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Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language will fly the flag for Canada as the country’s international feature film submission for the 97th Academy Awards in March 2025.

‘Universal Language’: Cannes Review

A pan-Canadian selection committee organised by non-voting chair Telefilm Canada met on Tuesday to select its top choice from 26 submissions.

Produced by Metafilms, the absurdist Winnipeg-set caper premiered in Cannes and will receive its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, before screening in New York Film Festival and Fantastic Fest.

Universal Language transposes Iran to Winnipeg and weaves together several episodes: children discover money frozen in ice...

The final wave of this year's Fantasia International Film Festival has been announced! Along with many new movies and special screenings, they have horror events you'll want to make time for, including panels and a career achievement award for Mike Flanagan. Fantasia's 28th edition continues tradition of putting together a stellar, eclectic mix of screenings and events you won't want to miss. For the full list of films and events, and to find out how to attend the fest, visit: https://fantasiafestival.com/en

The Fantasia International Film Festival will celebrate its upcoming 28th edition with an electrifying program of screenings, workshops, and launch events running from July 18 through August 4, 2024, returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montréal’s Cinémathèque Québécoise, Cinéma du Musée, Théâtre Plaza, and Bbam! Gallery.

The festival website is now live with the complete lineup...

The 28th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is set to run from from July 18th through August 4th at the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas in Montreal, with additional screens and events at Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée. Over the last couple of months, the festival announced the first wave and the second wave of titles that will be screening this year, and now the final wave has been unveiled, along with an announcement that genre filmmaker Mike Flanagan will be receiving a career achievement award at the festival!

Here’s the information on the final wave of titles (and Flanagan’s achievement award), courtesy of the Fantasia press release:

2024 Career Achievement Award: Mike Flanagan

For his imaginative and heartfelt horror visions; boundary-breaking achievements in making soulful, character-driven genre television commercially viable without compromises; and the extraordinary work he’s done in popularizing...

The Fantasia International Film Festival returns very soon with its 28th edition from July 18 through August 4, 2024, returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montreal’s Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée. The final wave of programming has been unveiled, adding even more genre premieres to an already packed slate.

The final wave of titles, from the press release:

ABABOUINÉ

ABABOUINÉ takes us back to the 1950s, when the Catholic Church ruled over Quebec with an iron fist, and as a rowdy group of kids goes to war against the church. In his latest masterpiece, André Forcier revisits a dark period of Quebec’s history through an often shocking – yet undeniably and absurdly funny – lens. Starring Rémy Girard, Gaston Lepage (Jesus Of MONTRÉAL), Pascale Montpetit (District 31), Éric Bruneau (An Eye For Beauty), and Mylène Mackay (Nelly), the film brings together an...

What to expect from a genre festival honoring the un-expected? The Fantasia International Film Festival returns to Montréal for its 28th edition from July 18 to August 4 and it promises a killer lineup — with over 125 features and more than 200 shorts in total. The festival’s third and final programming announcement, made exclusive to IndieWire first, includes features from Steven Kostanski, Eugene Kotlyarenko, Scooter McCrae, and more.

André Forcier will show on closing night for the festival with the world premiere of “Ababouiné.” The filmmaker’s latest is a distinctly regional period piece and buzzy potential masterpiece about a group of kids growing up in 1950s Quebec under the harsh eye of the Catholic Church. Fantasia has awarded the film’s director the Prix Denis-Héroux, an accolade “bestowed for exceptional contribution to the development of Quebec genre cinema.”

Oscar-nominated documentarian Pedro Kos makes his narrative feature debut with “In Our Blood,” starring...

Oh, Canada debuting this week on the Croisette is high time to see lesser-seen Schrader on the Criterion Channel, who’ll debut an 11-title series including the likes of Touch, The Canyons, and Patty Hearst, while Old Boyfriends (written with his brother Leonard) and his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” are also programmed. Five films by Jean Grémillon, a rather underappreciated figure of French cinema, will be showing

Series-wise, there’s an appreciation of the synth soundtrack stretching all the way back to 1956’s Forbidden Planet while, naturally, finding its glut of titles in the ’70s and ’80s––Argento and Carpenter, obviously, but also Tarkovsky and Peter Weir. A Prince and restorations of films by Bob Odenkirk, Obayashi, John Greyson, and Jacques Rivette (whose Duelle is a masterpiece of the highest order) make streaming debuts. I Am Cuba, Girlfight, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Dazed and Confused are June’s Criterion Editions.

It’s been two decades since an epic fantasy film made history at the Oscars, winning every category in which it was nominated, and three women set new records. There weren’t many surprises at the 76th Academy Awards, but there were some memorable moments. Billy Crystal hosted for his eighth time on February 29, 2004. Read on for Gold Derby’s Oscars flashback 20 years ago to 2004.

It was finally Peter Jackson‘s time as the third installment of his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy earned him a trio of awards. Despite numerous nominations, the first two films failed to make big showings; however, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” not only claimed Best Picture, but won all 11 categories in which it was nominated. It tied with “Ben-Hur” (1960) and “Titanic” (1998) for most wins in one ceremony, and holds the record for biggest sweep. It was the 10th film...

Canadian filmmaker Denys Arcand’s satire “Testament” will open the 44th edition of Fantasporto, which runs March 1-10 in Portugal’s second city, Porto. Chinese fantasy epic “Creation of Gods I: Kingdom of Storms,” directed by Wuershan, closes the eclectic event.

The festival, which was named by MovieMaker magazine this year as one of the “25 coolest festivals in the world,” is headed by film critics Beatriz Pacheco Pereira and Mário Dorminsky. Around 600 feature films were submitted this year and 1,200 shorts.

Pacheco Pereira says they select films that have a “special touch but still a universal language.” Dorminsky adds: “We try to discover new directors.” These directors – having established a relationship with the festival – often return with their subsequent films, he says.

“Testament” epitomizes one trend that Pacheco Pereira identifies, which is “old people asking: ‘Where is the world going?'” She adds: “‘Testament’ is a wonderful film in which an...

Canadian filmmaker Zayne Akyol’s Rojek, a film about Isis terrorists and their dream of a Caliphate, has been selected as Canada’s submission for the 2023 Oscars’ best international feature film category.

The feature documentary portrays imprisoned members of the Islamic State and their wives in makeshift camps where they share an ambition to establish Islamic rule. As it explains the fundamentalist beliefs of jihadists, Akyol’s film traces the beginning, rise and fall of the Islamic State, often referred to as Isis, through personal stories.

Rojek is the latest film from Akyol, the director Gulîstan, Land of Roses, a documentary about Kurdish soldiers fighting while under siege from Isis. Her Islamic State documentary set to represent Canada at the Oscars uses the Arabic, English, French and Kurdish languages and launched in Canadian theaters in January 2023 after a world premiere at the 2022 Visions du Réel Film Festival in Switzerland.

The...

Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”

“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.

“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...

Premiering in Series Mania’s International Panorama section, the Quebecois limited series “Disobey” tackles the docudrama as urgent thriller, finding notes of tension in the lead up to a 1980s ruling the guaranteed abortion rights to women across Canada.

With the visual polish that has become signature for Montreal-based Also Productions, the six-part premium drama follows the real case of Chantale Daigle (Éléonore Loiselle), a 21-year-old woman who pushed against an abusive ex-partner and two court injunctions, eventually leading to a Supreme Court ruling that secured body autonomy for Canadian women. And all that in just a matter of weeks.

“For us, it was important [to hit that urgency], because that’s what really happened,” says Also founder Sophie Lorain. “Chantale went through three steps of jurisdiction and all the way to the Supreme Court in less than two months. While a child grew inside, these gentlemen were chatting along, not making up their...

Click here to read the full article.

Canada has picked the animated documentary Eternal Spring to represent the country in the 2023 Oscar race for best international feature.

Jason Loftus directed the film, which looks at an event in March 2002, when members of the outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong hijacked a state TV station in China in an attempt to counter government propaganda about their spiritual practice.

Eternal Spring is the first documentary, the first animated film, and the first Mandarin-language film to be chosen by Canada for the Oscars.

Vice has picked up worldwide rights to the documentary, complementing multiple individual television territory deals with the likes of Arte for France and Germany and the Al Jazeera Doc Channel for the Middle East and North Africa.

“This is an important movie that covers so many of the topics important to Vice — censorship, creativity, religious freedom and displacement — all done in...

Hybrid doc to open in Canada on September 23.

Jason Loftus’s hybrid documentary Eternal Spring has been selected from a pool of 16 films to represent Canada at the 2023 Oscars.

Lofty Sky Entertainment produced and Sideways Film handles international sales on the film, which marks the 20th anniversary of a hack of Chinese state TV in March 2002 by outlawed Chinese religious group Falun Gong’s

Comic book illustrator Daxiong was a member of Falun Gong and fled the country after the hack triggered police raids. Arriving in North America, his views on the incident changed when he met the sole lone...

Canada has made its selection for the Oscars.

Documentary “Eternal Spring (長春)” has been chosen as the country’s submission to the Best International Feature Film category (formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film) at the 95th Academy Awards. The Mandarin-language film was selected by a committee of 20 members representing key government agencies and national film industry associations.

A hybrid live-action and animated story, “Eternal Spring” retraces the events of a 2002 incident in which a state-run TV station was hacked by members of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong. According to the synopsis, “In the aftermath, police raids sweep Changchun City, and comic book illustrator Daxiong, a Falun Gong practitioner, is forced to flee. He arrives in North America, blaming the hijacking for worsening a violent repression. But his views are challenged when he meets the lone surviving participant to have escaped China, now living in Seoul, South Korea.

Read...

Partners lining up film, TV slate, currently attending Mia market in Rome.

Highly regarded industry veterans Matt Brodlie and Jonathan Kier have launched Los Angeles-based Upgrade Productions to develop and produce premium local-language film and TV for a global audience.

Backed by German powerhouse Constantin Film and with a strategic partnership in place with Bron, Upgrade aims to exploit the boom in demand for local-language content as the co-founders leverage deep relationships and experience in sales, acquisition and producing to partner with content creators around the world.

Brodlie, who most recently served as SVP international content at Disney+, and Kier,...

Drunken Birds, the migrant drama from Serbian Canadian director Ivan Grbovic that had its world premiere in the Platform section at last month’s Toronto Film Festival, has been selected by Canada as the country’s entry into the 2022 International Feature Oscar race.

Written by Grbovic and Sara Mishara, the film (Les oiseaux ivres in French) centers on a quest for lost love that sends a man from Mexico to Canada, where he is hired as a seasonal worker. Fates intertwine, tensions grow, and moments of magical realism arise during the long workdays. Jorge Antonio Guerrero, Hélène Florent, Claude Legault, Marine Johnson, Maxime Dumontier, Amaryllis Tremblay, Karl Walcott, Yoshira Escárrega, Gilberto Barraza and Normand D’Amour star.

The film is produced by micro_scope and distributed by Les Films Opale. Wazabi Films is repping international sales. Drunken Birds was one of 10 films submitted to the pan-Canadian Oscar selection committee, Telefilm Canada said Monday.

Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Bird (Les Oiseaux Ivres) will represent Canada in the best international feature film category as its official Oscar submission.

Telefilm Canada executive director and CEO Christa Dickenson said on Monday (October 4) that 10 films had been submitted to the pan-Canadian selection committee, adding: “Telefilm will support the film’s team on this exciting journey. This vote of confidence is a phenomenal springboard for these creators and a terrific opportunity for Canada to demonstrate the excellence of its film industry.”

‘Drunken Birds’: Toronto Review

Grbovic and Sara Mishara co-wrote the film produced by micro_scope. It premiered...

Third quarter theatrical release planned.

Corinth Films, the arthouse distributor that has worked with Nadav Lapid and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, has acquired US rights from WaZabi Films to You Will Remember Me.

Corinth plans a third quarter theatrical release for Éric Tessier’s film, which echoes the themes of The Father starring recent best actor Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins.

Based on the play by François Archambault, You Will Remember Me stars Rémy Girard (The Barbarian Invasions) as Edouard, a public figure and retired history teacher who is slowly losing his memory.

Edouard withdraws from the public eye even though he still has a lot to say.

Deepa Mehta’s “Funny Boy” will represent Canada in the race for best international feature film at the 2021 Oscars.

Based on the best-selling novel by Shyam Selvadurai, the film follows a young boy’s sexual awakening in Sri Lanka during the turbulent Tamil-Sinhalese conflict leading up to the civil war. Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing picked up the film for distribution earlier this month, with a Netflix release planned for Dec. 10, as revealed by Variety.

Mehta’s film “Water,” the third feature in her Elements trilogy, was Oscar-nominated in the international feature film category in 2007.

“Eleven outstanding films were submitted this year, and we are confident that Deepa Mehta’s ‘Funny Boy’ will appeal to Academy members just as her powerful film ‘Water’ did in 2007, when it was nominated in this prestigious category,” said Christa Dickenson, executive director of Telefilm Canada.

Telefilm coordinates and chairs — without voting right — the pan-Canadian...

Wildly uneven but sporadically affecting, Bobby Roth’s “Pearl” is . A few abrupt narrative transitions indicate that some scenes, for whatever reason, must have been discarded during the editing process. But what remains on screen is enough to hold attention and generate rooting interest, especially if you’re amused by inside-baseball allusions to the film and TV industry.

There is an unmistakable air of autobiography to “Pearl,” along with the distinct flavor of a labor of love. Writer-director Roth first attracted notice with two well-received indie films, “The Boss’ Son” (1978) and “Heartbreakers” (a 1984 Sundance Festival prize-winner) before concentrating almost exclusively (and prolifically) on TV movies and series television. Jack Wolf, Lapaglia’s character, is a filmmaker who evidently has made some very bad, maybe unforgivable career moves, but still sells the occasional TV script.

At one point, he lands a gig teaching filmmaking to college students — which Roth has successfully...

Festival’s Open Air lineup also includes the world premiere of Eric Tessier’s ‘You Will Remember Me’.

Sarajevo Film Festival has secured the world premieres of Niels Mueller’s Small Town Wisconsin and Eric Tessier’s You Will Remember Me, which will both debut online following the festival’s shift to a virtual event.

Both films will be included in the festival’s pared-back Open Air lineup, which will run online this year despite the name of the strand.

Other titles in the section include Pjer Žalica’s Focus, Grandma, which will receive its world premiere as the opening...

Canada contends this year with “Antigone” for its eighth Oscar nomination in the Best International Feature category, which has been renamed from Best Foreign Language Film. Canada was a staple of the race until recently, making the shortlist seven out of 10 times from 2003 to 2012. This included the country’s first and only win, for 2003’s “The Barbarian Invasions” by Denys Arcand, as well as three consecutive nominations from 2010 to 2012. Canada has been snubbed the last six years, only making the shortlist for 2016’s “It’s Only the End of the World,” which had won the Grand Prix runner-up award at the Cannes Film Festival for director Xavier Dolan.

“Antigone” is shaping up to be Canada’s most-acclaimed submission in years. Its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival yielded the People’s Choice Award for Best Canadian Film and the film has 91% approval from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, the best rating...

Exclusive: Tuppence Middleton and Hannah Gross are starring in Canadian indie Clifton Hill, a drama from In Her Place director Albert Shin. The psychological thriller hails from Rhombus Media and Elevation Pictures with Elevation distributing in Canada.

The story centers on Abby (Middleton) who, after returning home following the death of her mother, becomes obsessed with fragmented memories of a kidnapping she claims to have witnessed as a child. Gross is Abby’s younger sister Laure, whose tense relationship with her sibling is put to the test as Abby’s obsession grows out of control.

Andy McQueen (Fahrenheit 451), Noah Reid (Schitt’s Creek), David Cronenberg (Alias Grace), Eric Johnson (The Knick) and Marie-Josée Croze (The Barbarian Invasions) also star in the film, which has been shooting in Niagara Falls.

Shin says, “My parents settled in Niagara Falls as new immigrants to Canada and much like the film, bought a...

For countries in the English-speaking world, entries into the foreign-language Oscar race offer a chance to reflect on the complexity of their own cultures or examine their place in the wider world.

After digging into its colonial past last year in Francois Girard’s Quebec-set “Hochelaga, Land of Souls,” Canada enters the Oscar race with Sophie Dupuis’ “Family First.” Set in a gritty working-class neighborhood, Dupuis’ low-budget feature debut is about a Montreal family bound together by a life of crime. Canada, which took home the foreign-language Oscar in 2003 with Denys Arcand’s “The Barbarian Invasions,” has scored four nominations and three shortlist spots in the past 12 years.

Australia landed its first nomination in 2016 with “Tanna,” a Nauvhal-language romance about two young lovers defying local mores that was the first film ever shot on the island of Vanuatu. This year’s submission for the foreign-language race, “Jirga,” follows a former...

Screen’s regularly updated list of foreign language Oscar submissions.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.

Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.

Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.

Submitted films must be released theatrically...

Screen’s regularly updated list of foreign language Oscar submissions.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.

Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.

Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.

Submitted films must be released theatrically...

Screen’s regularly updated list of foreign language Oscar submissions.

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are not until Tuesday January 22, but the first submissions for best foreign-language film are now being announced.

Last year saw a record 92 submissions for the award, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of nine. This was cut to five nominees, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman ultimately taking home the gold statue.

Screen’s interview with Mark Johnson, chair of the Academy’s foreign-language film committee, explains the shortlisting process from submission to voting.

Submitted films must be released theatrically...

Drama earned three Iris Prizes at recent Gala Québec Cinéma.

Sophie Dupuis’ Chien de garde will represent Canada in the contest for the 2019 best foreign language film Oscar.

The Québecoise filmmaker’s narrative feature directorial debut centres on a man who tries to balance the demands of a needy family, the collections work he does with his brother, and the father figure / uncle who runs a drug cartel.

Jean-Simon Leduc, Théodore Pellerin, Claudel Laberge, Maude Guérin, and Paul Ahmarani star.

Etienne Hansez of Bravo Charlie produced Chien de Garde, which Axia Films distributed in Quebec. Telefilm Canada and others funded the feature,...

Charged with alternating currents of droll wit, sardonic cynicism, and socialist-tinged idealism, writer-director Denys Arcand’s “The Fall of the American Empire” is a richly amusing rumination on the excesses and amorality of capitalism that plays like an ingeniously contrived mashup of film noir melodrama and Ealing Studios comedy. Despite the title, the new film has nothing to do with “The Decline of the American Empire,” Arcand’s classic 1986 roundelay about the lusty lives and endless conversations of eight self-regarding French Canadian intellectuals. But it does share at least a few thematic threads with that movie’s Oscar-winning sequel, “The Barbarian Invasions” (2003), which suggested that, in times of crisis, even a die-hard socialist might appreciate the value of having a great deal of money at his disposal.

Of course, you don’t have to have seen either of those earlier works to enjoy “Fall of the American Empire.” It’s very much a stand-alone work,...

This year’s Canadian feature slate — 25 in all — can be seen in six Tiff sections including Discovery, Tiff Docs and Wavelengths.

Among the selected features are highly anticipated films from fest alumni including Denys Arcand, Barry Avrich and the late Rob Stewart.

Arcand’s “The Fall of the American Empire” stars Alexandre Landry as Pierre-Paul Daoust, who faces a moral dilemma after discovering two bags of money. Sony Classics bought the North American rights to the film during the Cannes Film Festival in May. The film, which will play in Tiff’s special presentations section, is a thematic cousin to Arcand’s Oscar-nominated “The Decline of the American Empire” and the Oscar-winning “The Barbarian Invasions” (2003).

Avrich returns to Tiff’s docu section with “Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz,” a portrait of the United States’ chief prosecutor during the Nuremberg trial. Stewart’s final film, “Sharkwater Extinction” will...

Completing the thematic trilogy that Denys Arcand began in 1986 with “The Decline of the American Empire,” and continued in 2002 with the Oscar-winning “The Barbarian Invasion,” “The Fall of the American Empire” is another of the Quebecois auteur’s playful and damning philosophical excoriations of societal values. Less of a sequel than it is a spiritual successor — there are no returning characters, and Arcand newcomers won’t have any trouble following the action — this thoroughly modern financial caper finds that America’s corruptive influence is still creeping up North, infecting its closest neighbor like a gangrenous rot that needs to be cut off at the knees.

What else is new? But if Arcand’s worldview hasn’t changed, his angle continues to grow more acute. Where “The Decline of the American Empire” focused on social ills, and “The Barbarian Invasions” was preoccupied with ideology, “The Fall of the American Empire” finds...

As hard as it is to make any definitive statements about awards season from the vantage point of August, it’s safe to say that the fall festivals could launch a very crowded year for films vying for gold statuettes.

If nothing else, just look at the sheer quantity of Oscar-endorsed directors who will have films premiering at the Venice, Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals. The back-to-back-to-back fests will showcase dozens of contenders and pretenders, beginning with Venice’s launch on August 29 and continuing through the conclusion of Toronto on September 16.

All four of the directors involved in the two most hard-fought recent Oscar showdowns — the one between Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” and Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” in 2017, and between Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity” and Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” in 2014 — will be back with new features.

Also Read: Can Fall Box Office Break Records Despite Lack...

The Toronto Intl. Film Festival has added Denys Arcand’s crime thriller “The Fall of the American Empire” and 18 other Canadian films to its lineup.

Nine of the films are directed by women and 14 are world premieres.

“We’re especially proud to present such a diverse group of films,” said Steve Gravestock, senior programmer. “Ranging from science fiction to fantasy, myth to documentary, and romance to a dystopic vision of our neighbours to the south, this year’s Canadian films come from every region in the country, stretching from east to west and north to south.”

“The Fall of the American Empire” stars Alexandre Landry, Maxim Roy, Yan England, and Rémy Girard and centers Landry’s character discovering two bags of money and facing a moral dilemma. Arcand was inspired to make the film after learning about the 2010 murder of two people in a Montreal boutique.

Sony Classics bought the...

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up U.S. rights to Oscar winner Denys Arcand’s upcoming The Fall of the American Empire. This is a follow-up of sorts to the Canadian helmer’s 1986 Oscar nominee The Decline Of The American Empire. Spc has also acquired all rights in Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

The film explores the predominance of capitalism in a society where all other values seem to have crumbled. It centers on Pierre-Paul, a 36-year-old intellectual with a PhD in philosophy who is forced to work as a deliveryman to earn a decent living. One day, while delivering a parcel, he gets caught in a hold-up gone terribly wrong. With two dead and millions in money bags laying on the ground, Pierre-Paul is confronted with a dilemma: leave empty-handed, or take the money and run?

Alexandre Landry (Gabrielle) stars as Pierre-Paul with newcomer Maripier Morin, Louis Morissette...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired U.S. and Latin American rights to Canadian director Denys Arcand's comedy The Fall of the American Empire.

The French-language film, now in postproduction, is the follow-up to Arcand's Oscar-nominated The Decline of the American Empire. That 1986 film completed a trilogy by Arcand, a Cannes veteran, that includes The Barbarian Invasions, which won the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 2005.

Thirty years after the original film, Fall of the American Empire explores the dominant role capitalism plays in society when other values appear to have crumbled. Pierre-Paul Daoust, an intellectual played by Alexandre Landry, is ...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the U.S. and Latin American rights to Canadian director Denys Arcand's The Fall of the American Empire comedy.

The French-language film, now in postproduction, will be the follow-up to Arcand's Oscar-nominated The Decline of the American Empire. That 1986 film completed a trilogy by Arcand, a Cannes veteran, that includes The Barbarian Invasions, which won the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 2005.

Thirty years after the original film, The Fall of the American Empire explores the dominant role capitalism plays in society when other values appear to have crumbled. Pierre-Paul Daoust, an intellectual played by ...

Sony Pictures Classics is in exclusive negotiations to buy “The Fall of the American Empire,” Variety has learned.

The Canadian crime thriller was written and directed by Denys Arcand and stars Alexandre Landry, Maxim Roy, Yan England and Rémy Girard. It centers on a man (Landry) who discovers two bags of money and is faced with a moral dilemma. Arcand was inspired to make the film after learning about the 2010 murder of two people in a Montreal boutique.

No deal for the film is in place, so a pact could fall through. However, it appears increasingly likely that the indie distributor will land distribution rights. The film is a thematic cousin to Arcand’s Oscar-nominated “The Decline of the American Empire” and the Oscar-winning “The Barbarian Invasions” (2003).

Sony has a strong track record with art house fare. The company scored a best picture Oscar nod last year for “Call Me by Your Name,...

Victor Loewy overcame a childhood of adversity to make a mark on the landscape of Canadian cinema and worldwide film distribution.

“I grew up in Romania, and my childhood was not normal in any traditional sense,” Loewy says.

Both his parents’ families died in the Holocaust. His father left the family when he was only a year old, and he lived with his mother and sister in communist Bucharest until age 18.

Then, in 1964, they were allowed to immigrate to Montreal. Loewy went on to graduate with a B.A. in German and economics from McGill U. in 1971, before jumping head-first into an industry of which he wasn’t exactly.

“I was most intrigued by the business side of filmmaking, the dealmaking world and distribution. Before that, I’d seen films strictly as entertainment, but I figured I could do something exciting within the world of cinema.”

While music, food, clothing design...

Seville International will handle international sales on Denys Arcand’s (The Barbarian Invasions) upcoming comedy The Fall Of The American Empire, a follow of sorts to his 1986 Oscar-nominee The Decline Of The American Empire.

The French-language film, which is currently in post-production, was written and directed by Arcand and produced by regular collaborator Denise Robert. In 2004, the duo teamed on The Barbarian Invasions which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and was nommed for Best Original Screenplay.

According to the production, the movie “takes a witty and touching look at the predominance of money in a society where all other values seem to have crumbled.” The protagonist, Pierre-Paul Daoust, 36, an intellectual with a PhD in philosophy is forced to work as a deliveryman to afford a decent living. One day, while delivering a parcel, he gets caught in a hold up gone terribly wrong: two dead and millions...

Maxim Roy, who recurs on the Freeform series Shadowhunters, has been cast in Denys Arcand's upcoming thriller Le triomphe de l’argent (The Triumph of Money). Set to begin production in September, the film is inspired by the shooting at the Flawnego boutique in Old Montreal in March 2010. Arcand wrote and directed Les Invasions Barbares (Barbarian Invasions), which earned a Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2014. His longtime producing partner Denise Robert is producing the…...

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

The greatest thing about the best foreign-language film category is the recognition of works from all around the world. Throughout the years, movies made outside the United States of America have gotten the recognition they deserve thanks to the implementation of this specific award. With the 2017 Oscars right around the corner, let’s take a look back at the distribution of nominations and wins across the seven continents that make up this big world we inhabit.

This year’s best foreign-language film contenders are: Toni Erdmann (Germany), The Salesman (Iran), Land of Mine (Denmark), A Man Called Ove (Sweden), Paradise (Russia), The King’s Choice (Norway), My Life as a Zucchini (Switzerland), It’s Only the End of the World (Canada), and Tanna (Australia). This site’s namesake, The Hollywood’s Scott Feinberg, lists the first five of those as frontrunners and the other four as major threats.

‘Toni Erdmann’ (Courtesy: Tiff)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

It’s not too often that foreign-language films get recognized for anything at the Oscars beyond the best foreign-language film category — but it does happen. And, believe it or not, it happens more for best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay than many other categories. A prime example of that is Toni Erdmann, Germany’s submission this year that is proving to be a cross-category threat, which could score a nomination — or a win — for its writing.

The story of Toni Erdmann — which has a solid Rotten Tomatoes score of 91% — follows a father who is trying to reconnect with his adult daughter after the death of his dog. It sounds simple enough but, of course, the two couldn’t be more unalike. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and where it won the Fipresci Prize. Since then, it...

Exclusive: Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake to be first release from Srinivasan Narayanan’s rebooted distribution outfit.

Former Mumbai Film Festival head Srinivasan Narayanan is rebooting his distribution company In2Infotainment India with the acquisition of Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake.

In2Infotainment has acquired the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film for the Saarc region (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka). The company previously distributed films such as L’Enfant, Lemming and The Barbarian Invasions in India, but stepped back from distribution while Narayanan was running the Mumbai film festival.

Narayanan said he plans to create a sustainable model for the distribution of international films in India: “We will innovatively release I, Daniel Blake in the coming months. The idea is to ensure that the distribution model is a sustainable and viable one that ensures all stakeholders are benefited, including audiences”.

In2infotainment also plans to forge partnerships with investors across the world to market...

How acclaimed filmmaker Denys Arcand went from earning an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of “The Barbarian Invasions” to writing the truly execrable script for “An Eye for Beauty” is an even greater mystery than what drives his characters to make their oft illogical decisions. Instead of a relationship drama, the film works better as a 100-minute ad for Canadian travel or the benefits of competitive sports for adults. Its failure to succeed on any level but the visual is all the more puzzling due to its provenance from a celebrated director with decades of experience. Read More: Exclusive: U.S. Trailer And Poster For Denys Arcand's 'An Eye For Beauty' At the shallow heart of “An Eye for Beauty” is Luc (Éric Bruneau), a talented architect who is married to athletic beauty Stéphanie (Mélanie Thierry). The couple has a stunning home on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec,...

Oscar nominated and Cannes Film Festival prize winning filmmaker Denys Arcand is a Canadian director who has been behind acclaimed pictures like "The Barbarian Invasions," "Jesus Of Montreal," and "The Decline Of The American Empire." And the latest from the auteur is "An Eye For Beauty," which is now landing stateside thanks to Monument Releasing and today we have the exclusive U.S. trailer for the film. Starring Éric Bruneau, Mélanie Thierry, Melanie Merkosky, Marie-José Croze, Mathieu Quesnel, and Geneviéve Boivin-Roussy, the story follows a young man whose affair threatens to unravel his marriage and professional life. Here's the official synopsis:  Luc is a brilliant young architect with a budding reputation. Opinionated, charming, and confident, he lives with his beautiful wife in the stunning countryside of Quebec. Luc's seemingly-perfect life begins to fall apart however when he meets and falls for...

Academy invitee Eddie Redmayne in 'The Theory of Everything.' Academy invites 322 new members: 'More diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before' The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has offered membership to 322 individuals "who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures." According to the Academy's press release, "those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2015." In case all 322 potential new members say an enthusiastic Yes, that means an injection of new blood representing about 5 percent of the Academy's current membership. In the words of Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs (as quoted in the press release), in 2015 "our branches have recognized a more diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before, and we look forward to adding their creativity, ideas and experience to our organization." In recent years, the Academy membership has...

©Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©Studio Pali Fekete architects/©A.M.P.A.S.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this week that the Los Angeles City Council, in a unanimous vote, approved plans for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Construction will begin this summer, and ceremonial groundbreaking festivities will occur this fall.

“I am thrilled that Los Angeles is gaining another architectural and cultural icon,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “My office of economic development has worked directly with the museum’s development team to ensure that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will create jobs, support tourism, and pay homage to the industry that helped define our identity as the creative capital of the world.”

“We are grateful to our incredible community of supporters who have helped make this museum a reality,” said Dawn Hudson, the Academy’s CEO. “Building this museum has been an Academy...

Strangely dropping a press release on a historic day where the nation's attention is elsewhere, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed their annual list of new member invitees this morning. For those who criticize the makeup of the Academy there was some good news and the stark realization the organization still has a long way to go. The Academy has spent the last eight to 10 years attempting to diversify its membership and this year's class mostly reflects that. There are significantly more invitees of Asian and African-American descent, but the male to female disparity is still depressing. Out of the 25 potential new members of the Actor's Branch only seven are women. And, no, there isn't really an acceptable way for the Academy to spin that sad fact. Additionally, It's important to realize the 322 people noted in the release have only been invited to join Hollywood's most exclusive club.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 322 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2015. “It’s gratifying to acknowledge the extraordinary range of talent in our industry,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “This year, our branches have recognized a more diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before, and we look forward to adding their creativity, ideas and experience to our organization.” The 2015 invitees are: Actors Elizabeth Banks – “Love & Mercy,” “The Hunger Games” Choi Min-sik– “Lucy,” “Oldboy” Benedict Cumberbatch – “The Imitation Game,” “Star Trek Into Darkness” Martin Freeman – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Hot Fuzz” Heather Graham – “The Hangover,” “Boogie Nights” Tom Hardy – “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Inception” Kevin Hart – “The Wedding Ringer,” “Ride Along...

'Munich' movie cover 'Munich' movie review: Steven Spielberg tackles political time-space continuum in wildly uneven but ultimately satisfying thriller Alternately intriguing and irritating, thought-provoking and banal, subtle and patronizing, the biggest surprise about Steven Spielberg's Munich is that it – however grudgingly – works. The film, which Spielberg himself has referred to as a "prayer for peace," follows five men contracted by the Israeli government to avenge the massacre of that country's athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Sizable chunks of this political thriller with a Message (capital "M") are simplistically written, clumsily acted, and handled with the director's notoriously heavy touch, but the old adage – blood begets blood – even if somewhat muddled, is too timely not to make an impact. Complex 'Munich' movie plot Based on George Jonas' 1984 book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, whose veracity has been questioned in some quarters, Munich begins as...