Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”) is set to direct “The Secret Agent,” a gripping political thriller headlined by “Civil War” star Wagner Moura. The film is set in the late 1970s during the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship.
MK2 Films, the sales banner behind the Oscar-winning “Anatomy of a Fall,” will introduce the project to buyers at the Cannes Film Market. Now in pre-production, “The Secret Agent” is being produced by Brazil’s Cinemascopio and Mk Productions, whose credits include Oscar-nominated films such as Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World” and Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War.”
Moura, who broke through internationally with his Golden Globe-nominated performance as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series “Narcos,” will star as Marcelo, a university professor in his 40s who is on the run. He travels from São Paulo to the seaside city of Recife during Carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son.
MK2 Films, the sales banner behind the Oscar-winning “Anatomy of a Fall,” will introduce the project to buyers at the Cannes Film Market. Now in pre-production, “The Secret Agent” is being produced by Brazil’s Cinemascopio and Mk Productions, whose credits include Oscar-nominated films such as Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World” and Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War.”
Moura, who broke through internationally with his Golden Globe-nominated performance as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series “Narcos,” will star as Marcelo, a university professor in his 40s who is on the run. He travels from São Paulo to the seaside city of Recife during Carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son.
- 5/1/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Jewish streamer ChaiFlicks has licensed Oscar-winning Paweł Pawlikowski movie Ida and a wealth of other titles following a deal with Music Box Films.
The SVoD platform that specializes in Jewish storytelling has licensed 15 titles from the Chicago-based outfit, including Golden Globe-nominated Gett: The Trial of Vivane Amsalem. Other titles include Memoir of War, Golden Voices and Aida’s Secrets.
The main draw is Pawlikowski’s Ida, which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2015 and follows a young Polish woman (Agata Trzebuchowska) as she prepares to take vows as a Catholic nun. The orphaned protagonist then discovers that her parents were Jewish, and joins her only surviving relative on a road trip to learn the fate of their families.
ChaiFlicks has more than 3,000 hours of Jewish films, TV series, and documentaries, and plans to launch Ida and the other new titles on its platform later this year.
The SVoD platform that specializes in Jewish storytelling has licensed 15 titles from the Chicago-based outfit, including Golden Globe-nominated Gett: The Trial of Vivane Amsalem. Other titles include Memoir of War, Golden Voices and Aida’s Secrets.
The main draw is Pawlikowski’s Ida, which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2015 and follows a young Polish woman (Agata Trzebuchowska) as she prepares to take vows as a Catholic nun. The orphaned protagonist then discovers that her parents were Jewish, and joins her only surviving relative on a road trip to learn the fate of their families.
ChaiFlicks has more than 3,000 hours of Jewish films, TV series, and documentaries, and plans to launch Ida and the other new titles on its platform later this year.
- 4/17/2024
- by Hannah Abraham
- Deadline Film + TV
Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov returns to Cannes once again this year with Limonov: The Ballad starring Ben Whishaw, for which we can share a first-look image from above.
The film’s synopsis reads: A revolutionary militant, a thug, an underground writer, a butler to a millionaire in Manhattan. But also a switchblade-waving poet, a lover of beautiful women, a warmonger, a political agitator, and a novelist who wrote of his greatness. Eduard Limonov’s life story is a journey through Russia, America, and Europe during the second half of the 20th century.
The film was written by Pawel Pawlikowski, Ben Hopkins, and Serebrennikov, based on the novel ‘Limonov’ by Emmanuel Carrère, published in the US by Macmillan Publishers and in France by Pol.
Producers are Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside, a Fremantle Company, Dimitri Rassam for Chapter 2, a Mediawan Company, Ilya Stewart for Hype Studios and coproduced by...
The film’s synopsis reads: A revolutionary militant, a thug, an underground writer, a butler to a millionaire in Manhattan. But also a switchblade-waving poet, a lover of beautiful women, a warmonger, a political agitator, and a novelist who wrote of his greatness. Eduard Limonov’s life story is a journey through Russia, America, and Europe during the second half of the 20th century.
The film was written by Pawel Pawlikowski, Ben Hopkins, and Serebrennikov, based on the novel ‘Limonov’ by Emmanuel Carrère, published in the US by Macmillan Publishers and in France by Pol.
Producers are Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside, a Fremantle Company, Dimitri Rassam for Chapter 2, a Mediawan Company, Ilya Stewart for Hype Studios and coproduced by...
- 4/11/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
After several years working in German TV and locally-oriented film projects, Julia von Heinz had a significant breakthrough with “And Tomorrow the Entire World” — a taut, punchy political thriller with a youthful spirit of anti-fascist revolt, vigorous enough to land a Venice competition slot. Its success evidently raised the status of the director’s long-held passion project, an adaptation of Australian novelist Lily Brett’s semi-autobiographical 2001 title “Too Many Men,” which reckoned thoughtfully with her parents’ experience as Auschwitz survivors, and the hereditary nature of trauma. It emerges here, in somewhat simplified form, as “Treasure,” a watchably meandering vehicle for Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry to wrestle out father-daughter conflicts both trivially universal and hauntingly specific to history. The urgency and dynamism that marked von Heinz’s last feature are largely absent; for a story of such particular and searing sorrow, it feels rather mild.
Premiering in an out-of-competition Berlinale slot,...
Premiering in an out-of-competition Berlinale slot,...
- 2/17/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Ok, we’ve been through this one before, but let’s recap. In late fall of 2022, an incredible project was announced worth of our Most Anticipated Films Of The Year list, but perhaps more for 2025. Renowned Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, known for critically acclaimed and celebrated dramas like “Ida” and “Cold War” was teaming up with Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara for a movie titled, “The Island.
Continue reading Rooney Mara & Joaquin Phoenix Remain “Committed” To Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘The Island,” But Unsure About A Production Start at The Playlist.
Continue reading Rooney Mara & Joaquin Phoenix Remain “Committed” To Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘The Island,” But Unsure About A Production Start at The Playlist.
- 2/16/2024
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
“It’s about a whole bunch of things,” Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios says when quizzed on the subject of his latest feature, La Cocina, debuting this evening at the Berlin Film Festival. “In equal parts, it explores the topic of work, the American dream, the failure of the American dream, and abortion rights. That’s a really tough question as a director.”
Ruizpalacios has a point. Starring Rooney Mara and shot in a crisp digital black-and-white, La Cocina is hard to define. Running just short of two-and-a-half hours, the pic is a complex and formally ambitious tale, perhaps best described as a tragicomedy, set in a deathly busy New York City restaurant called The Grill.
The film opens during the lunch rush at The Grill, where, to the fury of the restaurant management, money has gone missing from the till. As a result, all the undocumented cooks are now subject...
Ruizpalacios has a point. Starring Rooney Mara and shot in a crisp digital black-and-white, La Cocina is hard to define. Running just short of two-and-a-half hours, the pic is a complex and formally ambitious tale, perhaps best described as a tragicomedy, set in a deathly busy New York City restaurant called The Grill.
The film opens during the lunch rush at The Grill, where, to the fury of the restaurant management, money has gone missing from the till. As a result, all the undocumented cooks are now subject...
- 2/16/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
“Poor Things” has performed well throughout this awards season, winning Best Comedy/Musical Film at the Golden Globes and snagging 11 Oscar nominations in total. That is the same number of awards the Searchlight Pictures movie was nominated for at the BAFTAs, where we predict it to perform well.
One person who is set to have a good night at the British film awards is Tony McNamara, who adapted Alasdair Gray‘s 1992 novel of the same name. McNamara previously worked with Emma Stone on “Cruella” and “The Favourite,” the latter of which was another Yorgos Lanthimos film. McNamara co-wrote that period piece with Deborah Davis. The duo was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars in 2019 but lost to “Green Book”.
However, they won the BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay, over “Cold War” (Janusz Głowacki and Paweł Pawlikowski), “Green Book,” “Roma” (Alfonso Cuarón), and “Vice” (Adam McKay). The film won six other BAFTAs in total,...
One person who is set to have a good night at the British film awards is Tony McNamara, who adapted Alasdair Gray‘s 1992 novel of the same name. McNamara previously worked with Emma Stone on “Cruella” and “The Favourite,” the latter of which was another Yorgos Lanthimos film. McNamara co-wrote that period piece with Deborah Davis. The duo was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars in 2019 but lost to “Green Book”.
However, they won the BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay, over “Cold War” (Janusz Głowacki and Paweł Pawlikowski), “Green Book,” “Roma” (Alfonso Cuarón), and “Vice” (Adam McKay). The film won six other BAFTAs in total,...
- 2/9/2024
- by Jacob Sarkisian
- Gold Derby
Jerusalem Film Festival artistic director Elad Samorzik will depart from his role later this year, with programmer, critic and author Orr Sigoli taking over the position.
Samorzik, who has been artistic director of the festival since late 2013, will work alongside Sigoli on the 2024 edition as outgoing artistic director.
The 41st Jerusalem Film Festival will run from July 18-28 – the first official indication that the festival is moving forwards with plans for this year, despite war in the region since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza.
A popular figure in the Israeli and international industry,...
Samorzik, who has been artistic director of the festival since late 2013, will work alongside Sigoli on the 2024 edition as outgoing artistic director.
The 41st Jerusalem Film Festival will run from July 18-28 – the first official indication that the festival is moving forwards with plans for this year, despite war in the region since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza.
A popular figure in the Israeli and international industry,...
- 2/5/2024
- ScreenDaily
Yorgos Lanthimos. Christopher Nolan. Justine Triet. Jonathan Glazer.
What do these four directors have in common? They were all among the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards, and none of them were born in the United States. Lanthimos is Greek, Triet is French, and Nolan and Glazer are British. Among the nominees, only New Yorker Martin Scorsese is American-born.
The last time only one American-born director made it to that year’s Best Director lineup was back in 1997, when Miloš Forman (Czech), Scott Hicks (Australian), Mike Leigh and Anthony Minghella (both English) received Oscar nominations. Of course, this is only technically true. Joel Coen was the one American in the category, yet it was due to a guild rule that he received sole credit for directing despite his helming “Fargo” with his brother Ethan, who would’ve been the second American among the nominees.
SEEOscars: Justine Triet is 8th...
What do these four directors have in common? They were all among the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards, and none of them were born in the United States. Lanthimos is Greek, Triet is French, and Nolan and Glazer are British. Among the nominees, only New Yorker Martin Scorsese is American-born.
The last time only one American-born director made it to that year’s Best Director lineup was back in 1997, when Miloš Forman (Czech), Scott Hicks (Australian), Mike Leigh and Anthony Minghella (both English) received Oscar nominations. Of course, this is only technically true. Joel Coen was the one American in the category, yet it was due to a guild rule that he received sole credit for directing despite his helming “Fargo” with his brother Ethan, who would’ve been the second American among the nominees.
SEEOscars: Justine Triet is 8th...
- 1/31/2024
- by Sebastian Ochoa Mendoza
- Gold Derby
The move in recent years to make the Oscars a truly global event in terms of the membership drive by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has paid off particularly well this year: Eligible voters from a record 93 countries submitted ballots in the Academy Awards’ nominating round, which ended Tuesday at 5 p.m. Pt.
That number is up significantly from last year’s 79 countries. The Academy also said it broke the overall turnout record for all members participating — and by a significant margin.
Academy president Janet Yang and CEO Bill Kramer shared the news with members Wednesday in an email while further encouraging them to tune in to the nomination announcement January 23 at 5:30 a.m. Pt/8:30 a.m. Et, and also to make a major effort to see all the nominated films before final balloting begins February 22.
What this strong international showing means for the eventual...
That number is up significantly from last year’s 79 countries. The Academy also said it broke the overall turnout record for all members participating — and by a significant margin.
Academy president Janet Yang and CEO Bill Kramer shared the news with members Wednesday in an email while further encouraging them to tune in to the nomination announcement January 23 at 5:30 a.m. Pt/8:30 a.m. Et, and also to make a major effort to see all the nominated films before final balloting begins February 22.
What this strong international showing means for the eventual...
- 1/18/2024
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Awards prognosticators are, for the most part not, the audience voting for the Oscars. But the consensus upon the announcement of the 2024 PGA Awards nominations is that the Producers Guild of America’s picks for the prestigious Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures hit the nail on the head in terms of the direction the Best Picture race has been trending toward. In other words, it sure seemed like we just got an advance notice of the 10 films that will fill up nomination slots for the Academy’s highest honor come January 23.
For context, the PGA Awards are one of the most accurate bellwethers for Best Picture, with 15 of its last 20 guild winners (including “Everything Everywhere All at Once” last year) going on to win the Oscar. Other honors like the Critics Choice Awards and the AFI Awards have a similar reputation for accuracy, but...
For context, the PGA Awards are one of the most accurate bellwethers for Best Picture, with 15 of its last 20 guild winners (including “Everything Everywhere All at Once” last year) going on to win the Oscar. Other honors like the Critics Choice Awards and the AFI Awards have a similar reputation for accuracy, but...
- 1/13/2024
- by Marcus Jones
- Indiewire
It used to be just a matter of fact that only men would be nominated for Best Director at the Oscars other than very rare exceptions. That has changed in recent years, though. And now we could potentially see the academy nominate three women in the race.
SEEGreta Gerwig (‘Barbie’) will be 1st to go 3-for-3 in directing Best Picture Oscar nominees
Over the first 82 years of the Academy Awards only four women were ever nominated for the prize and only one won (Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker”). Just since 2017, however, there have been four more female nominees and two more winners. The year Zhao won, Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) was also nominated, marking the first time two women contended in the same year. Naturally, the next step in Oscar history would be majority female nominees in the category.
It might just happen. There are three women in...
SEEGreta Gerwig (‘Barbie’) will be 1st to go 3-for-3 in directing Best Picture Oscar nominees
Over the first 82 years of the Academy Awards only four women were ever nominated for the prize and only one won (Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker”). Just since 2017, however, there have been four more female nominees and two more winners. The year Zhao won, Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) was also nominated, marking the first time two women contended in the same year. Naturally, the next step in Oscar history would be majority female nominees in the category.
It might just happen. There are three women in...
- 1/10/2024
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Indie thriller The Island, featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, is once again looking like it might come unstuck at the end of a turbulent year for filmmakers.
One of the first victims of this year’s strikes was Pawel Pawlikowski’s next planned film, The Island.
The Cold War director had assembled real-life husband and wife duo Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara to play the leads in the film, not to mention all of the financing too.
Cast and crew had assembled on the titular island all ready to shoot… and then the writers’ strike hit. While that shouldn’t have prevented the film from shooting, fears (that would prove to be well founded) that an actors’ strike would soon follow spooked the bond company insuring the project, and everything fell apart on the eve of production.
That was in May, but by September reports surfaced that Pawlikowski had...
One of the first victims of this year’s strikes was Pawel Pawlikowski’s next planned film, The Island.
The Cold War director had assembled real-life husband and wife duo Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara to play the leads in the film, not to mention all of the financing too.
Cast and crew had assembled on the titular island all ready to shoot… and then the writers’ strike hit. While that shouldn’t have prevented the film from shooting, fears (that would prove to be well founded) that an actors’ strike would soon follow spooked the bond company insuring the project, and everything fell apart on the eve of production.
That was in May, but by September reports surfaced that Pawlikowski had...
- 12/18/2023
- by Dan Cooper
- Film Stories
Sigh, just when you thought there was another project that might top our next Most Anticipated Films Of The Year list, in this case, 2025? Maybe it’s not going to happen at all?
In late fall of 2022, an incredible project was announced. Renowned Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, known for critically acclaimed and celebrated dramas like “Ida” and “Cold War” was teaming up with Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara for a movie titled, “The Island.”
Read More: Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara Join Pawel Pawlikowski’s New Drama ‘The Island’
A period film and dramatic thriller that Pawlikowski would write, “The Island,” would be loosely based on real events and will focus on an attractive American couple in the 1930s who escaped to their own private paradise on a deserted island and lived off the land.
Continue reading Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘The Island’ With Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara May Be In Financial...
In late fall of 2022, an incredible project was announced. Renowned Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, known for critically acclaimed and celebrated dramas like “Ida” and “Cold War” was teaming up with Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara for a movie titled, “The Island.”
Read More: Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara Join Pawel Pawlikowski’s New Drama ‘The Island’
A period film and dramatic thriller that Pawlikowski would write, “The Island,” would be loosely based on real events and will focus on an attractive American couple in the 1930s who escaped to their own private paradise on a deserted island and lived off the land.
Continue reading Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘The Island’ With Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara May Be In Financial...
- 12/15/2023
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Safe saying no Holocaust film’s ever looked or moved like The Zone of Interest, whose visual scheme are so odd, so resistant to expectation or desire, that it can take a good long while determining what Jonathan Glazer and cinematographer Łukasz Żal devised. A natural result for a film with no precedents or references, a success Żal described to me with equal-parts enthusiasm and shock.
I spoke with Żal at this year’s EnergaCAMERIMAGE, where Zone would earn the Fipresci Prize, about how his working practice with Paweł Pawlikowski runs in conflict with commercial enterprises, the practice’s immense difficulties, and why getting Glazer’s film was an everyday challenge.
The Film Stage: What were you working on recently?
Łukasz Żal: I was just doing commercials, but now, honestly, I don’t know. Because Paweł Pawlikowski’s film, I don’t know when we are going to do that,...
I spoke with Żal at this year’s EnergaCAMERIMAGE, where Zone would earn the Fipresci Prize, about how his working practice with Paweł Pawlikowski runs in conflict with commercial enterprises, the practice’s immense difficulties, and why getting Glazer’s film was an everyday challenge.
The Film Stage: What were you working on recently?
Łukasz Żal: I was just doing commercials, but now, honestly, I don’t know. Because Paweł Pawlikowski’s film, I don’t know when we are going to do that,...
- 12/14/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
“We’re making Big Brother in the Nazi House,” Polish cinematographer Łukasz Żal said director Jonathan Glazer told him when they started plotting their haunting and experimental Holocaust drama The Zone Of Interest.
The pic, written and directed by Glazer, is based on the novel by the late Martin Amis and follows Rudolf Höss, head Commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig. The couple leads an idyllic life in a handsome villa, cavorting with their numerous children at a nearby lake and in their pool and a large garden that abuts the wall of the concentration camp. There’s no real plot or arc to the narrative. Instead, the film offers up the horrifying reality of the family’s life for the audience to inspect.
Led by years of research in collaboration with the Auschwitz museum, the production recreated the Höss house and shot the picture with what Żal described as complete objectivity.
The pic, written and directed by Glazer, is based on the novel by the late Martin Amis and follows Rudolf Höss, head Commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig. The couple leads an idyllic life in a handsome villa, cavorting with their numerous children at a nearby lake and in their pool and a large garden that abuts the wall of the concentration camp. There’s no real plot or arc to the narrative. Instead, the film offers up the horrifying reality of the family’s life for the audience to inspect.
Led by years of research in collaboration with the Auschwitz museum, the production recreated the Höss house and shot the picture with what Żal described as complete objectivity.
- 11/15/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
To work on The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Holocaust drama about the domestic life of an Auschwitz commandant and his family, Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal had to “forget everything I was taught” about making “beautiful images.”
Glazer’s film, loosely adapted from the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis, follows the seemingly mundane activities of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, played by Christian Friedl and Sandra Hüller, as they strive to build a dream life for their family in their house and garden next to the camp. The smooth, stunning monochrome aesthetic Zal perfected on his (Oscar-nominated) lensing of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida and Cold War would not do for Glazer’s story, which aimed to evoke the banality of evil by refusing to show Höss and Hedwig as anything but what they were: Ordinary, even boring, people who carried out unspeakable evil.
Glazer’s film, loosely adapted from the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis, follows the seemingly mundane activities of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, played by Christian Friedl and Sandra Hüller, as they strive to build a dream life for their family in their house and garden next to the camp. The smooth, stunning monochrome aesthetic Zal perfected on his (Oscar-nominated) lensing of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida and Cold War would not do for Glazer’s story, which aimed to evoke the banality of evil by refusing to show Höss and Hedwig as anything but what they were: Ordinary, even boring, people who carried out unspeakable evil.
- 11/15/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mubi has unveiled their November 2023 lineup, featuring notable new releases such as Ashley McKenzie’s Queens of the Qing Dynasty and Alain Gomis’ Thelonious Monk documentary Rewind & Play. Also in the lineup is three stellar earlier films from Christian Petzold––Yella, Jerichow, and The State I Am In––along with John Cassavetes’ Husbands and Gloria, a Hayao Miyazaki short, and a retrospective dedicated to Argentinian-born, French-educated filmmaker and theorist Nelly Kaplan.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
November 1
A Very Curious Girl, directed by Nelly Kaplan | A Mischievous Rebellion: Films by Nelly Kaplan
The Pleasure of Love, directed by Nelly Kaplan | A Mischievous Rebellion: Films by Nelly Kaplan
Charles and Lucie, directed by Nelly Kaplan | A Mischievous Rebellion: Films by Nelly Kaplan
Papa the Little Boats, directed by Nelly Kaplan | A Mischievous Rebellion: Films by Nelly Kaplan
Yella, directed by Christian Petzold | Phantoms Among Us: The Films of Christian Petzold
Jerichow,...
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
November 1
A Very Curious Girl, directed by Nelly Kaplan | A Mischievous Rebellion: Films by Nelly Kaplan
The Pleasure of Love, directed by Nelly Kaplan | A Mischievous Rebellion: Films by Nelly Kaplan
Charles and Lucie, directed by Nelly Kaplan | A Mischievous Rebellion: Films by Nelly Kaplan
Papa the Little Boats, directed by Nelly Kaplan | A Mischievous Rebellion: Films by Nelly Kaplan
Yella, directed by Christian Petzold | Phantoms Among Us: The Films of Christian Petzold
Jerichow,...
- 10/25/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Jonathan Glazer’s first film in a decade is also his second film with A24. Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” stars Christian Friedel as Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and Sandra Hüller as his wife and accomplice Hedwig Höss in a loose adaptation of Martin Amis’ 2014 novel. Glazer’s last feature was the 2013 A24 film “Under the Skin.”
In the film, the Höss couple strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden directly adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Höss was the longest-serving chief commander. But Jews are being exterminated on the other side of the wall as Höss and his wife turn a blind eye to atrocity.
Max Beck, Ralph Herforth, Stephanie Petrowitz, Sascha Maaz, Marie Rosa Tietjen, and Lilli Falk also star. “The Zone of Interest” lead actress Hüller additionally appears in Justine Triet’s buzzy Palme d’Or-winning thriller “Anatomy of a Fall,...
In the film, the Höss couple strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden directly adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Höss was the longest-serving chief commander. But Jews are being exterminated on the other side of the wall as Höss and his wife turn a blind eye to atrocity.
Max Beck, Ralph Herforth, Stephanie Petrowitz, Sascha Maaz, Marie Rosa Tietjen, and Lilli Falk also star. “The Zone of Interest” lead actress Hüller additionally appears in Justine Triet’s buzzy Palme d’Or-winning thriller “Anatomy of a Fall,...
- 10/17/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Animated feature world premiered at Toronto earlier this month.
Poland is submitting animated featureThe Peasants as its candidate for best International feature film for next year’s Academy Awards.
Co-directors Dk Welchman and Hugh Welchman used the same painting animation technique as in their previous film Loving Vincent forThe Peasants.
The Peasants had its world premiere in the Special Presentations section at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, with international sales being handled by New Europe Film Sales.
Last weekend saw The Peasants win its first ever audience prize in Poland when festival-goers at the Polish Film Festival...
Poland is submitting animated featureThe Peasants as its candidate for best International feature film for next year’s Academy Awards.
Co-directors Dk Welchman and Hugh Welchman used the same painting animation technique as in their previous film Loving Vincent forThe Peasants.
The Peasants had its world premiere in the Special Presentations section at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, with international sales being handled by New Europe Film Sales.
Last weekend saw The Peasants win its first ever audience prize in Poland when festival-goers at the Polish Film Festival...
- 9/25/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Poland will submit animated feature drama The Peasants for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
The picture is the latest work from Dk Welchman (previously known as Dorota Kobiela) and Hugh Welchman, the creative duo behind the groundbreaking, Oscar-nominated, hand-painted biopic Loving Vincent.
The pair co-wrote The Peasants screenplay adaptation from Nobel Prize-winning writer Władysław Reymont’s classic 1905 novel of the same name about a young woman determined to forge her own path within the confines of a late 19th century Polish village.
Poland’s Oscar entry choice was made Monday by a selection committee overseen by the Polish Film Institute. There was a strong offering of Polish films this year, with other potential contenders including Agnieszka Holland’s migrant drama Green Border and Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englerts’ transgender drama Woman Of.
Related: Agnieszka Holland’s Migrant Crisis Drama ‘Green Border’ Posts Record Opening Weekend...
The picture is the latest work from Dk Welchman (previously known as Dorota Kobiela) and Hugh Welchman, the creative duo behind the groundbreaking, Oscar-nominated, hand-painted biopic Loving Vincent.
The pair co-wrote The Peasants screenplay adaptation from Nobel Prize-winning writer Władysław Reymont’s classic 1905 novel of the same name about a young woman determined to forge her own path within the confines of a late 19th century Polish village.
Poland’s Oscar entry choice was made Monday by a selection committee overseen by the Polish Film Institute. There was a strong offering of Polish films this year, with other potential contenders including Agnieszka Holland’s migrant drama Green Border and Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englerts’ transgender drama Woman Of.
Related: Agnieszka Holland’s Migrant Crisis Drama ‘Green Border’ Posts Record Opening Weekend...
- 9/25/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Spike Lee blasted critics who suggested that “Do The Right Thing” would spark riots when it opened in 1989, while honoring one of the reviewers who came to the film’s defense. The remarks came as Lee received the Ebert Director Award, named for the late film critic Roger Ebert, at the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Awards on Sunday.
“Your husband got behind me when those mother f–kers in the press were saying that ‘Do the Right Thing’ was going to incite Black people to riot,” Lee said, as he accepted his prize from Chaz Ebert, the late critic’s wife. “That this film should not be shown in the United States.”
Lee cited David Denby and Joe Klein as two of the most prominent critical voices against the film, which has gone to be considered one of the greatest films ever made. The pair wrote, Lee recalled, that...
“Your husband got behind me when those mother f–kers in the press were saying that ‘Do the Right Thing’ was going to incite Black people to riot,” Lee said, as he accepted his prize from Chaz Ebert, the late critic’s wife. “That this film should not be shown in the United States.”
Lee cited David Denby and Joe Klein as two of the most prominent critical voices against the film, which has gone to be considered one of the greatest films ever made. The pair wrote, Lee recalled, that...
- 9/11/2023
- by Brent Lang and Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
With her enigmatically titled Woman Of… (Kobieta z..), Malgorzata Szumowska returns from the magical satire of Never Gonna Snow Again to trenchant social realism, recounting a journey lasting half a lifetime, of sacrifice, sorrow and resilience.
Written and directed in collaboration with regular cinematographer and creative partner Michal Englert, this is a rare close-up of an older trans woman making tough choices in a majority Catholic country that remains legislatively and socially hostile. The film’s compassionate gaze and stirring performances make it an illuminating window into gender recognition in an unaccommodating environment.
Like many dramas focused on a highly specific community and developed out of extensive interviews, Woman Of… doesn’t entirely escape the feel of a representational project that ticks all the required boxes in a not entirely seamless narrative. However, that doesn’t make it any less sincere or moving, not only in the principal character’s...
Written and directed in collaboration with regular cinematographer and creative partner Michal Englert, this is a rare close-up of an older trans woman making tough choices in a majority Catholic country that remains legislatively and socially hostile. The film’s compassionate gaze and stirring performances make it an illuminating window into gender recognition in an unaccommodating environment.
Like many dramas focused on a highly specific community and developed out of extensive interviews, Woman Of… doesn’t entirely escape the feel of a representational project that ticks all the required boxes in a not entirely seamless narrative. However, that doesn’t make it any less sincere or moving, not only in the principal character’s...
- 9/8/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When U.K. writer-director Jonathan Glazer approached Polish cinematographer Łukasz Żal about “The Zone of Interest,” a provocative Holocaust drama adapted from a 2014 novel by Martin Amis, he had a bold proposition for the film, which centers on the domestic life of an Auschwitz commandant and his family living in the shadow of the notorious concentration camp. What if, Glazer suggested, they shoot the scenes inside the Höss family home without a single camera on set?
Working on location, production designer Chris Oddy and his crew built a replica of the camp commandant’s real-life house. Then Oddy, Glazer, Żal and first A.D. Marc Wilson got to work, outfitting the set to accommodate the director’s daring gambit, which would allow the actors to move about the house unobstructed and offer a more natural portrait of the family’s everyday life.
“We drilled the house like Swiss cheese,” Żal says.
Working on location, production designer Chris Oddy and his crew built a replica of the camp commandant’s real-life house. Then Oddy, Glazer, Żal and first A.D. Marc Wilson got to work, outfitting the set to accommodate the director’s daring gambit, which would allow the actors to move about the house unobstructed and offer a more natural portrait of the family’s everyday life.
“We drilled the house like Swiss cheese,” Żal says.
- 9/8/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Fest runs September 7-17.
TIFF has announced additional TIFF Tribute Award recipients, with Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz, Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal, and Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau joining the roster.
Markowicz will receive the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by MGM Studios. The award is in the spirit of Torontonian Mary Pickford, the groundbreaking actor, producer, and co-founder of United Artists.
Markowicz will present the world premiere of her second feature Toll on September 9. The film centres on a Brazilian mother who falls in with a gang of thieves in an attempt to keep her family afloat. Her first film...
TIFF has announced additional TIFF Tribute Award recipients, with Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz, Polish cinematographer Lukasz Zal, and Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau joining the roster.
Markowicz will receive the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by MGM Studios. The award is in the spirit of Torontonian Mary Pickford, the groundbreaking actor, producer, and co-founder of United Artists.
Markowicz will present the world premiere of her second feature Toll on September 9. The film centres on a Brazilian mother who falls in with a gang of thieves in an attempt to keep her family afloat. Her first film...
- 8/22/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau, Brazilian director Carolina Markowicz and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Lukasz Zal will be honored at the Toronto Film Festival, including as part of the fifth annual TIFF Tribute Awards on Sept. 10, organizers said on Tuesday.
On Sept. 15, Lau, who sits atop China’s A-list as both an actor and a pop performer, will receive a special tribute award ahead of the world premiere of Ning Hao’s The Movie Emperor, where he plays a movie star seeking relevance via a film festival–baiting art-house role.
And during the TIFF Tribute Awards, Markowicz will be honored with the TIFF Emerging Talent Award, while Poland’s Zal will be feted with a TIFF Artisan Award. Markowicz is headed to Toronto for the world premiere of her second feature, Toll, on Sept. 9.
Zal is best known for his cinematography in Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War and Ida and returns to...
On Sept. 15, Lau, who sits atop China’s A-list as both an actor and a pop performer, will receive a special tribute award ahead of the world premiere of Ning Hao’s The Movie Emperor, where he plays a movie star seeking relevance via a film festival–baiting art-house role.
And during the TIFF Tribute Awards, Markowicz will be honored with the TIFF Emerging Talent Award, while Poland’s Zal will be feted with a TIFF Artisan Award. Markowicz is headed to Toronto for the world premiere of her second feature, Toll, on Sept. 9.
Zal is best known for his cinematography in Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War and Ida and returns to...
- 8/22/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On Tuesday, TIFF announced additional honorees who will be receiving a TIFF Tribute Award at this year’s Festival. Recipients include award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz who will be honoured with the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by MGM. This award is in the spirit of Torontonian Mary Pickford, the groundbreaking actor, producer, and co-founder of United Artists, whose impact continues today. Two-time Academy Award–nominated Polish cinematographer Łukasz Żal will receive the TIFF Variety Artisan Award, which recognizes a distinguished creative who has excelled at their craft and made an outstanding contribution to cinema and entertainment. Both Markowicz and Żal will be honoured on Sept. 10 at the fifth annual TIFF Tribute Awards gala fundraiser at Fairmont Royal York Hotel, presented by Bulgari.
On Sept. 15, TIFF will be honouring Andy Lau, the multi-hyphenate Hong Kong artist with a Special Tribute Award at the World Premiere Gala presentation of Ning Hao’s “The Movie Emperor,...
On Sept. 15, TIFF will be honouring Andy Lau, the multi-hyphenate Hong Kong artist with a Special Tribute Award at the World Premiere Gala presentation of Ning Hao’s “The Movie Emperor,...
- 8/22/2023
- by William Earl
- Variety Film + TV
Some movies don't need trailers to get you in the theater. "She Came to Me" is one such film.
Written and directed by the always-interesting Rebecca Miller, "She Came to Me" is a romantic comedy sporting a love triangle comprised of Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei. Say no more, right? Ticket bought. If that's what you're thinking, maybe skip the rest of this piece and wait until it hits a theater near you.
If, for some reason, you need a harder sell than that, here's the premise: Dinklage plays a creatively blocked opera composer trapped in a stagnant marriage with his therapist wife (Hathway), who encourages him to break out of his misery by getting out into the world and encountering regular people. One day, while walking his dog, he encounters a tugboat captain (Tomei), who takes him on board her craft and seduces him. Suddenly, he's got...
Written and directed by the always-interesting Rebecca Miller, "She Came to Me" is a romantic comedy sporting a love triangle comprised of Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei. Say no more, right? Ticket bought. If that's what you're thinking, maybe skip the rest of this piece and wait until it hits a theater near you.
If, for some reason, you need a harder sell than that, here's the premise: Dinklage plays a creatively blocked opera composer trapped in a stagnant marriage with his therapist wife (Hathway), who encourages him to break out of his misery by getting out into the world and encountering regular people. One day, while walking his dog, he encounters a tugboat captain (Tomei), who takes him on board her craft and seduces him. Suddenly, he's got...
- 8/17/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Jonathan Glazer’s chilling Holocaust portrait “The Zone of Interest” received a six-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival this year — and eventually its Grand Jury Prize.
IndieWire now exclusively shares the A24 film’s release date, set for a limited opening on December 8 in time for awards season. A24 also shares two new images from the film featuring Christian Friedel as Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and Sandra Hüller as his wife and accomplice Hewdig Höss. At that same Cannes, Hüller also starred in Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall.”
The film’s official synopsis belies what’s going on under the surface, as Rudolf and Hedwig “strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden” directly adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Höss was the longest-serving chief commander.
This is Glazer’s first feature since 2013’s cult...
IndieWire now exclusively shares the A24 film’s release date, set for a limited opening on December 8 in time for awards season. A24 also shares two new images from the film featuring Christian Friedel as Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and Sandra Hüller as his wife and accomplice Hewdig Höss. At that same Cannes, Hüller also starred in Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall.”
The film’s official synopsis belies what’s going on under the surface, as Rudolf and Hedwig “strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden” directly adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Höss was the longest-serving chief commander.
This is Glazer’s first feature since 2013’s cult...
- 8/2/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” has scored a Fipresci award in Cannes.
The jury of the International Federation of Film Critics praised the film “for its formal radicality, the complexity of the sound and score, and its contrast between the invisible atrocities behind the wall and a supposed paradise,” Fipresci stated on Saturday.
“By presenting the horror as something usual, and using everyday-like dialogues, it’s a reflection on ignorance as a disease that connects the past with the present.”
Glazer’s take on a Nazi family living next door to Auschwitz and enjoying it – loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis, who tragically passed away on May 19, just before the premiere – has been getting rave reviews at the French festival, becoming one of the frontrunners for this year’s Palme d’Or.
Christian Friedel stars as real-life SS officer Rudolf Höss, joined by Sandra Hüller playing his wife,...
The jury of the International Federation of Film Critics praised the film “for its formal radicality, the complexity of the sound and score, and its contrast between the invisible atrocities behind the wall and a supposed paradise,” Fipresci stated on Saturday.
“By presenting the horror as something usual, and using everyday-like dialogues, it’s a reflection on ignorance as a disease that connects the past with the present.”
Glazer’s take on a Nazi family living next door to Auschwitz and enjoying it – loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis, who tragically passed away on May 19, just before the premiere – has been getting rave reviews at the French festival, becoming one of the frontrunners for this year’s Palme d’Or.
Christian Friedel stars as real-life SS officer Rudolf Höss, joined by Sandra Hüller playing his wife,...
- 5/27/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Updated May 26, 2023: The Cannes jury will hand out its awards on Saturday, May 27. The final predictions for which films and performances will win are listed below.
The Cannes Film Festival has had its fair share of impressive movie premieres this year, with audiences embracing new films from the likes of Jonathan Glazer, Todd Haynes and Hirokazu Kore-eda. But even the most sustained standing ovation doesn’t guarantee that a movie will walk away with the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ highest honor.
It all depends on the vagaries of the jury’s taste, and this one is headed up by Ruben Östlund, a two time Palme d’Or winner for “Triangle of Sadness” and “The Square.” And it’s not just Östlund’s decision to make. The ultimate victor will come down to the personal opinions of jury members Maryam Touzani, Denis Ménochet, Rungano Nyoni, Brie Larson, Paul Dano, Atiq Rahimi,...
The Cannes Film Festival has had its fair share of impressive movie premieres this year, with audiences embracing new films from the likes of Jonathan Glazer, Todd Haynes and Hirokazu Kore-eda. But even the most sustained standing ovation doesn’t guarantee that a movie will walk away with the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ highest honor.
It all depends on the vagaries of the jury’s taste, and this one is headed up by Ruben Östlund, a two time Palme d’Or winner for “Triangle of Sadness” and “The Square.” And it’s not just Östlund’s decision to make. The ultimate victor will come down to the personal opinions of jury members Maryam Touzani, Denis Ménochet, Rungano Nyoni, Brie Larson, Paul Dano, Atiq Rahimi,...
- 5/26/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
A month away from the June 30 expiration of SAG-AFTRA’s collective bargaining agreement with the AMPTP, indie films are in a panic.
With SAG’s negotiating committee calling for a strike authorization vote, producers are stuck in an infinite loop of existential crisis. They’re toggling between a scramble to get cameras rolling, make minute-to-minute decisions about continuing prep work, or making the call to push start dates until — fingers crossed — a strike is averted.
“I’m on an emergency call almost every day about whether to push a movie, whether to keep spending money and see what happens,” one entertainment lawyer told IndieWire. “Independently financed movies, it’s very hard. These are real people putting in real money. It’s not like a studio isn’t real money, but it’s different kinds of risks.”
For indie films, those risks requires that financing be secured by completion guarantors and...
With SAG’s negotiating committee calling for a strike authorization vote, producers are stuck in an infinite loop of existential crisis. They’re toggling between a scramble to get cameras rolling, make minute-to-minute decisions about continuing prep work, or making the call to push start dates until — fingers crossed — a strike is averted.
“I’m on an emergency call almost every day about whether to push a movie, whether to keep spending money and see what happens,” one entertainment lawyer told IndieWire. “Independently financed movies, it’s very hard. These are real people putting in real money. It’s not like a studio isn’t real money, but it’s different kinds of risks.”
For indie films, those risks requires that financing be secured by completion guarantors and...
- 5/26/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Bonjour, Insiders. Jesse Whittock here to guide you through a whirlwind week in film and television. Cannes is nearly over, while we’ve got the latest twist in the ongoing U.S. labor disputes, which could have worldwide ramifications. Read on and don’t forget to subscribe here.
No Assurance Of Insurance Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Pawel Pawlikowski
Broken bonds: Andreas broke one of the biggest stories of the year Tuesday. His scoop about the shut down of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara-starrer The Island revealed a new problem for the indie film sector: bond companies are refusing to insure movies due to impending SAG-AFTRA and DGA action. The Island’s producers found this out the hard way, as they were told the film couldn’t be bonded on the eve of shooting in Spain. Joker star Phoenix and Mara (Carol), both SAG-AFTRA card carriers, were...
No Assurance Of Insurance Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Pawel Pawlikowski
Broken bonds: Andreas broke one of the biggest stories of the year Tuesday. His scoop about the shut down of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara-starrer The Island revealed a new problem for the indie film sector: bond companies are refusing to insure movies due to impending SAG-AFTRA and DGA action. The Island’s producers found this out the hard way, as they were told the film couldn’t be bonded on the eve of shooting in Spain. Joker star Phoenix and Mara (Carol), both SAG-AFTRA card carriers, were...
- 5/26/2023
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.REMEMBERINGInauguration of the Pleasure Dome.Kenneth Anger has died at the age of 96, as reported this morning by his gallery. "Anger forged a body of work as dazzlingly poetic in its unique visual intensity as it is narratively innovative," wrote Maximilian Le Cain of the pioneering avant-gardist (and devoted occultist) for Senses of Cinema. "Anger’s films are cinematic manifestations of his occult practices. As such, they are highly symbolical, either featuring characters directly portraying gods, forces and demons or else finding an appropriate embodiment for them in the iconography of contemporary pop culture."The Austrian actor Helmut Berger died last week aged 78. He was best known as Luchino Visconti’s muse, unforgettable in The Damned (1969), Ludwig (1973), and Conversation Piece (1974). Among his additional...
- 5/24/2023
- MUBI
Yesterday we told you that Netflix has picked up Todd Haynes’ latest Cannes Competition title, May December, and it looks like the filmmaker has already lined up his next project.
Haynes’ told a French culture mag this week that he is prepping his next film, a gay romance pic with Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix set to star in the lead role.
“I want to do it in early 2024. It’s a project that Joaquin Phoenix brought to me, and it’s set in the 1930s,” Haynes said. “A love story between two men, based on an original, very audacious scenario. This is, I believe, his first gay role. I am very excited about this project.”
In a separate interview with Indiewire, Haynes added that the pic will be Nc-17 rated and come from a screenplay he has developed with Phoenix and Jon Raymond.
“We basically wrote with him as a story writer,...
Haynes’ told a French culture mag this week that he is prepping his next film, a gay romance pic with Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix set to star in the lead role.
“I want to do it in early 2024. It’s a project that Joaquin Phoenix brought to me, and it’s set in the 1930s,” Haynes said. “A love story between two men, based on an original, very audacious scenario. This is, I believe, his first gay role. I am very excited about this project.”
In a separate interview with Indiewire, Haynes added that the pic will be Nc-17 rated and come from a screenplay he has developed with Phoenix and Jon Raymond.
“We basically wrote with him as a story writer,...
- 5/24/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The unseasonably cold and rainy weather in Cannes this year didn’t put a damper on business, but the writers strike loomed like a storm cloud, threatening a deluge.
There were plenty of deals, big and small, in the Cannes Marché du Film, which drew more than 13,500 participants this year, an all-time record, exceeding pre-pandemic figures. As the market drew to a close, Netflix closed an eight-figure deal for North America for May December, the Todd Haynes-directed dramedy starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. The pickup, reportedly worth $11 million, is a domestic-only, non-global agreement, a setup that used to be rare but could become increasingly common as streamers tighten their focus on individual territories and local audiences. CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group are handling domestic rights for May December, with Rocket Science brokering international deals.
Sony did a major deal for Paddington in Peru, the third...
There were plenty of deals, big and small, in the Cannes Marché du Film, which drew more than 13,500 participants this year, an all-time record, exceeding pre-pandemic figures. As the market drew to a close, Netflix closed an eight-figure deal for North America for May December, the Todd Haynes-directed dramedy starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. The pickup, reportedly worth $11 million, is a domestic-only, non-global agreement, a setup that used to be rare but could become increasingly common as streamers tighten their focus on individual territories and local audiences. CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group are handling domestic rights for May December, with Rocket Science brokering international deals.
Sony did a major deal for Paddington in Peru, the third...
- 5/23/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: In a seismic development for the indie film sector, which could have ripple effects across the whole film and TV ecosystem, bond companies are refusing to insure movies ahead of a potential SAG-AFTRA strike on July 1.
This eventuality has been bubbling behind the scenes for a little while, but its first known casualty is a high-profile case. Oscar winner Pawel Pawlikowski’s The Island, set to star Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) and Oscar nominee Rooney Mara (Carol), was due to get underway this month with the actors on location in Spain and ready to roll.
However, we understand the threat of a potential SAG-AFTRA strike — on top of the ongoing WGA strike and potential DGA action — has spooked bond companies and The Island filmmakers were told on the eve of shoot that the movie couldn’t be bonded, leading to their two stars (both SAG-AFTRA members) having to...
This eventuality has been bubbling behind the scenes for a little while, but its first known casualty is a high-profile case. Oscar winner Pawel Pawlikowski’s The Island, set to star Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) and Oscar nominee Rooney Mara (Carol), was due to get underway this month with the actors on location in Spain and ready to roll.
However, we understand the threat of a potential SAG-AFTRA strike — on top of the ongoing WGA strike and potential DGA action — has spooked bond companies and The Island filmmakers were told on the eve of shoot that the movie couldn’t be bonded, leading to their two stars (both SAG-AFTRA members) having to...
- 5/23/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
At this point it doesn’t seem a stretch to say that Jonathan Glazer is incapable of making a movie that’s anything less than bracingly original. His 2000 feature debut, Sexy Beast, elevated the British gangster thriller. Four years later, his reincarnation mystery, Birth, got a cool response from most critics but has since been steadily re-evaluated as a spellbinding heir to Rosemary’s Baby. Almost a decade later, he returned with the hypnotically austere sci-fi chiller Under the Skin, about an alien succubus preying on Scottish men and discovering empathy during her killing spree.
Glazer’s new German-language film, The Zone of Interest, which comes after another 10-year absence from features, is a devastating Holocaust drama like no other, which demonstrates with startling effectiveness the British formalist’s unerring control of tonal and visual storytelling. The worst thing you could say about the director is that for such a singular talent,...
Glazer’s new German-language film, The Zone of Interest, which comes after another 10-year absence from features, is a devastating Holocaust drama like no other, which demonstrates with startling effectiveness the British formalist’s unerring control of tonal and visual storytelling. The worst thing you could say about the director is that for such a singular talent,...
- 5/19/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
For most of the 75-year history of the Cannes Film Festival preceding this year’s edition, which kicks off Tuesday, relatively few films that premiered at Cannes went on to Academy Award recognition outside of the Oscar category that we now call best international feature. Indeed, only twice has the winner of Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or, and the winner of the Academy’s top prize, the best picture Oscar, been the same film: 1955’s Marty and 2019’s Parasite.
Cannes was a place for art house films in a wide variety of languages, while the Academy Awards celebrated English-language films from America or the UK. But in recent years, that gap has begun to close — Cannes has occasionally screened more mainstream fare, and Oscar voters have increasingly embraced artier pics, not least because the Academy, once largely a club of Hollywood-based members, has deliberately become a much more international organization.
Cannes was a place for art house films in a wide variety of languages, while the Academy Awards celebrated English-language films from America or the UK. But in recent years, that gap has begun to close — Cannes has occasionally screened more mainstream fare, and Oscar voters have increasingly embraced artier pics, not least because the Academy, once largely a club of Hollywood-based members, has deliberately become a much more international organization.
- 5/16/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘The Zone of Interest’ First Look: Jonathan Glazer Returns with First Feature Since ‘Under the Skin’
Jonathan Glazer is back on the big screen.
The “Under the Skin” director returns for his first feature in 10 years with “The Zone of Interest,” based on Martin Amis’ 2014 novel. The period piece follows Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) who both strive to build a dream life for their family in the garden next to the concentration camp. The novel charts a love triangle with a Nazi officer who falls in love with Hedwig; the story is told from the perspective of three characters, one being a Jewish Sonderkommando.
Max Beck, Ralph Herforth, Stephanie Petrowitz, Sascha Maaz, Marie Rosa Tietjen, and Lilli Falk also star.
Łukasz Żal, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” and “Cold War,” serves as the director of photography, with Paul Watts editing. The A24 film will be scored by composer Mica Levi. Glazer and Levi...
The “Under the Skin” director returns for his first feature in 10 years with “The Zone of Interest,” based on Martin Amis’ 2014 novel. The period piece follows Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) who both strive to build a dream life for their family in the garden next to the concentration camp. The novel charts a love triangle with a Nazi officer who falls in love with Hedwig; the story is told from the perspective of three characters, one being a Jewish Sonderkommando.
Max Beck, Ralph Herforth, Stephanie Petrowitz, Sascha Maaz, Marie Rosa Tietjen, and Lilli Falk also star.
Łukasz Żal, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” and “Cold War,” serves as the director of photography, with Paul Watts editing. The A24 film will be scored by composer Mica Levi. Glazer and Levi...
- 5/8/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The future of the Curzon Mayfair looks uncertain with the landlord refusing to renew the Curzon’s lease, which ends in 2024.
Tilda Swinton and Steven Spielberg are among the industry voices throwing their weight behind a campaign to prevent iconic London cinema Curzon Mayfair from changing hands.
It comes as UK exhibitor-distributor Curzon, owned by the US-based Cohen Media Group, has warned the building’s landlord it is ready to go to court to remain on the site for years to come.
The landlord is refusing to renew Curzon’s lease on the Grade II listed 37–38 Curzon Street building, which ends in 2024.
The landlord,...
Tilda Swinton and Steven Spielberg are among the industry voices throwing their weight behind a campaign to prevent iconic London cinema Curzon Mayfair from changing hands.
It comes as UK exhibitor-distributor Curzon, owned by the US-based Cohen Media Group, has warned the building’s landlord it is ready to go to court to remain on the site for years to come.
The landlord is refusing to renew Curzon’s lease on the Grade II listed 37–38 Curzon Street building, which ends in 2024.
The landlord,...
- 4/24/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Project is targeting an autumn festival premiere.
Polish star Marcin Dorociński will lead the cast for Minghun, the latest feature from Leave No Traces director Jan P. Matuszynski.
Dorociński’s credits include The Queen’s Gambit, Vikings: Valhalla and the forthcoming Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One.
The cast also includes Daxing Zhang, young actors Natalia Bui and Antek Sztaba, as well as Ewelina Starejki, Wiktoria Gorodeckaja, Fenfen Huang, Kwong Loke and Yuk Han. The script was written by Grzegorz Łoszewski.
The project, which is currently shooting, is targeting an autumn festival premiere (with Venice a potential destination) and will be...
Polish star Marcin Dorociński will lead the cast for Minghun, the latest feature from Leave No Traces director Jan P. Matuszynski.
Dorociński’s credits include The Queen’s Gambit, Vikings: Valhalla and the forthcoming Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One.
The cast also includes Daxing Zhang, young actors Natalia Bui and Antek Sztaba, as well as Ewelina Starejki, Wiktoria Gorodeckaja, Fenfen Huang, Kwong Loke and Yuk Han. The script was written by Grzegorz Łoszewski.
The project, which is currently shooting, is targeting an autumn festival premiere (with Venice a potential destination) and will be...
- 3/30/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Having directed only four films over the last quarter-century, we’re not holding our breath when we may see the next feature from Scottish director Lynne Ramsay. However, with a handful of projects in development, we’ve been curious which one she’ll focus her attention on in the coming years. Courtesy of a masterclass at Doha Film Institute’s Qumra 2023, she’s now provided some updates on a quarter of projects in the hopper.
As reported by Screen Daily, Ramsay says first up she hopes to shoot Stone Mattress––an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 2011 short story for The New Yorker that will star Julianne Moore and Sandra Oh––starting this year. Backed by Amazon and adapted by Ramsay with Tom Townend, the thriller is set on an Arctic cruise ship. “It’s such a challenge, that film because it’s a boat in the Arctic – it [needs] all the elements aligning,...
As reported by Screen Daily, Ramsay says first up she hopes to shoot Stone Mattress––an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 2011 short story for The New Yorker that will star Julianne Moore and Sandra Oh––starting this year. Backed by Amazon and adapted by Ramsay with Tom Townend, the thriller is set on an Arctic cruise ship. “It’s such a challenge, that film because it’s a boat in the Arctic – it [needs] all the elements aligning,...
- 3/14/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Previous recipients include Barry Jenkins, Dustin Lance Black, Susannah Grant, Liz Hannah.
Rebecca Lenkiewicz will receive Writers Guild of America West’s (WGA) 2023 Paul Selvin Award in recognition of her adapted screenplay She Said at the Guild’s awards ceremony in Los Angeles on March 5.
She Said recounts the story of the investigation by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, reporters at The New York Times, who exposed decades of sexual abuse by then-Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and in so doing ignited the #MeToo movement. Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star.
Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Los Angeles court today.
Rebecca Lenkiewicz will receive Writers Guild of America West’s (WGA) 2023 Paul Selvin Award in recognition of her adapted screenplay She Said at the Guild’s awards ceremony in Los Angeles on March 5.
She Said recounts the story of the investigation by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, reporters at The New York Times, who exposed decades of sexual abuse by then-Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and in so doing ignited the #MeToo movement. Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star.
Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Los Angeles court today.
- 2/23/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The Polish film industry is embracing variety and high-profile international collaborations, with a slew of new co-productions already generating buzz among buyers and festival programmers. “More and more established filmmakers, who used to look for collaborators in Romania or Hungary, are now coming to Poland — mostly because we are backed by concrete institutions and because there is money,” says producer Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska of Madants, heading to Berlinale’s European Film Market with “Ultima Thule” and Goran Stolevski’s “Housekeeping for Beginners.”
“Our crews speak English and work abroad. We are visible internationally,” she adds.
Madants is also behind James Napier Robertson’s upcoming Polish-Kiwi title “Joika,” one of six international co-productions backed by the Polish Film Institute in 2022. The shingle’s slate includes Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert’s “Let Me Out” and Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s follow-up to “The Silent Twins,” “Hot Spot.”
“Foreign producers and buyers are actively looking...
“Our crews speak English and work abroad. We are visible internationally,” she adds.
Madants is also behind James Napier Robertson’s upcoming Polish-Kiwi title “Joika,” one of six international co-productions backed by the Polish Film Institute in 2022. The shingle’s slate includes Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert’s “Let Me Out” and Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s follow-up to “The Silent Twins,” “Hot Spot.”
“Foreign producers and buyers are actively looking...
- 2/19/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
The light touch that made Rebecca Miller’s last film, Maggie’s Plan, so enjoyable is nowhere to be found in She Came to Me, a clunky multistrand romance with such a terminal case of whimsy that almost none of its characters or their relationships ring true. Get this: Peter Dinklage plays a creatively stalled avant-garde opera composer; Anne Hathaway is a controlling therapist who randomly ditches her chic wardrobe for a nun’s habit; Marisa Tomei is a tugboat captain prone to romantic obsessions; and Brian d’Arcy James is a court stenographer heavily into Civil War reenactments.
If you’re wondering how much quirk one movie can take, you’re not alone, raising the question of how it ever got cast, let alone made. Yet somehow, it did, even landing a tinkly score by Bryce Dessner of The National and an original Bruce Springsteen song for the end credits, appropriately titled “Addicted to Romance.
If you’re wondering how much quirk one movie can take, you’re not alone, raising the question of how it ever got cast, let alone made. Yet somehow, it did, even landing a tinkly score by Bryce Dessner of The National and an original Bruce Springsteen song for the end credits, appropriately titled “Addicted to Romance.
- 2/16/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On February 18, Oscar watchers are sure to be paying attention to the results of the DGA Awards. The guild is aces at forecasting the eventual Oscar winner for Best Director. Since the guild aligned itself with the academy calendar in 1950, 64 DGA picks have gone on to pick up an Academy Award as well; the most recent of the eight misses came in 2020 when Sam Mendes (“1917) won with the guild but Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”) took home the Oscar.
We’re predicting that Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) will extend his record with a fourth win with the guild; he previously prevailed for “The Color Purple” (1985), “Schindler’s List” (1993) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998). He faces fierce competition both here and at the Oscars from “Everything Everywhere All at Once” directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Also in the hunt for the DGA prize are two other Oscar contenders — Todd Field (“TÁR”) and Martin McDonagh...
We’re predicting that Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) will extend his record with a fourth win with the guild; he previously prevailed for “The Color Purple” (1985), “Schindler’s List” (1993) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998). He faces fierce competition both here and at the Oscars from “Everything Everywhere All at Once” directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Also in the hunt for the DGA prize are two other Oscar contenders — Todd Field (“TÁR”) and Martin McDonagh...
- 2/16/2023
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Ostlund will give talks to around 20 filmmakers from the Balkan region.
Swedish director Ruben Ostlund will hold a series of masterclasses at the third edition of Ponta Lopud Festival, which will take place from June 20-24 on the island of Lopud in Croatia.
Ostlund will address a group of around 20 filmmakers from the Balkan region, composed of directors, actors and cinematographers.
His attendance at the event marks his latest collaboration with Ponta Lopud Festival and Sarajevo Film Festival founder Mirsad Purivatra, who was an associate producer on Ostlund’s Palme d’Or-winning Triangle Of Sadness through Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Obala Art Centar.
Swedish director Ruben Ostlund will hold a series of masterclasses at the third edition of Ponta Lopud Festival, which will take place from June 20-24 on the island of Lopud in Croatia.
Ostlund will address a group of around 20 filmmakers from the Balkan region, composed of directors, actors and cinematographers.
His attendance at the event marks his latest collaboration with Ponta Lopud Festival and Sarajevo Film Festival founder Mirsad Purivatra, who was an associate producer on Ostlund’s Palme d’Or-winning Triangle Of Sadness through Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Obala Art Centar.
- 2/15/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Emily Blunt believed that her breakthrough role came with her debut film My Summer of Love. Although the feature helped Blunt make a name for herself, it may have also had an undesirable side-effect on her reputation.
Emily Blunt thought she was rubbish in her breakthrough role Niklas Hallen/Getty Images
Blunt gained much attention after starring in the Pawel Pawlikowski movie My Summer of Love. The project also co-starred Natalie Press, and was a story about two completely different young girls forming a bond. Being that it was Blunt’s first full-length feature, the experience helped shape Blunt into the actor and movie star she’d eventually become.
“It was such a weird little film, but the one where I learned the most because I hadn’t trained at all,” Blunt said about it in an interview with Vulture.
But auditions don’t always go as planned. So initially,...
Emily Blunt thought she was rubbish in her breakthrough role Niklas Hallen/Getty Images
Blunt gained much attention after starring in the Pawel Pawlikowski movie My Summer of Love. The project also co-starred Natalie Press, and was a story about two completely different young girls forming a bond. Being that it was Blunt’s first full-length feature, the experience helped shape Blunt into the actor and movie star she’d eventually become.
“It was such a weird little film, but the one where I learned the most because I hadn’t trained at all,” Blunt said about it in an interview with Vulture.
But auditions don’t always go as planned. So initially,...
- 2/14/2023
- by Antonio Stallings
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Park Chan-wook has one of the most illustrious careers as a filmmaker in South Korea, with movies like “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” “Oldboy” and “The Handmaiden” winning multiple prestigious Korean film awards. He returns this awards season with the unique Cj Entertainment film “Decision to Leave,” a thriller turned tragic romance that one would say goes against his usual style of filmmaking. However, his command of direction remains impeccable, winning him the Best Director prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It may come as a shock to many that he has never received an Oscar nomination; will this be the year he could break into the Best Director category?
“Decision to Leave” stars Park Hae-il as a skilled detective investigating the murder of a mountain climber and begins to have intense romantic feelings for his main suspect wife, played by Tang Wei. While the film does not have a lot...
“Decision to Leave” stars Park Hae-il as a skilled detective investigating the murder of a mountain climber and begins to have intense romantic feelings for his main suspect wife, played by Tang Wei. While the film does not have a lot...
- 1/18/2023
- by Christopher Tsang
- Gold Derby
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