Movie News
Not exactly the opening weekend that dreams are made of.
Director John Krasinski’s “If,” a fantasy-comedy that promises your imaginary friends from childhood are real, fell slightly short of box office expectations with $35 million. Heading into the weekend, “If” was expected to bring in at least $40 million in its first weekend of release. Based on Friday’s turnout, it looked like “If” would open to $30 million but projections were revised up after Saturday’s strong showing. Ticket sales were enough for first place, but it’s a wobbly start for a PG family film that cost $110 million to make and many millions more to market. It collected an additional $20 million overseas for a global total of $55 million.
The good news for Paramount Pictures, which distributed “If,” is that audiences dug the film, giving it an “A” CinemaScore. Ideally, it’ll have staying power like recent original kid-friendly movies, including “Migration” and “Elemental,...
Director John Krasinski’s “If,” a fantasy-comedy that promises your imaginary friends from childhood are real, fell slightly short of box office expectations with $35 million. Heading into the weekend, “If” was expected to bring in at least $40 million in its first weekend of release. Based on Friday’s turnout, it looked like “If” would open to $30 million but projections were revised up after Saturday’s strong showing. Ticket sales were enough for first place, but it’s a wobbly start for a PG family film that cost $110 million to make and many millions more to market. It collected an additional $20 million overseas for a global total of $55 million.
The good news for Paramount Pictures, which distributed “If,” is that audiences dug the film, giving it an “A” CinemaScore. Ideally, it’ll have staying power like recent original kid-friendly movies, including “Migration” and “Elemental,...
- 5/19/2024
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Yorgos Lanthimos can’t stop (won’t stop!) working with Oscar winner Emma Stone, casting the actress once again as leading lady for his next project “Bugonia.”
The drama will also star Jesse Plemons who, along with Stone, appears in Lanthimos’ forthcoming “Kinds of Kindness.” That three-chapter feature just premiered on Friday at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
“Bugonia” follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. The script is from heat-seeking “Succession” and “The Menu” writer Will Tracy.
Focus Features has won domestic rights to distribute the project. Universal Pictures will roll out the film in global territories, save Korea where “Parasite” producer Cj Enm will release. The latter is financing the film with Fremantle. CAA Media Finance and WME Independent brokered the rights deal.
This package is loaded with pedigree.
The drama will also star Jesse Plemons who, along with Stone, appears in Lanthimos’ forthcoming “Kinds of Kindness.” That three-chapter feature just premiered on Friday at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
“Bugonia” follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. The script is from heat-seeking “Succession” and “The Menu” writer Will Tracy.
Focus Features has won domestic rights to distribute the project. Universal Pictures will roll out the film in global territories, save Korea where “Parasite” producer Cj Enm will release. The latter is financing the film with Fremantle. CAA Media Finance and WME Independent brokered the rights deal.
This package is loaded with pedigree.
- 5/18/2024
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
When Cate Blanchett starts shooting a new movie or show, it’s always the same story.
“It’s like Groundhog Day,” Blanchett said at the Kering Women in Motion Talks at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday. “I do the head count, and I’m back in the same place, working with men who I love working with and respect, [but] I’m walking on set and there’s 50 people on set and there’s three women. When is this going to deeply, profoundly shift?”
Blanchett is trying to change a system that remains male-dominated despite all the panels and protests and calls for action. In addition to debuting her latest film “Rumours” (which she also executive produced), the Oscar-winner is at the festival to promote Proof of Concept, an accelerator program she co-founded last year to elevate the perspectives of women, trans and nonbinary people by financially backing their short “proof of concept” films.
“It’s like Groundhog Day,” Blanchett said at the Kering Women in Motion Talks at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday. “I do the head count, and I’m back in the same place, working with men who I love working with and respect, [but] I’m walking on set and there’s 50 people on set and there’s three women. When is this going to deeply, profoundly shift?”
Blanchett is trying to change a system that remains male-dominated despite all the panels and protests and calls for action. In addition to debuting her latest film “Rumours” (which she also executive produced), the Oscar-winner is at the festival to promote Proof of Concept, an accelerator program she co-founded last year to elevate the perspectives of women, trans and nonbinary people by financially backing their short “proof of concept” films.
- 5/20/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety - Film News
Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is out in front on Screen’s Cannes jury grid with 2.7.
The comedy horror scored one star four (excellent) from the UK’s The Telegraph and eight three stars (good). This was followed by two two stars (average) while Mathieu Macharet gave it a zero (bad).
Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid star in the Fargeat’s English-language debut in a tale of a fading star who takes drastic measures to stay youthful.
Also arriving on the jury was Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov: The Ballad which received an average of 2.2.
The biopic starring Ben Whishaw...
The comedy horror scored one star four (excellent) from the UK’s The Telegraph and eight three stars (good). This was followed by two two stars (average) while Mathieu Macharet gave it a zero (bad).
Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid star in the Fargeat’s English-language debut in a tale of a fading star who takes drastic measures to stay youthful.
Also arriving on the jury was Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov: The Ballad which received an average of 2.2.
The biopic starring Ben Whishaw...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Apartment to Produce ‘Rosebushpruning,’ Starring Kristen Stewart, Josh O’Connor and Elle Fanning
Fremantle’s The Apartment will partner with The Match Factory, Mubi, Kavac Film and Rai Cinema to produce Karim Aïnouz’s next feature film “Rosebushpruning.”
Directed by Aïnouz, the film’s lead cast includes Kristen Stewart (“Love Lies Bleeding,” “Spencer”), Josh O’Connor (“Challengers,” “God’s Own Country”) and Elle Fanning (“Teen Spirit,” “The Great”). Aïnouz is directing from a script written by Efthimis Filippou (Kinds of Kindness, Dogtooth, The Lobster), which is an adaptation from Marco Bellocchio’s debut feature Fists in the Pocket.
Viola Fügen and Michael Weber are producing “Rosebushpruning” for The Match Factory, who are also handling worldwide sales for the film. The adaptation rights have been acquired from Kavac Film also attached at the production team with Simone Gattoni. The Apartment, a Fremantle Company, is co-producing, with Annamaria Morelli as executive producer. Rachel Dargavel for Crybaby Films is co-producing in the UK. Mubi is financing production alongside...
Directed by Aïnouz, the film’s lead cast includes Kristen Stewart (“Love Lies Bleeding,” “Spencer”), Josh O’Connor (“Challengers,” “God’s Own Country”) and Elle Fanning (“Teen Spirit,” “The Great”). Aïnouz is directing from a script written by Efthimis Filippou (Kinds of Kindness, Dogtooth, The Lobster), which is an adaptation from Marco Bellocchio’s debut feature Fists in the Pocket.
Viola Fügen and Michael Weber are producing “Rosebushpruning” for The Match Factory, who are also handling worldwide sales for the film. The adaptation rights have been acquired from Kavac Film also attached at the production team with Simone Gattoni. The Apartment, a Fremantle Company, is co-producing, with Annamaria Morelli as executive producer. Rachel Dargavel for Crybaby Films is co-producing in the UK. Mubi is financing production alongside...
- 5/20/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety - Film News
Dissident Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has backed the ongoing demonstrations in Georgia at a press conference for his Cannes competition entry, Limonov: The Ballad, saying of the situation, “It’s absolutely awful.”
The streets of Georgia are lined with young protestors urging their country to join the European Union (EU), and against a law that is expected to demonise many civil society groups as ‘foreign agents’. The law is similar to one introduced in Russia, and is seen as a marker of Russia’s influence in the country.
On Tuesday (May 14), politicians passed a controversial law which requires non-governmental organisations...
The streets of Georgia are lined with young protestors urging their country to join the European Union (EU), and against a law that is expected to demonise many civil society groups as ‘foreign agents’. The law is similar to one introduced in Russia, and is seen as a marker of Russia’s influence in the country.
On Tuesday (May 14), politicians passed a controversial law which requires non-governmental organisations...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
I can't say if I fell in love with "Star Trek," or if it fell in love with me.
Like many Trekkies, I came to "Star Trek" at an early age. Throughout the 1980s, reruns of the original series would air on my local station, and they would serve as a periodic video backdrop to our dinnertimes. As a child, "Star Trek" was merely an action-light, horror-heavy sci-fi adventure series, and my older sister and I would gleefully yell out when Spock (Leonard Nimoy) performed his notorious Vulcan nerve pinch, or when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) got to snog an itinerant babe. We would hide our heads from the monster of the week; like many, I was terrified by the scowling face of Balok, the Ted Cassidy-voiced puppet alien from "The Corbomite Maneuver".
Perhaps unusually for a child, I wasn't powerfully drawn to action, fights, or explosions in my entertainment.
Like many Trekkies, I came to "Star Trek" at an early age. Throughout the 1980s, reruns of the original series would air on my local station, and they would serve as a periodic video backdrop to our dinnertimes. As a child, "Star Trek" was merely an action-light, horror-heavy sci-fi adventure series, and my older sister and I would gleefully yell out when Spock (Leonard Nimoy) performed his notorious Vulcan nerve pinch, or when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) got to snog an itinerant babe. We would hide our heads from the monster of the week; like many, I was terrified by the scowling face of Balok, the Ted Cassidy-voiced puppet alien from "The Corbomite Maneuver".
Perhaps unusually for a child, I wasn't powerfully drawn to action, fights, or explosions in my entertainment.
- 5/20/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Fremantle’s The Apartment is to partner with The Match Factory, Mubi, Kavac Film and Rai Cinema to produce Karim Aïnouz’s next feature Rosebushpruning.
The cast for the film, first announced last year, includes Kristen Stewart, Josh O’Connor and Elle Fanning.
Brazilian director Aïnouz is currently in Cometition at Cannes with Motel Destino, having last year premiered Firebrand in Compeition. Aïnouz is directing from a script by Kinds of Kindness and Dogtooth writer Efthimis Filippou who has adapted Marco Bellocchio’s debut feature Fists in the Pocket.
Viola Fügen and Michael Weber are producing Rosebushpruning for The Match Factory,...
The cast for the film, first announced last year, includes Kristen Stewart, Josh O’Connor and Elle Fanning.
Brazilian director Aïnouz is currently in Cometition at Cannes with Motel Destino, having last year premiered Firebrand in Compeition. Aïnouz is directing from a script by Kinds of Kindness and Dogtooth writer Efthimis Filippou who has adapted Marco Bellocchio’s debut feature Fists in the Pocket.
Viola Fügen and Michael Weber are producing Rosebushpruning for The Match Factory,...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
Joe Alwyn has been the center of much media attention in the last few years. That may be news if you’ve been living in a hermetically sealed bunker. But outside that particular and unsolicited spotlight, the dandyish 33-year-old British actor has carved his name out in films from idiosyncratic auteurs. There was Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir Part II” as a grieving and queer-flirting film editor; Claire Denis’ sensuous 2022 Cannes Grand Prix winner “Stars at Noon” as a Brit adrift in Nicaragua having lots of sex with Margaret Qualley’s character; and most recently “Kinds of Kindness,” whose director Yorgos Lanthimos he previously starred for as a lusty baron in “The Favourite.”
Alwyn is back this year at Cannes in three roles in “Kinds of Kindness,” co-written with Lanthimos by his friend and “Alps” and “The Lobster” collaborator Efthimis Flippou. Which means we are very much in the mode of old-school Lanthimos,...
Alwyn is back this year at Cannes in three roles in “Kinds of Kindness,” co-written with Lanthimos by his friend and “Alps” and “The Lobster” collaborator Efthimis Flippou. Which means we are very much in the mode of old-school Lanthimos,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Good luck to you and all who plod along dusty roads with you if the first chapter of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga” compels you to seek out the second chapter. This Civil War-era, Old West expansion epic is a $100 million vanity project that finds the actor/filmmaker in familiar terrain, and with the gall to cast himself as an apparently swoon-inducing cowboy in a world where all the women are either ball busters, prostitutes, or profoundly stupid, and the men hayseeds or Great American Heroes.
Told across four interwoven tales in and around the territories that became Wyoming, Montana, and Kansas, “Horizon” gets its title from a fictional pioneer settlement in the 1860s that’s stomped out an Apache tribe now battling to get back their land. But their patted-on inclusion at all feels like a committee-driven, gun-to-the-head corrective rather than an organic necessity of the story.
Told across four interwoven tales in and around the territories that became Wyoming, Montana, and Kansas, “Horizon” gets its title from a fictional pioneer settlement in the 1860s that’s stomped out an Apache tribe now battling to get back their land. But their patted-on inclusion at all feels like a committee-driven, gun-to-the-head corrective rather than an organic necessity of the story.
- 5/20/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
In the 1970s and '80s, Jim Henson and the Muppets were on top of the world. And it's easy to understand why: The Muppets were magical. As a concept, Muppets are simple things; little more than crude hand-puppets. But through the work of Henson and his Muppeteers, the characters came to life in startling ways. We believe in the Muppets; we believe they exist in our world, and interact with us, and ride bikes, and play the banjo, and do all sorts of things we kind of take for granted. The fact that Disney now owns the Muppets and seemingly doesn't know what the hell to do with them is a great pop culture tragedy; we need the Muppets now more than ever. Bring the Muppets back, damn it!
Another franchise owned by Disney is, of course, "Star Wars." And in 1980, the world of the Muppets and the galaxy...
Another franchise owned by Disney is, of course, "Star Wars." And in 1980, the world of the Muppets and the galaxy...
- 5/20/2024
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
On Monday night, all eyes in Cannes will be on the launch of “The Apprentice,” the high-profile drama that stars Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump. The filmmakers and stars haven’t done any press on the ground at Cannes ahead of the film’s world premiere, and few have seen it, with plot details shrouded in mystery.
But one person who has seen it is Dan Snyder, the billionaire former owner of the Washington Commanders who is an investor in “The Apprentice.” And he isn’t happy.
Behind the scenes, a nasty battle has played out between the Snyder-backed company Kinematics and the filmmakers over the creative direction of the film. “The Apprentice,” directed by Ali Abbasi, covers Trump’s early years when he was mentored by political fixer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and his marriage to his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova).
Sources say Snyder, a...
But one person who has seen it is Dan Snyder, the billionaire former owner of the Washington Commanders who is an investor in “The Apprentice.” And he isn’t happy.
Behind the scenes, a nasty battle has played out between the Snyder-backed company Kinematics and the filmmakers over the creative direction of the film. “The Apprentice,” directed by Ali Abbasi, covers Trump’s early years when he was mentored by political fixer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and his marriage to his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova).
Sources say Snyder, a...
- 5/20/2024
- by Tatiana Siegel
- Variety - Film News
“Annie Hall” changed the game in being a cautionary tale about a couple that conspicuously doesn’t last, while at the same time an enduring case for the wonder and necessity of romance. “The Other Way Around” is a similarly wacky subversion of the rom-com theme in that its central couple, successful millennial director Ale (Itsaso Arana) and actor Alex (Vito Sanz), cheerfully announce to their friends and loved ones that they’re breaking up. A big party will mark the occasion and duly end the relationship — which, their friends remind them, has gone on forever (more than a decade). The only people who think this is a sane idea is Ale and Alex. Not even Ale’s father(played by director Jonás Trueba’s real-life father, Fernando) can fathom it, although it was originally his idea. The concept seems to be born out of a kind of 90s stand-up...
- 5/20/2024
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
A new Saudi Arabian film studio with deep pockets and Hollywood connections is launching from the Cannes Film Festival with a slate of film and TV projects.
The Los Angeled-based 3SIX9 Studios – announced at an event on a yacht in the bay of Cannes – is co-founded by actor and producer Daya Fernández, who serves as CEO; Inga V. Smith, who is a former VP of production at Paramount and is the company’s president; “Prison Break” star Amaury Nolasco; and Saudi businessman Sheikh Mohammed Youssef El Khereiji, chairman of Global Group of Companies, who will serve as chairman.
Sheikh Mohammed is a billionaire who wears many hats including CEO of media advertising and investment entity Engineer Holding Group (Ehg). He has been an investor in Hollywood movies in the past. Now, “His recent backing of 3SIX9 Studios is a testament to Saudi Arabia’s commitment to nurturing creativity and innovation in global cinema,...
The Los Angeled-based 3SIX9 Studios – announced at an event on a yacht in the bay of Cannes – is co-founded by actor and producer Daya Fernández, who serves as CEO; Inga V. Smith, who is a former VP of production at Paramount and is the company’s president; “Prison Break” star Amaury Nolasco; and Saudi businessman Sheikh Mohammed Youssef El Khereiji, chairman of Global Group of Companies, who will serve as chairman.
Sheikh Mohammed is a billionaire who wears many hats including CEO of media advertising and investment entity Engineer Holding Group (Ehg). He has been an investor in Hollywood movies in the past. Now, “His recent backing of 3SIX9 Studios is a testament to Saudi Arabia’s commitment to nurturing creativity and innovation in global cinema,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety - Film News
Iman Vellani is one of the best things to happen to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Iron Man. Not only is she perfect as Kamala Khan, the best part of "The Marvels," but she is also a star both on and off the screen. Just as Downey Jr. embodied Tony Stark so much that the comic book version of the character noticeably changed to resemble his portrayal, Vellani embodies Kamala to the point of making the character forever associated with her.
Likewise, Vellani is very much in tune with what the MCU is doing right, and what it should be doing better, as well as a huge comic book nerd. Take her response in a Reddit Ama (Ask Me Anything) session to being asked what "Ms. Marvel" scene was the hardest to film due to her laughing so much.
"The M word scene," Vellani answered.
Likewise, Vellani is very much in tune with what the MCU is doing right, and what it should be doing better, as well as a huge comic book nerd. Take her response in a Reddit Ama (Ask Me Anything) session to being asked what "Ms. Marvel" scene was the hardest to film due to her laughing so much.
"The M word scene," Vellani answered.
- 5/20/2024
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Slash Film
The Whiplash star commits himself to the role of rampage killer on a motorbike rampage that ultimately lacks forward momentum
Veteran actor Jk Simmons (Whiplash) is the main reason to watch this basic horror-thriller, which isn’t as horrific or thrilling as one might hope. Simmons plays Wade, a cold-as-ice killer on a rampage, who kicks off the action by shooting some random people at a gas station. One of whom asks: “Why are you doing this?”; Wade’s response is: “Does it matter?” This could have stood up as an interesting moment of frank nihilistic confession on behalf of a movie genre that loves to invent motivations for maniacs when it probably doesn’t need to bother; most of these kinds of films are about the thrill of the chase, and nobody really cares why the killer is a killer. It’s only a shame that this particular example...
Veteran actor Jk Simmons (Whiplash) is the main reason to watch this basic horror-thriller, which isn’t as horrific or thrilling as one might hope. Simmons plays Wade, a cold-as-ice killer on a rampage, who kicks off the action by shooting some random people at a gas station. One of whom asks: “Why are you doing this?”; Wade’s response is: “Does it matter?” This could have stood up as an interesting moment of frank nihilistic confession on behalf of a movie genre that loves to invent motivations for maniacs when it probably doesn’t need to bother; most of these kinds of films are about the thrill of the chase, and nobody really cares why the killer is a killer. It’s only a shame that this particular example...
- 5/20/2024
- by Catherine Bray
- The Guardian - Film News
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Competition title The Substance, Demi Moore described how making the film was a challenging, vulnerable experience that left her “with a greater acceptance of myself as I am”.
“There was something freeing about this exploration,” said Moore. “It was a very raw experience that required a depth of vulnerability and willingness to expose myself emotionally and physically that definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone.”
Coming through the filming process with that acceptance was “a gift”, she added.
French filmaker Coralie Fargeat’s feminist body horror follows an actress aged...
“There was something freeing about this exploration,” said Moore. “It was a very raw experience that required a depth of vulnerability and willingness to expose myself emotionally and physically that definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone.”
Coming through the filming process with that acceptance was “a gift”, she added.
French filmaker Coralie Fargeat’s feminist body horror follows an actress aged...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
British filmmakers Sean Cronin and Peter Stylianou’s latest feature, “Drained,” has wrapped post-production and is being sold by Cronin’s Magnificent Films at the Cannes Film Market.
Cronin is also an actor who has appeared in “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” He has played villains in some 89 films, besides directing several titles.
“Drained,” a vampire film, co-directed and produced by Cronin and Stylianou from a screenplay by Stylianou, follows Thomas, a jobless post-graduate artist who falls for Rhea, a mysterious woman who is revealed to be a vampire. As their dark romance progresses, Thomas’s health declines, plunging him into a chaotic spiral.
The cast features Ruaridh Aldington (“Dirty Boy”) and Madalina Bellariu Ion (“Dampyr”) as the doomed lovers. Supporting roles are filled by Craig Conway (“Dog Soldiers”), Angela Dixon (“Never Let Go”), Andrew Lyle-Pinnock, Natasha Patel (“The Witcher: Blood Origin...
Cronin is also an actor who has appeared in “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” He has played villains in some 89 films, besides directing several titles.
“Drained,” a vampire film, co-directed and produced by Cronin and Stylianou from a screenplay by Stylianou, follows Thomas, a jobless post-graduate artist who falls for Rhea, a mysterious woman who is revealed to be a vampire. As their dark romance progresses, Thomas’s health declines, plunging him into a chaotic spiral.
The cast features Ruaridh Aldington (“Dirty Boy”) and Madalina Bellariu Ion (“Dampyr”) as the doomed lovers. Supporting roles are filled by Craig Conway (“Dog Soldiers”), Angela Dixon (“Never Let Go”), Andrew Lyle-Pinnock, Natasha Patel (“The Witcher: Blood Origin...
- 5/20/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety - Film News
Free Association
The 27-member European Film Agency Directors Association and the Asian Film Alliance Network, which was established this time last year and currently has seven members, have agreed to work together on topics of common interest and to jointly develop a better world film ecosystem.
At a meeting this week held on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, Efad and Afan promised to enhance understanding and collaboration between Asian and European national film agencies. Topics included: dialog on policy and regulations; the development of the film industry in both regions; and addressing new media and challenges ahead.
Separately, the founding Afan members convened for a closed-door roundtable discussion on May 16. Japan’s National Film Archive and Agency of Cultural Affairs Japan and Thailand’s National Soft Power Development Subcommittee in Film Industry also participated as observers.
Afan discussions put a spotlight on some of the top film markets...
The 27-member European Film Agency Directors Association and the Asian Film Alliance Network, which was established this time last year and currently has seven members, have agreed to work together on topics of common interest and to jointly develop a better world film ecosystem.
At a meeting this week held on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, Efad and Afan promised to enhance understanding and collaboration between Asian and European national film agencies. Topics included: dialog on policy and regulations; the development of the film industry in both regions; and addressing new media and challenges ahead.
Separately, the founding Afan members convened for a closed-door roundtable discussion on May 16. Japan’s National Film Archive and Agency of Cultural Affairs Japan and Thailand’s National Soft Power Development Subcommittee in Film Industry also participated as observers.
Afan discussions put a spotlight on some of the top film markets...
- 5/20/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety - Film News
Federation Spain, the Madrid-based arm of top indie European studio Federation Entertainment, has inked to co-produce Xavier Rull’s feature debut “My Stalker,” selected for this year’s Frontières Platform in Cannes.
Structured as a Spain-Mexico-u.S. co-production, “My Stalker” is set up at Monster Box, the horror indie outfit recently launched by Rull with awarded Mexican filmmaker Jack Zagha.
“My Stalker” follows a rising young singer in the music industry, stalked by a mysterious dangerous man who can possess people astrally.
As she struggles to compose a new album, deal with the pressures of fame, and evade her stalker, she descends into a dark world where music, nightmares, and the supernatural collide.
The film was co-created and co-scripted by Rull and María Rocher, Federation Spain’s head of co-production and support strategy.
“‘My Stalker’ is a psychological thriller with an original high concept,” Rull said.
“It explores the gradual...
Structured as a Spain-Mexico-u.S. co-production, “My Stalker” is set up at Monster Box, the horror indie outfit recently launched by Rull with awarded Mexican filmmaker Jack Zagha.
“My Stalker” follows a rising young singer in the music industry, stalked by a mysterious dangerous man who can possess people astrally.
As she struggles to compose a new album, deal with the pressures of fame, and evade her stalker, she descends into a dark world where music, nightmares, and the supernatural collide.
The film was co-created and co-scripted by Rull and María Rocher, Federation Spain’s head of co-production and support strategy.
“‘My Stalker’ is a psychological thriller with an original high concept,” Rull said.
“It explores the gradual...
- 5/20/2024
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety - Film News
Ed Fletcher has been at the helm of UK distributor and exhibitor Curzon for six months as CEO, following the departure of Philip Knatchbull from the Cohen Media Group-owned company in November 2023.
Fletcher brings with him experience spent managing cinemas in London and Cambridge, and working in theatrical distribution at first Ica Projects and then distributor Soda Pictures, the company he co-founded with Eve Gabareau in 2002 that became Thunderbird Releasing in 2014. He also runs a production label called Beef with Emma Biggins as a sideline to his day job.
Just before Cannes, Curzon revealed the revival of the Artificial...
Fletcher brings with him experience spent managing cinemas in London and Cambridge, and working in theatrical distribution at first Ica Projects and then distributor Soda Pictures, the company he co-founded with Eve Gabareau in 2002 that became Thunderbird Releasing in 2014. He also runs a production label called Beef with Emma Biggins as a sideline to his day job.
Just before Cannes, Curzon revealed the revival of the Artificial...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
German Films celebrated its 70th anniversary at Cannes on Sunday, with its guests looking back but also looking forward.
“It has gotten much better,” Managing Director Simone Baumann told Variety at the event.
“We’ve had Oscar-winning ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ Oscar-nominated ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ [for best international feature], films by Wim Wenders and with Sandra Hüller! Sure, Wim showed a Japanese movie and Sandra a French one [‘Perfect Days’ and ‘Anatomy of a Fall’], but it doesn’t matter: It’s more ‘mixed’ these days and I am proud of it, to be honest.”
At Cannes, 14 German productions and co-productions have been selected this year, including Match Factory’s main competition offerings “Motel Destino” by Karim Aïnouz – who also attended the bash – and Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour.” Run Way Pictures is behind Mohammad Rasoulof’s anticipated “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.”
As festivals get “more competitive,” underlines Baumann, international collabs are here to stay.
“It has gotten much better,” Managing Director Simone Baumann told Variety at the event.
“We’ve had Oscar-winning ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ Oscar-nominated ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ [for best international feature], films by Wim Wenders and with Sandra Hüller! Sure, Wim showed a Japanese movie and Sandra a French one [‘Perfect Days’ and ‘Anatomy of a Fall’], but it doesn’t matter: It’s more ‘mixed’ these days and I am proud of it, to be honest.”
At Cannes, 14 German productions and co-productions have been selected this year, including Match Factory’s main competition offerings “Motel Destino” by Karim Aïnouz – who also attended the bash – and Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour.” Run Way Pictures is behind Mohammad Rasoulof’s anticipated “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.”
As festivals get “more competitive,” underlines Baumann, international collabs are here to stay.
- 5/20/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety - Film News
Over the last century, the small but mighty island Republic of Malta has cemented itself as an appealing global destination for major film productions, with features such as Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator,” Robert Altaman’s “Popeye,” and Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” shooting there. Scott recently wrapped production on the long-awaited follow-up to his 2000 Roman epic, and the country is prepping for the upcoming shoot of the newest installment of the “Jurassic World” franchise.
Speaking with Variety, director and co-founder of Maltese service provider Valletta Pictures, Joshua Cassar Gaspar, said that the requests to film on the island have “come in like crazy” following the U.S. strikes in 2023. “It’s an incredibly busy time. The next two years will be huge for us.”
“The strikes didn’t affect us because the independent productions kept going, and many of us in Malta service TV shows, which were also unaffected,” Gaspar continued.
Speaking with Variety, director and co-founder of Maltese service provider Valletta Pictures, Joshua Cassar Gaspar, said that the requests to film on the island have “come in like crazy” following the U.S. strikes in 2023. “It’s an incredibly busy time. The next two years will be huge for us.”
“The strikes didn’t affect us because the independent productions kept going, and many of us in Malta service TV shows, which were also unaffected,” Gaspar continued.
- 5/20/2024
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety - Film News
What's Daniel Day Lewis' best film? "Gangs of New York," perhaps? What about his Oscar-winning performance as the 16th President of the United States in "Lincoln?" Surely his efforts there should put Steven Spielberg's historical drama in the running for Lewis' finest work. Well, it's neither of these. Daniel Day Lewis' best film is, in fact, 1985's "A Room With a View," — at least according to Rotten Tomatoes.
The website that determined there to be only two perfect horror movies can also be consulted for its rankings of individual actors' filmographies. This has resulted in the definitely correct revelation that Sean Connery's finest film is "Darby O'Gill and the Little People." Now, it's Gene Hackman's turn to have a lifetime of acting ability summed up by a series of cartoon splats and tomatoes. What could possibly be at the top of this list? Well, my money was...
The website that determined there to be only two perfect horror movies can also be consulted for its rankings of individual actors' filmographies. This has resulted in the definitely correct revelation that Sean Connery's finest film is "Darby O'Gill and the Little People." Now, it's Gene Hackman's turn to have a lifetime of acting ability summed up by a series of cartoon splats and tomatoes. What could possibly be at the top of this list? Well, my money was...
- 5/20/2024
- by Joe Roberts
- Slash Film
At first, the violence seems limited to news reports. Every time a gangster is gunned down or a car bomb goes off in the streets of Corsica, the local channel flashes footage of the crime scene. So long as the killings are confined to television, it’s easy for 15-year-old Lesia to pretend they’re neither real nor relevant, that the people involved aren’t members of her father’s inner circle. But as “The Kingdom” unfolds, the attacks keep getting closer, slowly infiltrating the film itself, until finally, they’re happening right in front of her face.
Corsica, like nearby Sicily, has a serious problem with organized crime, which escalated dramatically in the 1990s, when “The Kingdom” is set. The birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, it’s an unusual island: technically part of France, but too independent-minded to let outsiders manage its affairs. The Corsican flag depicts a decapitated Moorish...
Corsica, like nearby Sicily, has a serious problem with organized crime, which escalated dramatically in the 1990s, when “The Kingdom” is set. The birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, it’s an unusual island: technically part of France, but too independent-minded to let outsiders manage its affairs. The Corsican flag depicts a decapitated Moorish...
- 5/20/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety - Film News
One of the finest films ever made about organized crime, “The Long Good Friday” (1980) sees the world of a London gangster abruptly destabilized by bomb attacks and murders of his associates. He and his henchmen attempt to uncover the attackers’ identities, all whilst trying not to worry their visitors in town for the weekend, who are members of the American mafia looking to invest in redevelopment in the area. This British mob classic may seem an odd film to evoke up top in a review of a French-language, Corsica-set debut feature. But one of the main strengths of director Julien Colonna’s “The Kingdom” is how it successfully pulls off a loosely similar, paranoia-driven fall-of-an-empire story within the context of a condensed time period.
The time frame in question is not quite as tight as “The Long Good Friday’s” 24-ish hours of mayhem, but instead a few weeks of...
The time frame in question is not quite as tight as “The Long Good Friday’s” 24-ish hours of mayhem, but instead a few weeks of...
- 5/20/2024
- by Josh Slater-Williams
- Indiewire
Cannes – For a moment, we thought Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” had overstayed its welcome. But, no, the “Revenge” director was just taking a breath before unleashing a wild and operatic ending for her Cannes Film Festival debut. A bold dissection on aging and self-hatred Fargeat’s latest work is an utter visual marvel and features superb performances from its lead actresses; Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.
Continue reading ‘The Substance’ Review: Demi Moore & Margaret Qualley Switch In A Visionary Twist On ‘Death Becomes Her’ [Cannes] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Substance’ Review: Demi Moore & Margaret Qualley Switch In A Visionary Twist On ‘Death Becomes Her’ [Cannes] at The Playlist.
- 5/20/2024
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist
Kevin Costner got candid about partly self-financing his new movie, “Horizon: An American Saga,” at a Cannes Film Festival press conference on Monday.
Costner put much of his own fortune into making the $100 million-plus film, including mortgaging his ranch. He directs and stars in the film, which he also produced and co-wrote.
When asked about his struggle to finance the film, Costner said, “I don’t know why it was so hard.”
“You saw the movie. I don’t know why it was so hard to get people to believe in the movie that I wanted to make,” he continued. “You know, I don’t think my movie is better than anybody else’s movie, but I don’t think anybody else’s movie is better than mine. I don’t go out into the world with something I don’t think is good.”
“Horizon” is meant to be a four-part saga,...
Costner put much of his own fortune into making the $100 million-plus film, including mortgaging his ranch. He directs and stars in the film, which he also produced and co-wrote.
When asked about his struggle to finance the film, Costner said, “I don’t know why it was so hard.”
“You saw the movie. I don’t know why it was so hard to get people to believe in the movie that I wanted to make,” he continued. “You know, I don’t think my movie is better than anybody else’s movie, but I don’t think anybody else’s movie is better than mine. I don’t go out into the world with something I don’t think is good.”
“Horizon” is meant to be a four-part saga,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Tatiana Siegel and Brent Lang
- Variety - Film News
Rowe escaped destitution through art in 20th century Atlanta in this busy but intriguing story of an unsung artist who made beauty from the mundane
This winning overview of the life of self-taught black artist Nellie Mae Rowe and her white patron, Judith Alexander, also doubles up as a social history of 20th-century Atlanta, Georgia. It throws up a host of fascinating interconnections, the immediate significance and relevancy of which to Rowe’s actual work is sometimes a bit loose. But with directors Petter Ringbom and Marquise Stillwell getting their own hands messy on the creative front, this frieze of poverty, segregation and artistic self-rescue borrows a good deal of the persuasiveness and energy of its central figure.
Born in 1900 to a former-slave father and a seamstress mother, Rowe escaped destitution through art. She made handcrafted dolls in imitation of the characters around her; vibrant drawings that whirled real life...
This winning overview of the life of self-taught black artist Nellie Mae Rowe and her white patron, Judith Alexander, also doubles up as a social history of 20th-century Atlanta, Georgia. It throws up a host of fascinating interconnections, the immediate significance and relevancy of which to Rowe’s actual work is sometimes a bit loose. But with directors Petter Ringbom and Marquise Stillwell getting their own hands messy on the creative front, this frieze of poverty, segregation and artistic self-rescue borrows a good deal of the persuasiveness and energy of its central figure.
Born in 1900 to a former-slave father and a seamstress mother, Rowe escaped destitution through art. She made handcrafted dolls in imitation of the characters around her; vibrant drawings that whirled real life...
- 5/20/2024
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
After breaking out as a wide-eyed soldier in 1917, the actor showed a darker side to masculinity as a closeted thug in Femme. Now he’s gone further, playing an incel in twisted sci-fi The Beast
George MacKay reaches into his backpack and pulls out a squeezy bottle of honey, squirting it into his americano. “It’s a bit eccentric,” he says sheepishly. He picked up the habit years ago on a shoot in Australia; recognising that requesting a pot of honey might be perceived as “a slightly wanky ask”, he carries his own supply instead. This is typical MacKay – charming, discreet, and more than a little concerned about giving others the wrong idea.
On screen, MacKay frequently plays characters who are suffocated by the codes of traditional masculinity, and turned cruel by them, too. The actor’s breakout role was in Sam Mendes’s Oscar-winning war blockbuster 1917, which plays out as one dizzying,...
George MacKay reaches into his backpack and pulls out a squeezy bottle of honey, squirting it into his americano. “It’s a bit eccentric,” he says sheepishly. He picked up the habit years ago on a shoot in Australia; recognising that requesting a pot of honey might be perceived as “a slightly wanky ask”, he carries his own supply instead. This is typical MacKay – charming, discreet, and more than a little concerned about giving others the wrong idea.
On screen, MacKay frequently plays characters who are suffocated by the codes of traditional masculinity, and turned cruel by them, too. The actor’s breakout role was in Sam Mendes’s Oscar-winning war blockbuster 1917, which plays out as one dizzying,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Simran Hans
- The Guardian - Film News
A new Italian distribution and international sales company called PiperFilm is launching in Cannes, having scored rights for Italy to Paolo Sorrentino’s Cannes competition title “Parthenope.”
Former Vision Distribution managing director Massimiliano Orfei is president of PiperFilm, while Luisa Borella, who is also a former top-level Vision Distribution executive, serves as the new media company’s COO.
PiperFilm is adopting an innovative distribution model by striking an agreement with Netflix under which the streaming giant will have the first exclusive post-theatrical window for Italy on their titles, while Warner Bros. Entertainment Italia will handle the operational distribution of their lineup of movies in Italian theatres.
“This procedure will ensure that films branded PiperFilm will reach Italian film audiences in their entirety,” the company said in a statement, which noted that they are “building a new business model thanks to a partnership with the largest players on the Italian and international market.
Former Vision Distribution managing director Massimiliano Orfei is president of PiperFilm, while Luisa Borella, who is also a former top-level Vision Distribution executive, serves as the new media company’s COO.
PiperFilm is adopting an innovative distribution model by striking an agreement with Netflix under which the streaming giant will have the first exclusive post-theatrical window for Italy on their titles, while Warner Bros. Entertainment Italia will handle the operational distribution of their lineup of movies in Italian theatres.
“This procedure will ensure that films branded PiperFilm will reach Italian film audiences in their entirety,” the company said in a statement, which noted that they are “building a new business model thanks to a partnership with the largest players on the Italian and international market.
- 5/20/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety - Film News
"The City on the Edge of Forever" is often considered the best episode of the series. In it, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) encounter an impossibly ancient stone archway called the Guardian of Forever. The Guardian (Bartell Larue) is so old it has developed consciousness and serves as a time travel conduit for curious historians. Unexpectedly, Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) runs through the portal — he's hopped up on drugs — and travels instantly to Earth in 1930. Kirk and Spock follow him to ensure he doesn't foul with history.
In 1930, Kirk meets an activist named Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), a kindly soul who speaks out against the growing war efforts in Europe. Kirk falls in love. Spock, however, constructs a widget showing him that only two possible futures can come of their time travel interference. It seems that if Edith Keeler dies in a car accident, it will retain...
In 1930, Kirk meets an activist named Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), a kindly soul who speaks out against the growing war efforts in Europe. Kirk falls in love. Spock, however, constructs a widget showing him that only two possible futures can come of their time travel interference. It seems that if Edith Keeler dies in a car accident, it will retain...
- 5/20/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
London’s Raindance Film Festival is making a significant calendar shift for its 32nd edition, moving from its traditional fall slot to a new summer schedule.
Raindance kicks off with the U.K. premiere of Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo,” a horror feature starring Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens that previously played at Berlin and SXSW. Closing the festival is the European premiere of “National Anthem” by Luke Gilford, starring Charlie Plummer as a construction worker joining a community of queer rodeo performers. The film, which was at Toronto and SXSW, leads into the Pride in London weekend with a wild West End party.
This year, Germany is the festival’s guest of honor. The festival will showcase new German films, including “Cuckoo,” “Eternal You” and “What You See of Me.” A dedicated shorts program and industry panels, including a session with production designer Mona Cathleen Otterbach, will highlight Germany’s cinematic achievements.
Raindance kicks off with the U.K. premiere of Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo,” a horror feature starring Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens that previously played at Berlin and SXSW. Closing the festival is the European premiere of “National Anthem” by Luke Gilford, starring Charlie Plummer as a construction worker joining a community of queer rodeo performers. The film, which was at Toronto and SXSW, leads into the Pride in London weekend with a wild West End party.
This year, Germany is the festival’s guest of honor. The festival will showcase new German films, including “Cuckoo,” “Eternal You” and “What You See of Me.” A dedicated shorts program and industry panels, including a session with production designer Mona Cathleen Otterbach, will highlight Germany’s cinematic achievements.
- 5/20/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety - Film News
For the latest instalment in Screen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, leading French producer Dimitri Rassam explains why France can compete with the US as a major shooting destination, and gives his advice for Cannes first timers.
Rassam is the founder of French production company Chapter 2, which has produced titles such as Cesar-winning animation The Little Prince, the Three Musketeers films, and Cannes 2024 titles The Count Of Monte Cristo and Limonov. The Ballad.
Monte Cristo shot on location in France, using the same crew as Musketeers.
Explains Rassam: “I think we have everything in France that we need to...
Rassam is the founder of French production company Chapter 2, which has produced titles such as Cesar-winning animation The Little Prince, the Three Musketeers films, and Cannes 2024 titles The Count Of Monte Cristo and Limonov. The Ballad.
Monte Cristo shot on location in France, using the same crew as Musketeers.
Explains Rassam: “I think we have everything in France that we need to...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
Demi Moore’s new film, the feminist body horror “The Substance,” sees her bare it all, with several scenes featuring full nudity. At the Cannes Film Festival press conference for the film on Monday, the 61-year-old actor discussed the “vulnerable experience.”
“Going into it, it was really spelled out — the level of vulnerability and rawness that was really required to tell the story,” Moore said. “And it was a very vulnerable experience and just required a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conversation about what we were trying to accomplish.”
In the film from “Revenge” helmer Coralie Fargeat, Moore plays a fading celebrity who uses a black market drug the film is named for — a cell-replicating device that winds up creating a young, better version of herself (Margaret Qualley). Not only must she share a space with this new creature, she has to spend half her time in a...
“Going into it, it was really spelled out — the level of vulnerability and rawness that was really required to tell the story,” Moore said. “And it was a very vulnerable experience and just required a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conversation about what we were trying to accomplish.”
In the film from “Revenge” helmer Coralie Fargeat, Moore plays a fading celebrity who uses a black market drug the film is named for — a cell-replicating device that winds up creating a young, better version of herself (Margaret Qualley). Not only must she share a space with this new creature, she has to spend half her time in a...
- 5/20/2024
- by Matt Donnelly and Ellise Shafer
- Variety - Film News
The 32nd edition of the UK’s Raindance Film Festival is to open with horror-thriller Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer, as the festival shifts away from autumn to a midsummer slot, running June 19-28.
This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features. The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.
Cuckoo is a German-us co-production that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her father and his new family as...
This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features. The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.
Cuckoo is a German-us co-production that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her father and his new family as...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
Sandhya Suri’s fiction feature debut “Santosh,” which bows in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard strand, has unveiled its first clip.
In the film, a government scheme sees newly widowed Santosh inherit her slain husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of northern India. When an underage girl from one of India’s so-called “lower castes” is murdered, Santosh is pulled into the investigation by charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
Suri is known for her documentaries “I for India” (2005), which bowed at Sundance, and “Around India with a Movie Camera” (2018) and Toronto-winning and BAFTA nominated fiction short “The Field” (2018). The “Santosh” script, which predates “The Field,” participated in the Sundance lab. “I was researching things about violence against women and trying to make a sort of anatomy of a violence and I couldn’t find a way to do it in documentary. So I found this way into fiction,...
In the film, a government scheme sees newly widowed Santosh inherit her slain husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of northern India. When an underage girl from one of India’s so-called “lower castes” is murdered, Santosh is pulled into the investigation by charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
Suri is known for her documentaries “I for India” (2005), which bowed at Sundance, and “Around India with a Movie Camera” (2018) and Toronto-winning and BAFTA nominated fiction short “The Field” (2018). The “Santosh” script, which predates “The Field,” participated in the Sundance lab. “I was researching things about violence against women and trying to make a sort of anatomy of a violence and I couldn’t find a way to do it in documentary. So I found this way into fiction,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety - Film News
Cannes film festival
Close attention is required for this sombre but impressive Taiwanese feature debut about exploited illegal staff, and their patients and gangmasters
Taiwan-based Wei Liang Chiang and You Qiao Yin have made this feature directing debut in the Directors’ Fortnight selection at Cannes. It evokes an almost Zen state of suffering and sadness – a feeling that penetrates the film’s fabric like months of steady rain in a rural landscape.
If that sounds like a daunting prospect, it is, and this movie requires patience and attention, a calibration of your viewing expectations to match its stasis. Yet it’s an andante tempo that makes its moments of drama, and even sensation all the more striking. The film’s executive producer is Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien: his influences are there, and there is also something of the work of Tsai Ming-liang.
Close attention is required for this sombre but impressive Taiwanese feature debut about exploited illegal staff, and their patients and gangmasters
Taiwan-based Wei Liang Chiang and You Qiao Yin have made this feature directing debut in the Directors’ Fortnight selection at Cannes. It evokes an almost Zen state of suffering and sadness – a feeling that penetrates the film’s fabric like months of steady rain in a rural landscape.
If that sounds like a daunting prospect, it is, and this movie requires patience and attention, a calibration of your viewing expectations to match its stasis. Yet it’s an andante tempo that makes its moments of drama, and even sensation all the more striking. The film’s executive producer is Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien: his influences are there, and there is also something of the work of Tsai Ming-liang.
- 5/20/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The Mediterrane Film Festival, held in the Maltese capital of Valletta, returns for its second edition between June 22-30 with a revamped programming structure led by new artistic director Teresa Cavina. The inaugural Golden Bee Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cinema will be awarded to British filmmaker Mike Leigh, following last year’s Memorandum of Understanding between the British and Malta’s film commission to enhance the collaboration between the countries’s screen industries.
Speaking with Variety before unveiling this year’s festival program, Malta’s film commissioner Johann Grech said the festival was a “brainchild” of his, adding that the event is a “platform to keep us building our image. We want to push for further dialogue and cooperation between countries, and not just Mediterranean countries.”
“The size of our country has not stopped us from thinking big,” he continued. “The festival will not only allow us to strengthen our film brand globally,...
Speaking with Variety before unveiling this year’s festival program, Malta’s film commissioner Johann Grech said the festival was a “brainchild” of his, adding that the event is a “platform to keep us building our image. We want to push for further dialogue and cooperation between countries, and not just Mediterranean countries.”
“The size of our country has not stopped us from thinking big,” he continued. “The festival will not only allow us to strengthen our film brand globally,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety - Film News
The Anne Hathaway- and Jessica Chastain-starring psychological thriller “Mothers’ Instinct” is set for release in Chinese theaters.
Directed by cinematographer-turned-helmer Benoît Delhomme, the 1960s film depicts a pair of model homemakers and next-door neighbors whose close friendship is severely undone by sudden tragedy. The film is an English-language remake of the 2108 French-language effort by Belgium’s Olivier Masset-Depasse’s film, which was an adaptation of the 2012 novel “Derriere La Haine” by Barbara Abel.
The film will release in China on May 24 on 2,500 screens. That likely sets it in competition with “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” as another English-language title releasing on that date, Variety has confirmed.
The film has had a handful of international releases and is also set for a North American outing at an unspecified date through Neon. The China release follows an agreement between sales firm Anton Corp and Chinese distributor Jl Film.
Jl Film...
Directed by cinematographer-turned-helmer Benoît Delhomme, the 1960s film depicts a pair of model homemakers and next-door neighbors whose close friendship is severely undone by sudden tragedy. The film is an English-language remake of the 2108 French-language effort by Belgium’s Olivier Masset-Depasse’s film, which was an adaptation of the 2012 novel “Derriere La Haine” by Barbara Abel.
The film will release in China on May 24 on 2,500 screens. That likely sets it in competition with “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” as another English-language title releasing on that date, Variety has confirmed.
The film has had a handful of international releases and is also set for a North American outing at an unspecified date through Neon. The China release follows an agreement between sales firm Anton Corp and Chinese distributor Jl Film.
Jl Film...
- 5/20/2024
- by Patrick Frater and Alex Ritman
- Variety - Film News
The 32nd edition of the UK’s Raindance Film Festival is to open with Tilman Singer’s horror-thriller Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer, as the festival shifts away from autumn to a midsummer slot, running June 19-28.
This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features.
The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.
Opening night film Cuckoo is a German-us co-production, that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her...
This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features.
The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.
Opening night film Cuckoo is a German-us co-production, that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
This account of Lilian and her four young children undertaking a dangerous journey from Guatemala to the US brings a human face to the migration crisis
Heading for the US-Mexico border from Guatemala, single mum Lilian and her four children endure an arduous 3,000-mile journey, the perils of which are intimately captured in Danilo do Carmo and Jakob Krese’s piercing documentary. The film opens with the startling sight of dozens of migrants huddled on the side of the road under makeshift tents. Lilian is only one of the many faces here, and the story behind her hardship is far from unique. Fleeing an abusive partner, Lilian looks to the US as a place of emancipation for herself as well as her young children.
In the face of the numerous dangers that lie on her path, Lilian perseveres. When not crammed in the back of a caravan, the family roam...
Heading for the US-Mexico border from Guatemala, single mum Lilian and her four children endure an arduous 3,000-mile journey, the perils of which are intimately captured in Danilo do Carmo and Jakob Krese’s piercing documentary. The film opens with the startling sight of dozens of migrants huddled on the side of the road under makeshift tents. Lilian is only one of the many faces here, and the story behind her hardship is far from unique. Fleeing an abusive partner, Lilian looks to the US as a place of emancipation for herself as well as her young children.
In the face of the numerous dangers that lie on her path, Lilian perseveres. When not crammed in the back of a caravan, the family roam...
- 5/20/2024
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
Un Certain Regard is always a time to explore new, daring films from first- and second-time feature filmmakers at the Cannes Film Festival. They’ll eventually be eligible for the Camera d’Or, the Un Certain Regard equivalent of the Palme d’Or. So if you’re looking for something to see outside the main competition at Cannes this year, Julien Colonna’s Un Certain Regard entry is a simmering and intense coming-of-age story about a teenage girl coming of age amid a criminal family. And that family is maybe one she doesn’t want to reconnect with but is forced to over one summer in Corsica, 1995. Watch an IndieWire exclusive clip from the film below.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Corsica, 1995. It’s Lesia’s first summer as a teenager. One day a man bursts into her life and takes her to an isolated villa where she finds her father,...
Here’s the official synopsis: “Corsica, 1995. It’s Lesia’s first summer as a teenager. One day a man bursts into her life and takes her to an isolated villa where she finds her father,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Screen is running this regularly updated page with the latest film festival and market dates from across the world.
To submit details of or alter your festival dates, please contact us here with the name, dates, country and website for the event. Screen is also running a calendar for UK-Ireland film release dates here.
Ongoing
Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival Part 2, US - May 11-26
Cannes Film Festival, France - May 14-25
Marche Du Film, France - May 14-22
May
Docaviv, Israel - May 23-June 1
IndieLisboa International Film Festival, Portugal - May 23-June 2
Inside Out Toronto 2Slgbtq+ Film Festival,...
To submit details of or alter your festival dates, please contact us here with the name, dates, country and website for the event. Screen is also running a calendar for UK-Ireland film release dates here.
Ongoing
Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival Part 2, US - May 11-26
Cannes Film Festival, France - May 14-25
Marche Du Film, France - May 14-22
May
Docaviv, Israel - May 23-June 1
IndieLisboa International Film Festival, Portugal - May 23-June 2
Inside Out Toronto 2Slgbtq+ Film Festival,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Barcelona-based sales company Film Factory has picked up global rights to Alberto Gastesi’s sci-fi thriller “Singular,” a former Sitges Pitchbox winner that will begin shooting this month.
“Singular” is the story of Diana, a university professor who works with artificial intelligence linguistic models. When Martín, Diana’s ex and the father of her late son Martín, invites her to spend a day at the lake, she’s shocked to meet a young man named Andrea, who undeniably resembles her deceased child. Given Martín’s expertise in robotics, Diana begins to suspect that the man has created an android version of their child. While every part of her wants to deny Andrea, she feels compelled to help free the boy from the prison-like grasp that Martín holds over him.
Spanish Academy Goya Award winners Patricia López Arnaiz (“20 000 Species of Bees”) and Javier Rey (“Twin Murders: The Silence of the White City...
“Singular” is the story of Diana, a university professor who works with artificial intelligence linguistic models. When Martín, Diana’s ex and the father of her late son Martín, invites her to spend a day at the lake, she’s shocked to meet a young man named Andrea, who undeniably resembles her deceased child. Given Martín’s expertise in robotics, Diana begins to suspect that the man has created an android version of their child. While every part of her wants to deny Andrea, she feels compelled to help free the boy from the prison-like grasp that Martín holds over him.
Spanish Academy Goya Award winners Patricia López Arnaiz (“20 000 Species of Bees”) and Javier Rey (“Twin Murders: The Silence of the White City...
- 5/20/2024
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety - Film News
This impressive first feature from director Yoo Heong-jun is a visually and formally inventive exploration of malleable aspects of ourselves
A cinematic puzzle cast in minimalist black and white, Yoo Heong-jun’s slippery feature debut delves into the malleability of identity, performance and life itself. It unfurls over long takes, and the tension between movement and stasis lingers in every frame.
Put on bed rest after a vicious stroke that damages her short-term memory, Hwa-ryeong (Cho Hyunjin) – an actor – struggles to recall the plot of her last film. Chatty visits from colleagues only serve to complicate matters. Mentions of a retired performer, a daughter and an ex-husband recur, but it remains unclear how these storylines cohere. It is as if, like Hwa-ryeong, her peers have been struck by amnesia.
A cinematic puzzle cast in minimalist black and white, Yoo Heong-jun’s slippery feature debut delves into the malleability of identity, performance and life itself. It unfurls over long takes, and the tension between movement and stasis lingers in every frame.
Put on bed rest after a vicious stroke that damages her short-term memory, Hwa-ryeong (Cho Hyunjin) – an actor – struggles to recall the plot of her last film. Chatty visits from colleagues only serve to complicate matters. Mentions of a retired performer, a daughter and an ex-husband recur, but it remains unclear how these storylines cohere. It is as if, like Hwa-ryeong, her peers have been struck by amnesia.
- 5/20/2024
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
For more than two decades, French auteur Christophe Honoré has made provocative features, frequently exploring romantic entanglements or focusing on gay characters that reflect his sexuality. His third Palme d’Or-nominated film premiering May 21, “Marcello Mio,” is a comic change of pace that may be his most commercial and entertaining project to date. After Honoré’s longtime collaborator Chiara Mastroianni, playing a version of herself, gets compared to her movie star father, Marcello Mastroianni, she decides to adopt his look and personality, creating chaos with her mother, Catherine Deneuve, and co-stars like Melvil Poupaud, who also play themselves. With help from a French translator, Variety spoke to Honoré about his work.
You’ve written and directed a wide range of projects, including the Palme d’Or contenders “Love Songs” and “Sorry Angel.” Which are you proudest of?
The one that I made before this one, “Le lycéen (Winter Boy).” It...
You’ve written and directed a wide range of projects, including the Palme d’Or contenders “Love Songs” and “Sorry Angel.” Which are you proudest of?
The one that I made before this one, “Le lycéen (Winter Boy).” It...
- 5/20/2024
- by Gregg Goldstein
- Variety - Film News
Ida Martins’ Media Luna has closed a multi-territory sale in Cannes on Brazilian period romance Perdida - Lost Sofia to Paris-based Factoris Films.
The distributor has acquired the film co-directed by Luiza Shelling Tubaldini and Katherine Chediak Putnam for France, French-speaking Belgium, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and North America.
Factoris CEO Alexandre Simard is preparing French, Spanish, Portuguese and English versions, and plans a 150-screen French release through Factoris in December.
Guzzo Cinemas will handle in Canada, and Factoris is talking with Viva Entertainment for the US. Martins closed the deal with Simard and Tristan Prunier of Factoris.
Cannes Close-Up:...
The distributor has acquired the film co-directed by Luiza Shelling Tubaldini and Katherine Chediak Putnam for France, French-speaking Belgium, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and North America.
Factoris CEO Alexandre Simard is preparing French, Spanish, Portuguese and English versions, and plans a 150-screen French release through Factoris in December.
Guzzo Cinemas will handle in Canada, and Factoris is talking with Viva Entertainment for the US. Martins closed the deal with Simard and Tristan Prunier of Factoris.
Cannes Close-Up:...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Mallorcan film industry gathered on Saturday (May 18) to discuss what Mallorca brings to the international film industry.
The event also celebrated the launch of Mallorca’s Green Film Forum as well as showcasing Atlantida Mallorca Film Fest (July 20-28) and Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (October 30-November 5).
The event was held at Cannes Film Festival by Screen International in collaboration with the Mallorca Film Commission.
The event also celebrated the launch of Mallorca’s Green Film Forum as well as showcasing Atlantida Mallorca Film Fest (July 20-28) and Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (October 30-November 5).
The event was held at Cannes Film Festival by Screen International in collaboration with the Mallorca Film Commission.
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
UK indie producers are reporting significant interest from potential international partners at Cannes, the first major market since the introduction of the Independent Film Tax Credit (Iftc).
“Specifically, I’m seeing increased interest from the US,” said Nicky Bentham of Neon Films, who produced Great 8 project Brides.
Love Lies Bleeding producer Andrea Cornwell of Lobo Films said she is moving many of her projects back to the UK thanks to the Iftc. “I had otherwise pivoted my entire slate away from the UK in part due to the difficulties of financing and mounting medium budget films in the UK,...
“Specifically, I’m seeing increased interest from the US,” said Nicky Bentham of Neon Films, who produced Great 8 project Brides.
Love Lies Bleeding producer Andrea Cornwell of Lobo Films said she is moving many of her projects back to the UK thanks to the Iftc. “I had otherwise pivoted my entire slate away from the UK in part due to the difficulties of financing and mounting medium budget films in the UK,...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
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