The entire film industry is soon to descend upon the Côte d’Azur this May as the Cannes Film Festival readies for its 77th edition. From May 14 through May 25, the iconic festival event of the year will host much-awaited new works for auteurs and rising directors alike, across sections like the Competition, Directors’ Fortnight, Un Certain Regard (with jury president Xavier Dolan), and Critics’ Week. Major prizes will come at the end of the festival, and will no doubt set the tone for the movie year ahead.
Such was the case last year when Justine Triet’s eventual Oscar winner “Anatomy of a Fall” took home the top award, the Palme d’Or, the fourth consecutive film distributed by Neon to do so. Jonathan Glazer’s 2023 Grand Prize winner “The Zone of Interest” also won two Academy Awards, while Competition entries “Perfect Days” and “May December” earned Oscar nominations, too.
Such was the case last year when Justine Triet’s eventual Oscar winner “Anatomy of a Fall” took home the top award, the Palme d’Or, the fourth consecutive film distributed by Neon to do so. Jonathan Glazer’s 2023 Grand Prize winner “The Zone of Interest” also won two Academy Awards, while Competition entries “Perfect Days” and “May December” earned Oscar nominations, too.
- 3/27/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio, Kate Erbland and David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Neon, the indie studio behind “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” has tapped the producers of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Jon Read and Allison Rose Carter, to lead their growing production arm. Read and Carter are the co-founders of Savage Rose Films.
The pact comes as Neon has moved more aggressively into developing and producing its own movies, instead of focusing purely on acquiring completed films. The company’s recent foray into production have included Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool,” Bishal Dutta’s “It Lives Inside,” Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” Jazmin Jones’s “Seeking Mavis Beacon” and Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo.” This new in-house focus also includes upcoming projects from Joshua Oppenheimer, Boots Riley and David Robert Mitchell. Under the terms of the deal, Neon will have a first-look at Savage Rose Films’ roster of projects while Read and Carter will also run Neon’s productions, reporting to Jeff Deutchman,...
The pact comes as Neon has moved more aggressively into developing and producing its own movies, instead of focusing purely on acquiring completed films. The company’s recent foray into production have included Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool,” Bishal Dutta’s “It Lives Inside,” Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” Jazmin Jones’s “Seeking Mavis Beacon” and Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo.” This new in-house focus also includes upcoming projects from Joshua Oppenheimer, Boots Riley and David Robert Mitchell. Under the terms of the deal, Neon will have a first-look at Savage Rose Films’ roster of projects while Read and Carter will also run Neon’s productions, reporting to Jeff Deutchman,...
- 3/26/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
“Lupin” star Omar Sy, “Fast X” director Louis Leterrier and “Gangs of London” producer Thomas Benski have launched Carrousel Studios, a European independent production company with offices in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Senegal.
The banner will finance and produce film and TV projects, with an emphasis on elevated action, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy and comedy. The company will look to tap into tax credits, European incentives and brands to finance content. CAA Media Finance architected the financing for the venture.
Sy, Leterrier and Benski, who have worked together on several series and films, said the name of the company, Carrousel, reflects its inclusive DNA. “A carrousel’s sole purpose is to entertain, no matter where the riders come from, no matter their age or background,” explained the trio in a joint statement. “Additionally, the word carrousel is understood around the globe and associated with magical moments. Our Carrousel will have that same feel,...
The banner will finance and produce film and TV projects, with an emphasis on elevated action, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy and comedy. The company will look to tap into tax credits, European incentives and brands to finance content. CAA Media Finance architected the financing for the venture.
Sy, Leterrier and Benski, who have worked together on several series and films, said the name of the company, Carrousel, reflects its inclusive DNA. “A carrousel’s sole purpose is to entertain, no matter where the riders come from, no matter their age or background,” explained the trio in a joint statement. “Additionally, the word carrousel is understood around the globe and associated with magical moments. Our Carrousel will have that same feel,...
- 3/15/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
French star Omar Sy (Lupin, The Intouchables) is joining forces with Fast X and Transporter director Louis Leterrier and producer Thomas Benski (American Honey, Gangs of London) to launch Carrousel Studios, a new European independent studio.
Billed as an “artists-first” studio, Carrousel aims to focus on elevated genre, in the film and TV, to “lean into elevated action, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy and comedy projects,” according to a statement, by taking advantage of “myriad tax credits, subsidies, cost of production, incredible talent (in front and behind the camera) as well as other European incentives.”
All three men are represented by CAA and CAA Media Finance set up the financing for the venture. Carrousel Studios will have offices in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Senegal.
The company name is meant to evoke a spirit of entertainment. “By definition, a carrousel’s sole purpose is to entertain, no matter where the riders come from,...
Billed as an “artists-first” studio, Carrousel aims to focus on elevated genre, in the film and TV, to “lean into elevated action, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy and comedy projects,” according to a statement, by taking advantage of “myriad tax credits, subsidies, cost of production, incredible talent (in front and behind the camera) as well as other European incentives.”
All three men are represented by CAA and CAA Media Finance set up the financing for the venture. Carrousel Studios will have offices in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Senegal.
The company name is meant to evoke a spirit of entertainment. “By definition, a carrousel’s sole purpose is to entertain, no matter where the riders come from,...
- 3/15/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With the 2024 Oscars in the rearview mirror, it’s time to start looking toward 2025. It’s early, but not too early to start making predictions about what movies might contend for the Oscars next year.
The 97th Academy Awards may wind up dominated by an unusual number of blockbuster sequels to films that won big previously. There are also some period pieces, some comeback vehicles, and some movies that were featured on last year’s list that got held back for this year.
Here are 20 films to know for the 2025 Oscars. Some of them are locks, some of them are long shots, and all of them are worth keeping an eye on throughout 2024 as their Academy Awards chances rise and fall.
“A Real Pain”
One of three films on this list that have screened publicly as of publication time, road dramedy “A Real Pain” was the buzziest title out of Sundance this year.
The 97th Academy Awards may wind up dominated by an unusual number of blockbuster sequels to films that won big previously. There are also some period pieces, some comeback vehicles, and some movies that were featured on last year’s list that got held back for this year.
Here are 20 films to know for the 2025 Oscars. Some of them are locks, some of them are long shots, and all of them are worth keeping an eye on throughout 2024 as their Academy Awards chances rise and fall.
“A Real Pain”
One of three films on this list that have screened publicly as of publication time, road dramedy “A Real Pain” was the buzziest title out of Sundance this year.
- 3/12/2024
- by Liam Mathews
- Gold Derby
As the great Renata Klein, played by Laura Dern on HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” once said, “I will not, not be rich!” And very soon, we may be rich in more content from the Emmy award-winning series.
Regarding a third season of the hit HBO drama, Reese Witherspoon told Variety on the carpet of the 81st Golden Globes in January, “We are working on it. [Nicole Kidman] and I have been working on it a lot.”
Well, IndieWire caught up with star Kathryn Newton at the 17th Annual Women in Film Oscar Nominees Party on Friday, March 8 at Catch Steak LA. Newton, of course, plays Abigail Carson, the daughter of Reese Witherspoon and Adam Scott’s characters Madeline Martha Mackenzie and Ed Mackenzie. We could not help but ask her if she has been hearing anything in her orbit about a third installment.
“I had no idea! Someone should let a girl know,...
Regarding a third season of the hit HBO drama, Reese Witherspoon told Variety on the carpet of the 81st Golden Globes in January, “We are working on it. [Nicole Kidman] and I have been working on it a lot.”
Well, IndieWire caught up with star Kathryn Newton at the 17th Annual Women in Film Oscar Nominees Party on Friday, March 8 at Catch Steak LA. Newton, of course, plays Abigail Carson, the daughter of Reese Witherspoon and Adam Scott’s characters Madeline Martha Mackenzie and Ed Mackenzie. We could not help but ask her if she has been hearing anything in her orbit about a third installment.
“I had no idea! Someone should let a girl know,...
- 3/9/2024
- by Vincent Perella
- Indiewire
Applications are now open for the 21st edition of Screen International’s Screen Stars of Tomorrow, our annual portfolio of new talent from the UK and Ireland.
The submissions window is open for one month, from March 6 to April 5, 2024.
Applications are open to UK and Irish citizens and long-term residents of either country. There is no upper or lower age limit, but applicants should be at an early stage in their film career, demonstrate exceptional promise and be ready to progress to the next level.
Applicants should use this Google Form and need to attach a brief bio, a headshot...
The submissions window is open for one month, from March 6 to April 5, 2024.
Applications are open to UK and Irish citizens and long-term residents of either country. There is no upper or lower age limit, but applicants should be at an early stage in their film career, demonstrate exceptional promise and be ready to progress to the next level.
Applicants should use this Google Form and need to attach a brief bio, a headshot...
- 3/6/2024
- ScreenDaily
At last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford and Scarlett Johansson hit the red carpet to premiere their latest big movies. But Hollywood may have a much lighter presence at the 2024 edition of one of the world’s most notable film festivals.
The culprit is the combination of last year’s actors and writers strikes, which created production delays, as well as a tough economy that’s leading studios to tighten the purse-strings. But there will still be stars on the Croisette, in addition to “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig, who will be presiding over the jury.
Based on intelligence from industry insiders on both sides of the Atlantic, the upcoming edition will have a larger emphasis on European auteurs, along the lines of Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” which were each nominated for five Oscars.
While the...
The culprit is the combination of last year’s actors and writers strikes, which created production delays, as well as a tough economy that’s leading studios to tighten the purse-strings. But there will still be stars on the Croisette, in addition to “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig, who will be presiding over the jury.
Based on intelligence from industry insiders on both sides of the Atlantic, the upcoming edition will have a larger emphasis on European auteurs, along the lines of Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” which were each nominated for five Oscars.
While the...
- 3/4/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Although there’s no distributor yet confirmed for Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-development, nearly completed epic Megalopolis, we’re starting to get a sense of when we may see the $100 million epic. The director himself recently indicated it’ll be out in a few months, but according to a new report, a fall release is more likely.
In a round-up of Cannes possibilities, Deadline notes the movie is targeting “a big fall IMAX release,” which means a Venice or North American festival (i.e. TIFF or NYFF) could be more likely than a visit to the Croisette. The article also notes it’s unlikely that Steve McQueen’s Blitz, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, David Lowery’s Mother Mary, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, and Luca Guadagnino’s Queer will be stopping by Cannes, but George Miller’s Furiosa, Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, Andrea Arnold’s Bird, and David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds,...
In a round-up of Cannes possibilities, Deadline notes the movie is targeting “a big fall IMAX release,” which means a Venice or North American festival (i.e. TIFF or NYFF) could be more likely than a visit to the Croisette. The article also notes it’s unlikely that Steve McQueen’s Blitz, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, David Lowery’s Mother Mary, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, and Luca Guadagnino’s Queer will be stopping by Cannes, but George Miller’s Furiosa, Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, Andrea Arnold’s Bird, and David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds,...
- 2/29/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Roll up, roll up: It’s Cannes prognostication time.
With the 77th edition of the great cinema showcase less than three months away, the blurred outline of a lineup is beginning to emerge. At this stage, the process of elimination is as telling as the process of inclusion: hardly any films have been guaranteed a slot by the festival, but we’re starting to get some clarity on which projects are likely to be ready and which are leaning towards a different launch strategy.
There has been a longstanding expectation that George Miller will be back at the festival with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux himself has said he “hopes” it’ll be there and while it isn’t locked yet, nothing we’re hearing so far indicates it won’t be at the festival. The film’s May 22 France release date and Miller’s long...
With the 77th edition of the great cinema showcase less than three months away, the blurred outline of a lineup is beginning to emerge. At this stage, the process of elimination is as telling as the process of inclusion: hardly any films have been guaranteed a slot by the festival, but we’re starting to get some clarity on which projects are likely to be ready and which are leaning towards a different launch strategy.
There has been a longstanding expectation that George Miller will be back at the festival with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux himself has said he “hopes” it’ll be there and while it isn’t locked yet, nothing we’re hearing so far indicates it won’t be at the festival. The film’s May 22 France release date and Miller’s long...
- 2/29/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
It seems like when actors finish their Marvel Cinematic Universe run, they finally get back down to serious business. Robert Downey Jr. is poised to win a Best Supporting Oscar for “Oppenheimer,” and is seemingly heading onto a new chapter of his career; Chris Evans is working with Ethan Coen and ostensibly doing the same, and now the third in the holy MCU trinity, Scarlett Johansson is mounting her feature-length directorial debut titled, “Eleanor The Great.”
Read More: ‘Featherwood’: Scarlett Johansson To Star In Andrea Arnold’s True-Crime Drama About Neo-Nazis
According to Variety, actors are assembling, and “Eleanor The Great” has a rather impressive cast, too.
Continue reading Scarlett Johansson’s Directorial Debut ‘Eleanor The Great’ To Star Chiwetel Ejiofor, June Squibb & More at The Playlist.
Read More: ‘Featherwood’: Scarlett Johansson To Star In Andrea Arnold’s True-Crime Drama About Neo-Nazis
According to Variety, actors are assembling, and “Eleanor The Great” has a rather impressive cast, too.
Continue reading Scarlett Johansson’s Directorial Debut ‘Eleanor The Great’ To Star Chiwetel Ejiofor, June Squibb & More at The Playlist.
- 2/26/2024
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
What would a syllabus for a seminar on nonhuman perspectives in contemporary cinema look like? There are any number of recent documentary and fiction films about animal lives that one could put on there, including Jerzy Skolimowski’s E.O., Andrea Arnold’s Cow, and Elsa Kremer and Levin Peter’s Space Dogs. Of course, all these share the limitation that, though they transgress human/animal boundaries, they’re still at least tenuously tied to reality. Not a single one of them dares to question what it would look like if a group of Bigfoots pissed and shat all over a forest roadway in raging anger and confusion over its mere existence.
Enter David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset, a comedy that takes an unsparing guess at what the brutal, cruel, and short lives of our mythical, hirsute cousins would be like. It opens with a cheeky restaging of...
Enter David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset, a comedy that takes an unsparing guess at what the brutal, cruel, and short lives of our mythical, hirsute cousins would be like. It opens with a cheeky restaging of...
- 2/21/2024
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Sundance dealmaking was buoyant, the awards season is coming to a head with a number of critically acclaimed movies having done well at the box office, and apparently peak TV is over. Whisper it quietly, but after years of movies being almost a dirty word compared to the lustre of TV, is independent theatrical film staging a comeback?
If the turbocharged and upbeat European Film Market (EFM) — which officially got underway today in Berlin, but has been in swing for a while — is anything to go by, the indie sales and production sectors are in decent health, at least.
Things were looking up even before the market. A week ago we broke news of the biggest North American deal in years for an indie movie when Paramount stumped up around $25M for Michael Gracey’s Better Man with a big theatrical commitment. “That gives you hope,” one movie financier texted at the time.
If the turbocharged and upbeat European Film Market (EFM) — which officially got underway today in Berlin, but has been in swing for a while — is anything to go by, the indie sales and production sectors are in decent health, at least.
Things were looking up even before the market. A week ago we broke news of the biggest North American deal in years for an indie movie when Paramount stumped up around $25M for Michael Gracey’s Better Man with a big theatrical commitment. “That gives you hope,” one movie financier texted at the time.
- 2/15/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman and Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett, and Dave Bautista all star in projects at one of the biggest Berlin markets in recent memory, post and pre-pandemic.
Whether this year’s high-rollers will sell is the crux at a 2024 European Film Market which AGC Studios’ Stuart Ford is describing as a “watershed market.”
The big question is: “Was the tepid AFM an anomaly brought about by the strikes and a broader industry pullback in 2023? Or was the AFM an indicator of a more sustained downturn?” he asks.
It’s early days in 2024 but “signs for Berlin are quite positive,” says Ford, who is bringing to market three new star-driven thrillers starring Will Smith –action movie “Sugar Bandits” – Sylvester Stallone and Michelle Yeoh.
“One week ago, I would have said this is going to be a dry market. Now it’s going to be a busy market,” agrees Martin Moszkowicz at Constantin Film,...
Whether this year’s high-rollers will sell is the crux at a 2024 European Film Market which AGC Studios’ Stuart Ford is describing as a “watershed market.”
The big question is: “Was the tepid AFM an anomaly brought about by the strikes and a broader industry pullback in 2023? Or was the AFM an indicator of a more sustained downturn?” he asks.
It’s early days in 2024 but “signs for Berlin are quite positive,” says Ford, who is bringing to market three new star-driven thrillers starring Will Smith –action movie “Sugar Bandits” – Sylvester Stallone and Michelle Yeoh.
“One week ago, I would have said this is going to be a dry market. Now it’s going to be a busy market,” agrees Martin Moszkowicz at Constantin Film,...
- 2/15/2024
- by John Hopewell, Elsa Keslassy and Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell do not court publicity and when the duo welcome Deadline to their London office in early February, it is the first interview they have given about House Productions since they set up the film and TV outfit nearly seven years ago.
The Zone of Interest and The Iron Claw are in UK movie theaters when we speak, serving as a timely reminder of the company’s film credits, which have been built brick by brick. A second season of James Graham’s drama series Sherwood will drop in coming months on the BBC and the House principals are fresh back from L.A. as they line up U.S. partners for new projects.
Drama in the works include a series about the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, a TV adaptation of the musical Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder, and an early-stage project with Ncuti Gatwa.
The Zone of Interest and The Iron Claw are in UK movie theaters when we speak, serving as a timely reminder of the company’s film credits, which have been built brick by brick. A second season of James Graham’s drama series Sherwood will drop in coming months on the BBC and the House principals are fresh back from L.A. as they line up U.S. partners for new projects.
Drama in the works include a series about the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, a TV adaptation of the musical Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder, and an early-stage project with Ncuti Gatwa.
- 2/13/2024
- by Stewart Clarke
- Deadline Film + TV
While Andrea Arnold is putting the finishing touches on her next feature Bird, starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, the British director has already unveiled her next project, one based on a true story. Scarlett Johansson will lead Arnold’s crime thriller Featherwood, according to Deadline.
Johansson will take the role of Carol Blevins, “a heroin addict and ‘Aryan Princess featherwood’ (property of a gang member) who became one of the FBI’s most important informants during an epic, six-year investigation into the murderous, neo-Nazi crime and drug syndicate known as the Aryan Brotherhood Of Texas. Blevins, who lived with the gang, memorized details, pre-empted murders and interrupted robberies, helped convict 13 members of the group. However, her harrowing journey left her with significant physical and mental scars and she lives under constant threat of reprisal by the Abt.” Though no production timetable has been unveiled, Johansson’s schedule is fairly clear,...
Johansson will take the role of Carol Blevins, “a heroin addict and ‘Aryan Princess featherwood’ (property of a gang member) who became one of the FBI’s most important informants during an epic, six-year investigation into the murderous, neo-Nazi crime and drug syndicate known as the Aryan Brotherhood Of Texas. Blevins, who lived with the gang, memorized details, pre-empted murders and interrupted robberies, helped convict 13 members of the group. However, her harrowing journey left her with significant physical and mental scars and she lives under constant threat of reprisal by the Abt.” Though no production timetable has been unveiled, Johansson’s schedule is fairly clear,...
- 2/12/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It’s been nearly eight years (2016’s “American Honey”) since we last saw a narrative feature from director Andrea Arnold. Since then, things haven’t been really easy for the filmmaker. Sure, she released an acclaimed documentary, “Cow,” back in 2021, but people probably remember the issues she experienced while working on Season 2 of “Big Little Lies.” There was reported behind-the-scenes drama that resulted in a he-said/she-said between Arnold and HBO.
Continue reading ‘Featherwood’: Scarlett Johansson To Star In Andrea Arnold’s True-Crime Drama About Neo-Nazis at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Featherwood’: Scarlett Johansson To Star In Andrea Arnold’s True-Crime Drama About Neo-Nazis at The Playlist.
- 2/12/2024
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Scarlett Johansson is making her way to the true crime drama!
The 39-year-old former Marvel actress most recently appeared on screen in Kristin Scott Thomas‘ directorial debut North Star, which released in 2023.
On Friday (February 9), Deadline reported that Scarlett will headline an upcoming film, titled Featherwood, which is based on a true story.
Keep reading to find out more…
According to the outlet, the Black Widow star will play Carol Blevins, an FBI informant who infiltrated a neo-Nazi gang known as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, and aided in the convictions of 13 members.
The film is based on Scott Farwell‘s six-part Dallas Morning News article recounting Carol’s experience living with the group.
Scarlett is also attached to Featherwood as a producer. Big Little Lies filmmaker Andrea Arnold will direct the movie.
If you haven’t seen, Scarlett Johansson addressed the possibility of returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
The 39-year-old former Marvel actress most recently appeared on screen in Kristin Scott Thomas‘ directorial debut North Star, which released in 2023.
On Friday (February 9), Deadline reported that Scarlett will headline an upcoming film, titled Featherwood, which is based on a true story.
Keep reading to find out more…
According to the outlet, the Black Widow star will play Carol Blevins, an FBI informant who infiltrated a neo-Nazi gang known as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, and aided in the convictions of 13 members.
The film is based on Scott Farwell‘s six-part Dallas Morning News article recounting Carol’s experience living with the group.
Scarlett is also attached to Featherwood as a producer. Big Little Lies filmmaker Andrea Arnold will direct the movie.
If you haven’t seen, Scarlett Johansson addressed the possibility of returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
- 2/10/2024
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
According to Deadline, Scarlett Johansson is set to star in Featherwood, a true-crime thriller about Carol Blevins, an FBI informant who brought down members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.
Based on the award-winning Dallas Morning News series by Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Farwell, Featherwood tells the story of Blevins, “a heroin addict and ‘Aryan Princess featherwood’ (property of a gang member) who became one of the FBI’s most important informants during an epic, six-year investigation into the murderous, neo-Nazi crime and drug syndicate known as the Aryan Brotherhood Of Texas. Blevins, who lived with the gang, memorized details, pre-empted murders and interrupted robberies, helped convict 13 members of the group. However, her harrowing journey left her with significant physical and mental scars and she lives under constant threat of reprisal by the Abt.” Sounds intense, and Deadline states that many buyers are already seeing awards potential.
Featherwood is set...
Based on the award-winning Dallas Morning News series by Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Farwell, Featherwood tells the story of Blevins, “a heroin addict and ‘Aryan Princess featherwood’ (property of a gang member) who became one of the FBI’s most important informants during an epic, six-year investigation into the murderous, neo-Nazi crime and drug syndicate known as the Aryan Brotherhood Of Texas. Blevins, who lived with the gang, memorized details, pre-empted murders and interrupted robberies, helped convict 13 members of the group. However, her harrowing journey left her with significant physical and mental scars and she lives under constant threat of reprisal by the Abt.” Sounds intense, and Deadline states that many buyers are already seeing awards potential.
Featherwood is set...
- 2/10/2024
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
Exclusive: I’m hearing that Oscar nominee and Avengers star Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story) is set to lead true-crime thriller Featherwood, which is one of the hottest new scripts ahead of next week’s EFM market in Berlin.
In a role that has some buyers already speculating awards potential, Johansson will portray Carol Blevins, a heroin addict and “Aryan Princess featherwood” (property of a gang member) who became one of the FBI’s most important informants during an epic, six-year investigation into the murderous, neo-Nazi crime and drug syndicate known as the Aryan Brotherhood Of Texas. Blevins, who lived with the gang, memorized details, pre-empted murders and interrupted robberies, helped convict 13 members of the group. However, her harrowing journey left her with significant physical and mental scars and she lives under constant threat of reprisal by the Abt.
The movie is based on the award-winning, six-part Dallas Morning News article...
In a role that has some buyers already speculating awards potential, Johansson will portray Carol Blevins, a heroin addict and “Aryan Princess featherwood” (property of a gang member) who became one of the FBI’s most important informants during an epic, six-year investigation into the murderous, neo-Nazi crime and drug syndicate known as the Aryan Brotherhood Of Texas. Blevins, who lived with the gang, memorized details, pre-empted murders and interrupted robberies, helped convict 13 members of the group. However, her harrowing journey left her with significant physical and mental scars and she lives under constant threat of reprisal by the Abt.
The movie is based on the award-winning, six-part Dallas Morning News article...
- 2/9/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Cph:Forum, the financing and co-production event on the industry programme of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, has selected new projects from the producers of Flee and Cow for its 2024 edition; and has refreshed its industry awards with six prizes.
Danish producer Signe Byrge Sorensen will participate with Freedom (working title), directed by Camilla Nielsson, who previously made Sundance 2021 title President about a challenger in Zimbabwe’s corrupt presidential elections.
Scroll down for the full list of Forum projects
Sorensen is CEO of Danish documentary production house Final Cut For Real, which has made films including The Killing Of A Journalist,...
Danish producer Signe Byrge Sorensen will participate with Freedom (working title), directed by Camilla Nielsson, who previously made Sundance 2021 title President about a challenger in Zimbabwe’s corrupt presidential elections.
Scroll down for the full list of Forum projects
Sorensen is CEO of Danish documentary production house Final Cut For Real, which has made films including The Killing Of A Journalist,...
- 2/8/2024
- ScreenDaily
“You don’t have to be so strong,” chants the singer Romy over a trance beat, leading viewers of How to Have Sex out of the film and into the closing credits. The irony is that after viewing Molly Manning Walker’s tale of adolescent exploration, it’s hard to come to any other conclusion than today’s youth must indeed steel themselves for an unforgiving landscape of choices and consequences. As teenaged Tara (Mia McKenna Bruce) learns on the big fat Greek quest to lose her virginity, childhood friendships and romantic relationships alike come under serious strain when the specter of sexuality enters the equation.
In How to Have Sex, Walker filters the bacchanalia of films like Spring Breakers through a lens of social realism reminiscent of Andrea Arnold’s work. Her background as a cinematographer, most notably for Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, emerges most clearly in how she...
In How to Have Sex, Walker filters the bacchanalia of films like Spring Breakers through a lens of social realism reminiscent of Andrea Arnold’s work. Her background as a cinematographer, most notably for Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, emerges most clearly in how she...
- 2/3/2024
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slant Magazine
It’s rare for a hit TV show to end quite as definitively as Top Boy. The London-set crime drama finished in September 2023 with a full stop instead of a comma. After five acclaimed series (two on its original Channel 4 home before cancellation and three after its Drake-assisted revival on Netflix) the series came to a close, and fans had to wave goodbye to the Summerhouse Estate.
But not for too long. Soon after the final series concluded, Top Boy creator Ronan Bennett published a tie-in novel Jaq: A Top Boy Story, which is out now in paperback. It’s the story of the Summerhouse gang as told from the perspective of one of its lieutenants who climbed the ranks all the way to a major confrontation with the gang leaders – Jaq, as played by Jasmine Jobson.
On the promotional circuit for the paperback release, Bennett announced that...
But not for too long. Soon after the final series concluded, Top Boy creator Ronan Bennett published a tie-in novel Jaq: A Top Boy Story, which is out now in paperback. It’s the story of the Summerhouse gang as told from the perspective of one of its lieutenants who climbed the ranks all the way to a major confrontation with the gang leaders – Jaq, as played by Jasmine Jobson.
On the promotional circuit for the paperback release, Bennett announced that...
- 1/31/2024
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Exclusive: Two-time Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List) has written and will direct The Beacon, in which he will also have a leading role alongside Olivier Award-winner Indira Varma (Obi Wan Kenobi), Charles Babalola (The Outlaws) and Alison Oliver (Saltburn).
Described as a meditation on family, class, race and identity, the contemporary UK-set drama marks Fiennes’ first feature film screenplay after previously directing The White Crow, The Invisible Woman and Coriolanus.
The official synopsis reads: “Joshua Nyaga travels to the countryside from London to spend a summer’s weekend with his girlfriend Cass’ family for the first time. Transplanted as a young boy from the violence of the Ugandan civil war to the concrete jungle of London, Joshua has never experienced the privilege that Cass’ family enjoys.
“Surrounded by the sea and lush natural landscape, the farm is an oasis, brimming with idealistic notions and lively debate amongst Cass’ father,...
Described as a meditation on family, class, race and identity, the contemporary UK-set drama marks Fiennes’ first feature film screenplay after previously directing The White Crow, The Invisible Woman and Coriolanus.
The official synopsis reads: “Joshua Nyaga travels to the countryside from London to spend a summer’s weekend with his girlfriend Cass’ family for the first time. Transplanted as a young boy from the violence of the Ugandan civil war to the concrete jungle of London, Joshua has never experienced the privilege that Cass’ family enjoys.
“Surrounded by the sea and lush natural landscape, the farm is an oasis, brimming with idealistic notions and lively debate amongst Cass’ father,...
- 1/31/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Fleeting moments rushing into the unforgivable vortex of time, all of which would be lost forever if not for the presence of a camera, comprise Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s “Tendaberry,” a ravishingly lyrical portrait of both a single young life and a centuries-old locale converging in the present. These timelines collapse in Anderson’s debut feature, which flies with a formally unbound spirit, as fragments of lifetimes buried in photos and videos come together by way of idea association rather than strictly linear parameters. The one clear marker of a forward chronology are the title cards that announce the changing seasons.
Commanding this choreographed medley of swirling imagery is headstrong Dakota (Kota Johan), a 20-something Afro-Latina singer-songwriter living in Brooklyn, New York. Sultry moments of loving domesticity, of spontaneous sex, and comfortable silences with her Ukrainian boyfriend Yuri (Yuri Pleskun) fill the first chapter. But when Yuri’s father has...
Commanding this choreographed medley of swirling imagery is headstrong Dakota (Kota Johan), a 20-something Afro-Latina singer-songwriter living in Brooklyn, New York. Sultry moments of loving domesticity, of spontaneous sex, and comfortable silences with her Ukrainian boyfriend Yuri (Yuri Pleskun) fill the first chapter. But when Yuri’s father has...
- 1/30/2024
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Variety Film + TV
“Bird,” Andrea Arnold’s first narrative feature in almost a decade, has been picked up by Cornerstone Films with the company set to launch the feature at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin.
Little is known about the film, except that it was shot in the U.K. around the Kent area last summer and, like much of Arnold’s work, examines life on the fringes of society. It also stars two of the buzziest actors on the circuit: Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski.
Keoghan is currently on a phenomenal run that began with his BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated supporting role in “The Banshees of Inisherin” and has continued with a BAFTA-nominated lead turn in Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” as well as a major part in the recently launched Apple TV+ drama “Masters of the Air.” He reportedly joined “Bird” after leaving the cast of Ridley Scott’s upcoming “Gladiator” sequel,...
Little is known about the film, except that it was shot in the U.K. around the Kent area last summer and, like much of Arnold’s work, examines life on the fringes of society. It also stars two of the buzziest actors on the circuit: Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski.
Keoghan is currently on a phenomenal run that began with his BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated supporting role in “The Banshees of Inisherin” and has continued with a BAFTA-nominated lead turn in Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” as well as a major part in the recently launched Apple TV+ drama “Masters of the Air.” He reportedly joined “Bird” after leaving the cast of Ridley Scott’s upcoming “Gladiator” sequel,...
- 1/29/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Nicole Kidman called Martin Scorsese after she was told she was getting the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ actress, 56, will receive the honour in April, which has previously been bestowed on movie icons including Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Martin. Nicole is the first Australian to be recognised by the awards, and told Vogue Australia about being stunned by the news she was going to be its latest recipient: “It’s made me look back and go, wow, I have worked with the greatest directors in the world! How did that happen?” She added about ‘Goodfellas’ director Martin: “I’d still love to work with Marty. “I called him, and I was like, ‘Marty!’ “And he’s still going strong at 81!” Despite her desire to work with the ‘Taxi Driver’ filmmaker, Nicole has recently focused on collaborating with women directors. The string of...
- 1/26/2024
- by BANG Showbiz Reporter
- Bang Showbiz
HBO’s Big Little Lies was never supposed to be more than a limited series.
But when you have a cast as talented as this in one place and creatives behind the screen who can capitalize on what makes the show work, expansion makes sense.
But if you had told us in 2019, when Big Little Lies Season 2 took its final bow, that five years later, another season could very well be on the way, we would have been skeptical.
Yet, here we are.
Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman are bonafide TV stars and film stars, and like many other film actors, they’ve discovered the creative freedom of working on TV.
What is Big Little Lies About?
Big Little Lies Season 1 introduced us to the Monterey Five, a group of women living in Monterey who become friends through their shared experiences.
Through the unlikely friendships of five women and those in their orbit,...
But when you have a cast as talented as this in one place and creatives behind the screen who can capitalize on what makes the show work, expansion makes sense.
But if you had told us in 2019, when Big Little Lies Season 2 took its final bow, that five years later, another season could very well be on the way, we would have been skeptical.
Yet, here we are.
Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman are bonafide TV stars and film stars, and like many other film actors, they’ve discovered the creative freedom of working on TV.
What is Big Little Lies About?
Big Little Lies Season 1 introduced us to the Monterey Five, a group of women living in Monterey who become friends through their shared experiences.
Through the unlikely friendships of five women and those in their orbit,...
- 1/23/2024
- by Carissa Pavlica
- TVfanatic
Barry Keoghan knows what it means to have a brush with death, and he recounted his near-fatal battle with necrotizing fasciitis in an interview for GQ’s February cover story. He recovered from the infection just days before filming Martin McDonagh’s 2022 feature The Banshees of Inisherin.
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, necrotizing fasciitis is a flesh-eating disease caused by a rare bacterial infection, which develops after bacteria enters the body through cuts, scrapes, burns or insect bites. Keoghan stated in his interview that one in five cases is fatal.
Keoghan recalled asking doctors, “But I’m not gonna die, right?” and the medical team telling him, “We don’t know.” For a while, amputation was in consideration.
McDonagh visited Keoghan in the hospital before shooting for Banshees was set to begin, and the filmmaker remembers Keoghan as a picture of calm considering the dire circumstances.
“I...
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, necrotizing fasciitis is a flesh-eating disease caused by a rare bacterial infection, which develops after bacteria enters the body through cuts, scrapes, burns or insect bites. Keoghan stated in his interview that one in five cases is fatal.
Keoghan recalled asking doctors, “But I’m not gonna die, right?” and the medical team telling him, “We don’t know.” For a while, amputation was in consideration.
McDonagh visited Keoghan in the hospital before shooting for Banshees was set to begin, and the filmmaker remembers Keoghan as a picture of calm considering the dire circumstances.
“I...
- 1/9/2024
- by Zoe G Phillips
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
2023 may not have been an excellent year for movies, but in spite of everything stacked against it (read: greedy conglomerates run amok), it turned out to be an excellent year of movies. While the fallout of the recent work stoppages will be felt for time to come, some of 2023’s losses will prove to be 2024’s gains, as much-anticipated but strike-delayed films like “Dune: Part Two,” “Drive-Away Dolls,” and Luca Guadagnino’s horny tennis drama “Challengers” have all secured fresh release dates in the first half of the new year.
Those titles will be joined by some of the most promising Hollywood blockbusters in recent memory, must-see work from some of the world’s greatest auteurs, and huge swings from essential artists ranging from new voices like Jane Schoenbrun (“I Saw the TV Glow”) and Duke Johnson (“The Actor”) to venerated masters like Francis Ford Coppola (“Megalopolis”) and Mike Leigh...
Those titles will be joined by some of the most promising Hollywood blockbusters in recent memory, must-see work from some of the world’s greatest auteurs, and huge swings from essential artists ranging from new voices like Jane Schoenbrun (“I Saw the TV Glow”) and Duke Johnson (“The Actor”) to venerated masters like Francis Ford Coppola (“Megalopolis”) and Mike Leigh...
- 12/29/2023
- by IndieWire Staff
- Indiewire
[Editor’s Note: The following story contains spoilers for “Passages.”]
Franz Rogowski’s intense and offbeat appeal gets its purest expression in the despairing polycule at the center of Ira Sachs’ “Passages.” In the Euro-chic romantic drama that recalls Mike Nichols’ “Closer” through the unsentimental lens of a Maurice Pialat film, the German dancer-turned-actor plays solipsistic, emotionally arrested filmmaker Tomas Freibur. On the eve of wrapping his latest film, he strays from his taciturn husband Martin (Ben Whishaw) and into the arms of Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), who, when Tomas later tells her he’s in love with her, replies, “You must say that a lot.”
Rogowski is a physically striking performer, here in great shape in this film after withering as a gay prisoner post-World War II for his European Film Award-nominated turn in 2021’s “Great Freedom.” His filmography has acquainted him closely with the world’s great filmmakers, from Michael Haneke to Terrence Malick (“A Hidden Life”) and Christian Petzold...
Franz Rogowski’s intense and offbeat appeal gets its purest expression in the despairing polycule at the center of Ira Sachs’ “Passages.” In the Euro-chic romantic drama that recalls Mike Nichols’ “Closer” through the unsentimental lens of a Maurice Pialat film, the German dancer-turned-actor plays solipsistic, emotionally arrested filmmaker Tomas Freibur. On the eve of wrapping his latest film, he strays from his taciturn husband Martin (Ben Whishaw) and into the arms of Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), who, when Tomas later tells her he’s in love with her, replies, “You must say that a lot.”
Rogowski is a physically striking performer, here in great shape in this film after withering as a gay prisoner post-World War II for his European Film Award-nominated turn in 2021’s “Great Freedom.” His filmography has acquainted him closely with the world’s great filmmakers, from Michael Haneke to Terrence Malick (“A Hidden Life”) and Christian Petzold...
- 12/28/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
At the risk of sounding glib, nobody plays a freak quite like Barry Keoghan.
Over the course of his still nascent career, Keoghan has established himself as a performer who thrives at playing outcasts and outsiders, men branded as weirdos by both the audience and the people around them. The Irish actor can play a normal person if he wants — he first gained recognition as the likable young kid who dies a tragic death in “Dunkirk,” and he’s one of the best things about the otherwise disastrous Marvel film “Eternals” — but more off-kilter parts are really where he shines. The guiding star for his film image is the 2017 movie that really first garnered him American recognition, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” In Yorgos Lanthimos’ off-putting and icy thriller, Keoghan plays an awkward young man who inserts himself into the life of a cardiac surgeon (Colin Farrell) and wreaks havoc on his family.
Over the course of his still nascent career, Keoghan has established himself as a performer who thrives at playing outcasts and outsiders, men branded as weirdos by both the audience and the people around them. The Irish actor can play a normal person if he wants — he first gained recognition as the likable young kid who dies a tragic death in “Dunkirk,” and he’s one of the best things about the otherwise disastrous Marvel film “Eternals” — but more off-kilter parts are really where he shines. The guiding star for his film image is the 2017 movie that really first garnered him American recognition, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” In Yorgos Lanthimos’ off-putting and icy thriller, Keoghan plays an awkward young man who inserts himself into the life of a cardiac surgeon (Colin Farrell) and wreaks havoc on his family.
- 12/19/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
Anniversary screenings include Park City hits Napoleon Dynamite, Mississippi Masala, The Babadook.
Sundance Film Festival has unveiled the 53 shorts as well as the eight films celebrating the festival’s 40th edition – a list which includes Park City hits Napoleon Dynamite, Mississippi Masala, and The Babadook.
The 40th edition celebration screenings and events are set for the second half of the festival from January 23-26, 2024, with a slate of retrospective programming that will bring alumni artists together for conversations and gatherings.
Sundance Film festival runs January 18-28, 2024, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles...
Sundance Film Festival has unveiled the 53 shorts as well as the eight films celebrating the festival’s 40th edition – a list which includes Park City hits Napoleon Dynamite, Mississippi Masala, and The Babadook.
The 40th edition celebration screenings and events are set for the second half of the festival from January 23-26, 2024, with a slate of retrospective programming that will bring alumni artists together for conversations and gatherings.
Sundance Film festival runs January 18-28, 2024, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles...
- 12/12/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
German actor Franz Rogowski is on the rise after winning Best Actor from the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle for his performance as a toxic bisexual in Ira Sachs’ “Passages.” The “Happy End” breakout actor’s turn also featured in IndieWire’s Critics Poll of the best films and performances of 2023.
That means you shouldn’t ignore his performance in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature “Disco Boy,” winner of the 2023 Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. In this vividly dreamlike postwar drama, Rogowski plays a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Comparisons to Claire Denis’ similarly themed “Beau Travail,” as Ben Croll pointed out in his Berlinale review for IndieWire, are inevitable and apt. After all, there’s a movie that made another unusual European actor — French actor Denis Lavant — an everlasting arthouse favorite.
In “Disco Boy,” following a difficult journey across Europe,...
That means you shouldn’t ignore his performance in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature “Disco Boy,” winner of the 2023 Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. In this vividly dreamlike postwar drama, Rogowski plays a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Comparisons to Claire Denis’ similarly themed “Beau Travail,” as Ben Croll pointed out in his Berlinale review for IndieWire, are inevitable and apt. After all, there’s a movie that made another unusual European actor — French actor Denis Lavant — an everlasting arthouse favorite.
In “Disco Boy,” following a difficult journey across Europe,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
It could be said a cinematographer’s greatest attribute is flexibility. Loathe though I am attributing much credence to Twitter prompts, it’s fairly often that people ask for the strangest cinematographer CV and engender amusement, sometimes outright shock at the range of a career. Robbie Ryan offers a great example: the man who shoots Andrea Arnold, Ken Loach, and Noah Baumbach’s naturalistic dramas is not the first person you’d associate with Yorgos Lanthimos’ ornate, pulverizing period pieces. Yet recent years have seen him photograph The Favourite and, now, Poor Things, which he promoted during this year’s EnergaCAMERIMAGE.
Five years after our initial meeting at the cinematographer’s mecca, we met in a small studio and dissected the next phase of his Lanthimos partnership.
Robbie Ryan: Have you been keeping in the last five years? You haven’t changed much.
The Film Stage: Well, I’m okay.
Five years after our initial meeting at the cinematographer’s mecca, we met in a small studio and dissected the next phase of his Lanthimos partnership.
Robbie Ryan: Have you been keeping in the last five years? You haven’t changed much.
The Film Stage: Well, I’m okay.
- 12/8/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Wuthering Heights isn't a love story, but a story about hatred and despair. Andrea Arnold's adaptation captures the bleak and hopeless atmosphere of the original novel. The film delves into Heathcliff's tormented mind, providing an empathetic look at his character.
There have been many attempts to adapt the all-time classic Wuthering Heights to the big screen, but none came closer to Andrea Arnold's take on Emily Brontë's literary masterpiece. Alternating between past and present, the book tells the story of the impossible romance between the unpredictable Heathcliff and the hysterical Catherine Earnshaw, spanning many decades, as Heathcliff dedicates his life to exact revenge on those who took his love away from him.
What most adaptations get wrong is that Wuthering Heights isn't a love story: it's a story about hatred and despair. Besides the narrators, who are merely bystanders in the narrative, each and every character in...
There have been many attempts to adapt the all-time classic Wuthering Heights to the big screen, but none came closer to Andrea Arnold's take on Emily Brontë's literary masterpiece. Alternating between past and present, the book tells the story of the impossible romance between the unpredictable Heathcliff and the hysterical Catherine Earnshaw, spanning many decades, as Heathcliff dedicates his life to exact revenge on those who took his love away from him.
What most adaptations get wrong is that Wuthering Heights isn't a love story: it's a story about hatred and despair. Besides the narrators, who are merely bystanders in the narrative, each and every character in...
- 12/3/2023
- by Arthur Goyaz
- MovieWeb
The list of Oscar-winning directors for short films who have gone on to major careers in the feature-length realm is shorter than you might imagine. Andrea Arnold, Martin McDonagh and Claude Berri achieved arthouse success; David Frankel made multiplex hits like “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Marley & Me.” But perhaps only Taylor Hackford, a winner in 1979 for an affecting little mockumentary titled “Teenage Father,” became a full-scale Hollywood brand — a name associated with a certain temperature of sleek studio gloss and versatile genre smarts.
In an industry increasingly given over to auteur reverence, Hackford has instead consistently proven the essential value of the distinguished craftsman — the kind that keeps the industry running, even if the status doesn’t earn you as many glittering prizes or prestigious festival berths. Consider the Festival Lumière’s tribute to Hackford a welcome exception. The four films selected by the festival to represent the...
In an industry increasingly given over to auteur reverence, Hackford has instead consistently proven the essential value of the distinguished craftsman — the kind that keeps the industry running, even if the status doesn’t earn you as many glittering prizes or prestigious festival berths. Consider the Festival Lumière’s tribute to Hackford a welcome exception. The four films selected by the festival to represent the...
- 10/15/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Awards contender “Poor Things” will open EnergaCamerimage, the cinematography-focused film festival that will take place in Torun, Poland, on Nov. 11-18.
The film, starring Emma Stone and directed by Greek helmer Yorgos Lanthimos, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who lensed the film, will introduce “Poor Things” at Camerimage.
Lanthimos and Ryan previously collaborated on “The Favourite,” which in 2018 competed for Camerimage’s Golden Frog Award in the fest’s main competition, and came away with the Audience Award. “The Favourite” received 10 Oscar noms, including for best picture, directing and cinematography.
As well as “The Favourite,” Lanthimos has had two other films in contention in the Oscar race, “Dogtooth” (2008) and “The Lobster” (2015).
“Poor Things,” in keeping with the eccentricities of Lanthimos’ other movies, traces the evolution of Bella Baxter, a young Victorian woman brought back from her death by suicide by a brilliant scientist,...
The film, starring Emma Stone and directed by Greek helmer Yorgos Lanthimos, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who lensed the film, will introduce “Poor Things” at Camerimage.
Lanthimos and Ryan previously collaborated on “The Favourite,” which in 2018 competed for Camerimage’s Golden Frog Award in the fest’s main competition, and came away with the Audience Award. “The Favourite” received 10 Oscar noms, including for best picture, directing and cinematography.
As well as “The Favourite,” Lanthimos has had two other films in contention in the Oscar race, “Dogtooth” (2008) and “The Lobster” (2015).
“Poor Things,” in keeping with the eccentricities of Lanthimos’ other movies, traces the evolution of Bella Baxter, a young Victorian woman brought back from her death by suicide by a brilliant scientist,...
- 10/10/2023
- by Peter Caranicas
- Variety Film + TV
Veteran documentary producer Lauren Haber has been appointed to the newly created role of Head of Documentary at Amplify Pictures, the award-winning studio announced on Wednesday.
In her new position, Haber will be responsible for overseeing the company’s current slate of documentary projects and expanding its doc portfolio of globally commercial, filmmaker-driven projects with an emphasis on ongoing series and IP creation. The hiring comes at a dynamic time for Amplify, which has continued to build out its team and slate of global content following an infusion of private equity capital.
Haber comes to the company after serving as VP of Production at Impact Partners, where she curated and supported their slate of independent documentary projects including 32 Sounds directed by Sam Green, Another Body directed by Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn, Peabody winner Aftershock directed by Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee, Paper & Glue directed by Jr, and the three-part HBO series Nuclear Family,...
In her new position, Haber will be responsible for overseeing the company’s current slate of documentary projects and expanding its doc portfolio of globally commercial, filmmaker-driven projects with an emphasis on ongoing series and IP creation. The hiring comes at a dynamic time for Amplify, which has continued to build out its team and slate of global content following an infusion of private equity capital.
Haber comes to the company after serving as VP of Production at Impact Partners, where she curated and supported their slate of independent documentary projects including 32 Sounds directed by Sam Green, Another Body directed by Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn, Peabody winner Aftershock directed by Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee, Paper & Glue directed by Jr, and the three-part HBO series Nuclear Family,...
- 9/20/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Executive most recently was VP of production at Impact Partners.
Amplify Pictures has appointed veteran documentary producer and recent VP of production at Impact Partners Lauren Haber to the new role of head of documentary.
Haber is based in New York and reports to Amsterdam-based Rachel Eggebeen, who announced the hire on Wednesday and is Amplify Pictures’ chief content officer overseeing the scripted and unscripted slate, including the eight-time Emmy-nominated HBO docuseries 100 Foot Wave.
In her new role Haber will oversee Amplify’s slate of documentary projects and expand the portfolio through universally appealing commercial projects with an emphasis...
Amplify Pictures has appointed veteran documentary producer and recent VP of production at Impact Partners Lauren Haber to the new role of head of documentary.
Haber is based in New York and reports to Amsterdam-based Rachel Eggebeen, who announced the hire on Wednesday and is Amplify Pictures’ chief content officer overseeing the scripted and unscripted slate, including the eight-time Emmy-nominated HBO docuseries 100 Foot Wave.
In her new role Haber will oversee Amplify’s slate of documentary projects and expand the portfolio through universally appealing commercial projects with an emphasis...
- 9/20/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Arguably the most accomplished and enjoyable film so far for filmmaking brothers Bill and Turner Ross (the siblings behind Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets and Western), Gasoline Rainbow pays homage to all the road movies that ever were but is still its own quirky thing, uniquely of its time.
Five photogenic but regular-looking non-professional teens star as people much like themselves, i.e. kids just out of high school, who decide on a whim one night to drive 500 miles west toward the Pacific, away from the small podunk Oregon town they grew up in. Some of the friends they make along the way aren’t entirely nice, but our heroes bounce back, party on and peace out with the blithe insouciance only the young can get away with. As such, this jaunty work will appeal to viewers from the same demographic as well as those who love freewheeling low-budget cinema and...
Five photogenic but regular-looking non-professional teens star as people much like themselves, i.e. kids just out of high school, who decide on a whim one night to drive 500 miles west toward the Pacific, away from the small podunk Oregon town they grew up in. Some of the friends they make along the way aren’t entirely nice, but our heroes bounce back, party on and peace out with the blithe insouciance only the young can get away with. As such, this jaunty work will appeal to viewers from the same demographic as well as those who love freewheeling low-budget cinema and...
- 9/14/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In a typical scene from “An Endless Sunday,” three teenage delinquents wander beside a canal. They end up killing a frog with a brick. Another group of children slightly younger than they are are also mucking about, and one of them is playing the recorder, blasting out a wobbly but recognizable version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the second movement. It’s a musical cue that in cinema, when accompanying youths up to no good, evokes Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange.” While this Italian debut feature from Alain Parroni has more in common stylistically with Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey,” there’s a streak of nihilism and disregard for the future that would call to mind Kubrick’s droogs even without the audio shout-out.
The teens here are a trio: moody lunkish Alex (Enrico Bassetti) and his girlfriend Brenda (Federica Valentini), who acts older than she is but looks younger,...
The teens here are a trio: moody lunkish Alex (Enrico Bassetti) and his girlfriend Brenda (Federica Valentini), who acts older than she is but looks younger,...
- 9/9/2023
- by Catherine Bray
- Variety Film + TV
In Giorgio Diritti’s film “Lubo,” based on Mario Cavatore’s novel “Il seminatore,” Franz Rogowski seduces as Lubo, a Yenish traveling performer, father and husband, who has to join the Swiss army in 1939. He is one hell of a charmer, although his passion has dark undertones.
“Our take is more playful, but the book put more emphasis on the fact that this man impregnated over 100 women in Zurich. He wanted to make sure his people would survive,” says Rogowski.
In the film, Lubo finds out that while he was away, his wife died trying to save their children, taken away in accordance with the infamous national “re-education” program for “Children of the Road.”
“He is a passionate man. But it’s also his revenge, in a way,” he adds.
“Many people have been describing my acting as very physical and my roles as ‘experimental,’ and I have been exploring sexuality before.
“Our take is more playful, but the book put more emphasis on the fact that this man impregnated over 100 women in Zurich. He wanted to make sure his people would survive,” says Rogowski.
In the film, Lubo finds out that while he was away, his wife died trying to save their children, taken away in accordance with the infamous national “re-education” program for “Children of the Road.”
“He is a passionate man. But it’s also his revenge, in a way,” he adds.
“Many people have been describing my acting as very physical and my roles as ‘experimental,’ and I have been exploring sexuality before.
- 9/9/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
When Franz Rogowski tries to pinpoint the moment he went from being a struggling unknown to an in-demand art house star — the 37-year-old German actor is still basking in critical acclaim for his performances in Ira Sachs’ Passages alongside Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos, as well
as Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Berlin festival sleeper Disco Boy and will be walking the Lido red carpet with Giorgio Diritti’s Venice competition title Lubo — he goes back to Berlin 2018.
“That was the year I had a double pack: Two films in competition, with [Christian Petzold’s] Transit and [Thomas Stuber’s] In the Aisles,” says Rogowski, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter via a shaky Zoom connection from France, where he’s spending a few days after wrapping his latest, Bird from American Honey director Andrea Arnold.
“I was also one of the European Shooting Stars that year. So it was a bit of a turning point.
as Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Berlin festival sleeper Disco Boy and will be walking the Lido red carpet with Giorgio Diritti’s Venice competition title Lubo — he goes back to Berlin 2018.
“That was the year I had a double pack: Two films in competition, with [Christian Petzold’s] Transit and [Thomas Stuber’s] In the Aisles,” says Rogowski, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter via a shaky Zoom connection from France, where he’s spending a few days after wrapping his latest, Bird from American Honey director Andrea Arnold.
“I was also one of the European Shooting Stars that year. So it was a bit of a turning point.
- 8/30/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This story about Riley Keough first appeared in the Down to the Wire: Drama and Limited Series issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. The interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began.
The beginning of 2021 was a rough time for Riley Keough. A few years removed from her breakthrough roles in Andrea Arnold’s film “American Honey” and Steven Soderbergh’s series “The Girlfriend Experience,” she was about to codirect her first film, “War Pony,” with Gina Gammell, and she had a starring role as a ’70s rock star in “Daisy Jones & the Six,” the hotly anticipated limited series adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s hit novel.
But her struggle with Lyme disease was getting particularly rough, and she was also reeling from the summer 2020 death of her younger brother, Benjamin.
“We were supposed to start filming [‘Daisy Jones’] at the beginning of the year, and I was definitely feeling like,...
The beginning of 2021 was a rough time for Riley Keough. A few years removed from her breakthrough roles in Andrea Arnold’s film “American Honey” and Steven Soderbergh’s series “The Girlfriend Experience,” she was about to codirect her first film, “War Pony,” with Gina Gammell, and she had a starring role as a ’70s rock star in “Daisy Jones & the Six,” the hotly anticipated limited series adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s hit novel.
But her struggle with Lyme disease was getting particularly rough, and she was also reeling from the summer 2020 death of her younger brother, Benjamin.
“We were supposed to start filming [‘Daisy Jones’] at the beginning of the year, and I was definitely feeling like,...
- 8/23/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Big World Pictures has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights from Paris-based sales firm Charades to Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature, Disco Boy.
Winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution earlier this year, the largely French-language film stars rising German actor Franz Rogowski as a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Above is an English-language trailer for the movie.
An early 2024 theatrical release is being lined up following fall festival play. France’s Films Grand Huit produces.
Rogowski is best known for Ira Sachs’ Passages, Christian Petzold’s Transit and Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom. Upcoming he will star in Andrea Arnold’s Bird and David Michôd and A24’s Wizards!.
In Disco Boy, Rogowski plays Aleksei, who reaches Paris following a difficult and undocumented journey across Europe. In Paris he enlists in the French Foreign Legion,...
Winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution earlier this year, the largely French-language film stars rising German actor Franz Rogowski as a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Above is an English-language trailer for the movie.
An early 2024 theatrical release is being lined up following fall festival play. France’s Films Grand Huit produces.
Rogowski is best known for Ira Sachs’ Passages, Christian Petzold’s Transit and Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom. Upcoming he will star in Andrea Arnold’s Bird and David Michôd and A24’s Wizards!.
In Disco Boy, Rogowski plays Aleksei, who reaches Paris following a difficult and undocumented journey across Europe. In Paris he enlists in the French Foreign Legion,...
- 8/15/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow and Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Season 2 of "Big Little Lies" (in 2019) ended with an explosive reveal, one that undoubtedly helped result in the highest viewership the series had seen. The Monterey Five, made up of Reese Witherspoon's Madeline Mackenzie, Nicole Kidman's Celeste Wright, Shailene Woodley's Jane Chapman, Laura Dern's Renata Klein, and Zoë Kravitz's Bonnie Carlson, ostensibly put their titular lie to bed. In the finale, after suffering through a season of guilt and repressed rage stemming from their involvement in and subsequent cover-up of Perry Wright's (Alexander Skarsgård) death, all five women walk together to the Monterey police station, presumptively going inside to confess.
The series ends there, though for sticklers it concluded a season before when the show wrapped the story contained in source author Liane Moriarty's original novel. The cover-up, Meryl Streep's ferocious mother-in-law Mary Louise — all of that was fiction stemming from fiction.
The series ends there, though for sticklers it concluded a season before when the show wrapped the story contained in source author Liane Moriarty's original novel. The cover-up, Meryl Streep's ferocious mother-in-law Mary Louise — all of that was fiction stemming from fiction.
- 8/14/2023
- by Chad Collins
- Slash Film
As financial barriers to filmmaking tech lower — while barriers to higher education continue to rise and student loans remain a legislative flashpoint — film programs nationwide have had to consider how to adapt to stand out.
Many programs have added LED walls (Uncsa, DePaul) and are building backlots that rival Warner Bros. (Scad). Some upstarts are successfully climbing the ranks of a crowded field — Brooklyn College’s Feirstein is only 8 years old — while others are doubling down on long-established reputations: Think Wesleyan (a liberal arts school committed to celluloid) or USC (a big program with an even bigger alumni network). All the while scholarships, financial aid, tuition expenses and postgraduate grants are becoming more paramount to would-be student decision-making.
With all this in mind, THR has compiled its 13th annual list of the nation’s top film programs.
1. American Film Institute
Los Angeles
“If you’re at AFI, you’ve earned that spot,...
Many programs have added LED walls (Uncsa, DePaul) and are building backlots that rival Warner Bros. (Scad). Some upstarts are successfully climbing the ranks of a crowded field — Brooklyn College’s Feirstein is only 8 years old — while others are doubling down on long-established reputations: Think Wesleyan (a liberal arts school committed to celluloid) or USC (a big program with an even bigger alumni network). All the while scholarships, financial aid, tuition expenses and postgraduate grants are becoming more paramount to would-be student decision-making.
With all this in mind, THR has compiled its 13th annual list of the nation’s top film programs.
1. American Film Institute
Los Angeles
“If you’re at AFI, you’ve earned that spot,...
- 8/11/2023
- by Mia Galuppo and Sydney Odman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Search had published a letter revealing her brain tumour diagnosis last month.
Jess Search, co-founder and CEO of non-profit documentary organisation Doc Society, has died at the age of 54 from brain cancer.
Search’s death was announced in a statement on Tuesday, August 1 by Doc Society, which read:
Yesterday morning, our dear Jess Search died peacefully in London, England, from brain cancer. She was surrounded by the love of her life Beadie Finzi, their children Ella and Ben, and friends.
As a fierce supporter of independent artists and co-founder of Doc Society, Jess spent the weeks following her diagnosis focused...
Jess Search, co-founder and CEO of non-profit documentary organisation Doc Society, has died at the age of 54 from brain cancer.
Search’s death was announced in a statement on Tuesday, August 1 by Doc Society, which read:
Yesterday morning, our dear Jess Search died peacefully in London, England, from brain cancer. She was surrounded by the love of her life Beadie Finzi, their children Ella and Ben, and friends.
As a fierce supporter of independent artists and co-founder of Doc Society, Jess spent the weeks following her diagnosis focused...
- 8/1/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The story of Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s War Pony, which traces the lives of members of the Oglala Lakota tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, starts on the set of another film. As she awaited filming a scene in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Keough struck up a friendship with extras Bill Reddy and Franklin Sioux Bob from Pine Ridge. She would later visit them at the reservation with Gammell, her producing partner, and the quartet’s energy began funneling the energy of their friendship into a cinematic form.
“The spirit of that summer informed War Pony,” Keough admits. Just as American Honey’s egalitarian end credits don’t attribute hierarchical titles to the artists involved in the film, so, too, does War Pony embody a spirit of collaborative creativity. In conjunction with the wider Pine Ridge community, Bill and Franklin’s experiences and stories of growing up...
“The spirit of that summer informed War Pony,” Keough admits. Just as American Honey’s egalitarian end credits don’t attribute hierarchical titles to the artists involved in the film, so, too, does War Pony embody a spirit of collaborative creativity. In conjunction with the wider Pine Ridge community, Bill and Franklin’s experiences and stories of growing up...
- 7/29/2023
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slant Magazine
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