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The isolation of the Wild West, the ever-present danger of starvation, unforgiving terrain, and the rougher way of life in period settings make westerns well suited to the horror genre. Yet it’s not often that the two genres cross paths; the horror western is a niche subgenre compared to horror’s other genre pairings, like the horror-comedy.

Even the horror western’s more well known entries, like Near Dark or Ravenous, don’t appear on streaming often. Luckily, there are plenty of other entries in the horror western category on streaming, some overlooked, that capture the tension, isolation, and danger of the wild frontier.

Here’s where to stream five of them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Bone Tomahawk – AMC+, Hoopla, Netflix, Pluto TV, Roku Channel

When unseen attackers swoop in one night and steal horses and a few town residents, the town...

Revisiting the Satanic Panic craze is going to be a limited affair for Peacock, news that will surely disappoint many fans of Evil Dead icon Bruce Campbell.

Per Variety, Peacock has canceled Hysteria! after just one season. The series premiered on Peacock in October after it was ordered to series in 2022 with production happening in 2023. Notably, Hysteria! has high acclaim with a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes, so the show getting canceled is clearly not due to a lack of quality. While viewership numbers for Hysteria! have not been revealed by the streaming platform, it's likely that the show didn't perform strongly enough on Peacock to warrant a renewal. The series never cracked Nielsen's weekly Top 10 streaming charts.

RelatedRobert Eggers' Next Monster Project Can Save Another Failing Horror Subgenre

The 2025 remake of Wolf Man has decent reception, but an upcoming film by the director of 2024's Nosferatu could see werewolves redeemed onscreen.

One of the all-time foundational fixtures in horror is the vampire. That means over a century’s worth of bloodsuckers in film, in various styles and mythology, from across the globe.

As prominent as this movie monster is, with dozens of adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula alone, there’s an overwhelming selection of vampire fare that makes it easy for many worthwhile gems to fall through the cracks. This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to underseen vampire horror movies worth seeking out.

As always, here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Mr. Vampire – The Criterion Channel – Plex, the Roku Channel

This supernatural genre-bender from director Ricky Lau stands far apart from standard vampire fare thanks to its comedy, martial arts, and jiangshi. Taoist priest Master Kau (Lam Ching-ying) guards the realm of the living by maintaining control...

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat is a fun flick according to Bruce Campbell, even though he is not in it as much as suggested. The unique horror-Western mash-up may have a perfect 100% Tomatometer score, but audience reviews are mixed. Rediscovered on streaming, this forgotten gem features a vampire civil war in a Western-style backdrop.

Bruce Campbell has made his fans all nostalgic for one of his mostly forgotten movies – the 1989 release, Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. In an exchange on his X/Twitter account, Campbell responded to comments on the vampire-Western mash-up movie’s misleading poster and marketing, which suggested a much larger role for Campbell in the movie, in which he starred with veteran actor David Carradine.

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat is set in a tranquil desert town named Purgatory where a vampire civil war threatens the peace. A community of vampires striving for a normal life with...

B-movie legend Bruce Campbell has starred in a wide variety of horror genre films, though some of them have seemingly been lost to time. The actor has now brought some renewed attention to one of those movies more than three decades after its release.

In 1991, the film Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat was released on VHS following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie features Bruce Campbell and Kill Bill star David Carradine prominently in the marketing materials, as the two are standing front and center in the official poster. Looking back at the film after it was brought up to him by a fan on X, Campbell remarked how he and Carradine weren't in it as much as the poster might suggest, but he nevertheless thinks it's a "fun flick" in a unique niche.

Posters are often deceiving. It’s a marketing thing. I’m not in it much,...

Ask Bruce Campbell, and he’ll tell you he’s “sick of over-trained heroes. I’m really bored with that. Guys that are just ripped to shreds and, you know, full of skills. That’s boring to me. Give me the mechanic that picks up a weapon, you know? Now I’m interested. That’s my hero. That could be me.”

Ash Williams of the Evil Dead franchise is that hero. Part of the lasting appeal of the best character Bruce Campbell has ever played is that the audience can see themselves in him, like if they were pressed into fighting an army of Deadites, they could take up the mantle, the chainsaw, the boomstick, and mow down wave after wave of the undead masses.

He is a man that should have been an A-List superstar and in the eyes of his fanbase he is…. which is all that really matters in the end.

Bloody Disgusting has learned the sad news this week that Waxwork (1988) director Anthony Hickox, who was prolific in the ’80s and ’90s, has passed away at the age of 64 years old.

Deadline reports, “Hickox had spent his recent years in Romania, where police found him dead last week at his house in Bucharest after friends had reported not seeing him for some time, according to close friend and InterTalent Rights Group CEO Jonathan Shalit.”

In addition to Waxwork, a favorite among the staff here at Bloody Disgusting, Anthony Hickox also directed the film’s only sequel, Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992).

Hickox also directed a slew of other horror movies around the same time, including the Bruce Campbell-starring Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), and Warlock: The Armageddon (1993), as well as the 1990s films Full Eclipse (1993), Payback (1995), Invasion of Privacy (1996), and Storm Catcher (1999).

Anthony Hickox...

Anthony Hickox, the British director known for horrors such as Waxwork and Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, has died aged 64.

Hickox had spent his recent years in Romania, where police found him dead last week at his house in Bucharest after friends had reported not seeing him for some time, according to close friend and InterTalent Rights Group CEO Jonathan Shalit.

Best known for his work in the comedy-horror genre, Hickox’s best known work was 1988’s Waxwork, which starred the likes of Zach Gilligan, Deborah Foreman and Michelle Johnson and was inspired by a 1920s German silent film. It is claimed Hickox wrote the script for Waxwork after driving into the back of Staffan Ahrenberg’s car and persuading the producer to let him pay for the damage by writing the script for just $3,000.

Hickox also directed a sequel and films such as Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat and Warlock: The Armageddon.

Sad news today as it’s been reported that genre director Anthony Hickox recently died at the age of 64. The under-appreciated director is best known for helming Waxwork, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, Warlock: The Armageddon, and more.

Filmmaking was in Anthony Hickox’s blood from day one. He was born to Douglas Hickox, who directed Theatre of Blood and Zulu Dawn, and Anne V. Coates, the Oscar-winning editor of Lawrence of Arabia. After initially working as a club promoter in London, Hickox moved to Los Angeles to become a writer and director. His first feature film was Waxwork, quickly followed by Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. He went on to helm Waxwork II: Lost in Time, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, Full Eclipse, Warlock: The Armageddon, and more.

Related Silent Kill: Jean-Claude Van Damme to lead a treasure-hunting action movie set in the Congo

Anthony Hickox later shifted towards the action genre,...

Hey all! John Fallon here aka The Arrow. Our docu-series, Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian: 80’s Horror Memories (binge it here), which thoroughly explores the decade in horror, is now 15 episodes in. We just wrapped 1980, 1981 and 1982 and we are about to go in balls deep into 1983 this coming Monday, August 28 on our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel.

A series of this ilk doesn’t happen by itself, it takes an army of producers, writers, editors and our sole narrator to make the magic happens. So we thought it would be dandy to get our core staff to share with you their 10 favorite (not best) horror movies from the 80’s. Yes, it was tough on all of us to pick just 10 – but we knocked a few back and did what we could. Scroll down and peep our choices!

John “The Arrow” Fallon (Producer / Ball Breaker)

Tenebrae The Thing Nightmare On Elm Street...

Bruce Campbell has been rendered a horror movie icon for his appearances in the Evil Dead franchise over the years. His snarky yet demon-killing proficient character, Ash Williams, embodied the part of "the chosen one," becoming a staple in pulp horror. The chainsaw-wielding hero proved that protagonists within the horror genre can be just as iconic as the big bad. Although Campbell is well-known for cleaning up Necronomicon-related messes, and Ash Williams will always be his most beloved role, he was also in a horror Western that is worthy of more attention. Anthony Hickox’s Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat saw him play the role of yet another hero who’s both physically and comically equipped to take down evil. Only this time, he wasn’t fighting against Deadites, but some greedy vampires as they “fight for the right to bite.” More specifically, he played Robert Van Helsing, a...

“I know you’re going to love some of our girls.”

Welcome To Hell Week! Shelley Winters and Kay Lenz in The Initiation Of Sarah (1978) will be available on Blu-ray June 21st from Arrow Video

Satantic secrets and telekenetic terror combine in this classic made-for-tv horror movie directed by Hammer Films alumnus Robert Day (She), from a story co-written by Tom Holland (Fright Night), featuring cinematography by Ric Waite (48 Hrs).

Shy misfit Sarah Goodwin, has a secret gift: the ability to control ― and destroy ― with her mind. When Sarah goes off to college with her more outgoing and popular sister, Patty, their plans to join the most prestigious sorority on campus are scuttled by snobby president, Jennifer Lawrence. Separated from her sister, Sarah is taken in by a rival, less popular sorority, whose mysterious house mother, Mrs. Hunter, is harboring a secret of her own: a scheme to harness Sarah’s terrifying power for revenge.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSBetty White in Golden Girls. The iconic Betty White, best known for her comedic prowess on television shows like Golden Girls and the Mary Tyler Moore Show, died on New Year's Eve at the age of 99. The first woman to produce a sitcom, White also starred in films from a small part in Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent to Toy Story 4 (as a teething ring named Bitey White), and as Nell Minow writes in her obituary, "she was just as deliriously funny as herself."Steven Soderbergh has published his annual list of everything he's seen and read in 2021, ranging from the 2020 Olympic Games to "Magic Mike Live" and multiple viewings of The Maltese Falcon. Recommended VIEWINGYann Gonzalez (Knife + Heart) has directed a new short film, Fou de Bassan, which is available to view online.

If you want a brilliant example on how to edit a trailer and artistically present the premise of a film, focusing on mood rather than spoilers, then Sundown has you covered. Superbly so. It is only 4 days into the new year, but this might end up being the best trailer of the year, after another 361 days. Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg play wealthy siblings and co-heirs of a meat empire on vacation in Mexico, when things fall apart spectacularly. Mexican director Michel Franco showcases the subtle mix of luxury and crime, class differentiators in Acapulco, while Roth and Gainsbourg keep the enigma at the centre of the conflict close to the vest. The trailer does not tip anyone's hand. The trailer below makes an...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Catch the brand new trailer for Sundown.

Neil and Alice Bennett are the core of a wealthy family on vacation in Mexico with younger members Colin and Alexa until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family’s tight-knit order, simmering tensions rise to the fore in this suspenseful jolt from writer/director Michel Franco.

Bleecker Street will release Sundown in select theaters starting January 28th, 2022

The post Sundown Starring Tim Roth & Charlotte Gainsbourg Gets A First Trailer And Poster appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.

Nothing is as it seems in "Sundown," the disturbing slow burn from writer-director Michel Franco. In "Sundown," Tim Roth is a wealthy man on holiday with his family. But when a tragedy back home causes everyone else to cut the vacation short, Roth's character stays behind, and seemingly plans on never coming home. His motives are unclear, and part of what makes "Sundown" so special is that it's nearly impossible to figure out where all of this is going. Those who loathe ambiguity might be wise to skip this altogether. But everyone else should definitely seek out "Sundown" when it arrives later this month. For...

The post Sundown Trailer: Tim Roth Takes an Extended Vacation, and Nothing Is As It Seems appeared first on /Film.

"You left me with all of our problems." Bleecker Street has debuted the official US trailer for Sundown, the latest one-of-a-kind film made by acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco. This premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival last year, where it earn some rave reviews along with some negative reviews. But that's expected for a divisive film like this. Described as a "suspenseful jolt from writer/director Michel Franco," the film is about a wealthy man who inexplicably decides to stay in Mexico after his family leaves. He drifts around in scenes without any dialogue, mostly sitting on the beach emotionless. Tim Roth stars, with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Iazua Larios, Henry Goodman, Albertine Kotting McMillan, and Samuel Bottomley. I wrote a glowing review of this from Venice, because I was really shook by the film - there's something peculiar and fascinating about it, underneath all the layers, showing someone dealing with the arresting guilt of wealth.

Is there a limit to family loyalties? Director Michel Franco explores the subject in “Sundown.” The film is set among the side of Acapulco that wealthy tourists know all too well. What lies beyond the facades of both the travelers and their seemingly idyllic location hold darker truths. For Franco, the 2021 Venice Film Festival entry was a personal journey that connected to his roots. “It is not a coincidence that “Sundown” takes place in Acapulco.

Continue reading ‘Sundown’ Trailer: Tim Roth & Charlotte Gainsbourg Star In Michel Franco’s Family Vacation Drama at The Playlist.

The director of after-school special turned social horror movie “After Lucia” and harrowing class-uprising thriller “New Order” takes on a more relaxed vibe for his latest film, “Sundown.” That doesn’t make the new film from Mexican filmmaker Michael Franco any less bewildering in its story of a man who abandons his life to live beachside in Acapulco. If anything, “Sundown” is even more opaque than the director’s recent efforts. Watch the first trailer for the film below.

The film also stars a potent Charlotte Gainsbourg, Iazua Larios, Henry Goodman, Albertine Kotting McMillan, and Samuel Bottomley.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Neil and Alice Bennett are the core of a wealthy family on vacation in Mexico with younger members Colin and Alexa until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family’s tight-knit order, simmering tensions rise to the fore in this suspenseful jolt from writer/director Michel Franco.

After last year’s wildly divisive New Order, Michel Franco returns this month with a drama of a much different stripe. Sundown, which played at Venice, TIFF, Busan, BFI London, Chicago Iff, and AFI Fest this past fall, follows Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a wealthy family on vacation in Mexico whose plans go awry when a distant emergency cuts their trip short and a relative disrupts the family’s tight-knit order. Ahead of a release later this month from Bleecker Street, the new trailer has arrived.

As Jared Mobarak said in his review, “Writer-director Michel Franco throws the first curveball early during his latest film Sundown. We’ve already spent a bit of time with his quartet of European characters vacationing in Acapulco to make a few assumptions before workaholic Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) leans over to the quietly satisfied Neil (Tim Roth) and thanks him for coming along.

As we wrap up the year in film, it’s time to set sights on 2022. While we’ll share a few looks at what’s in store over the next 12 months, first we have an overview of January’s most notable films. Unsurprisingly, the top offerings solely consist of 2021 festival premieres (and one from 2020) that are finally arriving.

10. Sundown (Michel Franco; Jan. 28 in theaters)

After last year’s wildly divisive New Order, Michel Franco returns this month with a drama of a much different stripe. As Jared Mobarak said in his review, “Writer-director Michel Franco throws the first curveball early during his latest film Sundown. We’ve already spent a bit of time with his quartet of European characters vacationing in Acapulco to make a few assumptions before workaholic Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) leans over to the quietly satisfied Neil (Tim Roth) and thanks him for coming along. Why wouldn’t he have?...

Throughout the pandemic that has ravaged Central America, the region’s most prominent film event, the Panama International Film Festival (Iff Panama), has forged on virtually in its continued bid to bolster local projects and talent.

To mark its 10th anniversary this year, a smaller hybrid edition kicks off on Dec. 3 with “Plaza Catedral,” Panama’s submission to the Oscars, and wraps Dec. 5 with Michel Franco’s “Sundown,” starring Tim Roth, which competed for the Golden Lion at Venice.

“We couldn’t pass up celebrating our 10th anniversary, even if it were on a smaller scale this year,” said festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron, who cites encouragement from the international and local industry as key reasons to push onward, notwithstanding the setbacks from the pandemic.

“We’re still very much in the mind of the industry, especially Central America,” she asserted, pointing out that two films spawned by the festival’s rough cuts sidebar,...

Stars: David Carradine, Bruce Campbell, Dana Ashbrook, Max Caulfield, Morgan Brittany, Jim Metzler, Deborah Foreman, M. Emmet Walsh, John Ireland, John Hancock | Written by Anthony Hickox, John Burgess | Directed by Anthony Hickox

Horror from the 80s can have a certain charm. They can be cheesy, funny, and most importantly fun. Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat is a good example of just how fun, if cheesy, eighties horror can be.

When a group of vampires settle in a lonely American Town they wear sun cream and drink synthetic blood to survive. With some of the vampires not happy with the situation and the machine that processes the synthetic blood not working they soon need help from the living. When they arrive, as well as a descendant of Van Helsing, a tensions boil over in the small town.

For fans of cult movies, the case of Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat will catch their eye straight away.

Charlotte Gainsbourg’s directorial debut “Jane by Charlotte,” a documentary about her model-actor mother Jane Birkin, is set to travel to major territories.

Represented in international markets by The Party Film Sales, the feature world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to play at a flurry of film festivals, including New York and Colcoa in Los Angeles.

The film, which portrays Birkin, an actor, singer-songwriter and fashion icon who was Serge Gainsbourg’s longtime lover, has been acquired for Canada (Maison 4:3), Benelux (Piece of Magic), Italy (Wanted), Portugal (Zero Em Comportamento), Spain (Filmin), Switzerland (Ado), Scandinavia (Non Stop Entertainment), Russia/Cis (Russian Wold Vision), Baltics (A-One Baltics) and Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia/Slovenia (McF).

The documentary was recently acquired by Utopia in the U.S. and will be released domestically in 2022. Jour2Fete, The Party Films Sales’ sister company, will handle the French release. “Jane by Charlotte” was produced by Gainsbourg,...

Bleecker Street has landed U.S. rights to “Montana Story,” a Western drama starring Haley Lu Richardson.

The movie had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews. IndieWire praised “Montana Story” as “a patient, captivating portrait of the past that stays with us long after the wind stops blowing.” Bleecker Street plans to release it in theaters sometime in 2022.

Scott McGehee and David Siegel wrote and directed “Montana Story,” which co-stars Owen Teague, Gilbert Owuor, Kimberly Guerrero, Eugene Brave Rock and Asivak Koostachin. The neo-Western centers on two estranged siblings (Richardson and Teague), who return home to the sprawling ranch where they were raised.

“David and Scott’s film cuts to the quick of the pain haunting this American family,” said Andrew Karpen, CEO of Bleecker Street. “As their story unfolds, two siblings portrayed beautifully by Haley and Owen, find their own strength in the...

Getting romantic dramas made in today’s cinematic landscape is becoming more and more challenging, yet veteran director Andy Fickman, who is currently in production on the buzzy indie “One True Loves,” remains cheerful and optimistic about the genre. “In general, and pretty much short of being a tentpole, it’s very hard to get things made. People aren’t making romantic dramedies that much anymore, but at the same time, there’s a real need for content because of the streaming outlets,” says Fickman, whose energy level remains high even after shooting an all-nighter. Highland Film Group is representing international rights to “One True Loves,” and is co-financing the picture alongside Blue Rider’s Walter Josten. Highland Film Group’s domestic arm, the Avenue, is distributing domestically.

Starring the red-hot Simu Liu, who currently stars in Marvel’s box office smash “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,...

Bleecker Street has landed North American rights to “Sundown,” a suspenseful drama about family and privilege.

Filmmaker Michel Franco (” After Lucia”) wrote and directed the movie, which will be released in theaters sometime in 2022.

“Sundown” — starring Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Iazua Larios and Henry Goodman — follows a wealthy British family on a vacation abruptly cut short in Acapulco. When one relative disrupts the family’s tight-knit order, simmering tensions threaten to expose long-gestating rifts.

It premiered at Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival to solid reviews. Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge praised “Sundown,” calling it the “high-minded director’s most successful film to date.”

“‘Sundown’ is an intricate, unconventional puzzle — a mystery, complete with murder, in which the solution isn’t nearly so important as the process of putting it all together,” Debruge wrote in his review.

Franco says he hopes the movie sparks a dialogue.

Bleecker Street has acquired North American rights to Sundown, the latest film from Mexican writer-director Michel Franco that world premiered this fall at the Venice Film Festival. A 2022 theatrical release in the U.S. is in the works for the tense family drama.

Tim Roth reunites with Franco (he starred in Franco’s 2015 pic Chronic) to star in Sundown with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Iazua Larios and Henry Goodman. Roth and Gainsbourg play Neil and Alice, the core of a wealthy British family on vacation in Acapulco with younger members Colin (Samuel Bottomley) and Alexa (Albertine Kotting McMillan) until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family’s tight-knit order, simmering tensions rise to the fore revealing long-gestating rifts.

Franco, Cristina Velasco L. and Eréndira Núñez Larios are producers in the Teorema production, a co-production with Film I Väst, CommonGround Pictures and Luxbox. Roth and Lorenzo Vigas are executive producers.

In other prizes Mounia Akl’s Costa Brava, Lebanon clinches Fipresci prize and inaugural Green Award.

Finnish director Teemu Nikki’s dark comedy-drama The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic scooped the El Gouna Film Festival’s $50,000 Golden Star award for best narrative film over the weekend.

Its star Petri Poikolainen also won best actor for his performance as a blind man who ventures out of his small apartment and onto the streets to travel by train to spend time with his long-distance girlfriend.

The film world premiered in Venice’s new Horizon Extras where it won the audience award.

Leading arthouse sales agency The Match Factory has debuted the international trailer (see below) for the gripping, tender-hearted prison drama “Great Freedom,” which won the Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, and has revealed the latest list of international distributors. Sebastian Meise’s film was selected recently as Austria’s candidate in the Best International Feature Film Oscars race.

“Great Freedom” has sold to the following territories: Ex-Yugo (McF Megacom), Australia/New Zealand (Madman), Benelux (Imagine Film), Denmark (Ost for Paradis), Baltics (A-One), France (Paname), Greece (Ama Films), Israel (Lev Cinemas), U.S./U.K./Eire/Latam/Turkey/India (Mubi), Mexico (Cine Canibal), Sweden (Lucky Dogs), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Spain (Vertigo Films), and Poland (Tongariro).

The film is set in post-war Germany, where Hans is imprisoned again and again for being homosexual. Due to paragraph 175 of the penal code his desire for freedom is systematically destroyed. The...

"In most families, the danger doesn't come from some stranger – danger comes from someone you already know..." Shudder has unveiled the trailer for a horror anthology film titled Horror Noire, a showcase of six different stories of Black horror. "Six stories, one film. Experience the next chapter of Black horror." This is a spin-off feature inspired by the outstanding documentary with the same title: Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (which I highly recommend watching). The six stories featured in the anthology are titled: Daddy, Bride Before You, Brand of Evil, The Lake, Sundown, and Fugue State. The casts include Lesley-Ann Brandt, Luke James, Erica Ash, Brandon Mychal Smith, Sean Patrick Thomas, Peter Stormare, Malcolm Barrett, and Rachel True, among many others. With new and adapted stories by Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes, Victor Lavalle, Shernold Edwards, Al Letson and Ezra C. Daniels. I'm always down for more creative horror!

Cologne-based The Match Factory, one of the world’s leading arthouse sales agencies, is at Mia Market in Rome with two German features and one upcoming Italian project, following a busy summer with 20 premieres between Cannes and Toronto.

Nana Neul, best known for her film “My Friend From Faro,” is back with an entertaining German-Italian-Greek feature “Daughters,” starring Birgit Minichmayr, Alexandra Maria Lara and Josef Bierbichler. Produced by Germany’s Heimatfilm and distributed by Warner Bros Germany, the comedy hit German cinemas last week and has its international market premiere at Mia on Friday. The international festival premiere will follow soon.

Andreas Kleinert’s “Dear Thomas” is an authentic portrait of Thomas Brasch, one of the most talked about German authors of the last 50 years. The film stars the German actor Albrecht Schuch from “System Crasher,” “Berlin Alexanderplatz” and “Fabian: Going to the Dogs.” It celebrated its world premiere in...

Amid ongoing disruption in the Arab world’s unstable fest landscape, Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival is staying the course and increasingly proving its mettle in promoting the cream of the region’s cinematic crop while also providing key support in nurturing new works.

El Gouna chief Intishal Al Timimi proudly points out that the fifth edition of the Oct. 14-22 event has secured eight high-profile features from Arab directors, most of which will be having their Middle Eastern premieres in the Egyptian Red Sea resort after bowing in Cannes and Venice.

They comprise French-Moroccan veteran Nabil Ayouch’s high-energy hip-hop drama “Casablanca Beats”; and two works from Lebanon: Mounia Akl’s dramedy “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” which targets Lebanon’s political malaise; and Ely Dagher’s “The Sea Ahead,” about a young woman who returns from Paris to Beirut and reconnects with the life she had left behind. There...

A massive fire that broke out at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival on Wednesday is now under control, organizers have confirmed.

Shortly after the fire broke out, dramatic videos of the incident were posted on social media.

Watch: A massive fire has broken out in the main hall of the El Gouna Film Festival site in Egypt, one day ahead of the opening ceremony, according to local media reports. #Gff https://t.co/13Z78ZM5ik pic.twitter.com/J1HYCjLSj8

— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 13, 2021

“El Gouna Film Festival Management announced the control of a fire that broke out in El Gouna Conference and Culture Center. The fire damaged a small part of the hall prepared to receive the opening activities of the festival,” the festival management said in a statement. “Once the fire broke out, El Gouna Film Festival Management coordinated with the Civil Protection Forces...

Mexican director Michel Franco blew my socks off last year with New Order and this year, he returns with another knockout of a movie that, while on a completely different note from last year's offering, still makes powerful, and sometimes damning, observations.

In Sundown, we meet siblings Richard and Alice, a pair of well-to-do Brits on vacation in Acapulco. Their idyllic vacation is cut short by a telephone call: there's been a death in the family and they must return to the UK to deal with the funeral. At the airport, Richard can't find his passport so Alice and the kids go on ahead while Richard heads back to the hotel to find his paperwork. Except instead of returning to the well-appointed, clearly expensive resort, Richard directs the cab driver to take him to any...

Highland Film Group has pre-sold distribution rights to key international territories on romance “One True Loves,” starring Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”).

The film adaption of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel also stars Emmy and Tony-nominated Phillipa Soo (“Hamilton”) and Luke Bracey (“Holidate”). Written by Alex J. and Taylor Jenkins Reid, the film will be directed by Andy Fickman (“Playing With Fire”), and follows the love story of a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life.

Highland Film Group represented international rights at the Toronto International Film Festival with the company’s domestic distribution arm, The Avenue, acquiring U.S. domestic rights. SquareOne Entertainment, who are also executive producing alongside Highland Film Group, has picked up all German-speaking territories.

Signature Entertainment has acquired the U.K. and Ireland,...

The 73rd Emmys on CBS, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, were a night to remember for “The Crown” and “Ted Lasso.”

The Netflix monarchy drama won every single award it was up for on Sunday. “Ted Lasso” didn’t pull off a clean sweep, but it certainly felt that way.

“Hacks” and “Mare of Easttown” also had a heck of an evening. See all of the winners and nominees below.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Aidy Bryant, “Saturday Night Live”

Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks“

Kate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live”

Rosie Perez, “The Flight Attendant“

Cecily Strong, “Saturday Night Live”

Juno Temple, “Ted Lasso”

Hannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso” *Winner

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Carl Clemons-Hopkins, “Hacks”

Brett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso“ *Winner

Brendan Hunt, “Ted Lasso“

Nick Mohammed, “Ted Lasso“

Paul Reiser, “The Kominsky Method”

Jeremy Swift, “Ted Lasso“

Kenan Thompson, “Saturday Night Live”

Bowen Yang, “Saturday Night Live...

It’s checkmate on the first of three 2021 Creative Arts Emmy Awards shows, and Saturday was a huge evening for “The Queen’s Gambit.” The excellent Netflix limited series led by Anya Taylor-Joy has already won seven 2021 Emmys, technically (and in mostly technical categories).

(By the way, if you think three is a lot of shows to celebrate the television industry’s mostly below-the-line workers, 2020 had Five Creative Arts Emmys shows.)

Sunday’s first show began at 1 p.m. Pt. The second Sunday show, the final one of the two-day 2021 Creative Arts Emmys, begins at 5 p.m. Pt. That’s the presentation that has most of the mainstream categories that don’t fit in next week’s Primetime Emmys.

None of the three Creative Arts Emmys shows are being televised live. Next Saturday, a highlights show of sorts will air on Fxx starting at 8 p.m. Et/Pt.

The *real* Emmys,...

Reflection Of all the titles screening on the Lido this year, few had me as concerned and intrigued as Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection. Concerned, because a few friends who’d already seen the director’s latest take on the Russian-Ukrainian war had testified to its unflinching depictions of violence and torture (including and especially one early scene involving a leg and a screwdriver). And intrigued, because it was Vasyanovich’s follow up to his Atlantis, winner of the Orizzonti lineup in 2019, a haunting excursion into a bombed-out no-man’s-land that cartwheeled between moments of extreme brutality and flickering glimpses of empathy. That film was set in a not-so-distant future where Ukraine had emerged victorious—and shattered—from the war with Russia. Reflection kicks off instead in 2014, the year the conflict broke out. Yet Vasyanovych doesn’t throw us to the battlefield from the start; for a short while, it leaves...

The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off Thursday with a slimmed-down lineup of just 100 films, the buzziest of which already have distribution. “Dune,” “Spencer,” and “Dear Evan Hansen” are all screening at TIFF, but with one odd twist: They’re only available to watch in person, while the majority of industry attendees will be logging on to the festival remotely.

It’s an unusual quirk in a two-year period of nothing but unusual quirks: TIFF is the only fall festival offering a robust online component. And while the festival is known as a launchpad for awards campaigns, that element will be largely absent from the way the majority of people participate in the proceedings. That, coupled with the fact that buyers have returned in force and are feeling more optimistic despite the Delta variant, could mean greater attention to a slate of titles that range from discoveries to awards bait with bankable elements.

The 65th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express has announced the full 2021 programme line-up that will be presented both in cinemas and virtually.

Opening and closing films have previously been announced with Netflix’s ‘The Harder They Fall opening the festival. Directed by Londoner Jeymes Samuel, the film will receive its World Premiere at Lff gala venue the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, with Samuel expected to attend along with the key cast. The Festival closes with Joel Coen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play, ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ from Apple Original Films and A24. The film will receive its European Premiere at the Lff, with Joel Coen expected to attend. Both films will be available at Lff partner cinemas across the UK, with ‘The Harder They Fall also going to a wider network of cinemas.

This year’s headline galas will include the dark...

The 65 British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival has unveiled its full program and the headline galas include several films that have been gaining fame recently.

Among the galas are Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart; Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” with Benedict Cumberbatch; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “King Richard,” with Will Smith; and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” featuring a host of stars including Timothée Chalamet, Tilda Swinton and Léa Seydoux.

The galas also include Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” Eva Husson’s “Mothering Sunday,” Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir: Part II” and Sarah Smith and Jean Philippe-Vine’s “Ron’s Gone Wrong.”

Special presentations include Clio Barnard’s “Ali & Ava,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria,” Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District,...

I really want to talk about this film, there's so much to discuss, but I also can't really say anything about it. I haven't been able to get this film out of my head since I first watching it a few days before at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Sundown is the latest feature written & directed by acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco, who shocked audiences in Venice last year with his revolutionary Mexican thriller New Order (aka Nuevo Orden - watch the trailer). This year he is back in Venice with something else new that feels like it's connected to New Order but is an entirely different story. However, I will say that between New Order and this film, I am So Here for Franco's era of filmmaking about wealth and its dominance over us. These films mess with my head so much, because there's no clear explanation or side being taken.

After last year’s explosively angry New Order, the prolific Mexican director Michel Franco returns to the Venice Film Festival with Sundown, the minor-key story of a man who decides to abandon his life in favor of getting drunk and shacking up with a cheerful local woman in Acapulco. It is his second collaboration with British actor Tim Roth who plays Neil and who sinks into hazy irresponsibility with the ease of a backpacker who has mastered getting into a hammock. Charlotte Gainsbourg as Neil’s sister is his nervy counterpoint.

It is clear enough that Gainsbourg’s Alice Bennett is permanently wired tight. On holiday with Neil and her two teenage children Colin and Alexa (Samuel Bottomley and Albertine Kotting McMillan), she can’t leave her phone alone. While cocktails are served to their suite from mid-morning, she is also slipping down the odd pill. It emerges that she runs the family business,...

Lorenzo Vigas, who made film festival history by being the first Venezuelan-born filmmaker to snag the Venice Golden Lion in 2015, is back on the Lido with “The Box” (“La Caja”), the final part of a trilogy that began with his Cannes Critics’ Week short “Elephants Never Forget” and continued with his Venice-winning feature debut, “From Afar.”

A resident of Mexico since 2001, Vigas was watching the news on TV about people recovering the bodies of their lost relatives from mass graves when the idea for “The Box” came to him. “I sat down to write and, in an hour, wrote the entire plot, practically in tears,” he tells Variety, adding: “This had never happened to me before.” He then set it aside to make “From Afar.” “The heart of the story is really about a boy in search of his father.” That’s the overriding theme in all three stories: What...

Second best three-day opening weekend of pandemic behind only Black Widow.

Updated: In a debut that recalls pre-pandemic days, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings – featuring Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Asian superhero – smashed the Labor Day box office record as a confirmed $94.4m debut over four days more than tripled the previous mark of $30.6m set by Halloween in 2007.

Disney’s latest release in 4,300 cinemas closed out the summer season in style and shows the studio can launch a Marvel film – even one without an A-list lead – at any point in the year and make a splash.

Second best three-day opening weekend of pandemic behind only Black Widow.

In a debut that recalls pre-pandemic days, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings – featuring Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Asian superhero – smashed the Labor Day box office record as an estimated $83.5m debut over four days almost tripled the previous mark of $30.6m set by Halloween in 2007.

Disney’s latest release in 4,300 cinemas closed out the summer season in style and shows the studio can launch a Marvel film – even one without an A-list lead – at any point in the year and make a splash.

The exclusive...

Anyone familiar with the work of Mexican director Michel Franco, whether they be admirers or detractors, can attest to the “this is not going to end well” sentiment his sordid cinematic provocations instill. With a pensive angle, “Sundown” – a reteaming between the filmmaker and his “Chronic” star Tim Roth – upholds that tension of expecting the worst to come the characters’ way.

Read More: Venice Film Festival 2021 Preview: 12 Must-See Films To Watch

Luxurious accommodations, salted-rim cocktails, and enviable ocean views comprise a paradisiacal vacation in Mexico for a wealthy British family of four.

Continue reading ‘Sundown’: Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg Play Siblings In Michel Franco’s Tragic Acapulco-Set Drama [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

In the span of a year when everyone’s been on edge, prolific Mexican director Michel Franco managed to nuke our comfort zones not once, but twice, delivering separate provocations at back-to-back editions of the Venice Film Festival. In 2020, he won the Silver Lion for powder-keg thriller “New Order,” and now, he returns with the relatively understated — but still shocking — “Sundown.” While both are icy examinations of violence, inequality and explosive class conflict in contemporary Mexico, Franco could hardly be accused of repeating himself. Where “New Order” was in-your-face, “Sundown” returns to the controversial auteur’s earlier, arm’s-length approach.

The movie unfolds entirely in Acapulco, where a man (Tim Roth), a woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and two grown “kids” are shown consuming: They swim; they sail; they eat out at posh restaurants where the waiter brings out the steaks for your approval before cooking them. These four are a family,...

The characters in Michel Franco’s “Sundown” are on a luxurious Mexican holiday in which they swim in the clear sea and their private infinity pool, take a regal interest in the local singers and cliff divers, and lie flat out on sun loungers on their hotel suite’s terrace while a waiter brings them their morning margaritas. It’s relaxing for them, but absolutely nerve-frazzling for anyone who saw Franco’s last film, “New Order,” a traumatizingly gory drama in which a high-society wedding turned into a bloodbath, and things got more stressful from there.

Sure enough, it doesn’t take long for trouble to come to this particular paradise, but “Sundown” is quieter and more oblique than “New Order.” It’s smaller, too, in terms of its cast and its scope. That film’s merciless depiction of a city imploding in revolution and counter-revolution thrilled some viewers and offended others,...