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Manchester Film Festival Unveils Industry Programme

Exclusive: Over 20 industry experts will travel to North-West England for the Manchester Film Festival, running March 16-17. Confirmed speakers include Amy O’Hara, Siobhan Morgan, Kate O’Hara, Anu Henriques, Ben Taylor, and Phil Guy (Director of UK Marketing at Mubi). Filmmakers, writers, and creatives set to feature include Terri White (screenwriter: Coming Undone), Margot Douglas (Old Hall Films), Sam Oldknow (disability consultant and producer), and Carl Woods (Director: My Everest). Feature panels for the event include ‘Marketing and Selling Your Film,’ ‘Development and Production,’ ‘Making Filmmaking Accessible,’ ‘Screenwriting’ and ‘From Short to Feature.’ Industry Passes are priced at £65 ($78) and include access to the entire Manchester Film Festival, including all film screenings and after-parties.

Prime Video Signs Up To UK Content...

Shades of Blue creator Adi Hasak didn’t mince his words when discussing the state of U.S. television at the EFM’s Berlinale Series Market today.

“America is a disaster zone right now,” he said during a panel on entrepreneurial showrunners. “Nothing is working.”

His comments come after a bruising year in the U.S., where most major media companies have been forced into layoffs and some have engaged in content write downs that the creative community has taken hard.

Hasak – best known for creating the Jennifer Lopez-starring NBC drama — also took aim at Disney, noting it has just laid off 7,000 staff and claiming its current strategy is akin to “a mental breakdown.”

“Everyone thought Disney was genius to buy Fox and now it’s all revisionist – ‘they overpaid for it.’ People freaked out because Disney can’t launch any of their shows, but they’re making the...

George Trumbull Miller, the director of The Man From Snowy River and The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, has died of a heart attack. He was 79.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported the news of the Australian filmmaker’s death on Saturday. No details of the day he died have been shared at this time.

Miller rose to prominence in the 1980s with his massive hit The Man From Snowy River, starring Kirk Douglas. To this day, the Western still has a place on Australia’s list of top 20 grossing films of all time in unadjusted terms. It made 17.2 million locally then, which equals about 68 million in today’s world.

After becoming one of his home country’s most commercially successful filmmakers, the Scottish-born director made his way to Hollywood, where he helmed The NeverEnding Story II, Christmas movie In the Nick of Time and family movie Zeus and Roxanne,...

Australian film and television director George Miller has died of a heart attack in a hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He was 79.

He is best remembered for his film The Man From Snowy River, which launched him to make movies in Hollywood,

Unfortunately, Miller was destined to always be known as “the other George Miller.” That’s because he worked at the same time as the creator of the Mad Max franchise, Dr. George Miller.

Early in his career, Miller worked on the Australian television shows Division 4, Matlock Police, The Box, and The Sullivans. The boom in TV miniseries saw him take on the colonial-era Against the Wind, starring pop singer Jon English.

George T. (for Trumbull) Miller’s The Man From Snowy River was released in 1982 and spawned a sequel. It is still in the top 20 Australian films in unadjusted terms.

That led him to Hollywood, where he made...

George Trumbull Miller, an Australian film and television director whose most notable credits include “The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter” and “The Man From Snowy River,” died of a heart attack in a hospital in Melbourne. He was 79 years old.

Miller’s death was confirmed by the Sydney Morning Herald. No details regarding a date of death are available at this time.

Miller reached national prominence for his 1982 Western “The Man From Snowy River,” starring Kirk Douglas. The film grossed 17.2 million in Australia and reached more than 20 million worldwide, inspiring a sequel as well as an arena attraction. More than 40 years on, “Man From Snowy River” remains one of the top 20 highest grossing local productions in the history of the Australian box office.

Coincidentally, George T. Miller’s rise as a filmmaker closely paralleled that of his fellow Australian, “Mad Max” director George Miller.

“He was very kind to me,...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.

Today we bring in the great Mitchell Beaupre to discuss our final Listener’s Choice ‘22 pick: Cameron Diaz. Our B-Sides are: The Last Supper, The Invisible Circus, The Box, and Gambit.

We chat about Diaz’s underrated range, her penchant for taking risks, the stratospheric, star-making entrance in her first movie The Mask, and the similarities she shares with recent B-Side subject Michelle Pfeiffer.

Mitchell, Conor, and I discuss how weirdly great Any Given Sundayis (and how great Diaz is in it!), how well those Charlie’s Angels movies have aged, and that whole Green Hornet moment.

For more from The B-Side, you can check out highlights of actors/directors and the films discussed in one place here.

Be...

The figure of the selfless teacher with an idealist mindset about education has abundant onscreen representation. Of these, Edward James Olmos’ lively, Oscar-nominated portrayal of Jaime Escalante, who taught math to marginalized teens at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, in “Stand and Deliver,” serves as quintessential example of these admirable paladins of knowledge in American popular culture.

In the well-intentioned drama “Radical,” Eugenio Derbez boasts similar, if more subdued charisma as unorthodox elementary teacher Sergio Chavez. This documented in a Wired article by Joshua Davis (also a producer here), marks the Sundance return of director Christopher Zalla, whose 2007 debut “Padre Nuestro” won the top jury prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition.

The role plays to the Mexican actor’s comedic strengths, seen most recently in the Best Picture winner “Coda,” where he played an equally caring music instructor, but this time with an earnest edge...

Click here to read the full article.

Tony Barry, the veteran Australian film and television actor who starred in cult Kiwi comedy Goodbye Pork Pie and had a long-running role in the television drama series The Time of Our Lives, has died. He was 81.

Barry’s friend, the New Zealand filmmaker Gaylene Preston, wrote on Facebook that the actor had died in Murwillumbah, Australia after a long illness. “He was one of a kind. A fierce fighter for the underdog, working for indigenous rights and as part of rehabilitation [programs] in the justice system and for the environment,” Preston wrote.

“Tony Barry gone – lovely man, terrific actor and hero of mine. Sad today,” tweeted Sam Neill who starred with Barry in Michael Blakemore’s Country Life.

Born on Aug. 28, 1941, in Queensland, Australia, Barry made his screen debut in 1968 in the television series Skippy: the Bush Kangaroo, which he followed with appearances...

Venezuelan filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas’ third feature The Box debuted in competition at the 2021 Venice Film Festival and has been selected as Venezuela’s entry for the 2023 Oscars. The film follows Hatzin, a young teenager who travels to collect his father’s remains from a communal grave in northern Mexico. But after a casual encounter with a man who resembles his late father, he is sucked into the underbelly of Mexico’s manufacturing industry.

During Deadline’s Contenders Film: International panel, director Vigas said the film’s narrative inspiration came from a TV news report of a real-life family who traveled across Mexico to retrieve their dead relative.

Related: The Contenders International – Deadline’s Full Coverage

“I had this idea of what if this boy goes to this town and suddenly sees a man that is exactly like his father. That was the starting point for the film,” he said.

The Box...

The first calendar year to see the physical return of almost every major film festival since the pandemic, 2022 has been a huge morale booster for filmmakers from all around the globe. And now, with the third edition of Deadline’s Contenders Film: International kicking off Saturday at 8 a.m. Pt, that outreach expands even further: leaving a carbon-free footprint, our online event will showcase the myriad films that soared at Sundance, beguiled Berlin, captivated Cannes, thrilled Telluride, vitalized Venice and touched Toronto, all the while shining a spotlight on the must-see movies that might have flown under your radar.

Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.

Since submissions accepted for the Best International Feature Film Oscar category continue to grow — up by something like 30 from just 10 years ago, buoyed no doubt by the boundary-breaking success of 2019’s Parasite — it is harder than ever before to see...

On the weekend after elections, there’s no better time to recognize that early numbers don’t always reflect final results. Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” (Universal) grossed 160,000 in four theaters, for a 40,000 per-theater average. That isn’t impressive at first glance, but recent precedent — from the same studio, using the same distribution strategy — suggests that could change.

Platform films initially focus on creating word of mouth, particularly in awards-sensitive New York and Los Angeles. Compared to many other platform releases, “Fabelmans” fell short. However, in 2018 “Green Book” opened in 25 theaters to 320,000, or about 13,000 per theater. The PTA at its four New York/Los Angeles locations skewed higher, with 25,000. At the end of a very long run, it grossed 85 million domestic.

Like “Green Book,” Spielberg’s film won the often Oscar-predictive audience prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. “The Fabelmans” bona fides include an 86 Metacritic score, the best for any studio release this year,...

When people think of the term “Oscar-bait,” there are many adjectives that come to their mind: formulaic, stale, cookie-cutter, generic, by-the-numbers.

“Oscar-bait” has a negative connotation to it because it describes a movie that is specifically made to please a certain demographic (in this case Oscar voters), leading to a movie that is both emotionally manipulative and has very little to say about anything beyond surface-level observations.

That’s why it is so ironic that this film is titled The Box because it felt exactly like an Oscar-bait film – it is, indeed, Venezuela’s 2023 Best Foreign Picture Academy Award submission – that fits very neatly in a safe, cookie-cutter box, resulting in a story that is both emotionally manipulative and has nothing deep to say about its subject matter.

The Box, a film directed by Lorenzo Vigas, stars Hernán Mendoza and Hatzín Oscar Navarrete. The film tells the story of a...

Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their film. Lorenzo Vigas's The Box is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries—including the United States, United Kingdom, India, Turkey, Germany, Ireland, and Canada—starting November 11, 2022, in the series The New Auteurs.Inspiration #1Mouchette by Robert BressonRobert Bresson's work has influenced me because it goes against the established norm within the cinematographic narrative. Bresson moves away from the usual tools of manipulation and seeks to convey emotion through pure cinematic language. Actors should not convey emotion through their performances; rather, as a result of the cinematographic narrative, the viewer comes to feel the emotional movement of the actors. The individual shot should not convey beauty, but the sum of them together is what should achieve meaning. The work is the sum of all its elements and none of them should stand out.

Roddy Ricch is fed up with the “harassment” he’s faced at the hands of the Vancouver border patrol, and says he probably won’t be returning to Canada “anytime soon.”

The Compton-based rapper was slated to support Post Malone on his Twelve Carat Tour on Sunday in Vancouver, but says he was blocked at the border, noting this isn’t the first time he’s been harassed by Canada’s border officers.

Read More: Roddy Ricch Reveals He Spoke To Grammys About Lil Baby And Lil Uzi Vert Nominations

“The Federal Border Patrol did not allow me into Vancouver, BC,” Ricch said in an Instagram Story on Sunday. “I apologize to my fans. I don’t believe I’ll be revisiting Canada anytime soon because they’ve harassed me every time I’ve come and Imma be completely honest, I’m tired of the harassment.”

Rapper Roddy Ricch posts...

Father Knows Best: Vigas Caps His Father/Son Trilogy with Blunt Brutality

In his long-gestating follow-up to 2014 Golden Lion winner From Afar, Venezuela’s Lorenzo Vigas caps his thematic paternity-themed trilogy with The Box, a title meant to reflect the banal packaging of terrible events transpired and to follow. Vigas coldly ponders a situation as if from afar himself, distanced from violence and murder as if they’re normal, everyday events, which instills a sense of chilly terror. As such, it’s a film much harder to get into than his previous work, where there were at least begrudging moments of authentic kindness providing respite.…...

Watch the trailer for Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas’s The Box (La caja) ahead of the film’s stateside release via Mubi. The film focuses on an adolescent boy named Hatzín from Mexico City, whose father’s corpse was recently discovered amid a mass grave in the country’s vast northern territory. On his way back to the capital after identifying the remains, he is shocked when he comes across a man who bears a striking resemblance to his dad. The boy quickly enmeshes himself in the man’s life—who denies any possible paternal relation—increasingly convinced that the body in […]

The post Trailer Watch: Lorenzo Vigas’s The Box first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Watch the trailer for Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas’s The Box (La caja) ahead of the film’s stateside release via Mubi. The film focuses on an adolescent boy named Hatzín from Mexico City, whose father’s corpse was recently discovered amid a mass grave in the country’s vast northern territory. On his way back to the capital after identifying the remains, he is shocked when he comes across a man who bears a striking resemblance to his dad. The boy quickly enmeshes himself in the man’s life—who denies any possible paternal relation—increasingly convinced that the body in […]

The post Trailer Watch: Lorenzo Vigas’s The Box first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

You sometimes have to ask yourself why certain films are worthy of a competition slot at a major festival. If a certain set of themes and aesthetics are required for serious consideration by the powers that be, it’s hard not to see a number of art films as part of an infrastructure not so dissimilar to the comic book movie industry. And not to sound like a befuddled middlebrow American trade critic encountering Taiwanese New Wave for the first time at a mid-90s edition of Cannes when I ask: is there simply no consideration for either entertaining audiences or even challenging the so-called more sophisticated ticket-buyers’ pre-conceived notions about art cinema?

Sadly, the kind of film that makes one think such things is The Box, Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas’ follow-up to his Golden Lion-winning From Afar (thus asserting more festival berths for years to come). Certainly touching on...

As the sun sets on the 2022 film festival season and we head into awards season, we are starting to see many of the films screened making their theatrical and streaming debuts. One of the well-received films we have listed as a 2023 Oscars shortlist contender is “The Box” (previously titled “La Caja”).

“The Box,” tells the story of Hatzín, an orphaned teenager who lives in Mexico City with his grandmother.

Continue reading ‘The Box’ Exclusive Trailer: An Emotional Story Of A Boy Who Desperately Wants A Father at The Playlist.

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including new restorations of Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom I & II ahead of the third installment beginning to roll out right after Thanksgiving. Additional highlights include Christos Nikou’s Apples, Lorenzo Vigas’ The Box, Paweł Łozińsk’s The Balcony Movie, and Antonio Marziale’s short Starfuckers, along with films by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Park Chan-wook, Lucrecia Martel, and more.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

November 1 – A Married Woman, directed by Jean-Luc Godard | For Ever Godard

November 2 – No Ordinary Man, directed by Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt | Portrait of the Artist

November 3 – Time to Love, directed by Metin Erksan | Rediscovered

November 4 – Apples, directed by Christos Nikou | Mubi Spotlight

November 5 – The Assassin, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien | Hou Hsiao-hsien: A Double Bill

November 6 – Daughter of the Nile, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien | Hou Hsiao-hsien: A Double Bill

November...

Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko is a true cult film. Having premiered at Sundance back in 2001, it was released to theatres via a small company called Newmarket Films, and given that it opened in the wake of 9/11, it came and went with nary a trace. In fact, the company came close to sending it direct-to-video, but in the end, Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, who had made Memento for the company, pushed them to give it a release. While it barely made any money in theaters, something interesting happened once it hit VHS/DVD – it started to sell – a lot. People would rent the movie, lured in by the intriguing cover art and the presence of Drew Barrymore and Jake Gyllenhaal (then best known for October Sky and Bubble Boy), and watch it over and over. Indeed, word began to spread through college campuses and online about this weird sci-fi flick set in the 80s,...

by Nathaniel R

The Hole In The Fence

Mexico has chosen their Oscar submission finalist list. We'd do a whole huge post on it but we suspect by the time we did they'd have named their winner and despite divisive reviews thus far we suspect they won't be able to resist sending Iñarritu again. As it stands now they're looking at three films we've already reviewed here at Tfe: Alejandro G Iñarritu's Bardo (False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths), Lorenz Vigas' very dark father/son drama The Box, and Joaquin del Paso's allegorical summer camp drama The Hole in the Fence. The other two they're looking at are the sexual drama Nudo Mixteco by Angeles Cruz and the thriller Presencias by Luis Mandoki. Among those filmmakers Inarritu and Mandoki (Innocent Voices) have represented Mexico before while Vigas's debut film, the gay drama From Afar, was sent to represent Venezuela in its year.

"This is wrong, we shouldn't be here." Uncork'd Ent has revealed an official trailer for an indie sci-fi thriller titled The Alternate, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Alrik Bursell. This originally premiered last year at a few small festivals and is landing on VOD in September if anyone is curious to find out what's going on with this intriguing story. Upon unlocking a portal to an alternate dimension where all his dreams have come true, struggling filmmaker Jake is forced to confront his own idealized self. The other dimension he discovers contains the perfect version of his life, but he "soon sees that his alternate is not as perfect as he seems, and perfection comes with a price." Of course, as always, this is the The Box fable all over again. The film stars Ed Gonzalez Moreno, Natalia Dominguez, and Syra McCarthy. This looks like some lo-fi indie sci-fi goodness,...

Lost And Found

“The House of the Lost on the Cape,” a Japanese animated movie which was an official selection at the recent Annecy festival will have a theatrical release in North America from Sept. 7. The film is to be distributed by Los Angeles-based Eleven Arts in association with Anime Expo and Iconic Events Releasing. It tells the story of two children who lose their home to a natural disaster and are taken in by a strange old woman. The roll-out begins in Los Angeles and New York and will expand to other cities.

The film is the directorial debut of Kawatsura Shinya and was written by Yoshida Reiko as an adaptation of the award-winning novel of the same title by Kashiwaba Sachiko. Animation work was headed by David Production. Earlier this year “Cape” also won the ‘best animation film’ prize at the 76th Annual Mainichi Film Awards.

Right And Roll

Crunchyroll,...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month and amongst the highlights is a tribute to Tilda Swinton, featuring I Am Love and a trio of early films: Cycling Frame, The Box, and Egomania: Island Without Hope. There’s also a handful of notable festival favorites and new releases from the past year or so, including Maureen Fazendeiro and Miguel Gomes’ The Tsugua Diaries, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Jane by Charlotte, Ted Fendt’s Outside Noise, Émilie Aussel’s Our Eternal Summer, and Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah’s Public Toilet Africa.

Also including films by Takashi Miike, Fatih Akin, Zhang Yimou, Albert Maysles, Andrew Dominik, Rick Alverson, and more check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

August 1 – Ichi the Killer, directed by Takashi Miike | Takashi Miike: A Double Bill

August 2 – Nest, directed by Hlynur Palmason | Brief Encounters

August 3 – Our Eternal Summer, directed by Émilie Aussel | Festival Focus:...

Berlin Golden Bear winner ‘Alcarràs’ among titles.

Sydney Film Festival (June 8-19) has revealed the 12 titles that will play in competition at its 69th edition.

The titles include Carla Simon’s Catalan family drama Alcarràs, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in February; Colm Bairéad’s Irish-language drama The Quiet Girl, which took the grand prize in Berlin’s Generation Kplus strand; and Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s Bolivian eco-drama Utama, winner of the grand jury prize at Sundance in January.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The sole documentary in the line-up is Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love,...

Wednesday night’s “The Masked Singer” finally unmasked Rudy Giuliani to mixed reactions from the judges.

The former New York City mayor-turned-Donald Trump lawyer, was the first contestant eliminated from Round 3 of the competition after a rendition of George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone.” He was behind the Jack in the Box costume as a member of Team Bad.

Obviously, none of the judges expected to see Giuliani on stage. Some of their guesses as to who could have been behind the mask included Robert Duvall, Elon Musk, Joe Pesci and even Al Roker.

As we already know, Giuliani’s reveal ruffled some feathers on stage. In February, media reports said that the unmasking sparked walkouts from both Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke. However, in the actual airing of the episode, both judges remained in the studio at the unmasking. Nicole Scherzinger looked unsettled by the reveal, while Jenny McCarthy seemed thrilled.

Following the success of their collaboration on Nicolás Postiglione’s debut feature “Immersion,” production shingles Whisky Content of Mexico and Chile’s Juntos Films have forged a medium-term strategic alliance for the joint development of nine films in six years.

The agreement comes just days after the premiere of “Immersion,” a thriller headlined by Chile’s most bankable star, Alfredo Castro, at the Miami Film Festival where its poster won the Best Poster Design Award. The film has already racked up top awards from the festivals of Guadalajara, Tallinn Black Nights and Punta del Este.

The move also comes as further cooperation among Hispanic companies continue apace in response to the increasing challenges of local content production. The insatiable demand for content from both traditional and new players – especially streamers – in the entertainment industry is also a key factor.

“This is another firm step towards our goal of turning our...

Ahead of its summer launch in the U.K., streamer Paramount Plus has unveiled a raft of U.K. original unscripted commissions.

“Haunted” details the most terrifying paranormal cases in Britain and America, combining personal testimony with archive and dramatic reconstruction. It is produced by Story Films in association with All3Media International. Executive producers for Story Films are Peter Beard and Adam Hopkins, and the series producer is Laura Matthews.

“Rise of the Tech Titans” will chart the events that led to a group of founders being able to take their vision to stratospheric levels and reveal how their decisions would go onto shape how we live. It is produced by 72 Films, in association with All3Media International and Night Train Media. Executive producers for 72 Films are Mark Raphael, John Douglas and Annabel Hobley. Katie Hindley and Gagan Rehill are series producers, and will also direct. The series was also ordered by Pearl,...

Paramount+ has unveiled the first five shows from its UK unscripted slate, including feature docs on paranormal hauntings in the UK and U.S., rise of big tech and the lost MH370 flight.

Leading the slate is Haunted (working title) from The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe producer Story Films in association with All3Media International, which will explore and unpack cases that have captured the public imagination for many years of hauntings, poltergeists and exorcisms.

Rise of the Tech Titans (working title) will see the extraordinary rise of big tech told through a handful of young upstarts who created the modern world, while Vice Studios’ MH370: The Lost Flight (working title), which is being co-produced for Australia’s Sbs, will uncover groundbreaking evidence surrounding the disappearance of the Malaysian plane in 2014.

The quintet is rounded off by Top Hat Productions’ The Box (working title), following a British detective...

Hybrid event ran March 4-13.

Dramas from Hispaniola dominated the jury and audience awards at the hybrid 39th Miami Film Festival as Géssica Généus’s Haiti-set Freda won the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award and Jose Maria Cabral’s Dominican Republic production Parsley took the audience feature film award.

The festival, which ran both in-theater and virtual presentations and ran from March 4-13, gave special recognition through the Knight Marimbas jury to actor Haztin Navarrete from The Box and actress Mari Oliveira from Medusa.

A third Hispaniola drama, Carajita (Dr-Arg) by Ulises Porra and Silvina Schnicer, was awarded the $10,000 HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Award sponsored by WarnerMedia.

The feature film “Freda” and short film “You Can Always Come Home,” both family dramas, earned top prizes at the 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. Presented in a hybrid format this year, with both in-theater and virtual presentations, the 2022 Festival ran from March 4-13.

Making its U.S. premiere at this year’s Festival, “Freda,” directed by Géssica Généus, earned the top award for her first feature set in Haiti, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award. The winning film was selected by jury members Damon D’Oliveria, April Dobbins and Rubén Peralta Rigaud. Of the film, the jury noted, “this film resonated with all of us for its strong, female-centered narrative, and its exceptional performances from emerging actors. We couldn’t stop thinking about this world and these characters, and we appreciated being immersed in a place that we don’t often see onscreen – portrayed in such a realistic,...

Two family dramas, the feature film Freda and short film You Can Always Come Home, have earned the top prizes at the 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. Presented in a hybrid format with in-theater and virtual presentations, the 2022 Festival ran from March 4 through tomorrow.

Making its US premiere at this year’s Festival, Freda, directed by Géssica Généus, earned the top award for her first feature. Set in Haiti, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award, supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is an international competition for new narrative feature films that best exemplify richness and resonance for cinema’s future.

The winning film was selected by jury members Damon D’Oliveria, April Dobbins, and Rubén Peralta Rigaud. The jury said, “This film resonated with all of us for its strong, female-centered narrative, and its exceptional performances from emerging actors. We couldn’t stop...

Update: One of the Sunset Strip’s landmark hotel locations has been sold and plans to reopen under a new name.

The Standard Hollywood property — once one of the most iconic hotels on the Sunset Strip — has been purchased by developers Ian Schrager (the Studio 54 cofounder and hotelier) and Chelsea hotel founder Ed Scheetz, reports the Real Deal.

The website reports they intend to purchase signage rights and the operating lease. They will rebrand the hotel under a different name.

The Standard was beloved by the celebrity and nightlife set, but closed in 2021 after the pandemic decimated its business. It also had a downtown location, which remains closed and is not part of the Sunset Strip deal.

No time frame has been set for the reopened Sunset Strip location.

Earlier: Sunset Boulevard celebrity hangout The Standard hotel in West Hollywood is scheduled to close Friday, ending a 22-year run...

The theme of fathers and sons runs through the films of Venezuela-born writer-director Lorenzo Vigas, whose 2015 debut drama “From Afar,” which focuses on a troubled middle-aged man and young hustler in Caracas, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In Vigas’ latest film “El Caja” (“The Box”), which screened Thursday at the 39th annual Miami Film Festival, this motif continues to resonate — and on a global scale.

“El Caja,” which revolves around a young boy in Mexico City longing for a father figure — a desperate search with deadly consequences — could be the prototype of how a dictator such as Vladimir Putin rises to power, Vigas pointed out.

“We are always trapped in our obsessions,” Vigas told fest attendees during a Q&a that followed the screening. “I had a very good relationship with my father, a very close and warm and good relationship. But I connected with that...

Australian streaming service Stan has renewed its exclusive content partnership with Hollywood studio MGM. The deal covers series and film titles.

First-run MGM series featured covered by the agreement include: “Billy the Kid,” an epic romantic-adventure series from MGM’s U.S. cable network Epix; “The Box,” a supernatural psychological thriller starring Anna Friel; and the French-Riviera-set series “The Reunion,” based on Guillaume Musso’s best-selling novel and starring Ioan Gruffudd.

Blockbuster films available to stream on Stan in 2023, include: Ridley’s Scott’s “House of Gucci”; Paul Thomas Anderson’s newly released coming-of-age comedy drama “Licorice Pizza”; the biographical musical drama “Respect”; and the upcoming animation “The Addams Family 2.”

As part of the newly extended partnership, the James Bond franchise is now available to stream on Stan. The most recent Bond film, “No Time To Die” will be available to the platform in 2023.

Stan recently signing new content agreements with NBCUniversal,...

The Miami Film Festival returns this year with a hybrid event that includes nine premieres from March 4-13 in the Florida city. The festival had previously announced that “The Good Boss” would open the event while “Plaza Catedral” would be the closer. In total, 120 films from more than 35 countries will unspool next month.

The festival, organized by Miami Dade College, will bestow its Precious Gems Awards on Ramin Bahrani (“The White Tiger”) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”), while Dp Ari Wegner and composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer will receive the Art of Light Awards.

“The collective spirit of joy and gratitude that we felt from patrons and filmmakers at last year’s shared in-person theatrical screenings strengthened the always mighty creative heart of Miami Film Festival,” said executive director Jaie Laplante. “As we take all necessary precautions to ensure the continued safety of our patrons, we look forward to...

Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) took place as a hybrid event from November 4-14.

French director Samuel Theis’ Softie has won the Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos for best film at Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) which took place as a hybrid event from November 4-14. The award is a cash prize of €10,000.

The French production, which premiered in Cannes’ Critics Week, follows Johnny, a sensitive and intelligent 10-year-old boy living with his single mother, as he searches for a father figure in his new school teacher.

The international competition jury headed by Belgian film maker Nanouk Leopold...

Samuel Theis’ “Softie” won the top prize at the 62nd Thessaloniki Film Festival, which wrapped Sunday night with a ceremony in Greece’s second city.

The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week section, was awarded the Golden Alexander and a €10,000 cash prize by a jury comprised of writer-director Nanouk Leopold, sound designer Roland Vajs and actor Michelle Valley.

The Special Jury Award was given to “Clara Sola,” by Natalie Álvarez Mesén, while the Special Jury Award for best director went to Lorenzo Vigas for “The Box.”

The award for best actress went to Sofia Kokkali for her performance in “Moon, 66 Questions,” by director Jacqueline Lentzou. Aliocha Reinert won the prize for best actor for his role in Golden Alexander winner “Softie.” The award for best screenplay went to Laurynas Bareiša for his film “Pilgrims,” while a special mention was given to Alexandre Koberidze for “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?...

Exclusive: MGM has acquired global distribution rights to the upcoming supernatural-psychological thriller series The Box, starring Anna Friel, from Shades of Blue creator Adi Hasak and Nordic Entertainment Group. The deal excludes the Nordics, Baltics and Poland, where The Box will premiere on Nent Group’s streaming service Viaplay Nov. 28, and the Netherlands and the UK, where Viaplay will launch in 2022.

Created by Hasak, the English-language series stars Friel as Sharon Pici, a Kansas City police officer who is surrounded by headstrong men who are convinced she is losing her mind – when, through no fault of her own, she’s targeted by supernatural powers far greater than herself. As Sharon finally realizes her true strength, she takes her life into her own hands.

Starring alongside Friel are Olivia Grant (Stardust), Letitia Hector (Venus vs. Mars), Peter Stormare (American Gods), Alexander Karim (Zero Dark Thirty), Helen Behan (The Virtues), Nina Yndis...

When the curtain rises Thursday on the 62nd edition of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, it will be a long-awaited return to form for one of the oldest fests on the circuit, after a surge in Covid-19 cases last fall forced the organizers to pivot from a hybrid to a fully online edition.

Attempting to sum up his feelings on the eve of opening night, festival director Orestis Andreadakis was gripped by emotion, using words like “strange,” “happy” and “anxious” in the same breath.

“It’s as if you go out from the hospital, this period of pandemic, and you don’t know how to speak to your friends, you don’t know how to be in love again, you don’t know how to speak with your relatives and parents and children,” Andreadakis tells Variety. “But at the same time, you have a big appetite for life.”

For the veteran film critic,...

Exclusive: Grammy winners Roddy Ricch (“The Box”), Ella Mai (“Boo’d Up”) and Macy Gray (“I Try”) have signed on to star in the animated feature, Sneaks, with five-time nominee Swae Lee (“Sunflower”) and NBA superstar Chris Paul also joining the cast.

As previously announced, Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne will also lend his voice and produce, with multi-platinum and Grammy-winning producer and artist Mustard serving as the film’s executive music producer.

The feature from Lengi Studios and Fishburne’s Cinema Gypsy Productions centers on a pair of misplaced sneakers that end up lost in New York City and must find a way to get back to their “sole mates.” With the help of a charming oxford (Mai), an elegant stiletto (Gray), and a gifted young athlete (Lee), they must band together to thwart the evil Collector (Fishburne) and the mysterious Forger (Ricch).

Paul will play himself, hosting a Met...

Leading arthouse sales agency The Match Factory has debuted the international trailer (see below) for the gripping, tender-hearted prison drama “Great Freedom,” which won the Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, and has revealed the latest list of international distributors. Sebastian Meise’s film was selected recently as Austria’s candidate in the Best International Feature Film Oscars race.

“Great Freedom” has sold to the following territories: Ex-Yugo (McF Megacom), Australia/New Zealand (Madman), Benelux (Imagine Film), Denmark (Ost for Paradis), Baltics (A-One), France (Paname), Greece (Ama Films), Israel (Lev Cinemas), U.S./U.K./Eire/Latam/Turkey/India (Mubi), Mexico (Cine Canibal), Sweden (Lucky Dogs), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Spain (Vertigo Films), and Poland (Tongariro).

The film is set in post-war Germany, where Hans is imprisoned again and again for being homosexual. Due to paragraph 175 of the penal code his desire for freedom is systematically destroyed. The...

Cologne-based The Match Factory, one of the world’s leading arthouse sales agencies, is at Mia Market in Rome with two German features and one upcoming Italian project, following a busy summer with 20 premieres between Cannes and Toronto.

Nana Neul, best known for her film “My Friend From Faro,” is back with an entertaining German-Italian-Greek feature “Daughters,” starring Birgit Minichmayr, Alexandra Maria Lara and Josef Bierbichler. Produced by Germany’s Heimatfilm and distributed by Warner Bros Germany, the comedy hit German cinemas last week and has its international market premiere at Mia on Friday. The international festival premiere will follow soon.

Andreas Kleinert’s “Dear Thomas” is an authentic portrait of Thomas Brasch, one of the most talked about German authors of the last 50 years. The film stars the German actor Albrecht Schuch from “System Crasher,” “Berlin Alexanderplatz” and “Fabian: Going to the Dogs.” It celebrated its world premiere in...

Mexico’s Cuevas de Altamira and Avanti Cinema and Argentina’s Gualicho Cine and Isla Bonita have joined forces to co-produce “Ángeles,” the latest feature from director-producer-writer Paula Markovitch, whose feature film debut, coming-of-age drama “The Prize,” won two Berlin Silver Bears in 2011.

Cuevas de Altamira is Markovitch’s label. A tough drama, its main characters are a poor kid who sells candies in the street and a fifty-something man sunk in despair, said the director.

First directing 1999’s “Perriférico,” a short starring Diego Luna, Markovitch has developed into an influential Latin American cineaste, co-wroting Fernando Eimbcke’s “Duck Season” which swept Guadalajara in 2004 snagging eight awards, and Lorenzo’s Vigas’ 2021 Venice hit, “The Box.”

“Ángeles” will be Markovitch’s fourth feature as director. It explores the unexpected and raw story of David and Ángeles. “One afternoon, David confesses to Ángeles that he’s going to jump off a building and kill himself.

Jodie Comer is set to make her UK stage debut in the premiere of Suzie Miller’s play Prima Facie.

The Killing Eve star will play Tessa in this one-person play, a young, brilliant barrister who loves to win and has worked her way up from working class origins to be at the top of her game, prosecuting, cross-examining and lighting up the shadows of doubt in any case. An unexpected event forces here to confront the lines where patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge.

Prima Facie is directed by Justin Martin and performances begin on Friday April 15 at the Harold Pinter Theatre for a strict limited 9-week season.

Comer has most recently starred in 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy and The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott. She first hit the international scene with her role in Killing Eve. Next year she’s reunited...

Another World (Venice)

Cannes best actor laureate Vincent Lindon reteams with The Measure of a Man director Stéphane Brizé for another exploration of the demise of France’s working class. In this nerve-racking look at a factory boss obliged to make layoffs, Lindon channels the tremendous strain faced by a solicitous man who’s been backed into a corner beneath the crushing weight of global capitalism. — Jordan Mintzer

The Box (Venice, Toronto)

This quietly devastating drama from Lorenzo Vigas (From Afar) recounts the reckoning of an orphaned teenager (Hatzín Navarrete) with a man he’s convinced is his father (Hernán Mendoza). Set against the badlands ...

Comfortable in his newly found friendship, Hatzín (Hatzín Navarrete), a teenager from Mexico City who traveled to Chihuahua’s northern state to reclaim his father’s remains, pretends to be upset and explains he’s decided to return home. He laughs several seconds later, tricking Mario (Hernán Mendoza), his boss and impromptu life mentor.

Read More: Toronto Film Fest 2021 Preview: 16 Must-See Movies To Watch

Proving he can convincingly lie on command is the first indication of the lengths to which the boy will go to protect this bond he holds so precious.

Continue reading ‘The Box’: Golden Lion Winner Lorenzo Vigas Crafts A Tense, Slow-Burn Coming-Of-Age Drama [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

by Nathaniel R

Elisa and Nathaniel on one of several drink between movies breaks

That's a wrap on Venezia 78, otherwise known at the 2021 edition of the Venice Film Festival. The Golden Lion went to the excellent French abortion drama L'Evenement / Happening with Parallel Mothers, Spencer, and a trio of Netflix movies Hand of God, The Lost Daughter, and Power of the Dog  also emerging as hot future awards-prospects from the competition. I cannot begin to describe how beautiful the city is (my first time visiting), or what it's like to take a boat ride to the movies each day. Or especially to hang with Elisa in person who was such a great translator for me both linguistically and culturally. There was definitely a learning curve as a first-timer (I missed way too many of the hot ticket titles) but overall it was a good experience.  We hope you enjoyed our coverage.

Existing somewhere at the crossroads of Jack Ketchum’s “The Box” and Rose Glass’s Saint Maud lies A Banquet. A strange affliction wreaks havoc on the lives of a family still on the mend from tragedy. Ruth Paxton’s feature debut favors a slow simmering atmosphere in a psychodrama that sees a family in psychological deterioration. One that can test the […]...