Frank Russell Capra was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind several major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, his rags-to-riches story has led film historians such as Ian Freer to consider him the "American Dream personified".
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas supernatural drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet "The Greatest Gift" self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others in his community and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he had not existed.
William David Friedkin was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in the early 1960s, he is best known for his crime thriller film The French Connection (1971), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and the horror film The Exorcist (1973), which earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
Arsenic and Old Lace is a 1944 American screwball black comedy crime film directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant. The screenplay by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein is based on Joseph Kesselring's 1941 play of the same name. The contract with the play's producers stipulated that the film would not be released until the Broadway run ended. The original planned release date was September 30, 1942. The play was hugely successful, running for three and a half years, so the film was not released until 1944.
Robert Jolin Osborne was an American film historian, author, actor and the primary television host for the premium cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) for over twenty years. Prior to hosting at TCM, Osborne had been a host on The Movie Channel and American Movie Classics (AMC). He had also worked as a news columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. Osborne wrote the official history of the Academy Awards, with the first edition published in 1988.
Jeanine Basinger is an American film historian who was the Corwin-Fuller professor of film studies at Wesleyan University and the founder and curator of the university's cinematic archives.
This Is That Productions was one of the leading independent feature film production companies. Established in 2002, and based in New York City, the company was founded and fully owned by Ted Hope, Anne Carey, Anthony Bregman, and Diana Victor. The four partners previously worked together at the groundbreaking Good Machine, which Ted Hope co-founded in 1991.
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. Many films premiering at Sundance have gone on to be nominated and win Oscars such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Frank Capra was an Italian-American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Capra directed a total of 36 feature-length films and 16 documentary films during his lifetime.
Cable News Network Films is a motion picture division of CNN under Warner Bros. Pictures, originally launched in 2012. Its first film, Girl Rising premiered in spring 2013 in the United States.
A list of books and essays about Frank Capra:
Suki Hawley is an American indie filmmaker and a partner in the production and distribution company RUMUR. Either solo or with Michael Galinsky, she has directed low-budget fictional narratives but has mostly concentrated on documentaries in recent years.
Maestro is a 2023 American biographical romantic drama film that centers on the relationship between American composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre. It was directed by Bradley Cooper, from a screenplay he wrote with Josh Singer. It was produced by Cooper, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Fred Berner and Amy Durning. The film stars Carey Mulligan as Montealegre alongside Cooper as Bernstein; Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, and Sarah Silverman appear in supporting roles.
XTR is an American independent film production company founded in 2019 by Bryn Mooser. The company is best known for producing films Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (2020), Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020), The Fight (2020), 76 Days (2020), and Ascension (2021).
Becoming Led Zeppelin is a forthcoming documentary film directed by Bernard MacMahon which charts the formation and early years of Led Zeppelin. The film is an independent production made with the full co-operation of the band and represents the first time Led Zeppelin have agreed to participate in a biographical documentary. A work-in-progress was screened at the 78th Venice Film Festival in 2021 to a 10-minute standing ovation.
Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom is a 2022 Ukrainian-British-American documentary film written and directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. It premiered out of competition at the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival.
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy is a 2022 American documentary film, written, directed, and produced by Nancy Buirski. It is loosely based on and inspired by Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel.
Bye Bye Tiberias is a 2023 documentary film directed by Lina Soualem, written by Soualem and Nadine Naous, in collaboration with Gladys Joujou. It follows Hiam Abbass, who leaves her Palestinian village of Deir Hanna in the Lower Galilee, Israel to pursue her dream of becoming an actress, leaving behind her mother, grandmother, and sisters. Abbass returns to her village, with her daughter, Soulaem, to explore her mother's choices, and family influence. It is a co-production between Palestine, Belgium, France and Qatar.
The Mother of All Lies is a 2023 Arabic-language documentary film directed, written, produced and edited by Asmae El Moudir. The film explores the director's search for truth in her family background, combining personal and national history. It is a co-production between Morocco, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Dario Argento Panico is a 2023 Italian-British documentary film co-written and directed by Simone Scafidi. It premiered out of competition at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival.
