News

Dominik Moll’s Cannes competition title “Case 137” (“Dossier 137”) has been acquired by Film Movement for release in the United States.

Film Movement, which previously released Moll’s acclaimed 2022 police procedural “The Night of the 12th” in the region, will debut “Case 137” theatrically next year followed by digital and home entertainment platforms.

The French crime drama follows Stéphanie Bertrand (Leá Drucker), “a principled police officer working for Internal Affairs” who is “assigned to a case involving a young man severely wounded during a tense and chaotic demonstration in Paris,” the film’s synopsis reads. “While she finds no evidence of illegitimate police violence, the case takes a personal turn when she discovers the victim is from her hometown.”

“Case 137” was well reviewed out of Cannes, with Variety‘s Guy Lodge calling it “starkly effective” and “intelligent, drily seething and duly enraging in turn.” He also praised Drucker,...

I am feeling whimsical in the back half of summer, and this simple design for Hiroshi Okuyama's nostalgic love story, My Sunshine, is doing the trick. Normally the Koreans excel at this kind of design, where there is little fuss beyond a great photo or still being used for the key art, and the Japanese favour business, collage, and text everywhere.   And yet here, we have a few pull quotes and the Cannes laurel at the top -- the film competed in this year;s Un Certain Regard -- the credit block blended into the the ice surface. The star of the show here is the golden lighting on the faces on the three figures. Basking is the goal here, and bask they do. Also, flipping...

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

"You want to impress Sakura... don't you?" Film Movement has debuted the official US trailer for a lovely little Japanese indie film titled My Sunshine, made by filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama. This first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival last year and already opened in Japan last year, with stops at many other festivals as well. Set over the course of one winter on the quiet island of Hokkaido in Japan. Described as a "heartwarming coming of age drama buoyed by its picturesque cinematography and beautiful score." Two young skaters, polar opposites in personality, are teamed up by their coach to train as a figure skating duo. Their growing bond begins to blur the lines between partners and more as winter unfolds. Starring Sosuke Ikematsu, Keitatsu Koshiyama, and Kiara Nakanishi. The charming film got mostly solid reviews at the festivals. "Guided by the beauty of the landscape and the nostalgia of childhood,...

The moving coming-of-age drama “My Sunshine,” set in rural Japan, centers on the bond between a queer figure-skating coach and his young pupils who take a particular interest in him — and with life-defining consequences.

Film Movement opens Hiroshi Okuyama’s 2024 Cannes Un Certain Regard nominee — and a film that could’ve been his country’s Best International Feature selection had it not opted for Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s equally winning “Cloud” — on September 19 in select theaters. IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer below.

More on the film courtesy of the official synopsis: “One winter on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, a young boy named Takuya has resigned himself to the fact that he’s the worst player on his ice hockey team. While practicing, he becomes transfixed by the figure skaters who share the ice rink, particularly Sakura, a rising star from Tokyo. Her coach, Arakawa, takes an interest in Takuya, seeing himself in the young boy.

The upcoming 18th edition of Japan Cuts, North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema, will kick off with a special screening of ChaO, the hotly anticipated animated feature debut from director Yasuhiro Aoki.

Produced by Studio 4ºC, the avant-garde animation house behind Mind Game and Tekkonkinkreet, ChaO reimagines a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale through a cyberpunk lens, transporting audiences to a near-future Shanghai where humans and mermen coexist. The story follows an ordinary salaryman who is unexpectedly thrust into a diplomatic marriage with a mermaid princess, triggering a whirlwind of political absurdity and emotional discovery. With over 100,000 hand-drawn frames created over the course of seven years, Aoki’s film is described as a visually extravagant and emotionally idiosyncratic passion project. Japan Cuts is hosting the special screening ahead of the film’s theatrical release in Japan in August. Gkids has acquired domestic theatrical rights.

Running July 10–20 at...

Hiroshi Okuyama has been making movies ever since he was a teenager. During his studies at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, he directed his debut feature “Jesus”, which was given the New Directors Award at the 2018 San Sebastián International Film Festival. Teenagers, growing up, first love are also among the themes in his second feature “My Sunshine”. Besides being a coming-of-age feature, “My Sunshine” is also a tale about acceptance, gender roles and conformity within Japanese society.

The main character of “My Sunshine” really loves the season of winter. What was your favorite season when you were a teenager?

I was born in Tokyo and snow was something of a rarity, which is probably why I loved winter so much. It was very exciting to see how the whole atmosphere of a city could change when over night snow had fallen.

One of the most important features in “My Sunshine” seems to be light.

The program of the 25th Nippon Connection Film Festival is complete! From May 27 to June 1, the world’s largest platform for Japanese film will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in Frankfurt am Main, offering six days of immersion in Japan’s film and cultural scene. Around 100 short and feature-length films will be screened at ten venues, including 67 premieres of current Japanese films. In addition, over 60 filmmakers and artists from Japan will travel to Frankfurt am Main to present their works to the public. Around 70 cultural events and a free Japanese market with various food and craft stalls round off the program. Detailed information and tickets for all films and events are available at NipponConnection.com.

This year’s film selection presents a diverse cross-section of current Japanese cinema. The Nippon Connection Film Festival will open on May 27 at 7:00 p.m. at the Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm with Tetsu Maeda’s comedy 90 Years Old – So What?...

Film Movement has acquired North America rights to “Peaches Goes Bananas,” Marie Losier’s documentary about the trailblazing feminist queer icon, musician and producer known as Peaches.

The movie is represented internationally by Best Friend Forever and world premiered at the Venice Days sidebar which runs alongside the film festival.

Film Movement will be releasing the movie theatrically, followed by a roll-out on digital platforms and home entertainment.

The documentary portrays Peaches, whose real name is Merrill Nisker, and showcases her concerts, as well as her bond with her sister Suri and her creative process.

Losier is best known for directing critically lauded documentaries including “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye,” which won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2011; “Cassandro El Exotico!,” winner of the Cannes Acid section in 2018; and “Felix in Wonderland,” which had its world premiere in Locarno in 2019. Losier’s work has also been celebrated...

The Cinevesture International Film Festival (Ciff) has revealed a diverse lineup for its second edition, set to run March 20-23 in Chandigarh, India, featuring notable Oscar winners and nominees alongside celebrated regional cinema.

Jacques Audiard’s Oscar-winning “Emilia Perez”headlines the World Canvas section, alongside Magnus von Horn’s Oscar-nominated Danish drama “The Girl with the Needle.”

The festival will open with the India premiere of Korean feature “A Normal Family,” directed by Hur Jin-ho, which first bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival. A special screening of the Punjabi short film “The Cycle” by Arpita Mukherjee will accompany the opening night festivities.

For its sophomore outing, Ciff has assembled a lineup featuring 15 international features in its World Canvas section and 17 titles in the India Unveiled category, with additional special screenings and student films rounding out the program.

The Indian selection features several significant titles by renowned filmmakers, including Dibakar Banerjee’s “Tees,...

Manila serves as the host city for this year’s Journey Through Japan On Screen, a special program of the Japanese Film Festival (Jff) 2025. Screenings of four films and talkbacks will be conducted on February 15 to 16, 2025 at the Red Carpet Cinema, Shangri-La Plaza.

The screening schedule for the two-day event is as follows:

February 15, 2025

1:30 pm : “Komada : A Whisky Family”

4:00 pm: “ DitO “

February 16, 2025

1:30 pm : “The Dancing Okami”

4: 00 pm : “My Sunshine”

A talkback with director-actor Yuki Takashi, actor Mon Confiado, and director/writer/producer Mikael Joaquin will follow after the screening of DitO. A co-production of Japan and Philippines, it premiered in the Philippines during Cinemalaya 2024 and is also part of the Jff 2025 official lineup.

On February 16, Hiroshi Okuyama, director and writer of My Sunshine, will grace the talkback after the screening. His film was part of the Official Selection Un Certain Regard...

The Philippines’ QCinema Project Market (Qpm) handed out $442,000 (PHP26M) in grants and co-production support at its closing ceremony on November 16.

Three projects from the Philippines received the QCinema Project Market Philippine Co-Production Grant, each valued at $ 34,000 (PHP2M) – Daughters Of The Sea, from Martika Ramirez Escobar; Heaven Help Us, directed by Eve Baswel, and Sonny Calvento’s Mother Maybe.

The QCinema Project Market – Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant, worth $17,000 (PHP1M) was awarded to Myanmar-Indonesia co-production The Beer Girl In Yangon, directed by Sein Lyan Tun. In addition, co-production grants of $12,000 each were presented to Other People’s Dreams, directed by Singapore’s Daniel Hui, and The Passport, from Malaysia’s Ananth Subramaniam.

Qpm’s industry partners also handed out several awards including Nathan Studios’ development grant of PHP250,000, which went to Secret Cries, while the Taiwan Creative Content Agency presented the $5,000 Taicca Award to Ewa, the sole animation...

Vietnam talent showed strong presence at the 12th QCinema International Film Festival in Quezon City, Philippines, as Trương Minh Quý’s “Viet and Nam” claimed the top prize, while compatriot Dương Diệu Linh’s “Don’t Cry, Butterfly” secured the Grand Jury Prize.

“Viet and Nam,” which made its debut in Cannes Un Certain Regard, emerged victorious in the Asian Next Wave competition. The jury, comprising Babyruth Villarama, Gabor Greiner, Ming-Jung Kuo and Nguyen Le, praised the film for “conjuring the haunting presence of trauma and memories that are embedded within the landscape, and tenderly following a romance that unfolds deep within the coal mines.”

“Don’t Cry, Butterfly,” Dương’s debut feature, follows a middle-aged wife who, upon discovering her husband’s infidelity, embarks on a mystical journey in search of a better life. The film previously won three prizes at Venice.

Elizabeth Lo took home the Best Director award for “Mistress Dispeller,...

On October 22, 2024, the QCinema International Film Festival announced its much-anticipated lineup for this year, with The Gaze as its central theme. With 76 titles—22 short films and 55 full-length features—spanning across 11 distinct sections, the festival invites audiences to explore diverse perspectives through film. The Gaze seeks to challenge and expand how we view the world, from traditional masculine and feminine perspectives to new and transformative ways of seeing.

Quezon City Mayor Maria Josefina Belmonte officially opened the occasion, emphasizing QCinema’s vital role in advancing the city government’s cultural policies. She highlighted the festival’s contribution to Quezon City’s vision for sustainability and environmental friendliness, underscoring the partnership between the city and the festival to fulfill these goals.

The 12th edition of QCinema will open with Directors’ Factory Philippines, an omnibus film project in collaboration with Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. The project features four films created by Filipino directors alongside filmmakers from neighboring countries.

Festival hits Anora, Emilia Perez and Maria, a new Stockholm Series strand for TV works, and a theme of ‘Men in Crisis’ are among the highlights of this year’s Stockholm International Film Festival (November 6-17), the programme of which has been announced today (October 9).

The international feature competition includes Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Berlin title La Cocina; RaMell Ross’ Telluride premiere Nickel Boys; and Gustav Moller’s Denmark-Sweden-France co-production Sons. It has an even split of 10 titles directed by women, and 10 by men.

Scroll down for the full list of Stockholm Competition titles

The 16-title documentary competition includes the world premiere of Garbo: Leave Me Alone,...

Film Movement has bought North American rights to Belgium Oscar entry “Julie Keeps Quiet” which is executive produced by tennis champion Naomi Osaka, and world premiered at Cannes’ Critics Week.

A feature debut directed by Leonardo Van Dijl, “Julie Keeps Quiet” went on to play Karlovy Vary and Toronto, and will next screen at the BFI London Film Festival following its Cannes bow. The movie will have its U.S. premiere at the Hamptons Film Festival.

The drama stars newcomer Tessa Van den Broeck as Julie, a young and promising tennis player who faces a dilemma when her prominent coach is suspended after the suicide of a former prodigy. Suspicions of inappropriate conduct arise and pressure starts mounting for Julie to speak up. As she refrains from sharing her experiences, her silence leaves the investigation and the coach’s future in limbo.

“Julie Keeps Quiet” is slated for a theatrical...

It has been some time since we saw a film from Hiroshi Okuyama, after his impressive 2018 debut “Jesus”, although the truth is he was involved in “The Makanai” last year. “My Sunshine” revolves around figure skating, a sport the director himself trained in for seven years as a child, and premiered in the Un Certain Regard program at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it was named as a nominee for the Queer Palm.

My Sunshine is screening at Busan International Film Festival

Takuya is a young member of the hockey team in a snowy provincial town in the north of Japan. He is not particularly enthused about the sport though, and in general, he has yet to find something he really likes to do. That changes, however, when he sees Sakura training in figure skating under the tutelage of Arakawa, a former ice skate dancer who is living in the...

Japan’s Gaga Corporation has boarded international sales of anthology drama At The Bench and will introduce the starry feature to buyers at the Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm) in Busan this week.

The cast includes some of Japan’s most notable young stars such as Suzu Hirose, a regular in the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda who will lead the upcoming adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills; Ryunosuke Kamiki, who starred in Oscar-winning blockbuster Godzilla Minus One; Taiga Nakano, who stars in upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival opener 11 Rebels; and Yukino Kishii, who won best...

Japan’s Gaga Corporation has boarded international sales of anthology drama At The Bench and will introduce the starry feature to buyers at the Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm) in Busan this week.

The cast includes some of Japan’s most notable young stars such as Suzu Hirose, a regular in the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda who will lead the upcoming adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills; Ryunosuke Kamiki, who starred in Oscar-winning blockbuster Godzilla Minus One; Taiga Nakano, who stars in upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival opener 11 Rebels; and Yukino Kishii, who won best...

Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff) has announced the line-up for its eighth edition, including its Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons sections, and opening film A River Without Tears.

The festival also announced that it is screening a restored version of Chen Kaige’s award-winning Yellow Earth, to mark the 40th anniversary of the film, one of the first major titles of China’s Fifth Generation movement, which won a Silver Leopard at Locarno as well as best cinematography for Zhang Yimou at Nantes Three Continents Film Festival.

Opening film A River Without Tears, the second feature of female director Liu Juan, is the story of a father who insists on finding out the truth of his daughter’s suicide. Executive produced by Chinese auteur and Pingyao festival founder Jia Zhangke, the film will also screen as one of 12 titles in the festival’s Hidden Dragons section for emerging Chinese filmmakers (see full list below).

Meanwhile,...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Charades to Hiroshi Okuyama’s upcoming TIFF Centrepiece selection My Sunshine.

‘My Sunshine’: Cannes Review

The film premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard and receives its North American premiere on Tuesday (September 10), with a press and industry scheduled for Monday.

It follows two promising young ice skaters who form a bond while training as a pair for an upcoming competition. Keitatsu Koshiyama, Kiara Nakanishi, and Sōsuke Ikematsu star.

Film Movement will distribute My Sunshine theatrically in 2025 followed by a roll-out on digital platforms and the home entertainment market.

The drama from...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Charades to Hiroshi Okuyama’s upcoming TIFF Centrepiece selection My Sunshine.

‘My Sunshine’: Cannes Review

The film premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard and receives its North American premiere on Tuesday (September 10), with a press and industry scheduled for Monday.

It follows two promising young ice skaters who form a bond while training as a pair for an upcoming competition. Keitatsu Koshiyama, Kiara Nakanishi, and Sōsuke Ikematsu star.

Film Movement will distribute My Sunshine theatrically in 2025 followed by a roll-out on digital platforms and the home entertainment market.

The drama from...

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the 43 features selection for the Centrepiece programme including world premieres for Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s feuding matriarchs comedy Front Row and Laura Piani’s romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

Taking their place in the global cinema showcase alongside the latest work from 41 countries are features that have already impressed at festivals, such as Mohammad Rasoulof’s Cannes award winner The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and Steven Soderbergh’s Sundance selection Presence.

The 18 world premieres include Iranian filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi’s human rights drama Seven Days written by Rasoulof,...

A drama about an Iranian human rights activist and a documentary about the hacking of queer indie pop duo Tegan and Sara are among the films that have been added to the lineup of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which unveiled its Centrepiece section on Tuesday to kick off a second week of programming announcements.

The 43 films come from filmmakers representing 41 countries, with 18 of the titles receiving their world premieres at TIFF. Those premieres include “Seven Days,” a film about an imprisoned Iranian activist directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi and written by Mohammad Rasoulof, a filmmaker who was himself sentenced to flogging and prison by Iranian authorities; “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” a romantic comedy from French writer-director Laura Piani; “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,” a debut from the Nigerian filmmaking group known as the Agbajowo Collective; and Erin Lee Carr’s “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara,...

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival has revealed its Centrepiece program lineup, with 43 films from 41 countries. The selections include 18 world premieres plus an array of festival favorites and winners from Cannes (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig“), Sundance (“Presence“), and more recently the 2024 Venice Film Festival (“April”). This year’s festival runs Thursday, September 5 through Sunday, September 15.

Per TIFF, Centrepiece honors “and celebrates global cinematic achievements, inviting audiences to immerse themselves in a dynamic array of contemporary films. The programme is a reflection of TIFF’s commitment to providing an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

The 2024 Centrepiece selection has been programmed by Jason Anderson, Kelly Boutsalis, Diana Cadavid, Robyn Citizen, Giovanna Fulvi, Nataleah Hunter-Young, June Kim, Dorota Lech, Jason Ryle, and Norm Wilner.

Per the festival, “Notable world premieres include ‘Front Row,...

Steven Soderbergh’s spooky ghost story Presence — starring Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and newcomer Callina Liang — will receive its international premiere as part of the Centerpiece sidebar at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival.

Soderbergh first screened Presence at Sundance earlier this year, some 35 years after the debut of his breakout film, Sex, Lies and Videotape, in Park City. In all, TIFF’s Centerpiece section, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema, unveiled 43 films from 41 countries on Tuesday.

There’s world premieres for Marcelle Lunam’s rom com Addition, starring Teresa Palmer and Joe Dempsie; Erin Lee Carr’s documentary Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara, a Hulu title about the Canadian pop duo falling victim to identity theft; French director Laura Piani’s Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, with a Frederick Wiseman cameo; Sofia Bohdanowicz’s Measures for a Funeral, written by actor Derah Campbell; and Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s Front Row,...

from our special envoy Jean-Marc Thérouanne at the Cannes Film Festival.

From May 14 to 25, 2024, Far East Asia is represented in competition by the film “Caught by the Tides” by the master of Chinese cinema of the sixth generation, Jia Zhang-ke. This film, in small impressionist touches, tells the evolution of China in this first quarter of the 21st century. Jia Zhang-ke tries to describe it through the songs marking the collective memory. He multiplies the winks to his work of fifteen films, time markers flowing inexorably.

Jia Zhang-ke and Zhao Tao in Grand Théâtre Lumiere Gala presentation of Caught by the Tides. (Photo credit Fica)

The Indian subcontinent is back in competition, after a long 30-year eclipse, with the film All We Imagine As Light by director Payal Kapadia, recognized in Cannes by the Golden Eye Award for his documentary film Une nuit sans savoir selected at the Directors' Fortnight...

As lovely and lilting as hearing Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” over a crackly record player on a snow-flecked day, Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama’s second feature “My Sunshine” is a moving coming-of-age drama about kids facing up to the troubles of adulthood.

This gently composed story of an ice-skating coach on the island of Hokkaido, and his two young pupils, has darker dynamics under its sleeve than the emotionally generous time-to-face-the-music-of-growing-up story that’s on its surface. It’s told in furtive glances and silent pacts against a frost-dappled backdrop, the end of winter coming soon, as two adolescents form a bond on the ice rink that complicates the private life of their instructor. Japan would be wise to submit “My Sunshine,” the second feature from “Jesus” director Okuyama, for the Best International Feature Oscar. Both the glass-half-full and the glass-half-empty corners of the audience will resonate with...

Some films prioritize a strident political cause, others set out to terrify or thrill. This touching and simple story from Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama, premiering in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, is a gentler affair, with modest ambitions that it realizes effectively. Set on a small Japanese island, the film’s slight but sweet narrative follows a quartet of characters — young hockey player Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), proficient skater Sakura (Kiara Nakanishi), figure-skating tutor Arakawa (Sōsuke Ikematsu) and his boyfriend (Ryûya Wakaba) — as they navigate subtly shifting interpersonal dynamics while a cold but beautiful winter waxes and wanes around them.

Every scene is set up with a very deliberate aesthetic sense. A snowy icing-sugar landscape, a baseball field tinged with pale turquoise light, an indoor ice-rink shimmering in a golden haze: Nothing feels haphazard or anything less than picture-perfect. This is the result of a fruitful collaboration between director and Dp,...

In Japan the very first few snowflakes begin to fall signaling the change of seasons. Another clue is we see young Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama) and his baseball-playing buddies taking those final swings at bat and moving on to ice hockey. That is basically how this quiet and lilting charmer of a coming-of-age story is introduced, and it sets the table perfectly for what is to follow.

Only the second narrative feature film for promising 28-year-old filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama, whose first film 2018’s Jesus like this one also dealt with children, My Sunshine does not come from his own childhood experiences but is a story about figure skating, or in this case ice dancing, with which he has always been fascinated but never had a way in. Finally listening over and over to Humbert Humbert’s song “My Sunshine,” he not only got the English-language title for the film, but also...

In Hiroshi Okuyama’s My Sunshine, three souls find solace and poignant moments of self-discovery in figure skating. The film chronicles a season of the sport in a small town on a Japanese island, the kind of place whose melting snow and changing leaves inspire poetic musings. Guided by the beauty of the landscape and the nostalgia of childhood, Okuyama constructs a quiet narrative buoyed by an understated charm.

The film opens with signs of a new season. During a baseball game, Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), a sheepish boy with minor speech troubles, becomes mesmerized by snowflakes fluttering to the ground. While his teammates steal bases, he cranes his neck, angling for a better view of the crystals. Scenes of snow blanketing the town in Hokkaido, the Japanese island where Okuyama (Jesus) filmed My Sunshine, follow. These images — of powdery mountain peaks and quiet streets flanked by snow — possess the haunting...

A Cannes 2024 acquisitions title already picking up buzz out of the Un Certain Regard lineup is Hiroshi Okuyama’s “My Sunshine,” which IndieWire shares an exclusive clip of below. Writer/director Okuyama won the top prize in the New Directors competition at the 2018 San Sebastian Film Festival for his debut feature, “Jesus,” at just 22 years old and now makes his Cannes debut. The moving coming-of-age drama set in rural Japan premieres later this week, centering on the bond between an ice figure-skating coach and his young pupils who take a particular interest in him — and with life-defining consequences.

Here’s the official synopsis: “On a Japanese island, life revolves around the changing seasons. Winter is time for ice hockey at school, but Takuya isn’t too thrilled about it. His real interest lies in Sakura, a figure skating rising star from Tokyo, for whom he starts to develop a genuine fascination.

Cannes Competition titles Bird by Andrea Arnold and Emila Perez by Jacques Audiard are among the films eligible for the Queer Palm at this year’s festival.

Any title playing in Cannes which deals in anyway with Lgbtqiaa+ themes is eligible for the Queer Palm, whose jury this year will be presided over by Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont. Competing films are drawn from all Cannes selections: Official Selection, Un Certain Regard, Critics’ Week, Directors’ Fortnight and Acid.

Bird centres on a 12-year-old who lives with her single father and brother in a squat and seeks attention and adventure elsewhere; among...

Among the high-profile filmmakers selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival is a wave of upcoming talent from Asia and the Middle East, including the first Indian feature chosen for Competition in 30 years and the first film from Saudi Arabia to ever make the Official Selection.

While Cannes has a reputation for bringing back familiar names year after year, the line-up for the 77th edition does feature several rising filmmakers and not just in the “discovery” strands of the selection.

Making her first appearance in Competition is Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia with All We Imagine As Light. It marks...

Paramount Pictures has announced a three-year extension its first-look deal with producer Neal H. Moritz and his Original Film.

The news came out of Paramount’s CinemaCon presentation at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, where the studio and Miramax announced they are moving forward with Moritz on a new instalment in the Scary Movie franchise.

Moritz serves as an executive producer on Knuckles, a six-episode series that takes place after the events of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and will debut on April 26 exclusively on Paramount+ in the US.

The producer is also working on Sonic The Hedgehog 3,...

Cannes announced the official selection for this year, and the Asian representation is quite strong. India finds its way back to the main competition after 30 years, with “All We Imagine as Light” while Jia Zhangke returns with “Caught By The Tides” . Also of note is the presence of the first Saudi Arabian film in the official selection with “Norah”, which premiered last year in Red Sea. Here are all the entries we know of so far. More info will be added as we get closer to the festival.

All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia (India) Caught by the Tides by Jia Zhang-Ke (China) Norah by Tawfik Alzaidi (Saudi Arabia) Black Dog by Guan Hu (China) My Sunshine by Hiroshi Okuyama (Japan) Santosh by Sandhya Suri (India) Viet and Nam by Truong Minh Quý (Vietnam) She's Got No Name by Peter Chan Ho-Sun Twilight of the Warrior Walled In...

As expected, the Cannes Film Festival line-up is pretty spectacular with new films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold and David Cronenberg heading to the fest.

As the days are getting longer and there’s a tiny bit more sunshine in between the showers of rain, that can only mean one thing. The Cannes Film Festival is almost upon us.

Of course, us peasants rarely get to go, but it is fun to read the reactions from the glitzy world premieres as the stars gather in the picturesque town of Cannes.

And this year’s festival line-up is a doozy. We already knew George Miller was heading to the Croisette with Furiosa, Francis Ford Coppola is bringing Megalopolis and Kevin Costner will be premiering his new film, too, but there’s a whole heap of great filmmakers heading out to the beach with their films.

The highlights include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds Of Kindness,...

Charades has taken international sales rights to Hiroshi Okuyama’s feature My Sunshine and will kick off sales for the Un Certain Regard 2024-selected feature in Cannes.

Set on a small Japanese island centred on the changing seasons, My Sunshine follows two children who are complete opposites who decide to train together to form a figure-skating duo as their feelings for each other grow throughout the winter.

The film is the director’s follow-up to his debut feature Jesus about a young boy who leaves Tokyo to attend a Christian school in the countryside, which earned Okuyama the new directors...

Descubre las películas que estarán en Cannes 2024: una lista completa de todas las secciones.

Esta mañana, Thierry Frémaux ha anunciado la programación oficial de la 77ª edición del Festival de Cannes. La pasada edición del festival fue testigo de los estrenos mundiales de las aclamadas películas “Anatomía de una Caída”, “Killers of the Flower Moon” y “The Zone of Interest”. Unas películas que posteriormente fueron nominadas al Oscar a la mejor película, de modo que este año el listón está muy alto.

Desde su primera edición en 1946, el Festival de Cannes se ha consolidado como uno de los acontecimientos cinematográficos más importantes de la industria del cine y la edición de este año ofrece una gran variedad de películas de todo el mundo; desde directores consagrados hasta nuevas voces de la industria. Aunque, por desgracia, España no tendrá representación en el festival este año.

La presidenta del jurado de...

The Official Selection for the 77th Cannes Film Festival was revealed Thursday, with 19 movies in Competition (see full lists below).

Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Ali Abbasi, who brings The Apprentice, a feature pic about the early life of Donald Trump. Andrea Arnold returns with Bird, starring Barry Keoghan, and Jacques Audiard’s latest, Emilia Perez, a musical with Selena Gomez will also debut in competition.

Elsewhere, American filmmaker Sean Baker brings Anora to the Croisette. Poor Things filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos will launch Kinds of Kindness, his latest collab with Emma Stone. David Cronenberg returns with The Shrouds, and Paul Schrader will debut Oh Canada starring Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman and Richard Gere.

Related: ‘The Apprentice’: First Look At Sebastian Stan As Donald Trump & Jeremy Strong As Roy Cohn In Cannes Competition Film

There’s a strong English-language and American presence in the...

Ahead of a festival kicking off in just about a month, Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, have unveiled the selection of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Led by the previously announced major highlight, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, the competition lineup features the latest films from Jia Zhangke, David Cronenberg, Paul Schrader, Andrea Arnold, Sean Baker, Miguel Gomes, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jacques Audiard, Ali Abbasi, Payal Kapadia, and more.

Other sections include the previously new films from George Miller and Kevin Costner, alongside Leos Carax’s personal short C’est Pas Moi, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson’s Rumors, Alain Guiraudie’s Miséricorde, and more.

Check out the lineup below.

Competition

All We Imagine As Light – Payal Kapadia

L’amour Ouf – Gilles Lellouche

Anora – Sean Baker

The Apprentice – Ali Abbasi

Bird – Andrea Arnold

Caught by the Tides – Jia Zhang-ke...

Hirokazu Kore-eda infuses the world of the Japanese geisha with his signature gentle humanism in The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, his first drama series for Netflix, launching worldwide this week.

Based on a best-selling manga by Aiko Koyama, the nine-episode series is set in the traditional Geiko district of Kyoto, depicting the inner sanctum of aspiring maiko courtesans. The story follows two 16-year-old girls, Kiyo (Mori Nana) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi), who move from rural Aomori with dreams of becoming geisha. But while Sumire is instantly identified as a natural talent in the traditional arts — dance, elaborate costume and delicate music-making — Kiyo proves an awkward fit. Instead, she finds her place as a makanai, the traditional cook who prepares the meals within the yakata house where all of the geiko live together.

Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2018 with his family drama Shoplifters, acts as the show’s producer,...

At the close of its opening credits sequence, Netflix’s The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House splashes its title over a close-up shot of a meal. What meal specifically varies from episode to episode, depending on what the characters eat in any given one. Invariably, however, it’s some form of home-cooked comfort food: oyakodon or tomato curry or stewed eggplant, often still bubbling in the pot.

The dishes aren’t necessarily pretty, by the standards of your typical foodie show, nor do they look particularly fancy or original. But that’s precisely their appeal. They’re simple, straightforward, deceptively humble and irresistibly cozy — much like the series itself.

Adapted from the manga by Aiko Koyama, The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House centers on a rare adventure. At the start of the series, 16-year-old best friends Kiyo (an irrepressibly sunny Nana Mori) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi) strike out...

Cannes Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s first series for Netflix, The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House, is based on a best-selling manga about two young girls who move to Kyoto to start their training as ‘maiko’ or apprentice geisha.

One of them turns out to be a star maiko, but the other is not so talented in the geisha arts, which mostly comprise traditional song and dance, and ends up cooking for the household where the girls are being trained, an activity in which she excels. Neither the manga, created by Aiko Koyama, or the series are set in the Edo period, the golden era of geisha culture, but in contemporary Japan, where the profession still exists and is respected, but is also regarded as a dying art.

Scheduled to start streaming tomorrow (January 12), the series is produced by Kore-eda and Genki Kawamura, a leading producer behind hits such as Confessions,...

Projects selected from 15 countries.

South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has unveiled the 29 titles selected for the 2022 Asian Project Market (Apm).

The film financing event that runs as part of Biff’s Asian Contents and Film Market will return in-person from October 9-11, after taking place as a hybrid event last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

From this year, Apm has excluded non-Asian projects to provide more focused support for Asian projects, which must be submitted by directors who have made at least one short or full-length feature as well as producers who have been involved with at least one feature.

Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has announced the 29 projects selected for this year’s Asian Project Market (Apm), a core strand of the festival’s industry activities, including new works from Thailand’s Aditya Assarat, China’s Wang Qi, Vietnam’s Le Bao and Myanmar’s Maung Sun, whose producer Ma Aeint is currently in prison in Yangon.

Ma Aeint, who previously produced Maung Sun’s award-winning Money Has Four Legs, was recently sentenced to three years in jail with hard labor by Myanmar’s military junta, which took over the country in a brutal coup in early 2021. She was accused of “causing fear, spreading fake news or agitating against government employees”. She is attached as a producer to Maung Sun’s new project, Future Laobans, described as a drama about the “international dimension of organized crime.”

Assarat, an award-winning Thai director, is returning to feature-length directing after focusing on producing,...

Shoplifters director Hirokazu Kore-eda is to adapt popular comic Maiko in Kyoto: From the Maiko House into an eight-part Netflix TV series, his first for the streamer. The prolific Kore-eda teased a TV and film project for Netflix late last year and these are the first details to emerge.

Airing later this year, The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House from Story Inc and Bun-Buku Inc is set in the geisha district of Kyoto, as protagonist Kiyo becomes a Makanai (person who cooks meals) at a house where Maiko (apprentice geishas) live together. The story depicts the everyday life of Kiyo maiko Sumire, her childhood friend who came with her from Aomori to Kyoto, amid a vibrant world of geisha and maiko courtesans.

Kore-eda, who won the Palme d’Or in 2018 for Shoplifters, his story about a family that relies on shoplifting to cope with poverty, is also in the...

It is one of the greatest tragedies in life when you realize the true uniqueness of a person only when he or she is gone or has been missing for quite some time. Considering only a few encounters of the thousands we make in our lives truly linger on, understanding what has made a person special and why one has felt attached to him or her, can be truly painful, but also says a lot about ourselves. To pinpoint this moment of clarity has been the subject of many stories, in literature, music and in film, which makes the task of standing out with your own addition quite difficult. In her short feature “She’s Gone” young filmmaker Sara Ogawa tells the story about one of those special encounters in the life of a high-school student, which changes her life forever and also the way she perceives the world around herself.

Strand includes Fyzal Boulifa’s Lynn + Lucy and Beyond The Horizon starring Laetitia Casta and Clémence Poésy.

The 2019 San Sebastian Film Festival (September 20-28) has revealed the 14 first and second films set to compete for its New Directors award.

Among the titles are UK director Fyzal Boulifa’s feature debut Lynn + Lucy about two best friends whose relationship is tested after a tragedy. The project, backed by BBC Films, was part of the Great 8 showcase at Cannes this year.

Titles from second- time directors include Jorunn Myklebust Syversen’s Disco, with Skam star Josefine Frida Pettersen, and Delphine Lehericey’s...

The San Sebastian International Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the lineup for its New Directors competition, which comes with a hefty $55,718 (50,000 euros) purse for the director and Spain distributor of the winning film.

Eight of this year's 14 selected films are debut efforts, while the remaining ones are second features, several of whose directors have previously participated in San Sebastian. And eight of the films come from a total of nine female directors.

Last year's winner of the New Directors section was its youngest ever, 22-year-old Hiroshi Okuyama, for his coming-of-age tale Jesus. The first ...

The San Sebastian International Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the lineup for its New Directors competition, which comes with a hefty $55,718 (50,000 euros) purse for the director and Spain distributor of the winning film.

Eight of this year's 14 selected films are debut efforts, while the remaining ones are second features, several of whose directors have previously participated in San Sebastian. And eight of the films come from a total of nine female directors.

Last year's winner of the New Directors section was its youngest ever, 22-year-old Hiroshi Okuyama, for his coming-of-age tale Jesus. The first ...