Chris Wayland has been named president of NBCUniversal Local, succeeding longtime Chairman Valari Staab as she prepares to retire at the end of the year, NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde announced Monday.

Wayland, who has more than 30 years of experience in local media, currently serves as president and general manager of NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Boston and NBC Sports Boston. He has led NBC10 Boston and Telemundo Boston since 2020 and has overseen NBC Sports Boston since 2019.

Staab and Wayland will work together over the coming weeks, with the leadership transition set to take place before the end of the year.

Wayland will take over a major local television operation spanning NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations, regional sports networks and streaming channels across major U.S. markets. The appointment puts a longtime station executive in charge of a portfolio that expanded significantly during Staab’s 15-plus years at NBCUniversal.

“Chris understands the power and importance of local media, and I know he will be an outstanding leader for NBCUniversal Local,” Conde wrote in a note to staff.

Wayland joined NBCUniversal in 2019 and has overseen the company’s integrated Boston media operation, including the development and launch of the NBCUniversal Boston Media Center.

Before joining NBCUniversal, Wayland held senior roles at Tribune Media, including overseeing New York’s WPIX, and spent nearly a decade at Sunbeam Television, where he ultimately oversaw Boston stations WHDH and WLVI and Miami’s WSVN.

NBCUniversal Local, which is part of NBCUniversal News Group, encompasses 50 local, regional and national media properties. The portfolio includes 11 NBC-owned stations, 31 Telemundo-owned stations, four regional sports networks, three national multicast networks and 17 streaming channels, along with LXTV Productions and Skycastle.

Wayland will succeed Staab after more than 15 years at NBCUniversal and 46 years in local television. Under Staab, what began as a group of 10 NBC-owned stations expanded into NBCUniversal Local’s current multiplatform portfolio.

Staab said Wayland’s experience and commitment to local journalism made him a strong fit to take over the division.

Danny Boyle, the Oscar-winning English filmmaker best known for 1996’s Trainspotting and 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire, will be celebrated with the Maverick Director Award at the upcoming SCAD Savannah Film Festival, the largest university-run film festival in the world.

Boyle will be presented with the honor at the Lucas Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 12:45 p.m., right before a gala screening of his latest film, Ink, which centers on the media-changing relationship between Australian businessman Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) and English newspaperman Larry Lamb (Jack O’Connell).

At the conclusion of the film, Boyle will return to the stage and join yours truly for an hourlong career-retrospective conversation that will be recorded for subsequent airing on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.

Christina Routhier, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s executive director, tells THR: “Danny Boyle is a true force in modern cinema, and Ink is yet another striking testament to his singular vision, making him the absolute definition of a Maverick Director. We’re excited to join forces with The Hollywood Reporter and Scott Feinberg for Awards Chatter, which is always a highlight for us, giving our SCAD students and audiences a behind-the-scenes look into the mind of a master storyteller.”

Boyle, who will turn 70 five days before the festivities, has been one of the most innovative and admired filmmakers in the world for more than 30 years. He made his name with a couple of indies, 1994’s Shallow Grave and 1996’s Trainspotting, before venturing into more mainstream territory with 2000’s The Beach and 2002’s 28 Days Later. Then came awards-friendly fare: 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire, 2010’s 127 Hours, 2015’s Steve Jobs and now Ink, which Boyle, O’Connell and writer James Graham discussed with THR following its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.

Awards Chatter recently turned 11 years old and is nearing its 700th episode. Past guests have included Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, Harrison Ford, Elton John, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Seinfeld, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Lawrence, Sean Penn, Snoop Dogg, Julia Roberts, Michael B. Jordan, Norman Lear, Sophia Loren, George Clooney, Will Smith, Carol Burnett, Robert De Niro, Dwayne Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Hart, Margot Robbie, Lorne Michaels, Seth Rogen, Kate Winslet, David Letterman, Lady Gaga, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Natalie Portman, Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bono, Dolly Parton, Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Spike Lee, Audra McDonald, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Denzel Washington, Ariana Grande, Kevin Costner, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Olivia Rodrigo, Quincy Jones, Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, Miley Cyrus, Timothée Chalamet, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Ken Burns, Malala Yousafzai, Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Kobe Bryant, Gloria Steinem and Buzz Aldrin.

The 29th SCAD Savannah Film Festival will take place Oct. 24-31, and will also honor a host of other notables including Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Gemma Chan and Jordan Firstman.

Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s Israeli documentary NAZA, which earned both a Special Jury prize and blowback from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) after a Venice premiere, has now sparked a counter-documentary.

NAZA: The Real Story, from Israeli director and IDF reserve officer Roi Danino, has first-hand testimony from IDF soldiers about how they fought the Gaza war against Hamas and aims to take down the bombshell NAZA whistleblower film. “It is their account, in their own words. Watch it, then decide what you think,” the producers of the rebuttal documentary say on the NAZA: The Real Story website, where the counter film can be viewed.

Abraham and Szor in their The Guardian-produced doc talk to anonymous IDF officers and soldiers who reveal how deliberate and systematic they’ve been in targeting civilians during the Gaza war, (the NAZA of the title is an acronym of a Hebrew expression meaning “collateral damage”).

The IDF on Oct. 1 came out with an official, and lengthy, response to NAZA. The creators of the 49-minute rebuttal film, including fellow IDF reserve officer Ariel Averbuch and Israeli content creator Hagay Gutman, contrast the on-the-record accounts of Israel’s Gaza war they offer with the anonymized Hebrew-language interviews with two dozen IDF veterans that claimed in the original NAZA documentary widespread and systemic misconduct in how Israel operated in Gaza after Oct. 2023.

NAZA: The Real Story, filmed at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv (just like Abraham and Szor’s NAZA), looks to seize the media narrative back from the filmmakers. “[The soldiers] testimonies offer a closer look at the conditions they faced, the dilemmas they encountered and how they describe the conduct of the war,” the producers of NAZA: The Real Story, added on the website.

Abraham and Szor’s NAZA is currently in theaters in Europe and the U.S. The Guardian intends to stream the documentary for free on its website in late November.

NAZA had its U.S. debut at the New York Film Festival, where it played to an enthusiastic crowd inside Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, while drawing a small but intense pro-Israel protest outside the theater.