Launched last year by Wes Anderson’s producing partners at Indian Paintbrush, Galerie has emerged as a well-curated film club publishing unique selections of films from artists with their personal annotations. With past lists from the likes of James Gray, Ed Lachman, Mike Mills, Karyn Kusama, Ethan Hawke, and more, today we’re pleased to exclusively share a sneak peek from the lists of two celebrated Chilean filmmakers, Pablo Larraín and Sebastián Lelio, which have recently landed on the site.
Both filmmakers are currently working on their latest projects: Larraín is helming the Angelina Jolie-led Maria Callas drama, while Lelio is handling the musical The Wave, inspired by Chile’s “feminist May” movement in 2018. While in post-production on the projects, they’ve shared their curated collections.
The Spencer and El Conde director features Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendor and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing on his list,...
Both filmmakers are currently working on their latest projects: Larraín is helming the Angelina Jolie-led Maria Callas drama, while Lelio is handling the musical The Wave, inspired by Chile’s “feminist May” movement in 2018. While in post-production on the projects, they’ve shared their curated collections.
The Spencer and El Conde director features Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendor and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing on his list,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Dozens of top Hollywood creatives and activists have signed an open letter in response to the shuttering of production company Participant — imploring the industry to continue to effect change through film and television as the defunct company once did.
George Clooney, Aflonso Cuarón, Ava DuVernay, Jane Fonda, Regina King, Viola Davis, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, Color of Change president Rashad Robinson and more are signators, in addition to groups like GLAAD and Human Rights Watch. The letter was coordinated by the National Domestic Workers Alliance (Ndwa), which collaborated with Participant and director Cuarón on a visibility campaign for his 2018 Oscar winner “Roma.”
“As we say goodbye to Participant, we must underscore that values-based storytelling is needed now more than ever,” the letter states. “There is a whole ecosystem of people, connected by the work of the last 20 years of Participant, ready to work with you.
George Clooney, Aflonso Cuarón, Ava DuVernay, Jane Fonda, Regina King, Viola Davis, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, Color of Change president Rashad Robinson and more are signators, in addition to groups like GLAAD and Human Rights Watch. The letter was coordinated by the National Domestic Workers Alliance (Ndwa), which collaborated with Participant and director Cuarón on a visibility campaign for his 2018 Oscar winner “Roma.”
“As we say goodbye to Participant, we must underscore that values-based storytelling is needed now more than ever,” the letter states. “There is a whole ecosystem of people, connected by the work of the last 20 years of Participant, ready to work with you.
- 5/7/2024
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Tilda Swinton is joining Colin Farrell in Edward Berger and Netflix‘s The Ballad of a Small Player, we can reveal.
The story follows a high-stakes gambler who decides to lay low in Macau after his past and debts catch up with him. Along the way he encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation. Production is due to start in Asia this summer.
Rowan Joffe is adapting the script that is is based on the novel by Lawrence Osborne. Mike Goodridge is producing through his Good Chaos banner along with Berger for his Nine Hours banner as well as Matthew James Wilkinson for Stigma Films.
The film marks the first project under Berger’s creative partnership and global first-look film deal with Netflix, via his company Nine Hours.
Swinton has recently been in production on Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door and has...
The story follows a high-stakes gambler who decides to lay low in Macau after his past and debts catch up with him. Along the way he encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation. Production is due to start in Asia this summer.
Rowan Joffe is adapting the script that is is based on the novel by Lawrence Osborne. Mike Goodridge is producing through his Good Chaos banner along with Berger for his Nine Hours banner as well as Matthew James Wilkinson for Stigma Films.
The film marks the first project under Berger’s creative partnership and global first-look film deal with Netflix, via his company Nine Hours.
Swinton has recently been in production on Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door and has...
- 4/30/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Neon, the indie studio behind “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” has tapped the producers of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Jon Read and Allison Rose Carter, to lead their growing production arm. Read and Carter are the co-founders of Savage Rose Films.
The pact comes as Neon has moved more aggressively into developing and producing its own movies, instead of focusing purely on acquiring completed films. The company’s recent foray into production have included Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool,” Bishal Dutta’s “It Lives Inside,” Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” Jazmin Jones’s “Seeking Mavis Beacon” and Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo.” This new in-house focus also includes upcoming projects from Joshua Oppenheimer, Boots Riley and David Robert Mitchell. Under the terms of the deal, Neon will have a first-look at Savage Rose Films’ roster of projects while Read and Carter will also run Neon’s productions, reporting to Jeff Deutchman,...
The pact comes as Neon has moved more aggressively into developing and producing its own movies, instead of focusing purely on acquiring completed films. The company’s recent foray into production have included Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool,” Bishal Dutta’s “It Lives Inside,” Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” Jazmin Jones’s “Seeking Mavis Beacon” and Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo.” This new in-house focus also includes upcoming projects from Joshua Oppenheimer, Boots Riley and David Robert Mitchell. Under the terms of the deal, Neon will have a first-look at Savage Rose Films’ roster of projects while Read and Carter will also run Neon’s productions, reporting to Jeff Deutchman,...
- 3/26/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Copenhagen documentary film festival: Alessandra Celesia’s urgent documentary about the residents of an estate in Belfast speaks to the lasting trauma of political violence
Alessandra Celesia’s film is part seance, part news story: a documentary about the run-down New Lodge estate in Belfast. It is primarily about the families who still live with the unresolved agony of the Troubles a quarter of a century on, the psychic residue of political violence coexisting with sexism, domestic abuse, substance abuse and futile rage against drug dealers in working-class neighbourhoods. But there is something else too. Along with TV news stories about the Queen’s death there is the sensational revelation that for the first time, the Catholic community in Northern Ireland now outnumbers the Protestant. The thought can hardly be said out loud; could it be that times are changing and reunification – that concept which caused so much bloodshed – is...
Alessandra Celesia’s film is part seance, part news story: a documentary about the run-down New Lodge estate in Belfast. It is primarily about the families who still live with the unresolved agony of the Troubles a quarter of a century on, the psychic residue of political violence coexisting with sexism, domestic abuse, substance abuse and futile rage against drug dealers in working-class neighbourhoods. But there is something else too. Along with TV news stories about the Queen’s death there is the sensational revelation that for the first time, the Catholic community in Northern Ireland now outnumbers the Protestant. The thought can hardly be said out loud; could it be that times are changing and reunification – that concept which caused so much bloodshed – is...
- 3/16/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Plans to restructure Germany’s national film and TV funding system are dividing the country’s film and TV industry.
Last week, Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister for culture and the media, unveiled a three-point strategy for a revamped German Film Law (Ffg) to be accompanied by two new financial instruments of a tax incentive and an investment obligation.
The incentive scheme would replace the existing German Federal Film Fund (Dfff) and German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf) which between them had provided around €166m in support to German and international projects in 2023, ranging from such international projects as Nine Perfect Strangers...
Last week, Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister for culture and the media, unveiled a three-point strategy for a revamped German Film Law (Ffg) to be accompanied by two new financial instruments of a tax incentive and an investment obligation.
The incentive scheme would replace the existing German Federal Film Fund (Dfff) and German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf) which between them had provided around €166m in support to German and international projects in 2023, ranging from such international projects as Nine Perfect Strangers...
- 2/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister for culture and media (Bkm), has unveiled her long-awaited plan to overhaul the country’s film funding system, which includes the introduction of a 30% tax incentive and an investment obligation for streamers.
The changes to the German Film Law (Ffg) should come into effect at the beginning of 2025 once they have been passed by the Bundestag.
The proposals would see the German Federal Film Board’s (Ffa) brief being extended to oversee the film funding programme now administered by Roth’s ministry. The Ffa’s funding for production, distribution and exhibition would be allocated automatically in future.
The changes to the German Film Law (Ffg) should come into effect at the beginning of 2025 once they have been passed by the Bundestag.
The proposals would see the German Federal Film Board’s (Ffa) brief being extended to oversee the film funding programme now administered by Roth’s ministry. The Ffa’s funding for production, distribution and exhibition would be allocated automatically in future.
- 2/14/2024
- ScreenDaily
Battered by disappointing markets at Toronto and AFM, both of which were held under the shadow of the actors strike, buyers and sellers are looking to Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM), which runs Feb. 15-21, to re-energize the indie business. The outlook, coming out of Sundance, is good.
“The difference in Sundance from last year to this was extreme, there were a lot more deals being down, both by distributors and streamers,” says Janina Vislmaier, head of sales at Protagonist Pictures, which screened The Outrun with Saoirse Ronan and Sasquatch Sunset with Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg in Park City, both of which will screen at the EFM. “Everyone is really excited ahead of Berlin, especially because all the buyers are back, including from Asia, which is a really good sign.”
The end of the SAG and WGA strikes hasn’t, yet, delivered the flood of new projects and packages many had predicted,...
“The difference in Sundance from last year to this was extreme, there were a lot more deals being down, both by distributors and streamers,” says Janina Vislmaier, head of sales at Protagonist Pictures, which screened The Outrun with Saoirse Ronan and Sasquatch Sunset with Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg in Park City, both of which will screen at the EFM. “Everyone is really excited ahead of Berlin, especially because all the buyers are back, including from Asia, which is a really good sign.”
The end of the SAG and WGA strikes hasn’t, yet, delivered the flood of new projects and packages many had predicted,...
- 2/13/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Veteran German film and TV executive Dirk Schweitzer has left his position as CEO of producer/distributor Splendid Medien and has taken over as CEO of Mmc Group, the parent company of Cologne’s Mmc Studios.
Björn Siecken, former CFO at Splendid, will join Schweitzer as CFO of Mmc. Nico Roden will stay on as managing director of Mmc Studios, who run the Cologne backlot, and Bastie Griese will remain managing director of production division Mmc Movies, working together with Schweitzer to expand the company’s film and TV operations nationally and internationally.
Former Splendid boss Andreas Klein, son of company founder Albert E. Klein, has returned to run the company as CEO. Schweitzer took over operations at Splendid from Klein in 2020, with Klein continuing as an advisor to the company. Schweizer joined Splendid in 2013 from producer/distributor Tele-München Group, where he was managing director. Before that, he spent 10 years...
Björn Siecken, former CFO at Splendid, will join Schweitzer as CFO of Mmc. Nico Roden will stay on as managing director of Mmc Studios, who run the Cologne backlot, and Bastie Griese will remain managing director of production division Mmc Movies, working together with Schweitzer to expand the company’s film and TV operations nationally and internationally.
Former Splendid boss Andreas Klein, son of company founder Albert E. Klein, has returned to run the company as CEO. Schweitzer took over operations at Splendid from Klein in 2020, with Klein continuing as an advisor to the company. Schweizer joined Splendid in 2013 from producer/distributor Tele-München Group, where he was managing director. Before that, he spent 10 years...
- 2/12/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cph:Forum, the financing and co-production event on the industry programme of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, has selected new projects from the producers of Flee and Cow for its 2024 edition; and has refreshed its industry awards with six prizes.
Danish producer Signe Byrge Sorensen will participate with Freedom (working title), directed by Camilla Nielsson, who previously made Sundance 2021 title President about a challenger in Zimbabwe’s corrupt presidential elections.
Scroll down for the full list of Forum projects
Sorensen is CEO of Danish documentary production house Final Cut For Real, which has made films including The Killing Of A Journalist,...
Danish producer Signe Byrge Sorensen will participate with Freedom (working title), directed by Camilla Nielsson, who previously made Sundance 2021 title President about a challenger in Zimbabwe’s corrupt presidential elections.
Scroll down for the full list of Forum projects
Sorensen is CEO of Danish documentary production house Final Cut For Real, which has made films including The Killing Of A Journalist,...
- 2/8/2024
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Tilda Swinton, the Academy Award- and BAFTA Award-winning actress most recently seen in yet another indelible role in David Fincher’s Netflix hitman pic The Killer, has signed with CAA.
One of the most esteemed screen talents currently working, Swinton has, in her nearly four-decade career, established ongoing relationships with such renowned filmmakers as Bong Joon Ho, Wes Anderson, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Luca Guadagnino, Jim Jarmusch, Fincher, and Joanna Hogg, having made eight films at the start of her career with director Derek Jarman.
Best known for roles in such films as Michael Clayton, for which she won an Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, and We Need to Talk About Kevin, for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination, she also boasts credits including Orlando, I Am Love, Okja and The Chronicles of Narnia franchise, to name a few.
Swinton won the Venice Film Festival’s Best...
One of the most esteemed screen talents currently working, Swinton has, in her nearly four-decade career, established ongoing relationships with such renowned filmmakers as Bong Joon Ho, Wes Anderson, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Luca Guadagnino, Jim Jarmusch, Fincher, and Joanna Hogg, having made eight films at the start of her career with director Derek Jarman.
Best known for roles in such films as Michael Clayton, for which she won an Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, and We Need to Talk About Kevin, for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination, she also boasts credits including Orlando, I Am Love, Okja and The Chronicles of Narnia franchise, to name a few.
Swinton won the Venice Film Festival’s Best...
- 1/26/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Account of the German film-maker’s singular career takes in numerous starry admirers but also is a portrait of an existential disruptor
With pop-culture brand recognition like no other auteur, he walks the walk and talks the talk … in that inimitable voice. Werner Herzog – film-maker, visionary, adventurer and first among equals of the New German cinema – is now the subject of a highly enjoyable new documentary from Thomas von Steinaecker, who has assembled an A-list gallery of interviewees to talk about knowing or working with the great man; these include Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff, Nicole Kidman, Chloé Zhao, Joshua Oppenheimer, Robert Pattinson and many more.
The release of this film happens to coincide with Herzog’s autobiography Every Man for Himself and God Against All (which is also the original German title of his film The Enigma of Kasper Hauser) and I was a little disappointed that Radical Dreamer does...
With pop-culture brand recognition like no other auteur, he walks the walk and talks the talk … in that inimitable voice. Werner Herzog – film-maker, visionary, adventurer and first among equals of the New German cinema – is now the subject of a highly enjoyable new documentary from Thomas von Steinaecker, who has assembled an A-list gallery of interviewees to talk about knowing or working with the great man; these include Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff, Nicole Kidman, Chloé Zhao, Joshua Oppenheimer, Robert Pattinson and many more.
The release of this film happens to coincide with Herzog’s autobiography Every Man for Himself and God Against All (which is also the original German title of his film The Enigma of Kasper Hauser) and I was a little disappointed that Radical Dreamer does...
- 1/16/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Spoilers follow.
Jonathan Glazer's "The Zone of Interest" takes place mostly in a pristine, clean two-story home in the Polish countryside. It has a large, verdant lawn, an outsize greenhouse, and spacious bedrooms for the occupants' children. Its garden is well-maintained and regularly fertilized. They have a small pool, even, equipped with a waterslide. People come to visit the manse's occupants regularly, and everyone comments on how nice it is, and how proud they are of Rudolf (Christian Freidel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) for maintaining such a lovely estate.
Sharing a wall with the estate is the Auschwitz concentration camp. It's the early 1940s and the smokestacks are billowing, belching out the ashes of hundreds upon hundreds of murdered Jews. During the day, Rudolf has meetings with other Nazi generals, discussing the logistics of how to use furnaces to dispose of human beings more efficiently. The Hades...
Jonathan Glazer's "The Zone of Interest" takes place mostly in a pristine, clean two-story home in the Polish countryside. It has a large, verdant lawn, an outsize greenhouse, and spacious bedrooms for the occupants' children. Its garden is well-maintained and regularly fertilized. They have a small pool, even, equipped with a waterslide. People come to visit the manse's occupants regularly, and everyone comments on how nice it is, and how proud they are of Rudolf (Christian Freidel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) for maintaining such a lovely estate.
Sharing a wall with the estate is the Auschwitz concentration camp. It's the early 1940s and the smokestacks are billowing, belching out the ashes of hundreds upon hundreds of murdered Jews. During the day, Rudolf has meetings with other Nazi generals, discussing the logistics of how to use furnaces to dispose of human beings more efficiently. The Hades...
- 1/12/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Award-winning studio Neon has announced They Follow, the long awaited sequel to the modern horror classic It Follows (2014), from visionary writer/director David Robert Mitchell and starring Maika Monroe. Bloody Disgusting has learned that Monroe will reprise her role of Jay Height, which earned her an Empire Award® nomination for It Follows.
In the first movie, Monroe’s Jay Height is a young woman followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter. In 2024, the threat is now Everywhere.
Check out an early piece of poster art for They Follow below.
Neon will introduce the title to international buyers this week at AFM, with principal photography beginning in 2024. Neon will co-produce the film alongside Good Fear Content. Mitchell serves as a producer with Jake Weiner and Chris Bender of Good Fear Content, and the original producers of It Follows, David Kaplan, Erik Rommesmo, Rebecca Green, Laura Smith.
They Follow...
In the first movie, Monroe’s Jay Height is a young woman followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter. In 2024, the threat is now Everywhere.
Check out an early piece of poster art for They Follow below.
Neon will introduce the title to international buyers this week at AFM, with principal photography beginning in 2024. Neon will co-produce the film alongside Good Fear Content. Mitchell serves as a producer with Jake Weiner and Chris Bender of Good Fear Content, and the original producers of It Follows, David Kaplan, Erik Rommesmo, Rebecca Green, Laura Smith.
They Follow...
- 10/30/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Production start scheduled for early 2024. Plot details remain under wraps.
Neon’s new sales division led by Kristen Figeroid is launching worldwide sales at AFM this week on They Follow, David Robert Mitchell’s sequel to his 2014 cult horror It Follows, with Maika Monroe reprising her role.
Monroe returns as Jay Height, who in the original survived a supernatural curse transmitted by sexual contact. Neon CEO Tom Quinn distributed that film when he led RADiUS and it grossed approximately $15m in North America.
They Follow is scheduled to commence shooting in early 2024 and plot details remain under wraps. It is...
Neon’s new sales division led by Kristen Figeroid is launching worldwide sales at AFM this week on They Follow, David Robert Mitchell’s sequel to his 2014 cult horror It Follows, with Maika Monroe reprising her role.
Monroe returns as Jay Height, who in the original survived a supernatural curse transmitted by sexual contact. Neon CEO Tom Quinn distributed that film when he led RADiUS and it grossed approximately $15m in North America.
They Follow is scheduled to commence shooting in early 2024 and plot details remain under wraps. It is...
- 10/30/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
As visions of various 21st-century promises and perils alike converge upon us at once — from space travel to possible extraterrestrial contact to artificial intelligence to the looming societal threat posed by climate change — the science fiction genre finds itself at arguably its most urgent and crucial point in history. In recent years, the movies, in particular, have seen a kind of artistic renaissance for the genre, with various first-rate auteurs contemplating our technological future in works ranging from the moving to the thought-provoking to the brilliantly satirical.
In 2024, that renaissance will continue at full steam. The next year in film will bring us an incredibly vast and diverse range of new sci-fi flicks, whether coming from old savants like Bong Joon-ho, Denis Villeneuve, and Alex Garland, or genre debutants like Joshua Oppenheimer, Bruno Dumont, and even Francis Ford Coppola. Here, we've compiled a list of 19 upcoming science fiction films to...
In 2024, that renaissance will continue at full steam. The next year in film will bring us an incredibly vast and diverse range of new sci-fi flicks, whether coming from old savants like Bong Joon-ho, Denis Villeneuve, and Alex Garland, or genre debutants like Joshua Oppenheimer, Bruno Dumont, and even Francis Ford Coppola. Here, we've compiled a list of 19 upcoming science fiction films to...
- 9/23/2023
- by Leo Noboru Lima
- Slash Film
’No Me Llame Ternera’ features interview with a former leader of the Basque terrorist group Eta.
The San Sebastian Film Festival has rejected public calls for it to withdraw a Netflix documentary from its line-up that features an exclusive interview with a former leader of Basque terrorist group Eta.
Directed by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez, No Me Llame Ternera is set to open the festival’s Made in Spain section on September 22.
The documentary explores some of Eta’s decisive moments until it disbanded in 2018, and has an interview between Évole and Josu Urrutikoetxea, also known as Josu Ternera,...
The San Sebastian Film Festival has rejected public calls for it to withdraw a Netflix documentary from its line-up that features an exclusive interview with a former leader of Basque terrorist group Eta.
Directed by Jordi Évole and Màrius Sánchez, No Me Llame Ternera is set to open the festival’s Made in Spain section on September 22.
The documentary explores some of Eta’s decisive moments until it disbanded in 2018, and has an interview between Évole and Josu Urrutikoetxea, also known as Josu Ternera,...
- 9/13/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
The San Sebastian Film Festival has issued a statement standing by its decision to screen a Netflix-backed documentary about Josu Urrutikoetxea, the former leader of the Basque separatist militant group Eta.
The documentary entitled No me llame Ternera revolves around an exclusive interview between renowned Spanish journalist Jordi Évole and Urrutikoetxea, who goes by the nickname of Josu Ternera. The title translates as “Don’t call me Ternera”.
Over its 60-year history, Eta killed 883 people as part of its campaign to create a separate Basque state northern Spain and southwest France, before it was dissolved in 2018.
On the run for 16 years, Urrutikoetxea was arrested in France in May 2019 having been found guilty in absentia of being a member of a terror group. He was acquitted in a retrial in 2021 for lack of evidence.
The inclusion of No me llame Ternera as the opening film of San Sebastian’s Made...
The documentary entitled No me llame Ternera revolves around an exclusive interview between renowned Spanish journalist Jordi Évole and Urrutikoetxea, who goes by the nickname of Josu Ternera. The title translates as “Don’t call me Ternera”.
Over its 60-year history, Eta killed 883 people as part of its campaign to create a separate Basque state northern Spain and southwest France, before it was dissolved in 2018.
On the run for 16 years, Urrutikoetxea was arrested in France in May 2019 having been found guilty in absentia of being a member of a terror group. He was acquitted in a retrial in 2021 for lack of evidence.
The inclusion of No me llame Ternera as the opening film of San Sebastian’s Made...
- 9/12/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Former Sierra/Affinity sales head brings Laurel Charnetsky, Dan Stadnicki with her.
Neon has launched a sales division and brought on former Sierra/Affinity sales head Kristen Figeroid to lead the charge.
As president of international sales and distribution Figeroid will handle sales on the company’s production slate and third-party projects and leads a team featuring Laurel Charnetsky as VP, international acquisitions & operations, and Dan Stadnicki as manager, international sales & distribution.
Figeroid most recently served as managing director and EVP of sales & distribution at Sierra/Affinity and was expected to make a big move as that company’s owner eOne...
Neon has launched a sales division and brought on former Sierra/Affinity sales head Kristen Figeroid to lead the charge.
As president of international sales and distribution Figeroid will handle sales on the company’s production slate and third-party projects and leads a team featuring Laurel Charnetsky as VP, international acquisitions & operations, and Dan Stadnicki as manager, international sales & distribution.
Figeroid most recently served as managing director and EVP of sales & distribution at Sierra/Affinity and was expected to make a big move as that company’s owner eOne...
- 8/29/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Dublin-based company is a prolific Irish partner on international co-productions.
Irish production outfit and prolific international partner Wild Atlantic Pictures has appointed two ex-Screen Ireland executives to its fast-growing team.
Teresa McGrane, formerly deputy CEO at Screen Ireland, joins as chief operating office, and Dearbhla Regan, who was project manager at Screen Ireland until 2022 is the new head of film and talent development.
McGrane spent two decades at Screen Ireland where she played a key role in the development of policies and initiatives since 2001.
Regan most recently executive-produced Irish language Oscar nominee and box office success The Quiet Girl.
Irish production outfit and prolific international partner Wild Atlantic Pictures has appointed two ex-Screen Ireland executives to its fast-growing team.
Teresa McGrane, formerly deputy CEO at Screen Ireland, joins as chief operating office, and Dearbhla Regan, who was project manager at Screen Ireland until 2022 is the new head of film and talent development.
McGrane spent two decades at Screen Ireland where she played a key role in the development of policies and initiatives since 2001.
Regan most recently executive-produced Irish language Oscar nominee and box office success The Quiet Girl.
- 7/14/2023
- by Esther McCarthy
- ScreenDaily
Rarely a film “reinvents the wheel” when it comes to cinematic language, and, on top of that, does it to maximize the emotional impact. The documentary “The Act of Killing” by Joshua Oppenheimer and associates is one of such films. Although, production-wise, it is not an Asian film, it is so rooted in the context of Indonesia it could serve as a recommendation for the Movie of the Week here.
Oppenheimer first came to Indonesia to film parts of his 2003 video-documentary “The Globalisation Tapes”, but there he found a haunting story from the country's history and spent the greatest part of the following ten years working on the project. During the 60s, the tensions mounted between the left-leaning government lead by Sukarno and the army that resulted in a series of massacres of suspected communists, progressive intellectuals, syndicalists and members of the Chinese minority. Massacres were conducted by the military and the paramilitary forces,...
Oppenheimer first came to Indonesia to film parts of his 2003 video-documentary “The Globalisation Tapes”, but there he found a haunting story from the country's history and spent the greatest part of the following ten years working on the project. During the 60s, the tensions mounted between the left-leaning government lead by Sukarno and the army that resulted in a series of massacres of suspected communists, progressive intellectuals, syndicalists and members of the Chinese minority. Massacres were conducted by the military and the paramilitary forces,...
- 6/13/2023
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: Lennie James is leading and EPing a BBC adaptation of Girl, Woman, Other scribe Bernardine Evaristo’s Mr Loverman.
The Save Me star will play Barrington Jedidiah Walker, or Barry to his friends, a Caribbean-born life-and-soul personality living in Hackney who has been harboring a secret for years. Carmel, his wife of 50 years, knows Barry has been cheating on her, but when it emerges that the affair has been going on for decades with his male best friend, Morris, their marriage goes into meltdown. Now entering the next chapter of his life, Barry has big choices to make that will force his whole family to question their own futures.
Noughts + Crosses and The Outlaws scribe Nathaniel Price is penning the eight-parter, director is Hong Khaou (Baptiste) and production outfit is Fable Pictures, the Sony-backed indie that made Sarah Gavron’s Rocks. Sony Pictures Television is distributing globlly. More...
The Save Me star will play Barrington Jedidiah Walker, or Barry to his friends, a Caribbean-born life-and-soul personality living in Hackney who has been harboring a secret for years. Carmel, his wife of 50 years, knows Barry has been cheating on her, but when it emerges that the affair has been going on for decades with his male best friend, Morris, their marriage goes into meltdown. Now entering the next chapter of his life, Barry has big choices to make that will force his whole family to question their own futures.
Noughts + Crosses and The Outlaws scribe Nathaniel Price is penning the eight-parter, director is Hong Khaou (Baptiste) and production outfit is Fable Pictures, the Sony-backed indie that made Sarah Gavron’s Rocks. Sony Pictures Television is distributing globlly. More...
- 6/6/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
In its first acquisition at the Cannes Film Festival, Neon has picked up North American rights to director Pablo Berger’s animated feature “Robot Dreams” ahead of its world premiere in Cannes on Saturday.
The Spanish filmmaker of “Blancanieves” based his first animated feature on the award-winning graphic novel by Sara Varon. “Robot Dreams” screens Saturday in the Special Screenings section of the festival.
Neon previously scored three consecutive Palme d’Or wins with “Parasite,” “Titane” and “Triangle of Sadness.”
“Robot Dreams” is described as a “universal exploration of the importance and fragility of friendship.” It follows Dog, a New York canine who decides to build himself a robot companion. They become inseparable, to the rhythm of 1980s New York city, until the sad summer night when Dog is forced to abandon Robot at the beach.
Berger is also a producer on the film, alongside Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé, Sandra Tapia Diaz and Ángel Durández,...
The Spanish filmmaker of “Blancanieves” based his first animated feature on the award-winning graphic novel by Sara Varon. “Robot Dreams” screens Saturday in the Special Screenings section of the festival.
Neon previously scored three consecutive Palme d’Or wins with “Parasite,” “Titane” and “Triangle of Sadness.”
“Robot Dreams” is described as a “universal exploration of the importance and fragility of friendship.” It follows Dog, a New York canine who decides to build himself a robot companion. They become inseparable, to the rhythm of 1980s New York city, until the sad summer night when Dog is forced to abandon Robot at the beach.
Berger is also a producer on the film, alongside Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé, Sandra Tapia Diaz and Ángel Durández,...
- 5/17/2023
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary world premiered this weekend at Hot Docs in Toronto.
Berlin-based Films Boutique has launched international sales on leading Mexican filmmaker Everardo González’s latest documentary A Wolfpack Called Ernesto, which world premiered at the weekend at Hot Docs in Toronto.
Films Boutique has also co-produced the doc, which is backed by TelevisaUnivision’s Spanish language streamer ViX and N+ Docs, the documentary division of the Mexican news content producer N+. The film is supported by the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund.
A Wolfpack Called Ernesto focuses on the impact of gang violence on young people in Mexico City, with...
Berlin-based Films Boutique has launched international sales on leading Mexican filmmaker Everardo González’s latest documentary A Wolfpack Called Ernesto, which world premiered at the weekend at Hot Docs in Toronto.
Films Boutique has also co-produced the doc, which is backed by TelevisaUnivision’s Spanish language streamer ViX and N+ Docs, the documentary division of the Mexican news content producer N+. The film is supported by the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund.
A Wolfpack Called Ernesto focuses on the impact of gang violence on young people in Mexico City, with...
- 5/2/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
“Seven Winters in Tehran,” about a 19-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing the man who tried to rape her, will open the 34th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival on May 31 in New York City.
The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).
“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...
The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).
“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Neon has taken the North American rights to the Anne Hathaway-starring Sundance Film Festival premiere Eileen, from director William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth). The distributor is eyeing a fall theatrical release.
Oldroyd’s connection to Sundance began in 2013 when his short film Best won the Short Film Competition. Eilee has already notched 87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critics since its Park City debut in January.
Related Story ‘Eileen’ Sundance Film Review: This Is What Happens When Female Loneliness And Rage Collide Related Story Moses Ingram, Michael Shannon, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInerney & Lennie James Join Joshua Oppenheimer's Neon-Backed Musical 'The End' Related Story Michaela Coel And Anne Hathaway To Star In Pop Music Epic 'Mother Mary' For David Lowery And A24
The pic, based on the 2015 debut novel by Otessa Moshfegh, is set during a bitter 1964 Massachusetts winter, when young secretary Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) becomes...
Oldroyd’s connection to Sundance began in 2013 when his short film Best won the Short Film Competition. Eilee has already notched 87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critics since its Park City debut in January.
Related Story ‘Eileen’ Sundance Film Review: This Is What Happens When Female Loneliness And Rage Collide Related Story Moses Ingram, Michael Shannon, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInerney & Lennie James Join Joshua Oppenheimer's Neon-Backed Musical 'The End' Related Story Michaela Coel And Anne Hathaway To Star In Pop Music Epic 'Mother Mary' For David Lowery And A24
The pic, based on the 2015 debut novel by Otessa Moshfegh, is set during a bitter 1964 Massachusetts winter, when young secretary Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) becomes...
- 3/24/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Moses Ingram and Michael Shannon have joined Tilda Swinton and George MacKay in Joshua Oppenheimer’s musical The End for Neon.
The latest additions to the ensemble cast include Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, and Lennie James. Ingram has credits that includes Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, playing Inquisitor Reva on Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and she starred in Apple’s Lady in the Lake with Natalie Portman.
Shannon recently starred opposite Jessica Chastain in Paramount Network’s limited series George and Tammy, and he recently wrapped his directorial debut Eric Larue, a film based on the Brett Neveu play of the same name.
Oppenheimer’s golden-age musical about the last human family is currently in production in Ireland, with Neon co-financing the international co-production. Additional production is set for Italy and Germany later this year.
Swinton and MacKay were previously announced to star in the musical.
“I am thrilled to...
The latest additions to the ensemble cast include Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, and Lennie James. Ingram has credits that includes Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, playing Inquisitor Reva on Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and she starred in Apple’s Lady in the Lake with Natalie Portman.
Shannon recently starred opposite Jessica Chastain in Paramount Network’s limited series George and Tammy, and he recently wrapped his directorial debut Eric Larue, a film based on the Brett Neveu play of the same name.
Oppenheimer’s golden-age musical about the last human family is currently in production in Ireland, with Neon co-financing the international co-production. Additional production is set for Italy and Germany later this year.
Swinton and MacKay were previously announced to star in the musical.
“I am thrilled to...
- 3/23/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Neon has unveiled a raft of cast additions for Joshua Oppenheimer’s musical The End as principal photography begins in Ireland.
The freshly-unveiled cast includes Moses Ingram, Michael Shannon, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, and Lennie James. They join previously announced lead actors Tilda Swinton and George MacKay.
Neon is co-financing the international co-production. The long-gestated project revolves around the story of the last human family.
Principal photography has begun in Ireland and will continue through the spring in Italy and Germany.
“I am thrilled to be making The End in collaboration with this miraculous ensemble of artists. I am in awe of each of them. It has been a journey of six years to reach this point, and I could not be more humbled,” said Oppenheimer.
Final Cut for Real’s Signe Byrge Sørensen and Oppenheimer are producing with Wild Atlantic Pictures, The Match Factory, Dorje Film, Moonspun Films and Anagram co-producing.
The freshly-unveiled cast includes Moses Ingram, Michael Shannon, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny, and Lennie James. They join previously announced lead actors Tilda Swinton and George MacKay.
Neon is co-financing the international co-production. The long-gestated project revolves around the story of the last human family.
Principal photography has begun in Ireland and will continue through the spring in Italy and Germany.
“I am thrilled to be making The End in collaboration with this miraculous ensemble of artists. I am in awe of each of them. It has been a journey of six years to reach this point, and I could not be more humbled,” said Oppenheimer.
Final Cut for Real’s Signe Byrge Sørensen and Oppenheimer are producing with Wild Atlantic Pictures, The Match Factory, Dorje Film, Moonspun Films and Anagram co-producing.
- 3/23/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSThe Act of Killing. Though he’s known for nonfiction, Joshua Oppenheimer just began production on a musical about the end of the world, fittingly called The End. Filming now in Dublin, it stars Tilda Swinton and George Mackay, via the production company’s website.After 23 years, A.O. Scott is stepping away from film criticism at the New York Times, transitioning to a new role as a critic at large for the Book Review. He conducts his own exit interview.In comedy news, Safdie muse and Razzie record-breaker Adam Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor this week in Washington, D.C.Finally, we’re thinking of the character actor Lance Reddick this week, who died suddenly last Friday at...
- 3/22/2023
- MUBI
Exclusive: Anonymous Content has hired longtime literary agent and former UTA partner Bec Smith as a partner and manager in their Los Angeles-based lit team. We revealed Smith’s impending exit from UTA last month.
The respected veteran has amassed a client roster including directors and writers such as Coline Abert, Levan Akin, Jane Anderson, Benedict Andrews, Emily Atef, Anthony Chen, Eva Husson, Ellen Kuras, Katrin Gebbe, Sebastian Junger, Julia Leigh, Phillip Noyce, Joshua Oppenheimer, Jennifer Peedom, Maria Schrader, Tali Shalom-Ezer, Dawn Shadforth, Kirsten Sheridan, Goran Stolevski, Warwick Thornton and Max Werner.
Related Story Shocker! Anonymous Content CEO Dawn Olmstead & COO Heather McCauley Resign; Protesting Settlement To Former Top Producer Keith Redmon? Related Story UTA Partner & Top Talent Agent Brian Swardstrom Leaving Agency For New Ventures; Will Produce With 'Nomadland's Peter Spears To Start Related Story UTA Signs Cecillia Aldarondo, Filmmaker Behind SXSW-Premiering Documentary 'You Were My First Boyfriend...
The respected veteran has amassed a client roster including directors and writers such as Coline Abert, Levan Akin, Jane Anderson, Benedict Andrews, Emily Atef, Anthony Chen, Eva Husson, Ellen Kuras, Katrin Gebbe, Sebastian Junger, Julia Leigh, Phillip Noyce, Joshua Oppenheimer, Jennifer Peedom, Maria Schrader, Tali Shalom-Ezer, Dawn Shadforth, Kirsten Sheridan, Goran Stolevski, Warwick Thornton and Max Werner.
Related Story Shocker! Anonymous Content CEO Dawn Olmstead & COO Heather McCauley Resign; Protesting Settlement To Former Top Producer Keith Redmon? Related Story UTA Partner & Top Talent Agent Brian Swardstrom Leaving Agency For New Ventures; Will Produce With 'Nomadland's Peter Spears To Start Related Story UTA Signs Cecillia Aldarondo, Filmmaker Behind SXSW-Premiering Documentary 'You Were My First Boyfriend...
- 3/22/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
First announced back in the fall of 2021, one of our most-anticipated films in development is The End, a narrative feature from The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence director Joshua Oppenheimer. Starring Tilda Swinton and George MacKay, it’s described as a “Golden Age musical about the last human family,” and now with production getting underway in Ireland, we have more new details about the project.
“I’m the mother in basically the richest family on the planet. The father has been at the forefront of engineering the destruction of the biosphere, and they’ve lived for the last 20-something years in a bunker underneath Middle America, which is like Versailles,” Swinton told W Magazine, while also revealing at her SXSW keynote last weekend she’s headed from Austin to Dublin to begin production.
Courtesy of the production company’s site, it’s also been revealed that cinematographer...
“I’m the mother in basically the richest family on the planet. The father has been at the forefront of engineering the destruction of the biosphere, and they’ve lived for the last 20-something years in a bunker underneath Middle America, which is like Versailles,” Swinton told W Magazine, while also revealing at her SXSW keynote last weekend she’s headed from Austin to Dublin to begin production.
Courtesy of the production company’s site, it’s also been revealed that cinematographer...
- 3/21/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Apx Group, a New York-, Los Angeles- and London-based film, media and entertainment fund owned by a group of private financiers from the U.S., Italy, Spain and the U.K., has struck a joint venture agreement with London documentary producer Spring Films (Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing, Andre Singer‘s Night Will Fall, Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds).
The partners said on Thursday that they would invest in new productions over the next five years. “The joint venture will look to develop and produce new and breakthrough content,” they said. “The parties also see this agreement as an opportunity to curate a valuable library of unique content that will have the potential for global distribution.”
Spring has made documentaries for the likes of Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO, the BBC and Sky and earned two Oscar nominations.
Apx, led by global CEO Shelley Hammond, is planning a public...
The partners said on Thursday that they would invest in new productions over the next five years. “The joint venture will look to develop and produce new and breakthrough content,” they said. “The parties also see this agreement as an opportunity to curate a valuable library of unique content that will have the potential for global distribution.”
Spring has made documentaries for the likes of Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO, the BBC and Sky and earned two Oscar nominations.
Apx, led by global CEO Shelley Hammond, is planning a public...
- 3/16/2023
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tilda Swinton returned to the SXSW Film & TV stage for the first time in nine years, and in it she shared profound ideas about ambition, about why she hesitates to call herself an “actor,” about the joy of returning to public places after the pandemic. But the real burning question of the afternoon, and the one that really got Swinton going, was a question about a viral video.
If you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a treat. Swinton last year went viral for a reaction of her fangirling to a barista’s latte art. She was astonished, and didn’t stop being astonished for a solid 30 minutes. Watch it below.
During her keynote panel on Monday in conversation with Sundance director Eugene Hernandez, Swinton was asked via an online audience question about her reaction to seeing her face in a foamy cup of coffee: “The purity of...
If you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a treat. Swinton last year went viral for a reaction of her fangirling to a barista’s latte art. She was astonished, and didn’t stop being astonished for a solid 30 minutes. Watch it below.
During her keynote panel on Monday in conversation with Sundance director Eugene Hernandez, Swinton was asked via an online audience question about her reaction to seeing her face in a foamy cup of coffee: “The purity of...
- 3/13/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
George MacKay is virtually unrecognizable in the erotic revenge thriller “Femme,” directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping. With slicked-back hair and a heavy-handed neck tattoo, the dashing, soft-spoken British actor, well known for his period roles, is transformed into the kind of East London gangster you’d go out of your way to avoid.
Part of what makes MacKay’s character, Preston, so menacing is the fact that he’s deeply closeted. When one night he’s teased in front of his friends by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s drag artist Jules — dressed up as Aphrodite Banks — he responds with violence so severe that it shatters Jules’ confidence to ever perform in drag again. The attack emboldens Jules to ensnare an unwitting Preston in an intense sexual relationship with the intention of outing him on the Internet.
It’s not only Jules’ character who trades in drag, explains MacKay.
Part of what makes MacKay’s character, Preston, so menacing is the fact that he’s deeply closeted. When one night he’s teased in front of his friends by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s drag artist Jules — dressed up as Aphrodite Banks — he responds with violence so severe that it shatters Jules’ confidence to ever perform in drag again. The attack emboldens Jules to ensnare an unwitting Preston in an intense sexual relationship with the intention of outing him on the Internet.
It’s not only Jules’ character who trades in drag, explains MacKay.
- 2/19/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: UTA partner Bec Smith, a company vet of 16 years, is leaving the agency, we can reveal.
Working in the Motion Picture Literary department, the respected Australian native has built a strong internationally-oriented client list (some of whom she has worked with since their first short films) including Garth Davis, Maria Schrader, Goran Stolevski, Oliver Hermanus, Joshua Oppenheimer, Warwick Thornton, Na Hong-Jin, Eva Husson, Emily Atef, Agnieszka Holland, Phillip Noyce, Ellen Kuras, Benedict Andrews, James Ponsoldt, Anthony Chen, Levan Akin, Katrin Gebbe and Andor director Ariel Kleiman.
We hear Smith is likely to segue to management — there has been interest from multiple companies over the years — where she will be able to flex her producorial instincts. Most of her clients are expected to follow.
The timeline for her departure from UTA is understood to be in the 4-6 week range.
Smith’s exit from UTA coincides with a layer of layoffs at the agency.
Working in the Motion Picture Literary department, the respected Australian native has built a strong internationally-oriented client list (some of whom she has worked with since their first short films) including Garth Davis, Maria Schrader, Goran Stolevski, Oliver Hermanus, Joshua Oppenheimer, Warwick Thornton, Na Hong-Jin, Eva Husson, Emily Atef, Agnieszka Holland, Phillip Noyce, Ellen Kuras, Benedict Andrews, James Ponsoldt, Anthony Chen, Levan Akin, Katrin Gebbe and Andor director Ariel Kleiman.
We hear Smith is likely to segue to management — there has been interest from multiple companies over the years — where she will be able to flex her producorial instincts. Most of her clients are expected to follow.
The timeline for her departure from UTA is understood to be in the 4-6 week range.
Smith’s exit from UTA coincides with a layer of layoffs at the agency.
- 2/16/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Documentary filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont won a Peabody Award in 2017 for “The Distant Barking of Dogs,” which focused on a young boy living in the Ukraine with his grandmother during wartime. When Wilmont learned that she was deathly ill, he wanted to know: What might become of that boy? He began visiting orphanages near the Ukrainian frontline and quickly learned: The institutions were too big, too much the same. Except for one.
“There was such a different feeling,” the Danish director told me on Zoom. “There was a carpet on the floor, and it was worn out. The paint on the walls was old and chipped, but there were kids’ drawings hanging on the wall. And in one of the rooms nearby, I could see an elderly lady trying to teach some of the girls music. A lot of small kids were running around in chaos and laughing and chasing...
“There was such a different feeling,” the Danish director told me on Zoom. “There was a carpet on the floor, and it was worn out. The paint on the walls was old and chipped, but there were kids’ drawings hanging on the wall. And in one of the rooms nearby, I could see an elderly lady trying to teach some of the girls music. A lot of small kids were running around in chaos and laughing and chasing...
- 2/8/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
We will update these predictions throughout awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2023 Oscar picks. Final voting is March 2 through 7, 2023. The 95th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 12 and air live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. Et/ 5:00 p.m. Pt.
See IndieWire’s previous Oscars Predictions for this category and more here.
State of the Race
Because the much-enlarged documentary branch sees all fifteen shortlisted films when they pick their nominees for Best Documentary Feature, it wasn’t a surprise that a film that was not widely lauded on the awards circuit would sneak into the final five. Danish filmmaker Simon Lerent Wilmont’s Sundance World Cinema directing winner “A House Made of Splinters” was the surprise on Oscar nominations morning. Produced by Joshua Oppenheimer’s team behind “Flee,” the touching film goes inside a home for neglected children anxiously awaiting court custody decisions,...
See IndieWire’s previous Oscars Predictions for this category and more here.
State of the Race
Because the much-enlarged documentary branch sees all fifteen shortlisted films when they pick their nominees for Best Documentary Feature, it wasn’t a surprise that a film that was not widely lauded on the awards circuit would sneak into the final five. Danish filmmaker Simon Lerent Wilmont’s Sundance World Cinema directing winner “A House Made of Splinters” was the surprise on Oscar nominations morning. Produced by Joshua Oppenheimer’s team behind “Flee,” the touching film goes inside a home for neglected children anxiously awaiting court custody decisions,...
- 1/30/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
As we do every year, after we’ve unveiled our massive top list for the upcoming year (check out our Top 200) we like to shake the magic eight ball and peer into the future and what we find are likes of Jacques Audiard, Kantemir Balagov, Audrey Diwan, Fabrice Du Welz, Valeska Grisebach, Payal Kapadia, Dea Kulumbegashvili, Joshua Oppenheimer, Lynne Ramsay and Kirill Serebrennikov.
…...
…...
- 1/30/2023
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
You are first struck by the sweeping drones shots of devastatingly beautiful landscapes in Nicholas Jones’ A Greenlander only for those stunning visuals to be surpassed by the extraordinary story of the man in front of the camera. A documentary which only came to fruition through the sheer perseverance and determination of Jones who, after a series of barely conceivable setbacks, found his magnetic subject and was able to turn his dedicated legwork into a tangible project. The making of A Greenlander could itself be a film, after an initial failed attempt to crack the almost impenetrable surface of the locals and land, Jones went through several iterations of the film before concentrating on the life of Pierre André Auzias. His impassioned battle to stay in his beloved Greenland is tenderly captured and through Jones’ considered cinematography we witness the passionate care and love he has for his chosen home...
- 12/21/2022
- by Sarah Smith
- Directors Notes
How did this emotional sketch become a movie? Tilda Swinton and Joanna Hogg, born on March 20, 1960 in London, England, UK and known for writing and directing The Souvenir (2019), The Souvenir: Part II (2021) and Unrelated (2007), all produced by Emma Norton of Jwh Films, are favored by the charmed circle of rich white seemingly heterosexual men like Martin Scorsese (Sikelia Productions), David Fenkel and Daniel Katz (A24), and British vet producer Ed Guiney (Element Pictures). This is all conjuncture on my part, as it was when I wrote about the deal behind Triangle of Sadness, but the sketchiness of this and the formulaic quality of Triangle, coupled with the stellar names of those involved in the production lead me to believe there was more to the making of the movie deal than there is to the movie itself. In The Eternal Daughter, these men have chosen to celebrate womanhood as expressed by a particular female filmmaker as she attempts to create a story about herself and her mother plus one kindly black bereaved man played by Joseph Mydell (there is a hint of something about slavery here) and a cold modern young woman played by Carly-Sophia Davies whose heart also melts at the pathos of the celebate and lonely filmmaker, who actually is not pathetic but apparently just creatively alive. Watch the trailer here and then watch the movie and judge for yourself: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13874422/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Together these men must have brought the film to Kristin Irving of the BBC where it got made, somewhat along the same lines as highly touted The Souvenir which landed BBC Films with funds from BFI Film Fund and was also produced by Jwh Films, again in association with Scorsese’s incubator Sikelia. This time Protagonist Pictures was the international sales agent and A24 only distributed in North America. Its sequel, The Souvenir Part II stars real-life mother and daughter Tilda Swinton and Honor Swinton Byrne, a conceit which perhaps gave life to the idea of another mother-and-daughter movie in which both roles are played by Tilda Swinton and which was made by the same team plus Ed Guiney of Element Pictures. A24 has now taken on both international sales and US rights. All of these films must have made 2 cents at the box office. What’s up? What is Tilda Swinton herself up to these days? Her previous film Three Thousand Years of Yearning by stalwart filmmaker George Miler sold to more interternational distributors in 2021 and 2022 than the Jwh films did, but it still must not have fared much better at the box office. (Read my blon on that here.) The short by Almodovar, The Human Voice, was a little gem, showing off Swinton’s accomplished acting skills as she enacted the remake of Cocteau’s The Human Voice under strict Covid protocols. But none of these reaches the new heights always expected of her…We’ll see what her next four films The End (pre-production) by Joshua Oppenheimer, Asteroid City (post-production) by Wes Anderson, The Killer (post-production) by David Fincher, and an Untitled Julio Torres Project (post-production) bring to the audiences who eagerly await whatever she does (count me among them). The Eternal Daughter has been described as a mystery drama and as a ghost story about “a middle-aged daughter and her elderly mother who confront long-buried secrets when they return to their former family home, a once-grand manor that has become a nearly vacant hotel brimming with mystery.” But there are no ghosts nor is there much of a mystery beyond why a mother and daughter have an eternal and universal tension between them, as most mothers and daughters do. Nor is the nearly vacant hotel ever revealed to be the ancestral home, nor is there much of a mystery about a banging shutter which keeps Tilda the daughter up at night. And whence cometh the acclaim of Joanna Hogg? Perhaps it was Covid. Dare I argue with the top film festivals and critics whom Rotten Tomatoes scored at 95%? Who are these critics? How many males among them? All Swinton has to do is attach her name to a project and it will be made — with male money. The film does truly touch emotions felt by every daughter trying to hard to please a mother who cannot express her own desires or her own heartfelt love for her daughter. But this situation makes the daughter seem pathetic except in her own creative mind as she grapples with the dilemna of The Eternal Duaghter. But what is the story here? That a writer’s imagination trumps reality? Are we so starved for emotional experiences that such a sketch brings us to tears? Am I horribly out of touch with the universe? Another film which touches this same raw nerve is Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun. Where have I gone wrong? Compare this to Eo, a film with no ersatz emotion and created to produce an emotion the director Jerzy Skolomowski had not felt since he saw Au Hasard Balthazar in 1966. Read my blog and his quotations. I am longing for the days of Angelopoulos, of Terence Davies or even Peter Greenaway. Give me hard art, not oblique emotional sketches, playing like the little musical phrase that Proust’s Swann held so dear as a reminder of his lost love. Postscript: An interesting article by Carlos Aguilar appeared in the LA Times shortly after I published this. It explains the long friendship between Tilda Swinton and Joanna Hogg. At first I thought it negated my negative take on the deal, but on second reading, I decided that it only added another tier to the dealmaking process which is that Tilda swings her own weight and can bring in her friend to the circle of dealmaking whereas before, Hogg remained in the background of the art film world.
- 12/18/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
To Israelis, it was the War of Independence. To Palestinians, it was the Nakba — the catastrophe. “Tantura,” from Israeli documentarian Alon Schwarz, begins with audio from the 1948 U.N. Declaration that led to the founding of Israel and the subsequent clearing of Arab populations from the region. While it aims to contextualize self-perpetuated myths of national glory, it focuses more specifically on the tiny Palestinian fishing village of Tantura, the site of an alleged massacre by the Idf, and one Israeli researcher’s squashed attempts to expose that history 50 — now almost 75 — years later.
Though it features brief moments of confrontation with elderly Israeli subjects — some of them soldiers who were present at the time — for its first hour. However, in the final stretch of its 85-minute runtime, this approach proves foundational for chilling revelations and quiet, cinematically self-evident questions about the way we remember history.
If “Tantura” is about one person,...
Though it features brief moments of confrontation with elderly Israeli subjects — some of them soldiers who were present at the time — for its first hour. However, in the final stretch of its 85-minute runtime, this approach proves foundational for chilling revelations and quiet, cinematically self-evident questions about the way we remember history.
If “Tantura” is about one person,...
- 12/1/2022
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Indiewire
Talent involved includes Joshua Oppenheimer, Tilda Swinton and Odessa Young.
Fourteen film and TV projects have received a combined £2.2m in funding through the latest round of international co-production funding from the UK Global Screen Fund (Gsf).
The biggest award of £250,000 has been given to Iceland-Ireland-uk-Belgium feature The Damned, which will shoot early next year. Protagonist Pictures is selling and executive producing the film.
Individual awards range between £250,000 to £95,000,
Scroll down for the full list.
Set on a remote fishing outpost in the 19th century, the psychological horror is written by Jamie Hannigan, will be directed by Icelandic-uk director Thordur Palsson,...
Fourteen film and TV projects have received a combined £2.2m in funding through the latest round of international co-production funding from the UK Global Screen Fund (Gsf).
The biggest award of £250,000 has been given to Iceland-Ireland-uk-Belgium feature The Damned, which will shoot early next year. Protagonist Pictures is selling and executive producing the film.
Individual awards range between £250,000 to £95,000,
Scroll down for the full list.
Set on a remote fishing outpost in the 19th century, the psychological horror is written by Jamie Hannigan, will be directed by Icelandic-uk director Thordur Palsson,...
- 11/21/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Thomas von Steinaecker first reached out to Werner Herzog in 2020 about making a documentary surveying the prolific director’s career. Von Steinaecker’s peers told him that he would never hear back from Herzog. Afterall Herzog had never met von Steinaecker. That was two years ago. In that time, von Steinaecker completed “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer.” The 103-minute feature documentary chronicles not just Herzog’s 60-year career, but also explores what makes Herzog tick as a filmmaker and as a human being.
German-born von Steinaecker discovered Herzog in his early teens when he turned on the television and watched “Aguirre, the Wrath of God.” From that moment on, von Steinaecker was “fascinated” with the director.
“Everything about was shockingly different and strange,” he says. “The music, Klaus Kinski, the story and, last but not least, the documentary-style camera. The fact that such a film had been made in – from a...
German-born von Steinaecker discovered Herzog in his early teens when he turned on the television and watched “Aguirre, the Wrath of God.” From that moment on, von Steinaecker was “fascinated” with the director.
“Everything about was shockingly different and strange,” he says. “The music, Klaus Kinski, the story and, last but not least, the documentary-style camera. The fact that such a film had been made in – from a...
- 11/11/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The true American dream? A former Marine turned bankrupt pizzeria owner invents the modern-day bulletproof vest, and to prove its functionality, he shoots himself almost 200 times.
Sundance documentary “2nd Chance” is directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ramin Bahrani and charts the rise and fall of Richard Davis, the creator of the bulletproof vest. A hero to police and the military until tragedy brought him down, Davis offers an American story of guns, violence, lies and self-deception, the official synopsis reads. Starting back in the 1970s, Davis was viewed as an eccentric revolutionary whose decades-spanning career in weaponry culminated in self-taped videos (“Second Chance vs. Magnum Force” was already featured on RedLetterMedia’s “Best of the Worst”) and the pursuit of larger-than-life celebrity, especially among police.
“Initially when I had heard about it, I thought it was going to be a typical rise and fall story that had a moral,” writer-director Bahrani told IndieWire earlier this year.
Sundance documentary “2nd Chance” is directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ramin Bahrani and charts the rise and fall of Richard Davis, the creator of the bulletproof vest. A hero to police and the military until tragedy brought him down, Davis offers an American story of guns, violence, lies and self-deception, the official synopsis reads. Starting back in the 1970s, Davis was viewed as an eccentric revolutionary whose decades-spanning career in weaponry culminated in self-taped videos (“Second Chance vs. Magnum Force” was already featured on RedLetterMedia’s “Best of the Worst”) and the pursuit of larger-than-life celebrity, especially among police.
“Initially when I had heard about it, I thought it was going to be a typical rise and fall story that had a moral,” writer-director Bahrani told IndieWire earlier this year.
- 11/8/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Showtime Documentary Films and Bleecker Street will release “2nd Chance,” an upcoming documentary from director Ramin Bahrani, in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 2. The film will expand to additional cities on Dec. 9. Showtime will offer the doc on air, on streaming and on demand for its subscribers in spring 2023.
Bahrani’s feature-length documentary debut explores the life and legacy of Richard Davis, the charming and brash inventor of the modern-day, kevlar bulletproof vest, who shot himself 192 times to prove his product worked. Davis, who parlayed his self-tested invention into the launch of Second Chance — which became one of the largest body armor companies in the world — offers an American story of guns, violence, lies and self-deception. The death of a police officer wearing a Second Chance vest spearheaded Davis’ fall.
“I’m very happy to work with Showtime and Bleeker Street for the release,” said Bahrani.
Bahrani’s feature-length documentary debut explores the life and legacy of Richard Davis, the charming and brash inventor of the modern-day, kevlar bulletproof vest, who shot himself 192 times to prove his product worked. Davis, who parlayed his self-tested invention into the launch of Second Chance — which became one of the largest body armor companies in the world — offers an American story of guns, violence, lies and self-deception. The death of a police officer wearing a Second Chance vest spearheaded Davis’ fall.
“I’m very happy to work with Showtime and Bleeker Street for the release,” said Bahrani.
- 10/27/2022
- by EJ Panaligan
- Variety Film + TV
Showtime Documentary Films is partnering with Bleecker Street to give Ramin Bahrani’s Sundance darling “2nd Chance” a theatrical release later this year ahead of its debut on Showtime next spring.
“2nd Chance” is “The White Tiger” and “Chop Shop” filmmaker’s feature-length documentary debut and tells the story of Richard Davis, the man who invented the modern-day bulletproof vest and shot himself 192 times in order to prove to law enforcement and the military that his creation actually worked.
Bleecker will release the film in New York and Los Angeles beginning Friday, December 2; it will then expand to additional cities on Dec. 9, potentially thrusting it into the Oscar race. We do not yet have a Spring 2023 debut date from Showtime.
Bahrani in “2nd Chance” demonstrates that though Davis was a hero to police and the military, tragedy ultimately brought down his business empire following the death of a police officer...
“2nd Chance” is “The White Tiger” and “Chop Shop” filmmaker’s feature-length documentary debut and tells the story of Richard Davis, the man who invented the modern-day bulletproof vest and shot himself 192 times in order to prove to law enforcement and the military that his creation actually worked.
Bleecker will release the film in New York and Los Angeles beginning Friday, December 2; it will then expand to additional cities on Dec. 9, potentially thrusting it into the Oscar race. We do not yet have a Spring 2023 debut date from Showtime.
Bahrani in “2nd Chance” demonstrates that though Davis was a hero to police and the military, tragedy ultimately brought down his business empire following the death of a police officer...
- 10/27/2022
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Ramin Barhani’s 2nd Chance, the feature-length documentary that Showtime Documentary Films landed after its Sundance Film Festival premiere earlier this year, is now headed for theaters ahead of its TV debut next spring.
Showtime is teaming with Bleecker Street for the latter to release the pic beginning December 2 in New York and Los Angeles, before expanding it the following frame.
Related Story Showtime Takes Ramin Bahrani's Documentary '2nd Chance' – Sundance Related Story Bleecker Street Strikes Canadian Distribution Deal With LevelFILM As Toronto Gathers Steam Related Story Film Review: Regency-Era Rom-Com 'Mr. Malcolm's List'
The two companies already are in business together via a three-year output deal that began this year which gives Showtime access to Bleecker movies for on-air, on-demand and streaming premium services.
2nd Chance tells the story of Richard Davis, the charming yet brash inventor of the modern-day bulletproof vest who shot himself...
Showtime is teaming with Bleecker Street for the latter to release the pic beginning December 2 in New York and Los Angeles, before expanding it the following frame.
Related Story Showtime Takes Ramin Bahrani's Documentary '2nd Chance' – Sundance Related Story Bleecker Street Strikes Canadian Distribution Deal With LevelFILM As Toronto Gathers Steam Related Story Film Review: Regency-Era Rom-Com 'Mr. Malcolm's List'
The two companies already are in business together via a three-year output deal that began this year which gives Showtime access to Bleecker movies for on-air, on-demand and streaming premium services.
2nd Chance tells the story of Richard Davis, the charming yet brash inventor of the modern-day bulletproof vest who shot himself...
- 10/27/2022
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Conveyed with a majestic vision and reverence for the natural world, Shaunak Sen’s gorgeous, immersive documentary All That Breathes is one of the essential films of the year. Recently awarded the inaugural Indie Film Site Network Advocate Award, along with picking up much-deserved awards at Sundance and Cannes, the film follows two brothers—Nadeem and Saud—in New Delhi as they strive to protect the black kite birds amid a changing ecosystem.
On the day of the film’s U.S. theatrical opening at NYC’s Film Forum, I spoke with Sen about his cinematic vision, subverting environmental documentary tropes, what he learned from Joshua Oppenheimer, and the current journey of the brothers.
The Film Stage: To start out, can you discuss your unique approach to capturing environmental issues? There are no talking heads or infographics and by taking a very micro look at something, it makes it more universal in some ways.
On the day of the film’s U.S. theatrical opening at NYC’s Film Forum, I spoke with Sen about his cinematic vision, subverting environmental documentary tropes, what he learned from Joshua Oppenheimer, and the current journey of the brothers.
The Film Stage: To start out, can you discuss your unique approach to capturing environmental issues? There are no talking heads or infographics and by taking a very micro look at something, it makes it more universal in some ways.
- 10/21/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Neon has closed a revolving credit facility with Comerica Bank and said it will use the capital to “aggressively” expand its production slate.
The company led by founder-ceo Tom Quinn didn’t disclose the amount but said it’s an expansion from the studio’s previous credit facility.
“Comerica is ecstatic to establish a relationship with Tom and the Neon team as they enter this new phase of exciting growth,” said Derek Riedel, SVP of Comerica Bank’s Entertainment Group. “The company has been a market leader since their formation and continues to acquire, produce and release dynamic films in the marketplace. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be their partner moving forward.”
The deal comes as Neon claimed its third consecutive Palme d’Or (following Parasite and Titane) for Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness,...
The company led by founder-ceo Tom Quinn didn’t disclose the amount but said it’s an expansion from the studio’s previous credit facility.
“Comerica is ecstatic to establish a relationship with Tom and the Neon team as they enter this new phase of exciting growth,” said Derek Riedel, SVP of Comerica Bank’s Entertainment Group. “The company has been a market leader since their formation and continues to acquire, produce and release dynamic films in the marketplace. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be their partner moving forward.”
The deal comes as Neon claimed its third consecutive Palme d’Or (following Parasite and Titane) for Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness,...
- 10/11/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Neon has closed a deal on a revolving credit facility with Comerica Bank, the distributor announced Tuesday. The deal is intended to help the “Moonage Daydream” aggressively expand its production slate and build on its core film business.
This deal with Comerica is also an expansion of a previous revolving credit facility that Neon set with Mufg Union Bank in 2020. There was also a report from this summer that Neon would be exploring a sale after its rival A24 recently sold a minority stake for 225 million.
“Comerica is ecstatic to establish a relationship with Tom and the Neon team as they enter this new phase of exciting growth,” said Derek Riedel, SVP of Comerica Bank’s Entertainment Group, in a statement. “The company has been a market leader since their formation and continues to acquire, produce and release dynamic films in the marketplace. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be their partner moving forward.
This deal with Comerica is also an expansion of a previous revolving credit facility that Neon set with Mufg Union Bank in 2020. There was also a report from this summer that Neon would be exploring a sale after its rival A24 recently sold a minority stake for 225 million.
“Comerica is ecstatic to establish a relationship with Tom and the Neon team as they enter this new phase of exciting growth,” said Derek Riedel, SVP of Comerica Bank’s Entertainment Group, in a statement. “The company has been a market leader since their formation and continues to acquire, produce and release dynamic films in the marketplace. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be their partner moving forward.
- 10/11/2022
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
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