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The 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) will feature key Cannes Film Festival winners in its Horizons section and a selection of action and horror movies, both new and older, for its revamped Midnight Screenings program under the new name “Afterhours.”

In a lineup update unveiled on Friday, Kviff said it will this year screen more than 130 feature films in the picturesque Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.

The Horizons lineup, which traditionally features highlights from the festival circuit of the past year, includes the likes of Jay Duplass’ The Baltimorons, Tom Shoval’s A Letter to David, Michel Franco’s Dreams, My Father’s Shadow by Akinola Davies Jr., Mary Bronstein‘s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day, Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors, Jafar Panahi‘s Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, and fellow Cannes...

Films by Richard Linklater, Oliver Laxe and Joachim Trier are among 53 titles selected by the Munich International Film Festival for its four main competition strands CineMasters, CineVision, CineRebels and CineCoPro.Munich runs from June 27 to July 6.

CineMasters

Oliver Laxe’s Sirat will be joined by another two Cannes 2025 Official Competition titles - Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Mascha Schilinski’s award-winning Sound Of Falling - to screen in the CineMasters competition for the €15,000 CineMasters Award. The prize is being sponsored for the first time this year by Dorint Hotels & Resorts and is presented to the director of the best international film.

The gentle lapping of water, the soft murmur of voices – Erige Sehiri’s “Promised Sky” opens not with a grand statement but with an act of tender care: three women bathing a small child, Kenza. It’s a scene of almost painterly intimacy, reminiscent of how some of my favourite vérité filmmakers, like the Dardenne brothers, can establish a whole world and its stakes in a few carefully observed moments.

This initial quietude belies the turbulent lives at the film’s heart. We are introduced to Marie, Naney, and Jolie, Ivorian women whose paths converge with young Kenza’s in contemporary Tunisia, a place the film reveals not as a simple stopover but as a complex, challenging environment for its sub-Saharan migrant community.

The narrative, rooted in current realities, immediately signals its intention to look beyond headlines. From these first frames, it’s clear Sehiri is less interested in a...

Selected to open the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, French Tunisian director Erige Sehiri’s intimately conceived drama “Promised Sky” follows four generations of Ivorian immigrant women as they find solidarity, conflict and sometimes a sense of displacement in one another’s company. Female relationships are complicated enough as is, even between those on a level playing field. But in “Promised Sky,” they are thornier since none of the women are equals from a socio-economic standpoint in their adopted home in Tunisia.

“Promised Sky” starts on a note of matriarchal unity, not separation. Utilizing the same perceptive documentarian aesthetic at the heart of her previous feature, “Under the Fig Trees,” Sehiri drops the audience into the lives of Marie (Aïssa Maïga), Naney (Debora Lobe Naney) and Jolie (Laetitia Ky), as the three roommates care for a little girl in a bubble bath, gently washing her as...

Having found fame in international art circles for her natural hair sculptures championing African culture, Black beauty and women’s rights, Laetitia Ky has now set her sights on building a cinema career. “I’ve always had a fascination for superheroes,” says the globe-trotting Ivorian artist and activist on a Zoom call from Monaco, where she is currently midway through a residency at the principality’s Quai Art Studios. “I’ve watched nearly all the Marvel and DC Comic movies and read all the comics,” she continues, explaining that it is the non-reality of the superhero worlds that fuels her passion.

The Marvel and DC Comic protagonists also chime with the message of empowerment implicit in Ky’s elaborate hair-based works — depicting everything from a vacuum cleaner to a butterfly. Ky is in Cannes as one of three actresses in Tunisian-French director Erige Sehiri’s Un Certain Regard title Promised Sky.

French-Tunisian director Erige Sehiri’s “Promised Sky,” which has its world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, has debuted its trailer. Luxbox is handling world sales. French distribution is by Jour2Fête.

Sehiri’s last film, “Under the Fig Trees,” played in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2022, and was selected to represent Tunisia at the 2023 Academy Awards.

“Promised Sky” follows Marie, an Ivorian pastor and former journalist, who has lived in Tunisia for 10 years. Her home becomes a refuge for Naney, a young mother seeking a better future, and Jolie, a strong-willed student carrying her family’s hopes. The arrival of a little orphan girl challenges their sense of solidarity in a tense social climate, revealing both their fragility and strength.

The screenplay is by Sehiri, Anna Ciennik and Malika Cécile Louati.

Commenting on the relationship between Tunisians and migrants from other parts of Africa, Sehiri says: “As a Tunisian woman myself,...

Molly Manning Walker will serve as jury president for the Un Certain Regard section at the 78th Festival de Cannes, running from May 13 to May 24, 2025. The British filmmaker received the top prize in this section in 2023 for her debut feature, How to Have Sex.

Walker expressed enthusiasm about returning to the festival in this capacity. “It’s such an honour to return to Cannes as the President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” she said in a statement. “This selection will forever hold a special place in my heart. Being a part of it really changed my world. I can’t wait to discover the films at the epicentre of new cinema. Right now more than ever I feel that cinema is so key to bringing us together and allowing us to feel, to connect with each other. To escape, wonder and learn about each other.”

Joining Walker on the...

UK filmmaker and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker will preside over the jury of Cannes Film Festival’s sidebar Un Certain Regard.

Walker’s debut feature How To Have Sex premiered in the strand in 2023 where it won the top prize.

Joining Walker is French-Swiss director and screenwriter Louise Courvoisier, whose debut Holy Cow won the youth award in Un Certain Regard in 2024, and Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini who took home best director the same year for The Damned.

Rounding out the jury is Vanja Kaludjercic, director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart.

There are...

UK director, screenwriter and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker has been named as president of the Un Certain Regard Jury at the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival this May.

She will be joined by French-Swiss director and screenwriter Louise Courvoisier, Croatian director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam Vanja Kaludjercic, Italian director, producer and screenwriter Roberto Minervini and Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart.

They will be decided the prizes in Un Certain Regard section, which showcases art and discovery films by young auteurs and features 20 titles this year, including nine debut features.

The section opens with Tunisian-French director Erige Sehiri’s Promised Sky on May 14, the day after the festival’s opening ceremony.

Manning Walker has a special connection with Un Certain Regard having won its main prize for first feature How To Have Sex in 2023. She turned up late for the ceremony, leading then Jury President John C. Reilly...

Two years after her debut “How to Have Sex” won Un Certain Regard’s top prize, British director, screenwriter and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker will be back at Cannes Film Festival to preside over the section’s jury.

Manning Walker will be joined by French-Swiss director and screenwriter Louise Courvoisier, who presented her film “Holy Cow” last year at Cannes; Vanja Kaludjercic, the Croatian director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam; Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini; and Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“Bpm Beats Per Minute”). Together, they will hand out the prizes for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, which centers on films by young auteurs.

“It’s such an honor to return to Cannes as the president of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” Manning Walker said in a statement. “This selection will forever hold a special place in my heart. Being a part of it really changed my world. I...

The jury for the Cannes Un Certain Regard program has been announced, with “How to Have Sex” director Molly Manning Walker as the president.

The 2025 Un Certain Regard jury includes French-Swiss director and screenwriter Louise Courvoisier; Vanja Kaludjercic, Croatian director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam; Italian director, producer, and screenwriter Roberto Minervini; and Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart. The jury will award prizes for the section, which showcases first- and second-time filmmakers of promise. The Un Certain Regard program will open with Tunisian director Erige Sehiri’s “Promised Sky” on Wednesday, May 14.

This year, a total of 20 films have been selected for Un Certain Regard, including nine first films, such as Harris Dickinson’s “Urchin,” Scarlett Johansson’s “Eleanor the Great,” and Kristen Stewart’s “The Chronology of Water.”

Un Certain Regard Jury President Walker previously won the 2023 Un Certain Regard Prize for her directorial debut “How to Have Sex.

How to Have Sex director Molly Manning Walker will head up this year’s jury for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar.

The British filmmaker, whose debut feature won the section’s top prize in 2023, will be joined on the jury by French-Swiss director Louise Courvoisier, whose Holy Cow won Un Certain Regard’s Youth Award last year, Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini, the 2024 ex-aequno best director winner for The Damned, Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (120 Bpm), and International Film Festival Rotterdam director Vanja Kaludjercic.

“It’s such an honour to return to Cannes as the President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” Walker said in a statement. “This selection will forever hold a special place in my heart. Being a part of it really changed my world. I can’t wait to discover the films at the epicentre of new cinema. Right now more than ever I feel that cinema is...

Exclusive: France’s The Party Film Sales has acquired international sales rights to Cannes Un Certain Regard title Once Upon A Time In Gaza, with Mad Solutions taking sales and distribution rights for the Mena region.

Dulac Distribution has acquired French distribution rights on the film, which is produced by Rani Massalha, Marie Legrand et Muriel Merlin for Les Films du Tambour and Rashid Abdelhamid for Made in Palestine Project.

Once Upon A Time In Gaza is the third feature from Gaza-born brothers Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser. The film tells the story of Yahya, a young student who forges a friendship with Osama,...

The Cannes Film Festival 2025 line-up reveals the films that likely will be chatted about long through the year. Here’s what’s showing.

Cannes Film Festival has published its official line-up for this year’s event, and we get our first hint at the films that are set to be part of the awards conversation for the coming months. The festival will be screening several interesting films, including the directorial debuts of Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson in the new filmmaker category.

Screening out of competition will be Spike Lee’s latest offering, Highest 2 Lowest, and Tom Cruise and company are taking Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning to the festival too. This has proved to be a public relations misstep in the past (remember Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny?) but with Mission releasing so soon after the festival, this seems like a savvy move to us.

The Doha Film Institute’s Qumra workshop wrapped on Wednesday after six days of masterclasses, labs and mentoring sessions held in the Qatari capital aiming to connect the Arab filmmaking community with the rest of the world. The event’s 11th edition unfolded against the backdrop of a broken Middle East ceasefire and U.S. President Donald Trump’s trumpeted tariffs, but these happenings did not disrupt the event’s positive tone.

Qumra, named after the Arab word believed to be the origin of “camera,” saw some 300 top industry reps — including sales agents, producers and top festival programmers — congregate in Doha, which played a key role in mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel. The event unveiled a new crop of first and second works mostly by Arab directors comprising 49 projects, 27 of which are feature films, either in development or post-production.

Many projects are supported by the Doha Film Institute, which...

The full list of films that will be screening at the 78th Annual Cannes Film Festival has been released. The line-up was announced this morning by the Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch at a press conference in Paris. The Hollywood Reporter has shared the program listing for this year’s event. While there are a number of anticipated high-profile titles, a bevy of auteurs will be showcasing their latest, including Kelly Reichardt, who will be returning to the competition with The Mastermind. The film is an art-heist drama and stars Josh O’Connor and John Magaro, which takes place during the Vietnam War.

Joachim Trier, the Norwegian filmmaker who made a splash in 2021 with The Worst Person of the World, returns with the new film Sentimental Value, which features Renate Reinsve. Julia Ducournau, the director of the surreal film, Titane, which got her a Palme d’Or...

The guessing game around which films could make the lineup for the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13—24, came to an end this morning at a press conference in Paris by Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch. If you tapped the latest works by Ari Aster (Eddington), Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind), Richard Linklater (Nouvelle Vague), Wes anderson (The Phoenician Scheme), and the Dardenne brothers (Young Mothers) to make the cut, then you were correct.

Neon, which is on a five-year winning streak of Palme d’Or winners, two of which went on to win best picture at the Oscars (Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Sean Baker’s Anora), will try to make it a sixth with, for now, either of the two films it already has in its stable: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Julie Ducournau’s Alpha.

Absent from the...

Dieciséis años después, el cine español vuelve a duplicar presencia en la Competición Oficial de la Croisette.

© Cannes

Hoy es un día para celebrar. Porque esta mañana se ha desvelado la programación oficial del Festival de Cannes 2025 y, por primera vez desde aquel histórico 2009 –cuando coincidieron Isabel Coixet y Pedro Almodóvar–, dos cineastas españoles competirán por la ansiada Palma de Oro. Ellos son Carla Simón (recordemos que ganó el Oso de Oro en la Berlinale 2022 con Alcarràs) y Oliver Laxe. España vuelve a estar doblemente representada en la Croisette con sus nuevos largometrajes: Romería y Sirat, respectivamente.

Romería, tercer largometraje de Carla Simón, es una obra profundamente personal en la que la directora catalana se sumerge en la memoria de su familia biológica paterna. La historia sigue a Marina (interpretada por la debutante Llúcia Garcia Torras), una joven adoptada que viaja a Vigo para encontrarse por primera con la familia de su padre biológico.

New films from Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater and the Dardenne brothers will premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Cannes organizers announced at a press conference in Paris on Thursday.

Anderson will be back in Cannes with “The Phoenician Scheme,” which premiered a baffling trailer at CinemaCon last week. Linklater is heading to France with a bold movie, “Nouvelle Vague,” which tackles the sacred ground of Jean-Luc Godard and the filming of “Breathless” in the 1960s. The Dardenne brothers have “Young Mothers,” which gives them a chance to become the first filmmakers to win the Palme d’Or three times.

Actors in the festival making their directorial debuts include Scarlett Johansson, who is in Un Certain Regard with “Eleanor the Great,” starring Joan Squibb; and Harris Dickinson, the star of the Palme d’Or winner “The Triangle of Sadness,” with “Urchin.”

The main competition will include a number of...

The Cannes Film Festival announced its 2025 lineup on Thursday morning. Several expected contenders are set for world premieres on the French Riviera, including new projects from Scarlett Johansson, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt, Joachim Trier, and more.

Among the titles that will premiere at Cannes this year are Eleanor the Great, Johansson’s directorial debut with a lead role for June Squibb; Nouvelle Vague, Linklater’s tribute to the French New Wave and the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless; The Mastermind, Reichardt’s latest about an art-world heist with roles for Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, and John Magaro; Splitsville (directed by Michael Angelo Covino), a Neon release with Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona; and Sentimental Value, Triet’s follow-up to The Worst Person in the World with Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, and Elle Fanning in the cast.

Other films of note include Alpha (Cannes winner Julia Ducournau...

The Official Selection for the 78th Cannes Film Festival was revealed Thursday, with 19 movies in Competition. See full lists below.

Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Wes Anderson, who brings his latest flick The Phoenician Scheme; Richard Linklater will launch his Paris-shot Nouvelle Vague; Jochim Trier debuts his latest feature Sentimental Value; and Titane Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau returns with Alpha.

Cannes will open this year with Leave One Day by first-time French filmmaker Amelie Bonnin. Thierry Frémaux said during his presser this morning that it was the first time a debut film has been selected to open the festival. Also hitting the Croisette for the first time is horror auteur Ari Aster, who returns to feature filmmaking with his buzzy A24 feature Eddington.

Related: Thierry Frémaux Talks ‘Mission: Impossible’; Star Presence; Hollywood Introspection & Oscar Track Record

Elsewhere, American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt will...

Ahead of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, taking place May 13 to 24, the lineup has now been unveiled. Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, have revealed the slate this morning.

Highlights include Ari Aster’s Eddington, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Joachim Trier’s Sentimal Value, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, Carla Simon’s Romeria, and more. In other sections we have Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée, the directorial debuts of Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson, Michael Angelo Covino’s Splitsville, Sebastián Lelio’s The Wave, Sylvain Chomet’s The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, and more.

See below.

In Competition

After (Oliver Laxe)

Alpha (Julia Ducournau)

The Eagles of the Republic (Tarik Saleh)

Eddington (Ari Aster)

Dossier 137 (Dominik Moll...

The Doha Film Institute’s Qumra workshop kicks off Friday with the cream of the Arab cinema crop on display – including several timely Palestinian projects – and a host of top industry professionals expected to make the trek to the Qatari capital.

Standout titles set to be unveiled in Doha – which played a key role in mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel – comprise sci-fi thriller “In Memory of Times to Come” (see concept still above), a first feature from Danish-Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour, who represented Denmark at the 58th Venice Visual Arts Biennale. The film is set 30 years from now when, following an “eco apocalypse,” a woman and her husband lead a peaceful life in a restored Bethlehem townhouse, according to the synopsis.

“In Memory,” which will start shooting this fall is produced by Anna Köhncke (“The Act of Killing”) and multiple Oscar-nominated Monica Hellström. The film delves into the complexities of memory,...

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has unveiled the 49 projects across all formats that will be showcased at the 11th edition of its Qumra development and networking event in April.

They include Quarter to Thursday from Algerian director Sofia Djama, about three friends on a mission to bury a dachshund in a military base, which is in development. Djama’s last feature The Blessed won a slew of awards in Venice Horizons in 2017, and delivered a breakout best actress role for rising French-Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri.

The selection also features Syrian director Anas Khalaf’s Love 45 about an overweight Lebanese man who is caught in a destructive spiral, which is in production. Khalaf’s previous credits include the Syria, Bashar al-Assad-era set thriller The Translator.

The picture lock line-up includes Tunisian director Erige Sehiri’s Marie & Jolie about three Ivorian women from different generations making a life in in the...

Exclusive: Mad Distribution, the theatrical arm of Cairo-based studio Mad Solutions, has acquired all Arab world rights (outside of Tunisia) for Erige Sehiri’s upcoming female-led African drama feature Marie and Jolie.

The film follows Marie, Naney, and Jolie as they live under the same roof in Tunis in an old house, which also conceals an evangelical church.

After taking in Kenza, a little girl who survived a shipwreck, the three women each begin to question their place in this blended family and in a country in crisis.

The film was among 27 fiction film projects being presented at the Venice Gap Financing Market, aimed at projects that have at least 70% of their finance in place.

“This project began with my encounter with a former Ivorian journalist who emigrated to Tunisia and ended up building her own church,” explains Sehiri. “As a former journalist myself, I was really fascinated by her...

Paris-based sales agent Luxbox has backed Erige Sehiri’s next feature, “Marie & Jolie.”

Written by Sehiri, Anna Ciennik and Malika Cécile Louati, and produced by Henia Production and Didar Domehri of Maneki Films, the drama explores the quiet Christian communities in the predominantly Muslim metropolis of Tunis. Pathé Afrique and Jour2Fête have boarded as respective Tunisian and French distributors, while production is now underway.

Actors Aïssa Maïga (“Bamako”) and Laetitia Ky join newcomer Deborah Naney as women sharing a house that hides an Evangelical church. Upon taking in a child migrant who survived a shipwreck, each member of this makeshift family must reconsider their place in the house and in society.

“We often hear about people who migrate from Africa to Europe, while 80% of migrants actually migrate within Africa,” says Sehiri. “Among them, some settle in North Africa. Telling their stories opens up new perspectives, another way of looking at the world.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has selected 44 projects for its 2024 spring grants cycle, including Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, which has its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes next Wednesday, May 22.

Fleifel’s fiction feature debut is a crime thriller about a Palestinian refugee living on the fringes of Athens society, who seeks revenge on the smuggler who ripped him off.

Scroll down for the full list of grants

Palestinian-Danish filmmaker Fleifel studied at the UK’s National Film and Television School, and previously made 2012 feature-length documentary A World Not Ours, which played at the Berlinale and Cph:dox.

Ten projects are the latest to be awarded by the Hubert Bals Fund’s Hbf+Europe support schemes. Ten projects in all are receiving coin and among them we have an Anonymous project, plus the latest from Erige Sehiri, Danielle Arbid and Ala Eddine Slim. Several of these will be considered for the upcoming Locarno and Venice Film Festivals. Under the Fig Trees‘ Erige Sehiri looks at a community in Tunisia and the dilemmas that arise from welcoming a refugee child in Marie & Jolie. Danielle Arbid’s love story titled Love Conquers All is set in Beirut and tells thee tale of a young undocumented Sudanese migrant and an older local woman (Hiam Abbas).…...

Erige Sehiri, Danielle Arbid and Francisco Márquez’s latest projects are among the 10 co-productions receiving €60,000 each through the Hubert Bals Fund (Hbf) of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

The projects, eight supported for co-production and two for post-production, are helmed by mostly first- or second-time filmmakers from Singapore, Turkey, Lebanon, Chile, Tunisia, Mexico and Argentina. The European co-producers, through which the projects are awarded, hail from the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, France and Spain.

Tunisian director Sehiri, whose debut Under The Fig Tree debuted in Directors’ Fortnight 2022, is supported for Marie & Jolie. The film centres around a pastor, a trafficker...

Figment of their Imagination: Sehiri’s Baskets Filled with Hope, Humor and Harsh Truths

There is a lot more behind the scenes drama that goes into the picking of the fruits, vegetables, or in this case, the figs we eat if we go by Erige Sehiri’s agronomic, and economic spun tale youth’s shared wisdom and missteps. With plenty of treading on someone’s toes, the predominately set in-between branches and tree trunks Under the Fig Trees is less about labor-intensive work of the sector and more about a belief that a patriarchal Tunisia can do better. By way of private conversations and thorny rebuttals, we find a cleverly disguised collective coming-of-age tale about future men getting second chances, and about young women who dream (in-between instagram posts and boy-talk) of a better outcome.…...

The Marrakech International Film Festival folks have revealed 25 projects chosen for the sixth edition of its industry-oriented Atlas Workshops, designed to support up-and-coming talent from Morocco, the Arab region, and Africa — and as we saw this past Cannes Film Festival we really do feel the emergence of dozens of great filmmakers coming out of these regions. Atlas Workshops will feature 16 projects in various stages of development and nine films either in production or post-production. They were chosen from a pool of 300+ applications originating from across the Arab world and the African continent. We are quick to notice the Directors’ Fortnight selected Under The Fig Trees‘ Erige Sehiri presenting a new project in Marie & Jolie and Critics’ Week selected The Gravedigger’s Wife‘s Khadar Ayderus Ahmed is moving forward with his sophomore project titled Thundering Smoke.…...

Tunisian Youssef Chebbi’s “Plague,” Moroccan Adnane Baraka’s “We Don’t Forget” and Meryam Joobeur’s “Motherhood” feature among buzz titles at this year’s Marrakech Festival Atlas Workshops, which will have Martin Scorsese as their official patron.

Consolidated as a key platform for Moroccan, Arab and African projects and pix in production made by a new generation of filmmakers and created by Marrakech Festival artistic director Remi Bonhomme, the Atlas Workshops unspool Nov. 27-30. They take place alongside the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 24-Dec. 2.

In a definite potential highlight of the Atlas Workshops, Meryjam Joubeur, whose “Brotherhood” was Oscar nominated for best live action short, will present 10 minutes of “Motherhood,” one of the awaited feature debuts of 2023. It is sure to spark major festival interest.

“Plague” marks Chebbi’s second feature after acclaimed Cannes Directors’ Fortnight genre blender “Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation,...

Projects come from 11 different countries across the Arab world and African continent.

The Atlas Workshops, the industry platform of the Marrakech International Film Festival, has unveiled 25 projects for its sixth edition, which runs from November 27-30.

Atlas Workshops has lined up 16 projects in development and nine films in production or post-production from 11 countries across the Arab world and African continent.

The line-up includes projects from Tunisian directors Youssef Chebbi and Erige Sehiri. Chebbi’s feature Ashkal played in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last year, as did Sehiri’s Under The Fig Trees.

Also coming to The Atlas Workshops is Somalia...

The Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the 25 projects selected for the sixth edition of its industry-focused Atlas Workshops, aimed at nurturing emerging Moroccan, Arab and African talent.

Running from November 27 to 30, the event will present 16 projects in development and nine films in production or post-production from 11 countries, selected from among the 320 applications received from the Arab world and African continent.

In a reflection of the growing diversity of the stories being told by Arab and African independent filmmakers, the selection spans a diverse range of film genres, from Lebanese director Sandra Tabet’s horror picture Rabies to Moroccan filmmaker Hind Bensari’s humanist documentary Out of School and Adnane Baraka’s poetic work We Don’t Forget.

Moroccan filmmaker Baraka made waves with his documentary Fragments from Heaven, about a nomad living in a tent in a remote part of Morocco who goes in search of meteorite fragments to boost the family fortunes.

"You'd better not let him catch you." Film Movement has revealed an official US trailer for a Tunisian indie drama titled Under the Fig Trees, made by documentary filmmaker Erige Sehiri as her first narrative feature. This initially premiered way back during the 2021 Venice Film Festival, and it is finally getting a proper art house release in the US this fall. It also toured to other fests, including at the Munich, Melbourne, Reykjavik, London, and Toronto Film Festivals in 2022. Set over the course of a single day, and with a cast made up of an ensemble of non-professional actors, Under the Fig Trees is "an elegant, understated tapestry of complex interactions" and "pleasurable, immersive experience" that ultimately reveals the ways in which sisterhood itself becomes an act of resistance. The film stars Fide Fdhili, Feten Fdhili, Ameni Fdhili, Samar Sifi, and Leila Ouhebi. The country of Tunisia...

A selection at Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, Erige Sehiri’s drama Under the Fig Trees would go on to be selected as Tunisia’s Oscar entry and now is finally getting a U.S. release starting this month courtesy of Film Movement Classics. Set over the course of a single day, and with a cast made up of an intergenerational ensemble of non-professional actors, the film ultimately reveals the ways in which sisterhood itself becomes an act of resistance. Ahead of the October 20 theatrical release, we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the new trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “On a hot summer day, a crew of workers – men and women, young and old – arrive at dawn at a picturesque fig orchard in northwest Tunisia. We eavesdrop, through the sun-dappled leaves of the fig trees, on the young women stealing away precious moments from the foreman’s watchful gaze.

Critical Zone.International Competition(Jury: Lambert Wilson, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Lesli Klainberg, Charlotte Wells, Matthijs Wouter Knol)Golden Leopard: Critical Zone (Ali Ahmadzadeh)Special Jury Prize: Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Radu Jude)Best Direction: Stepne (Maryna Vroda)Best Performance: Dimitra Vlagopoulou (Animal)Best Performance: Renée Soutendijk (Sweet Dreams)Special Mention: Nuit Obscure - Au Revoir Ici, N'importe Où (Sylvain George)Filmmakers Of The PresentGolden Leopard: Dreaming & Dying (Nelson Yeo)Best Emerging Director: Katharina Huber (A Good Place)Special Jury Prize: Camping Du Lac (Éléonore Saintagnan)Best Performance: Clara Schwinning (A Good Place)Best Performance: Isold Halldórudóttir and Stavros Zafeiris (Touched)Special Mentions: Excursions (Una Gunjak), Negu Hurbilak (Colective Negu)First Feature(Jury: Omar El Zohairy, Devika Girish, Isabel Sandoval)First Feature Award: Dreaming & Dying (Nelson Yeo)Pardi Di Domani(Jury: Ewa Puszczyńska, Matthew Rankin, Amos Sussigan)Best...

The pair join jury president French actor Lambert Wilson in the international competition strand

Aftersun director Charlotte Wells and Holy Spider star Zar Amir Ebrahimi are among the jurors for the 76th Locarno Film Festival (August 2-12).

The Scottish filmmaker and Iranian actor will sit on the international competition jury, led by French actor Lambert Wilson, alongside European Film Academy president Matthijs Wouter Knol and Lesli Klainberg, president of film at the Lincoln Centre.

Films competing at Locarno this year include Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World, Lav Diaz’s Essential Truths...

Aftersun director Charlotte Wells and Holy Spider star Zar Amir Ebrahimi have joined the jury of the 76th Locarno International Film Festival and will judge the 2023 competitors for the festival’s Golden Leopard award. Ebrahimi also stars in Noora Niasari’s Sundance audience award winner Shayda, which will be the closing film in Locarno this year.

French actor Lambert Wilson, known for his performances in the Matrix films, will head up this year’s Locarno international jury as president. Also in the 2023 jury are European Film Academy director and CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol and Lesli Klainberg, President of Film at New York’s Lincoln Center.

The films of Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del presente sidebar, featuring works from first and second-time directors will be assessed by a three-person jury of Beatrice Fiorentino, general delegate of Film Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival, the French-Tunisian director Erige Sehiri (Under the Fig Trees...

Actor, writer and director Lutz and producer Didar Domehri reflect on bringing the film to the big screen.

Studiocanal has inked deals in key European territories for Alex Lutz’s twisty romantic drama Strangers By Night (Une Nuit) following its Cannes premiere as the closing night film of Un Certain Regard.

The Paris-set love story, written by and starring Lutz opposite Karin Viard, has sold to Wanted in Italy, Lusomundo in Portugal, Scanbox in Scandinavia, Kino Swiat in Poland, Mars Films in Turkey, Arthouse in Ukraine, O’Brother in Benelux and will be released by Studiocanal in Germany. Studiocanal will release...

Here’s the latest episode of the The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the ever-growing podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro budget indie films to bigger budget studio films and everything in-between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their film making experiences from directors, writers, producers, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers and distributors.

The Filmmaker’s Podcast #340: How to make festival films, raise finance and...

Largely improvised, Erige Sehiri’s film packs argument, gossip, romance and social criticism into a busy day of fruit picking

French-Tunisian documentary maker Erige Sehiri makes a watchable fiction feature with this shrewd, sympathetic ensemble study, which takes place as promised in the title: over a single working day in a fig tree orchard in Kesra, north-western Tunisia. Every day a truck comes to pick up a crowd of people doing cash-in-hand work picking the fruit: largely women, young and old, and some men. The long working day unfolds as the shadows shorten, then lengthen and friendships, enmities, generational and political disputes and embryonic and failed love affairs are revealed to us.

The movie is largely improvised and Sehiri appears often to have set up specific situations for two or three characters to work around, so there are some slightly protracted, shapeless, acting-class improv conversations and arguments, and even some...

The Blue Caftan by Moroccan director and Cannes 2023 Jury member Maryam Touzani has topped the nominations in the seventh edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.

The portrait of marriage and stifled sexuality, starring Saleh Bakri and Lubna Azabal has been nominated in seven categories including best film, actor, actress, director, screenplay, cinematography and music.

The film world premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2022 and went on to be Morocco’s best international film submission for the 2023 Academy Awards making it as far as the first long list.

The Critics Awards for Arab Films are overseen by the Arab Cinema Centre and judged by 193 critics from 72 countries. The winners will be announced at a ceremony during Cannes.

To qualify for consideration, films need to have premiered at international film festivals outside of the Arab world in 2022; involve at least one Arab world production company, and be feature-length.

Other...

Three categories have been added to this year’s awards.

Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan leads the nominations in the 7th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which has added categories for best editing, cinematography and music.

The Arabic-language drama, in which a woman and her closeted gay husband hire a young apprentice at their caftan store, secured seven nominations – every category except editing and documentary. The film premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year and was Morocco’s submission for the international feature film Oscar, making the shortlist but not final nominations.

A strong showing...

Returning to Johannesburg cinemas for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Joburg Film Festival kicked off its 5th edition with a joyful relaunch on Tuesday night, as local luminaries walked a gold carpet in Nelson Mandela Square in honor of the festival’s slogan, “Our Stories. Our Gold,” and the crowd was serenaded with a soaring performance from South African soprano Zandile Mzazi and singer Thandiswa Mazwai.

The event, which runs Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, bowed with the African premiere of “Xalé” (pictured), from veteran Senegalese director Moussa Sène Absa, a story of female subjugation and self-liberation that opened last year’s BFI Film Festival and was the West African nation’s entry in the 2023 international feature film Oscar race.

The festival wraps with “The Umbrella Men,” by local helmer John Barker (“Wonder Boy for President”), a caper comedy about first-time bank robbers pulling a heist...

Prince Edward To Present New Production Guild of Great Britain Talent Prize

Prince Edward, who is the royal Patron of the Production Guild of Great Britain (Pggb), will present the body’s new film and TV industry award that has been created in his name as part of its inaugural Talent Showcase, presented in association with Disney Studios Content and supported by Entertainment Partners. Four industry organizations have been shortlisted for The Earl of Wessex Award, created to recognise professionals working in the UK film and TV industry who have created “a successful way of inspiring local talent or skills, widening access or being more inclusive.” The nominees are youth-led production company Fully Focused; media charity Mama Youth Project; social change enablers Resource Productions and mental health and wellbeing nonprofit 6ft From the Spotlight. He will present the prize at the first Pggb Talent Showcase on January 24. The Earl of...

Legal docudrama Saint Omer was voted Best Picture at the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, which announced this year’s juried award winners today.

Saint Omer wins for its ability “to expertly interrogate issues of society, culture, race, and gender,” the festival release stated. “Alice Diop, as screenwriter and director, delivers a film that explores different dynamics of Black women in contemporary France, drawing empathetic lead performances from Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanga. By harnessing the skills of her technical team, Diop turns Saint Omer into a shrewd, cogent, ambitious, and overwhelming film which teases a metafictional awareness while remaining clear-eyed and unsentimental.”

The Palm Springs festival took place from January 5-16 and screened 134 films from 64 countries, including 27 premieres. The lineup includes 35 of the International Feature Film Oscar submissions.

The jury award categories included the Fipresci Prize for films...

ReviewSet in rural Tunisia, the film tracks a sunny day in the lives of a group of fig harvesters consisting of old-timers as well as teenagers taking up the job during their summer break from school.Saradha UInstagram/ Erige SehiriPlucking figs is a delicate process. The lean and fragile branches need to be bent gently using a twig, ensuring that they don’t break. Once picked from the trees, they have to be carefully placed in the basket lined with leaves. Much like the fig harvesters in her film, director Erige Sehiri too treats her debut feature Under the Fig Trees with the same kind of sensitivity and care. Set in rural Tunisia, the slice-of-life film tracks a sunny day in the lives of a group of harvesters — consisting of old-timers as well as teenagers taking up the job during their summer break from school — working at an orchard. The...

Every morning in northwest Tunisia, a truck drives around picking up day laborers for the nearby fig orchard. While some are old and experienced, “Under the Fig Trees” follows a group of teenage girls who take on this job during their summer school break. When we first meet them, as they giddily (if wearily) walk up onto the pickup truck, it’s clear this has all become routine for them. The day that follows, as chronicled in Erige Sehiri’s sun-dappled film, offers a rare glimpse into their seemingly mundane life and their even richer inner lives.

Working from a script co-written with Ghalya Lacroix and Peggy Hamann, Sehiri turns this rural fig orchard into a stage where dramas, small and big alike, are played out. Away from the prying eyes of their parents yet keenly aware of how they’re looked upon by the men and older women they work with,...

Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field star in ’80 For Brady’ from Paramount Pictures.

The world premiere of 80 for Brady starring Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno, and Lily Tomlin will open the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Festival on Friday, January 6, 2023, and The Lost King from director Stephen Frears will close the festival on Sunday, January 15th. In between, Psiff will screen 132 films including the world premiere of the documentary Shot in the Arm.

“We are beyond excited to welcome back our beloved audience and filmmakers in Palm Springs. We’re especially thrilled to be joined by all four leads of 80 For Brady. The film is brimming with joy and heart, and it’s a perfect film to kick off our 34th edition,” said Artistic Director Lili Rodriguez. “Our programmers have dedicated almost a year to scouting the world for the films that make up this edition.