Guillermo del Toro Taking Part in Tribeca Enterprises & YouTube’s ‘We Are One: A Global Film Festival’

Guillermo del Toro is taking his talk global…

The 55-year-old Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker, author, actor, and former special effects makeup artist will take part in Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube’s We Are One: A Global Film Festival

Guillermo del Toro

The fest will stream exclusively on YouTubefor free and feature more than 100 films co-curated by 21 of the most renowned festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.

The 10-day fest kicked off on Friday, May 29 and will not only provide entertainment but also offer relief to the COVID-19 pandemic via supporting organizations.

The truly global event will feature programming from different cultures all over the world, with films representing more than 35 countries and include 23 narrative and 8 documentary features, 57 narrative and 15 documentary short films, 15 archived talks along with 4 festival exclusives and 5 VR programming pieces. 

The fest will include 13 world premieres, 31 online premieres and 5 international online premieres. Each selection was handpicked to give shine and highlight each participating festival.

“We are so excited to share the combined efforts of our festival partners and YouTube with the world this week,” said Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “Together, we were able to curate a compelling slate of programming that succinctly reflects the subtle variations in style that make each festival so special. We Are One: A Global Film Festival will offer audiences an opportunity to not only celebrate the art of film, but the unique qualities that make each story we watch so memorable.”

The fest will include the world premiere of Ricky Powell: The Individualist, which spotlights the titular legendary street photographer featuring interviews with Natasha Lyonne and LL Cool J

Eeb Allay Ooo! will make its online debut and introduce a whole new audience to New Delhi’s professional “monkey repellers”. The satirical film won Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway Award

The iconic Joan Chen will present the world premiere of Iron Hammer, a documentary about legendary, trailblazing Chinese Olympic volleyball star Jenny Lang Ping.

There will also be a lineup of specially-curated talks from past festivals as well as new discussions. Talks will feature del Toro, Francis Ford Coppola with Steven Soderbergh, Song Kang-ho and Bong Joon-ho, Jane Campion and Claire Denis.

In addition to features, audiences will be able to access over 50 narrative and documentary shorts such as the world premiere of Japanese narrative short Yalta Conference Online (wt), which was created exclusively for the fest by director Koji Fukada. The fest will also include the global premiere of the Third Eye Blind documentary short Motorcycle Drive By, as well as shorts from Dreamworks Animation, BilbyMarooned and Bird Karma.

360 VR selections will feature Emmy-nominated documentary Traveling While Black and Alteration, a sci-fi narrative starring Bill Skarsgard, as well as titles featuring John Legend, Oprah Winfrey and Lupita Nyong’o. On top of the film goodness, Questlove from the legendary Roots crew will perform a DJ set for your listening and dancing pleasure.

On the episodic side, We Are One will host the world premiere of Losing Alice, an Israeli female-fronted neo-noir psychological TV thriller as well as the two-part docuseries She Could Be Next which chronicles the experiences of women of color running for office, including Stacey Abrams and  Rashida Tlaib.

In addition to Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Toronto and Tribeca, participating festival also include Annecy International Animation Film FestivalBFI London Film FestivalGuadalajara International Film Festival,International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM), International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Jerusalem Film FestivalMumbai Film Festival (MAMI), Karlovy Vary International Film FestivalLocarno Film Festival,Marrakech International Film Festival, New York Film FestivalSan Sebastian International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film FestivalSydney Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival.

The fest will provide COVID-19 relief through donations to the World Health Organization( WHO), UNICEFUNHCRSave the Children, Doctors Without BordersLeket IsraelGO Foundation and Give2Asia, among others. Audiences will be able to donate via a link on every film page.

Click herefor the full festival schedule.

Netflix to Premiere Its Natasha Lyonne/Yul Vasquez Comedy Series “Russian Doll” in February

Yul Vazquez is playing with Dolls

Netflix premiere its new comedy series Russian Doll starring Natasha Lyonne and the 53-year-old Cuban-American actor on February 1.

Natasha Lyonne & Yul Vazquez

Created by Lyonne, Amy Poehler and Leslye HeadlandRussian Doll follows a young woman named Nadia (Lyonne) on her journey as the guest of honor at a seemingly inescapable party one night in New York City.

The series also stars Greta Lee, Elizabeth AshleyRebecca Henderson and Charlie Barnett.

Netflix handed an eight-episode straight-to-series orderto the project in September 2017. It has an all-female writing and directing team, with Headlund and Lyonne penning the scripts and also directing along with Jamie Babbit.

Guest stars include Chloë Sevigny, Dascha Polanco, Brendan Sexton III, Rebecca Henderson, Jeremy Bobb, Ritesh Rajan and Jocelyn Bioh.

Russian Doll is produced by Universal Television, Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions, JAX Media and 3 Arts Entertainment.

Plaza to Star Opposite Zac Efron & Robert De Niro in “Dirty Grandpa”

Aubrey Plaza is about to get dirty…

The 30-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/comedian has joined the cast of Lionsgate’s road trip comedy Dirty Grandpa.

Aubrey Plaza

The Parks and Recreation star will star opposite Zac Efron and Robert De Niro in the film about an uptight twenty-something (Efron) who embarks on a road trip before his wedding to bond with his recently widowed grandfather (De Niro) only to find that his grandpa is a foul-mouthed lunatic on a mission to get laid during Spring Break.

Plaza will portray Lenore, a savvy, beguiling party girl looking for fun on Spring Break.

Dan Mazer (Da Ali G Show) is directing from a screenplay by John Phillips.

Lionsgate has already slated the film for an August 12, 2016 release.

Plaza returns to NBC television this month for the seventh and final season of Parks and Recreation. Her film credits include Safety Not Guaranteed, The To Do List, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Funny People, and Damsels In Distress.

She next appears in Hal Hartley’s Ned Rifle and in A Driftless Area with John Hawkes. She also stars with Natasha Lyonne and Judy Greer in Jamie Babbit’s indie comedy Fresno.

Armisen to Present at This Year’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards

Fred Armisen is about to get creative

The 47-year-old half-Venezuelan American actor and former Saturday Night Live star, who received his first-ever Emmy nomination in an acting category this year, will be among the presenters at the 2014 Creative Arts Emmy Awards on August 16, according to the show’s executive producer Spike Jones Jr.

Fred Armisen

Armisen, who earneda best supporting actor in a comedy nod for Portlandia, the IFC series filmed and set in Portland, joins a list of presenters that includes Jane Lynch, Morgan Freeman, Tony Goldwyn, Heidi Klum and much of the nominated cast of Orange Is the New Black.

Other presenters include Patrick Adams (Suits), Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), Tony Goldwyn (Scandal), Judy Greer (Archer), Jonathan Groff (The Normal Heart), Tim Gunn (Project Runway), Tony Hale (Veep), Allison Janney (MomMasters of Sex), Keegan Michael Key (Key and Peele), Natasha Lyonne (Orange Is the New Black), Joe Manganiello (True Blood), Joel McHale (The Soup; Community), Aisha Tyler (Archer), Matt Walsh (Veep), Matt Weiner (Mad Men) and Bellamy Young (Scandal).

This year’s awards show will take place a week and a day before the Primetime Emmy Awards. An edited version of the show will be broadcast on the FXM cable network.

The entire show will be streamed on Emmys.com from noon to 3 p.m. on Monday Aug. 25, just before the Primetime Emmy Awards.

Moreno to Star in NBC’s Comedy Pilot “Old Soul”

Rita Moreno is ready to share her old soul

The 82-year-old Puerto Rican actress, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s SAG Awards, has been cast in NBC’s comedy pilot Old Soul.

Rita Moreno

Moreno will star opposite Natasha Lyonne in the single-camera pilot.

Co-created and executive-produced by Amy Poehler, Old Soul centers on a reformed wild child Nadia (Lyonne) who has a business caring for the elderly and feels she has more in common with her colorful old clients than she does with people her age.

Moreno will portray one of Nadia’s clients, a character that appears tailored for her down to the name, Rita. A sexy old gal and a ball of joy, Moreno’s character is described as a flamboyant, larger-than-life Broadway vet who has been happily married to her writing partner/husband for over 50 years.

Moreno, an Oscar, Emmy, Tony Award and Grammy winner, most recently co-starred on the TV Land comedy series Happily Divorced.