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Exclusive: In the wake of scoring a Golden Globe win for Demi Moore in its first big theatrical release The Substance, Mubi has hired former IFC Films president Arianna Bocco as its new SVP of Global Distribution.

Bocco will report directly to Jason Ropell, Mubi’s Chief Content Officer. U.S. Distribution will continue to be led by Mark Boxer; Bocco and Boxer had a long run together at IFC. Bocco will be at Sundance on behalf of Mubi where Amalia Ulman’s Magic Farm will receive its world premiere. Boxer will lead U.S. distribution under Bocco.

On deck for Mubi in the near future are such titles as Kelly Reichart’s The Mastermind and Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother.

The role is a new post, based in New York, that will enable the streaming and theatrical company to take a greater footing handling the foreign distribution of its titles.

Now that they’ve set the year’s best film for a December 10 debut, the Criterion Channel have unveiled the rest of next month’s selection. John Waters’ films are inseparable from John Waters’ presence, making fitting Criterion’s decision to pair an eight-film retrospective (Multiple Maniacs to Cecil B. Demented) with his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” wherein the director extols virtues of Bergman, Chabrol, Barbara Loden, and Samuel Fuller. His own Polyester will have a Criterion Edition alongside the Bob Dylan doc Don’t Look Back, an iconic film in its own right and, I think, fitting companion to The Unknown with Lon Chaney, also streaming on Criterion. No Country for Old Men and Election receive likewise treatment; the latter appears in “MTV Productions,” a series featuring Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, The Original Kings of Comedy, and (coming close to Freddy Got Fingered for least-expected 2024 addition) Jackass: the Movie.

Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson steam up the screen in Babygirl, the new film from writer-director Halina Reijn. As part of preparation for the film, the Bodies Bodies Bodies director sent the two actors films that exemplify the best of Babygirl's shared genre. According to Entertainment Weekly, Rejin recommended 2001's The Piano Teacher, 1992's Damage, and 1988's Dangerous Liaisons to put the actors in the right headspace for production. Although Rejin set out to subvert erotic thriller expectations, it was important for the actors and filmmaker to intimately know the thing they're supposed to be subverting. Hence, Halina Reijn turned to the classics.

According to Dickinson, the director wasn't "interested" in showing straight-forward sex scenes, instead opting for "vulnerability" and "finding truth."

"Halina was never interested in showing explicit sex scenes. Showing sex on film can often be so corny and unnecessarily voyeuristic. It's more interesting to show the awkwardness of sex,...

Exclusive: Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste and Luana Bajrami have been unveiled as supporting cast members in Rebecca Zlotowski’s murder mystery movie Vie Privée starring Jodie Foster.

The production has also unveiled the plotline for the film which follows renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner, played by previously-announced Foster, who mounts her own private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.

The supporting cast news and plot reveal comes as filming – running from September 30 to November 22 between Paris and Normandy – enters its third week.

The feature is Zlotowski’s sixth film after 2023 Venice Golden Lion contender Other People’s Children, An Easy Girl, Planetarium, Grand Central and Dear Prudence.

Zlotowski co-wrote the screenplay with Anne Berest, whose credits include Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening and Other People’s Children, as well as long-time collaborator Gaëlle Macé.

The film...

London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has added new sales for Cannes Critics’ Week supernatural horror “Animale” by Emma Benestan, ahead of its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest later this month.

“Animale” sold to Scandinavia (Edge Entertainment), Cis (Nashe Kino), the Czech and Slovak republics (Film Europe), Brazil (Belas Artes), and Indonesia (Falcon Pt), adding to the previously announced territories which include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), and Middle East and North Africa (Falcon).

Wild Bunch Distribution will release the film in French theaters nationwide on Nov. 27, with O’Brother releasing in Belgium on Dec. 18.

After its world premiere as closing film of the Cannes Critics’ Week, the film has been selected in some of the world’s foremost genre festivals including Fantastic Fest, Sitges Film Festival, MOTELx, and Neuchâtel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival to name a few.

You can’t see them, but they see everything in director Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut, The Watchers. And if you missed The Watchers in theaters, you can watch at home as soon as next week.

The Watchers opened in theaters on June 7 and will be available on premium video on demand on Friday, June 28, 2024.

Warner Bros. Discovery also revealed in the press release for the film’s at home streaming release that The Watchers will be released on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray, and DVD on August 27.

The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Oliver Finnegan (“Creeped Out”), and Olwen Fouere (The Northman).

The...

Hulu may have started out as the redheaded stepchild of the streamers back in Netflix’s heyday, but it has stuck around long enough to have firmly established itself as one of the old standbys. It follows, then, that Hulu would have a veritable fount of LGBTQ content ready to compete with the robust queer catalogues available to subscribers of Netflix, HBO, and other platforms.

A brief perusal of Hulu’s LGBTQ section doesn’t disappoint, but digging in deeper will give you the best chance at a genuinely memorable watch. Right now, the Disney-backed streamer is hosting popular queer television classics, like “The L Word,” “My So-Called Life,” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” alongside fresher fare, including “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” and “Killing Eve.” Recent Hulu originals, such as “Love, Victor” and “Shrill,” deserve singling out, if only because you know they’re buzz-worthy and readily available on the service.

Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut The Watchers is headed to theaters on June 7 from New Line Cinema, and the film has received its official MPA rating this week.

The Watchers is rated “PG-13” for…

“Violence, terror and some thematic elements.”

The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

[Related] AreYouWatching.com: ‘The Watchers’ Interactive Website Is Full of Easter Eggs

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Oliver Finnegan (“Creeped Out”) and Olwen Fouere (The Northman).

The upcoming mystery-horror film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.

Joining writer/director Shyamalan behind-the-camera are director of photography Eli Arenson, production designer Ferdia Murphy,...

In the wake of this week’s brand new trailer, Ishana Night Shyamalan’s upcoming horror movie The Watchers once again has a new release date. And as the headline of this article suggests, New Line Cinema has moved it back to its original release date. Say what?!

The Watchers had originally been set for theatrical release on June 7 before being recently bumped to June 14. But we’ve learned tonight that it’s been moved back into the June 7 slot.

That’s Hollywood for ya. In any event, watch this week’s new trailer below.

[Related] AreYouWatching.com: ‘The Watchers’ Interactive Website Is Full of Easter Eggs

The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning...

From producer M. Night Shyamalan comes “The Watchers,” written for the screen and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and based on the novel by A.M. Shine. The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

You can’t see them, but they see everything.

“The Watchers” stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan and Olwen Fouere. The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.

Joining writer/director Shyamalan behind-the-camera are director of photography Eli Arenson, production designer Ferdia Murphy, editor Job ter Burg and costume design by Frank Gallacher. The music is by Abel Korzeniowski.

New Line Cinema presents “The Watchers,” set to open in theaters...

RoboCop became both a blockbuster and a controversial critical darling upon its release in 1987 due to a mix of jet black humor and as subtle as a jackhammer social commentary sticking a perfect landing. Its success was a surprise to an industry that had looked at Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner’s original script with its simplistic one-word comic book title and assumed it was fated to be a high-concept stinker.

The 2023 RoboDoc documentary miniseries does a terrific job of chronicling the effort it took to turn RoboCop into both a box office win and an enduring cult masterpiece with a quick and funny format that makes it accessible to modern fans. The truly hardcore might not learn many new details from the four-hour presentation, available on Tubi, but one thing the documentary does do, especially after the Catholic satire of Benedetta, is make it clear how much of RoboCop...

[Editor’s note: This story was originally published September 2023. It has since been updated ahead of the release of “Immaculate.”]

In the real world, nuns typically lead simple, quiet lives. Taking vows of chastity and obedience in order to fully devote themselves to God, the average nun — be she Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, or some other denomination — gives up her worldly possessions in exchange for the pursuit of greater spiritual purpose, often spending her life in a monastery or convent and focusing on prayer, charity, and schooling. For some, that’s a fulfilling path, but it’s also maybe not the most interesting story to watch.

And yet onscreen, nuns can be whatever the director wants them to be. They can be the singing, lovable anti-Nazis in “The Sound of Music.” They can be the bawdy and hilarious R&b superstars in “Sister Act.” In some films, like Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” they spit in the face of those vows of chastity to engage in some sacrilegiously steamy antics.

The official trailer for Ishana Night Shyamalan’s (“Servant”) horror movie The Watchers debuted earlier this week, and today the film has been given a new release date.

Originally set for theatrical release from New Line Cinema on June 7, the M. Night Shyamalan-produced The Watchers will now be releasing in theaters on June 14, 2024.

The reason? The Crow remake just flew into that June 7, 2024 slot this week.

The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Oliver Finnegan (“Creeped Out”) and Olwen Fouere (The Northman).

The upcoming mystery-horror film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.

From producer M. Night Shyamalan comes The Watchers, written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and based on the novel by A.M. Shine.

The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night. You can’t see them, but they see everything.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan and Olwen Fouere.

Ishana Night Shyamalan has trained with the best – her father, M. Night Shyamalan. The two worked together on Apple TV’s mysterious “Servant” series as well as the 2021 film Old as Second Unit Director.

Check out this interview with the filmmaker.

The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer. Joining writer/director Shyamalan...

From producer M. Night Shyamalan comes The Watchers, written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ishana Night Shyamalan (“Servant”) and based on the novel by A.M. Shine. Warner Bros. has debuted the mysterious official teaser trailer today, which most definitely channels the intriguing “mystery box” spirit of M. Night Shyamalan’s work.

Watch the trailer for The Watchers down below.

You can’t see them, but they see everything…

New Line Cinema presents The Watchers, set to open in theaters internationally beginning June 5, 2024 and in North America on June 7, 2024; it will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Georgina Campbell...

Playing his signature brand of rural French absurdity in stark counterpoint to the grandiose strains of a space opera, Bruno Dumont returns with The Empire: his Barbarella bourguignon, his dijionnaise Dune. The Empire is the story of two warring factions: one whose mothership resembles the palace of Versailles; the other’s as if someone glued together two Notre Dames, crypt to crypt. It follows their envoys on earth, now in human form and attempting to capture a toddler who they believe to be the Chosen One––whose mere presence makes them bow down like bodies in rigor mortis. There are blasé beheadings with lightsabers, a group of men on Boulonnais horses who call themselves the Knights of Wain, and, for no apparent reason, the commandant (Bernard Pruvost) and lieutenant (Philippe Jore) from P’tit Quinquin.

If that all sounds like a mixed bag it’s probably because The Empire is...

RoboCop and Total Recall director Paul Verhoeven says he’d make another sci-fi film in the vein of those classics if it were offered. “I haven’t seen it,” he said.

RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers, released in 1987, 1990 and 1997 respectively, are among the greatest sci-fi films ever made. Darkly, violently satirical and loaded with sly humour, they carry all the manic energy of the director behind them – Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven.

By the millennium, however, the independent studio system that gave Verhoeven the latitude to make those films had gone, and 2000’s Hollow Man – an invisible Kevin Bacon thriller even Verhoeven admitted he was disappointed with – marked the end of his movie-making period in America. After that, Verhoeven made smaller-scale but no less edgy films like Black Book, Elle and the saucy nun drama, Benedetta.

In a new interview with Metrograph's Eric Kohn (as picked up by IndieWire), Verhoeven...

In the 1980s and ’90s, Paul Verhoeven became synonymous with high profile science fiction films that combined cutting social satire with Hollywood spectacle. From his cyborg police saga “RoboCop” to his Arnold Schwarzenegger-led Philip K. Dick adaptation “Total Recall” to his misunderstood fascism satire “Starship Troopers,” the Dutch filmmaker made many of the genre’s most recognizable classics. But in the 21st century, Verhoeven has largely steered clear of genre fare. The director has primarily worked in Europe, helming unclassifiable thrillers such as 2016’s “Elle” and 2021’s “Benedetta” that are more grounded in reality than his past works. (Though anyone who has seen them can attest that the “Basic Instinct” director’s fascination with depicting sex on screen clearly has not faded.)

But as the 85-year-old director prepares to shoot his next project, he revealed that he hasn’t entirely said goodbye to genre films. In a new interview published on Metrograph.

Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” missed out on being chosen as France’s Oscar entry, but the movie has been a critical and commercial hit — including in the U.S., where it’s become the highest-grossing specialized foreign-language release post-pandemic, according to distributor Neon.

Released in the States on Oct. 13, “Anatomy of a Fall” has pulled in $3.5 million so far, putting it ahead of Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World” and on track to match last year’s Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness,” another Neon movie.

A courtroom drama exploring the collapse of a marriage, “Anatomy of a Fall” stars Sandra Huller (“The Zone of Interest”) as a novelist who is put on trial following the mysterious death of her husband, and sees her son being called to the witness stand.

The film’s international box office total currently sits at $22 million. In France,...

When thinking of the best French movies of the 21st century, there are some titles that leap to mind immediately, even if the past 23 years haven’t appeared to be as creatively fecund as the heady heights of the New Wave period. Celine Sciamma, François Ozon, Bruno Dumont, and Julia Ducournau have all produced stunning, instantly canonical works. But what’s interesting is to consider how expansive the idea of “Frenchness” in cinema has been this century: on the list below, Austrian Michael Haneke, Iranian Abbas Kiarostami, and American Julian Schnabel appear, with the main criterion for inclusion being simply the use of the French language.

Their inclusion does call into question a bit the idea of national cinemas. And yet, even in this highly interconnected, global 21st century, France singularly remains one of the medium’s most essential guiding lights. From the pioneer era of the Lumiere brothers to...

The Venice and Telluride film festivals are kicking off Oscar season this week, which means the good stuff is finally on its way. Unfortunately, the streaming offerings over Labor Day weekend aren’t particularly robust. But there are a few titles worth checking out as summer fades away.

The contender to watch this week: “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”

The first three “Indiana Jones” movies earned a collective 13 Oscar nominations, and while the franchise’s long-gestating final installment saw lukewarm reception, it could still be a below-the-line contender — especially with fall blockbusters like “Dune: Part Two” being delayed to 2024. Anytime John Williams‘ name appears in the credits, there are awards chances in the offing. Catch Harrison Ford‘s Indy swan song on VOD. It’ll stream on Disney+ later this year.

Other contenders to watch:

“Perpetrator”: After premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, “Knives and Skin...

After braving a massive backlash over her fiery political speech at the Cannes Film Festival, French director Justine Triet has succeeded in luring wide audiences in local theaters with her Palme d’Or winning film “Anatomy of a Fall.”

A courtroom drama exploring the collapse of a marriage and a mother-son relationship, “Anatomy of a Fall” has scored the best B.O. score at the French box office for a Palme d’Or winner since “Blue is the Warmest Color,” the 2013 erotic drama starring Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos.

The movie, which was bought by Neon at Cannes, is hotly tipped to represent France is the Oscar race. The other French films that will likely be shortlisted by this year’s French committee include “The Taste of Things”; and “Jeanne du Barry,” Maiwenn’s Versailles-set period starring Johnny Depp as Louis Xv. “The Taste of Things” and “Jeanne du Barry...

French film producer Saïd Ben Saïd sort of resurrected the career of Paul Verhoeven with the release of Elle (2016), and he had been itching to re-team with the filmmaker and that collab gave us the thunderous Benedetta (2021). It looks like (according to Premiere) they’ll be working once again together on the book-to-film adaptation of Sans compter by author Philippe Djian of 37°2, le matin (aka Betty Blue) and …. Oh… (which turned out to be Elle) fame. Verhoeven is tipped to move onto production on The Sinner before moving onto this project (next month in Los Angeles).…...

by Cláudio Alves

Belgian-born French actress Virginie Efira has been on an upward path since around 2016, when she supported Isabelle Huppert in the Oscar-nominated Elle and dazzled as the titular lawyer in Justine Triet's Victoria. The latter part earned the thespian her first César nomination, followed by citations for Sink or Swim, An Impossible Love, Bye Bye Morons, Benedetta, and, finally, a victory thanks to Revoir Paris. And yet, beyond the Francoshpere, Efira is probably best known for Verhoeven's mad nun and little else. That's going to change fast. After 2023, there's no stopping her rise to international stardom. 

This week, American cinemas welcomed Madeleine Collins, Efira's third release of the year, following career-best work in Other People's Children and Revoir Paris. Just the Two of Us and All to Play For are still awaiting distribution making for a titanic body of recent work. In a just world, this next...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Sad Puppy-Seeing Soccer Himbo Seeks Refugee Son

For lovers of soccer and movies about hot guys being dumb, it’s been the highest of highs and the lowest of lows lately.

“Barbie” became a bona fide cultural phenomenon by giving us something we never knew we needed: Ryan Gosling running around as a sexy Beach professional who does a shockingly decent Rob Thomas impression despite having nothing going on behind his eyes. The performance was a reminder that men are just as capable of playing the ditzy sidekick as...

AMC Networks is bolstering the leadership team for its film group, which is comprised of IFC Films, Rlje Films, and Shudder. The company has added two new executives and promoted others, including one executive formerly with A24.

The hires come in the wake of an exodus of departures at IFC Films that began in March, including president Arianna Bocco after a 17-year run. The hires compose the team assembled under new film group head Scott Shooman, who took the job last month.

Nicole Weis, who previously worked at A24 as its VP of sales and distribution, is joining the team as VP of Distribution, managing the theatrical rollout of the film group’s output, and Judy Woloshen, who has been with AMC Networks, is moving over to the film group and is the VP of Public Relations. Weis will report to Scott Shooman, head of the film group, and Woloshen will promote to Olivia Dupuis,...

18 producers will take part in the fifth edition of the Series Special programme.

European network Ace Producers has selected 18 independent producers for Ace Series Special, its workshop on the series production landscape.

Each producer attends the workshop with a series project in early stages of development. The 18 participants hail from 12 different countries, and will participate in the workshop from October 30 to November 4 this year in Riga, Latvia.

Scroll down for the full list of producers

The selected producers include Swedish producer Madeleine Ekman of Nordisk Film, with The Making Of A Terrorist, written by Leif Edlund and Emelia Hansson. Ekman...

Cinema can be a powerful tool for tackling contemporary anxieties, but it’s rarely done as sensitively and artfully as in Alice Winocour’s poignant mass shooting drama “Revoir Paris.” While one could argue that certain terrors should never be recreated, Winocour proves that with a sensitive touch, even the most harrowing of tragedies can be alchemized into a stirring contemplation of societal ills. Filtering the intensity through one woman’s struggle to piece together her memories of a fateful night, “Revoir Paris” tells a sobering story of survival, trauma, and the power of human connection.

Illuminated by a masterful performance by French actress Virginie Efira, “Revoir Paris” makes the unimaginable experience of surviving a violent attack beautifully real and painfully universal. The film never wallows in sentimentality or dwells in the violence (leave it to the French to be so matter-of-fact about a mass shooting), instead grounding the narrative...

Exclusive: Longtime IFC Films and Cinetic Media PR colleagues Laura Sok and Kate McEdwards are launching new PR and strategy firm, Track Shot.

Track Shot will be based in New York City and work across independent, foreign and genre films as well as distribution strategy. The duo brings more than two decades in the publicity and communications field as well as a deep knowledge of the distribution landscape. Sok and McEdwards have built and led hundreds of film campaigns during their careers working in-house and alongside major distributors on the agency side. Previously, they led PR efforts for IFC Films, IFC Midnight, Sundance Selects, IFC Films Unlimited (streaming service) and most recently Shudder and Rlje.

Their final campaign for IFC Films was Matt Johnson’s chart-topping BlackBerry. This year they also launched Kyle Edward Ball’s breakthrough feature Skinamarink for Shudder/IFC Films.

Among their many successful campaigns at IFC...

Apparently determined to prove herself francophone cinema’s most inexhaustible precious resource, Virginie Efira once again lights up the screen prior to burning it down in a role that, after Justine Triet’s “Sibyl,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” and Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children,” is of a type she has come to define: the strong-willed, smart fortysomething woman chafing against her society’s conformist expectations. Delphine Deloget’s debut “All to Play For” features one of Efira’s more straightforward incarnations of this dramatic type — fewer sly kinks, no arch winks. But she is no less riveting and lovely for it and in Deloget’s confident, gentle grip, she turns in one of her most committed performances, all the more moving for its commitment to valorizing the kind of woman seldom treated on screen with such respect and compassion.

The woman is Sylvie, introduced to us while mid-shift at...

France tv distribution has boarded “Christmas Carole” (“Noël au balcon”), a comedy starring Didier Bourdon (“Alibi.com 2”) and Noemie Lvovsky (“Camille Rewinds”). The company has launched sales on the project at the Cannes market.

“Christmas Carole” is directed by Jeanne Gottesdiener, and produced by Belga Studios (“Waiting for Banjangles,” “Benedetta”) and Polaris Film Production, in co-production with M6 Films.

Set around Christmas, the movie revolves around a small-town mayoress, Carole, who is helping the inhabitants of her municipality with the festivities while her devoted husband Alain organizes the Christmas Eve celebrations at home. The kids are arriving, soon all hopes of a peaceful Christmas melt away as the family traditions are called into question.

The cast also includes Jules Sagot (“Hashtag Boomer”), Christophe Montenez (“For my country”), Alice Daubelcour (“Love (and Trouble) in Paris”) and Janaïna Halloy-Fokan (“Inexorable”).

“Christmas Carole” is produced by Christophe Mazodier at Polaris Film Production, Patrick Vandenbosch...

Locarno Film Festival runs August 2-12.

French actor Lambert Wilson has been named president of the jury at the upcoming Locarno Film Festival (August 2-12).

The prolific actor and his fellow jurors will award the summertime Swiss festival’s Golden Leopard Pardo d’oro to one of the yet-to-be-ennounced titles in the festival’s international competition.

Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro said Wilson, who has worked with top French filmmakers during his decades long career including Claude Chabrol, Jacques Demy, Andrzej Żuławski and André Techiné, “has left a lasting mark on European and international cinema” and called him “ versatile performer,...

As long as religion is so preoccupied with queerness, queer artists must reckon with religion. While the closeted zealot trope may be played out at this point, it seems every sect wants its shot at the clandestine queer romance. Of course, there is plenty of Sapphic fun to be mined from the queering of rituals, sacrifice, and self-flagellation, as with the sensual tension of recent entries like “Disobedience” or the outrageous heresy of “Benedetta.” More somber entries into the sub-genre include 2018’s conversion therapy duo of “Boy Erased” and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post.”

Amidst such a crowded field, the Jehovah’s Witness drama “You Can Live Forever” doesn’t quite stand out, short of opening a door into one of the lesser explored religious sects. Though the well-crafted film makes use of a unique regional setting for some moving moments, its straightforward approach to well-worn territory offers few surprises.

Exclusive: Deadline has learned that IFC Films’ longtime Head of PR Laura Sok will be departing the indie distribution company.

Sok has been Head of PR for the last five years in an overall seven-year career at IFC (she worked there from 2008-2010), and was first hired by Jonathan Sehring to run the department. She led public-relations efforts for IFC Films, IFC Midnight, Sundance Selects and streaming service IFC Films Unlimited. Last December, her oversight was expanded to include the labels Shudder and Rlje Films.

Sok led 20th anniversary efforts for IFC Films and was integral in constructing the 2020 drive-in release and promotion strategy during the pandemic. She also led publicity strategy and campaigns for all films during the most successful financial years in IFC Films history.

While Sok is one of many executives to recently leave IFC including distribution head Jasper Basch,...

Second edition of the scheme will take place in Veneto in June and Amsterdam in September.

Lava Films’ Mariusz Wlodarski from Poland and Topkapi Films’ Frans van Gestel from the Netherlands are among 12 producers selected for the second edition of Ace Leadership Special, a business workshop hosted by the Ace Producers network.

The 2023 edition will take place in Italy in June and in the Netherlands in September, with online elements over the summer.

Scroll down for the 2023 selection

Ace Leadership Special aims to help producers sustain solid business foundations, improve performance and prospects for their companies and develop their personal leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

When you cover the arthouse business, you get used to familiar faces more than famous ones. Programmers, distributors, and sales agents may not walk the red carpet alongside their stars, but they’re at all the afterparties, in the trenches of every major film festival, constantly plotting ways to get new work seen. Their ubiquity makes it possible to visualize this pocket of the entertainment industry so when the faces change places, it stands out.

In that respect, this week was extraordinary. Within 48 hours, news broke of senior independent film executives leaving jobs they held for years, in some cases not of their own volition. Welcome to the great indie contraction.

First came John Vanco, the 18-year veteran of the IFC Center, heading to Netflix to take over the booking of New York’s Paris Theater, as well as the Bay Cinema and the Egyptian in L.A.. On its...

Arianna Bocco has stepped down as president of IFC Films. She will be replaced on an interim basis by Scott Shooman, who currently serves as head of acquisitions. Bocco left the company on Thursday.

“I have so enjoyed my time at IFC Films working alongside such a multi-talented, creative and compassionate team,” Bocco said in a statement. “I am incredibly proud of all that we’ve accomplished over the years, and I’m very much looking forward to this next chapter.”

IFC, which is owned by AMC Networks, will conduct a search for a permanent replacement for Bocco, a longtime executive at the company and a major force in the world of independent film, respected for her keen taste and strong relationships with top talent. Bocco took the reins at IFC in 2020 after her predecessor Lisa Schwartz stepped down. But she had been at the company for more than a decade before making that leap.

Film festivals tend to have at least one trend. Cannes 2021 was the year of ... well, cunnilingus, while TIFF 2018 was the year of movies about troubled musicians. In 2023, South by Southwest was the year of the brand movie or product biopic (the prodpic?). Finally, Hollywood has realized that people are tired of the same old biopics that distill someone's entire life into a truncated narrative full of cliches and tropes, reducing moments of genuine innovation into contrived deus ex machinas.

Besides, who cares about people anyway? Not Hollywood, apparently, because they have finally recognized that audience's huge interest in recognizable IP and nostalgia means they don't care about people or characters, they care about products. And so, this year's SXSW saw movie writers and producers realize that they could just cut the middlemen and deliver what the people want right to them — movies about products!

That's right. This was the year...

Emily Atef, who is presenting her latest film, “Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything,” in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, just moved to Paris to direct “La Maison,” a series depicting a fictional family-owned French luxury fashion empire.

While discussing “Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything” ahead of its world premiere, Atef told Variety that “La Maison” will be filled with a lot of drama and tragicomedy. “It’s very Shakespearean. There’s so much beauty and luxury with old mansions in Brittany, Parisian ‘hotel particuliers,’ and then behind all that there’s so much human poverty, and you see them ripping each other appart for power,” said Atef, who will direct the pilot and three more episodes.

The series was created and penned by Jose Caltagirone (“Les Combattantes”) and Valentine Milville (“The Bureau”), and will star a high-profile French ensemble cast, including Lambert Wilson (“Benedetta”), Carole Bouquet (“En Therapie...

Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center have unveiled the lineup for the 28th edition of Rendez-Vous With French Cinema, an annual celebration of contemporary French filmmaking. The event will take place March 2–12.

It kicks off with a screening of Alice Winocour’s “Revoir Paris,” which stars Virginie Efira as a translator named Mia, who survived a mass shooting in a Paris restaurant and is unable to resume life as usual. In an effort to regain a sense of normalcy, Mia returns repeatedly to the site of the shooting, forming bonds with her fellow survivors. Efira is best known for her star turn in Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta.”

“It is a such a pleasure to open this year’s edition with the French critical and box-office hit ‘Revoir Paris’ in the presence of director Alice Winocour and actress Virginie Efira, who just received our French Cinema Award in Paris,” said Daniela Elstner,...

Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, the French drama Other People’s Children has a simple plot linked with complex ideas. Following Rachel (Virginie Efira), a 40-year-old childless, single teacher, the film watches her fall in love with Ali (Roschdy Zem), a man with a young daughter named Leila. Rachel, always wanting kids of her own, becomes connected to Leila, forcing her to confront her own views on motherhood. Zlotowski’s film grows into a study of overheard conversations and biting words from kids, those who don’t know any better.

Zlotowski makes it clear that Rachel, unfortunately, will never be Leila’s birth mother. She invades the space that this newly formed family has made, often shooting them from above as if the audience is looking on to private moments. Rachel feels substantial: a real person with hobbies, friends, a loving family, a stable job. She smiles with her whole face and laughs with her whole body,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSSpencer Bell, Nobody Knows My Name.Sight & Sound have shared the eclectic results of their annual video essays poll. The top pieces from 2022 "range from exceptional TikTok content (which doesn’t even take the title for brevity—competing against a 30-second montage) to short or feature-length essay films, documentaries, as well as art museum/gallery installations and live performances in academic contexts."The Berlinale has announced their Forum lineup, including world premieres from Claire Simon, Burak Çevik, and more.Recommended VIEWINGA24 have shared a trailer for Ari Aster’s new film Beau is Afraid ahead of an April US release. Joaquin Phoenix will star as the neurotic lead of the surrealist horror comedy from the “ingeniously depraved” mind behind Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019).Third...

Studio executives, renowned directors, and a crop of rising young talent huddled below crystal chandeliers in Paris’ Palais Royal on Thursday, turning out to fête “Benedetta” star Virginie Efira as she received the Unifrance French Cinema Award – a prize honoring those who carry the banner for Gallic cinema across the globe – in the presence of Unifrance president Serge Toubiana and the country’s Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak.

Organized as part of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, the ceremony drew a fittingly international crowd, with filmmakers Emily Atef, Juho Kuosmanen, Sergei Loznitsa and Albert Serra joining “Athena” star Dali Benssalah, “Forever Young” lead Nadia Tereszkiewicz, “Mother and Son” breakout Annabelle Lengronne and “Everybody Loves Jeanne” director Céline Devaux for an intimate reception held in opulent surroundings.

Abdul Malak kicked off the Efira tribute with a victory lap of sorts, boasting about local theatrical attendance rates – which, with only 29 lost...

Music Box Films has picked up U.S. rights to Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children,” the affecting drama starring Virginie Efira (“Benedetta”). The movie world premiered in competition at Venice and is slated to make its U.S. debut in the Spotlight section at Sundance later this month.

Also starring Roschdy Zem and Chiara Mastroianni, “Other People’s Children” played in the Special Presentation section at Toronto. Music Box Films will release the French movie in theaters and on home entertainment platforms in spring 2023.

Efira, one of France’s leading actors, delivers a strong performance as Rachel, a dedicated high school teacher. She falls in love with Ali (Roschdy Zem), and it’s not long before she also falls for his 4-year-old daughter Leila. Although she feels like a mother, Rachel is not allowed to forget that Leila is another woman’s daughter. She begins to long for a child of her own,...

Virginie Efira, the prolific actor of “Benedetta” who emceed last year’s Cannes Film Festival, will receive the French Cinema Award during the Unifrance Rendez-Vous, a week-long showcase of French movies.

The honorary award will pay tribute to the local and international success of Efira, who was born in Belgium but has become one of France’s most popular and bankable actors. Her recent credits include Alice Winocour’s “Revoir Paris” which played at Cannes, and Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Les enfants des autres” which competed Venice. Both movies were successful at the French box office and sold around the world. Efira has seen her career take off since working with Justine Triet for “Victoria” and “Sybil,” and Paul Verhoeven for “Elle” and “Benedetta.” She has been delivering consistently strong performances in films by some of the most exciting directors in France, from Zlotowski to Winocour, Triet, Regis Roinsard and Serge Bozon.

French cinema professionals from across the country’s independent production, distribution and exhibition chain flocked to an emergency general convention in Paris this week to raise the alarm over the future of their industry.

France has long prided itself on being the most cinephile country on the planet, but there is a growing sense among its indie cinema sector that the population has fallen out of love with the seventh art in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Figures released by the National Cinema Centre (Cnc) last week revealed the worst September box office for the country in 42 years, with 7.38 million entries, for a rough box office of 47m, representing a 20.7 drop on September 2021, and a 34.3 fall on the same month in 2019.

Admissions for the first nine months of 2022 are currently trailing 30 below the average for the same period from 2017-2019. September’s drop was due in part to a lack of big U.

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Blended families, where children alternate between parents and spend their lives with an assortment of half-siblings or kids from their parents’ previous relationships, are now so normal that it’s easy to overlook how painful the blending process can be. Bitter separations, disrupted households, new beds and new people appearing in them, the resentments children feel for the grown-ups’ failures and the interloping new partners pawing at the mom or dad who is rightfully theirs: none of this is easy, even in splits later described smoothly as “amicable.”

Rebecca Zlotowski’s Venice Film Festival competition entry Other People’s Children (Les Enfants des Autres) wades into those murky waters with clear-eyed empathy, recognizing the cumulative power of small hurts. It starts with a new love affair. Virginie Efira plays Rachel, a dedicated high-school teacher in a district that clearly has its fair share of truants and troubled homes. Roschdy Zem is Ali,...

A coming-of-age character study about a woman already of a certain age, Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children” feels, to put it bluntly, delightfully French. And that goes beyond the outer trappings, the Paris setting, the opening shot of the Eiffel Tower glittering in the night sky, or the countless dimly lit, book-lined apartments where the film’s characters enjoy wine and cigarettes, toasting to the pleasures of sophisticated adulthood.

Let those elements aside and consider this story of sentimental education in function and form: For one thing, . For another, consider this particular drama’s focus on complex emotional scales — finding story beats given Hollywood polish in “Jerry Maguire” and “Stepmom” and exploring them with a focus on the characters’ inner lives — flowing naturally from the French literary tradition. “Other People’s Children” leaves no doubt about its parentage.

Holding the screen for all 104 minutes, and using each one to display her apparently limitless range,...

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In what has to be a film festival first, two of the actors in Rebecca Zlotowski’s new drama Other People’s Children, Roschdy Zem and Frederick Wiseman, have their own movies — Zem-directed Our Time and Wiseman’s Un couple — in competition at the Venice Film Festival this year.

It’s Zlotowski’s second trip to the Lido after Planetarium starring Natalie Portman, Emmanuel Salinger and Lily-Rose Depp premiered in Venice in 2016. That opulent period drama, featuring Portman and Depp as a pair of sisters and spiritual mediums touring 1930s France, was a departure for Zlotowski, who won critical praise in France and on the international circuit with her first two features: Belle Epine (2010) and Grand Central (2013), both starring Lea Seydoux.

Other People’s Children features Benedetta star Virginie Efira as Rachel, a 40-something childless school teacher (her gynecologist, played by Wiseman, keeps reminding...