Tim Blake Nelson, the actor, writer, director, producer and regular Coen Brothers collaborator, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light), Italian actor Luca Marinelli (Old Guard), and Belgian producer Diana Elbaum (Elle, Green Border) will join Austrian director Jessica Hausner on the jury of the main competition section of the Locarno Film Festival.
International
Alfonso Cuarón, the Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker known for the likes of Gravity, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Roma, will receive a lifetime achievement award at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. He will receive the honor, a tribute to “film personalities with extraordinary careers,” on Sunday, Aug. 11
The Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland has unveiled an eclectic lineup for its 77th edition, taking place Aug. 7-17. The fest will screen 225 total films, including 104 world premieres, five international premieres and some debut features, including new films from such directors as Hong Sang-soo, Spanish actress Paz Vega and Radu Jude. Gianluca Jodice’s Le
The period around 1968 in what was then known as Czechoslovakia has gotten the film and TV treatment numerous times. But the 58th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) saw the world premiere Waves, of a new take on the time before and after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet Union-led Warsaw
Nicole Holofcener makes films that are about the high drama and inherent comedy in everyday life. The writer-director has long turned what could be seen as a plot point in a larger story — a best friend moving in with a fiancé (Walking and Talking) or a husband lying about liking his wife’s first novel
Clive Owen has never been interested in being comfortable. From Spike Lee’s Inside Man and Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men to Robert Altman’s Gosford Park and Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick, the actor has worked with a range of filmmakers across an expanse of projects over both film, television and the stage. “I like to choose
Nicole Holofcener (Walking and Talking, Friends With Money) on Wednesday entertained attendees of a Czech film festival, discussing, in a Q&A, her collaborations with such stars as Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as well as losing out on directing Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. Holofcener has been busy in the Czech spa town of Karlovy
Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan will be honored with the lifetime achievement award, the Pardo alla Carriera, or career leopard, at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival. The Panthaan, Don 2 and Om Shanti Om star, known to his fans as “King Khan,” will receive the prize at Locarno’s iconic Piazza Grande on Aug. 10. As
Steven Soderbergh has been all over the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary in recent days. On Monday, he shared his takes and insights on such topics as AI, sex scenes, movie release windows, Hollywood’s current “correction,” new projects and even the success of Taylor Swift with a group of reporters. The prolific director, producer, screenwriter and
World politics took center stage in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary on Sunday. Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov world premiered his documentary Real from the trenches of the Ukraine War at the 58th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. But beforehand, he met with Czech president Petr Pavel who expressed the Czech Republic’s support for
When it comes to celebrated Czech writer Franz Kafka, filmmakers the world over have long been inspired to either adapt his work outright or make movies that are decidedly “Kafkaesque,” filled with the kind of angst, alienation and absurdity the made the novelist one of the most prominent and distinctive figures in 20th century literature.
Swedish artist Victoria Verseau, born in 1988 and based in Stockholm, explores themes such as body, memory, identity and social structures via a range a media, from sculptures and installations to performance art and short films. “The works are often based on her personal experiences of being trans and a new woman,” her website highlights.
New Berlin Festival director Tricia Tuttle continues to build up her team for the 2025 Berlinale, on Wednesday naming Michael Stütz and Jacqueline Lyanga the co-directors of film programming for the A-list German event. Stütz will stay on as head of Berlin’s Panorama sidebar, taking on the new duties in July. Lyanga also has close
Liu Cixin‘s bestselling sci-fi book The Three-Body Problem is heading home to China to get another screen adaptation. Zhang Yimou, arguably China’s most revered living filmmaker, is set to direct a Chinese-language feature film based on the novel, it was revealed Sunday during a forum at the Shanghai International Film festival. In Shanghai, Wang Changtian,
Less than a decade ago, the Shanghai International Film Festival was the preeminent annual hotspot for Hollywood and European dealmakers determined to forge alliances and carve out a foothold in China’s then-booming commercial film sector. In the post-pandemic era, however, as the Chinese industry continues to mature and the Hollywood hype over the country’s market
The 2024 Locarno Film Festival will honor veteran indie producer Stacey Sher, whose credits include Erin Brockovich, Gattaca and Django Unchained, with this year’s Premio Raimondo Rezzonico, or best independent producer, Award. The prize celebrates “outstanding personalities who have made major contributions to international film production.” Together with Danny DeVito and Michael Shamberg at Jersey
Life after The Beatles for legendary singer-songwriter John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono in New York City is the focus of Kevin MacDonald’s latest documentary, One to One: John & Yoko, from Mercury Studios. The Scottish filmmaker, coming off his fashion doc High & Low: John Galliano, recalls Lennon in 1972 performing his final full-stage
Ryoo Seung-wan has been a pillar of the South Korean film industry for over 20 years, respected there for his keen social observation and thrilling action. But Europe’s great film festivals have feted him conspicuously less than some of his more internationally well-known peers. The Cannes Film Festival recently took a step toward correcting that
The Seed of the Sacred Fig, the new film from Iranian dissident director Mohammad Rasoulof, may or may not be honored tonight when the Cannes jury hands out its awards. But at the press conference for the film on Saturday, Rasoulof displayed his own heroism. The director used his press conference to call out Iran’s
Grindstone Entertainment are getting into the ring with Ving Rhames. Grindstone have picked up all rights in North America for Uppercut, a boxing thriller starring the Mission Impossible and Pulp Fiction actor as a trainer who agrees to take on a new female fighter. The English-language debut of German writer/director Torsten Ruether, Uppercut is an
When asked to name her organization’s biggest accomplishment so far, Charlene Deleon-Jones, the executive director for Film AlUla and Saudi Tourism leadership board member, doesn’t hesitate to name-check Norah, the first Saudi film to crack the Cannes lineup. The Tawfik Alzaidi-helmed indie movie, which will compete in the fest’s Un Certain Regard section, was shot in
In his short but prolific acting career, 17-year-old Finn Little has covered a lot of terrain, from desolate shorelines to U.S. ranchlands. And his latest, The Surfer, took him to the idyllic beaches of Western Australia. From director Lorcan Finnegan (2019’s Vivarium), The Surfer centers on a man (Nicolas Cage), who takes his son (Little) to the beach where he used to surf
The 2024 Cannes Film Festival competition jury, led by president Greta Gerwig, met the international press Tuesday — and it didn’t take long before the assembled stars were urged to address the various fraught political issues swirling around this year’s edition of the world’s most glamorous film fest. On the eve of the 77th festival, Cannes artistic director
Chinese sales company Parallax Films has notched a batch of sales deals for director Qiu Jiongjiong‘s Locarno 2021 jury prize-winning historical drama A New Old Play. The acclaimed Chinese indie film has sold to France’s Carlotta Films, Japan’s Katsuben Cinema Club, and Singapore’s Cineaste Production House for distribution across all Southeast Asian territories, excluding Indonesia and Vietnam.
Mark Damon, who starred in the Vincent Price horror classic House of Usher and spaghetti Westerns before revolutionizing the foreign sales and distribution film business and producing features including 9 1/2 Weeks, Monster and Lone Survivor, has died. He was 91. Damon died Sunday of natural causes in Los Angeles, his daughter, Alexis Damon Ribaut, told
Veteran European film executive Tanja Meissner has been named the new director of Berlinale Pro*, a newly-created position that will include running the Berlin film festival‘s European Film Market. New Berlin film festival director Tricia Tuttle announced Meissner’s appointment on Friday, May 10, describing the Berlinale Pro* position as “a reshaped role [encompassing] the directorship
Tilda Swinton‘s feature directorial debut is up for an award at Sheffield DocFest where it will get its world premiere as part of a lineup of 48 world premieres from 56 different countries. The U.K. documentary festival, taking place June 12-17, revealed its full program on Wednesday. Its theme for the 31st edition this year
The Cannes film festival has responded to calls for a proposed strike by festival workers over pay and labor regulations. On Tuesday, the festival issued its first official statement, saying it hoped “solutions will be found” to prevent film festival workers from disrupting the 2024 festival, which kicks off May 14. Yesterday, a group calling
A French collective representing the interests of French film festival workers has called for a general strike “of all employees of the Cannes Film Festival and of its sidebars.” The Sous les écrans la dèche (Broke Behind the Screens) collective, made the call in a public statement on Monday. The group has long been sounding
Nishta Jain’s Farming the Revolution, a film about Indian farmers rising up against new laws, picked up the best international feature documentary prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on Friday night. The top jury prize win at the festival means Jain’s film, which world premiered at Hot Docs, will qualify for consideration