Cate Blanchett is to receive San Sebastian’s highest honorary award, the Donostia Award, at the Spanish film festival’s 72nd edition which runs from September 20-28.
It will be Blanchett’s first visit to San Sebastian, but the festival has already screened a number of her films including Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Babel in 2007 and Joel Schumacher’s Veronica Guerin in 2003.
Blanchett is the second Australian actor to receive the Donostia award after Hugh Jackman in 2013.
Blanchett will also feature on San Sebastian’s official poster, created by graphic designer José Luis Lanzagorta based on a photograph by Gustavo Papaleo.
It will be Blanchett’s first visit to San Sebastian, but the festival has already screened a number of her films including Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Babel in 2007 and Joel Schumacher’s Veronica Guerin in 2003.
Blanchett is the second Australian actor to receive the Donostia award after Hugh Jackman in 2013.
Blanchett will also feature on San Sebastian’s official poster, created by graphic designer José Luis Lanzagorta based on a photograph by Gustavo Papaleo.
- 5/9/2024
- ScreenDaily
Cannes Film Festival (May 15-24) has unveiled the eight titles for its inaugural immersive competition, including projects featuring Cate Blanchett, Millie Bobby Brown, Patti Smith, Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain.
The competition includes location-based virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, as well as projection mapping and holographic works.
Evolver is voiced by Blanchett, and has previously played at Tribeca and Geneva International Film Festiva. It is helmed by Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin and Robin McNicholas of London-based art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast. Dirty Films is also a production company, and Coco Francini, Blanchett, and Andrew Upton are executive producers on the virtual reality project,...
The competition includes location-based virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, as well as projection mapping and holographic works.
Evolver is voiced by Blanchett, and has previously played at Tribeca and Geneva International Film Festiva. It is helmed by Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin and Robin McNicholas of London-based art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast. Dirty Films is also a production company, and Coco Francini, Blanchett, and Andrew Upton are executive producers on the virtual reality project,...
- 4/23/2024
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films has acquired the film rights to one of the hottest theater shows around: the Sydney Theatre Company’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde classic The Picture Of Dorian Gray, which has recently been lighting up London’s West End.
Sarah Snook has garnered raves for her performance in the latest iteration of the show and last Sunday the Succession star scored an Olivier Award for Best Actress.
Dirty Films partner Andrew Upton is working with the show’s mastermind Kip Williams on a treatment based on the technically dazzling one woman show, which sees its protagonist play 26 roles. The part was first performed by Eryn Jean Norvill in multiple sell-out runs across Australia. Oscar winner Blanchett attended the most recent run’s opening night in London earlier this year.
Co-producers on the film will be Rachel Gardner and Jo Porter of Australian company Curio Pictures,...
Sarah Snook has garnered raves for her performance in the latest iteration of the show and last Sunday the Succession star scored an Olivier Award for Best Actress.
Dirty Films partner Andrew Upton is working with the show’s mastermind Kip Williams on a treatment based on the technically dazzling one woman show, which sees its protagonist play 26 roles. The part was first performed by Eryn Jean Norvill in multiple sell-out runs across Australia. Oscar winner Blanchett attended the most recent run’s opening night in London earlier this year.
Co-producers on the film will be Rachel Gardner and Jo Porter of Australian company Curio Pictures,...
- 4/18/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Two well-reviewed indies are taking a bow in limited release in the shadow of Dune, A24’s Problemista by Julio Torres, and Shayda from Sony Pictures Classics, the feature debut of Noora Niasari.
Torres, the comedian, actor and writer, in his directorial debut, stars with Tilda Swinton as Problemista gets its release at last after being bumped from August due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. He also penned the screenplay, and produced alongside Fruit Tree’s Dave McCary, Ali Herting and Emma Stone. Premiered at SXSW last year, see Deadline review, and sits at 91% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
This surreal comedy adventure amid the treacherous worlds of New York City and the U.S. Immigration system follows Torres’ Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador trying to land a spot at Hasbro’s incubator program. When he’s fired from the cryogenic center where he tends...
Torres, the comedian, actor and writer, in his directorial debut, stars with Tilda Swinton as Problemista gets its release at last after being bumped from August due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. He also penned the screenplay, and produced alongside Fruit Tree’s Dave McCary, Ali Herting and Emma Stone. Premiered at SXSW last year, see Deadline review, and sits at 91% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
This surreal comedy adventure amid the treacherous worlds of New York City and the U.S. Immigration system follows Torres’ Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador trying to land a spot at Hasbro’s incubator program. When he’s fired from the cryogenic center where he tends...
- 3/1/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The director Noora Niasari deeply understands the personal struggles of people who often go unnoticed by the mainstream flow of life. Her last short film, the 2020 thriller Tâm, about a Vietnamese woman trapped in a cataclysmic sexual encounter, is a haunting gut punch.
Noora and I are from different generations and cultures. Yet she lived in the same suburb of Melbourne that I grew up in, and we were both raised by isolated single mothers in predominantly female environments. So the moment I read Shayda — Noora’s first feature script...
Noora and I are from different generations and cultures. Yet she lived in the same suburb of Melbourne that I grew up in, and we were both raised by isolated single mothers in predominantly female environments. So the moment I read Shayda — Noora’s first feature script...
- 2/26/2024
- by Cate Blanchett
- Rollingstone.com
Sundance audience award winner received one-week awards-qualifying run earlier this month.
Sony Pictures Classics has set a March 1, 2024, release date for Noora Niasari’s Australian Oscar submission Shayda.
The film will open in New York and Los Angeles and expand nationwide in the following weeks. It received a one-week awards-qualifying run earlier this month.
Shayda premiered in Sundance where it won the audience award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
The Origma 45 production centres on the titular Iranian woman living in Australia, who finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter, Mona, when she learns a court...
Sony Pictures Classics has set a March 1, 2024, release date for Noora Niasari’s Australian Oscar submission Shayda.
The film will open in New York and Los Angeles and expand nationwide in the following weeks. It received a one-week awards-qualifying run earlier this month.
Shayda premiered in Sundance where it won the audience award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.
The Origma 45 production centres on the titular Iranian woman living in Australia, who finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter, Mona, when she learns a court...
- 12/18/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
In the ever-evolving landscape of film and television, the representation of diverse voices has been a persistent challenge. A recent report from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative paints a stark picture: of the directors across 1,600 top-grossing movies, a mere 6% were women, and less than a third of all speaking characters were girls, women, trans, or non-binary individuals. The glaring disparity not only limits on-screen representation but also curtails career opportunities for women, trans, and non-binary storytellers.
Enter Proof of Concept, the initiative launched today as the brainchild of Cate Blanchett, her Dirty Films producing partner Coco Francini and Smith in collaboration with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. This program is designed to address the trifecta of challenges facing these directors: funding, mentorship, and exposure.
Blanchett, Francini and Andrew Upton’s Dirty Films is an independent film, TV and podcast production company that most recently produced Christos...
Enter Proof of Concept, the initiative launched today as the brainchild of Cate Blanchett, her Dirty Films producing partner Coco Francini and Smith in collaboration with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. This program is designed to address the trifecta of challenges facing these directors: funding, mentorship, and exposure.
Blanchett, Francini and Andrew Upton’s Dirty Films is an independent film, TV and podcast production company that most recently produced Christos...
- 12/14/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
For Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari, her debut feature Shayda has served as an authentic and honest exploration into her own personal childhood trauma. The film, which is being released by Sony Pictures Classics and won the World Cinema Dramatic Competition Audience Award in Sundance earlier this year, is Australia’s Oscar submission for the Best International Feature Oscar.
The film follows Shayda, a brave Iranian mother who finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter. Over Persian New Year, they take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings, but when her estranged husband re-enters their lives, Shayda’s path to freedom is jeopardized.
It’s anchored by a heart-rendering performance by Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won the best actress award in Cannes last year for her role in Holy Spider. Niasari writes, directs and produces with Dirty Films’ Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Coco Francini.
Related:...
The film follows Shayda, a brave Iranian mother who finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter. Over Persian New Year, they take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings, but when her estranged husband re-enters their lives, Shayda’s path to freedom is jeopardized.
It’s anchored by a heart-rendering performance by Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won the best actress award in Cannes last year for her role in Holy Spider. Niasari writes, directs and produces with Dirty Films’ Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Coco Francini.
Related:...
- 12/9/2023
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Fingernails, the Apple Original Films sci-fi love story of sorts that marks the English-language debut of Greek writer-director Christos Nikou. It came off the success of his debut pic Apples, which was Greece’s submission to last year’s Oscar race.
Fingernails, which features a cast including Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy, premiered at this year’s Telluride Film Festival and hit theaters and Apple TV+ earlier this month. It reunites the Apples executive producing team of Nikou and Dirty Films and partners Cate Blanchett, Coco Francini and Andrew Upton. FilmNation Entertainment’s Lucas Wiesendanger is also a producer.
The script was penned by Nikou and his Apples co-screenwriter and pal Stavros Raptis, joined by UK scribe Sam Steiner after Nikou read Steiner’s script for Morning (now...
Fingernails, which features a cast including Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy, premiered at this year’s Telluride Film Festival and hit theaters and Apple TV+ earlier this month. It reunites the Apples executive producing team of Nikou and Dirty Films and partners Cate Blanchett, Coco Francini and Andrew Upton. FilmNation Entertainment’s Lucas Wiesendanger is also a producer.
The script was penned by Nikou and his Apples co-screenwriter and pal Stavros Raptis, joined by UK scribe Sam Steiner after Nikou read Steiner’s script for Morning (now...
- 11/30/2023
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Golden Globe winner Emma Corrin (The Crown) and Cesar nominee Lucie Zhang are set to star in Jenny Suen’s English language feature debut Peaches, which Coco Francini (Fingernails) will produce and Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton will executive-produce for Dirty Films.
Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the movie will follow two spoiled best friends who scam sugar daddies for a living. When they discover a Hermes Birkin bag they were gifted is a fake, their “boyfriends” and crimes catch up with them.
The film is an adaptation of Vera Chitylova’s 1966 Czech New Wave comedy Daisies.
Paris-based MK2 Films, whose slate includes Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Cannes Un Certain Regard winner How to Have Sex, is handling international sales and discussed the project with buyers at last week’s AFM. The film will start production early next year in Hong Kong.
Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the movie will follow two spoiled best friends who scam sugar daddies for a living. When they discover a Hermes Birkin bag they were gifted is a fake, their “boyfriends” and crimes catch up with them.
The film is an adaptation of Vera Chitylova’s 1966 Czech New Wave comedy Daisies.
Paris-based MK2 Films, whose slate includes Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Cannes Un Certain Regard winner How to Have Sex, is handling international sales and discussed the project with buyers at last week’s AFM. The film will start production early next year in Hong Kong.
- 11/6/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman and Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Linda Marric sits down with director Christos Nikou to talk about his latest film, AppleTV+’s Fingernails starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Annie Murphy and Luke Wilson. The film is out today and very much worth your time.
The film was directed by Nikou, co-written by Nikou & Sam Steiner & Stavros Raptis, and produced by Coco Francini, Andrew Upton, Cate Blanchett, Lucas Wiesendanger and Nikou, with Glen Basner, Milan Popelka, Alison Cohen, Ashley Fox, Kevin Lafferty and Jerome Duboz serving as executive producers.
Fingernails Interview
Plot:
Anna and Ryan have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute, and meets Amir.
The post Fingernails Interview – Christos Nikou on analog love in a digital world, Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed & more appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The film was directed by Nikou, co-written by Nikou & Sam Steiner & Stavros Raptis, and produced by Coco Francini, Andrew Upton, Cate Blanchett, Lucas Wiesendanger and Nikou, with Glen Basner, Milan Popelka, Alison Cohen, Ashley Fox, Kevin Lafferty and Jerome Duboz serving as executive producers.
Fingernails Interview
Plot:
Anna and Ryan have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute, and meets Amir.
The post Fingernails Interview – Christos Nikou on analog love in a digital world, Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed & more appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 11/3/2023
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Sometimes when you have a terrific film but it doesn’t quite have the hook for mainstream audiences, you sometimes need a catchy ace in the hole. And that’s exactly what the Australian film “Shayda” has in its executive producers, in this case, a little actor you may know named Cate Blanchett, plus her husband and producing partner Andrew Upton and Coco Francini. Blanchett has been lending her name to a lot of international cinema worthy of a boost of late (Greece’s “Apples”), and along with recent collaboration with Sparks and Guy Maddin (and an almost collaboration with Pedro Almodovar that came close), it appears as if Blanchett has really reaffirmed her commitment to global and left-of-field cinema this year, so good for her.
Continue reading ‘Shayda’ Trailer: Noora Niasari’s Acclaimed Australian Drama, Exec Produced By Cate Blanchett, Arrives In December at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Shayda’ Trailer: Noora Niasari’s Acclaimed Australian Drama, Exec Produced By Cate Blanchett, Arrives In December at The Playlist.
- 10/5/2023
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
Apple Original Films has unveiled the trailer for the highly anticipated feature, ‘Fingernails’ starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson.
Anna (Buckley) and Ryan (White) have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute and meets Amir (Ahmed).
The movie is the second feature and first English-language film from visionary director/writer/producer Christos Nikou, whose directorial debut was the critically acclaimed ‘Apples.’
Co-written by Nikou, Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. In addition to Nikou, The feature is produced by Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Coco Francini for Dirty Films and Lucas Wiesendanger for FilmNation Entertainment.
Also in trailers – “Let us make no mistake…” Teaser flies in for ‘The Lazarus Project’ season 2
The film will premiere in select cinemas and stream globally on Apple TV+ from 3 November,...
Anna (Buckley) and Ryan (White) have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute and meets Amir (Ahmed).
The movie is the second feature and first English-language film from visionary director/writer/producer Christos Nikou, whose directorial debut was the critically acclaimed ‘Apples.’
Co-written by Nikou, Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. In addition to Nikou, The feature is produced by Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Coco Francini for Dirty Films and Lucas Wiesendanger for FilmNation Entertainment.
Also in trailers – “Let us make no mistake…” Teaser flies in for ‘The Lazarus Project’ season 2
The film will premiere in select cinemas and stream globally on Apple TV+ from 3 November,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Some people say love is a battlefield, but what if there was a scientific solution to determining your compatibility with your chosen partner? Would the results confirm your evolution from lust to emotional adoration? Could you discover if the person you’re with is better suited for someone else? Some people would prefer to remain in blissful ignorance, but in Apple TV+‘s Fingernails trailer, love gets tested, and the results could destroy even the strongest of bonds.
Christos Nikou directs Fingernails from a script he co-wrote with Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. The story focuses on Anna (Jessie Buckley) and Ryan (Jeremy Allen White), a couple who believe they’ve found true love, and a controversial new technology proves it. There’s just one problem. Anna is curious to know if the results are accurate. So, she takes a position at a love testing institute, where she meets Amir (Riz Ahmed), and sparks fly.
Christos Nikou directs Fingernails from a script he co-wrote with Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. The story focuses on Anna (Jessie Buckley) and Ryan (Jeremy Allen White), a couple who believe they’ve found true love, and a controversial new technology proves it. There’s just one problem. Anna is curious to know if the results are accurate. So, she takes a position at a love testing institute, where she meets Amir (Riz Ahmed), and sparks fly.
- 9/26/2023
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Christos Nikou’s “Fingernails” challenges the role of technology in modern love stories, with Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed starring as co-workers at a company that specializes in determining people’s soulmates based on their (you’re hearing this right) fingernails. The film first premiered at Telluride.
Buckley plays Anna, a new employee at the Love Institute, where the machines are housed. She starts training with senior instructor Amir (Ahmed), yet Anna is already committed to Ryan (Jeremy Allen White), and the machine has already confirmed they are a perfect match. So why is she developing feelings for Amir?
“Fingernails” is co-written by director Nikou, Stavros Raptis, and Sam Steiner, with Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy also starring.
The film is Nikou’s second feature and first English-language film after making his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed “Apples.” Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is among the producers of “Fingernails,” along with Nikou,...
Buckley plays Anna, a new employee at the Love Institute, where the machines are housed. She starts training with senior instructor Amir (Ahmed), yet Anna is already committed to Ryan (Jeremy Allen White), and the machine has already confirmed they are a perfect match. So why is she developing feelings for Amir?
“Fingernails” is co-written by director Nikou, Stavros Raptis, and Sam Steiner, with Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy also starring.
The film is Nikou’s second feature and first English-language film after making his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed “Apples.” Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is among the producers of “Fingernails,” along with Nikou,...
- 9/26/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Jessie Buckley, Jeremy Allen White and Riz Ahmed find themselves caught in a love triangle in the new Apple film “Fingernails,” which debuted its first trailer Tuesday morning.
Directed by Christos Nikou and produced by Cate Blanchett, the sci-fi film is set in a not-so-distant future. The story follows Anna (Buckley) and Ryan (White) who use a mathematical, machine-determined proceudre to determine if they are truly in love.
Luke Wilson plays Duncan, who heads up the Love Insitute. Anna declares she wants to work at the Institute because “Ginger Spice” studied there. She finds herself mentored by Amir, played by Ahmed. And the more time she spends around Amir and at the lab, she finds herself asking him, and herself “Is it possible that one person could be in love with two people at the same time?”
In addition to Blanchett, the film’s producers are Coco Francini, Andrew Upton,...
Directed by Christos Nikou and produced by Cate Blanchett, the sci-fi film is set in a not-so-distant future. The story follows Anna (Buckley) and Ryan (White) who use a mathematical, machine-determined proceudre to determine if they are truly in love.
Luke Wilson plays Duncan, who heads up the Love Insitute. Anna declares she wants to work at the Institute because “Ginger Spice” studied there. She finds herself mentored by Amir, played by Ahmed. And the more time she spends around Amir and at the lab, she finds herself asking him, and herself “Is it possible that one person could be in love with two people at the same time?”
In addition to Blanchett, the film’s producers are Coco Francini, Andrew Upton,...
- 9/26/2023
- by Caroline Brew
- Variety Film + TV
Signature Entertainment has acquired U.K. and Ireland rights to writer-director Warwick Thornton’s Australian drama “The New Boy” from The Veterans.
The film follows a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun, disturbing the delicately balanced world.
Debutant Aswan Reid leads the film in the titular role, alongside Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman (“Sapphires”) and Wayne Blair (“Rams”).
“Inspired by Thornton’s own experience of growing up as an Aboriginal boy in a Christian boarding school, this is ambitious, tonally tricky filmmaking, bringing an unexpected dose of whimsy to social interests more austerely explored in Thornton’s excellent previous features “Samson and Delilah” and “Sweet Country,” Variety critic Guy Lodge said in his review of the film.
“The New Boy”
The film is produced by Kath Shelper (“Samson & Delilah”) for Scarlett Pictures, Blanchett and Andrew Upton (“Stateless...
The film follows a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun, disturbing the delicately balanced world.
Debutant Aswan Reid leads the film in the titular role, alongside Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman (“Sapphires”) and Wayne Blair (“Rams”).
“Inspired by Thornton’s own experience of growing up as an Aboriginal boy in a Christian boarding school, this is ambitious, tonally tricky filmmaking, bringing an unexpected dose of whimsy to social interests more austerely explored in Thornton’s excellent previous features “Samson and Delilah” and “Sweet Country,” Variety critic Guy Lodge said in his review of the film.
“The New Boy”
The film is produced by Kath Shelper (“Samson & Delilah”) for Scarlett Pictures, Blanchett and Andrew Upton (“Stateless...
- 9/26/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
First things first, the reason I pounced on the assignment of reviewing The New Boy without knowing much about it was the presence of Cate Blanchett. Her last role was the brilliant and terrifying Lydia Tár in Todd Field’s “Tár” last year. The legendary actress is known for doing a variety of roles but going from playing the megalomaniac music conductor to playing an Australian nun in the 1940s’ is a huge shift for Blanchett. It is not surprising that the actor excels here as well, delivering yet another brilliant performance. However, the real star of The New Boy is the boy himself, who is played by eleven-year-old Aboriginal actor Aswan Reid.
The New Boy opens with an incredible scene of a little Aboriginal boy overpowering a policeman and running away before getting caught by another policeman. The boy, who is mostly silent and only speaks the aboriginal language,...
The New Boy opens with an incredible scene of a little Aboriginal boy overpowering a policeman and running away before getting caught by another policeman. The boy, who is mostly silent and only speaks the aboriginal language,...
- 9/16/2023
- by Rohitavra Majumdar
- Film Fugitives
It’s not every director who gets to turn Cate Blanchett down. Rarer still for a first-time filmmaker from Europe whose arty, offbeat debut — a poetic, surreal, soulful meditation on memory and grief — might have easily escaped the attention of Hollywood royalty.
But “Apples,” by Greek director Christos Nikou, charmed audiences after its 2020 premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where Blanchett presided over the main competition jury. After being wowed by a film that would go on to complete the fall-festival trifecta at Telluride and Toronto, Blanchett reached out to the filmmaker for a sit-down on the Lido.
When he read the text, Nikou couldn’t believe his eyes.
“‘No, that’s a joke,’” he recalls thinking at the time, adding with an embarrassed laugh that he considered skipping the meeting altogether. But Nikou’s better judgment got the best of him, and when Blanchett did indeed turn up for their breakfast tête-à-tête,...
But “Apples,” by Greek director Christos Nikou, charmed audiences after its 2020 premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where Blanchett presided over the main competition jury. After being wowed by a film that would go on to complete the fall-festival trifecta at Telluride and Toronto, Blanchett reached out to the filmmaker for a sit-down on the Lido.
When he read the text, Nikou couldn’t believe his eyes.
“‘No, that’s a joke,’” he recalls thinking at the time, adding with an embarrassed laugh that he considered skipping the meeting altogether. But Nikou’s better judgment got the best of him, and when Blanchett did indeed turn up for their breakfast tête-à-tête,...
- 9/9/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Australia has selected Shayda, from Iranian-Australian debut writer and director Noora Niasari, as its submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar race.
The drama, which counts Cate Blanchett among its executive producers and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for North America among other markets, world premiered at Sundance in January where it won the World Cinema Audience Award.
It went on to open the Melbourne International Film Festival and was the closing-night screening at Locarno. It is next set for TIFF and will be released in Oz on October 5 via Madman.
The story follows a young Iranian mother and her 6-year-old daughter who find refuge in an Australian women’s shelter during the two weeks of Iranian New Year (Nowruz), which is celebrated as a time of renewal and rebirth. Aided by the strong community of women at the shelter, they seek their freedom in this new world of possibilities,...
The drama, which counts Cate Blanchett among its executive producers and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for North America among other markets, world premiered at Sundance in January where it won the World Cinema Audience Award.
It went on to open the Melbourne International Film Festival and was the closing-night screening at Locarno. It is next set for TIFF and will be released in Oz on October 5 via Madman.
The story follows a young Iranian mother and her 6-year-old daughter who find refuge in an Australian women’s shelter during the two weeks of Iranian New Year (Nowruz), which is celebrated as a time of renewal and rebirth. Aided by the strong community of women at the shelter, they seek their freedom in this new world of possibilities,...
- 8/30/2023
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Apple Original Films announced the release date and unveiled a set of new images for its romantic drama and Toronto International Film Festival selection, ‘Fingernails.’
The feature follows Anna and Ryan, who have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute and meets Amir.
Jessie Buckley and Jeremy Allen White in “Fingernails,” premiering globally on November 3, 2023 on Apple TV+. Courtesy of Apple
Starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson, ‘Fingernails’ is the second feature and first English-language film from visionary director/writer/producer Christos Nikou, whose directorial debut was the critically acclaimed ‘Apples.’
Also in news – Kiernan Shipka stars in first-look images from ‘Totally Killer’
Jessie Buckley in “Fingernails,” premiering globally on November 3, 2023 on Apple TV+. Courtesy of Apple
Co-written by Nikou,...
The feature follows Anna and Ryan, who have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute and meets Amir.
Jessie Buckley and Jeremy Allen White in “Fingernails,” premiering globally on November 3, 2023 on Apple TV+. Courtesy of Apple
Starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson, ‘Fingernails’ is the second feature and first English-language film from visionary director/writer/producer Christos Nikou, whose directorial debut was the critically acclaimed ‘Apples.’
Also in news – Kiernan Shipka stars in first-look images from ‘Totally Killer’
Jessie Buckley in “Fingernails,” premiering globally on November 3, 2023 on Apple TV+. Courtesy of Apple
Co-written by Nikou,...
- 8/17/2023
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley, Oscar winner Riz Ahmed, and Emmy nominee Jeremy Allen White form a complicated love triangle in the new Apple Original Films drama “Fingernails,” which the studio is set to debut this fall after a run through festival season.
On Wednesday, Apple debuted the first images from the project as well as its release date: October 27 in limited release in New York and Los Angeles before a bow on the Apple TV+ streaming service (and other theaters) starting on November 3.
Co-written and directed by Christos Nikou (“Apples”), in what is his English-language debut, “Fingernails” is about “Anna and Ryan (Buckley and White), who have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute, and meets Amir (Ahmed).”
The vague premise of the logline was...
On Wednesday, Apple debuted the first images from the project as well as its release date: October 27 in limited release in New York and Los Angeles before a bow on the Apple TV+ streaming service (and other theaters) starting on November 3.
Co-written and directed by Christos Nikou (“Apples”), in what is his English-language debut, “Fingernails” is about “Anna and Ryan (Buckley and White), who have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute, and meets Amir (Ahmed).”
The vague premise of the logline was...
- 8/16/2023
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed in ‘Fingernails’ (Photo Credit: Apple Original Films)
Apple Original Films has announced that Fingernails, which will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, will open in Los Angeles and New York on October 27, 2023. Riz Ahmed and Jessie Buckley lead the cast of the romantic drama that marks the first English language feature film from director, writer, and producer Christos Nikou (Apples).
The drama will expand to additional theaters and will be available on Apple TV+ on November 3, 2023.
In addition to Oscar winner Riz Ahmed (The Long Goodbye short) and Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson (Stargirl) star.
Christos Nikou co-wrote the screenplay with Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. Nikou, FilmNation Entertainment’s Lucas Wiesendanger, and Dirty Films’ Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton, and Coco Francini produce. Kevin Lafferty, Jerome Duboz, and FilmNation Entertainment’s Glen Basner,...
Apple Original Films has announced that Fingernails, which will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, will open in Los Angeles and New York on October 27, 2023. Riz Ahmed and Jessie Buckley lead the cast of the romantic drama that marks the first English language feature film from director, writer, and producer Christos Nikou (Apples).
The drama will expand to additional theaters and will be available on Apple TV+ on November 3, 2023.
In addition to Oscar winner Riz Ahmed (The Long Goodbye short) and Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson (Stargirl) star.
Christos Nikou co-wrote the screenplay with Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. Nikou, FilmNation Entertainment’s Lucas Wiesendanger, and Dirty Films’ Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton, and Coco Francini produce. Kevin Lafferty, Jerome Duboz, and FilmNation Entertainment’s Glen Basner,...
- 8/16/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
Forget reading palms: What if the key to finding your soulmate was at the tip of your fingernail?
Director Christos Nikou’s (“Apples”) feature “Fingernails” offers a sci-fi love triangle rooted in nature over nurture. The film is co-written by Nikou, Stavros Raptis, and Sam Steiner, and is set in an alternate reality where a machine can determine whether a couple is in love or not by studying the makeup of their discarded fingernails.
Jessie Buckley stars as Anna, a new employee at the institute where the machines are housed. She starts training with senior instructor Amir (Riz Ahmed). Yet Anna is already dating Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) and the machine has confirmed they are a perfect match. So why is she developing feelings for Amir?
“Fingernails” is the second feature and first English-language film from visionary director/writer/producer Christos Nikou, whose directorial debut was the critically acclaimed “Apples.
Director Christos Nikou’s (“Apples”) feature “Fingernails” offers a sci-fi love triangle rooted in nature over nurture. The film is co-written by Nikou, Stavros Raptis, and Sam Steiner, and is set in an alternate reality where a machine can determine whether a couple is in love or not by studying the makeup of their discarded fingernails.
Jessie Buckley stars as Anna, a new employee at the institute where the machines are housed. She starts training with senior instructor Amir (Riz Ahmed). Yet Anna is already dating Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) and the machine has confirmed they are a perfect match. So why is she developing feelings for Amir?
“Fingernails” is the second feature and first English-language film from visionary director/writer/producer Christos Nikou, whose directorial debut was the critically acclaimed “Apples.
- 8/16/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Canberra, July 4 (Ians) Hollywood star Cate Blanchett feels the need to “constantly justify” her career in her native Australia.
The actress said she hates strangers asking her what she does for a living when she’s in Down Under because she doesn’t think her craft is “celebrated” in the way it is in the UK and US, where she spends a lot of her time, reports aceshowbiz.com.
“The worst thing for us as an actor in Australia is getting in the back of the cab and a cabbie asking ‘What do you do?’ Because you think, ‘Oh, God …,’ ” she said, according to the Courier Mail newspaper, during an event at the Roslyn Packer Theatre at the Sydney Theatre Company — which she and husband Andrew Upton ran from 2008 to 2011.
“You’re constantly having to fight for the space or to justify the fact that you have the right to...
The actress said she hates strangers asking her what she does for a living when she’s in Down Under because she doesn’t think her craft is “celebrated” in the way it is in the UK and US, where she spends a lot of her time, reports aceshowbiz.com.
“The worst thing for us as an actor in Australia is getting in the back of the cab and a cabbie asking ‘What do you do?’ Because you think, ‘Oh, God …,’ ” she said, according to the Courier Mail newspaper, during an event at the Roslyn Packer Theatre at the Sydney Theatre Company — which she and husband Andrew Upton ran from 2008 to 2011.
“You’re constantly having to fight for the space or to justify the fact that you have the right to...
- 7/4/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
Shayda, the Sundance audience winner from Iranian-Australian director Noora Niasari, will close this year’s Locarno International Film Festival.
Executive produced by Cate Blanchett, Shayda stars Holy Spider actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi. Shayda will screen on the final night of Locarno festival on Saturday, Aug. 12 in what will be its European premiere. Locarno will also screen a second, surprise title that touches on the history of cinema personally selected by Locarno festival president Marco Solari.
Niasari’s powerful debut, drawn from the director’s own life, tells the inspiring story of an Iranian woman’s journey to freedom as she finds refuge in a women’s shelter after immigrating to Australia.
Blanchett is an executive producer of the movie through Dirty Films, the production company she runs alongside Andrew Upton and Coco Francini. She and Ebrahimi will attend Locarno together with Niasari.
On Aug. 12, Blanchett will also moderate a conversation...
Executive produced by Cate Blanchett, Shayda stars Holy Spider actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi. Shayda will screen on the final night of Locarno festival on Saturday, Aug. 12 in what will be its European premiere. Locarno will also screen a second, surprise title that touches on the history of cinema personally selected by Locarno festival president Marco Solari.
Niasari’s powerful debut, drawn from the director’s own life, tells the inspiring story of an Iranian woman’s journey to freedom as she finds refuge in a women’s shelter after immigrating to Australia.
Blanchett is an executive producer of the movie through Dirty Films, the production company she runs alongside Andrew Upton and Coco Francini. She and Ebrahimi will attend Locarno together with Niasari.
On Aug. 12, Blanchett will also moderate a conversation...
- 6/23/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will close with a screening of the Sundance Competiton pic Shayda attended by the film’s star Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Holy Spider) and Exec Producer Cate Blanchett.
Directed by Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari, Shayda, which won the Audience Award at Sundance 2023, will close out the final evening of the Festival alongside a free second screening of a surprise title that touches on the history of cinema and the Locarno Film Festival, chosen by Marco Solari, President of the Locarno Film Festival. This year will be Solari’s final year at the helm.
Blanchett is an exec producer on the pic through Dirty Films, the production company she runs with her husband, Andrew Upton, and Coco Francini. On August 12, the two-time Oscar winner will moderate a discussion between Niasari and Ebrahimi at the festival on the theme of Iranian women and Iranian cinema...
Directed by Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari, Shayda, which won the Audience Award at Sundance 2023, will close out the final evening of the Festival alongside a free second screening of a surprise title that touches on the history of cinema and the Locarno Film Festival, chosen by Marco Solari, President of the Locarno Film Festival. This year will be Solari’s final year at the helm.
Blanchett is an exec producer on the pic through Dirty Films, the production company she runs with her husband, Andrew Upton, and Coco Francini. On August 12, the two-time Oscar winner will moderate a discussion between Niasari and Ebrahimi at the festival on the theme of Iranian women and Iranian cinema...
- 6/23/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Film won the Audience Award at Sundance this year.
The Locarno Film Festival is to close with the European premiere of Iranian-Australian director Noora Niasari’s debut film Shayda. Locarno runs from August 2-12.
The film, which won the Audience Award at Sundance 2023, is executive produced by Cate Blanchett through Dirty Films, the production company she runs alongside Andrew Upton and Coco Francini. Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who stars in the film, is the 2022 Cannes Best Actress Winner for Holy Spider. Both will also attend the screening together with director Noora Niasari.
Shayda tells the story of an Iranian woman’s...
The Locarno Film Festival is to close with the European premiere of Iranian-Australian director Noora Niasari’s debut film Shayda. Locarno runs from August 2-12.
The film, which won the Audience Award at Sundance 2023, is executive produced by Cate Blanchett through Dirty Films, the production company she runs alongside Andrew Upton and Coco Francini. Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who stars in the film, is the 2022 Cannes Best Actress Winner for Holy Spider. Both will also attend the screening together with director Noora Niasari.
Shayda tells the story of an Iranian woman’s...
- 6/23/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Cate Blanchett debuted her latest acting role in “The New Boy” at the Cannes Film Festival this week, but the Oscar-winner wouldn’t mind staying behind the camera a bit more.
“I’m always trying to get out of acting,” Blanchett said. “I’ve been trying to stop acting my entire professional life.”
Speaking at her Kering Women in Motion talk at Cannes, in conversation with her producing partner, Coco Francini, Blanchett said that her recent producing work behind the camera “feels an extension, for me, of my work as an actor.”
“I remember an Australian film director saying to me really early on in my career that I had to stop taking small roles,” Blanchett recalled. “And I said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘That was the most interesting role.’ I didn’t want to play the lead. I want that one.”
“It’s about the conversation,” she continued. “And sometimes...
“I’m always trying to get out of acting,” Blanchett said. “I’ve been trying to stop acting my entire professional life.”
Speaking at her Kering Women in Motion talk at Cannes, in conversation with her producing partner, Coco Francini, Blanchett said that her recent producing work behind the camera “feels an extension, for me, of my work as an actor.”
“I remember an Australian film director saying to me really early on in my career that I had to stop taking small roles,” Blanchett recalled. “And I said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘That was the most interesting role.’ I didn’t want to play the lead. I want that one.”
“It’s about the conversation,” she continued. “And sometimes...
- 5/20/2023
- by Elizabeth Wagmeister
- Variety Film + TV
Aussie filmmaker Warwick Thornton joked that Cate Blanchett “elbowed” her way into his crafty sixth feature, The New Boy, as he introduced the pic at Deadline’s Cannes Studio shortly before its festival premiere.
In the pic, which debuted this week at Cannes, Blanchett plays Sister Eileen, a mysterious nun who runs an orphanage for lost boys; however, the role was originally written as a priest, to be played by a male actor, until the two-time Oscar winner came along.
“The character of sister Eileen wasn’t in the script at that time, but Cate coming along actually made it beautiful,” Thornton said.
Blanchett told Deadline that she initially reached out to Thornton during the pandemic and the pair began a virtual workshop to discuss opportunities they could create to work together.
“Like a lot of people during the pandemic, I thought well look, who do I really want to be a dialogue with?...
In the pic, which debuted this week at Cannes, Blanchett plays Sister Eileen, a mysterious nun who runs an orphanage for lost boys; however, the role was originally written as a priest, to be played by a male actor, until the two-time Oscar winner came along.
“The character of sister Eileen wasn’t in the script at that time, but Cate coming along actually made it beautiful,” Thornton said.
Blanchett told Deadline that she initially reached out to Thornton during the pandemic and the pair began a virtual workshop to discuss opportunities they could create to work together.
“Like a lot of people during the pandemic, I thought well look, who do I really want to be a dialogue with?...
- 5/20/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Warwick Thornton has been doubling as cinematographer on his projects since back before his debut, Samson & Delilah, won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2009. But the Indigenous Australian director’s command of visual storytelling has possibly never been as striking as it is in the rural setting of his third narrative feature, The New Boy. Frequently, the rolling hills and wheat fields, the harvest scenes, shots of a fire tearing through crops or even a steam train chugging across the landscape seem a direct tip of the hat to the descriptive beauty of Néstor Almendros’ influential work on Days of Heaven.
If Thornton’s screenplay at times smudges the focus in charting the uneasy intersection between Christian dogma and Indigenous spirituality, the core of personal experience, of learning to straddle those two worlds in the director’s own childhood, gives the film sincerity and heart.
Its flaws, strangely enough,...
If Thornton’s screenplay at times smudges the focus in charting the uneasy intersection between Christian dogma and Indigenous spirituality, the core of personal experience, of learning to straddle those two worlds in the director’s own childhood, gives the film sincerity and heart.
Its flaws, strangely enough,...
- 5/19/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes is ready to party again with the likes of Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford, Alicia Vikander, Jude Law and Cate Blanchett all set for a Côte d’Azur hoedown. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) look at some of festival festivities on deck at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off Tuesday and runs through May 27.
The return of the Carlton Hotel following a whopping $380 million renovation is perhaps symbolic of the reemergence of shindigs at the festival following the pandemic. ”We were closed for 26 months,” sighed the Carlton’s general manager Carlo Stragiotto as he welcomed us in the opulent lobby.
“We have created new spaces and renovated old ones,” Stragiotto proclaimed, then boasted that the hotel has space enough “to host four or five parties at the same time each night, if needed.”
The A-list after-party on Tuesday for Cannes’ opening-night film Jeanne du Barry, a period costume drama starring Depp,...
The return of the Carlton Hotel following a whopping $380 million renovation is perhaps symbolic of the reemergence of shindigs at the festival following the pandemic. ”We were closed for 26 months,” sighed the Carlton’s general manager Carlo Stragiotto as he welcomed us in the opulent lobby.
“We have created new spaces and renovated old ones,” Stragiotto proclaimed, then boasted that the hotel has space enough “to host four or five parties at the same time each night, if needed.”
The A-list after-party on Tuesday for Cannes’ opening-night film Jeanne du Barry, a period costume drama starring Depp,...
- 5/16/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye and Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Here’s your first look at Cate Blanchett in The New Boy, the latest film from Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton.
The pic will debut in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, which will be Thornton’s second appearance at the fest, following 2009’s Samson & Delilah, for which he won the Caméra d’Or Award for first-time directors.
Set in 1940s Australia, The New Boy is the story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (Reid) who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett), where his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films and Scarlett Pictures partnered to co-produce, with Roadshow Films distributing for Australia and New Zealand, CAA Media Finance and UTA handling sales for North America, and The Veterans on board to manage sales...
The pic will debut in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, which will be Thornton’s second appearance at the fest, following 2009’s Samson & Delilah, for which he won the Caméra d’Or Award for first-time directors.
Set in 1940s Australia, The New Boy is the story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (Reid) who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett), where his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films and Scarlett Pictures partnered to co-produce, with Roadshow Films distributing for Australia and New Zealand, CAA Media Finance and UTA handling sales for North America, and The Veterans on board to manage sales...
- 4/14/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Advisors and guests include ’Succession’ writer Susan Soon He Stanton and ’Call My Agent!’ star Camille Cottin.
The Writers Lab, the development and marketplace programme devoted to script development for women and nonbinary screenwriters over 40, is opening its first combined UK and European edition.
Julia Berg of UK production outfit Untamed Stories will again partner with the co-founders of The Writers Lab US, Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon, to launch a combined UK and European Lab this year. The US programme, produced with New York Women in Film and Television (Nywift), is supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Last...
The Writers Lab, the development and marketplace programme devoted to script development for women and nonbinary screenwriters over 40, is opening its first combined UK and European edition.
Julia Berg of UK production outfit Untamed Stories will again partner with the co-founders of The Writers Lab US, Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon, to launch a combined UK and European Lab this year. The US programme, produced with New York Women in Film and Television (Nywift), is supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Last...
- 4/6/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Vanity Fair’s annual Oscar party took place Sunday at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. I have all the details from inside the event, which as usual attracted the most elite of the Hollywood set who poured in after watching Everything Everywhere All at Once score seven Oscar trophies including Best Picture.
We managed to get our hands on the guest list for the event, held in a 3,000-square-foot indoor reception area, with additional courtyards and other outdoor lounge spaces. The main bar, a prime gathering spot, was 40 feet long. The guests danced into the early-morning hours.
Related Story Vanity Fair Oscar Party Photos: See Jeff Bezos, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Cardi B, Kendall Jenner & Many More On The Red Carpet Related Story Ke Huy Quan Says He Honored His Mom By Reclaiming Birth Name As An Adult Actor; Declares "Goonies Never Say Die...
We managed to get our hands on the guest list for the event, held in a 3,000-square-foot indoor reception area, with additional courtyards and other outdoor lounge spaces. The main bar, a prime gathering spot, was 40 feet long. The guests danced into the early-morning hours.
Related Story Vanity Fair Oscar Party Photos: See Jeff Bezos, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Cardi B, Kendall Jenner & Many More On The Red Carpet Related Story Ke Huy Quan Says He Honored His Mom By Reclaiming Birth Name As An Adult Actor; Declares "Goonies Never Say Die...
- 3/13/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Cate Blanchett says her performance in Todd Field’s Tar was “very dangerous and career-ending”.
During her acceptance speech for winning Best Actress at the Baftas on Sunday night (19 February), the 53-year-old actor thanked the Tar producers for “holding their nerve” in making the film.
Blanchett plays the role of conductor Lydia Tar, who is a complicated genius facing misconduct accusations in the film.
During her speech, Blanchett told the audience that she “didn’t prepare anything” for her “extraordinary” win.
“It’s been such an extraordinary year for women, as you’ve seen in those clips, all of my fellow nominees, the conversation with all of you off the screen and on the screen has been nothing short of remarkable and we know that we’re just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
“Every year there’s idiosyncratic, remarkable performances just breaking down the myth that women’s experience is monolithic.
During her acceptance speech for winning Best Actress at the Baftas on Sunday night (19 February), the 53-year-old actor thanked the Tar producers for “holding their nerve” in making the film.
Blanchett plays the role of conductor Lydia Tar, who is a complicated genius facing misconduct accusations in the film.
During her speech, Blanchett told the audience that she “didn’t prepare anything” for her “extraordinary” win.
“It’s been such an extraordinary year for women, as you’ve seen in those clips, all of my fellow nominees, the conversation with all of you off the screen and on the screen has been nothing short of remarkable and we know that we’re just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
“Every year there’s idiosyncratic, remarkable performances just breaking down the myth that women’s experience is monolithic.
- 2/20/2023
- by Peony Hirwani
- The Independent - Film
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the Sundance audience award winner Shayda for North America and other international territories.
Cate Blanchett executive produced Noora Niasari’s debut feature that stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won best actress at Cannes last year for her performance in Holy Spider, and the drama earned the audience award in the world cinema dramatic competition at Sundance.
“I have held the deepest admiration for Sony Pictures Classics since childhood. For my debut feature to be distributed by them is a dream. I know they will set the stage for a wonderful release, so that audiences worldwide can experience the emotional depth and power of Shayda,” said Niasari in a statement on Tuesday.
Sony Pictures Classics also took all media rights for Latin America, Benelux, Eastern Europe, Portugal, the Middle East and Turkey. Unfolding in 1995 Australia, Niasari’s film draws from her experiences as a child living...
Cate Blanchett executive produced Noora Niasari’s debut feature that stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won best actress at Cannes last year for her performance in Holy Spider, and the drama earned the audience award in the world cinema dramatic competition at Sundance.
“I have held the deepest admiration for Sony Pictures Classics since childhood. For my debut feature to be distributed by them is a dream. I know they will set the stage for a wonderful release, so that audiences worldwide can experience the emotional depth and power of Shayda,” said Niasari in a statement on Tuesday.
Sony Pictures Classics also took all media rights for Latin America, Benelux, Eastern Europe, Portugal, the Middle East and Turkey. Unfolding in 1995 Australia, Niasari’s film draws from her experiences as a child living...
- 2/14/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sony Pictures Classics has secured distribution rights to “Shayda,” which won the Audience Award at Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition last month.
The distributor holds all media rights in North America, Latin America, Benelux, Eastern Europe, Portugal, the Middle East, and Turkey.
Executive produced by Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films, the first feature by writer-director Noora Niasari follows Shayda and her six-year-old daughter Mona, two Iranians living in Australia. After divorcing her husband Hossein, Shayda moves them into a women’s shelter, where she struggles to adjust to her new life while trying to create one for Mona. Encouraged by the start of the Persian New Year, Nowruz, to embrace her newfound freedom, Shayda is thrown off when Hossein wins visitation rights, raising the possibility that he’ll attempt to take his daughter back to Iran.
Also Read:
Zach Cregger and New Line Biggest Deal Not Made at Sundance...
The distributor holds all media rights in North America, Latin America, Benelux, Eastern Europe, Portugal, the Middle East, and Turkey.
Executive produced by Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films, the first feature by writer-director Noora Niasari follows Shayda and her six-year-old daughter Mona, two Iranians living in Australia. After divorcing her husband Hossein, Shayda moves them into a women’s shelter, where she struggles to adjust to her new life while trying to create one for Mona. Encouraged by the start of the Persian New Year, Nowruz, to embrace her newfound freedom, Shayda is thrown off when Hossein wins visitation rights, raising the possibility that he’ll attempt to take his daughter back to Iran.
Also Read:
Zach Cregger and New Line Biggest Deal Not Made at Sundance...
- 2/14/2023
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
The Audience Award goes to SPC for North America and bundle of international markets.
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has acquired all media rights to Sundance Audience Award winner Shayda for North America, Latin America, Benelux, Eastern Europe, Portugal, the Middle East and Turkey.
Written and directed by Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari as her feature debut, the film had its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance and is currently being offered for remaining territories by HanWay Films at Berlin’s European Film Market.
Shayda stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Osamah Sami and Leah Purcell in the story of...
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has acquired all media rights to Sundance Audience Award winner Shayda for North America, Latin America, Benelux, Eastern Europe, Portugal, the Middle East and Turkey.
Written and directed by Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari as her feature debut, the film had its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance and is currently being offered for remaining territories by HanWay Films at Berlin’s European Film Market.
Shayda stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Osamah Sami and Leah Purcell in the story of...
- 2/14/2023
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
A few weeks after Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award in Cannes for her performance as journalist Arezoo Rahimi in crime thriller Holy Spider, the Iranian-French actor flew to Melbourne, Australia, to take part in what was set to be another urgent story from an Iranian filmmaker: Noora Niasari’s debut feature Shayda.
The film, which is described as a “love letter to mothers and daughters everywhere” and opened Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition last week, sees Amir-Ebrahimi star as Shayda, a brave Iranian mother who finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter (played by Selina Zahednia) after fleeing an abusive relationship.
Based on Niasari’s own mother, who fled an arranged marriage to raise her daughter in Australia, Shayda takes place over the Persian New Year, when the mother-daughter duo take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings but when her estranged husband reenters their lives,...
The film, which is described as a “love letter to mothers and daughters everywhere” and opened Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition last week, sees Amir-Ebrahimi star as Shayda, a brave Iranian mother who finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter (played by Selina Zahednia) after fleeing an abusive relationship.
Based on Niasari’s own mother, who fled an arranged marriage to raise her daughter in Australia, Shayda takes place over the Persian New Year, when the mother-daughter duo take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings but when her estranged husband reenters their lives,...
- 1/25/2023
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
Hollywood star Cate Blanchett was left so drained by her latest role as obsessive Lydia Tar she thought about quitting acting, which she says has also left her profoundly homesick for her Australian homeland.
The 53-year-old actress is being tipped for another Oscar for her portrayal of an obsessive composer in ‘Tar’, but said it was so physically and emotionally draining she thought about giving up work, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
She told Australian show ‘The Sunday Project’: “I think it was because it was such a physical role, the echoes of it are still with me and I think I’m like a lot of audience members, I need time to process it.
“Obviously I’m lucky enough to work with some amazing directors who have changed my life, but when it all comes together like that, it does stay with you.”
Blanchett then laughed: “So I don...
The 53-year-old actress is being tipped for another Oscar for her portrayal of an obsessive composer in ‘Tar’, but said it was so physically and emotionally draining she thought about giving up work, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
She told Australian show ‘The Sunday Project’: “I think it was because it was such a physical role, the echoes of it are still with me and I think I’m like a lot of audience members, I need time to process it.
“Obviously I’m lucky enough to work with some amazing directors who have changed my life, but when it all comes together like that, it does stay with you.”
Blanchett then laughed: “So I don...
- 1/23/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
‘Tar’ star Cate Blanchett’s husband warned her that her film career would only last five years. Blanchett, who has four children with spouse Andrew Upton, said the theatre director advised her to “enjoy” her moment in the spotlight when she first found fame because it was so hard for women to have longevity in the industry.
Reflecting on how things have progressed for women, she told Ok! magazine: “Well, the landscape has certainly changed.”
“You know, in the dawn of time when I entered the film industry, which was a very long time ago, I remember my husband saying to me in an incredibly supportive way, ‘Enjoy it babe, you’ve got five years, if you’re lucky.’ And that was true for women.”
“I think there are a lot of people who have been changing that landscape, not only female, but trailblazing actors who have pushed the boundaries.
Reflecting on how things have progressed for women, she told Ok! magazine: “Well, the landscape has certainly changed.”
“You know, in the dawn of time when I entered the film industry, which was a very long time ago, I remember my husband saying to me in an incredibly supportive way, ‘Enjoy it babe, you’ve got five years, if you’re lucky.’ And that was true for women.”
“I think there are a lot of people who have been changing that landscape, not only female, but trailblazing actors who have pushed the boundaries.
- 1/21/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
Fingernails
Apples filmmaker Christos Nikou moves into some hearty, heady and hefty terrain with his hyped-up sophomore feature (plus debut English language debut) which is a Apple Studios backed project. It gained the interest of plenty of A-list actors and Fingernails will feature the likes of Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy. Production took place in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario in October of last year. This is a sci-fi romance with some possible zany ideas – worth noting: Nikou’s first professional cred was on the set of Dogtooth. Dirty Films’ Coco Francini and Andrew Upton produced the film.…...
Apples filmmaker Christos Nikou moves into some hearty, heady and hefty terrain with his hyped-up sophomore feature (plus debut English language debut) which is a Apple Studios backed project. It gained the interest of plenty of A-list actors and Fingernails will feature the likes of Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy. Production took place in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario in October of last year. This is a sci-fi romance with some possible zany ideas – worth noting: Nikou’s first professional cred was on the set of Dogtooth. Dirty Films’ Coco Francini and Andrew Upton produced the film.…...
- 1/17/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy are set to join Apple Original Films’ Fingernails. The film currently stars Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White with Christos Nikou directing. Apple Original Films landed the film at Cannes this year. Cate Blanchett, Coco Francini and Andrew Upton, who were also Executive Producers of Apples, will produce Nikou’s latest alongside FilmNation Entertainment. Jerome Duboz will serve as executive producer.
In this sci-fi love story, a test has been discovered that measures whether couples are truly in love, and institutes have opened to help couples succeed. Anna (Buckley) begins working at one of these institutes as an assistant to Trevor (Ahmed), a mysterious and dedicated instructor.
Wilson will play the head of the Love Institute, helping couples searching for confirmation of their love and Murphy will play Amir’s love interest.
Nikou co-wrote Fingernails with Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. His...
In this sci-fi love story, a test has been discovered that measures whether couples are truly in love, and institutes have opened to help couples succeed. Anna (Buckley) begins working at one of these institutes as an assistant to Trevor (Ahmed), a mysterious and dedicated instructor.
Wilson will play the head of the Love Institute, helping couples searching for confirmation of their love and Murphy will play Amir’s love interest.
Nikou co-wrote Fingernails with Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. His...
- 12/8/2022
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
Blanchett is among producers on the feature, which has been backed by Fremantle and Screen Australia’s First Nations department.
First Nations filmmaker Warwick Thornton’s anticipated new drama The New Boy has wrapped production in South Australia.
The feature has received major funding from Screen Australia’s First Nations department, alongside Fremantle and Gretel Packer’s Longbridge Nominees, who join producers Kath Shelper for Scarlett Pictures; and Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton, Georgie Pym and Coco Francini for Dirty Films.
Newcomer Aswan Reid has been cast as the lead, alongside Blanchett, The Sapphires star Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair, who directed The Sapphires.
First Nations filmmaker Warwick Thornton’s anticipated new drama The New Boy has wrapped production in South Australia.
The feature has received major funding from Screen Australia’s First Nations department, alongside Fremantle and Gretel Packer’s Longbridge Nominees, who join producers Kath Shelper for Scarlett Pictures; and Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton, Georgie Pym and Coco Francini for Dirty Films.
Newcomer Aswan Reid has been cast as the lead, alongside Blanchett, The Sapphires star Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair, who directed The Sapphires.
- 12/8/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Production wraps this week on “The New Boy,” a drama film by Australian Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton on which Cate Blanchett takes both a starring role and a producer credit.
Set in 1940s Australia, “The New Boy” is the story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (portrayed by newcomer Aswan Reid) who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett). There his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in a story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
Other established names in the cast include Deborah Mailman (“The Sapphires”) and Wayne Blair. An ensemble of new faces including Shane Brady, Tyrique Brady, Laiken Woolmington, Kailem Miller, Kyle Miller, Tyzailin Roderick and Tyler Spencer round out the cast.
Thornton is one of Australia’s most celebrated filmmakers. His “Samson And Delilah” won the Camera d’Or for best first film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Set in 1940s Australia, “The New Boy” is the story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (portrayed by newcomer Aswan Reid) who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett). There his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in a story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
Other established names in the cast include Deborah Mailman (“The Sapphires”) and Wayne Blair. An ensemble of new faces including Shane Brady, Tyrique Brady, Laiken Woolmington, Kailem Miller, Kyle Miller, Tyzailin Roderick and Tyler Spencer round out the cast.
Thornton is one of Australia’s most celebrated filmmakers. His “Samson And Delilah” won the Camera d’Or for best first film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
- 12/7/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Iain Reid and Jason Schwartzman are adapting Apples — a 2020 Greek film of the same name from Christos Nikou — for the small screen.
Nikou will direct the project that will be executive produced by Reid and Schwartzman, who will write. Jane Featherstone and Carolyn Strauss will EP, along with Jerome Duboz, Kate Fenske through Sister, and Cate Blanchett, Coco Francini, and Andrew Upton through Dirty Films.
Apples will expand on the world created by Nikou for the film, which was chosen in 2021 as Greece’s official submission for the Best International Feature category for the Academy Awards. Set in an unnamed city amidst an outbreak of sudden amnesia, the series is a comedic, heartfelt, existential, and deeply human character study that follows a diverse group of recent amnesiacs who are enrolled in an experimental recovery program designed to help them build new identities.
Reid is the author of five books,...
Nikou will direct the project that will be executive produced by Reid and Schwartzman, who will write. Jane Featherstone and Carolyn Strauss will EP, along with Jerome Duboz, Kate Fenske through Sister, and Cate Blanchett, Coco Francini, and Andrew Upton through Dirty Films.
Apples will expand on the world created by Nikou for the film, which was chosen in 2021 as Greece’s official submission for the Best International Feature category for the Academy Awards. Set in an unnamed city amidst an outbreak of sudden amnesia, the series is a comedic, heartfelt, existential, and deeply human character study that follows a diverse group of recent amnesiacs who are enrolled in an experimental recovery program designed to help them build new identities.
Reid is the author of five books,...
- 11/14/2022
- by Lynette Rice
- Deadline Film + TV
With all the iconic roles that Cate Blanchett has taken on over the years, it's hard to imagine how she has time to raise her four kids, but the "Disclaimer" actor and her producer husband of almost 25 years, Andrew Upton, have always made parenthood a key priority. With three sons - Dashiell, Roman, and Ignatius - and their daughter, Edith, the pair have their hands full. Blanchett previously opened up about the struggles of balancing her career with being a mom in a 2016 interview with the UK's Evening Standard.
"The film industry is no different from any other industry. It's a struggle for working parents," she told the outlet. "Whether you're making your second film or you're trying to get your first feature out, there's a time pressure. So anything that can afford you time, whether it's through childcare or getting it through to the second draft, and allows you...
"The film industry is no different from any other industry. It's a struggle for working parents," she told the outlet. "Whether you're making your second film or you're trying to get your first feature out, there's a time pressure. So anything that can afford you time, whether it's through childcare or getting it through to the second draft, and allows you...
- 9/19/2022
- by Corinne Sullivan
- Popsugar.com
While more prolific than many directors working today, Pedro Almodóvar still carefully considers each project and, as a result, every single one of them bears his unique stylistic stamp. For the next feature he was developing, which was to be his most ambitious yet, the director has gotten cold feet. While he was preparing to make his first feature-length English-language project with an adaptation of Lucia Berlin’s stellar short story collection “A Manual for Cleaning Women,” the director has now backed out of the film.
Deadline reports that the Spanish helmer “had all the elements to realize the magnitude” of the film, but he made the decision that “he’s not ready to tackle such a monumental project in” English. Set to be produced by Cate Blanchett, who is attached to star, the project will still move forward with another director and a search is underway. With the collection featuring 43 stories,...
Deadline reports that the Spanish helmer “had all the elements to realize the magnitude” of the film, but he made the decision that “he’s not ready to tackle such a monumental project in” English. Set to be produced by Cate Blanchett, who is attached to star, the project will still move forward with another director and a search is underway. With the collection featuring 43 stories,...
- 9/13/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Fans of Pedro Almodóvar will have to keep waiting for his first English-language feature. The Oscar winner was set to switch languages when he directed “A Manual for Cleaning Women,” an adaptation of Lucia Berlin’s short-story collection starring Cate Blanchett. But Almodóvar, who is currently finishing a new Western short starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke, has exited the project.
Deadline broke the news. Blanchett’s Dirty Films is still attached to produce the independent project with New Republic Pictures. IndieWire placed a call to Almodóvar’s representative, which was not returned at press time.
Almodovar has been talking about this project for years, first discussing it with IndieWire in 2019 as “five short tales by one American writer” that take place in Texas, Oakland, and Mexico, with a mixture of English and Spanish.
“It’s a wonderful book,” Almodóvar said to IndieWire in 2020. “[Berlin is] not that different from Alice Munro.
Deadline broke the news. Blanchett’s Dirty Films is still attached to produce the independent project with New Republic Pictures. IndieWire placed a call to Almodóvar’s representative, which was not returned at press time.
Almodovar has been talking about this project for years, first discussing it with IndieWire in 2019 as “five short tales by one American writer” that take place in Texas, Oakland, and Mexico, with a mixture of English and Spanish.
“It’s a wonderful book,” Almodóvar said to IndieWire in 2020. “[Berlin is] not that different from Alice Munro.
- 9/12/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
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