A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite them accordingly.
Spellbound is a 2002 American documentary that was directed by Jeffrey Blitz. The film follows eight competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The film received positive reviews and won several awards, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Jeffrey Blitz is an American film director, screenwriter and producer best known for the documentary Spellbound (2003), The Office, the fiction film Rocket Science (2007) and Comedy Central’sReview. Blitz is a two-time Emmy Award winner, the winner of the Directing Prize at Sundance and an Academy Award nominee.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee, formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and often referred to as the National Spelling Bee or simply “the Spelling Bee” in the United States, is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company and is held at a hotel or convention center in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area during the week following Memorial Day weekend. Since 2011, it has been held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center hotel in National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. It was previously held at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington D.C. from 1996 to 2010.
Aravind Adiga is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
Nathan Lee Bargatze is an American stand-up comedian and actor.
Vish Dhamija is an International award-winning, British Indian, crime-fiction writer. He is the first writer of Indian origin to win the prestigious Gran Prix for International Crime Novel at Festival Polar de Cognac for his novel, Le Magnat in 2024. The French Press celebrated him as one the five crime writers not to be missed.
Taylor Russell McKenzie is a Canadian actress. After playing a number of minor roles, Russell received recognition for starring in the Netflix science fiction series Lost in Space (2018–2021). She rose to prominence with her roles in the drama film Waves (2019), and the horror film Escape Room (2019) and its 2021 sequel. For starring in the road film Bones and All (2022), she won the Marcello Mastroianni Award. She performed onstage in the play The Effect from 2023 to 2024.
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is a 2016 American documentary film about DJ and producer Steve Aoki. It debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on Netflix on August 19, 2016. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Music Film in 2016.
Marc James Francis is a British film director, producer and documentary cinematographer.
The 91st Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland from May 29 to 31, 2018. The winner was 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani, an eighth grader from McKinney, Texas, who correctly spelled "koinonia" for the win. Due to a rule change in how spellers can make it to the Bee, the bee's total field of 515 spellers was a large increase over prior years.
The Edge of Democracy is a 2019 Brazilian documentary film directed by Petra Costa. The film follows the political past of the filmmaker in a personal way, in context with the first term of President Lula and the events leading to the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, analyzing the rise and fall of both presidents as well as the 2014 socio-political crisis that swept Brazil. The arrest of Lula paved the way for Jair Bolsonaro's 2018 campaign and presidency. It had its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Netflix on June 19, 2019. It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards and won a Peabody Award in 2020.
Udai Singh Pawar is a filmmaker and screenwriter based in Mumbai, India.
Akash Vukoti is an Indian-American child prodigy, TV personality, and motivational speaker from San Angelo, Texas. He competed for a record 6 times at the Scripps National Spelling Bee and was the first-ever first grader to compete in the bee. His first television appearance was in the NBC TV show Little Big Shots with Steve Harvey in March 2016.
Radha Blank is an American actress, filmmaker, playwright, rapper, and comedian. Born and raised in New York City, Blank is known for writing, directing, producing, and starring in The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020), for which she won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival making Radha, after Ava DuVernay, only the second Black Woman Director in Sundance’s 40 year history to win the award.
Mutiny of the Worker Bees is a 2020 Mexican comedy film written and directed by Carlos Morett. The film stars Gustavo Egelhaaf, Alejandro Suárez and Bárbara de Regil in the lead roles. The film was released on 28 February 2020 and received poor reviews from critics. It was also streamed via Netflix on 20 May 2020.
Cinema Bandi is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language Neo-noir dramedy film directed by debutant Praveen Kandregula. Produced by Raj & DK the film features several debutant actors. Set in a village near the Andhra–Karnataka border, the plot revolves around a group of young filmmakers try to make a film through a camera they found. The film premiered on Netflix on 14 May 2021. Cinema Bandi is featured in the Indian Panorama section at the 53rd IFFI where it won the Jury Special Mention. The film is inspired from an Indian documentary "Supermen of Malegaon" (2012) where the basic premise is directly taken from the documentary and also certain scenes like bullock cart using as a jimmy and the climax scene of showcasing the film to the village people were included in the film.
Christo Tomy is an Indian filmmaker known for his impactful work in both short films and feature films. He is a two-time National Film Award winning director. In 2016, he won the Swarna Kamal for Best Director for his short film Kamuki (Sweetheart). He also won the National Award for Debut Director in the non-feature category for his short film Kanyaka (Virgin).
Modern Masters: S. S. Rajamouli is a 2024 Indian English-language documentary film directed by Raghav Khanna and Tanvi Ajinkya. The film revolves around filmmaker S. S. Rajamouli and events related to his film career. Produced by Applause Entertainment and Film Companion Studios, it was premiered on Netflix on 2 August 2024.
