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A film set is no place for little girls. In the fairy-tale-adjacent world of Lucile Hadžihalilović’s frigid dark fantasy “The Ice Tower,” an orphan runs away from her foster home and takes refuge in the basement of a movie studio, finding herself drawn to the production — and its star, played by Marion Cotillard — the way a child in a Hans Christian Andersen story might be lured into the clutches of a wicked enchantress. Aptly enough, the script they’re shooting is “The Snow Queen,” aspects of which echo through the ’70s-set movie’s many layers, all the way out to us, whom Hadžihalilović hopes to trap in her crystal prism.

Cotillard and Hadžihalilović collaborated once before, early in both their careers, on 2004’s “Innocence,” where the director first planted the unholy seeds she’s still harvesting all these years later: unsettling yet artful projects in which Hadžihalilović depicts the...

Thea Hvistendahl’s “Handling the Undead,” fresh off its Sundance premiere, has already scared multiple buyers into submission, Variety has found out exclusively.

Starring “The Worst Person in the World’s” Renate Reinsve and sold by TrustNordisk, it has been picked up by Hungary (Vertigo Media), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), France (KinoVista), Spain (Avalon Distribution), Korea (Pancinema), Japan (Tohokushinsha Film Corp.), Taiwan (Swallow Wings Films) and Anz (Signature Entertainment).

Neon Rated acquired North American and U.K. rights.

In the Norwegian film, Mahler and his daughter, Anna, mourn the too early passing of his grandson. Tora says her final goodbye to her wife at the funeral home, while a family of four face a life without a wife and mother.

Then, a strange electric field and collective migraine spread across Oslo on an especially hot summer day. Television sets, lightbulbs and electronics go haywire, and suddenly, it’s all over.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSMay December.The first flurries of fall festival news have arrived. The New York Film Festival opens on September 29 with the North American premiere of Todd Haynes's May December—read Lawrence Garcia's take on the "immediately invigorating" film here, toward the conclusion of his Cannes dispatch. The San Sebastián Film Festival (September 22 through 30) has announced its first group of competition titles: among them, Cristi Puiu’s Mmxx, Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Martín Rejtman’s La prática, and Robin Campillo’s Red Island. Finally, the Venice Film Festival will open on August 30 with the world premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers.Lucile Hadžihalilović has announced her follow-up to Earwig (2021), the 1970s-set La Tour de Glace. Based on a brief plot synopsis,...

Hollywood actress Marion Cotillard is to play the role of the Snow Queen in French female auteur Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s next film ‘La tour de glace’.

‘La Tour de glace’ is expected to be the French director’s most ambitious film to date and will reteam Hadzihalilovic with ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘Inception’ star Cotillard.

Cotillard had starred in Hadzihalilovic’s 2004 film ‘Innocence’, as per ‘Variety’.

Co-written by Geoff Cox, ‘La tour de glace’ is set in the 1970s and follows Jeanne, a teenage girl who runs away from her orphanage located in a mountain village.

She flees to Paris with big dreams to fulfill and finds shelter in a warehouse which turns out to be used as a studio where ‘The Snow Queen’ is being filmed. The film’s star, Cristina, a beautiful woman in her 40s, takes Jeanne under her wing, exerting a dangerous and overpowering influence...

After starring in Mona Achache’s “Little Girl Blue” which played at Cannes, Marion Cotillard will work with another daring French female auteur, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, on her next film “La tour de glace.”

The long-gestated film marks the first collaboration between Hadzihalilovic and Muriel Merlin, producer at 3B Productions. Hadzihalilovic’s follow up to “Earwig,” which won the jury prize at San Sebastian, “La Tour de glace” is expected to be the director’s most accessible and ambitious film to date. The movie will reteam Hadzihalilovic with Cotillard who had starred in her 2004 film “Innocence.”

Co-written by Geoff Cox, “La tour de glace” is set in the 1970s and follows Jeanne, a teenage girl who runs away from her orphanage located in a mountain village. She flees to Paris with big dreams to fulfill and finds shelter in a warehouse which turns out to be used as a studio where...

Arte France Cinéma have thrown their support behind a quintet of projects and among them we find Lucile Hadzihalilovic re-teaming with Marion Cotillard for La Tour de glace La Tour de glace. Set to shoot in January and February next year in both France and Germany, this fourth feature film is set in the 1970s. Cotillard was cast in Hadzihalilovic’s debut back in 2004 (Innocence). By the sounds of the synopsis it looks like the central character will be a young actress. Co-written along with Geoff Cox (who helped with Évolution (2015) and Earwig (2021)), from her high mountain village, 15-year-old Jeanne dreams of leaving her childhood orphanage and discovering the world.…...

Paris-based Petit Film has boarded “Hot Spot” by Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska.

The story, set in the near future, follows a disillusioned private eye Djonny, called to investigate a murder at a refugee camp. But he becomes increasingly unstable as he confronts a cyber witch who gradually takes control of his life.

Smoczyńska’s previous film, Cannes premiere “The Silent Twins” – based on the lives of June and Jennifer Gibbons – earned Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance a BIFA [British Independent Film Award] for Best Joint Lead Performance.

“Agnieszka’s work does not derive from, or resemble, any existing films. That’s the first and foremost reason why I would not miss the chance to participate in one of them,” says producer Jean des Forêts, also behind Julia Ducournau’s “Raw” and Lucile Hadžihalilović’s English-language debut “Earwig.”

“Last year the opportunity arose and I seized it immediately. The project brings together a nice band...

Hanway Films to launch Joanna Coates’ gothic horror at the EFM.

Game Of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Romola Garai are to star in gothic horror Virtue, on which HanWay Films is to launch sales at the upcoming EFM.

It will be directed by UK filmmaker Joanna Coates, who won best British feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2014 for her romantic drama Hide & Seek, and is written by Sam Hoare, whose credits include feature Having You and Netflix miniseries The English Game.

The production aims to start shooting at the end of Q3 this year.

Set in 1350 England,...

There is a moment very near the end of Earwig where the camera rotates on more than one axis, a headlong and multidimensional inversion that forces us to a new perspective as we approach conclusion. It comes after a long unfolding, a slow litany of events. Each as carefully wrapped as individual pieces of broken glass in brown paper, edges that have not been made safe as much as obfuscated. From the beginning it has been clear that something is going to happen. That is part of the bargain of film, the unspoken compact.

Things happen all the time, but something happening is a story.

There are other deals here, other rituals. From the opening credits which invoke a particular old-fashioned sensibility, artificial artefacts of an artful archness. Drop-shadowed fonts on a green marbled background, gilt edges forming an extended heptagon, a single point at the top, truncated to flatness at the.

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Earwig (2021).There’s a moment in Lucile Hadžihalilović’s feverish 2021 psychodrama Earwig in which a man rifles through a small refrigerator, within it an icebox, and within that a stack of thick metallic cases, each one containing denture molds brimful of frozen saliva. Behind him sits a young girl in elaborate headgear, her small face flanked by tubes and two ampoules collecting her spit. The act is uncanny but clearly routine—a chilling, briefly expository moment that proffers countless questions and exemplifies Hadžihalilović’s aesthetic of reticence. Her films all possess this matryoshka-like effect, coming undone only to neatly curl back into themselves at will. As female-driven body horror stipples its way into the mainstream, Hadžihalilović’s work feels all the more resonant and, perhaps most crucially, misprized. Hadžihalilović auteurism is...

Earwig, the new film from French filmmaker Lucile Hadzihalilovic, is finally heading to UK cinemas this June, and with it comes the first trailer. In the film… “Somewhere in Europe, mid-20th century. Albert is employed to look after 10-year-old Mia. His most important task is to see to her ice dentures, which must be changed […]

The post ‘Earwig’ Trailer Messes With a Strange Girl’s Icy Teeth [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Austrian writer-director Sebastian Meise has been named president of the Jury at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival. He’ll be joined on his jury by screenwriter and producer Lucile Hadžihalilović, writer-director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, actor Milan Marić and producer and senior consultant for international co-productions Katriel Schory.

Meise co-founded Viennese production company Freibeuter Film before his acclaimed debut feature film Still Life premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and garnered several awards. His further credits include documentary Outing and Great Freedom, the latter of which won the Cannes Jury Prize for Un Certain Regard and was also awarded the Heart Of Sarajevo award for Best Feature Film and Best Actor (George Friedrich).

Hadžihalilović’s debut mini-feature La Bouche De Jean-Pierre premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes in 1996 and further credits that were hits on the international film festival circuit include Innocence, Evolution and, her latest film,...

The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the jury of its feature film competition jury.

Director and screenwriter Sebastian Meise will serve as jury president and fellow jurors include director, screenwriter and producer Lucile Hadžihalilović, writer-director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, actor Milan Marić and producer and senior consultant for international co-productions Katriel Schory.

Meise debuted with “Still Life,” which premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and won several awards. His documentary film “Outing” was presented at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto. His latest feature film “Great Freedom” was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the Jury Prize – Un Certain Regard. The film was also awarded the Heart of Sarajevo for best feature Film and best actor for Georg Friedrich, as well as the Cicae Arthouse Award at the 27th Sarajevo Film Festival.

Hadžihalilović’s debut mini-feature “La Bouche De Jean-Pierre” premiered at the Un...

Earwig Trailer — Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Earwig (2021) movie trailer has been released by Juno Films. The Earwig trailer stars Paul Hilton, Romola Garai, Alex Lawther, Romane Hemelaers, Peter Van den Begin, Michael Pas, Marie Bos, and Anastasia Robin. Crew Geoff Cox and Lucile Hadzihalilovic wrote the screenplay for Earwig. Nicolas Becker, Warren Ellis, and Augustin [...]

Continue reading: Earwig (2021) Movie Trailer: A Caretaker Looks After a Girl with Ice Teeth in Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Thriller Film...

Picturehouse Entertainment has debuted a new trailer and poster for the forthcoming haunting slow-burning horror ‘The Feast’, and we’ve got the exclusive just for you.

Filmed in the Welsh language, the story unfolds over the course of one evening as a wealthy family gathers for a sumptuous dinner in their ostentatious house in the Welsh mountains. The guests are a local businessman and a neighbouring farmer, and the intent is to secure a business deal to mine in the surrounding countryside. When a mysterious young woman arrives to be their waitress for the evening, the family’s beliefs and values are challenged as her quiet yet disturbing presence begins to unravel their lives – slowly, deliberately and with the most terrifying consequences.

Written and directed by Lee Haven Jones (Doctor Who) – who makes his directorial debut with the feature – the film stars Annes Elwy (Little Women), Nia Roberts (Under Milk Wood...

Anti-Worlds Releasing has revealed the trailer for Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s debut feature in the English language, Earwig. We have the exclusive first look at the trailer and the film’s beautiful new poster by Laurent Lufroy.

Somewhere in Europe, mid-20th century. Albert is employed to look after Mia, a girl with teeth of ice. Mia never leaves their apartment, where the shutters are always closed. The telephone rings regularly and the Master enquires after Mia’s wellbeing. Until the day Albert is instructed that he must prepare the child to leave…

Based on the novel by Brian Catlin, the film is directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic who is making her debut feature in the English language. The film stars Paul Hilton, Alex Lawther and Romola Garai.

Also in trailers – Exclusive: We reveal the trailer for Moon, 66 Questions

The film hits cinemas on June 10th – check out https://anti-worldsreleasing.co.uk...

One of our favourite directors of all time, Lucile Hadzihalilovic is back with a new and disturbing film called Earwig.

Somewhere in Europe, mid-20th century. Albert is employed to look after Mia, a girl with teeth of ice. Mia never leaves their apartment, where the shutters are always closed. The telephone rings regularly and the Master enquires after Mia's wellbeing. Until the day Albert is instructed that he must prepare the child to leave.

Watch the film clip from the film below:...

New label has released 40 titles in Saudi Arabia including The Father, Another Round and Pinocchio.

Pan-Arab distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment is out in the force at Saudi Arabia’s inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival (Dec 6-15) with seven films in the selection, including recent acquisition Panah Panahi’s Hit The Road, which plays in competition.

Other titles playing at the Red Sea include Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Earwig, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, Red Sea competition jury president Giuseppe Tornatore’s Ennio, Official Competition, Earwig, Ted K and The Good Boss.

The Dubai-based distributor works all over Mena...

The International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg (Iffmh) has very much captured the social, cultural and political zeitgeist with this year’s film selections, exploring such themes as female empowerment, HIV/AIDS and the post-Soviet collapse of Ukraine.

“The festival doesn’t work in topics, we are trying to show the best films, but the interesting thing is that the topics come to us through the films,” says Iffmh director Sascha Keilholz. “Obviously we are sensitive to the whole range and diversity that can be had in cinema.”

Indeed, this year’s films in the On the Rise competition section and supplemental Pushing the Boundaries sidebar, which showcases cutting-edge works by young and established filmmakers, ended up sharing unmistakable themes. Many new female voices are putting their mark in Eastern European film with stories of women rebelling against patriarchy and male structures, for example, Keilholz points out. “That was quite striking for us.

“It’s about filmmakers having a spider-sense [about the zeitgeist], picking fears from the ether and giving it form.”

UK writer-director Corinna Faith joined Lizzie Francke, senior production and development executive at BFI Film Fund, and Sophie Green, head of acquisitions and development at Bankside, to explore the creative and business reasons fuelling the growing popularity of genre films by female UK directors, including Faith’s The Power, Rose Glass’s Saint Maud and Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor at a ScreenDaily Talk hosted in partnership with the Dinard Festival Of British Film on September 30.

Watch the session above.

The panel noted it’s...

Blue Moon (Crai Nou) by Romanian director Alina Grigore won the Golden Shell at the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival whose top awards were swept by female filmmakers and actors.

For the first time, the film festival a gender neutral acting award. The Best Leading Performance prize was shared. Jessica Chastain was honored for her portrayal of televangelist Tammy Faye Messner in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The other winner was 16 -year-old Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl, star of the Danish film As in Heaven (Du som er i himlen). The film’s Tea Lindeburg was named Best Director.

Other major female winners included Tatiana Huezo, whose Prayers for the Stolen (Noche de fuego) took the prize for Best Latin American film, Claire Mathon, Best Cinematography winner for Undercover (Enquête sur un scandale d’état) and Lucile Hadzihalilovic whose film Earwig was recognized with the festival’s special prize.

The sole...

Female directors and actors reigned supreme at tonight’s San Sebastian Film Festival awards ceremony, with the Romanian actor-turned-director Alina Grigore taking the Golden Shell for Best Film for her intimate debut feature “Blue Moon.” The film, a raw realist study of a young woman attempting to free herself from an abusive rural household, was an unexpected winner, besting a number of higher-profile auteur films in the festival’s main competition. Yet a full spectrum was covered: At the opposite end of the celebrity scale, Jessica Chastain was one of two Best Leading Performance winners for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”

This was the second year in a row that a first-time female filmmaker took the festival’s top prize. Last year, Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili swept the board for her debut “Beginning,” which won the Golden Shell in addition to Best Director, Actress and Screenplay. Kulumbegashvili returned to the...

Blessed by largely clement weather, San Sebastian fairly hummed, as hundreds of industry execs sat down to talk face to face – some, especially from Latin America, for the first time since February 2020. As at Venice, Latin American producers could talk on-site and with some degree of confidence about putting movies long in development into production. So the 69th San Sebastián Festival proved a joyous and energy-sluiced affair. Following, some of its highlights:

San Sebastian Rebounds

Through Thursday, total San Sebastian delegates numbers came in at 3,848, 46.5% up on 2020 and just 11% down on a pre-pandemic 2019. Industry reps drove much of that rebound, San Sebastian welcoming 1,686 this year, compared to 1,185 in 2020 and 1,749 in 2019. “Everyone’s very active, enthusiastic, appreciating seeing one another again. We really wanted to be here,” said Ventana Sur co-director Bernardo Bergeret. He added that late November’s Ventana Sur had received a record number of applications for accreditations. Expect...

Teeth made of ice play a key role in the book-to-film adaptation “Earwig,” Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s English-language debut.

But when the Gallic director saw how normal the teeth that her props team created for the film looked, she fell into a panic. “I thought the film was over,” she told Variety. “I had imagined something much more spectacular.”

The development, however, helped her understand the central character of Earwig/Albert (Paul Hilton). He is hired to look after a little girl, Mia (Romane Hemelaers), and change the ice teeth she wears that are made from her frozen saliva, each night.

“Then I thought the story is not about the fetishist thing with the ice, but more about the man that wanted to make this girl complete by giving her teeth,” she says. “But for some crazy reason, he made the teeth of ice so he has to make them again and again and again.

The Toronto Film Festival marked its completion Saturday with an unfortunate milestone: No major acquisitions deals have been announced since the festival kicked off its 10-day run. It was far from a bust: Early awards contenders like Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” picked up steam, and on-the-ground audiences in Canada reveled in the joy of once again gathering to experience big movies like “Dune.” Nor is the overall film market lukewarm: Deals have been ironed out at a steady clip throughout the year.

It raises the question: Why was nobody buying at Toronto?

There’s certainly not one cause, though unsurprisingly Covid is an easy catchall to explain why TIFF was unable to maintain its status as the fall’s most important dealmaking venue this year.

This marked the second year in a row that TIFF was a largely virtual affair, with a lineup just one-third the size of the 300-plus...

Leading US genre festival Beyond Fest has set a slate of programming comprising 39 features ahead of its return to theaters between September 29 and October 11.

The festival will open with the West Coast premiere of Julia Ducornau’s Palme d’Or Winner Titane, which will be screened from a never-before-seen 35mm print. The fest is also presenting the US premiere of David Gordon Green’s anticipated Blumhouse slasher, Halloween Kills—the 12th chapter in the iconic Halloween franchise, which had its world premiere in Venice.

Other major festival titles screening are Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Cannes horror pic Lamb, and Gaspar Noé’s Vortex. V/H/S 94, The Black Phone, Earwig, Travelling Light, South of Heaven, The Seed, The Feast, The Banquet are also on the lineup.

As part of its Icons of Cinema series, the festival will also present screenings of past films from Michael Mann (Collateral and Thief), Udo Kier...

The festival draws near and more news comes our way in the manner of awards given out by the festival. Directors Mamoru Hosoda and Carlos Saura, and actress Belén Rueda, will receive the Grand Honorary Award at the festival. Hosoda is the director of beloved anime films like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars. Spanish actress Rueda is known for roles in The Orphanage and Julia's Eyes. Spanish director Saura's career has spanned over six decades.    Filmmakers Neill Blomkamp and Lucile Hadzihalilovic are also being recognized by the festival while presenting their latest films, Demonic and Earwig. There's more information in the annoucement below.    Mamoru Hosoda, Carlos Saura and Belén Rueda, Sitges 2021 Grand Honorary Award Winners   The Festival announces the...

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

Somewhere, in a small apartment in Europe in the early 1950s, after the War, there was a little girl named Mia, who had no teeth. She had a melancholy caretaker who prepared ice-dentures for her several times a day, which she did not mind, but did not let her leave the house, which maybe she did. Mia played with papier-mâché pets, and marveled at the only decoration in the apartment, an oil-painting of a large manor estate in the country. That, and the wall of polished glass goblets that her caretaker took his wine with dinner. Lucile Hadžihalilović's latest, deliciously oblique, film, Earwig, is less about the about the insect (although it does make a brief cameo at one point) and more about the words...

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

Last year, September’s San Sebastian worked a minor miracle, staging a safe on-site festival as second-wave Covid-19 built up in Spain. This year, on-site attendance will be up, though travel problems, caution and costs in Latin America, the U.S and Asia will prevent a full attendance.

That said, this year’s festival, running Sept. 17-25, will be firing on all cylinders — as a Spanish-language movie emporium, a new talent hub and launchpad for the local Basque industry. Following, seven takes on the most important film event in the Spanish-speaking world:

Star Power: Cruz, Banderas, Bardem, Depp, Cotillard, and Chastain?

Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are expected for the Spanish premiere of “Official Competition” and Javier Bardem the world premiere of “The Good Boss.” Despite some opposition Johnny Depp will receive a career-achievement Donostia Award as, less controversially, will Marion Cotillard. Jessica Chastain, fest organizers hope, will attend for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,...

We have a tendency, as difficult films work the festival circuit, to reduce them to simplistic, giggle-worthy loglines, perhaps as a way to avoid grappling with work that challenges our ideas of what this medium is and how it should work. “Annette” somehow became a movie about Adam Driver singing during cunnilingus, even though that moment comprised maybe 20 seconds of a two-plus hour film; if all you read were snickering tweets about it, “High Life” is a movie about a “f*ck box.”

Read More: Toronto Film Fest 2021 Preview: 16 Must-See Movies To Watch

This brings us to Lucile Hadžihalilović’s “Earwig,” which has already become somewhat notorious as “the movie about the girl with ice cube teeth.” So it seems worth starting out by noting that “Earwig” is not about that.

Continue reading ‘Earwig’: Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Latest Is A Beautiful Baffler [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

With her third feature, the eccentric and exquisitely made Earwig, French filmmaker Lucile Hadžhalilović confirms her status as one of art house cinema’s most singular auteurs, fashioning a rich and strange body of work that sits somewhere between Lynch, Cronenberg and a more restrained narrative approach that feels strictly European.

“Body” is indeed the key word in a movie that, like the director’s previous efforts, Innocence (2004) and Evolution (2015), explores the corporal horrors inflicted on the young — in this case a little girl forced to undergo a tortuous daily routine in which her teeth are surgically replaced by ice cubes.

Why ...

Somewhere in a fogbound pocket of mid-century Europe, a little girl with curly brown hair shares a dark and dingy apartment with a middle-aged man who makes us nervous. Her name is Mia (Romaine Hemelaers), and her constantly melting teeth are made out of her own frozen saliva. The man’s name is Aalbert Scellinc (Paul Hilton); he is not her father. Neither of them speak. The slatted wooden floors groan like ghosts whenever anyone moves, or when Aalbert tinkers with the headgear he fits around Mia’s face before meals, fresh spit pooling into each of the glass vials positioned on either side of her mouth.

Aalbert is careful not to touch her, or to let her out of the house unsupervised. At night, he holds a glass up to the girl’s door in order to listen to her sleep, or perhaps just to hear something other than...

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.

Starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” will receive its European premiere at late September’s San Sebastian Festival.

The biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world will open with the anticipated “One Second” from China’s Zhang Yimou, which was dramatically pulled from competition at the 69th Berlin Film Festival.

Both titles play in competition, vying for San Sebastian’s top film plaudit, its Golden Shell, where they are joined by French filmmaker Thierry de Peretti’s “Undercover.”

Recounting the rise, fall and redemption of Tammy Faye, the indomitable wife of televangelist Jim Bakker, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” weighs in as the only U.S. movie in San Sebastian main competition. It catches Chastain on a high as she will receive the TIFF Tribute Actor Award, coinciding with the premiere at Toronto of the film.

The three new films mark the final titles to...

Ahmed also stars in Michael Pearce’s ‘Encounter’ in the festival.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has selected eight features for its Platform section, for which UK actor and filmmaker Riz Ahmed will head the jury.

The Platform selection includes Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Earwig, produced by France’s Petit Film, Belgium’s Frakas Productions and the UK’s Anti-Worlds, with backing from Film4 and the BFI.

Set in Europe in the mid-20th century, the film is about a man who is hired to look after a reclusive girl whose teeth are made of ice.

Also in the Platform...

Fernando León de Aranoa’s “The Good Boss,” starring Javier Bardem, Alejandro Amenábar’s first drama series “La Fortuna,” and Carlos Saura’s “Rosa Rosae. A Civil War Elegy” head a robust Spanish presence at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival.

Also in the mix are new films from Jonás Trueba, Iciar Bollaín and Paco Plaza, all playing in main competition, plus Daniel Monzón’s Warner Bros.-distributed “Las leyes de la frontera,” selected as San Sebastián’s closing night film, and “The Daughter,” from Manuel Martín Cuenca. “Rosa Rosae” will screen at the San Sebastian’s opening night ceremony on Sept. 17.

World premiering at Venice, Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas movie shoot comedy “Official Competition” will open San Sebastian’s best of fests section Perlak.

Spanish cinema’s socio-political traditions remain strong: “The Good Boss” is a study of company management machinations. In a highly polarized Spain, Bollaín’s “Maixabel,...

Terence Davies' Benediction Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival British director Terence Davies' Siegfried Sassoon biopic Benediction is among the first titles announced in the Official Selection this year's San Sebastian Film Festival, which will run from September 17 to 25.

The film, which stars Jack Lowden, Simon Russell Beale and Peter Capaldi will be joined by UK co-production Earwig, directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, whose connection to the festival stretches back to 2004 when she won the New Directors Award for Innocence. Her latest tells the story of a man employed to look after Mia, a girl with teeth of ice.

Hadzihalilovic is one of six female directors included in the first set of titles, alongside established filmmakers Inés Barrionuevo, who brings coming-of-age tale Camila Comes Out At Night, Claire Simon, who brings drama I Want To Talk about Duras and Berlin Golden Bear winner Claudia Llosa, whose latest film Fever Dream...

September’s 69th San Sebastian Festival has announced its first nine Competition contenders led by Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet (“The Class”) and English auteur Terence Davies (“Sunset Song”) but packed out by six female directors.

Two at least are already sparking anticipation: Lucile Hadzihalilovic, a French genre auteur backed like Palme d’Or winner “Titane” by Wild Bunch; and “As in Heaven,” the debut feature of Denmark’s Tea Lindeburg’s, which is generating good word-of-mouth.

The Competition features two other first features, a sign, like last week’s Cannes, of a new generation of filmmakers breaking through to rapid best fest attention.

San Sebastian’s national Competition titles, traditionally featuring some of the strongest Spanish titles of the year, are announced at the end of July.

More details to come.

First 2021 San Sebastian Film Festival Competition Titles

“Arthur Rambo.”

“Benediction,”

“Camila Comes out Tonight,”

“Blue Moon,”

“Fever Dream,...

Once upon a time, some very sadistic representatives from the Dwango Artificial Intelligence Laboratory decided that it would be a good idea to invite Studio Ghibli co-founder Miyazaki Hayao — cinema’s greatest animator, in addition to being one of its most reliable curmudgeons and a living emblem of the fanatical artistry that certain forces are trying to squeeze out of the film business however they can — to watch a grotesque demo of artificially intelligent animation.

There’s a good chance that you already know what happened next, as the video clip of Miyazaki’s withering reaction went so viral that it’s probably been seen by more people than some of his actual movies. The footage is like a snuff film in which nobody dies: “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself” the master says to the reverent pupil sitting across from him, Miyazaki delivering his...

Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki revealed in October 2017 that Hayao Miyazaki was ending his retirement from directing after four years in order to leave behind a feature film project for his grandson. Suzuki explained in a television interview, “Miyazaki is making the new film for his grandson. It’s his way of saying, ‘Grandpa is moving on to the next world, but he’s leaving behind this film.’” But it turns out there was another reason Miyazaki ended his retirement, and it’s the simple fact that he was too restless for a life of retirement.

Speaking to /Film ahead of the HBO Max streaming release of “Earwig and the Witch,” Hayao Miyazaki’s son and fellow filmmaker Goro Miyazkai said his father’s retirement got so aimless that Hayao “needed to create something in order to live, basically.” Studio Ghibli reopened its animation facility for production on “Earwig” and...

Erica Wigg, the main character of Goro Miyazaki’s made-for-tv feature “Earwig and the Witch,” is both a brat and an orphan. Those two traits seldom go together in children’s stories, and the combination provides a modest starting point for this intermittently amusing CG entry from Studio Ghibli — back in business but a shadow of its former glory. Erica also happens to be the daughter of a rock-star sorceress, who dropped her on the stoop of St. Morwald’s Home for Children with a note: “Got the other 12 witches all chasing me. I’ll be back for her when I’ve shook them off. It may take years.”

It will take closer to 75 minutes, actually, at which point the movie abruptly ends without providing any sense of those adventures. Judging by the opening motorcycle chase — in which this witch uses her flaming red, corkscrew-shaped hair to cast an impressive...

It just got a lot easier to follow breaking Studio Ghibli news as the legendary Japanese animation studio launched an official Twitter page to kick off the new year. The Studio Ghibli Twitter already boasts over 350,000 followers and counting (Guillermo del Toro is one of the most high profile followers so far), and its posts include everything from views atop the studio building (Mt. Fuji can be seen from the studio’s rooftop) to photos of various equipment that’s used during the animation process (from a stopwatch that times the duration of cuts to drawing boards).

Perhaps the best post so far is a new illustration Hayao Miyazaki drew to mark the start of 2021 (see below). The image nods to the Japanese zodiac calendar and shows an ox stepping on a rat to mark 2021 as the year of the metal ox. The illustration was published alongside an annual new...

The return of Studio Ghibli has commenced with the official trailer debuts for the studio’s new feature, “Earwig and the Witch.” Based on the children’s novel of the same name by author Diana Wynne Jones, “Earwig” marks the first solo Studio Ghibli production since the 2014 release of “When Marnie Was There.” The Japanese animation giant co-produced 2016’s “The Red Turtle.”

“Earwig and the Witch” is directed by Goro Miyazaki, son of Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, and marks the studio’s first feature fully rendered with CG animation. The decision to pass on the studio’s famous hand-drawn style has made “Earwig” a polarizing title, but the Cannes Film Festival did give the title its seal approval by naming it part of the 2020 official selection earlier this year. The English-language dub is set to feature the voices of Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?...

Swedish Film Institute announces Wild Card funding recipients for debut development funding.

Berlin Alexanderplatz by Burhan Qurbani is the big winner at the 2020 Stockholm International Film Festival, taking the Bronze Horse for best film and also the best actor prize for Welket Bungué.

Mexican director Fernanda Valadez’s Identifying Features was also a double winner for best director and best debut.

His compatriot Michel Franco was presented with this year’s Stockholm Impact Award for his film New Order. Gunda, by Victor Kossakovsky, won the Bronze Horse for best documentary.

Katherine Waterston won best actress for The World To Come.

Leading off today’s news round-up, multi-hyphenate Mélanie Laurent is in pre-production on 2021’s WWII drama The Nightingale, starring both Fanning sisters, but Variety reports she will begin filming a project next week. The first French Amazon Prime original movie, The Mad Woman’s Ball, reunites Laurent with Breathe breakout Lou De Laâge and follows a woman in the 19th century who is institutionalized in the infamous Salpêtrière hospital in Paris when she tells her parents that she can hear the dead.

Coming off this year’s King of Staten Island, Judd Apatow will next (per the Netflix Twitter account) direct a feature about a group of actors and actresses stuck in a hotel during a pandemic while attempting to complete a film. It’s co-written by Pam Brady who’s had her hand in offbeat comedy ranging from Lady Dynamite to Hamlet 2.

Following the sleeper festival hit, Rams (whose...