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The 2025 Cannes Film Festival is underway with Leave One Day by first-time French filmmaker Amelie Bonnin serving as the opening-night pic.

This year’s lineup includes major Hollywood premieres including Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme starring Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera, Richard Linklater’s Paris-shot Breathless homage Nouvelle Vague, Jochim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Titane Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau’s Alpha to name a few.

They are joined by new films from stalwart auteurs including horrormeister Ari Aster’s buzzy A24 feature Eddington, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s In Simple Accident and Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson has landed in Un Certain Regard with her first directorial effort, Eleanor the Great.

Related: Standing Ovations At Cannes: How We Clock Those Claps, Which Movie Holds The Record and Why The Industry Loves To Hate The Ritual

Croisette regulars Kirill Serebrennikov, Raoul Peck...

“Left-Handed Girl” opens with a whimsical score that sounds like a sonic interpretation of the kaleidoscope that adorable five-year-old I-Jing (Nina Ye) looks through as she arrives in Taipei for the first time with her mother Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai) and older teen sister I-Ann (Shi-Yuan Ma). That bright piece of music comes to represent her innocent curiosity each time the nimble camera follows the vivacious and indeed left-handed girl through a new mischievous or misguided adventure in the neon-soaked metropolis.

Continue reading ‘Left-Handed Girl’ Review: Taipei-Set Drama Co-Written By Sean Baker is a Poignant Intergenerational Triptych [Cannes] at The Playlist.

Illustration by Franz Lang.As an American, I usually avoid spending too much time at a festival considering the films from my own country—Notebook has an international lens, and those films will get more than enough attention from the mainstream American press. But it’s hard to ignore the American titles in this year’s Cannes selection; to look at this year’s competitors—Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, Richard Linklater, and Kelly Reichardt—is to experience cultural dissociation that suggests not only that our cinema is fine and dandy, but that, gee whiz, our country might be too. At festivals, art films are often burdened with representing the state of an entire country; perhaps too readily, they are taken as national allegories. The positive artistic force on display at Cannes, however, belies the reality back home, where misanthropic, self-serving leaders are governing with unfathomable authoritarian cruelty. These films seem...

The first glimpse of Taipei in director Shih-Ching Tsou’s debut solo outing is a blur of light and skyscraper seen through a toy prism, an almost-too-perfect cue for the structure of the movie to come. Characters and situations will fragment and recombine in ever-changing symmetries, the axis of sympathy and resentment flipping and flipping again as several generations of women in the same Taiwanese family tumble through a couple of tumultuous months. “Left-Handed Girl” is an assured and lovely portrait of difficult motherhood and painful daughterhood, but it’s perhaps most entrancing for its turning-kaleidoscope-view of the director’s native city, where the characters are the bouncing beads, but Taipei is the glitter and the dazzle.

After a gradually explained absence of several years, Shu-Fen (Janet Tsai) is moving back to the city with her two daughters: sulky, lissome, college-aged I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) and charming, inquisitive little I-Jing (Nina Ye...

In 2004, the world got its first sign of the grounded emotionality that collaborators Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker could create in their co-directed neorealist feature “Take Out.” A portrait of a young man struggling to make ends meet in New York City by biking around delivering food, it was made for next to no money yet still left a mark because of how authentically lived-in it is.

Now, more than 20 years later, “Left-Handed Girl,” which is directed by Tsou from a script she co-wrote with Baker, trades NYC for Taipei and a bike for a scooter while maintaining the same sense of attention to detail and character. Though broader in scope as it follows a mother and her two daughters as they adapt to a move into the city, it shows how Tsou, a longtime producer on many of Baker’s films from “Tangerine” to “Red Rocket,” is more than...

Cinetic Marketing founder Ryan Werner is the newest addition at Neon, now joining the 2025 Best Picture-winning studio as the President of Global Cinema.

In that newly created position, Werner will focus full-time on theatrical distribution and work closely with Neon’s senior leadership to bolster marketing campaigns and release strategies.

Meanwhile, Courtney Ott has now been appointed head of Cinetic Marketing, having served at the company since 2016, most recently as Senior Vice President. Before Cinetic, Ott had been Director of PR and Marketing at the Film Society of Lincoln Center for six years.

“Ryan’s taste, passion, and instincts for cinema are boundless,” Neon CEO/Founder Tom Quinn said. “Together, combined with Ryan’s extensive knowledge, wealth of relationships and envious track record, we look forward to continue growing Neon as a premiere home for groundbreaking cinema. To say we’re thrilled about working with Ryan would be the understatement of the year.

Oscar-winning film studio Neon has made a key hire in Ryan Werner, a dogged veteran and fixture in the indie film space.

Neon CEO Tom Quinn has named Wener to the newly created role of president of global cinema, where he will lead distribution and shepherd the company’s auteur-driven slate to audiences. Werner comes from Cinetic Media, the American financing and distribution company he founded in 2014.

“Ryan’s taste, passion and instincts for cinema are boundless,” Quinn said in a statement. “Together, combined with Ryan’s extensive knowledge, wealth of relationships and envious track record, we look forward to continue growing Neon as a premiere home for groundbreaking cinema. To say we’re thrilled about working with Ryan would be the understatement of the year.”

Werner’s new purview will be focused on theatrical distribution, working alongside Neon senior leadership (including distribution chief Elissa Federoff and international distribution executive...

Neon has tapped veteran film marketing and publicity pro Ryan Werner as its new president of global cinema, the company announced Wednesday from Cannes. The newly created role positions Werner near the top of Neon’s theatrical distribution operations as the award-winning studio continues to expand its footprint in auteur-driven international cinema.

Werner’s appointment comes amid a busy Cannes for Neon, with four titles in this year’s festival lineup — including Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, both premiering in competition, and Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5 screening as a special presentation. The announcement also follows a stellar awards season for the company, capped by Sean Baker’s Anora winning last year’s Palme d’Or followed by five Oscars, including best picture.

“Ryan’s taste, passion, and instincts for cinema are boundless,” said Neon founder and CEO Tom Quinn in a statement. “Together, combined with his extensive knowledge,...

What do you do after a record-setting haul of four individual Oscars including Best Picture for Anora? For Sean Baker, it is returning to his filmmaking roots and the Cannes Film Festival, where he also took the 2024 Palme d’Or for Anora. In this case he isn’t directing, instead leaving that to longtime collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou, who worked as a producer with him on earlier films including Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket. The pair also co-directed a film called Take Out 21 years ago, and it has taken that long for Shih-Ching to take the reins of a second film, co-writing the script for Left-Handed Girl with Baker, who also serves as a producer and sole film editor. It premiered today in Cannes as part of Critics’ Week.

Set in a bustling Taiwanese night market that also seems like a Melrose Place-style food court, the film...

For more than 70 years, the Cannes Film Festival has been synonymous with sex, and we can credit an 18-year-old Brigitte Bardot for bringing them together. Bizarrely, though, this had nothing to do with movies. Despite her global fame as a sex symbol, the actress, now 90, has only ever had one contemporary film accepted by the festival. Even then, it was as part of an ensemble, in a section of a three-part 1968 portmanteau called Spirits of the Dead, directed by Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini. All three stories were based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe, and Bardot appeared in Malle’s section, William Wilson, the macabre story of a man (Alain Delon) haunted, and taunted, by his double. It never screened, though. As part of a countrywide protest — ironically, brought to boiling point in Cannes by Malle himself — the whole event was canceled.

But, by then, Bardot had...

What do you do after setting a record haul of four individual Oscars including Best Picture for Anora? For Sean Baker it is returning to his filmmaking roots and the Cannes Film Festival where he also took the Palme d’Or last May for Anora. In this case he isn’t directing, and instead leaving that to long time collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou, who worked as a producer with him on earlier films like Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. The pair also co-directed a film called Take Out 21 years ago, and it has taken that long for Shih-Ching to take on the reins of a second film, co-writing the script for Left-Handed Girl with Baker who also serves as a producer and sole film editor. It premiered today in Cannes as part of Critics Week.

Set in a bustling Taiwanese night market that also seems like a Melrose Place -style food court,...

Exclusive: FilmNation Entertainment has appointed former Amazon, Sony and Fox vet Laine Kline as its General Counsel and Head of Business and Legal Affairs.

Kline will oversee all business and legal matters for FilmNation’s film, TV, podcast, and theatre business, as well as FilmNation’s genre label Infrared. FilmNation’s 15-year Gc Alison Cohen recently left to join Neon.

As we revealed, Kline exited his role as Head of Production for Amazon MGM International Originals at the end of last year. During his tenure, the division worked on local-language scripted and unscripted series and movies spanning 22 countries. Before his tenure at Amazon, Kline was EVP, Head of International Production at Sony Pictures International Productions. He also served as SVP of Business Affairs at Fox International and EVP of Business and Legal Affairs at TWC.

Recent FilmNation productions include Sean Baker’s awards hit Anora, starring Mikey Madison, which won...

Furious energy down alleys and boulevards. A little girl trying to bond with her distracted mother. A familial gaggle of working-class women. Tactful editing showing off the emotional range of female characters. Humor across nuanced class divides. A massive confrontation where a woman doesn’t go down without a fight.

You wouldn’t be too wrong if you guessed the topic du jour was Sean Baker’s (“Anora”) oeuvre and moviemaking style. That’s because you’d also be discussing the work of Shih-Ching Tsou, Baker’s longtime collaborator, friend from film school, producer of his celebrated films “Starlet,” “The Florida Project,” and “Tangerine,” and co-writer and co-director of “Take Out,” Baker’s lesser-known 2004 film about a Chinese food delivery worker in New York. Particularly, you’d be ruminating on the images, characters, and craft of “Left-Handed Girl,” Tsou’s Taiwan-set first feature as a solo director, debuting this week...

Actress Mikey Madison is riding high after her awards season for the fantastic breakout Oscar-winning performance in Sean Baker‘s “Anora” and has lined up quite the fascinating genre-bending project with “Reptilia.” A Florida-set exotic animal trade thriller that sees Madison co-starring opposite Kirsten Dunst.

The news hails from Variety, which adds that the feature will be directed by Alejandro Landes Echavarría, who has a script co-written by the filmmaker and Duke Merriman.

Continue reading ‘Reptilia’: Mikey Madison & Kirsten Dunst Cast In Florida-Set Exotic Animal Trade Thriller at The Playlist.

Robert De Niro accepted the honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes on May 13 and used his platform to condemn the Trump administration’s proposed 100 percent tariff on foreign films. Leonardo DiCaprio, who presented the award and credited De Niro with launching his career during the “This Boy’s Life” audition, praised him for treating acting as a “physical transformation.” After DiCaprio’s introduction and a cheek kiss, De Niro addressed the audience.

“In my country, we’re fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted,” he said. “Art brings people together and seeks truth. That’s why it’s a threat to fascists.” Turning to the tariff, he added, “You can’t put a price on creativity, but apparently you can put a tariff on it. This move is unacceptable. These attacks affect everyone who values liberty. We must organize, vote and celebrate artistic expression.”

Festival director Thierry Frémaux...

Cannes opening night can be hit or miss, but lately, festival director Thierry Frémaux has used the occasion to import Hollywood luminaries like Meryl Streep, tributed by Juliette Binoche last year. (The French star returned in 2025 to preside over the Competition jury.) This year, Frémaux scored big as Leonardo DiCaprio showed up to present a tearful Robert De Niro with his honorary Palme d’Or. He was rewarded with a warm hug.

“It is a great honor to recognize someone who, for me and so many actors, has always been the archetype of who we look up to,” said DiCaprio. “That is Robert De Niro. It’s not just the roles he plays. He inspired actors to treat the craft not as performance but as physical transformation.”

DiCaprio recalled screaming during his “tough” audition for “This Boy’s Life” to break through, and that De Niro recommended him, thus launching his...

Eva Longoria Eva Longoria (Credit: Jb Lacroix/FilmMagic) Eva Longoria (Credit: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images) Heidi Klum Heidi Klum (Credit: Jb Lacroix/FilmMagic) Heidi Klum (Credit: by Monica Schipper/Getty Images) Julia Garner Julia Garner (Credit: by Mike Marsland/WireImage) Erin Kellyman Erin Kellyman (Credit: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage) Sean Baker & Samantha Quan Sean Baker and Samantha Quan (Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) Halle Berry Halle Berry (Credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images) Halle Berry & Hong Sang-Soo Jury Member Halle Berry and Jury Member Hong Sang-soo ( Credit: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images) Jury Members Carlos Reygadas, Payal Kapadia, Dieudo Hamadi, Jeremy Strong, Juliette Binoche, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Halle Berry and Hong Sang-soo attend the red carpet for the opening ceremony and “Partir Un Jour” (Leave One Day) screening at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 13, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Credit: Tristan Fewings...

Once upon a time in Cannes … Quentin Tarantino had a night to remember.

The Oscar winning auteur turned up at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night to attend the opening ceremony at the Grand Lumiére Theatre where he had official duties to proclaim the start of the 12-day event. “It’s my honor to declare the 78th festival open!” Tarantino shouted into the microphone.

With that, his only job was done. To put an exclamation point on what had been a politically-charged program — Robert De Niro accepted an honorary Palme d’Or from Leonardo DiCaprio, blasted President Donald Trump and delivered a call to action for artists in the room (“We have to act, and we have to act now,” he said) — Tarantino literally dropped his mic on the stage.

It seemed to be a fitting end for his enthusiastic proclamation as well as his night at the Palais...

Leonardo DiCaprio presents Robert De Niro with his honorary Palme d’Or Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival The opening of the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival last night was a fairly muted affair with a first time French film Leave One Day, a musical comedy, kicking off proceedings. Although the cast, including Juliette Armanet as well as director Amélie Bonnin, looked the part it took the legendary Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio to bring some Hollywood chutzpah to the proceedings.

DiCaprio was presenting De Niro with his honorary Palme d’Or but this year’s mega star Tom Cruise (in town for the global launch of the latest Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning) was conspicuous by his absence. Instead we had Quentin Tarantino striding out alongside last year’s Palme d’Or winner Sean Baker (for Anora) and jury president Juliette Binoche and her cohorts...

IndieWire received 11 nominations for the 2025 Southern California Journalism Awards, including a nomination for Website, News Organization Exclusive to the Internet honoring the entire staff and 10 acknowledgements for staff members in individual categories. The 11 nominations are the most IndieWire has received in a single year, breaking a previous record of nine.

IndieWire’s Chief Film Critic and Reviews Editor David Ehrlich and TV Critic Ben Travers are nominated in the Criticism of Film and Criticism of TV categories, respectively, which encompass their entire bodies of work from the previous year.

IndieWire Digital Director Christian Blauvelt is nominated for Obituary/In Appreciation, TV/Film Personalities for his story The Late Quincy Jones Reinvented Film Music, Defined ‘Fusion,’ and Did Something Extremely Rare at a Post-Screening Q&a.

IndieWire Executive Editor Ryan Lattanzio received a nomination in the Film Feature, Profiles of Creatives category for Sean Baker Breaks Down the Emotional Last Scene...

What about Bob?

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival launched with lots of politics and a special tribute to Robert De Niro that saw the Oscar-winning legend slam Donald Trump as “America’s philistine president.”

On the red carpet, the main attraction — the French musical comedy “Partir un Jour,” which ended up earning a five-minute standing ovation — took a backseat to paparazzi scrambling to land a shot of De Niro, who made the trek to France to accept an honorary Palme d’Or from Leonardo DiCaprio. Past winners of the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize, such as Quentin Tarantino and Sean Baker, walked through a gauntlet of photographers, along with Eva Longoria, Julia Garner, Heidi Klum, and Alessandra Ambrosio. But Tom Cruise, who is in town to premiere “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” was nowhere to be found.

Juliette Binoche, who serves as jury president,...

Neon has tapped industry veteran Alison Cohen as General Counsel, President of Business & Legal Affairs. She joins from FilmNation Entertainment, where she managed the business and legal affairs of the all the company’s divisions, including television, film, podcasting and live theater and was responsible for all of the company’s joint ventures and credit facility.

In her new role at Neon, Cohen will oversee the business affairs for the company’s activities in development, production, finance, acquisitions, and distribution, and act as point counsel for the company’s burgeoning merchandising, digital distribution, and music endeavors. She will also work closely with CEO Tom Quinn and CFO Ryan Friscia on all of the company’s strategic initiatives and corporate matters.

During her near 16-year tenure at FilmNation, Cohen executive produced several of the company’s films including Oscar winning titles Anora, Conclave, and Promising Young Woman, as well as Greyhound starring Tom Hanks,...

The Cannes Film Festival—one of the world’s most prestigious film gathering and cultural events—alongside Marché du Film, will kick off on May 13.

Left-Handed Girl, a co-production between Taiwan, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom, has been selected for competition in Cannes parallel section “Critics’ Week”. Among over 1,000 films from 102 countries, Left-Handed Girl stands out as a remarkable achievement, drawing global attention.

Left-Handed Girl is the first solo-directed feature film by Taiwanese director Shih-Ching Tsou, co-produced by Academy Award-winning director Sean Baker. Starring Janel Tsai, Brando Huang, Shih-Yuan Ma and Nina Ye, Left-Handed Girl tells the story of a single mother and her two daughters returning from the countryside to their new life in a Taipei night market. The narrative explores the struggles and daily life under a patriarchal society.

Aside from the world premiere of the selected film at Cannes, this year also sees the...

Re-elected for a second mandate earlier this year, Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch is kicking off the 78th edition in high spirits. Her arrival at the helm of the festival two years ago has coincided with Cannes’ renaissance and closer-than-even bonds with Hollywood. Curated by longtime artistic director and general delegate Thierry Fremaux, last year’s selection premiered a record number of Oscar nominations with movies such as Sean Baker’s “Anora,” which made history by winning four major statuettes including best picture and best director; as well as Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” and Gints Zilbalodis’s “Flow.” A year prior, Cannes was also behind two best picture nominees, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” In an interview with Variety on the eve of the festival’s kick off, the hands-on Knobloch, who previously headed Warner Bros. in Europe,...

Mads Mikkelsen will star in action thriller Sirius, the debut feature from Academy Award-winning editor Lee Smith.

Neon International is kicking off foreign sales to the film at in Cannes, with Neon’s third-party sales house Decal handling rights domestically and planning it as the label’s first wide theatrical release.

Pic is based on a screenplay by Tony Mosher (Mechanic: Resurrection) and is currently in pre-production, described as a “gripping Arctic action-thriller inspired by the real-life Sirius Patrol, the Danish special forces unit charged with defending Greenland’s 8,700-mile frozen coastline.”

Pascal Degove and Matt Williams will produce for Future Artists Entertainment and Deborah Acoca will executive produce.

Smith, a first time director, is known for collaborations with Sam Mendes, Christopher Nolan and Peter Weir, and won an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on Nolan’s Dunkirk. He was also nominated for Weir’s Master...

Mads Mikkelsen is set to star in the action thriller Sirius, the directorial debut of Oscar-winning editor Lee Smith, who is best known for his collaborations with director Christopher Nolan, including Interstellar and Dunkirk.

The Arctic-set project is inspired by the real-life Sirius Patrol, the Danish special forces unit charged with defending Greenland’s 8,700-mile frozen coastline. Tony Mosher penned the screenplay.

Smith is also known for his collaborations with Sam Mendes (Empire of Light) and Peter Weir (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World).

Neon label Decal will release the film in the U.S., marking the outfit’s first wide domestic release. International rights will be sold at the Cannes film market, with Neon handling the foreign sales.

Pascal Degove and Matt Williams will produce for Future Artists Entertainment and Deborah Acoca will executive produce.

Neon has a great history at the Cannes Film Festival and market,...

Despite best efforts to talk about movies at Cannes, with the sprawling official selection yet to be screened, at early press conferences festival director Thierry Fremaux and his Competition jury batted back questions about the state of the world today. Queries swung from Gerard Depardieu’s #MeToo conviction, to showing three films from Ukraine and banning Russia from the festival, which from its founding in 1939 was “predicated on liberty,” said Fremaux.

“People take risks to make films,” he said. “The most important thing is not someone’s safety, but making a film. The festival is political when the artists are political. Jafar Panahi [Iranian Competition entry ‘A Simple Accident’] is prepared to risk going to prison.”

As to the current political winds prevailing in America and elsewhere, Fremaux said, “The cinema requires a lot of funding. It is often the first target. Around the world we need to defend cinema.” As for President Donald Trump’s...

All eyes were on Halle Berry as the Cannes Film Festival kicked off on Tuesday with its jury press conference, where the Oscar winner was questioned on everything from Cannes’ new dress code to if she would ever go back to the James Bond universe.

When asked by Variety if she would be open to revisiting a spinoff involving her character Jinx — or if she would take on the role of the famous spy herself — Berry said: “I don’t know if 007 should be a woman.” On the spinoff, she added that “there was a time that that could have happened. Probably should have happened. I would have loved for that to happen.”

Elsewhere during the jusry press conference — which also included president Juliette Binoche and “Succession” star Jeremy Strong — Berry was quizzed on the news of a stricter dress code banning nudity and “voluminous outfits.” In fact, Berry revealed...

When I wrote my inaugural Critic’s Take some seven Cannes ago, it made sense to explore the apparent chasm between the films celebrated at cinema’s high temple — where austere and unsparing fare could feed the zeitgeist — and those that made inroads within the American industry, where hard auteurism had a tougher time cracking the mainstream, Palme d’Or or not.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t have a similar impetus this time around. How could I? Not when Cannes rides high on recent awards glories as festival honcho Thierry Frémaux relishes his kingmaker status; not when so many international distinctions have collapsed; and not when the very nature of a Palme d’Or has so strikingly shifted in the intervening decade.

Indeed, the cascading effects of streaming wars, labor unrest and widespread social shifts have fundamentally altered film culture. Since that first column, the theatrical market has continued to contract,...

Palme d’Or-winning auteur Cristian Mungiu is making his English-language film debut with Neon. Mungiu’s upcoming family drama “Fjord” starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve has landed at the powerhouse indie distributor ahead of Cannes.

“Fjord” follows the Gheorghiu family, comprised of a Romanian father (Stan) and a Norwegian mother (Reinsve), as they settle into new life in a remote Norwegian village, where the mother was born. The film’s official synopsis reads: “They quickly bond with the Halbergs, who live in the neighboring house near the bay and despite their very different upbringings, the children of both families soon become close friends. When the Gheorghius are suspected of disturbing behavior, their lives are thrown into chaos as they become the center of small town scrutiny.”

Stan and Reinsve previously starred in Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man” together; this is their second feature playing a couple onscreen. Production...

Neon has picked up rights for North America, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand for Fjord, the English-language debut of Palme d’Or-winning Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. Neon plans to release the film theatrically in the U.S..

The re-teaming of Stan and Reinsve, who co-starred in A Different Man, is a family drama focused on the Gheorghiu family, made up of a Romanian father (Stan) and a Norwegian mother (Reinsve), who relocate to a remote village in the mother’s homeland. They quickly form a close bond with the neighboring Halberg family. But when troubling allegations surface, the Gheorghius find themselves at the center of a small-town reckoning.

Stan is coming off a best actor Oscar nomination for playing Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice and a reprisal of his role as Bucky in the MCU...

In its major first announced acquisition of the Cannes Market, Neon has snapped up U.S., Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand rights on Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s first English-language picture Fjord.

The feature co-stars Romanian-born U.S. actor Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) opposite Norwegian Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World).

Goodfellas is handling worldwide sales on the film, which has wrapped production in Norway.

Fjord is a Norway-Sweden-Denmark-Finland-France-Romania coproduction, produced by Mobra Films, Eye-Eye Pictures, Why Not Productions and Goodfellas, alongside Snowglobe, Aamu Film Company, Garage Film, FilmGate Films and Film i Vast (supported by Eurimages and Creative Europe Media).

The deal was negotiated by Sarah Colvin for Neon and Eva Diederix for Goodfellas.

The drama follows the Gheorghiu family – Romanian father (Stan), Norwegian mother (Reinsve) – as they settle into new life in a remote Norwegian village, the mother’s birthplace.

They quickly bond with the Halbergs,...

The indie film world is betting on 1-2 Special.

The spanking new U.S. theatrical distributor has closed its first round of equity financing, securing backing from a group of private investors led by Alex Lo’s Cinema Inutile. Anita Gou’s Kindred Spirit, Chris Quintos Cathcart and Tyler Boehm’s Unapologetic Projects, and Bill and Mary Way’s Fit Via Vi are also first-round investors in New York-based 1-2.

Launched by former Sideshow executive Jason Hellerstein in February, 1-2 Special is set up as a theatrical-first, all rights distributor, dedicated to “acquiring and releasing exceptional films from top-tier domestic and international festivals.” 1-2 picked up its first feature, Kontinental ’25, from acclaimed Romanian director Radu Jude (Bad Luck Banging, Or Looney Porn) out of the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. With its coffers full of Pe cash, we expect 1-2 will be an active buyer in Cannes.

1-2 Special Logo...

Call it the “Anora” effect.

As the 2025 Cannes Film Festival looms, a halo of optimism hangs over the south of France just two months after Sean Baker’s indie took the Oscars by storm, winning five awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. The Neon film made its grand debut at Cannes 2024 and rode a wave of enthusiasm all the way to the Dolby Theatre. It’s merely the latest in a line of Cannes films that have found success recently at Hollywood’s most prestigious awards show.

Films like “The Substance,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Drive My Car” and “Parasite” all premiered at Cannes, then found themselves Oscar-nominated less than a year later. Now all eyes are on what will be the buzziest movies at this year’s fest, although hope that the next “Anora” is on tap is tempered somewhat by uncertainty about...

Think about this: A new Oscar winner and a beloved former Spider-Man star are about to share the big screen together for a movie that sounds like a weird and intriguing fever dream. If Kirsten Dunst and Anora breakout star Mikey Madison fit the description perfectly, it's because the two are set to star in a new Alejandro Landes Echavarría feature called Reptilia that involves a dental hygienist and...a mermaid. As odd as it sounds, it's not too out of the ordinary for two women who have very diverse character resumes. Dunst was literally the love interest of a guy who got bit by a spider and turned into a superhero, and Madison was one of Scream 5's Ghostfaces. So they feel like a perfect fit for this new project.

According to ComicBookMovie.com, the movie "tells the story of a dental hygienist who is seduced by a...

Mikey Madison won an Oscar for her portrayal of Ani in 2024’s indie film Anorafrom writer-director Sean Baker. Since winning her first Academy Award, the former Better Things star has gone on to host Saturday Night Live. Her Oscar win has increased offers coming her way, and Madison even turned down a role in a Star Wars movie with Ryan Gosling from Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy.

Now, per The Hollywood Reporter, Madison has inked her first post-Oscar deal to star in a new “unique thriller” called Reptiliafrom writer-director Alejandro Landes Echavarría. Madison will co-star in the new fantasy thriller alongside Oscar-nominee Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man). Landes Echavarría is co-writing the script with Duke Merriman. The production companies behind Reptilia include Pastel (Moonlight), Imperative Entertainment (Killers of the Flower Moon), and the international production company Af Film. Landes Echavarría will also produce under his A Stela Cine banner. Financing the title is Black Bear,...

Anora Oscar-winner Mikey Madison has found her next project, and it's certainly an unexpected choice.

Madison, who also played one of Scream 5's Ghostfaces, has landed the lead role in Reptilia alongside Spider-Man star Kirsten Dunst... who is set to play mermaid.

The movie "tells the story of a dental hygienist who is seduced by a mysterious mermaid into the dark and wet underworld of Florida’s exotic animal trade." Alejandro Landes Echavarría, who helmed acclaimed hostage drama Monos, will direct from a script by Landes Echavarría and Duke Merriman. Imperative Entertainment, Pastel and Af Films are set to produce, along with Landes Echavarría under his A Stela Cine banner.

That's pretty much all we have to go on for the time being, but this is an intriguing premise, and the script was clearly strong enough to pique Madison's interest. The 25-year-old has had her choice of roles since...

Joel Potrykus doesn’t want to blow up Sean Baker’s phone.

“I asked him if he would moderate this Q&a. I made the mistake of putting a money incentive in there,” Potrykus confesses. “It immediately felt weird. I should have never mentioned money at all. He always replies… I’m just going to leave it.”

It’s not particularly surprising that Potrykus and the “Anora” director have been in communiqué over the years. Baker started making films a bit earlier, but both filmmakers grew in reputation as American indie favorites through the 2010’s, turning out breakouts like Baker’s fast-talking sex-work misadventure “Tangerine” and Potrykus’ couch potato slasher “Buzzard” — scrappy, funny features with bold characters, sidewinding storylines and a commitment to the grit of their street-level settings.

Potrykus is back in that saddle with his new, enigmatically titled film “Vulcanizadora.” Now expanding to Los Angeles at the Laemmle...

Actress and producer Alysia Reiner has signed with Fusion Entertainment.

Reiner is best known for playing Natalie “Fig” Figueroa on Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” earning a SAG Award as part of the ensemble.

On screen, she also appeared in the Oscar-winning “Sideways” and most recently was featured in Joanna Arnow’s critically acclaimed “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed,” which premiered at Cannes and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.

Her television portfolio includes over 150 episodes and performances in series including five seasons of FX’s “Better Things,” two seasons of HBO’s “The Deuce,” “How to Get Away with Murder” opposite Viola Davis, two seasons of “Shining Vale” with Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear, and Netflix’s political thriller “The Diplomat,” now filming its third season. Reiner also played Agent Sadie Deever in Marvel’s “Ms. Marvel.”

“Alysia’s body of...

As your “Screen Talk” co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio pack for Cannes, we preview the hot titles for sale, the studio marketing launches, the possible Competition prize contenders, and the movies that have already released trailers. We speculate about the potential brought by President Trump’s latest proposal of a 100 percent tariff on movies filmed overseas. And we preview the summer lineup.

In new news, the already sprawling Cannes Film Festival has just welcomed a few new additions: Bi Gan’s “Resurrection” finally joins the competition after much speculation and anticipation, as well as Eugene Jarecki’s delayed Julian Assange documentary “The Six Billion Dollar Man,” which was pulled from Sundance due to developments in the story.

Among the competition titles without North American berths are Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson; Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” with Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg,...

The 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards will take place Sunday, February 15 at a new venue, the Hollywood Palladium, organizers said Friday.

The Spirits have traditionally taken place in Santa Monica, but the area around the Santa Monica Pier is undergoing renovations, prompting the move for the ceremony that celebrates the year’s best in indie film and TV.

“Following the celebration of 40 years of the Spirit Awards earlier this year, we are excited to have the opportunity to reimagine the Spirit Awards experience during a moment of tremendous growth and transformation for our organization,” said Brenda Robinson, acting president of nonprofit Film Independent’. “We are proud to continue to be a beacon for the bold and resilient independent storytelling community and to honor excellence in storytelling in all its forms.”

Earlier this year, the Spirits, hosted for a second consecutive time by Aidy Bryant, awarded eventual Best Picture Oscar winner Anora...

The 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards will be looking a little different. IndieWire can announce that the 41st edition of the annual awards ceremony will be held at the Hollywood Palladium. The Spirit Awards usually take place on the Santa Monica beach in a big tent; however, as IndieWire reported earlier this year, a location change was imminent to accommodate infrastructure for the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will take place in Los Angeles.

Deadline cited at the time that the cycling portion of the Olympic Games could be stationed at the beach where the Spirit Awards are usually held. The ceremony will be held at other venues before planning a return to that Santa Monica beach location once the 2028 Olympics have passed. As the recent press release states, the move to the historic Hollywood Palladium is due to Santa Monica “undergoing some exciting renovations.”

It is unclear if the Hollywood Palladium will...

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival was one for the history books. Three eventual Best Picture nominees debuted on La Croisette, and the Palm d’Or winner, Sean Baker’s “Anora,” won the movie industry’s top prize. Gints Zilbalodis’s “Flow” took the Animated Feature Film Academy Award while four of the International Film nominees debuted at Cannes. “The Substance,” a stylish, out-of-the-box horror film, led to an unexpected Demi Moore renaissance and grossed $77 million worldwide.

Continue reading Cannes 2025 Most Anticipated Films: ‘Sentimental Value,’ ‘Eddington,’ ‘Die My Love’ at The Playlist.

Maura Delpero’s Italian WW2 drama Vermiglio won best film at the 70th David Di Donatello awards, Italy’s version of the Oscars, held at Rome’s historic Cinecittà film studio on Wednesday night. Delpero also took best directing honors en route to a 7-trophy sweep.

The film, which had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival last year, beat out the two award frontrunners, Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, a sumptuous, occasionally surreal tribute to his hometown of Naples, and Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition, a political biopic about Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer, which lead the pack going into the David awards with 15 nominations each. Parthenope went away empty-handed, but The Great Ambition took two awards: Best actor for Elio Germano, who play Berlinguer, and best editing for Jacopo Quadri.

Tecla Insolia won best actress for her starring role in Nicolangelo Gelormini’s Sicilian...

Women dominated Italy’s David di Donatello Awards with Maura Delpero’s Venice Silver Lion winner “Vermiglio” taking top honors and Valeria Golino’s female empowerment drama “The Art of Joy” and Margherita Vicario’s directorial debut “Gloria!” also scoring multiple statuettes.

“Vermiglio,” which is set at the end of World War II in an Alpine village where the arrival of a soldier causes disruption in the dynamics between three sisters, was the night’s big winner taking best picture, best director, screenplay, producer, cinematography, sound and the David’s newly introduced casting category.

Delpero, who is the first woman to win the best director David in the 70-year history of the awards – and only the third female filmmaker to win best film – underlined the anti-war aspect of “Vermiglio”

“When I thought about writing it, someone asked me if it wasn’t anachronistic to talk about war,” she said.

“Unfortunately,...

Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio took home Best Film and Director at the 70th edition of Italy’s David di Donatello Awards on Wednesday evening, in an historic win for a female director.

Delpero is the first woman to win the David di Donatello Best Director prize in the history of the awards, and only the third female filmmaker to win Best Film.

The film picked up seven David di Donatellos in total which also included Best Original Screenplay, Casting, Producer, Cinematography and Sound.

Set in a remote mountain village in 1944, Vermiglio revolves around a family whose life is disrupted by the arrival of a deserted soldier. The feature world premiered in Venice where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and went on to be Italy’s 2025 Oscars submission.

It was an historically strong night for female directors.

Other big winners included Italian actress and singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario who won Best First Film,...

Ready for an all-new dinosaur adventure? Cinema’s toothiest troublemakers are returning in Jurassic World Rebirth, set to evolve the blockbuster saga with fresh characters, creatures and more. You can read all about it in Empire’s summer 2025 issue, going on set with Gareth Edwards and his cast – order yours now here.

You won’t find a copy on newsstands until Thursday 8 May, but here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside the issue.

Jurassic World Rebirth

A new era of Jurassic begins. Empire joins Godzilla and Rogue One director Gareth Edwards on set of his dinosaur adventure, speaking to Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey and more as the series evolves its DNA once more.

M3GAN 2.0

Time for an upgrade. M3GAN was a horror smash – and the sequel is upping the ante in every way, going cultier, campier, and cranking up the action. Empire speaks to director Gerard Johnstone,...

The DGA Awards will hand out its trophies mighty early in the Oscar season.

The Directors Guild of America announced its 78th Annual DGA Awards will be held Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, returning to the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

The ceremony will take place early in the phase two awards cycle, occurring just 10 days after Oscar nominations are announced Jan. 22, and 19 days before the Producers Guild of America Awards. The event also falls one day after the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan. The Oscars are scheduled to take place on March 15, 2026.

Veteran director Beth McCarthy-Miller will return as chair of the ceremony for a fifth consecutive year.

“The DGA Awards is a unique opportunity to celebrate excellence in our craft, and I could not be more honored to serve another year as chair of this important event,” McCarthy-Miller said in a statement. “I thank DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter...

Quiet on the set — we have an announcement: The 2026 DGA Awards is set for Saturday, February 7. The guild also said today that its 78th annual ceremony will return to the Beverly Hilton.

More timeline info for the nods celebrating the artistry and mastery of directorial craft in 2025, including a voting schedule and date for the nominations reveal, will be announced later in the year.

“DGA Awards is a unique opportunity to celebrate excellence in our craft, and I could not be more honored to serve another year as Chair of this important event,” Beth McCarthy-Miller said in a statement. “I thank DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter for appointing me to this role, and I look forward to celebrating with all of the incredible 2025 nominees and honorees.”

Related: Oscars: Every Best Director Oscar Winner Back To 1928

The 2025 DGA Awards celebrated Sean Baker for his quirky Anora, which went on to claim...

Cinema owner Mark O’Meara was watching the Oscars in his living room when Sean Baker, accepting the best director trophy for “Anora,” made an impassioned plea for global audiences to support their local multiplex.

“I stood up and was jumping up and down. He’s talking about me and independent theaters,” O’Meara remembers telling his wife. Five years after Covid badly bruised the movie business, and two years after the strikes slowed the recovery, O’Meara needed no reminder that the industry remains seriously challenged — a fact that was illuminated during 2025’s glacial box office start. “It was an apprehensive couple of months,” he says.

This was weeks ago, in March, when theater attendance was flatlining and tentpoles like Disney’s “Snow White” and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” just weren’t inspiring enough trips to the movies. But April’s one-two punch of “A Minecraft Movie...