films have qualified for SAG-AFTRA interim agreements while probably at least as many either were not able to or decided not to try — there’s as always a strong lineup of films to look forward to. Below, Filmmaker‘s editors have compiled a list of 20 films to watch out for, many of which ones that have premiered at other festivals along with several world premieres we are hearing particularly […]

Having its world premiere at the inaugural edition of the New/Next Film Festival in Baltimore later this month, a trailer arrives for Carpet Cowboys, the feature debut of co-directors Emily MacKenzie and Noah Collier. The doc, executive produced by John Wilson (who appeared on our 25 New Faces of Film list in 2016 before embarking on his excellent How To HBO series, which just kicked off its third and final season) and released by MEMORY, takes a sprawling look at the “Carpet Capital of the World” located in Dalton, Georgia before tackling a worldwide exploration of expat culture and American […]

“One week, I didn’t know what an NFT was,” says producer and director Adam Benzine. “Seven days later, I had the first film out as an NFT, and seven days after that, CNN wanted me on as an expert on NFTs.” Benzine is referring to a time just a few months ago—March 2021—when his documentary, Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, a 2015 short about the maker of the classic Holocaust documentary Shoah, was announced as the “first Academy Award nominee to be released as an NFT.” Issued on the Rarible NFT trading site, Benzine’s NFTs (they were released in […]