The Exiles' and Nanny' Win Top Prizes at Sundance - The New York Times

1/29/2022 ‘The Exiles’ and ‘Nanny’ Win Top Prizes at Sundance - The New York Times
Jan. 28, 2022 Updated Jan. 28, 2022, 9:34 p.m. ET

Daily Arts Briefing
Sundance's top prizes go to ʻThe Exilesʼ and ʻNanny.ʼ

A documentary revisiting dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre and a horror film about
an undocumented domestic worker took the U.S. Grand Jury prizes at the festival.
W. Kamau Bell says he sought to ‘finally have the productive Bill Cosby conversation’ in his
new documentary.
Joe Exotic, of the Netflix series ‘Tiger King,’ is resentenced to 21 years for a murder-for-hire
plot.
The Broadway legend Chita Rivera is writing a memoir. She told her co-author: ‘I’m not
nearly as nice as people think I am.’
Los Angeles is changing. Can a flagship theater keep up?
As virus cases fall at the Metropolitan Opera, which never missed a curtain, the company
hopes audiences will rebound.
Sundance's top prizes go to ʻThe Exilesʼ and ʻNanny.ʼ
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/28/arts/pop-culture-entertainment-news#sundance-winners-exiles-nanny 1/17
Christine Choy in the directors Ben Klein and Violet Columbus’s “The Exiles,” which won
the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance
Institute
By Nicole Sperling
The horror/drama “Nanny” from the first-time feature filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu nabbed the
U.S. Grand Jury prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which was primarily virtual for
the second year in a row. The film about a Senegalese nanny working for a privileged family
in New York City generated strong reviews and is still looking for distribution.
“The Exiles,” about three exiled dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre in China,
won the Grand Jury prize for U.S. documentary. “Utama,” a Bolivian character portrait,
nabbed the top award for world dramatic film, while the Indian documentary “All That
Breathes” took the world documentary Grand Jury Prize.
Anna Diop in “Nanny,” one of the standouts in this year’s lineup. via Sundance Institute
“Cha Cha Real Smooth” nabbed the Audience Award in the U.S. dramatic competition just
days after it sealed a $15 million distribution deal with Apple — the biggest sale of the
festival. The crowd-pleaser was written, directed by and stars Cooper Raiff in his sophomore
effort. Dakota Johnson also stars.
In the documentary space, the surprise screening of “Navalny,” which CNN and HBO Max
will release later this year, won both the audience prize in the U.S. documentary competition
and the Festival Favorite award. The film tracks the aftermath of the poisoning of Alexei
Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and one of Vladimir Putin’s harshest critics.
Directed by Daniel Roher, “Navalny” debuted to rave reviews and brought additional
attention to the dissident who has been jailed in a Russian prison for over a year.
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W. Kamau Bell says he sought to ʻfinally have the productive Bill

Cosby conversationʼ in his new documentary.
The comic and commentator W. Kamau Bell is known as someone who is willing to have
difficult conversations, he said. But the one about Bill Cosby was tougher than
most. Aundre Larrow
By Graham Bowley
When W. Kamau Bell was growing up, Bill Cosby was the “wallpaper of Black America” and
an inspiration, Bell said in a recent interview. Bell’s new documentary, “We Need to Talk
About Cosby,” surveys the star’s long career and cultural impact, as well as the accusations
of sexual assault that culminated in his conviction, on three counts of aggravated indecent
assault, in 2018. Cosby was freed from prison in June 2021 after an appeals court ruled that
his due process rights had been violated.
The four-part documentary — which premieres on Showtime on Sunday — consists of clips

from his shows and standup act, conversations with women who accused Cosby and a
parade of other interviewees who try to process the Cosby story and his legacy.
As a comedian and host of shows like CNN’s “United Shades of America,” Bell said he has
become known as a guy who is willing to have difficult conversations. But the one about
Cosby was tougher than most, generating criticism from both sides: Some Cosby accusers
didn’t talk to him because they didn’t want to be part of a project that includes Cosby’s
achievements. At the same time, Bell said, he has been accused of tearing down a Black role
model when he could be examining white transgressors instead.
Last week, Cosby criticized the project through his spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, who added
that Cosby continues to deny all allegations against him. Wyatt also praised Cosby’s work in
the entertainment industry. “Mr. Cosby has spent more than 50 years standing with the
excluded,” he said in a statement.
As a reporter who covered Bill Cosby’s trials for The New York Times, I am familiar with the
accusations against him. But the documentary sets those accusations in a deep context of
American culture and Cosby’s career.
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Joe Exotic, of the Netflix series ʻTiger King,ʼ is resentenced to 21 years

for a murder-for-hire plot.
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, known as Joe Exotic, was resentenced to 21 years in prison

on Friday. Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press
By Derrick Bryson Taylor
Joe Exotic, the former Oklahoma zoo owner who was the central figure in the 2020 Netflix
documentary series “Tiger King,” was resentenced to 21 years in prison on Friday for the
failed murder-for-hire plot targeting Carole Baskin, a self-proclaimed animal-rights activist
who had criticized his zoo’s treatment of animals, his lawyers said.
The new sentence reduces his punishment by one year. The original sentence, for 22 years
in prison, was vacated as improper by a federal appeals court last summer.
John M. Phillips, a lawyer for Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage,
said in a statement, “We are unsatisfied with the court’s decision and will appeal.” At a news
conference, he said that Mr. Maldonado-Passage was disappointed.
In court documents on Friday, Mr. Maldonado-Passage said, “Please don’t make me deal
with cancer in prison waiting on an appeal.”
In November, Mr. Maldonado-Passage said he received a diagnosis of an “aggressive” form

of prostate cancer.
Show more
The Broadway legend Chita Rivera is writing a memoir. She told her
co-author: ʻIʼm not nearly as nice as people think I am.ʼ
Chita Rivera, left, with her daughter Lisa Mordente at the 2021 Tony Awards. Dimitrios
Kambouris/Getty Images For Tony Awards Productions
By Alexandra Alter
Over the last seven decades, the Broadway star Chita Rivera has taken on and defined some
of American musical theater’s most iconic roles: Anita in “West Side Story,” Rose in “Bye
Bye Birdie,” Velma Kelly in “Chicago.”
In her forthcoming memoir, Rivera introduces her fans and readers to a character she has
rarely played in public: her alter ego of sorts, Dolores. And Dolores, which is Rivera’s given
name, can be a little prickly, according to Rivera’s co-author, the journalist Patrick Pacheco.
When they first sat down to discuss the memoir in the summer of 2020, Pacheco asked
Rivera what people didn’t know about her.
“She said, ‘Well, I’m not nearly as nice as people think I am,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘Great,
let’s introduce the public to her.’”
In her still-untitled book, which is due out in 2023 from HarperOne and will be released
simultaneously in English and Spanish, Rivera describes her unlikely path to stardom. Born
Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero in 1933, Rivera grew up in Washington, D.C., where
her mother worked as a government clerk and her father was a clarinet and saxophone
player for the U.S. Navy Band.
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Los Angeles is changing. Can a flagship theater keep up?
The Center Theater Group has nurtured important work, including “Angels in America,” which Ellen
McLaughlin appeared in at the Mark Taper Forum. Jay Thompson
By Adam Nagourney
LOS ANGELES — For 55 years, the Center Theater Group has showcased theater in a city
that has always been known for the movies. Its three stages have championed important
new works — “Angels in America,” “Zoot Suit” and “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” to name
three of its most acclaimed offerings — while importing big-ticket crowd pleasers from
Broadway (coming this spring: “The Lehman Trilogy”).
But this Los Angeles cultural institution is at a crossroads as it goes through its first
leadership change in 17 years, and confronts questions about its mission, programming and
appeal in a changing city, all amid a debilitating pandemic.
Michael Ritchie, the organization’s artistic director, announced last summer that he would
retire nearly 18 months before his contract ended in June 2023; he stepped down at the end
of the December, citing the need for the organization to move in a new direction in response
to social changes and debate about the theater’s future. The organization, which is a
nonprofit, is using the transition to consider how to adjust to what is sure to be a very
different post-Covid era — a sweeping discussion that theater administrators said would
involve some 300 people, including its board of directors, staff, actors, director and
contributors.
“At the age of 50, you start to think about the next chapter,” said Meghan Pressman, the
managing director of the Center Theater Group. “There’s so much happening now. Coming
out of a pandemic. Coming out of a period of a racial crisis. Years of inequity.”
“We are no longer your mother’s C.T.G. anymore,” she said.
Show more
As virus cases fall at the Metropolitan Opera, which never missed a

curtain, the company hopes audiences will rebound.
The Metropolitan Opera has yet to cancel a performance this season. Krista Schlueter for
The New York Times
By Javier C. Hernández
On Saturday evening, if all goes as planned, the Metropolitan Opera will celebrate a
milestone: reaching a long-planned midwinter break without having had to cancel a single
performance, even as the pandemic created havoc backstage.
As the Omicron variant spread through the city in December and January, the virus
upended the Met’s operations, with at least 400 singers, orchestra players, stagehands,
costume designers, dancers, actors and other employees testing positive, according to a
snapshot of cases provided by the Met on Friday.
But there are encouraging signs that at the opera house, as in the city, the recent surge has
peaked and cases are falling dramatically again.
During the first week of January, as cases were reaching new heights in New York, more
than 100 employees at the Met tested positive, including six solo singers and five members
of the children’s chorus. By last week, the total number of positive cases among the Met’s
large roster of employees had fallen to 22, about the same number as in early December,
and there have been eight positive tests so far this week.
Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, said that during the worst days of Omicron, he
worried the company might run out of personnel and be unable to perform. But the Met’s
strict safety protocols, which included vaccine and mask mandates and regular testing,
provided some assurance, he said, that nobody would become seriously ill.
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CRITICʼS NOTEBOOK
Our critic writes that ʻNannyʼ kept her ʻrapt from the start with its
visuals and mysteriesʼ when it was shown as part of Sundance.
Anna Diop in “Nanny,” one of the standouts in this year’s lineup. via Sundance Institute
By Manohla Dargis
When a character took a severed human leg out of a fridge in the horror movie “Fresh,” I
laughed then hit pause. I had that luxury because, like everyone else this year, I didn’t have
to fly to Utah for the Sundance Film Festival but attended this impressively sanguineous
edition at home. So I just fast-forwarded to the leg chopper’s grisly comeuppance. As to the
movie, it will do fine without my love: It’s already racked up positive reviews and will be
released on Hulu, which is owned by Disney because, well, sometimes dreams really do
come true.
That human shank was part of a colorful parade of body parts on display at this year’s
Sundance, which included a veritable charnel house of severed limbs, decapitated heads and
disemboweled guts. The specter of the horror maestro David Cronenberg haunts
“Resurrection,” a not entirely successful creepfest with an excellent Rebecca Hall, while
other movies owed a conspicuous debt to Jordan Peele’s 2017 Sundance hit “Get Out,”
notably “Master” (about a Black student and professor at a white-dominated college) and
“Emergency,” an entertaining nail-biter about three friends trapped in a white nightmare.
A scene from the comedy-turned-thriller “Emergency.” via Sundance Institute
I didn’t love “Fresh,” which uses a captivity freakout to dubious feminist ends, though I may
have enjoyed it with more company. Watching horror movies alone isn’t the same as being
in a theater filled with other people, including at Sundance. There, the audience tends to be
already super-amped-up and excited just to be in the room, seeing a movie for the first time
and often with the filmmakers in attendance. The hothouse atmosphere of festivals can be
misleading and turn mediocrities into events, certainly, but the noisy clamor of such hype is
always outweighed by the joys of experiencing discoveries and revelations with others.
This is the second year that Sundance has been forced to jettison its in-person plans because
of the pandemic. The festival had instituted sound vax and mask protocols, and the Utah
county where Sundance takes place has a higher vaccination rate than either New York or
Los Angeles. But Utah also had the third-highest rate of Covid-19 infections in the country as
of Monday, as The Salt Lake Tribune recently reported. And, frankly, given how often I had
returned home from Sundance with a bad cold or the flu (including a whopper of a mystery
bug that flattened me in 2020), I didn’t bother to book another overpriced condo.
Show more
Lawyers for the family of the cinematographer killed on the set of

ʻRustʼ indicate they are weighing a lawsuit.
Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer, was shot and killed on the set of “Rust” by a gun
that the actor Alec Baldwin was practicing with on the set. Swen Studios/Via Reuters
By Julia Jacobs
Lawyers for the family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer fatally shot by Alec
Baldwin on the set of the movie “Rust” last year, filed a petition this week to appoint a
representative for Hutchins’s estate who will consider whether to file a wrongful-death
lawsuit.
Ms. Hutchins was killed when the old-fashioned revolver Mr. Baldwin was practicing with
on the film set in New Mexico, which he had been told did not contain live ammunition, fired
a live bullet, hitting her and the movie’s director, Joel Souza, who survived.
According to the petition, which was filed in state court in New Mexico on Wednesday,
lawyers for Ms. Hutchins’s widower and son asked the court to appoint Kristina Martinez, a
lawyer in Santa Fe, to represent the cinematographer’s estate “solely for the purpose of
investigating and pursuing a lawsuit under the New Mexico Wrongful Death Act.” The court
filing did not specify who would be named as a defendant should a lawsuit be filed.
Ms. Hutchins’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, and her 9-year-old son both support the
petition to name a representative of Ms. Hutchins’s estate, the filing said.
Randi McGinn, a lawyer representing the Hutchinses, said the process of appointing a
representative was specific to a state law in New Mexico. Under the statute, any money
granted in the lawsuit would be split between Mr. Hutchins and his son, she said.
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Shawn Mendes postpones a European tour until next year, citing the
pandemic.
Shawn Mendes postponed a European tour until next year, citing the pandemic. Nina
Westervelt for The New York Times
By Matt Stevens
Shawn Mendes said Friday that he would postpone a European tour until next year, making
him the latest major performer to upend plans as concerns about the coronavirus continue
to cause delays, cancellations and closures across the performing arts.
Mendes had planned to open “Wonder: The World Tour” in March, starting with shows in
Britain and Europe before heading to North America. But in a tweet on Friday, he said he
and his team had been forced to move those dates to the end of the tour, which will now
begin in June with the scheduled North American dates.
“With all of the logistical, travel and venue restrictions still uncertain in Europe due to the
pandemic, we were forced to make the tough decision of moving the tour leg to the end of
the tour when we are confident we are able to travel and can put on the best possible show
we want to, safely and at full capacity,” he wrote in a statement he posted on Twitter.
“I’m so sorry I won’t be able to see you guys sooner,” he added.
Show more
Seth Meyers riffs on Bidenʼs hot-mic moment, and other highlights

from this weekʼs late-night shows.
Trish Bendix
📺 Reporting on culture
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
This week, the late-night hosts had plenty

of topics to discuss, including Robert F.
Kennedy Jr.’s speech at an anti-vaccine-
mandate protest, President Biden on a hot
mic, the retirement of Stephen Breyer and
Minnie Mouse’s new look.
Here’s what they had to say →
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After uncertainty over a U.S. run, Woody Allenʼs ʻRifkinʼs Festivalʼ

opens Friday.
“Rifkin’s Festival,” directed by Woody Allen and starring Gina Gershon and Wallace
Shawn, will be viewable in the United States on Friday. Tripictures
By Julia Jacobs
Following renewed scrutiny in recent years over the sexual abuse allegations against
Woody Allen brought by his adopted daughter, it was unclear whether Allen’s latest film,
“Rifkin’s Festival,” would get a U.S. theatrical release.
Actors and producers in the United States have increasingly declined to work with Allen,
but he has continued to find support in Europe. “Rifkin’s Festival” received backing from
Spanish and Italian production companies and premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival
in Spain in 2020.
Starting on Friday, “Rifkin’s Festival” will get a limited run in some theaters in the United
States — the list is currently 25 theaters long, according to the movie’s website. The only
theater in New York City that is signed up to show the film is Quad Cinema, in Greenwich
Village.
It is also available to stream on several platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, iTunes
and Google Play.
The sexual abuse allegations against Allen, 86, received a new wave of attention last year
after HBO released its docuseries “Allen v. Farrow,” which examined Dylan Farrow’s
accusation that he sexually assaulted her at the family’s Connecticut country house in 1992.
Dylan and her mother, Mia Farrow, participated in the project, walking the filmmakers
through the events of that time, including the prosecutor’s decision not to press charges
against Allen to spare Dylan the trauma of a trial.
Show more
This yearʼs Obie Awards will include streaming theater, because of the
pandemic.
Many theater companies turned to streaming, and othe platforms, to keep working when
in-person productions were not possible. One example: Last year, Out of the Box
Theatrics and Holmdel Theater Company streamed a virtual production of “The Last
Five Years,” starring Nasia Thomas and Nicholas Edwards. Gerald Malaval
By Michael Paulson
The Obie Awards, an annual ceremony honoring theater work performed Off and Off Off
Broadway, this year for the first time will consider digital, audio and other virtual
productions.
The awards administrators decided to expand their scope in recognition of the adaptations
made by many theater companies during the coronavirus pandemic, which prevented most
New York theaters from staging in-person performances for at least a year, and in many
cases considerably longer. Numerous theaters pivoted to streaming, and some
experimented with audio.
“We wanted to make sure that the work that did happen was eligible,” said Heather
Hitchens, the president and chief executive of the American Theater Wing, which presents
the awards. “The Obies respond to the season, and to the evolving nature and rhythms of
theater.”
This year’s Obie Awards are expected to take place in November, which would be 28 months
after the last ceremony, reflecting the extraordinarily disruptive role the pandemic has
played in theatermaking. The ceremony will consider productions presented by Off
Broadway and Off Off Broadway theaters between July 1, 2020 and Aug. 31, 2022.
The exact date for the ceremony has not been chosen, but Hitchens said she expects it to be
in-person (the last one was streamed) and she expects it to have a host (or hosts).
Show more

The Exiles' and Nanny' Win Top Prizes at Sundance - The New York Times

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1/29/2022 ‘The Exiles’ and ‘Nanny’ Win Top Prizes at Sundance - The New York Times

Jan. 28, 2022 Updated Jan. 28, 2022, 9:34 p.m. ET

Sundance's top prizes go to ʻThe Exilesʼ and ʻNanny.ʼ

Los Angeles is changing. Can a flagship theater keep up?

Sundance's top prizes go to ʻThe Exilesʼ and ʻNanny.ʼ

W. Kamau Bell says he sought to ʻﬁnally have the productive Bill

The four-part documentary — which premieres on Showtime on Sunday — consists of clips

Joe Exotic, of the Netﬂix series ʻTiger King,ʼ is resentenced to 21 years

Joseph Maldonado-Passage, known as Joe Exotic, was resentenced to 21 years in prison

By Derrick Bryson Taylor

In November, Mr. Maldonado-Passage said he received a diagnosis of an “aggressive” form

Los Angeles is changing. Can a ﬂagship theater keep up?

“We are no longer your mother’s C.T.G. anymore,” she said.

As virus cases fall at the Metropolitan Opera, which never missed a

A scene from the comedy-turned-thriller “Emergency.” via Sundance Institute

Lawyers for the family of the cinematographer killed on the set of

“I’m so sorry I won’t be able to see you guys sooner,” he added.

Seth Meyers riffs on Bidenʼs hot-mic moment, and other highlights

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

This week, the late-night hosts had plenty

Here’s what they had to say →

After uncertainty over a U.S. run, Woody Allenʼs ʻRifkinʼs Festivalʼ

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