News

Cannes Critics’ Week has picked the projects that will be part of the 11th edition of Next Step, a programme aimed at helping filmmakers whose short films played at Critics’ Week develop their feature debut.

Since its creation 11 years ago, Next Step has accompanied the development of 96 feature projects, with 39 already completed. Recent Next Step alumni that stood out in the festival circuit include Molly Manning Walker with “How to Have Sex;” Chilean director Felipe Gálvez with “The Settlers;” Valentina Maurel with Locarno winner “I Have Electric Dreams;” as well as Matthew Rankin with Universal Language” which won Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award and represents Canada in the Oscar race.

In 2025, seven new features developed at Next Step are expected to roll out at major festivals, notably Morad Mostafa’s “Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore” which won Venice’s industry prize, Final Cut, for a film in post production. Next...

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...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

The 88 submissions for the best international feature award at the 2023 Oscars have been announced, and Screen has profiled all the entries below.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is set to be announced on December 21 with the final five nominees announced on January 24, 2024 The 95th Academy Awards will take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

The 88 submissions are down from last year when 92 films were in contentions. Four countries submitted this year but have not appeared on the final list - Cuba with Fernando Perez...

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...

The submissions for this year’s Oscar for best international feature include some of the best of world cinema. Below is a rundown of the entries for the 96th Academy Awards. The 15-title shortlist is slated to arrive on Dec. 21, prior to the nominations announcement on Jan. 23 and the ceremony itself, which is dated for March 10.

Albania

Alexander

Director: Ardit Sadiku

Logline: A documentary about an engineer who, after being fired by the navy for dissidence, hijacked a warship to get himself an dhis family to freedom.

Prodco: Ardit Sadiku Film

Argentina

The Delinquents

Director: Rodrigo Moreno

Logline: A ticklish, gently surreal saga following two colleagues who collude in robbing the bank where they work.

U.S. distribution: Mubi

Armenia

Amerikatsi

Director: Michael A. Goorjian

Logline: An Armenian-American relocates to Armenia after WWII and ends up in a Soviet prison for the crime of wearing a tie.

U.S.

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...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Fewer films by female directors were selected for this year’s programme

Fewer female feature directors were selected for this year’s Locarno programme compared to the 2022 edition according to figures presented by artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro at an event held by the Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network (Swan).

The event was held to mark the fifth anniversary of Locarno’s signing of the Programming Pledge for Parity and Inclusion in Cinema Festivals. In August 2018, Locarno became the first A-category festival after Cannes to make a commitment to ensure greater gender equality and inclusion in its programming.

Feature films...

The 12 Latin American titles compete for a €35,000 prize

Lila Aviles’ Totem and Felipe Galvez’s The Settlers are among the films selected for the Horizontes Latinos strand of the 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival.

The 12 Latin American titles are competing for the Horizontes Award of €35,000 which is split between the director and the Spanish distributor.

Totem first premiered at Berlinale earlier this year, picking up the Ecumenical jury prize before collecting further awards at Hong Kong and Jerusalem. The Mexican drama is told from the perspective of a seven-year-old girl as her family descends into crisis around her.

Winner...

Utopia has acquired the North American rights to the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard New Voice Prize winner “Omen,” the debut feature from artist-musician turned director Baloji.

The film follows a young man, Koffi, played by Marc Zinga (“Spectre”), who after spending years in Belgium returns home to the Congo to find himself confronted by his past and culture at a family event.

Koffi visits his birthplace after being mysteriously shunned by his family and spending years abroad in Europe. With his soon-to-be wife and unborn child in tow, Koffi’s arrival sets in motion a sprawling, nightmarish and psychedelic fairy tale about ancestry, belief, wrestling, witchcraft and sorcery in Africa today.

Director Baloji was born in Lubumbashi, Congo, in 1978, and was sent to live with his step family in Belgium when he was 3 years old. Separated from his birth parents, he had a troubled childhood and dropped...

Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” fresh from its triumphant world premiere at the Cannes fest, opens the 38th Guadalajara Film Festival (Ficg) which touts new sections this year, including a branded series showcase and midnight screenings of Italian fright maestro Dario Argento’s horror films.

Eva Longoria’s feature directorial debut, “Flamin’ Hot,” which had its West Coast premiere at the LA Latino Film Festival (Laliff) May 31, marks its Mexican debut at the fest.

The Series Showcase includes Patricia Martinez’s fact-based “La Narcosatánica,” which will stream on the rebranded Max, and Maite Alberdi’s “Libre de reir,” a Gato Grande production that centers on inmates in a Mexican prison who enroll in a stand-up comedy workshop. Alberdi’s Sundance-winning docu “The Eternal Memory” also vies for a prize in the festival’s documentary sidebar.

According to festival director Estrella Araiza, the festival has recovered its funding and will screen...

Sundance documentary “Stephen Curry: Underrated” and SXSW television premiere “I’m a Virgo” will open and close Sffilm, the 66th annual San Francisco International Film Festival.

Sffilm unveiled the full lineup for the fest along with the openers and closers. The Bay Area film festival, which screens in theaters across San Francisco as well as Oakland and Berkeley, will host 50 feature film programs (includes Workshop and “mid-lengths”), 46 shorts, and one TV screening (“I’m a Virgo”). Both directors behind “I’m a Virgo” and “Underrated” — Boots Riley and Peter Nicks — grew up in the Bay Area, more specifically in Oakland. Other films from Bay Area filmmakers whose projects will screen include W. Kamau Bell’s “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed,” Savanah Leaf’s “Earth Mama,” and Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.”

“It is Sffilm Festival season once again and I cannot wait to share this year’s program with local audiences,” Jessie Fairbanks, Sffilm’s director of programming,...

In a sign of a new ebullience in Spain’s film industry, Spain’s Elamedia Estudios, founded by Roberto Butragueño is launching Sideral, an integrated production-distribution-sales label which makes its debut presenting at the Berlinale Co-Production Market the feature project “Cheaper Than Stealing.”

Titles Sideral handles either in international sales, production or distribution take in “In the Sultan’s Bedchamber,” from San Sebastian best director winner Javier Rebollo (“Woman Without Piano”), a Sideral production; “The Fantastic Golem,” Affairs” from hot Spanish duo Burning Percebes, which it sells abroad, and “I Have Electric Dreams,” Costa Rican Valerie Maurel’s Locarno best director, actor and actress winner.

Underscoring its status as a new force on Spain’s movie scene, Sideral has confirmed 22 production, distribution or sales titles.

“From several years back, Elamedia has been backing many titles. Now we’re ramping up production and domestic distribution and want to create a brand which is identifiable,...

Athens-based Heretic has acquired worlds sales rights for “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” the latest film from Berlinale Golden Bear winner Radu Jude (“Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn”), who is serving on the international jury at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Divided into two parts, Jadu’s latest follows an overworked and underpaid production assistant who must drive around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a workplace safety video commissioned by a multinational company. In the film’s second half, one of her interviewees makes a statement that ignites a scandal, forcing him to re-invent his story to suit the company’s narrative.

Borrowing from a phrase by Polish aphorist and poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” is “part comedy, part road movie, part montage,” looking at different aspects of work,...

Heretic has closed a raft of deals on Sundance prize-winning documentary “And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine,” with Picturehouse Entertainment acquiring U.K. rights ahead of the film’s European premiere in the Generation 14plus strand at the Berlin Film Festival.

The Athens-based outfit also closed deals for Italy (Teodora Film), Benelux, (September Film), Poland (Against Gravity) and Czech Republic, where the rights were sold to arthouse distributor Aerofilms and the newly launched streaming platform Kviff.TV, both part of the Kviff Group, a media conglomerate built around the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. It’s the first title acquired under the new partnership.

“Fantastic Machine” will also be distributed on HBO channels and HBO Max in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. The film, which had its world premiere at Sundance in the World Cinema Documentary section, won the festival’s...

The new section aims to programme films “addressing unique topics with a lens that will challenge and delight.”

Mark Jenkin’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Enys Men and Jacquelyn Mills’ Berlinale Forum documentary Geographies Of Solitude are among eight features programmed in Red Sea: New Vision, a new programme strand in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff).

The section has no geographical boundaries, and is aiming to “celebrate films that stand out, addressing unique topics with a lens that will challenge and delight” according to the festival.

Scroll down for the New Vision titles

The selection includes...

Valentina Maurel’s coming-of-age drama “I Have Electric Dreams” has proved a major winner on the international festival circuit and a daring work that further highlights Costa Rica’s burgeoning film scene. The film won the prizes for director, actress and actor at the Locarno Film Festival, and San Sebastián Film Festival’s Horizons Award. The film continued its winning streak this week at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, where it took home the Golden Alexander for best feature film, and leading man Reinaldo Amien Gutiérrez also won the award for best actor.

The film follows Eva, a restless 16-year-old girl who is experiencing her sexual awakening and is desperate to leave the house she shares with her mother and younger sister and move in with her estranged father, a troubled creative artist who paints, sculpts, writes poetry and drinks too much.

The film is a personal work that explores darker aspects of family relationships,...

The 53rd International Film Festival of India (Iffi) will open with Austrian film “Alma & Oskar,” directed by Dieter Berner.

The film details the tumultuous relationship between Viennese society grand dame Alma Mahler (1879-1964) and Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980).

Iffi has also revealed the 15 films that will be competing for its top prize, the Golden Peacock Award, including 12 international titles and three Indian ones.

The international titles include “Perfect Number,” “Red Shoes,” “A Minor,” “No End,” “Mediterranean Fever,” “When the Waves Are Gone,” “I Have Electric Dreams,” “Cold as Marble,” “Seven Dogs,” “Maarya: The Ocean Angel,” “Nezouh” and “The Line.”

The Indian titles are “The Kashmir Files,” “The Storyteller” and “Kurangu Pedal.”

Iffi will also pay homage to late legendary Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar with a screening of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1973 musical drama film “Abhimaan,” starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri.

Confirmed masterclasses at Iffi include those from: “Kung Fu Panda...

Spanish production and distribution company Elamedia has acquired “Tengo sueños eléctricos” (I Have Electric Dreams), the Locarno prize-winning debut by director Valentina Maurel, which will screen in the Horizontes Latinos section of the San Sebastian Film Festival. Elamedia will be releasing the film in Spanish theaters later this year.

Set in Costa Rica, “Electric Dreams” follows Eva (Daniela Marin Navarro), a strong-willed 16-year-old girl who lives with her mother, her younger sister and their cat, but desperately wants to move in with her estranged father (Reinaldo Amien Guttierez). Clinging onto him as he goes through a second adolescence, she balances between the tenderness and sensitivity of teenage life and the ruthlessness of the adult world.

Produced by Wrong Men (Belgium) and Geko Films (France) and co-produced with Tres Tigres (Costa Rica), the film had its world premiere in the international competition at Locarno, where Maurel won the award for best...

The Locarno film festival will shift to gender-neutral acting categories with its 76th edition set to run August 2-12, 2023.

The festival’s two main competitions, the Concorso internazionale and Concorso Cineasti del presente, will now each present two Pardo awards for the best performances. In a statement, the festival said the change will “allow every performer, irrespective of their gender identity, to compete for the awards.”

Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival: “We believe that the choice we have made will further enhance our efforts to showcase and reward talent and creativity, transcending individual categories that are now obsolete. The world is moving forward on a path that is most definitely non-binary.”

Locarno Film Festival President Marco Solari added: “As President, I welcome this proposal from the Artistic Director and his team, which is perfectly in tune with the changing sensibilities that are necessary today.”

Last year,...

by Nathaniel R

the sexually charged "Rule 34" wins Locarno

Our favourite film festival correspondent, Elisa Giudici, couldn't make it to Locarno this year so we are here to just report on the winners! The top prize went to a sexually provocative drama from Brazil called Rule 34 (only the second Brazilian film to ever win Locarno) while a Costa Rican film called Tengo Suenos Electricos won three prizes from the jury.

Will any of the following titles show up as Oscar submissions for International Feature Film? Who can say. A little bit about each winner after the jump...

Julia Murat’s film is second from Brazil to win festival’s top honour.

The Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival’s 75th anniversary edition (August 3-13) has gone to Julia Murat’s Rule 34 (Regra 34), which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.

The award includes a cash prize of Chf 75,000 to be shared equally between the film’s director and producer.

Rule 34 is the story of a young law student whose sexual desires lead her into a world of violence and eroticism. It was part of the 2019 Berlinale Co-Production Market and last year received...

Rule 34International Competition(Jury: Michel Merkt, Laura Samani, Prano Bailey-Bond, Alain Guiraudie, William Horberg)Golden Leopard: Rule 34 (Julia Murat)Special Jury Prize: Gigi la legge (The Adventures of Gigi the Law) (Alessandro Comodin)Best Direction: Valentina Maurel (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Best Actress: Daniela Marín Navarro (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Best Actor: Reinaldo Amien Gutiérrez (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Filmmakers Of The Present( Jury: Annick Mahnert, Gitanjali Rao, Katriel Schory )Golden Leopard: Svetlonoc (Nightsiren) (Tereza Nvotová)Special Jury Prize: Yak Tam Katia? (How Is Katia?) (Christina Tynkevych)Prize for Best Emerging Director: Juraj Lerotić (Sigurno mjesto (Safe Place))Best Actress: Anastasia Karpenko (How Is Katia?)Best Actor: Goran Marković (Safe Place)Special Mention: Den siste våren (Franciska Eliassen)First Feature(Jury: Boo Junfeng, Shahram Mokri, Madeline Robert)Best First Feature: Sigurno mjesto (Safe Place) (Juraj Lerotić)Special Mention: Love Dog (Bianca Lucas) and De noche los gatos son pardos (Valentin Merz)Pardi Di Domani(Jury: Walter Fasano,...

Click here to read the full article.

Rule 34, a Brazilian drama from director Julia Murat, has won the Golden Leopard for best film at the 2022 Locarno International Film Festival.

The feature is a disturbing look at a young law student who by day passionately defends the rights of women in domestic abuse cases and by night performs in front of a live sex cam. Her own sexual impulses lead her toward a world of violence and dangerous eroticism.

Tengo Suenos Electricos, a family drama from Costa Rican director Valentina Maurel was a triple winner at Locarno, winning best director for Maurel and both acting honors, with stars Daniela Marín Navarro and Reinaldo Amien Gutiérrez taking best actress and best acting awards, respectively.

‘Tengo Suenos Electricos’

Navarro plays Eva, a 16-year-old girl who, desperate to escape her stifling home life with her mother and younger sister, moves in with her...

Brazilian filmmaker Julia Murat clinched the Golden Leopard prize in the main international competition of the 75th Locarno Film Festival with her latest feature Rule 34.

The film follows Simone, a young law student who finds a passion for defending women in abuse cases. Yet her own sexual interests lead her to a world of violence and eroticism.

Rule 34 is Murat’s third feature film after Pendular, which picked up the Fipresci Prize at the 2017 Berlinale. The Brazillian filmmaker’s first film, Found Memories, debuted at Venice.

Locarno’s Golden Leopard comes with a Chf 75,000 cash prize to be shared equally between the director and the producer. Murat produced the film alongside Tatiana Leite.

This year’s Golden Leopard competition jury was comprised of Swiss producer Michel Merkt, British filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond, French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie, American producer William Horberg, and Italian director Laura Samani.

In other main competition awards, the...

Manuela Martelli’s 1976 and documentary My Imaginary Country, both Chilean titles, are among the line-up

Manuela Martelli’s 1976 and documentary My Imaginary Country, both Chilean titles, are among the 12 films selected for the Horizontes Latinos section of the 70th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (September 16-24).

Scroll down for full line-up

Martelli’s drama premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection earlier this year and recently picked up the best first feature film award at Jerusalem. The film follows a middle-class woman re-evaluating her beliefs when she’s asked to secretly take care of an injured man. Luxbox are handling sales.