The film was based on the 1974 book of the same name by the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about their investigation into the Watergate imbroglio that brought down President Richard Nixon.
Framing the 2026 festival with the theme 'Against the Current,' we see that there's no one way to interpret or contend with this present moment. From investigative documentaries to family-friendly animations to late-night eco-horror shorts, this year's slate of films celebrates those who build resilience and seek solutions.
Wearing a dark hat and a mask to hide his face, the mayor boarded a flight to Washington, where-we now know-he met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. At their previous meeting, shortly after Mamdani's election victory in November, the unexpectedly cordial rapport between the democratic socialist mayor and the MAGA president generated headlines around the world.
Perhaps sensing this wariness, the creators of some of the more politically compelling movies and TV shows of the past year have instead explored how being alive feels during a tumultuous period. They capture the atmosphere, the mood, the ambient existence of everyday people who are living through a transformative time in history, whether or not they recognize that they are doing so.
It's not because "Melania" is an exquisitely made, informative documentary. It's not even a documentary. Instead, it falls in the category of glossy advertisement or unconvincing propaganda film with a multimillion-dollar music licensing budget. Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for the rights to film. That offer came with a jaw-dropping $35 million marketing budget, which Amazon spent while also cutting 16,000 corporate jobs.
The organization was highly impressive because, on Inauguration Day, we had something like twelve crews all around town. Once they were set in position, they could not move. I was the person in the White House. I was waiting for the President and Melania to come back at the end of the day. It was kind of interesting. How else do you have the occasion to see the center of power?
In the wake of a slew of artist cancellations, Kennedy Center leadership says it wants to book "performers who aren't political." Apparently, that ethos doesn't extend to its film programming, as the Washington, DC venue is set to host the premiere of a new Melania Trump documentary on January 29th. The film, simply titled Melania, will be released in theaters worldwide by Amazon MGM on January 30th, 2026, reportedly as part of a $40 million licensing deal.
Vibes-wise, the event was classic Trump 2.0-chic. Guests were handed monogrammed buckets of popcorn, framed screening tickets for their trophy shelves, and a limited-edition copy of Trump's 2024 book of the same title as her documentary, "Melania. " Prior to the screening, the black-tie guests were greeted by a taxpayer-funded military band that playing famous movie themes, as well as "Melania's Waltz," featured in the documentary and composed by Hollywood's Tony Neiman.
I'm old enough to remember when it was frowned upon-even considered very bad-for the White House to photoshop anything or digitally alter photos for the public record. On Thursday, the official White House social media accounts posted a digitally altered photo of an arrested protester to make it look like she was crying. About thirty minutes earlier, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted what seems to be the original image of the arrest-in which the woman appears completely composed.
In 2019, Carroll alleged that Trump had sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s; Trump promptly denied the allegation while deriding Carroll at rallies and in TV interviews as "totally lying" and "not my type." Ask E. Jean follows Carroll as she prepares for the trial, revealing why she buried what had happened for so long; it captures, too, her profound discomfort while she's badgered during depositions by Trump's legal team, and her eventual victory.
Third-place opening weekends are not usually the stuff of box-office headlines, but on Saturday, you couldn't pick up your phone without reading that Melania, Brett Ratner's gauzy, glad-handing portrait of the first lady, was doing much better than expected. Deadline called its opening the strongest for a documentary in a decade, and the New York Times wrote that its $8 million opening was 60 percent above industry predictions. By Sunday, however, the latter number had been revised drastically downward, from $8 million to barely over $7 million.
It replaces the old homepage-which featured a banner image of Trump, the bolded phrase "America is Back," and headshots of the first lady and vice president-with a decidedly more cinematic design. Now, when people visit whitehouse.gov, they're immediately greeted with a wall of videos, including shots of Trump sporting his own "Make America Great Again" merch, saluting military personnel, and taking off in a helicopter. Every shot is bathed in a warm, fuzzy filter, making the whole page feel like a retro-inspired movie trailer.
For every explosive confrontation in Minneapolis, there is a quieter, less tangible threat in the form of Kash Patel's FBI seizing voting records from Fulton county, Georgia a state Donald Trump lost by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020 or the steady implementation of 900-page manifesto by the influential rightwing thinktank the Heritage Foundation, neither of which lend themselves to blockbuster treatment.
