John Battsek: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Docaviv, the prestigious all-documentary film festival in Tel Aviv, today announced the International Competition lineup for the 25th anniversary of the event, which takes place May 11-20.

EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic Documentary Films is bringing Bobi Wine: The People’s President back to the big screen in some major markets Friday for President’s Day weekend.

EXCLUSIVE: The rise of the Paralympic Games has been one of sport’s biggest recent triumphs, and a trailblazing content initiative charting its story is now set to take the narrative even deeper.

Alex Ritman The BAFTA film awards longlists, announced on Jan 5. ahead of the final nominations on Jan.

Jordan Moreau The International Documentary Association announced the 17 feature-length and 25 short documentaries included on the shortlists for the 39th IDA Documentary Awards, which will be held during the week of Dec. 11in Los Angeles.

EXCLUSIVE: WME has signed Fisher Stevens and his production company Highly Flammable, which he launched last spring alongside producers Maura Anderson and Zak Kilberg. They’ll rep the Academy Award-winning multi-hyphenate, going forward, across all scripted and documentary projects.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Universal Pictures Content Group has boarded “The Beat of a Nation: Kerouac’s Road,” a feature documentary directed by Ebs Burnough (“The Capote Tapes”) about Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel “On the Road.” Produced by London-based banner Ventureland, the documentary starts filming this week and sees Burnough using the prism of “On the Road” to depict the turmoils of today’s political and cultural landscape in the U.S. Burnough is the former White House deputy social secretary and senior advisor to First Lady Michelle Obama.

Netflix documentary series about the life of David Beckham has now started to stream – and it comes with an extensive new soundtrack.According to an official synopsis, Beckham “tells the inside story of a global football star and cultural icon.” The four-part series explores “his humble working-class beginnings in east London, his drive and determination to win, and the battle to find balance between ambition, love and family, David’s story is one of immense ups and downs.”It continues: “The series takes you on that rollercoaster and builds a surprising, personal and definitive story of one of the most recognisable and scrutinised athletes of all time.”Academy Award-winner Fisher Stevens (Palmer, And We Go Green, The Cove) along with Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning producer John Battsek (One Day in September, Searching for Sugar Man, Winter on Fire) have been granted “unprecedented access” to David, his wife Victoria, his family, his friends and his team-mates for the documentary.Netflix say this has resulted in “an intimate portrait of a man as well as a chronicle of late-modern sports and celebrity culture.” The film’s soundtrack features many acts from the nineties at the height of Beckham’s fame, including Blur, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene – and of course, The Spice Girls.You can watch the film’s trailer here: Season 1: Episode 1 Songs – The Kick‘Supersonic’ – Oasis ‘Sрice Uр Your Life’ – Spice Girls‘Gangster Trippin’ – Fatboy Slim‘Here I Come’ – The RootsSeason 1: Episode 2 Songs – Seeing Red‘Sing’ – Blur‘Hundred Mile High City’ – Ocean Colour Scene‘Steal My Sunshine’ – LenSeason 1: Episode 3 Songs – Goldenballs ‘Salute Your Solution’ – The Raconteurs‘Gimme Some Lovin’ – The Spencer Davis Group’10:03′ – Doves‘Eve

Netflix subscribers watching the new David Beckham documentary have made the same unusual realisation about the footballer.

Beckham, a new documentary series following the life and career of former footballer David Beckham, has arrived on Netflix.The series was directed by Fisher Stevens, who previously helmed the Academy Award-winning documentary Cove. Meanwhile, it was produced by John Battsek, best known for his work on acclaimed documentary films One Day In September and Searching For Sugar Man.An official synopsis reads: “Beckham tells the inside story of a global football star and cultural icon.

David and Victoria Beckham's new tell-all Netflix documentary is set to land on the streaming site on 4 October, with the famous couple opening up about everything from their marriage to their careers for the first time. Ex-footballer David, 48, and former Spice Girls star Victoria, 49, are one of the most famous couples in the world and while they've both enjoyed lengthy careers in the spotlight, they tend to keep details of their marriage under wraps.

BECKHAM is coming.

Naman Ramachandran Award-winning production company Ventureland has entered a first-look partnership with independent studio A24 for documentary projects. John Battsek, producer of Oscar-winning documentaries “One Day in September” and “Searching for Sugar Man,” who also serves as Ventureland’s managing director, will be both producing and executive producing as part of the deal, alongside Ventureland CEO Kerstin Emhoff, president Ali Brown, and co-founder Paul Hunter.

Manchester United fans have the opportunity to feature in a new Amazon Prime documentary showcasing the iconic Treble-winning season in 1999.

Prime Video is training for 99, a documentary series about Manchester United’s historic treble-winning season in the later 1990s.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Fisher Stevens has today announced the launch of Highly Flammable, a new director-led production company that will focus on setting up premium unscripted stories for streamers across various series and feature formats, operating out of both New York and Los Angeles.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Documentary “Bobi Wine: Ghetto President” centers on a man’s pursuit of freedom and justice for his country, but at the film’s heart is a love story. Variety speaks to the filmmakers. The film, directed by Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo, and produced by Sharp and Oscar-winner John Battsek, follows the attempt by musician Bobi Wine to topple the repressive regime of Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni. Sharp has a personal connection to Uganda: both his father and he were born there, and he spent a large part of his childhood in the country. He met Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, in 2017, just after the musician had become a Member of Parliament.

K.J. Yossman “Boom! Boom: The World vs. Boris Becker,” the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary that premiered in Berlin last month, has confirmed a release date. The full two-part doc, about disgraced tennis champ Boris Becker, will drop on the streamer on April. 7. The documentary, which was directed by Alex Gibney (“Enron”) and produced by John Battsek (“Searching for Sugar Man”), promises to explore “every aspect of the man who became a tennis sensation after winning The Wimbledon Championships at the age of just 17, going on to win 49 career titles, including six Grand Slams and an Olympic gold medal, as well as his high-profile, sometimes tumultuous personal life,” according to the logline.

Disgraced former tennis champion Boris Becker is to be profiled and interviewed in an Apple TV+ two-part doc from Oscar winners Alex Gibney and John Battsek.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When Mary McCartney was approached by producer John Battsek (“Searching for Sugar Man,” “One Day in September”) to make a film about the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, she didn’t immediately leap at the chance, the way almost any other photographer interested in making the leap into documentary filmmaking might have. It’s not difficult to guess at the reason she might have balked at, and then succumbed to, the idea of making “If These Walls Could Sing,” which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend and has been picked up for airing on Disney+. “I think because of my surname, I get a little bit oversensitive,” says the daughter of Paul McCartney, sitting at a sidewalk-adjacent table in Telluride. “I used to sort of shy away from anything to do with my family, wanting with my photography to be making a name for myself in my own area. I mean, I’ve always been really proud of my family, but then recently I’ve realized (I should) actually not shy away from it because I feel like I’m being judged. …. Before, I was like, my family’s my family and my career’s my career, and now I’m at the point where I’m confident enough to merge the two.”

National Geographic Documentary Films has announced the acquisition of worldwide rights to Bobi Wine: The People’s President, following its Venice Festival premiere.