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Exclusive: Cinetic Media has signed Charlie Huston, the novelist and screenwriter behind the forthcoming Darren Aronofsky film Caught Stealing, starring Austin Butler.

The announcement follows the news earlier this summer that veteran representative David Karp joined Cinetic as a senior manager.

Huston is the author of 13 novels, including the Hank Thompson Trilogy. Recently, they penned the screenplay adaptation of the first book in the series, Caught Stealing, for Sony, which is slated to release the film in theaters on August 29. Also starring Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Matt Smith and Bad Bunny, among others, the film follows Hank Thompson (Butler), a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ’90s NYC.

Huston’s spec TV pilot, Arcadia, is now being packaged by Tomorrow Studios. Jennifer Reeder (Shudder’s Perpetrator) is attached to direct their next screenplay, the existential...

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.

Apocalypse in the Tropics (Petra Costa)

Five years, the closest presidential election in Brazilian history, and one insurrection after her last examination of Brazil’s tumultuous socio-political sphere, Petra Costa––the brilliant documentarian behind Elena and The Edge of Democracy––hones in on Jair Bolsonaro, the radical evangelical right that won him the presidency in 2018, and the theocracy they collectively fight to instate. With Costa’s nearly unfettered access to the main characters of modern Brazilian politics, the events of Apocalypse in the Tropics practically unfold in real time––a thrilling, profound documentary horror. – Luke H. (full review)

Where to Stream: Netflix

No Sleep Till (Alexandra Simpson)

Following theatrical releases of Eephus and Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, the latest from...

In one of the most moving scenes towards the end of Petra Costa’s documentary film, Apocalypse in the Tropics, the upside-down head of the Lady Justice sculpture lies on the floor of the ransacked Supreme Court in Brasilia, along with a bust of some Brazilian politician from the past turned towards the walls, as if unable to bear the terror that had unfolded in front of their eyes. The hour and a few minutes preceding this scene ultimately seems like a slow and gradual build-up to such a devastating image, with the director’s main focus being on the connection between the rise of religious sentiments and the emergence of the far-right in Brazil. While such a connection has been drawn numerous times before in films and literature, Apocalypse in the Tropics presents a thoroughly Brazilian version of it, replete with clever visual cues, beautiful imagery, and a determined...

“Apocalypse in the Tropics” is a sequel to Brazilian documentarian Petra Costa’s “The Edge of Democracy,” which collected an Oscar nomination in 2020. Despite the plethora of opportunities and distractions that came Costa’s way, she felt compelled to return to Brazil and continue tracking the powerful forces challenging democracy in her country, in many ways parallel to the United States.

“It was a beautiful year in many ways,” she said on Zoom. “At the [Academy] nominee lunch, I met Brad Pitt, who would then become an executive producer of this film. And because of the recognition of ‘The Edge of Democracy,’ we were able to finance this film independently with an amazing group of equity investors and to document a time that would not have been possible were it not for this group of partners, because [President Jair] Bolsonaro had come to power and had finished with the National Film Agency in...

Petra Costa explains how screeching evangelical Christian leaders have become kingmakers to all politicians in a chilling documentary that shows democracy on the brink

Petra Costa’s documentary tells a grim story about modern Brazil and leaves it up to us to decide if there is a happy ending. It is about the country’s leaders’ addiction to rightwing Christian fundamentalism and US-style prayer breakfasts, a strident political mannerism linked to the fact that evangelical Christians make up an estimated 30% of the population; it is on their behalf that Brazil’s religious right, via its substantial bloc vote in Congress, has now created what amounts to a minority-rule theocracy.

This movement was originally imported after the second world war through colossal enthusiasm for the ministry of Billy Graham, and it was covertly encouraged by the US government. The evangelists and their fellow travellers show a particular enthusiasm for the Book of Revelations,...

Universal took the top spot at the U.K. and Ireland box office with the release of “Jurassic World Rebirth,” which opened to £12.4 million ($17 million), according to Comscore.

The Gareth Edwards-directed franchise revival, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, marked a strong return for the prehistoric juggernaut.

Holding second place was Warner Bros.’ motorsport drama “F1,” starring Brad Pitt, which added $4.1 million in its second week, lifting its total to $17.6 million. Universal’s “How To Train Your Dragon” continued its resilient run in third, pulling in $2 million for a four-week total of $24.8 million.

Sony’s dystopian thriller “28 Years Later” took fourth place with $1.9 million, bringing its cumulative haul to $16.9 million. Rounding out the top five was Disney animation “Elio,” which collected $942,496 in its third outing for a running total of $4.1 million.

In the lower half of the chart, “Lilo & Stitch” held sixth with $650,261, taking its total to $48.7 million.

From TV soaps to the supreme court to the top job, Christian fundamentalists are on a power-grab in the country. We meet the director of Apocalypse in the Tropics, a new film charting their rise

Petra Costa was rewatching footage of what has become a historic speech made in 2021 by Jair Bolsonaro, the then Brazilian president, when suddenly she noticed something that went largely unnoticed at the time. Addressing thousands of supporters in São Paulo, the far-right leader lashed out at a supreme court justice, and said he would only leave the presidency “in prison or dead”. This statement is now cited as evidence against Bolsonaro, who is currently on trial, accused of attempting a coup to overturn his 2022 election defeat to current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro denies these allegations.

But what caught Costa’s eye in the footage was Bolsonaro’s gaze. As he shouted into the microphone,...

"With truth, we're building new politics in Brazil." Netflix has revealed a trailer for the documentary film titled Apocalypse in the Tropics, the official follow-up film from Petra Costa after making The Edge of Democracy back in 2019 (also excellent). She continues to film & follow Brazilian politics into an extremely tumultuous time when the right wing jackass Jair Bolsonaro is president and the chaos with everyone in the country. When does a democracy end, and theocracy begin? the film wonders. Costa's Apocalypse in the Tropics investigates the increasingly powerful grip that evangelical Christian leaders hold over politics in Brazil. Weaving together past & present, the film holds a mirror up to the rest of the world. With the savage clarity that defined her last film, Costa documents a time of kaleidoscopic confusion and fear with intimate observational filmmaking that braids together the personal, the historic and the mythic. As faith shifts from private refuge to public battleground,...

Academy Award-nominated documentarian Petra Costa is returning to her native Brazil to capture a universal truth: Christian nationalism has become embedded within international politics. Costa’s “Apocalypse in the Tropics” poses the question: “When does a democracy end, and theocracy begin?,” as the logline states. “Weaving together past and present, the film holds a mirror up to the rest of the world.”

The doc examines the rises of current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former President Jair Bolsonaro, and the nation’s leading televangelist Silas Malafaia. In short, the film is billed as being a “cinematic investigation of the fault lines that emerge when religion fuels political ambition.”

“Apocalypse in the Tropics” is written, directed, and produced by Costa, with Alessandra Orofino co-writing and producing. The executive producers are Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jenny Raskin, Jim and Susan Swartz, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jeffrey Lurie, Marie Therese Guirgis,...

Exclusive: When does a democracy end, and a theocracy begin? That’s the key question in Oscar-nominated filmmaker Petra Costa’s urgent new documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics, set to open in select theaters in the U.S. and UK on July 11, and in Brazil this Thursday, and premiering worldwide on Netflix on July 14.

Costa’s film doesn’t focus on, say, Iran or Afghanistan – where theocratic control of government has become a norm — but in a place where separation of church and state is enshrined in the constitution: her native Brazil. That idea, central to Brazilian democracy and American tradition as well, is coming under increasing threat from the rise of Christian nationalism. In Christian nationalist thinking – surging in Brazil and the U.S. – an avenging Jesus from out of the Book of Revelations suits up for battle with his opponents, eager to spill blood to achieve God’s will.

Even more frighteningly relevant than when I first saw it at the New York Film Festival last fall, prior to the new wave of Trump-fronted fascism, Petra Costa’s Apocalypse in the Tropics lucidly explores how evangelical Christianity is inseparable from Brazil’s far-right political movement. The latest documentary from the Elena and The Edge of Democracy will now come to Doc NYC Summer Selects on July 9 before releasing globally on Netflix on July 14. Ahead of the debut, the first trailer has arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “When does a democracy end, and theocracy begin? Apocalypse in the Tropics investigates the increasingly powerful grip that evangelical Christian leaders hold over politics in Brazil. Weaving together past and present, the film holds a mirror up to the rest of the world.”

Luke Hicks said in his review, “Five years, the closest presidential election in Brazilian history, and one insurrection after her...

When does a democracy end and a theocracy begin? This is the central question that drives Apocalypse in the Tropics,the new documentary film from Academy Award-nominee Petra Costa.

After becoming an Official Selection at the Venice, Telluride, New York, Camden International, IDFA, Chicago International, and Montclair Film Festivals, Apocalypse in the Tropics was acquired by Netflix and will be released on July 14. Costa’s previous documentary, 2019’s The Edge of Democracy, explores her native Brazil’s turbulent political history over the last several decades. It earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature and a Peabody Award in 2020.

Apocalypse in the Tropics tackles Brazilian politics as well, but with an emphasis on the rise of Evangelical Christian influence among its leaders. Here’s everything to know about Costa’s next film.

The documentary film will premiere on Netflix on July 14.

Through interviews with elected officials, spiritual leaders, and ordinary citizens,...

Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa has a way of making documentaries about Brazil that speak directly and crucially to American politics.

Her 2019 Oscar-nominated film The Edge of Democracy illustrated how critical the peaceful transfer of power was to any democratic form of government. That norm was violated in Brazil after the election of Dilma Rousseff as president in 2011, and then sure enough in 2020, not long after her film came out, Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to refuse to peacefully transfer power to his successor, Joe Biden.

Costa’s new film, Apocalypse in the Tropics, examines the rise of Christian Nationalism in Brazil, which is impacting the country in profound and disturbing ways. The movement has been seeded and inspired by Christian Nationalists in the U.S., who are gaining influence here and have become a key component of Pres. Trump’s base. It was Christian Nationalists who played...

The 2025 edition of Doc NYC Selects is almost here, and IndieWire can announce the program for the summer extension of the annual fall documentary festival. This year, Doc NYC Selects will take place between July 9 to 29, at New York’s IFC Center, with all of the filmmakers attending in person.

The festival will begin with Academy Award-nominated Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa’s “Apocalypse in the Tropics,” which was acquired by Netflix after debuting at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. “Apocalypse in the Tropics” is Costa’s follow-up to “The Edge of Democracy,” which Netflix also distributed. Costa returns to Brazil to document the political impact of Christian evangelical leaders in the nation for “Apocalypse in the Tropics.”

Doc NYC Selects will close with “Monk in Pieces,” an ode to composer and performer Meredith Monk; the film is directed by Billy Shebar and David Roberts and debuted at Berlinale. Additional Doc NYC...

Apocalypse in the Tropics, a powerful Portuguese-language documentary feature about the rise and impact of Christian nationalism in Brazil, with eerie echoes of its rise and impact in America, will be eligible for recognition during the 2025-2026 awards season despite having screened at numerous major film festivals in 2024, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Indeed, the film, which was written, produced and directed by Oscar nominee Petra Costa (2019’s The Edge of Democracy), and which Netflix acquired in December 2024 after it played to strong receptions at the Venice, Telluride, New York and IDFA film festivals last fall, will receive an awards-qualifying theatrical run over the summer and will then drop on the streaming service on July 14.

Netflix also regards it as one of its top non-fiction award season priorities, along with 2025 Sundance acquisition The Perfect Neighbor.

THR’s August 2024 review of Apocalypse in the Tropics described the film as “riveting,” not...

Exclusive: DC/Dox, the prestigious documentary film festival in the nation’s capital, today announced the full slate for its third edition.

The cinematic event will include a dozen world premieres including The Last Class, a documentary about former Secretary of Labor – and ardent Trump opponent – Robert Reich; the sex trafficking documentary The Right Track, directed by Shareen Anderson; A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons Of Pat Oliphant, a film about the famed political cartoonist directed by Bill Banowsky, and Immutable, a feature on the Washington Urban Debate League directed by Charlie Sadoff and Gabriel London.

As previously announced (and reported by Deadline), DC/Dox will kick off with the world premiere of Steal This Story, Please!, a documentary about Democracy Now! host and author Amy Goodman, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin.

DC/Dox, running June 12-15, boasts a slate of 59 features and 35 shorts from more than two dozen countries.

The inaugural Henry Awards for Public Interest Documentary, awarded by the Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, have been announced, including a grand prize of $100,000 for While We Watched, whose director Vinay Shukla contributed an essay to our fall 2023 issue about his creation of the best-selling board game Shasn. The awards were decided by a jury consisting of Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, Mandy Chang, Petra Costa, Ron Nixon and Michèle Stephenson. From the press release: The Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s […]

The post Inaugural Henry Awards for Public Interest Documentary Announce Grand Prize Winner, Finalists and Honorable Mentions first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The inaugural Henry Awards for Public Interest Documentary, awarded by the Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, have been announced, including a grand prize of $100,000 for While We Watched, whose director Vinay Shukla contributed an essay to our fall 2023 issue about his creation of the best-selling board game Shasn. The awards were decided by a jury consisting of Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, Mandy Chang, Petra Costa, Ron Nixon and Michèle Stephenson. From the press release: The Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s […]

The post Inaugural Henry Awards for Public Interest Documentary Announce Grand Prize Winner, Finalists and Honorable Mentions first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Exclusive: Ahead of the April 4th theatrical release of his latest film, The Luckiest Man in America, Samir Oliveros — writer, director, producer, and co-founder of filmmaking collective Plenty Good — has signed with Cinetic Media for management.

A Colombia-born, U.S.-based talent who has leveraged partnerships at home in Latin America to create film and television for global audiences, Olivero’s Luckiest Man is a starry Colombia-based production that sold to IFC Films and Sapan Studio after premiering at TIFF 2024, in one of the few deals of the festival. The stranger-than-fiction story, based on true events, follows an unemployed ice cream truck driver who, in 1984, drives from Ohio to California to become a contestant on the popular game show Press Your Luck and goes on an unprecedented winning streak, all while keeping a big secret.

The project features a stacked cast led by Paul Walter Hauser, which also includes David Strathairn,...

The 27th edition of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, launching on April 3, will feature a lineup of 34 feature documentaries and 15 short docs. The Durham, N.C.-based, four-day doc film fest will kick off with Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe’s “Prime Minister, “about the life of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

“Prime Minister” debuted at Sundance 2025, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award. The film is one of 16 Sundance feature docs screening at Full Frame this year. Others include U.S. Grand Jury Prize winner “Seeds,” “The Librarians,” “Preditors, “Nat. Geo’s “Sally” and “The Perfect Neighbor,” which Netflix recently acquired.

Often referred to as “a filmmaker’s festival,” Full Frame is not a premiere or market-focused fest. Instead, it’s known within the doc industry as a well-organized, intimate gathering that gives well-received docs out of Sundance, Camden Intl. Film Festival and the...

Hot Docs, North America’s leading documentary festival, has unveiled the first slate of films to screen as part of its Special Presentations program. Subjects include Oscar-winning actor Marlee Matlin, Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist and co-founder of Bellingcat, Israeli comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi, and Silas Malafaia, Brazil’s most prominent televangelist, in the latest film from Petra Costa, Oscar-nominated for “The Edge of Democracy.”

Chase Joynt and Julietta Singh’s “The Nest,” described as a “deeply personal exploration of memory, identity and intergenerational storytelling,” makes its world premiere.

International premieres include “Deaf President Now!,” a chronicle of the landmark student protest that transformed accessibility rights in the U.S.; and “Life After,” in which filmmaker Reid Davenport investigates the troubling implications of assisted suicide laws for disabled people.

Making their Canadian premieres are “Antidote,” a real-life thriller following investigative journalist Christo Grozev, co-founder of Bellingcat, and political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza...

Netflix produced its first non-documentary feature in 2015. It was called Beasts of No Nation, and it was fine. However, the film did not get nominated for an Academy Award. Lots has changed in the last decade.

Your favorite streamer often gets nominated for major awards each year. 2025 is no different. Emilia Pérez has 13 nominations alone, including one for Best Picture. So far, Netflix has yet to get a win in that category, and Emilia Pérez is not the favorite this year, either.

In fact, Netflix has also almost been entirely shut out of wins in the acting categories. Only Laura Dern won, and that was for Best Supporting Actress in 2020. But the streamer does do well in some other categories. Those might not be part of the Big 6, but when it comes to documentaries, Netflix knows what it is doing. Just see below, and you'll know.

The 2025 Oscars will be held on Sunday,...

The Berlinale has unveiled the jury for its main Competition as well as those for the sidebars of its 75th edition running February 13 to 23.

Director Nabil Ayouch (Morocco/France), costume designer Bina Daigeler (Germany), actor Fan Bingbing (China), director Rodrigo Moreno (Argentina), film critic and author Amy Nicholson (U.S.) and director, actor and screenwriter Maria Schrader (Germany) join previously announced president Todd Haynes in the main competition jury.

They will decide the Golden Bear for Best Film (awarded to the film’s producers) as well as the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, Silver Bear Jury Prize and Silver Bears for Best Director, Best Leading Performance, Best Supporting Performance, Best Screenplay and Best Outstanding Artistic Contribution.

The three-member jury of the inaugural Perspective Competition, showcasing 14 first features by emerging directors, has been named as director Meryam Joobeur (Tunisia/Canada), actor-director Aïssa Maïga (France/Mali) and producer María Zamora (Spain).

They...

Neo Sora, the filmmaker and artist behind “Happyend,” has signed with Cinetic Media.

The move comes after “Happyend,” which Sora wrote as well as directed, premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. It went on to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival, earning positive reviews at each stop. The coming-of-age story is set in a near-future Japan, where a group of high schoolers fights for a better future against a techno-fascist world fueled by the fear of the next great earthquake.

Metrograph picked up the film for North America distribution after it screened in Venice and will release the film in theaters in 2025. Magnify is handling the rest of the world. The film was produced by Albert Tholen, Aiko Masubuchi, Eric Nyari, Alex C. Lo and Anthony Chen, and supported by the likes of the Sundance Institute, Gotham Project Market and Talents Tokyo.

Happy New Year! As is our favorite way to celebrate the dawning of a new year, we’re looking ahead at a very big batch of 2025 releases we’ve a) already seen and b) can heartily recommend to you, our readers.

As is tradition, this list includes a hefty number of films we’ve caught on the festival circuit and are bound for a 2025 release near year. They include consistent favorite filmmakers like David Cronenberg, Steven Soderbergh, Jia Zhang-ke, and Miguel Gomes, plus a wide variety of brand-new and rising film stars to get to know right now. Some of these films have already popped up on our annual critics survey, but this list also includes a batch of films worthy of attention right now, and through the rest of the year.

For those of you eager to load up your movie-going calendar for the coming months, let this list...

Netflix has acquired the rights to Petra Costa’s latest documentary on Brazilian politics, “Apocalypse in the Tropics,” and will stream the film in 2025.

The film is a reunion between Netflix and Costa, who was nominated for an Oscar for the Netflix doc “The Edge of Democracy” from 2019. Netflix acquired “Apocalypse in the Tropics” after it first premiered at Venice and then played Telluride, the New York Film Festival, Camden International, IDFA, Chicago International, and the Montclair Festival. Check out IndieWire’s review out of Venice here.

“Apocalypse in the Tropics” examines how the evangelical movement in Brazil helped pave the way for the rule of Jair Bolsonaro. The film argues that allowing evangelical leaders to wield such power threatens to make Brazil a national theocracy.

Here’s the official logline via Netflix: When does a democracy end, and a theocracy begin? Apocalypse in the Tropics investigates the increasingly powerful...

Filmmaker Petra Costa is re-teaming with Netflix on her latest documentary, the award-winning Apocalypse in the Tropics.

The streamer today announced it will release Costa’s Oscar-contending film in 2025, continuing a fruitful relationship with the director. Her previous documentary, 2019’s The Edge of Democracy, was a Netflix Original and went on to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

The Edge of Democracy explored how Costa’s native Brazil emerged from military dictatorship in the mid-1980s, but then more recently saw fundamental tenets of democracy threatened by right wing elements who refused to honor the peaceful transition of power (a phenomenon that would be replayed in the U.S. after the 2020 presidential election). Apocalypse in the Tropics examines another threat to Brazilian democracy – the rise of Christian nationalism (a growing issue in the United States as well).

“The genesis of this investigation on the rise of religious...

The Marrakech Film Festival, which opened Friday with Justin Kurzel’s timely thriller “The Order,” has more than 70 films in its lineup, which, as is customary, mixes known titles and fresh fare.

“The Order” is part of the event’s gala screenings that also comprise French-Moroccan auteur Nabil Ayouch’s feminist musical drama “Everybody Loves Touda,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” all of which will be accompanied by their directors.

The 14-title competition dedicated to first and second works includes Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s melodrama “Across the Sea,” about North African exiles in Marseilles, and Hind Meddeb’s doc “Sudan, Remember Us,” which pays homage to Sudanese people and culture by chronicling their 2019 revolution. “Sudan, Remember Us” is among films supported by the fest’s Atlas Workshops industry initiative, aimed at fostering and supporting the emergence of a new generation of Moroccan,...

Documentary filmmakers and industry leaders gathered at this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam to discuss “independence and resistance in times of repressive populism” at the festival’s yearly Europe Conference in partnership with French public broadcaster Arte. IDFA’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia introduced the conference by highlighting the “rising success” of populist movements in Europe and across the world and how they recognise filmmakers “as their enemy.”

“They very quickly realize that culture is not their friend and that documentary people are their main enemy because we tend to criticize immediately. They should not have the power to stop us,” he said.

Nyrabia added that there are also cases “like in Germany” where it is “not even right-wing, but left-wing that is silencing voices,” going on to mention the recent episode where the official Berlin city portal described the Israeli-Palestinian documentary “No Other Land,” co-directed by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham,...

Cinetic Media has signed Amalia Ulman, the multi-hyphenate behind “El Planeta,” a critically acclaimed absurdist comedy.

“El Planeta” was written, directed and produced by Ulman, who starred in the feature as well. It premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film festival in World Competition. The film was then given the prestigious opening night slot at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art’s New Directors/New Films. “El Planeta” is set in the industrial northern Spanish city of Gijon during the 2009 economic crisis and follows mother and daughter grifters, who resort to ever more desperate schemes to maintain their lifestyle. Ulman is currently in post on her second feature film.

In addition, Ulman’s work as a visual artist has shown at the Tate Modern and had engagements at Art Basel. She was lauded as “the first great Instagram artist” for her piece “Excellences and Perfections.” Her work has been compared to Agnes Varda,...

The Marrakech Film Festival unveiled its 2024 lineup on Thursday and set that Luca Guadagnino would replace Thomas Vinterberg as its jury president. The other jury members will be Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, and Ali Abbasi. Vinterberg “had to excuse himself for family reasons,” festival organizers said.

The Marrakech fest on Thursday also unveiled the lineup for its competition, 11th Continent, and Moroccan Panorama sections, as well as gala and special screenings. In the competition, 14 films will compete for the Étoile d’Or, or Golden Star.

The 21st edition of the fest in Morocco will also honor Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and, posthumously, pay homage to Moroccan star Naïma Elmcherqui. The Marrakech fest takes place Nov. 29-Dec. 7.

Check out the full lineup for the 2024 edition below.

Competition

Across The Sea (LA Mer Au Loin)

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

with Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Omar Boulakirba,...

And the 2024 Montclair Film Festival awards go to…

The Montclair Film Festival bestowed its top honor, the Fiction Feature Prize, to Payal Kapadia’s critically acclaimed “All We Imagine as Light.” The feature won the Grand Prix at Cannes but was later snubbed by India for its Oscar submission. The film centers on two nurses, played by Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha, who grapple with their own relationships. “All We Imagine as Light” will premiere November 15 in theaters from Sideshow/Janus Films.

Montclair Film additionally recognized Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” with a Special Jury Prize. The Feature Film jury included artist and podcaster Janette Afsharian, AP critic Jake Coyle, and Rolling Stone critic David Fear.

The festival’s Bruce Sinofsky Award for the Documentary Feature Competition was won by “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” which was directed by Johan Grimonprez. A Special Jury Prize was...

Brazilian documentarian Petra Costa takes us back into the tumult of her home country’s politics with Apocalypse in the Tropics, picking up key threads from her acclaimed previous film The Edge of Democracy. Five years have passed since that documentary offered a glimpse into Brazil’s shift towards a more conservative leadership. Now, Costa trains her perceptive lens on how matters of faith came to shape the nation’s turbulent affairs.

Specifically, she investigates the growth of evangelical Christianity over the past few decades and its connection to Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency. We learn that over just four decades, evangelicals ballooned from a small fraction to nearly a third of the population. Their ascendancy coincided with larger trends of economic hardship and ideological ferment. Meanwhile, Costa raises critical questions about how certain preachers have wielded biblical interpretations to accelerate instability and stifle social change.

A key profile is Silas Malafaia,...

While there’s a few more fall film festivals popping up in the next month, the major ones are behind us, which means we have a strong sense of the films to have on your radar in the coming months and even through 2025. We’ve asked our writers from across the globe to weigh in on their favorite world premieres from Locarno Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival.

Our coverage will continue with a few more reviews this week, and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections, so continue to explore all of our festival coverage here. In the meantime, check out top picks from our writers below and return soon for our extensive year-end coverage.

Soham Gadre (@SohamGadre)

1. April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)

2 and 3. Youth (Homecoming and Hard Times) (Wang Bing...

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – South America’s largest festival, the Rio International Film Festival, wrapped Sunday, Oct. 13, consolidating its position as the main venue for Brazilian pics’ premieres and an important gathering of filmmakers from around the world.

Following a combination of an unsupportive government, a recession and the pandemic, Rio Fest resurged last year and expanded this year, screening about 270 pics.

“For the first time in years, we were able to invite this year international guests to attend our festival, some 50 filmmakers from different countries”, Rio Fest’s director Ilda Santiago told Variety. “We back on track.

Rio Fest’s Premiere Brasil, which included 90 features and short films, was once again the main showcase of local pics. Two features shared Redentor kudos for fiction film.

Marcelo Caetano’s “Baby,” a co-production between Brazil, France and the Netherlands, is centered on male prostitution in Sao Paulo. Joao Pedro Mariano received...

The 62nd New York Film Festival (September 27-October 14) got underway Friday with “Nickel Boys”, rookie feature director RaMell Ross’ daring screen adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel. The film spawned strong applause as well as ardent debate on its challenging mise-en-scène from the attendees at Alice Tully Hall. One thing they agreed on was “King Richard” Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s inevitable second Supporting Actress nod.

At the ritual after-party at Tavern on the Green, an annual celebration for the New York film community, Ellis-Taylor admitted she couldn’t watch herself and ran from the theater. She provides the beating heart for this extraordinary and divisive movie. “Every year we spend months talking about what opening night will be,” said NYFF director Dennis Lim at the after-party, “because it sets the tone for the festival. RaMell is a filmmaker we’ve loved and believed in since ‘Hale County [This Morning, This Evening].’ [‘Nickel Boys’] is not a feel-good movie.

There’s only so much you can do when you catch your spouse stepping out on you – cry, get a divorce, forgive.

In China, they’ve come up with an additional option when such circumstances present themselves (an admittedly not infrequent scenario for couples all around the world). There, you can hire someone to “intervene” in the love triangle, in surreptitious fashion.

This phenomenon is explored in Mistress Dispeller, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival before heading to TIFF for its international premiere and on to the Camden International Film Festival for its U.S. premiere. At Camden, Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast caught up with director Elizabeth Lo, who shared insights about her intriguing new film and how she negotiated its inherent ethical considerations.

At Ciff, located on Maine’s bucolic central coast, we also talked with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Petra Costa, who brought Apocalypse in the Tropics to...

An abortion documentary backed by Hillary Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence is taking an unusual route to audiences courtesy of Bumble Inc, the Austin-based dating app company.

Zurawski v Texas, which screened to critical raves and sold out crowds at the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend, will have a special screening in Austin on Sept. 24 as part of a series of impact screenings financed by Bumble. The dating app, which supplied part of the movie’s budget, will also fund a series of free screenings at Alamo Drafthouse theaters around the country on Sept. 25.

The Zurawski v Texas filmmakers are still looking for a traditional distributor for their documentary, one of several political nonfiction films seeking a buyer this election year, including Errol Morris’s Separated, on Trump’s border policy, and Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa’s look at far-right politics in Brazil. But the Zurawski v...

Finding distribution for independently made documentaries was a hot topic of conversation at the 20th edition of the Maine-based Camden International Film Festival, which kicked off on Sept. 12.

Founder and CEO of Cinetic Media John Sloss, who sold the Christopher Reeve documentary ‘”Super/Man” to Warner Bros. Discovery for a reported $15 million out of Sundance earlier this year, admitted that finding homes for some of the most popular docs at festivals including “No Other Land” has been difficult.

About the resistance of Palestinian activists against forced displacement and settler expansion in the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta, “No Other Land” was part of the Ciff lineup. Most recently the film screened at TIFF and Telluride. The IDFA-supported doc debuted in February at the 74th edition of the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Documentary Award and Panorama Dokumente Audience Award.

Sloss didn’t go into details about why...

Apocalypse in the Tropics

Venice, Telluride

Brazilian documentarian Petra Costa chronicles the dire state of democracy with this eye-opening exposé, delving into the troubling ties linking Christian evangelism and politics. Getting up close and personal with some powerful people amid a wave of social and political unrest, she shifts between the epic and the intimate, history and the present, to shed light on a phenomenon not only in her home nation, but around the world. — Jordan Mintzer

April

Venice, Toronto

Dea Kulumbegashvili’s miraculous feature centers on an Ob-gyn (a marvelous Ia Sukhitashvili) who performs secret abortions for desperate women in deepest rural Georgia. Like Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the drama emphasizes the risks of backstreet terminations as well as the shame and expense that prevent access. Offsetting the grimness of it all are bouts of transcendent beauty. — Leslie Felperin

Babygirl

Venice, Toronto

A spectacular Nicole Kidman...

Exclusive: The prestigious Camden International Film Festival has announced a surprise addition to its 2024 lineup: The Shepherd and The Bear, a documentary described as a “modern folk tale.”

The film directed by Max Keegan and produced by Keegan, Elizabeth Woodward, and Emmy winners Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, will serve as the closing night film for Ciff’s 20th edition. The festival, a program of the Points North Institute, unfolds in the picturesque Central Maine coast towns of Camden and Rockland. [Scroll for the full list of Ciff documentaries].

“Set high in the majestic French Pyrenees, The Shepherd and The Bear explores a conflict provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears in the midst of a traditional shepherding community,” according to a release from Ciff. “The film follows an aging shepherd who struggles to find a successor as bears prey on his flock, and a teenage boy who becomes obsessed with tracking the bears. Through its breathtaking cinematography and immersive storytelling,...

Exclusive: Jayne Sullivan has been hired as a literary manager at Cinetic Media, the esteemed management and media advisory company founded and overseen by John Sloss.

New to management, Sullivan comes from a producing background, having previously worked alongside Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Paul Giamatti while under a deal at Showtime, and Brigham Taylor while under a deal at Disney. She’ll be based out of Cinetic’s New York office and will focus on growing a roster of exceptional writer, director, and multi-hyphenate clients.

Observed Kate Hurwitz and Alec Ring, Co-Heads of Cinetic Management, “Jayne was doing all the things a great manager does well before it was her official title. She has incredible taste, a strong work ethic, and her experience across the indie and studio landscape equips her to excel with artists at all stages of their careers. We are thrilled to have her join our team.”

Added Sullivan,...

George Clooney has commented for the first time on his New York Times op-ed asking Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

“I’ve actually never had to answer that question so I suppose I will do it here,” Clooney said when asked about it at the Venice press conference for his new film “Wolfs.”

“The person who should be applauded is the president, who has done the most selfless thing a president has done since George Washington,” he said, adding: “What should be remembered is the selfless act of someone who, it’s very hard to let go of power — we know that, we’ve seen it all over the world — and for someone to say I think there’s a better path forward, all the credit goes to him. And that’s really the truth … I’m just very proud of where we are in the...

It might be challenging for some viewers to take activists seriously when they are speaking in tongues. But that is exactly what Petra Costa does in her edgy yet empathetic documentary ‘Apocalypse in the Tropics.’ Overlapping somewhat with the events chronicled in 2019’s ‘The Edge of Democracy,’ her epic account of Brazil’s recent whipsawing political battles, this film takes a step back from the action to investigate how the nation’s governance devolved into a near-permanent state of crisis.

Continue reading ‘Apocalypse In The Tropics’ Review: Petra Costa’s Pulse-Pounding Documentary About Brazil’s Anti-Democratic Evangelicals Is Gloriously Cinematic [Telluride] at The Playlist.

Each day during the 2024 Venice Film Festival, IndieWire will update this article with a review of the day’s screenings, activities, and buzz.

Pardon me for kicking things off with an esoteric complaint, but as someone who often has to go to a premiere in order to take the audience’s reaction into consideration for a film’s awards prospects, my 2024 Venice Film Festival experience has been uniquely stressful.

While attendees book tickets to screenings through a website, as is the case with most of the major film festivals now, many of the big premieres at Venice aren’t listed for press and industry passholders, so I’ve spent a good percentage of my last two days asking anyone who would hear me if they had a connect to get into the first public screening of Pablo Larraín’s “Maria.”

I spent much of yesterday in a panic about getting...

Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence and Stanley Tucci as Cardinal Bellini in ‘Conclave’ (Photo Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2024)

The 51st Telluride Film Festival announced its lineup just days ahead of the festival’s opening on Friday, August 30, 2024. The festival, which runs through Monday, September 2nd, will include the world premieres of Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, Edward Berger’s Conclave, and Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson.

This year’s festival includes 60 feature films, shorts, and revival programs.

“This brief weekend of cinematic bliss reminds us every year that movies really are magic,” stated Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger. “The process of assembling our line-up is both daunting and rewarding, and it never fails to bring the most fantastic sense of satisfaction once we’re finished. Our anticipation matches that of the audience. We’re delighted to now share what we found to be the most exciting, interesting and...

For opponents of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — which is to say, among other things, opponents of anti-Indigenous discrimination, deforestation, abortion bans, institutional homophobia and Covid denialism — his loss in the country’s 2022 general election was a relief, but hardly a new dawn. The presidency may once more be held by liberal veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (popularly known as just Lula) of the center-left Workers’ Party, but the demographic shifts and political machinations that enabled the recent far-right takeover still cast a long shadow on a nation beset with economic inequality and social unrest. “Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest,” says Petra Costa, pointedly borrowing from the Book of Luke, midway through her compellingly impassioned new documentary “Apocalypse in the Tropics,” which rakes with a heavy heart through the recent past while casting an anxious eye to the future.

The heart-on-sleeve expressions of shame, fear and tenuous,...

Telluride Film Festival has announced the line-up before the festival starts on Friday, with world premieres for Edward Berger’s Conclave, RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys, and Robbie Williams musical biopic Better Man.

Also making the cut in the main programme are documentaries Leonardo Da Vinci from Ken Burns, Kevin Macdonald’s One To One: John & Yoko, and R. J. Cutler’s Martha Stewart film.

Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 and Joshua Openheimer’s The End are in the main programme, alongside Cannes favourites Anora, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, All We Imagine As Light, and Emilia Pérez.

The 51st...

Unless you’re a major studio or willing to pay for a rent-spiked ski lodge––and even then––few festivals ring more exclusive than Telluride, which has the distinction / misfortune of firing the starting gun for fall festivals and that ever-deleterious phenomenon we call “Oscar buzz.” Their 2024 lineup nevertheless features some films of note: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson’s Rumours; Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia; Payal Kapadia’s All That We Imagine as Light; Sean Baker’s Anora; and Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple series Disclaimer.

On a repertory end, Kenneth Lonergan’s been anointed this year’s Guest Director and has programmed the following: Arch of Triumph, Barry Lyndon, Doctor Zhivago, Grand Hotel, and My Darling Clementine. And Telluride’s 2024 Special Medallion goes to Les Films du Losange, who will represent Misericordia and have their history celebrated with the following screenings: Beauty and the Beast; Charles, Dead or...

As a Brazilian, Petra Costa’s “Apocalypse in the Tropics” — a documentary that, in all but name, is her follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “The Edge of Democracy” – is a tough watch. Much like in that previous doc, this is a record of some of the most turbulent, heart wrenching and anxiety-inducing years in the country’s history, specifically the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro and his horrible administration during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The viral outbreak, however, is merely a chapter of this broad account of how Bolsonaro came to be, who supported him, and how he then abandoned them. The apocalypse in the title is actually a reference to the Biblical book of Revelation (titled “Apocalipse” in Brazilian Portuguese), which points to Costa’s chosen frame of reference for her new, first-person narrated film: Christianity. Or, to be more precise, how the former president and his close circle weaponized millions of...