Plus: Alcon plots Garfield film franchise; NBR sets 2017 awards gala date; and more…

Miss Stevens

Julia Hart’s directorial debut Miss Stevens premiered in SXSW and hails from a screenplay Hart wrote with The Kids Are All Right producer Jordan Horowitz.

The Orchard secured all North American rights to the coming-of-age drama from ICM Partners and WME Global and will distribute in autumn.

Lily Rabe earned the SXSW Best Actress special jury prize and stars alongside Timotheé Chalamet, Lili Reinhart, YouTube celebrity Anthony Quintal, Oscar Nuñez and Rob Huebel. Miss Stevens is a Beachside presentation of a Beachside and Gilbert Films Production in association with Original Headquarters.

  • Alcon Entertainment has secured exclusive rights from creator Jim Davis to produce animated films based on the Garfield comic strip. Davis will serve as an executive producer as the company looks to build a film franchise.
  • The National Board Of Review will host its annual film awards gala on January 4, 2017, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. Willie Geist has been confirmed to return as host.
  • The Los Angeles Greek Film Festival will honour Twentieth Century Fox chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos at the Orpheus Awards at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on June 5 alongside previously announced J.K. Simmons. For more on the festival line-up click here.  
  • XLrator Media will release the autobiographical music documentary It’s So Easy And Other Lies: Live At The Moore based on the life of Guns N’ Roses bass player Duff McKagan in 50 cities beginning this week ahead of the theatrical release on June 3. 
  • Comic Whitney Cummings will make her directorial debut on The Female Brain and will appear in the film. Black Bicycle Entertainment is financing the project and founder Erika Olde will produce alongside Night And Day Pictures’ Michael Roiff. Principal photography is set to begin in Los Angeles in July.