Notícias

Cover of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (Photo Credit: Flame Tree Collectible Classics)

Outlander‘s Caitriona Balfe has come on board Focus Features’ Sense and Sensibility as filming begins in the United Kingdom. Balfe joins previously announced stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles in the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel.

Focus Features and Working Title Films announced Balfe, Frank Dillane, George MacKay, Herbert Nordrum, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, and Fiona Shaw round out the cast of the romantic drama.

BAFTA nominee Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean) is directing and Diana Reid adapted Austen’s novel. Producers include Jo Wallett, Working Title Films’ Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and November Pictures’ India Flint.

“Originally published anonymously with the byline reading ‘By A Lady,’ Austen’s Sense and Sensibility established her as a literary force and remains a cornerstone of English literature,” reads Focus Features’ description. “The timeless exploration of restraint and passion...

Focus Features and Working Title Films new redo of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility has added Caitríona Balfe, Frank Dillane, George MacKay, Herbert Nordrum, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, and Fiona Shaw to the cast opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esme Creed-Miles, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Production has commenced in the U.K. with direction by BAFTA Award nominee Georgia Oakley and an adaptation by Diana Reid.

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films will produce alongside India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett.

Balfe is a 5x Golden Globes nominee, once for her supporting role in Best Picture nominee Belfast and four times consecutively for her lead role in Starz’ long-running hit Outlander. The actress is also a BAFTA nominee for Belfast and a three-time Critics Choice nominee on behalf of Outlander. Balfe’s feature credits include Ford v Ferrari, The Amateur, Now You See Me, and Super 8,...

Paris-based sales-production house Totem – whose sales slate has included “Compartment No. 6,” My Favourite Cake” and “The Hypnosis” – has boarded worldwide sales on “Follies,” a sexually candid open relationship comedy.

Set to world-premiere at August’s Locarno Film Festival, the French-language pic marks the buzzy feature debuts a director of Montreal screenwriting powerhouse Éric. K. Boulianne.

Also an actor, as a writer he has scored with both breakout crowd pleasers, such as “Compulsive Liar,” Canada’s No. 1 box office hit in 2019, and also with more left-of-field items such as 2022 comedy “Viking,” selected for Toronto’s prestigious Platform competition.

Boulianne also won recently at Locarno as a director, his “Making Babies” scooping Locarno’s 2023 Leopard of Tomorrow for best short.

Co-written by Boulianne and co-starring the director and Catherine Chabot,“Follies” (“Folichonneries”) turns on François and Julie, together for 16 years and parents of two children, who can no longer connect intimately. “They...

“Hypnosis” is a 2021 Korean movie, categorized as Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime, Mystery, Revenge, and Horror; and streaming on Tubi TV.

Summary: Some college students interested in hypnotherapy submit to hypnosis but they are not sure if they are recalling real memories or if the frightening events are just their imagination.

Who is Seung Min?

In “The Hypnosis”, Do Hyun is a college student with a close circle of friends: Seo Hyun Jung, Byung Jun, Chan Gyu, and Jin Ho. He has developed an interest in hypnotherapy and sometimes goes to a professional hypnotist. Not for treatment but to learn from him. Seo Hyun Jung would like to become an actress. Do Hyun watched a video of her playing a part where she was a person under hypnosis and she was very convincing. So convincing that later on Do Hyun asked her if it was real or if she was just acting.

Levan Akin’s Crossing and Frida Kempff’s The Swedish Torpedo headed the winners at Sweden’s Guldbagge national film awards, presented in Stockholm on Monday, January 13.

Crossing won the best film award, presented to producer Mathilde Dedye – the second time Akin and Dedye have taken the top Guldbagge award, after And Then We Danced in 2020.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Akin received the best director prize, with the film also winning best cinematography for Lisabi Fridell, and best sound design for Anne Gry Friis Kristensen and Sigrid Dpa Jensen.

Crossing opened the Panorama strand at last...

French production company Chakalaka Films has joined Colombia’s Los Niños Films on the upcoming period drama “In All My Journeys I Am Returning” (“Todos mis viajes son viajes de regreso”), set to participate at Ventana Sur’s Primer Corte industry centerpiece screenings for Latin American fiction films in post-production.

Ahead of the film’s Ventana Sur appearance, its producers have also unveiled key cast members, including Camila Bejarano Wahlgren (“The Sandhamn Murders”), Frederik Lundin (“The Hypnosis”), Denis Lavant (“Holy Motors”), Carlos Mario Echeverry (“2091”).

Set in Colombia in the early 19th century, the film follows Karl and Petronella, a Swedish couple looking to find a fortune in South America. As they traverse through desolate territories after the independence war, they lose their bearings and become lost while on a long river journey. Rather than riches, the two find only a reflection of their own nostalgia and the ghost of otherness.

In Swedish filmmaker Ernst De Geer’s ”The Hypnosis” (2023), audiences are drawn into a meticulously crafted world that mirrors the internal struggles faced by social introverts. The film delves deep into the intricate dance of human interactions, presenting social gatherings as both a celebration and a minefield of unspoken tensions. Set against a backdrop of elegantly staged environments—from lavish dinner parties to intimate living rooms—the mise en scène plays a crucial role in amplifying the themes of vulnerability and discomfort. Every detail, from the soft yet piercing lighting to the carefully chosen color palettes, serves to heighten the emotional stakes, enveloping viewers in an atmosphere that oscillates between warmth and oppressive awkwardness.

De Geer’s narrative meticulously explores the psyche of its characters, exposing their fears and insecurities as they navigate the often treacherous waters of social expectations. The film captures the unguarded moments that underscore the complexities of human connection,...

Sweden’s Göteborg Festival Nordic Film Market, the biggest in TV-movie industry forum in Scandinavia, is launching at its 2025 edition the Film Finances Scandinavia Award. The Prize will offer €15,000 in development support to one outstanding Nordic feature film from the Discovery Co-Production Platform.

Buying time and resources for creators and producers to address the basis of near any film’s success, the award comes as Scandinavia’s film industry faces considerable financing challenges. One potential solution is to hike private sector finance where Film Finances is an established player, having issued completion bonds for film and television for over 70 years.

A jury of industry professionals will select the winning project which will be announced during an Award Ceremony on Jan. 30 at the Nordic Film Market, the Market announced Friday.

One of the Market’s centerpiece draws, the Platform showcases around 15 promising projects annually, highlighting emerging talent which ranges from the...

The Nara International Film Festival (Niff) has selected six films from around the world to compete in its main competition this year. Organized by renowned Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase, the biennial festival will take place from September 20-23 in the historic city of Nara, Japan.

The competition lineup showcases emerging talents alongside established directors. It features films from the United Kingdom, China, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Spain, and France. These movies have screened at prestigious festivals worldwide and tackle diverse themes.

British director Joshua Trigg’s “Satu – Year of the Rabbit” makes its Asian premiere. The film debuted at the Raindance Film Festival. Chinese director Choy Ji’s directorial debut “Borrowed Time” first showed at last year’s Busan International Film Festival. Swedish director Ernst De Geer’s “The Hypnosis,” which won three awards at the 2023 Karlovy Vary Festival, also competes.

The other competition films are Malika Musaeva’s “The Cage Is...

Nara International Film Festival, the biennial event founded by acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase, has revealed the international competition line-up for its 2024 edition.

Titles include Satu - Year of the Rabbit by UK filmmaker Joshua Trigg, which premiered at Raindance in June; Chinese director Choy Ji’s feature debut Borrowed Time, first seen at last year’s Busan; and The Hypnosis by Sweden’s Ernst De Geer, which picked up three prizes at Karlovy Vary in 2023.

Further features are Malika Musaeva’s The Cage Is Looking For A Bird, Laura Ferres’ The Permanent Picture and Heartless by Nara Normande and Tiao,...

Rising Norwegian writer-director Anders Emblem whose “A Human Position” bowed at the Tromsø, Rotterdam and San Sebastian festivals in 2022 before landing a global deal with Mubi, has teamed up again with up-and-coming actor Amalie Ibsen Jensen for his third pic, “Also a Life.”

The Norwegian feature in development to be pitched at the Nordic Co-Production Market Aug. 21, in Haugesund, Norway, is being produced by the talent-driven Elisa Fernanda Pirir (Stær Film), associated to award-winning international helmers including Luis Alejandro Yero (“Calls from Moscow”), Laura Mora (“The Kings of the World”), Nabil Ayouch (“Everybody Loves Touda”), and Ernst de Geer (“The Hypnosis”).

The Guatemala-born Norwegian producer said she first set eyes on Emblem’s work when his sophomore pic “A Human Position” opened the Tromsø International Film Festival 2022.

Pirir said: “I was amazed by such a refreshing new Nordic voice; “A Human Position” was both moving, funny and cleverly constructed. Since...

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.

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint (Tomás Gómez Bustillo)

Tomás Gómez Bustillo’s charming, intelligent Chronicles of a Wandering Saint is a natural follow-up to the two short films for which he is known: Soy Buenos Aires (a strange, picaresque rags-to-riches tale) and Museum of Fleeting Wonders (a collection of dramatized paranormal happenings). In Chronicles, as in the two short films, he is primarily concerned with spiritual, ethical, and religious contrasts; scenarios in which miracles are mixed with coincidences, faith with rationality, and boredom with inspiration. But that is where the comparisons end; for Chronicles is in every way a more serious, controlled, and moving work of art, which stands with the very best of contemporary Argentine cinema. – Oliver W. (full review)

Where...

Ernst De Geer’s directorial debut, The Hypnosis, takes viewers on an unpredictable journey through one couple’s unraveling. Asta Kamma August and Herbert Nordrum play Vera and André, partners in both business and life. Vera and André have poured their hearts into founding Epione, an app aimed at improving women’s health globally. As they prepare their big pitch at an entrepreneurs’ conference, Vera visits a hypnotherapist, hoping to kick her smoking habit. The session leaves her with much more than that, though: Vera comes away unshackled, her true self bursting free.

At first, Vera’s new confidence seems positive. But behind the scenes, André grows uneasy as Vera’s behavior becomes harder to reckon with. What’s meant to be a career-making weekend rapidly transforms into a minefield as Vera follows wherever her liberated instincts may lead. Commanding attention with her radiant performance, August brings Vera to life in all her mystery.

Related Images invites readers behind the scenes and into the sketchbooks of working filmmakers to learn more about their creative processes.Ernst De Geer’s The Hypnosis is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries.We shot two scenes from the film three years before we did the actual feature, as part of the Wild Card initiative by the Swedish Film Institute and Svt. This was before we had even written the screenplay. The scenes were not to use in the final film, just to inform us in our process. We cast Herbert Nordrum and Asta Kamma August for it, so we got to work together for a lot longer than usual for a film.I wanted the process of making The Hypnosis to be more loose than was usual for me. I had made a lot of works in film school that were planned out and controlled, and...

Mingling retrospectives, themed series, and a handful of new films’ streaming premieres, Mubi’s August 2024 lineup is unveiled. At the top comes “American Outsider: The Films of Kelly Reichardt,” which joins Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff with the already-playing Certain Women and River of Grass.

Streaming premieres are being given to four new films we admired: Ernst De Geer’s The Hypnosis, Mikhaël Hers’ The Passengers of the Night, Baloji’s Omen, and Levan Akin’s Crossing, a Mubi release. Meanwhile, Sean Durkin’s The Nest joins “The Art of Deception: Swindlers, Scoundrels and Sharks,” a series including Alain Resnais’ little-seen Stavisky, Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, and Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave.

Check out the lineup below, and get 30 days free here.

August 1st

Wendy & Lucy, directed by Kelly Reichardt | American Outsider: The Films of Kelly Reichardt

Meek’s Cutoff, directed by Kelly Reichardt | American Outsider: The Films of Kelly Reichardt

Omen,...

The 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival, kicked off Friday night with a sold-out screening of Dogman, the canine-focused revenge thriller by the French veteran Luc Besson, with Dogman co-star Jojo T. Gibbs in attendance.

Some 3,500 viewers backed Unirii Square in Cluj-Napoca for the start of the 11-day festival, which runs through June 24. The biggest film extravaganza in Romania, the festival is one of the premier events on the Eastern European industry calendar, with more than 200 films, exhibitions, concerts, talks and special events scheduled, and around 1,000 industry professionals expected.

Alongside Jojo T. Gibbs, most recently seen in Alex Garland’s Civil War, the TIFF guest list this year includes Italian filmmaker Daniele Luchetti (The Yes Man), who will be honored with the festival’s special award for contribution to world cinema; and Romanian film and theater legend Catrinel Dumitrescu (Aurora), who will receive the excellence award at the closing gala on June 22nd.

Transilvania International Film Festival has announced the line-up for its 23rd edition which takes place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The 12 features in competition feature several festival favourites including Shuchi Talati’s Indian romance Girls Will Be Girls which won the Sundance audience award in world cinema – dramatic and the Arte international prize at Berlinale.

Scroll down for full line-up

Also competing is Laura Ferres’ The Permanent Picture, best film winner at Valladolid; Ernst De Geer’s The Hypnosis, which scooped Karlovy Vary jury awards in Fipresci and Europa Cinema Label; and Berlinale Forum premiere The Adamant Girl from Indian director P.S. Vinothraj.

Paris-based international sales and production company Totem Films has revealed its production slate, with projects by Nastia Korkia, Vytautas Katkus, Ernst de Geer and Anna Roller.

Totem Atelier, the development and production arm of the company, has revealed that it has boarded Korkia’s “A Short Summer.”

Korkia’s short documentary “Dreams About Putin” premiered at IDFA last year. Her first documentary feature “Ges-2” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2021.

“A Short Summer” is produced by Germany’s TamTam (“Pacifiction” by Albert Serra) together with independent producer Natalia Drozd (“Compartment N°6” by Juho Kuosmanen) and Serbia’s Art&Popcorn.

The film centers on eight-year-old Katya, who is going on vacation with her grandparents. In the summer heat, the war in Chechnya takes shape, while her grandparents’ relationship falls apart. Despite her youth, Katya wants to look at the world straight in the eyes.

“A Short Summer” has received support from Creative Europe Media,...

UK director Molly Manning Walker is among the six filmmakers who have been selected for Cannes Film Festival’s annual La Résidence programme for first- or second-time directors, running March 15-July 31.

Walker won the Un Certain Regard award last year for her debut feature How To Have Sex, which also picked up the European film award for discovery and four Bafta nominations.

She is joined by Oscar-nominated director Daria Kashcheeva from the Czech Republic. Her 2020 film Daughter was nominated in the best animated short film category while her next project Electra won best short film at Toronto last year.

The...

UK director, writer and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker, who won the Cannes Un Certain Regard prize last year for How To Have Sex, has been selected for the festival’s four-and-a-half month La Résidence program in Paris.

She will be joined by Aditya Ahmad (Indonesia), Daria Kashcheeva (Tajikistan), Danech San (Cambodia), Ernst De Geer (Sweden) and Anastasiia Solonevych (Ukraine).

They follow in the wake of Meltse Van Coillie (Belgium), Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Vietnam/Czech Republic), Hao Zhao (China), Gessica Généus (Haiti), Andrea Slaviček (Croatia), Asmae El Moudir (Morocco) who are currently coming to the end of their residency.

Both intakes will be brought together at the Cannes Film Festival’s 77th edition, running May 14 to 25.

Since its launch in 2000, La Résidence has welcomed 250 directors from around 60 countries including Lucrecia Martel, Kornél Mundruczó, Sebastián Lelio, Antonio Campos, Karim Aïnouz and Jonas Carpignano.

Based in a large flat in Paris’ ninth arrondissement,...

Festival selection includes Nikolaj Arcel’s ‘The Promised Land’ and Ernst De Geer’s ‘The Hypnosis’.

Goteborg Film Festival has selected almost 250 films for its 47th edition, including recent Nordic favourites The Promised Land starring Mads Mikkelsen and The Hypnosis by Ernst De Geer.

The festival, which runs from January 26 to February 4, has also programmed events including a talk between Ruben Ostlund and Cannes director Thierry Fremaux; and selected Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen to receive its Nordic Honorary Dragon award.

Scroll down for the list of festival titles

The 10 films competing in the Nordic Competition include Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land,...

Actors Ewan McGregor, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, directors Ruben Östlund, Ernst de Geer, Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Cannes Film Festival honcho Thierry Frémaux are some of the stellar guests set to walk the red carpet at the 47th edition of Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival.

This year’s Göteborg Fest unspools from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4.

For his last run as artistic director of Scandinavia’s biggest film festival, Jonas Holmberg has selected 240 films from 82 countries, and what he calls “one of the strongest lineups ever” for Göteborg’s main Nordic competition strand. Among the highly anticipated titles vying for the coveted Best Nordic Film Dragon Award worth Sek 400,000, is Norway’s “Handling the Undead” by Thea Hvistendahl, set to kickstart the festival on the heels of its Sundance world premiere.

“This will be the first time we open with a zombie horror,” notes Holmberg, who looks forward...

The Göteborg Film Festival has unveiled the competition titles selected for its 47th edition, which runs from January 26 to February 4. (Scroll down for the full list).

Göteborg is split into four competition strands. The main strand is the Nordic Competition, which features nine films from the Nordic region. The competition’s winner takes home the Dragon Award and a Sek 400,000 cash prize. The rest of the festival comprises the Nordic Documentary Competition, the Ingmar Bergman Competition for first-time filmmakers, and the International Competition.

Among the Nordic highlights is Madame Luna, Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa’s return to Nordic filmmaking following a series of Hollywood titles such as Morbius and Safe House. Inspired by real-life events, the film follows an Eritrean refugee who gets stuck in Libya and becomes a notorious human trafficker known as “Mama Luna” with deep ties to the Italian Mafia. When she is forced to flee to...

Prizes for ‘Explanation For Everything’, ‘Green Border’.

Slow, the second feature from Lithuanian filmmaker Marija Kavtaradze, has won the Crystal Arrow at the 15th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival in France.

The romantic drama receives a €20,000 digital promotional campaign for its release; Be For Films handles sales on the title, with Tandem distributing the film in France on March 6, 2024.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

A Sundance 2023 premiere, Slow follows a dancer and sign language interpreter who begin a relationship, building their own kind of intimacy.

It is a second feature for Kavtaradze after 2018 Toronto selection Summer...

We’re once again proud to be a partner in the European Film Promotion’s celebration of the very best of European talent with the announcement of the 2024 Efp European Shooting Stars.

It has been a pleasure to highlight and get to know some of the brightest new stars in the sky. As before, we will look to catch up with the entire cohort to get to know them better at the 74th Berlinale next year, so check back for those interviews.

Until then, here’s a closer look at the ten Shooting Stars for 2024.

© Wil Coban Éanna Hardwicke / Ireland

Éanna Hardwicke’s first professional credit was as a child actor in Conor McPherson’s 2009 horror film The Eclipse. Before graduating from The Lír Academy in 2018 he was cast in Vivarium, which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week 2019. In 2023, a busy year for Hardwicke, he was named a Screen International Rising...

European Film Promotion has announced the 10 up-and-coming European acting talents for its 2024 European Shooting Stars list.

The actors, which include performers from this year’s award-season contenders Poor Things, Ferrari, and The Peasants, among others, will be lauded at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, next year.

The Shooting Stars class of 2024 includes:

Suzy Bemba (France) Suzy Bemba in ‘Homecoming’

French actress Suzy Bemba, who plays a Parisian sex worker who befriends Emma Stone’s character in Poor Things, and whose credits include standout roles in Anthony Chen’s Sundance film Drift and Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming.

Valentina Bellè (Italy) Valentina Bellè in ‘The Good Mothers’

Valentina Bellè from Italy, who plays Cecilia Manzini in Michael Mann’s Ferarri, won Italy’s Nastro D’Argento award for best supporting actress for her turn in Disney+ mafia drama The Good Mothers and has appeared in Disney+ series Genius: Picasso with...

10-strong line-up includes Italian actress Valentina Bellè and Irish actor Éanna Hardwicke.

European Film Promotion (Efp) has revealed the ten young European talents selected for the 27th edition of European Shooting Stars, its initiative to showcase promising on-screen talent from the continent.

Efp has selected seven actresses and three actors who will be presented to international press, industry, and the public during the 2024 Berlin Film Festival.

The line-up includes Italian actress Valentina Bellè who starred in two competition films at Venice this year: Michael Mann’s Ferrari and Lubo by Giorgio Diritti. She also plays the leading role in Disney + series The Good Mother,...

‘Slow’ and ‘Animalia’ both world premiered to acclaim at Sundance while ’The Hypnosis’ picked up prizes at Karlovy Vary.

Paris-based Totem Films has agreed a slew of deals for acclaimed Sundance premieres Slow and Animalia as well as Karlovy Vary-winning feature The Hypnosis.

Marija Kavtaradze’s second feature Slow has sold to KimStim for theatrical distribution in North America and to Conic Film for the UK and Ireland. It was also scooped up by Salzgeber in Germany, Filmin in Spain, Falcon for Indonesia, New Horizons in Poland and HBO for Eastern Europe.

Slow world premiered at Sundance this year in...

Toni Erdmann wasn’t the first film to skewer corporate culture, but the epic-length comedy struck a chord with many for how it used a fish-out-of-water conceit to rupture the rigid, dehumanizing nature of that world. It’s likely the first movie that comes to mind watching The Hypnosis, a similarly high-concept tale aimed at deconstructing the social conventions of the boardroom, and whether the pursuit of professional success is of greater concern than maintaining close relationships with loved ones. It proves so similar in thematic interests that I began to imagine an enterprising movie producer buying the rights to the screenplay, giving it a few tweaks, and attempting to make it as “2-ni Erdmann”––although, admittedly, seeing Sandra Hüller experiencing bizarre side effects after an experimental treatment to quit smoking would make for the oddest comedy sequel this side of Weekend at Bernie’s II.

Ernst De Geer’s cringe-com follows André and Vera,...

Prior selections Close, Drive My Car, The Worst Person In The World all garnered international feature film Oscar submissions.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes jury prize winner Fallen Leaves and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses starring Cannes best actress winner Merve Dizdar – both Oscar submissions this year – are among the international line-up at the upcoming 59th Chicago International Film Festival (October 11–22).

Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Pictures Of Ghosts are two other Cannes selections to feature in the roster, while Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist and Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias both launched in Venice.

The 19th Zurich Film Festival promises to be a star-studded affair with plenty of Hollywood A-list talent attending.

Todd Haynes will be honored with the festival’s A Tribute to… Award and will present his film “May December.” Previous recipients include Paolo Sorrentino, Wim Wenders, Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Oliver Stone, Maïwenn and Luca Guadagnino.

“It’s a real honor to celebrate this master of American cinema. Todd Haynes is renowned for his elegant mise-en-scène and his ability to get the best from his actors and actresses,” said festival director Christian Jungen.

Ethan Hawke will be present with his film “Wildcat.” As previously announced, Jessica Chastain will receive the festival’s Golden Icon Award. Diane Kruger will receive the Golden Eye prize.

The festival’s feature film competition for first, second and third works will see “Ama Gloria,” “Enea,” “Fair Play,” “Femme,” “Hesitation Wound,” “How To Have Sex,...

Swiss festival programmes 148 films for this year’s edition.

The Zurich Film Festival (Zff) has unveiled a line-up of 148 films for its 2023 edition which takes place from September 28 to October 8.

The festival’s Focus Competition – which showcases feature films and documentaries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland - has six world premieres. They include Swiss films The Driven One by Piet Baumgartner, a long-term study of students at the elite university Hsg St. Gallen, and road movie Return To Alexandria by Zurich-based Tamer Ruggli, which stars Nadine Labaki and Fanny Ardant.

Scroll down for Focus and Feature Film Competition line-up

Other...

Todd Haynes will be honored with the Zurich Film Festival’s A Tribute To… Award at its upcoming 19th edition.

The Swiss festival announced the honor as it unveiled its full line-up on Thursday.

The U.S. director will be presented with the honorary prize ahead of a screening of new film May December on October 3.

“It’s a real honour to celebrate this master of American cinema. Todd Haynes is renowned for his elegant mise-en-scène and his ability to get the best from his actors and actresses,” said Zff Artistic Director Christian Jungen.

“We also have a long-standing working relationship with Todd. The outstanding drama May December featuring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman is the third film he has presented with us in the last ten years.”

Previous recipients of the award include Paolo Sorrentino, Wim Wenders, Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Oliver Stone, Maïwenn and Luca Guadagnino.

Norwegian cinema has been enjoying a moment lately, what with Joachim Trier’s crowdpleasing The Worst Person in the World pulling up to Drive My Car in the Oscar race and Kristoffer Borgli’s Sick of Me carving out a rep on the festival circuit. The Hypnosis, Ernst de Geer’s feature debut, sits somewhere between the two of them, fashioning a fitfully funny relationship drama that tilts at some very modern windmills within a framework similar to Kristian Levring’s 2008 Danish drama Fear Me Not, in which a man’s personality changes after he becomes addicted to an experimental drug. The Hypnosis doesn’t quite follow that film’s melodramatic course, but there are similar thoughts raised about the human mind.

The two leads are André (Herbert Nordrum) and Vera (Asta Kamma August), a young middle-class couple who are launching...

The Karlovy Vary Film Festival organization has announced winners from the 2023 event, with the Bulgaria/Germany co-production “Blaga’s Lessons” (“Urotcite na Blaga”) and the Germany/Iran co-production “Empty Nets” (“Toorhaye khali”) taking home top honors.

“Blaga’s lessons” won the Grand Prix Award, which includes a $25,000 cash prize for director Stephan Komandarev, to be split with the film’s producer.

Meanwhile, “Empty Nets” won the Special Jury Prize, securing a $15,00 prize for its director, Behrooz Karamizade, also to be split with the film’s producer.

Other winners include Best Director for Babak Jalali for the American production “Fremont,” and the French entry, “The Edge of the Blade,” directed by Vincent Perez, which won the The Pravo Audience Award.

Read on for the complete winner’s list.

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Jury members:

Dora Bouchoucha,...

The 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 30 – July 8) came to a close this evening with an awards ceremony that bestowed two key prizes to contemporary Bulgarian drama Blaga’s Lessons (Urotcite Na Blaga) by director Stephan Komandarev.

The third film in the director’s trilogy about his country’s social ills focuses on an old woman duped by a telephone scam.

Also among winners on the night were Vincent Perez’s The Edge of the Blade (Une Affaire D’honneur), which took home the audience award, and filmmaker Babak Jalali, who took home the best director prize for the film Fremont.

There were two prizes on the night for Ernst De Geer’s The Hypnosis (Hypnosen) while the top industry award of 90,000 euros went to Czech film I’m Not Everything I Want to Be, which is currently in post.

As previously revealed, Russell Crowe...

Satire has a unique way to strip down everyday life and make us laugh about how ridiculous human beings can be. That's exactly the case with Ernst De Geer's The Hypnosis (Hypnosen), a comedy about the performative nature of relationships and the need to own our desires. It's an honest and hilarious look at the human condition, even if it makes a few missteps along the way.

The synopsis of the new dark comedy from Swedish director Ernst De Geer sounds like it could have formed the basis of the sort of wacky Hollywood fare that might have starred Lily Tomlin back in the day. A young woman goes to a hypnotherapist seeking a cure for her smoking addiction, but the treatment comes with a side effect, namely that it also causes her to lose her social inhibitions. Zany complications ensue!

Fortunately, The Hypnosis (Hypnosen), receiving its world premiere at Karlovy Vary, has smarter things on its mind, which is not to say the film doesn’t feature broad-strokes humor. But it also offers knowing satirical commentary on conformity and relationships that benefits from razor-sharp comic dialogue and superb performances by its two leads.

The story revolves around romantic and professional partners Andre (Herbert Nordrum, from The Worst Person in the World) and Vera (Asta Kamma August). The couple enjoy a playful,...