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Village Roadshow has officially filed for bankruptcy. Village Roadshow Entertainment Group is a production company whose film division, Village Roadshow Pictures, was founded in 1989. The Australian media company Village Roadshow also holds a 3% stake in the company. The American producer's first ever film was The Delinquents, a 1989 release that was distributed by Warner Bros. Since then, the company has gone on to produce major films including The Matrix, Miss Congeniality, Zoolander, Ocean's Eleven, Happy Feet, Joker, and more recently, Wonka.

Per Variety, Village Roadshow has now filed for bankruptcy. The company officially filed for Company 11 in Delaware on Monday, March 17. Court documents cite $223.8 million in asset-backed secured notes and $163.1 million in senior secured debt. The filing followed a legal battle with Warner Bros., which was talked about in the court documents, an excerpt from which can be read below:

The company historically enjoyed a prolific co-production, co-financing and co-ownership relationship with WB,...

Todd Haynes, who is serving as Berlin Film Festival jury president, spoke out against Donald Trump’s administration as the fest kicked off on Thursday.

When asked his thoughts on Trump’s second term at the jury press conference, the “May December” director said bluntly: “We’re in a state of particular crisis right now in the United States, but also globally.”

He continued, “Everyone I know in the United States and friends abroad are witnessing this barrage of actions in the first three weeks of the Trump administration with tremendous concern, shock. I think that’s been part of the strategy, to create a sense of destabilization and shock among the people. So how we proceed toward coalescing different forms of resistance are still in the works and are still being figured out among Democrats. I have no doubt that there will be many people who did in fact...

Chinese star Fan Bingbing (I Am Not Madame Bovary, The 355) and German actor/director Maria Schrader (I’m Your Man, She Said) will join jury president Todd Haynes to judge the competition films at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, the Berlinale announced Thursday.

Berlin unveiled its international jury for the 2025 event, which runs Feb. 13-23, which will see the Far from Heaven and Carol director heading up the four-woman, three-man jury that will pick this year’s Gold and Silver Bear winners.

Alongside Fan and Schrader, the 2025 Berlinale jury includes Moroccan-French director Nabil Ayouch (Much Loved, Horses of God), German costume designer Bina Daigeler (TÁR, Mulan), Argentine director Rodrigo Moreno (The Delinquents), and American critic and podcast host Amy Nicholson.

Haynes has a long history with the Berlinale. His debut feature Poison won the Teddy Award, for LGBTQ+ cinema, at Berlin in 1991.

The 75th Berlinale kicks off with...

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the competition jury of its 75th edition, including Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch (“Everybody Loves Touda”), German costume designer Bina Daigeler (Tár), Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno (“The Delinquents”), film critic Amy Nicholson and actress-director Maria Schrader (“She Said”).

As previously announced, the jury will be presided over by “May December” filmmaker Todd Haynes.

Earlier this month, the festival announced an exciting lineup, including Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon,” starring Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley, and Michel Franco’s “Dreams” with Jessica Chastain. Other notable titles on the competition roster include “Hot Milk,” the feature debut of acclaimed screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz (“She Said”) starring Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw and Vicky Krieps; and “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Mary Bronstein’s film starring Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky and Conan O’Brien.

A pair of Chinese movies, “Girls on Wire” (“Xiang fei...

Naysayers be damned. The mainstream film industry may be on its last legs but the cinematic art form is alive and well. I enjoyed so many films this year I actually have two top-ten lists that are largely interchangeable. If you want to hear my other ten, feel free to check out the end of year review on my podcast The Cinematologists. Following on from last year’s approach, here are my ten for Dn. All ten were released in UK cinemas (or debuted on streaming) in 2024 and are listed here alphabetically.

Honourable mentions: The Delinquents, Sky Peals, The Holdovers, The Settlers, Sometimes I Think About Dying

10. Adam Sandler: Love You | Josh Safdie

The last two Sandler specials for Netflix have been wonderful. I admire his commitment to being silly, and sentimental. In a world as messy as this, there needs to be places for silliness, and there are...

Cinema Tropical, the premier presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States, has announced its annual list of the Best Latin American and U.S. Latinx Films of 2024. This year’s prestigious selection showcases 32 exceptional films—26 from across Latin America and six from U.S. Latinx filmmakers—representing a vibrant spectrum of contemporary storytelling. These films will compete for the 15th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards, with winners to be revealed on January 14, 2025, at a ceremony at Film at Lincoln Center in New York City.

The selected films span diverse genres, themes, and countries, highlighting the creative and cultural richness of Latin American cinema. Festival favorites such as La Cocina by Alonso Ruizpalacios, The Delinquents by Rodrigo Moreno, Pepe by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, and Sujo by Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero are among the contenders for top honors. The winners will be recognized in categories including Best Film,...

With turkeys packed in bellies and holiday gift shopping now officially underway, it’s getting to be that time of year where we look back on 2024 and reflect on what’s most important: The movies that made it all bearable. Kicking things off, the storied French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema has released its top 10, which include some selections from IndieWire’s own 2023 best-of list. Though our official 2024 list is not yet locked in, we also share some items on our 2024, so far best-of list. The list only includes movies that opened theatrically in France in 2024, hence the crossover.

Serving as the hub for the French New Wave and launching the careers of legendary talents such as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, Cahiers du Cinema has been in publication since 1951 and continues to offer a bold, distinct voice in the world of film. One of its more unique choices over...

No matter the changes and upheavals from recent years, Cahiers du cinéma’s status as cinematic north pole has waned little––evidenced by annual top 10 lists combining beloved arthouse titles, one or two mainstream favorites, and titles whose status has yet to be established stateside.

This year is the epitome of such, topping out with Alain Guiraudie’s great Misericordia––his fifth time on the list and second in first place, after 2013’s Stranger by the Lake––and continuing with Todd Haynes’ May December. Works that have shown up many places this year and last find real estate with three those either lesser-seen or entirely disregarded in America: Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, Sophie Fillières’ Ma vie ma guele, and Jonás Trueba’s Septembre sans attendre. Meanwhile––and in a sterling confirmation that Cahiers knows what is up––there is love for M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap.

See the full...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSNorma Rae.The Academy Foundation Workers Union has approved its first contract, including structured raises, extended leave time, increased job security, and other benefits.Just weeks after the conclusion of the festival, Hot Docs has announced it will lay off staff and temporarily shutter its year-round cinema in Toronto.The Hollywood Commission, chaired by Anita Hill, has introduced an online tool to report workplace abuse in the American motion-picture industry.The organizing wave in New York cinemas continues as the Cinema Village union becomes official. In PRODUCTIONIn his signature direct-oblique style, David Lynch is teasing “something…for you to see and hear,” which “will be coming along” on June 5.REMEMBERINGSuper Size Me.Morgan Spurlock has died at 53. The filmmaker followed his debut feature,...

In this episode, we discuss the need to escape from realism, a convention in today's cinema. Nele Wohlatz is a German director and screenwriter who lived in Argentina for twelve years. There she made some short films and her first film in co-direction with Gerardo Naumann, Ricardo Bär, presented at Bafici and later at FIDMarseille. In Buenos Aires she also shot her first solo fiction, El futuro perfecto, which won the Best First Feature Award at the Locarno Festival in 2017. Using documentary and fiction elements, Wohlatz has questioned in her filmography the limitations of language, the foreign perspective, and the construction of migrant characters’ identities. Her second feature film, Dormir con los ojos abiertos, shot in Brazil, premiered in the Encounters Competition at the Berlinale, where it won the Fipresci Critics' Prize.On the other hand, Rodrigo Moreno is an Argentine director and screenwriter with thirty years of experience. He...

The Cannes 2024 market saw a thrilling revival with nine movies — including four movies in the main competition — selling to specialized distributors in domestic deals. However, this wasn’t exactly a return to business as normal: The buyers weren’t stalwarts like A24, or Focus, or IFC. Instead Mubi, Metrograph Pictures, and Sideshow (in partnership with Janus Films) established themselves as major buyers.

Mubi bought three titles in the main competition: “The Girl With the Needle,” “The Substance,” and added North American rights on Andrea Arnold’s “Bird.” (It came to the festival with UK rights.) “The Substance” starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley represents a major swing for the upstart, with one source placing the deal in the low-eight figures.

Sideshow picked up Indian drama “All We Imagine As Light” in the main competition, the animated “Flow” from Un Certain Regard, and “Misericordia” and Leos Carax’s “It’s Not Me,...

Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their film. Rodrigo Moreno's The Delinquents (2023) is showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries.Inspiration #1Il PostoIl Posto.Many years after Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini's revolution of Neorealism in Italy, others took the relevant elements of that manifesto—using natural actors, filming real spaces, and incorporating social and political concerns—to find a cinematic poetry based on an accurate mise-en-scène. Here is Ermanno Olmi, one of the greatest Italian directors: sensitive, original, personal, and above all, subtle. I copied this frame and pasted it into The Delinquents. Inspiration #2The constant detourMaine-Océan.In every one of Jacques Rozier’s films (here are two frames from the great Maine-Océan [1986]) it is impossible to guess what’s next. Apart from an always improvised and lively mise-en-scène that takes everything close to the abyss,...

Personal, vaguely auto-fictional stories are de rigueur for first-time filmmakers, especially actors turning directors.Iair Said, seen in last year’s The Delinquents, makes an undistinguished debut after trying his hand at a couple of shorts. Increasingly, subjects of coming-of-age tales are infantilized millennials, the point being they never came of age and have to do so in their 30s. Seeing teenagers grapple with adulthood can be stirring, but seeing 30-somethings do so can quickly get tiresome. Most People Die On Sundays, represents David’s (Iair Said) aimlessness almost too well as the film itself comes across as meandering, ill-formed and without a proper destination in mind. David is a mid-30s student in Italy and Said begins the film in unsparing and self-effacing fashion. We see...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

In this episode, the acting profession is discussed as a permanent quest to suspend time.Luis Gnecco is a Chilean actor with an extensive career in theater and television since the 1990s. In the last decade, his versatility has been recognized internationally for collaborating with important Latin American directors such as Rodrigo Sepúlveda, Fernando Meirelles, and Carlos Carrera. In Pablo Larraín's Neruda and Matías Lira's El bosque de Karadima, he played two well-known and controversial characters in Chilean history, sparking interesting discussions about the fictionalization of reality and the representation of horror. On the other hand, Esteban Bigliardi is an Argentine actor with a diverse filmography spanning various dramatic styles. His collaborations with directors such as Lisandro Alonso, Romina Paula, Alejandro Fadel, and María Alché have allowed him to explore genres as diverse as family drama, thriller, experimental narratives, and even horror.In the last year, he starred...

Magnify, the International sales arm of Magnolia Pictures, has acquired global and U.S. sales rights to Taiwanese thriller “Pierce” from first-time feature filmmaker Nelicia Low. An official teaser has now been released for the title ahead of its sales launch at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes.

“Pierce” follows Jie, a young fencer reconnecting with his estranged older brother Han, who mysteriously returns after seven years in juvenile prison for killing an opponent during a fencing competition. Jie believes Han’s insistence that he is innocent and decides to help him, defying his mother’s efforts to erase Han from their lives. Han grows close to Jie in training him for the national championships, but his hostile past is triggered after an argument, leaving Jie to begin to question whether his beloved brother might be a violent sociopath after all.

The film stars Ding Ning (who won a...

Exclusive: Arizona Distribution has acquired French rights for Argentinian director Federico Luis’s first feature Simon of the Mountain ahead of its world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week in May.

The coming-of-age tale stars rising Argentinian actor, singer and song writer Lorenzo Ferro as a young man grappling with the challenges of a mental disorder.

Cannes Critics’ Week Artistic Director Ava Cahen has described the film as a deeply human drama challenging the misperceptions around disability.

French arthouse distributor Arizona has a track record in handling independent Argentinian cinema having previously released Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2023.

“Federico Luis’ first feature film is an intense, masterful work of rare power. Its discovery was an emotional explosion for us, and we can’t wait to share it with French audiences,” said Arizona Distribution CEO Bénédicte Thomas.

“We’re delighted to once again be supporting an Argentinian film,...

Iair Said’s debut feature Most People Die On Sundays has been acquired for France by distributor Jhr Films ahead of its world premiere in Cannes’ Acid programme.

The Argentinian comedy drama is already set for release in Latin America via Star+ (Disney+) and in Spain with A Contracorriente Films.

Said’s short Present Imperfect previously competed for the short film Palme d’Or.

Most People Die On Sundays centres on an overweight 30-something who returns to his native Argentina to reconnect with his mother and his Jewish family. There he embarks on a quest across Buenos Aires to quench his anxiety via driving lessons,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSAn Inconvenient Truth.Participant, the socially conscious production company, has closed, which filmmaker Julie Cohen called “devastating news to anyone who cares about documentaries.” Their twenty-year track record includes many nonfiction films, such as An Inconvenient Truth (2006), but also narrative features like Spotlight (2015) and Roma (2018).New data suggests that Hollywood production has gradually rebounded after last year’s WGA and SAG strikes, though not to the levels of the “peak TV” streaming bubble.The Archival Producers Alliance has drafted best practices for the use of generative AI in documentary, cautioning against the “danger of forever muddying the historical record.”In PRODUCTIONMartin Scorsese is reportedly developing a Frank Sinatra biopic, to star Leonardo DiCaprio as the crooner and Jennifer Lawrence as Ava Gardner.

Exclusive: New York-based sales company Visit Films has sold Geoff McFetridge: Drawing A Life, which debuted at SXSW, and New York Film Festival title The Practice to Gravitas Ventures for North American distribution.

Gravitas Ventures will release both films in July on all platforms.

The Practice (La Práctica) is directed by Martin Rejtman and premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival before playing fests around the circuit, including New York Film Festival and BFI London. The film follows Gustavo, a recently separated yoga instructor, as he must deal with increasingly absurd situations and relationships to land back on his feet. Starring are Esteban Bigliardi, and Camila Hirane (Fugitives). The Practice is a co-production of Un Puma, Quijote Films, Rosa Filmes, Pandora Film Produktion, África, in association with Arte/Zdf. It was produced by Joaquim Sapinho, Victoria Marotta, Christoph Friedel,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSThe Truman Show.Joana Vicente has resigned from her post at the helm of the Sundance Film Festival after less than three years. Some industry sources have pointed to a contentious relationship with the board on fundraising matters as one possible explanation.This year’s Cannes Film Festival will open with Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act, a surrealist backstage comedy starring Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel, and Raphaël Quenard.Concerns about copyright, continuity, tech business models, and the uncanny valley lead industry insiders to speculate that generative AI won’t soon be making its big-screen debut, though it will increasingly be a part of pre-production workflows.Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023) has opened in Japan to mixed...

Last year’s Un Certain Regard section had a treasure trove of highlights in Kamal Lazraq’s Hounds, Rodrigo Moreno’s Los Delincuentes, Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies, Monia Chokri’s Simple comme Sylvain and Felipe Gálvez’s The Settlers and Un Certain Regard section winner in Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sexhas been playing like gangbusters on the festival and awards circuit. This year should offer some more national cinema gems.

À son image –...

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Mar 22-24)Total gross to dateWeek 1. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony) £4.1m £4.1m 1 2. Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros) £2.6m £30.7m 4 3. Immaculate (Black Bear) £491,000 £522,000 1 4. Wicked Little Letters (Studiocanal) £373,413 £8.2m 5 5. Migration (Universal) £370,415 £19.5m 8

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire topped the UK-Ireland box office with a £4.1m opening weekend, ending the three-week run of Dune: Part Two atop the chart.

Opening in 687 sites, Frozen Empire took a £5,904 location average. Its opening was up 7.7% on the £3.8m start of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the first in a reboot of the franchise in 2021, with that film taking a £5,721 location average.

It is also...

Spooky titles lead the new openers at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend with Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire unleashing into 687 cinemas.

The fifth addition to the ghoul-hunting franchise is slightly up from its predecessor Ghostbusters: Afterlife which opened in 670 locations in 2021. That film had an opening weekend of £3.7m and ended shy of £12m. It also has more locations than Paul Feig’s female reboot which debuted in 581 sites in 2016 before making £4.4m in its opening weekend.

The first Ghostbusters made an impressive £12.4m at the box office back in 1984 while Ghostbusters II scored £8.3m in 1989.

Gil Kenan...

Daniel Elías and Margarita Molfino in The Delinquents Photo: courtesy of Mubi

Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents is, to my mind, one of the best films of 2023, even if it does make him blush when I say so. He’s one of those people of unusual intelligence who still seems a little surprised when people notice it. The characters in the film are not quite as sharp, but are nonetheless interesting, and learn as they go along. There’s Morán (played by Daniel Eliás) who, rather than spend his whole life working, decides to rob the bank where he works, hide the money, turn himself in and spend a shorter period of time in prison; and there’s Román (Esteban Bigliardi), whom he chooses as his accomplice. It’s how things develop subsequently, however – and how the film explores the limited framework of the men’s thinking – that makes it so intriguing.

In writer-director Ivan Sen’s incisive anti-detective film Limbo, Travis Hurley’s (Simon Baker) job isn’t to solve the murder of an Aboriginal girl. It’s to determine whether or not to reopen the cold case in the Australian outback mining town of Limbo—or, rather, to determine whether some other detective should even attempt to crack it.

Travis’s investigation certainly doesn’t get off to an auspicious start. After checking into a motel and shooting up, he tracks down the victim’s brother, Charlie (Rob Collins) and sister, Emma (Natasha Wanganeen). Having little reason to trust a “whitefella” cop, both refuse to speak with him. Travis is ready to pack it in when a computerized component is boosted from his car. He finds himself stuck in Limbo while he waits for the replacement part to ship.

That the investigation proceeds only because Travis is forced to wait...

On a recent podcast, filmmaker Steven Soderbergh pivoted the conversation to Alfred Hitchcock’s work, examining why, decades later, the auteur’s grip on audiences remains so tight. “[The reason] we still watch Hitchcock movies, and that they don’t feel as dated as some other films, is that they’re all about guilt,” Soderbergh posited. “Every Hitchcock movie is about guilt — and guilt’s not going anywhere.” If what Soderbergh says is true, then why is guilt so evergreen?

I listened to the podcast after watching Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, a masterpiece that belongs in the category of Great Art (an imperfect term, but one I stand by). I wondered why Glazer’s film — about a German family attempting to build a normal life in the shadow of Auschwitz during World War II — seemed to rise above the competition in a very strong year for movies. I believe...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best International Feature Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’

Weekly Commentary: The United Kingdom is poised to win its first Academy Award with Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and what a deserved win it will be.

But while I have the floor: it’s time for the...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Weekly Commentary: “The Creator” has the advantage, but honesty, any film can win.

“Godzilla Minus One” is in the discussion and could be a cool choice for the Academy to make, similar to “Ex Machina.” However, don’t count out the power...

In this year’s Berlinale Shorts, cinema is distilled to its most essential features. Conventional narratives are very much eschewed in favour of complex ideas, bold left turns and bravura filmmaking gestures. This is my fifth time covering the programme for Directors Notes, and once again I am pleased by the aesthetic unity of the offerings as well as their unorthodox filmmaking techniques. You’d be hard-pressed to find another section at the festival with so much diversity. As usual, there may be some films that I found confounding, odd or interminable, but I can’t accuse them of peddling cliché or well-worn narratives. Most notably, while the feature competition at Berlinale contains no animated movies this year, the Shorts has plenty, putting them on an equal footing with their live-action and documentary counterparts. From the unclassifiable to classical filmmaking, strange 3D models to lo-fi romance, here are ten excellent...

Magnify and Film4 are teaming up to launch Filipiñana, a Philippines-set feature that will shoot in spring 2024.

It is the debut feature of Filipino filimmaker Rafael Manuel, adapted from Manuel’s short of the same name that won the Silver Bear jury prize at the 2020 Berlinale, and was nominated for a British Independent Film Award.

Film4 has developed the feature and will executive produce and co-finance. Producers are Jeremy Chua and Sam Chua Weishi of Singapore’s Potocol, with Bradley Liew of Epicmedia Productions Inc and Alex Polunin.

Magnify – formerly Magnolia Pictures International - has acquired global and US sales rights on the title,...

After a bumper 40th anniversary edition of IFFR Pro last year, there’s a sense that Rotterdam’s industry strand has fined tuned things rather than introduced major changes for 2024.

IFFR Pro centres around key initiatives including co-production market CineMart, talent development programme Rotterdam Lab, works in progress section Dark Room and financial support for filmmakers through the festival’s Hubert Bals Fund.

Head of IFFR Pro a.i. Alessia Acone, who is overseeing the industry strand while IFFR Pro head Inke Van Loocke is on maternity leave, says one of the main differences about CineMart this year is that...

Tamara Tatishvili is going full steam into her first edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which runs Jan. 25 – Feb. 4, following her appointment as the head of the festival’s funding arm, the Hubert Bals Fund. She started full-time in early January.

“I will use the festival to connect to professionals outside of IFFR, hosting informal think tank meetings with industry professionals, producers and sales agents within a close environment to see what their observations and ideas are, and how this could feed into the future thinking strategies of Hubert Bals Fund,” she tells Variety.

She went on to emphasize the importance of festivals from a funder’s point of view. “Festivals are key platforms to connect the stories funds help create to audiences. Audience engagement is a key topic. Funders and producers believe films need to be made to reach audiences. It’s how you create impact and how...

"You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep..." The wait is over! It is here! One of the best 2023 recaps is a video countdown made by my colleague David Ehrlich (follow him @davidehrlich). He recaps his 25 best films of the year in a video edited together with footage and music from the films. It's one of the best ways to look back at the year, including footage from plenty of other movies that didn't make the cute. Have you seen All of his favorites from last year? David's Top 25 of 2023 is as exciting and inspiring as always, and you will likely agree with many of his top picks. His highlights: The Taste of Things, The Boy and the Heron, Past Lives, All of Us Strangers, The Delinquents (also loved this one), Oppenheimer, Asteroid City, Killers of the Flower Moon, and La Chimera (which is my #1 film). Plus a few unexpected picks like Kokomo City,...

With the 2024 Oscars shortlists for 10 categories arriving in late December, one key element to look out for is the international contenders with the legs to make it into categories past Best International Feature Film. This time last year, Netflix’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” established itself as a possible Best Picture nominee with multiple craft mentions, and by the March ceremony, the Edward Berger film collected the majority of Academy Awards given to below-the-line artisans.

This year, lightning may strike twice, as established Hollywood filmmaker J.A. Bayona’s “Society of the Snow” (Netflix), Spain’s official submission for Best International Feature Film, landed on four shortlists. A last-minute premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the moving retelling of the harrowing story of how the Uruguayan rugby team survived a plane crash in the Andes in 1972 has been building momentum as a must-watch among voters this holiday season.

Still...

Wim Wenders' Perfect Days has made the 96th Academy Awards Oscar Best International Feature Film shortlist Photo: Anne Katrin Titze

From Tunisia, Four Daughters (Les Filles d'Olfa), Kaouther Ben Hania director; United Kingdom, The Zone Of Interest, Jonathan Glazer director; Ukraine, 20 Days In Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov director; Italy, Io Capitano, Matteo Garrone director; Japan, Perfect Days, Wim Wenders director; France, The Taste Of Things, Trần Anh Hùng director; Armenia, Amerikatsi, Michael A Goorjian, director; Germany, The Teachers’ Lounge, llker Çatak, director; Finland, Fallen Leaves, Aki Kaurismäki director; Spain, The Delinquents, Rodrigo Moreno director; Mexico, Tótem, Lila Avilés, director; Denmark, The Promised Land, Nikolaj Arcel, director; Morocco, The Mother of All Lies, Asmae El Moudir, director; Spain, Society Of The Snow, Ja Bayona, director; Iceland, Godland, Hlynur Pálmason; and Bhutan, The Monk And The Gun, Pawo Choyning Dorji director are the 15 films selected for the International Feature Film shortlist.

Kaouther...

Rodrigo Moreno's The Delinquents is screening exclusively on Mubi in many countries.The Delinquents.Words have no owner. They simply are. They live in the speakers of a language, but no one has possession of a verb or a noun. If anyone can come close to such ownership, it is an artist, who puts the word in a complex combination that is theirs alone. A filmmaker's material is not words—though some might say a shot is its equivalent—but rather the world. Through framing, cutting, and duration, the director makes a movie their own, yet what is shot does not obey the will of the filmmaker. The material of the world is the filmmaker's lyrics, and the world does not belong to them.The arrangement and rearrangement of material—whether of words or of the world when it is filmed—into new works of art can be linked...

Halfway into The Delinquents, a character named Roman randomly meets three new characters. They just happen to be called Morna, Norma, and Ramon. From here on, we see a very different film from what we were seeing before. It almost feels like two very different kinds of films conjoined together, but it can also be said that the two halves complement each other. Rodrigo Moreno’s 2023 film, which happens to be the official Argentine entry in the “best international feature” category at the upcoming Oscars, is a heist film at its core, with additional layers of a love triangle as well as a very specific kind of social commentary. True to its title, which basically means people who break the law, The Delinquents is centered on a crime, but the direction it takes is not something you would see coming. The runtime does seem a bit too much at times,...

It’s the apex of campaign season, which means prestige titles are hitting more digital platforms to boost their footprints as precursor nominations trickle in. Two summer releases have expanded to additional streaming services, and an A-list wild card still playing in some theaters is debuting on VOD.

The contender to watch this week: “Priscilla”

Cailee Spaeny picked up a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Sofia Coppola‘s even-handed biopic about Priscilla Presley‘s storied relationship with Elvis (Jacob Elordi), giving her a little extra juice in an extremely stacked Best Actress contest. Coppola’s movies haven’t received many awards since “Lost in Translation,” but this is her biggest box-office hit in years. Spaeny had to inhabit Presley from ages 14 to 28, and her efforts won her the best actress prize at the Venice Film Festival. A VOD release right in time for the holidays could be the boost “Priscilla” needs.

What makes a good heist movie? Is it the thrill of seeing someone achieve something that should be impossible? Perhaps it’s the satisfaction of a plan coming together almost perfectly? Or is it the catharsis of seeing an underdog take down an institution on behalf of a just cause? Even with some of the most unconventional heist movies that expand the preconceptions we may have of the genre, there is just something about seeing the established order of the world disrupted to bring into focus all that's wrong with it. Both cinematically and structurally, the heist film is a place where some of the boldest visions can end up living for a reason. Not all are great by any means, but there are so many that just feel alive in a way few other films do. However, you’d be hard-pressed to think of a heist film quite like...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

The Abyss: Special Edition (James Cameron)

One of the most-requested restorations from cinephiles for some time has been a new restoration and 4K release for James Cameron’s 1989 sci-fi aquatic adventure The Abyss. Your wish has now come true as The Abyss: Special Edition, a 4K remaster, recently returned to theaters for one night only last week and is now available digitally ahead of a home video release this March.

Where to Stream: VOD

Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)

A sultry, creamy western that feels more like a vacation, Asteroid City is an absolute delight, Anderson’s best since The Grand Budapest Hotel. It practically begs you to sit back, relax, and enjoy yourself. Hell, it might even want you to take a nap,...

Sales talks to commence in Park City and continue in Berlin.

Magnify, the company formerly known as Magnolia Pictures International, has made its first acquisition since the rebrand, taking global sales rights to upcoming Sundance premiere Veni Vidi Vici.

Daniel Hoesl and Julia Niemann (Davos) directed the Austrian social satire about a billionaire family and their children’s almost perfect life without consequences.

Laurence Rupp (Barbarians), Ursina Lardi (Lore), Dominik Warta (L’Animale), and newcomer Olivia Goschler star. Ulrich Seidl (Goodnight Mommy) of Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion served as producer.

“Daniel and Julia have crafted an exquisite, sophisticated and timely satire...

Our year-end coverage continues with a look at the best performances of 2023. Rather than divide categories into supporting or lead or by gender, we’ve written about our 35 favorites, period. Find our countdown below and start watching the ones you’ve missed here and here.

35. The Cast of How to Blow Up a Pipeline

The hallmark of a great ensemble is one where each player feels precisely in-tune with the tone and goal of the film, willing to shine in their moment while sharing the spotlight. Perhaps the most even-handed, harmonious example this year is with Daniel Goldhaber’s nail-biting eco-thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Featuring Ariela Barer (also co-writer), Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, and Irene Bedard, it’s a feat of perfect casting, each performance feeling lived-in and an essential piece to the heist puzzle. – Jordan R....

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

The 88 submissions for the best international feature award at the 2023 Oscars have been announced, and Screen has profiled all the entries below.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is set to be announced on December 21 with the final five nominees announced on January 24, 2024 The 95th Academy Awards will take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The 88 submissions are down from last year when 92 films were in contentions. Four countries submitted this year but have not appeared on the final list - Cuba with Fernando Perez...

Shortlist of 15 films to be announced December 21, nominations out on January 23, 2024.

The Academy has announced eligible features in the categories of international feature film, animation, and documentary for the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024.

The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 21, and the nominations announcement is January 23, 2024.

International

Eighty-eight countries or regions have submitted films eligible for consideration in the international feature film category. An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes long) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track. Namibia is a first-time entrant.

Academy members...

Though the Red Sea Film Festival will feature a slew of films from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region – including 11 feature films from Saudi Arabia – there is a rich roster of international fare set to launch locally from Jeddah.

Kaleem Aftab, the festival’s director of international programming, says they received lots more submissions for this year’s third edition. He is particularly proud of the presence in competition of Indian-born auteur Tarsem Singh’s romancer “Dear Jassi,” the first film set in India by the flamboyant director of “The Cell,” and of Japanese master Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Venice prizewinner “Evil Does Not Exist.”

Peppered through various Red Sea sections are the Mena region premieres of other high-profile titles such as Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla”; Belgian-based Moroccan duo Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah flashy third feature “Gangsta”; British director James Marsh’s biographical film about Irish playwright Samuel Beckett...

Buenos Aires — Delivering a masterclass in Buenos Aires just days after the election victory of far-right libertarian Javier Milei on Nov. 18, Cannes Film Festival head Thierry Frémaux voiced his support for Argentina’s Incaa public sector film-tv agency, which Milei has promised to destroy.

Frémaux’s one and brief direct reference to the Incaa – which oversees Argentina’s crucial federal film funding, without which much of Argentine filmmaking would wither – came towards the end of a 90-minute masterclass entitled Cinema (of) Tomorrow.

“Cinema is not about to die, it’s about to live again,” Frémaux argued. “Cinema is in extraordinary good health. This year’s Cannes is said to have been one of the greatest in history and that’s due to the quality of the work of the artists, professionals and of reviewers,” he enthused.

Equally, he argued, the “new era of cinema” will see the “equal importance of...

Mubi has unveiled their December 2023 lineup, featuring notable new releases such as Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, Argentina’s Oscar this year; the Lily Gladstone-led drama The Unknown Country; Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts; and the José González documentary A Tiger in Paradise. Additional highlights include films from Olivier Assayas, Takeshi Kitano, Jean-Luc Godard, Kelly Reichardt, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, the Shaw Browers, Lars von Trier, Arnaud Desplechin, and more.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

December 1st

The House that Jack Built, directed by Lars von Trier | Chaos Reigns: The Films of Lars von Trier

Breaking the Waves, directed by Lars von Trier | Chaos Reigns: The Films of Lars von Trier

The Element of Crime, directed by Lars von Trier | Chaos Reigns: The Films of Lars von Trier

Europa, directed by Lars von Trier | Chaos Reigns: The Films of Lars von Trier

Epidemic, directed...

Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes” won best film at the 17th edition of Leffest Lisboa Film Festival, which announced awards Saturday night.

Marking Erice’s first feature film since his 1992 docudrama “The Quince Tree Sun” and garnering almost universal positive reviews – Variety called it “an aching ode to film, time and memory” – following its world premiere at Cannes, “Close Your Eyes” has screened at Toronto, Busan, BFI London and New York.

During Leffest, in a session moderated by Paulo Branco, 83-year old Erice took part in a conversation with preeminent 64-year old Portuguese helmer, Pedro Costa, whose short “The Daughters of Fire,” was a Cannes Special Screening and also had its Portuguese premiere at the fest.

Erice remarked during the event, one fest highlight, that both he and Costa are working in the shadow of two great filmmakers – “Don Luis Buñuel” and “Don Manoel de Oliveira” – and he added...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has announced a new batch of mostly international titles set to launch in its Festival Favorites and Treasures strands, including the international premiere of U.S. actor-turned-director Jennifer Esposito’s New York City mob drama “Fresh Kills.”

Inspired by Esposito’s upbringing in Staten Island, “Fresh Kills” – in which Esposito co-stars with Annabella Sciorra – bowed stateside at the Tribeca Festival in June.

Other international talents peppered throughout the Red Sea sections likely to be making the trek to Saudi include Anna Kendrick with her period crime drama “Woman of the Hour”; David Oyelowo, producer of high-profile soccer doc “Allihopa: The Dalkurd Story”; Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn for Swedish director Niclas Larsson’s “Mother, Couch”; Serena and Venus Williams as executive producers of “Copa 71,” the story of the groundbreaking 1971 Women’s World Cup; and French writer-director Laetitia Colombani with her drama “The Braid.