News

Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25 is unmistakably his own. That’s evident in the film’s self-derisive humor, caustic social critique, surreal interventions in everyday situations that are taken to their ridiculous limit, and an intrepid revisiting of history so specific to Romania that it ends up gaining a universal, almost fable-like force.

Jude’s cinema isn’t exactly absurdist, though it exposes the absurdities of a present reeling from the unresolved injustices of the past. In Kontinental ’25, set in the Cluj area of Transylvania, a Hungarian-Romanian bailiff, Orsolya (Eszter Tompa), is guilt-ridden after evicting an older man, penniless due to drinking and gambling, from his basement studio, after months of squatting, which led the man to commit suicide. Though Orsolya feels bad to have kicked the man out, she was just doing her job—and, besides, the man’s unsanitary living quarters needed to be demolished to make...

Rarely one finds a friend on the Criterion Channel—discounting the parasitic relationship we form with filmmakers, I mean—but it’s great seeing their March lineup give light to Sophy Romvari, the <bias>exceptionally talented</bias> filmmaker and curator whose work has perhaps earned comparisons to Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman but charts its own path of history and reflection. It’s a good way to lead into an exceptionally strong month, featuring as it does numerous films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara, newfound cult classic Arrebato, and a number of Criterion editions.

On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.

See the full...

Romanian “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” and “Aferim!” director Radu Jude is back with another shocking and brilliant satire, “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.” This pandemic-era take on society’s awful state won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival this year, and just recently played the New York Film Festival. Next up, it’s set to open in theaters from Magnolia Pictures on November 19. Exclusive to IndieWire, watch the trailer for the film below.

Here’s the synopsis courtesy of Magnolia Pictures: “Emi (Katia Pascariu), a schoolteacher, finds her reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is uploaded onto the internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender. ‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’ is a film in three loosely connected parts: a walk in the city of Bucharest, then a playful essay on obscenities,...

Romanian director Radu Jude, fresh off his Golden Bear win at Berlin with “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” wouldn’t mind trying his hand at “Starship Troopers” next, he revealed during a Karlovy Vary Film Festival talk shared with Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa. Basing it “more on the book than the film,” he said, mentioning Paul Verhoeven’s take, as well as opening up about mixed reactions to his Berlinale triumph in his home country.

“I don’t mind people rejecting the film, but it’s more insidious when they offer ‘explanations.’ ‘Look at his name: Jude. Doesn’t it mean ‘Jew’ in German? Of course, it’s a prize given by Jews,’ ” he shared, referring to hateful comments about his story of a teacher facing a scandal after her sex tape goes viral.

“I’ve made films dealing with Romania’s participation in the Holocaust and the enslavement of the Roma people.

Big World Pictures has picked up Romanian auteur Radu Jude’s “Uppercase Print,” which premiered last year in the Berlinale’s Forum section. The sale was handled by Brussels-based Best Friend Forever. The director’s “Bad Luck Banging” won the 2021 Golden Bear at the Berlinale.

An adaptation of a 2013 play, “Tipografic majuscul” by Romanian playwright Gianina Carbunariu, the film tells the true story of high school student Mugur Călinescu who was arrested in the early 1980s by Romania’s secret police agency for graffiti criticizing the regime of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Jude intercuts contemporaneous footage of advertisements, music videos and propaganda films asserting both the basic wholesomeness and banality of the culture with excerpts from the play showing the repressive mechanisms of the state at work. The effect is both disorienting and devastating.

The film marks the fourth collaboration between Jude and Big World, following “Aferim!” (2015), “Scarred Hearts” (2017) and...

Heretic Outreach has acquired world sales rights to “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” from acclaimed Romanian writer-director Radu Jude, which world premieres in competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Variety can reveal.

Jude’s latest film is the story of a schoolteacher, Emi (Katia Pascariu), whose life is turned upside down after a sex video shot with her husband is leaked on the internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, she refuses to give in, instead confronting the hypocrisy and prejudice behind Romanian society’s attitudes toward sex.

“Bad Luck Banging” is produced by Ada Solomon of Romania’s microFILM, in co-production with Paul Thiltges Distributions (Luxembourg), endorfilm (Czech Republic) and Kinorama (Croatia). Photography is by veteran cinematographer and long-time Jude collaborator Marius Panduru.

In his ninth feature, Jude leverages the hysteria and moral panic around the leaked video to examine “what is obscene and how do we define it.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Cowboys (Anna Kerrigan)

Hearing writer/director Anna Kerrigan talk about the origins of her latest film Cowboys is to understand the love she has for Montana and the way it provides a respite from the noise of city life. With that sense of comfort in nature’s majesty, however, also lies the potential for disconnect where politics are concerned since those who call that state home aren’t always the most diverse or understanding when it comes to lifestyle choices that fall outside the “norms” of their conservative religious worldview. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Kerrigan would seek to bridge that gap creatively. She chose Montana’s...

Eugen Jebeleanu’s debut feature “Poppy Field” has been sold to Missing Films for distribution in German-speaking territories ahead of its world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

The film follows the struggles of a young Romanian policeman Cristi over 24 hours as he tries to find the balance between two parts of his identity: that of a policeman working in a macho environment and that of a closeted gay person.

During a visit by his boyfriend, Hadi, with whom he is involved in a long-distance relationship, Cristi is called to a cinema where an ultra-nationalist, homophobic group has sabotaged the screening of a queer film. When one of the protesters recognizes him and threatens to disclose the secret about his sexuality, Cristi is faced with the danger of losing everything he has.

Although this is Jebeleanu’s first feature film he is an experienced theater director and writer,...

History is a fanged presence in Romanian director Radu Jude’s recent films. Since 2015’s “Aferim!,” in both fiction and nonfiction formats, culminating in the heady tangle of the two approaches that was 2018’s remarkable “I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians,” Jude has interrogated various incidents and epochs in his country’s past, with particularly withering reference to the fog of selective national forgetfulness in which a complicit society can shroud its collective sins.

Berlin title “Uppercase Print” certainly continues this course, projecting those concerns onto the oppressive nature of life in the Ceausescu-blighted early 1980s. But while the film feels closest in kinship to “Barbarians” and dances with similar ideas involving theatricality, re-creation and everyday propaganda (here represented by a fascinating array of clips from contemporary television shows and advertisements culled from Jude’s impressively exhaustive ongoing trawl through the National Television Archives...

The film explores the story of a 16-year-old who protested against the communist regime in 1981. After Aferim!, Scarred Hearts, The Dead Nation and “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians”, Romanian director Radu Jude is strengthening his position as the country’s most dedicated and prolific explorer of the past with Uppercase Print, a film that will premiere in the Forum sidebar of the impending Berlinale (20 February-1 March - see the news). Jude is also present in the Forum sidebar with The Exit of the Trains, a documentary he co-helmed with historian Adrian Cioflâncă. Based on a stage play directed by Gianina Cărbunariu, Uppercase Print is co-written by Jude and Cărbunariu, and delves into events that took place in 1981. Mugur Călinescu, a 16-year-old student from the city of Botoşani, wrote anti-communist messages on the walls of the local headquarters of the Communist Party....

It includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory and Little Joe.

The 46 films recommended for nomination for the 2019 European Film Awards have been announced.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The selection includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Little Joe.

The films were selected by a committee consisting of the Efa board and experts Giorgio Gosetti (festival programmer), Kathrin Kohlstedde (festival programmer), Paz Lazaro (festival programmer), Mary Nazari (exhibitor), Edvinas...

It includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory and Little Joe.

The 46 films recommended for nomination for the 2019 European Film Awards have been announced.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The selection includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Little Joe.

The films were selected by a committee consisting of the Efa board and experts Giorgio Gosetti (festival programmer), Kathrin Kohlstedde (festival programmer), Paz Lazaro (festival programmer), Mary Nazari (exhibitor), Edvinas...

Cluj, Romania–More than a decade after a tide of critically acclaimed and award-winning features announced the arrival of the Romanian New Wave, the Transilvania Film Festival’s annual Romanian Days program continues to offer a vital and wide-ranging survey of the country’s dynamic film industry.

This year’s edition, which kicks off June 6, will present 15 features and 22 short films over the course of three days in Cluj, presenting what Tiff artistic director Mihai Chirilov calls “a recap of the best in Romanian cinema.”

A highlight this year will be the Romanian premiere of “The Whistlers,” which arrives in Cluj on the heels of its world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week. Corneliu Poromboiu’s latest feature is a noir-inspired crime thriller about a Romanian police inspector who gets entangled in a high-stakes heist that takes him to the Spanish island of La Gomera. Chirilov describes it as “a genre film,...

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is known by many as a Cannes catch up fest and for its star-filled tributes, but there is a fantastic competition that takes place with films such as “Zoology” and last year’s winner, “I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians” recently making their debuts. It also ends up as the defacto premiere for a number of nation’s International Film Oscar submissions.

Continue reading New Films Starring Henry Golding & John Turturro Set For Karlovy Vary 2019 at The Playlist.

Big World Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to Radu Jude’s “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians,” which won the Crystal Globe for best film at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival last year, and represented Romania in this year’s Academy Awards competition for foreign-language film.

The sale was handled by Beta Cinema, from which Big World has also acquired Milko Lazarov’s “Ága,” which had its debut as the closing night film at last year’s Berlinale, and has won more than 20 awards worldwide, including best film in Sarajevo, Bulgaria, Cairo, Chukotka, Fajr and Belgrade.

Jude’s film follows a young artist who is planning to reconstruct a historical event from 1941, during which the Romanian Army carried out ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front. Big World described Jude as “one of contemporary Europe’s most distinctive creators,” adding that his pic was...

It won’t exactly be on a par with Oscars nominations morning, but Monday will be one of the biggest December days in the history of the Academy Awards.

That’s because for the first time, the Academy isn’t systematically doling out the short lists of films that remain in contention. Instead, they’re dropping all the lists at once in a single press release that will trim the fields in Best Documentary Feature, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Song and six other categories.

One drop, nine categories, a total of 101 films that’ll get good news and far more that’ll be disappointed.

The strategy of dumping all the Oscars short lists at once has not been greeted with universal approval. For one thing, contenders in the different categories were used to having their individual moments in the spotlight. Music Branch voters, who are facing a pair...

At just around midnight in the capital of Romania, film producer Ada Solomon got a call that threatened the life of her entire movie. Her docu-drama depicting a reenactment of one of the worst atrocities in Romania’s history was going to be shut down by the town’s vice mayor. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

“I had, for one hour and a half, in the middle of [Revolution Square], the most horrible discussion I ever had in my life,” Solomon told TheWrap’s Steve Pond at a Q&A on Thursday following a screening of “I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History as Barbarians,” a film about the 1941 mass murder of tens of thousands of Jews on the Eastern Front by Romanian forces.

“Barbarians,” Romania’s entry into the Oscar foreign film race, follows theater director Mariana (Ioana Iacob) as she prepares a...

The last festival on the fall calendar, AFI Fest, always offers a few late-breaking possible Oscar contenders — including opener “On the Basis of Sex” and closer “Mary, Queen of Scots” — as well as a strong World Cinema line-up packed with foreign-language Oscar submissions.

This year is no exception: Seven possible Best Foreign Language Film Oscar contenders are in the lineup of 28 titles from 27 countries, including Cannes prize-winners “Capernaum”, “Shoplifters” (Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda, Magnolia), and “Dogman” (Italy’s Matteo Garrone, Magnolia), along with Cannes entry “The Wild Pear Tree”, Karlovy Vary Festival winner “I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History as Barbarians” (Romania’s Radu Jude), and two Tiff titles from Spc, “Never Look Away” (Germany’s Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) and “Sunset” (Hungary’s “Son of Saul” Oscar-winner László Nemes).

Also in the lineup are several strong festival titles not submitted by their countries for the Oscars,...

The last festival on the fall calendar, AFI Fest, always offers a few late-breaking possible Oscar contenders — including opener “On the Basis of Sex” and closer “Mary, Queen of Scots” — as well as a strong World Cinema line-up packed with foreign-language Oscar submissions.

This year is no exception: Seven possible Best Foreign Language Film Oscar contenders are in the lineup of 28 titles from 27 countries, including Cannes prize-winners “Capernaum”, “Shoplifters” (Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda, Magnolia), and “Dogman” (Italy’s Matteo Garrone, Magnolia), along with Cannes entry “The Wild Pear Tree”, Karlovy Vary Festival winner “I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History as Barbarians” (Romania’s Radu Jude), and two Tiff titles from Spc, “Never Look Away” (Germany’s Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) and “Sunset” (Hungary’s “Son of Saul” Oscar-winner László Nemes).

Also in the lineup are several strong festival titles not submitted by their countries for the Oscars,...

Selection includes seven foreign-language Oscar submissions.

Nadine Labaki’s Lebanese drama Capernaum and Matteo Garrone’s Italian film Dogman are among seven foreign-language Oscar submissions that will play in the World Cinema section of AFI Fest 2018 presented by Audi.

Festival brass announced on Tuesday (16) 28 titles from 27 countries in its international showcase. The other Oscar submissions are Radu Jude’s I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians (Romania), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away (Germany), Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters (Japan), László Nemes’s Sunset (Hungary), and Nuri Bilge Ceylan...

First-time submissions come from Malawi and Niger as Austrlia and New Zealand join the list.

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for this year’s foreign language film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has revealed, a drop from the record 92 that submitted last year.

Countries submitting films in the category for the first time include Malawi, which has entered Shemu Joyah’s The Road to Sunrise, and Niger, whose submission is Rahmatou Keïta’s The Wedding Ring.

Submissions that had not previously been confirmed include Australian entry Jirga, from director Benjamin Gilmour, and New Zealand contender Yellow Is Forbidden,...

First-time submissions come from Malawi and Niger as Austrlia and New Zealand join the list.

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for this year’s foreign language film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has revealed, a drop from the record 92 that submitted last year.

Countries submitting films in the category for the first time include Malawi, which has entered Shemu Joyah’s The Road to Sunrise, and Niger, whose submission is Rahmatou Keïta’s The Wedding Ring.

Submissions that had not previously been confirmed include Australian entry Jirga, from director Benjamin Gilmour, and New Zealand contender Yellow Is Forbidden,...

Eighty-seven countries have submitted films for consideration in the foreign language category for the 91st Academy Awards.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 22 and the ceremony will be held on Feb. 24 at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre. Malawi and Niger are first-time entrants. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made the announcement on Monday.

High-profile titles include Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” the Mexican entry; Denmark’s “The Guilty”; Germany’s “Never Look Away,” from previous Oscar winner Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters,” the Japanese entry that won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum,” the Cannes jury prize winner from Lebanon; and Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” the Cannes best director prize winner from Poland.

The 2018 submissions are:

Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director;

Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director;

Argentina, “El Ángel,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the official list of submissions for the 2019 Oscar for best foreign language film. There are 87 countries vying for the prize this awards season, including first-time entrants Malawi and Niger. Included among the titles are high-profile contenders such as Mexico’s “Roma” and Poland’s “Cold War,” both of which are vying to break out of the foreign race and earn nominations for best picture, best director, and more.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019. The 91st Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019. Click here to view predictions for the foreign language Oscar race from IndieWire’s awards editor Anne Thompson.

2018 Foreign Oscar Submissions

Afghanistan, “Rona Azim’s Mother,” Jamshid Mahmoudi, director

Algeria, “Until the End of Time,” Yasmine Chouikh, director

Argentina, “El Ángel,” Luis Ortega, director

Armenia, “Spitak,” Alexander Kott, director

Australia, “Jirga,...

Argentina has selected Luis Ortega’s well-received Cannes Film Festival crime drama The Angel (El Angel) as its contender for the Foreign Language Oscar. The film, produced by Pedro Almodóvar, broke box office records in its home country; The Orchard acquired U.S. rights after its Un Certain Regard bow and has set a November 9 theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles for the film before rolling it out nationally.

The pic from Ortega, who directed and co-wrote with Sergio Olguin and Rodolfo Palacios, is a portrait based on Argentina’s real-life serial killer dubbed “The Angel of Death.” The pic picks up the story when Carlitos (Lorenzo Ferro), a 17-year-old with movie star swagger, blond curls and a baby face in 1970s Buenos Aires, meets Ramon (Chino Darín) who embark on a journey of discovery, love and murder. When he is finally caught, the press dubs Carlitos “The...

Italy has chosen Matteo Garrone’s well-received Cannes drama Dogman as its Foreign Language Oscar hopeful.

Marcello Fonte stars as Marcello, a gentle dog groomer who finds himself involved in a dangerous relationship with Simone (Edoardo Pesce), a former violent boxer who terrorizes the entire neighbourhood. In an effort to reaffirm his dignity, Marcello must submit to an unexpected act of vengeance. Fonte won the Best Actor prize at Cannes.

Garrone’s Archimede produced alongside Rai Cinema’s Paolo Del Brocco, Le Pacte’s Jean Labadie, and Recorded Picture Company’s Jeremy Thomas. Magnolia has U.S. rights. Garrone’s previous credits include Gomorrah, Reality and Tale Of Tales, all of which played at Cannes.

Italy has been the most successful country in the Academy’s Foreign Language category, scoring 14 wins and 31 nominations. The country’s last nomination and win in the category came in 2013 with Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty.

Below you will find an index of our coverage from the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) in 2018, as well as our favorite films.Top Picksdaniel KASMANFeatures:1. What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? (Roberto Minervini)2. High Life (Claire Denis)3. Monrovia, Indiana (Frederick Wiseman)4. Green Book (Peter Farrelly)5. aKasha (hajooj kuka)6. Rojo (Benjamin Naishtat)7. Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)8. Belmonte (Federico Veiroj)9. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)10. Hidden Man (Jiang Wen)Shorts:1. Blue (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)2. Arena (Björn Kämmerer)3. Polly One (Kevin Jerome Everson)4. Colophon (Nathaniel Dorsky)5. Please step out of the frame. (Karissa Hahn)6. Wall Unwalled (Lawrence Abu Hamdan)7. Ada Kaleh (Helena Wittmann)8. Alitplano (Malena Szlam)9. Norman Norman (Sophy Romvari)10. Hoarders without Borders, 1.0 (Jodie Mack)Kelley DONG1. "I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians" (Radu Jude)2. High Life (Claire Denis)3. Our Time (Carlos Reygadas)4. Our Body (Han Ka-Ram)5. A Star is Born (Bradley Cooper...

Poland has chosen Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cannes-winning black and white drama Cold War as its Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film.

The well-reviewed story of a fated Polish love affair set across Europe during the late 1950s and early 1960s, is among the favorites for the prize. It is Pawlikowski’s first film since 2014 pic Ida, which won the Foreign Language Oscar. Amazon will release stateside on Dec. 21.

“Cold War — artistically fulfilled, universal story of impossible love, inscribed in the turbulent history of 20th century Poland,” the Polish Oscar Committee stated in a press release. “Pawel Pawlikowski’s film captivates with its performance, excellent acting and unique use of Polish folk music motifs. The previous successes of the film on the international arena will certainly help in further promotional activities.”

Also entering the fray this week are Dante Lam’s blockbuster Operation Red Sea for Hong Kong, Rima Das’s Village Rockstars for India,...

France has selected Emmanuel Finkiel’s Memoir of War as its official selection for the Oscars’ Foreign Language film race. The pic, which Finkiel adapted from Marguerite Duras’ semi-autobiographical 1944 novel set in Nazi-occupied Paris, stars Mélanie Thierry in a story of love, loss, and perseverance against the backdrop of war.

Music Box Films holds U.S. rights to Memoir of War and released it in theaters last month.

The film came out on top on a shortlist that included Gaspar Noé’s Cannes buzz title Climax, the late Claude Lanzmann’s Les Quatre Sœurs, Mademoiselle De Joncquières by Emmanuel Mouret, and Xavier Legrand’s Jusqu’à La Garde. The choice was finalized today by France’s National Film Center (Cnc), which said the film, known in France as La Douleur (The Pain), has seen 350,00 submissions in French theaters.

The plot centers on Duras (Thierry) who is is an active...

Updated with additional release date info: Gustav Möller’s The Guilty, which won this year’s Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Audience Award, has been selected by Denmark as the country’s official entry into the Oscar Foreign Language Film race.

The thriller, Möller’s directorial debut, was acquired by Magnolia Pictures in Park City and is hitting U.S. theaters October 19 in 25 markets. It next screens at Fantastic Fest which launches today.

The film centers on a police officer (Jakob Cedergren), who, when demoted to desk work, expects a sleepy beat as an emergency dispatcher. That changes when he answers a panicked phone call from a kidnapped woman who then disconnects abruptly. Confined to the police station, he is forced to use others as his eyes and ears as the severity of the crime slowly becomes more clear, with all the action set in his single location.

Denmark has...

Nadine Labaki’s critical hit Capernaum, which was snapped up by Sony Classics in May, has been selected as Lebanon’s Foreign Language Oscar submission.

The Cannes Jury Prize winner, directed by Nadine Labaki, focuses on a 12-year-old boy in a fictitious Middle Eastern village who sues his parents for bringing him into a world of such suffering. The film features mostly non-professional actors. This year, The Insult by Ziad Doueiri won Lebanon’s first ever Academy Award nomination.

Also entering the Foreign Language race this week have been Brazil, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Thailand and Indonesia. Below is the full list of submissions to date.

2019 Foreign Language Film Oscar Submissions Algeria – Until The End Of Time – Yasmine Chouikh Austria – The Waldheim Waltz – Ruth Beckermann Belarus – Crystal Swan – Darya Zhuk Belgium – Girl – Lukas Dhont Bolivia – Muralla – Rodrigo Patiño Bosnia – Never Leave Me – Aida Begic Brazil – The Great Mystical Circus – Carlos Diegues...

A strong showcase of German cinema was on offer at the Toronto Film Festival with a slew of films tackling such timely issues as sexual violence, the plight of refugees, the end of the Soviet Union and Germany’s recent turbulent history.

This year’s selections included works from such prominent names as Werner Herzog, Margarethe von Trotta, Christian Petzold, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Sven Taddicken.

In Herzog and André Singer’s doc “Meeting Gorbachev,” the prolific filmmakers offer a portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, and his lasting impact on world politics.

In “Searching for Ingmar Bergman,” which also unspools in the Tiff Docs sidebar, von Trotta explores the Swedish director’s cinematic legacy.

Von Donnersmarck, who won the foreign-language film Oscar for 2006’s “The Lives of Others,” revisits East Germany in “Never Look Away,” which follows the life of an artist struggling...

Titles include Ash Is Purest White and Burning.

Turkey’s Adana Film Festival (September 22-30) has revealed its International Competition titles and jury.

The nine-strong line-up, all Turkish premieres, includes Cannes competition titles Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke) and Burning (Lee Chang-Dong), Karlovy Vary winner I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History As Barbarians (Radu Jude) and Olivier Assayas’ Venice competition title Non-Fiction.

It also includes the Turkish premiere of Mahmut Fazil Coskun’s The Announcement, which won a special jury prize in the Horizons section at Venice Film Festival this month and is also in the festival’s National Competition.

With the Toronto International Film Festival concluding today and Telluride, Venice, and Locarno in the rearview, the first phase of fall film festivals have concluded. Ahead of the New York Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, AFI Fest, and more we’ve rounded up our favorite films seen over the past month or so, resulting in a selection of premieres to have on your radar.

Stay tuned over the next months (or years) as we bring updates on films as they make their way to screens. One can also click here for a link to all of our festival coverage, including news, trailers, reviews, and much more. As always, thanks for reading, and let us know what you’re most looking forward to in the comments below. Also, for a more substantial look at what’s coming to theaters this season, check out our fall preview, which also includes titles from Cannes,...

No surprise here, but Mexico just selected Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma from Netflix as its official submission for the Foreign Language Film Oscar.

After its launch in the fall festival space, Roma has been on fire, collecting the Golden Lion at Venice. Cuarón’s memoir to his homeland reportedly also played in a cinema down in Mexico City during August to qualify. Netflix is working to give Roma a theatrical release in Dolby Atmos, the format the director prefers. Deadline heard that qualifying theatrical run will start December 14 in select cities.

Much like how Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon received love throughout all Oscar categories outside of foreign language, it would come as no surprise to see the same here for Roma.

Cuarón produced, wrote, directed and shot the black-and-white pic about his memories growing up in Mexico City. In 2014, he became the first Mexico-born filmmaker...

Russia, Hungary and Paraguay have selected their Foreign Language Oscar hopefuls.

Hungary has chosen Venice Film Festival Competition drama Sunset from director Laszlo Nemes who won the Foreign Language Oscar in 2016 for Son Of Saul. Sony Classics handles Sunset, which is set in Budapest on the brink of World War I.

Juli Jakab (Son Of Saul) stars as a young woman orphaned at an early age, who arrives in the city looking for work at a successful hat store that used to belong to her parents. Repelled by the new owner, she becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding her long-lost brother.

Meanwhile, Russia has selected Sobibor as its choice in the category. Konstantin Khabensky’s World War II film is based on the true story of an uprising in the Sobibor Nazi extermination camp in 1943, led by Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky. The pic was released in Russia in May, taking...

Lee Chang-dong’s drama Burning has been selected by South Korea as its submission for the Foreign Language Oscar race this year. Burning made its debut at Cannes in May where it won the Fipresci. It’s also headed for Toronto, Fantastic Fest and the New York Film Festival.

The film, loosely based on Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, features Korean-American actor Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) in his first starring role in a local pic. It’s an examination of an alienated young man, Jongsu (Yoo Ah-In), a frustrated introvert whose already difficult life is complicated by the appearance of two people into his orbit: first, Haemi (newcomer Jeon Jong-seo), a spirited woman who offers romantic possibility, and then, Ben (Yeun), a wealthy and sophisticated young man she returns from a trip with. When Jongsu learns of Ben’s mysterious hobby and Haemi suddenly disappears, his confusion and obsessions begin to mount,...

The festival programme includes a tribute to director Agnès Varda.

Haifa International Film Festival has unveiled the opening and closing night films, as well as a series of other additions to the programme, for its 34th edition (September 22 - October 1).

The festival will open with The Other Story, directed by Ari Nesher and starring Sasson Gabai, Joy Rieger, Yuval Segal, Maya Dagan and Nathan Goshen.

Co-written by Nesher and psychologist Noam Shpancer, the film follows a young secular woman who decides to get engaged to a hedonistic musician now living as an ultra-Orthodox Jew. This causes her divorced parents and...

Romania has selected "I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians" ("Îmi este indiferent dacă în istorie vom intra ca barbari"), directed by Radu Jude, for best foreign-language film Oscar consideration.

Named after the words that sanctioned a brutal large-scale massacre on Europe's Eastern Front in 1941, an event that some historians later signposted as a precursor to the Holocaust, "I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians" offers a commentary on the events of World War II with a setting in the present.

"Its ...

Romania has selected "I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians" ("Îmi este indiferent dacă în istorie vom intra ca barbari"), directed by Radu Jude, for best foreign-language film Oscar consideration.

Named after the words that sanctioned a brutal large-scale massacre on Europe's Eastern Front in 1941, an event that some historians later signposted as a precursor to the Holocaust, "I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians" offers a commentary on the events of World War II with a setting in the present.

"Its ...

Birds of Passage, a sprawling epic about the erosion of tradition in pursuit of material wealth, has been selected as Colombia’s official entry for the Foreign Language Film Oscar race, distributor The Orchard said today.

The film is directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra — the respective producer and director of 2015’s Embrace of the Serpent, the first Colombian film ever to be nominated for an Oscar. Birds of Passage premiered as the opening-night selection of the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in May.

Tracing the origins of the Colombian drug trade as it slowly corrupts a native Wayúu family, Birds of Passage stars Jose Acosta, Carmiña Martínez and Natalia Reyes (the upcoming Terminator reboot). The film will screen at the Toronto Film Festival is set for release by The Orchard on Wednesday, February 13th in New York and Los Angeles, with a national rollout to follow.

“We are incredibly...

Japan has selected Hirokazu Kore-eda’s family drama and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters as its submission for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar category. The story of a family of small-time crooks who take in a child they find on the streets has been a box office winner at home, becoming the acclaimed director’s biggest title at local turnstiles having grossed over $39M.

The film has also scored in China where it recently became the highest grossing live-action Japanese movie ever in the market at $13.5M.

Kore-eda previously repped his home country with 2004’s Nobody Knows which did not make the shortlist. Japan bypassed his 2013 Cannes Jury Prize winner Like Father, Like Son which many believed should have been that year’s submission. Shoplifters‘ recent run has not been without controversy following speculation that Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe isn’t a fan and...

Belgium has selected Lukas Dhont’s debut feature, Girl, as its submission for this year’s Foreign Language Oscar race. The drama won the Camera d’Or in Cannes for best first film, and also scored the Best Performance nod in the Un Certain Regard section for lead Victor Polster. Netflix acquired Girl for North and Latin America out of the festival.

Polster plays Lara, a determined 15-year-old committed to becoming a professional ballerina. With the support of her father, she throws herself into the quest. But her adolescent frustrations and impatience are heightened as she realizes her body does not bend so easily to the strict discipline, because she was born a boy.

Dhont let the cat out of the bag to Le Soir that the Flemish title will screen at next weekend’s Telluride Film Festival before heading to Toronto. “In the next two weeks, we’ll have...

Brady Corbet’s “Vox Lux,” with Natalie Portman and Jude Law, and Neil Jordan’s “Greta,” with Chloe Grace Moretz and Isabelle Huppert, are among almost 50 films that have been added to the lineup of the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, Tiff organizers announced on Tuesday.

The two films have been added to the Special Presentations program, with “Greta” having its world premiere at Tiff and “Vox Lux” its Canadian premiere.

“Greta” features Moretz as a young woman in New York who befriends a widow who turns out to have sinister intentions; “Vox Lux” is a musical drama that encompasses the life of a woman who achieves success after a tragic childhood.

Also Read: Natalie Portman Is an Aspiring Pop Star in First-Look at Brady Corbet's 'Vox Lux' (Photo)

Toronto also announced its Discovery program, which is devoted to up-and-coming filmmakers. The 46 films in the lineup come from 37 different countries,...

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree, which premiered this year in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, was selected as Turkey’s submission into this year’s Foreign Language Film Oscar race. It marks the fifth film from Ceylan chosen to rep the country, and the first since 2014’s Winter Sleep which won Cannes’ Palme d’Or.

Local media reports said 12 films were in the running for the slot and Pear Tree was chosen among film professionals and Culture and Tourism Ministry officials. The 91st Oscars are set for February 24, 2019. Cinema Guild has U.S. rights to the film and plans a 2019 release.

The Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Agaci) center son Sinan (Aydin Doğu Demirkol), an aspiring writer, who returns home after university hoping to scrape together enough money to publish his first novel, but his ambition is slowed by the gambling past of his father (Murat Cemcir...

Estonia has selected drama “Take It or Leave It” as its submission for the Oscar for best foreign-language film – the third time in five years that the country has put forward a movie from producer Ivo Felt, whose 2014 “Tangerines” received Estonia’s only Academy Award nomination.

“Take It or Leave It” beat six other contenders under consideration by a selection committee led by Edith Sepp, CEO of the Estonian Film Institute, which announced the selection Thursday. Five members of the seven-person panel picked “Take It or Leave It” as their choice for submission to the Academy.

Director Liina Triškina-Vanhatalo’s film tackles themes of responsibility, single parenthood and economic inequality. It tells the story of a 30-year-old construction worker who suddenly finds himself a single parent when his ex-girlfriend, whom he hasn’t seen for six months, has a baby girl and informs him that she’ll put the child...

The 2018 Toronto International Film Festival has rounded out its slate of gala premieres in what is looking like a very strong filmmaker-driven slate. Here are all the new additions.

Galas 2018

Green Book Peter Farrelly | USA World Premiere

Closing Night Film — Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy Justin Kelly | Canada/USA/United Kingdom World Premiere

The Lie Veena Sud | Canada World Premiere

Opening Night Film — Outlaw King David Mackenzie | USA/United Kingdom World Premiere

Special Presentations 2018

22 July Paul Greengrass | Norway/Iceland North American Premiere

American Woman Jake Scott | USA World Premiere

Baby ( Bao Bei Er ) Liu Jie | China World Premiere

Boy Erased Joel Edgerton | USA International Premiere

Driven Nick Hamm | Puerto Rico/United Kingdom/USA North American Premiere

Duelles (Mothers’ Instinct) Olivier Masset-Depasse | Belgium/France World Premiere

A Faithful Man ( L’homme fidèle ) Louis Garrel | France World Premiere

Gloria Bell Sebastián Lelio | USA/Chile World Premiere

Hold the Dark Jeremy Saulnier | USA World Premiere...

Titles include Anja Kofmel’s feature debut ’Chris The Swiss’.

Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 10-17) has announced the programme for its Dealing With The Past selection, with titles including Romania’s 2018 foreign language Oscar entry I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians.

Dealing With The Past showcases films that tackle difficult events from recent history in the former Yugoslavia. Subjects include unsolved war crimes, ethnic hatred and resurgent nationalism.

This year’s programme has expanded to include experiences from Romania and Slovakia, with a timespan from the Second World War to the 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia.

Radu Jude’s “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” has been chosen as Romania’s entry for the Oscars’ foreign-language film race. The film won the Crystal Globe for best film at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Central and Eastern Europe’s leading movie event.

Set in present-day Romania, the film centers on a stage director, played by Ioana Iacob, delivering a riveting performance, who is preparing to stage a historical re-enactment of an episode from the Holocaust: the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews by Romanian troops in Odessa. (The title is an actual quote from a Romanian government minister in 1941.) The director battles against official unease about the allegedly unpatriotic nature of the play, the trivialization of such horrific historical events, and a revival of nationalistic fervor in the country.

Variety critic Jessica Kiang wrote: “Jude’s extraordinary opus can be...

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) concluded its 53rd edition on July 7th, and with it a solid line-up of both Western and Eastern European fare. Romanian director Radu Jude (Aferim!) won the Grand Prix for his darkly comedic past-meets-present holocaust drama I Do Not Care if We Go Down in History as Barbarians, and Barry Levinson won the Audience Award for Rain Man — a film that gave him the Oscar for Best Picture in 1989. The 76-year-old director was also honored with the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema. Before discussing the film and industry […]...