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Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

The point is not to be fair, but to deliver gut-level reactions; to find the films that made me swivel my head and throw up my arms in frustration. 2024 was an uneasy year and I was naturally attracted to films that disquieted me. Well-made exercises in genre craft and compact auteurist style like Juror #2 and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga often failed to deliver more than easy admiration and placid acknowledgment of their skill. One of the biggest runner-ups to my top 10 list, The Brutalist, won me over not as the epic statement on American identity that it has been advertised as, but as a punkish anti-film with a grating penchant for blunt transgression and risible politics. The world is at war and politics have failed us.

The following contains spoilers for "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" season 1, episode 4, "Can't Say I Remember No At Attlin."

"Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" episode 4 once again brings Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) and his adolescent castaway crew to a new planet, where we meet just enough new faces that they get a chance to make an impact. One key figure on the episode's planet, At Achrann, is Troik clan member Hayna (Hala Finley), who soon gains respect for Neel (voiced by Robert Timothy Smith) and his anti-violence streak. While Finley has a good few projects on her acting CV, film fans might perk up their ears even more when they see her father, Troik leader General Strix. 

If Strix looks familiar, you've probably paid attention to international cinema in the 1990s and 2000s. The general with a penchant for training child soldiers is played by none other than actor and filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz,...

Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender are together again!

The former co-stars reunited at the Como 1907 Vs Roma soccer match on Sunday (December 15) held at Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium in Como, Italy.

Michael, 47, and Keira, 39, along with her husband James Righton, were seen cheering and celebrating loudly as they watched the intense match.

Coma 1907 ended up defeating Roma 2-0.

If you forgot, Michael and Keira starred together in the 2011 historical drama A Dangerous Method alongside Viggo Mortensen, Sarah Gadon, and Vincent Cassel.

Last month, Michael had the support of wife Alicia Vikander at the UK premiere of his new series The Agency.

Keira recently called an iconic scene from her movie Love Actually “quite creepy.”

Click through the gallery inside for 35+ pictures of Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender at the soccer match…...

Pulsar Content has nabbed worldwide sales on “Two Women,” a Canadian sexy comedy which is slated to world premiere at Sundance.

Directed by Chloé Robichaud, “Two Women” is written by critically acclaimed playwright Catherine Léger based on her own play, “Home Deliveries,” which is itself a modern adaptation of Claude Fournier’s 1970 comedy “Two Women In Gold.”

“Two Women” follows neighbors Violette and Florence who are haunted by a sense of failure despite having successful careers and families. “What if happiness lies in rebelling against a rigid performance-driven society by sometimes choosing short-term satisfaction over success, freedom over being good? In a world where having fun is nowhere near the top of the priority list, having an adventure with the delivery guy can become revolutionary. For Violette and Florence this is the breath of fresh air they’ve been longing for,” reads the synopsis.

The cast is lead by Karine Gonthier-Hyndman,...

The Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen is praised by a Russian mafia expert for one of his Academy Award-nominated roles. While many performances from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy are celebrated, Mortensen's depiction of the heroic Aragorn is particularly popular. There has even been discussions about him reprising the role for the franchise's upcoming movie, The Hunt for Gollum, directed by Andy Serkis and slated to release in 2026.

Even though he is best known for The Lord of the Rings, Mortensen has received three Academy Award nominations for other movies that he has starred in. His most recent nomination was for his depiction of Tony Lip in 2018's Green Book, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Mortensen has also received extensive recognition for playing The Man in 2009's The Road, a post-apocalyptic story adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name.

Imagine if John Waters directed a New French Extremity film, and you would have a pretty good idea of what to expect with Sheitan (Arabic for Satan). These days, Kim Chapiron’s deranged debut escapes virtually all mention in talks about that particular era of French transgressive filmmaking, however, that omission is more due to its scarcity rather than an actual lack of memorability. Certainly no one who has witnessed this cinematic exercise in sustaining unease can say it is bland — after all, the director went out of his way to make the characters as well as the audience uncomfortable. And, without a doubt, show-stealer Vincent Cassel did not hold back as the on-screen conveyer of said disquiet.

Sheitan may not be considered part of the Extremity club, on account of its comedic and seemingly straightforward execution, but its induction wouldn’t be too out of order, either. There is...

Studiocanal’s epic romance Beating Hearts kept the French box office pumping through the month of November as Paramount’s Gladiator II opened to boost ticket sales to a total 17.7 million, up 17% from the same month last year, according to the Cnc.

Total box office for the month was an estimated €127m, based on an average ticket price of €7.20.

Beating Hearts was the biggest film for a second month, adding 2.2m admissions to its nearly 4.5m total according to Cbo figures. It is now Studiocanal’s highest grossing film in France to date and among the top five titles of...

Seen from the 14th floor of its Radisson Hotel, Montevideo’s skyline, bristling with white marble high-rises and monuments, looks like a very different scenario for Ventana Sur, Latin America’s foremost film-tv co-pro forum and market, relocated from its chic Buenos Aires setting for the first time since 2009.

Yet in many ways, this is the same Ventana Sur, playing to its strengths and galvanized by its context, Uruguay, one of Latin America’s fastest-growing film-tv hubs, both as a big-shoot locale and home-grown movie industry.

Ten takes, as producers and sales agents began to arrive at the Radisson for this year’s edition, hosted by Cannes Marché du Film and Uruguay’s public-sector film agency, Agencia del Cine y Audiovisual (Acau), and running Dec. 2-6 in the Uruguayan capital:

Attendance Holds

As of Saturday night, attendance had just passed 2,000 delegates, tracking to hit that number of jobbing professionals by market end,...

Director Doug Liman says he’s making Deeper, a ‘scary’ undersea supernatural thriller, with Tom Cruise as its star.

Director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise have long planned to work together again after collaborating on Edge Of Tomorrow and American Made. And according to a new report, that is still set to happen – just not in the guise we expected. When thinking about a Liman/Cruise collaboration at Warner Bros, a sequel to 2014’s Edge Of Tomorrow might spring to mind – but no, it seems like the duo could be cooking up something different.

Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman (via World of Reel) quotes Doug Liman as saying that his next film will be Deeper, starring Tom Cruise. It’s a project that Warner Bros has reportedly been trying to get off the ground for a decade under the stewardship of several different filmmakers.

Liman tells Friedman that he and Cruise...

Following a two-hour masterclass at the Cairo Film Festival, Gaspar Noé spoke with Variety about future genres he’d like to tackle: “The main film genres that really would interest me for a future project are documentary, war film, and horror. Probably I should even try to mix those three genres. I also would like to do a movie with young children, or a movie for children.”

The Argentinian director of “Irreversible” (2002) and “Vortex” (2021) had earlier answered questions from British-Iranian critic Mo Abdi, telling the audience of his sold out event: “Kids are like small adults. When we are kids we are in danger. You are exposed to everything. I’m very attached to kids in life, though I don’t have kids. The relationship you have with kids is direct and playful. I would like to do a movie with little kids. They relate to fragility, they relate to...

Chris Evans has been sporting a bushy new beard on his Red One press tour and he’s explaining the choice behind the facial hair.

The 43-year-old actor was asked about his new look while attending the Red One premiere in New York City on Monday (November 11).

Keep reading to find out more…

Chris told Entertainment Tonight that the beard is for “a job I am working on.”

“It’s a film called Sacrifice with Anya Taylor-Joy and John Malkovich,” Chris added. The star-studded cast also includes Brendan Fraser, Salma Hayek, Charli Xcx, and Vincent Cassel, among others.

Deadline reports that Sacrifice — loosely inspired by the Joan Of Arc story — “tells the story of Joan (Taylor-Joy), a zealous spirit driven by a volcanic prophecy only she can hear, who is on a mission to save the world from a fiery reckoning. Along with her militia of mystical disciples, she hijacks...

Films can be entertaining, but sometimes they can be a bit too much, especially when it comes to drama. Irréversible is a French movie from 2002, and it tells a story so intense that even the lead actress still feels uncomfortable talking about one particular scene.

Still from Irréversible (Credits: Studiocanal)

On top of that, a piece of her costume, which she had kept as a souvenir, ended up having the opposite effect of what she expected. For a long time, Monica Bellucci couldn’t even go near her character’s dress from the film, because wearing it brought back traumatic memories.

Monica Bellucci Could No Longer Touch The Costume From The Movie Irréversible Monica Bellucci in Irréversible (Credits: Studiocanal)

Told in reverse chronological order, Irréversible follows the story of a woman who is violently raped and, alongside her fiancé and ex-boyfriend, embarks on a quest for revenge. Directed by Gaspar Noé,...

It's a big month for Paul Mescal. Gladiator II is just weeks away, a bunch of lads in mini shorts honored him with his very own lookalike competition in Dublin, and now, he may get to start in yet another project with Ridley Scott. According to Variety, Mescal is in...

Spain’s Mil Monos Cine and Argentina’s Cosmic Brew Studios are teaming to produce leading Argentina-born and Spain-based filmmaker Pablo Agüero’s “Gravityland,” a 2D animated feature project selected to pitch at this year’s Animation! sidebar at Ventana Sur.

In the film, a speleologist – a scientist who studies caves – disappears while investigating changes in Earth’s gravity field. When the planet’s gravity reverses, the specialist’s children decide to climb into the planet’s interior to look for her, understanding that when the world is turned upside down, one must jump into the void to reach the stars.

Agüero is an accomplished filmmaker who has worked in various mediums and genres. His 2006 short “Primera nieve” won the jury prize for best short film at Cannes and his 2008 feature “Salamandra” screened in competition at the French festival. This year, he helmed “Saint-Exupéry” starring Vincent Cassel, Louis Garrel and...

Hugo Covarrubias’ “Baptism,” Danna Galeano’s “Foldara” and Ricardo Kump and Lucas Abrahão “The Factory Beyond the Hill” feature in a powerful lineup of titles at this year’s Animation! Pitching Sessions which take part at Ventana Sur, staged in Montevideo over Dec. 2-6.

The showcase of animation titles from Latin America also features a project, “Gravityland,” from Argentina’s Pablo Aguëro, director of upcoming “Saint-e,” starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger y Louis Garrel, as well as “Hua Awakens,” the multiple producers of which include Magdiela Hermida Duhamel whose credits include “Trollhunters.”

Also in this year’s Animation! mix is Coty Luzoro, writer of Oscar winning outfit Punkrobot Studio’s “Wow Lisa” and Ecuador’s Keila Cepeda, behind fest fave “Chimborazo.”

“Baptism” marks the feature film debut of Chile’s Covarrubias whose scored an Academy Award-nomination for best animated short in 2022 for “Beast.” The feature looks set to explore the...

The Marrakech Film Festival unveiled its 2024 lineup on Thursday and set that Luca Guadagnino would replace Thomas Vinterberg as its jury president. The other jury members will be Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, and Ali Abbasi. Vinterberg “had to excuse himself for family reasons,” festival organizers said.

The Marrakech fest on Thursday also unveiled the lineup for its competition, 11th Continent, and Moroccan Panorama sections, as well as gala and special screenings. In the competition, 14 films will compete for the Étoile d’Or, or Golden Star.

The 21st edition of the fest in Morocco will also honor Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and, posthumously, pay homage to Moroccan star Naïma Elmcherqui. The Marrakech fest takes place Nov. 29-Dec. 7.

Check out the full lineup for the 2024 edition below.

Competition

Across The Sea (LA Mer Au Loin)

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

with Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Omar Boulakirba,...

After crafting the best film of 2023 with The Beast, Bertrand Bonello is prepping his next feature. While he was tight-lipped on details, he tells Variety, “It’s a little early to talk about it. It’s going to be very different. It’s going to be completely different. The writing is finished, and we’re going to start the casting process. I’m going to announce it once the casting is done. I hope to start shooting next September.” Speaking about how cinema is changing, he added, “This mutation is freaky and fascinating. If you don’t involve it in your creation, you’re out. It’s always an equilibrium. You must protect the past and welcome the future. If you just welcome the future, you’re lost in the movement. If you protect the past, you’re out now.”

The ever-prolific Takashi Miike has unveiled his next film, Sham,...

Charli Xcx and her Brat remix collaborator Yung Lean have joined the cast for the Romain Gavras-directed film, Sacrifice. Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault, and Sam Richardson will lead the upcoming film, Deadline reports. The film is loosely based on Joan of Arc.

Sacrifice follows Taylor-Joy’s Joan, a woman driven by a volcanic prophecy who is on a mission to rescue the world from a violent reckoning. With the help of mystical disciples, Joan hijacks a charity event and takes three hostages: a crumbling movie star,...

More stars have joined the cast of the upcoming movie Sacrifice!

Back in May, it was announced that Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault, and Sam Richardson will be leading the new movie Sacrifice directed by Romain Gavras.

As filming is currently underway in Greece and Bulgaria, it has now been revealed that several other stars have joined the cast.

Keep reading to find out more…Deadline reports that Charli xcx, Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, Swedish rapper Yung Lean, Emily in Paris actor Jeremy O. Harris, One Day actress Ambika Mod, The Serpent Queen actress Jade Croot, and Tony winner Miriam Silverman have all been cast in the movie.

Loosely inspired by the Joan Of Arc story, Sacrifice “tells the story of Joan (Taylor-Joy), a zealous spirit driven by a volcanic prophecy only she can hear, who is on a mission to save the world from a fiery reckoning.

Production is underway in Greece and Bulgaria on French filmmaker Romain Gavras’ English-language debut Sacrifice.

Gavras is directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Succession writer and co-producer Will Arbery.

Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, Ambika Mod, Jade Croot, Jeremy O. Harris, Miriam Silverman, singer Charli Xcx and rapper Yung Lean have joined the previously announced cast of Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault and Sam Richardson.

The film is an official Greece-uk co-production. Iconoclast is producing with Robert Walak, Jacob Perlin and Gavras alongside Giorgios Karnavas of Heretic. Gregory Jankilevitsch and Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska of Mid March Media also produce.

Production is underway in Greece and Bulgaria on French filmmaker Romain Gavras’ English-language debut Sacrifice.

Gavras is directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Succession writer and co-producer Will Arbery.

Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, Ambika Mod, Jade Croot, Jeremy O. Harris, Miriam Silverman, singer Charli Xcx and rapper Yung Lean have joined the previously announced cast of Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault and Sam Richardson.

The film is an official Greece-uk co-production. Iconoclast is producing with Robert Walak, Jacob Perlin and Gavras alongside Giorgios Karnavas of Heretic. Gregory Jankilevitsch and Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska of Mid March Media also produce.

Production is underway in Greece and Bulgaria on French filmmaker Romain Gavras’ English-language debut Sacrifice.

Gavras is directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Succession writer and co-producer Will Arbery.

Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, Ambika Mod, Jade Croot, Jeremy O. Harris, Miriam Silverman, singer Charli Xcx and rapper Yung Lean have joined the previously announced cast of Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault and Sam Richardson.

The film is an official Greece-uk co-production. Iconoclast are producing with Robert Walak, Jacob Perlin and Gavras alongside Giorgios Karnavas of Heretic. Gregory Jankilevitsch and Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska of Mid March Media also produce.

Production is underway in Greece and Bulgaria on French filmmaker Romain Gavras’ English-language debut Sacrifice.

Gavras is directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Succession writer and co-producer Will Arbery.

Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, Ambika Mod, Jade Croot, Jeremy O. Harris, Miriam Silverman, singer Charli Xcx and rapper Yung Lean have joined the previously announced cast of Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault and Sam Richardson.

The film is an official Greece-uk co-production. Iconoclast are producing with Robert Walak, Jacob Perlin and Gavras alongside Giorgios Karnavas of Heretic. Gregory Jankilevitsch and Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska of Mid March Media also produce.

Exclusive: Vincent Cassel (La Haine), John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich), singer and actress Charli xcx (I Want Your Sex), Swedish rapper Yung Lean in his film debut, Ambika Mod (One Day), Jade Croot (The Serpent Queen), Jeremy O. Harris (Emily in Paris) and recent Tony winner Miriam Silverman (Your Friends and Neighbors) are joining the starry cast of Romain Gavras’ contemporary Joan Of Arc movie Sacrifice.

Gavras’ English-language debut is being led by Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault and Sam Richardson.

Filming is now underway in Greece and Bulgaria on the Iconoclast production, which Gavras is directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Will Arbery (Succession).

Sacrifice tells the story of Joan (Taylor-Joy), a zealous spirit driven by a volcanic prophecy only she can hear, who is on a mission to save the world from a fiery reckoning. Along with her militia of mystical disciples, she hijacks a...

Academy Award Winner Russell Crowe will star in The Last Druid from director Will Eubank. Will Eubank penned the script with Phil Gawthorne and Carlyle Eubank. 42’s Ben Pugh is set to produce alongside Range Media Partners’ Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger, with Adrián Guerra also producing for Nostromo. Felix Farmer’s Brandon Millan and Sam Wasson will executive produce alongside George Hsieh. Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios will introduce the film during AFM next week.

The Last Druid tells the story of a Roman Emperor who discovers a secluded Druid stronghold in the mountains of Caledonia. A peaceful Celtic elder must awaken the warrior within to protect his family and people from total annihilation.

Crowe will next be seen in Sony’s Spider-Villain-Verse film Kraven the Hunter and the historical drama Nuremberg. He is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher. Meanwhile, it was recently...

Exclusive: Almost 25 years after Russell Crowe waged war on the Roman Empire — and won an Oscar for his trouble — in Gladiator, the actor is once again set to stir the warrior within for The Last Druid.

The movie will tell the story of a Roman Emperor who discovers a secluded Druid stronghold in the mountains of Caledonia. A peaceful Celtic elder (Crowe) must take up arms to protect his family and people from annihilation. Additional casting is underway.

Stuart Ford’s AGC is launching sales on the project for the AFM. Range Media Partners and CAA Media Finance arranged financing for the picture with Nostromo and are representing the U.S. rights.

Will Eubank (Underwater) is set to direct from a script he penned with Phil Gawthorne and Carlyle Eubank.

42’s Ben Pugh is producing alongside Range Media Partners’ Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger, with Adrián Guerra also producing for Nostromo.

Pulsar Content has boarded “Howl,” an anticipated movie executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and celebrated environmental activist Jane Goodall. The Paris-based company is executive producing as well as handling international sales and will introduce the project to buyers at the AFM in Las Vegas.

Unfolding through the animals’ perspective, the survival tale revolves around Harry, a recently orphaned family dog who finds himself home alone at the onset of winter in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and forms an unlikely bond with a young wolf who is the last remaining member of a pack decimated by hunters. After initial fear and conflict, the lovable dog and wild wolf start to show each other their worlds, learn from each other and ultimately realize that they must cooperate in order to survive.

“Howl” was written by Christopher Monger (“The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain”) and will be directed by Elias E.

The Marrakech International Film Festival will honor Sean Penn and David Cronenber and late Moroccan actor Naïma Elmcherqui at its upcoming 21st edition, kicking off in late November.

The posthumous honor for Elmcherqui (aka Lamcharki) has been announced just three weeks after her death at the age of 81 years old on October 5.

Elmcherqui was one of Morocco’s most revered actresses with highlights of her 60-year career including Badis (1989) Allal Al Kalda (2003) and Autumn of Apple Trees (2021), for which she received the Best Actress award at the Arab Film Festival in Malmö.

A life-long supporter of emerging talent, she also took a role in Nabil Ayouch’s first 1992 short film Les Pierres bleues du desert, starring a teenage Jamel Debbouze, who would go on to become one of Morocco and France’s best known comedians and actors.

The festival described Elmcherqui as an advocate of Moroccan culture and “a loyal...

The Greek Orpheus-Eurydice myth is repurposed into a rollicking and plaintive musical in Paolo Gep Cucco and Davide Livermore’s The Opera! Orpheus (Valentino Buzza) sets out to take back his lover (Mariam Battistelli) from the clutches of the underworld. There’s Hotel Hades that assumes a central role and the ferrying by Charon (Vincent Cassel seemingly having a blast) as the linking mode. Orpheus is more confused and desperate than grieving the untimely loss of his beloved. He seeks reunion as well as answers. His pursuit of her spills across a skidding through varying genres and templates.

The film’s design is intently swashbuckling and fantastical. Worlds of myth and movies and musicals collide and coalesce into a dreamy, occasionally stunning hybrid. To orchestrate them convincingly demands a high degree of conviction and ease with style and sass. It’s not easy to pull it off without seeming labored in certain places.

Exclusive: Vincent Cassel has built a reputation over his 30-year career for playing bad and good guys with a menacing, violent edge from Vinz in La Haine, to ruthless gangster Jacques Mesrine, or a tough-talking mercenary in the Apple TV+ series Liaison.

It is a surprise then to discover the French star in the role of the Greek mythology figure of Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, reimagined as a gentlemanly taxi driver, with charmingly accented but grammatically perfect English in The Opera!, which world premieres in the Rome Film Festival on Friday evening.

Based loosely on tragic love story Orpheus and Eurydice, Davide Livermore and creative director Paolo Gep Cucco’s original telling of the ancient legend mixes opera arias from Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart, Vivaldi, Boito and Gluck with pop classics such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “The Power of Love.”

Cassel tops a cast also featuring Caterina Murino,...

Red Sea Media will commence worldwide sales talks at the AFM next month on the Michael Jai White action thriller Drive Through Fire.

The story follows an addict war veteran turned rideshare driver who helps a terrified passenger escape a human trafficking ring serving wealthy clients.

White will play a veteran detective who gets involved in the case while violent mobsters pursue the woman. White, a black belt in several martial arts disciplines, will bring his skills to the role. Drive Through Fire co-stars Dan Bakkedahl, Jimmy Carlson, Jennifer Bond, and Kate Duffy.

Principal photography on the project from 3Cb...

Occasionally, an incredible sci-fi film comes along, and it is always surprising when a film of such caliber never receives a sequel. Sometimes, it feels as though there are still stories left to tell. In instances like these, a concept introduced by the science fiction world presented in the film is so fun or groundbreaking that a sequel seems like an obvious next step. Yet some of the best science fiction films of all time never received sequels.

Other sci-fi movies have gone on to become big-budget franchises, spawning film after film in order to satisfy fans, or disappoint them when they fizzle out at the end. However, while some movie franchises got too big for their own good, other singular sci-fi films deserve to have sequels made, if only to further explore the interesting concepts they originally brought to life.

Underwater (2020) This Deep-Sea Horror Is A Chilling Monster Movie...

Stars: Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt, Elizabeth Saunders, Jennifer Dale, Eric Weinthal | Written and Directed by David Cronenberg

The Shrouds, the latest film from director David Cronenberg is a poorly conceived hodge-podge of ideas about sex, death and technology, with a dash of bog-standard body horror thrown in. Tonally, it’s all over the place, which means it fails to satisfy on a number of different levels.

As the film begins, it feels like jet jet-black comedy, except you’re not sure just how much you’re actually meant to be laughing. It opens in a restaurant, where tech genius Karsh (Vincent Cassel) – who also owns the restaurant – is entertaining a beautiful young woman (Elizabeth Saunders as Gray Foner) on a first date. Abruptly, he insists she accompanies him outside to the adjoining cemetery – which he also owns – so that he can show her not just the...

David Cronenberg certainly has enough experience to know when an audience is not connecting with a film.

Case in point: last May’s world premiere in Cannes of The Shrouds, the 81-year-old Cronenberg’s latest outing as writer-director. “They didn’t get the movie, partly because of the language and cultural things and the fact that maybe people felt if they laughed it was being disrespectful or something,” he said. “It’s the pressure of the Cannes Film Festival. We didn’t get the kind of laughs that I knew we would get, let’s say, at the Toronto Film Festival or that we would get here”

Cronenberg shared his thoughts after The Shrouds had its U.S. premiere Saturday night at the New York Film Festival (after a September bow in his native Toronto). “I wasn’t here while the movie was playing, but I hope you laughed a little bit,...

Much of the press about The Shrouds since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year has focused on the deeply personal inspiration for the film: David Cronenberg’s grief over the death of his wife in 2017. For those who are aware of this context going in, one could see signs of that extra investment on the writer-director’s part here and there, especially in the way one of the film’s stars, Vincent Cassel, is made up to look like Cronenberg himself. Lest that suggests something more overtly emotional than what one might expect from the Canadian auteur, though, The Shrouds dispels that notion very early on.

The film’s opening credits sequence features a bunch of swirling dots that eventually form into the outline of a woman. Allied with the insinuating low-pitched electronic droning of Howard Shore’s score, the sequence dissolves into a dreamy...

Though a controversial performer, Tj Millers best movies and TV shows showcase his impressive career over the years. The American performer has worked as a writer and stand-up comedian, but most people likely recognize him from his various on-screen roles, appearing in many high-profile projects in which his talents allow him to often steal scenes from big stars, such as Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Aniston, and Paul Rudd. While he has stayed busy over the years, there are a number of movies and shows from Miller's career that stand out.

Miller has been hilarious on a number of projects, fitting into the comedic vibes of movies and shows with his fast wit and improvisational skills. However, he has also taken on supporting roles in more serious projects, ranging from sci-fi horror movies to action adventures to blockbusters from legendary directors. No matter the size of the role, Miller is always...

Is a David Cronenberg movie even a David Cronenberg movie if it isn't dealing with the intersection between technology, existentialism, and sex? Set in the near future of a deceptively dystopian world, "The Shrouds" is a bleak and thought-provoking experience right from its opening frame: a closeup of a woman's naked corpse in ghostly suspended animation, followed by open-mouthed howls of pain and grief from her onlooking widower. The director's pitch-black sense of humor creeps in almost immediately, however, with a jarring transition to a dentist visit years later and the practitioner's blunt, deliciously deadpan proclamation that, "Grief is rotting your teeth." Subtext? Who needs it! The brazen unsubtlety of these opening moments, to put it mildly, is a perfect summation of everything that's to come in the following 119 minutes.

"The Shrouds" is a testament to the idea that, at this point, Cronenberg's personal life can't help but bleed onto the page.

AFI Fest is primed and ready to roll out.

The American Film Institute revealed the full lineup for this month’s festival, scheduled to take place in Los Angeles from Oct. 23-27. Joining the previously announced roster of films will be Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, Samir Oliveros’ The Luckiest Man in America, Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s abortion rights documentary Zurawski v Texas (executive produced by Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence), and Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, among many others.

The lineup includes six red carpet premieres, 12 special screenings, 13 luminaries picks, 15 discovery films, 12 world cinema films, 14 documentaries, four after-dark titles, 54 films in the short film competition and 28 films from the AFI Conservatory Showcase presented by AMC Networks. Other notable titles include Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse with Chloë Sevigny; Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste; Paolo Sorrentino...

by Cláudio Alves

Vincent Cassel and Guy pearce in David Cronenberg's The Shrouds.

All of us are on a long journey into death, set on a collision course with the great end that nothing can entirely prevent and no one can avoid forever. Artists are no different, mere mortals like the rest of us. However, the nature of their work means those persons' relationship with our collective finality may take unexpected forms, many of them public. Whether a creator wants it or not, when the finish line comes into conscious sight, their creation shall reflect it. Mortality subsumes the art, even when buried deep within layers of escapism, deflection, and delusion. The brave ones disregard such distractions and stare at the monster head-on. For them, late style is a cinema of death.

Consider the most recent works from two of our greatest masters – David Cronenberg and Paul Schrader. The...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all US rights from Sbs International to David Cronenberg’s Cannes world premiere and recent TIFF gala screening The Shrouds starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce.

‘The Shrouds’: Cannes Review

The film will receive its US premiere in the Main Slate at New York Film Festival next month and stars Cassel as Karsh a businessman and grieving widower who invents a controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their deceased loved ones in their shrouds.

After multiple graves, including that of Karsh’s wife, are desecrated, the businessman sets out to track down the perpetrators.

David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” has finally found a home.

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all U.S. rights to “The Shrouds,” written and directed by Cronenberg and starring Vincent Cassel as a tech mogul who invents a technology that allows you to watch your loved one rot in their grave.

The latest freakout from the Canadian auteur premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year (where it screened in competition) and recently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival as a special presentation. It will have its U.S. premiere next month as part of the main slate of the New York Film Festival. Sideshow and Janus are planning a spring 2025 release.

The deal was negotiated by Sideshow and Janus Films with Sbs International. The producers of the film are Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. It is an Sbs, Prospero Pictures and Saint Laurent Productions Film,...

After having its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival back in May, The Shrouds will have its France theatrical debut on Jan. 22, 2025, followed by its U.S. theatrical release in spring 2025. Yes, you read that right. Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the U.S. rights to The Shrouds and set its release in U.S. theaters this coming spring.

An official release date has not been revealed just yet, but a spring release means we're looking at somewhere between March 20, 2025, and June 20, 2025. No worries! We'll get back to you with the official U.S. release date once it's announced.

The Shrouds is described as an arthouse horror film. It was written and helmed by David Cronenberg, who you might recognize as the writer and director of the horror films Shivers, Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly. Initially, it was going to be a Netflix show, but the streaming giant...

Sideshow and Janus Films have picked up the U.S. rights to David Cronenberg’s sci-fi drama The Shrouds.

The U.S. deal follows a world bow in Cannes, a North American premiere in Toronto and additional play at the New York Film Festival next month. Sideshow and Janus plan a spring 2025 theatrical release.

Sideshow and Janus Films are also reteaming with body horror director Cronenberg after earlier releases of films like Videodrome and Naked Lunch. “This is Cronenberg at his wittiest, most personal and romantic in this thought-provoking thriller with knockout performances from Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger,” the distributors said in a joint statement.

Cronenberg originally pitched the project, inspired by his real-life grief over the loss of his wife in 2017, to Netflix executives as a TV series. But after financing a first episode, the streaming giant passed on going further with the project.

The Shrouds stars Vincent Cassel as Karsh,...

David Cronenberg has said that his new film The Shrouds – which has been making the festival rounds lately (you can read what JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray thought of it Here) – was originally intended to be a Netflix TV series, but the streamer dropped it after paying him to write the pilot episode. So a feature film it is, and Deadline reports that Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all U.S. distribution rights to the film, with their plan being to give it a theatrical release sometime in the spring of 2025.

In The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel, who previously worked with Cronenberg on Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method, takes on the role of Karsh, “an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a novel device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. This burial tool installed at his own state-of-the-art though controversial cemetery allows him and his...

Fresh off the film’s North American premiere at TIFF, horror master David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds has been acquired for U.S. release by Sideshow and Janus Films.

Deadline notes that they’re planning a Spring 2025 release for the film.

“Building on a long history with David Cronenberg that has included releases of Videodrome, Scanners, The Brood, Crash, Dead Ringers, and Naked Lunch, Janus Films and Criterion are very proud to be working with Sideshow and Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello to premiere The Shrouds, a major new work by the Canadian master in the United States,” Sideshow/Janus said in a statement shared by Deadline this morning.

Vincent Cassel (Irreversible, Eastern Promises) stars alongside Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Guy Pearce (Memento) and Sandrine Holt (“Fear the Walking Dead”).

Variety previews, “The Shrouds centers on Karsh, a prominent businessman. Inconsolable since the death of his wife,...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all U.S. rights to The Shrouds, written and directed by David Cronenberg and are planning a spring 2025 theatrical release.

The film world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it screened In Competition. It played the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Gala program and is set for its U.S. premiere in the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival next month.

The deal was negotiated by Sideshow and Janus Films with Sbs International. Producers are Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. It’s an Sbs, Prospero Pictures & Saint Laurent Productions Film with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Eurimages, Ontario Creates in association with Sphere Films, Crave & CBC Films with the support of Canal +, Ocs & the Centre National du Cinema et de L’image Animée.

“Building on a...

Diane Kruger is looking chic at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival!

The 48-year-old actress wore a black silk blouse with a lace skirt and a black veil as she attended the premiere of her new movie The Shrouds on Wednesday (Sept. 11) at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Canada.

Joining Diane at the premiere were her costars Sandrine Holt, Elizabeth Saunders, Jennifer Dale, and Jeff Yung along with director David Cronenberg.

In The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel plays Karsh, “a technological entrepreneur still grieving the death of his wife Becca (Kruger) four years earlier. He has thrown himself into his work, devising technologically augmented burial shrouds that let loved ones watch their lost family members decompose. It’s the closest thing to being there with them — and no, it’s not for everyone. But when his wife’s plot is among several desecrated in an apparent act of vandalism, Karsh slips into...

Audiences hungry for David Cronenberg’s infamous brand of body horror may have hoped that 2022’s Crimes of the Future marked his return to the genre. That film, which formed an unofficial trilogy that began with 1983’s Videodrome and continued in 1999’s eXistenZ, featured several callbacks to the Canadian director’s recurring visual and thematic interests.

The Shrouds, Cronenberg’s latest, is even less of a genre film than Crimes of the Future, though it does share its predecessor’s same dark sense of humour, as well as the director’s tendency to revisit or reconsider his previous work.

The film is ostensibly set in 2023, four years after the death of Karsh (Vincent Cassel)’s wife, Becca (Diane Kruger). Becca died of bone cancer and Karsh has yet to recover, as the opening scene of him crying during a visit to the dentist proves.

The introductory scenes also establish the...

Monica Bellucci is one of the most gorgeous actresses in the world and has often ranked among the sexiest women alive by various publications. Bellucci met French actor Vincent Cassel on the set of their film The Apartment in 1995 and married in 1999. The ex-couple had two daughters—Deva Cassel and Léonie Cassel.

Deva Cassel | Credits: @DevaCassel/Instagram

Deva Cassel is a name that’s becoming increasingly popular in the modeling world. Cassel was born in Rome, Italy but grew up mostly in Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Inheriting genes from Bellucci, Cassel partnered with some world-famous brands at the age of 19.

Monica Bellucci’s Daughter Deva Cassel Is Sending Shockwaves In The Modeling Industry Deva Cassel in The Beautiful Summer | Credits: Kino Produzioni

Deva Cassel grew up surrounded by cameras that followed her mother, Monica Bellucci, around. Cassel’s first experience in front of the camera was when a photographer...

Ontario talent has long starred onscreen in Hollywood, from Ryan Gosling and Mike Myers to Rachel McAdams and Sandra Oh.

But just as the province has become a key Hollywood production hub for the major studios and streamers, top global film and TV producers are also embracing local below-the-line talent to realize their creative ambitions behind the camera.

“When the amazing shows come and they bring the crazy scripts and the ambitiousness of it all, we’re able to meet the challenge, which is satisfying to see,” Shayne Fox, who has just received her third Emmy nomination for her production design work on the series What We Do in the Shadows, tells The Hollywood Reporter about doing her best work in the FX sandbox.

From Francis Ford Coppola’s dystopian epic Megalopolis to Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Ontario talent is bringing its A-game to some of the biggest titles of the fall,...