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Mubi has signed a three-year co-production, financing and distribution agreement with Italian production company Our Films.

Through the deal, Mubi will finance a slate of projects produced by Our Films, while Our Films will contribute additional equity investment.

Mubi will distribute the co-produced titles in key territories; and Mubi-owned The Match Factory will handle worldwide sales. The first title in the new partnership will be the next feature from Pawel Pawlikowski.

It is the latest collaboration between Mubi and producer Mieli, after Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Pablo Larrain’s Maria and Luca Guadagnino’s Queer.

Mieli left The Apartment last...

Mubi, the global streamer, producer and distributor behind “The Substance,” has struck a major three-year co-production, financing and distribution agreement with Our Films, the new Rome-based company founded by prominent European producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli.

Our Films, which is part of Mediawan, was launched last year by Gianani and Mieli, and has already become a creative hub for world-class filmmakers from Europe, the U.S. and overseas. Mubi and Our Films share the same passion for artistically ambitious movies that resonate internationally. The agreement also underscores Mediawan’s drive to further strengthen their status as a leading prestige European film studio.

The first film to emerge from this strategic alliance will be the next feature from Paweł Pawlikowski, the Oscar-winning director of “Ida” and “Cold War.”

Mieli previously successfully collaborated with Mubi on three high-profile films: Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” starring Cailee Spaeny; Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” starring...

The Diplomat, Conclave & More Latest Ott Releases This Week ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

As always, this week, Netflix leads the pack with six new titles, including a Tamil mass action film starring Ajith and a Bollywood thriller featuring John Abraham. Also premiering is the final season of a celestial family drama. Over on ZEE5, there’s a Bengali vigilante action thriller, while Prime Video offers two new releases, one centered on the selection of a new Pope. Scroll down to discover the names of new releases on Ott this week.

Netflix Good Bad Ugly (Tamil) Release Date: May 8, 2025

Good Bad Ugly, directed by Adhik Ravichandran and starring Ajith Kumar, follows a reformed gangster who tries to escape his violent past but is drawn back into it for the sake of his son.

The Diplomat (Hindi) Release Date: May 9, 2025

Directed by Shivam Nair, this political thriller stars John Abraham as an Indian diplomat posted in Pakistan.

Exclusive: Oscar winner Angelina Jolie is set to star in the feature adaptation of hit Scandi novel Anxious People for A Man Called Otto and World War Z director Marc Forster.

Based on A Man Called Ove author Fredrik Backman’s novel, the film is being launched ahead of the Cannes market by Black Bear and Hope Studios with the former handling international sales and WME Independent handling domestic.

The uplifting comedy, set on the day before Christmas Eve, sees investment banker Zara (Jolie) begrudgingly find herself mingling with a group of strangers at an open house. When a reluctant bank robber inadvertently takes the group hostage, chaos and oversharing ensues, secrets are revealed and literally nothing goes according to plan. The movie is described as being “about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find...

Angelina Jolie As Maria Callas In Biopic(Photo Credit –Facebook)

Angelina Jolie is back with a role that veers away from her action-packed filmography — this time as Maria Callas, one of the most revered opera singers of the 20th century. Maria, a biographical drama set against the melancholic elegance of 1970s Paris, premieres exclusively on Lionsgate Play in India on May 9.

Directed by Pablo Larraín, the film traces the turbulent final years of Callas’ life, offering glimpses into her private struggles and the intense pressures that came with global fame. Known as La Divina, Callas was celebrated and scrutinized — a woman whose voice and persona captivated audiences but whose personal battles often stayed behind the curtain.

In this rare comeback role, Jolie embodies Callas with a restraint that speaks volumes. The film avoids showy melodrama, instead painting a quieter, more intimate portrait of the soprano shaped by loneliness, failing health,...

Stephen King has only occasionally written film or television adaptations of his own stories, including the 1989 "Pet Sematary" movie, the 1994 miniseries version of "The Stand," and the 2016 film "Cell" (which is King's lowest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes). Be that as it may, King was adamant that only he would be allowed to adapt "Lisey's Story" for the small screen.

"Lisey's Story" is one of King's most unique books. It's not a horror tale as you would traditionally expect from King, but it is suspenseful. It's mainly a love story that spans decades of marriage between Lisey and Scott Landon: the petty fights, the romantic moments, the "Alice in Wonderland"-style language the couple invents, and the difficulties of sharing a life with a famous creative.

After his death, Lisey is left to sort through her husband's study. There, she comes across the nostalgic objects of their shared memories and his unfinished writing.

South Korean crime thriller Yadang: The Snitch took the top spot at the South Korea box office on its opening weekend (April 18-20), ending The Match’s short reign and accounting for nearly 70% of all tickets sold.

Released on April 16, Yadang: The Snitch took $4.11m from 608,149 admissions across 1,832 screens, according to Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s box office tracking service. Its cumulative gross stands at $5.26m from 786,077 total admissions.

Directed by Hwang Byung-gook, the story revolves around the intertwined ambitions of a drug broker played Kang Ha-neul of Netflix hit Squid Game, a prosecutor played by Yoo Hae-jin from box office hit Exhuma,...

FilmNation Entertainment has boarded “La Ola (The Wave),” a musical about the 2018 student feminist protests in Chile directed by Sebastián Lelio. The company is launching worldwide sales outside of Latin America at Cannes, where the film will premiere in the Cannes Premieres section.

Lelio won the Oscar for best international feature for “A Fantastic Woman.” His other credits include both the Chilean film “Gloria” and its English-language remake “Gloria Bell,” as well as “Disobedience” and “The Wonder.”

“La Ola” stars newcomers Daniela López, Avril Aurora, Lola Bravo and Paulina Cortés. It is produced by Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue and Lelio. Fabula also produced the movie, which is co-financed by Participant and Fremantle. The screenplay was written by Lelio, Manuela Infante, Josefina Fernández and Paloma Salas. “La Ola” was shot on location in Chile over nine weeks.

The film follows Julia, a music student drawn into the...

For actress Kristen Stewart, starring in "Twilight" has been both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the worldwide popularity of the five-film vampire series helped to make Stewart one of the most recognizable actresses on the planet. Unfortunately, with that fame came the tabloids, and before long, Stewart became better known for being in gossip magazines than for her considerable skills as an actress, seemingly destined to be tagged forever as "that girl from 'Twilight.'" Fortunately, a number of international directors such as Olivier Assayas and Pablo Larrain came to the rescue, looking past the gossip to see the potential and creating roles for Stewart that were finally worthy of her talents.

Stewart's filmography encompasses a wide range of genres, from biopics and mother/daughter dramas ("Still Alice") to romantic comedies and nail-biting thrillers ("Panic Room"). While she has inhabited a wide variety of characters,...

Exclusive: Ahead of the April 4th theatrical release of his latest film, The Luckiest Man in America, Samir Oliveros — writer, director, producer, and co-founder of filmmaking collective Plenty Good — has signed with Cinetic Media for management.

A Colombia-born, U.S.-based talent who has leveraged partnerships at home in Latin America to create film and television for global audiences, Olivero’s Luckiest Man is a starry Colombia-based production that sold to IFC Films and Sapan Studio after premiering at TIFF 2024, in one of the few deals of the festival. The stranger-than-fiction story, based on true events, follows an unemployed ice cream truck driver who, in 1984, drives from Ohio to California to become a contestant on the popular game show Press Your Luck and goes on an unprecedented winning streak, all while keeping a big secret.

The project features a stacked cast led by Paul Walter Hauser, which also includes David Strathairn,...

Exclusive: Pablo Larraín’s Maria has become the Chilean filmmaker’s highest grossing movie at the international box office. With $23.3M from 54 overseas markets, the Angelina Jolie-starrer this week overtook both Spencer ($17.8M) and Jackie ($23M) outside of North America. Maria is still in release in multiple markets with Korea, Lithuania and Norway on deck, among others. Fremantle fully financed and FilmNation handled worldwide sales on the Maria Callas biopic.

Maria is the third film in Larraín’s English-language triptych exploring iconic female protagonists, following 2016’s Jackie and 2021’s Spencer. It reimagines American-Greek soprano Callas in her final days as she reckons with her identity and life.

The Steven Knight-scripted drama had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last September, with Italy ultimately becoming the movie’s top offshore market to date. The gross there, where Rai distributes, is $3.32M.

Via Studiocanal, Germany is the second biggest market with $3.1M.

Exclusive: Mariana di Girolamo, Oscar nominee Tom Waits, Ailín Salas and Paola Giannini are boarding Martin McDonagh’s massive ensemble for Wild Horse Nine, opposite previously announced Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Parker Posey and Steve Buscemi.

The dark comedic drama, which we first told you about, reunites McDonagh with Searchlight Pictures, Blueprint Pictures, and Film4, following their recent collaboration on 9x Academy Award nominated The Banshees of Inisherin, with Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Anita Overland producing.

Chilean film, theatre and television actress di Girolamo starred in Pablo Larraín’s critically acclaimed Ema opposite Gael García Bernal, which gained her international recognition, as well as Kill The Jockey which premiered in Official Competition at the Venice Film Festival. She previously appeared in television series such as La Jauría and El Reino.

Waits reteams with McDonagh and Rockwell following their collaboration on Seven Psychopaths. His previous film credits also include Licorice Pizza,...

Earning his first ASC award for “Maria” last month, it seems cinematographer Ed Lachman now feels emboldened to bemoan current trends in film imagery. Though most movies no longer shoot on traditional film stock, many still seek out the grainy appeal in the final edit, a fact Lachman has come to detest. Still prone to work with film, as he did on Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” he also knows the challenges of processing that film by digital means.

Speaking with fellow Dp Roger Deakins during a recent episode of the “Team Deakins” podcast, Lachman explained how he prefers to use “color temperature and gels” in-camera to replicate film when working with digital, but most others only manipulate the image in post.

“This whole idea of shooting wide open, with no depth of field, so everything’s mush in the front or the back, they think that gives them the film look,...

Editor’s Note: On Februrary 27 this article was updated to reflect changes in our predictions for the Best Sound and Best Production Design categories.

When it comes to the “technical” categories, we all know what the Academy voters like: large-scale world-building, showy “look at me” uses of craft, period detail, and, ideally, especially for certain categories (like Best Editing and Cinematography), it helps to be the Best Picture front-runner. But those aren’t always the ingredients that make for the best filmmaking and visual and aural storytelling.

With final Oscar voting having wrapped, the IndieWire craft team looks at eight categories to see who is most likely to win and who we would pick if we had a vote. A few notes before we jump in.

The “Will Win” sections below are based on the latest predictions by IndieWire’s Bill Desowitz, the best craft and animation awards analyst in the business.

The richest independent film financier in the world is a man you’ve probably never heard of. He prefers to keep it that way.

Steven Rales, net worth $11 billion, has two Oscar-nominated movies this year. Conclave, released via his Indian Paintbrush banner, received eight nods, including best picture, and Flow, from his recently acquired Janus imprint, is up for animated and international honors.

Steven Rales

For the past two decades, the 73-year-old Rales also has been the Medici-like backer of Wes Anderson, beginning with The Darjeeling Limited and then The Fantastic Mr. Fox, for which he even lent his voice to its gray-suited Beaver. Since 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom, he’s been a full-fledged producer on all of the director’s major features. The pair even picked up an Oscar in 2024, for Anderson’s short The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

Rales’ devoted Anderson patronage, along with a sudden burst of...

Taron Egerton airport thriller Carry-On was the most-viewed film in the second half of 2024on Netflix on 137m views, while Oscar contender Emilia Pérez is way down the list on 1.5m views.

Jaques Audiard’s beleagueredmusical enters Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony on a field-leading 13 nominations and ranked 1,778th out of 8,686 features viewed from July to December last year.

However it should be noted that Netflix only holds US and UK rights for the film and cannot make it available in approximately 190 countries, as is the case when it has worldwide rights.

Netflix only has US rights for its other Oscar-nominated feature,...

IndieWire invited the cinematographers from the Oscar-nominated films to choose and analyze a pivotal scene that best showcases their craft. Here are the four who were able to participate: Lol Crawley (“The Brutalist”), Greig Fraser (“Dune: Part Two”), Paul Guilhaume (“Emilia Pérez”), and Ed Lachman (“Maria”).

For Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” Crawley resurrected VistaVision, the higher resolution, wide-screen variant of 35mm popularized in the ’50s (“Vertigo”). The strategy worked visually and thematically for a maximalist approach to this post-war immigrant drama about Holocaust survivor and visionary architect László Tóth (Best Actor nominee Adrien Brody). It brilliantly showed off the Brutalist style of Tóth’s work as an expression of his post-war trauma, with its massive blocks of concrete and steel. Additionally, the format provided a wider field of view of the compositions.

“Dune” Oscar winner Fraser returns with “Dune: Part Two,” Denis Villeneuve’s more lavish, action-packed sequel, in...

Mubi has unveiled its lineup for next month’s streaming offerings, featuring Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin, Zhang Yimou’s Shadow, Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaali!, along with El Planeta from Amalia Ulman, whose latest Sundance-premiering feature Magic Farm was picked up by the company. An additional highlight is Joanna Hogg’s new short Autobiography of a Handbag, which is also available to stream below.

Alistair Ryder said of Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaali! in his review, “Despite casting several of France’s finest character actors as the famed Spaniard, this isn’t an I’m Not There-style tribute to the artist’s spirit attempting an unconventional work in vein like theirs. Dupieux clearly has no interest in those sub-genres of the biopic, either, even if he does have a clear reverence for his subject. Instead his madcap romp manages to blow up all biopic expectations in the most winningly stupid ways...

Edward Lachman, Jomo Fray, and Sam McCurdy take home top honors at the 39th annual ASC Awards, while ‘Maria’ and ‘Nickel Boys’ stand out among the winners.

Edward Lachman won his first ASC Award for Maria, beating out Greg Frasier for Dune: Part Two and Lol Crawley for The Brutalist at the 39th annual ASC Awards, held on February 23 at The Beverly Hilton. Lachman’s surprise win comes after five previous nominations, marking a long-awaited achievement in his career.

Maria, Lachman’s collaboration with director Pablo Larraín, focuses on the final days of opera singer Maria Callas, reflecting on her life and the challenges of maintaining her voice. To capture this story, Lachman utilized Kodak film in 35mm, 16mm, and Super 8, shooting in both color and black-and-white stock. This film is part of Larraín’s Important Women Trilogy, alongside Jackie and Spencer.

Other notable winners included Robert Elswit for Ripley in the Limited Series category,...

“Maria” cinematographer Edward Lachman won the Feature Film prize at the 39th annual ASC Awards, February 23 at The Beverly Hilton. His surprise win beat out Academy Award favorites “Dune: Part Two” (Greig Fraser) and “The Brutalist” (Lol Crawley), as well as “Nosferatu” (Jarin Blaschke), “Conclave” (Stéphane Fontaine), “A Complete Unknown” (Phedon Papamichael), and “Wicked” (Alice Brooks). The expanded list was due to how close the percentage of voting was.

This marks Lachman’s first win after five nominations at the ASC Awards. He was previously nominated for his work with Todd Haynes on “Mildred Pierce,” “Far From Heaven,” and “Carol,” as well as his previous effort with Pablo Larraín, “El Conde.” His second project with the Chilean filmmaker, “Maria,” follows the last days of opera singer Maria Callas as she reflects on her life and the struggle of maintaining her own voice. It serves as a culmination of Larraín’s “Important Women” Trilogy,...

No woman has even won an Oscar for best cinematography, and that’s not likely to change in 2025. Why? Because no women made the final five. But this year, the American Society of Cinematographers could be righting Oscar’s wrong.

ASC has only handed out the top prize once to a woman — Mandy Walker, who won in the feature competition in 2023 for “Elvis.” Now, for the first time since 2014, the feature competition field has expanded its nominees to seven, with Alice Brooks landing a nomination for her work on “Wicked.”

Brooks had one goal for the big screen adaptation of the hit musical, that “it would be the most beautiful love story between these two women,” she says, referring to Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), who star as the famous witches of Oz.

Brooks is Jon M. Chu’s go-to Dp since their filmmaking days at the University of Southern California.

Alia Shawkat, Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Lakeith Stanfield, Zack Fox and Tony Hale have joined Kristen Stewart in “The Wrong Girls” at Neon.

The film, which marks Dylan Meyer’s directorial debut, began shooting last week, becoming one of the first independent films going into production in Los Angeles following January’s devastating wildfires. Neon will release the film theatrically in the U.S. and represent the international rights.

Over the course of the film’s 29-day production, which began last week, the film will employ approximately 100 people per day, 95% of which will be local L.A. residents, including Emmy-nominated cinematographer Todd Banhazl, singer-songwriter and composer Ty Segall and Emmy-nominated costumer Heidi Bivens (“Euphoria”).

Written and directed by Meyer (“Moxie”), the film follows Frankie (Stewart) and Molly (Shawkat), codependent best friends living paycheck to paycheck and bong rip to bong rip, when a case of mistaken identity throws their lives into chaos.

Alia Shawkat is joining Kristen Stewart in a lead role for The Wrong Girls, Dylan Meyer’s directorial debut for Neon now shooting in Los Angeles in the wake of the recent wildfires.

Written and directed by Meyer, the film follows Frankie (Stewart) and Molly (Shawkat) as best friends living paycheck to paycheck, only to see a case of mistaken identity throw their lives into chaos. The Wrong Girls also has supporting roles played by Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Lakeith Stanfield, Zack Fox and Tony Hale.

Neon plans to release the film theatrically in the U.S. and shop the international rights. In 2019, Meyer wrote, directed and co-produced her own short film Rock Bottom.

The film’s 29-day production schedule is expected to employ around 100 people per day, 95 percent of which will be local Los Angeles residents, including cinematographer Todd Banhazl, singer-songwriter and composer Ty Segall and costumer Heidi Bivens.

Kristen Stewart has found the right co-stars for her upcoming feature “The Wrong Girls.”

Stewart, who will lead the film that is written and directed by her fiancée Dylan Meyer (“Moxie”), will also produce the feature. “The Wrong Girls” was announced in 2023, with Stewart describing it as a “stoner-girl comedy” at the time. Alia Shawkat will also star in the film; Stewart acted alongside Shawkat in “The Runaways” in 2010.

The supporting cast also includes Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Lakeith Stanfield, Zack Fox, and Tony Hale. Neon will release the film theatrically in the U.S. and represent the international rights.

“The Wrong Girls” is Meyer’s directorial debut. The film follows Frankie (Stewart) and Molly (Shawkat), two codependent best friends who are living paycheck to paycheck and bong rip to bong rip, when a case of mistaken identity throws their lives into chaos.

Stewart told IndieWire while promoting “Love Me...

Yet another 20th century music icon is having their life story told in a new biopic as '60s pop star, Marianne Faithfull, will be the subject of a brand-new biopic by director Zaida Bergroth (Tove). As well as piling on to the increasingly popular musical biopic genre -- 2024 saw the release of A Complete Unknown, Bob Marley: One Love, Back to Black, Maria, and Better Man -- the new biopic also features some rising talent, as the stars of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Those About to Die are set to lead the new film. Per Variety, Freya Allen will play Marianne Faithfull in the new movie, Faithfull. Allen is best known for starring in the recent Kingdom of the Planet of the Apesand her ongoing role in Netflix's The Witcher franchise. As well as being a musician in her own right, Marianne Faithful was...

Leading figures from the UK film and TV industry gathered to showcase to potential international partners the opportunities of both the UK’s Independent Film Tax Credit (Iftc) and the increased tax relief for visual effects in film and high-end TV. The twin panel discussions were organised by the British Film Commission (Bfc), British Film Institute (BFI) and business growth agency London & Partners at the Hotel Adlon Kempinski in Berlin on February 14.

Industry figures revealed the “galvanising” effect of the “game­changer” Iftc, an enhancement of the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (Avec), effective from April 2025. They praised the impact the...

“The Last Showgirl” director Gia Coppola is set to be honored with the Auteur Award at the 7th annual Kodak Awards.

“Maria” cinematographer Ed Lachman will receive Kodak’s Career Achievement Award for his contributions to film. Lachman has collaborated with directors such as Todd Haynes, Robert Altman, Steven Soderbergh, Ulrich Seidl, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jean-Luc Godard, and Pablo Larraín. His latest “Maria” earned him his fourth Oscar nomination. Lachman is also nominated at the ASC.

The 7th Annual Kodak Film Awards will take place at the Kodak House in Hollywood on Feb. 27 at an invitation-only event.

Other honorees include Lol Crawley, Greg Kwedar, and Ramez Silyan.

Vanessa Bendetti, head of Motion Picture and Entertainment at Kodak said, “It’s another great awards season for film and independent cinema with twenty-nine Oscar nominations for shot on film productions, including Best Picture consideration for ‘Anora,’ ‘The Brutalist,’ and ‘I’m Still Here.

It’s ironic that a quarter of the way into the 21st century, when studios have seemingly accepted home streaming as their primary means of movie distribution, Dp Lol Crawley has earned an Oscar nomination for “The Brutalist,” shot on VistaVision, a widescreen film process developed by Paramount Pictures in 1954 to help lure viewers away from their living room TVs and into the theaters.

Used for such films as John Ford’s “The Searchers,” Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” VistaVision was designed as a competitor to 20th Century Fox’s Cinema- Scope, which employed an anamorphic lens to compress a widescreen image on to standard 35mm film stock.

“As opposed to pulling the film down vertically in a motion picture camera, it’s actually pulling it horizontally across eight perforations at a time,” explains Crawley. “So you end up with a bigger format,...

February is often the month when the novelty of winter definitively wears off. With the holiday coziness and the fresh start provided by January firmly in the rearview mirror, sometimes there’s little left to do other than sit inside and wait for spring to arrive. Fortunately, there are always movies to watch.

This month’s slate of additions to the Netflix streaming library is heavy on recent hits, with works from the likes of Bong Joon-ho, Pablo Larrain, and Shane Black appearing alongside well-received franchise titles. From “Parasite” to “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” the new films should scratch your itch for mid-budget big screen hits until the summer movie season arrives.

Keep reading for our seven favorite films hitting Netflix in February 2025.

Even though film is primarily a visual medium and the cinematographer has such an influential role in the final product, the Best Cinematography Oscar rarely matches the Best Picture winner. Last year’s Oppenheimer was an outlier, landing both awards, and the 2025 Academy Awards could yield similar results. But before Oppenheimer, the Best Picture winner was awarded Best Cinematography only three times since 2000.

This year, the five Best Cinematography nominees include three Best Picture nominees: frontrunner The Brutalist, potential spoiler Dune: Part Two (which won in this category for the first film in 2022), and the incredibly fraught Emilia Pérez. The other nominees are Maria (giving legendary cinematographer Ed Lachman his fourth nomination and second in as many years) and Nosferatu (putting Robert Eggers‘s longtime friend and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke back in the category following his surprise nomination for The Lighthouse).

Other data points to consider. Four of the five...

Ask Ed Lachman about the use of color and the cinematographer provides a perfect layman’s primer in art education.

“Why are hospitals blue and green? Those are restful, peaceful colors. Why are fast food restaurants red and orange? Because those activate our passion and our appetite,” Lachman said in his laid-back, easygoing voice. “Theoreticians on painting, like Goethe in his book in 1810 or Josef Albers in the 1960s, have talked a lot about how color affects the viewer. It’s all very primitive and emotional and I love to play around with that.”

Lachman, for sure, plays with color, as well as four different film formats, in Pablo Larraín’ “Maria,” which depicts the final days of opera star Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie). The work has earned Lachman his fourth Oscar nomination, following nods for “Far From Heaven,” “Carol” and “El Conde.”

Renowned for his artful, adventurous lensing, Lachman recently...

Twelve years after co-directing Berlinale entry “The Man of the Crowd,” renowned director Marcelo Gomes is once again joining forces with filmmaker and visual artist Cao Guimarães (“From the Window of My Room”) for a new film, titled “Cape of Pleasures.” The dystopian thriller is one of the projects selected at this year’s CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Speaking exclusively with Variety ahead of the festival, Gomes says the idea for the film came out of reflecting alongside Guimarães on what currently afflicted them. “With ‘The Man of the Crowd,’ we made a film about our affliction about loneliness in big cities. ‘Cape of Pleasures’ came out of our fear of aging in a country with a latent desire for eternal youth. Being old is almost a crime in Brazil.”

“Cape of Pleasures” takes place in a near future in Brazil where a totalitarian...

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Hulu is one of the best places to find the best movies and TV shows you can watch on any streaming service. Every month, it adds hundreds of new titles to its content library, but with that, there are also some titles that have got to go. So, today, we are here to tell you about the best film you should watch before it leaves Hulu in February 2025.

The Beta Test (February 3) Credit – IFC Films

The Beta Test is a dark comedy thriller film co-written and co-directed by Jim Cummings and Pj McCabe. The 2021 film follows an engaged Hollywood agent, who has an intimate night with an anonymous woman but he soon becomes paranoid that his fiancée will find out about his infidelity. The Beta Test stars Jim Cummings, Pj McCabe, Virginia Newcomb, and Jessie Barr.

Spencer (February...

Exclusive: Writers-creators Mauricio Katz and Pedro Peirano are getting into business with Sony Pictures Television. The duo have signed an exclusive overall deal with the studio to create, develop, and produce scripted drama series for cable and streaming.

Katz & Peirano have written pilot scripts for Apple TV+, Starz, HBO, and FX; and have collaborated with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Benicio Del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and Ari Aster. Following their work on HBO’s Perry Mason, they are developing Miriam with Blumhouse and Prime Video.

“Mauricio and Pedro’s far-reaching creative interests and ability to execute at a high level offer a unique combination of skills,” said Andrew Plotkin, EVP Drama Development, Sony Pictures Television. “We couldn’t be more excited to have them as part of our crew and look forward to making some great television together.

Katz started in the TV space, writing on FX’s The Bridge...

If you’re anything like us, right now you’re catching up on the deluge of exciting films that came out at the end of last year. While watching those films, you might wonder how they were made. Fear not, we have you covered. Film Independent Presents has insightful Q&As from some of the buzziest films of last year with the people who made them. Check out Jude Law getting into the mind of a domestic terrorist, Pamela Anderson talking about giving acting everything she has, and Atlantiques director Mati Diop talking about why she turned to documentary for her new project. Plus, we’ll answer the question everyone is asking this award season: why they turned Robbie Williams into a monkey in Better Man!

The Last Showgirl

Film critic Carla Renata speaks with director Gia Coppola, writer Kate Gersten and actors Pamela Anderson and Brenda Song about their new film The Last Showgirl.

Actress Angelina Jolie faces professional disappointment after her highly anticipated Netflix biographical film Maria was overlooked in the 2025 Academy Award nominations. This marks a significant moment in Jolie’s career, as the film represented her first serious dramatic role in nearly two decades.

The biographical drama, directed by Pablo Larraín, portrays legendary opera singer Maria Callas. Jolie dedicated substantial effort to the role, learning operatic singing techniques and promoting the film more actively than she has in recent years.

Industry sources close to Jolie described her reaction as deeply emotional. “She is absolutely devastated by the snub,” said one insider, highlighting the personal investment the actress made in the project.

Jolie’s Oscar history includes a Best Supporting Actress win for Girl, Interrupted in 2000 and a Best Actress nomination for Changeling in 2008. However, her recent career has focused more on action and fantasy films, which rarely receive serious awards consideration.

Angelina Jolie Snubbed, 2025 Oscar Nominations, Hollywood Politics ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

The 2025 Oscar nominations were revealed a few hours ago. While several notable and deserving names, such as Demi Moore, Cynthia Erivo, Timothee Chalamet, Ariana Grande, and more, received nods, there were also a few snubs, especially Angelina Jolie’s brilliant performance in Maria.

Fans were appalled that Angelina was not appreciated and acknowledged by the Academy for her stellar performance. A new report has claimed that the actress might have been snubbed at the Oscars due to her divorce from Brad Pitt and his connections in the industry. Here’s what we know.

Was Angelina Jolie Snubbed During The 2025 Oscar Nominations Due To Divorce From Brad Pitt?

Angelina spent several months working on her performance, singing, and emotional quotient as she portrayed the role of Maria Callas. The movie’s director could not stop gushing about her hard work and skill.

Final voting is February 11-18. The 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2, and air live on ABC at 7 p.m. Et/ 4 p.m. Pt. We update our picks throughout awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

The Best Cinematography nominees are “The Brutalist” (Lol Crawley), “Dune: Part Two” (Greig Fraser), “Emilia Pérez” (Paul Guilhaume), “Maria” (Ed Lachman), and “Nosferatu” (Jarin Blaschke). “The Brutalist,” “Maria,” and “Nosferatu” were all shot on Kodak film. And “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez,” and “Dune: Part Two” are up for Best Picture.

All but Guilhaume received ASC nominations, which also include “A Complete Unknown” (Phedon Papamichael), “Conclave” (Stéphane Fontaine), and “Wicked” (Alice Brooks). The additional two nominees pertain to the close voting percentages.

Crawley’s the favorite for the VistaVision buzz surrounding “The Brutalist,” followed by Guilhaume, Fraser (who won for “Dune”), Lachman (who...

Of the infinite adjectives available to describe Ed Lachman’s cinematography on Pablo Larraín’s Maria, it is not a surprise that, in writing about the film, critics have often used the word “sumptuous.” Really, what choice did they have? Lachman knows how to blend the dream world and the real one like no other cinematographer. In Maria, he captures the last days of the legendary opera singer Maria Callas, as played by Angelina Jolie, in a haze of greens and oranges, as she attempts a comeback. You don’t watch the film so much as you swim in it.

For much of the movie, Jolie bounces between present day and moments throughout her life that are filmed in black and white and Super 8 format. In preparing to shoot, Lachman referenced photos of Callas by greats like Irving Penn, Cecil Beaton, and Richard Avedon. He doesn’t re-create those moments,...

Netflix scored a leading 16 Oscar nominations on Thursday, most of which were awarded to “Emilia Pérez,” a genre-spanning musical drama about a drug kingpin who undergoes gender affirming surgery.

“Emilia Pérez” landed 13 nods in total, including best picture, best actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña, and best director for Jacques Audiard. The streamer also received nominations for “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” in the best animated feature category and for Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” for cinematography.

A24 followed close behind on the scoreboard with 14 nominations for a range of films including director Brady Corbet’s historical epic “The Brutalist” and the Colman Domingo-led “Sing Sing.” “The Brutalist” tied with “Wicked” for the second-most decorated film with 10 nods each. Universal, the company behind “Wicked,” earned 13 nominations while its specialty division Focus Features collected 12 for the papal drama “Conclave” and director Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” remake.

The Academy unveiled its full line-up of Oscar nods Thursday morning, with “Emilia Pérez” leading the field with 13 nominations, followed by “The Brutalist” and “Wicked” with 10 each. While guild nominations and other preliminary awards bodies can help provide a comprehensive forecast for Oscar nominations, there are always a few curveballs mixed into the proceedings. Big names like Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington missed out on acting nominations this year — and there were many, many more surprises.

Snub: Angelina Jolie Misses for ‘Maria’

The star earned some of the best reviews of her career out of the Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of the opera icon Maria Callas. Director Pablo Larrain previously delivered Oscar nominations to two of his stars playing historical figures — Natalie Portman for “Jackie” in 2017 and Kristen Stewart for “Spencer” in 2022. But Jolie didn’t land a nod, falling behind in a highly competitive best actress field.

From All Of Us Strangers to Hundreds Of Beavers to The Zone Of Interest, last year was by all metrics a banger of a year for cinema — just check out our 20 Best Movies of 2024 if you need any further reminder. And as your friendly neighbourhood Empire has pored over what the next twelve months has in store on screens both big and small, we've found a lot of movies that you simply must see in 2025. 133 to be exact.

In a year that's set to see James Gunn's Dcu take flight with Superman; Ethan Hunt take on quite possibly his last impossible mission; Yelena Belova return to our screens in Dark Av— er, Thunderbolts*; James Cameron whisk us away to Pandora in Avatar: Fire And Ash; Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan scare us up good and proper with Sinners; and new movies fly at us from seasoned auteurs, buzzy new filmmakers,...

The Mediapro Studio’s North American division has tapped former Apple TV+ creative exec Francesca Ricagni for its newly created position of Head of U.S. Hispanic Content as it ramps up its operations in the region.

Founded last year, the studio’s new Los Angeles-based operation, led by Jc Acosta, has been bolstering its English-language content. Ricagni will lead the complementary U.S. Hispanic content strategy aimed at Spanish-language television channels, operators, and streaming platforms in North America. At play is a lucrative Latino market comprising more than 60 million in the U.S. alone and in excess of 650 million worldwide.

“Francesca’s long experience, vast network of talent relationships and expertise on entertaining U.S. Hispanic audiences, make her a perfect fit for our team,” Acosta said.

“At such a transformative time in our industry, I am inspired to join the team at The Mediapro Studio U.S. and Canada.

The Mediapro Studio has added an Apple TV+ exec to its burgeoning ranks in the North America.

Francesca Ricagni has been named Head of U.S. Hispanic Content at the Hard Truths and Official Competition company, which is headquartered in Spain but launched an L.A. base last year.

She was previously Creative Executive at Apple TV+ and further back worked at Amazon Studios and Reel One Entertainment. At Apple, she played a key role in projects such as Land of Women, starring Eva Longoria in one of her first Spanish-speaking lead roles, and worked on the Eugenio Derbez series Acapulco and Midnight Family, which came from Pablo Larráin’s production house.

In her new post, she’ll report to Jc Acosta, Head of The Mediapro Studio US & Canada, and will be responsible for overseeing the creation and producion of content for Spanish-language television channels, operators and streaming platforms in North America.

Pablo Larraín, who is known for his intimate, character-driven biopics like Jackie and Spencer—which follow international icons Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Diana, Princess of Wales, respectively—continues his exploration of complex, larger-than-life women with 2024’s Maria. A portrayal of the final days of Maria Callas, possibly the most iconic opera singer of the 20th century, Maria stars Angelina Jolie as the titular chanteuse, a role that has been considered one of Jolie's best performances. But, given the criticism levied at the artistic interpretation in his previous biopics, it’s important to ask: how much of Maria is rooted in truth, and how much is Larraín’s interpretation?...

Few Hollywood starlets have had the kind of career that Angelina Jolie has had over the years in the business. She has most recently made waves with her performance as the opera singer Maria Callas in the newest Pablo Larraín trilogy film. However, long before spearheading the cast of Maria, Jolie's career was quite fruitful. Jolie, who began acting as a child in 1982, has grown tremendously as an artist, taking on roles in a variety of successful and challenging films.

Jolie has cemented herself as one of the most versatile actors of her generation, from performances like the trouble-making sociopath Lisa in Girl, Interrupted, to the classic evil sorceress in Disney's Maleficent, the latter leading up to a possible Maleficent 3. Though Jolie has occasionally taken breaks from acting to pursue humanitarian work and directing, her career has hardly slowed down, and it's clear why. Actors like Jolie are hard to come by,...

Kristen Stewart is blonde now!

The 34-year-old actress debuted a new look when she stepped out for lunch with her fiancee Dylan Meyer and some friends on Saturday (January 18) in Los Feliz, Calif.

While she is best known as a brunette, Kristen has recently gone platinum and lightened her hair dramatically.

Keep reading to find out more…

For the outing, she pulled her lightened hair back into an artfully messy bun. Kristen was casually dressed in a royal blue sweater and light jeans, which she paired with sneakers.

Dylan opted for a long coat and white pants. She finished off her look with sunglasses and wore her hair down.

It’s unclear exactly when Kristen went blonde and if it is for a new role. She was a brunette when she reunited with her Spencer director Pablo Larrain for an event in early December.

Did you know that Kristen has another movie coming out soon?...

One of the best performances of Kristen Stewart's career is coming to Netflix next month. Though her breakout roles came in David Fincher's Panic Room, Zathura: A Space Adventure, and Into the Wild, Stewart has been synonymous with Bella Swan and The Twilight Saga for much of her career, starring in the five franchise films from 2008 to 2012. In those five films, Stewart's performance as Bella was widely panned, which led to her being unfairly labeled as an emotionless actress.

After starring in another big-budget production, 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman, Stewart shifted her focus to indie projects and, just like her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, reinvented herself as an actor. During the remainder of the 2010s, Stewart starred in the dramas Camp X-Ray, Still Alice, and Equals, but began garnering critical acclaim for her collaborations with director Olivier Assayas in Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper.

You can’t tell the story of a diva’s life without the right gowns — wardrobe and jewels are essential to our idea of the prima donna, one of many tools these formidable women use to transmit mythos and majesty. The songbird’s soul is what matters most; it’s her interiority that creates the magic, including the grit and beauty that pour out from the lungs and onto the stage. But the armor counts, too. And in filmmaker Pablo Larraín’s Maria, about the life of opera soprano Maria Callas, the clothing tells the tale of a complicated woman navigating the winding turns of a dramatic existence. “I re-created her entire wardrobe with extreme passion, trying to put myself in the shoes of the [icon],” says Massimo Cantini Parrini, the film’s Oscar-nominated costume designer. “Clothing is a status symbol, a nonverbal means of communication. I wanted Maria to appear true.

Few icons are as mythic as Maria Callas, the most storied opera singer of the twentieth century.

The same could be said of Angelina Jolie. The Academy Award-winning actor and director of five narrative feature films is known not only for her stellar turns onscreen and behind the camera, but also for her 20 years championing a number of humanitarian causes, including human rights, environmental conservation, and access to education and healthcare worldwide. Both women, widely admired for their grace and glamour, pursued creative passions that put them at the center of public life, catapulting them to international celebrity.

So when it came to portraying Callas in Pablo Larraín’s deeply affecting cinematic portrait Maria, Jolie had plenty of entry points. “People had a lot of opinions about her,” the actor says. “I don't know of anybody who worked harder or tried [harder] to take responsibility to do the best job...