In the culture-clash comedy “Meet the Barbarians,” actor-director Julie Delpy lays bare a number of Western hypocrisies. The film follows several townspeople in the struggling French commune of Paimpont, who vote to welcome a handful of Ukrainian refugees, but are caught by surprise when a Syrian family shows up instead. The ensuing response runs the gamut from clumsy to hostile, which Delpy captures by applying a documentary-like lens to the town’s fabric, and to their Arab guests. The result is a movie that, though it never quite achieves the dramatic highs for which it aspires, proves eye-wateringly funny.
The film flies out the gate with an energy reminiscent of “The Office,” as bumbling mayor Sébastien Lejeune (Jean-Charles Clichet) regales a TV news crew with his plans to welcome a Ukrainian family. The city council votes overwhelmingly in favor. Even potential holdout Hervé Riou (Laurent Lafitte), the sour-faced town plumber,...
The film flies out the gate with an energy reminiscent of “The Office,” as bumbling mayor Sébastien Lejeune (Jean-Charles Clichet) regales a TV news crew with his plans to welcome a Ukrainian family. The city council votes overwhelmingly in favor. Even potential holdout Hervé Riou (Laurent Lafitte), the sour-faced town plumber,...
- 9/16/2024
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Variety Film + TV
Green Border Photo: Courtesy of Venice Film Festival Green Border, Apple TV, streaming now
One of the most vital films of the past year regarding the ongoing refugee crisis, Agniezska Holland's docureal black and white drama charts the brutally inhumane situation experienced by refugees on her homeland Poland’s border with Belarus. Enticed by promises of a safe and easy way into the European Union by Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, little did the refugees realise they were just pawns in a deadly political game, becoming stuck in the no man’s land forests between the two countries, pushed back and forth with no mercy. Holland takes a multiple viewpoint approach, showing the situation from the refugees' perspective, that of a border guard Tomasz Włosok) and a freshly converted activist (Maja Ostaszewska). Holland pulls no punches and faced a backlash from her own government on account. “The press had been so...
One of the most vital films of the past year regarding the ongoing refugee crisis, Agniezska Holland's docureal black and white drama charts the brutally inhumane situation experienced by refugees on her homeland Poland’s border with Belarus. Enticed by promises of a safe and easy way into the European Union by Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, little did the refugees realise they were just pawns in a deadly political game, becoming stuck in the no man’s land forests between the two countries, pushed back and forth with no mercy. Holland takes a multiple viewpoint approach, showing the situation from the refugees' perspective, that of a border guard Tomasz Włosok) and a freshly converted activist (Maja Ostaszewska). Holland pulls no punches and faced a backlash from her own government on account. “The press had been so...
- 8/26/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Drive-Away Dolls (Ethan Coen)
The kind of movie made to stumble upon surfing cable at 2 am in a half-awake, half-intoxicated stupor, Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls aims for a lower artistic bar than anything the director (and certainly his brother) has previously approached, which accounts for much of its charm. Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke first completed the script some two decades ago––titled Drive-Away Dykes both then and now, if one goes by the end credits––and the film’s B-movie, pleasure-first appeal lies in the feeling that they simply dusted off a copy and immediately embarked on production. A slapdash narrative populated with eminently likable characters best described as joke-delivering caricatures, this marvelously queer road-trip comedy caper is a fleet-footed...
Drive-Away Dolls (Ethan Coen)
The kind of movie made to stumble upon surfing cable at 2 am in a half-awake, half-intoxicated stupor, Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls aims for a lower artistic bar than anything the director (and certainly his brother) has previously approached, which accounts for much of its charm. Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke first completed the script some two decades ago––titled Drive-Away Dykes both then and now, if one goes by the end credits––and the film’s B-movie, pleasure-first appeal lies in the feeling that they simply dusted off a copy and immediately embarked on production. A slapdash narrative populated with eminently likable characters best described as joke-delivering caricatures, this marvelously queer road-trip comedy caper is a fleet-footed...
- 8/23/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Akiplėša (Toxic), the feature debut from Lithuanian writer and director Saulė Bliuvaitė that explores the human body and mysterious model agencies, is the winner of the Locarno Film Festival’s 2024 international competition, which was honored with the Pardo d’Oro, or Golden Leopard, in the Swiss town on Saturday. Locarno77 organizers called the movie “an incisive portrayal of teenage girls and the crushing expectations imposed upon them.”
Meanwhile, the special jury prize went to Iraq-born Austrian auteur Kurdwin Ayub for her sophomore fiction feature Mond (Moon). The film follows former martial artist Sarah who leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy Jordanian family. “It’s all about sisters, no matter where they come from, and about cages, no matter where they are,” according to Ayub.
Lithuania, which has a population of about three million people but was represented by two features in this year’s Locarno international competition,...
Meanwhile, the special jury prize went to Iraq-born Austrian auteur Kurdwin Ayub for her sophomore fiction feature Mond (Moon). The film follows former martial artist Sarah who leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy Jordanian family. “It’s all about sisters, no matter where they come from, and about cages, no matter where they are,” according to Ayub.
Lithuania, which has a population of about three million people but was represented by two features in this year’s Locarno international competition,...
- 8/17/2024
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Hungarian director Gábor Reisz’s Explanation For Everything received the Grand Prix and a cash prize of €10,000 at the 24th edition of the New Horizons International Film Festival (18-28 July) in the Polish city of Wroclaw.
Reisz’s third feature film, which is being handled internationally by Films Boutique, premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival where it won the award for best film in the Orizzonti competition.
It also won a Golden and Silver Hugo Award in Chicago as well as prizes at Les Arcs, Febiofest Bratislava and Uruguay Iff, among others.
The International Competition Jury, which included...
Reisz’s third feature film, which is being handled internationally by Films Boutique, premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival where it won the award for best film in the Orizzonti competition.
It also won a Golden and Silver Hugo Award in Chicago as well as prizes at Les Arcs, Febiofest Bratislava and Uruguay Iff, among others.
The International Competition Jury, which included...
- 7/29/2024
- ScreenDaily
Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh and Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight are among the films to receive backing from the latest round of UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf) awards.
The BFI has made 19 additional awards totalling £527,563 through the £7m Ukgsf, which is financed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms).
Cannes premieres Bird, Santosh and Sister Midnight all received international distribution awards via the festival launch track, which supports festival runs for UK films to reach global audiences.
The only film to receive an international distribution award via the prints and advertising support track in...
The BFI has made 19 additional awards totalling £527,563 through the £7m Ukgsf, which is financed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms).
Cannes premieres Bird, Santosh and Sister Midnight all received international distribution awards via the festival launch track, which supports festival runs for UK films to reach global audiences.
The only film to receive an international distribution award via the prints and advertising support track in...
- 7/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh and Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight are among the films to receive backing from the latest round of UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf) awards.
The BFI has made 19 additional awards totalling £527,563 through the £7m Ukgsf, which is financed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms).
Cannes premieres Bird, Santosh and Sister Midnight all received international distribution awards via the festival launch track, which supports festival runs for UK films to reach global audiences.
The only film to receive an international distribution award via the prints and advertising support track in...
The BFI has made 19 additional awards totalling £527,563 through the £7m Ukgsf, which is financed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms).
Cannes premieres Bird, Santosh and Sister Midnight all received international distribution awards via the festival launch track, which supports festival runs for UK films to reach global audiences.
The only film to receive an international distribution award via the prints and advertising support track in...
- 7/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
The full international jury for this year’s Venice Film Festival has been unveiled.
The lineup joining president Isabelle Huppert is director-heavy, consisting of James Gray (“Ad Astra”), Andrew Haigh (“All of Us Strangers”), Agnieszka Holland (“Green Border”), Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”), Abderrahmane Sissako (“Bamako”), Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”) and Julia von Heinz (“Treasure”). “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Zhang Ziyi rounds out the jury.
In addition to awarding the Golden Lion for best film, the jury will also be responsible for handing out the Silver Lion grand jury prize, Silver Lion for best director, Coppa Volpi for best actress, Coppa Volpi for best actor, special jury prize, best screenplay and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for new young actor or actress.
Revered French actor Huppert was revealed as the president of the jury in May. “Isabelle Huppert is an immense actress. Demanding, curious and of great generosity,...
The lineup joining president Isabelle Huppert is director-heavy, consisting of James Gray (“Ad Astra”), Andrew Haigh (“All of Us Strangers”), Agnieszka Holland (“Green Border”), Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”), Abderrahmane Sissako (“Bamako”), Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”) and Julia von Heinz (“Treasure”). “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Zhang Ziyi rounds out the jury.
In addition to awarding the Golden Lion for best film, the jury will also be responsible for handing out the Silver Lion grand jury prize, Silver Lion for best director, Coppa Volpi for best actress, Coppa Volpi for best actor, special jury prize, best screenplay and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for new young actor or actress.
Revered French actor Huppert was revealed as the president of the jury in May. “Isabelle Huppert is an immense actress. Demanding, curious and of great generosity,...
- 7/10/2024
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSNo Other Land.The Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting Corporation (rbb), a state institution, has withdrawn funding for the €40,000 Berlinale Documentary Film Prize. The prize was most recently awarded to No Other Land (2024), which depicts the displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli military. While accepting the award, co-directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation of Palestine, statements which were met with opprobrium by German state officials.After more than three months of contract negotiations, IATSE has reached a tentative agreement with AMPTP, including structured wage increases matching those won by SAG-AFTRA last year and new streaming residuals to address the union’s pension and health plan shortfall.
- 6/28/2024
- MUBI
In her 2022 Toronto curtain raiser “The Swimmers,” telling the true story of two Syrian sisters and their emotional and gruelling journey to Europe to escape the civil war, director Sally El-Hossaini went to great lengths to ensure authenticity, using real-life refugees both in-front of and behind the camera.
For Counterpoints Arts, the U.K. charity that focusses on culture and migration, “The Swimmers” offered a great example of how projects involving refugees and migrants could — and should — be developed. As the organization’s co-founder and director Almir Koldzic explains to Variety, El-Hossaini made sure that “people with lived experiences were represented on every level of production and were respected in that process.”
Since it launched in 2012, Counterpoints has worked alongside the U.K. arts scene as part of its efforts to “inspire social change and enhance inclusion and cultural integration,” putting on numerous film screenings concerning the subject, many during the annual Refugee Week,...
For Counterpoints Arts, the U.K. charity that focusses on culture and migration, “The Swimmers” offered a great example of how projects involving refugees and migrants could — and should — be developed. As the organization’s co-founder and director Almir Koldzic explains to Variety, El-Hossaini made sure that “people with lived experiences were represented on every level of production and were respected in that process.”
Since it launched in 2012, Counterpoints has worked alongside the U.K. arts scene as part of its efforts to “inspire social change and enhance inclusion and cultural integration,” putting on numerous film screenings concerning the subject, many during the annual Refugee Week,...
- 6/28/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Green Border.Agnieszka Holland begs to differ with Claude Lanzmann. The director of Shoah (1985) had attacked the idea of depicting the Holocaust in a fiction film, claiming that its unfathomable horrors would inevitably be trivialized. In a 2013 National Gallery of Art lecture, “Viewing History through the Filmmaker’s Lens,” Holland made two counter-arguments: that feature films are a tool to educate as many people as possible about the Holocaust, and that “taking on issues that are impossible to explain or grasp rationally is one of the most important challenges of an artist.” Holland had made a number of provocative Holocaust dramas, including Angry Harvest (1985), Europa Europa (1990), and In Darkness (2011), all of which involve the plight of Jews who have improbably escaped capture and death. With these films, Holland looked back at events from decades in the past. In her latest film, she is dramatizing history while it is unfolding.Urgent without sacrificing artistry,...
- 6/26/2024
- MUBI
Clockwise from top left: Green Border (Kino Lorber), I Saw The TV Glow (A24), Evil Does Not Exist (Janus Films), Kinds Of Kindness (Searchlight Pictures), Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Warner Bros.) Graphic: AVClub Now that the film festivals have settled down and the blockbusters have started rolling out in earnest,...
- 6/24/2024
- by Jacob Oller
- avclub.com
Clockwise from top left: Green Border (Kino Lorber), I Saw The TV Glow (A24), Evil Does Not Exist (Janus Films), Kinds Of Kindness (Searchlight Pictures), Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Warner Bros.)Graphic: AVClub
Now that the film festivals have settled down and the blockbusters have started rolling out in earnest,...
Now that the film festivals have settled down and the blockbusters have started rolling out in earnest,...
- 6/24/2024
- by Jacob Oller, Murtada Elfadl, Cindy White, Brent Simon, Matthew Jackson, Matt Schimkowitz, Luke Y. Thompson, Leigh Monson, and Manuel Betancourt
- avclub.com
Seydou (Seydou Sarr) with Moussa (Moustapha Fall) crossing the desert Io Capitano, streaming now on Mubi
As Agniezska Holland's docureal exploration of the migrant crisis, Green Border, hits cinemas (and I highly recommend you catch that if you can), Matteo Garrone's more fairy-tale flavoured examination of the situation has landed on the streaming service. His focus is a pair of cousins, Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall), who are convinced they will find their own happily ever after in Europe. Their hopefulness is palpable as they leave Senegal with their savings but soon their dreams slam up against a reality of exploitation and violence. Garrone's film may initially appear a more gentle sort than Holland's but he doesn't shy away from the brutality the boys face - all the more hard hitting in the face of the open-hearted performances from Sarr and Fall. Like every fairy tale,...
As Agniezska Holland's docureal exploration of the migrant crisis, Green Border, hits cinemas (and I highly recommend you catch that if you can), Matteo Garrone's more fairy-tale flavoured examination of the situation has landed on the streaming service. His focus is a pair of cousins, Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall), who are convinced they will find their own happily ever after in Europe. Their hopefulness is palpable as they leave Senegal with their savings but soon their dreams slam up against a reality of exploitation and violence. Garrone's film may initially appear a more gentle sort than Holland's but he doesn't shy away from the brutality the boys face - all the more hard hitting in the face of the open-hearted performances from Sarr and Fall. Like every fairy tale,...
- 6/24/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
No one saw this coming. “Inside Out 2” (Disney) fell only 35 percent in its second weekend. Following a great $154 million opening, huge initial weekdays, it’s added an estimated $100 million. That puts it at $355 million in only 10 days.
How big is that? Second only since Covid to “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021, which had December 25 and 26 in the first 10 days of its opening, eventually grossing $470 million in that time. It even edges out “Barbie” ($351 million) and bests the full run of “Oppenheimer.”
This is phenomenal. In many ways, this weekend is even more impressive than the strong debut. With less emphasis on premium screens and of course many lower-price tickets for kids, sales outpace any release since “No Way Home.” Kids also always elevate concessions, which makes the bounty for theaters even greater.
The total weekend gross will be around $152 million, an improvement of $41 million from last year and reducing the year-to-date shortfall to 21 percent.
How big is that? Second only since Covid to “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021, which had December 25 and 26 in the first 10 days of its opening, eventually grossing $470 million in that time. It even edges out “Barbie” ($351 million) and bests the full run of “Oppenheimer.”
This is phenomenal. In many ways, this weekend is even more impressive than the strong debut. With less emphasis on premium screens and of course many lower-price tickets for kids, sales outpace any release since “No Way Home.” Kids also always elevate concessions, which makes the bounty for theaters even greater.
The total weekend gross will be around $152 million, an improvement of $41 million from last year and reducing the year-to-date shortfall to 21 percent.
- 6/23/2024
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
The indie box office roared to life this weekend as Thelma from Magnolia Pictures saw a hefty $2.2 million on 1,280 screens and Searchlight Pictures’ Kinds of Kindness booked a stellar $75k per screen average at five theaters in LA and NY — the year’s highest per screen average and best overall limited opening.
Thelma is Magnolia’s widest release and the question of whether a broad audience would turn out for a film with a 93-year-old star is a resounding yes. It’s poignant, funny and June Squibb is so good, but this wasn’t by any means a slam dunk. Magnolia felt it was intergenerational and the audience would be as well. Squibb plays a feisty grandma, Parker Posey her uptight daughter, and Fred Hechinger the affectionate slacker grandson.
The distributor said a number of top runs are at Alamo Drafthouse theaters, indicating a younger crowd. But the matinees, which skew older,...
Thelma is Magnolia’s widest release and the question of whether a broad audience would turn out for a film with a 93-year-old star is a resounding yes. It’s poignant, funny and June Squibb is so good, but this wasn’t by any means a slam dunk. Magnolia felt it was intergenerational and the audience would be as well. Squibb plays a feisty grandma, Parker Posey her uptight daughter, and Fred Hechinger the affectionate slacker grandson.
The distributor said a number of top runs are at Alamo Drafthouse theaters, indicating a younger crowd. But the matinees, which skew older,...
- 6/23/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
The Good Pole: Holland’s Humanitarian Drama a Steady Drizzle of Misery Porn
The difference between an exploitation vs. a social issue film can sometimes be difficult to ascertain, sometimes straying into both territories, usually depending on the agenda of its makers. It’s much more difficult to pinpoint where a well-intentioned social issue movie turns into the kind of desensitizing miserabilism often dismissed as torture porn, when sadism curates polarizing audiences members, at best preaching to the members of its own choir. The latest from Polish auteur Agnieszka Holland, Green Border, arguably can’t be classified as such, but she comes close with a social issue film otherwise shining a rather important light on an ongoing humanitarian crisis, one which should shame the Polish government, if art were still able to have such a consequential effect.…...
The difference between an exploitation vs. a social issue film can sometimes be difficult to ascertain, sometimes straying into both territories, usually depending on the agenda of its makers. It’s much more difficult to pinpoint where a well-intentioned social issue movie turns into the kind of desensitizing miserabilism often dismissed as torture porn, when sadism curates polarizing audiences members, at best preaching to the members of its own choir. The latest from Polish auteur Agnieszka Holland, Green Border, arguably can’t be classified as such, but she comes close with a social issue film otherwise shining a rather important light on an ongoing humanitarian crisis, one which should shame the Polish government, if art were still able to have such a consequential effect.…...
- 6/21/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Green BorderImage: Kino Lorber
Green Border, the latest from master Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, is nothing short of a call to direct action. The film provides a nuanced, if at times frankly brutal, account of the treacherous conditions migrants face on the Polish-Belarusian border, which are either exacerbated or assuaged...
Green Border, the latest from master Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, is nothing short of a call to direct action. The film provides a nuanced, if at times frankly brutal, account of the treacherous conditions migrants face on the Polish-Belarusian border, which are either exacerbated or assuaged...
- 6/21/2024
- by Natalia Keogan
- avclub.com
Jeff Nichols’ crime drama The Bikeriders drives into 702 cinemas at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, through Universal.
The sixth feature from US filmmaker Nichols follows the members of the Vandals motorcycle club as it transforms into a dangerous underworld of violence. 2015 Screen Star of Tomorrow Jodie Comer leads the cast alongside Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon and Mike Faist.
The Bikeriders debuted at Telluride in August last year, going on to play BFI London Film Festival and Sydney among others.
Nichols’ highest-grossing feature was his one-before-last, 2016’s Midnight Special, which opened to £466,055 at a £1,165 average and finished on almost £1.2m.
The sixth feature from US filmmaker Nichols follows the members of the Vandals motorcycle club as it transforms into a dangerous underworld of violence. 2015 Screen Star of Tomorrow Jodie Comer leads the cast alongside Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon and Mike Faist.
The Bikeriders debuted at Telluride in August last year, going on to play BFI London Film Festival and Sydney among others.
Nichols’ highest-grossing feature was his one-before-last, 2016’s Midnight Special, which opened to £466,055 at a £1,165 average and finished on almost £1.2m.
- 6/21/2024
- ScreenDaily
Agnieszka Holland on her cast: 'They’re not only very talented actors with the right linguistic background, but also people who understood very well what the film speaks about and could infuse it with their own experience' Photo: Agata Kubis/Kino Lorber Today, June 20 marks the United Nations World Refugee Day, which is dedicated to those forced to flee around the globe. The Unhcr estimates that at the end of 2023 there were 117.3 million displaced people worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order, with 47 million of those, children.
It’s a fitting week, then, for the release of Agnieszka Holland’s raw and urgent drama Green Border - coming to UK cinemas tomorrow - which charts the horrendous situation experienced by refugees on her homeland Poland’s border with Belarus. Enticed by promises of a safe and easy way into the...
It’s a fitting week, then, for the release of Agnieszka Holland’s raw and urgent drama Green Border - coming to UK cinemas tomorrow - which charts the horrendous situation experienced by refugees on her homeland Poland’s border with Belarus. Enticed by promises of a safe and easy way into the...
- 6/20/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
As the international refugee crisis was wobbling past its tipping point in late 2021, a small patch of no-man’s-land between two Eastern European nations was turning into a hot spot. Migrants who were fleeing turmoil in the Middle East and parts of Africa had been told that they could find a way into Europe via Belarus. The rumors were that the country’s president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, was touting easily accessible tourist visas as a safer alternative than trying to make the arduous, dangerous journey by boat. Once there, they...
- 6/19/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Remember a few weeks back, when there were no major wide studio releases, and how that turned out? Expect a repeat this weekend with only one movie getting a substantially wide release as “Inside Out 2” remains in the lead. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.
“Loving” and “Take Shelter” director Jeff Nichols returns with the motorcycle drama, “The Bikeriders,” which will probably get the widest release of the new movies this weekend via Focus Features. Set in the late ’60s and early ’70s, it stars Jodie Comer as a Chicago woman who gets involved with a biker named Benny, played by Austin Butler, part of Chicago’s Vandals bike club, led by Tom Hardy‘s Johnny, The movie also stars Mike Faist from “Challengers.”
Hardy might be considered the biggest star of the bunch due to his appearances in the hit “Venom” movies. He’s also...
“Loving” and “Take Shelter” director Jeff Nichols returns with the motorcycle drama, “The Bikeriders,” which will probably get the widest release of the new movies this weekend via Focus Features. Set in the late ’60s and early ’70s, it stars Jodie Comer as a Chicago woman who gets involved with a biker named Benny, played by Austin Butler, part of Chicago’s Vandals bike club, led by Tom Hardy‘s Johnny, The movie also stars Mike Faist from “Challengers.”
Hardy might be considered the biggest star of the bunch due to his appearances in the hit “Venom” movies. He’s also...
- 6/19/2024
- by Edward Douglas
- Gold Derby
Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” made a huge debut in the U.K. and Ireland with £11.3 million ($14.3 million), according to numbers from Comscore.
In doing so, the anticipated sequel captured 71% of the box office and delivered the biggest box office opening since “Barbie.”
In its second weekend, Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” dropped down to second place with £1.8 million and now has a running total of £7.1 million. In its fifth weekend, Paramount’s “If” earned £414,673 in third position for a total of £11.4 million.
In fourth place, in its sixth weekend, Disney’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” collected £388,500 for a total of £15 million. Rounding off the top five was Sony’s “The Garfield Movie” with £355,208 for a total of £7.8 million.
There were two debuts in the Top 10. MetFilm Distribution’s “Wilding” bowed in ninth place with £127,191 and Vertigo’s “Freud’s Last Session” in 10th with £72,989.
This week,...
In doing so, the anticipated sequel captured 71% of the box office and delivered the biggest box office opening since “Barbie.”
In its second weekend, Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” dropped down to second place with £1.8 million and now has a running total of £7.1 million. In its fifth weekend, Paramount’s “If” earned £414,673 in third position for a total of £11.4 million.
In fourth place, in its sixth weekend, Disney’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” collected £388,500 for a total of £15 million. Rounding off the top five was Sony’s “The Garfield Movie” with £355,208 for a total of £7.8 million.
There were two debuts in the Top 10. MetFilm Distribution’s “Wilding” bowed in ninth place with £127,191 and Vertigo’s “Freud’s Last Session” in 10th with £72,989.
This week,...
- 6/19/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Challengers
Smart, seductive and bristling with sexual tension, this is Luca Guadagnino’s most purely pleasurable film to date. As dynamic as the many tennis matches it depicts, the love-triangle drama pits the rivalry on the court of two former BFFs against their competing desire for a self-possessed woman whose hunger to win is not diminished by an injury that cuts short her own career. It helps that the chemistry of stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist is off the charts. — David Rooney
La Chimera
Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s invigoratingly strange and lyrical film revolves around a fascinating pocket community: the tombaroli, illegal grave-robbers who dig up Etruscan relics and make their money selling those antiquities to fences, who in turn sell them to museums and collectors for vastly larger sums. Josh O’Connor is superb in the central role of a haunted Englishman whom the tombaroli regard as a kind of mystic,...
Smart, seductive and bristling with sexual tension, this is Luca Guadagnino’s most purely pleasurable film to date. As dynamic as the many tennis matches it depicts, the love-triangle drama pits the rivalry on the court of two former BFFs against their competing desire for a self-possessed woman whose hunger to win is not diminished by an injury that cuts short her own career. It helps that the chemistry of stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist is off the charts. — David Rooney
La Chimera
Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s invigoratingly strange and lyrical film revolves around a fascinating pocket community: the tombaroli, illegal grave-robbers who dig up Etruscan relics and make their money selling those antiquities to fences, who in turn sell them to museums and collectors for vastly larger sums. Josh O’Connor is superb in the central role of a haunted Englishman whom the tombaroli regard as a kind of mystic,...
- 6/18/2024
- by David Rooney, Sheri Linden, Leslie Felperin and Jourdain Searles
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Agnieszka Holland, who won the special jury prize at last year’s Venice Film Festival for her film Green Border about refugees on the Polish-Belarussian border, believes it serves as “collective psychotherapy” for those affected by the situation.
Speaking at the Cannes Lions Festival, the thrice Oscar-nominated director said she was “a storyteller” and hopes the film touched people’s hearts, but when asked if it could change the world, she replied: “I don’t think so.”
Holland said she feels destined to make films about the political situation on her nation’s doorstep and had been tackling difficult topics since she was a teenager in communist Poland, and later as a student in communist Czechoslovakia:
“I am also a person of border identity. My mother is from a Polish Catholic family, she was a member of the Polish army during the Second World War and a member of the Warsaw Uprising.
Speaking at the Cannes Lions Festival, the thrice Oscar-nominated director said she was “a storyteller” and hopes the film touched people’s hearts, but when asked if it could change the world, she replied: “I don’t think so.”
Holland said she feels destined to make films about the political situation on her nation’s doorstep and had been tackling difficult topics since she was a teenager in communist Poland, and later as a student in communist Czechoslovakia:
“I am also a person of border identity. My mother is from a Polish Catholic family, she was a member of the Polish army during the Second World War and a member of the Warsaw Uprising.
- 6/17/2024
- by Caroline Frost
- Deadline Film + TV
‘Making this film was forbidden’: how Agnieszka Holland’s migrant thriller inflamed the Polish right
The director has long explored the darkest corners of European life. Now her latest drama Green Border has caused outrage in her homeland – and become an unlikely box office hit
Director Agnieszka Holland is accustomed to attacks from the right in Poland, but her latest film, Green Border – about the plight of immigrants on the country’s borders – took things to another level. No sooner had it premiered at last year’s Venice film festival, where it won the special jury prize, than the justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, took to social media, comparing it to Nazi propaganda. President Andrzej Duda doubled down, resurrecting a second world war slogan about the gullibility of filmgoers: “Only pigs sit in cinemas.”
The film that caused all the fuss is an uncompromising work of conscience, set in a no man’s land between Poland and Belarus, where refugees, largely from the Middle East and Africa,...
Director Agnieszka Holland is accustomed to attacks from the right in Poland, but her latest film, Green Border – about the plight of immigrants on the country’s borders – took things to another level. No sooner had it premiered at last year’s Venice film festival, where it won the special jury prize, than the justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, took to social media, comparing it to Nazi propaganda. President Andrzej Duda doubled down, resurrecting a second world war slogan about the gullibility of filmgoers: “Only pigs sit in cinemas.”
The film that caused all the fuss is an uncompromising work of conscience, set in a no man’s land between Poland and Belarus, where refugees, largely from the Middle East and Africa,...
- 6/17/2024
- by Claire Armitstead
- The Guardian - Film News
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSNorma Rae.The Academy Foundation Workers Union has approved its first contract, including structured raises, extended leave time, increased job security, and other benefits.Just weeks after the conclusion of the festival, Hot Docs has announced it will lay off staff and temporarily shutter its year-round cinema in Toronto.The Hollywood Commission, chaired by Anita Hill, has introduced an online tool to report workplace abuse in the American motion-picture industry.The organizing wave in New York cinemas continues as the Cinema Village union becomes official. In PRODUCTIONIn his signature direct-oblique style, David Lynch is teasing “something…for you to see and hear,” which “will be coming along” on June 5.REMEMBERINGSuper Size Me.Morgan Spurlock has died at 53. The filmmaker followed his debut feature,...
- 5/29/2024
- MUBI
Exclusive: Io Capitano, the latest feature from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, and Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border have joined the lineup of this year’s Refugee Week arts and culture festival, running June 17 to 23.
The theme for Refugee Week 2024 is “Our Home”, which organizers have said will focus on thinking about our bodies as our homes, how we can make whole neighborhoods more welcoming, and how to care for our collective home, planet Earth.
Mubi has joined the festival this year and will launch Garrone’s Io Capitano on its platform during the festival. BFI Player has compiled a Refugee Week collection of free films and rental films. Other major events during the week include:
Key Screenings (London):
● Io Capitano by Matteo Garrone: This Oscar-nominated film follows two Senegalese teenagers, Seydou and Moussa, as they journey from Dakar to Italy, facing deserts, detention centers, and perilous seas in pursuit of a better life.
The theme for Refugee Week 2024 is “Our Home”, which organizers have said will focus on thinking about our bodies as our homes, how we can make whole neighborhoods more welcoming, and how to care for our collective home, planet Earth.
Mubi has joined the festival this year and will launch Garrone’s Io Capitano on its platform during the festival. BFI Player has compiled a Refugee Week collection of free films and rental films. Other major events during the week include:
Key Screenings (London):
● Io Capitano by Matteo Garrone: This Oscar-nominated film follows two Senegalese teenagers, Seydou and Moussa, as they journey from Dakar to Italy, facing deserts, detention centers, and perilous seas in pursuit of a better life.
- 5/29/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Agnieszka Holland’s filmography will be celebrated this June thanks to the Museum of the Moving Image and the Polish Cultural Institute New York.
MoMI will host a retrospective featuring nine of Holland’s most beloved films leading up to the release of her latest “Green Border.” The nine features include highlights “Europa Europa” on and “The Secret Garden,” which both will screen in 35mm with Holland in attendance on June 20 and 21.
The retrospective will take place from June 7 through 21 and serve as a toast to Holland’s “undimmed ability to depict historical trauma and human struggle with sensitivity and compassion” across her 60 years in filmmaking, per the official press statement.
The retrospective will feature her initial work made in Poland, including “Provincial Actors,” “Fever,” and “A Woman Alone,” along with Holland’s 1990s art house features “Europa Europa” and “The Secret Garden,” and depictions of present-day political resistance like “Spoor” and “In Darkness.
MoMI will host a retrospective featuring nine of Holland’s most beloved films leading up to the release of her latest “Green Border.” The nine features include highlights “Europa Europa” on and “The Secret Garden,” which both will screen in 35mm with Holland in attendance on June 20 and 21.
The retrospective will take place from June 7 through 21 and serve as a toast to Holland’s “undimmed ability to depict historical trauma and human struggle with sensitivity and compassion” across her 60 years in filmmaking, per the official press statement.
The retrospective will feature her initial work made in Poland, including “Provincial Actors,” “Fever,” and “A Woman Alone,” along with Holland’s 1990s art house features “Europa Europa” and “The Secret Garden,” and depictions of present-day political resistance like “Spoor” and “In Darkness.
- 5/28/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
This is the story of Souleymane. This is a story we need to hear. This is a story we need to understand. By now there's an entire subgenre of modern day refugee films - important, real stories about immigrants and refugees and asylum seekers struggling to make it safely into Europe and survive under the crushing weight of anti-immigration people and policy (also see: Green Border or Europa or Io Capitano). One of the latest entries in this subgenre is the film Souleymane's Story, also known as L'histoire de Souleymane in French (or The Story of Souleymane). This premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and won two awards: Best Actor and a Jury Prize. It deserves both - the lead performance is exceptional and the storytelling in this is especially powerful. It's one of these films that might change your life - you'll never...
- 5/28/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The 50th Annual Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) wrapped up on Sunday and announced the winners of the 2024 Golden Space Needle Audience and Juried Competition Awards.
The festival began on May 9 and screened 261 films representing 84 countries with “62% of the feature films were created by first or second-time filmmakers; 43% were created by women or nonbinary filmmakers; 35% of filmmakers identify as a Bipoc director; and nearly 60% are currently without U.S. distribution and may not screen commercially in the United States,” according to Siff.
Siff holds two categories of competition: juried and audience based. Juried competitions include five feature subcategories including the Official Competition, New American Cinema Competition, New Directors Competition, Ibero-American Competition and Documentary Competition. Short film categories include live action, animation and documentary.
In addition, over 32,000 ballots were submitted for the Golden Space Needle Awards (Gsna). Films judged through the GSNAs are selected by audience members through post-screening ballots. The categories include best film,...
The festival began on May 9 and screened 261 films representing 84 countries with “62% of the feature films were created by first or second-time filmmakers; 43% were created by women or nonbinary filmmakers; 35% of filmmakers identify as a Bipoc director; and nearly 60% are currently without U.S. distribution and may not screen commercially in the United States,” according to Siff.
Siff holds two categories of competition: juried and audience based. Juried competitions include five feature subcategories including the Official Competition, New American Cinema Competition, New Directors Competition, Ibero-American Competition and Documentary Competition. Short film categories include live action, animation and documentary.
In addition, over 32,000 ballots were submitted for the Golden Space Needle Awards (Gsna). Films judged through the GSNAs are selected by audience members through post-screening ballots. The categories include best film,...
- 5/19/2024
- by Lexi Carson
- Variety Film + TV
Spain’s Latido Films has clinched world sales rights to serial killer drama-thriller “Sacamantecas,” the third feature by writer-director David Pérez Sañudo, whose Latido-repped debut feature, “Ane,” swept three Spanish Academy Goya Awards in 2021.
Latido is already handling Pérez Sañudo’s second feature, “Los últimos románticos,” which it announced at the Berlin Film Festival as the first title in a two-picture deal with Sañudo. The deals come as Spanish sales companies battle to retain top-flight talent, increasingly in the crosshairs of international counterparts.
”Sacamantecas,” on which Latido Films has just clinched a pre-sale deal for Italy with Movies Inspired, marks the second title in that deal. Distribution in Spain will close shortly, said Latido Films’ Oscar Alonso.
Produced by Olmo Figueredo, who’s also backing “Los últimos románticos,” “Sacamantecas” turns on Spain’s first recorded serial killer, Juan Díaz de Garayo.
In two killing sprees over 1872-79, the ageing and...
Latido is already handling Pérez Sañudo’s second feature, “Los últimos románticos,” which it announced at the Berlin Film Festival as the first title in a two-picture deal with Sañudo. The deals come as Spanish sales companies battle to retain top-flight talent, increasingly in the crosshairs of international counterparts.
”Sacamantecas,” on which Latido Films has just clinched a pre-sale deal for Italy with Movies Inspired, marks the second title in that deal. Distribution in Spain will close shortly, said Latido Films’ Oscar Alonso.
Produced by Olmo Figueredo, who’s also backing “Los últimos románticos,” “Sacamantecas” turns on Spain’s first recorded serial killer, Juan Díaz de Garayo.
In two killing sprees over 1872-79, the ageing and...
- 5/19/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
"Helping is not illegal." Kino Lorber has revealed an official US trailer for an urgent, acclaimed Polish film titled Green Border, the latest from the masterful Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland. This premiered at last year's 2023 Venice Film Festival in the fall, where it won a Special Jury Prize at the end. Thirty years after Europa Europa, three-time Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland brings a masterful eye for realism and deep compassion to this blistering critique of a humanitarian calamity that continues to unfold. The B&w film follows family of refugees from Syria, an English teacher from Afghanistan, and a border guard, who all meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis in Belarus. Green Border is a poignant and essential work of cinema that opens our eyes and speaks to the heart, challenging viewers to reflect on the moral choices that fall to ordinary people every day. Yes it's harrowing and unforgettable.
- 5/7/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
‘Green Border’ Trailer: Agnieszka Holland’s Urgent New European Refugee Crisis Drama Arrives in June
Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland is one of the greats. A three-time Academy Award nominee—1990’s “Europa Europa,” 1993’s “Angry Harvest” and the Holocaust drama “In Darkness”— Holland is also known for her celebrated prestige TV work, particularly on the David Simon series’ “The Wire,” and “Treme” and shows like “The Killing,” and “House Of Cards.” But her best-known feature work has always leaned towards social justice and socially-conscious dramas, which brings us to her latest, “Green Border,” an bracing portrait of Europe’s refugee crisis that has been hailed as a “humanitarian masterpiece.”
Read More: ‘Green Border’ Review: Agnieszka Holland Won’t Let You Turn A Blind Eye To Suffering In Devastating Refugee Drama [TIFF]
Our review of the film described “Green Border” as “devastating” and “nightmarish.” “Holland has made a righteous, masterful work, arguably her best since ‘Europa Europa,’ but it’s not for the faint of heart or those...
Read More: ‘Green Border’ Review: Agnieszka Holland Won’t Let You Turn A Blind Eye To Suffering In Devastating Refugee Drama [TIFF]
Our review of the film described “Green Border” as “devastating” and “nightmarish.” “Holland has made a righteous, masterful work, arguably her best since ‘Europa Europa,’ but it’s not for the faint of heart or those...
- 5/7/2024
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Returning with one of her most acclaimed films in years, Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border premiered at Venice Film Festival last fall where it picked up a Special Jury Prize. Now, the harrowing, deeply humanistic account of the migrant journey between Belarus and Poland, will arrive in U.S. theaters starting June 21 from Kino Lorber and the first trailer has arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so-called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa are lured by government propaganda promising easy passage to the European Union. Unable to cross into Europe and unable to turn back, they find themselves trapped in a rapidly escalating geopolitical stand-off. An unflinching depiction of the migrant crisis captured in stark black-and-white, this riveting film explores the intractable issue from multiple perspectives: a Syrian family fleeing Isis caught between cruel...
Here’s the synopsis: “In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so-called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa are lured by government propaganda promising easy passage to the European Union. Unable to cross into Europe and unable to turn back, they find themselves trapped in a rapidly escalating geopolitical stand-off. An unflinching depiction of the migrant crisis captured in stark black-and-white, this riveting film explores the intractable issue from multiple perspectives: a Syrian family fleeing Isis caught between cruel...
- 5/7/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A documentary about harrowing loss and fleeting joy, Agnieszka Zwiefka’s “Silent Trees” follows a grieving family of Kurdish refugees escaping legal limbo. With animated interludes that function as flashbacks, it captures the world through the bespectacled eyes of a soft-spoken 16-year-old, Runa, a girl forced to grow up far too quickly in a Polish refugee camp.
The film plays like a follow-up and companion piece to another recent Polish production detailing the same inhumane premise: Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border,” a haunting dramatization of the “red zone” between the borders of Poland and Belarus, where numerous Middle Eastern migrants have been cruelly bounced back and forth between the two countries. Guerrilla cell-phone footage introduces us to the grim violence therein, laying the foundation for Runa’s coming-of-age story through dark, pixelated images of what she, her parents and her four younger brothers have been through.
Having escaped this legal no man’s land,...
The film plays like a follow-up and companion piece to another recent Polish production detailing the same inhumane premise: Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border,” a haunting dramatization of the “red zone” between the borders of Poland and Belarus, where numerous Middle Eastern migrants have been cruelly bounced back and forth between the two countries. Guerrilla cell-phone footage introduces us to the grim violence therein, laying the foundation for Runa’s coming-of-age story through dark, pixelated images of what she, her parents and her four younger brothers have been through.
Having escaped this legal no man’s land,...
- 5/3/2024
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Variety Film + TV
Two new Australian films, both enjoying their world premiere, are among the first titles confirmed to play at the Sydney Film Festival in June.
“In Vitro,” a sci-fi mystery thriller set on a remote cattle farm in the near future, hails from directors Will Howarth and Tom McKeith (“Beast”) and stars Ashley Zukerman (“Succession”).
With “The Pool,” director Ian Darling (“The Final Quarter”) paints a cinematic portrait of a year in the life of the iconic Bondi Icebergs, the pool and the people who cherish it.
They will be joined by New Zealand actor Rachel House (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), who makes her feature directorial debut with “The Mountain,” which centers on three children discovering friendship’s healing power through the spirit of adventure as they trek through spectacular New Zealand landscapes. It is executive produced by Taika Waititi and will be eligible for Sydney’s recently announced First Nations Award,...
“In Vitro,” a sci-fi mystery thriller set on a remote cattle farm in the near future, hails from directors Will Howarth and Tom McKeith (“Beast”) and stars Ashley Zukerman (“Succession”).
With “The Pool,” director Ian Darling (“The Final Quarter”) paints a cinematic portrait of a year in the life of the iconic Bondi Icebergs, the pool and the people who cherish it.
They will be joined by New Zealand actor Rachel House (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), who makes her feature directorial debut with “The Mountain,” which centers on three children discovering friendship’s healing power through the spirit of adventure as they trek through spectacular New Zealand landscapes. It is executive produced by Taika Waititi and will be eligible for Sydney’s recently announced First Nations Award,...
- 4/2/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Algirdas Ramaska was born into a family that ran Lithuania’s largest cinema, so it’s safe to say there was only really one way his life was going to go.
And a life immersed in film has surely followed for the man who sits as both the CEO of the annual Vilnius International Film Festival (Viff) and of the Kino Pavasaris Distribution company, which is helping chart the course of cinema across his home country, and across the Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia.
THR caught up with Ramaska in the midst of the 29th edition of Viff, and he has some remarkable stories to share. First, there’s that childhood at the feet of his mother, who ran the famed Lietuva cinema in central Vilnius. Then there’s been a career helping build and guide the Viff in the face of potential catastrophes in recent times, what with...
And a life immersed in film has surely followed for the man who sits as both the CEO of the annual Vilnius International Film Festival (Viff) and of the Kino Pavasaris Distribution company, which is helping chart the course of cinema across his home country, and across the Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia.
THR caught up with Ramaska in the midst of the 29th edition of Viff, and he has some remarkable stories to share. First, there’s that childhood at the feet of his mother, who ran the famed Lietuva cinema in central Vilnius. Then there’s been a career helping build and guide the Viff in the face of potential catastrophes in recent times, what with...
- 3/26/2024
- by Mathew Scott
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
New projects from directors including Agnieszka Holland, Carla Simon, Joachim Trier, Amanda Kernell and Tarik Saleh are among 26 features to receive backing from Eurimages’ in its latest round of co-production funding.
The 26 features – including five documentaries and one animation – have shared a total of €7m funding. Fourteen are to be directed by women.
Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s Franz Kafka biopic Franz received €500,000 ahead of an expected shoot in Czech Republic and Germany next month with newcomer Idan Weiss to play Kafka. Holland’s most recent film Green Border won the special jury prize in competition at Venice in 2023.
Spain’s Carla Simon,...
The 26 features – including five documentaries and one animation – have shared a total of €7m funding. Fourteen are to be directed by women.
Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s Franz Kafka biopic Franz received €500,000 ahead of an expected shoot in Czech Republic and Germany next month with newcomer Idan Weiss to play Kafka. Holland’s most recent film Green Border won the special jury prize in competition at Venice in 2023.
Spain’s Carla Simon,...
- 3/26/2024
- ScreenDaily
French actress Juliette Binoche (“The English Patient”) will be the next president of the European Film Academy Board, succeeding Polish director Agnieszka Holland (“Europa”) in the honorary role. Holland was the first female president of the board.
Binoche was unanimously proposed by the board members after Holland decided to step down. Following a formal approval process, which historically has been a mere formality, Binoche’s appointment will officially begin on May 1, 2024. The presidential role is primarily symbolic.
Holland, who served as chairwoman of the board until 2019, became president in 2021, succeeding German director Wim Wenders. Holland plans to fully dedicate her time to making films.
Holland’s “Europa” won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Her 2023 film “Green Border” won the Special Jury Prize at Venice International Film Festival.
Mike Downey, the current chair of the board, and Academy CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol said...
Binoche was unanimously proposed by the board members after Holland decided to step down. Following a formal approval process, which historically has been a mere formality, Binoche’s appointment will officially begin on May 1, 2024. The presidential role is primarily symbolic.
Holland, who served as chairwoman of the board until 2019, became president in 2021, succeeding German director Wim Wenders. Holland plans to fully dedicate her time to making films.
Holland’s “Europa” won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Her 2023 film “Green Border” won the Special Jury Prize at Venice International Film Festival.
Mike Downey, the current chair of the board, and Academy CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol said...
- 3/14/2024
- by Tony Maglio
- Indiewire
Juliette Binoche, the Oscar-winning French actor whose sprawling career shows no signs of slowing down, is set to succeed Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland as president of the European Film Academy.
The honorary role was previously held by Ingmar Bergman, who served as the first president and was originally chosen by the 40 founding Academy members in 1989. Wim Wenders, who succeeded Bergman in 1996, served until 2020, followed by Holland, who became the first female president and has now decided to step down.
“We want to honour Agnieszka Holland’s wish and completely understand that responsibilities besides filmmaking, however inspiring and important, can sometimes stand in the way of creating art,” said the chair of the Board Mike Downey and Academy CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol in a statement shared with all Academy members in 52 European countries. “A decision like this is also one that makes us realise how much we owe to Agnieszka Holland’s work for our institution.
The honorary role was previously held by Ingmar Bergman, who served as the first president and was originally chosen by the 40 founding Academy members in 1989. Wim Wenders, who succeeded Bergman in 1996, served until 2020, followed by Holland, who became the first female president and has now decided to step down.
“We want to honour Agnieszka Holland’s wish and completely understand that responsibilities besides filmmaking, however inspiring and important, can sometimes stand in the way of creating art,” said the chair of the Board Mike Downey and Academy CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol in a statement shared with all Academy members in 52 European countries. “A decision like this is also one that makes us realise how much we owe to Agnieszka Holland’s work for our institution.
- 3/14/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The migrant dream slips slowly into a nightmare Matteo Garrone’s drama, which takes us on a Continent-crossing odyssey. Although sometimes the tone veers widely from one extreme to another, this is nevertheless a compelling addition to a burgeoning library of dramas concerning the migrant/refugee experience, including Brandt Anderson’s The Strangers Case and Agnieszka Holland’s searing Green Border, in the past 12 months alone.
It begins full of the hopefulness of cousins Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall) as they prepare to leave Senegal for what they firmly believe will be a better life in Europe. Shot with colour and verve by cinematographer Paolo Carnera the optimism of the boys is contagious, even as warnings from Seydou’s mother (Khady Sy) will come to echo through the rest of the film. The mood is, initially, that of a road trip - which, of course, to the boys it is.
It begins full of the hopefulness of cousins Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall) as they prepare to leave Senegal for what they firmly believe will be a better life in Europe. Shot with colour and verve by cinematographer Paolo Carnera the optimism of the boys is contagious, even as warnings from Seydou’s mother (Khady Sy) will come to echo through the rest of the film. The mood is, initially, that of a road trip - which, of course, to the boys it is.
- 3/9/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Agnieszka Holland’s refugee drama The Green Border has taken the top prize for best film at the Polish Film Awards. The black-and-white feature, which looks at the inhumane treatment of refugees trying to cross the natural border between Belarus and Poland, premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival last year but came under attack from Poland’s far-right government, which called the movie “Nazi propaganda” for its supposedly negative depiction of Polish police and border guards. The political attacks are thought to have influenced the Polish Oscar committee’s decision not to put Green Border forward as Poland’s best international film contender this year, instead selecting Dk and Hugh Welchman’s Hugh animated literary adaptation The Peasants (which did not get nominated).
But a lot has changed in Poland since. Parliamentary elections last October ousted the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which had ruled for 8 years,...
But a lot has changed in Poland since. Parliamentary elections last October ousted the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which had ruled for 8 years,...
- 3/7/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Prior to making headlines the next day after a short-lived health scare that required a brief stay in hospital, Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins arrived at Dublin’s Complex arts center last Wednesday to present the Dublin film festival’s highest honor to Steve McQueen. Introduced in 2007 and named the Volta Award, after the first commercial cinema set up in Dublin in 1909 by writer James Joyce, its previous recipients include Daniel Day Lewis, Claudia Cardinale and Al Pacino. The famously serious director was in high spirits, enthusing that “festivals are about passion, a passion for film.” “There’s always a buzz, isn’t there?” he continued. “[As you] go to the next picture, the next film, you tend to give people tips and say, ‘Oh, you’ve got to see this, you’ve got to see that…’”
McQueen was in and out of the festival, flying home the same night, fueling...
McQueen was in and out of the festival, flying home the same night, fueling...
- 3/4/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
The world premere of Irish director Ross Killeen’s Don’t Forget To Remember scooped the audience award as the 22nd Dublin International Film Festival (Diff) drew to a close on Saturday (March 2).
The Irish documentary is a collaboration with artist Asbestos, and explores the lived experience of Alzheimer’s, and the fragility and fortitude of memory.
Scroll down for the full list of Diff winners
“Although it’s a very personal film, Don’t Forget To Remember holds universal themes of love and loss, but most importantly, it’s about how we remember and shows how fragile those memories can be,...
The Irish documentary is a collaboration with artist Asbestos, and explores the lived experience of Alzheimer’s, and the fragility and fortitude of memory.
Scroll down for the full list of Diff winners
“Although it’s a very personal film, Don’t Forget To Remember holds universal themes of love and loss, but most importantly, it’s about how we remember and shows how fragile those memories can be,...
- 3/4/2024
- ScreenDaily
The international scope and grueling human cost of the global refugee crisis lends itself to contemporary epic filmmaking of a particularly sober stripe, as seen mostly recently in Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” and Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated “Io Capitano.” Shorn of their ripped-from-the-headlines urgency, such stories of humans crossing vast distances and facing hostile odds in pursuit of a better life are as old as time itself. A muscular, assured debut feature from U.S. producer-turned-director Brandt Andersen, “The Strangers’ Case” stresses the sprawling scale of the situation with a chaptered structure that pivots between multiple involved parties in the refugee’s journey, from warmongers to traffickers to rescuers to the displaced victims themselves.
That wide span, however, prevents a particularly penetrating look at any individual experience of the crisis. Brandt draws his characters in broad, flat strokes that serve the architecture of the narrative — and its cumulative, practically...
That wide span, however, prevents a particularly penetrating look at any individual experience of the crisis. Brandt draws his characters in broad, flat strokes that serve the architecture of the narrative — and its cumulative, practically...
- 2/25/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The line between art and activism is blurred — often to a fault — in The Strangers’ Case, a visceral migrant drama that plays less as a movie with a message than as a message with a movie.
Written and directed by Brandt Andersen, an executive producer (American Made, Everest), former NBA G League franchise owner and international activist, the film follows several characters whose lives are upended by the Syrian Civil War, switching points of view as it moves from the grim battlegrounds of Aleppo to the gates of Europe.
It can be an intense experience to sit through, and Andersen doesn’t hold back on the gruesome violence and nonstop tragedy many migrants suffered during the conflict — and continue to suffer to this day. But that doesn’t always make for great drama, nor for characters who go deep enough, resulting in a well-meaning film that feels half like a globetrotting Hollywood thriller,...
Written and directed by Brandt Andersen, an executive producer (American Made, Everest), former NBA G League franchise owner and international activist, the film follows several characters whose lives are upended by the Syrian Civil War, switching points of view as it moves from the grim battlegrounds of Aleppo to the gates of Europe.
It can be an intense experience to sit through, and Andersen doesn’t hold back on the gruesome violence and nonstop tragedy many migrants suffered during the conflict — and continue to suffer to this day. But that doesn’t always make for great drama, nor for characters who go deep enough, resulting in a well-meaning film that feels half like a globetrotting Hollywood thriller,...
- 2/23/2024
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Anatomy of a Fall French producer Marie-Ange Luciani put in a flying appearance at the Berlinale this week with Claire Burger’s coming-of-age drama Langue Étrangère which received a warm reception in competition.
With the Berlin premiere taking place the day after the Baftas in London (where Anatomy of a Fall won Best Screenplay) and eight days before the January 27 voting deadline for this year’s Academy Awards, Luciani was also in the thick of the awards campaign.
She co-produced the Oscar hopeful with David Thion at Les Films Pelléas under the banner of her Paris-based banner Les Films de Pierre, the company created by Yves Saint Laurent’s long-time business and life partner Pierre Bergé which she acquired on his death in 2018.
New production Langue Étrangère is a bittersweet coming-of-age tale starring Lilith Grasmug as French teenager Fanny who travels to Germany on language exchange trip. Her German counterpart...
With the Berlin premiere taking place the day after the Baftas in London (where Anatomy of a Fall won Best Screenplay) and eight days before the January 27 voting deadline for this year’s Academy Awards, Luciani was also in the thick of the awards campaign.
She co-produced the Oscar hopeful with David Thion at Les Films Pelléas under the banner of her Paris-based banner Les Films de Pierre, the company created by Yves Saint Laurent’s long-time business and life partner Pierre Bergé which she acquired on his death in 2018.
New production Langue Étrangère is a bittersweet coming-of-age tale starring Lilith Grasmug as French teenager Fanny who travels to Germany on language exchange trip. Her German counterpart...
- 2/23/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Following the October parliamentary election that saw the defeat of the right-wing Law and Justice party and appointment of leader of the opposition party Donald Tusk as prime minister, Polish filmmakers are cautiously readying for change.
“So far, our cinema authorities have not changed. It remains to be seen whether they will change their approach to funding more topical or controversial projects. Recent years have been very difficult in this regard,” says acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland.
Holland’s latest film, refugee drama “Green Border,” had been attacked by the right-wing government last year. Her next film, “Franz,” about Franz Kafka, is a Czech-German-Polish co-production to be sold at EFM by Films Boutique.
“We know everything and nothing about Kafka. There are dozens of detailed biographies and the reasons for his growing importance remain a mystery. I am trying to put this film together like a scattered jigsaw puzzle,” she adds.
“So far, our cinema authorities have not changed. It remains to be seen whether they will change their approach to funding more topical or controversial projects. Recent years have been very difficult in this regard,” says acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland.
Holland’s latest film, refugee drama “Green Border,” had been attacked by the right-wing government last year. Her next film, “Franz,” about Franz Kafka, is a Czech-German-Polish co-production to be sold at EFM by Films Boutique.
“We know everything and nothing about Kafka. There are dozens of detailed biographies and the reasons for his growing importance remain a mystery. I am trying to put this film together like a scattered jigsaw puzzle,” she adds.
- 2/17/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin-based Rise and Shine World Sales has acquired international rights to Lidia Duda’s documentary “Forest,” which will have its world premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
Previously noticed at Ji.hlava, where it picked up the New Visions Award. Duda’s film focuses on a Polish family living right next to the oldest European forest, trying to create a safe haven for their children. But soon, they start noticing refugees stranded in the wilderness, unwelcome both in Poland and Belarus.
“From the beginning, we felt a strong connection to the story,” Rise and Shine manager Anja Dziersk says.
“The encounters of the family with the refugees, in the midst of the forest, bring world politics down to a very personal experience. It reflects on all of us: ‘What would I do in the same situation?’ Lidia Duda manages to create a film which is subjective yet highly relatable.”
The Polish director – also behind “Fledglings,...
Previously noticed at Ji.hlava, where it picked up the New Visions Award. Duda’s film focuses on a Polish family living right next to the oldest European forest, trying to create a safe haven for their children. But soon, they start noticing refugees stranded in the wilderness, unwelcome both in Poland and Belarus.
“From the beginning, we felt a strong connection to the story,” Rise and Shine manager Anja Dziersk says.
“The encounters of the family with the refugees, in the midst of the forest, bring world politics down to a very personal experience. It reflects on all of us: ‘What would I do in the same situation?’ Lidia Duda manages to create a film which is subjective yet highly relatable.”
The Polish director – also behind “Fledglings,...
- 2/15/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.