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When the trades are looking to game-out audience reactions to the premieres at the Cannes Film Festival, they often turn to applause. But as recently examined by The New York Times, pulling out a stopwatch may not be the most reliable method for assessing a competing film's success.

Snap reactions from the crowds at Cannes have ranged from 22-minute standing ovations to boos for eventual Palme d'Or winners. Ahead of the closing of the festival this weekend, here are eight of the most notable examples of when the audience response didn't match up with a film's future.

Taxi Driver

Perhaps one of the most famous examples of the crowd on the Croisette not connecting with a classic was the 1976 premiere of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Jodi Foster, who appears in the film alongside Robert De Niro, chalked the reaction up to its graphic content. "The whole issue about the...

Another day, another wild scene at Disney, and this time, it went straight up. In a now-viral TikTok posted by user @cassieeee.m, a guest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom was filmed climbing the iconic Tree of Life, leaving fellow parkgoers stunned.

The video, captioned “What da flip? People climbing the tree of life today at Animal Kingdom,” also included on-screen text that read: “Ayo we just climbing any trees now?” The footage shows a man in a white shirt, shorts, and dark sunglasses appearing from behind one of the tree’s massive roots before climbing around the actual trunk of the towering park centerpiece.

At one point, the guest is pressed against the trunk, navigating dangerously close to a waterfall as he scales the steep rockwork. Nearby visitors can be heard reacting in real time, with one person exclaiming, “That’s a lifetime ban,” while another mentions calling Disney security.

Clint Eastwood was the Man with no Name in the ‘60s, but in the ‘70s, everyone knew who Harry Callahan was. The no-nonsense cop from the Sfpd in Dirty Harry was known for his swift justice ways, which did not sit well with some of the sensibilities at the time. However, it did receive a lot of fanfare too, inspiring a bunch of cop films of a similar kind.

Eastwood was not the first actor to be approached to play Harry Callahan. The script reportedly went through several iterations before the Gran Torino star accepted the role. However, he was reportedly given multiple drafts of the script, which ranged from its original vision of a loose cannon cop to an action extravaganza much like the Fast and Furious films.

Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry almost became an over-the-top, pulpy action film Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry | Credits: Warner Bros.

The ‘70s were a tough decade,...

Disney and Starbucks have released brand new Disney Parks tumblers. Each tumbler features a Walt Disney World or Disneyland Park and comes with two special mystery pins! They are currently available on the Disney Store.

Honestly, the mystery pins seem like a cheap way to raise the price of these to $49.99, but I digress.

Let’s take a look!

“Matching ”sticker” style graphics inspired by attractions at (insert Disney park here) decorate both the tumbler’s translucent, double-wall exterior and two companion pins, randomly selected out of eight possible designs in the series. Enjoy a Starbucks® treat while trading pins in the Disney Parks. It’s a match made of magic!”

Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Starbucks Tumbler with Mystery Pin – $49.99

“Each pack contains two randomly selected pins from eight overall designs in the Starbucks® Magic Kingdom set*

You won’t know which pins you have until you open the...

In Nickel Boys, filmmaker and artist RaMell Ross has created one of the most surprising awards-season movies for some years. His radical approach to form and content is unlike anything usually campaigned for and championed in the mainstream. However, the film is precisely the type of work we’ve come to expect from Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner’s Plan B Entertainment.

The company, co-run by Brad Pitt, has been here before. There was Terrence Malik’s Palme d’Or-winning Tree of Life, which Ross has cited as an inspiration; Steve McQueen’s sprawling American epic 12 Years a Slave; and the quieter but no less impactful Moonlight from Barry Jenkins. The last two made industry-shifting gains when they clinched the Best Picture Oscar, and Nickel Boys has the chance to do the same in the Dolby on March 2 with a nom in the top Oscar category alongside one for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The refrain, sung by Take That, that opens “Anora” (Neon) — “Today this could be the greatest day of our lives” — sounds like a manifestation of the Palme d’Or winner’s awards campaign over the course of the last 24 hours. On Saturday night, two guild award wins, Best Picture at the PGA and Best Director at the DGA, followed the surprise Best Film win at Friday’s 2025 Critics Choice Awards.

After a wide field of six Best Picture contenders, we finally have a frontrunner in the Oscar race.

During the customary DGA acceptance speech before the announcement of the winner at the end of the night, “Anora” helmer Sean Baker expressed his admiration for his guild peers, and made another plea for theatrical distribution similar to what he stated at the CCAs. “Let’s do whatever we can do for us feature filmmakers to expand that theatrical window again; demand it.

Disney has announced the closing date for one of the last opening-day attractions at Animal Kingdom, so here’s when you can see it for the last time!

Since opening in 1998, the Animal Kingdom, like any Disney park, has changed a lot. We’ve seen scores of additions like the Asia and Pandora expansions, new rides, and a big shift being planned, transforming Dinoland USA into an Encanto/Indiana Jones land.

Now, Disney has confirmed the final dates for one of the last Opening Day Dak attractions. Per Wdw’s own site, March 17 will be the final day to catch It’s Tough to Be a Bug at the park.

One of the last Opening Day attractions, It’s Tough to Be a Bug actually predates the Pixar hit A Bug’s Life by six months. The Imagineers always wanted some sort of show for the Tree of Life at Wdw,...

Marvel Rivals has proven itself to be a massive success for NetEase Games. The free-to-play title uses one of the most popular IPs in the pop culture scene as a way to get players in the door and offers more than 30 characters to suit their playstyle. It’s a fun game that players simply can’t get enough of.

Rivals is absolutely dominating the hero-shooter genre. (Image via NetEase Games)

The NetEase title has taken over the hero-shooter genre by storm and has no plans of slowing down. It’s hurting Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 so badly that the game is losing players every minute. However, if Blizzard can bring one of the most revolutionary support ultimates in Overwatch 2, it won’t be long before it surpasses Marvel’s Rivals.

It’s time for a new support ultimate in Overwatch 2

There’s no denying the fact that support characters in Overwatch...

Quick Links Mufasa Explains the Pride Lands Origin Mufasa Connects Scar's Name to His Heart Mufasa Confirms The Origin of The King's Gentle Nature Mufasa Explains Rafiki As a Spiritual Leader Mufasa Details Why Sarabi Is a Beloved Queen Mufasa Places a Spotlight on Simba's Sixth Sense

The following contains spoilers for Mufasa: The Lion King, now in theaters.

The Lion King is one of Disney's most popular movie franchises. The original 1994 animated movie, its sequels, the spinoff TV shows, and the 2019 live-action remake, all garnered immense attention. It's why Mufasa: The Lion King came to life, telling the story of Aaron Pierre's Mufasa before he fathered Simba.

Interestingly, in this era of remakes and adaptations, there is a propensity for the source material to be changed. In the case of Barry Jenkins' Mufasa, fans have been eager to learn how it connects to the continuity of the...

We've known for a few years now that Zootopia is coming to Animal Kingdom. In 2023, Disney announced that the story will be brought to life in the park as a new 4D production, replacing It's Tough to be a Bug! in the Tree of Life.

The new show, officially called Zootopia: Better Zoogether!, will "take guests on an adventure through different biomes seen in the film." Disney had previously announced that Zootopia: Better Zoogether! would open in Winter 2025 and in the latest blog post highlighting the exciting additions to Walt Disney World next year, the company reaffirmed this date window:

"I want to remind you about the all-new 4D production coming to the Tree of Life Theater in winter 2025 – “Zootopia: Better Zoogether!” You’ll want to herd the whole family together to join Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde and more for a new wild adventure that will make you want to clap your hands,...

The sweet spot for many of the best films of the year, arriving before the final month of 2024, November is packed with robust offerings of Cannes, Berlinale, and fall festival highlights, along with must-see documentaries, and even a major studio movie or two.

17. Dream Team (Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn; Nov. 15)

Following their singular take on the Western genre with Two Plains and a Fancy, filmmakers Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn returned to the festival circuit earlier this year with Dream Team, an absurdist homage to ’90s basic-cable TV thrillers. Starring Esther Garrel and Alex Zhang Hungtai, with a producing team that includes I Saw the TV Glow director Jane Schoenbrun, Leonardo Goi said in his Rotterdam review, “Like its predecessors, Dream Team hangs in a hazy, oneiric region; what the film is about is a lot easier to discuss than the entrancing feeling it evokes. As corals the world over...

They say that time flies, but memories last forever, and perhaps no filmmaker alive today seems more desperate in their plea for you to remember the good times than Robert Zemeckis. Maybe that’s why his latest tech trek “Here” finds him reuniting with the dream team that made “Forrest Gump” such a lasting—for better or worse—piece of cinema history. From his pair of leading stars down to the film’s screenwriter, to his own depleting sense of filmic wonder, Zemeckis has ensured that everyone has been reassembled to go down with the ship.

Like if Terrence Malick had dropped his scribbled “Tree of Life” notes in his favorite kombucha cafe, only for it to be claimed by a failed theater kid who found his solace in a wall poster of Elon Musk, “Here” attempts to cover the entire expanse of what it means to be human—to live,...

Prague-based sales company Filmotor has picked up international rights to US filmmaker Chris Gude’s Morichales ahead of its world premiere in Dok Leipzig’s Documentary Film International Competition this week.

Filmed over the course of 13 years, Morichales accompanies a fictional explorer as he describes his observations about gold mining in Venezuela and travels along the Orinoco River, from remote jungle mines to industrial zones, with his focus staying on the workers and their environment.

The film’s title refers to the Moriche palm tree which can be found throughout the Amazon and Orinoco Basins, with the thousands of red,...

Anora, one of the best-reviewed films of 2024, has finally opened in theaters. Directed by Sean Baker and starring Mikey Madison, it follows an exotic dancer who finds herself in a whirlwind romance with the son of a Russian criminal that quickly turns sour when his family discovers that the two got married secretly. The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Palm d'Or, the first American film to win the top prize since 2011's Tree of Life. The film is finally arriving in theaters and beginning its potential award-season rollout.

This week's best new film, Anora, currently sits at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 127 reviews, granting it a Certified Fresh label. The score is well above many of the films currently playing in theaters, including fellow new releases this weekend, Smile 2, which boasts an impressive 82%, last weekend's box office hit Terrifier 3 with 74%, and fellow tragic...

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Scream” breakout Mikey Madison is heading to the Strip…in Las Vegas, that is.

Madison leads Sean Baker‘s “Anora,” which has been deemed an Oscar frontrunner with Madison as an actress to watch this awards season. Madison plays an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). Vache Tovmaysa, Yura Borisov, and Baker’s frequent collaborator Karren Karagulian also star.

Baker will be the keynote speaker at IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit.

“Anora” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2024, and was the first American film to win since Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in 2011. “Anora” will be released by Neon, which handled the distribution of fellow Palme d’Or winners “Parasite,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” which all went on to be Oscar-nominated. “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall” both won Oscars.

Elizabeth Bay Productions (Ebp), one of the companies behind Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” has secured a financing deal with FilmHedge and a first-look agreement with WestEnd Films.

Atlanta-based finance platform FilmHedge will provide funding for Ebp’s slate of film and television projects. This partnership will be steered by FilmHedge’s COO, Chandler Heinz Laun, who will oversee Ebp’s creative packaging and individual project financing plans. Laun was previously a member of the independent film financing and distribution department at ICM Partners.

Simultaneously, Ebp has entered into a first-look deal with U.K.-based sales company WestEnd Films. This arrangement grants WestEnd the initial option to sell projects from Ebp’s developing slate, providing Ebp with enhanced international distribution capabilities and access to additional financing. For WestEnd, the deal offers an opportunity to tap into Ebp’s development and production expertise as the sales company continues its expansion into production.

Elizabeth Bay Productions (Ebp), whose principal is publicity firm Dda founder Dennis Davidson and whose team includes executive producer/producer Grant Hill, known for his collaborations with director Terrence Malick and the Wachowskis on various The Matrix films, has struck a financing agreement with FilmHedge and entered a first-look deal with U.K.-based sales company WestEnd Films.

The new partnership with Atlanta-based finance platform FilmHedge will provide financing for the production house’s film and TV slate. Ebp’s film projects include The Dimona Affair, a whistle-blower story inspired by true events, written by Fred Schepisi (Six Degrees of Separation, Roxanne, A Cry in the Dark) from a story by Morris Rosmarin. Schepisi will also direct, with Jeff Wilbusch (Unorthodox) playing the male lead and producing alongside Schepisi, Simon Moseley and Davidson.

The relationship will be managed by FilmHedge’s COO Chandler Heinz Laun who will have “oversight over...

Sean Baker’s new film, Anora, took home Cannes Film Festival’s coveted Palme d’Or this year, making it the first American movie to do so since 2011’s Tree of Life. Now, the first trailer for the Mikey Madison-starring flick has arrived. Watch it below.

The anticipated film follows an exotic dancer and sex worker (Madison) who becomes entangled with and eventually marries the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). As seen in the preview, the romance starts lovely before quickly turning quite hairy.

Anora follows Baker’s highly-acclaimed films Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. The Oscar frontrunner is set to be distributed by Neon and will hit theaters in the United States on October 18th.

Revisit our 2017 interview with Baker, in which he discusses the making of The Florida Project.

A Sex Worker and Russian Oligarch’s Son Elope in Trailer for Sean Baker...

Sean Baker’s latest triumph is an Oscar frontrunner, and now finally the first trailer for “Anora” is here.

The highly-anticipated “Anora” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2024, and proved “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” breakout Mikey Madison is an actress to watch this awards season. Madison plays an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn).

Vache Tovmaysa, Yura Borisov, and Baker’s frequent collaborator Karren Karagulian.

The feature was the first American film to win the Palme d’Or since Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in 2011.

Writer/director Baker previously helmed Oscar-nominated film “The Florida Project,” groundbreaking iPhone movie “Tangerine,” and Simon Rex’s career-best “Red Rocket,” which also centered on sex work.

“Anora” will be released by Neon, which handled the release of fellow Palme d’Or winners “Parasite,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Anatomy of a Fall,...

There exists a fine line between curiosity and greed when it comes to human endeavors to conquer the unknown, and as history has shown us innumerable times, it’s a line we have crossed quite often—to bring peril to our own doorstep. Be it either with pioneering inventions, ground-breaking discoveries, or ventures into new land, inquisitiveness has eventually given way to dastardly means to seize control of everything, which might stem from the egocentric approach of mankind. Likewise, in Sweet Tooth, in the early 20th century, explorer/scientist Captain James Thacker’s attempt to find one cure for all ailments brought him to the far-flung polar region of arctic Alaska, where, in a cave in the farthest corner of the land, he found something so incredible—it had the potential to alter the course of human history forever. However, as instinctual human greed took over Thacker’s mind, his...

In Sweet Tooth season 2, Gillian Washington got us familiar with a scientist from the United Kingdom, Dr. James Thacker, who had set sail to the Arctic somewhere in 1911 to find a cure for his muscular degenerative disorder. He had heard about a mysterious village where people were free of all illness and lived beyond 100 years of age. But no one ever heard from him again. It was believed that Thacker and his entire crew lost their way and starved on the ship, Hms Simpson. Some 100 years later, Gillian found her great-grandfather’s diary and brought it back to her laboratory, Fort Smith, to find the cure for her family’s illness. An impatient Gillian injected herself with what I believe was the extract from the purple flower, which was a dormant version of The Blood Of The Earth, but we will come to that later. So, in a way, Gillian...

Sean Baker’s “Anora” is betting big with a fall release date.

The feature, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2024, will be released October 18 from Neon, IndieWire can confirm. The limited release window makes “Anora” primed for the fall festival circuit, with possible inclusions at Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF, which concludes right before “Anora” will hit theaters.

“Anora” stars “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” breakout Mikey Madison as an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). Writer/director Baker previously helmed Oscar-nominated film “The Florida Project,” groundbreaking iPhone movie “Tangerine,” and Simon Rex’s career-best “Red Rocket.”

The release of “Anora” on October 18 proves that Neon has high hopes for the Palme d’Or winner. Neon has released a trio of Palme d’Or winners before, all in October and all going on to be Oscar-nominated.

Neon released “Parasite...

“Anora,” Sean Baker’s comic look at an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, will hit theaters next fall. The film will open in limited release on Oct. 18 from Neon.

It’s a lucky time of year for the indie studio. Neon previously launched “Parasite” on Oct. 11, debuted “Triangle of Sadness” on Oct. 7 and opened “Anatomy of a Fall” on Oct 13. Like “Anora,” all three of those films premiered at Cannes and won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top honor. “Anora” was the first U.S. film to earn the prize since 2011’s “Tree of Life” from director Terrence Malick.

In a rave review for Variety, Peter Debruge enthused that the film was the “uncut gem of this year’s Cannes competition,” adding that it is “a rowdy Safdie-style movie about two cultures (Russian and American), two languages (Russian and English...

Cannes awards have become hugely influential in subsequent awards races, especially the Oscars. The top honor, the Palme d’Or, confers prestige and a stamp of approval — this year from the Competition jury led by multi hyphenate Greta Gerwig — that awards voters take seriously.

Palme winners “Parasite,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Anatomy of a Fall” were all Best Picture Oscar contenders and won Oscars. And they were all picked up by specialty distributor Neon before they won their Cannes prize. Neon did not break its streak. It acquired two eventual prize-winners before the closing ceremony: Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” the first American film to win the prize since Terence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in 2011, and Iranian dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which took home a special award.

Thus “Anora,” from veteran indie filmmaker Baker (Cannes entry “The Florida Project...

Presenting the Oscar for best actress at the 94th Academy Awards earlier this year, Anthony Hopkins described the nominees as actors “who’ve built their careers on some of the most memorable and most unexpected performances in movie after movie after movie.” No surprise, then, that the winner turned out to be Jessica Chastain, who took home the gold for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

With three Oscar nominations and seven Golden Globe nods (and one win for each), Chastain is a true Hollywood maverick. In her almost two decades on-screen, she’s played spies, troubled wives, real-life heroes (The Zookeeper’s Wife) and power-brokers. She’s gone to space, ruled over a haunted mansion (Crimson Peak) and fought a murderous clown (It: Chapter 2).

To her extensive on-screen résumé, she has...

The Karlovy Vary Film Festival and Variety have teamed up to honor Francine Maisler, one of the world’s most respected casting directors, whose recent credits include “Dune: Part Two,” “The Bikeriders,” “Challengers,” “Civil War” and “Joker: Folie à Deux.”

Maisler has worked on more than 70 feature films and is a recipient of 15 Artios Awards from the Casting Society of America, including for “Marriage Story” in 2020 and “Don’t Look Up” in 2021. As well as working with director Denis Villeneuve on “Dune: Part Two,” “Dune,” “Arrival” and “Sicario,” her other films include Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” and “Knight of Cups,” and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” and “Birdman.” In 2022, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for her work on HBO’s “Succession.”

As part of its homage, Karlovy Vary will hold a special screening of one of the films which Maisler worked on. Maisler will also give a public master class,...

The Karlovy Vary Festival will pay tribute to one of the Czech Republic’s most famous sons with a retrospective of film adaptations of the work of Franz Kafka from some of the greatest names in cinema. To mark the centenary of Kafka’s death, the festival will screen a series of films directly adapted from, or inspired by, the literary master of angst.

The retrospective will include such classics as Orson Welles’s The Trial (1962), Martin Scorsese’s Kafkaesque New York dramedy After Hours (1985) and Federico Fellini’s Intervista; Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka (1991) and its 2021 re-edit Mr. Kneff — both starring Jeremy Irons as a set-upon insurance man and writer — alongside lesser-known adaptations, including Jan Němec’s Metamorphosis, a German TV movie version of Kafka’s famous short story. Other highlights include Ousmane Sembene’s Senegalese feature The Money Order (1968) and Kôji Yamamura’s animated short Franz Kafka’s a Country Doctor (2007).

“For decades,...

Dan Goozee, the acclaimed artist who created posters for such films as Clash of the Titans, Superman IV and the James Bond movies Moonraker, Octopussy and A View to a Kill, has died. He was 80.

Goozee died April 7 at West Hills Hospital & Medical Center of an age-related condition he had battled for two years, his son, Rob, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The unassuming Goozee spent years as a Walt Disney Imagineering theme park consultant, crafting conceptual artwork for Disneyland Paris and Tokyo DisneySea, for Splash Mountain and Big Thunder rides, for the Imagination Pavilion and Seas Pavilion at Epcot and for the Tree of Life attraction at Animal Kingdom.

He also handled effects work for Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979).

Born in 1943 in Astoria, Oregon, Daniel Goozee worked on weekends at movie theaters that his father and uncle owned and operated in nearby Seaside, then graduated...

Here’s the latest episode of The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the 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, Dom Lenoir, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk about 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 filmmaking experiences from directors, writers, producers and screenwriters, to actors, cinematographers and distributors.

The Filmmaker’s Podcast #391: Tye Sheridan – Actor and Producer: Asphalt City,...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks to film producer Helen Simmons about her short film survey that looks into whether there’s a relationship between short and feature film success and “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life,” which includes:

Festen (1998) The Parent Trap (1998) Tree Of Life (2011)

“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.

Powered by RedCircle...

Sometimes, a cinematographer works enough with an actor that when they’re set to do their directorial debut, that actor is in. That seems to be the case with “Mother’s Instinct,” the directorial debut of well-renowned French Dp Benoît Delhomme. Known for films like Anton Corbijn’s “A Most Wanted Man” and Julian Schnabel’s “At Eternity’s Gate,” he’s also worked with Jessica Chastain a few times on “Lawless,” “Wild Salome,” and some photography work he did for Terrence Malick’s “Tree Of Life.” So perhaps the favor extends to starring in “Mother’s Instinct,” Delhomme’s directorial debut, which will arrive later this year via Neon.

Continue reading ‘Mother’s Instinct’ Trailer: Anne Hathaway & Jessica Chastain’s Anticipated Psychological Thriller Is “Coming Soon” via Studio Canal UK at The Playlist.

The unfortunate circumstances surrounding Alec Baldwin’s Western, Rust, hadn’t deterred the production from continuing. After the immensely tragic events of the accidental killing of the movie’s former Director of Photography, Halyna Hutchins, filming would inevitably come to a halt in the wake of an investigation. The production resumed filming 18 months after a messy legal process since the star, Alec Baldwin, had discharged a faulty prop gun that had become legitimately loaded. Deadline has now revealed an exclusive first look at the film with newly released images.

According to Deadline, “Rust is based on a story developed by [writer/director] Joel Souza and Baldwin: A 13-year-old boy, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following the death of their parents in 1880s Kansas, is taken on a violent, harrowing journey to old Mexico by his long-estranged grandfather after he’s sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.

Exclusive: The first images from writer-director Joel Souza’s Western Rust starring Alec Baldwin have emerged. Deadline has the first look.

Late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ visual style can be seen in two of the photos: the one of actress Frances Fisher in the doorway, and one of the lone rider to the right of the screen.

See the first-look photos below.

The other three photographs are the work of Dp Bianca Cline, who took over for Hutchins when the production resumed in April 2023 at the Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana. The restart came 18 months after Hutchins was killed by a bullet from a prop gun held by Baldwin that discharged during rehearsals on Rust‘s New Mexico set.

Rust is based on a story developed by Souza and Baldwin: A 13-year-old boy, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following the death of their parents in 1880s Kansas,...

Survival expert Hazen Audel analyzes the piranha scenes in Disney's Jungle Cruise, awarding them a grade of seven out of 10. While acknowledging that it's an unlikely scenario to find yourself being swarmed by piranhas, the animals' behavior is depicted mostly correctly. Jungle Cruise divided audiences and critics, continuing a length streak for star Dwayne Johnson.

Jungle Cruise's piranha scenes get put under the microscope by a survival expert, and the Dwayne Johnson Disney movie is actually fairly accurate. Released in 2021, Jungle Cruise is based on the Walt Disney theme park ride, with Johnson starring as captain Frank Wolff, who ferries Emily Blunt's Lily Houghton through the Amazon in search of the Tree of Life. The film's reviews were somewhat mixed and it underperformed at the box office, but Jungle Cruise 2 was announced in August 2021.

Now, as news about the Jungle Cruise sequel remains hard to come by, survival...

“Lyrical” is often used to describe poet-turned-filmmaker Raven Jackson’s first feature film, “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.” Inspired by Terence Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s collaboration on “Tree of Life,” Jackson and cinematographer Jomo Fray wanted to make a film that had a unified aesthetic that came through process and principles rather than rehearsal and refining of the camera work.

“Jomo and I started off talking about the emotionality of the film before we were thinking visually,” Jackson told IndieWire. “What feelings we were aiming to evoke with the images. And eventually Jomo had a suggestion to do a manifesto.”

Before shooting every day of production on the decades-spanning exploration of a woman’s life in the South, Jackson and Fray read aloud their 12-point manifesto. Although the collaborators had a shot list and a visual language for the film, the manifesto served as a way of...

Once upon a time, it's not inconceivable Steven Spielberg might have directed "Five Nights at Freddy's" or a film just like it. Recall that the young Spielberg loved terrorizing audiences. His first feature-length directorial effort, the made-for-tv 1971 thriller "Duel," was such an exhilarating blast that it eventually got a theatrical release. Then came his horror-adventure classic "Jaws," followed by the suburban nightmare of "Poltergeist". Hell, from a certain point of view, "Jurassic Park" is sort of like "Five Nights at Freddy's" only with dinosaurs. Sometimes when an entertainment attraction breaks down, the animatronics actually do eat the tourists.

"Five Nights at Freddy's" casts Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt, an unassuming security guard who accepts a job keeping watch of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza at night, only to discover the animatronic mascots of the once-prosperous family entertainment center like to come alive and commit murder under the cover of darkness. The setting...

For all the major films from established, auteur directors in the 2023 Venice Film Festival’s main competition (David Fincher’s The Killer, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, Sofia Coppela’s Priscilla and Michael Mann’s Ferrari, to name just a few), when he made the official lineup announcement on July 31, festival director Alberto Barbera reserved his lengthiest praise for a small film from Germany.

So enthused was Barbera for Timm Kröger’s second feature The Theory of Everything — a black-and-white Hitchcockian melodrama set in a 5-star hotel in the Swiss Alps (and a “kind of” sequel to his 2014 debut The Council of Birds) — that he claimed it was one of the very first films selected to compete for this year’s Golden Lion.

“It was really wonderful what he said, and he really described the film in a lovely way,” says Kröger, speaking ahead of The Theory of Everything’s world...

Even highbrow filmmakers have a soft spot for comedies, showing that they can appreciate a good laugh. It's surprising to see directors known for their intense and dramatic films embracing lighter and goofier comedies. These directors' unconventional tastes demonstrate the universality and feel-good factor of comedy, even for those typically associated with more serious genres.

A good comedy — or sometimes even a bad one — may be enjoyed by anybody, even a film director mostly known for making serious movies. From slapstick classics to critically panned flops, there are some surprising comedies that have managed to tickle the funny bones of Hollywood’s most iconic dramatic filmmakers. The shock stems from the fact that many of these directors would likely never make such light and goofy fare themselves. For instance, the director behind ambitious spectacles like Titanic and Avatar adores a relatively low-budget mockumentary, and the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Lost in Translation...

This Star Trek: Strange New Worlds article contains spoilers.

Star Trek has always had a habit of taking unlikely detours into other genres, whether it was Kirk and Spock dressing like gangsters in the Tos episode “A Piece of the Action” or the powerful Deep Spine Nine period piece “Far Beyond the Stars.” But with its most recent episode, Strange New Worlds takes the franchise in the most unexpected direction.

Directed by Dermott Downs, “Subspace Rhapsody” finds the Enterprise crew breaking into song after discovering an anomaly at the edge of the Alpha Quadrant. The episode gives Uhura actor Celia Rose Gooding a chance to show off the pipes that landed them a role in Jagged Little Pill: The Musical on Broadway, and also featured a Klingon hip-hop number that recalls Han Solo’s lowest moment.

As shocking as the episode was for Trekkies, “Subspace Rhapsody” benefited from a steady hand at the helm,...

With the ongoing Emmy decorated run of Disney’s “The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars” has reentered the awards circle. The hit drama series has garnered multiple nominations for its first two seasons both above and below the line. While it has won 14 Emmys to date, none of the actors has prevailed.

Another “Star Wars” series, “Andor,” could break that curse. The show is much more small-scaled than “Mando” and plays a lot closer to Emmy friendly political dramas of the past. The critical reception emphasises this aspect; the series has a stellar 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences have warmed to it and the series holds an 8.4 IMDb rating.

Like many other genres hits, “Andor” will likely fare exceptionally below-the-line. But, the more prestige-leaning, politically charged vision of creator Tony Gilroy (Oscar nominee for both writing and directing) will help it pierce above-the-line categories. This is reflected in our odds, where the...

New York, NY – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers announced today the nominees for the Gotham Independent Film Awards™. Signaling the kick-off to the film awards season, IFP’s Gotham Independent Film Awards™ nominations were given to a total of 26 films across six competitive categories for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Best Ensemble Performance, and Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.

The Gotham Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 26th at Cipriani Wall Street. In addition to the competitive awards, actors Marion Cotillard and Matt Damon, director David O. Russell, and Participant Media founder Jeff Skoll will each be presented with a career tribute.

As the first major awards ceremony of the film season, the Gotham Independent Film Awards™ provide critical early recognition and media attention to worthy independent films. Previous winners...

It’s been confirmed to me by a knowledgeable source that Terrence Malick will not be in Venice Or Toronto for screenings of his latest film, To The Wonder, which debuts Sunday on the Lido. While that’s not really such a wonder, the notoriously reclusive director did come to Cannes a little more than a year ago when Tree Of Life screened — and ultimately won the Palme d’Or. That year, people were practically taking bets on whether he’d show for the movies’s official launch. He didn’t come to the press conference at the time, it was said, because he wanted the film to speak for itself. True enough. If Malick had been there that would have been the story — Brad Pitt’s presence notwithstanding. But later that day in 2011, I sat down in Cannes president Gilles Jacob’s office for a chat and it turned...