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The nominations for the 2025 Critics Choice Awards have been unveiled and we have the list! According to the website, The Film Critics Guild, in collaboration with GroupM Motion Entertainment, will proudly present the Critics’ Choice Awards, a prestigious event dedicated to celebrating the captivating diversity and artistic excellence within Indian cinema on March 25th. This distinguished ceremony will acknowledge and reward the profound ingenuity, creativity, and unwavering commitment to quality in the cinematic arts in India. This year, winners will be announced in the Short Film, Documentary, Web Series, and Feature Film varied categories at a special ceremony.

And the nominees for the some of the major Feature Film award categories include…

Best Actor

Prithviraj Sukumaran for Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life)

Diljit Dosanjh for Amar Singh Chamkila

Abhishek Bachchan for I Want To Talk

Soori for Kottukkaali (The Adamant Girl)

Chandan Sen for Manikbabur Megh (The Cloud and the Man...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

The Adamant Girl (P. S. Vinothraj)

While rural stories have become a topic du jour across the many industries within Indian cinema, P.S. Vinothraj has carved a unique place for himself with Koozhangal (Pebbles) and his follow-up Kottukkaali (The Adamant Girl). He structurally breaks down family and community dynamics in rural areas with disquieting observation, his camera constantly tracking and intersecting movements of events. There are explosions of dialogue and emotion wrapped around long sequences of contemplation where just a glance can prove revelatory. Both Soori and Anna Ben, two well-established performers in Tamil cinema, are perfect ciphers for gender dynamics at play. Vinothraj refreshingly eludes sermons or obvious pleas, and The Adamant Girl respects its audience enough to let them unpack...

Exclusive: Sean Baker’s latest Anora has won Best Picture at this year’s Online Film Critics Society Awards. Scroll down for the full list of winners.

Anora also won Best Actress for star Mikey Madison and Best Screenplay while Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance also took home three awards for Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress for Margaret Qualley alongside a Technical Achievement Award for Makeup/Hairstyling.

Comprised of nearly 300 voting members from around the world, the Online Film Critics Society was founded in 1997. Members include writers from outlets such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Slant, Paste Magazine, AARP, and Sight & Sound.

In addition to the 2024 top film honors, the Online Film Critics Society hands out Special Achievement and Lifetime Achievement Awards. This year the body honors Ava DuVernay with a Special Achievement Award for her “brilliant work and for supporting a new generation of female filmmakers.” This year...

After highlighting the 50 best films you may have missed this year and our overall top 50 films of 2024, today we put our spotlight on those that still need a home: movies we loved on the festival circuit––from Berlinale, Sundance, Cannes, TIFF, NYFF, Rotterdam, and beyond—still seeking U.S. distribution.

We hope that highlighting these titles spurs some distributor interest and a forthcoming release; we’ll be sharing any updates in this regard in on social media, so make sure to follow us. As we move into 2025, one can also track our upcoming festival coverage here.

Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)

Following up his career-best work with the mesmerizing Pacifiction, Albert Serra is back just a couple years later, this time with a work of non-fiction. Afternoons of Solitude is a mesmerizing portrait of bullfighting star Andrés Roca Rey, set over just a handful of extended sequences in which we...

Singapore director Chiang Wei Liang and co-director Yin You Qiao’s “Mongrel,” a portrayal of disenfranchised migrant workers in Taiwan, won Best Asian Feature Film at the 35th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff).

The jury praised the film’s “dense, shadowy and violent world” and its innovative approach to depicting contemporary issues of forced migration. The film has previously won awards at the Cannes and the Golden Horse festivals and at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film” won the newly-revised Audience Choice Award. The docufiction drama follows a director attempting to complete a decade-old project during the Covid-19 pandemic, blending footage from Lou’s previous films with new material. The film previously won Golden Horse and Tokyo FILMeX awards.

In the Asian Feature Film Competition, Vietnamese filmmaker Truong Minh Quy received Best Director for “Viet and Nam,” a queer love story about two coal miners facing separation.

The 35th edition of the Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) concluded with its highest-ever box office earnings. Total ticket sales saw a 10% increase from last year’s edition, with attendance numbers also surpassing the previous edition’s record.

At the festival’s Silver Screen Awards, Mongrel, directed by Singapore’s Chiang Wei Liang and Yin You Qiao, clinched the award for Best Asian Feature Film, for its “stark portrayal of disenfranchised migrant workers in Taiwan.”

The Audience Choice Award went to Lou Ye’s Covid docufiction drama An Unfinished Film.

The Southeast Asian Short Film award went to Thai director Thaweechok Phasom’s Spirits of the Black Leaves, for its “poetic exploration of how an individual’s life is connected to the roots of nature and history.”

Singaporean filmmaker Calleen Koh won the Best Singapore Short Film award for animated short My Wonderful Life, which follows a burnt-out mum who...

Laura Mackie Leaving ‘Unforgotten’ Producer Mainstreet Pictures

Unforgotten producer Mainstreet Pictures is losing its CEO. Laura Mackie, who founded the indie 10 years ago, is stepping away from the industry. CEO Sally Haynes will continue in that role and EP Guy De Glanville has been promoted to MD. ITV Studios-backed Mainstreet is best known for producing six seasons of hit ITV drama Unforgotten. The company also produced the BBC’s Gold Digger during her tenure, which was made into an Italian-language series by Cattleya that was recently the number one non-English show on Netflix. Mackie commissioned Downton Abbey, Endeavour and Broadchurch for ITV during her stint with the network. ITV Studios MD Julian Bellamy said she has “made the most outstanding contribution to the world of TV drama over the years.” Mackie added: “Running Mainstreet with my friend and colleague Sally has been an absolute joy and I can’t...

The Alternativa Film Awards celebrate films that excel artistically while addressing important social and cultural topics. The project aims to make a positive impact on the lives of people and local communities. The Alternativa Festival’s precept is that cinema can change the world and inspire individuals to make meaningful contributions to their communities.

An international jury of seven influential figures in global cinema and social impact has judged the selected films. Winners will receive monetary prizes to support an impact campaign or further development of their filmmaking skills. The total prize fund is $100,000, with $20,000 each awarded in the four full-length categories, and $10,000 each for the two winners in the Shorts Award category.

Here are the winners of each category:

Spotlight Award

This award recognizes a film highlighting a topic or story that would have otherwise remained below the public’s radar. It emphasises the importance of bringing overlooked social...

Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) has unveiled the full programme for its 35th edition, which includes honorary awards for Taiwanese actors Lee Kang-sheng and Yang Kuei-mei, and the launch of a Sgiff Industry Days conference.

Set to run from November 28 - December 8, the festival will continue to champion local and regional voices, with Asian cinema representing 80% of the line-up. The full selection comprises 105 films from 45 countries and features recurring themes of migration and displacement as well as the influence of technology on the medium of film.

The Asian Feature Film Competition, the festival’s main competition section, showcases nine features by promising directors across Asia,...

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light and Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April head the nominations for the 17th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa), each securing nods in five categories.

Both will compete for best film, best director, best screenplay, best cinematography and best performance at the awards, which will be presented on November 30 at a ceremony on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

All We Imagine As Light, billed as an ode to nocturnal Mumbai, premiered in Competition at Cannes, where it won the festival’s grand prix. April, the story of a Georgian ob-gyn who faces accusations,...

Kottukkaali is one of those films that will let the audience get a peek into the lives of people from the rural parts of south India. Despite education being widespread in many parts of the rural region, the locals are still stuck in many age-old traditions. There are women who are not allowed to live life on their own; inter-caste marriages are looked down upon, and couples who dare question their families are either killed or forced to get married to the person of the family’s choice. Kottukkaali, directed by P. S. Vinothraj, is one such story of a woman who is being taken for some rituals because she dared to choose her own life partner.

Spoilers Ahead

What were Pandi and Meena getting ready for?

Pandi and Meena were getting ready for a journey with their respective family members. Though Meena remained quiet while getting ready, her body...

Indian cinema triumphs at the 23rd Transylvania International Film Festival, which took place June 14-24 in the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

First-time director Shuchi Talati won the Transylvania Trophy, the top prize of the International competition, along with its $11,7000 (10,000 euro) bursary for her feature Girls Will Be Girls, a mother-daughter drama that premiered at Sundance earlier this year. The drama follows a young, academically gifted teenager at a strict boarding school in the Himalayas who gets caught up in an emotional love triangle with her mother, as they both compete for the affection of the same boy.

“The story of this film is very rooted in India, but I always hoped that people outside this very specific space and time where the story takes place would resonate with it,” said Talati in a video presented at the Gala ceremony at the Cluj-Napoca’s historic National Theater on Saturday evening. “I...

Indian director Shuchi Talati’s debut feature Girls Will Be Girls was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Cluj, Romania

The coming-of-age story about a teenage girl from a boarding school in the Himalayas won the Transilvania Trophy at the festival’s awards ceremony in Cluj’s historic National Theatre on Saturday evening (June 22).

Girls Will Be Girls previously won the audience award and special jury prize when it premiered in the world dramatic competition at Sundance in January.

Scroll down for full list of winners

In her acceptance speech sent as a video message,...

Indian director Shuchi Talati’s debut feature Girls Will Be Girls was the big winner at this year’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Cluj, Romania

The coming-of-age story about a teenage girl from a boarding school in the Himalayas won the Transilvania Trophy at the festival’s awards ceremony in Cluj’s historic National Theatre on Saturday evening (June 22).

Girls Will Be Girls previously won the audience award and special jury prize when it premiered in the world dramatic competition at Sundance in January.

Scroll down for full list of winners

In her acceptance speech sent as a video message,...

The 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival, kicked off Friday night with a sold-out screening of Dogman, the canine-focused revenge thriller by the French veteran Luc Besson, with Dogman co-star Jojo T. Gibbs in attendance.

Some 3,500 viewers backed Unirii Square in Cluj-Napoca for the start of the 11-day festival, which runs through June 24. The biggest film extravaganza in Romania, the festival is one of the premier events on the Eastern European industry calendar, with more than 200 films, exhibitions, concerts, talks and special events scheduled, and around 1,000 industry professionals expected.

Alongside Jojo T. Gibbs, most recently seen in Alex Garland’s Civil War, the TIFF guest list this year includes Italian filmmaker Daniele Luchetti (The Yes Man), who will be honored with the festival’s special award for contribution to world cinema; and Romanian film and theater legend Catrinel Dumitrescu (Aurora), who will receive the excellence award at the closing gala on June 22nd.

Transilvania International Film Festival has announced the line-up for its 23rd edition which takes place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The 12 features in competition feature several festival favourites including Shuchi Talati’s Indian romance Girls Will Be Girls which won the Sundance audience award in world cinema – dramatic and the Arte international prize at Berlinale.

Scroll down for full line-up

Also competing is Laura Ferres’ The Permanent Picture, best film winner at Valladolid; Ernst De Geer’s The Hypnosis, which scooped Karlovy Vary jury awards in Fipresci and Europa Cinema Label; and Berlinale Forum premiere The Adamant Girl from Indian director P.S. Vinothraj.

Premiering in the Forum of the 74th Berlinale, “The Adamant Girl” is a story of patriarchal oppression. Set in Tamil Nadu, it unfolds as a tale of the marginalized ones – a girl named Mina is soon to be married, but it seems she developed a romantic feeling for an outsider, while her soon-to-become-husband was away for work. This sparks a spiral of misfortune and reveals the familial reciprocity, as the patriarchs won't take no for an answer. There's no margin for true feelings here – the family embarks on a trip to a neighborhood village to exorcise the girl; this is to say, to cast the spell of love away from her so that she can obey.

On their way to meet with a shaman, nothing goes as it should. The trip becomes an odyssey, an excruciating task in itself. The rickshaw car is nearly broken, every conversation turns into a fight,...

Two families mobilize their forces in a colorful Ape (the marketing department of Piaggio will be pleased to see an impressive number of people comfortably travelling in it) and a tagging motorcycle to make sure that “the adamant” 21-year-old Meena (Anna Ben) gets purified at a holy site, and additionally exorcized by a seer to change her refusal to marry the impertinent, larger than life and physically abusive Pandi (Tamil film industry superstar Soori Muthuchamy). The arranged marriage has to take place at any cost, but Meena does not react to any of threats or attempts at conversation. She is dealing with all that hullabaloo with stubborn silence and passive participation in spiritual rituals she is dragged to like a sack of green potatoes.

The Adamant Girl is screening at Berlin International Film Festival

“The Adamant Girl”, P.S.Vinothraj's bitter drama sprinkled with dark humor, is the first film...

Farcical and viscerally upsetting in equal measure, P.S. Vinothraj’s “The Adamant Girl” masterfully exposes the nature of superstition by zeroing in on gendered expectations. A story of a betrothed woman being shepherded by her fiancé’s family between sites of religious ritual, the rural Tamil-language drama plays like an extension of “Pebbles,” Vinothraj’s remarkable 2021 debut in which an abusive, alcoholic husband and his young son traverse a harsh terrain on foot to retrieve his fleeing wife. This time, the men have cars and motorcycles, while the woman has little recourse but to silently bear the brunt of their beliefs, in a movie that makes deft use of the dynamic between bodies and their environments.

Vinothraj sets the stage by following his characters in lengthy, unbroken shots, observing their movement — or lack thereof, in some cases. He creates a sense of mood and texture around them even before they...

A Different Man.The Berlinale have begun to announce the first few titles selected for the 74th edition of their festival, set to take place from February 15 through 21, 2024. This page will be updated as further sections are announced.COMPETITIONAnother End (Piero Messina)Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)La Cocina (Alonso Ruiz Palacios) Dahomey (Mati Diop)A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)The Empire (Bruno Dumont)Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)My Favourite CakeLangue Etrangère (Claire Berger)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)Sterben (Matthias Glasner)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)Sleep With Your Eyes Open. ENCOUNTERSArcadia (Yorgos Zois)Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)Demba (Mamadou Dia)Direct ActionSleep With Your Eyes Open (Nele Wohlatz)The Fable (Raam Reddy...

Berlinale co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek are going out with a bang in their final year, with a lineup unveiled today featuring the latest works by Olivier Assayas, Bruno Dumont, Mati Diop, Hong Sang-soo, Abderrahmane Sissako, Jane Schoenbrun, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Matias Pineiro, Travis Wilkerson, Kazik Radwanski, Annie Baker, and more.

When the co-directors were asked by Screen Daily about their departure, Chatrian said, “It’s quite simple. Mariette and I had a mandate of five years. It is true that at the beginning I said that I was willing to go on because there was a shared will with the [German] Ministry [of Culture] to go on. But then the people who have the responsibility to see the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone. And that was the decision of the Ministry.