IndieWire can exclusively announce highlights from the upcoming Nitehawk Shorts Fest, running March 2–6 at both the Nitehawk’s Prospect Park and Williamsburg locations. The Nitehawk Shorts Festival celebrates independent filmmaking by featuring over 60 short films, with filmmakers in attendance for Q&As. Continuing its mission to represent diverse backgrounds, voices, and perspectives with a selection of exceptional short-form films, female-directed films make up a majority of this year’s festival program. The festival will include six programs: Opening Nite, Music Driven, Midnite, Matinee, NoBudge, and Closing Nite....

Hulu issued a faux content warning joking that influencer satire film “Not Okay” features an “unlikable female protagonist,” and viewers took to social media to share their puzzlement at…not getting the joke. The R-rated film stars Zoey Deutch as Danni Sanders, an aspiring writer who lacks a social media presence. She fakes an Instagram-worthy trip to Paris and gets wrapped up in a lie that she survived a terrorist attack while in France....

The survey polled over 100 filmmakers, some 50 festival representatives, and over 25 distributors with varying questions. The effort was undertaken by indie film and Slamdance co-founder Jon Fitzgerald, film consultant Brian Newman, and Film Festival Alliance co-director Lela Meadow-Conner. Read the full report here. Fitzgerald told IndieWire he hopes filmmakers, festivals, and distributors look at the survey results as a starting point to help them navigate the industry’s current volatility....

“Shooting that pilot was a really great lesson,” Merchant said. “It was an affirmation about listening to my instincts and following them, because I tried to back out of that situation and, during the contract process, I did back out. I was talked back into it by some persuasive people. Then I found myself naked and afraid in Morocco and riding a horse that was clearly much more excited to be there than I was....

“My only answer to that is to make some great films,” Magnusson said during a recent phone interview. “That said, of course some people do say there are themes which are more relevant to the Academy. … In my view that might be a thing from the past, when the Academy was more Americanized than it is now.” Related ‘Living’: The Prime of Mr. Bill Nighy As Commercial Movies Aim for Oscar Glory, Hollywood Is at a Crossroads Related Oscars 2023: Best Sound Predictions The 13 Best Slasher Movies Ever Made, from ‘Candyman’ to ‘Psycho’Only one American film made the short list for live action shorts this year, a rarity that is not entirely surprising given the Academy’s recent attempts to expand the voting pool....

Why the struggle for the fifth film in the “Toy Story” franchise, the most lucrative in animation? In adjusted grosses, they represent a domestic total of over $1.8 billion and the most recent in 2019 earned $441 million. However, this is not “Toy Story 5”; it’s a Buzz Lightyear origin story, which reduces its initial potential. It also faces competition. “Toy Story 4” opened around the same date in 2018 to $121 million its first weekend, on the way to $441 million domestic....

Turns out, even the most wrung-out IP — we’re talking about a series that was eventually forced to crossover with another action-centric alien film, to deeply stupid results — can still tap into truly smart new ideas. Set on the Great Plains in the fall of 1719, “Prey” picks up at a fraught time in American history. The Comanche Nation may still rule this slice of prairie, plains, and forest, but just miles away is a group of money-hungry French fur trappers pillaging their way through the country’s wildlife....