Karyn Kusama News

The Toronto International Film Festival is very pleased and honoured to announce that award-winning filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, newly appointed Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian, and Variety International Film Critic Jessica Kiang will serve as the jury for the 2019 Toronto Platform Prize, an award of $20,000 CAD presented to the best film in the Festival's Platform programme.

As fans get ready for a new chapter of the Ghostbusters universe, attendees of the first-ever Ghostbusters Fan Fest, presented by Wizard World, will hear from Jason Reitman, the director and co-writer (with Gil Kenan) of Sony Pictures' upcoming 2020 Ghostbusters film, on the famed Sony Pictures Studio Lot this June 7th and 8th in Culver City, California. With Ghostbusters (1984) stars Dan Aykroyd (Dr. Raymond Stantz), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore) and director and producer Ivan Reitman already slated to attend the event with several other stars from across the franchise and a bevy of themed activities, it's the ultimate, once-in-a-lifetime celebration of everything Ghostbusters.

Hero Theatre announced today that One Day at a Time stars Justina Machado and Isabella Gomez, Jane the Virgin's Ivonne Coll and Imagen Award-winning veteran stage and film actress Wanda De Jesus round out the company of Hero Theatre's The Floating Island Plays.

Hero Theatre announced today that Jeanine Mason (Roswell New Mexico, Grey's Anatomy, So You Think You Can Dance) and acclaimed actor and musician Zach Villa (Karyn Kusama's Destroyer) will star in the first two plays of a four-play cycle about the Cuban-American experience titled, The Floating Island Plays.

Academy Award® Winner Nicole Kidman* gives a Golden Globe®-nominated performance in this gritty, suspenseful crime drama. In the years since she engaged in an undercover drug ring assignment that ended tragically, L.A.P.D. detective Erin Bell (Kidman) has stumbled along a path of self-destruction. But now that the ring's boss has resurfaced, Bell is drawn back into action to try to stop a violent new crime wave. Forced to face the demons of her past, she begins an odyssey that's as deeply personal as it is dangerous.

The 2019 Film Independent Spirit Award winners were announced today, February 23. The awards ceremony was held on the beach in Santa Monica, just north of the Santa Monica Pier, and was broadcast live exclusively on IFC.

From Academy Award® Winner Barry Jenkins,* adapted from James Baldwin's acclaimed novel, comes this timeless love story set in early 1970s Harlem. Newly engaged 19-year-old Tish (KiKi Layne) and her fiancé Fonny (Stephan James) have a beautiful future ahead. But their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit. Now the pair and their families must fight for justice in the name of love and the promise of the American dream in this lush, moving, dramatic film, also starring Academy Award®Nominee Regina King**.

 The 30th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) announced that the festival's opening night will be the screening of All is True directed by Kenneth Branagh on Friday, January 4.  The festival will close with Ladies in Black, directed by Bruce Beresford on Sunday, January 13. The Festival will screen 223 films from 78 countries, including 48 premieres (4 World, 13 North American and 31 U.S.) from January 3-14, 2019.  The line-up includes a focus on cinema from France, India and Mexico, Premieres, Talking Pictures, Book to Screen, Special Presentations, FLOS: Foreign Language Oscar Submissions, Gay!La, Local Spotlight, Modern Masters, True Stories, World Cinema Now, a 30-film retrospective of selections from past festivals (free screenings sponsored by Desert Care Network and National Endowment for the Arts), and more.   

This morning, Film Independent announced the nominations for the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The Spirit Awards are the primary fundraiser for Film Independent's year-round programs, which cultivate the careers of emerging filmmakers and promote diversity in the industry. Film Independent President Josh Welsh presided over the press conference held at the W Hotel in Hollywood, with actors Gemma Chan and Molly Shannon presenting the nominations. Nominees for Best Feature included Eighth Grade, First Reformed, If Beale Street Could Talk, Leave No Trace and You Were Never Really Here.

Annapurna has released the official trailer for DESTROYER starring Nicole Kidman. DESTROYER opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on December 25, expanding in January.

AFI FEST 2018 presented by Audi will host An Evening With Nicole Kidman. The event will include a conversation with the Academy Award®-winning actor in tribute to her illustrious career, followed by a Gala screening of her latest film, Annapurna Pictures' DESTROYER (DIR Karyn Kusama), on Tuesday, November 13, at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre.

The 62nd BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® announces its jury line-up for this year's Festival Awards. The juries will be led by: Academy Award-nominated director Lenny Abrahamson, nominee for the LFF Best Film Award for Room (LFF 2015 and also director of Frank, winner Best Screenplay BIFA 2014); Francis Lee, winner of the 2017 BIFA for Best Debut Screenwriter for God's Own Country; the prolific, award-winning documentary producer Simon Chinn, who won the 2009 and 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary for Man on Wire and Searching For Sugarman respectively; and director Rungano Nyoni, whose film I Am Not a Witch was in the First Feature competition in the Festival last year (securing her a nomination for the IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Bursary Award in association with the BFI), won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer and is the UK's entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2019 Academy Awards.

dick clark productions announced today that Nicole Kidman, a multi-award-winning actress known for her fearlessness and intelligence, will receive the 'Hollywood Career Achievement Award' at the 22nd Annual “Hollywood Film Awards.”  Her selection for this award is a tribute to the versatility of her performances over the years, with characters as diverse and extraordinary as an aspiring television personality with a dark motive in Gus Van Zant's To Die For to the iconic and complicated Virginia Woolf in The Hours; from a wife who, with her husband, embarks on an odyssey of sexual and moral discovery in Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut to Satine, the singing and dancing courtesan in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!; and from the unguarded adoptive mother of an orphan boy longing to help others in need in Garth Davis' Lion to a woman on the run who pays a huge price to be hidden in Lars von Triers' controversial and thrilling Dogville. With three films coming out before the end of this year, Kidman has already received praise for her transformative performance in Karyn Kusama's Destroyer and in Joel Edgerton's Boy Erased.

Telluride Film Festival, presented by the National Film Preserve, today announced its official program selections for the 45th edition of the Telluride Film Festival. TFF's celebration of artistic excellence brings together cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and artists to discover the best in world cinema in the beautiful mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. TFF will screen over sixty feature films, short films and revival programs representing twenty-two countries, along with special artist Tributes, Conversations, Panels, Student Programs and Festivities. Telluride Film Festival takes place Friday, August 31 - Monday, September 3, 2018.

The 62nd BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® today announces its full programme, featuring a diverse selection of 225 feature films from both established and emerging talent. This 12-day celebration of cinema illustrates the richness of international filmmaking, with films to delight and entertain audiences, and also films that probe and interrogate issues of significance.

ReFrameTM (ReFrameProject.org), a coalition of industry professionals and partner companies founded In Film and Sundance Institute-whose mission is to increase the and IMDbPro (imdbpro.com/)- the essential information resource for the entertainment industry-announced today the second round of feature films that qualify for the ReFrame Stamp to recognize standout, gender-balanced films. The complete list of stamp recipients can be found at ReFrameProject.org/stamp and imdb.com/reframe. The ReFrame Stamp program launched on June 8, 2018 with the announcement of 12 films that earned the stamp out of 100 films surveyed. We then expanded the program by inviting studio and independent films that have secured U.S. domestic theatrical or streaming distribution to submit their films for stamp consideration.

Annapurna Films released a first look of Nicole Kidman in the upcoming film DESTROYER, from filmmaker Karyn Kusama. The film is set to be released on December 25, 2018.

Hero Theatre announced that their 2018/2019 season will include a special pairing of Blade to the Heat by Oliver Mayer and a live performance of Sundance Film Festival Award-Winner, Girlfight.

The Toronto International Film Festival® unveiled today the 12 feature films that comprise the Platform lineup for 2018, marking a year rich in distinct voices and assured directorial efforts that address difficult subject matters unflinchingly. Ranging from period pieces to police dramas, and even incorporating elements of sci-fi, the films in this year's lineup also stand out for the variety of genres they explore and the number of complex contemporary anxieties they consider.

Golden Globe and SAG winner Idris Elba will star, direct and produce the currently untitled film, a modern retelling of Victor Hugo's “Hunchback of Notre Dame” for Netflix. The feature film will be a sonic and musical experience for which Elba will also produce the music.