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The 68th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (Lff) is wrapping up Sunday night with Piece by Piece, the animated Lego biopic of Pharrell Williams by Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 20 Feet From Stardom) following the unveiling of this year’s various competition winners, led by Adam Elliot’s claymation feature Memoir of a Snail.

Set in Australia in the 1970s, the movie, which had already won the animation-focused Annecy Film Festival, stars Succession‘s Sarah Snook as Grace Pudel, a shy girl born with a cleft palate who grows up with her wild and occasionally pyromaniac twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) but eventually becomes a lonely hoarder of ornamental snails. Her only friend is a wild octogenarian named Pinky (Jacki Weaver). Eric Bana, Dominique Pinon, and Nick Cave provide supporting voice work. IFC Films has set an Oct. 25 U.S. release date.

Memoir of a...

Dilvin Asaad and Bianca Delbravo in Paradise Is Burning

Mika Gustafson's narrative feature debut, Paradise Is Burning, co-written by Alexander Öhrstrand, revolves around three sisters, 16-year-old Laura (Bianca Delbravo), 12-year-old Mira (Dilvin Asaad) and seven-year-old Steffi (Safira Mossberg), who are left to fend for themselves by their absent mother. With summer fast approaching and left unsupervised, the three sisters enjoy their freedom, living a wild and carefree existence. However, when social services schedule a meeting, Laura must find someone to impersonate their mother, while keeping the threat of social services a secret from Mira and Steffi.

Gustafson's previous works include the 2017 feature documentary, Silvana - Väck Mig När Ni Vaknat, about the Swedish artist and feminist, Silvana Imam, which she co-directed with Olivia Kastebring and Christina Tsiobanelis. Her shorts include Secretly Filmed My Boyfriend After We Had a Fight, which confronted the camera's invasive gaze, and Mephobia (2017) about.

Horror Afraid leads the new titles at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend, launching in 450 locations for Sony.

Directed by Chris Weitz, Afraid stars John Cho and Katherine Waterston as devoted parents who get selected to try a new smart home AI device. The device quickly becomes overprotective of the family and begins interfering in their lives.

It is the latest feature from horror juggernaut Blumhouse, this year’s titles of which include Imaginary (£2m) and Night Swim (£1.4m). The film will have stiff competition from Disney’s fellow horror Alien: Romulus which was up to £8.8m at the end of last weekend.

For children who face parental abandonment, a visit from Social Services is a mixed blessing. Certainly, children should be cared for, not forced to fend for themselves, and, in that regard, the system can be a blessing when it works well. On the other hand, as much as a great new family can be a vast improvement, new homes, and families can be as bad or worse than a child's prior condition. Another danger is unique to siblings: there's always the possibility of separation. It's this fear that fuels Paradise Is Burning, Mika Gustafson's tale of sisterhood in these conditions. The film deftly captures the dreamy exuberance of a life free of parental control, the difficulties children face when forced to care for siblings, and the feeling of uncertainty and doom when the dreaded Social Services visit arrives, navigating this territory with sensitivity and nuance.

Disney’s “Alien: Romulus” maintained its grip on the U.K. and Ireland box office, earning a shade over £2 million ($2.6 million) in its second week of release for a cumulative total of £8.2 million ($10.8 million), per numbers from Comscore.

The sci-fi horror entry scared off strong competition over the Bank Holiday long weekend in the territory from holdovers and new releases alike. Sony’s “It Ends With Us” remained in second place with £1.8 million in its third week, bringing its total to £15.8 million. Walt Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” continued to draw audiences in its fifth week, landing at No. 3 with £1.7 million and pushing its total to more than £52 million.

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” held steady at fourth place, adding £1.4 million in its seventh week for a £41.9 million cume. Curzon’s “Kneecap” made a strong debut at No. 5 with just over £1 million while Warner Bros.’ “Blink Twice” opened at No.

Deep in a Swedish forest, three sisters spend their summer days lost in a world of their own invention. Laura, at 16, has become the protector of Mira, 12, and little Steffi, only 7, after their mother vanished without explanation. Under blue skies and surrounded by tall trees, they play without rules or restrictions, free as birds. But always, responsibility weighs on eldest Laura. She must keep them fed and safe from harm—no simple task for a girl still a child herself.

Paradise is Burning explores this unusual family with empathy and care. Directed by Mika Gustafson in her feature debut, the film follows the sisters through a summer that brings both joy and fear. Joy in days spent swimming and laughing together without a care. Fear as a social worker’s call threatens to tear them from the only home they’ve known. Gustafson watches with gentle eyes, never rushing her...

Mika Gustafson’s feature has some obvious influences in The Virgin Suicides or American Honey but wears them lightly in this fresh and beautifully cut debut

Like an unusually designed coat featuring quirky details and an interesting fabric choice from a young designer’s first collection, Swedish writer-director Mika Gustafson’s feature debut has raw edges and some sloppy stitching in places, but the whole is fresh, directional and beautifully cut. Sure, it’s not hard to spot the influences that consciously or not infuse the work, from Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides and The Bling Ring (with their lolling sisters and girl-gang antics respectively), to Andrea Arnold’s studies of lost or neglected adolescents and the tender social realism of Hirokazu Kore-eda. In fact, Paradise Is Burning overlaps significantly with the plot of Nobody Knows, both being stories about underage siblings abandoned by their parents and surviving as...

Two very different indies circling a cantor and slasher debut in moderate to wide release along with a handful of limited openings from Close Your Eyes to Paradise Is Burning on this late summer weekend with the fall festival season about to kick off.

Sony Pictures Classics launches Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane-starring Between The Temples on 576 screens. Directed by Nathan Silver, written by Silver and C. Mason Wells with Schwartzman as a cantor losing his voice, and maybe his faith. His world turns upside down when his grade school music teacher (Kane) re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student. SPC acquired the thoughtful comedy out of Sundance. Also stars Robert Smigel (Leo), Madeline Weinstein (Beach Rats), and Matthew Shear (Mistress America). It played Sundance and Berlin to strong reviews (sits at 87% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes) and made its New York debut at Tribeca.

Veteran...

Swedish filmmaker Mika Gustafson shifts from the docu world beginnings to her fiction feature debut in Paradise is Burning – a selection in the 2023 Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section. Winner of the Best Director award, Gustafson infuses her world of children (here three sisters) fending for themselves in their free-wielding carefree spirits with a template that dismantles cliched representations of what it might look like to defend a fort that is without a caring adult. As the character Hannah, portrayed by Ida Engvoll, makes her entrance, we embark on a journey of exploration into previously uncharted depths. Gustafson employs a visual poetry that mirrors a world characterized by compassion interwoven with turmoil. …...

Rome-based sales outfit Intramovies has picked up international rights to “My Uncle Jens,” the directorial debut of Norwegian helmer of Kurdish origin Brwa Vahabpour, credited for the hit series “Countrymen.”

Renée Hansen Mlodyszewski, associate producer on “The Worst Person in the World,” is producing for True Content Production, the Oslo branch of Scandi group True Content Entertainment, headed by Yellow Bird founder Ole Søndberg.

Anda Ionescu of Bucharest-based Tangaj Production serves as co-producer.

Crew members include cinematographer Jørgen Klüver (“Nudes”) production designer Kristian Lahn Vestby (“Nach”) and seasoned Romanian editor Cătălin Cristuțiu (“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”) who collaborated with the Norwegian Brynjar Lien Aune.

Vahabpour first caught festival attention with his 2020 short film “Silence”, selected for the Palm Spring International ShortFest. He went on to direct two episodes of the Norwegian award-winning series “Countrymen”.

Known earlier as “Europa”, the feature about family ties and cultural identity stars Peiman Azizpour...

Rome-based Intramovies has clinched further key sales on the Swedish pic “Paradise is Burning” for which rising talent Mika Gustafson won best director and writer at the 2023 Venice Orizzonti.

The coming-of-age drama was sold to Conic in the U.K. and Ireland, HBO Max for Eastern Europe (TV and VOD rights), Leopardo Filmes in Portugal, Providence/Belas Artes Grupo Brazil, and Mongsang in South Korea.

The story turns on young siblings Laura, Mira and Steffi, who live a totally free and wild life with no parental supervision. When social services intervene, the eldest sister, Laura (Bianca Delbravo-best actress for her role at Lisbon & Estoril Fest), tries to convince the recently befriended Hanna (Ida Engvoll of Netflix’s “Love & Anarchy”) to be the sisters’ stand-in mother.

“The very talented Swedish director Mika Gustafson has brilliantly captured a portrait of adolescence,” commented Mongsang’s CEO Jihyun Min. “Paradise Is Burning...

The 68th BFI London Film Festival (Lff) will take place from October 9-20, 2024.

Further details, including the exact format of the festival, will be announced in the coming months. It will be the second edition under the aegis of festival director Kristy Matheson.

Last year’s edition ran October 4-15 and opened with the European premiere of Emerald Fennel’s Saltburn and closed with the world premiere of The Kitchen from Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s environmental drama Evil Does Not Exist won the best film award and Mika Gustafson’s Paradise Is Burning won best first feature film.

The 68th BFI London Film Festival (Lff) will take place from October 9-20, 2024.

Further details, including the exact format of the festival, will be announced in the coming months. It will be the second edition under the aegis of festival director Kristy Matheson.

Last year’s edition ran October 4-15 and opened with the European premiere of Emerald Fennel’s Saltburn and closed with the world premiere of The Kitchen from Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s environmental drama Evil Does Not Exist won the best film award and Mika Gustafson’s Paradise Is Burning won best first feature film.

The Toronto drama took seven prizes including best director, actor, supporting actor.

Axel Petersen’s Malta-set drama Shame On Dry Land won a record seven prizes at the Guldbagge awards, Sweden’s national film ceremony, held on Monday, January 15 in Stockholm.

The film, about a con man who becomes entangled in a Swedish online gambling community while in Malta, took best director for Petersen, best actor for Joel Spira, and best supporting actor for Christopher Wagelin.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

It also received prizes for best editing, cinematography, sound design and original score. Its seven awards...

The Toronto drama took seven prizes including best director, actor, supporting actor.

Axel Petersen’s Malta-set drama Shame On Dry Land won a record seven prizes at the Guldbagge awards, Sweden’s national film ceremony, held on Monday, January 15 in Stockholm.

The film, about a con man who becomes entangled in a Swedish online gambling community while in Malta, took best director for Petersen, best actor for Joel Spira, and best supporting actor for Christopher Wagelin.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

It also received prizes for best editing, cinematography, sound design and original score. Its seven awards...

Mika Gustafson’s social drama Paris Is Burning has won the top prize for best film at the Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s top film honors.

The feature, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section this year, follows three sisters who left to their own devices by their absent mother, live a life of anarchic freedom. But when social services come calling, the oldest has to find someone to impersonate their mum to avoid being shipped off to foster care. It was picked as the best Swedish film of the past year at the Guldbagge Awards ceremony in Stockholm on Monday night. Paris is Burning also scooped the Guldbagge for best set design for Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth.

But the night’s big winner was Axel Petersén’s Shame on Dry Land. The neo-noir set in the world of online gamblers picked up 7 Guldbagge awards, including for best director and best actor for lead Joel Spira,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Something you often hear cinephiles proclaim is that “Every year is a good year in film.” Well, that’s obviously true––if one pays attention and knows where to look––but then there are also years that are simply better. To me, 2023 has turned out to be one of those.

It’s a year where the top festivals like Cannes, Berlin, and Venice all overperformed with stellar lineups. Geographically speaking, American/UK cinema can be proud of its output while productions from the rest of the world, especially France, Japan, Latin America, didn’t disappoint either. It’s also a year where not only indie/arthouse films delivered, but (some) blockbusters dared to get smart too. Even the presumed Oscar contenders this season include legitimate masterpieces in the mix.

2023 was a year of seemingly seismic change for the film industry, as superhero movies (especially Marvel) lost their grip on the box office while more auteur-led efforts such as Oppenheimer and Barbie made serious bank. Audiences seem hungry for a return to thoughtful and engaging efforts, voting for their wallets against a decade of cape-clad hegenomy in favour of more challenging (and visually interesting) cinema. But as with the majority of contemporary film analysis, these are mostly concerns for Hollywood. The international arthouse scene plugs away as usual, providing a diverse range of exciting visions that once again expand the very possibilities of the cinematic form. I went back and forth on this list several times, only coming to a final top ten this very morning. With courtroom drama, oddball romance, epic character study and even outright horror, this year’s selection subverted and expanded genre norms, showing that great cinema,...

Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes” won best film at the 17th edition of Leffest Lisboa Film Festival, which announced awards Saturday night.

Marking Erice’s first feature film since his 1992 docudrama “The Quince Tree Sun” and garnering almost universal positive reviews – Variety called it “an aching ode to film, time and memory” – following its world premiere at Cannes, “Close Your Eyes” has screened at Toronto, Busan, BFI London and New York.

During Leffest, in a session moderated by Paulo Branco, 83-year old Erice took part in a conversation with preeminent 64-year old Portuguese helmer, Pedro Costa, whose short “The Daughters of Fire,” was a Cannes Special Screening and also had its Portuguese premiere at the fest.

Erice remarked during the event, one fest highlight, that both he and Costa are working in the shadow of two great filmmakers – “Don Luis Buñuel” and “Don Manoel de Oliveira” – and he added...

Evil Does Not Exist Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist was announced as the winner of the main competition at the BFI London Film Festival.

The latest film from the Drive My Car director centres on a camping development at a village. The jury, headed by Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante, said: “Subtle, cinematic and underscored by fully realised performances, Hamaguchi’s assured drama supersedes the sum of its parts. It is both a lyrical portrait of family and community, and a nuanced consideration of the ethics of land development.

The Sutherland award for best first feature went to Mika Gustafson for Paradise Is Burning, which follows three sisters fending for themselves after being left home alone. The Grierson Award for best documentary was taken home by Bye Bye Tiberias, directed by Lina Soualem, which explores the filmmaker's relationship with her actor mum Hiam Abbas.

The 2023 BFI London Film Festival came to a close on Sunday night in the British capital with the world premiere of The Kitchen, Netflix’s dystopian thriller co-directed by Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya in the actor’s feature debut behind the camera.

The film, set in a rundown housing project in a near-future London and tapping into themes of gentrification and inequality, follows Izi (Top Boy star Kane Robinson) as he attempts to escape the estate only to find his life become entangled with teen Benji (newcomer Jedaiah Bannerman).

“I realized that you have to be very, very specific to be universal,” said Kaluuya as he introduced the film. “So this film is very, very London and very, very British and very, very global. I believe in my heart that we have every right to be as unapologetic and as unashamedly ourselves and tap into universal themes, stories and...

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist” was named the best film in the official competition at this year’s BFI London Film Festival Awards.

“Paradise Is Burning” by Mika Gustafson received the Sutherland Award in the first feature competition, while Lina Soualem’s “Bye Bye Tiberias” took home the Grierson Award in the documentary competition and “The Archive: Queer Nigerians” directed by Simisolaoluwa Akande won the short film competition.

The jury presidents for this year’s awards included Amat Escalante (official competition), Raine Allen-Miller (first feature competition), Rubika Shah (documentary competition) and Charlotte Regan (short film competition).

In its official statement on selecting “Evil Does Not Exist” as best film, the jury said: “Subtle, cinematic and underscored by fully realised performances, Hamaguchi’s assured drama supersedes the sum of its parts. It is both a lyrical portrait of family and community, and a nuanced consideration of the ethics of land development.

Voting for audience awards is now open.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s environmental drama Evil Does Not Exist has won the best film award in official competition at the BFI London Film Festival (Lff), which closed today (October 15).

A statement from the competition jury read, “Subtle, cinematic and underscored by fully realised performances, Hamaguchi’s assured drama supersedes the sum of its parts.

“It is both a lyrical portrait of family and community, and a nuanced consideration of the ethics of land development. Amidst a strong competition the jury is unanimous in our admiration!.”

Scroll down for the full list of winners...

Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi has clinched the best film award in the main official competition of the 67th London Film Festival with his latest feature, Evil Does Not Exist.

The enigmatic pic is Hamaguchi’s follow-up to the Oscar-winning Drive My Car and follows young father Takumi and his daughter, Hana, who live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. Like generations before them, they live a modest life according to the cycles and order of nature. A plan to construct a glamping site near Takumi’s house, offering city residents a comfortable “escape” to nature, threatens to endanger the ecological balance of the area and the local people’s way of life.

The festival jury, headed by Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante (Lost in the Night), alongside Kate Taylor, program director of the 2023 Edinburgh International Film Festival, and English novelist Niven Govinden (Diary of a Film), described Evil Does Not Exist as “subtle” and “cinematic.

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 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,...

After 21 years at the helm, festival director Wiederspiel steps down after this year’s edition.

The 31st Filmfest Hamburg opens today (September 28) with Jordanian filmmaker Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah A Boy and will close on October 7 with Mika Gustafson’s Paradise Is Burning.

The festival’s accompanying Industry Days from October 2-6 will address issues such as the promotion of young talents in German cinema, diversity and intersectionality, and green producing before rounding off with the fourth edition of the Explorer Conference on October 6.

Festival director Albert Wiederspiel and director of programming Kathrin Kohlstedde talk about preparing their final...

A pair of noteworthy Cannes titles in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and Tran Anh Hung’s The Pot-au-Feu, some Locarno items such as Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World but with a major slew of Venice-preemed films are part of the 21 newly added titles to be considered for a whole bunch of prizes for the upcoming European Film Awards. The European Film Academy have now set their 4600 members with a batch of 40 films competing for various prizes at the ceremony that will be set for December 9th in Berlin. Here are the added films:

Animal – Sofia Exarchou (Greece/Austria/Bulgaria/Romania/Cyprus)

Blaga’s Lessons – Stephan Komandarev (Bulgaria/Germany)

Club Zero – Jessica Hausner (Austria/UK/Germany/France/Denmark/Qatar)

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World – Radu Jude (Romania/Luxembourg/France/Croatia)

Excursion – Una Gunjak (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia...

40 feature films now selected for Academy’s 2023 shortlist.

The European Film Academy has added a further 21 features to its shortlist for the 2023 European Film Awards, including Cannes premieres The Zone of Interest and Club Zero and Venice competition titles The Green Border and Io Capitano.

The shortlist for the European Film Awards now comprises 40 features. The first 19 titles titles in the running for the 2023 European Film Awards were unveiled in August and included Anatomy Of A Fall, How To Have Sex, The Old Oak and Firebrand.

The European Film Academy said that more than 40% of all selected films are directed by women.

Exec only took up role in April 2022.

Anette Novak is leaving her post as CEO and executive director of the Swedish Film Institute (Sfi).

Novak’s departure is unexpected as she only took up the role in April 2022. Local media has reported she was pushed out by the board.

In a statement on the Sfi website, board chairman Gunilla von Platen said: “Anette Novak has made good contributions to Swedish film, but the board believes that there is a need for different leadership. The intention is not to change the direction of the business.”

Von Platen told the Swedish news...

Prior selections Close, Drive My Car, The Worst Person In The World all garnered international feature film Oscar submissions.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes jury prize winner Fallen Leaves and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses starring Cannes best actress winner Merve Dizdar – both Oscar submissions this year – are among the international line-up at the upcoming 59th Chicago International Film Festival (October 11–22).

Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Pictures Of Ghosts are two other Cannes selections to feature in the roster, while Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist and Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias both launched in Venice.

The German festival will take place from September 28 to October 7.

Inshallah A Boy by Jordan’s Amjad Al Rasheed, which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week, and Paradise Is Burning by the Swedish director Mika Gustafson, a Venice Horirzons debut earlier this month, will bookend this year’s Filmfest Hamburg, taking place from September 28 to October 7) as the opening and closing films.

The programme of 132 feature films includes the German premieres of Venice titles including Yorgos Lanthimos’ Golden Lion winner Poor Things, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, and Sofia Coppola’s biopic Priscilla, and festival favourites from throughout the...

For more on Venice's standout films, read our dispatch coverage: "Biopics Reloaded" and "Hitmen, A.I., and Dangerous Women."Poor Things.Main Competition(Jury: Damien Chazelle (chair), Saleh Bakri, Jane Campion, Mia Hansen-Løve, Gabriele Mainetti, Martin McDonagh, Santiago Mitre, Laura Poitras, and Shu Qi)Golden Lion: Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)Silver Lion Best Director: Matteo Garrone (Io Capitano)Special Jury Prize: Green Border (Agnieszka Holland)Best Screenplay: Pablo Larraín and Guillermo Calderón (El Conde)Best Actress: Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla)Best Actor: Peter Sarsgaard (Memory)Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress: Seydou Sarr (Io Capitano)Explanation For Everything.HORIZONSJury: Jonas Carpignano (chair), Kaouther Ben Hania, Kahlil Joseph, Jean-Paul Salomé, and Tricia Truttle)Best Film: Explanation For Everything (Gábor Reisz)Best Director: Mika Gustafson (Paradise Is Burning)Special Jury Prize: Una Sterminata Domenica (Alain Parroni)Best Actress:...

With Venice Film Festival wrapping up after quite an epic year, Damien Chazelle’s jury handed out their awards, giving the top prize to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, led by La La Land star Emma Stone. Elsewhere, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Matteo Garrone, Priscilla‘s Cailee Spaeny, and Memory‘s Peter Sarsgaard picked up top prizes.

Check out the list below courtesy of Cineuropa.

Competition

Golden Lion for Best Film

Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos (Ireland/UK/USA)

Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize

Evil Does Not Exist – Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Japan)

Silver Lion – Award for Best Director

Matteo Garrone – Me Captain (Italy/Belgium)

Volpi Cup for Best Actress

Cailee Spaeny – Priscilla (USA/Italy)

Volpi Cup for Best Actor

Peter Sarsgaard – Memory (Mexico/USA)

Award for Best Screenplay

Guillermo Calderón, Pablo Larraín – El conde (Chile)

Special Jury Prize

Green Border – Agnieszka Holland (Poland/France/Czech Republic/Belgium)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Talent

Seydou Sarr...

As many predicted, the 80th annual Venice Film Festival bestowed its top prize, the Golden Lion, to Yorgos Lanthimos’ rapturously received “Poor Things.” The win furthers the film’s increasing Oscar buzz, powered by a performance from star Emma Stone that could bring her a second Oscar for Best Actress. The film will open in limited release from Searchlight on Dec. 8, then slowly roll out nationwide.

However, the leading actress prize went to Cailee Spaeny for her work in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” an intimate look at Priscilla Presley’s early courtship with Elvis Presley. (The film opens in theaters on Nov. 3.) Peter Sarsgaard won leading actor honors for his turn as a dementia-afflicted widower in Michel Franco’s “Memory,” opposite Jessica Chastain.

Matteo Garrone’s immigrant drama “Me Captain” captured two major awards, including the best director prize and the Marcello Mastroianni Young Actor/Actress Award for breakout star Seydou Sarr.

The 2023 Venice Film Festival persevered despite a dimmed Hollywood presence, with much of the onscreen talent sitting this year’s Lido event out due to the strikes. There in Italy, however, were directors like Michael Mann, David Fincher, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Wes Anderson, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Richard Linklater, Sofia Coppola, and even Woody Allen to present their latest films and do the talking on behalf of their sidelined actors.

Saturday at the Sala Grande, the jury headed up by president Damien Chazelle revealed the winners of the 2023 competition awards. Jurors including Martin McDonagh, Jane Campion, and Mia Hansen-Løve saw 23 movies over the last week and a half, including Lanthimos’ raved-about “Poor Things,” Coppola’s well-liked “Priscilla,” Bertrand Bonello’s daring “The Beast,” Fincher’s assassin thriller “The Killer,” Bradley Cooper’s Oscar hopeful “Maestro,” Mann’s gripping “Ferrari,” and more.

Word on the Lido was highest for eventual Golden Lion winner “Poor Things,...

The 80th Venice Film Festival handed out its awards and Yorgos Lanthimos has clinched the top prize with his latest feature Poor Things, starring Emma Stone. Scroll down for the winners list.

The Greek filmmaker’s latest, which also stars Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo, is based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name and follows Stone as Bella Baxter, a creation of the brilliant and unorthodox scientist played by Dafoe in an echo of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel Frankenstein. Ruffalo plays a slick and debauched lawyer.

Dedicating the award to his lead actress, Lanthimos said Poor Things wouldn’t exist “without Emma Stone.”

“This film is her in front and behind the camera,” he added.

Elsewhere, Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi took the Grand Jury Prize with Evil Does Not Exist, his follow-up to Drive My Car. Priscilla breakout Cailee Spaeny took the Best Actress prize...

Grand Jury prize goes to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Evil Does Not Exist’; ‘Green Border’ wins Special Jury Prize.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things has won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.

Lanthimos accepted the award for the science fiction black comedy, which received rave reviews following its debut last week on the Lido.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

”Thank you very much, thank you jury, thank you the festival,” said Lanthimos, who went on to address the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, the former of which prevented his cast including Emma Stone from joining him in Venice.

The winners of the 2023 Venice Film Festival are being announced this evening (September 9).

The 80th Venice Film Festival comes to a close today with the awards ceremony, held at the Sala Grande in the Palazzo del Cinema.

Starting at 7pm Cet (6pm BST), viewers can watch the ceremony live in the video above; Screen will be updating this page with the winners as they are announced.

Scroll down for the latest winners

The ceremony will be hosted by Italian actress Caterina Murino, who also hosted the opening ceremony on August 30. A Competition jury led by Damien Chazelle will award eight prizes,...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, a fantastical feminist fable starring Emma Stone as a woman reanimated by a Frankenstein-style Victorian scientist (Willem Dafoe), has won the Golden Lion for best film at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.

The Hollywood Reporter critics praised the film — which includes a potentially career-defining performance by star Emma Stone as Isabella Baxter, the woman who struggles to understand the restrictive patriarchy of the world around her, and then proceeds to dismantle it.

In his acceptance speech, Lanthimos said it took a long time to make the movie, his first since 2018 Oscar winner The Favourite, “until the world, until our industry, was ready for this film.” He singled out Stone for praise.

“Above all, this film is the central character of Isabella Baxter, this incredible creature, and she wouldn’t exist without Emma Stone, another incredible creature. This film is her, in front and behind the camera.

Mika Gustafson’s “Paradise Is Burning” – sold by Italy’s Intramovies and previously known as “Sisters” – has debuted a trailer and exclusive first clip ahead of its premiere in Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section.

Set in Sweden, it sees young sisters Laura, Mira and Steffi trying to get by on their own after their mother leaves.

When social services call, Laura comes up with a plan: in order to avoid foster care, she needs to find someone to impersonate their mom. Intriguing stranger Hanna, who keeps breaking into empty houses with her, might be just the right fit.

Nima Yousefi produces for Sweden’s Hobab, joined by Marco Valerio Fusco and Micaela Fusco (Intramovies), Denmark’s Maria Stevnbak Westergren (ToolBox Film), and Finland’s Venla Hellstedt and Jenni Jauri (Tuffi Films).

“I am interested in taking kids seriously,” Gustafson tells Variety.

“When I started out 13 years ago, I already...

The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the titles that will compete in its official, first feature, documentary and short film competitions.

Festival director Kristy Matheson said: “The films represented in each of these competitive strands offer audiences an exciting array of U.K. and global filmmaking voices and cinematic forms. We’re so proud to be showcasing each of these films and thank all the filmmaking teams in competition for sharing their films with us.”

Official Competition

“Baltimore”

“Dear Jassi”

“Europa”

“Evil Does Not Exist”

“Fingernails”

“Gasoline Rainbow”

“I Am Sirat”

“The Royal Hotel”

“Self Portrait: 47 Km 2020”

“Starve Acre”

“Together 99”

First Feature Competition

“Black Dog”

“Earth Mama” (U.S. Dir-scr. Savanah Leaf)

“Hoard”

“In Camera”

“Mambar Pierrette”

“Paradise is Burning”

“Penal Cordillera”

“The Queen of My Dreams”

“Sky Peals”

“Tiger Stripes”

“Tuesday”

Documentary Competition

“Bye Bye Tiberias”

“Celluloid Underground”

“Chasing Chasing Amy”

“A Common Sequence”

“Dancing On...

Titles include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist; Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel; and Christos Nikou’s Fingernails.

BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the competition line-ups for best film, best first feature and best documentary.

The 11 films competing for best film include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist; Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel; Daniel Kokotajlo’s Starve Acre and Christos Nikou’s Fingernails.

Christine Molloy returns to the competition after 2019’s Rose Plays Julie. This time she has co-directed Baltimore with frequent collaborator and partner Joe Lawlor. The pair recently directed The Future Tense which...

New works by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kitty Green, and Christos Nikou are among the titles that have been set to play in competition at the upcoming 67th edition of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) London Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list.

Eleven films will screen in the official competition, competing for the best film award. Another eleven titles will screen in the first feature competition, competing for the sutherland award. Eight titles will play in the documentary competition, with the winner taking the grierson award.

The winners of these four competitive awards will be chosen by Lff Awards Juries, the members of which the BFI said will be announced in the coming weeks. This year, Lff runs October 4—14 and marks festival head Kristy Matheson’s first edition in charge after she took the helm last year following the exit of Tricia Tuttle. Saltburn, the latest film from Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell,...