The Alpha Gang just got a whole lot bigger. A pack of A-listers, including Dave Bautista, Channing Tatum, Steven Yeun, Zoë Kravitz, Léa Seydoux, and Riley Keough are joining two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett in Alpha Gang, the new alien invasion comedy from the Zellner Brothers. The film, set “in a heightened reality” follows a
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It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Wallace, the scattered entrepreneurial protagonist created by the Oscar-winning animator Nick Park, has an invention for everything. The modest suburban home on Wallaby Street that Wallace shares with his expressive beagle, Gromit, is filled with Rube Goldberg-esque gizmos. One machine, functioning as a kind of alarm, ejects
Johnny Depp‘s plane was late coming into Rome, so he missed the Rome Film Festival press conference that was scheduled on Saturday to talk about the new film he directed, Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness. Depp was due to present the film that evening, pick up a prize and then fly out
BAFTA TV Award winner Chris Cottam is set to direct The Light Fantastic, a new ballroom dance comedy movie starring Jeremy Irvine, Rupert Everett, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Layton Williams. Cornerstone will launch worldwide sales for the film at the American Film Market (AFM) in Las Vegas. Inspired by a true story, The Light Fantastic follows
Dick Pope, the veteran British cinematographer who worked on 11 movies with director Mike Leigh, died Tuesday, the British Society of Cinematographers announced. He was 77. No other details were given, but Leigh told Indiewire that Pope had undergone “major heart surgery” before work began on Hard Truths, their film that premiered last month at the Toronto
Amazon MGM Studios is doubling down on its original film business. The studio arrives at MIPCOM Cannes with nearly all its eggs in Earth Abide‘s basket, an original series starring Alexander Ludwig (Vikings) and Jessica Frances Dukes (Ozark). The show is a post-apocalyptic tale, based on George R. Stewart’s 1949 novel, about the fall of
The Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Festival, North America’s largest, has unveiled its programming team for its upcoming 2025 edition. The Toronto festival said Heather Haynes has been promoted to director of programming, and her team for the 2025 edition includes programmers who abruptly resigned in March amid financial woes and the departure of artistic director Hussain Currimbhoy. As
The Chloe Sevigny-starring adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s classic novel Bonjour Tristesse from director Durga Chew-Bose is set to open the 2024 Toronto Film Festival’s Discovery program with a world premiere, organizers said Wednesday. Claes Bang, Lily McInerny and French actress Nailia Harzoune also star in the English-language contemporary take by the Canadian writer-turned-director. TIFF’s Discovery program, which
The 81st Venice International Film Festival has announced the opening night films for its Horizons and Horizons Extra competition sections. Nonostante, the second feature from Italian director Valerio Mastandrea (2018’s Ride) will open the Horizons competition section on August 28. The Horizons Extra competition section will kick off on August 29 with September 5, Tim
One of the finest Japanese independent films of the past few years is finally landing in U.S. cinemas this weekend. Second-time director Kei Chika-ura’s Great Absence, which debuted to strong reviews at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival and later won the best actor prize in San Sebastian for its star, Japanese screen icon Tatsuya Fuji (In the
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.
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