News

Across “Lemon Tree,” “The Syrian Bride” and “Shelter,” Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis has built a sturdy body of work, telling defiant stories of Middle Eastern women from different walks of life. With “Reading Lolita in Tehran” — a moving adaptation of Iranian-American author and professor Azar Nafisi’s memoir — he adds an understated, yet generally absorbing and similarly minded entry to his oeuvre, warmly transposing Nafisi’s experience in the post-revolution Iran onto the screen with sensitivity.

Unfolding in episodic segments and significant jumps in time that sometimes feel too abrupt, the screenplay by Marjorie David follows Nafisi (an expressive Golshifteh Farahani) across a 24-year period, after the young academic holding a fresh American degree settles in Tehran with her husband Bijan (Arash Marandi) in 1979, on the heels of the country’s Islamic Revolution. A title card at the start contextualizes the couple’s return to their homeland. Historically, it was...

Warner Bros’ Twisters is the leading title at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, opening in 675 cinemas 28 years after the original film was a hit in the territory.

Twisters stars 2020 Screen Star of Tomorrow Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, as a meteorologist and social media tornado chaser who team up with a new team and new technologies. The film has over £1m banked already from previews on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18.

Jan de Bont’s Twister opened to over £3m in July 1996, ending on an impressive £15m total – equivalent to £29.3m today. This new film is not a direct sequel, although...

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” has claimed the top spot at the U.K. and Ireland box office, earning £8.8 million ($11.4 million) in its opening weekend, according to numbers from Comscore.

The animated sequel’s strong debut pushed Disney’s “Inside Out 2” to second place after a five-week run, with the latter adding £2.2 million, bringing its running total to £44.4 million. Newcomer “Longlegs” from Black Bear secured the third position with a £1.3 million opening, while Sony Pictures’ “Fly Me To The Moon” debuted at No. 4, collecting £862,358.

Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” held steady in its third week, rounding out the top five with £824,948, bringing its cumulative total to £8 million. Other notable entries include DJ Tech Ltd’s Tamil-language “Indian 2,” which opened at No. 6 with £213,245, plus a further £39,127 for its Telugu-dubbed version “Bharateeyudu 2,” and Sony Pictures’ “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die,” maintaining its presence in the chart after six...

Zar Amir Ebrahimi as Shayda and and Selina Zahednia as Mona in Shayda Photo credit: Jane Zhang. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Shayda (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) flees her abusive husband in Iran, along with her six-year-old daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia), and goes into hiding at an international women’s shelter in Australia, in the moving, semi-autobiographical Australian drama Shayda.

Set in the 1990s, Shayda is partly based on writer/director Noora Niasari’s own childhood experiences, when her mother fled Iran. Zar Amir Ebrahimi gives a charismatic, emotionally moving performance as Shayda, in a touching, emotionally-powerful drama that follows the mother’s and daughter’s journey. Young Selina Zahednia is a charmer as cute, mischievous Mona, effectively portraying her growth in understanding and maturity as they stay in the shelter. The drama premiered at Sundance in 2023, where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition, and it...

“Shayda,” a breakout indie movie from Noora Niasari, and Kitty Green’s high-temperature drama “The Royal Hotel” were named best film winners at the annual Spa Awards, presented by the Screen Producers Australia association.

The ceremony took place Thursday at Queensland’s Gold Coast, during the annual Screen Forever conference. The event was hosted by actor and comedian Matt Okine.

Production company Werner Film, which this week announced its acquisition by the BBC, took three awards including the coveted Media Super Production Business of the year prize.

“It’s clear that our production community continues to thrive in the face of a rapidly changing landscape. Each winner exemplifies the creativity, innovation, and dedication that define our industry and showcase the vital role producers and production businesses play in sharing our unique stories and culture with audiences worldwide,” said Spa CEO Matthew Deaner.

The awards ceremony also saw Amy Parry named...

The newly acquired Werner Film Production scored a hat-trick of wins and Origma 45's 'Shayda' and See-Saw Films' 'The Royal Hotel' shared Feature Film Production of the Year honours as the Screen Producers Australia (Spa) Awards were held on the Gold Coast on Thursday evening.

The post Multiple wins for Werner Film Productions, Wooden Horse at Spa Awards as ‘Shayda’ and ‘The Royal Hotel’ share film honours appeared first on If Magazine.

Bye-bye Bunya

Australian TV producer Bunya Entertainment says that Sophia Zachariou will step down as co-managing director, after a five-year stint. Bunya Entertainment is one part the Bunya Group of companies and was established by Zachariou, David Jowsey and Greer Simpkin in 2019.

Zachariou is currently in post-production on “The Office” (Amazon) and “Ladies in Black” (ABC) and will deliver these series before she departs the company. Other productions from Bunya Entertainment include the six x half-hour sketch comedy series “The Moth Effect” (Amazon) and the comedy series “Nice Shorts.”

In 2020 Zachariou also created the Bunya Talent Indigenous Hub, in partnership with Netflix and Screen Australia, which funded and developed 10 First Nations writers and directors to further develop their TV projects. The Hub was later extended to include a partnership with Safc, Screen Nt and Screen Nsw.

Jowsey and Simpkin will continue as co-MDs of Bunya Entertainment. The separate Bunya Group entities,...

This month’s Hong Kong International Film Festival will showcase over 190 films from 62 countries and regions, including five world premieres, and 64 Asian premieres.

Running 12 days (March 28 – April 8), the festival will open with the Asian premiere of local director Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,” which won the Teddy Award at the recent Berlin festival.

The closing film is the Asian premiere of “All the Long Nights,” directed by Miyake Sho and starring Matsumura Hokuto and Kamishiraishi Mone, which also premiered in Berlin. Variety’s review of “Nights” called it “gently luminous.”

Chinese-language films selected for the Firebird competition include: “Borrowed Time,” “Brief History of a Family,” “Carefree Days,” Fresh off Markham,” “A Journey in Spring,” “Snow in Midsummer,” “Some Rain Must Fall” and “A Song Sung Blue.”

Foreign films for the Firebird competition’s other section include: “Arcadia,” “Arni,” “Ivo,” “Pepe,” “Sons,” “Sujo,” “The Tenants” and “Who Do I Belong to.

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2024 Oscars Predictions:

Best International Feature Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’

Weekly Commentary: The United Kingdom is poised to win its first Academy Award with Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and what a deserved win it will be.

But while I have the floor: it’s time for the...

Julio Torres’s directorial debut Problemista from A24 posted the highest per-screen average of the weekend with a solid limited opening, grossing $140.9k on five screens in New York and LA with multiple sold out Q&As.

The film starring Torres and Tilda Swinton saw a PSA of $28k and strong exits at all locations.

A surreal comedy about a young aspiring toy designer from El Salvador navigating New York City and the U.S. immigration system, it premiered at SXSW last year. Expands to select top markets this weekend with a nationwide rollout to follow.

Oscar-Nominated Shorts from ShortsTV and Magnolia hit a solid $330k on 258 screens in week three, looking set to surpass last year’s $3.025 million, likely by the end of this week, Magnolia said. It’s grossed about $200k more so far this year than it had at the same point in 2023. The program, broken into...

My Rep and Me is a recurring Culture Shift feature in which reps and clients from the same historically marginalized background sit down to discuss the chemistry and business advantages of their special connection, in order to underscore the importance and benefits of diverse representation.

UTA partner Keya Khayatian and actress-filmmaker Zar Amir Ebrahimi are both from Iran but left the country under somewhat traumatic circumstances: Khayatian as a child with his parents fleeing the Islamic Revolution and Ebrahimi in 2008 when she ran afoul of the conservative regime and faced blacklisting and imprisonment. Now based in France, the latter has rebuilt her career and in 2022 became the first Iranian performer to win best actress at Cannes with her role as a journalist investigating a serial killer targeting sex workers in Holy Spider.

It was at the 2023 Sundance premiere of Ebrahimi’s latest film, Shayda, in which she plays an immigrant...

Noora Niasari was editing “Shayda” when the world changed — again — for Iranians.

It was September 2022, and Mahsa Amini had just died in police custody, igniting the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran. Halfway around the world, Iranian-born filmmaker Niasari struggled to concentrate on completing her film, which she hoped would offer a portrait of female defiance very much in line with the burgeoning movement. She would finish the film that fall and dedicate it to “my mother and the brave women of Iran.”

Since its Sundance 2023 premiere (where it won an audience award and was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics), it has screened at roughly 50 festivals and earned a DGA Award nomination. Last year, Australia picked it as its Best International Feature Film submission.

Set in 1995 during the lead-up to the Persian New Year, “Shayda” marks Niasari’s feature debut. She previously directed a string of shorts films that,...

With the 96th Academy Awards now only a month away, each weekend brings a new award show that reveals a new look at the shape of the Oscar race. Tonight, the auteurs behind some of 2023’s biggest films gathered at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles to celebrate the craft of filmmaking at the Directors Guild of America Awards.

Martin Scorsese, Greta Gerwig, Christopher Nolan, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Alexander Payne were nominated for the night’s top prize, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film, with Oscar frontrunner Nolan walking away with the coveted trophy. Celine Song, Cord Jefferson, A.V. Rockwell, Manuela Martelli, and Noora Niasari competed for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film, which ultimately went to Song.

The show celebrated some of the best directors working in television, with awards in a variety of categories ranging from TV dramas and sitcoms to commercials and reality TV.

“Oppenheimer” director Christopher Nolan, Christopher Storer of FX’s “The Bear” and Peter Hoar of HBO’s “The Last of Us” were the top winners Saturday night at the Directors Guild of America’s 76th annual DGA Awards.

The DGA win seals Nolan’s frontrunner position to land the director Oscar at the March 10 Academy Awards. Celine Song took home the DGA medallion for first-time director for her much-praised A24 drama “Past Lives.” “Guys, this is so amazing,” Song told the crowd.

Judd Apatow hosted the three-hour ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The multi-hyphenate opened his monologue with a zinger rooted in the DGA’s image as being friendly with the studio CEOs and its history of never mounting a significant strike against Hollywood’s major studios. Apatow joked that his agents told him to hold out for more money for his fifth time as host of the DGA ceremony.

The 76th Directors Guild of America Awards took place on Saturday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m. Pt with Judd Apatow hosting the in-person, non-televised ceremony. These kudos honored the best helmers of the year in movies and television, as voted on by more than 18,000 members of the directing guild. Scroll down for the 2024 DGA Awards winners list in three film and eight TV categories.

As always, the all-important feature film category is one of the most telling bellwethers for the eventual Best Director Oscar. The guild and the academy have only disagreed for Best Director eight times over the past seven decades, with the last three years lining up perfectly for Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Jane Campion (2021’s “The Power of the Dog”) and Chloé Zhao (2020’s “Nomadland”).

This year, just three of the DGA’s nominees also reaped directing Oscar bids: Yorgos Lanthimos...

As we once again find ourselves in the midst of another year at the movies, we eagerly look forward to the films scheduled for release in the coming year. There is probably something coming out that should be over interest to everyone (at least that’s probably the hope of most filmmakers). As always, there will be the usual sequels and big blockbusters, as well as a plethora of additional titles in multiple genres to choose from. We hope you find this list of the upcoming films of 2024 and their release dates useful and that it helps you plan what you’re going to look forward to over the next twelve months.

The list below gathers all of the titles we know (right now at least) that are coming in 2024 by their current release date. Remember, these dates are subject to change. So, as dates change (and time permits) we...

The five Directors Guild of America Awards nominees for Best Director are: our predicted Oscar winner Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), three of his closest rivals — Greta Gerwig (“Barbie”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”) and Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) — plus surprise nominee Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers”).

Payne got in over our predicted fifth Oscar nominee, Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”), However, in the 75-year history of the DGA Awards there have only been five years when the whole roster went on to reap Academy Award nominations.

Celine Song (“Past Lives”) had to settle for a nomination for First-Time Feature Director. Her competition: Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”), Manuela Martelli (“Chile ’76”), Noora Niasara (“Shayda”) and A.V. Rockwell (“A Thousand and One”),

Winners will be revealed at the 76th annual DGA Awards on February 10. That is 12 days before final voting for the Oscars opens. The 96th Academy Awards take place on Sunday,...

“Barbenheimer” forever! Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan, the filmmakers behind last summer’s blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” are among the best feature film director nominees at the 76th annual DGA Awards.

The Directors Guild of America nominated five directors in total, including Martin Scorsese for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Yorgos Lanthimos for “Poor Things” and Alexander Payne for “The Holdovers.”

“In a year full of so many extraordinary films, DGA members have nominated an incredible group of gifted storytellers,” Directors Guild of America president Lesli Linka Glatter said in a statement. “Their films fused technical prowess with unique artistic visions that captured the depth of the human experience and left an indelible impact on audiences around the world. Congratulations to these superb directors on their well-deserved nominations.”

The DGA Award nominees are considered to be an important precursor to the Oscars. Conspicuous absences among this year’s crop include...

For all its many, many faults, 2023 was a banner year for international films. The awards season buzz for global gems like Justine Triet’s French courtroom thriller Anatomy of a Fall (released by Neon stateside), Jonathan Glazer’s German-language Holocaust drama Zone of Interest (A24), Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese anime The Boy and the Heron (GKids), and J.A. Bayona’s Spanish-language real-life survival tale Society of the Snow (Netflix) only scratches the surface.

Among the many many other foreign highlights from last year are Mubi’s Fallen Leaves and How to Have Sex — the first a laconic triumph by Finnish film master Aki Kaurismäki, the latter a stunning debut by Brit first-timer Molly Manning Walker — Sony Pictures Classics’ The Teachers’ Lounge, a German school drama from director Ilker Çatak and Iranian drama Shayda from director Noora Niasari; Agnieszka Holland’s harrowing The Green Border, about Poland’s treatment of would-be...

We don’t want to overwhelm you, but while you’re catching up with our top 50 films of 2023, more cinematic greatness awaits in 2024. Ahead of our 100 most-anticipated films (all of which have yet to premiere), we’re highlighting 30 titles we’ve enjoyed on the festival circuit this last year that either have confirmed 2024 release dates or await a debut date from its distributor. There’s also a handful of films seeking distribution that we hope will arrive in the next 12 months, as can be seen here.

As an additional note, a number of 2023 films that had one-week qualifying runs will also get expanded releases in 2023, including Origin (Jan. 19), Tótem (Jan. 26), Perfect Days (Feb. 7), The Taste of Things (Feb. 9), About Dry Grasses (Feb. 23), Shayda (March 1), La Chimera (March 29), and Robot Dreams.

The Settlers (Felipe Gálvez; Jan. 12)

The barbaric, bloody sins of the past come to define what entities govern certain land today,...

Rotten Tomatoes and the Academy Awards don’t often go hand in hand. In fact, the Rt scores of Best Picture nominees/winners are a mixed bag. “Parasite” won Best Picture with a Rt score of 99% while “Green Book” emerged victorious with a score of just 77%. The site dishes out percentage scores to movie’s based on the film’s collection of critical reviews. The higher the score, the better the movie. Supposedly.

But, that’s not how it always work in tandem with the Oscars. For instance, “Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman,” and “Roma” all scored 96% but lost Best Picture to “Green Book.” Perhaps, if the Oscars listened to Rotten Tomatoes more, things would go a little more smoothly? Probably not but, just for fun, let’s pretend that Rotten Tomatoes are in charge of this year’s Academy Awards.

With that in mind, here are the 10 Best Picture nominees the...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlists in ten categories for the upcoming 96th edition and of course, we are focused on the fifteen qualifiers for Best International Feature. Heavy favorites in the Cannes comp selected The Taste of Things, Perfect Days, The Zone of Interest and Fallen Leaves are joined by the likes of The Mother of All Lies (which mysteriously still does not have a distribution deal and oddly was not selected in the Documentary Feature category), Four Daughters and Totem. A trio of films which we thought might stand a chance in The Peasants, The Settlers and Shayda were not as fortunate.…...

Sundance audience award winner received one-week awards-qualifying run earlier this month.

Sony Pictures Classics has set a March 1, 2024, release date for Noora Niasari’s Australian Oscar submission Shayda.

The film will open in New York and Los Angeles and expand nationwide in the following weeks. It received a one-week awards-qualifying run earlier this month.

Shayda premiered in Sundance where it won the audience award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

The Origma 45 production centres on the titular Iranian woman living in Australia, who finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter, Mona, when she learns a court...

How much does a film’s director impact your work as a makeup and hairstylist? What were each of your Oscar-winning or Oscar-nominated directors like to work with? What made you want to get into the film and television business? Was there a film you saw that inspired you to go into this field?

These were some of the secrets revealed by seven of today’s top hair and makeup artists when they joined Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2023/2024 awards contenders: Karen Hartley-Thomas (“Golda”), Thomas Nellen (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Lori McCoy-Bell (“Maestro”), Jana Carboni and Francesco Pegoretti (“Napoleon”) and Luisa Abel and Jaime Leigh McIntosh (“Oppenheimer”). Watch our captivating group discussion above and click on each name to view their solo chat.

See Film editing roundtable: ‘Air,’ ‘American Fiction,’ ‘Saltburn,’ ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ and ‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’

“After...

Shortlist of 15 films to be announced December 21, nominations out on January 23, 2024.

The Academy has announced eligible features in the categories of international feature film, animation, and documentary for the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024.

The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 21, and the nominations announcement is January 23, 2024.

International

Eighty-eight countries or regions have submitted films eligible for consideration in the international feature film category. An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes long) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track. Namibia is a first-time entrant.

Academy members...

It’s the final month of the year, which means much of our attention will be turned to sharing various best-of-2023 rundowns throughout December. The month also brings many of the year’s most noteworthy films, which we’ve rounded up before––some of which will be opening in a more limited capacity and expanding next month.

We should also note some top November picks like The Boy and the Heron and May December are finally getting in front of wider audiences, with the former getting a wide release on December 8 and the latter arriving on Netflix this Friday. For this round-up we’re also not including films getting limited one-week-only runs this month, such as Noora Niasari’s Shayda on December 1 and Ava DuVernay’s Origin and Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera on December 8.

14. Memory (Michel Franco; Dec. 22)

Every year there’s at least one film that premieres at...

'Carmen', 'Foe', 'Limbo', 'Shayda', 'Streets of Colour', and 'The Royal Hotel' will contend for Feature Film Production of the Year at next year's Screen Producers Australia (Spa) Awards, to be held on the final night of Screen Forever on the Gold Coast.

The post Production categories announced for Spa Awards appeared first on If Magazine.

“Auto-bio Pamphlet,” a Marathi-language film that is both a love story and a rage against class divisions, will open the 18th edition of the Jogja-netpac Asian Film Festival later this month. The festival will close with the world premiere of spy thriller “13 Bombs in Jakarta.”

Jaff run Nov. 25 – Dec. 2 and include 205 films from 25 countries and territories across Asia-Pacific.

Directed by Angga Dwimas Sasongko, “13 Bombs in Jakarta” (aka “13 Bom di Jakarta”) tells of a group of terrorists who launch their attack with the threat of bombs scattered throughout the Indonesian capital. Sasongko is also the founder of local studio Visenema, which has four films at the festival.

“As the opening film for this year’s edition, we choose something light-hearted, which is ‘Autobio Pamphlet’ from India. Its coming-of-age story will be perfect to set the festival’s spirited and entertaining mood,” said Alexander Matius, Jaff program director. The film had...

Exclusive: Golden Globe winner Emma Corrin (The Crown) and Cesar nominee Lucie Zhang are set to star in Jenny Suen’s English language feature debut Peaches, which Coco Francini (Fingernails) will produce and Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton will executive-produce for Dirty Films.

Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the movie will follow two spoiled best friends who scam sugar daddies for a living. When they discover a Hermes Birkin bag they were gifted is a fake, their “boyfriends” and crimes catch up with them.

The film is an adaptation of Vera Chitylova’s 1966 Czech New Wave comedy Daisies.

Paris-based MK2 Films, whose slate includes Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Cannes Un Certain Regard winner How to Have Sex, is handling international sales and discussed the project with buyers at last week’s AFM. The film will start production early next year in Hong Kong.

Exclusive: United Talent Agency (UTA) has signed up Iranian-French actress, director, producer, and casting director Zar Amir.

Amir, best known for her breakout turn in Ali Abbasi’s 2022 Cannes competition title Holy Spider, has signed with UTA for representation in all areas and will continue to be represented by Untitled Entertainment, Das Imperium in Berlin, Adequat in Paris, and Alh PR.

With Holy Spider, Amir picked up the best actress award at Cannes. She also served as an associate producer and casting director on the pic, which was Denmark’s submission for the Academy Awards. As an actor, she can next be seen in the Cate Blanchett-produced Shayda, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The pic, directed by Noora Niasari, took the audience award in the World Cinema competition at Sundance and has since been chosen as Australia’s submission for the best international feature race at this year’s Oscars.

Oscar voters in the Best International Feature Film category have received their group assignments for this year’s initial round of voting, with 89 films included on the seven lists that the Academy has sent to members.

The lists, which were obtained by TheWrap, include presumed favorites “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom), “The Taste of Things” (France), “The Promised Land” (Denmark) and “Perfect Days” (Japan), along with a number of documentaries, among them Estonia’s “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” Brazil’s “Pictures of Ghosts” and Ukraine’s “20 Days in Mariupol.”

The 89 films are four short of the record of 93 qualifying films in the category. The list of group assignments does not make up the Academy’s official list of eligible films; it’s possible that assigned films might still fail to qualify before first-round voting begins on Dec. 18. For the most part, though, films that are included in the group...

"Shayda" is a harrowing yet gentle exploration of an Iranian woman's life after escaping an abusive husband in Australia. The film sensitively addresses the trauma of domestic abuse while showcasing love for Iranian culture. The performances and cinematography contribute to a powerful portrayal of Shayda's emotional journey, offering both heart-wrenching and tender moments.

The directorial debut of Noora Niasari, Shayda is a harrowing but gentle exploration of an Iranian woman’s life after escaping an abusive husband in Australia. From the film’s opening scene to its final moments, Niasari exhibits empathy while sensitively handling a delicate topic. Shayda is sorrowful, distressing, and intense; the film, which was also written by Niasari, is equally full of love for Iranian culture as it is a story about trauma. Bolstered by an emotionally sensitive and heartbreaking performance by Holy Spider’s Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Shayda explores the unnerving, arduous journey of...

Industry talks include masterclass with David F Sandberg and Stockholm Bloodbath case study.

The Stockholm International Film Festival will honour filmmakers including Ken Loach (lifetime achievement award), Ethan Hawke (achievement award) and Catherine Breillat (visionary award) at its 2023 festival, which runs Nov 8-19.

The festival will open with Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, winner of Venice’s Golden Lion.

In all, the festival will screen 130 films from 50 countries. The country focus this year is the UK – with selections including How To Have Sex by Molly Manning Walker, In Camera by Naqqash Khalid, and All Of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh.

Other...

The festival runs October 21 - 29.

Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival will have world premieres of three new Ukrainian films as well as Portuguese director Andrés Marques’ The Drunk in its first complete edition with both competition and non-competition programmes since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian director-DoP-artist-exhibition curator Ivan Sautkin’s debut documentary feature A Poem For Little People about a group of volunteers at the front-line zone and two elderly female friends from a village in the Chernihiv region will premiere in the documentary competition which will also feature Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann’s...

The founders are producers Roshanak “Rosh” Khodabakhsh and Jorgo Narje.

Netflix and Amazon Studios are among the backers of a new German programme entitled NewMotion to promote greater diversity in the nation’s film industry. It was officially launched at the Explorer Conference at Filmfest Hamburg this month.

The programme is the brainchild of producers Roshanak “Rosh” Khodabakhsh (Port au Prince Film und Kultur Produktion) and Jorgo Narjes (X Filme Creative Pool) in cooperation with the Producers Alliance Initiative for Qualification (Paiq).

“A central element of this initiative is a shadowing programme giving on-the-job training where you follow one person...

The German festival posted its biggest ever audience in 2023.

Filmfest Hamburg came to a close on October 7 with an awards ceremony that saw the Cicae’s arthouse cinema award presented to UK filmmaker Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut How To Have Sex which premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes in May

The cash prize €5,000 is provided by Hamburg’s local film fund Moin to be spent on the film’s PR campaign by its German distributor capelight pictures which will release the film in German cinemas on December 7.

The €5,000 Ndr young talent award, sponsored by local public broadcaster Ndr,...

Sometimes when you have a terrific film but it doesn’t quite have the hook for mainstream audiences, you sometimes need a catchy ace in the hole. And that’s exactly what the Australian film “Shayda” has in its executive producers, in this case, a little actor you may know named Cate Blanchett, plus her husband and producing partner Andrew Upton and Coco Francini. Blanchett has been lending her name to a lot of international cinema worthy of a boost of late (Greece’s “Apples”), and along with recent collaboration with Sparks and Guy Maddin (and an almost collaboration with Pedro Almodovar that came close), it appears as if Blanchett has really reaffirmed her commitment to global and left-of-field cinema this year, so good for her.

Continue reading ‘Shayda’ Trailer: Noora Niasari’s Acclaimed Australian Drama, Exec Produced By Cate Blanchett, Arrives In December at The Playlist.

"I am not afraid." Sony Pictures Classics has debuted a new US trailer for the outstanding film Shayda, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Noora Niasari. It first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, winning the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic section. I saw it at Sundance and it's fantastic - one of the best feature debuts of this year. A young Iranian mother named Shayda and her six-year-old daughter find refuge in an Australian women's shelter during the two weeks of the Iranian New Year. When the girl's father shows up, it takes all of her courage to fight back and stop him from taking over. The extremely talented Zahra Amir Ebrahimi (also from last year's Holy Spider) stars, with Osamah Sami, Leah Purcell, Jillian Nguyen, Mojean Aria, Selina Zahednia, Rina Mousavi. Australia has submitted Shayda as their entry for the Academy Awards...

As a child, the Australian director fled family violence with her mother. Now she’s storming the global festival circuit with a movie about their past

Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email

When Noora Niasari was five years old, she lived in a women’s shelter with her Iranian mother. They were fleeing family violence in a country that wasn’t entirely familiar, trying to make a new life.

That personal experience has informed Niasari’s debut feature, Shayda, which has been storming the global festival circuit since it premiered at Sundance film festival in January, winning an audience award. Released in Australia on 5 October, the film has already claimed the top prize at CinefestOz, opened the Melbourne international film festival, and been selected to represent Australia in the international film category at the Oscars.

Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend,...

When Tehran-born writer-director Noora Niasari told producer Vincent Sheehan about the time she spent living in a women's shelter during her childhood, on which her film 'Shayda' was to be based, he realised he was being told a "distinctly Australian" story, but one he had never seen on the screen before.

The post ‘It’s an Australian film, but it’s a very outward-looking film’: Vincent Sheehan on bringing Noora Niasari’s ‘Shayda’ to screen appeared first on If Magazine.

The American Film Institute on Thursday revealed the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 25-29. It joins the previously announced fest opener, Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind, and closer in Bradley Cooper’s Maestro. Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story is the Centerpiece film.

Additional highlights include the world premieres of Albert Brooks: Defending My Life directed by Rob Reiner and Freud’s Last Session directed by Matthew Brown. Other fest-season films in the lineup include All of Us Strangers directed by Andrew Haigh, Toronto winner American Fiction directed by Cord Jefferson, The Bikeriders directed by Jeff Nichols, The End We Start From directed by Mahalia Belo, Fingernails directed by Christos Nikou, Memory directed by Michel Franco, Quiz Lady directed by Jessica Yu, and Society of the Snow directed by J.A. Bayona which will screen in the Special Screenings...

The 141 titles set to screen include 18 of this year’s international feature Oscar submissions.

Freud’s Last Session and Albert Brooks: Defending My Life are to get their world premieres at this year’s AFI Fest, running October 25-29 in Los Angeles.

Also among the 141 titles in the festival’s full line-up are All Of Us Strangers, American Fiction, Fallen Leaves and The Taste Of Things.

Matthew Brown’s Freud’s Last Session, with Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode, and Rob Reiner’s documentary about Albert Brooks will be part of AFI Fest’s Special Screening line-up.

Previously announced world premieres at...

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that begins after the October 2, 2023 deadline for countries to submit entries. To be part of the selection process for this category, which was called Best Foreign Language Film before 2020, requires a great deal of dedication. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscars Best International Feature predictions.)

In the days following the deadline for submissions, the academy determines each film’s eligibility. Then the several hundred academy members who serve on the International Feature screening committee are divided into groups and required to watch all their submissions over a six-week period that ends in early December. Their top 15 vote-getters will make it to the next round. That list of semi-finalists will be revealed on December 21, 2023.

These 15 films will be made available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final five...

The Oscars Best International Feature Film race landed two major frontrunners on the same day on Thursday, with the United Kingdom submitting Jonathan Glazer’s chilling World War II drama “The Zone of Interest” and France following with Tran Anh Hung’s rapturous “The Taste of Things” in the one-film-per-country competition.

“The Zone of Interest,” set among German families who live on the outskirts of Auschwitz, won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and won raves as one of the most original and unnerving films to deal with the Holocaust since “Son of Saul,” which won the Oscar in this category eight years ago. It was considered the obvious choice for the U.K. to submit.

France, on the other hand, had an extremely difficult choice between Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall,” starring Sandra Huller as a woman on trial for murdering her husband,...

by Cláudio Alves

The Toronto International Film Festival represents an excellent opportunity to get in touch with cinema from all over the world. For Oscar obsessives, it provides a great chance to catch up with Best International Film submissions, especially as they're announced throughout the festival. I already covered some of them – Australia's Shayda, Bhutan's The Monk and the Gun, Brazil's Pictures of Ghosts, Chile's The Settlers, Finland's Fallen Leaves, Germany's The Teachers' Lounge, Romania's Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, South Korea's Concrete Utopia, and Turkey's About Dry Grasses. However, there are still some more TIFF titles to review.

They are the Netherlands's Sweet Dreams, Tunisia's Four Daughters, and Morocco's The Mother of All Lies. Though they haven't been officially selected, I also saw two of Norway's three finalists, A Happy Day and Songs of Earth…...

Talk about ending with a flourish.

Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” a critically acclaimed look at the dramatic life and career of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, will close the 2023 edition of the Hamptons International Festival. “Maestro,” which co-stars Carey Mulligan, will screen on Oct. 12. It is set to be released by Netflix on Dec. 20.

“’Maestro’ is a beautifully crafted, raw and heartfelt film. We look forward to sharing this glimpse into the love story between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein,” said HamptonsFilm Executive Director Anne Chaisson.

The annual celebration of movies also announced its full lineup of programming, which includes additional signature programming including “A Conversation with…” Series with Paul Simon, who will be on hand to talk up a new, sprawling look at his six decades of making cultural-defining hits. Simon, a rock icon who has written everything from “The Sound of Silence” to “Graceland,” is attending...

Awards

The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations for Lux – The European Audience Film Award. The award is presented by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas.

The nominated films are: “20,000 Species of Bees” by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Spain); “The Teacher’s Lounge” by İlker Çatak (Germany); “Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki; “On the Adamant” by Nicolas Philibert; and “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” by Anna Hints.

The five nominated films will now be subtitled in all 24 EU languages. The winner will be determined by the general public and the members of the European Parliament (each holding 50% of the vote) and announced during an awards ceremony in March 2024.

European Film Academy chair and president of the Lux jury Mike Downey said: “We know that cinema not only enhances the imagination but also shows our entire world in multiple perspectives and...

Venice Film Festival’s red carpet swapped glamour for politics on Saturday, hosting a flash mob in solidarity with the Iranian people, fighting against repression, as well as filmmakers who are being oppressed – and arrested – because of their work.

Such as “Leila’s Brothers” director Saeed Roustaee, recently sentenced to six months in prison for showing the film in Cannes. He has also been banned from making movies.

“Born in 1989, Roustaee represents a new generation of Iranian auteurs, and one who’s sly enough to embed his complex social critiques so deep into the fabric of sprawling modern stories that he hasn’t upset the regime. Not yet, at least,” ominously wrote Variety’s Peter Debruge following its premiere at the French fest.

Roustaee also made “Life and a Day” and thriller “Just 6.5,” which was shown in Venice.

Elham Erfani, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi and guests attend the Flash Mob in Solidarity With Iranian People.

“Holy Spider” breakout Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv are set to make history with “Tatami,” the first feature co-directed by an Iranian and an Israeli filmmaker.

Premiering in Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, “Tatami” shows Iranian female judo fighter Leila (played by “The L Word: Generation Q” star Arienne Mandi) heading to the world championships with her coach Maryam (Ebrahimi). Soon, they receive an ultimatum: in order to avoid squaring off against an Israeli opponent, Leila should immediately fake an injury and drop out.

“Can you imagine how many threats I have received after ‘Holy Spider,’ accusing me of ‘working with Jews’? We are not even allowed to call someone Israeli. It’s always ‘the occupying regime,’” Ebrahimi says.

Fearing for their safety, they decided to shoot in secret.

“We didn’t want anyone to know about it. We shot in Tbilisi in Georgia, two hours away from...

Gala screenings include ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’, ‘The Holdovers’ and ‘Nyad’.

Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, David Fincher’s The Killer and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla are among the titles screening at the 67th BFI London Film Festival.

The selection comprises 171 features, up from last year’s 164, and includes 14 world premieres, six international and 22 European.

This year’s festival marks the first edition under new director Kristy Matheson who officially took over the role from Tricia Tuttle in April. Matheson has kept the size and structure largely unchanged with thematic strands all still in place.

Scroll...