
Light a candle and prepare yourself.

Indie films Booksmart, and Rafiki are among the winners of the 31st GLAAD Media Awards held for the first time as a virtual ceremony. Booksmart won the award for Outstanding Film – Wide Release and Rafiki won for Outstanding Film – Limited Release. The award for Outstanding Documentary went to State of Pride.

Jordan Graham’s haunting feature Sator has been acquired by 1091 Pictures for North American release. The film, hailed as “strikingly atmospheric” by Variety, premiered at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival and went on to have celebrated screenings at Telluride Horror Show and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival before being brought to the Marche Du Film Online by arthouse genre film sales outfit Yellow Veil Pictures.

Rooftop Films, in partnership with Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) and the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI), announced the programming for August as part of their summer drive-in festival at the Queens Drive-In location in New York City.

A gripping and emotive tale, Bridget Smith’s Sno Babies will be available to view on demand starting September 29th.

Anthony Scott Burns’ (Our House) Come True will make its world premiere as part of the upcoming Fantasia International Film Festival, running digitally from August 20th – September 2nd.

TIFF Co-Heads Cameron Bailey and Joana Vicente announced the lineup of titles selected for the 45th Toronto International Film Festival running from September 10-19th.

Saint-Narcisse, a film by Bruce LaBruce, recently selected as the Closing Night Gala of the Venice Days program (Giornate degli Autori) at the Venice Film Festival, has been picked up for distribution in Canada by Northern Banner Releasing.

The powerful and timely feature documentary film Don’t Be Nice, follows a New York City team of young African American, Afro-Hispanic, and queer slam poets as they fight to find the words to speak their truths to a nation awakening in Black Lives Matter protest and on the brink of a general election.

American Masters: How It Feels To Be Free, is an upcoming documentary film that tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American female entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process. The film, which is slated to premiere in early 2021 on PBS and on documentary Channel in Canada, features interviews and archival performances with all six women, as well as original conversations with contemporary artists influenced by them, including Alicia Keys, an executive producer on the project, Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson and other luminaries, as well as family members, including Horne’s daughter Gail Lumet Buckley.