Last year’s LongShots garnered more than 400,000 video views. This year’s showcase features a jury of four who will decide on the festival’s grand prize next month: Director Nandita Das from India, Oscar-nominated Polish director Anna Zamecka, Mexican-Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir, and award-winning Vietnamese American filmmaker Bao Nguyen (director of last year’s Bruce Lee documentary “Be Water”). Per BBC, the films in the program “will explore inspiring and exhilarating stories that remind us of the pleasures and joys of human existence, honouring new beginnings and the wonders of our diverse, colorful and flamboyant world....

Burnham wrote, directed, edited, and starred in this minimalist musical fantasia, shot exclusively in his home in Los Angeles over the past year, and the result is an impressive one-man technical feat loaded with surreal twists and dense commentary under the veneer of sophomoric gags. Related ‘1899’ Canceled By Netflix After One Season ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ Sneak Peek: Adjoa Andoh’s Lady Danbury Origin Story Is Revealed Related Oscars 2023: Best Visual Effects Predictions 24 Famously Queer and Homoerotic Horror Movies, from ‘Psycho’ to ‘Hellraiser’Burnham churns out cheeky vulgar tunes that sound like “Sesame Street” by way of George Carlin, but the overarching premise clarifies the young comic storyteller’s emerging worldview in striking terms....

But Landry Jones and Aussie director Justin Kurzel — making his first film since plumbing another piece of Australian history with “True Story of the Kelly Gang” — will never refer to Martin Bryant by name. Not in pre-production, not during filming, not in the script, and not in press materials or interviews, for which journalists have been instructed to refrain from using the name themselves. That’s why, in the movie, Landry Jones’ character is simply known as Nitram, the mirror reverse of Martin’s real name and an appropriate title for a movie that attempts to walk backward to account for the chain of events that led to the killings....

Apple has attractive alternatives: Netflix and NBCUniversal are among those who have invested in studio space in New Mexico, made more affordable by cheaper land — and generous tax incentives from the state. Now, as states including Oklahoma have successfully spurred soundstage construction with similar incentives, and Georgia’s program continues to attract big-budget productions like “WandaVision,” California is giving its signature industry a boost in the face of increased competition and growing demand....

By then, filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga had completed production, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced distributor MGM to postpone the release until November of last year. With the pandemic raging on, the date shifted to April 2021, and then October 8. It ultimately wound up opening internationally last week, and — barring some unfathomable last-minute change — opens in North American theaters this week. Last month, a satirical headline in The Onion joked, “MGM Pushes ‘No Time to Die’ Back to November 2019....

However, the film itself is a regrettable one: a movie that doesn’t do justice by its subject. At first, audiences may think “Charlotte” will render Salomon’s boldly expressionistic colors, shapes, and narrative flourishes in animated form. Perhaps it will be like “Loving Vincent,” but a new take on an artist who deserves more attention rather than another look at the world’s most overexposed painter. Sadly, it is not. With only the faintest attempts at replicating Salomon’s graphic style, “Charlotte” very much shows its directors’ lack of feature animation directing experience....

Confused by what being an athlete meant in the African-American context, Ashe, a Southerner who grew up in Richmond, Virginia in the 1950s, wanted to break the mold. Instead of taking up sports like track, baseball, and basketball, he chose tennis, because he wanted to be “the Jackie Robinson” of the sport, as his brother, Johnnie Ashe, recalls in the film, a social history of race, fame, and sports in America....