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With a filmmaking career that stretches back to 1990, Thomas Vinterberg has brought us such movies as The Biggest Heroes, It’s All About Love, Dear Wendy, When a Man Comes Home, Submarino, The Hunt, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Commune, The Command, and Another Round, among others. He has made some TV movies along the way, and now he has made his first TV series, a seven-episode show called Families Like Ours… and Deadline reports that the Netflix streaming service will be bringing Families Like Ours to the United States next week, on June 10th!

Vinterberg may be best known for co-founding (with Lars von Trier) the Dogma 95 movement, which created a list of rules “to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, while excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology.”

Developed by Zentropa and Studiocanal, Families Like Ours is an original series...

Thomas Vinterberg is ready for “The Brothers Lionheart,” based on Astrid Lindgren’s fantasy novel.

“I’m writing it myself with the brilliant British writer Simon Stephens, so it’s a mix of things. The book is there, it’s not mine, but it’s a great journey we’re on. I really love it,” he tells Variety about his upcoming project.

Considered a children’s classic, Lindgren’s story focuses on two brothers and a mysterious land Nangijala where life conquers death.

“It’s about faith and doubt, which goes straight as an arrow right into my own life. This book has the courage to step into what every child is asking when they’re about 8 or 10 and about to go to bed. ‘What happens when we die?’ There’s so much courage in these characters and Lindgren’s story, and I hope it can be encouraging for viewers,...

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will open with a world premiere screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket).

Set during the Central African Republic’s civil war in 2013, the film centers on a desperate Muslim man seeking refuge in a field hospital on Christmas Eve, while a threatening Christian militia gathers outside, demanding his life. At the heart of the events is Norwegian aid worker Linn, played by Kristine Kujath Thorp, who must make moral decisions to protect the man without endangering her colleagues.

The film will screen in satellite venues across Sweden at the same time as the Göteborg premiere. The film will also be available to watch through the festival’s digital platform.

Göteborg will this year also hand honorary awards to Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival has said it is honoring Vinterberg for his deft talent for portraying “deeply...

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will open with a world premiere screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket).

Set during the Central African Republic’s civil war in 2013, the film centers on a desperate Muslim man seeking refuge in a field hospital on Christmas Eve, while a threatening Christian militia gathers outside, demanding his life. At the heart of the events is Norwegian aid worker Linn, played by Kristine Kujath Thorp, who must make moral decisions to protect the man without endangering her colleagues.

The film will screen in satellite venues across Sweden at the same time as the Göteborg premiere. The film will also be available to watch through the festival’s digital platform.

Göteborg will this year also hand honorary awards to Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival has said it is honoring Vinterberg for his deft talent for portraying “deeply...

Thomas Vinterberg, the Oscar-winning Danish director of “Another Round,” will preside over the jury of the upcoming Marrakech International Film Festival, with which he has a longstanding rapport.

The Marrakech jury will award its Étoile d’Or to one of the 14 first and second films in the fest’s international competition. Recent winners include Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir’s “Mother of all the Lies” last year and French-Iranian helmer Emad Aleebrahim-Dehkordi’s “A Tale of Shemroon” in 2022.

It will mark the first time that Vinterberg attends the Marrakech Film Festival. The Danish filmmaker is one of Europe’s best known directors. He co-founder with Lars von Trier of the Danish Dogme 95 movement in the mid 1990s. His vast and widely praised filmography comprises “The Celebration,” aka “Festen,” (1998) for which Vinterberg won the Cannes jury prize when he was 28; “It’s All About Love (2003)”; “Dear Wendy” (2005); “When a Man Comes Home...

Oscar-winning Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has been announced as president of the jury at the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival, running from November 29 to December 7.

The jury awards the Étoile d’Or to one of the 14 first and second films in the international competition, recent winners of which have included Asmae El Moudir’s Mother of all the Lies (2023) and Emad Aleebrahim-Dehkordi’s A Tale Of Shemroon (2022),

“In this rapidly changing and increasingly divided world, festivals such as Marrakech provide a much-needed window into a wide variety of cultures,” said Vinterberg. “Films can describe what cannot be explained. Make us understand the unacceptable. And there is indeed a lot to understand right now.”

Marrakech has strong connections with the Danish cinema world. Last year it celebrated longtime Vinterberg collaborator Mads Mikkelsen with an honorary career achievement award. He spoke fondly of his connection with the director in his masterclass.

Vinterberg...

Oscar-nominated Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg is set to make his television drama debut with six-part family saga “Families Like Ours.” (Via Variety.) The Dane’s profile skyrocketed recently after he nabbed a surprise Oscar nomination for Best Director for his latest film “Another Round,” which is also nominated for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. “Families Like Ours” will continue Vinterberg’s collaboration with “Another Round” producer Zentropa, the Danish company founded by Lars Von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen.

“Families Like Ours” has been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2 and will be supported by Danish Public Service funds. In addition to directing, Vinterberg will co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, co-writer of his first feature “The Biggest Heroes.”

According to Variety:

“‘Families Like Ours’ takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After...

Oscar-nominated Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, whose latest movie “Another Round” is nominated for a pair of Oscars and just won a BAFTA award, is re-teaming with Danish production outfit Zentropa on his TV drama debut, “Families Like Ours.”

The thought-provoking drama series has already been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2. A family saga, the six-part series will be directed by Vinterberg, who will also co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, with whom Vinterberg wrote his debut feature film, “The Biggest Heroes.”

“Families Like Ours” takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After a flood slowly takes over the country, Denmark is gradually evacuated. People must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and to who they are. In the coming years, Danes disperse in all directions: only houses, schools and empty streets are left.

Those...

Thomas Vinterberg went through a bit of a dry patch following “The Celebration,” with a string of movies (“It’s All About Love,” “Dear Wendy,” “Submarino“) that missed the mark. But now he’s back on form, chilling everyone with “The Hunt,” going the period drama route with the underrated “Far From The Madding Crowd,” and now bringing “The Commune” to art houses everywhere.

Continue reading Choose Your Family In The New U.S. Trailer For Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘The Commune’ at The Playlist.

Copyright Desert Dancer Productions Ltd 2014

Relativity Studios has released a new, behind-the-scenes featurette for their upcoming film Desert Dancer. The movie stars Freida Pinto, Reece Ritchie, Tom Cullen, Nazanin Boniadi and Makram J. Khoury.

Check out the featurette now for an inside look at the cast’s dance rehearsals with acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan.

The video features Benjamin Wallfisch’s original score throughout.

Set in Iran, this powerful and unbelievable true story follows the brave ambition of Afshin Ghaffarian. During the volatile climate of the 2009 presidential election, where many cultural freedoms were threatened, Afshin and some friends (including Elaheh played by Freida Pinto) risk their lives and form an underground dance company.

Through banned online videos, they learn from timeless legends who cross all cultural divides, such as Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev. Afshin and Elaheh also learn much from each other, most importantly how to embrace their...

Far From the Madding Crowd looks like it falls firmly in Fox Searchlight's wheelhouse (in the period film way, not the quirky indie way), which seems like a good thing in this case. The Thomas Hardy adaptation stars Carey Mulligan, Michael Sheen, Matthias Schoenaerts, (who you can currently see in The Drop) and Tom Sturridge (Effie Gray) and looks like one of those gorgeous high caliber pieces I'll never see on my own, but will be glad I did once someone else drags me to it. Hit the jump to check out the trailer and poster for Far From the Madding Crowd. It was directed by Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt, Dear Wendy) and adapted for the screen by David Nicholls (One Day, Starter for 10). The film will be released by Fox Searchlight on May 1, 2015. It also stars Juno Temple and Jessica Barden. Trailer courtesy of Fox Searchlight: Here's the...

Thomas Vinterberg adapts Thomas Hardy with Far from the Madding Crowd, and a teaser trailer for the May 2015 release has now been released. Carey Mulligan stars as independent-minded Bathsheba Everdene, who finds herself attracting three very different male suitors: sheep farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), Sergent Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), and prosperous, older bachelor William Boldwood (Michael Sheen). Juno Temple also co-stars in this exploration of relationships and resilience.

There have been many film and TV adaptations of Hardy’s novel, with the 1967 version by director John Schlesinger – which starred Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Peter Finch and Alan Bates – being the most beloved, so Vinterberg has his work cut out for him. This is his first English language feature since 2004′s Dear Wendy, though Fox Searchlight’s trailer makes an effort to promote Far from the Madding Crowd as from the filmmaker behind Oscar nominee The Hunt. He’s far from the Dogme crowd now.

"Nymphomaniac" and "Melancholia" director Lars von Trier has begun writing a screenplay for "Detroit," a horror film set in the downtrodden American city.

Fellow Danish filmmaker Kristian Levring ("The Salvation") is slated to direct, making this the first film von Trier has penned but not directed since 2004's "Dear Wendy".

Speaking of European filmmakers, Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur ("Contraband," "Everest") is in early talks to helm the history drama "Reykjavik". Mike Newell was previously set to direct.

Michael Douglas is set to portray U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Christoph ‎Waltz as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the film about the former world leaders' famous 1986 Reykjavik Summit which signaled the end of the Cold War.

Source: THR...

The former teen star of Billy Elliot has added Lars von Trier to the bulging portfolio of directors he's worked with. But after filming Nymphomaniac, he admits, 'I had no idea what I just did'

It's lunchtime in Richmond, Virginia when a perky Jamie Bell calls. He's there filming Turn, a new American TV drama in which he plays a farmer heading up a team of secret agents during the revolutionary war, and it's "absolutely freezing", he says. But playing war games in the cold is a piece of cake compared to the week he spent with Lars von Trier.

Since 2000's Billy Elliot, Bell's Bafta-winning breakout role, he's been notching up meaty turns with directors of choice, from the indies (David Gordon Green, Kevin MacDonald) to the big guns (Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson). Von Trier was always on his list. Bell loves his work, calling him "one of the...

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg is known for co-founding Denmark's Dogme movement, best expressed in his film "A Celebration," which wowed Cannes in 1998. After a journey of creative risk-taking with English-language films "It's All About Love" and "Dear Wendy," Vinterberg returned home for a major comeback with "The Hunt," cowritten by Tobias Lindholm ("A Hijacking"), which earned Mads Mikkelsen the Best Actor prize at Cannes in 2012 and was a hit in Denmark, which submitted it this year as its official Oscar entry.  If the Best Actor category weren't so intensely competitive, Mikkelsen would have a strong chance at a nomination for his penetrating portrayal of a decent school teacher whose life is shattered when he is falsely accused of being a pedophile. One spreading lie throws his community into a state of hysteria as his friends ostracize him and the teacher fights back against the witch-hunt alone. "Suddenly this kind, lovely civilized man.

After landing on cinephile radars with 1998's "The Celebration," Thomas Vinterberg went on a weird and wild cinematic journey. From pictures that didn't or barely got a release stateside, to disappointments like "Dear Wendy" or "It's All About Love," Vinterberg failed to match the acclaim of his Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize-winning film. That's until this year's "The Hunt," the gripping tale of community persecution that earned rave reviews, and more Cannes awards (an Ecumenical Jury Prize for Vinterberg, a Best Actor trophy for Mads Mikkelsen). And the helmer isn't wasting a moment riding that momentum. Last month production started on his star studded adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Far From The Madding Crowd," and today Empire brings us the official first images from the movie, and yes, we will buy all the tickets. Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Juno Temple, Michael Sheen and Tom Sturridge, the movie tells the tale...

Sometimes in the film buz you get a second chance to make a great second impression. It took one critically-lauded, unexpected (it was the surprise inclusion at the Cannes film festival in 2012) hit in the award-winning (Best Actor for Mads Mikkelsen) The Hunt to put Thomas Vinterberg on the right side of the tracks again. 98′s The Celebration was all the talk and his follow up critically bashed projects such as It’s All About Love and Dear Wendy took the helmer out of circulation. Now Fox Searchlight Pictures announced that Vinterberg has begun shooting on the U.K shot Far From the Madding Crowd which sees Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge and one of the busiest actresses in Juno Temple make up the crowd. The film will shoot on location in Dorset, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London. DNA Films’ Allon Reich and Andrew Macdonald are producing. Look...

Like many directors who make a big splash with an early feature, Thomas Vinterberg did not have an easy time of it thereafter. And while we don’t particularly understand the critical opprobrium heaped on, for example, “Dear Wendy,” a film this writer admires, it’s clear that he has not fully lived up to the potential on display in his landmark 1998 film, “The Celebration.” After all, that film not only launched his career into the arthouse stratosphere, it launched a whole movement, and has arguably never been bettered as the definitive iteration of what Dogme should and could be. Interestingly, “The Hunt” returns to themes explored in that earlier film, specifically the breakdown of interpersonal relationships under the pressure of revelatory accusations of sexual abuse. But here Vinterberg is unconstrained by Dogme, er dogma, so the film is in a style more classical than experimental, more deliberately staged and,...

A Danish allegory about a man falsely accused of pedophilia (the dashing, quietly charismatic Mads Mikkelsen) and the town that turns against him, Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt was one of the most divisive works screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Odd, since there's nothing worthy of love or hate in this capably made but underwhelming movie. Vinterberg—with compatriot Lars von Trier—founded the Dogme 95 movement (that charter of dos and don'ts intended to purify big-screen realism), and his first effort, The Celebration, was a watchable jolt of family dysfunction. Since then, the director has made two far shakier U.S.-set films: the dreadful anti-gun parable Dear Wendy and an endearingly inept futuristic noir-romance, It's All About Love (s...

Shoreline is focused on discovering the best scripts from around the world. Their goal is to get these scripts into the hands of the producers and production companies who have the ability to get them made. They have the highest calibre and most respected industry judges of any screenwriting competitions out there and their judges are Oscar, Cannes & BAFTA winners and nominees.

30th June is the last day to enter your screenplay.

Feature Script – Late Deadline: 2nd June – 30th June 2013 £35 ($56 approx)

Short Script – Late Deadline: 2nd June – 30th June 2013 £25 ($40 approx)

Last years winner sold his screenplay to Christopher Figg, producer of: Hellraiser, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Dog Soldiers & many more.

There’s also over £9000 ($14000 approx.) in prizes to be won!

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To Enter Your Feature: http://www.shorelinescripts.com/shoreline-scripts-screenwriting-competition/feature/

To Enter Your Short: http://www.shorelinescripts.com/shoreline-scripts-short-script-submission/

Judges:

Oscar Nominated Producer, Stephen Woolley – The Crying Game,...

I am appalled to learn that Film Education, the charity that provides curriculum-based teaching resources, teacher training and cinema-based events across the UK, has closed (Report, 23 April). Film Education has been a vital resource for me during seven years heading a media department at an outstanding north London comprehensive girls' school.

Every September I launch the Young Film Critic of the Year Award as part of my induction into the UK film industry and introduction to journalism courses. In October I take my As and A2 students in lesson time to National Schools Film Week, an astonishing network of morning film screenings that take place for a fortnight throughout the whole of Britain.

While my daughter's Lambeth primary class – many of whom have never been to the cinema before – were watching A Shark's Tale in Leicester Square, my As students attended a marketing event on Dear Wendy and my A...

Mark Webber is not only a solid actor traversing both indie and mainstream worlds ("Broken Flowers," "The Hottest State," "Dear Wendy," "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"), but he has also found his own voice and bloomed into a interesting writer/director in recent years. He released his debut "Explicit Ills" in 2009, and his sophomore directorial effort, "The End of Love" feels like another personal and intimate work. It also features a meta aspect at its core: he stars as an actor named Mark alongside his real-life, then-two-year-old son Issac. Here's the synopsis: When the mother of his two-year-old son suddenly passes away, struggling actor Mark is forced to confront his shortcomings. With his fate and his son's now intertwined, he grapples with his ability to grow up - stuck between the life he once knew and the one waiting for him. When he has a meaningful encounter with a young mother,...

Shoreline Scripts, in partnership with Sound on Sight, is giving emerging independent writers and talented, new voices a chance to have their scripts put into the hands of leading producers and production companies who have the ability to get them made. This is your chance to have your screenplay read by the most respected industry judges of any screenwriting competition across the globe.

Here are the details. Best of luck to our readers who enter.

Shoreline Scripts Screenwriting Competition is offering 1 Free Feature script submission to it’s 2013 competition. www.shorelinescripts.com - How to enter: -

All you have to do is email contact@shorelinescripts.com with your name and ‘Sound on Sight’ in the subject heading. One reader will be chosen at random and notified that they have won by next Wednesday, January 16th.

Shoreline Scripts Screenwriting Competition is focused on discovering the best scripts from around the world.

Mark Webber is likable -- our kind of guy. His acting career is full of interesting, offbeat independent productions and challenging little roles ("Broken Flowers," "The Hottest State," "Dear Wendy" and of course, a bit more mainstream, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"). But the 32-year-old actor is also trying to tell his own stories and in recent years has evolved into a director/screenwriter as well, starting off with 2009's "Explicit Ills." His sophomore directorial effort looks like another small and intimate, personal work called "The End Of Love." It also boasts a meta aspect and stars himself as an actor named Mark and his real-life two-year-old son Issac. Here's the synopsis: When the mother of his two-year-old son suddenly passes away, struggling actor Mark is forced to confront his shortcomings. With his fate and his son's now intertwined, he grapples with his ability to grow up - stuck between the.

Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Far From The Madding Crowd has been a target of directors for years now, and has been seen on screens both big and small at least three times. The Celebration / Dear Wendy director Thomas Vinterberg has decided it’s something he wants to tackle and is in talks with DNA Films about the job.Hardy’s novel follows the changing fortunes of several characters, including Bathsheba Everdene, who attracts the attention of several men and finds her life filled with wealth, heartache and tragedy. The most famous adaptation was John Schlesinger’s 1967 version, which saw Julie Christie as Bathsheba, Terence Stamp as Sergeant Troy and Alan Bates as shepherd Gabriel Oak.According to The Wrap, Starter For 10 / One Day writer David Nicholls (who was also behind a TV version of Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles and, more recently, Dickens’ Great Expectations) is...

Thomas Vinterberg has certainly been on an interesting journey since breaking out with "Festen" nearly fifteen years ago. While that film put him on the map, he struggled to follow it up, with audience and critical indifference meeting subsequent efforts like "Dear Wendy," "It's All About Love" and "Submarino." But this spring, Vinterberg once again wowed Cannes with "The Hunt," a searing drama starring Mads Mikkelsen (who took home Best Actor) as a man wrongfully accused of sexually abusing a young girl. And it hasn't taken the director long to leverage that success into a potentially exciting new project. Vinterberg is in talks to direct an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's famed "Far From The Madding Crowd." No stranger to adapting classic literature, David Nicholls (the Ralph Fiennes/Helena Bonham Carter "Great Expectations" and the 2008 Brit TV mini-series "Tess of the...

In this day and age, what famous person hasn’t inadvertently shown America their naked parts? Sure, maybe other celebs like Scarlett Johansson and Christina Hendricks had their photos hacked or leaked where as The Newsroom‘s Alison Pill just…accidentally tweeted one to the the entire Internet herself, but the effect is still the same. “Yep. That picture happened. Ugh. My tech issues have now reached new heights, apparently. How a deletion turned into a tweet… Apologies,” the actress explained via Twitter this afternoon…like a boss.

Because isn’t that the correct attitude for a celeb to take after the world sees a private photo, perhaps one intended for her fiance Jay Baruchel? “Oh, my bad. Just naked for a minute. Sorry about that!” This is the Internet, people! We’re all going to have naked photos floating around eventually! Maybe Alison was especially blase about her accidental flash because,...

Film buffs will forever give director Thomas Vinterberg a special place in movie history for co-creating the minimalist 90s film movement Dogme 95 along with professional provocateur Lars Von Trier. Vinterberg made the first and best Dogme movie The Celebration. That incendiary tale of secret child abuse in a wealthy family earned him a Palm D’or in 1998 and launched his career. Since then he’s produced some interesting films like It’s All About Love and Dear Wendy, but never one that made quite the same impact. Well, until now anyways. This year Vinterberg returns to Tiff with another film hinging child abuse in The Hunt. Madds Mikkelsen stars (in a role that already earned him a Best Actor statue in Cannes) as Lucas, a kindly kindergarten teacher who is accused of abusing one of his student Klara. The town instantly turns on Lucas en mass, doling out psychological and physical abuse.

Like many directors who make a big splash with an early feature, Thomas Vinterberg did not have an easy time of it thereafter. And while we don’t particularly understand the critical opprobrium heaped on, for example, “Dear Wendy,” a film this writer admires, it’s clear that he has not fully lived up to the potential on display in his landmark 1998 film, “The Celebration.” After all, that film not only launched his career into the arthouse stratosphere, it launched a whole movement, and has arguably never been bettered as the definitive iteration of what Dogme should and could be. Interestingly, “The Hunt,” which played this week at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, returns to themes explored in that earlier film, specifically the breakdown of interpersonal relationships under the pressure of revelatory accusations of sexual abuse. But here Vinterberg is unconstrained by Dogme, er dogma, so the film is in a style more.

Mads Mikkelsen starrer The Hunt goes to Magnolia Variety reports that the distributor's picked up U.S. distribution rights to the Cannes Film Festival player Jagten (The Hunt) which took home the actor award. Pic tells of a kindergarten teacher falsely accused of child abuse, and also stars Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrømm Sysse Wold and Anne Luise Hassing. Vinterberg, known for films like The Celebration, When a Man Comes Home, Dear Wendy and Submarino, directs as well as scripting alongside Tobias Lindholm. "Thomas Vinterberg demonstrates his directorial mastery in his finest work since...

Mads Mikkelsen starrer The Hunt goes to Magnolia Variety reports that the distributor's picked up U.S. distribution rights to the Cannes Film Festival player Jagten (The Hunt) which took home the actor award. Pic tells of a kindergarten teacher falsely accused of child abuse, and also stars Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrømm Sysse Wold and Anne Luise Hassing. Vinterberg, known for films like The Celebration, When a Man Comes Home, Dear Wendy and Submarino, directs as well as scripting alongside Tobias Lindholm. "Thomas Vinterberg demonstrates his directorial mastery in his finest work since...

After making big waves with his Dogme classic The Celebration in 1998, Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg has made a handful of flawed and underseen films, whether the genre be post-apocalyptic sci-fi (It’s All About Love) or a pseudo-Western about a group of gun-wielding pacifists (Dear Wendy), that have rendered him largely unnoticed as of late.

Let it be said that his newest work, The Hunt, will stand to change the tide. Starring Mads Mikkelsen in a decidedly, and impressively, domesticated role. Vinterberg takes his time with his narrative, looking into a very 21st century kind of witch hunt. Lucas (Mikkelsen) is a new teacher at a local kindergarten, recently divorced and at odds with his ex-wife over custody of their teenage son. He’s an engaged educator, interacting with the young children and developing close relationships with all of them.

Perhaps his closest relationship is with Klara (Annika Wedderkopp), daughter...

It’s been a long time since we saw this Dane at the Cannes Film Festival in the Main Competition capacity. Thomas Vinterberg ‘s second feature film Festen (The Celebration) in 1998 claimed the Jury Prize which he parlayed into a career of experimental-type English language films It’s All About Love and Dear Wendy, and then homegrown titles A Man Comes Home and Submarino followed with less festival plays making it somewhat of a surprise that the filmmaker is in this year’s Main Competition. The Hunt stars Mads Mikkelsen in the lead and of course, the very unique Thomas Bo Larsen plays the supporting role in what is essentially a drama about the rumor mill, how it spreads and how it destroys lives. So far, we’ve drawn a “love it” or “hate it” type reaction, as we’ve got something of a rarity, with scores from zero to five stars.

Early this morning brought one of the most anticipated moments in the cinephile's calendar: the announcement of the line-up of this year's installment of the Cannes Film Festival. And while it reads in places like a parody of a Cannes line-up (Alain Resnais! Abbas Kiarostami! Michael Haneke! Ken Loach!) there's no doubt that we're excited about all of those films, as well as new ones from David Cronenberg, Jacques Audiard, Walter Salles and many, many others.

Much of the line-up had been widely predicted by Cannes-watchers (even that April Fool's Day prank ended up getting 18 films right), but nevertheless, there were a few surprises, as well as a few major absences, either expected ones or more eyebrow-raising ones. Some Cannes favorites we've known weren't coming for a while: Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" opens tomorrow in Italy and wasn't thought to be at Cannes, while neither Wong Kar-Wai...

Oranges and Sunshine; Justin Bieber: Never Say Never; Rango; The Eagle; The Lincoln Lawyer

The ironically upbeat title of Jim Loach's impressive and arresting feature debut, Oranges and Sunshine, (2010, Icon, 15) refers to the bright new future promised to British children shipped to Australia in one of the most alarming chapters of this country's recent past. Assured (often erroneously) that their parents were dead, these forgotten unfortunates arrived wide-eyed down under, where they faced a life of slave labour – and worse. Inducted into institutions where child abuse was rife, they suffered at the hands of anonymous authorities and closed-rank religious orders, their plight a grotesque secret shrouded in an all-encompassing silence.

Inspired by the real-life investigations which led to belated (and all-too-recent) official apologies, Loach's powerful movie strikes an exemplary balance between personal journey and wider political parable. Emily Watson is terrific as social worker Margaret Humphreys, the reluctant heroine...

Lars von Trier's Cannes slating calls to mind the fate of his fellow Danish film-maker, who likewise fell abruptly from critical grace

And so this year's Cannes turned out to be a tale of two Danes. Engulfed in acclaim was Nicolas Winding Refn, the longtime wunderkind now making good on his youthful promise to claim the award for best director with his arthouse noir Drive. Drowned in opprobrium, of course, was Lars von Trier – about whom too much has surely already been written but who, however absurdly, emerged as the chief talking point of the whole shebang. The two even shared a public spat to further hog the attention.

All of which put me in mind of a third Danish film-maker, technically absent from the festivities but lurking in the background like a Scandinavian Marley's ghost – the spectral figure of Thomas Vinterberg. Because not so very long ago it...

After the whirlwind of indie-world deals from Sundance, here’s a true indie story from The Playlist: Mark Webber, the indie film veteran who played Stephen Stills, the frontman of the band Sex Bomb-Omb in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, will be directing a version of his own past in his sophomore directing effort, and will be joined by his real two-year-old son.

Webber’s terrific turn as the flighty Stills in Scott Pilgrim should be his star-making role, but it looks like he’s content to stick to his indie roots. After roles in The Laramie Project, Broken Flowers, and Dear Wendy, Webber made his feature directing debut with Explicit Ills.

The untitled drama centers on a single father (Webber) dealing with the loss of his wife while caring for his two-year-old son (Webber’s own boy). To shield his son from the process, Webber is using as minimal a process as he can,...

Mark Webber is no stranger to indie film and is one of those actors that you wonder why he hasn’t broken through to the mainstream. He’s appeared in films such as Dear Wendy, Broken Flowers, and Jesus’ Son. He was recently in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World which, despite its success among the critics, didn’t produce the box office revenue that was expected. In 2008,Webber made his directorial debut with Explicit Ills and production of his follow-up film is currently underway.

Read more on Mark Webber-directed drama starring his two year old son gets cast…...

For those who remember Mark Webber as Stephen Stills from Scott Pilgrim, this next move might seem strange. For those who remember him in indie fare like Just Like the Son and Dear Wendy, it might seem fantastic. For those who mistake him for Michael Weston (the guy on House for a few episodes), none of this will make any sense at all. Webber, according to The Hollywood Reporter, has cast Michael Cera and Amanda Seyfried to play slightly altered versions of themselves for an upcoming, as yet untitled, movie about a father raising his son after the mother’s death. He’s also cast Shannyn Sossamon and Jason Ritter in smaller, but similarly styled, roles. He’s friends with all the actors in real life. He also shares a connection with the co-star: his two-year-old son. In trying to achieve the strictest version of a real father-son relationship, Webber (who will direct as well) will act...

Ricky is having a tough day, the bullet with his name on it is quite literally staring him in the face.  Structured as a flashback of his life right at the second of final judgment, for (ostensibly) our entertainment, the writer of cult festival hit Sexykiller, Paco Cabezas, blows up his award winning short into a lengthy feature of the same name:  Neon Flesh.  In the world of Carne de Neón you are either climbing the rungs of the sex business (It's hard out there for a wannabe pimp) or being gobbled up by it.  There are cops and John's to make life difficult or lucrative, but it is the spectacularly screwed-up street folks that are on display here either for a stab at gangster coolness or goofy sight gags.  Let us get this out of the way, I will probably not see a worse or more disappointing film in 2010 than Carne de Neón.

Before coming on board Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Mark Webber had already written and directed his own feature, the 2008 drama Explicit Ills. He’s also previously co-starred in a variety of films including Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending and Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers. In Scott Pilgrim, he’ll be playing Stephen Stills, the lead singer and guitarist of Sex Bob-omb, the struggling rock band that includes Scott (Michael Cera) on bass and Kim Pine (Alison Pill) on drums.

Speaking with Webber on the set of Scott Pilgrim last July, we talked about various topics like him learning to sing and play guitar, what he’s learned about directing from Wright, the pain/thrill of doing stunt work, and his future projects.

Hit the jump to check out the interview. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World hits theaters on August 13th.

Before we begin, here’s the trailer.

I'm starting to find the backlash against vampires downright funny. A certain young adult phenomenon incites many studios to jump on the bloodlust bandwagon, and the hordes get antsy. But what about the zombies? We've got crazy zombies, Jane Austen zombies, zombies in a Zombieland, and my personal favorite, wordy Pontypool zombies. While the vamps flash it up on the big screen and make a fuss, the real zombie invasion seems not to be in reality, but in the movie theater. And now it's time to add one more to the pile.

Deadline reported at the end of last week that the zombie tide has moved from classic literature to pop sensations. Double Feature's Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher have optioned Paul is Undead -- Alan Goldsher's novel where The Beatles are zombies. Not The Zombies, the St. Albans rock band whose music covered Bunny Lake is Missing and Dear Wendy...

Outside of Europe, Lars Von Trier got all the attention for Dogme 95, the film 'movement' that set down a set of naturalistic rules for directors. But the co-creator of Dogme 95 and director of the first film made under the resulting manifesto was Thomas Vinterberg. His film Festen (The Celebration) is a low-key tour de force, a portrait of family breakdown that toes a nearly undefinable line between satire and tragedy. It instantly established Vinterberg as a talent to watch. Sadly, Vinterberg's later films haven't hit the same high. It's All About Love is vaguely like a more arthouse version of Southland Tales, while Dear Wendy only seemed to anger audiences. (I think I'm one of the few people who liked it at all.) But I remain optimistic for each new film from Vinterberg. So here's the trailer for his latest, Submarino, which premieres at the Berlin Film Festival. The trailer...

Thomas Vinterberg is one of these directors that one can’t help but take note of. He really caught attention in the late 90s with the release of his Dogme film The Celebration, one which impressed me the first time I saw it a few years ago. I didn’t have quite the same love (any love actually) for Dear Wendy, the only other Vinterberg film I’ve seen, but as they say, you can’t love everything.

I’ve yet to see what his other offerings are like but I fully admit to being darn excited at discovering that his latest, a family drama about two estranged brothers titled Submarino, is making its debut at Berlinale and has already been picked up for North American distribution by Match Factory.

Based on a novel by Jonas T. Bengston this story of a childhood event which tears apart a family looks...

In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.

- - -

- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:

... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...

In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.

- - -

- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:

... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...

In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.

- - -

- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:

... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...

I've had many strange moments with Lars "Von" Trier. I sat, soaking wet, in a thunderstorm at an outdoor cinema in Australia and cried like a baby at the end of Dancer in the Dark, I laughed so inappropriately at the orgy scene in  The Idiots that I had to leave the cinema until it was over and I still can't watch the end of Breaking the Waves with anyone else in the room as it remains, for me, one of the most powerful moments of my cinema life. It's interesting to look back at Von Trier's life before his films because in many ways it is as bizarre, hectic and sad as anything he has put to screen. Raised in Denmark, Von Trier's (some what) communist, nudist parents believed that rules and discipline were counter productive aspects of growing up and the little "Von" is thought to have had free reign.

Two of my favorite indie youngin's are Michael Angarano and Jesse Eisenberg. What's not to like? Angarano stole our hearts as the young William in Almost Famous, and has since popped up in Dear Wendy, Lords of Dogtown, and One Last Thing. Eisenberg, meanwhile, he started things off with the ever-excellent Roger Dodger, and continued on to The Squid and the Whale, The Education of Charlie Banks, and Adventureland (with Angarano's main squeeze, Kristen Stewart). Now the dudes are combining for some sweet indie fare together.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Angarano has signed on and Eisenberg is circling a new comedy called Ceremony. The film will follow a young guy (Eisenberg) who falls head over heels for an older woman (Elizabeth Berkeley again!?!?) who is getting ready to get hitched. His infatuation leads him to grab his friend (Angarano) and travel to a beat town to break up the...

In 2005, my friend and I grabbed day passes to the Toronto International Film Fest and coordinated 25 films that incorporated our varying tastes. Film after film was a bad choice, and we began to feel defeated and tired. Then we strolled into Dear Wendy. My appreciation for Lars von Trier had led this choice, and I was expecting a simple, sullen, and strange film, but feared that it would follow this trend of bad choices.

But both of us were transfixed. The creativity of the story was palpable in every scene, as viewers were led through the loveletter to a gun named Wendy, and the lives of gun-toting pacifists. While some aspects of the film mirrored the simplicity of Dogville, it was filled with more stunning visuals, depth, whimsy, and irresistible moments of engagement. It was sweet and fairy tale-ish while also dark and rife with social commentary. By the end,...