The Disney+ show doesn’t offer anything in the way of an explainer about The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), who have each appeared in a handful of the franchise’s film installments. Here’s a quick rundown on each character’s backstories: The Falcon, AKA Sam Wilson, debuted in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” The character is a former pararescueman in the U.S. Air Force who happened to cross paths with Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans)....

Jane Campion is enjoying this moment. After winning the Silver Lion for directing at Venice for “The Power of the Dog,” her triumphant return to feature films after 13 years, and soaking up the New York Film Festival applause at Alice Tully Hall, the director settles into a soft sofa at Netflix’s after-party at Tavern on the Green. She had taken a detour from moviemaking to create eight episodes of Sundance TV’s lauded series “Top of the Lake” (2013-2017), which starred Elisabeth Moss and Holly Hunter, back home in New Zealand....

It comes from Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” which confirms the filmmaker’s ability to generate suspense and awe from some seriously unpredictable places — but this Western sci-fi showdown also doubles as a meditation on the way film history marginalizes key figures and more crucially, assesses how the industry continues to alienate key voices. And, intentional or not, it’s also a window into the need to diversify arthouse audiences. I won’t get into “Nope” spoilers, but it’s a brilliant conceit for Peele to envision the Hollywood horse-wranglers who are at the center of the movie as grandchildren of the Black jockey who sat astride the horse in one of the very first moving images ever captured on film....

For one thing, rather than spend Warner Bros. Oscar dollars on a $2.5 billion filmmaker who spent his entire studio career as its in-house auteur, Warners funded a major awards campaign for its late-breaking “Judas and the Black Messiah,” directed by Shaka King in his studio filmmaking debut at an eighth of the cost of “Tenet.” It’s an unlikely outcome driven by many strange circumstances, only one of which was the pandemic....

Allen’s press representative issued a statement to IndieWire, saying, “Woody Allen never said he was retiring, nor did he say he was writing another novel. He said he was thinking about not making films, as making films that go straight or very quickly to streaming platforms is not so enjoyable for him, as he is a great lover of the cinema experience. Currently, he has no intention of retiring and is very excited to be in Paris shooting his new movie, which will be the 50th....

The fearless women became Khabar Lahariya — loosely translated as “news wave” — populate Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s documentary debut “Writing with Fire.” Armed with eagle-eyed filmmakers and compelling subjects, the film deftly blends the (inextricably linked) personal and professional sides of the journalists’ work, offering up a wide-ranging look at a vital outlet with so many stories to tell. “Writing with Fire” opens with chief reporter Meera trudging through a heart-wrenching interview with a rape victim and her shell-shocked husband before heading to the police station to ask why authorities aren’t doing any meaningful work to solve the crime....

Per sources, it will be joined by other circuits for a total of around 600 screens. These include Harkins, Landmark, Alamo, Marcus, Cinepolis, and iPic. Of those, Cinemark will be the largest with around 250. Theaters will have the option of playing the film beyond the one-week exclusive theatrical run. Beyond the significance of a blockbuster director becoming a late-breaking addition to an anemic release calendar, this represents a Netflix breakthrough....