The Frame

A powerful documentary about the aftermath of the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; Rihanna's new album had a surprise (or maybe not?) release this week; the L.A. Art Fair aims to be the nexus for art from the Pacific Rim.

Nate Parker spent seven years making "The Birth of a Nation," and his efforts paid off as the breakout hit at the Sundance Film Festival; prominent comedians take to the stage to benefit Bernie Sanders' campaign; Larry Klein's work with Joni Mitchell made him a go-to producer for a wide variety of singers.

The legendary R&B singer has a new album and an HBO documentary coming up, but don't expect this to be her swan song; a film about Nat Turner's slave rebellion has set a sales record at the Sundance Film Festival; actresses Alysia Reiner and Sarah Megan Thomas launched Broad Street to counter gender inequity in Hollywood.

With the top award from the Producers Guild, "The Big Short" is now frontrunner for the best picture Oscar. We chat with producers Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner; a Motion Picture Academy officer admits that the organization has been too slow to change; the band Foals has gone from playing house parties to arenas.

Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale has re-imagined an album from his long solo career, "Music For a New Society"; as the "X-Files" returns, we get the story behind its iconic theme music; even at the Sundance Film Festival, the talk of the town is #OscarsSoWhite.

Actor Matthew Spencer, who plays the lead in a new adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel, says the story has new resonance today; TV networks are casting doubt about the popularity of original programming on streaming services; Andrew Ahn passed up med school for a film career, and now his directing debut is at Sundance.

Carrie Brownstein, "Portlandia" co-creator and Sleater-Kinney co-founder, pulls back the curtain on her creative process; members of the U.K. punk band Savages reveal how they remain unpredictable on stage and in the recording studio; what's in store at this year's Sundance Film Festival?

In the two years since Lupita Nyong'o won an Oscar for "12 Years a Slave," no actor of color has been nominated for an Academy Award. Academy member Stephanie Allain says the Oscars reflect bigger problems in the industry; James Lecesne continues his advocacy for LGBTQ youth with "The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey."

Alicia Vikander's breakout year now includes an Oscar nomination for "The Danish Girl"; singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett deconstructs her song, "Depreston"; and we find out which new TV shows are on the must-watch list for the new year.

John Horn and Kyle Buchanan of Vulture.com dig into the snubs and surprises in the Oscar nominations, and the return of #OscarsSoWhite. And we hear from the directors nominated for "Room" and "The Revenant."

Robert Mapplethorpe gets a massive retrospective at two L.A. museums courtesy of the Mapplethorpe Foundation. Can a set top box that streams first run films the day they're in theaters disrupt the movie business as we know it? Closing the gender gap one women artist at a time.

The massive Hauser Wirth & Schimmel gallery is the newest addition to L.A.'s bustling downtown arts district; singer and bass player Esperanza Spalding adds some theatrical touches to her live show; the South by Southwest film festival kicks off today in Austin.

Actress Ellen Page and Ian Daniel are co-hosts of a new Viceland channel show that documents LGBTQ communities around the world; a Marine's experience in Iraq is dramatized by the adventurous Long Beach Opera.

Actress Sarah Paulson is getting rave reviews for her performance as prosecutor Marcia Clark in "The People v. O.J. Simpson"; the music collective known as Dublab partnered with Metro to create an ambient music experience at L.A.'s Union Station.

Writer-producer Terence Winter creates an HBO drama out of the 1970's music business in "Vinyl"; SNL alumnus Seth Meyers injects politics into his "Late Night" humor; Swedish-Argentine musician José González redefines "global music."

Nahnatchka Khan's experience as a daughter of immigrants helped shape the outsider perspective of "Fresh Off the Boat"; the box office success of "Zootopia" is due to Disney's embrace of Pixar's ethic; KT Tunstall deconstructs the song that launched her career, "Suddenly I See."

David Litt was President Obama's funniest speechwriter and now he's mining Washington for Funny or Die; Robert Carlock talks about adapting "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" for his longtime writing partner, Tina Fey; Kendrick Lamar drops a surprise album.

Series creator Beau Willimon tees up the fourth season of "House of Cards" on Netflix; the trailer for the remake of "Ghostbusters" depicts a very different New York City; Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe readies the West Coast premiere of her oratorio.

Over the past 25 years, Jon Brion has quietly become a go-to producer and composer for musicians and filmmakers; L.A. County tightens the rules for raves on public property; the Colburn School teaches its students how to audition for orchestra jobs.

Roger Guenveur Smith on directing "The Mountaintop," a play set in a Memphis motel on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination; criticism mounts over Chris Rock's treatment of diversity and Asian-Americans; high school students perform August Wilson monologues.

Now that the Academy Awards are behind us, how did Hollywood assess itself and what lessons will the industry learn going into 2016?; the executive producer of Samantha Bee's TBS show, "Full Frontal," on the 'unfiltered' and fearless tone of that late night show

OK Go takes its inventive music videos up a notch by shooting in an aircraft at zero gravity; 31-year-old comedian Quincy Jones, who has stomach cancer, used Kickstarter to finance his own stand-up special; Paco Delgado drew inspiration from singer Annie Lennox to design costumes for "The Danish Girl."