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Vue Lumière has picked up The Thing with Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch for the UK and Ireland.

Vue Lumière, the distribution arm of exhibition company Vue, acquired the film from mk2. The company has said it plans to release the film in cinemas across the UK and Ireland later this year.

The Thing with Feathers had its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year, then went on to play as a Special Gala at the 75th Berlinale. It is based on the bestselling book by Max Porter, published by Faber, and stars Cumberbatch as a grieving father of two young boys who loses his wife very suddenly.

Written and directed by Dylan Southern, best known for his music documentaries Meet Me in the Bathroom, Shut Up and Play the Hits and the upcoming untitled Oasis project, it is produced by Adam Ackland and Leah Clarke for SunnyMarch and Andrea Cornwell’s Lobo Films.

The film was developed with Film4, who co-financed alongside the BFI and Align, in association with Uncommon Creative Studio, mk2 Films, and Rank and File, in co-production with Film i Väst and Filmgate Film. mk2 Films is handling international sales.

“We feel that The Thing with Feathers fully embodies what we are doing with Vue Lumière and what we want to say to audiences around cinema, storytelling, performance, creativity, and impact,” Eve Gabereau, Director of Distribution at Vue Lumière, said in a statement.

“Also, we are committed to and energised by working with the filmmaking teams and UK partners Film4 and BFI in a joined-up way for the widest possible release.”

Fionnuala Jamison, Managing Director of mk2 Films, added: “We’re very pleased to be partnering with Vue Lumière on their first major dramatic feature. It’s a moving and distinctive film that we’re proud to see embraced by such an ambitious new player in the UK market.”...

Exclusive: Vue Lumière has acquired The Thing With Feathers for the UK & Ireland, marking the distributor’s first dramatic feature acquisition since its launch last year.

It plans to release the film in UK-Ireland cinemas later this year, having acquired it from sales agent mk2 Films.

The Thing With Feathers is the fiction feature directorial debut of Dylan Southern, based on Max Porter’s 2015 novells Grief Is The Thing With Feathers. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a father of two young boys, grieving after the sudden loss of his wife.

The film debuted at Sundance in January, going on to...

Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired grief metaphor creature drama The Thing with Feathers, Deadline reports today, and is currently eyeing a Halloween release.

A wide theatrical release is currently planned for October 31.

The Thing with Feathers centers on “a widower (Benedict Cumberbatch) who is left to raise two young sons after the unexpected death of his wife. The man’s life is unraveling because of the grief that takes the form of an unhinged and unwanted houseguest – a crow – which taunts him from the shadows.”

Director Dylan Southern’s melancholic dark fantasy feature debut is an adaptation of Max Porter‘s novella Grief Is the Thing With Feathers.

“Dylan Southern has crafted something truly unique—an emotional gut punch wrapped in a dark, fantastical nightmare,” said Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Briarcliff Entertainment. “With its bold visual storytelling and powerhouse performances, The Thing With Feathers is an unforgettable exploration of grief, madness,...

Exclusive: Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to The Thing With Feathers. A wide theatrical release is planned for October 31 for the debut narrative film by Dylan Southern. Pic was one of the high-profile world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival in January, with Benedict Cumberbatch starring alongside Richard Boxall and Henry Boxall. The film subsequently had its international premiere at Berlin.

While the acquisition marketplace was sluggish during the week or so that Sundance unfolded in Park City, deals for the most promising films with stars have been trickling in steadily. That might well be the new normal for Toronto, Sundance and Cannes. The Thing With Feathers becomes the latest example that validates Sundance as still a good launchpad for indie fare, though sellers and buyers have to be patient, and the numbers fall as time goes on.

An adaptation of the Max Porter novella Grief Is the Thing With Feathers,...

Depression is a notoriously difficult subject to capture in a film. Of course, anyone can point a camera at someone moping on their couch, but turning feelings of despair in to a dynamic, continually compelling narrative is another story. Which is likely why Dylan Southern’s The Thing With Feathers attempts to manifest the grieving process via psychological horror.

The result is a sometimes compelling, often baffling work that doesn’t really solve the inherent problem of its subject matter, but swings for the fences trying. It also serves as a showcase for the talents of Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays a dad grieving the loss of his wife while also stumbling his way through single-fatherhood in a haze of alcohol, hopelessness and feelings of impotence. Oh yeah, and a weird giant crow thing is haunting him.

The work is adapted from Max Porter’s novella Grief Is The ThIng With Feathers,...

Actors Riz Ahmed, Ruth Negga, Carice van Houten and Peter Mullan and directorsSally El Hosaini,Penny Woolcock, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh are among the signatories of an open letter from industry professionals and journalists calling on the BBC to reinstate the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone on iPlayer.

The letter, which has garnered more than 450 signatures in less than 24 hours, calls on the BBC’s leadership to stand by the documentary “with confidence”, saying it represents “an essential piece of journalism, offering an all-too-rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinian children living in unimaginable circumstances”.

TheBBC...

Benedict Cumberbatch relished rejecting an “alpha male machismo” in 'The Thing With Feathers'.The 48-year-old actor plays a dad struggling to cope with his wife’s death in the new drama movie – which is an adaptation of the novel, 'Grief Is the Thing with Feathers', by Max Porter – and Benedict relished the challenge of shooting the film.Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Benedict reflected: “I think part of my job and where I lean into difficult characters, is to explore what is their humanity - if there is any left.“Everyone starts out pretty innocent in my book but I feel we, as a society, owe a responsibility to those who need our help most, and the ones that fall through the cracks, either as victims or as perpetrators of ill doing, are the ones we need to help the most, and don’t. We have a very...

Benedict Cumberbatch spoke about his relationship to masculinity in his films at the Berlin press conference for “The Thing With Feathers,” in which he stars as a father of two sons grieving the devastating death of his wife.

The actor, who also produced the film through his company SunnyMarch, attended the press conference alongside director Dylan Southern and Richard and Henry Boxall (picture above), who played his sons in the movie. “The Thing With Feathers,” based on Max Porter’s book, had its world premiere at Sundance and will have its European debut at Berlin on Tuesday night.

During the presser, Cumberbatch said he finds it rewarding to allow himself to be vulnerable on screen, and views it as a strength of “being open and able to learn from tragedy.”

“Uncertainty and emotional vulnerability are not top of the agenda of the alpha male or the strong man image of what masculinity is,...

Benedict Cumberbatch is getting candid about grief, toxic masculinity and advocating for those in need upon the premiere of his latest film, The Thing With Feathers.

The British star spoke from Berlin at the press conference of his latest film on Tuesday. Written and directed by Dylan Southern and adapted from the book Grief Is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter, the new film follows a father (Cumberbatch) and his two sons (Richard and Henry Boxall) who are struggling to cope with the sudden loss of their wife and mother.

“I think part of my job and where I lean into difficult characters, is to explore what is their humanity — if there is any left,” he began. “Everyone starts out pretty innocent in my book but I feel we, as a society, owe a responsibility to those who need our help most, and the ones that fall through the cracks,...

Benedict Cumberbatch and writer-director Dylan Southern arrived in Berlin for the European bow of their family drama The Thing With Feathers, which recently had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Cumberbatch talked about how he sees grief and despair differently in his life, producing under his SunnyMarch label and also showered praise on the two young child actors that he worked with on The Thing With Feathers.

The Thing With Feathers follows a young father (played by Cumberbatch) who is devastated by the sudden and unexpected death of his wife. Left with two sons, his sense of reality gradually slips as he is haunted by a seemingly malign presence in the apartment he shares with his children.

“A lot of this film is about letting go, and grief is also about letting go. Something that was there is no longer there,” said Cumberbatch. “You can say that that...

Adapted from Max Porter’s haunting novella, the film presents a world where the intangible weight of sorrow assumes an unexpected physical form. Its narrative combines the penetrating intensity of psychological drama, the unsettling echoes of horror, and the spectral qualities of dark fantasy.

Set against the backdrop of a modest London apartment that mirrors the inner disarray of its residents, the story follows a father whose existence has been irreversibly altered by the abrupt loss of his life partner. The absence is embodied in a startling figure—a giant, anthropomorphic crow—that roams the home as both a silent witness and an unsettling presence echoing his internal strife.

Within these confined walls, familial bonds are marked by the father’s muted struggle and the subtle responses of his two young sons, each caught in the unspoken weight of shared loss. Shadows and light merge on surfaces that have witnessed...

In adapting Max Porter’s novel “Grief Is the Thing with Feathers,” noted documentary director Dylan Southern knew he’d be taking on some significant challenges in his first scripted narrative feature film. In the story about a grieving husband (Benedict Cumberbatch) thrust into unexpected single fatherhood, the film relies on performances from two young actors, Richard and Henry Boxall, to play his equally grieving sons. Southern and Cumberbatch talked about how being fathers in real life was key to the film’s success when they stopped by the IndieWire Studio, presented by Dropbox, ahead of the Sundance premiere of “The Thing with Feathers.”

“Neither of them had acted before and they had limited attention spans, and it was just about creating the situations that we needed them to be in,” said Southern of working with the young Boxall brothers. “When I first saw the boys, one of them was...

2025 is going to be great for Netflix. Sure, we have not seen all the streamer is going to gift us, but let's presume that things will be terrific. Netflix has never (mostly) let us down.

Some people complain there are too many foreign titles on the streamer. This seems...well, odd. Netflix is a global company and foreign films and shows can be just as good as the English-language ones.

Still, most of the films below should make all folks happy. They should be excellent adds to Netflix's already impressive catalog. Just don't hate us if we get one of them wrong.

Seven must-see films (and one to skip) coming to Netflix in 2025Happy Gilmore 2 (To be determined)

Watch! Whatever the premise, we know that Adam Sandler's character is going to play some golf, and hilarity will commence. The original film was funny fluff, and this one might be as well.

Director Dylan Southern’s melancholic dark fantasy drama, The Thing with Feathers, doesn’t exactly set out to scare, but it is cut from the same cloth as The Babadook and similar grief metaphor horror movies. The adaptation of Max Porter’s acclaimed novel Grief is the Thing with Feathers stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a newly widowed father so lost in his overwhelming grief that it manifests in the form of a monstrous, talking Crow voiced by David Thewlis. Despite the effectiveness of Crow’s acerbic nature and creature design, this grief metaphor languishes too long in its suffocating sorrow.

The story introduces Cumberbatch’s grief-stricken cartoonist, credited simply as “Dad,” just after he’s buried his wife, who died suddenly and unexpectedly. Her absence leaves an unfillable hole in the family’s life and disrupts their routine to a catastrophic degree. Adjusting to single fatherdom, raising two interchangeably rambunctious...

Horror films aren’t exactly known for their subtlety, but The Thing With Feathers has no subtlety in sight. On paper, The Thing With Feathers does seem like the type of film that could be an ambitious swing and a miss, but thanks to confident direction by Dylan Southern and a phenomenal leading turn by Benedict Cumberbatch, it’s easy to overlook some of the film’s narrative simplicities.

The Thing With Feathers Review

Based on the novel by Max Porter, The Thing With Feathers follows a grieving widower who is struggling to raise his two sons as a single father when his grief begins to manifest itself in physical ways. Tonally, the film offers a combination of family drama and psychological horror, and it manages to strike this balance in a way that is compelling and challenging.

Related Rabbit Trap Sundance Review — Even Dev Patel Can’t Save This...

Sundance film festival: An unaffecting adaptation of Max Porter’s acclaimed novella is perched awkwardly between fantasy and reality, failing to convince on either level

The messiness of grief, something most of us know too well, has been given a smoothing effect on screen, an experience so awful and unpleasant made easily, annoyingly palatable. The cliches that have come to define it have become so normalised that we often forget what it’s really like to see the horrible, frightening reality shown to us. On the page, and stage, Max Porter’s novella Grief is the Thing with Feathers was for many, a fantastical yet identifiable story of loss, the tale of a father losing his wife transformed into a dark, magical fable of transformative horror. Its central conceit – a giant crow haunting the aftermath of death – was such a compelling visual that, despite the pitfalls that come with adapting something so beloved,...

Benedict Cumberbatch was the toast of the town at Sundance during the Variety Cover Party presented by United Airlines. The actor, who graced the cover of Variety‘s 2025 Sundance issue, was honored at the event for his dramatic turn as a grieving father in “The Thing With the Feathers.” The party was held shortly before the movie’s world premiere screening at Sundance.

Variety’s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh gave opening remarks and invited guests in attendance to donate to L.A. wildfire relief efforts, as Los Angeles is one of Variety and the film industry’s home bases. Cumberbatch said “We do have to stand tall as an industry and help those in need” and pointed to the Qr codes United and Variety provided to charities that are helping with the relief efforts and to those impacted by the wildfires.

“Variety‘s Sundance issue is one of our biggest issues of the year,...

Crows rustle in Dylan Southern’s fiction feature debut, the haunting story of a middle-aged man coming to terms with the sudden and unexpected death of his wife, the mother of his two boys. In terms of genre, it’s hard to place, sitting somewhere between social drama and heightened horror; if Ken Loach dreamed up The Babadook, it might look something like this. Southern — previously known for such heady, experiential and you-are-there music docs as Shut Up and Play the Hits (2012) and Meet Me in the Bathroom (2022) — brings the visceral immediacy of those films to a very raw and emotional subject matter. For all the artistry behind it, however, The Thing with Feathers will likely prove divisive; for survivors of trauma, it will likely be cathartic, but for others more fortunate, its pitch-perfect portrayal of loss might be a touch too uncomfortable.

This is one of those films where...

In “The Thing with Feathers,” Benedict Cumberbatch plays a London creator of graphic novels who, quite suddenly, finds himself a widower (his beloved wife collapsed on the kitchen floor and died). In an early scene, we see him try and sustain an atmosphere of everyday normality as he puts breakfast together for his two young sons. But it’s not happening. He feels like he’s juggling four tasks at once; he burns the toast and then frantically tries to scrape off the charred part (a mistake).

The character, who is never named (he’s referred to in the credits as “Dad”), has already shown the depths of his grief, sitting on the couch after the funeral, his tears slowly gushing forth. When Benedict Cumberbatch enacts a moment like this, you can bet that you’re not just seeing an actor cry; you’re seeing him act with every tear.

While many films have conjured terrifying physical manifestations of grief, one that set a notably high bar for hand-crafted horror exploring that fecund strand was Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook. The specter of that brutally effective 2014 shocker proves inescapable for writer-director Dylan Southern in The Thing With Feathers, right down to a malevolent figure haunting the main characters that looks like something out of Edward Gorey. The main salvation is the staggering commitment of Benedict Cumberbatch, hurling himself into the role of a bereaved husband in a performance touched by madness that holds nothing back. His wounds are gashes continually being reopened.

The source material is Max Porter’s prize-winning 2015 novella Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, which yielded a solo stage piece three years later seen on both sides of the Atlantic, adapted and directed by Irish playwright Enda Walsh and starring a protean Cillian Murphy. The book is...

Benedict Cumberbatch touched down at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance ahead of the world premiere of his new drama film, “The Thing With the Feathers.” Written and directed by Dylan Southern from the book “Grief Is the Thing with Feathers” by Max Porter, the movie casts Cumberbatch as a grieving father struggling to raise his two sons after the sudden loss of his wife.

During the interview with Variety’s Brent Lang, the “Doctor Strange” actor said the father he plays is perhaps the closest he’s come to seeing his real self on screen. He explained: “We’re really fucking weird creatures, us actors. We want to be in extreme situations sometimes to tell a real story. And it does tell something universal. This character is as near to me as any others I’ve played, to be honest. The middle class, the father, being in northwest London.

In The Thing with Feathers, a widower and father of two suspects he is being stalked by a crow-like figure. The adaptation of Max Porter’s book of the same name stars Benedict Cumberbatch and is the fiction feature debut of director Dylan Southern. The versatile George Cragg served as the film’s editor in his first collaboration with Southern. He talks about how he made his way up in the industry and how he and Southern restructured the film below. See all responses to our […]

The post “Each Set of Rushes Presents a Unique Puzzle”: Editor George Cragg on The Thing with Feathers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In The Thing with Feathers, a widower and father of two suspects he is being stalked by a crow-like figure. The adaptation of Max Porter’s book of the same name stars Benedict Cumberbatch and is the fiction feature debut of director Dylan Southern. The versatile George Cragg served as the film’s editor in his first collaboration with Southern. He talks about how he made his way up in the industry and how he and Southern restructured the film below. See all responses to our […]

The post “Each Set of Rushes Presents a Unique Puzzle”: Editor George Cragg on The Thing with Feathers first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Benedict Cumberbatch has become a household name for several key roles. Across the pond, it's thanks to his portrayal of the titular character in BBC's Sherlock, before becoming worldwide famous thanks to his superhero role as Doctor Strange.

With two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role for 2014's The Imitation Game and 2021's The Power of the Dog, Cumberbatch has proven his acting skills in all types of roles. Whether he's bringing big money with roles in big franchises like the MCU, The Lord of the Rings, or Star Trek, and smaller projects like the biopic The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, the limited series Eric and Patrick Melrose, Cumberbatch has proven to be a very successful movie star. However, during his feature interview with Variety, the actor denounced his description as a "celebrity."

Related Benedict Cumberbatch Reveals His Vulgar Reaction to Robert Downey Jr....

One of the best aspects of the Sundance Film Festival is its Midnight Section, which typically brings a variety of horror films that are ready and waiting to make us jump or curl away from the screen in disconcertment. In 2024, Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, a uniquely told ghost story, surprised and awed, while Infinity Pool disgusted and disturbed. This year’s Sundance Film Festival has plenty of new and exciting horror offerings that are sure to have audiences talking.

When it comes to horror, festival movies are inventive, taking the genre to places we have never been to before. That was the case with last year’s I Saw the TV Glow, which managed to maintain interest long after its Sundance debut. We can never have too much horror, as it’s a genre with plenty to say and where creativity can truly soar. Sundance’s 2025 lineup looks to be...

The Berlin Film Festival (February 13-23)has unveiled a raft of additions to its programme, including the full Special, Panorama, Generation and Forum line-ups.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Eight works have been added to the Berlinale Special line-up, including confirmation the festival will host the German premiere ofParasitedirector Bong Joon Ho’sMickey 17.The filmstars Robert Pattinson in the story of an “expendable” on a mission to colonise an ice planet who keeps dying and coming back to life. It is likely to world premiere in South Korean ahead of playing at the Berlinale.

The world premiere of...

The Berlin Film Festival has confirmed that Bong Joon Ho‘s highly anticipated Mickey 17, the director’s first feature since his historic Oscar sweep with Parasite, will have its international premiere out of competition in Berlin. The film will bow first in South Korea on Jan. 28, and will roll out in the U.S. on March 7. Warner Bros. is releasing the film worldwide.

The Robert Pattinson-starrer will get a Berlinale Special gala screening at the 2025 Berlinale. The sci-fi film features an ensemble cast including Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo alongside Pattinson.

Dylan Southern’s family drama The Thing With Feathers, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, also secured a Berlinale Special slot. The adaptation of Max Porter’s novel follows a father grappling with his wife’s sudden death while raising their young children.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the upcoming series from Australian director Justin Kurzel (The Order,...

Aussie filmmaker Justin Kurzel’s series adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Jacob Elordi, will screen at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North was among several titles added to Berlin’s lineup this morning.

The festival describes the series as a “riveting new Australian drama” about a WWII hero haunted by his past. The show will screen as a Berlinale Special Gala. Also in Specials strand is The Thing with Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The pic screens at Berlin following a debut bow at Sundance and is from filmmaker Dylan Southern. The pic is an adaption of Max Porter’s novel about a grieving father wrestling with the sudden death of his wife while also raising their young children. As previously reported, Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 will also screen. Scroll down...

UK filmmakers and talent have a strong showing at Sundance 2025, taking place from January 23 to February 2, 2025 in Park City.

Brides, the feature debut of theatre director and incoming Young Vic artistic director Nadia Fall,premieres in the World Cinema Dramatic competition.The film, which is written by Suhayla El-Bushra,follows two troubled teenage girls who decide to run away to Syria, is produced by Neon’s Nicky Bentham and Marica Stocchi from Italian outfit Rosamont.

It was supported by the BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales, Welsh Government via Creative Wales, Great Point Media, the Italian Ministry of Culture Minority Co-production Fund,...

Exclusive: It’s been a long time coming amid trickles of information that never were fully confirmed, but the Shelby family faithful can now wholly rejoice as the Peaky Blinders movie is officially moving forward. Netflix has greenlit a feature film that will star Oscar winner Cillian Murphy in a return to the iconic role of the Birmingham clan’s leader Tommy Shelby.

Tom Harper is directing the untitled film. Harper is no stranger to Peaky, having helmed the back half of Season 1.

Production is set to begin later this year from a script by Peaky creator Steven Knight. Producers are Caryn Mandabach, Knight, Murphy and Guy Heeley. Exec producers include Harper, David Kosse, Jamie Glazebrook, Andrew Warren and David Mason. The feature will be made in association with BBC Film.

Related: ‘Peaky Blinders’ Creator Steven Knight On Series Finale & How It...

Hollywood star Benedict Cumberbatch has signed to star in Dylan Southern’s adaptation of Max Porter’s acclaimed novel ‘Grief is the Thing With Feathers’.

The story follows a father and his two young sons dealing with the sudden death of their wife and mother, reports ‘Deadline’.

Cumberbatch will play a young father whose hold on reality crumbles following his wife’s death as a strange presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.

This mysterious creature, known as ‘Crow’, seemingly brought to life from the pages of his work as an illustrator, becomes a very real part of all their lives, ultimately guiding them towards the new shape family must take.

As per ‘Deadline’, the feature adaptation, entitled ‘The Thing With Feathers’, is produced by Andrea Cornwell with SunnyMarch’s Adam Ackland and Leah Clarke. The script was developed with Film4,...

Enrique Buleo’s “Still Life With Ghost,” Ana Asensio’s “The Goat Girl,” Gala Gracia’s “The Remnants of You” and Esteban Alenda Bros.’ “There Is Evil” are some of the film projects pitched at the spotlight event on Spanish cinema at Cannes’ Producers Network on Friday May 20.

Five Spanish production companies– Un Capricho de Producciones, Quatre Films Audiovisuales, Potenza Producciones, Aquí y Allí Films and Solita Films – were selected by Spain’s trade promotion board Icex and the Icaa film institute to pitch their production slates at the Marché du Film event.

As part of the Production Day, which kicked off with the Producers Network, the five Spanish producers made a video pitch with their projects – the main part of them at development stage – to encourage international partnerships with co-producers and sales agents.

Comedy is the predominant genre among the feature projects selected.

In the evening, 25 Spanish producers will...

Rémi Chayé’s “Fleur,” Claude Barras’ “You’re Not the One I Expected” and Alberto Vázquez’s “Unicorn Wars” are some of the multiple potential standouts at the 24th edition of Cartoon Movie, Europe’s leading animated movie co-production event.

Scheduled to take place in Bordeaux, France, over March 8-10, the 2022 Cartoon Movie lineup features 57 projects, 15 hail from France, which is seven fewer than last year as animation grows in the rest of Europe but still marks its predominance in Europe as a producer of arthouse and crossover animated movies.

For the third year running, Spain has the second largest presence at Cartoon Movie with eight titles, a sign of its build as a significant animation producer and host of animation events such as Cartoon Springboard, confirmed last week, Cartoon Business and the Quirino Awards.

“You’re Not the One I Expected” marks the new project from Switzerland’s Claude Barras,...

"We started when I was little... I'd roll up socks. Then, he'd put me in the suitcase." We always enjoy stop-motion films. Negative Space is stop-motion animated short that was one of the five nominees for Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2018. The film depicts a father--son relationship through the art of packing a suitcase, showing techniques to pack it perfectly that the son learned from his father growing up. It's co-directed by animation filmmakers Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, made in France. Featuring the voice of Albert Birney as Sam. This has lovely music, and best of all some gorgeous production design, color, and lighting design. It's a simple, sweet story to tell, and they make it all the more moving with its distinct style. Thanks to Short of the Week for debuting this one. Original description from YouTube: "Even though Sam's father is hardly ever home because...

Lean on Pete producer The Bureau is the latest high-profile film company to move into television. The UK/French outfit is building its debut TV slate and has optioned witch-trial novel The Familiars as one of its first projects.

The book, which was published by Bonnier Zaffre earlier this year, was written by Stacey Halls, a journalist who previously worked for The Sun. Her debut novel tells a fictionalized account of the Pendle witch trials, which took place in the 17th century in Lancashire.

The Bureau’s Tristan Goligher optioned the rights to the book from Emily Hayward-Whitlock at The Artist Partnership on behalf of Juliet Mushens at Caskie Mushens.

Goligher told Deadline, “We’re currently building a slate of TV projects of which The Familiars will be one. The focus is on high end, distinctive, and accessible material. A key part of that strategy is creating TV opportunities for...

Even parents that have complicated relationships with their children can still find ways of bonding. The short film, “Negative Space,” explores this with the activity of packing a suitcase. It may seem like a simple concept, but the stop-motion short film is now one of the five nominees for Best Animated Short Film at this year’s Oscars. Filmmakers, Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata, both scored their first career nominations.

A man is seen finishing packing a suitcase. The man then describes how his dad taught him how to pack a suitcase properly. As he sets off on his trip, we see how these interactions with his dad came about during his life. We first see him as a very young child who would help his father roll up socks to put in the suitcase and then his father would put him in it as well. Being in there, surrounded...