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The 33rd Raindance Film Festival is wrapping up on Friday and has unveiled its jury awards. Nawi: Dear Future Me, which tackles child marriage and was Kenya’s submission for the 2025 international feature film Oscar race, was honored as the best international feature. Its young star Michelle Lemuya Ikeny won the best performance in a debut feature award. The Kenyan-German coming-of-age drama was directors by the brothers Toby and Kevin Schmutzler, as well as Apuu Mourine and Vallentine Chelluget.

The best documentary feature award went to Immortals, directed by Maja Tschumi, about “strong-willed feminist Milo and ambitious filmmaker Khalili who, in the aftermath of the 2019 revolution, are the faces, eyes, and voices of an Iraqi youth that is relentlessly fighting for a

better future.”

Matthew Losasso‘s Row won the best U.K. feature honor, while the discovery award for best debut feature went to Srishti, directed by Paul Antar.

Malaysian director Bebbra Mailin’s local drama Ninavau is set to open the 8th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), which will be closed by Pia Marais’s Transamazonia.

The festival will take place in Kuala Lumpur from July 19-27 and has programmed 62 films from 48 countries, up from the 50 titles selected last year.

Opening film Ninavau marks Mailin’s feature directorial debut and is based on a short she directed in 2019. It tells the story of a Kadazan woman who returns from the peninsula to her devout Catholic family with a change of heart in a film that explores cultural identity.

Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte, starring Monica Vitti, Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau screens in Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s Monica Vitti: La Modernista

Before the Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà’s 24th edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema luncheon at Leopard at des Artistes, I asked Fabrizio Gifuni, star of the Opening Night film, Francesca Comencini’s The Time It Takes (Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole with Anna Mangiocavallo) and directors Andrea Segre of The Great Ambition (Berlinguer. La Grande Ambizione with Elio Germano as Enrico Berlinguer), Sara Fgaier of Weightless (Sulla Terra Leggeri with Andrea Renzi and Sara Serraiocco), Alissa Jung of Paternal Leave, and Ferzan Özpetek of Diamonds (Diamanti with Luisa Ranieri and Jasmine Trinca) to name their favourite Monica Vitti films.

Monica Vitti: La Modernista

Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpieces L’Avventura (4K Restoration); L’Eclisse opposite Alain Delon, La Notte with Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau,...

Paternal Leave director/screenwriter Alissa Jung with Anne-Katrin Titze on Luca Marinelli as Paolo: “Luca's performance gave me the opportunity to really dive in …”

Alissa Jung’s perceptive and compelling Paternal Leave (a highlight of Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema) stars fantastic newcomer Juli Grabenhenrich and the wonderful Luca Marinelli (of Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden and Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty) with Arturo Gabbriellini (from Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are), Gaia Rinaldi, and Joy Falletti Cardillo. Other films not to be missed include the Opening Night selection, Francesca Comencini’s The Time It Takes (Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole) with Anna Mangiocavallo and Fabrizio Gifuni; Sara Fgaier’s Weightless (Sulla Terra Leggeri) with Andrea Renzi and Sara Serraiocco (Lamberto Sanfelice's Chlorine); Ferzan Özpetek’s Diamonds (Diamanti), a celebration of movie costume design, with Luisa Ranieri and...

London’s Raindance Film Festival will present its most expansive program since the pandemic, screening 70 narrative and documentary features June 18–27 at Vue Piccadilly. That marks a 90 percent increase over last year’s roster. The event opens with Christopher M. Anthony’s boxing drama Heavyweight and concludes with Camilla Guttner’s student-focused drama The Academy.

Festival founder Elliot Grove celebrated the broad selection: “Raindance has built a reputation for championing films that might be overlooked elsewhere. Launching with a British debut about a wildcard boxer feels entirely fitting.”

Opening Night: Heavyweight

Heavyweight follows a rising fighter (Nicholas Pinnock) whose chance in the ring coincides with personal struggles outside it. Co-starring Jason Isaacs and Jordon Bolger, the film had its world premiere at Raindance. Anthony penned the screenplay to explore ambition and sacrifice, shooting on location in UK gyms and community centres.

Closing Night: The Academy

Camilla Guttner’s The Academy tracks...

London’s Raindance Film Festival will kick off its 33rd edition with the world premiere of Christopher M. Anthony’s boxing drama “Heavyweight,” starring Nicholas Pinnock, Jason Isaacs, and Jordan Bolger.

The festival will close with the international premiere of Camilla Guttner’s art school drama “The Academy,” featuring Maja Bons as a student navigating the ruthless terrain of the art world.

“Raindance is always one to punch above its weight, so it’s appropriate that the festival’s 33rd edition should open with the world premiere of a British debut feature about a wildcard boxer,” said Raindance founder Elliot Grove.

The festival, running June 18-27 at Vue Piccadilly, marks a significant comeback with 70 narrative and documentary features — a 90% increase from last year and the first time since 2019 the festival will present so many films.

International competition highlights include “Dream!”, a Christmas-set musical following a young girl’s magical journey...

The Raindance Film Festival in London has unveiled the lineup for its 33rd edition, its biggest post-covid pandemic edition. It will feature 70 fiction features and documentaries, which organizers said marks a 90 percent increase over the 2024 fest.

The festival will open on June 18 with the world premiere of Christopher M. Anthony’s boxing drama Heavyweight, starring Nicholas Pinnock, Jason Isaacs and Jordon Bolger. “Other highlights,” as called out by the organizers, include Kenya’s Oscar submission child marriage drama Nawi: Dear Future Me, which THR just featured as an “unsold gem” in Cannes, Burham Qurbani’s crime thriller No Beast. So Fierce., loosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Richard the Third, Elena Manrique’s black comedy The Party’s Over, and closing night film The Academy, directed by Camilla Guttner, about an art student who “discovers the microcosm of an art academy.”

Raindance has also teamed up with Netflix...

No, you’re not having an acid flashback, though I can understand why you’d think that after watching the new trailer for Hideo Kojima‘s Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The world-famous video game developer brought the latest look at his upcoming sequel to SXSW, treating audiences to an in-depth preview of his anticipated follow-up to 2019’s Death Stranding. Clocking in at over 10 minutes, the new trailer shares plot elements, character reveals, gameplay, and gorgeous vistas from Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. If you’re confused about the latest preview, don’t worry; you’re not the only one.

During the SXSW presentation, Hideo Kojima, Norman Reedus, Troy Baker, and Woodkid (Yoann Lemoine) revealed the game’s official release date, when players can pre-order the game, and several versions of the game with Digital Deluxe, Collector’s Editions, and more.

Here’s the official logline for Death...

The Berlin International Film Festival has announced the full lineup for its 2025 Generation section, which highlights children and youth films.

The Generation 14plus 2025 competition will open with Christy, directed by Brendan Canty. The film portrays a teenage boy from Cork, Ireland, navigating the shadows of his family’s past while seeking a place in the world. In the Generation Kplus section, the opening film The Nature of Invisible Things explores a community’s support for two girls as they grapple with moments of farewell and new beginnings.

The competition lineup features Seaside Serendipity by Satoko Yokohama, an episodic film set on a nameless Japanese island, which blends magical realism with everyday life, questioning the intersection of art and life. Also highlighted is Wrong Husband by Zacharias Kunuk, which transports viewers to a mystical world in the Canadian Arctic, where human and spirit realms collide in a fairy tale about young love.

The Berlin Film Festival has confirmed that Bong Joon Ho’s Robert Pattinson movie “Mickey 17” will play at the festival, in the Berlinale Special section, alongside a new – and equally glitzy — addition, Justin Kurzel‘s series “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” starring Jacob Elordi.

Variety first reported last week that “Mickey 17” would have its international premiere at Berlinale.

“The Narrow Road of the Deep North” will world premiere at the festival. Adapted from Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel, the highly anticipated series stars Elordi as a celebrated World War II hero who is haunted by his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and memories of an affair that took place just before the war.

Also joining the Berlinale Special roster is “The Thing with Feathers,” Dylan Southern’s film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Boxall. The movie, which will have its European premiere at the fest,...

Twenty-nine film projects have been selected for the seventh edition of European Work in Progress Cologne (Ewip), the pitching event held from October 14-16.

Among the titles being pitched to an international audience of sales agents, distributors and festival programmers is Bulgarian filmmaker Stephan Komendarev’s seventh feature Made In EU, about a provincial town turning against a seamstress after it appears she is the first local to have contracted Covid.

Other projects include German director Frédéric Halambek’s second feature Marielle, starring child actor Laeni Geiseler as a girl with the telepathic ability to know what her parents are...

Viva Berlin! Trailer. Moritz Mohr‘s Viva Berlin! (2011) web series trailer stars Jens Atzorn, Christian Blümel, Ralph Herforth, Alissa Jung, and Yûho Yamashita. Viva Berlin! plot synopsis: “An unknown plague is rapidly spreading in Berlin. All its carriers turn into blood-thirsty zombies who feed off the uninfected. After a short time, ninety five percent of the population is dead or undead; Berlin’s face has changed entirely. Viva Berlin! is Germany’s first serious attempt at a zombie project. The series consists of five mini-episodes – horror stories without a single soft spot. The ultimate genre experience – as hard and unsparing as true zombie fans appreciate it.”

This looks cool, as violent as The Walking Dead and Planet Terror. The sniper in this web series trailer is very skilled.

Watch the Viva Berlin! movie trailer below and leave your thoughts on them in the comments section. For more Viva Berlin! photos,...

Nowadays everyone has a web series. There are so many out there that it's getting harder and harder to point you to the ones that are worth your time; however, in the case of "Viva Berlin"... well, let's just say that you'll see for yourself.

Directed by Moritz Mohr, "Viva Berlin!" stars Sina Tkotsch, Ralph Herforth, Christian Blümel, Can Aydin, Alissa Jung, Timur Isik, Jens Atzorn, Kai Michael Wolter and Yuho Yamashita.

The series looks to have a five-episode arc, and if you're a fan of zombie flicks and shows, this one is looking like required viewing. Dig it!

Synopsis

An unknown plague is rapidly spreading in Berlin. All its carriers turn into bloodthirsty zombies who feed off the uninfected. After a short time, ninety-five percent of the population is dead or undead; Berlin’s face has changed entirely. Viva Berlin! is Germany’s first serious attempt at a zombie project.