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Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux entered the room with a martial bearing, his square jaw tilted upwards in the manner of a man who need not doubt his significance.

He came to the Salon des Ambassadeurs within the Palais to make a few remarks before the awarding of the annual l’Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) award for the festival’s top documentary, as selected by a jury. Before an audience of perhaps a hundred or more nonfiction film lovers, he stated what must be considered unquestionable:

“Documentaries are a minority within the Cannes Film Festival. There have been documentaries in the past, but very few,” Frémaux acknowledged, before adding, “But it’s true that over the past few years, there have been many more.”

Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux speaks at the l’Oeil d’or ceremony Matthew Carey

He went on to say, “[With] your minority status, you can always feel a little oppressed.

Having turned 50 last year, the French film studio and arthouse cinema chain MK2 is far from a midlife crisis. The family-run company, which was founded by Marin Karmitz in 1974 and is now presided over by Nathanael and Elisha Karmitz, has never been more in the game. MK2 Films, whose international sales division is headed by Irish-born executive Fionnuala Jamison, rolled into Cannes with six films in competition and 12 in total across the Official Selection, likely more than any other sales outfits.

The company, which has always championed female auteurs, has been turning the spotlight on a new generation of daring female directors, from Celine Sciamma to Noemie Merlant, Justine Triet and Mati Diop. And at this year’s Cannes, they have three out of the seven competition films directed by female directors, Hafsia Herzi’s drama “La petite dernière,” Carla Simon’s “Romeria” and Mascha Schilinski’s “Sound of Falling” which has been unanimously praised.

“Sinners” director Ryan Coogler has penned an emotional open letter thanking fans for showing up in droves to see the film in theaters, writing that his heart is “bursting” with “eternal gratitude.”

Coogler’s movie, starring Michael B. Jordan as the Smokestack twins, won the weekend, grossing $48 million domestically and $63 million globally.

The only way they got to that figure, the filmmaker writes, was thanks to the fans who bought a ticket: those “who decided to drive to see the film in different formats. Who bought popcorn and a drink, booked a sitter and carpooled, and stood in the lobby afterwards and talked and made a friend. Who changed their work schedules. Who saw the film in groups. … who watched more than once, who recommended the film to others, both in person and on social media or on your text message chains.”

In the typed letter, Coogler writes about what...

Over the weekend of March 15-16, the European Film Academy is hosting free watch party screenings of two of its Lux Audience Award nominated films in partnership with its European Film Club, a platform and network of film clubs across Europe where teenagers aged 12-19 can watch and talk about European cinema. Through the inaugural two screenings, young people will be able to watch Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal” and Oksana Karpovych’s “Intercepted.”

Speaking with Variety ahead of the weekend of screenings, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy Matthijs Wouter Knol recalled first hearing about the idea for the European Film Club upon taking the post in the organization in 2021. “I joined the Academy planning to restructure it into an organization that would be more effective in building a culture for European cinema and have more impact when it comes to reaching audiences,” he says.

“That’s also...

The largest audience award in the world, the Lux Audience Award, sees citizens and members of the democratically elected European Parliament coming together yearly to honor a European film with their coveted prize. This year’s slate of highly-acclaimed nominees include Gints Zibalodis’s history-making “Flow,” which just won Latvia its first ever Oscar for Best Animated Film, and Mati Diop’s “Dahomey,” the first film by a Black filmmaker to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

A joint initiative of the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in collaboration with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas, the Lux Audience Award “fosters dialogue and engagement between politics and the public through the medium of film.” Nominated films address “European values” as well as raising “awareness about some of today’s main social and political issues.” Throughout the competition period, the European Parliament provides subtitles in 24 EU...

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong will be among the headline speakers at this year’s inaugural cinema programme at the Hay Literary Festival.

Running from May 22nd to June 1st, the longtime literary festival announced its plans earlier this month to expand with a new sidebar dedicated to cinema in collaboration with Mubi.

The full festival programme was announced this morning and Armstrong will feature in the cinema talks programme alongside Normal People and I May Destroy You intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, director Marc Evans, producer Ed Talfan and screenwriters Tom Bullough and Josh Hyams (Mr Burton).

Rebecca Lenkiewicz will also pass through Hay to discuss her adaptation of Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk while novelist Robert Harris discusses the adaptation of his novel Conclave.

The festival’s screening programme, taking place at the newly erected Mubi Cinema, will screen titles from the Mubi catalog including Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island,...

The Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has identified Jung Han-seok as the preferred candidate for its new festival director, though the selection process remains ongoing. The final decision will be made at the festival’s second general meeting of the year, scheduled for March 20 at the Busan Cinema Center.

Jung has been a key figure at Biff since 2019, serving as the Korean Cinema programmer. His work has included highlighting trends in domestic filmmaking and strengthening connections between the Korean film industry and the festival. He has also been a jury member for the Buil Film Awards, Jeonju International Film Festival, and Seoul Independent Film Festival, in addition to advising international events such as the Florence Korea Film Festival and Hong Kong’s Asian Film Awards. Before joining Biff, Jung worked as a journalist and film critic for the Korean film publication Cine21.

The festival’s selection process for the director...

The Cinevesture International Film Festival (Ciff) is set to return for its second edition in Chandigarh, India, from March 20-23, 2025. With an extensive lineup of international and regional films, as well as an expanded industry platform, the festival aims to solidify its place on the global cinema calendar.

French director Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” an Oscar-winning film, will be among the headliners of the World Canvas section, alongside Magnus von Horn’s Oscar-nominated Danish drama “The Girl with the Needle.” The festival opens with the Indian premiere of “A Normal Family,” the Korean drama by Hur Jin-ho that made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. The opening night will also include a special screening of the Punjabi short “The Cycle” by Arpita Mukherjee.

Ciff’s World Canvas section will showcase 15 international features, while the India Unveiled category will highlight 17 homegrown titles. Special screenings and student films will complement the festival’s programming.

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

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

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

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

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

Paris Fashion Week just kicked off with a bang thanks to the Louvre Museum’s inaugural “Le Grand Dîner du Louvre” event, which featured a star-studded guest list!

Gigi Hadid, Tyra Banks, and the Beckhams were some of the many celebs who stepped out for the event on Tuesday night (March 4) at the Louvre in Paris, France.

“This is really the first time that the Louvre has decided to create an exhibition about the relationship between fashion and its own collections,” the museum’s director Olivier Gabet told Wwd.

Paris Fashion Week officially began on March 3 and runs through March 11. Stay tuned to see all the celeb sightings!

Head inside to see all of the celebs who attended Le Grand Diner…

Keep scrolling to see all of the celebs who attended the dinner…

David and Victoria Beckham

Anna Wintour

Gigi Hadid

Fyi: Gigi is wearing a custom Moschino look with...

Filmin distribuirá la trilogía completa. © Filmin

Dreams (Sex Love), la que se ha conquistado el Oso de Oro a la Mejor Película de la 75 edición del Festival de Berlín, llegará a España bajo la distribución de Filmin.

Dirigida por el noruego Dag Johan Haugerud, Dreams (Sex Love) es la entrega final de su trilogía antológica Sex, Love, Dreams, y cuenta la historia de Johanne (Selome Emnetu), una chica que se enamora perdidamente de su profesora de francés, experimentando su primer enamoramiento intenso. En un esfuerzo por preservar sus sentimientos, documenta sus emociones y experiencias por escrito. Cuando su madre y su abuela leen lo que ha escrito, al principio reaccionan con sorpresa ante su contenido íntimo, pero pronto quedan cautivadas por sus cualidades literarias.

Además, Sex, la primera película de esta trilogía, ya se encuentra disponible en la plataforma de streaming. Por su parte, Love, la segunda entrega, concursó en...

France’s César Awards mark their 50th ceremony at the Olympia Theatre in Paris this evening with swashbuckler The Count of Monte Cristo, star-crossed romance Beating Hearts and Mexico-set, Spanish language musical Oscar hopeful Emilia Pérez leading the nominations.

Other multi-nominated titles include asylum seeker drama Souleymane’s Story, thriller Misericordia and The Marching Band, a feel-good movie set in a declining manufacturing town in northern France.

Voted on by the just under 5,000 members of the Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, or César Academy, France’s equivalent of the Oscars or Baftas celebrate French productions released in the country between January 1 to December 31 of a given year.

“We’re particularly happy this year because there’s a rich variety in the nominations. There’s everything from popular mainstream cinema to more difficult, demanding films, which have found success in festivals, which is also a reflection of the DNA and diversity of French cinema,...

The 2025 Berlin International Film Festival announced its award winners on Saturday, with Dreams (Sex Love) from filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud winning the prestigious Golden Bear. Acting honors went to lead performer Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and supporting performer Andrew Scott for Blue Moon.

This year’s 2025 Berlinale competition jury was led by filmmaker Todd Haynes (his narrative feature debut Poison was awarded the Teddy Prize for queer filmmaking in Berlin in 1991). Other jurors included Nabil Ayouch (Morocco/France), costume designer Bina Daigeler (Germany), actor Fan Bingbing (China), director Rodrigo Moreno (Argentina), Los Angeles Times critic Amy Nicholson (U.S.), and filmmaker and actor Maria Schrader (Germany).

See the complete list of 2025 Berlin International Film Festival award winners below.

Golden Bear: Dreams (Sex Love) by Dag Johan Haugerud

Silver Bear Jury Prize: The Message by Iván Fund

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: The Blue Trail...

The 75th Berlin Film Festival has concluded after nine days of fearless cinema in Germany. IndieWire was on the ground this year and earlier this week took a closer look at the top contenders for the Berlinale Golden Bear, which will be announced today along with other prizes.

That Rose Byrne and director Mary Bronstein had returned to the Palast red carpet meant their film “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” (which bowed early on at Berlin after world premiering at Sundance in January) was bound to win something. Byrne won the Silver Bear for Best Lead Performance for her turn as a stressed-out mother in crisis in the A24 psychodrama. Hopefully, this award gives Byrne momentum for the 2025 awards season ahead; it’s one of the great screen performances and certainly the crown of her career.

Today’s ceremony marked the first under new artistic director Tricia Tuttle,...

The Berlin Film Festival celebrates its 75th year with new leadership and fresh new cinema from around the world. New artistic director and former BFI London Film Festival leader Tricia Tuttle joins co-directors of programming Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stütz to help reposition the Berlinale’s profile among the great global film festivals and lure bigger-name filmmakers in the process.

That’s begun to pay off already this year, with new films from Germany’s own Tom Tykwer (supernatural opening night family drama epic “The Light”), Ira Sachs (“Peter Hujar’s Day”), Michel Gondry, Michel Franco (“Dreams”), Radu Jude (“Kontinental ’25”), Richard Linklater (“Blue Moon”), Hong Sangsoo (“What Does That Nature Say to You”), Lucile Hadžihalilović (“The Ice Tower”), and of course Bong Joon Ho (“Mickey 17”) sprinkled throughout the sections.

Meanwhile, Todd Haynes heads up the jury, which also includes filmmaker Nabil Ayouch, costume designer Bina Daigeler, actor Fan Bingbing,...

Thirteen years after “Mummy Is Coming,” American filmmaker Cheryl Dunye (“The Watermelon Woman”) is gearing up to produce a new feature film with “Black Is Blue” through her production company Jingletown Films. The film, loosely based on her eponymous 2014 short, is one of the projects selected at this year’s CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Speaking with Variety at the festival, Dunye says the idea for the “sci-fi trans erotic thriller” first came to her during the early days of the pandemic when she began rewatching classic films and thinking of her love for film noir, particularly Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard.”

The film is set to chronicle the erotic tale of a Black trans couple brought together by AI technology: Blue, a 40-something Black trans woman who was once a successful tech executive for a multinational in control of the world’s largest DNA database,...

The Count of Monte Cristo has topped the nominations for France’s prestigious César awards, followed by Beating Hearts and Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez.

The film has made it into 14 categories in the nominations, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning. Beating Hearts clinched 13, followed by Emiia Pérez with 12.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish and fast-paced adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel starring Pierre Niney was one of France’s top performing movies at the local box office in 2024, drawing close to 10M spectators and its top international export.

Gilles Lellouche’s modern Romeo and Juliet tale Beating Hearts – co-starring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos – has also performed well at home, drawing more than five million spectators.

The 12 nominations for Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury prize-winning musical film Emilia Pérez continue its buzzy awards season run which has seen it clinch four Golden Globes and...

If you’re anything like us, right now you’re catching up on the deluge of exciting films that came out at the end of last year. While watching those films, you might wonder how they were made. Fear not, we have you covered. Film Independent Presents has insightful Q&As from some of the buzziest films of last year with the people who made them. Check out Jude Law getting into the mind of a domestic terrorist, Pamela Anderson talking about giving acting everything she has, and Atlantiques director Mati Diop talking about why she turned to documentary for her new project. Plus, we’ll answer the question everyone is asking this award season: why they turned Robbie Williams into a monkey in Better Man!

The Last Showgirl

Film critic Carla Renata speaks with director Gia Coppola, writer Kate Gersten and actors Pamela Anderson and Brenda Song about their new film The Last Showgirl.

Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical Emilia Perez swept France’s Lumiere Awards on Monday evening (January 20), winning five prizes including best film.

The Oscar and Bafta hopeful was the frontrunner going into the 30th edition of the awards with six nominations, and took home prizes for nearly all of them including best director, best screenplay, best score for Camille and Clément Ducol, and best actress for Karla Sofía Gascón.

Audiard set a new record at this year’s Lumieres, winning best film for a third time after 2006’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped and 2019’s The Sisters Brothers, and...

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” swept France’s 30th Lumiere Awards, the local equivalent to the Golden Globes, at a ceremony held on Monday in Paris at the Forum des Images auditorium.

“Emilia Pérez” dominated the show, winning a whopping five awards: best film, director, script, actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, and music for Camille and Clement Ducol. The awards were voted on by France-based journalists from 38 countries.

The Spanish-language, Mexico-set crime musical stars Gascón as notorious cartel leader Manitas del Monte, who fakes her own death to live authentically as a trans woman. The supporting cast includes Selena Gomez, who plays Manitas’ tormented wife Jessi, and Zoe Saldaña, who portrays Rita, a talented but overworked lawyer recruited by Emilia to help her start a new life. Since winning Cannes’ jury prize and an award for its female ensemble, “Emilia Pérez” has received a flood of international laurels and is now leading the U.

Nominees for the 2025 Oscars will be announced on Jan. 23 — and one category that’s notoriously difficult to forecast is Best Documentary Feature. The Academy shortlist winnowed down the potential nominees to 15 films, but this year’s precursor awards have been all over the map. We’re also dealing with the Documentary Branch of the Academy — a group that has proven to be unpredictable.

In 2024, Gold Derby’s combined odds were able to forecast just two of the five nominees: The eventual winner, 20 Days in Mariupol, and Four Daughters. Scratched from the list were the Producers Guild of America’s top choice, American Symphony, along with Beyond Utopia, which had stacked PGA, Directors Guild of America, and BAFTA nominations, and the Emmy and National Board of Review winner, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. So what have we learned?

Why we can’t count on the guilds

Last year, the...

Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Peréz may be the heavy favorite to win the best international film competition at the upcoming Academy Awards.

But that didn’t stop a host of emerging and established directors from around the world gathering at the Palm Springs Festival Festival to win over Academy voters by touting their audacious storytelling and indie film feats. Many of the filmmakers brought movies that reckon with their past, as with Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, in which Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres plays a mother of five children whose family is torn apart when the father goes missing under Brazil’s military dictatorship.

Salles told one of two Oscar best international filmmaker panels at Palm Springs that he based his family drama on a book written by a childhood friend, Marcelo Rubens Paiva, whose family and home he often visited and which played a pivotal part...

French films took an estimated €250.2m in overseas markets in 2024 from 38.1 million admissions, according to projected annual figures released by Unifrance today (January 13).

This represents an 11% drop from 2023’s final tally of €271.4m and 42.7 million admissions although the final 2024 figures won’t be announced until October. Last year’s January predicted figures for 2023 (€234m and 37.4 million admissions) ended up being surpassed by the final numbers.

Dramatic films led the way with 26.1% of ticket sales abroad, followed by comedies at 21.8%, and action and adventure films with 21.3%;animation – 2023’s top genre – dropped to 17.7%.

Europe remains the continent with the largest appetite for French fare,...

Gold Derby’s top news stories for Jan. 10, 2025 2025 Cinema Eye Honors announces winners

On Thursday, Cinema Eye announced this year’s documentary and nonfiction winners at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem. No Other Land, the war doc made by four young Palestinian and Isreali filmmakers, won three trophies including Best Nonfiction Feature. Directors Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor shared the award for Debut Feature, while Abraham and Adra were also recognized as Unforgettables for their onscreen appearances. No Other Land is currently the Oscar frontrunner to win Best Documentary Feature. Here is the complete list of winners for the 2025 Cinema Eye Honors:

Nonfiction Feature: No Other Land

Direction: Mati Diop, Dahomey

Editing: Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Rik Chaubet)

Production: Union (Bretty Story, Stephen Mang, Mars Verrone, Samantha Curley, and Martin Dicicco)

Cinematography: Sugarcane (Christopher Lamarca and Emily Kassie)

Original Music...

The awards race for best international feature is sizing up to be one of a single, undeniable frontrunner and a diverse pack of contenders with strong upset potential.

The clear one to beat is Emilia Pérez. Jacques Audiard’s transgender Mexican cartel crime drama/musical, France’s entry, is on track for Academy Award nominations across several categories, including best picture, director, actress (for Karla Sofía Gascón), supporting actress (Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez) and multiple technical categories. Add to that Netflix’s marketing might, and Emilia looks as close to a sure thing as any title on Oscar’s dance card.

After that, the international competition gets harder to parse, but there are a handful of films that have emerged from the festival circuit with sufficient critical buzz and awards momentum to make them potential Pérez rivals.

Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig,...

Last year’s top two documentary titles from the Berlinale continue there winning ways landing the top prizes at last night’s Cinema Eye Honors. Docus that premiered at Sundance dominated the other major categories, with Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, Union, Sugarcane, and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin all taking home awards. As we creep up towards the Oscar noms date, No Other Land (they also took the Best Debut doc) and Dahomey are probable locks for the top five. Here are all the winners

Nonfiction Feature

“No Other Land,” Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, Julius Pollux Rothlaender, and Bård Harazi Farbu

Direction

Mati Diop for “Dahomey”

Editing

Rik Chaubet for “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”

Production

Brett Story, Stephen Maing, Mars Verrone, Samantha Curley, and Martin Dicicco for “Union”

Cinematography

Christopher Lamarca and Emily Kassie for “Sugarcane”

Original...

Even as it continues to seek U.S. distribution, “No Other Land” is continuing its remarkable awards season run. The latest win for the documentary, made by a Palestinian/Israeli collective that includes directors and activists Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, and Basel Adra: a trio of awards at this year’s Cinema Eye Honors.

At the 18th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which took place Thursday, January 9 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem, the film walked away with three awards, including Cinema Eye’s top prize, Outstanding Nonfiction Filmmaking. Directors Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor also received the award for Debut Feature, with Abraham and Adra also Honored as Unforgettables for their appearance on screen in the film.

This year’s nominees for the Cinema Eye Honors, which honors the best in documentary fiction and TV, included a healthy crop...

“No Other Land” has been named named the best feature of 2024 at the Cinema Eye Honors, the New York-based documentary awards that were established to celebrate all aspects of nonfiction filmmaking. The show took place on Friday night at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem in New York City.

The film was made by two Israeli and two Palestinian filmmakers over the last five years during the conflict in Gaza. It also won the best-feature award at the IDA Documentary Awards, the other major award devoted to nonfiction films.

“Porcelain War” won the Audience Choice Award, the one Cinema Eye category voted on by the public.

The award for directing went to Mati Diop for “Dahomey,” while the production award went to “Union.” “No Other Land” won the award for the best first feature.

“Eno” won for visual design, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” for editing and sound design,...

Members of the Academy Documentary Branch sifted through 169 eligible nonfiction features to determine this year’s shortlist. The 15 selected films are beautifully crafted docs about interesting and important subjects. Ten docs that made the list premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, while the five remaining debuted at other top-tier festivals, including Berlin, Venice and Toronto.

“No Other Land,” about the resistance of Palestinian activists against forced displacement in the West Bank, won the best documentary prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and recently earned top accolades from the National Board of Review. The film does not have U.S. distribution. Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s “Union,” about a group of current and former Amazon workers attempting to unionize employees, premiered at Sundance. After successful screenings at 50 festivals worldwide, Story and Maing self-released “Union” via Level Ground this fall. Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev’s “Porcelain War” also debuted in Park City,...

Illustrations by Stephanie Lane Gage.When making my sound work, I always try to bend the material in front of me to find alternative possibilities of context or (re)context. Here, I was drawn to so many personal favorites, moods, and textures that these 70-odd minutes are more akin to a year-end work of catharsis. The result is as much a personal mix as a 2024 roundup.This was aided by a number of films with great music supervision, particularly four heavy hitters: Love Lies Bleeding (all films 2024), Civil War, Dahomey, and Janet Planet. Artists like Throbbing Gristle, Anna Domino, Silver Apples, Suicide, Dean Blunt, and Laurie Anderson offered a huge prop of character within these films. They could set each film in a specific time and place, or, in the case of Civil War, give a punk, psychedelic energy to a near-future world.Staying through the end credits is important...

Illustrations by Stephanie Lane Gage.In 1996, Brian Eno reflected on his run of ambient albums for Eg Recordings twenty years prior, writing that he recognized a desire among his friends “to use music in a different way—as part of the ambience of our lives—and we wanted it to be continuous, a surrounding.”1 I was reminded of these lines while watching Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft (all films 2024), a film characterized less by its plot or its performances than what Eno refers to as a “sonic mood.” The picture floats by on an ocean of sound that ebbs and flows but never breaks, never crashes. Over the last few years there has been a slew of articles complaining about the lopsided sound of major blockbusters—especially since the pandemic provoked an escalation in the streaming wars. Netflix, Apple TV+, & co. are aware that many home-cinema viewers are only half-watching...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Perhaps in a year where wars are raging, the planet is burning, and the cruelest people are elected to the highest offices, we don’t deserve the best movies. You can find plenty of films that bring joy over the past twelve months, for sure. But if we’re talking about the overall level of awesome-ness of the cinematic offerings, about works that feel undeniable, it seems to me that 2024 did not deliver the way, say, 2023 did.

Then again, maybe that’s just me being grumpy and anxious from all the ways the world offscreen is going wrong, because who can deny the electrifying energy and humanist glow of Sean Baker’s Anora? Or the funny, phantasmagoric family portrait that is Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point?...

An elderly woman turns to a camera over her shoulder and, staring into the lens, says without self-pity, “I’m dying.” Incarcerated men, unaccustomed to wearing suits and ties, anxiously adjust their attire in preparation for a daddy-daughter dance behind bars. A drag performance artist walks through Moscow streets, duct-taped in the colors of the Russian flag. Argentinian gauchos traverse a landscape at thrilling speed, photographed in black and white. A histrionic Nikita Khruschev bangs his shoe on a desk, synched to a jazz rhythm.

These are some of the startling images that remain with me as I think back on the year in documentary film. Despite the sluggish acquisition market, nonfiction filmmakers continued to unveil remarkable work, whether they landed distribution or not.

Typically, I can tell within the first minute or less if I’m in the hands of a filmmaker with the confidence and skill to create...

In a year marked by personal losses as well as national strife, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about time. Strange how hours can feel eternal, days brief and weeks like they are bleeding into each other so that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

I had all that in mind while compiling my favorite arts and culture picks from this year. Some of these works consider time on a personal level, like when you pick up a book and can’t put it down. Others ask how much time we have as a society considering the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities. A handful think of time more linearly — offering reflections on the past so we might better understand the future.

Here are some works, in alphabetical order, that rearranged time for me:

Alvin Ailey

Two recent works offer a portrait...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSGoodbye, Dragon Inn.The Tamil Film Active Producers Association has filed a writ petition to ban social-media film reviews for the first three days of the theatrical release, claiming financial losses due to negative “review bombing.” Theater owners have likewise proposed banning YouTubers from recording audience reactions in cinema lobbies and parking lots.The McL Cinema in Hong Kong’s Diamond Hill district has shuttered after just two years of operations, the seventh theater in the city to have closed this year. Insiders are bracing for the hit to the local film industry’s reputation and financial stability that could follow. For the past decade, Hollywood executives believed that brief theatrical windows would boost subscriber numbers for their streaming services.

RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys and Malcolm Washington’ The Piano Lesson dominated the nominations for the 25th Black Reel Awards with 13 and 12 noms, respectively. The films will square off in 10 categories including Outstanding Film, Director, Screenplay and Ensemble.

Titus Kaphar’s Exhibiting Forgiveness is next with nine nominations, followed by Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice with seven. See the full list spanning 22 categories below.

Winners will be honored during the silver anniversary ceremony held virtually on February 10 and streaming live on BlackReelAwards.com.

Related: 2024-25 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More

“As we commemorate 25 years, we are proud to highlight the transformative power of Black cinema,” Black Reel Awards Founder Tim Gordon said. “This year’s nominees represent not only excellence in storytelling but also groundbreaking achievements that push boundaries and elevate our culture.”

Presented by Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film, the Black...

“Nickel Boys” leads the nominations at the 25th annual Black Reel Awards, a ceremony exclusively dedicated to recognizing African American contributions to cinema.

The Amazon MGM Studios film garnered 13 nominations, followed closely by Netflix’s “The Piano Lesson” with 12; both films were nominated for outstanding film and outstanding director, plus their stars earned individual nods.

Rounding out the best film nominees are “Challengers,” “Exhibiting Forgiveness” and “Sing Sing” and joining Ross and Washington in the outstanding director category are Titus Kaphar (“Exhibiting Forgiveness”), Zoë Kravitz (“Blink Twice”) and Steve McQueen (“Blitz”). Other top-performing films include “Exhibiting Forgiveness” (nine nominations), “Blink Twice” (seven nominations) and “Sing Sing” (six nominations).

Key individual nominees include Zendaya, who earned dual recognition as an actor and producer of “Challengers,” as well as Ellis-Taylor, who got two nominations in the outstanding supporting performance category for “Nickel Boys” and “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” and Brian Tyree Henry, nominated in...

We don’t want to overwhelm you, but while you’re catching up with our top 50 films of 2024, more cinematic greatness awaits in 2025. Ahead of our 100 most-anticipated films (all of which have yet to premiere), we’re highlighting 30 titles from this year’s festival circuit that have either confirmed 2025 release dates or await a debut date from its distributor. There’s also a handful of films seeking distribution that we hope will arrive in the next 12 months, as can be seen here.

As an additional note: a number of 2024 films that had one-week qualifying runs will get expanded releases in 2025, including Hard Truths (Jan. 10), The Last Showgirl (Jan. 10), I’m Still Here (Jan. 17), Armand (Feb. 7), and Universal Language (Feb. 14).

Pepe (Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias; Jan. 10 on Mubi)

Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias’ 2017 fiction debut Cocote was the dazzling, textured arrival of a new voice; the director doesn’t...

In the grand scheme of things, 2024 might end up being remembered as a transitional year that bridged the drama-filled 2023 (which brought both the box office extravaganza of “Barbenheimer” and the SAG and WGA strikes that shut down Hollywood) and the fruitful 2025 (which boasts a slate so packed that many in the industry have spent the year mumbling “survive ‘till 25”). But even if 2024 offered moviegoers a slate that was affected by the previous year’s production shutdowns, there’s still plenty to celebrate as we wind down the year and gear up for the awards race.

To parse the year’s best cinema, IndieWire assembled an elite group of critics around the world who spent the year watching everything that premiered. IndieWire’s annual critics survey featured 177 voters who cover film and television for publications including The New Yorker, Variety, the LA Times, BBC Culture, Sight & Sound, Cineaste, Der Spiegel,...

British filmmaker Luna Carmoon first set plans to make her feature debut with Film Four after producing a series of buzzy short projects. That feature, however, was put on indefinite hold after execs at the broadcaster, as Carmoon describes it, “ghosted” her.

“Thankfully I didn’t sign any contracts with them. But I was going to be in development with them,” she explains from a photography studio in London where she is currently working. “And then they disappeared for a year and I never heard from them again.”

In response, Carmoon began writing a new project out of “desperation and sanctity.” The result was Hoard, which debuted at last year’s Venice Film Festival. The film picked up three prizes in Venice before embarking on an extended festival run, which included Lff where Carmoon won the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature. Previous winners of the Sutherland include Andrea Arnold,...

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Tuesday unveiled the shortlist of 15 films that will vie for a nomination for the best international feature film Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards.

85 countries submitted features this award season but several frontrunners quickly pulled out from the pack, and easily made it onto the longlist, including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, representing France, the Danish contender The Girl With the Needle from director Magnus von Horn, and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, an Iran-set feature submitted by co-production country Germany.

Several festival circuit favorites made the cut. I’m Still Here, Brazil’s contender comes to the Oscars on referral from Venice, where it won the best screenplay prize. Director Walter Salles scored an Oscar nom back in Central Station in the international category (then known as best foreign-language film), with Fernanda Montenegro, who has a cameo in I’m Still Here,...

There’s a big difference between critics groups telling awards groups what they should watch, and lists that represent actual Oscar voters. The shortlists, announced on Tuesday, are actually long lists in 10 Oscar categories, revealing the contenders for animated, documentary, and live-action shorts, crafts such as Hair & Makeup, Sound, and VFX —the branches will soon mount show-and-tells for the voters, or “bakeoffs” — Original Score and Song, and Best International Feature and Documentary Feature.

This is step one on the road to an Oscar: Now, the awards campaigners will kick into high gear to make sure their films make it to the final five nominees. There are plenty of other categories for non-crafty films like “Anora” to land on nominations morning, January 17, 2025.

Netflix is having a good day, landing 15 mentions across nine titles. They landed three out of 15 on the Best Documentary shortlist: Sundance breakouts “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “Daughters,...

If there is one fickle and often head-scratching branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it’s the Documentary one. Over the years, the branch has angered many of its peers by snubbing acclaimed works and uplifting what some consider pedestrian docs. This year appears to be on solid ground as the Documentary Film Oscar shortlist contains critically lauded films such as “No Other Land,” “Daughters,” “Porcelain War,” and “Union.”

Read More: Film Comment’s Top 20 Films Of 2024 List Includes ‘All We Imagine As Light,’ ‘Dahomey,’ No Other Land’ and more

One mention, Mati Diop’s “Dahomey,” also made the International Film Oscars shortlist as Senegal’s entry.

Continue reading ‘No Other Land,’ ‘Will & Harper,’ & ‘Porcelain War’ Top Documentary Feature Oscars Shortlist at The Playlist.

“Sugarcane,” “No Other Land,” “Will & Harper,” “Dahomey” and “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” are among the 15 films that made the shortlist in the Oscars’ Best Documentary Feature category, one of 10 shortlists that the Academy announced on Tuesday.

The doc shortlist includes many of the most acclaimed nonfiction films of 2024, including Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie’s “Sugarcane,” which led all nominees at the IDA Documentary Awards, the Cinema Eye Honors and Critics Choice Documentary Awards; Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham’s “No Other Land,” which went on to win at the IDA doc awards; and Mati Diop’s “Dahomey,” which also landed a spot on the International Feature Film list, representing Senegal.

As always, there were snubs, including “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” a well-reviewed look at the late actor who famously played the Man of Steel, directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui.

The Academy has unveiled the 10 shortlists for the 97th Academy Awards in March, with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig and Walter Salles’sI’m Still Here among the international feature film category heavyweights.

Besides the French, German and Brazilian contenders, the list includes Mati Diop’s Dahomey for Senegal, Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap for Ireland, Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio for Italy, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh for the UK, and Matthew Rankin’sUniversal Language for Canada.

Europe accounts for 10 or two-thirds of the shortlist, Africa and Middle East two, and Americas two,...

It is common practice for professional hunters to ostentatiously exhibit symbolic parts of their prey—think of a reindeer’s antlers, a tiger’s fur, or a bull’s head—as infallible proof of their exploits. This tradition, of purposefully collecting emblematic parts of victims to be displayed as trophies, formally known as headhunting, can be traced back to several ancient cultures from all around the world, in which warriors would reclaim the heads, or sometimes other smaller parts, of their defeated opponents as showmanship of dominance, amongst other things.

Similarly, colonizers seem to also pride themselves on their victories over other civilizations through the many treasures and resources stolen from their places of origin. Spaniards, for instance, looted gold, silver, and precious stones from all over Latin America, while the Brits have a whole museum made up of plundered artifacts of different civilizations. The French, meanwhile, are another major...

The Toronto Film Critics Association has named RaMell Ross’s narrative debut Nickel Boys as its best movie of 2024, adding to the film’s award season prominence.

In voting on Sunday, Toronto film reviewers also gave the drama about a friendship between two young African American men navigating a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida the best director prize for Ross, who also shared the best adapted screenplay honor with Joslyn Barnes.

The best picture runner-ups were Sean Baker’s Anora and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel, debuted at Telluride and stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

In the acting categories, the best lead performance crown was shared by Marianne Jean-Baptiste for her role in Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths and Mikey Madison for Anora. And the best supporting performance honor was split...

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

The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols)

Using photographer Danny Lyon’s iconic The Bikeriders’ imagery as a jumping-off point, Jeff Nichols’ latest feature imagines a fictionalized Chicago motorcycle club, the Vandals. Motorcycle club culture might be a distinctly American phenomenon, but Nichols casts two Brits in the lead, with varying returns: Jodie Comer as Kathy narrates the story in a clear Goodfellas conceit, adopting a Midwest accent flashy (and divisive) enough to ensure sustained awards-season chatter; Tom Hardy is Johnny, a truck driver who gets the idea to start a motorcycle club while watching Marlon Brando’s The Wild One. This low-stakes “why not?” starting point for founding the club works early in the film, until, following the Goodfellas trajectory, it all comes crashing down.

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez is the frontrunner at the nomination stage for the 30th edition of France’s Lumière awards.

The prizes, which are regarded as the French equivalent of the Golden Globes, will be voted on by members of the international press hailing from 38 countries this year.

They cover 13 categories spanning film, direction, screenplay, actress, actor, female revelation, male revelation, first film, animation, documentary, international co-production, cinematography and music.

Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez has clinched six nominations, followed by Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with five nominations each.

Other frontrunners with four nominations each, include François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Forum des images in Paris on January 20, 2025.

The full...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez has topped the nominations for France’s Lumière Awards.

The French-made, Spanish-language film earned six nominations for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón in her starring role as the titular transitioning Mexican drug lord.

The Lumière nominations cap a strong week for Emilia Perez, which garnered 10 nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes,and was the big winner at the European Film Awards with five prizes.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which tracks the daily life of an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Paris,...