Cannes awards have become hugely influential in subsequent awards races, especially the Oscars. The top honor, the Palme d’Or, confers prestige and a stamp of approval — this year from the Competition jury led by multi hyphenate Greta Gerwig — that awards voters take seriously.
Palme winners “Parasite,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Anatomy of a Fall” were all Best Picture Oscar contenders and won Oscars. And they were all picked up by specialty distributor Neon before they won their Cannes prize. Neon did not break its streak. It acquired two eventual prize-winners before the closing ceremony: Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” the first American film to win the prize since Terence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in 2011, and Iranian dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which took home a special award.
Thus “Anora,” from veteran indie filmmaker Baker (Cannes entry “The Florida Project...
Palme winners “Parasite,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Anatomy of a Fall” were all Best Picture Oscar contenders and won Oscars. And they were all picked up by specialty distributor Neon before they won their Cannes prize. Neon did not break its streak. It acquired two eventual prize-winners before the closing ceremony: Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” the first American film to win the prize since Terence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in 2011, and Iranian dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which took home a special award.
Thus “Anora,” from veteran indie filmmaker Baker (Cannes entry “The Florida Project...
- 5/26/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Focus Features has taken worldwide rights to Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest project Bugonia, the remake of South Korean sci-fi comedy Save the Green Planet, which sees the Greek director reunite yet again with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. The trio are here in Cannes with their Competition title Kinds of Kindness, which had its world premiere Friday.
Focus will release Bugonia in the U.S., with Universal Pictures distributing the title internationally (excluding South Korea). It’s the second deal for Focus Features announced in Cannes this week (Focus picked up Woody Harrelson starrer Last Breath a few days ago), but this one will be a notable coup for the studio given that Lanthimos’ previous Oscar-winning titles The Favourite and Poor Things as well as Cannes contender Kinds of Kindness were all handled by Searchlight for distribution.
Bugonia follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company,...
Focus will release Bugonia in the U.S., with Universal Pictures distributing the title internationally (excluding South Korea). It’s the second deal for Focus Features announced in Cannes this week (Focus picked up Woody Harrelson starrer Last Breath a few days ago), but this one will be a notable coup for the studio given that Lanthimos’ previous Oscar-winning titles The Favourite and Poor Things as well as Cannes contender Kinds of Kindness were all handled by Searchlight for distribution.
Bugonia follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company,...
- 5/18/2024
- by Diana Lodderhose and Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Cannes film festival
Nyoni uses unsettlingly playful surrealism in this account of a malign uncle and the family mythmaking that effaces his crimes
Rungano Nyoni is the Zambian-Welsh film-maker who in 2017 had an arthouse smash with her debut, the witty and distinctive misogyny fable I Am Not a Witch. Her new film is an oblique, intensely self-aware and often seriocomically strange family drama about sexual abuse. Its final moments give us something of the magic realism that the title hints at, but its playfully and startlingly surreal images are perhaps at odds with the fundamental seriousness of what this film is about. While it’s such an intriguing idea, an almost absurdist scrutiny of what avoidance looks like and how families choreograph their collective denial, there is something a little bit contrived in it and, though always engaged, I found myself longing for some outright passion or rage or confrontation.
Nyoni uses unsettlingly playful surrealism in this account of a malign uncle and the family mythmaking that effaces his crimes
Rungano Nyoni is the Zambian-Welsh film-maker who in 2017 had an arthouse smash with her debut, the witty and distinctive misogyny fable I Am Not a Witch. Her new film is an oblique, intensely self-aware and often seriocomically strange family drama about sexual abuse. Its final moments give us something of the magic realism that the title hints at, but its playfully and startlingly surreal images are perhaps at odds with the fundamental seriousness of what this film is about. While it’s such an intriguing idea, an almost absurdist scrutiny of what avoidance looks like and how families choreograph their collective denial, there is something a little bit contrived in it and, though always engaged, I found myself longing for some outright passion or rage or confrontation.
- 5/16/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Rungano Nyoni made her name in 2017 with her Directors’ Fortnight entry I am Not a Witch, a surreal comedy of sorts in which a young Zambian girl named Shula is forced to choose between being turned into a goat or confessing that she is a witch. Opting for the latter, Shula is sent to a witch camp and put to work in the service of the community, the source of some uncomfortable satire, creating a space for Nyoni to explore the points of conflict between superstition and civilization in modern African society.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, by its total alone, suggests something similar, but although the protagonist is also called Shula, Nyoni’s sophomore film is something darker and altogether more serious. This time, the focus is the rub between tradition and modernity, using the occasion of a family funeral as the jumping-off point for a slow-burn drama builds,...
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, by its total alone, suggests something similar, but although the protagonist is also called Shula, Nyoni’s sophomore film is something darker and altogether more serious. This time, the focus is the rub between tradition and modernity, using the occasion of a family funeral as the jumping-off point for a slow-burn drama builds,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
It is polite, we are told, not to speak ill of the dead, though it’s just as often prudent not to speak ill of the living. For victims with grievances against those older and more powerful than them, it’s hard to know when to speak up at all. But a quivering collective fury scalds through the silence in Rungano Nyoni’s tremendous new film “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” — as a group of young women, nursing the scars of sexual abuse, chafe against the quiet complicity of family elders when their shared perpetrator drops suddenly and none-too-sadly dead. Blending molasses-dark comedy with searing poetic realism to capture contemporary Zambian society at a generational impasse between staunch tradition and social progress, this is palpably new, future-minded filmmaking, at once intrepidly daring and rigorously poised.
Unspooling in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar — though more worthy of a spot in the main Competition,...
Unspooling in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar — though more worthy of a spot in the main Competition,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In a different world, had she not been readying her long-awaited sophomore feature, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” for its Cannes premiere, Rungano Nyoni might have spent the past few weeks preparing her family for its upcoming move to Zambia, the southern African nation where the director was born and spent part of her childhood. Instead, it was a mad dash to get the film across the finish line.
“It’s been long hours, non-stop for weeks,” Nyoni says on the eve of the French fest’s opening night. The frenzy isn’t likely to let up anytime soon: The director and her family plan to move house and fly to Zambia not long after the whirlwind of her Cannes premiere. Even those rare moments of calm on the Croisette between photo calls and press junkets aren’t likely to offer much relief. “I brought my toddler for good measure,...
“It’s been long hours, non-stop for weeks,” Nyoni says on the eve of the French fest’s opening night. The frenzy isn’t likely to let up anytime soon: The director and her family plan to move house and fly to Zambia not long after the whirlwind of her Cannes premiere. Even those rare moments of calm on the Croisette between photo calls and press junkets aren’t likely to offer much relief. “I brought my toddler for good measure,...
- 5/16/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Emily Morgan’s Quiddity Films, the UK producer of Felipe Galvez’s Cannes 2023 title The Settlers, has landed strategic investment from Mexican production services outfit The Lift.
The Lift’s backing will support the development of Quiddity’s upcoming projects, and the companies will collaborate on select titles. It marks The Lift’s first international investment.
Morgan’s company is further expanding by hiring its first head of production, Filiz-Theres Erel, and first head of development, Alex Hitch.
Erel’s past credits include production manager on Netflix’s Persuasion and Roger Michell’s The Duke, while Hitch worked as a development executive for Ray Pictures.
The Lift’s backing will support the development of Quiddity’s upcoming projects, and the companies will collaborate on select titles. It marks The Lift’s first international investment.
Morgan’s company is further expanding by hiring its first head of production, Filiz-Theres Erel, and first head of development, Alex Hitch.
Erel’s past credits include production manager on Netflix’s Persuasion and Roger Michell’s The Duke, while Hitch worked as a development executive for Ray Pictures.
- 5/15/2024
- ScreenDaily
Getting a feature into Cannes’ official selection is among the pinnacles of filmmaking achievements for most production companies. Ireland’s Element Pictures clearly isn’t most production companies — this year, it has three.
According to co-founder Ed Guiney, who set up Element with Andrew Lowe in 2001, while his company’s triple-headed festival visit may be “wonderful”, it’s simply down to good fortune and timing. “You know, some years you have nothing for Cannes,” he says, speaking from Element’s breezy, white-walled Dublin headquarters, located above an outdoor clothing shop and a jeweler on the Irish capital’s busy O’Connell Street, where it also runs its distribution arm Volta Pictures and the programming for the popular arthouse Light House Cinema, which it has operated since 2012.
But for anyone who has been keeping an eye on Element over the last decade, this edition of Cannes is merely another unprecedented milestone...
According to co-founder Ed Guiney, who set up Element with Andrew Lowe in 2001, while his company’s triple-headed festival visit may be “wonderful”, it’s simply down to good fortune and timing. “You know, some years you have nothing for Cannes,” he says, speaking from Element’s breezy, white-walled Dublin headquarters, located above an outdoor clothing shop and a jeweler on the Irish capital’s busy O’Connell Street, where it also runs its distribution arm Volta Pictures and the programming for the popular arthouse Light House Cinema, which it has operated since 2012.
But for anyone who has been keeping an eye on Element over the last decade, this edition of Cannes is merely another unprecedented milestone...
- 5/14/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Element Pictures is coming off the back of yet another buzzy awards season with its absurdist comedy Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, notching 11 Oscar nominations and coming home with four wins, including Best Actress for Emma Stone. But just when it feels like the company’s trajectory can’t get higher, the Irish-Anglo production, distribution and exhibition banner is hitting the Croisette this year with no less than three films in the Cannes official selection. Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness, which reunites him with his long-term writing partner Efthimis Fillipou and Poor Things stars Stone and Willem Dafoe, will compete for the Palme d’Or, while French actor Ariane Labed’s directorial debut September Says and I Am Not a Witch director Rungano Nyoni’s sophomore feature On Becoming A Guinea Fowl are both screening in the Un Certain Regard section.
It’s especially significant to Element co-founders and...
It’s especially significant to Element co-founders and...
- 5/9/2024
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Rising Brit actor Harry Lawtey (Industry), who will have a key role in upcoming sequel Joker: Folie A Deux, has been set to star as a young Richard Burton in UK feature Mr. Burton, which will also star BAFTA winner Toby Jones (Mr Bates vs. The Post Office) and Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (The Crown).
The film will tell the true story of the relationship between Welsh schoolmaster Philip Burton (Jones) and a wild young schoolboy called Richard Jenkins (Lawtey). Richard dreamed of becoming an actor, but his ambitions were in danger of being derailed by a combination of family trouble, the pressure of war, and his own lack of discipline. Mr. Burton recognised the raw talent in his pupil, and made it his mission to fight for him, becoming his tutor, strict taskmaster and eventually his adoptive father. Richard Jenkins would go on to become Richard Burton, the...
The film will tell the true story of the relationship between Welsh schoolmaster Philip Burton (Jones) and a wild young schoolboy called Richard Jenkins (Lawtey). Richard dreamed of becoming an actor, but his ambitions were in danger of being derailed by a combination of family trouble, the pressure of war, and his own lack of discipline. Mr. Burton recognised the raw talent in his pupil, and made it his mission to fight for him, becoming his tutor, strict taskmaster and eventually his adoptive father. Richard Jenkins would go on to become Richard Burton, the...
- 5/8/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Dwayne Johnson is scheduled to descend on the Croisette for a buyers presentation to promote A24’s The Smashing Machine that Screen understands will take place on Tuesday (May 14).
The studio is producing and financing Benny Safdie’s biopic of the turbulent life of Mma fighter Mark Kerr and has high hopes for the project that sees it reunite with its Uncut Gems co-director.
Johnson’s appearance on the Croisette recalls pre-Covid years when A-listers frequently attended Cannes to meet buyers.
The Smashing Machine marks a step up in terms of scale for A24. Furthermore, industry sources regard it as...
The studio is producing and financing Benny Safdie’s biopic of the turbulent life of Mma fighter Mark Kerr and has high hopes for the project that sees it reunite with its Uncut Gems co-director.
Johnson’s appearance on the Croisette recalls pre-Covid years when A-listers frequently attended Cannes to meet buyers.
The Smashing Machine marks a step up in terms of scale for A24. Furthermore, industry sources regard it as...
- 5/7/2024
- ScreenDaily
‘Great 8’ 2024: BFI Sets Line Up Of British Titles From Early Career Directors Set For Cannes Market
The BFI is once again heading to the Cannes Market with its so-called Great 8 — a selection of projects from first and second-time filmmakers that it will present to international buyers.
Now in its seventh year, the 2024 Great 8 showcase is funded and produced by the BFI and the British Council, with support from the Great Britain & Northern Ireland campaign, BBC Film, and Film4. The list includes Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira’s feature On Falling, produced by Jack Thomas-o’Brien for Sixteen Films. The full list of titles are:
Brides – director Nadia Fall, writer Suhayla El-Bushra Bring Them Down – director/writer Christopher Andrews The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford – director/writer Sean Dunn On Falling – director/writer Laura Carreira The Salt Path – director Marianne Elliott, writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz Sunlight – director Nina Conti, writers Shenoah Allen, Nina Conti Surviving Earth – director/writer Thea Gajić Witches – director/writer Elizabeth Sankey
With 2022 and 2023 editions taking place online,...
Now in its seventh year, the 2024 Great 8 showcase is funded and produced by the BFI and the British Council, with support from the Great Britain & Northern Ireland campaign, BBC Film, and Film4. The list includes Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira’s feature On Falling, produced by Jack Thomas-o’Brien for Sixteen Films. The full list of titles are:
Brides – director Nadia Fall, writer Suhayla El-Bushra Bring Them Down – director/writer Christopher Andrews The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford – director/writer Sean Dunn On Falling – director/writer Laura Carreira The Salt Path – director Marianne Elliott, writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz Sunlight – director Nina Conti, writers Shenoah Allen, Nina Conti Surviving Earth – director/writer Thea Gajić Witches – director/writer Elizabeth Sankey
With 2022 and 2023 editions taking place online,...
- 5/2/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, producer of Blue Story and Boxing Day, has wrapped production on her directorial debut Dreamers, with Finland’s The Yellow Affair by Newen Connect launching sales at Cannes.
Screen can also exclusively reveal a first-look image of Dreamers, a love story and escape movie set in an immigration removal centre. It focuses on a woman named Isio, played by Screen Star of Tomorrow 2023 Ronke Adékoluejo, who is caught working without papers, trapped inside Hatchworth removal centre, where she learns that finding love, friendship and freedom sometimes means doing the wrong things.
Further cast includes I May Destroy You’s Ann Akinjirin,...
Screen can also exclusively reveal a first-look image of Dreamers, a love story and escape movie set in an immigration removal centre. It focuses on a woman named Isio, played by Screen Star of Tomorrow 2023 Ronke Adékoluejo, who is caught working without papers, trapped inside Hatchworth removal centre, where she learns that finding love, friendship and freedom sometimes means doing the wrong things.
Further cast includes I May Destroy You’s Ann Akinjirin,...
- 4/29/2024
- ScreenDaily
Updated: The Cannes Film Festival will have an admirable UK and Irish presence in 2024, including three films from Dublin, London and Belfast-based production company Element Pictures, Andrea Arnold’s Bird in Competition and features from fresh talents Sandhya Suri and Rungano Nyoni, as well as Sister Midnight in Directors’ Fortnight.
Competition is still proving a tricky spot to land for UK or Irish directors. In 2022, none made the cut, while in 2023, UK filmmakers Ken Loach and Jonathan Glazer made it through with The Old Oak and The Zone Of Interest respectively.
This year, Arnold is flying the flag with her...
Competition is still proving a tricky spot to land for UK or Irish directors. In 2022, none made the cut, while in 2023, UK filmmakers Ken Loach and Jonathan Glazer made it through with The Old Oak and The Zone Of Interest respectively.
This year, Arnold is flying the flag with her...
- 4/17/2024
- ScreenDaily
“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” the second feature from Zambian-Welsh writer-director Rungano Nyoni, has been picked up by A24 for international sales ahead of its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival next month.
The film, which marks Nyoni’s follow-up to her acclaimed 2017 feature debut “I Am Not a Witch,” was also financed by A24 alongside BBC Film and Fremantle, while it was developed by BBC Film and Element Pictures. It will bow in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar competition.
While the plot has been kept under wraps, in his lineup announcement Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the film was a “family drama” set in Africa and also a “comedy,” describing it as “very strong.”
“I Am Not a Witch,” which first landed in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, marked Nyoni as a filmmaker with a unique voice and one to watch. A darkly comic story of a young African girl who...
The film, which marks Nyoni’s follow-up to her acclaimed 2017 feature debut “I Am Not a Witch,” was also financed by A24 alongside BBC Film and Fremantle, while it was developed by BBC Film and Element Pictures. It will bow in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar competition.
While the plot has been kept under wraps, in his lineup announcement Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the film was a “family drama” set in Africa and also a “comedy,” describing it as “very strong.”
“I Am Not a Witch,” which first landed in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, marked Nyoni as a filmmaker with a unique voice and one to watch. A darkly comic story of a young African girl who...
- 4/11/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Filming is due to get underway in late spring on Mr Burton, an upcoming biopic about the man who inspired screen legend, Richard Burton.
The film will tell the true story of the relationship between Welsh schoolmaster Philip Burton and a wild young schoolboy called Richard Jenkins. Richard dreamed of becoming an actor, but his ambitions were in danger of being derailed by a combination of family trouble, the pressure of war, and his own lack of discipline. Mr Burton recognised the raw talent in his pupil, and made it his mission to fight for him, becoming his tutor, strict taskmaster and eventually his adoptive father.
BAFTA winner Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), fresh off his acclaimed performance in momentous UK TV series Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, will star in the title role, with Oscar nominee Lesley Manville playing ‘Ma Smith’, Philip...
The film will tell the true story of the relationship between Welsh schoolmaster Philip Burton and a wild young schoolboy called Richard Jenkins. Richard dreamed of becoming an actor, but his ambitions were in danger of being derailed by a combination of family trouble, the pressure of war, and his own lack of discipline. Mr Burton recognised the raw talent in his pupil, and made it his mission to fight for him, becoming his tutor, strict taskmaster and eventually his adoptive father.
BAFTA winner Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), fresh off his acclaimed performance in momentous UK TV series Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, will star in the title role, with Oscar nominee Lesley Manville playing ‘Ma Smith’, Philip...
- 2/8/2024
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Recruitment for a new CEO is underway.
Pauline Burt – the founding CEO of Welsh film agency Ffilm Cymru Wales – is to step down after 17 years.
Since Burt founded the agency in 2006, it has invested £15.8m of National Lottery funding in supporting 89 feature films through to production, and many more in development. These include Gideon Koppel’s documentary Sleeping Furiously, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch, Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, Lee Haven’s Gwledd (The Feast), Euros Lyn’s Dream Horse, Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby, Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd’s Unicorns and animation Kensuke’s Kingdom.
Pauline Burt – the founding CEO of Welsh film agency Ffilm Cymru Wales – is to step down after 17 years.
Since Burt founded the agency in 2006, it has invested £15.8m of National Lottery funding in supporting 89 feature films through to production, and many more in development. These include Gideon Koppel’s documentary Sleeping Furiously, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch, Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, Lee Haven’s Gwledd (The Feast), Euros Lyn’s Dream Horse, Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby, Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd’s Unicorns and animation Kensuke’s Kingdom.
- 8/11/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
It’s been a whirlwind two weeks, and as relieved as attendees and observers around the world are that the 2023 edition of Cannes has come to a close, we’re already eager for next year’s. Though too much attention may have been paid to the wrong things – controversies regarding the opening night selection, “Jeanne du Barry,” and altercations with police over bicycles come to mind – cinema and its celebration ultimately took centerstage. By most accounts, 2023 was an improvement over two (understandably) subdued years.
This year’s Main Competition jury was headed by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and co-jurored by Julia Ducournau (“Titane”), Paul Dano, Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet (recently seen in “Beau is Afraid”), Atiq Rahimi (“Our Lady of the Nile”), Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales” and this year’s “To Catch a Killer”), Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) and Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan...
This year’s Main Competition jury was headed by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and co-jurored by Julia Ducournau (“Titane”), Paul Dano, Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet (recently seen in “Beau is Afraid”), Atiq Rahimi (“Our Lady of the Nile”), Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales” and this year’s “To Catch a Killer”), Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) and Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan...
- 5/28/2023
- by Ronald Meyer and Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
As relieved as attendees and observers around the world are that the 2023 edition of Cannes has come to a close, we’re already eager for next year’s. Though too much attention may have been paid to the wrong things – controversies regarding the opening night selection, “Jeanne du Barry,” and altercations with police over bicycles come to mind – cinema and its celebration ultimately took centerstage. By most accounts, 2023 was an improvement over two (understandably) subdued years.
This year’s Main Competition jury was headed by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and co-jurored by Julia Ducournau (“Titane”), Paul Dano, Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet (recently seen in “Beau is Afraid”), Atiq Rahimi (“Our Lady of the Nile”), Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales” and this year’s “To Catch a Killer”), Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) and Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan”). The Un Certain Regard series was presided over by John C. Reilly.
This year’s Main Competition jury was headed by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and co-jurored by Julia Ducournau (“Titane”), Paul Dano, Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet (recently seen in “Beau is Afraid”), Atiq Rahimi (“Our Lady of the Nile”), Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales” and this year’s “To Catch a Killer”), Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) and Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan”). The Un Certain Regard series was presided over by John C. Reilly.
- 5/28/2023
- by Ronald Meyer and Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
The interlinked names of the lovers have an unusual power in Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s haunting, halting “Banel & Adama.” They play over and over as a whispery lullaby on the soundtrack. They cover the sheets of paper on which Banel (Khady Mane) compulsively writes, like a schoolgirl practicing cursive on the name of her crush. There’s an innocence to it at the beginning, as though Banel, whose strange mind we mostly occupy, is simply delighting in the sound and shape of their togetherness. But that’s when “Banel & Adama” is a love story, and before it descends, a little too hesitantly but with a subtly seductive power nonetheless, into drought and madness and maybe, cosmic retribution. The sun-and-superstition-soaked tale of an African girl contending with fate and folk tradition has some precedent in Rungano Nyoni’s excellent “I Am Not a Witch.” But here, as the bright imagery...
- 5/20/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
“You cannot go against your destiny,” 18-year-old Banel is warned in Banel & Adama (Banel e Adama), a visually striking and deceptively heavy debut from French-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy, only the second Black woman to make it into the Cannes Competition since Mati Diop’s Atlantics in 2019. At first sight, Sy’s film seems a bit of an outlier in a lineup sprinkled with veterans, and the extra scrutiny that comes with a Competition slot may well work against it. But it’s entirely possible that it might strike a chord with the jury, notably Rungano Nyoni, whose debut I Am Not a Witch took a similarly subversive and sophisticated approach to themes of African tradition and folklore.
Banel, played by the revelatory Khady Mane, is a romantic, and when we meet her she is hopelessly in love with Adama (Mamadou Diallo), her childhood sweetheart. Banel was once promised to another man,...
Banel, played by the revelatory Khady Mane, is a romantic, and when we meet her she is hopelessly in love with Adama (Mamadou Diallo), her childhood sweetheart. Banel was once promised to another man,...
- 5/20/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
At Tuesday’s press conference in Cannes featuring this year’s competition jury, Oscar winner Brie Larson was asked to recall her reaction upon receiving the call to serve. “I care so much about this medium and so to be in the company of these people I admire so much is a huge honor,” she answered.
Larson channeled that into what looked like exhilaration hours later as she hit the Palais red carpet for the first time in making her Cannes debut, wearing a Chanel gown accessorized with the luxury fashion house’s high jewelry. After exiting the car, Larson was all smiles, expressive faces and the pièce de résistance — a dance break at the top of the iconic stairs — before entering the venue for the night’s opening ceremony and a screening of Maïwenn’s Johnny Depp-starrer Jeanne du Barry.
The festival and its pomp and circumstance typically delivers...
Larson channeled that into what looked like exhilaration hours later as she hit the Palais red carpet for the first time in making her Cannes debut, wearing a Chanel gown accessorized with the luxury fashion house’s high jewelry. After exiting the car, Larson was all smiles, expressive faces and the pièce de résistance — a dance break at the top of the iconic stairs — before entering the venue for the night’s opening ceremony and a screening of Maïwenn’s Johnny Depp-starrer Jeanne du Barry.
The festival and its pomp and circumstance typically delivers...
- 5/16/2023
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Members of the Cannes Film Festival competition jury, including Paul Dano, Brie Larson and president Ruben Östlund, talked about the ongoing WGA strike and Johnny Depp during the jury press conference on Tuesday, the opening day of the 76th edition of the fest.
Along with Östlund, Dano and Larson, Titane-directing Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau, I Am Not a Witch breakout filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, actor Denis Ménochet, Argentinian director Damián Szifron, Afghani-born, French-based filmmaker Atig Ranimi and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani make up this year’s jury.
Cannes is happening while back in the U.S., screenwriters continue to occupy picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, with contract negotiations still ongoing with the major networks and studios. When asked about the strike, Östlund offered, “I think it is great that people have a strong collegial feeling so people can go out and have a strike. I am definitely pro.
Along with Östlund, Dano and Larson, Titane-directing Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau, I Am Not a Witch breakout filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, actor Denis Ménochet, Argentinian director Damián Szifron, Afghani-born, French-based filmmaker Atig Ranimi and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani make up this year’s jury.
Cannes is happening while back in the U.S., screenwriters continue to occupy picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, with contract negotiations still ongoing with the major networks and studios. When asked about the strike, Östlund offered, “I think it is great that people have a strong collegial feeling so people can go out and have a strike. I am definitely pro.
- 5/16/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The buyers’ event is organised by the BFI and British Council.
Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby, Amrou Al-Kadhi’s Layla and Daniel Kokotajlo’s sophomore feature, Starve Acre, are among the eight features selected for Great8, the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from emerging directors organised by the British Film Institute (BFI) and British Council.
The showcase, now in its sixth year, presents UK feature films from first and second-time filmmakers to international distributors and festival programmers. It is funded and run by the BFI and British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4.
In preparation for the Marché,...
Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby, Amrou Al-Kadhi’s Layla and Daniel Kokotajlo’s sophomore feature, Starve Acre, are among the eight features selected for Great8, the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from emerging directors organised by the British Film Institute (BFI) and British Council.
The showcase, now in its sixth year, presents UK feature films from first and second-time filmmakers to international distributors and festival programmers. It is funded and run by the BFI and British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4.
In preparation for the Marché,...
- 5/9/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The BFI and British Council have unveiled the eight new British films that will be presented to international distributors and festival programmers at the Cannes film market as part of the annual Great8 showcase.
Unseen footage from the films, from first and second time U.K. filmmakers, will be introduced by their filmmakers and screened on May 11. Now in its sixth year, the initiative is in partnership with BBC Film and Film4. Films previously highlighted by Great8 include Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Rungano Nyoni’s “I Am Not A Witch,” Georgia Oakley’s “Blue Jean” and Rose Glass’ “Saint Maud.”
Agnieszka Moody, BFI head of international and industry policy, said: “The lineup of films and filmmakers featuring in this year’s Great8 continues to shine a light on the exciting diversity of filmmaker voices and stories continuing to come out of the U.K. We are proud alongside our partners at the British Council,...
Unseen footage from the films, from first and second time U.K. filmmakers, will be introduced by their filmmakers and screened on May 11. Now in its sixth year, the initiative is in partnership with BBC Film and Film4. Films previously highlighted by Great8 include Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Rungano Nyoni’s “I Am Not A Witch,” Georgia Oakley’s “Blue Jean” and Rose Glass’ “Saint Maud.”
Agnieszka Moody, BFI head of international and industry policy, said: “The lineup of films and filmmakers featuring in this year’s Great8 continues to shine a light on the exciting diversity of filmmaker voices and stories continuing to come out of the U.K. We are proud alongside our partners at the British Council,...
- 5/9/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Ruben Östlund has a bunch of cinephile buddies to help him hand out the big daddy of all film prizes this May with the festival unveiling who his fellow jurors are and at the top of the list of eight, we find a recent Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau. A youthful bunch with not many whites hairs, we also find British-Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch), actor-director Paul Dano (he had a fine moment presenting Wildlife in the Critic’s Week), actor-short-film-filmmaker Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet who had a great Cannes Premiere showing last year with The Beasts (As bestas), The Blue Caftan filmmaker Maryam Touzani, Our Lady of the Nile filmmaker Atiq Rahimi and Damián Szifrón who delivered quite the comedy in Cannes with Wild Tales and now has To Catch a Killer (also known as Misanthrope in some territories) currently in its theatrical release.
- 5/4/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Mumbai, May 4 (Ians) The Cannes jury class of 2023 has finally been unveiled.
The festival has rounded out its jury – led this year by ‘Triangle of Sadness’ director and 2022 Palme d’Or winner Ruben Ostlund, reports Variety.
The jury includes a star-studded roster of actors and directors like actors Paul Dano and Brie Larson, Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, French actor Denis Menochet, British-Zambian screenwriter and director Rungano Nyoni, Afghan author Atiq Rahimi, Argentinian director and screenwriter Damian Szifron and director Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or in 2021 for her film ‘Titane’.
As per Variety, the jury will award the Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films playing in competition. The awards will be revealed on May 27 at the festival’s closing ceremony.
Ostlund’s selection as jury president was announced by Cannes on February 27, leaving a considerable gap of just over two months before the full jury reveal.
The festival has rounded out its jury – led this year by ‘Triangle of Sadness’ director and 2022 Palme d’Or winner Ruben Ostlund, reports Variety.
The jury includes a star-studded roster of actors and directors like actors Paul Dano and Brie Larson, Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, French actor Denis Menochet, British-Zambian screenwriter and director Rungano Nyoni, Afghan author Atiq Rahimi, Argentinian director and screenwriter Damian Szifron and director Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or in 2021 for her film ‘Titane’.
As per Variety, the jury will award the Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films playing in competition. The awards will be revealed on May 27 at the festival’s closing ceremony.
Ostlund’s selection as jury president was announced by Cannes on February 27, leaving a considerable gap of just over two months before the full jury reveal.
- 5/4/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
The Cannes jury class of 2023 has finally been unveiled.
The festival has rounded out its jury — led this year by “Triangle of Sadness” director and 2022 Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund — with a star-studded roster of actors and directors.
Jury members include: actors Paul Dano and Brie Larson, Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, French actor Denis Ménochet, British-Zambian screenwriter and director Rungano Nyoni, Afghan author Atiq Rahimi, Argentinian director and screenwriter Damián Szifrón and director Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or in 2021 for her film “Titane.”
The jury will award the Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films playing in competition. The awards will be revealed on May 27 at the festival’s closing ceremony.
Östlund’s selection as jury president was announced by Cannes on Feb. 27, leaving a considerable gap of just over two months before the full jury reveal. As in past years, most jury members have...
The festival has rounded out its jury — led this year by “Triangle of Sadness” director and 2022 Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund — with a star-studded roster of actors and directors.
Jury members include: actors Paul Dano and Brie Larson, Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, French actor Denis Ménochet, British-Zambian screenwriter and director Rungano Nyoni, Afghan author Atiq Rahimi, Argentinian director and screenwriter Damián Szifrón and director Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or in 2021 for her film “Titane.”
The jury will award the Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films playing in competition. The awards will be revealed on May 27 at the festival’s closing ceremony.
Östlund’s selection as jury president was announced by Cannes on Feb. 27, leaving a considerable gap of just over two months before the full jury reveal. As in past years, most jury members have...
- 5/4/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
The Batman and The Fabelmans star Paul Dano, Titane-directing Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau, I Am Not a Witch breakout filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, and Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson will help make up the superstar competition jury for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Together with French actor Denis Ménochet, of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid; Argentinian director Damián Szifron (Wild Tales, To Catch a Killer); Afghani-born, French-based filmmaker Atig Ranimi (Earth and Ashes, The Patience Stone); and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan, Adam), they will join jury president Ruben Östlund, director of last year’s Cannes winner The Triangle of Sadness, in judging the Palme d’Or winners at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival.
Together, the jury will screen the 21 films picked for Cannes competition this year —among them Todd Haynes’ May December, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City,...
Together with French actor Denis Ménochet, of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid; Argentinian director Damián Szifron (Wild Tales, To Catch a Killer); Afghani-born, French-based filmmaker Atig Ranimi (Earth and Ashes, The Patience Stone); and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan, Adam), they will join jury president Ruben Östlund, director of last year’s Cannes winner The Triangle of Sadness, in judging the Palme d’Or winners at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival.
Together, the jury will screen the 21 films picked for Cannes competition this year —among them Todd Haynes’ May December, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City,...
- 5/4/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Swiss filmmaker Simon Jaquemet returns to feature filmmaking with the forthcoming Electric Child. Today, Deadline can share a first look at the pic featuring Danish-American actor Elliott Crosset Hove.
Hove was one of last year’s breakout performers for his work in the buzzy festival pic Godland. He picked up a European Film Award nomination for his role in the period epic, which debuted at Cannes.
In Electric Child, Hove stars opposite Rila Fukushima (Annette), Sandra Guldberg Kampp (Wildland), João Nunes Monteiro (Mosquito), and Helen Schneider (Eddie and the Cruisers).
Production on the pic took place in Switzerland, Germany, the Philippines, and Portugal. Ascot Elite will distribute in Switzerland. Port au Prince has taken Germany, and Cherry Pickers will distribute in the Netherlands. The film is currently in post. Producers are aiming for an early 2024 release.
The film’s full synopsis reads: When his newborn son is threatened by a rare disease,...
Hove was one of last year’s breakout performers for his work in the buzzy festival pic Godland. He picked up a European Film Award nomination for his role in the period epic, which debuted at Cannes.
In Electric Child, Hove stars opposite Rila Fukushima (Annette), Sandra Guldberg Kampp (Wildland), João Nunes Monteiro (Mosquito), and Helen Schneider (Eddie and the Cruisers).
Production on the pic took place in Switzerland, Germany, the Philippines, and Portugal. Ascot Elite will distribute in Switzerland. Port au Prince has taken Germany, and Cherry Pickers will distribute in the Netherlands. The film is currently in post. Producers are aiming for an early 2024 release.
The film’s full synopsis reads: When his newborn son is threatened by a rare disease,...
- 3/24/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
First published August 19th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Prime Video, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
When you rent or purchase a film through the Prime Video and Apple links here, I get a small affiliate fee that helps support my work. Please use them if you can! (Affiliate fees do not increase your cost.)
both sides of the pond
This is true: In the 1990s and into the early 2000s, a British man called Robert Freegard pretended to be an MI5 agent...
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Prime Video, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
When you rent or purchase a film through the Prime Video and Apple links here, I get a small affiliate fee that helps support my work. Please use them if you can! (Affiliate fees do not increase your cost.)
both sides of the pond
This is true: In the 1990s and into the early 2000s, a British man called Robert Freegard pretended to be an MI5 agent...
- 9/18/2022
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Tori and Lokita, the latest from the eerily consistent Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, pulls you in opposite directions when assessing it. It is as consummately made and passionately intended as anything they’ve done, but the filmmakers, as is apparent in less-successful films, can really undermine themselves with choices in plotting. I’ll never forget viewing my first, The Son, as a student in undergrad, both marveling and being almost perturbed at what a simple, elemental conflict—a man forgiving the murderer of his child—drove the entire film and generated all its tension. As in Lorna’s Silence and The Unknown Girl, this story can’t move without plot streaming out of every corner, contrivances piling upon contrivances, the way the tape could peel out of an old analog cassette or VHS.
Comparing the Dardennes to Ken Loach, one of their most profound influences, is significant too. Film critics can...
Comparing the Dardennes to Ken Loach, one of their most profound influences, is significant too. Film critics can...
- 6/2/2022
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
The adaptation of Deborah Levy’s novel will be directed by Justin Anderson.
Ariane Labed, Christopher Abbott and Mackenzie Davis have signed to star in Justin Anderson’s directorial debut Swimming Home, which Bankside Films is introducing to international buyers at Cannes. US rights are being co-repped by UTA Independent Film Group and WME Independent.
The film is an adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-nominated novel of the same name by Deborah Levy and is a dark comedy about a troubled married couple and their teenage daughter whose holiday is transformed by the naked stranger they find floating in the pool of their villa.
Ariane Labed, Christopher Abbott and Mackenzie Davis have signed to star in Justin Anderson’s directorial debut Swimming Home, which Bankside Films is introducing to international buyers at Cannes. US rights are being co-repped by UTA Independent Film Group and WME Independent.
The film is an adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-nominated novel of the same name by Deborah Levy and is a dark comedy about a troubled married couple and their teenage daughter whose holiday is transformed by the naked stranger they find floating in the pool of their villa.
- 5/13/2022
- by Louise Tutt
- ScreenDaily
The BFI and British Council have revealed the line-up for this year’s Great8 showcase, which allows international distributors and festival programmers to get an early look at eight releases from emerging U.K. filmmakers in the run-up to Cannes Marché.
Now in its fifth year, the showcase on May 12 will allow filmmakers to screen unseen footage from the films, which will be available to buy during the market, which runs from May 17-28.
Of the eight films selected for the showcase, one has also been selected for the official Directors’ Fortnight and another for the Critics’ Week line-up. The remaining six films are in post-production.
The Great8 showcase is funded and organized by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4. It has previously presented films including “I Am Not A Witch” and “Calm with Horses.”
Neil Peplow, the BFI’s Director of Industry and International Affairs,...
Now in its fifth year, the showcase on May 12 will allow filmmakers to screen unseen footage from the films, which will be available to buy during the market, which runs from May 17-28.
Of the eight films selected for the showcase, one has also been selected for the official Directors’ Fortnight and another for the Critics’ Week line-up. The remaining six films are in post-production.
The Great8 showcase is funded and organized by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4. It has previously presented films including “I Am Not A Witch” and “Calm with Horses.”
Neil Peplow, the BFI’s Director of Industry and International Affairs,...
- 5/4/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Eva Yates has been appointed Director of BBC Film.
The assumed front-runner for the job, Yates will be responsible for the development and production of films backed by the broadcaster.
Yates, who replaces Rose Garnett who is leaving to join A24, will also oversee Storyville, the BBC’s documentary films strand led by Philippa Kowarsky.
Yates is currently Acting Director of BBC Film and joined the broadcaster in 2017. As a BBC commissioner and executive producer, she has commissioned more than 30 features, most recently Aleem Khan’s BAFTA winner After Love; Blue Story by Andrew Rapman Onwubolu; Remi Weekes’s BAFTA winner His House; and Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun which will premiere in Cannes Critics Week 2022.
Prior to joining the BBC, she worked for eight years as an executive at Film4, where she executive-produced movies including Rungano Nyoni’s BAFTA winner I Am Not A Witch, which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight and...
The assumed front-runner for the job, Yates will be responsible for the development and production of films backed by the broadcaster.
Yates, who replaces Rose Garnett who is leaving to join A24, will also oversee Storyville, the BBC’s documentary films strand led by Philippa Kowarsky.
Yates is currently Acting Director of BBC Film and joined the broadcaster in 2017. As a BBC commissioner and executive producer, she has commissioned more than 30 features, most recently Aleem Khan’s BAFTA winner After Love; Blue Story by Andrew Rapman Onwubolu; Remi Weekes’s BAFTA winner His House; and Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun which will premiere in Cannes Critics Week 2022.
Prior to joining the BBC, she worked for eight years as an executive at Film4, where she executive-produced movies including Rungano Nyoni’s BAFTA winner I Am Not A Witch, which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight and...
- 5/4/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Eva Yates has been promoted to the high profile role of director of BBC Film, a position previously held by Rose Garnett, who has moved on to indie studio A24.
Yates, who is currently acting director of BBC Film, will be responsible for the development and production of the 12-15 films the company produces every year. She will also oversee Storyville, the BBC’s flagship feature documentary strand, under the new leadership of Philippa Kowarsky.
Yates joined the BBC in 2017. As a BBC commissioner and executive producer, she has commissioned over 30 feature films, most recently Aleem Khan’s six-time BIFA and BAFTA winning and Cannes selected “After Love.” Previously, Yates worked for eight years as an executive at Film4, where she executive produced Rungano Nyoni’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection “I Am Not A Witch,” which won the BAFTA for outstanding British debut and “Been So Long,” starring Michaela Coel.
Yates, who is currently acting director of BBC Film, will be responsible for the development and production of the 12-15 films the company produces every year. She will also oversee Storyville, the BBC’s flagship feature documentary strand, under the new leadership of Philippa Kowarsky.
Yates joined the BBC in 2017. As a BBC commissioner and executive producer, she has commissioned over 30 feature films, most recently Aleem Khan’s six-time BIFA and BAFTA winning and Cannes selected “After Love.” Previously, Yates worked for eight years as an executive at Film4, where she executive produced Rungano Nyoni’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection “I Am Not A Witch,” which won the BAFTA for outstanding British debut and “Been So Long,” starring Michaela Coel.
- 5/4/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Major role in UK film ecosystem is responsible for £11m yearly budget.
Eva Yates has been confirmed as the new director of BBC Film, taking on one of the major roles in the independent UK film ecosystem.
Yates has been acting director at the development and production body since the departure of Rose Garnett to join US firm A24, announced in early March this year. She will start immediately as director, and will be in Cannes.
Yates will oversee BBC Film’s £11m annual budget for development and production, which goes towards 12 to 15 films a year. Also under her remit is the Storyville documentary strand,...
Eva Yates has been confirmed as the new director of BBC Film, taking on one of the major roles in the independent UK film ecosystem.
Yates has been acting director at the development and production body since the departure of Rose Garnett to join US firm A24, announced in early March this year. She will start immediately as director, and will be in Cannes.
Yates will oversee BBC Film’s £11m annual budget for development and production, which goes towards 12 to 15 films a year. Also under her remit is the Storyville documentary strand,...
- 5/4/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
A further £502,882 has been allocated.
Enys Men, Pretty Red Dress and Quiddity Films are among the recipients of an additional 12 awards that have been issued by the UK Global Screen Fund (Gsf).
A total of £502,882 has been allocated through the £7m fund’s international distribution and international business development strands. The awards are financed through the UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), and adminsterd by the BFI.
Three of the seven titles receiving international distribution awards are represented by sales agent Protagonist Pictures – Mark Jenkin’s psychological horror Enys Men, the debut feature of former...
Enys Men, Pretty Red Dress and Quiddity Films are among the recipients of an additional 12 awards that have been issued by the UK Global Screen Fund (Gsf).
A total of £502,882 has been allocated through the £7m fund’s international distribution and international business development strands. The awards are financed through the UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), and adminsterd by the BFI.
Three of the seven titles receiving international distribution awards are represented by sales agent Protagonist Pictures – Mark Jenkin’s psychological horror Enys Men, the debut feature of former...
- 3/3/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
French drama made the shortlist for the best international feature film Oscar.
Filippo Meneghetti’s award-winning French drama Two Of Us is being lined up for an English-language remake.
Film producer Sarah Sulick, of London-based Bright Pictures, and Eve Gabereau, CEO of UK distributor Modern Films, have teamed up to option the English-language remake rights to the feature, which made the shortlist for best international feature film at this year’s Academy Awards.
The story centres on a lesbian couple facing up to the challenge of coming out after two decades of secret passion and companionship.
It marks the first film optioned by Modern Films.
Filippo Meneghetti’s award-winning French drama Two Of Us is being lined up for an English-language remake.
Film producer Sarah Sulick, of London-based Bright Pictures, and Eve Gabereau, CEO of UK distributor Modern Films, have teamed up to option the English-language remake rights to the feature, which made the shortlist for best international feature film at this year’s Academy Awards.
The story centres on a lesbian couple facing up to the challenge of coming out after two decades of secret passion and companionship.
It marks the first film optioned by Modern Films.
- 7/20/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The franchise title has topped the £1m mark from its opening day.
Universal’s Fast & Furious 9 leads the new titles at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, having recorded the highest takings for a weekday since before the Covid-19 pandemic on its Thursday 24 opening.
The film has brought in £1.2m already, and is playing in 597 locations from today.
As of last weekend, the highest-grossing title since cinemas were allowed to reopen in the UK on May 17 was Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway with £15.3m. While an opening weekend of that amount would be an extraordinary result with 50% audience caps still in place,...
Universal’s Fast & Furious 9 leads the new titles at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, having recorded the highest takings for a weekday since before the Covid-19 pandemic on its Thursday 24 opening.
The film has brought in £1.2m already, and is playing in 597 locations from today.
As of last weekend, the highest-grossing title since cinemas were allowed to reopen in the UK on May 17 was Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway with £15.3m. While an opening weekend of that amount would be an extraordinary result with 50% audience caps still in place,...
- 6/25/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Next month’s Mubi lineup has been unveiled and if you can’t make it to Cannes Film Festival, they are spotlighting recent favorites from the event. As part of a Cannes Takeover series, they will show Lisandro Alonso’s Viggo Mortensen-led Jauja, the Zambian drama I Am Not a Witch, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After the Storm, plus two films from directors who have new films in this year’s lineup, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II and Nanni Moretti’s Mia Madre, plus more.
Also in the lineup will be the Mubi debut of Magnus van Horn’s Sweat, which opens in theaters today, plus series on Jean-Claude Carriére and Luis Buñuel’s collaboration and a trio of films by the prolific Chilean master Raúl Ruiz. There will also be some recent festival favorites, including Arab Blues starring Golshifteh Farahani...
Also in the lineup will be the Mubi debut of Magnus van Horn’s Sweat, which opens in theaters today, plus series on Jean-Claude Carriére and Luis Buñuel’s collaboration and a trio of films by the prolific Chilean master Raúl Ruiz. There will also be some recent festival favorites, including Arab Blues starring Golshifteh Farahani...
- 6/18/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Now in its fourth edition, the showcase is funded and run by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4.
New films from Harry Wootliff, the directors of Notes On Blindness and Yardie star Aml Ameen are among the titles selected for this year’s Great 8, the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from emerging directors.
The selected filmmakers will present unseen footage from their films to international buyers and festival programmers online on June 17. All eight films are in post-production and will be available to buyers at the pre-Cannes screenings virtual market (June...
New films from Harry Wootliff, the directors of Notes On Blindness and Yardie star Aml Ameen are among the titles selected for this year’s Great 8, the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from emerging directors.
The selected filmmakers will present unseen footage from their films to international buyers and festival programmers online on June 17. All eight films are in post-production and will be available to buyers at the pre-Cannes screenings virtual market (June...
- 6/10/2021
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Film Movement has acquired North American rights to “Wildland,” Jeanette Nordahl’s debut feature starring Sidse Babett Knudsen (“Borgen”) as a mafia ringleader.
The gripping crime drama, which was part of the Berlinale 2020 selection, will next premiere at New York City’s Film Forum, followed by a wide theatrical release and roll out on all digital and home entertainment platforms.
The announcement was made by Michael Rosenberg, president of Film Movement, and Andrea dos Santos for Bac Films Distribution.
Set in the Danish countryside around an old industrialized farming town, “Wildland” follows a 17-year old girl, Ida, who moves in with her aunt and cousins after the tragic death of her mother in a car accident. The home is filled with love, but outside of the home, the family leads a violent and criminal life.
Produced by Snowglobe, the film was written by Ingeborg Topsoe, whose recent credits include Milad Alami’s “The Charmer.
The gripping crime drama, which was part of the Berlinale 2020 selection, will next premiere at New York City’s Film Forum, followed by a wide theatrical release and roll out on all digital and home entertainment platforms.
The announcement was made by Michael Rosenberg, president of Film Movement, and Andrea dos Santos for Bac Films Distribution.
Set in the Danish countryside around an old industrialized farming town, “Wildland” follows a 17-year old girl, Ida, who moves in with her aunt and cousins after the tragic death of her mother in a car accident. The home is filled with love, but outside of the home, the family leads a violent and criminal life.
Produced by Snowglobe, the film was written by Ingeborg Topsoe, whose recent credits include Milad Alami’s “The Charmer.
- 5/11/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Jury members include ‘Animals’ producer Sarah Brocklehurst.
Wild Rose director Tom Harper and Animals producer Sarah Brocklehurst are among the jurors of this year’s British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).
Brocklehurst will preside over the main jury that includes The Last Tree actor Samuel Adewunmi; Daphne and Rialto director Peter Mackie Burns; writer and actor Mark O’Halloran; Blue Story producer Joy Gharoro Akpojotor; Only You filmmaker Harry Wootliff; writer-director Reggie Yates; Anthony Andrews, co-founder of exhibitor We Are Parable; and broadcaster Yinka Bokinni
The new talent jury will be chaired by film critic Amon Warmann and includes Harper, whose Wild Rose...
Wild Rose director Tom Harper and Animals producer Sarah Brocklehurst are among the jurors of this year’s British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).
Brocklehurst will preside over the main jury that includes The Last Tree actor Samuel Adewunmi; Daphne and Rialto director Peter Mackie Burns; writer and actor Mark O’Halloran; Blue Story producer Joy Gharoro Akpojotor; Only You filmmaker Harry Wootliff; writer-director Reggie Yates; Anthony Andrews, co-founder of exhibitor We Are Parable; and broadcaster Yinka Bokinni
The new talent jury will be chaired by film critic Amon Warmann and includes Harper, whose Wild Rose...
- 12/21/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Harry Macqueen’s second feature premiered at San Sebastian.
Bleecker Street has acquired North American rights from The Bureau Sales to Supernova starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci ahead of its BFI London Film Festival screening this weekend.
Harry Macqueen’s second feature premiered at San Sebastian and will open in the UK through Studiocanal.
Macqueen wrote the Quiddity Films production about a loving couple visiting friends on a tour of England after a life-changing diagnosis, when a secret emerges that tests their love.
Emily Morgan of Quiddity Films (I Am Not A Witch) produced with Tristan Goligher of The Bureau.
Bleecker Street has acquired North American rights from The Bureau Sales to Supernova starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci ahead of its BFI London Film Festival screening this weekend.
Harry Macqueen’s second feature premiered at San Sebastian and will open in the UK through Studiocanal.
Macqueen wrote the Quiddity Films production about a loving couple visiting friends on a tour of England after a life-changing diagnosis, when a secret emerges that tests their love.
Emily Morgan of Quiddity Films (I Am Not A Witch) produced with Tristan Goligher of The Bureau.
- 10/9/2020
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
In the first trailer for “Supernova,” Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth play a married couple of 20 years who are taking what might be their last vacation together before Tucci’s mind slowly begins to drift away due to young-onset dementia.
That story sets the basis for the romance and drama in “Supernova,” which is written and directed by Harry Macqueen (“Hinterland”) and comes from the producers of “45 Years” and “I Am Not a Witch.”
“I want to be remembered for who I was, and not for who I’m about to become,” Tucci’s character says in the trailer. “I want to see this through with you to the end,” Firth’s character adds.
“Supernova” shows how on this vacation as they put jobs and plans on hold and try to preserve the time they have left, their individual ideas for their future begin to collide. Secrets are uncovered,...
That story sets the basis for the romance and drama in “Supernova,” which is written and directed by Harry Macqueen (“Hinterland”) and comes from the producers of “45 Years” and “I Am Not a Witch.”
“I want to be remembered for who I was, and not for who I’m about to become,” Tucci’s character says in the trailer. “I want to see this through with you to the end,” Firth’s character adds.
“Supernova” shows how on this vacation as they put jobs and plans on hold and try to preserve the time they have left, their individual ideas for their future begin to collide. Secrets are uncovered,...
- 9/22/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci star as a couple traveling through England in an old Rv visiting friends and places from their past in “Supernova.” Check out the trailer for the film above, shared exclusively with Variety.
Written and directed by Harry Macqueen (“Hinterland”), “Supernova” is billed as a modern love story centered on Sam (Firth) and Tusker (Tucci), partners of 20 years who are traveling the country in a bid to reconnect with their past amid Tusker’s early-onset dementia diagnosis. As the trip progresses, their relationship is tested like never before. Ultimately, they must confront the question of what it means to love one another in the face of Tusker’s irreparable illness.
Firth won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for his portrayal of King George VI in “The King’s Speech.” His performance in “A Single Man” also won him a BAFTA and an Oscar nomination.
Written and directed by Harry Macqueen (“Hinterland”), “Supernova” is billed as a modern love story centered on Sam (Firth) and Tusker (Tucci), partners of 20 years who are traveling the country in a bid to reconnect with their past amid Tusker’s early-onset dementia diagnosis. As the trip progresses, their relationship is tested like never before. Ultimately, they must confront the question of what it means to love one another in the face of Tusker’s irreparable illness.
Firth won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for his portrayal of King George VI in “The King’s Speech.” His performance in “A Single Man” also won him a BAFTA and an Oscar nomination.
- 9/22/2020
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
2019 Foreign Language Film Oscar Submissions Algeria – Until The End Of Time – Yasmine Chouikh Argentina– The Angel (El Angel) – Luis Ortega Austria – The Waldheim Waltz – Ruth Beckermann Belarus – Crystal Swan – Darya Zhuk Belgium – Girl – Lukas Dhont Bolivia – Muralla – Rodrigo Patiño Bosnia – Never Leave Me – Aida Begic Brazil – The Great Mystical Circus – Carlos Diegues Bulgaria – Omnipresent – Ilian Djevelekov Cambodia – Graves Without A Name – Rithy Pan Canada – Watch Dog – Sophie Dupuis Chile – And Suddenly The Dawn – Silvio Caiozzi Colombia– Birds of Passage, Cristina Gallego & Ciro Guerra Croatia – The Eighth Commissioner – Ivan Salaj Czech Republic – Winter Flies – Olmo Omerzu Denmark – The Guilty – Gustav Möller Dominican Republic – Cocote – Nelson Carlo de los Santos Ecuador – A Son Of Man – Jamaicanoproblem and Pablo Agüero Egypt – Yomeddine – Abu Bakr Shawky Estonia – Take It Or Leave It – Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo Finland – Euthanizer – Teemu Nikin France – Memoir Of War – Emmanuel Finkiel Georgia – Namme – Zaza Khalvashi Germany – Never Look Away – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck...
- 8/21/2020
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Matt Dillon’s ‘El Gran Fellove’ has also been selected to play out of competition.
San Sebastian International Film Festival has added four new titles that will compete for the Golden Shell award at its 68th edition, set to run September 18-26.
They include Harry Macqueen’s Supernova, Eduardo Crespo’s We Will Never Die, Danielle Arbid’s Simple Passion and Julien Temple’s Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane McGowan.
The festival has also added documentary El Gran Fellove as a special screening out of competition, which marks the second feature directed by actor Matt Dillon.
All...
San Sebastian International Film Festival has added four new titles that will compete for the Golden Shell award at its 68th edition, set to run September 18-26.
They include Harry Macqueen’s Supernova, Eduardo Crespo’s We Will Never Die, Danielle Arbid’s Simple Passion and Julien Temple’s Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane McGowan.
The festival has also added documentary El Gran Fellove as a special screening out of competition, which marks the second feature directed by actor Matt Dillon.
All...
- 8/6/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
If the only way filmmakers could process life in quarantine was scripted Zoom conversations, the art form might be screwed. “Homemade,” a wondrous and mostly satisfying anthology of 17 short films made over the past two months around the world, proves the opposite. A dense collection of inquisitive, unpredictable and often life-affirming responses to the pandemic from some of the most astute directors working today,
Whereas many anthology projects can feel like mixed bags by default, “Homemade” has been tailor-made to fit its Netflix-sanctioned format, with shorts divided up into chapters that range from four to 11 minutes, and few that feel extraneous. As a diverse assemble of style and substance from active filmmakers with unique sensibilities, it doubles as an overview of international cinema and entry point to many of its strongest active voices, while giving them the opportunity to capture a unique moment in the history of the medium,...
Whereas many anthology projects can feel like mixed bags by default, “Homemade” has been tailor-made to fit its Netflix-sanctioned format, with shorts divided up into chapters that range from four to 11 minutes, and few that feel extraneous. As a diverse assemble of style and substance from active filmmakers with unique sensibilities, it doubles as an overview of international cinema and entry point to many of its strongest active voices, while giving them the opportunity to capture a unique moment in the history of the medium,...
- 6/30/2020
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
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