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Geeta Gandbhir, Sam Pollard, Alisa Payne Join ‘Water Cooler’ As EPs.

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EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award nominees Geeta Gandbhir, Sam Pollard, and Alisa Payne are joining the Oscar-contending short documentary Water Cooler as executive producers.

Emma V.F. directed the film, which she shot in the corridors of immigration court at Federal Plaza in New York City. Filming openly, V.F. captured scenes of jarring contrast: ICE agents engaged in mundane “water cooler” talk and then those same agents seizing migrants in the hallways who were following proper procedures to seek legal status in the U.S.

At one moment, the agents – most of them masked – would be talking amongst themselves about shopping for Black Friday deals, for instance, or the latest taser models. The next moment, they were forcibly detaining someone who had showed up to immigration court little expecting to be grabbed before they walked into court.

A masked ICE agent in 'Water Cooler'

A masked ICE agent in ‘Water Cooler’

Spoonbill Stories/Message Pictures

“The observational documentary — which [V.F.] filmed from November 2025 through January 2026 — juxtaposes agents’ casual conversations with tense scenes of the agents arresting immigrants who attended required court hearings to seek legal status,” notes a description. Water Cooler won Best Documentary Short at Palm Springs International ShortFest 2026, qualifying the film for Oscar consideration.

“Water Cooler is an urgent documentary short that sends a powerful message about a defining issue of our time,” said Pollard (MLK/FBI, Tutu). “America is at a tipping point with ICE and their outrageous incursions into our cities, which is why films like this are so important.”

Gandbhir (The Perfect Neighbor, The Devil Is Busy), observed, “Emma V.F.’s film Water Cooler honors the direct cinema style pioneered by Bob Drew and D. A. Pennebaker while turning her lens on masked federal agents. Even in a short runtime, it does what the films of those pioneers did — immerses you in a world that is crucial to see for yourself.”

Masked ICE agents confer in 'Water Cooler'

Masked ICE agents confer in ‘Water Cooler’

Spoonbill Stories/Message Pictures

Water Cooler screens on Saturday at the Hamptons International Film Festival in New York, on Sunday, October 18 at the Woodstock Film Festival in New York, and on October 24 at AFI Fest in Los Angeles. Next month, it’s programmed at the St. Louis International Film Festival. In addition to Palm Springs International ShortFest, the documentary has screened at DC/DOX in the nation’s capital.

The documentary is a production of Spoonbill Stories and Message Pictures, the latter a company founded by Gandbhir, Pollard, and Payne (Payne earned an Oscar nomination earlier this year for producing The Perfect Neighbor). Water Cooler is directed, produced, filmed and edited by Emma V.F. Along with Gandbhir, Pollard, and Payne, Blair Foster (Marty, Life is Short; Taxi to the Darkside) serves as an executive producer. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (Seeds, Union, Power) composed the original score.

V.F. directed the 2023 documentary feature Queen of New York. Her producing credits include In the Same Breath (HBO); Silver Dollar Road (Amazon Studios); Take Your Pills: Xanax (Netflix) and Once Upon a Time in Uganda.

“As the granddaughter of Italian immigrants and Jewish New Yorkers who would be outraged to see masked federal agents disappearing law-abiding people down stairwells in their city, I knew this was a film I needed to make,” Emma V.F. said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to partner with Message Pictures to share the film more widely in hopes that it inspires collective action opposing ICE.”

Watch a teaser-trailer for Water Cooler here:

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‘Blade Runner 2099’ Trailer: Hunter Schafer & Michelle Yeoh Team Up

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Nearly 45 years later, a new Blade Runner is back to make the Ridley Scott franchise “more human than human” once again.

On Saturday at New York Comic-Con, Prime Video released key art and a new trailer for the eight-episode limited series created by Silka Luisa with Amazon MGM Studios and Alcon Television Group, premiering in full Nov. 25 on the streamer.

Set 50 years after the events of Blade Runner 2049, Los Angeles has been reborn, just not by humanity. Cora (Hunter Schafer), a fugitive in a final bid to stop running, takes on one last identity: a Blade Runner. Forced to partner with Olwen (Michelle Yeoh), a Replicant days from dying, she hunts down a runaway hiding a truth that could collapse a fragile city.

Luisa, Yeoh and Schafer took the stage at Prime Video’s NYCC panel on Sunday, along with cast members Dimitri Abold, Lewis Gribben and Matthew Needham, as well as executive producers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson.

The series also stars Katelyn Rose Downey, Daniel Rigby, Johnny Harris, Amy Lennox, Sheila Atim, Tom Burke and Maurizio Lombardi.

Luisa serves as showrunner, creator and executive producer. Additional EPs include Ridley Scott, Alcon Entertainment co-founders Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, Alcon’s President of Television Ben Roberts, Steven Johnson, David W. Zucker and Clayton Krueger from Scott Free Productions, Richard Sharkey, Tom Spezialy, Michael Green, Cynthia Yorkin, Frank Giustra, Tim Gable, Isa Dick Hackett and Jonathan van Tulleken, who directed the first two episodes.

Directed by Scott, the original Blade Runner premiered in 1982, starring Harrison Ford and Sean Young. In 2017, Ford reprised his role as Rick Deckard in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, starring alongside Ryan Gosling.

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‘In a Violent Nature: Part 2’ Gets Valentine’s 2027 Premiere Date

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Johnny is back for more first-person POV blood and carnage as Chris Nash‘s In a Violent Nature: Part 2 heads to theaters in 2027.

On Saturday at New York Comic-Con, Johnny actor Ry Barrett announced that the Independent Film Company/Shudder slasher sequel will premiere on Feb. 12, 2027, following the original’s breakout at Sundance’s Midnight program in 2024.

In a Violent Nature: Part 2 picks up where the first left off as Johnny (Barrett) continues his violent rampage at an Ottawa summer camp, where a young outcast camper is forced to spend the night with his counselor sister and her friends at their annual end-of-season party.

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Following the original movie’s unique approach to the slasher genre that put the audience in the killer’s perspective, the sequel will expand on Johnny’s lore and deliver more brutally extreme and creative kills.

The sequel, which made its world premiere last month at Fantastic Fest, is co-directed by Nate Wilson and Chris Nash, who also penned the script. The film is produced by Peter Kuplowsky, Shannon Hanmer and Nash.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt Says AI Hijacks Intimacy, Be Afraid of People Who Make AI

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was appointed the United Nations’ first global advocate for human-centric digital governance in March, is arguing that instead of being afraid of AI, “we should be concerned about the people building AI.”

In a new video interview with The New York Times, the actor was asked his current biggest fear about the technology. “I would object to that question just because reducing these concerns into one sound bite of fear — that’s one of the problems,” Gordon-Levitt responded.

“To me, saying: Oh, I’m scared that AI could exterminate all of humanity — that doesn’t really get at the substance of the concern. There’s real validity to that concern. But that’s not the thing that really worries me,” he said, explaining that his worries are “a lot more complicated and a lot more boring to talk about, because it’s a lot more dense,” citing “the decline of democracy, the decline of human empathy” as a concern.

“These companies are betting on the notion that they’re going to take over the entire economy. That would be totalitarianism, and that would be really bad,” Gordon-Levitt added. “Simultaneously, these models are being trained to hijack your intimacy, to make friends with you, to get you to fall in love with it. We shouldn’t be scared of an AI. We should be concerned about the people building AI.”

The Don Jon star previously opened up about his concerns about AI, arguing at a panel hosted by The Hollywood Reporter and Autodesk at Sundance that “we need to build a system for ongoing compensation” as the technology depends on “human input.”

He also joined a group of industry insiders last December to form the Creators Coalition on AI, with its mission being to provide “a central coordinating hub to upgrade our industry’s systems and institutions.” The group additionally has an advisory council that seeks “to establish shared standards, definitions and best practices as well as ethical and artistic protections for if and when AI is used in entertainment projects.”

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