The world premiere of Samuel Abrahams’ Lady, starring Sian Clifford, is one of four titles to be added to the BFI London Film Festival 2025 line-up, following itsunveiling yesterday (September 3).
Clifford plays a narcissistic aristocrat who hires a struggling filmmaker to record her every move, in UK filmmaker Abrahams’ feature debut. The mockumentary is produced by the UK’s MetFilm, with sales repped by the company’s sales arm, and will premiere in the ‘dare’ strand.
The total number of world premieres in the festival is now up to seven. Three UK premieres have also been added, bringing the total number...
Clifford plays a narcissistic aristocrat who hires a struggling filmmaker to record her every move, in UK filmmaker Abrahams’ feature debut. The mockumentary is produced by the UK’s MetFilm, with sales repped by the company’s sales arm, and will premiere in the ‘dare’ strand.
The total number of world premieres in the festival is now up to seven. Three UK premieres have also been added, bringing the total number...
- 9/4/2025
- ScreenDaily
The 69th BFI London Film Festival has added four additional titles to its program, including U.K. premieres of Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia,” Claire Denis’ “The Fence” and Gastón Solnicki’s “The Souffleur,” plus the world premiere of Samuel Abrahams’ “Lady.”
“Lady” marks the directorial debut of Samuel Abrahams, featuring Sian Clifford from “Fleabag” in what festival programmers describe as a “larger-than-life performance” as a narcissistic aristocrat who hires a struggling filmmaker to document her every move for an eccentric mockumentary.
Lady Isabella longs for the spotlight and sees local talent show “Stately Stars” as her long-desired break. Despite reveling in the camera’s presence on her grand estate, pressures mount and things take a surreal turn when she begins losing her sense of self. The U.K. production also stars Laurie Kynaston and Juliet Cowan.
“Lady” will have its world premiere as part of the Dare strand. MetFilm Studio is behind the production.
“Lady” marks the directorial debut of Samuel Abrahams, featuring Sian Clifford from “Fleabag” in what festival programmers describe as a “larger-than-life performance” as a narcissistic aristocrat who hires a struggling filmmaker to document her every move for an eccentric mockumentary.
Lady Isabella longs for the spotlight and sees local talent show “Stately Stars” as her long-desired break. Despite reveling in the camera’s presence on her grand estate, pressures mount and things take a surreal turn when she begins losing her sense of self. The U.K. production also stars Laurie Kynaston and Juliet Cowan.
“Lady” will have its world premiere as part of the Dare strand. MetFilm Studio is behind the production.
- 9/4/2025
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The London Film Festival has added a number of titles to this year’s line-up, including Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia.
La Grazia will arrive in London following a debut bow in Venice. The film follows Mariano De Santis, a fictional President of the Italian Republic. A widower and a Catholic, he has a daughter, Dorotea, a legal scholar like himself. As his term draws to a close, amid uneventful days, two final duties arise: deciding on two delicate petitions for a presidential pardon. True moral dilemmas, which become tangled in ways that seem impossible to unravel, with his private life. Driven by doubt, he will have to decide. And, with a deep sense of responsibility, that is exactly what this remarkable Italian President will do.
The pic stars Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti. The movie is produced by Fremantle’s The Apartment in association with Numero 10 and PiperFilm.
La Grazia will arrive in London following a debut bow in Venice. The film follows Mariano De Santis, a fictional President of the Italian Republic. A widower and a Catholic, he has a daughter, Dorotea, a legal scholar like himself. As his term draws to a close, amid uneventful days, two final duties arise: deciding on two delicate petitions for a presidential pardon. True moral dilemmas, which become tangled in ways that seem impossible to unravel, with his private life. Driven by doubt, he will have to decide. And, with a deep sense of responsibility, that is exactly what this remarkable Italian President will do.
The pic stars Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti. The movie is produced by Fremantle’s The Apartment in association with Numero 10 and PiperFilm.
- 9/4/2025
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Movies starring Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, and Mia McKenna-Bruce have joined the lineup of the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival.
Organizers said Thursday that they have added the world premiere of Samuel Abrahams’ Lady, the U.K. premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, the U.K. premiere of Claire Denis’ The Fence and the U.K. premiere of Gastón Solnicki’s The Souffleur to the 2025 program.
The 2025 BFI London Film Festival runs Oct. 8-19 in partnership with American Express. Below is a closer look at the latest additions to the festival’s lineup.
La Grazia
Director-screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino. With Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti, Orlando Cinque, Massimo Venturiello, Milvia Marigliano. Italy 2025. 131 min. Courtesy of Mubi. Language Italian. With English subtitles.
Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino is reunited with The Great Beauty actor Toni Servillo, who plays a fictional president reaching the end of their final term in office.
Organizers said Thursday that they have added the world premiere of Samuel Abrahams’ Lady, the U.K. premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, the U.K. premiere of Claire Denis’ The Fence and the U.K. premiere of Gastón Solnicki’s The Souffleur to the 2025 program.
The 2025 BFI London Film Festival runs Oct. 8-19 in partnership with American Express. Below is a closer look at the latest additions to the festival’s lineup.
La Grazia
Director-screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino. With Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti, Orlando Cinque, Massimo Venturiello, Milvia Marigliano. Italy 2025. 131 min. Courtesy of Mubi. Language Italian. With English subtitles.
Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino is reunited with The Great Beauty actor Toni Servillo, who plays a fictional president reaching the end of their final term in office.
- 9/4/2025
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A soufflé is a minor miracle of structural integrity. It is an act of culinary defiance, a temporary sculpture of air and egg held together by little more than heat and conviction. One admires its craft and its perfect, fleeting rise from the ramekin, knowing its collapse is an essential part of its nature.
It is a beautiful, delicious folly. Gastón Solnicki’s film, The Souffleur, understands this principle deep in its bones. His setting is Vienna’s InterContinental Hotel, a once-glorious monument to mid-century luxury now succumbing to a gentle decay. The chandeliers still glitter, but the carpets have yellowed and the staff move with a quiet weariness.
Within these walls presides Lucius Glantz,...
It is a beautiful, delicious folly. Gastón Solnicki’s film, The Souffleur, understands this principle deep in its bones. His setting is Vienna’s InterContinental Hotel, a once-glorious monument to mid-century luxury now succumbing to a gentle decay. The chandeliers still glitter, but the carpets have yellowed and the staff move with a quiet weariness.
Within these walls presides Lucius Glantz,...
- 9/2/2025
- by Arash Nahandian
- Gazettely
Jim Jarmusch and the cast of Father Mother Sister Brother were like one big family during Sunday’s world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.
The auteur celebrated the movie’s launch in the main competition as he walked the red carpet at the Lido in a black-on-black suit with the movie’s stars Cate Blanchett, Indya Moore, Mayim Bialik and more.
Ahead of the film’s Dec. 24 release via Mubi, Jarmusch said he was “disappointed and quite disconcerted” about the distributor’s backing of a number of Israeli defence-tech start-ups.
“I have to say I’m an independent filmmaker, and I have taken money from various sources to be able to realize my films and I consider pretty much all corporate money is dirty money,” added Jarmusch during Sunday’s press conference.
Also in attendance were co-stars Vicky Krieps, Charlotte Rampling and Luka Sabbat.
Willem Dafoe walked the red carpet as well,...
The auteur celebrated the movie’s launch in the main competition as he walked the red carpet at the Lido in a black-on-black suit with the movie’s stars Cate Blanchett, Indya Moore, Mayim Bialik and more.
Ahead of the film’s Dec. 24 release via Mubi, Jarmusch said he was “disappointed and quite disconcerted” about the distributor’s backing of a number of Israeli defence-tech start-ups.
“I have to say I’m an independent filmmaker, and I have taken money from various sources to be able to realize my films and I consider pretty much all corporate money is dirty money,” added Jarmusch during Sunday’s press conference.
Also in attendance were co-stars Vicky Krieps, Charlotte Rampling and Luka Sabbat.
Willem Dafoe walked the red carpet as well,...
- 8/31/2025
- by Glenn Garner
- Deadline Film + TV
There’s something magical about a soufflé. It is infamously tricky to make, requiring patience, precise temperatures, and meticulous technique. A perfect one needs to combine rich creaminess with feather-light airiness, balancing indulgence with ephemerality. Its existence has been passed down from generation to generation to those who seek to preserve a piece of culinary heritage, explaining the importance of a 45-degree angle spoon to fold, the correct whisking technique, and the precise texture required at each step to result to form crisp outer layers and an oozing center.
As such, the soufflé has long served as a kind of culinary metaphor for highly skilled folly, something nutritionally inconsequential, fleeting, but nevertheless a testimony to its creator’s craftsmanship. You marvel at it, even as you wonder whether it was worth the effort.
In the aptly named “The Souffleur,” this metaphor speaks to both the film’s strengths and weaknesses.
As such, the soufflé has long served as a kind of culinary metaphor for highly skilled folly, something nutritionally inconsequential, fleeting, but nevertheless a testimony to its creator’s craftsmanship. You marvel at it, even as you wonder whether it was worth the effort.
In the aptly named “The Souffleur,” this metaphor speaks to both the film’s strengths and weaknesses.
- 8/31/2025
- by Leila Latif
- Indiewire
Venice Gap-Financing Market Casts Wide Net With Diverse Crop of Talents Looking for Completion Funds
More than a decade since becoming a key component in the Venice Production Bridge, as the Lido’s industry arm is known, the Venice Gap-Financing Market continues to offer fertile ground for financiers, distributors, sales agents, streamers and other industry professionals to preview buzzy new projects looking to complete their financing.
Pascal Diot, head of the Venice Production Bridge, says it was exactly that, well, gap in the market that he first set out to fill.
“When I created this Venice Gap-Financing Market 12 years ago, there was no such kind of co-production market at that time,” Diot tells Variety. Similar industry events, he says, were largely focused on projects in development, though the longtime producer recognized from first-hand experience “that it was also very difficult to find the last 30%” of a film’s budget.
In just over a decade since its inception, the Venice Gap-Financing Market has boasted an impressive track record,...
Pascal Diot, head of the Venice Production Bridge, says it was exactly that, well, gap in the market that he first set out to fill.
“When I created this Venice Gap-Financing Market 12 years ago, there was no such kind of co-production market at that time,” Diot tells Variety. Similar industry events, he says, were largely focused on projects in development, though the longtime producer recognized from first-hand experience “that it was also very difficult to find the last 30%” of a film’s budget.
In just over a decade since its inception, the Venice Gap-Financing Market has boasted an impressive track record,...
- 8/29/2025
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Rei Pictures, one of Argentina’s most international-facing production companies is launching a major international expansion that includes new offices in Spain and Mexico and a push into TV, talent management and production services.
Formerly known as Rei Cine, Rei Pictures, which is behind Lucrecia Martel’s Venice world premiere “Landmarks” (“Nuestra tierra”) and Martel’s historical drama “Zama,” also produced 2024 Venice competition entry “Kill the Jockey,” Cannes winner “The Settlers” and Sundance-prized “Queen of Fear.”
Company is a co-producer on Amalia Ulman’s culture clash comedy “Magic Farm,” starring Chloe Sevigny and Alex Wolff, which now streams on Mubi.
To fuel its expansion, Rei has partnered with major commercials company Primo Content, which has outposts in Argentina, Brazil, México, Spain, Colombia, Uruguay and the U.S. Primo produced Gastón Solnicki’s “The Souffleur,” playing like “Landmarks” out of competition in Venice this year. Primo also backed Cannes winner...
Formerly known as Rei Cine, Rei Pictures, which is behind Lucrecia Martel’s Venice world premiere “Landmarks” (“Nuestra tierra”) and Martel’s historical drama “Zama,” also produced 2024 Venice competition entry “Kill the Jockey,” Cannes winner “The Settlers” and Sundance-prized “Queen of Fear.”
Company is a co-producer on Amalia Ulman’s culture clash comedy “Magic Farm,” starring Chloe Sevigny and Alex Wolff, which now streams on Mubi.
To fuel its expansion, Rei has partnered with major commercials company Primo Content, which has outposts in Argentina, Brazil, México, Spain, Colombia, Uruguay and the U.S. Primo produced Gastón Solnicki’s “The Souffleur,” playing like “Landmarks” out of competition in Venice this year. Primo also backed Cannes winner...
- 8/29/2025
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Argentine director Gastón Solnicki has finished his Viennese trilogy with Willem Dafoe-starring “The Souffleur.” But he’s already developing a “big-scale historical film” about his own grandfather, Polish-born chess master Miguel Najdorf. Variety speaks to Solnicki, and debuts the teaser for “The Souffleur” here.
“[Miguel Najdorf] was a very unique person and incredibly charismatic character whose story hasn’t yet been told. His life is one of the great 20th-century odysseys. I was only 18 when he passed away in Marbella, over a poker table,” recalls Solnicki, who would like to shoot it “around the world.”
“He shared moments with all these iconic figures who admired him, from Kirk Douglas to Perón, from Bobby Fisher to Che Guevara. That’s my next project, more ambitious, where the personal, autobiographical, historical and political all come nicely together.”
Solnicki is excited to be back working in Buenos Aires, “even though it’s a difficult moment,...
“[Miguel Najdorf] was a very unique person and incredibly charismatic character whose story hasn’t yet been told. His life is one of the great 20th-century odysseys. I was only 18 when he passed away in Marbella, over a poker table,” recalls Solnicki, who would like to shoot it “around the world.”
“He shared moments with all these iconic figures who admired him, from Kirk Douglas to Perón, from Bobby Fisher to Che Guevara. That’s my next project, more ambitious, where the personal, autobiographical, historical and political all come nicely together.”
Solnicki is excited to be back working in Buenos Aires, “even though it’s a difficult moment,...
- 8/28/2025
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Four-time Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe, one of this year’s recipients of an honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award for career achievement, took time between his sold-out masterclass and presenting Miguel Ángel Jimenez’s “The Birthday Party” to visit the Variety Lounge, presented by the Sarajevo Film Festival and Bh Telecom.
The visit marked Dafoe’s return to the Bosnian capital 25 years after presenting Steve Buscemi’s “Animal Factory.” “The festival is really thriving and growing,” he observed. “I just had a talk, and it was a very enthusiastic reception. People are believers in cinema, so I’m always happy to go where those people are.”
The actor is, of course, very used to being on the festival trail. After Sarajevo, Dafoe will head to Venice to premiere Kent Jones’ “Late Fame” and Gastón Solnicki’s “The Souffleur,” then Toronto for Nadia Latif’s “The Man in My Basement.”
“Festivals are wildly important,...
The visit marked Dafoe’s return to the Bosnian capital 25 years after presenting Steve Buscemi’s “Animal Factory.” “The festival is really thriving and growing,” he observed. “I just had a talk, and it was a very enthusiastic reception. People are believers in cinema, so I’m always happy to go where those people are.”
The actor is, of course, very used to being on the festival trail. After Sarajevo, Dafoe will head to Venice to premiere Kent Jones’ “Late Fame” and Gastón Solnicki’s “The Souffleur,” then Toronto for Nadia Latif’s “The Man in My Basement.”
“Festivals are wildly important,...
- 8/27/2025
- by Rafa Sales Ross
- Variety Film + TV
Charli xcx’s ‘Erupcja’ Directed by Pete Ohs Boarded by Magnify Ahead of Toronto Premiere (Exclusive)
“Erupcja,” Pete Ohs’ mysterious romantic movie starring Charli xcx, Lena Góra and Jeremy O. Harris, has been boarded by Magnify in the run up to its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
The company will handle international sales on the buzzy movie, which is slated to bow in the Centrepiece section at Toronto. CAA Media Finance represents domestic rights.
Set in Poland, “Erupcja” follows two women as they complicate their romantic lives. Nel (Góra) lives in Warsaw, where she works at a flower shop. When her childhood friend Bethany (Charli xcx) comes to visit with a new boyfriend, a volcano erupts. The cast is completed by Harris, Will Madden (“Jethica”) and Agata Trzebuchowska (“Ida”). “Erupcja” is produced by Ohs, Harris, Charli xcx, Luke Arreguin and Josh Godfrey.
“We’re thrilled to partner again with Pete and the team on ‘Erupcja,’” said Austin Kennedy, head of sales at Magnify. “Charli...
The company will handle international sales on the buzzy movie, which is slated to bow in the Centrepiece section at Toronto. CAA Media Finance represents domestic rights.
Set in Poland, “Erupcja” follows two women as they complicate their romantic lives. Nel (Góra) lives in Warsaw, where she works at a flower shop. When her childhood friend Bethany (Charli xcx) comes to visit with a new boyfriend, a volcano erupts. The cast is completed by Harris, Will Madden (“Jethica”) and Agata Trzebuchowska (“Ida”). “Erupcja” is produced by Ohs, Harris, Charli xcx, Luke Arreguin and Josh Godfrey.
“We’re thrilled to partner again with Pete and the team on ‘Erupcja,’” said Austin Kennedy, head of sales at Magnify. “Charli...
- 8/20/2025
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Magnify has boarded international sales to Stillz’s Colombia-set coming-of-age story Barrio Triste ahead of its world premiere at Venice Film Festival (August 27-September 9) in Horizons.
The feature directorial debut by Stillz, the Colombian-American music video director and photographer who has worked with Bad Bunny and Rosalía, takes place in Medellin in 1987 as teen outcasts steal a news camera to document their dangerous lives.
Barrio Triste is produced by Harmony Korine’s collective Edglrd and according to the film’s representatives “taps into the anxieties of a youth culture from the margins of history yearning to be understood”.
The cast features Juan Pablo Baena,...
The feature directorial debut by Stillz, the Colombian-American music video director and photographer who has worked with Bad Bunny and Rosalía, takes place in Medellin in 1987 as teen outcasts steal a news camera to document their dangerous lives.
Barrio Triste is produced by Harmony Korine’s collective Edglrd and according to the film’s representatives “taps into the anxieties of a youth culture from the margins of history yearning to be understood”.
The cast features Juan Pablo Baena,...
- 8/19/2025
- ScreenDaily
Dos presencias españolas, ‘Extraño Río’ y ‘Calle Málaga’, en la programación de la Biennale.
© Biennale
Ayer se desveló la impresionante programación de la 82 edición del Festival Internacional de Cine de Venecia, que se celebra del 27 de agosto al 6 de septiembre. Una selección potente, con claro protagonismo del cine en lengua inglesa, que busca posicionar a Venecia como la antesala decisiva de la temporada de premios. No es un gesto gratuito: Anora, ganadora en Cannes el año pasado, acabó llevándose el Óscar a la Mejor Película. Y ahora, todos miran a la Mostra como el próximo trampolín. Así, en la competición por el León de Oro hay nombres de peso como Guillermo del Toro, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach, Park Chan-wook, o Benny Safdie. La riqueza de la programación se extiende también a las secciones paralelas y fuera de competición. En ellas se presentarán, entre otros, los nuevos trabajos de...
© Biennale
Ayer se desveló la impresionante programación de la 82 edición del Festival Internacional de Cine de Venecia, que se celebra del 27 de agosto al 6 de septiembre. Una selección potente, con claro protagonismo del cine en lengua inglesa, que busca posicionar a Venecia como la antesala decisiva de la temporada de premios. No es un gesto gratuito: Anora, ganadora en Cannes el año pasado, acabó llevándose el Óscar a la Mejor Película. Y ahora, todos miran a la Mostra como el próximo trampolín. Así, en la competición por el León de Oro hay nombres de peso como Guillermo del Toro, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach, Park Chan-wook, o Benny Safdie. La riqueza de la programación se extiende también a las secciones paralelas y fuera de competición. En ellas se presentarán, entre otros, los nuevos trabajos de...
- 7/23/2025
- by Marta Medina
- mundoCine
Celebrating its 82nd edition this year, Venice Film Festival will take place August 27 through September 6. Ahead of the event, President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Director Alberto Barbera have now unveiled the lineup.
Highlights include new films from Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, Lucrecia Martel, Laura Poitras, Benny Safdie, Werner Herzog, Kathryn Bigelow, Luca Guadagnino, Olivier Assayas, Sofia Coppola, Kent Jones, Yorgos Lanthimos, Mark Jenkin, Tsai Ming-liang, Mamoru Hosoda, Gus Van Sant, Noah Baumbach, Mona Fastvold, Pietro Marcello, Guillermo del Toro, László Nemes, and more.
See the lineup below.
Opening Film
La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino) (in competition)
Closing Film
Chien 51 (Cédric Jimenez) (out of competition)
In Competition
The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas)
Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach)
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania)
A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)
The Sun Rises on Us All (Cai Shangjun)
Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)
Elisa (Leonardo Di Costanzo)
À pied d’œuvre...
Highlights include new films from Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, Lucrecia Martel, Laura Poitras, Benny Safdie, Werner Herzog, Kathryn Bigelow, Luca Guadagnino, Olivier Assayas, Sofia Coppola, Kent Jones, Yorgos Lanthimos, Mark Jenkin, Tsai Ming-liang, Mamoru Hosoda, Gus Van Sant, Noah Baumbach, Mona Fastvold, Pietro Marcello, Guillermo del Toro, László Nemes, and more.
See the lineup below.
Opening Film
La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino) (in competition)
Closing Film
Chien 51 (Cédric Jimenez) (out of competition)
In Competition
The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas)
Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach)
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania)
A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)
The Sun Rises on Us All (Cai Shangjun)
Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)
Elisa (Leonardo Di Costanzo)
À pied d’œuvre...
- 7/22/2025
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The line-up for the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (August 27-September 9) is being unveiled today at 11:00 Cest (10:00 BST) by festival president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and artistic director Alberto Barbera.
Scroll down for lineup
The press conference is live-streamed above, and this page will be updated with the films as they are announced.Refresh page for latest updates.
Alexander Payne will preside over the jury, which also includes Mohammad Rasoulof, Fernanda Torres, Stephane Brize, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu and Zhao Tao. Julia Ducournau will chair the Horizons jury.
The Venice Critics’ Week line-up was announced yesterday.
Competition
La Grazia
Dir.
Scroll down for lineup
The press conference is live-streamed above, and this page will be updated with the films as they are announced.Refresh page for latest updates.
Alexander Payne will preside over the jury, which also includes Mohammad Rasoulof, Fernanda Torres, Stephane Brize, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu and Zhao Tao. Julia Ducournau will chair the Horizons jury.
The Venice Critics’ Week line-up was announced yesterday.
Competition
La Grazia
Dir.
- 7/22/2025
- ScreenDaily
Four-time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe is set to team up once more with Brazil’s Bárbara Paz in near-future drama, “Cuddle,” Paz’s fiction feature debut.
Dafoe was an associate producer of the documentary “Babenco: Tell Me When I Die” (2019), which Paz directed as an ode to her late husband, Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Hector Babenco and which represented Brazil at the 93rd Academy Awards.
Dafoe’s ties to Paz and Babenco began with “My Hindu Friend,” Babenco’s semi-autobiographical 2015 swan song, in which Dafoe portrayed a dying filmmaker closely modeled after Babenco himself and Paz played a small but pivotal role.
In “Cuddle,” Dafoe plays Dante, a professional cuddler who offers platonic comfort to strangers craving connection. His clients range from the overwhelmed to the emotionally fragile, people searching for human touch in a world where affection has become rare and transactional. Behind his calm exterior, Dante struggles with a painkiller habit and a lonely existence,...
Dafoe was an associate producer of the documentary “Babenco: Tell Me When I Die” (2019), which Paz directed as an ode to her late husband, Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Hector Babenco and which represented Brazil at the 93rd Academy Awards.
Dafoe’s ties to Paz and Babenco began with “My Hindu Friend,” Babenco’s semi-autobiographical 2015 swan song, in which Dafoe portrayed a dying filmmaker closely modeled after Babenco himself and Paz played a small but pivotal role.
In “Cuddle,” Dafoe plays Dante, a professional cuddler who offers platonic comfort to strangers craving connection. His clients range from the overwhelmed to the emotionally fragile, people searching for human touch in a world where affection has become rare and transactional. Behind his calm exterior, Dante struggles with a painkiller habit and a lonely existence,...
- 5/17/2025
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Magnify has bolstered its Cannes sales slate with international rights to Pete Ohs’ recent SXSW genre-bender The True Beauty Of Being Bitten By A Tick.
The Narrative Spotlight premiere stars Zoë Chao, whose credits include Bubble & Squeak, as a young woman whose idyllic rural escape unravels after a tick bite triggers a series of unsettling transformations.
The cast includes Callie Hernandez, Jeremy O. Harris (The Sweet East), and James Cusati-Moyer (Maestro).
Ohs, Hernandez, Harris, Chao, and Cusati-Moyer co-wrote the screenplay, and the producers are Ohs, Hernandez (Invention), Harris (Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.), and Josh Godfrey...
The Narrative Spotlight premiere stars Zoë Chao, whose credits include Bubble & Squeak, as a young woman whose idyllic rural escape unravels after a tick bite triggers a series of unsettling transformations.
The cast includes Callie Hernandez, Jeremy O. Harris (The Sweet East), and James Cusati-Moyer (Maestro).
Ohs, Hernandez, Harris, Chao, and Cusati-Moyer co-wrote the screenplay, and the producers are Ohs, Hernandez (Invention), Harris (Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.), and Josh Godfrey...
- 5/9/2025
- ScreenDaily
Tom Neuwirth aka Conchita Wurst, the bold Austrian bearded diva who won the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, will make her acting debut in a twisted vampire mystery, “The Blood Countess,” starring opposite Isabelle Huppert.
Magnify handles global and U.S. sales rights on the hot title and has unveiled a striking first-look image (pictured) from the film ahead of the Cannes film market where Austin Kennedy, head of global sales, and Phoebe Liebling, manager of global sales, will be pursuing deals.
Directed by renowned German New Wave filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger, “The Blood Countess” draws inspiration from the life and legend of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman which is played by Huppert. The screenplay was penned by Ottinger and Elfriede Jelinek, the Nobel Prize in Literature winner and acclaimed author of “The Piano Teacher.” The film is currently in post-production.
The cast is completed by Birgit Minichmayr (“Daughters”), Lars Eidinger,...
Magnify handles global and U.S. sales rights on the hot title and has unveiled a striking first-look image (pictured) from the film ahead of the Cannes film market where Austin Kennedy, head of global sales, and Phoebe Liebling, manager of global sales, will be pursuing deals.
Directed by renowned German New Wave filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger, “The Blood Countess” draws inspiration from the life and legend of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman which is played by Huppert. The screenplay was penned by Ottinger and Elfriede Jelinek, the Nobel Prize in Literature winner and acclaimed author of “The Piano Teacher.” The film is currently in post-production.
The cast is completed by Birgit Minichmayr (“Daughters”), Lars Eidinger,...
- 5/7/2025
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Willem Dafoe has signed on to star in “The Souffleur,” an English-language dark comedy directed by rising Argentinian director Gastón Solnicki. Magnify has boarded worldwide sales (excluding Austria) ahead of the Cannes Film Market. Variety has been given exclusive access to a first-look image for the film (below), which is currently in post-production.
“The Souffleur” sees Dafoe playing the tenured hotelier of Vienna’s InterContinental Hotel. Upon learning that his cherished hotel is about to be sold to an Argentine developer who plans to demolish and reconstruct the landmark completely, he wages a personal vendetta against the new owner. “Spiraling into absurd paranoia, his profound unraveling begins to manifest in his surroundings — the hotel pipes become blocked, the clocks go haywire and his trademark soufflés refuse to rise,” reads the synopsis. The movie shot on location in Vienna at the InterContinental Hotel.
Willem Dafoe in “The Souffleur.”
Dafoe stars alongside Solnicki,...
“The Souffleur” sees Dafoe playing the tenured hotelier of Vienna’s InterContinental Hotel. Upon learning that his cherished hotel is about to be sold to an Argentine developer who plans to demolish and reconstruct the landmark completely, he wages a personal vendetta against the new owner. “Spiraling into absurd paranoia, his profound unraveling begins to manifest in his surroundings — the hotel pipes become blocked, the clocks go haywire and his trademark soufflés refuse to rise,” reads the synopsis. The movie shot on location in Vienna at the InterContinental Hotel.
Willem Dafoe in “The Souffleur.”
Dafoe stars alongside Solnicki,...
- 5/1/2025
- by Elsa Keslassy and Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Argentine filmmaker Gastón Solnicki is cooking up his latest feature, “The Souffleur,” which he’ll be presenting during the Venice Gap-Financing Market, which runs Aug. 30 – Sep. 1.
The film tells the story of Lucius Glantz, an American who’s managed the same international hotel in Vienna for 30 years. When he discovers one day that the venerable building is slated to be sold and demolished, he embarks on a quest to stop its destruction, pitting him against a cocky Argentine realtor. As the conflict between them escalates, the hotel’s trademark soufflé mysteriously stops rising, forcing Glantz to confront the prospect of the end of all he holds dear.
Directed by Solnicki off a script he co-wrote with Julia Niemann, “The Souffleur” is produced by Gabriele Kranzelbinder and Eugenio Fernández Abril for Vienna-based Little Magnet Films, Primo and Solnicki’s Argentine production company Filmy Wiktora.
The director tells Variety that the idea...
The film tells the story of Lucius Glantz, an American who’s managed the same international hotel in Vienna for 30 years. When he discovers one day that the venerable building is slated to be sold and demolished, he embarks on a quest to stop its destruction, pitting him against a cocky Argentine realtor. As the conflict between them escalates, the hotel’s trademark soufflé mysteriously stops rising, forcing Glantz to confront the prospect of the end of all he holds dear.
Directed by Solnicki off a script he co-wrote with Julia Niemann, “The Souffleur” is produced by Gabriele Kranzelbinder and Eugenio Fernández Abril for Vienna-based Little Magnet Films, Primo and Solnicki’s Argentine production company Filmy Wiktora.
The director tells Variety that the idea...
- 8/30/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
A growing list of 300 film professionals, including Martin Scorsese, Olivier Assayas, Joanna Hogg, and Radu Jude, have signed an open letter calling for the contract of outgoing Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to be reinstated and extended beyond 2024.
Late last week, Chatrian released a statement via the Berlinale website announcing his intention to step down following next year’s edition of the German festival. In his statement, Chatrian pointed to the German Ministry for Culture and Media’s decision to scrap the Berlinale’s dual management structure as the main catalyst for his departure.
Last month, German Culture Minister Claudia Roth announced that she wants the Berlinale to be placed back under the control of a single director. Roth is reported to have told a meeting on Thursday of the supervisory board of federal cultural events in Berlin (Kbb), which oversees the festival, that her conclusion was the film should be led by one person.
Late last week, Chatrian released a statement via the Berlinale website announcing his intention to step down following next year’s edition of the German festival. In his statement, Chatrian pointed to the German Ministry for Culture and Media’s decision to scrap the Berlinale’s dual management structure as the main catalyst for his departure.
Last month, German Culture Minister Claudia Roth announced that she wants the Berlinale to be placed back under the control of a single director. Roth is reported to have told a meeting on Thursday of the supervisory board of federal cultural events in Berlin (Kbb), which oversees the festival, that her conclusion was the film should be led by one person.
- 9/6/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Martin Scorsese, Radu Jude, Joanna Hogg, Claire Denis, Bertrand Bonello, M. Night Shyamalan, Kristen Stewart, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Margarethe von Trotta are among the international filmmakers and talents who have signed an open letter in support of Carlo Chatrian whose mandate as artistic director of the Berlinale will come to an end next year. The number of signatories has now exceeded 400 names and keeps growing.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (Kbb), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (Kbb), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
- 9/6/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Now in its 12th edition, the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look festival brings together a varied, eclectic lineup of cinema from all corners of the world––including a number of films still seeking distribution, making the series perhaps one of your only chances to see these works on the big screen. With the five-day festival kicking off Wednesday, March 15, we’re delighted to exclusively premiere the festival trailer and we’ve also gathered eight essential films to check out. Watch and read on below.
Fremont (Babak Jalali)
In Fremont, Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is often alone. She lives in a small apartment in Fremont, California, commuting each day to her job in a fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. She has a single friend that works there with her. Donya splits time between her apartment, the factory, and a therapist’s office, in hopes of receiving sleeping pills.
Fremont (Babak Jalali)
In Fremont, Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is often alone. She lives in a small apartment in Fremont, California, commuting each day to her job in a fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. She has a single friend that works there with her. Donya splits time between her apartment, the factory, and a therapist’s office, in hopes of receiving sleeping pills.
- 3/9/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSKristen Stewart in Olivier Assayas's Personal Shopper (2016).The next film directed by Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson and Dick Johnson is Dead) will star Kristen Stewart as…Susan Sontag. Based on Ben Moser’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Sontag: Her Life, the project will have some hybrid-doc elements, as we might expect from Johnson: according to Screen Daily, Johnson will film an interview with the actress about her preparation for the role at the Berlinale, where Stewart is jury president.Richard Ayoade will direct and star in an adaptation of George Saunders’s The Semplica Girl Diaries, with casting currently underway.New Spanish Cinema luminary Carlos Saura died last week aged 91. His best-known films depicted and critiqued life under the Franco dictatorship, like La Caza...
- 2/15/2023
- MUBI
One of the best showcases of international cinema every year, the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look festival is now in its 12th edition and we’re pleased to exclusively unveil the lineup. Taking place from March 15-19 at the hallowed Queens theater, the selection features 38 works, including 19 features representing more than 22 countries.
Highlights include some of our favorites on the festival circuit in the past year: at long last, the New York premiere of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Cannes prize-winner Tori and Lokita, along with other victors Rodeo and The Eight Mountains; recent Sundance premieres Babak Jalali’s Fremont, Mary Helena Clark & Mike Gibisser’s A Common Sequence, and C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s Mami Wata; Lucrecia Martel’s new short Maid; Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package; Koji Fukada’s Love Life; and much more.
MoMI Curator of Film Eric Hynes said, “The guiding...
Highlights include some of our favorites on the festival circuit in the past year: at long last, the New York premiere of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Cannes prize-winner Tori and Lokita, along with other victors Rodeo and The Eight Mountains; recent Sundance premieres Babak Jalali’s Fremont, Mary Helena Clark & Mike Gibisser’s A Common Sequence, and C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s Mami Wata; Lucrecia Martel’s new short Maid; Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package; Koji Fukada’s Love Life; and much more.
MoMI Curator of Film Eric Hynes said, “The guiding...
- 2/10/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2022, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
Three years after the pandemic broke out, things––including moviegoing––are finally starting to feel normal again. It would have been an even more joyous occasion if only 2022 has yielded a stronger crop of films to offer those rushing back to theaters.
Of course many, many good films came out in the last twelve months; great ones too––entertaining, informative, artistic works that anyone would be doing themselves a favor by checking out. But films that make you go for the M(asterpiece) word, that you know right away would be top 10 material? Not that many by my count. Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, for example, is super fun and features awards-worthy performances from Zlatko Buric and Dolly De Leon, although I’m not sure if...
Three years after the pandemic broke out, things––including moviegoing––are finally starting to feel normal again. It would have been an even more joyous occasion if only 2022 has yielded a stronger crop of films to offer those rushing back to theaters.
Of course many, many good films came out in the last twelve months; great ones too––entertaining, informative, artistic works that anyone would be doing themselves a favor by checking out. But films that make you go for the M(asterpiece) word, that you know right away would be top 10 material? Not that many by my count. Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, for example, is super fun and features awards-worthy performances from Zlatko Buric and Dolly De Leon, although I’m not sure if...
- 1/2/2023
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
The boundlessly playful and inventive films of Argentine director Gastón Solnicki have been a delight to witness these last few years. Earlier in 2022, the director premiered his latest work, the portrait of Vienna A Little Love Package, at Berlinale and now, ahead of the film’s Austrian release on November 18th, we’re pleased to premiere the exclusive trailer. Featuring Angeliki Papoulia, Carmen Chaplin, and Mario Bellatin, the film will also play at the Viennale, La Roche Sur Yon, Warsaw, Thessaloniki, IDFA, Ica, and Porto Post Doc.
“A Little Love Package is a film in which I wished to pursue my filmic transition, in the sense of working with materials inherently related to a certain tradition of narrative filmmaking, though still invested in a documentary register and the epiphany of the unexpected – which has always felt very natural to me. For the first time, I made a film based on a more preconceived structure,...
“A Little Love Package is a film in which I wished to pursue my filmic transition, in the sense of working with materials inherently related to a certain tradition of narrative filmmaking, though still invested in a documentary register and the epiphany of the unexpected – which has always felt very natural to me. For the first time, I made a film based on a more preconceived structure,...
- 10/10/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In A Little Love Package, Vienna’s institutions, people, buildings, and overlapping epochs make for a stiff drink: a bright, effervescent, lightly intoxicating film easily downed in one. The director is Gastón Solnicki, a nicely ruminative Buenos Aires filmmaker whose make-it-up-as-you-go approach allows his films to meander. Solnicki’s work has a playful spirit: it’s episodic both in form and content, though never amorphous; and he moves between narrative, documentary, still imagery, and immersive sound with seamless élan. Forged in lockdown, Love Package is a breezy collage of meteorites and cigarettes; cheese and boiled eggs, and how best to make them. But at heart it’s about how eras end, what they leave behind, and how new ones begin.
Solnicki’s previous film, Introduction to the Dark, was his first based in Vienna; it opened with images of the Prater amusement park, where Harry Lime once tallied the merits of Switzerland.
Solnicki’s previous film, Introduction to the Dark, was his first based in Vienna; it opened with images of the Prater amusement park, where Harry Lime once tallied the merits of Switzerland.
- 8/19/2022
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
By way of improvisation, relying heavily on events to naturally develop, Argentine filmmaker Gastón Solnicki presents a meandering ode to the city of Vienna, its customs, cultures, facades, and the near-sacrilege of enacting a smoking ban in cafes city-wide.
In, “A Little Love Package,” two main protagonists become the vehicles through which the minutiae of everyday life in Vienna unfolds. Experimental aural and visual cues present themselves as Angeliki (Angeliki Papoulia) and Carmen (Carmen Chaplin) seek the perfect apartment in a city suspended in time.
Produced by Little Magnet Films, out of Austria, and Solnicki’s Argentine production company, Filmy Wiktora, “A Little Love Package” is the fifth cinematic feature for Solnicki, whose entire catalog was recently acquired by Moma.
Ahead of its debut in the Berlinale’s Encounters strand, he spoke with Variety about the allure of Vienna, breaking from cinematic tradition, and shooting a film during the pandemic.
In, “A Little Love Package,” two main protagonists become the vehicles through which the minutiae of everyday life in Vienna unfolds. Experimental aural and visual cues present themselves as Angeliki (Angeliki Papoulia) and Carmen (Carmen Chaplin) seek the perfect apartment in a city suspended in time.
Produced by Little Magnet Films, out of Austria, and Solnicki’s Argentine production company, Filmy Wiktora, “A Little Love Package” is the fifth cinematic feature for Solnicki, whose entire catalog was recently acquired by Moma.
Ahead of its debut in the Berlinale’s Encounters strand, he spoke with Variety about the allure of Vienna, breaking from cinematic tradition, and shooting a film during the pandemic.
- 2/15/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
- 1/19/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Closing out the summer, Mubi has unveiled their August 2021 lineup, kicking off most fittingly with Brett Story’s acclaimed recent documentary The Hottest August. Also among the lineup is Akira Kurosawa’s epic Ran, Fritz Lang’s hugely entertaining two-parter The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb. As his latest films arrive, Pablo Larraín’s The Club is also part of the lineup.
Xinyuan Zheng Lu’s Rotterdam winner The Cloud in Her Room is coming to Mubi in August, plus a “late film” special featuring Manoel de Olviera’s Gebo and the Shadow and The Last Sentence by Jan Troell. There will also be a canine double feature of Heddy Honigmann’s Buddy and Los Reyes by Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff.
See the lineup below and get 30 days of Mubi free here.
August 1 | The Hottest August | Brett Story
August 2 | Gebo and the Shadow | Manoel de Oliveria | Twilight...
Xinyuan Zheng Lu’s Rotterdam winner The Cloud in Her Room is coming to Mubi in August, plus a “late film” special featuring Manoel de Olviera’s Gebo and the Shadow and The Last Sentence by Jan Troell. There will also be a canine double feature of Heddy Honigmann’s Buddy and Los Reyes by Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff.
See the lineup below and get 30 days of Mubi free here.
August 1 | The Hottest August | Brett Story
August 2 | Gebo and the Shadow | Manoel de Oliveria | Twilight...
- 7/19/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Streaming
Over the weekend, the La Biennale di Venezia launched its new Biennale Cinema Channel in collaboration with Italian streamer MYmovies, offering up a streamable selection of films which have featured in previous editions of the Venice International Film Festival but which are not currently available elsewhere in Italy. The channel drops with an initial library of 36 titles which featured in various sections of the festival between 2007 and 2020. In September, the first group of films will be supplemented with titles available on the 2021 festival’s Sala Web from Sept. 1-11, and continuously updated thereafter. The channel is available as a monthly subscription for €7.90 ($9.38) or in three-month blocks for €19.90 ($23.62).
Venice prizewinning titles from the initial lineup include 2014 best screenplay winner “Tales” by Rakhshan Banietemad, Gastón Solnicki’s 2016 Fipresci Award-winner “Kékszakállú” (“Bluebird”), and Amat Escalante’s “La región salvaje” (“The Untamed”), which won the filmmaker the Golden Lion for best director in...
Over the weekend, the La Biennale di Venezia launched its new Biennale Cinema Channel in collaboration with Italian streamer MYmovies, offering up a streamable selection of films which have featured in previous editions of the Venice International Film Festival but which are not currently available elsewhere in Italy. The channel drops with an initial library of 36 titles which featured in various sections of the festival between 2007 and 2020. In September, the first group of films will be supplemented with titles available on the 2021 festival’s Sala Web from Sept. 1-11, and continuously updated thereafter. The channel is available as a monthly subscription for €7.90 ($9.38) or in three-month blocks for €19.90 ($23.62).
Venice prizewinning titles from the initial lineup include 2014 best screenplay winner “Tales” by Rakhshan Banietemad, Gastón Solnicki’s 2016 Fipresci Award-winner “Kékszakállú” (“Bluebird”), and Amat Escalante’s “La región salvaje” (“The Untamed”), which won the filmmaker the Golden Lion for best director in...
- 7/5/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
New York-based non-profit distributor Cinema Tropical has acquired North American rights to Brazilian documentary “My Darling Supermarket,” the debut feature by Tali Yankelevich.
Cinema Tropical plans to release the film in virtual cinemas starting on Feb. 24, including New York City’s Film Forum, followed by other cities nationwide.
A co-production between Brazil’s Casa Redonda, in co-production with Denmark’s Good Company Pictures and Brazil’s Mão Direita, “My Darling Supermarket” had its world premiere in the IDFA Competition for First Appearance and has unspooled in numerous film festivals, among them MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, Visions du Réel, Edinburgh, Thessaloniki, Guadalajara and Doxa.
Cinema Tropical, a leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the U.S., describes “My Darling Supermarket” as a “charming and witty portrait of a grocery store in São Paulo” that follows the day to day of its employees — a band of essential workers steeped in the confined space of the store.
Cinema Tropical plans to release the film in virtual cinemas starting on Feb. 24, including New York City’s Film Forum, followed by other cities nationwide.
A co-production between Brazil’s Casa Redonda, in co-production with Denmark’s Good Company Pictures and Brazil’s Mão Direita, “My Darling Supermarket” had its world premiere in the IDFA Competition for First Appearance and has unspooled in numerous film festivals, among them MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, Visions du Réel, Edinburgh, Thessaloniki, Guadalajara and Doxa.
Cinema Tropical, a leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the U.S., describes “My Darling Supermarket” as a “charming and witty portrait of a grocery store in São Paulo” that follows the day to day of its employees — a band of essential workers steeped in the confined space of the store.
- 2/1/2021
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Alexander Abaturov’s “Paradise,” Lola Arias’ “Reas” and Yosep Anggi Noen’s “Voice of Baceprot” figure among 15 documentary features set to be pitched over April 27-28 at the 51st Pitching du Réel.
A co-production forum for creative documentaries, the Pitching is an industry centerpiece at Visions du Réel, one of Europe’s most prestigious documentary festivals.
These titles are joined by 12 others in a lineup which boasts well-known filmmakers, for example, Egypt’s Mohamed Siam, whose “Amal” opened 2017’s Idfa, Argentina’s Gaston Solnicki, director of Venice Horizons player “Kékszakállú, and Nelson Carlo de lo Santos, a Locarno Golden Leopard winner with “Cocote.”
It also takes in an extraordinary range of countries of origen led by France, with three titles in the section, and Switzerland, Argentina and Lebanon with a couple but including 18 territories, marked by a strong Middle East showing with further productions from Egypt, Syria and Quatar.
Projects...
A co-production forum for creative documentaries, the Pitching is an industry centerpiece at Visions du Réel, one of Europe’s most prestigious documentary festivals.
These titles are joined by 12 others in a lineup which boasts well-known filmmakers, for example, Egypt’s Mohamed Siam, whose “Amal” opened 2017’s Idfa, Argentina’s Gaston Solnicki, director of Venice Horizons player “Kékszakállú, and Nelson Carlo de lo Santos, a Locarno Golden Leopard winner with “Cocote.”
It also takes in an extraordinary range of countries of origen led by France, with three titles in the section, and Switzerland, Argentina and Lebanon with a couple but including 18 territories, marked by a strong Middle East showing with further productions from Egypt, Syria and Quatar.
Projects...
- 4/16/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
With streaming dominating the industry — and suddenly becoming the “new normal” in a changing world — IndieWire is taking a closer look at the news cycle, breaking down what really matters to provide a clear picture of what companies are winning the streaming wars, and how they’re pulling ahead.
By looking at trends and the latest developments, Streaming Wars Report: Indie Edition offers a snapshot of what’s happening overall and day-to-day in streaming for the indie set. Check out the latest Streaming Wars Report for updates to the bigger players in the industry. Buzzy Originals
Embracing the Virtual Experience
In just three weeks, indie outfits like Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, and Film Movement have already rolled out theatrical-at-home plans (otherwise known as...
By looking at trends and the latest developments, Streaming Wars Report: Indie Edition offers a snapshot of what’s happening overall and day-to-day in streaming for the indie set. Check out the latest Streaming Wars Report for updates to the bigger players in the industry. Buzzy Originals
Embracing the Virtual Experience
In just three weeks, indie outfits like Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, and Film Movement have already rolled out theatrical-at-home plans (otherwise known as...
- 4/3/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
A group of international films that seem partially united by the theme of global awareness, this program is more of a mixed bag than most. Sadly, I was unable to preview the first film in the show, 2minutes40seconds, by Han Ok-hee. It’s from 1975, and it is a rare screening of work by the Kaidu Club, a feminist experimental film collective from South Korea. Considering just how little Korean avant-garde film gets screened at all, much less from the seventies, I’d say Han’s film is a categorical must-see.Hrvoji, Look at Your From the TowerRyan Ferko has presented a number of films in festivals past, although those previous entries have been co-directed by Faraz and Parastoo Anoushahpour. They are both listed in the credits of Hrvoji as collaborators, but Ferko is credited as the sole filmmaker, and this in itself is intriguing. Although the trio's films have been quite impressive,...
- 9/9/2019
- MUBI
The 2019 installment of the sprawling Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 – July 6), held for more than 50 years at the sunny resort hub of the Czech Republic, boasted 12,521 accredited attendees, including 395 filmmakers, 1158 global industry professionals, and 605 journalists. They watched a selection of 177 films at 497 screenings.
Karlovy Vary, run by president Jiří Bartoška and artistic director Karel Och, runs three competitive categories. “The Father,” from Bulgaria and Greece, took home the Grand Prix, and “Lara,” from Germany, won three awards. The full list of winners is below.
Official Selection – Competition
Jury: Štěpán Hulík (Czech Republic), Annemarie Jacir (State of Palestine),Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine), Angeliki Papoulia (Greece), Charles Tesson (France)
Grand Prix – Crystal Globe
Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s “The Father”
Special Jury Prize
Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)
Best Director Award
Tim Mielants for “Patrick” (Belgium)
Best Actress Award
Corinna Harfouch, star of Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)
Best Actor Award
Milan Ondrík,...
Karlovy Vary, run by president Jiří Bartoška and artistic director Karel Och, runs three competitive categories. “The Father,” from Bulgaria and Greece, took home the Grand Prix, and “Lara,” from Germany, won three awards. The full list of winners is below.
Official Selection – Competition
Jury: Štěpán Hulík (Czech Republic), Annemarie Jacir (State of Palestine),Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine), Angeliki Papoulia (Greece), Charles Tesson (France)
Grand Prix – Crystal Globe
Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s “The Father”
Special Jury Prize
Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)
Best Director Award
Tim Mielants for “Patrick” (Belgium)
Best Actress Award
Corinna Harfouch, star of Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)
Best Actor Award
Milan Ondrík,...
- 7/6/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The 2019 installment of the sprawling Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 – July 6), held for more than 50 years at the sunny resort hub of the Czech Republic, boasted 12,521 accredited attendees, including 395 filmmakers, 1158 global industry professionals, and 605 journalists. They watched a selection of 177 films at 497 screenings.
Karlovy Vary, run by president Jiří Bartoška and artistic director Karel Och, runs three competitive categories. “The Father,” from Bulgaria and Greece, took home the Grand Prix, and “Lara,” from Germany, won three awards. The full list of winners is below.
Official Selection – Competition
Jury: Štěpán Hulík (Czech Republic), Annemarie Jacir (State of Palestine),Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine), Angeliki Papoulia (Greece), Charles Tesson (France)
Grand Prix – Crystal Globe
Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s “The Father”
Special Jury Prize
Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)
Best Director Award
Tim Mielants for “Patrick” (Belgium)
Best Actress Award
Corinna Harfouch, star of Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)
Best Actor Award
Milan Ondrík,...
Karlovy Vary, run by president Jiří Bartoška and artistic director Karel Och, runs three competitive categories. “The Father,” from Bulgaria and Greece, took home the Grand Prix, and “Lara,” from Germany, won three awards. The full list of winners is below.
Official Selection – Competition
Jury: Štěpán Hulík (Czech Republic), Annemarie Jacir (State of Palestine),Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine), Angeliki Papoulia (Greece), Charles Tesson (France)
Grand Prix – Crystal Globe
Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s “The Father”
Special Jury Prize
Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)
Best Director Award
Tim Mielants for “Patrick” (Belgium)
Best Actress Award
Corinna Harfouch, star of Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)
Best Actor Award
Milan Ondrík,...
- 7/6/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Och was disappointed to miss out on Robert Eggers’ ‘The Lighthouse’.
Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, has said the event misses out on prestige arthouse titles due to its position in the calendar between Cannes and Venice.
“There are certain films, especially from the Us, which might look on first gaze as more arthouse or festival,” Och told Screen. “But then they might be a success at Sundance or in Cannes, and the Us distributor decides to freeze the film for the summer and launch it in the States and everywhere else in the autumn.
Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, has said the event misses out on prestige arthouse titles due to its position in the calendar between Cannes and Venice.
“There are certain films, especially from the Us, which might look on first gaze as more arthouse or festival,” Och told Screen. “But then they might be a success at Sundance or in Cannes, and the Us distributor decides to freeze the film for the summer and launch it in the States and everywhere else in the autumn.
- 6/30/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Athina Rachel Tsangari serves as artistic director for Labs, previously run in partnership with Sundance.
The Oxbelly Screenwriters and Directors Labs have selected 10 first or second feature projects and fellows for 2019.
Christos V. Konstantakopoulos’ Faliro House has launched this new incarnation of the lab via its educational arm, Oxbelly. Faliro House had for the past three years run the Mediterranean Screenwriters Workshop in partnership with Sundance Institute; that Sundance partnership has now ended.
Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, whose credits include Chevalier, and Attenberg, co-founded the Mediterranean Screenwriters Workshop and now stays on as artistic director of the Oxbelly Lab.
The Oxbelly Screenwriters and Directors Labs have selected 10 first or second feature projects and fellows for 2019.
Christos V. Konstantakopoulos’ Faliro House has launched this new incarnation of the lab via its educational arm, Oxbelly. Faliro House had for the past three years run the Mediterranean Screenwriters Workshop in partnership with Sundance Institute; that Sundance partnership has now ended.
Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, whose credits include Chevalier, and Attenberg, co-founded the Mediterranean Screenwriters Workshop and now stays on as artistic director of the Oxbelly Lab.
- 6/14/2019
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Opening and closing films also announced for Czech festival, which takes place June 28-July 6.
Bart Freundlich’s After The Wedding will open the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) and honour its star, Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, with the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.
The director and Moore’s co-star Billy Crudup will also attend the festival which runs in the Czech Republic from June 28-July 6.
After The Wedding premiered at Sundance earlier this year and is being released in the Us by Sony Pictures Classics on August 9.
Nisha Ganatra’s Late Night starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling,...
Bart Freundlich’s After The Wedding will open the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) and honour its star, Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, with the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.
The director and Moore’s co-star Billy Crudup will also attend the festival which runs in the Czech Republic from June 28-July 6.
After The Wedding premiered at Sundance earlier this year and is being released in the Us by Sony Pictures Classics on August 9.
Nisha Ganatra’s Late Night starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling,...
- 6/11/2019
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 – July 6) will this year fete Julianne Moore and Patricia Clarkson with Crystal Globe awards for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.
At the Czech festival, Moore and screenwriter-director Bart Freundlich will present U.S. drama remake After the Wedding, which premiered at Sundance. Co-star Billy Crudup will be a special guest at the festival’s opening ceremony.
Patricia Clarkson, who this year won a Golden Globe for her performance in HBO series Sharp Objects (selected episodes of which had their European premiere at last year’s Kv), will receive her career prize at the festival’s closing ceremony. During the Euro fest, Clarkson will also present her recent Isabel Coixet feature Learning To Drive.
Meanwhile, Casey Affleck will return to the festival to present his directorial debut Light Of My Life, which premiered in Berlin, and Kv also announced today that Sundance comedy...
At the Czech festival, Moore and screenwriter-director Bart Freundlich will present U.S. drama remake After the Wedding, which premiered at Sundance. Co-star Billy Crudup will be a special guest at the festival’s opening ceremony.
Patricia Clarkson, who this year won a Golden Globe for her performance in HBO series Sharp Objects (selected episodes of which had their European premiere at last year’s Kv), will receive her career prize at the festival’s closing ceremony. During the Euro fest, Clarkson will also present her recent Isabel Coixet feature Learning To Drive.
Meanwhile, Casey Affleck will return to the festival to present his directorial debut Light Of My Life, which premiered in Berlin, and Kv also announced today that Sundance comedy...
- 6/11/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Festival to feature 12 UK premieres.
The UK’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (Ica) is introducing a work-in-progress event to its annual festival Frames of Representation (April 12-20).
Run in partnership with Sundance Documentary Institute, Cineteca Madrid and Kingston University, the initiative will give two filmmakers the opportunity to present their projects to both the festival audience and industry professionals, who will provide development feedback.
The two selected filmmakers will be announced closer to the festival.
Further events taking place include a workshop on cinematic language with filmmakers Zhu Shengze and Adele Tulli, who will both have films screened during the festival.
The UK’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (Ica) is introducing a work-in-progress event to its annual festival Frames of Representation (April 12-20).
Run in partnership with Sundance Documentary Institute, Cineteca Madrid and Kingston University, the initiative will give two filmmakers the opportunity to present their projects to both the festival audience and industry professionals, who will provide development feedback.
The two selected filmmakers will be announced closer to the festival.
Further events taking place include a workshop on cinematic language with filmmakers Zhu Shengze and Adele Tulli, who will both have films screened during the festival.
- 3/12/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Around The World When You Were My AgeThe titles for the 48th International Film Festival Rotterdam are being announced in anticipation of the event running January 23 – February 3, 2018. We will update the program as new films are revealed.Tiger COMPETITIONSons of Denmark (Ulaa Salim)Take Me Somewhere Nice (Ena Sendijarević)Present.Perfect. (Shengze Zhu)Sheena667 (Grigory Dobrygin)Nona. If They Soak Me, I’ll Burn Them (Camila José Donoso)Koko-di Koko-da (Johannes Nyholm)Els dies que vindran (Carlos Marqués-Marcet)Bright Future COMPETITIONAlva (Ico Costa)Chèche lavi (Sam Ellison)De nuevo otra vez (Romina Paula)Doozy (Richard Squires)Dreissig (Simona Kostova)Ende der Saison (Elmar Imanov)Fabiana (Brunna Laboissière)The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain (Ridham Janve)Heroes (Köken Ergun)Historia de mi nombre (Karin Cuyul)Last Night I Saw You Smiling (Kavich Neang)Lost Holiday (Michael Kerry Matthews/Thomas Matthews)Maggie (Yi Okseop)Mens (Isabelle Prim)No Data Plan (Miko Revereza...
- 1/9/2019
- MUBI
Introduzione all'oscuroVienna during the final week of October and early November: the days get noticeably shorter (it’s dark already!), the inner city is all aflutter with autumn winds, wilting leaves and that sinking feeling slowly sets in that yet another year is somehow already nearing its end. And while this may induce in some a tendency towards a perfectly reasonable cynicism about how all things inevitably expire, it can also prompt in others an equally sensible optimism about all the new things to come. For me at this year’s Viennale—one of those film festivals where to attend truly feels like a gift rather than a chore—the sense was definitely that of the latter. If the 2017 edition was overshadowed, if not haunted, by the unexpected death of its beloved festival director Hans Hurch, who was at the helm of the festival for two decades, this year, under...
- 12/4/2018
- MUBI
With an eye for indelible visuals like few other directors working today, Argentinian helmer Gastón Solnicki is returning to the Venice International Film Festival two years after his remarkable breakthrough feature Kékszakállú. With Introduzione all’oscuro, which premieres at the festival tomorrow before heading to Nyff, he pays tribute to the late Hans Hurch, director of the Vienna International Film Festival (and former assistant to Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet). Hurch passed away last summer, resulting in Solnicki to mourn in what promises to be a fascinating, tender, and abstract cinematic love letter.
Solnicki has said in a director’s statement, “This is a film in which I wish to honor my dear friend Hans Hurch, who passed away recently in Rome. A film inspired by the tenderness and the humor that made our bond so special. A very spontaneous fiction, inspired by a large variety of sources. We conceived...
Solnicki has said in a director’s statement, “This is a film in which I wish to honor my dear friend Hans Hurch, who passed away recently in Rome. A film inspired by the tenderness and the humor that made our bond so special. A very spontaneous fiction, inspired by a large variety of sources. We conceived...
- 9/4/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Margarethe von Trotta's Searching for Ingmar Bergman screens in the 56th New York Film Festival Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that Margarethe von Trotta's Searching For Ingmar Bergman, co-directed by Bettina Böhler and Felix Moeller (producer of Volker Schlöndorffs Diplomacy and director of Forbidden Films) with interviews with Liv Ullmann, Stig Björkman, Jean-Claude Carrière, Mia Hansen-Løve, Ruben Östlund, Olivier Assayas, Carlos Saura, and Daniel Bergman will screen in the Retrospective section. Gastón Solnicki's tribute to Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's assistant Hans Hurch, Introduzione all’Oscuro, and Pamela B Green's Be Natural: The Untold Story Of Alice Guy-Blaché, narrated by Jodie Foster, round out the documentaries on cinema program of the 56th New York Film Festival.
Alice Guy-Blaché became head of production at Gaumont in 1896 at the age of 23. Guy-Blaché's...
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that Margarethe von Trotta's Searching For Ingmar Bergman, co-directed by Bettina Böhler and Felix Moeller (producer of Volker Schlöndorffs Diplomacy and director of Forbidden Films) with interviews with Liv Ullmann, Stig Björkman, Jean-Claude Carrière, Mia Hansen-Løve, Ruben Östlund, Olivier Assayas, Carlos Saura, and Daniel Bergman will screen in the Retrospective section. Gastón Solnicki's tribute to Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's assistant Hans Hurch, Introduzione all’Oscuro, and Pamela B Green's Be Natural: The Untold Story Of Alice Guy-Blaché, narrated by Jodie Foster, round out the documentaries on cinema program of the 56th New York Film Festival.
Alice Guy-Blaché became head of production at Gaumont in 1896 at the age of 23. Guy-Blaché's...
- 8/26/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.News Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria.The lineup for this year's Venice Film Festival has been announced. In-competition titles include Carlos Reygadas' open-relationship romance Where Life is Born (the auteur's first feature in 5 years), Shinya Tsukamoto's much-anticipated samurai film Killing, and Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale, a Gothic revenge story set in Tasmania. The Venice Documentaries section joins an eclectic range of heavy-hitters, from Gastón Solnicki (Kékszakállú) and once-retiree Tsai Ming-liang, to Errol Morris and Frederick Wiseman, whose Ex-Libris: The New York Public Library screened in competition at the festival last year.Meanwhile, the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival has followed suit, releasing the names of the films set to premiere at its Special Presentations and Galas. Notably, this edition reunites the festival with Barry Jenkins, whose James Baldwin adaptation If Beale Street Could Talk will have its world premiere.
- 7/25/2018
- MUBI
Non-FictionThe programme for the 2018 edition of the Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Tsai Ming-liang, Frederick Wiseman, Sergei Loznitsa, Olivier Assayas, the Coen Brothers, and many more.COMPETITIONFirst Man (Damien Chazelle)The Mountain (Rick Alverson)Non-Fiction (Olivier Assayas)The Sisters Brothers (Jacques Audiard)The Ballad of Buster ScruggsVox Lux (Brady Corbet)Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)22 July (Paul Greengrass)Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino)Werk ohne autor (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent)The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)Peterloo (Mike Leigh)Capri-revolution (Mario Martone)What You Gonna Do When the World's On Fire? (Roberto Minervini)Sunset (László Nemes)Frères ennemis (David Oeloffen)Where Life is Born (Carlos Reygadas)At Eternity's Gate (Julian Schnabel)Acusada (Gonzalo Tobal)Killing (Shinya Tsukamoto)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesThe Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles)They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (Morgan Neville)L'amica geniale (Saverio Costanzo)Il diario di angela - noi...
- 7/25/2018
- MUBI
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