At Cannes earlier today, Harvey Weinstein unveiled The Weinstein Company's 2013 lineup of upcoming films, to attendees, and one of the films on the company's slate is Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Idris Elba's Nelson Mandela biopic, directed by Justin Chadwick, which highlights Mandela's early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison. S&A isn't at Cannes this year, so we obviously weren't present for the showcase. But thankfully Twitch Film was and they published a write-up of the event, which included trailers for each. So they got to see the first trailer for Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, and seem impressed by it: Perhaps the most compelling...

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Taking place tomorrow, Saturday, May 18th, starting at 4:30pm, the Maysles Cinema and United Muslim Alliance presents the 4th Annual Malcolm X On Film & Panel Discussion in celebration of the 88th birthday of Malcolm X.Then & Now, The Legacy of Malcolm X-El Hajj Malik El Shabazz Lives On Co-sponsored by the People's Survival Program 4:30pm Dinner 5:00pm Malcolm X Book/Video and Art Fair 6:00pm Malcolm X Speaks: The Speeches of Malcolm X 1997, color & B/W 41 min. Malcolm's speeches from 1963-1965 including several legendary Harlem speeches such as "The Ballot Or The Bullet" and "By Any Means Necessary." 7:00pm Autobiography Of Malcolm X: His Own Story As It...

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The call for submissions for the 2013 edition of the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff), which takes place from September 18 to October 1, will close on May 31, and filmmakers who wish to submit a film are urged to do so no later than that date. The ttff seeks to highlight excellence in filmmaking through the exhibition of dramatic, documentary and experimental feature and short films made in T&T, the Caribbean and its diaspora. The Festival therefore accepts submissions from Caribbean filmmakers, Caribbean filmmakers in the diaspora, and international filmmakers with films from or about the Caribbean or its diaspora. Submissions must have been produced after January 1,...

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The intriguing documentary opens today at New York's Quad Cinema (34 W 13th Street) on May 17 for a week-long engagement, with two shows daily at 1pm and 7pm. For tickets and more information go to the film's web page at http://www.re-emergingfilm.com. Directed by Jeff Lieberman, journalist, producer and documentary filmmaker, RE-EMERGING: The Jews of Nigeria documents the lives of Igbo people who have embraced Judaism as a part of their legacy, and who believe Igbos are really descendants of Israelites. The doc follows Sam, now known as Shmuel, on his quest for knowledge about Igbo identity and history - from Igbos' roots in Israel, to their journey during the Atlantic Slave Trade,...

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*EXCLUSIVE* Here's the first official picture of @idriselba from #LUTHER 3, coming this summer to @bbcone: twitter.com/BBCOne/status/...-- BBC One (@BBCOne) May 17, 2013 The star of the series, Idris Elba, revealed in an interview with the UK's Guardian, earlier this year, that season 3 would debut in September. Given the tweet above from BBC One, the channel that airs the series in the UK, it looks like it'll return this summer, which begins not-so-long from now, given that we're in the middle of May. And like last season, I assume the BBC will make the episodes of next season available here in the USA within 24 hours or so after they air in the UK. That seems to be the trend, with...

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A week ago, CBS announced that it had passed on the Beverly Hills Cop TV series adaptation, which Brandon T. Jackson was to star in as Axel Foley's (Eddie Murphy's) son. But the producer of the series, Sony Pictures Television, now says it's shopping the show, one of this season's high-profile pilot projects, to other networks, which I'm not at all surprised by, given that there was some serious competition from all 4 major networks for the series last year, when it was first announced, with CBS winning out. Sony says that the studio is confident that it would make it to air, and was in talks with a number of networks, both broadcast and cable. Maybe...

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We've been following the progress of Kenyan filmmaker Hawa Essuman's supernatural feature Djin, for about 2 years now, as it's picked up financing in bits and pieces, via various film markets, co-production initiatives, grants received and more, including, most recently, the Director's Eye prize at the 9th African Film Festival of Cordoba (Spain), which comes with 25,000 euro (or about $32,600) to be used for development. The acclaimed director of Soul Boy, her 2010 feature film debut (which was produced by Tom Tykwer - director of Run Lola, Run, Cloud Atlas), saw her Djin awarded the Director's Eye prize from a...

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The highly anticipated film adaptation of Ivory Coast-born/France-based author Marguerite Abouet's popular graphic novel series, Aya de Yopougon (Aya of Yop City) will open in France on July 17. Abouet's Aya de Yopougon series, which is illustrated by her husband, Clement Oubrerie, is a global phenomenon that has been translated into numerous languages around the world. The film's premise is as follows: "Welcome to Yopougon, a working-class neighborhood of Abidjan in the late 70s, renamed Yop City - to sound like an American movie! This is home to Aya and her two friends, Adjoua and Bintou. The're 19-years-old, a time in your life when everything seems possible. But ...

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Via press release from ABC: ABC's "Scandal" Marks Most-Watched Telecast Ever and Spikes Over Last Season's Finale In its second season finale, ABC's red-hot Scandal delivered the series most-watched telecast ever (up for the 3rd week in a row) and tied a series high in Adults 18-49 for the 2nd week running. The show also achieved new all-time highs across all key Women (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54). Scandal dominated the 10 o'clock hour, beating the second hour of CBS' 2-hour Elementary finale by 68% in Adults 18-49 to finish as the #1 TV series in its slot on each of its last 16 first-run broadcasts. Scandal spiked over its year-ago first season finale in Total Viewers (+25%) and Adults...

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Jerry Lamothe's feature film Amour Infinity - A Brooklyn Love Story, a moving & tragic love story, celebrated its 13th anniversary screening of its debut last evening at MIST (My Image Studios) in Harlem. Curtis Ceasar John, who was present to host the event on behalf of ActNow Foundation, interviewed Lamothe for S&A in this insightful piece HERE, which you should read if you haven't. Unbeknownst to me - last night was the first time of me seeing the film - Amour is something of an underground cult classic. And well deservedly so. I didn't know what to expect, especially for a first film. I've seen plenty of those and it's seldom that one comes across one as well crafted, directed...

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