Rufus Wainwright Preps Biopic, To Rome with Love Tops in Specialty Releases: Biz Break

Also in Monday morning's round up of news briefs are a slew of winners from a number of U.S. festivals including Nantucket, Silverdocs and Palm Springs ShortFest.

Ethel and The Intouchables Win Nantucket Honors
The two films tied for the Nantucket Film Festival's Audience Award for Best Feature Film. Stella Meghie’s Jean of the Joneses was recognized as the winner of the Showtime Tony Cox Screenplay Competition. The award for best screenwriting in a feature film was presented to Sarah Koskoff for Hello I Must Be Going. The Award for best screenwriting in a short film went to Nash Edgerton and David Michod for Bear. Other juried awards included best storytelling in a documentary which went to Alison Klayman for her film Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry Mike Birbiglia garnered the best writer/director award for his film Sleepwalk with Me.

Only the Young & Planet of Snail Take Silverdocs Prizes
Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims' Only the Young won the best U.S. feature at Silverdocs documentary film festival in Silver Springs, MD over the weekend. The film is a portrait of adolescent friendship and romance in suburban California. The festival's Planet of Snail took Best World Feature. The film follows a deaf and blind Korean and his wife. For more awards, visit their website.

Around the 'net…

Palm Springs ShortFest Gives Top Prize to Behind the Mirrors, Paulie
Behind the Mirrors won Best of the Festival, while Paulie by Andrew Nackman won the fest's Panavision Grand Jury Award. A Curious Conjunction of Coincidences by Joos Reijmers won the Audience Favorite Live Action Short nod and UK filmmaker Rajinder Sawhney won the Future Filmmaker Award for Khaana, THR reports.

To Rome with Love Tops in Debut: Specialty Box Office
Though the opening weekend numbers are not quite as stratospheric as last year’s Midnight In Paris, the filmmaker’s latest To Rome With Love are nonetheless impressive. The Sony Pictures Classics release debuted in 5 theaters, grossing $379K on this side of the Atlantic, averaging just under $76K, Allen’s second-best in per-theater terms, Deadline reports.

Rufus Wainwright Readying The Great White Way
The singer is working on a movie musical he says is "loosely" based on his life and will include songs from his back catalog," Rolling Stone reports.

SnagFilms Picks Up Decoding Deepak
The doc directed by Deepak Chopra's son Gotham Chopra is going to online film portal SnagFilms. The film will be released October 5th day and date in major market theaters and nationwide on VOD and digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon, VUDU and Xbox Live via SnagFilms, Deadline reports.