News

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

When “Unseen” director Yoko Okumura was growing up as a Japanese-American in Minneapolis, the idea of being a director felt completely anathema to her. “Directing was the farthest thing from my mind. My imagination couldn’t go there,” Okumura told TheWrap. “It’s not like I ever saw a Scorsese film and was like, ‘I could be him someday.’ Nobody who looked like me did this job.”

Okumura has used that lack of representation in cinema to cultivate a career as a filmmaker determined to change the paradigm. And it’s paying off, considering she will be making her feature-length directorial debut for Blumhouse with “Unseen,” an intense thriller about Emily, who is kidnapped by her obsessive boyfriend and held captive in the woods. With her glasses smashed in an altercation with her captor, Emily blindly makes a phone call that connects her to a stranger named Sam who might...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Oscar-winning director Laura Poitras will be guest of honor at the 35th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), running from November 9 to 20.

Poitras is currently on a packed festival tour with All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, which won the Golden Lion in Venice and is now an awards season contender. After Venice, the title screened in Toronto and has dates set for New York and the BFI London Film Festival.

As guest of honor at IDFA, Poitras will be feted with a retrospective and has also been given carte blanche to curate 10 films that have influenced her work and shaped her view of the world.

Her Top 10 selections include Steve McQueen’s Hunger, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s This is Not A Film, Frederick Wiseman’s Titicut Follies and Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah.

As part of the sidebar, Poitras will also conduct on-stage conversations with a number of the selected filmmakers.

In Andrew Legge’s feature debut ‘Lola’ you don’t have to time-travel in order to see the future. Two sisters create a machine that can intercept broadcasts from the forthcoming decades: It’s 1941 and they can already listen to Bowie. But World War II soon puts their invention to a much more sinister use.

Following its Locarno bow, black-and-white ‘Lola’ will be shown at the Edinburgh Intl. Film Festival. A Cowtown Pictures production, it was co-produced by ie ie productions. Bankside Films is handling international sales.

Legge played with a similar concept in his short “The Chronoscope,” but there was one significant difference, says the Irish director.

“The machine was similar, but it looked into the past. Which is interesting too, but you are just getting the information. I changed it to the future because I felt it gave me more options.”

Despite staying put, the sisters – played by...

Kevin Bacon joined Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show for a segment called “First Drafts of Rock,” which saw the pair performing an alternate version of Tears for Fears’ 1985 song “Head Over Heels.”

Standing in for Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, complete with ’80s haircuts, Bacon and Fallon showcased the supposed “first draft” of the New Wave song. While the original tune opens with “I wanted to be with you alone / and talk about the weather,” this version takes the discussion of the weather to the next level.

“Got a...

Une histoire d’amour et de désir

It’s been five years since French-Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid (daughter of director Nouri Bouzid) premiered her 2015 debut As I Open My Eyes. She should be all set with sophomore title Une histoire d’amour et de désir (A Story of Love and Desire) in 2020, produced by Sandra da Fonseca. Sami Outalbali and Zbeida Belhajamor will star. As I Open My Eyes premiered in Venice Days at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, winning the audience award and Label Europa Cinemas award. Cnc backed the project.

Gist: Bouzid’s sophomore film details the sexual awakening of Ahmed, a young French man of Algerian origins.…...

We're getting welcomed to the Land of Lola as we look back at the second season of the hit web series Turning the Tables Check out this episode to see as Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award winner Billy Porter gets some help in the audition room creating a more masculine Lola from Kinky Boots thanks to Ellyn Marie Marsh, Andrew Briedis, Andrew Chappelle, and Julia Mattison...

Riding the wave of its debut in the number one spot, Nickelodeon has greenlit a second season of Blue’s Clues & You with host Josh Dela Cruz and the lovable titular puppy Blue.

Blue’s Clues & You premiered on November 11 and in its first week, it became the number one preschool show, psting strong gains during its premiere week up +38% with K2-5 over prior four weeks and +34% among total viewers. With its strong debut, Nickelodeon is set to bring it back with new episodes continuing to air weekdays.

The second season of Blue’s Clues & You will have Josh and Blue taking on brand-new adventures with friends old and new. The new season will also feature special appearances by Steve (Steve Burns), Joe (Donovan Patton), and Josh’s Lola (Carolyn Fe) — his grandmother — along with even more singing and dancing, exploration, celebration, and of course clues that empower preschoolers to help their friends.

Turnpike Troubadours frontman Evan Felker and singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez come together to sing the new song “Whiskey in Your Water” for Bruce Robison’s Next Waltz. A video shows the pair performing the track in the studio with Robison’s Next Waltz house band.

With dusty rock & roll charm to spare, the strummy tune sees Felker singing about a pair of lovers that have to stay on the run for reasons not entirely clear. They’re an unpredictable duo, but there’s an unmistakable optimism about what they’ll find...

In a new edition of “First Drafts of Rock,” Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Bacon have revised The Clash’s 1982 hit “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” In the segment, which has previously included versions of “American Woman” and “Free Fallin’,” the pair dress up as the punk band to perform their take on the song on vocals and guitar.

In this version the lyrics are slightly more simplistic, with Fallon (as Joe Strummer) crooning, “If I stay I will be here/ But if I go I won’t be...

The nineties had plenty of epic and amazing films come out of the decade. A second Terminator, a new Star Wars prequel trilogy got started, anti-heroes like Leon became so prominent that guys like Snake Plissken could return. Before he was murdering Russians for killing his dog, Keanu Reeves was stopping mad bombers on a bus and jumping in and out of computers fighting evil AI. Elizabeth Berkeley tried to break out of her Saved By The Bell typecasting to disastrous results and we finally got to see New York cop John McClane actually work a case in New York!

Related: Jurassic Park: 10 Facts Fans didn’t Know About Isla Nublar

The last decade of the 20th century was filled with all sorts of good movies. Some experimental movies played with time, like Go or Run, Lola, Run. We got to meet Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino...

Jason Momoa is celebrating Father's Day with a short film about achieving his dreams of building a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with his children: Lola, 11, and Nakoa-Wolf, 10. The eight-minute clip, titled Where the Wild Stomped In, features the 39-year-old actor enlisting his kids - whom he shares with wife Lisa Bonet - and close community friends to help him construct the bike, which he now calls his "family heirloom."

"It's just really my story. It's something that's very dear for me. And just being able to do that with my children . . . I never really grew up with that," he says in the video. "I was from a single mother who taught me many, many, many things but I didn't grow up with a father-figure who I was wrenching on cars with." He goes on to share that "the biggest thing I'm trying to do for my children is just let them have their imagination,...

Andreas Dresen’s biopic wins six prizes from 10 nominations.

Andreas Dresen’s biopic Gundermann was the big winner at this year’s German Film Awards, taking home six Lolas at the weekend’s gala in Berlin after receiving a record 10 nominations.

The production by Pandora Film Produktion and Kineo Filmproduktion received the evening’s top award, the Lola in Gold for best feature film, as well as the Lolas for best director (Dresen), screenplay (Laila Stieler), lead actor (Alexander Scheer), production design (Susanne Hopf) and costume design (Sabine Greunig).

Accepting his Lola for best director - his third win in...

For auteurists in New York there can hardly be a better series playing right now than "Trilogies" at Film Forum: a four-week extravaganza of 78 films comprising 26 mini director retrospectives from Angelopoulos to Wenders and 24 other auteurs in between. Many of the groupings in the series are actual sequential trilogies, like Kobayashi’s The Human Condition or Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, while others more loosely stretch the term, such as Lucrecia Martel’s "Salta Trilogy" or Hou Hsiao-hsien’s "Coming of Age Trilogy," very welcome though those are.Very few of the trilogies in the series, however, have posters that were conceived as trios themselves, the French posters for Kieslowski’s Three Colors, above, and Albert Dubout’s cartoony designs for Marcel Pagnol’s Marseilles Trilogy being the major exceptions. There are two terrific matching posters by Jan Lenica for the first two films in Mark Donskoy's Maxim Gorky Trilogy,...

The Criterion Collection has announced its July titles, with Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Brd Trilogy — “The Marriage of Maria Braun,” “Veronika Voss,” and “Lola” — leading the new additions. Also joining the Collection are Agniezka Holland’s “Europa Europa,” Alan J. Pakula’s “Klute,” Marcel Pagnol’s “The Baker’s Wife,” and Michael Radford’s adaptation of “1984,” with Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” getting upgraded from DVD to Blu-ray.

The news comes just a week after Criterion’s streaming service, the aptly named Criterion Channel, went live in the wake of FilmStruck’s closure late last year. “These audiences do need hubs,” the company’s president, Peter Becker, told IndieWire last week.

“If you’re lucky enough to live in a city like New York, which has hubs like the Film Forum and the Metrograph and Lincoln Center, then you actually have living, breathing, every-night film culture with great...

SeryozhaAlong with Eldar Ryazanov and Leonid Gaidai, Georgiy Daneliya, now 88, is one of the greatest comic filmmakers of the Soviet era. He describes his own genre as “sad comedy,”expertly balancing a warmhearted approach to characterization with a certain melancholy undertow. Yet, with his work never distributed outside of the Eastern Bloc, except for Finland, and in the case of Kin-dza-dza! (1986), Japan, he is more deserving than any other Soviet director of critical reappraisal. Soviet comedies in general, and Daneliya's comedies in particular, are often characterized by a certain naïveté, yet a simplicity in approach shouldn’t be confused with simple-mindedness. Instead, like in an Yasujiro Ozu movie, this plainness becomes a style in itself, a way of strengthening a story though seeming to do less. Slyly subverting the demands of a state-run studio system, this naïve approach allowed Daneliya's complex characterizations to nest themselves matryoshka doll-like inside superficially straightforward stories.

Many filmmakers have taught me how to look at the world, but Agnès Varda is teaching me how to age. She died this week at the age of 90, leaving behind an example we should all strive to meet as we get on in years.

One of the legendary filmmakers who made up the Nouvelle Vague, France’s influential cinematic New Wave of the 1960s, she continually embraced life and a changing world, even after losing her beloved husband and fellow New Wave icon, Jacques Demy, in 1990. In the years when one might have expected her to grow more home-bound, perhaps venturing forth to publish a memoir or pick up the occasional award, she instead continued to plunge into the ever-changing technology of cinema.

As a filmmaker, she constantly experimented with digital cameras and editing, never afraid to step into the arena of the young and always open to completely upending...

Michel Legrand, three-time Oscar winner and composer of such classic film songs as “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “I Will Wait for You,” “You Must Believe in Spring” and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?,” along with the groundbreaking musical score for “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” has died. He was 86.

Legrand died at his home early Saturday in Paris, his publicist told Agence France-Presse. His wife, French actress Macha Meril, was at his side.

His most recent film score was “The Other Side of the Wind,” composed for Orson Welles’ last film, which was finally completed and released in 2018. Decades ago, after their 1974 collaboration on “F for Fake,” the legendary director had asked for another Legrand jazz score. “I take it as a gift from Orson, through the clouds,” he said early last year.

The Paris-born Legrand was active in all musical fields, composing classical works, stage musicals,...

Tony Sokol Jan 2, 2019

Bob Einstein, Curb Your Enthusiam's Marty Funkhouser and Albert Brooks' older brother, was part of TV comedy history.

Comedy veteran Bob Einstein, who wrote for the controversial The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour but is best known for his turn as Marty Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm, died at age 76 following a recent cancer diagnosis, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Einstein’s death was confirmed his younger brother, Albert Brooks. “R.I.P. My dear brother Bob Einstein. A great brother, father and husband. A brilliantly funny man. You will be missed forever,” posted on Twitter.

"Very sad," Curb Your Enthusiasm writer David Mandel tweeted. "Got to work with him on #Curb. Had heard he was sick. Will never forget him telling @jerryseinfeld the dirty joke about the newlyweds." Costar, actor and comedian Richard Lewis also eulogized on social media.

Since making his debut in season 4, Einstein...

Bob Einstein, a two-time Emmy winner who has recurred on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm since its launch and created the wacky Super Dave Osborne character, died today in Indian Wells, CA. He was 76 and recently had been diagnosed with cancer.

Best known to today’s viewers for playing the serious, often surly but always hilarious Marty Funkhouser on Curb, Einstein was a foil for its creator-star Larry David. He appeared in nearly two dozen episodes of the series dating from 2004 to the most recent season.

Einstein’s younger brother, actor-director Albert Brooks, tweeted today, “R.I.P. My dear brother Bob Einstein. A great brother, father and husband. A brilliantly funny man. You will be missed forever.”

A comedian’s comedian, Einstein first made his name as a writer. His career dates to the 1960s, when he won his first Emmy as part of the writing team for The...

In Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei’s paranoid thriller “Cam,” an erotic webcam performer finds her followers stolen by a doppelganger who hijacks her channel, pushes the sexual envelope farther, and otherwise seems determined to destroy her life. Call it identity theft of a sexy, possibly supernatural kind.

There’s not much depth to this low-budget but resourcefully flashy enterprise, which is hyperactive in presentation to the brink of being grating. Nor is there much (if any) satisfactory resolution to the central mystery. But the combination of a sex-worker milieu, suspense mechanics and speed-of-the-internet pace should appeal to genre fans looking for something different — but not too different — from the norm. It certainly worked for Fantasia jurors, who gave the film their best screenplay and first feature prizes, and Netflix buyers, who acquired “Cam” from the Montreal-based genre fest.

In her all-pink home “studio,” Alice aka “Lola” (Madeline Brewer from...

Ray Davies set the rock world aflutter late in June when he casually seemed to say that the Kinks were getting back together — and then characteristically undercut his comment by saying they’d be reuniting at the pub. Mark Goodman and Alan Light of SiriusXM’s “Debatable” grilled Davies on the subject today, asking him directly whether the famously fractious group, helmed by Ray and his younger brother Dave since 1963, are actually sorting out their differences and getting back together for the first time since 1996 — and as he’d said, reuniting with founding drummer Mick Avory for the first time since the early 1980s.

“We’ve got nothing to sort out — we’ll never get on!” Davies replied, referencing Dave and Avory. “But if we acknowledge that, we can make good music, because [Dave] is an outstanding guitar player. I still love winding [Dave] up,” he laughed. “I tried winding Gary up,...

In characteristically whimsical fashion, Kinks frontman Ray Davies told the BBC Monday that the group will be getting back together to record a new album after more than 20 years apart — although he seemed to hedge his bets by taking a call from drummer Mick Avory during the interview and saying he would see him in the pub later, then quipping: “The Kinks are getting back together…in the pub at least.”

However, Davies, 74, said during the interview with Channel 4 News (watch the video below) that he was “making a new Kinks album” with brother Dave Davies and Mick Avory.

“We’ve been talking about it because I’ve got all these songs that I wrote, then the band — not broke up, we parted company — and I think it’s kind of an appropriate time to do it.” A rep for Davies had no further information on a Kinks reunion.

Way back in 1980 it seems “Weird Al Yankovic” had a premonition. Having recently seen “The Empire Strikes Back,” he penned a song from the point of view of protagonist Luke Skywalker as Luke embarks on his training with the Jedi Master known as Yoda. The song, “Yoda” was a parody of The Kinks’ song “Lola” Al eventually released in 1985 after a long struggle to get permission both from Lucas and The Kinks to do the parody The song details Luke’s experiences on Dagobah in the movie, honing his Force skills. The song replaces the original’s depiction of a...

Prince Charles has a secret talent.

According to his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who celebrates her 70th birthday today, the royal is a “brilliant mimic,” with a knack for voices. And he regularly breaks this skill out in front of her grandchildren (his step-grandchildren), Gus, Louis, Eliza, Lola and Freddy (the children of her own children, Tom and Laura).

When the five children visit the royal couple at Birkhall, their home in Scotland, Charles will read Harry Potter to them before they go to bed, putting on voices for each of the different characters, she told the Daily Mail.

The Last Emperor composers David Byrne and Ryuichi Sakamoto had a Forbidden Colors conversation at the Quad Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the Quad Cinema - Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise; Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell To Earth; Mitchell Leisen's Hold Back The Dawn; Elia Kazan's America, America; Werner Herzog's Stroszek; Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In America, Slava Tsukerman's Liquid Sky with Anne Carlisle become Immigrant Songs. Retrospectives for Goldie Hawn, Frank Perry & Eleanor Perry, Bertrand Tavernier and Ryuichi Sakamoto; a Rainer Werner Fassbinder Lola First Encounter with Sandra Bernhard, Jean-Luc Godard's King Lear and a drop of Nathan Silver's Thirst Street come up in my conversation with Director of Programming C Mason Wells.

Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor at China: Through The Looking Glass Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Grandmaster director Wong Kar Wai chose a clip from...

To keep it indie 100 for a minute and hopefully not sound too obscure, if indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry was to Roman Polanski what his paranoiac feature “Queen Of Earth” was to Polanski’s “The Tenant,” then director Nathan Silver is to Rainer Werner Fassbinder what “Thirst Street” is to the German New Wave director’s “Lola.” Plus, well, throw in a little additional devilish Polanski for good measure, too.

Continue reading Lindsay Burdge Sparkles In The Delicious Psycho Sexual Thriller ‘Thirst Street’ [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach have First Encounters at the Quad Cinema Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Quad Cinema in New York reopens in grand style this Friday, April 14 with theatrical releases of Katell Quillévéré's Heal The Living (Réparer Les vivants), Terence Davies' A Quiet Passion and Maura Axelrod's Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back. Amy Heckerling will introduce Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Settebellezze) in the career retrospective for the great filmmaker Lina Wertmüller: Female Trouble.

Manchester By The Sea director Kenneth Lonergan first views Edward Yang's Yi Yi Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

First Encounters kicks off this Saturday with Greta Gerwig's first viewing of David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Jeffrey Deitch chooses Da Pennebaker's Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, John Turturro picks Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, Noah Baumbach nails Bruce Robinson's Withnail And I, Sandra Bernhard views Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lola, and...

Noah Baumbach has never seen “Withnail and I.” Kenneth Lonergan has always wanted to see “Yi Yi.” Sandra Bernhard hasn’t had the chance to catch “Lola.” As part of New York City’s Quad Cinema’s newly announced “First Encounters” screening series, they (and more creative types) are going to finally remedy that — and they’d like you to join them.

The newly revamped four-screen theater — set to reopen in less than in a month — has announced the first lineup of their newest series, which sees notable New Yorkers (helped by programmers Christopher Wells and Gavin Smith) picking a film they’ve never seen (but have always wanted to) to show on the big screen, complete with a post-showing Q&A with the rest of audience.

Check out the first official lineup for First Encounters below, with descriptions and other information provided by Quad Cinema.

Read More: New York...

The Criterion Collection has announced its slate for January, 2017, with offerings from Howard Hawks (“His Girl Friday”), Rainer Werner Fassbender (“Fox and His Friends”), Jack Garfein (“Something Wild”), and Ousmane Sembène (“Black Girl”). Check out the covers for the films below as well as synopses provided by the Criterion Collection. For more information on the special features and technical specs of each of these films, visit the Criterion Collection website.

Read More: The Criterion Collection Announces December Titles: ‘Heart of a Dog,’ ‘The Exterminating Angel’ and More

“His Girl Friday” (Available January 10)

One of the fastest, funniest, and most quotable films ever made, “His Girl Friday” stars Rosalind Russell as reporter Hildy Johnson, a standout among cinema’s powerful women. Hildy is matched in force only by her conniving but charismatic editor and ex-husband, Walter Burns (played by the peerless Cary Grant), who dangles the chance for her to scoop...

Nazi hunter thriller wins best film at the annual ‘Lolas’.

Lars Kraume’s Nazi hunter thriller, The People Vs. Fritz Bauer, won six Lola statuettes at this year’s German Film Awards after being tipped as the evening’s hot ticket with nine nominations.

The co-production between Berlin’s zero one film and Cologne-based Terz Film picked up the evening’s top award - the Lola in Gold for Best Film - as well as the statuettes for Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Ronald Zehrfeld), Best Production Design (Cora Pratz), and Best Costume Design (Esther Walz).

Accepting the Gold statuette from the hands of Germany’s State Minister for Culture and Media Monika Grütters, producer Thomas Kufus dedicated the award to the memory of Fritz Bauer.

Kurth knocks out Klaußner

While many thought that it was foregone conclusion that Burghart Klaußner would take the Lola home for his portrayal of the state prosecutor Fritz Bauer, nobody...

Now in its 26th year, Washington Jewish Film Festival (February 24 – March 6) explores gender, migration, the supernatural, Arab citizens of Israel, artists’ lives, and Lgbtq themes. In addition to the groundbreaking lineup of films, the Festival will host talkbacks and panel discussions with over 50 domestic and international filmmaker guests. The Festival is one of the region’s preeminent showcases for international and independent cinema.

A project of the Washington D.C. Jewish Community Center (Dcjcc), the Washington Jewish Film Festival (Wjff) is the largest Jewish cultural event in the greater Washington, D.C. area. This year’s Festival includes 69 films and over 150 screenings at the AFI Silver Theatre, the Avalon Theatre, Bethesda Row Cinema, E Street Cinema, the Jcc of Greater Washington, the National Gallery of Art, West End Cinema, and the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at the Dcjcc.

“We are excited to present our most ambitious Festival yet,” said Ilya Tovbis, Director of the Washington Jewish Film Festival. “The Washington Jewish Film Festival is a highlight on our city’s cultural calendar. This has been a banner year for original cinematic visions hitting the screen. It is a genuine pleasure to share this crop of bold, independent, film voices that have been garnering praise at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and elsewhere, with DC audiences. This year’s Festival simultaneously challenges and expands on our understanding of Jewish identity.”

The lineup includes new and classic films, encompassing a wide range of Jewish perspectives from the United States, Israel, Europe, Asia, and Africa. While the Festival touches a broad set of themes, this year’s lineup offers two programmatic focuses – one on the lives of artists (“Re-framing the Artists”) and the other on Lgbtq individuals (“Rated Lgbtq”). “Reframing the Artist” features an in-depth exploration of artists’ lives, accomplishments, and inspiration. The seven-film “Rated Lgbtq” series explores sexuality, gender, and identity on screen.

The Festival will also engage attendees with off-screen programming including “Story District Presents: God Loves You? True Stories about Faith and Sexuality,” an evening of true stories presented in partnership with Story District, and the 6th Annual Community Education Day on Arab Citizens of Israel. Kicked off by a screening of "Women in Sink," this day features in-depth conversations with Reem Younis, co-founder of Nazareth-based global high-tech company Alpha Omega, and Tziona Koenig-Yair, Israel’s first Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner.

A full Festival schedule can be found at www.wjff.org . Select highlights are included below:

Opening Night: "Baba Joon"

Opening Night features Israel’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award®, "Baba Joon," a tender tale of a generational divide and the immigrant experience. Yitzhak (Navid Negahban of Showtime’s Emmy Award-winning original series “Homeland”) runs the turkey farm his father built after they emigrated from Iran to Israel.

When his son Moti turns 13, Yitzhak teaches him the trade in hopes that he will take over the family business — but Moti’s dreams lie elsewhere. The arrival of an uncle from America further ratchets up the tension and the family’s tight bonds are put to the test. Opening Night will be held at the AFI Silver Theatre on Wednesday, February 24 at 6:30 p.m. The Opening Night Party, with DirectorYuval Delshad, will be held at the Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza immediately following the screening.

Closing Night : "A Tale of Love and Darkness"

Closing Night centers on Academy Award®-winning actress Natalie Portman in her debut as a director (and screenwriter) in a hauntingly beautiful adaptation of Amos Oz’s best-selling memoir, "A Tale of Love and Darkness." In this dream-like tale, Portman inhabits Fania—Oz’s mother—who brings up her son in Jerusalem during the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. Dissatisfied with her marriage, and disoriented by the foreign land surrounding her, Fania escapes into elaborate, fanciful stories of make-believe — bringing her adoring, wide-eyed son along. Closing Night will be held at the Dcjcc on Sunday, March 6 at 6:45 p.m. Followed by a Closing Night Reception and the Audience Award Ceremony.

Wjff Visionary Award Presented to Armin Mueller-Stahl

The Wjff’s Annual Visionary Award recognizes creativity and insight in presenting the full diversity of the Jewish experience through moving image. The 2016 honoree is Armin Mueller-Stahl, who will join us for a special extended Q&A and the presentation of the Wjff Visionary Award. The award will be presented alongside a screening of Barry Levinson’s 1990 film "Avalon," an evocative, nostalgic film that celebrates the virtues of family life. “Avalon” begins with Jewish immigrant Sam Krichinsky (portrayed by Armin Mueller-Stahl) arriving in America on July 4th. He settles in Baltimore with his brothers and raises a family. Director Barry Levinson traces various transitions within the Krichinsky family and conveys his appreciation for the anxieties that afflict the suburban middle-class – and multiple generations of immigrants in particular.

Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German actor, painter, writer and musician. He began acting in East Berlin in 1950, winning the Gdr State Prize for his film work. By 1977, however, he was blacklisted by the communist regime due to his persistent activism in protesting government suppression of the arts. After relocating to the West in 1980, he starred in groundbreaking independent European films, such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Lola” and “Veronika Voss” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Angry Harvest.” He gained major recognition stateside with two radically different characterizations: an aging Nazi war criminal in Costa-Gavras’ “The Music Box” and Jewish grandpa Sam Krischinsky in Barry Levinson’s “Avalon.” He went on to earn an Oscar® nomination for his role in Scott Hicks’ Shine and appeared in such varied work as “Eastern Promises,” “The Game,” “The West Wing,” “The X Files” and “Knight of Cups.”

The Wjff Visionary Award program will take place at the AFI Silver Theatre on Thursday, March 3 at 6:45 p.m.

Spotlight Evening:

Compared to What? The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank

A polarizing, revolutionary, effective and a most-singular figure in American politics, Barney Frank shaped the debate around progressive values and gay rights in the U.S. Congress for over 40 years. A fresh and contemporary political drama with unparalleled access to one of Congress’ first openly gay Representatives and easily one of the most captivating public figures in recent memory.

Born Jewish, and a longtime friend to the Jewish community and supporter of Israel, Frank is refreshingly honest, likeable and passionate – a beacon of statesmanship that politicians and citizens alike, can look to for inspiration.

Screenings will take place on Tuesday, March 1st at the Avalon Theatre at 6:15 p.m. and Wednesday, March 2 at the Dcjcc at 6:15 p.m. Both screenings followed by a discussion with Barney Frank, husband Jim Ready and filmmakers Sheila Canavan and Michael Chandler.

Spotlight Evening:

Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei: Music From Max Fleischer Cartoons

Celebrating the release of the titular album—on Silver Spring-based label Cuneiform—legendary guitarist Gary Lucas joins forces with Tony®-nominated singer and actress Sarah Stiles (Q Street,Hand to God) for a loving musical tribute to the swinging, jazzy soundtracks that adorned master animator Max Fleischer’s surreal, wacky and Yiddish-inflected "Betty Boop" and "Popeye" cartoons of the 1930’s.

Backed by the cartoons themselves, and the cream of NYC’s jazz performers (Jeff Lederer on reeds, Michael Bates on bass, Rob Garcia on drums and Mingus Big Band’s Joe Fiedler on trombone), Lucas and Stiles have a rare evening in store. Get ready for a swirling melting-pot of jungle-band jazz, Tin Pan Alley torch songs, raucous vaudeville turns, and Dixieland mixed with a pinch of Klezmer.

This event will take place at AFI Silver Theatre on Saturday, March 5 at 8:30 p.m.

Additional Films of Note

The Wjff will present the mid-Atlantic premiere of "Barash." In the film, seventeen-year-old Naama Barash enjoys drugs, alcohol and hanging out with like-minded friends. Her activities are an escape from a strained home life where her parents fight and her rebellious, army-enrolled sister wreaks havoc by dating a Palestinian before going Awol all together. As her parents fret about their older daughter’s disappearance, Naama meets a wild girl in school and discovers the intoxicating rush of first love. “Barash” will be screened three times during the festival, on February 27 at 8:45 p.m. at E Street Cinema, on March 2 at 8:45 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre and on March 3 at 6:15 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema.

"Black Jews: The Roots of the Olive Tree" will have its World Premiere at Wjff. The documentary offers a fascinating exploration of African tribes with Jewish roots – in Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon. Some claim to be descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes; others believe their ancestors were Jews who immigrated from Judea to Yemen. Far from a dry archaeological account, the film focuses on the modern-day personal and institutional practice of Judaism throughout Africa, as well as of recent African immigrants in Israel. This film will be screened on March 2 at 6:45 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and on March 3 at 6:30 p.m. at E Street Cinema.

The mid-Atlantic premiere of "Demon," from director Marcin Wrona, features a chilling, modern interpretation of the Dybbuk legend. Piotr’s joy at visiting his bride-to-be at her Polish home is quickly upended by his discovery of human bones on the property. Since his future father-in-law plans to gift the newlyweds the land, Piotr at first overlooks this ominous find. The disturbed spirit inhabiting these remains isn’t willing to let him off so easily however. Marcin Wrona’s wickedly sharp and creepy story of possession is set against a bacchanal celebration of blissful union. “Demon” will be screened on February 25th at 8:45 p.m. at E Street Cinema and on March 1 at 9:15 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre.

From Spain, the mid-Atlantic premiere of "Dirty Wolves" is a WWII thriller imbued with notes of magical realism. Director Simón Casal works in the Wolfram (aka tungsten) mines in rural Galicia. A ruthless Nazi brigade, intent on harvesting the rare metal to feed the Third Reich’s war machine, has captured the mines. When Manuela’s sister helps a Jewish prisoner cross the border to Portugal, they are unwittingly forced into a desperate test, which puts their survival squarely at odds with their sense of justice. “Dirty Wolves” will be screened on February 27 at 6:15 p.m. at West End Cinema, on March 1 at 8:45 p.m. at the Avalon Theatre and on March 2 at 6:45 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre.

In "The Hebrew Superhero," directors Saul Betser and Asaf Galay examine how Israelis long shunned comics as something on the cultural fringe – they were deemed childish, trivial and, perhaps most cuttingly, un-Israeli. Shaul Betser and Asaf Galay (“The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer”) outline the medium’s origins, tracing its evolution from quirky upstart to an indelible reflection on the various forms of Israeli heroes. Featuring gorgeous animation and interviews with Daniella London Dekel, Etgar Keret and Dudu Geva, Wjff is presenting the mid-Atlantic premiere of this documentary, which will be screened on February 25 at 7:15 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre, March 1 at 6:30 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and March 3 at 8:30 p.m. at E Street Cinema.

Simone Veil’s intrepid fight to legalize abortion in France is brilliantly brought to life in "The Law." In 1974, Veil was charged with decriminalizing abortion and easing access to contraceptives. Facing strong opposition from politicians, an enraged public and the Catholic Church, Veil— an Auschwitz survivor—refused to give up. Fighting for justice amidst a swirl of anti-Semitic sentiment, sexism and personal attacks, her perseverance struck at the heart of national bigotry in a rallying cry for a woman’s right to choose. Wjff will present the D.C. premiere of this French film. It will be screened on February 25 at 8:15 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema, on February 29 at 8:45 p.m. at E Street Cinema and on March 5 at 4:45 p.m. at the Dcjcc.

At 90, Miriam Beerman is a survivor. This groundbreaking artist and Potomac, Maryland resident has overcome personal tragedy to inspire friends, family, peers, patrons and students about how to remain defiant, creative and strong. Miriam has struggled with her artistic demons to create haunting images that evoke the suffering of generations of victims. "Miriam Beerman: Expressing the Chaosis" a memorable profile of an artist who has elevated her empathy for the plight of the world’s cast-offs into powerful portrayals of dignity. The Wjff is hosting the mid-Atlantic premiere of this documentary. Screenings will take place on March 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and March 3 at 6:15 p.m. at the Dcjcc.

Author and director David Bezmozgis brings his film "Natasha" to Wjff for its D.C. premiere. Adapting his prize-winning story collection,Natasha and Other Stories, to screen, Bezmogis delivers a tragic story of young love. Sixteen-year-old Mark Berman, the son of Latvian-Jewish immigrants, wiles away his hours reading Nietzsche, smoking pot and watching porn. His slacker lifestyle is upended when a 14-year-old hurricane, named Natasha, enters the picture. Drawn to her reckless ways and whispers of her promiscuous past, Mark enters an illicit romance with calamitous consequences. Screenings will take place on February 28 at 5:00 p.m. at West End Cinema, March 3 at 8:30 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and March 5 at 6:15 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre.

If you believe the fastest way to the heart is through the stomach, "In Search of Israeli Cuisine" offers a delectable, eye-popping culinary journey through Israel is your personal valentine. Weaving through bustling markets, restaurants, kitchens and farms, we meet cooks, vintners and cheese makers drawn from the wide gamut of cultures making up Israel today — Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian and Druze. With James Beard award-winning chef Michael Solomonov as your guide, get ready for a cinematic buffet that’s humorous, heady, and of course, delicious! Wjff will be showing the mid-Atlantic premiere of this new documentary. Screenings will take place on February 28 at 5:15 p.m. at E Street Cinema, March 1 at 8:15 p.m. at Bethesda Row Cinema and March 4 at 12:30 p.m. at the Dcjcc.

A complete festival schedule can be found online at www.wjff.org...

German actor to receive Lifetime Achievement Award.

German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl is to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival (Sept 24-Oct 4).

Following the award ceremony, Mueller-Stahl will present Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth at the Arthouse Le Paris cinema on Sept 28.

Mueller-Stahl is one of the few German actors of distinction whose careers have spanned East Germany, West Germany and Hollywood. His most noteworthy films include Lola (1981), Oberst Redl (1985), Momo (1986), Music Box (1989), Night On Earth (1991), Das Geisterhaus (1993) and Shine (1996).

Zff co-directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri said: “We are proud to welcome 84-year-old Armin Mueller-Stahl as our guest to this year’s festival. He is, in our opinion, one of the most important German actors of all time. His skills as a polyglot performer oscillating effortlessly between stage and screen, Germany and the USA, have more than earned him this award.”

Raised in the German Democratic Republic (Gdr) and initially trained as a concert...

Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria was the big winner at this year’s German Film Awards, taking home six statuettes from its seven nominations including the Golden Lolas for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Lead Actor.

Schipper’s one-shot thriller set during a breathless night on the streets of Berlin also picked up Lolas for the Spanish actress Laia Costa, the title character, and the Danish cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen.

Victoria premiered in the Berlinale’s main competition last February where Grøvlen received a Silver Bear, was released in German cinemas on 11 June and is being handled internationally by The Match Factory.

The Silver Lola for Best Film was awarded by the members of the German Film Academy to Edward Berger’s social-realist drama Jack, with the Bronze Lola going to Johannes Naber’s black comedy Age Of Cannibals which deservedly also received the Lola for Best Screenplay for the searing dialogues by the author Stefan Weigl.

Both...

Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Above: Rainer Werner Fassbinder would have turned 70 this week. Can you imagine how many films unfilmed he would have made between 1982, when he died, and now? At his Movie Poster of the Day Tumblr, Adrian Curry has found a fantastic poster for Fassbinder's 1981 film, Lola.fxguide has a terrific exploration of the computer effects used in George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road.Above: Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard. From our Tumblr.New York's essential BAMcinamFest, running June 17 - 28, has announced its 2015 lineup, which features such Notebook favorites as Queen of Earth, Stinking Heaven, and Counting, as well as several premieres including a new short film by our friend and contributor C. Mason Wells.Film Comment's Nicholas Rapold has interviewed with Apichatpong Weerasethakul about Cemetery of Splendour, the best film in Cannes this year.

Back in May, the Film Society of Lincoln Center presented the first part of the most complete retrospective of work by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in New York in over a decade. Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist (Part 2) is now running through November 26 and we're collecting reviews and video related to Despair, In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden, Die Ehe der Maria Braun, Die dritte Generation, Lili Marleen, Lola, Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss, Querelle and many more. » - David Hudson...

Back in May, the Film Society of Lincoln Center presented the first part of the most complete retrospective of work by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in New York in over a decade. Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist (Part 2) is now running through November 26 and we're collecting reviews and video related to Despair, In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden, Die Ehe der Maria Braun, Die dritte Generation, Lili Marleen, Lola, Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss, Querelle and many more. » - David Hudson...

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Germany, 1974

The tragically brief filmmaking career of Rainer Werner Fassbinder consists of great quantities, varying qualities, and an insatiable artistic vigor. With more than 40 completed works in less than 20 years, Fassbinder was a dynamo of creativity. He fluctuated in and out of any number of generic constructs, experimented with a variety of formal devices, and told an eclectic assortment of stories. With so many great films to his credit, it’s hard for any one movie to lay claim as his finest achievement. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, his second of four films released in 1974, is one that puts up a good fight though. At the very least, it certainly ranks among Fassbinder’s most purely charming and emotionally effectual.

“Happiness is not always fun” declares an opening title, and as Ali progresses from there, the path of...

Above: Pedro Costa's Horse Money

The Locarno Film Festival has announced their lineup for the 67th edition, taking place this August between the 6th and 16th. It speaks for itself, but, um, wow...

"Every film festival, be it small or large, claims to offer, if not an account of the state of things, then an updated map of the art form and the world it seeks to represent. This cartography should show both the major routes and the byways, along with essential places to visit and those that are more unusual. The Festival del film Locarno is no exception to the rule, and I think that looking through the program you will be able to distinguish the route map for this edition." — Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director

Above: Matías Piñeiro's The Princess of France

Concorso Internazionale (Official Competition)

A Blast (Syllas Tzoumerkas, Greece/Germany/Netherlands)

Alive (Jungbum Park, South Korea)

Horse Money (Pedro Costa,...

The line-up for this year's Film4 FrightFest in London has just been announced – and boy, is it a doozy! Sporting a record-breaking 38 UK/European premieres and 11 world premieres, this August is going to be an exciting time in the genre calendar.

Check it all out right here, including lots of new images!

This year Film4 FrightFest will be moving from its previous home at Leicester Square's Empire Cinema to the nearby Vue Cinema (also on Leicester Square), prompting an ingenious reshuffle of the screening arrangements.

All main screen films will be presented at different times across three different screens, with two extra screens reserved for single-slot screenings of the various films hitting this year's Discovery Screens.

Here's the full list of goodies:

Main Screens (5, 6, 7)

Thursday Aug 21

Opening Night Film - The Guest (UK Premiere)

Director: Adam Wingard. Cast: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, Sheila Kelley, Leland Orser. USA 2014. 99 mins.

Film4 FrightFest 2014, returning for its 15th year, unveils its biggest line-up ever. From Thurs 21 August to Monday 25 August, the UK’s leading event for genre fans will be at the Vue West End, Leicester Square, to present sixty-four films plus twenty shorts across five screens. There are sixteen countries representing five continents with a record-breaking thirty-eight UK or European premieres and eleven world premieres.

Are you ready for a monstrous and memorable mayhem of killer claws, cannibalism, cult classics, murderous musicals, chiller thrillers, graphic novel action and sick celluloid masterpieces? Then prepare yourself for the biggest, strongest and most eclectic must-see programme in Film4 FrightFest’s history.

From the opening night turbo-driven thrill-ride The Guest to the UK premiere of the closing night mesmeric sci-fi fantasy The Signal, FrightFest has netted the latest works from genre big-hitters such as Eli Roth (The Green Inferno), Alan Moore and Mitch Jenkins (Show...

Hovering around the twenty-one to twenty-four feature film mark with at least a quarter of those films belonging to first time filmmakers, the Quinzaine des Realisateurs (a.k.a Directors’ Fortnight) has in the past couple of years, counted on a healthy supply of French, Spanish and Belgium produced film items, and has been geared towards the offbeat genre items as with last year’s edition curated by Edouard Waintrop and co. To be unveiled on the 22nd, as we attempted with our Critics’ Week predix, Blake Williams, Nicholas Bell and I (Eric Lavallee) are thinking out loud and hedging our bets on what the section might look like or what the programmers might be looking at for 2014. Here is our predictions overview:

Alleluia

Six years after presenting Vinyan at the Venice Film Festival, Fabrice Du Welz finally returns with potentially not one, but a pair of works for the ’14 campaign.

Every year, we here at Sound On Sight celebrate the month of October with 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles. I’ve also decided to publish each post backwards this time for one reason: the new additions appear lower on my list, whereas my top 50 haven’t changed much, except for maybe in ranking. I am including documentaries, short films and mini series, only as special mentions – along with a few features that can qualify as horror, but barely do.

****

Special Mention:

Häxan

Directed by Benjamin Christensen

Denmark / Sweden, 1922

Häxan (a.k.a The Witches or Witchcraft Through The Ages) is a 1922 silent documentary about the history of witchcraft,...

News.

One of our favorite journals has begun to unveil its fourth edition ("Walks"): Lola. Online now are a handful of pieces comprising a dossier on Brian De Palma. More articles are on the way! The Seventh Art, in addition to releasing their latest issue (which features interviews with Christopher Doyle and Xavier Dolan among others), have started up a subscription service for premium access to lengthy interviews. We don't usually draw attention to the Criterion Collection's release schedule because it is so consistently awesome, but perhaps this set, amidst a jam-packed December slate, is particularly notable:

Finds.

You may have noticed the incredible crop of short films in "Venezia 70 – Future Reloaded", a project commissioned by the Biennale in celebration of its 70th year wherein "70 movie directors from all over the world have been invited to make a short film lasting between 60 and 90 seconds, in total creative freedom." For our "Finds" section this week,...

Review by Barbara Snitzer

Hannah Arendt is a masterwork biopic of the notable 20th century philosopher that will hopefully bring the German actress who plays her, the great Barbara Sukowa, the American fame she has long deserved. She won a Lola, the German Oscar, for her performance in this movie.

Despite the movie’s excellence, I fear this movie may not find a wide audience due to the general ignorance of its subject, a wrong which hopefully this movie will redress.

Hannah Arendt was a German Jew who was fortunate to escape Germany before the full implementation of the Nazis’ “Final Solution,” but not before her academic career was halted due its anti-Semitic laws. She arrived in New York City in 1941 with an illegal visa where she worked at a publishing house, eventually becoming a professor and author of several influential books.

When the inconceivable news that fugitive Nazi officer...