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Sound of Falling, the second feature from 41-year-old German filmmaker Mascha Schilinski, had its world premiere on Wednesday afternoon at the Grand Théâtre Lumière as part of the Cannes Film Festival, where it is playing in competition, and was greeted with a four-minute standing ovation.

Co-written with Louise Peter, the German-language drama follows four girls — Alma (Hanna Heckt), Erika (Lea Drinda), Angelika (Lena Urzendowsky) and Lenka (Laeni Geiseler) — who live, at different points over the course of a century, on the same farm in northern Germany.

Originally titled The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright, But I’m Feelin’ Blue, the two-and-a-half hour film is the product of a 34-day shoot. It is still seeking U.S. distribution, and interest in it amongst top-tier distributors is said to be strong.

The Hollywood Reporter’s review raves that Sound of Falling “resembles nothing you’ve quite seen before, making you question...

It’s not every day you see a movie that resembles nothing you’ve quite seen before, making you question the very notion of what a movie can be. And yet German director Mascha Schilinski’s bold second feature, Sound of Falling (In Die Sonne Schauen), is just that: a transfixing chronicle in which the lives of four girls are fused into one long cinematic tone poem, hopping between different epochs without warning, painting a portrait of budding womanhood and rural strife through the ages.

The closest thing that comes to mind is probably Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, although this is Malick by way of Jane Campion and Michael Haneke, shifting between fleeting coming-of-age moments and scenes of resolute darkness and human cruelty. At two and a half hours, and without an easily discernible narrative throughline, Sound of Falling is arthouse filmmaking with a capital A that...

International film tariffs are just sooo last week.

Since Donald Trump announced plans, via a caps-lock post on May 4, to impose a 100 percent levy on “foreign-made” movies, it’s been all the film industry has been able to talk about. The (unprecedented) idea of a movie tariff system threatened to disrupt, maybe destroy, the global system of financing, producing and distributing films.

Trump’s tariffs might still be on the table — it’s hard to know with the easily distracted Potus — but within the industry, the discussion has already moved on.

In a letter to the president on Monday, May 12, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, two of Trump’s “special ambassadors” to the entertainment industry, along with a lengthy list of industry players including the Motion Picture Association, producers’ groups and top industry labor guilds, called for Washington to expand and extend tax incentives to help bring film and TV production back to the U.

In celebration of 2005’s unforgettable classic, Focus Features and The Langham Huntington in Pasadena are hosting a Pride & Prejudice20th Anniversary Ball, and ScreenRant is pleased to exclusively announce a featured performance by renowned pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. As a soloist on Dario Marianelli's beloved original movie score, Thibaudet will bring the Regency era to life through his reprisal of the musical pieces that so moved audiences in theaters.

Marianelli received an Oscar nomination for Pride & Prejudice’s original score, which Thibaudet was instrumental in bringing to life for the film. Now, he will do the same inside a historic The Langham ballroom, playing “Dawn” and other iconic tracks that recall epic moments from the Jane Austen adaptation. In addition to the live music, the ball will host other entertainers and regale guests with immersive elements that help them step into the world of Joe Wright’s 2005 film adaptation.

Exclusive: Blue Fox Entertainment heads to Cannes with worldwide sales rights excluding Australia and New Zealand to the New Zealand feature Big Girls Don’t Cry from feature directorial debutante Paloma Schneideman Aka musician PollyHill.

Production recently began in Mangatāwhiri Omaha and Tāmaki Makaurau in the region of Auckland in New Zealand.

The coming-of-age story takes place in the summer of 2006 as 14-year-old Sid experiences a sexual awakening and the desire to be accepted by an older group of girls as she explores her rebellious side, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. Rain Spencer and Noah Taylor star alongside...

Netflix executive Kelly Dalton is exiting the streamer to start her own production company, Higher Altitude Productions. Higher Altitude’s mission is to inspire change and build community around the stories they tell and to share real, honest stories that connect with people.

“Film has had a profound impact on my own life, which is why I’ve dedicated the last ten years to sharing stories,” Dalton says. “It’s been a privilege to work in the talent relations & awards space, and in the process, learn first-hand what a powerful healing tool film can truly be. In this next chapter, I want to use my experience and the relationships I’ve built to tell more stories that will inspire change and build community — and the first story I plan to tell is my own.”

The first story Higher Altitude Productions will tell is Dalton’s own experience of sexual abuse...

Proof of Concept, an accelerator program supporting women, trans and nonbinary filmmakers founded by Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, producer Coco Francini and noted researcher Dr. Stacy L. Smith, debuted the work of its inaugural class at a showcase on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

“The showcase is a celebration of a cornucopia of new, wonderful points of view, and importantly, it’s a celebration of this vital step for these filmmakers,” said Blanchett. “From here, we know that these helmers can start shaping and remaking the industry.”

Blanchett appeared virtually, delivering her remarks from London, while Dr. Smith, Francini and Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria were on hand at Netflix’s Tudum Theater in Hollywood to celebrate with the filmmakers and some of their cast.

“Proof of Concept has done exactly what we hoped – yielded bold, inspiring filmmaking that proves these filmmakers are ready to take the next step with their projects,...

Nicole Kidman will receive the 2025 Women in Motion Award at the Cannes Film Festival, presented by Kering and the festival organizers. This marks her return to Cannes for the first time since 2017, when she was recognized with the 70th Anniversary Prize.

The award, part of a program launched in 2015, recognizes contributions by women across culture and the arts. Kidman will join previous recipients such as Jane Fonda, Viola Davis, Michelle Yeoh, and Salma Hayek Pinault. She will be honored during a gala dinner attended by filmmakers, executives, and members of the Cannes jury.

“It’s a true honor to receive this award from François, Thierry, Iris, my friends at the Kering Group as well as the Cannes Film Festival,” Kidman said. “I am proud to join this list of extraordinary women who’ve received this honor before me—artists and trailblazers I deeply admire.”

François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of Kering,...

Nicole Kidman, the trailblazing actor and producer who last starred in Halina Reijn’s thought-provoking “Babygirl,” will be celebrated at the Cannes Film Festival where she will receive the Woman in Motion Award from Kering chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault, Cannes president Iris Knobloch and director Thierry Fremaux.

Launched in 2015 by Kering, an official partner of the Cannes Film Festival, the Women in Motion program highlights the creativity and contribution made by women, both on and off

screen, in the world of culture and the arts.

As the milestone 10th Woman in Motion honoree, Kidman will succeed NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios Chairman Donna Langley, Jane Fonda, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, Isabelle Huppert, Patty Jenkins, Gong Li, Salma Hayek Pinault, Viola Davis and Michelle Yeoh.

The tribute to Kidman will take place at a glamorous gala dinner bringing together filmmakers, talent, jury members and executives.

Kidman, who was last at Cannes...

We are now well into 2025, and our latest column features several books that will likely rank among the year’s finest and most important releases. Plus, this column features a lengthy rundown of new and recent novels that should be on your radar, as well as lots of 4K and Blu-ray gems. Let’s start with an entertaining and insightful look at female filmmakers.

Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words by Marya E. Gates (Rizzoli)

Anyone who has read critic and writer Marya E. Gates’ “Female Filmmakers in Focus” column for RogerEbert.com will agree that there is no one better suited to write Cinema Her Way. This lovingly crafted, visually sublime text is packed with info and interviews. Gates acknowledges the titans of cinema whose contributions paved the way for today’s filmmakers. And while there are passing references to biggies like Coppola and Gerwig,...

Nicole Kidman came to our attention in the 1990s, first in supporting roles with her then-husband Tom Cruise and then as a striking, distinctive leading lady in some of the era’s most enduring cult classics. In the new millennium, the Academy Awards came calling to give some long-overdue recognition to her skillset (she won for “The Hours” in 2002). Anyone would forgive her for resting on her laurels thereafter as she approached middle age, but not Nicole.

A year later, she appeared in Lars von Trier’s avant-garde drama “Dogville,” and from there, has continued to make it a mission statement to work with some of the most fascinating filmmakers in the world – Jonathan Glazer, Park Chan-wook, Yorgos Lanthimos; at the height of her fame, she took a year out to work with Stanley Kubrick. That’s before we even mention her fruitful and admirably frequent collaborations with female directors,...

The French Directors’ Guild (Srf) will fete U.S. director Todd Haynes with its honorary Carrosse d’Or (Golden Carriage) award at the upcoming edition of its Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Haynes will receive the prize at the opening ceremony of the parallel section, running alongside the main Cannes Film Festival from May 14 to 22.

The honor follows Haynes’ recent stint as president of the jury at the Berlinale in February.

The Srf highlighted Haynes place heart at the American counterculture and his legacy of challenging social, sexual or artistic norms.

“From Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story to Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Carol and May December, your films have been inhabited by a great faith in cinema’s experimental and narrative possibilities,” the Srf board wrote in a letter explaining their motivation for the award.

“Your genius is to move and mesmerize us in a single move, combining Formal virtuoso with infinite empathy and tenderness.

American director Todd Haynes will be honored by his French peers at this year’s Cannes film festival, receiving the lifetime achievement Carrosse d’Or award from the French Film Directors’ Guild.

The queer cinema pioneer, whose filmography includes Carol, Far From Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, I’m Not There and May December, will receive the award on May 14 at the opening ceremony for Directors’ Fortnight, the Cannes festival sidebar organized by the guild.

“From Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story to Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Carol and May December, your films have been inhabited by a great faith in cinema’s experimental and narrative possibilities,” the guild said of Haynes in a statement. “Your genius is to move and mesmerize us in a single move, combining formal virtuoso with infinite empathy and tenderness. Your films are a haven for anyone who knows the price they have paid for their feelings and their difference.

The directors that popular culture considers to be the greatest of all time — Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, for example — are almost always men. While female directors have spearheaded successful films across genres like superhero, action, and horror, it is men who typically receive the funding, global attention, and prestige projects that cement their legacy in film history.

There have only been 10 women nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, and it wasn't until 2021 that more than one woman was nominated in the category: Chloé Zhao for "Nomadland" and Emerald Fennell for "Promising Young Woman." In the 95-year history of the Academy Awards, only three women have won the Best Director prize: Chloé Zhao, Jane Campion, and Kathryn Bigelow.

There are so many incredible films made by visionary female directors, even ones that haven't received Oscar attention. Many of these films appear on Metacritic's highest-rated list. Metacritic celebrates...

It’s hard to believe now but before taking 12 long years to follow 1987’s Full Metal Jacket with Eyes Wide Shut in 1999, the famously meticulous Stanley Kubrick was comparatively prolific — in the ’60s alone he released four of his 13 features. In these days of instant gratification, a director taking longer than three years is either deemed to be M.I.A. or about to pop up with a secret film made entirely under the radar. But absence does make the heart grow fonder, and these five directors can expect a warm welcome in 2025.

Kathryn Bigelow

Back with: Untitled. Last film Detroit (2017) Kathryn Bigelow directing ‘Zero Dark Thirty’

Kathryn Bigelow made history in 2010 when she became the first woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Director (she won Best Picture too), but the California...

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Long Bright River is a crime drama miniseries created by Liz Moore and Nikki Toscano. Based on Moore’s 2020 book of the same name, the Peacock series is set in Philadelphia, and it follows police officer Mickey as she patrols a high-crime neighborhood and soon begins to investigate the murder of three young women. Long Bright River stars Amanda Seyfried, Ashleigh Cummings, Callum Vinson, John Doman, Nicholas Pinnock, and Dash Mihok. So, if you loved the intense story, thrilling mystery, and compelling characters in Long Bright River, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Mare of Easttown (Max & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – HBO

Mare of Easttown is a crime drama miniseries created by Brad Ingelsby. The HBO series is set in the small Philadelphia suburb of Easttown, and it follows police detective Marianne Sheehan...

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Sharp Objects is a psychological mystery thriller drama series created by Marti Noxon. Based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn, the HBO series follows Camille Preaker, an emotionally troubled investigative reporter who just got out of a psychiatric hospital. Camille travels to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate the murder of two young girls, but she soon finds herself confronting her own childhood trauma. Sharp Objects stars Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Eliza Scanlen, Matt Craven, Henry Czerny, Taylor John Smith, Madison Davenport, and Sydney Sweeney. So, if you loved the intense psychological story, thrilling mystery, and compelling characters in Sharp Objects, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Top of the Lake (Hulu & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – BBC Two

Top of the Lake is a mystery...

Netflix produced its first non-documentary feature in 2015. It was called Beasts of No Nation, and it was fine. However, the film did not get nominated for an Academy Award. Lots has changed in the last decade.

Your favorite streamer often gets nominated for major awards each year. 2025 is no different. Emilia Pérez has 13 nominations alone, including one for Best Picture. So far, Netflix has yet to get a win in that category, and Emilia Pérez is not the favorite this year, either.

In fact, Netflix has also almost been entirely shut out of wins in the acting categories. Only Laura Dern won, and that was for Best Supporting Actress in 2020. But the streamer does do well in some other categories. Those might not be part of the Big 6, but when it comes to documentaries, Netflix knows what it is doing. Just see below, and you'll know.

The 2025 Oscars will be held on Sunday,...

Jane Campion and Gerald Lee’s 2013 series Top of the Lakewas a gripping mystery, anchored by a powerful lead performance from Elisabeth Moss. Recently, there have been some strong contenders for similar shows that scratch the same itch, notably 2021’s Mare of Easttownstarring Kate Winslet. The latest show that fans of Top of the Lake need to see is The Åre Murders, a Swedish series on Netflix. The series is based on the mystery novels Hidden in Snow and Hidden in the Shadows by Viveca Sten. Like Top of the Lake, The Åre Murders focuses on a city detective who finds herself sucked into the case of a missing girl while visiting a small town. In The Åre Murders, that detective is Hanna Ahlander (Carla Sehn), a detective from Stockholm who comes to Åre to vacation after a brutal breakup.

Nicole Kidman is an Oscar-winning actress whose decades-long career is filled with brilliant performances. She is no stranger to accolades and has been a part of transformative projects like Big Little Lies and Babygirl.

Nicole Kidman | British GQ / YouTube

Even at the age of 57, she continues to push the boundaries and has remained a force to be reckoned with. But what does the actress feel about her achievements, and what has driven her to keep working for so long?

Nicole Kidman shares the key to her raw performances Nicole Kidman in Big Little Lies | HBO

In a conversation with Time, Nicole Kidman was open and genuine about her vulnerabilities. Anyone who’s followed her career trajectory knows that she has been resilient and authentic when it comes to her film choices. Her performances have always been rooted in emotional honesty, and there’s a process to it.

“It’s too personal,...

Mark (Adam Scott) and Gemma (Dichen Lachman) aren’t the only people who go on a journey in Episode 7 of “Severance” Season 2. For “Chikhai Bardo” and all the impressionistic ways it dramatizes the tethers of love and grief that bind together these two Outies, the producers turned to cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné for assistance in figuring out how the transitional moments between scenes would work visually. That collaboration, in turn, empowered Gagné to do something she did not think she would do on “Severance” or any other TV show: Direct an episode.

IndieWire reached out to Gagné about stepping into the director’s chair and maintaining the show’s sense of self through all the Severed iterations of Gemma we see. A big challenge was making the visions of her and Mark’s relationship in a time long past, one that feels as simultaneously familiar and impossible as memory, less...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.News Peter Pan.Disney will no longer include content warnings before classic films that feature racial stereotypes on its streaming service Disney+ as part of a shift in Dei strategy following President Trump’s second inauguration. In 2020, the company began appending an introductory text to movies like Dumbo (1941) and Peter Pan (1953) cautioning viewers of “negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures,” insisting that “these stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now.” Now, a disclaimer stating that a film “may contain stereotypes or negative depictions” will be buried in its “details section.”Shiori Ito has pledged to reedit sections of her film, Black Box Diaries (2024), which chronicles her own sexual assault case, to remove unauthorized content.

Martin Scorsese, Jane Campion and Wes Anderson are among the signees of an appeal to stave off the impending threat that a substantial portion of Rome’s movie theaters could be converted into shopping centers and supermarkets under proposed regional legislation.

Alarm over the future of the Eternal City’s cinemas was prompted last month after asset management companies Colliers Global Investors and Wrm Capital won a Rome real estate bankruptcy auction and acquired nine movie theaters for a reported €50 million ($52 million).

Some of these venues, such as the city’s central Cinema Adriano multiplex, are fully operational, while others have long been shuttered. The person behind the fund is believed to be Italian-British financier Raffaele Mincione.

Meanwhile, a new regional piece of legislation is being drafted — and is up for approval this week — that would remove norms that currently prevent Rome movie theaters from being converted into any other...

A vote is scheduled for next week in Italy that could turn cultural venues in Rome — including 50 movie theaters — into shopping malls and supermarkets. Martin Scorsese is among the filmmakers petitioning to save them.

Architect Renzo Piano has shared a letter whose appeal has now been endorsed by filmmakers and Hollywood luminaries including Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jane Campion, Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, David Cronenberg, Ari Aster, Julie Taymor, Yorgos Lanthimos, J.J. Abrams, Josh Safdie, Todd Haynes, Judd Apatow, Damien Chazelle, Mark Cousins, Alfonso Cuarón, Willem Dafoe, Robert Eggers, Joanna Hogg, Dawn Hudson, Isabella Rossellini, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Schrader, Léa Seydoux, John Turturro, Thomas Vinterberg, Jeremy Thomas, Paweł Pawlikowski, and Debra Winger.

The government of the Lazio region, which hosts the Italian capital, is about to approve a law that will be voted on next week that would make 50 movie theaters, including Rome’s many historic and abandoned cinemas, vulnerable...

Subhash K Jha looks back at Fahadh Faasil’s Trance. The Malayalam psychological thriller was released in theatres 5 years ago.

Trance is in its own way, a pioneering achievement, tearing as it does into the innards of fake religiosity where billions of bucks are generated by exploiting the weak and the vulnerable and where faith is forever flogged to death.

With a towering performance by Fahadh Faasil in the lead, Trance sweeps us into a world of depraved exploitation. Parts of the plot are purely pulp. But then, what is wrong with pulp when it suits the narrative’s purposes so well?

The lengthy film of almost three hours begins like a desi Rain Man with Fawad’s petty motivational-speaker character Viju Prasad looking after his psychologically disturbed suicidal brother (Sreenath Bhasi). It then veers viciously into a brown man’s version of Jane Campion’s Holy Smoke, where Viju...

Celebrated Malian director Souleymane Cissé, who was the first sub-Saharan African director to win a major award at Cannes with 1987 Jury Prize winner Yeelen (Brightness), died Wednesday at the age of 84.

Active right up until his death, Cissé had recently attended a press conference to present two trophies at a pre-event for the 29th edition of Fespaco, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou.

“Papa died today in Bamako. We are all in shock. He dedicated all his life to his country, to cinema and to art,” his daughter Mariam Cissé said in a statement.

Cissé was due to preside over the jury of the biannual Fespaco festival, which opens in the capital of Burkina Faso from this Saturday.

Born in Malian capital of Bamako in 1940, Cissé was passionate about cinema from a young age.

After high school studies in neighboring Senegal, he lived briefly in post-independence Mali before...

Malian director Souleymane Cissé, the African cinema pioneer who over five decades gained prominence for works infused with deep humanism and political engagement, died on Wednesday. He was 84.

News of Cissé’s death was announced by his daughter, Mariam Cissé. “Papa died today in Bamako. We are all in shock. He dedicated all his life to his country, to cinema and to art,” she said in a statement. The cause of his death has not been specified.

Cissé, who was born in the Malian capital of Bamako and studied film in Moscow, became the first Black African filmmaker to win a prize for a feature film at Cannes in 1987 for “Yeelen” (“The Light”), his drama drawn from Kenyan folk stories about the conflict between a father and son over magic powers.

In 2023, Cissé was honored with the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Carrosse d’Or award which recognises filmmakers for their “innovative...

Liliana Cavani's The Night Porterproved to be strong medicine when it was released in 1974. Even at a time when audiences were becoming increasingly receptive to frank explorations of sex and violence, Cavani's story about a sadomasochistic love affair set against the backdrop of the Holocaust was almost too much to take. Yet the film lingered over the decades and has become a favorite of such directors as Jane Campion and Lars Von Trier. It's easy to understand why, since the film boldly goes where few others would in its examination of two desperate individuals bound together by a shared history of pain.

Celebrating women directors and their incredible contributions to filmmaking, the new book “Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words” includes a brief history about groundbreaking trailblazers, in-depth interviews with singular female directors, and a comprehensive list of noteworthy talents and their films from author, critic, and IndieWire contributor Marya E. Gates.

The filmmakers interviewed for the upcoming book are: Allison Anders, Gillian Armstrong, Lizzie Borden, Jane Campion, Martha Coolidge, Julie Dash, Josephine Decker, Cheryl Dunne, Bette Gordon, Marielle Heller, Miranda July, Karyn Kusama, Mary Lambert, Mira Nair, Sally Potter, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Isabel Sandoval, Susan Seidelman, and Katt Shea.

IndieWire shares an exclusive excerpt from Gates’ introduction below.

I first became aware that women could direct films when I was eight years old and my mother took me to see Gillian Armstrong’s “Little Women.” That movie affected me deeply and has remained my favorite film ever since.

The actor is teaming up with old friend Thomas Ostermeier for a bold new take on Chekhov. The pair discuss censorship, risk-taking, the far right, and ask: are celeb-led plays ruining the West End?

The first time Cate Blanchett was cast in The Seagull, she was in Sydney and in her 20s, a young stage actor playing the part of another young stage actor who was desperate for fame and dizzyingly in love. It was 1997, at Belvoir St theatre, and Blanchett was very much in love herself, having recently got together with the writer-director Andrew Upton, who she would marry later that year. Though the part of Nina in Anton Chekhov’s drama involved far more heartbreak – the character is left emotionally wrecked after being dropped by her lover – and Blanchett remembers “I’d just met Andrew and was madly in love and thought: ‘How am I going to go...

More than 10,600 registered Gold Derby users voted for the 2025 Gold Derby Film Award winners — an all-time record — and they picked Brazil’s political biopic I’m Still Here as Best Picture. That makes it just the second non-English-language film to take top honors, following South Korea’s Parasite, which prevailed five years ago. Scroll down for our list of winners in all 22 categories and to watch many individual acceptance speech videos.

I’m Still Here defeated an eclectic group of rivals for Best Picture, including fellow international films All We Imagine as Light and Emilia Pérez, big-budget blockbusters Dune: Part Two and Wicked, indie comedy Anora, epic immigration tale The Brutalist, tennis love triangle Challengers, papal thriller Conclave, and body-horror satire The Substance. The victory was so decisive, in fact, that I’m Still Here won all four of the awards it was nominated for, also claiming Best Actress (Fernanda Torres), Best Adapted Screenplay,...

Alexa, play “Greatest Day,” because Anora had one on Saturday. The Neon film regained pole position in the Best Picture Oscar race after taking both the Directors Guild of America Award for Sean Baker and the Producers Guild of America Award. The latter wasn’t a big surprise in an ostensibly splintered Best Picture race, but the former was a huge one. The Brutalist‘s Brady Corbet was the overwhelming favorite in the odds (and was dethroned from No. 1 by Baker in the Oscar odds on Monday), and not a single expert or editor foresaw Baker’s DGA upset coming. So how did he win?

Corbet was not as strong as he seemed to be

Even though Anora won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and held the No. 1 spot in the Best Picture Oscar odds throughout Phase 1, Baker was seen as a default Best Director pick...

In a surprising win that resets the Oscar race, Anora director Sean Baker took home the Feature Film Director prize at Directors Guild of America Awards Saturday, instantly becoming the frontrunner for the Best Director trophy at the Academy Awards.

Baker, a first-time DGA nominee, toppled a strong field that included fellow Oscar nominees Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), and James Mangold (A Complete Unknown), along with Conclave director Edward Berger, who failed to land an Oscar bid. The DGA victory came on the same night Baker’s film — which personally earned him four Academy Award bids — unexpectedly won the top prize at another major precursor, the Producers Guild of America Awards, and one night after the film scored at the Critics Choice Awards.

Corbet had still been considered the prohibitive favorite for both the DGA honor and directing Oscar going into Saturday.

Anora stars Mikey Madison...

International rights to Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ thriller “Diamond Shitter,” which stars Raffey Cassidy, Eva Green, Ben Whishaw and Alessandro Nivola, have been picked up by Beta Cinema. The sales company will launch pre-sales at the European Film Market, with UTA Independent Film Group repping North American rights.

The film’s story unfolds against the backdrop of the affluent ex-pat community in Geneva. Young intern Nollaig ignites a darkly visceral shift within the privileged home of her host family when she steals their precious diamonds – absorbing them into her body – in the process unmasking the deeper truths beneath their glittering privilege.

Campbell-Hughes, who made her directorial debut with “It Is in Us All,” said, “In a time of emotional fatigue, we crave the beauty of justice. This film is a primal howl, a white-knuckle ride that explores the devastating fragility of the human condition. I wish to reinstate hope, to reassess what...

Exclusive: Eva Green, Ben Whishaw and Alessandro Nivola are set to join Raffey Cassidy in the cast of Antonia Campbell-Hughes upcoming thriller Diamond Shitter.

Beta Cinema unveiled the casting additions as it boarded the feature, for a pre-sales launch at the EFM.

Produced by London and Dublin-based Sleeper Films, Diamond Shitter is filmmaker and actor Campbell-Hughes’ second feature after her directorial debut It Is In Us All, which premiered to critical acclaim at SXSW in 2022. Campbell-Hughes will also take a supporting role.

Diamond Shitter unfolds against the backdrop of the affluent expat community in Geneva. Cassidy will star as young intern Nollaig who ignites a darkly visceral shift within the privileged home of her host family when she steals their precious diamonds, absorbing them into her body. In the process, she unmasks the deeper truths beneath their glittering privilege.

“In a time of emotional fatigue, we crave the beauty of justice.

French actress Juliette Binoche has been named President of the Jury for the 2025 edition of the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The honor, which was announced on Tuesday morning Paris time, will fall exactly 40 years after the Oscar-winning The English Patient star first touched down at the festival with André Téchiné’s Palme d’Or contender Rendez-vous in 1985.

Binoche follows in the footsteps of U.S. director Greta Gerwig whose jury feted Sean Baker’s Anora with the Palme d’Or last year.

“I’m looking forward to sharing these life experiences with the members of the Jury and the public. In 1985, I walked up the steps for the first time with the enthusiasm and uncertainty of a young actress; I never imagined I’d return 40 years later in the honorary role of President of the Jury. I appreciate the privilege, the responsibility and the absolute need for humility,” said Binoche.

Juliette Binoche, the Oscar- and César-winning actress who’s a regular at the Cannes Film Festival, will serve as its jury president for the 2025 edition. The festival runs May 13 – 24 on the French Riviera, where Binoche will be responsible for overseeing the main competition jury, comprised of an international crop of actors and filmmakers.

The iconic Binoche has been a Cannes mainstay since André Téchiné’s “Rendez-vous” made her the belle of the festival in 1985. That’s exactly 40 years ago come this year’s Cannes. In other words, Binoche was born at Cannes. She’s taken many projects to the festival, including the films of Michael Haneke and Claire Denis, and she won Best Actress for Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy” in 2010. Last year, she gave Meryl Streep (perhaps the equivalent of an actress of Binoche’s stature here in the United States) the Honorary Palme d’Or. In 2023, filmmaker Anh Hung Tran...

Netflix’s line-up of Original movies vary wildly in quality, ranging from Oscar-worthy work from some of our finest filmmakers (like Jane Campion and Martin Scorsese) to rom-coms one wouldn’t wish upon their worst enemy (strapped down in some sort of Clockwork Orange situation). But taken together, along with...

Actress-producer Cate Blanchett and director Guy Maddin shared about their paths into the film industry as well as their experiences of “flow” in making art, while at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). They took the stage in front of more than 800 guests at the Oude Luxor Theater, shortly after a festival screening of their film Rumours.

“I never, ever thought I could work in the film industry,” said Blanchett. “I was resigned happily to having a career in the theater. I didn’t think that I was that girl, and at the time, there was certainly a sense that women had a certain shelf life in the film industry, and a certain type of woman got to parade on screen. But I loved watching films, and I had such an eclectic taste. I think it’s the benefit of growing up with four Australian terrestrial channels.”

The two-time Oscar-winner...

The Academy Awards have staged some iconic showdowns. Think of the tension around “La La Land” versus “Moonlight,” “12 Years a Slave” versus “Gravity” or “The Godfather” versus “Cabaret.” Each was a nail-biter that kept viewers on the edge of their seats. But what happens when six films — “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez” and “Wicked” — are all serious contenders for Hollywood’s most coveted prize? Enter “The Year Without the Frontrunner,” as Variety aptly dubbed it.

So, what is the pathway for each contender?

With 13 nominations, “Emilia Pérez” seems to have the logical edge (although recent controversies could derail that assertion). It has key guild nods and below-the-line Oscar mentions. But in this unpredictable year, historical trends are no guarantee. Major upcoming ceremonies like DGA, PGA and SAG may clarify the race — or make it even messier.

After winning big at the Golden Globes, “Emilia Pérez...

Midway between Paris and the Mediterranean coast, France’s Clermont-Ferrand has become the world’s preeminent hub for short-form cinema, hosting both a festival and a market with unparalleled international reach.

Now celebrating its 46th edition – which runs Jan. 31 – Feb. 8 – the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival has long been a springboard for emerging auteurs, once upon a time shining a spotlight on little-known names like Jane Campion, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Chloé Zhao and Denis Villeneuve.

“We’re not here to ‘discover’ anyone but rather to support and highlight talent, creating opportunities for filmmakers to connect with production houses, distributors, and other festivals,” says Clermont-Ferrand programmer and coordinator Julie Rousson. “And as a short film spotlight, we really feel like we’re capturing a snapshot of the entire world in a single week.”

Rousson and her fellow programmers – all of them sharing equal footing in an expressly non-hierarchal organization – culled through more than...

On the day the Oscar nominations were announced, Coralie Fargeat, the director of “The Substance,” sat with her laptop in her tiny one-bedroom flat in Paris’ bohemian 20th arrondissement, watching as this year’s contenders were revealed. It was afternoon in France when her name was called among the best director nominees (she was the only woman among them), and an overjoyed Fargeat leaped in the air before collapsing back onto her red vintage couch. A few minutes later, she watched as “The Substance” became the first body-horror film ever to be nominated for best picture. It landed five nominations in all, an astonishing feat for any independent movie, let alone one told in a genre not typically embraced by Oscar voters.

“When I make a film, I make it to be at Cannes, to be at the Oscars,” Fargeat, 48, says triumphantly. “I have this faith that this is what I want to do.

The Rotterdam Film Festival’s IFFR Pro industry program kicks off Friday under the fresh direction of new head Marten Rabarts.

The New Zealand-born film festival and labs circuit stalwart returns to the Netherlands – where he was previously artistic director of the Binger Filmlab and head of promotional body SeeNL – after five years away.

In between, he took the reins of the Whanau Marama – New Zealand International Film Festival for two years and then worked as a script mentor on Jane Campion’s A Wave In The Ocean Lab, with his other myriad roles including Head of Development and Training at India’s National Film Development Corporation.

Rabarts now brings this international experience and local knowledge to bear in the industry program, spanning the 42-year-old CineMart coproduction market and producer-focused Rotterdam Lab, as well as newer initiatives such as the Darkroom works-in-progress showcase.

“Our feeling is that we need to...

You get an Oscar, you get an Oscar, every Best Picture nominee gets an Oscar? Not always. For most of the past decade when the Oscars used the sliding scale in Best Picture, most, if not all, of the Best Picture nominees every year walked away with at least one Oscar. Six years ago, all eight Best Picture nominees were Oscar winners. Five years ago, eight of the nine films in the top category claimed a statuette. Four years ago, seven of the eight nominees were victorious.

But ever since the Academy returned to a set 10 nominees in Best Picture three years ago, that high conversion rate has been more difficult to come by. Three years ago, four Best Picture nominees left empty-handed. Two years ago, five were goose-egged as most of them — The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, Tár, and Triangle of Sadness — had the misfortune of facing seven-time...

The 97th annual Oscar nominations were revealed Thursday morning in Los Angeles. And the newest lineup featured a number of historic milestones. Among them this year:

Best Picture With 13 nominations, “Emilia Perez” is the most nominated non-English-language film of all time, beating the record of 10 nominations held by “Roma” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” “Emilia Pérez” and “I’m Still Here” are also the 18th and 19th films predominantly not in the English language to be nominated for Best Picture. Both are nominated for Best International Feature – the first time ever that two nominees from that category have also been nominated for Best Picture. At 3:35, “The Brutalist” is the sixth-longest Best Picture nominee, a few minutes longer than two recent Martin Scorsese movies, “The Irishman” (3:29) and “Killers of the Flower Moon” (3:26). “Cleopatra,” from 1963, is the all-time longest Best Picture nominee at 4:11. Acting categories Seven acting nominees are...

Who’s afraid of a little female body horror? For once, not the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which on Thursday morning, finally opened one of the last remaining gilded doors of their annual Oscar nominations, pouring love all over filmmaker Coralie Fargeat and her “The Substance.”

The filmmaker, with just her second film, earned the sole spot for a female filmmaker in the Best Director race, in addition to helming the lone female-directed film in the Best Picture race. Meanwhile, other female filmmakers and their work were shut out not just from the picture and director race, but the entire Oscar nom kit and kaboodle, including Payal Kapadia and her “All We Imagine as Light” and Halina Reijn and her “Babygirl.”

Earlier this month, Fargeat told IndieWire at the Golden Globes that she believes horror films are fully deserving of a level playing field at the Oscars.

This year, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated one female director: Coralie Fargeat for The Substance.

The other nominees in the category are Sean Baker (Anora), James Mangold (A Complete Unknown), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez) and Brady Corbet (The Brutalist).

Payal Kapadia, who directed All We Imagine as Light, was omitted from the lineup on Thursday. Fargeat also received a best original screenplay nomination.

The Academy has long been criticized for its lack of female director nominees. Previously, the Academy had only nominated a woman nine times (eight women have been nominated. Jane Campion received a nod twice) in the best director category (Fargeat is the ninth female nominee), and only three have won. Lina Wertmüller, Sofia Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow, Greta Gerwig, Emerald Fennell, Chloé Zhao, Justine Triet and Campion are the only women nominated in the century-long history of the Academy Awards. Campion, Zhao and Bigelow won.

All five Academy Award nominees for Best Director on Thursday — Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, Sean Baker for Anora, Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, James Mangold for A Complete Unknown, and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance — are first-timers in the category.

The last time the Best Directors list was all first-timers was 1998, when James Cameron (Titanic), Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line), and Peter Weir (The Truman Show) were honored. That was the year that Cameron went on to personally win three Oscars, for Best Picture and Best Editing in addition to directing as part of Titanic’s massive 11-victory haul.

Too, Fargeat joined an exclusive club on Thursday, becoming just the ninth woman to be nominated in the Best Director category. The other eight were Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties,...

Coralie Fargeat joined an exclusive Oscar list on Thursday morning thanks to her Best Director nomination for The Substance.

She is now the ninth woman to receive a directing bid at the Academy Awards, with the eight other female filmmakers being Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003), Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009), Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (2017), Chloé Zhao for Nomadland (2020), Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman (2020), and Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall (2023). To date, the only three to win are Bigelow, Zhao, and Campion (The Power of the Dog).

Joining Fargeat in this year’s Best Director lineup are Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), Sean Baker (Anora), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), and James Mangold (A Complete Unknown). All five of them are first-time director nominees. See the complete list of 2025 Oscar nominations.

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As one of the oldest film genres of all time, the Western has more than its fair share of legendary movies under its holster belt. The genres range from the often-imitated, never-duplicated The Searchers from the iconic John Ford to the Spaghetti Western pulp greatness of Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, all the way to the neo-Westerns of the modern day, like the Best Picture-winning No Country for Old Men, the highest peak that Marvel ever reached with Logan, or late-career Clint Eastwood classics like Cry Macho. As is to be expected, as the genre accumulated all-time great films, it also accumulated all-time great filmmakers, from actors to screenwriters to producers to cinematographers, all the way to, of course, directors.

It is...