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2020 Movies Out Now Jun 1, 2020

Need a list of the new movies out now? You got it. Here's an updated breakdown of when 2020 new movies will be released and where you can watch them.

Trending also: New Movies to Watch This Week

Movies Out Now

You might not be able to watch them in theaters, but we've broken down the movies out now (and new movies that are getting some serious buzz). A few factors we included in our methodology for new movies to stream included: Rotten Tomato scores, director and screenwriter filmography, and Google Search trends.

Here's a list of new movie releases that you can currently stream: Babyteeth (VOD)

Hamilton (Disney+)

Greyhound (Apple TV+)

Palm Springs ()

Da 5 Bloodz (Netflix)

For the full list of 2020 new movies out now — including new Netflix movies and new movies on Prime — keep scrolling below. And remember, tune back in to see if COVID-19 has changed or delayed any movie release dates for 2020. We'll update this post as more movie release news is announced.

Movie Studio Release Date

Parkland Rising Abramorama June 2

Spelling the Dream Netflix June 3

Judy & Punch June 5

Shirley June 5

Da 5 Bloods Netflix June 12

The King of Staten Island Universal June 12

Sometimes Always Never Blue Fox Entertainment June 12

The Short History of the Long Road FilmRise June 16

7500 June 18

Babyteeth IFC Films June 19 Movie Studio Release Date Mr. Jones Samuel Goldwyn Films June 19

John Lewis: Good Trouble July 3

Relic IFC Midnight July 3

The Truth (La Verite) IFC Films July 3

Hamilton Disney+ July 3

The Old Guard Netflix July 10

Palm Springs IFC Films July 10

Greyhound Apple TV+ July 10

The Painted Bird IFC Films July 17

Radioactive Amazon Studios July 24

The Rental IFC Films July 24

The Fight Magnolia Pictures July 31

Summerland IFC Films July 31

Boyz in the Wood Amazon Studios Aug. 7

Made in Italy IFC Films Aug. 7

Out Stealing Horses Magnolia Pictures Aug. 7 Sound of Metal Amazon Studios Aug. 14 Movie Studio Release Date

Antebellum IFC Midnight Aug. 21

Chemical Hearts Amazon Studios Aug. 21

Let Him Go Aug. 21

Tesla IFC Films Aug. 21

Bill & Ted Face the Music Sep. 1

Tenet Warner Bros. Pictures TBD

Mulan TBD

Parkland Rising

Parkland Rising is a documentary that chronicles the high school students and families who became leaders of a national movement for gun reform in the wake of the tragic 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fl, which killed 17 people. With a subject matter that is unfortunately continually relevant, Parkland Rising is one of top summer movies of 2020 to watch.

Where to watch: Parkland Documentary

Spelling the Dream

No good summer movie guide would be complete without an inspirational documentary. Spelling the Dream is one of top new Netflix movies of summer 2020, chronicling the journey of four Indian-American students as they compete in their dream to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The documentary also tells the story of Indian-American dominance at this spelling bee, interviewing various experts and bee contestants to help explain this trend that has emerged over more than the last decade of competitions.

Where to watch: Netflix

Judy & Punch

Judy & Punch is a dark comedy inspired by the traditional 17th century puppet show Punch and Judy. In the film, things are a bit darker, with Punch drunkenly abusing both Judy and their baby, and Judy seeking revenge in return. Mia Wasikowska — star of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass — plays Judy (while Damon Herriman plays Punch).

Shirley

Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) plays the popular American horror/mystery novelist Shirley Jackson in this biographical drama. Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband. The middle- aged couple, prone to ruthless barbs and copious afternoon cocktails, begins to toy mercilessly with the naïve young couple at their door. So far, Josephine Decker’s Shirley has earned strong reviews from critics, making it one of the top summer movies to keep your eye on.

Related: The Poetry of Josephine Decker’s Movies

Da 5 Bloods

Easily one of the top new Netflix movies of summer 2020 is ’s Da 5 Bloods. In this new film directed by Lee, a squad of vets meet up years after the war in Ho Chi Minh to retrieve something valuable they left behind during the war. The squad, with starring, battles with enemies without and within as they struggle to recover their treasure in present-day Vietnam and alive. In addition to Lindo, the film stars: , , Norm Lewis, and . Da 5 Bloods was co-written by , who worked on the screenplay for Lee’s 2018 award-winning film BlacKkKlansman.

Where to watch: Netflix The King of Staten Island

The King of Staten Island is the first movie directed by Judd Apatow since 2015’s Trainwreck. Starring comedian Pete Davidson, alongside Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, and Steve Buscemi, this film follows a young man who must get his life together after his mom starts dating a new man who, like his deceased father, is a firefighter. Apatow is a master of summer movies, with all but one of his films — This Is 40 — coming out during the summertime, and no summer movie guide would be complete without him.

Where to watch: Netflix

Sometimes Always Never

Bill Nighy stars in this film as Alan, a tailor who has spent years searching for his son Michael, who went missing after storming out over a game of Scrabble. As Alan helps his family and youngest son Peter deal with Michael’s disappearance, he becomes engaged in unraveling a mystery involving an online player who believes he can beat Michael in Scrabble. Sometimes Always Never is directed by feature film newcomer Carl Hunter. The screenplay is by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, a writer with some notable films under his belt, including 2004’s critically- acclaimed Millions.

The Short History of the Long Road

For teenage Nola (Sabrina Carpenter), home is the open road. Her self-reliant father (Steven Ogg) is her anchor in a life of transience. The pair crisscrosses the country in a lovingly refurbished RV, relishing their independence and making ends meet by doing odd jobs. A shocking rupture, though, casts Nola out on her own. She makes her way to Albuquerque, NM, in search of a mother she never knew. When her motor-home unexpectedly breaks down, she forges a bond with an auto body shop owner (Danny Trejo) and senses the possibility of mooring her ship in this storm.

7500

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an airplane co-pilot, 7500 pits him against a group of h d l f l fl h k l f h ffi d terrorists who try and seize control of a Berlin-Paris flight. Taking its title from the air traffic code for an aircraft hijacking, 7500 follows Gordon-Levitt’s struggle to save the lives of the passengers and crew while trying to keep the hijackers from entering the cockpit. Director Patrick Vollrath is a newcomer to feature-length films, but was nominated for an Oscar for Best

Short Film (Live Action) at the 88th Academy Awards in 2016 for the German film Everything Will Be Okay (Alles wird gut).

Babyteeth

Directed by Shannon Murphy, this Australian coming-of-age comedy/drama tells the story of a seriously ill teenager, Milla, who falls madly in love with small-time drug dealer Moses, a.k.a. her parents' worst nightmare. But as Milla's first brush with love brings her a new lust for life, things get messy and traditional morals go out the window. Milla soon shows everyone around her how to live like you have nothing to lose. Babyteeth has a screenplay written by Rita Kalnejais, based upon her stage play of the same name. Since its release in June, Babyteeth has earned very high marks from film critics, making it one of the top summer movies of 2020 to be excited for.

Where to watch: VOD

Mr. Jones

Mr. Jones is a historical and biographical thriller, following Welsh journalist Gareth Jones as he travels the Soviet Union in the 1930s and his discovery of a massive famine in Ukraine that killed millions. A Polish film, directed by Agnieszka Holland, Mr. Jones stars James Norton as Jones, as well as Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard. Upon its release, it was selected to compete for the Golden Bear, the top award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

John Lewis: Good Trouble

John Lewis: Good Trouble is directed by documentary veteran Dawn Porter, who also directed the critically acclaimed documentaries Trapped in 2016 and Gideon’s Army in 2013. This summer’s documentary chronicles the career of George House Representative John Lewis and his six decades of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health-care reform, and immigration, as well as explores his childhood experiences, especially his fateful meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. Relic

Relic is another horror film to make our summer movies 2020 list and is brought to you by IFC Midnight, which distributes horror, thriller, and paranormal movies by IFC Films. Relic follows the story of a daughter, mother, and grandmother as they are haunted by a manifestation of dementia that fills their family’s home. This film marks the directorial debut of Natalie Erika James, who also wrote the screenplay with Christian White, and stars a British and Australian cast, including Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, and Bella Heathcote. Relic premiered at the on Jan. 23 and is set for wide release on July 3.

The Truth (La Verite)

The Truth, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, tells the story of a stormy reunion between scriptwriter Lumir and her famous mother and actress, Fabienne, against the backdrop of Fabienne's autobiographic book. Kore-eda has directed a string of critical favorites over the years, including After the Storm (Umi yori mo mada fukaku) in 2017, The Third Murder (Sandome no satsujin) in 2018, and Shoplifters (Manbiki kazoku), which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

Hamilton

One of the top summer movies to watch in 2020 is the Broadway smash hit “Hamilton.” Disney+ released the filmed version of the original Broadway musical, with writer Lin-Manuel Miranda in the starring role of Alexander Hamilton. Director Thomas Kail has only directed for television, but his credits include FX’s miniseries about stage life, “Fosse/Verdon.” Critical reviews of this filmed version of “Hamilton” have been very strong, saying that it expertly captures the magic of the live Broadway production. “Hamilton” is available through Disney+ and was released on July 3, 2020.

Where to watch: Disney+

Embedded content: https://twitter.com/HamiltonMusical/status/1277272429891592194

The Old Guard Year after year, Charlize Theron has returned to star in highly anticipated summer movies. In summer 2020, Theron stars in The Old Guard, playing a warrior named Andy who leads a covert group of mercenaries that protect the mortal world from threats for hundreds of years — a task that’s possible due to a unique trait they share: the inability to die. The team is recruited to take on an emergency mission and has its abilities put to the test. The Old Guard also features KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The director is Gina Prince-Bythewood, whose past credits include The Secret Life of Bees and Love and Basketball.

Where to watch: Netflix

Related article: Gina Prince-Bythewood's 5 'unconventional' love stories

Palm Springs

If you have a hankering for seeing a movie with a “Groundhog Day”-style premise, then look no further than Hulu’s “Palm Springs” this summer. Starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti and J.K. Simmons, among others, “Palm Springs” tells the story of Samberg and Milioti meet by chance at a wedding held in Palm Springs, only to realize that they are stuck that the venue in an endless loop not unlike ’s experience in “Groundhog Day.” The good news is “Palm Springs” manages to build a unique film based on this premise and has garnered excellent critical reviews ahead of its release on July 10, 2020. Watch the preview below.

Where to watch "Palm Springs": Hulu

Greyhound

Tom Hanks makes an appearance on our summer movie guide, starring in Greyhound, a film about an inexperienced U.S. Navy captain leading a convoy that’s being hunted by Nazi U- boats. Hanks’ last foray into World War II movies was 1998’s Academy Award-winning, box office-smashing Saving Private Ryan, and movie fanatics are hoping Greyhound will follow suit. Director Aaron Schneider is known for helming the critically acclaimed 2010 film Get Low, which included an all-star cast of , Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, and Lucas Black.

The Painted Bird IFC Films is churning out a lot of summer movies in 2020 and The Painted Bird is definitely one of theirs you should take note of. Directed by Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul, the film is based on the 1965 novel of the same name and follows a young boy in Eastern Europe during the carnage of World War II. The Painted Bird competed at various major film festivals in

2019, including the 76th Venice International Film Festival and the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Critics have rated it highly, but warn about the brutality of some scenes.

Radioactive

If you’re looking for a period biopic, then Radioactive should be one of the summer movies of 2020 you should watch. Rosamund Pike (who was nominated for Best Actress for her lead role in the 2014 film Gone Girl) plays famous scientist and pioneer of radiation Marie Skłodowska Curie. The movie is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Lauren Redniss. Director Marjane Satrapi has had experience in directing critically acclaimed adaptations of graphic novels before, directing 2007’s Persepolis, which went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008.

The Rental

James Franco’s younger brother Dave Franco makes his directorial debut with The Rental. Starring Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss, the story follows two couples as they rent an Airbnb vacation home and begin to suspect the owner of the home is spying on them. Franco co-wrote the screenplay along with , who’s penned several well-reviewed films, including the 2017 film Win It All.

The Fight

The Fight is another documentary to add to your summer movies 2020 list. Produced by Kerry Washington, The Fight follows the legal battles that lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have been facing during the Trump administration. The documentary had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 24, where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking and has already garnered strong reviews from critics.

Summerland Summerland is yet another summer 2020 movie set during World War II, this one taking place on the seaside cliffs of southern England. It tells the story of a reclusive writer named Alice who takes in an evacuee named Frank. Initially wanting to get rid of the evacuee, Alice (played by

Gemma Arterton) eventually opens up to Frank when they realize they have more in common in their pasts than she had thought.

Boyz in the Wood

Boyz in the Wood came out in 2019, but is getting its American release in August through Amazon Studios. This British comedy is the directorial debut of Ninian Doff and stars comedic veteran Eddie Izzard as a mysterious huntsman named 'The Duke' — who is hunting four boys as they try to complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award (a trek across the Scottish Highlands). Boyz in the Wood is a blend of comedy and horror, filled with satire and social commentary throughout, which has made it one of the most critically acclaimed summer movies of 2020.

Made in Italy

If you’re a Liam Neeson fan, then Made in Italy should be on your list of summer movies of 2020 to watch. This film is directed by James D’Arcy, known for his acting in award-winning films like 2013’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and 2017’s Dunkirk, among others. Made in Italy tells the story of a bohemian artist, played by Neeson, who travels from London to Italy with his estranged son to sell the house they inherited from his late wife. It might sound somber, but this is actually a comedy, making it a welcome addition to our summer movie guide.

Movies Coming Out Soon

Out Stealing Horses

Out Stealing Horses is a Norwegian drama based on the 2003 award-winning novel of the same name, written by Per Petterson. Set in Nov. 1999, Stellan Skarsgård stars as Trond, a 67-year-old recluse who meets a neighbor who says he knew Trond back in the summer of 1948, when he was only 15 and growing up during (and after) the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II. Skarsgård has racked up several awards and nominations over his long career in film. Director Hans Petter Moland has worked with him numerous times in the past. Moland is an accomplished director and his film Out Stealing Horses was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.

Sound of Metal

This new Amazon film has a very interesting premise, telling the story of a heavy-metal drummer whose life is completely upended when he begins to lose his hearing. Starring Riz Ahmed, known for films such as Rogue One, Jason Bourne, and the award-winning HBO miniseries The Night Of, Sound of Metal premiered in the Platform Prize program at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on Sep. 6, 2019. Critical reviews of Sound of Metal have been excellent, making it a promising addition to our 2020 summer movie guide.

Antebellum

IFC Films has more horror/thrillers up its sleeve for summer 2020. Antebellum stars Janelle Monáe as a successful author, Veronica Henley, who finds herself pulled into a twisted reality after her abusive ex-husband finds her and incapacitates her while she’s walking home one night. Veronica races time to navigate the unstable fantasy world and herself from it. Little else is known about the plot of the film, but with a title like Antebellum, it seems likely some of the setting will be in the pre-Civil War south.

Chemical Hearts

Chemical Hearts is a new romantic drama from Amazon Studios, based on the novel Our Chemical Hearts. Seventeen-year-old Henry Page (Austin Abrams) has never been in love. He fancies himself a romantic, but the kind of once-in-a-lifetime love he's been hoping for just hasn't happened yet. Then, on the first day of senior year, he meets transfer student Grace Town (Lili Reinhart) and it seems all that is about to change. When Grace and Henry are chosen to co-edit the school paper, he is immediately drawn to the mysterious newcomer. As he learns the heartbreaking secret that has changed her life, he finds himself falling in love with her — or at least the person he thinks she is.

Let Him Go

In Let Him Go, a retired sheriff, Kevin Costner, and his wife, Diane Lane, who are grieving over the death of their son, set out on a journey to find their only grandson. The film is written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, who also wrote and directed The Family Stone. Bezucha has l l f h d h h d l S also written screenplays for other directors, such as the award-winning Potato Peel Pie Society and The Guernsey Literary.

Tesla

Directed by Michael Almereyda, this film stars Ethan Hawke as brilliant inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla and follows his story, interacting with the likes of Thomas Edison and Anne Morgan, daughter of the famed business magnate, J.P. Morgan. Almereyda has directed both documentaries and feature films, with his two most recent films — the 2017 feature Majorie Prime and the 2017 documentary Escapes — being critically acclaimed.

Bill & Ted Face the Music

This one is a guilty pleasure, starring the leads of the original Bill & Ted movies — Alex Winter as Bill and Keanu Reeves as Ted — led by director Dean Parisot who directed the hilarious sci- fi parody comedy Galaxy Quest in 1999. Bill & Ted Face the Music picks up with the two time- travelers and would-be rockers as middle-aged dads still struggling to turn out a hit song and fulfill their destiny. This latest Bill & Ted installment also brings back the original screenwriters, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, which really makes it an authentic sequel to the originals and one of the top summer 2020 movies to look out for.

Tenet

Tenet is director Christopher Nolan’s much anticipated new film, his first since 2017’s Dunkirk. With a screenplay also written by Nolan, little of the plot has been revealed. Armed with only one word — Tenet — and fighting to prevent World War III, the protagonist — played by ’s son , star of BlacKkKlansmen — journeys through a mysterious world of international espionage on a mission that involves inverting time and stopping Armageddon. One thing that does seem clear is that Tenet will have some mind- bending characteristics, not unlike Nolan’s past film . Other stars include Robert Pattison, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, and perennial Nolan favorite, Michael Caine. This is easily one of the most anticipated summer movies of 2020. Release date is still unknown.

Mulan

Like any of Disney’s live-action remakes of its animated classics, Mulan is one of the most h hl d f 2020 h fil f M l l h highly anticipated summer movies of 2020. The film stars Liu Yifei as Mulan, along with Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Gong Li, and Jet Li — as the Emperor of China — in supporting roles. Director Niki Caro has turned out an excellent repertoire of films over the years, including the Academy Award-nominated movies Whale Rider in 2002 and North Country in 2005. The screenwriters, too, are veterans of the trade, with Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa having penned past critical and commercial hits, including Jurassic World, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Lost World: Jurassic Park. Release date is still unknown. Movie Streaming Free Trials Jun 1, 2020

Getting stir-crazy? Here's a list of movie streaming services currently offering discounts or free trials. We've included links and promo codes (if necessary).

Unfortunately, you'll have to bring your own popcorn.

Movie Streaming Free Trials

Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video has a huge selection of movies and TV — some free, some for rental or purchase — and is currently offering a 30-day free trial. Click the link below to check it out. Helpful hint: if you sign up for the Amazon Prime free trial and are also interested in STARZ, make sure to sign up for both free trials (using the link below under 'STARZ'). Promo code: n/a Website: Amazon Prime Video

RELATED: Netflix Party, and other watch party apps

Apple TV+

Given the major summer movie release of Greyhound, Apple TV+ is currently giving away their arsenal of TV and movies free for 7 days. Then you'll have to join the rest of us on the dark side and pay $4.99/month.

Promo code: n/a Website: Apple TV+

DC Universe

DC Universe officially launched in Sep. 2018 to give DC Comics fans a central hub to watch everything from their back catalogue. Click the link below to learn more about its 7-day free trial.

Promo code: n/a Website: DC Universe

Disney+

This platform gives you access to TV & movies from Disney, , Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic. However, the company stopped offering a free trial during summer, 2020. Still, you can click here to find out how much it will cost to sign up for Disney+.

Film Movement Plus

Film Movement Plus provides cult classics, documentaries, short films and more from any device. Check out their 30-day free trial in the link below.

Promo code: n/a Website: Film Movement Plus HBO Max

The HBO-anchored streaming service packed with extra shows and movies finally arrived in May, 2020. Like Netflix and Disney+, HBO Max has a sprawling catalog of hit shows and movies. It's $14.99/month, but lucky you — right now they're offering a free, 7-day trial. Click on the link below to sign up and watch some awesome stuff for free. Until next week, of course.

Promo code: n/a Website: HBO Max

Hulu

Hulu is giving movie fans their streaming services for one month free. Hooray!

Promo code: n/a Website: Hulu

IFCFilms Unlimited

IFCFilms offers their content in an online platform called IFC Films unlimited, which — similair to STARZ — is partnered with Amazon Prime. You'll have to sign up for the Amazon Prime 30-day free trial also, but you can get IFCFilms Unlimited for 7-days just by heading to the website linked below.

Promo code: n/a Website: IFCFilms Unlimited

Netflix

Netflix already has a strong free trial, offering 30 days of free entertainment for new members. They'll also email you three days before your trial ends so you cancel before getting charged.

Promo code: n/a Website: Netflix

SHOWTIME

SHOWTIME charges $10.99, but you can sneak a free ticket to their entertainment for 30 days via the link below. Promo code: n/a Website: SHOWTIME

Shudder

If you're looking for a good scare, or three, check out this unique horror & thriller streaming service. Plans are only $4.75 per month, but you can get 7 frightful days for free.

Promo code: n/a Website: Shudder

STARZ

STARZ also offers a 7-day free trial, but it's bundled with the Amazon Prime Video free trial. So it appears you'll have to sign up for both if you want to sign up for the STARZ free trial.

Promo code: n/a Website: STARZ

SUNDANCE NOW

For 7 days, you can stream SUNDANCE NOW's "captivating stories, unforgettable characters" for free.

Promo code: n/a Enter the promo (above) code here: SUNDANCE NOW

VRV

Get access to Crunchyroll, NickSplat, Boomerang, and more top notch anime through VRV Premium. Their membership is now available for a free, 30-day trial.

Promo code: n/a Enter the promo (above) code here: VRV Premium How A Producer Finds His Taste In Movies Jun 10, 2020

This Friday, The King of Staten Island will be available on a TV screen—or laptop—near you. In Judd Apatow’s latest, 24-year-old Scott (played by Pete Davidson) spends his days living in his mom's house, smoking weed and dreaming of becoming a tattoo artist—while grappling with the death of his firefighter dad. It's a re-imagined version of Davidson's own “very tumultuous, and ultimately inspiring, journey,” producer Barry Mendel said.

With King of Staten Island, Mendel continues a years-long collaboration with Apatow, one that started in 2009 with Funny People. That then led to Bridesmaids, The Big Sick, This is 40, Trainwreck (in which a young pre-SNL Pete Davidson plays a small role), and now this.

“I think that like minded-people do find each other,” Mendel said. “A really influential movie for both Judd and me is King of Comedy, and it’s the movie that Pete has sat in his basement and watched more than any other film. He knows it chapter and verse.” A career built on a love of film

Mendel speaks passionately about the movies that changed him, as though they helped chart the course of his career. One of them was Apocalypse Now. “When I was 15, there was this movie coming out and there was a lot of controversy around it,” Mendel recalled. “It'd been delayed by a year. It had gotten massively over budget. It was a disaster. It was going to sink the careers of everybody involved. But, it was ambitious.”

“I remember going to the mall to buy a ticket at Ticketron and sticking it up on my bulletin board with a thumbtack a month before opening day. I waited and counted down the days. I lived in Mamaroneck, New York, and took a train into Manhattan, went to the Ziegfeld Theatre, and watched Apocalypse Now and it just blew my mind. Bill Graham, the Playboy bunnies, Colonel Kurtz, Robert Duvall. The scope of it, the darkness of it, the intensity of it, the psychedelic nature of it. It all blew my mind.”

Since then, Mendel has always been intentional about his self-education in movies. When he first started out in the film industry, working in the mailroom at ICM, he embarked on a list of 500 films in the canon: “You have to watch these four Kurosawa films, these three Bergman films, and these films by Alfred Hitchcock... I had the list, but I found that there were certain things that I was drawn towards and certain things that were more like eating spinach for me.” “I just allowed myself to roll with that,” he said. “I loved Barbara Stanwyck. Even if it was a bad movie, if she was in it, I loved it. Same with Robert Mitchum. The same with Marlon Brando. Certain writers, certain directors, and certain actors spoke to me. It just started to blossom into a really nice body of work that I consumed and integrated. Through that, I learned what I like.”

That's when Mendel's first producing gig came up. Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson were looking for someone to produce Rushmore.

“At the time, I was really in love with the films of Powell and Pressburger: Stairway to Heaven, Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus. When Wes was looking around for who to produce this film after Bottle Rocket, he had been going through the same phase. We were both kvelling about those movies.”

“Sharing a love of certain films and speaking a common language really helped build the relationship between two people who are socially awkward and very shy—if we're not talking about movies, that is.”

These movies, Mendel said, had a huge influence on Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, which Mendel would go on to produce for Anderson.

“I always have to credit Wes and M. Night Shyamalan with really taking a chance on me,” Mendel said. (Shyamalan approached Mendel to work on The Sixth Sense, shortly after he started working on Rushmore.)

“They had nothing to go on,” he added. “We knew each other, we talked about movies, but I had no track record at the time. I'd literally not produced a single thing. Those were huge gambles that they took and it really changed my life. I will always be grateful to each of them.” On the set of "Rushmore"

The power of movies (and the movie theater)

To this day, a great movie, or a great performance, will stick with Mendel for days. Some even require annual viewings. He's revisited a lot of classics while in quarantine, movies like Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past, Otto Preminger’s Laura, and John Huston’s The Night of the Iguana.

“Out of the Past reminds me of what a perfect ending to a film is, and how explosive that is in terms of your memory of a film,” he said. “When I watch Laura, it's about the perfection of plot, the perfection of dialogue, and tautness of screenwriting and direction and storytelling. To me, it's almost a perfect film. Then, with The Night of the Iguana, it's really about wanting to experience the poetry of life and the majesty of our imperfection. So there are different things that I'm yearning for in each case.”

Take a look at some of the movies Barry Mendel recommends rewatching (if you haven’t already.)

Even so, he’s eager to get back to the theater. “I don't think there's anything that can ever replace going to the theater,” he said. “I'm very optimistic, actually, about what the d i ' i d h h i i b I hi k h l pandemic's going to do to the theater-going experience because I think that people are going to really understand the difference between watching something at home, which will feel old hat.”

“I think that the amount of isolation that people feel in a more Internet-driven world will draw people to the theater.”

“Even the experience of watching a comedy in a full house... When we previewed The King of Staten Island, just seeing the audience laugh so hard, and yet be so moved together, is a magical experience, not just for us, but for everybody in that room. We're a communal species.”

In a twist of fate, The King of Staten Island is not debuting in theaters as planned. “Pete was the first one to say we should [release it digitally], before Judd or me or the studio,” Mendel recalled.

It soon became clear that they would have to shift the release to a now-crowded late summer, save it until next year, or make it available online. “Universal was incredibly bold in saying, ‘Let's do this. Let's be the first adult, R-rated, serious-minded comedy, or just major film, to come out where there's no question that they're not dumping it.’”

What began as a disappointment (“Robert Elswit shot the movie. Jay Cassidy edited the movie. If there ever was a big-screen Judd Apatow movie, this is it.”) turned into acceptance and, ultimately, enthusiasm.

Mendel recalls thinking, “Everybody's sitting on their couches. There are no new movies and people are at home anxious and scared and bored. Maybe this is something we can do to help.”

“The movie is about an ER nurse and a fireman. It's not out of tune with what's actually going on in the world. It all of a sudden began to feel very right. For the last month, I've just been so excited that we're doing it. You can feel it being engineered for the big screen, and yet you get it at home.” After a new release, Mendel typically goes around to a few theaters to pop in and listen to the laughter. It’ll be strange, this time around, to not stand by the ticket office and hear people say, “Two tickets for King of Staten Island.” But he finds a different form of gratification in this unexpected process.

“Movies are here to give people a way to escape from their predicament and to reflect on their life. This is the service that we can provide now, giving people something fresh to watch that's hopefully engaging, where they can forget their troubles for a couple of hours and dive into someone else's.” A Cinematographer Finds Inspiration With #Shotsinquarantine Jun 10, 2020

It wasn’t long after coronavirus-quarantine orders shut down productions that cinematographer Lawrence Sher found himself needing a creative outlet.

He’d been sheltering at home in Los Angeles with his family when his wife, Hema Patel, started contributing to the “between art and quarantine” challenge, which saw countless creatives recreating famous fine-art images on Instagram. Sher thought to himself, “I want to do this, but with movies.”

He had just the resource to draw on: Shotdeck, a database of film stills he’d been quietly building for almost a decade. Eminently searchable by keyword — from simple terms like “coffee shop” to detailed inquiries for, say, a low-angle two-shot of young adults in California at sunset — the site is a tool for filmmakers to discover images across popular cinema for reference and inspiration.

“Most filmmakers,” Sher says, “talk in the language of movies.” He created the site to meet a need he faces every time he goes after a new project. He puts together a look book of film stills and screen grabs to communicate his ideas and serve as a visual guide. A searchable clearinghouse would make those images a lot easier to collect.

So, during downtime between films, Sher worked on developing Shotdeck. And during quarantine, he took advantage of its search features to find iconic film images he could recreate at home with lights and props he had on hand. INSTAGRAM LAWRENCESHERDP First was There Will Be Blood. Using cooking oil and cocoa powder to mimic the crude oil on Daniel Day-Lewis’s face, Sher cast himself as the Oscar-winning actor and snapped a photo with his iPhone. He shared it on Instagram and tagged it #shotsinisolation.

The next day, Sher was Adrien Brody in The Pianist. A day later, he was George Clooney in a scene from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, using a dried plant as a beard and a hairbrush as a microphone.

Sher’s hashtag caught on, so he started a contest. Hundreds of entries poured in from around the world. A Polish cinematographer meticulously recreated a scene from Kill Bill: Vol. 2, using foot gel and red paint on her face to mimic the blood on Uma Thurman’s. An Italian artist cast himself as both Jack Nicholson in The Shining and Janet Leigh in Psycho. A filmmaker in Detroit copied a shot from Black Swan.

“We have such an emotional connection to movies and to those images that resonate with us that I think recreating them has been particularly fun for people,” Sher says. “That’s ultimately the power of movies — it’s the emotion you feel when you watch them, but they really just become part of our own emotional memories.” INSTAGRAM LAWRENCESHERDP He was moved by movies long before he considered making them his career. Just thinking about a title can take him back to how it felt to see that film the first time and where he was in his life, the way certain songs can tap into forgotten memories.

An athletic kid from New Jersey, Sher was raised on sports movies like Rocky, One on One, and Breaking Away. He played baseball in high school, and the semester that he broke his nose, he discovered photography, spending his time on the bench taking photos for the local newspaper.

Take a look at Lawrence Sher's favorite sports movies of all time.

He played baseball in college, too. But instead of following his identical twin brother into medicine, like their father, Sher seized on the idea of following passion instead. He’d seen their dad’s love of his own hobby — nature photography — and noticed “even in my father that he had seemingly more passion for photography than for medicine.”

Plus, “I just couldn’t get through chemistry,” Sher says.

Clarity came during a film class in college.

“It really just opened a door in which now I suddenly saw movies not just as entertainment —which I had enjoyed from when I was a child— but as this art form that you could dissect and see the pieces of it and say, ‘Oh right, I see now it’s a thousand parts that come together to tell this story,’” he says. “And it just flipped a switch. From that point forward, I just spent the rest of college figuring out how I would graduate and try to move to LA and figure out a way to be a filmmaker.”

He started out as a camera assistant before going on to amass such cinematography credits as Garden State, series, Godzilla: King of Monsters, and Joker, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. Sher made his directing debut in 2017 with Father Figures.

He still approaches each film as a learning opportunity, his trusty look book of images in hand. Under quarantine, he found the #shotsinisolation project provided continuing education.

“Sometimes I have to actually reverse-engineer some great shot or some piece of lighting or something from a movie. I do this when I teach classes and I do it in my own work,” he says. “It really h l b h d b fil k h fi h h d d teaches you a lot about cinematography and about filmmaking. Even the five or six shots that we did, they all taught me something.”

INSTAGRAM LAWRENCESHERDP The photo project also connected the international creative community at a time when people across the globe were isolating at home. Even from lonely living rooms, artists and film fans could connect over makeshift lighting techniques and behind-the-scenes tricks they employed to mimic great movie images.

“It was so crafty and fun and DIY. That just made the whole experience even better,” Sher says.

It also reminded him how much he misses the solution-oriented energy that permeates film production.

“That problem-solving aspect is one of the best things about people that work in the film industry,” he says. “At our heart, we’re problem-solvers, and I find that to be one of the most admirable things about the creative profession.”

That creative juice, along with the collective and connective memories movies provide, makes Sher long for the return of production and the reopening of theaters.

“Movies unify us. They give us something in common,” he says. “That’s why movies will come back in the theaters after this — despite the streaming services, despite the fact that we have access to more entertainment on our phones than we ever had in the history of time. Movies, by their nature, were meant to be enjoyed with other people. That communal aspect is part of the experience.” Making A Movie For My Daughter Jun 18, 2020

Channing Godfrey Peoples Director

Channing Godfrey Peoples' debut feature, Miss Juneteenth, tells the story of Turquoise Jones, a former pageant queen whose life didn't turn out as promised, but who is determined to right her wrongs by grooming her daughter to become the next Miss Juneteenth. Channing's script was a Nicholl Fellowship semifinalist in 2015.

As told to A.frame.

Growing up in Texas, Juneteenth was such a big part of my life. It had this sense of community and joy that you looked forward to, even though we were actually commemorating something very sad: slaves in Texas finding out they were free two-and- h lf f l B i l i h h a-half years after everyone else. But it also gives us the space to honor our ancestors.

I've always felt a sense of belonging at Juneteenth. The parade, the blues music, the dancing. Somebody's always going to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” There’s a barbecue. It’s a very affirming cultural experience, and the centerpiece of it is the Miss Juneteenth pageant. That was always the thing I looked forward to the most.

I got a chance to see all these young, beautiful, intelligent African-American women onstage. As a young Black girl in Fort Worth, it gave me a sense of confidence and hope for the future.

I was never a part of Miss Juneteenth, but I'm nostalgic for it and it's clearly something that has stayed with me. All this time later, I'm making a movie about it. I didn't realize what an impact it had until I became an adult.

As a filmmaker, it's important that I try to keep the experience as authentic as possible. We assembled young local African-American actresses and they just dove right in. We had pageant mentors show them how they would be walking, the different formations. Miss Juneteenth is about fortifying young Black women, and it's more about going through the experience of it really than just winning. I wrote the film around the places and spaces that I grew up in. The bar that you see in the film is the bar that I frequented for much of my life. It's a bar that feels like a home away from home for many people. It's multi-generational and it's one of the centerpieces of the community. The funeral home that you see — I grew up with them. And they just opened their doors and said, "Whatever you need." I'd have one of my very close friends come down and do hair on set. So the community was absolutely integral to my being able to tell the story. It was important for me to get it right.

The people in my community are very resilient and gritty. At the same time, one of the things that I've been able to identify is there's also a sense of hope. And there's a sense of pride.

We filmed in the Historic Southside of Fort Worth, which is a Black community that’s being actively gentrified, but you have this part of it where everything feels lived-in, like everything is slightly past its expiration date. That's how, aesthetically, I conceived of the film. I wanted to apply that to the costume design and the production design, to the cinematography. We relocated to get the film off the ground, so I've been in Fort Worth quite a while. I feel like it's a full circle to be here on Juneteenth premiering this film. Because of COVID-19, it's not like I'm going to be able to be close to the community to see their reactions to the film. But also, there's a feeling of community just being home. I can walk down the street and someone will holler out and know my name and I'll know theirs.

This moment is bittersweet. We're here 155 years after the dissolution of slavery in this country—155 years from when the last folks found out that they were free in Texas—and Black people literally feel like they don't have the right to breathe.

Juneteenth is the backdrop of this film, but it's important for me, as an artist and as a storyteller, to be able to show these moments so that people get more familiar with Black history in this country, period. I want to continue to tell stories about the Black experience, and I want to continue to tell stories about these historical moments that are not often known. Channing Godfrey Peoples with her daughter, Zora, on set

Like Turquoise, I've absolutely had dreams deferred. These dreams can be reshaped to find some sense of hope at the end of the day. Right around the time we got the green light for Miss Juneteenth, I discovered that I was pregnant. We had a daughter named Zora. Once she was born, not only did that impact the way that I directed the film, it also made my dreams even bigger.

Growing up, I yearned to have stories with women that looked like me. I was even more determined to get this film done because I needed to have something for my daughter that she's able to see when she gets to a certain age. Where she can see women that look like her.

I want equity for my daughter. I look at her right now and there's so much wonder, and curiosity, and sense of discovery, and adventurousness that, as a Black woman in America, I want her to be able to do everything that she wants to do. And I want her to be able to do it 20 times faster than I ever did. Turquoise says this line in the movie, but I never want her to feel less than. I don't want her to be crushed by the inequities of the society that we live in. I wish my daughter could grow up in a world where she's never judged by the color of her skin, but by how amazing she is. That's my hope for the future some day. The Poetry Of Josephine Decker’s Movies Jun 24, 2020

Josephine Decker Director

While editing her first film, director Josephine Decker was convinced no one was going to see anything she made. She had applied for Teach For America and was preparing to move to Mississippi to become a middle school teacher when the invited Butter on the Latch to have its world premiere. By the end of that year, the film, and Josephine's second, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, had been selected for the Berlinale.

Her latest, Shirley, now on Hulu, is an anti-biopic about the mystery writer Shirley Jackson. She spoke to us about how this film, much like her others, was an exercise in accessing the present.

As told to A.frame. When I was younger, I wanted to be a writer and a photographer. I was obsessed with National Geographic. I would look through pages of the magazine and I just wanted to walk along the coast of Africa taking photos. I also grew up playing the piano seriously, so music was always a really important part of my life. I think filmmaking is not that far removed. Those three things are really the backbone of cinema: music, photography, and writing.

I loved movies—I think so many young people do—and they really affected me. I remember I saw Jurassic Park and had nightmares of the dinosaurs for four years. I read somewhere that a lot of people who go into the film business are extremely affected by movies. The empathy machine works on us.

Josephine Decker on the set of "Shirley"

I wanted to make things that were unlike anything I'd seen before. I thought that was what everyone wanted to do. I just assumed that if you made a movie, you were just trying to do something that was new. And then slowly, I realized that that's actually not how most people feel about making these...

That was my younger self—because I was just so excited by poetry and storytelling that felt like nothing I had ever witnessed. Now, it's not so much about doing something no one's ever done before because that's a little bit grandiose. Now, when I'm making movies, I think of it as a spiritual . It's about accessing the present.

I think what actors do is a very spiritual pursuit, and my job is to create an environment that is a container... a temple around their acting. When an actor is performing, they're literally transforming. That's a space that has to be handled really delicately and with a lot of love.

My dad is a poet, so poetry has always been a really important part of my life. In great poems, there's this fusion of all of the imagery and magic inside the poem, that when you get to the end, there's just this flash of insight, this feeling that you don't know how you got to this point, but you can't imagine it ending anywhere else. It's so powerful, and when I think about how I create cinema, I'm really interested in how you get to the end of a film and have that feeling that you have at the end of a great poem, which is, you almost can't explain how you got there. I really love movies that make you feel that.

Take a look at five of Josephine's "hidden gem" movie recommendations.

I tend to be drawn to making work that is about imagination and reality, or the poetry of the unconscious, so sound design has been a real tool and partner to help the audience follow when we are in reality, when we are in a bit of an imagined reality, and when we are not sure.

When I was making and editing my early works, I couldn't understand the film unless I could really hear it. I was always putting in a lot of sound to help me figure out where I was. I feel really lucky that with Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, I managed to convince Martín Hernández, who was the sound designer on Birdman and The Revenant, to work on my movie. He would go to his day job and would work on my movie from 7:00 pm to 2:00 in the morning. He did such beautiful work on that film. We worked together on Madeline's Madeline as well. Martín really opened my eyes to what sound could do and how deeply it could transform the experience of cinema. "Madeline's Madeline" (2018)

And there are so many other tools you get to use, too: music, storytelling, performances. I really try to lean into the fusion of all those to tell one great story. Sometimes, I'll have a really clear vision for a certain scene, but a lot of times, I'm working with the cinematographer on either different approaches that we then use on multiple scenes, or a specific technique to use throughout.

For Madeline's Madeline, we devised the film with the actors, so cinematographer Ashley Connor was actually part of the whole year and a half that we spent improvising. She really understood that we were inside this young woman's consciousness, and there were surreal and dreamy visions that she would have, while also maintaining this grounding in reality. Ashley built a special rig to get that interior consciousness.

With Shirley, Sturla Brandth Grøvlen and I had five different rules for different scenes because there were so many layers of that movie, so many different relationships that needed to emerge in different ways. Shirley is based on a fictional novel by Susan Scarf Merrell. So this is not a biopic; it's based on a work of fiction about a real person, so we knew that we were many degrees removed from any reality of Shirley Jackson. But the thing that we were committed to was trying to capture, in a way, the essence of Shirley. The strongest way it got across was to allow the audience to feel like they were inside of a Shirley Jackson story. On the set of "Shirley"

We tried to give the film the energy of a Shirley Jackson work in that you move between a third-person and first-person perspective, sometimes without realizing that you've gone inside the mind of one of the characters. Her storytelling is so complex, so we had these different rules for each section. There's a moment when Rose comes downstairs in the middle of the night and connects with Shirley, and we use this camera approach we call “creature,” where the camera is a creature that lives very close to the body, and if it wants to travel to the other body, it has to travel along a surface to get there. It can't quite pan; it has to go along the table or along the floor.

There's a whole section where Rose goes to town, so we wanted there to be a fakeness to that look. It's almost too perfect. Everything's framed in a very locked-down way, so it feels like you're looking at a work of fiction, that you’re inside of Shirley’s mind. Her relationship to the town in a lot of her short stories is this weirdly formal fake, so we made the camera work for that very stiff. We tried to be really thoughtful about the camera and how it was telling the specific story of each scene. "Shirley" (2020)

It's amazing that we have this technology where an audience is seeing through the lens of a camera into a whole world that you cannot see otherwise. I think a lot about the eye that they're seeing through and how this eye experiences the world. What is that eye's agenda? Is that eye a benevolent presence or an ominous presence? What does that eye see that the characters don't?

You witness every film through the spirit of the camera. Your experience of the film is through that eye.

When I'm making something, I’m trying to figure out which eye I'm seeing through, whether that eye is a human eye or whether that eye is a spirit of the forest, like it was in Butter on the Latch, or whether that eye has the energy of a cow, like in Thou Wast Mild and Lovely.

I've been thinking about this a lot for my next film, The Sky is Everywhere, about a young woman who's lost her sister. I’m thinking a lot about the eye of the spirit. It's about trying to connect with someone who's not there anymore, so that eye is connecting to the beyond. I'm going to have to really go deep for that one. The Legacy Of New Queer Cinema Jun 24, 2020

Marcus Hu Executive

“I think about the past a lot. That's where you find some of the best ideas.” This is the spark behind everything Marcus Hu does. From running Strand Releasing, a film distributor in its 30th year, to heading the Academy Grants Committee for film scholars and festivals, Marcus built his career around a love of cinema as a great unifier. He believes that, pandemic or not, this sense of community won’t go away. Here, he discusses the start of his company and the LGBTQ+ film movement it helped usher in.

Also, take a look at the five LGBTQ+ movies that Marcus recommends revisiting.

As told to A.frame New Queer Cinema happened right when Jon Gerrans and I were starting our company, Strand Releasing. We were also producing movies, including Gregg Araki's The Living End, which was part of that movement of edgy LGBTQ films. We made the entire movie for $15,000, which my mom funded.* It got a major theatrical release, which we never thought would have happened.

As distributors, Jon and I go to film festivals, take a look at the movies, negotiate to acquire them, and then decide how we're going to distribute them into the marketplace. Some of our other early movies were All the Vermeers in New York and this really edgy movie called Crush directed by Alison Maclean and with Marcia Gay Harden. They were just really eclectic.

"The Living End" (1992)

Jennie Livingston's Paris Is Burning and Todd Haynes' Poison had come out in 1990 and 1991. Robert Redford noticed this vibrant, young set of filmmakers making these gay stories and decided to do a Sundance panel the following year. The panel involved The Living End, Tom Kalin's Swoon, and Chris Münch's The Hours and Times. I also remember Derek Jarman was there, Marlon Riggs was there, and Isaac Julien was there. It was very diverse and a really charged panel. That’s where my fellow Academy member B. Ruby Ri h h h d i d h h N Q Ci d h Rich, who was the moderator, coined the term — the New Queer Cinema — and that stuck. (Her book, New Queer Cinema: The Director's Cut, is essential reading.)

There was a real sense of pressure about gay rights at that time. AIDS was going on and it was on everyone's mind. We were all in activist mode.

Usually, we were the butt of jokes. It was not a good time to see gay imagery. So there was a feeling of wanting to tell our stories, wanting to see our images on screen, which wasn't being done before in a way that was really positive. New Queer Cinema really opened the floodgates for that, and we managed to get our stories out there. , James Schamus, and Ted Hope got movies like Poison, Swoon, Go Fish, and Wedding Banquet out there.

A little later, countries around the globe started making their LGBTQ stories. It seems like the world became much more adaptive to having a story told in their own country, from the perspective of what it's like being gay.

It opened the door for HBO to have Six Feet Under and PBS' Tales of the City to be made. It allowed for all these gay stories to enter into the mainstream. It's so important because, as a gay person, I think that, if we hadn't done that, there might still be a lid cap on. We blew that lid off and allowed artists to have the freedom and to also make sure that networks knew that these stories could be told, that there is an audience for them, and that this kind of thing stops homophobia. That has been, I think, the most gratifying contribution we have made to cinema and to culture.

It allows the mainstream culture to absorb positive images. We're not always making movies where we're superheroes. We're telling our stories as everyday people so that people know that we are just like everybody else.

We happen to be attracted to the same sex, but we go to work just like you. We have dogs. We have families. We have children. The fact now that the movement has stretched to trans communities is really important. To me, the most important thing right now is to make Americans aware of trans stories and trans characters as part of our mainstream culture so people understand that trans and gay people, we’re no different than anybody else.

"Swoon" (1992)

I'm seeing a lot more representation than I did when I was a kid. Netflix is starting to reflect the world to me, the way I see it. The stories of people of color, LGBTQ stories, it seems to be more of a reflection of who we really are, and it makes me happy constantly to see that kind of imagery. Maybe some of the characters aren't great, but at least there is some kind of representation.

I don't think that Jon and I ever changed our vision in the 30 years that we've been in b i I ' l b b h l i fil h ll l Th l business. It's always been about the eclectic films that we personally love. The only pattern I’ve noticed is our dedication to sticking with the same filmmakers over the years. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Gregg Araki, Fatih Akin, Catherine Breillat. We seem to keep the same filmmakers in our stable whenever we can, supporting them in ups and downs and just building a body of work. It’s why a lot of people have referred to us as a gallery, where we're the curators. I can’t pick a favorite. Looking back, the sheer volume of really great movies that we've done over the years… all the children are pretty to me.

*My mom also loaned us $15,000 to start Strand Releasing. I definitely got my love of cinema from her. Early on life, she would take me to matinees, opening me up to all kinds of fantasy films. She would take me to see James Bond movies, horror movies, science fiction movies romance movies, comedies, you name it. She was just a huge movie fan.