News

In today’s Global Bulletin, Sky Cinema’s “The Amazing Maurice” rounds out its voice cast; the BFI launches a U.S. streaming platform for British cinema and renews its Bursary Award partnership with Iwc Schaffhausen; and the Göteborg Film Festival announces funding for films from four territories where freedom of speech and expression are seen as being under threat.

Casting

David Tennant (“Good Omens”), Ariyon Bakare (“His Dark Materials”) and Rob Brydon (“The Trip”) will join previously announced stars Emilia Clarke and Hugh Laurie in voicing characters for “The Amazing Maurice,” a feature-length animated adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s “Diskworld” book “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.” Julie Atherton (“Avenue Q”) and YouTuber Joe Sugg fill out the previously announced cast including David Thewlis, Himesh Patel, Gemma Arterton and Hugh Bonneville.

Set to launch on Sky Cinema and streaming service Now next year, “The Amazing Maurice” is co-produced by Sky,...

The United Kingdom is home to some of the world’s most acclaimed and influential filmmakers, but there have been surprisingly few ways for American film fans to stream the best of the country’s cinema in recent years.

That’s something that the British Film Institute aims to change via BFI Player Classics, the organization’s upcoming American streaming service. BFI Player Classics, which launches on May 14 and will cost $5.99 per month, will offer consumers a library of over 200 British films from a range of genres and filmmakers. Though BFI Player Classics is launching in an incredibly crowded industry that doesn’t lack for specialization — established streaming services such as BritBox and Acorn TV are exclusively focused on British programming — the platform’s highly-curated library and singular focus on well-received British films could cause it to stand out from competing streaming services.

Robin Baker, BFI’s head curator, noted...

If you’ve been jealous of those across the pond that get access to The British Film Institute’s streaming service BFI Player Classics, one will be delighted to hear it’s now coming to the United States. Launching on May 14, the curated collection––which will have offering distinct from its UK counterpart––will kick off with over 200 British or British co-production films picked by BFI experts.

With work by legendary directors Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell, Ken Russell, and Ken Loach, it also includes a number of ground-breaking British filmmakers who deserve more attention, including Horace Ové, Laura Mulvey, Ron Peck; Menelik Shabazz, Sally Potter, Gurinder Chadha (I’m British But… 1989), Waris Hussein, and John Akomfrah.

“BFI Player Classics brings together a collection of British films – the cinematic DNA of the UK – that is essential for anyone who wants to see and understand the best of British film,” said Robin Baker,...

BFI Player Classics includes Alexander Mackendrick’s The Ladykillers (1955), Ken Russell’s feature debut French Dressing (1963).

The British Film Institute will launch BFI Player Classics as a stand-alone streaming service in the US featuring a curated roster of classic UK cinema on May 14.

The platform arrives with more than 200 UK or UK co-productions picked by BFI experts, and includes work from as Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell, Ken Russell, and Ken Loach.

BFI Player Classics includes titles like Alexander Mackendrick’s The Ladykillers (1955), Russell’s feature debut French Dressing (1963), and Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol (1948).

Films not currently available across...

During a three-hour discussion on a recent episode of “The Empire Film Podcast,” Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino revealed the existence of their makeshift quarantine movie club over the last 9 months. As Wright explained, “It’s nice. We’ve kept in touch in a sort of way that cinephiles do. It’s been one of the very few blessings of this [pandemic], the chance to disappear down a rabbit hole with the hours indoors that we have.” Tarantino added, “Edgar is more social than I am. It’s a big deal that I’ve been talking to him these past 9 months.”

A bulk of the film club was curated by none other than Martin Scorsese, who sent Wright a recommendation list of nearly 50 British films that Scorsese considers personal favorites. In the five months Wright spent in lockdown before resuming production on “Last Night in Soho” — and before he received the...

Exclusive: OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has lined up two new unscripted series for fall — Put A Ring On It, from Ready For Love producers Will Packer and Lighthearted Entertainment, and Behind Every Man, from Carlos King and Kingdom Reign Entertainment — and is expanding its unscripted programming roster to two nights, Friday and Saturday, beginning in October.

Saturday has been OWN’s night for original unscripted programming since 2012. The expansion will convert Friday night, where the cable network had been airing acquired programming, including newsmagazines like 48 Hours and 20/20 and movies, into a second night of unscripted originals.

The new schedule begins Friday, October 23 with a new season of Packer’s Ready To Love dating show at 9 Pm Et/Pt. Appropriate for the coronavirus era, season 2 will follow singles looking for lasting love while quarantined together at a secluded mountain resort. The series premiere of Packer’s Put A Ring...

A True Original: Alberto Cavalcanti is showing from September 9 – October 12, 2018 in the United States.Champagne CharlieIf Dickensian fiction story of Nicholas Nickleby were to be filmed today, he’d be a young man incessantly searching Craigslist and wondering what college education is really good for. At least that’s the impression one gets watching Alberto Cavalcanti’s lively adaptation, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947), which perfectly captures the angst of urban youth fitted with stellar education and plenty desire for work, but dire economic prospects—an apt topic both today and at a time when Cavalcanti made his British fiction films, during and immediately after the Second World War.In his native Brazil, Cavalcanti has been celebrated for his avant-garde modernist films, including his debut, Nothing But Time (1926), and his collaboration with Walter Ruttman on Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927), which serves as an important reference in the...