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“Phantom Thread” star Vicky Krieps is deepening her onscreen presence with a haunting ghost story, “Went Up the Hill.” Titled after the nursery song (the lead characters are Jack and Jill), the feature centers on Krieps’ character, who for the first time meets her stepson after Krieps loses her wife to suicide. In her grief, the two each become possessed by the spirit of Krieps’ dead wife.

The intense trailer, which you can watch below, sums up the premise with the tagline, “Three Souls. Two Bodies.” The official synopsis reads: “Abandoned as a child, Jack (Dacre Montgomery) travels to remote New Zealand to attend the funeral of his estranged mother Elizabeth. There he meets her widow, Jill (Krieps), who has questions of her own. Over the nights that follow, Elizabeth returns and possesses Jack and Jill, using each of their bodies to speak to the other. Jill faces Elizabeth’s suicide,...

A specific release date has not yet been announced for the film, but The Hollywood Reporter has revealed the news that Greenwich Entertainment has picked up the North American distribution rights to the psychological drama/ghost story Went Up the Hill, which stars Dacre Montgomery of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things and Vicky Krieps of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread and M. Night Shyamalan’s Old. Went Up the Hill will receive a theatrical release sometime next summer.

Written and directed by Samuel Van Grinsven, who previously made the 2019 thriller Sequin in a Blue Room, Went Up the Hill sees Montgomery taking on the role of Jack, a man abandoned as a child who travels to remote New Zealand to attend the funeral of his estranged mother Elizabeth. There he meets her widow, Jill (Krieps), whose relationship with his mother was less than peaceful. Over a series of nights,...

Greenwich Entertainment has picked up North American rights to Went Up The Hill, a psychological drama/ghost story from New Zealand director Samuel Van Grinsven (Sequin in a Blue Room) with Stranger Things actor Dacre Montgomery and Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Old).

Montgomery plays Jack, a man abandoned as a child who travels to remote New Zealand to attend the funeral of his estranged mother Elizabeth. There he meets her widow, Jill (Krieps), whose relationship with his mother was less than peaceful. Over a series of nights, the ghost of Elizabeth returns to possess Jack and Jill in turn, using each of their bodies to speak to the other. Caught in a life-threatening nocturnal dance, Jack and Jill must find a way to relinquish Elizabeth’s hold before she pushes them to the edge.

Went Up the Hill premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, where it wowed Hollywood Reporter critic Caryn James,...

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American distribution rights to Went Up The Hill directed by Samuel Van Grinsven (Sequin in a Blue Room).

The Pop Film and Causeway Films production stars Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) and Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things).

Pic had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and Greenwich will release the film in theaters next summer.

The synopsis reads: “Abandoned as a child, Jack (Dacre Montgomery) travels to remote New Zealand to attend the funeral of his estranged mother Elizabeth. There he meets her widow, Jill (Vicky Krieps), who has questions of her own. Over the nights that follow, Elizabeth returns and possesses Jack and Jill, using each of their bodies to speak to the other. Caught in a life-threatening nocturnal dance, Jack and Jill must find a way to relinquish Elizabeth’s hold before she pushes them to the edge.”

The psychological drama...

Writer-director Samuel Van Grinsven says that his new film “Went Up the Hill” was inspired by a single image of two people in a room, a coffin between them, both equally mourning the person inside, but knowing next to nothing about one another.

His film, which debuts this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, sees a young man, Jack (Dacre Montgomery), travel to a remote part of New Zealand to attend the funeral of his estranged mother. There he meets her grieving widow, Jill (Vicky Krieps). But his mother’s spirit returns, inhabiting both of their bodies to speak to the other one and instigating a threatening three-way nocturnal dance.

The film is financed with principal production investment from the New Zealand Film Commission and Screen Australia with support from Screen CanterburyNZ, Create Nsw, Spectrum Films, Stage 23, Rm Sound, Head Gear Films, Fulcrum Media Finance and the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Grant.

Hot Hosts Head For Hota

Australian actor Rebel Wilson has been named as the emcee of the 2024 edition of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) awards. Wilson will take to the stage on Saturday, Feb. 10.

Two days earlier, on Feb. 8, singer and actor Harry Connick Jr. will be the host of the Aacta Industry Awards. Both hosts will be joined by some of the industry’s most dynamic stars presenting at the ceremonies. And both ceremonies, presented by Foxtel Group, will be held at the Home of the Arts (Hota) on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Shorts To Features

Writer-director-actor Alice Englert, producer Jodi Matterson, director David Michôd, and producer Jamie Hilton, will be among the speakers at Flickerlab 2024 on Thursday. Pitched as a one-day journey from shorts to features, the Bondi, New South Wales-located event is backed by the Australian Film Television and Radio School (Aftrs...

Parkland Pictures, Bankside Films and WME handle international sales on four awarded features.

Screen Australia has selected four features to receive production funding in its latest round of awards including a 1930s-set romantic comedy inspired by Australia’s first female commercial pilot.

The titles are Little Bird, directed by Darren Ashton; Samuel Van Grinsven’s thriller Went Up The Hill; Jon Bell’s psychological horror The Moogai; and Marcelle Lunam’s romantic comedy Addition.

The government agency has approved 8.2m (AU12m) to be shared among the features as well as three TV dramas and two children’s projects.

UK-based...

We never learn the name of the main character in Samuel Van Grinsven’s fearless queer debut, “Sequin in a Blue Room.” Anonymous is just the way he likes it. Using a gay cruising app, he goes by the handle “Sequin,” seeking casual, no-strings sex from strangers. Once the hookup’s complete, he blocks the other party, so they can’t contact him again. And then he goes searching for his next thrill.

A redheaded twink who meets his trysts in a sparkling silver club top, Sequin is just 16, but he knows what he wants — or at least he thinks he does. Such confidence can be disarming, since most kids haven’t figured themselves out yet at that age, which makes them easy prey for more experienced partners. But Sequin seems to intuit the power that youth and beauty confer upon someone in his position, and this single-minded young man...

To mark the release of Sequin in a Blue Room on 17th May, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

Samuel Van Grinsven’s stylish debut feature is an uncompromising exploration of sex in a cyber space. Powerfully intense and visually stunning, this bold and energetic coming-of-age tale features a breakout performance from Conor Leach, who plays Sequin. The film won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the Sydney Film Festival and has played to wide acclaim around the world, including Outfest and Toronto International Film Festival.

Sequin in a Blue Room is the story of Sequin, who is exploring his burgeoning sexuality through an obsession with anonymous, no-strings sexual encounters. That is until he finds his way into The Blue Room – a strictly anonymous, limitless sex party – where a whole new, alluring world unfolds before him. There, Sequin connects with a captivating stranger, but they are separated suddenly.

Samuel van Grinsven’s impressive graduation project is a gay coming-of-age tale that ripples with sexual energy

Boldly declaring itself a “homosexual film”, Sequin in a Blue Room is neither coy nor moralistic about online gay hookup culture. The apps have a toxic side, yes, but the film also acutely understands the heady, tactile pleasure of casual sex. Despite the thriller aesthetics, Sequin in a Blue Room is at its heart a coming-of-age tale in a digital world filled with instant sexual gratifications and perilous risks.

The film is, in one word, hot; rippling with an electrifying sexual energy. The anonymity is key. Even the 16-year-old protagonist, played by Conor Leach, has no name. He is known only as Sequin, a display name on a hookup app where he procures no-strings sex from much older men. With cut-glass cheekbones, Sequin is striking and arrogantly cocksure of the power attached to such assets.

Second features from directors Natalie Erika James (Relic) and Samuel Van Grinsven (Sequin in a Blue Room) are among the 28 projects to recently share in $1 million worth of development funding from Screen Australia.

The agency announced the funding recipients today, with money going towards seven features, 16 TV drama and five online projects.

These are the first projects to be announced for the 2020-21 financial year, from both the Premium and Generate funds.

Projects funded via Premium Plus, the additional development funding allocation Screen Australia launched to support the industry through Covid-19, are expected to be announced later today.

Screen Australia head of development Nerida Moore said: “It’s great to see producers thinking globally and developing unique stories for Australian audiences and the world. We’re excited to support these original story ideas, many with distinct storyworlds and fantastic comedic imaginations that I’m confident will resonate. We’re also...

‘Sequin in a Blue Room’ (Photo credit: Nicholas Gascoine).

Writer-director Samuel Van Grinsven’s Sequin in a Blue Room is set to premiere in major overseas markets, a big achievement for the film he made as his graduate project in the Master of Arts Screen program at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (Aftrs) in 2018.

The US and UK rights to the queer coming-of-age tale produced by Aftrs graduate Sophie Hattch have been acquired by Peccadillo Pictures, a UK-based distributor of art house, gay and lesbian, independent and world cinema.

On-demand firm Salzgeber bought the film for German-speaking markets while Optimale has the rights in French-speaking territories.

Last year it won the best narrative feature in the Sydney Film Festival audience awards and it screened at Miff and the Mardi Gras Film Festival,

Starring Conor Leach in his film debut, Simon Croker, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor and Anthony Brandon Wong,...

Sequin In A Blue Room

The full line-up for this year's Iris Prize festival in Cardiff was announced today, with documentary Changing The Game, which follows several young trans athletes, set to headline. The line-up will include 14 feature films and an extensive selection of shorts including Oscar-nominated lesbian drama Marguerite. It will be followed by the annual prize-giving ceremony, with screenwriter Russell T Davies returning to presented the awards.

Highlights of the festival include acclaimed feature debut Sequin In A Blue Room, about a teenager's attempts at no-strings dating, and The Archivettes, which tells the story of New York's Lesbian Herstory Archives. Guests scheduled to attend include Mark Blane, who wrote, directed and starred in Cubby, and Billie And Emma director Samantha Lee.

"We’ve managed to fit a lot into our six days," said festival director Berwyn Rowlands, expressing particular enthusiasm about the festival's documentary strand.

The festival runs from 8 to 13 Oct.

Time spent in a modern war zone can be traumatic for participant and observer alike, yet across continents and cultures, the shared experiences of living and loving in the wake of such experiences can be startlingly similar. This is multi-faceted and overarching theme woven throughout Ben Lawrence’s sensitive and affecting new Australian drama “Hearts and Bones,” an impressive narrative feature debut from the winner of last year’s Sydney Film Festival documentary prize for “Ghosthunter.”

Lawrence’s thoughtful drama also casts an illuminating light on the current hot-button issue of immigrants to Australia and their place in the social fabric, specifically in the Western Sydney suburbs in which it is filmed. The film’s second-place finish in the narrative section of the fest’s audience award (behind Samuel Van Grinsven’s “Sequin in a Blue Room”) suggests it struck a chord with traditionally partisan Aussie audiences, and with proper handling,...

‘Sequin in A Blue Room’.

Sydney Film Festival announced its audience awards today, with best narrative feature awarded to Samuel Van Grinsven’s Sequin in a Blue Room and best documentary to Selina Miles’ Martha: A Picture Story – both Aussie films.

Sequin in a Blue Room, a queer coming-of-age story, is Van Grinsven’s debut feature, completed as part of an Aftrs Masters project and produced by Sophie Hattch. It stars Conor Leach in his film debut, alongside Jeremy Lindsay Taylor and Anthony Brandon Wong.

Martha: A Picture Story, documents the life and work of NYC photo journalist Martha Cooper. It is the first full length documentary film from Miles, and was executive produced by Jennifer Peedom and and produced by Daniel Joyce.

Two other Australian films – Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones and Imogen McCluskey’s microbudget debut Suburban Wildlife – were also voted in the top five narrative films,...