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Many engaged couples out there like to take their sweet time getting hitched, and there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes that leads nosy folks to quip things behind the couples' backs, like, "Wow, longest engagement ever." But what about the farthestengagement ever? From acclaimed filmmaker Miguel Gomes, Grand Tour is a diptych, purposefully disjointed feature that pits its allegedly soon-to-be-married protagonists often at wildly far distances from each other. We're talking simply on a geographical standpoint, but metaphors are far and wide in Gomes' challenging but rewarding new film.

Grand Tour takes its title from a long-established travel itinerary known as a "grand tour of Asia," a popular option with Westerners looking for a broad-stroke introduction to the continent. The movie is billed as a "globetrotting romantic mystery," but the "mystery" might instead translate as utter confusion to many mainstream audiences, and the dreary monotone of the fim won't help.

Mubi has unveiled its lineup for next month’s streaming offerings, including the trio of Hong Sangsoo’s Isabelle Huppert collaborations, notably their latest A Traveler’s Needs. Also among the lineup is Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour following its theatrical release next week and a film we’ve been hoping would find distribution after its Sundance premiere last year, Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s debut Tendaberry.

Jordan Raup said in his Sundance review of Tendaberry, “A soulful coming-of-age story with far more on its mind than the here and now, Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s Tendaberry is an ambitious directorial debut mixing various storytelling forms to achieve its poetic patchwork of ideas. Combining recollections of the past, a present way of life, and hopes for the future through the eyes of 23-year-old Dakota (Kota Johan), it follows her journey juggling romance, work, friendship, and family. The nature of its scattershot hybrid approach––incorporating narrative,...

Jeremy Clarkson has reported that his farm – the centrepiece of Amazon Prime’s global hit Clarkson’s Farm – has been targeted by robbers.

Clarkson wrote in The Sun newspaper that, a fortnight ago, he was visited by five unknown men in a van who arrived in his farmyard:

“They checked out the security cameras and asked Kaleb how many dogs were on the site.

“I reported this to the police who said the plates on the van had been cloned.

“More worryingly, on two separate nights in the last week, a drone has been spotted, scouting the house and the farmyard.

“The police say it does look like we are being recced by wrong ’uns and that we should ensure our security systems are up to scratch.”

Fortunately, Clarkson wrote, he had the best system of all when it came to deterring intruders and frightening any would-be robbers away from his territory.

Can a relationship overcome abandonment? Early 1900s Asia serves as the backdrop for the “Grand Tour.” Portuguese Miguel Gomes’ new film follows Edward, a British civil servant with a severe case of cold feet. He flees just as Molly, his fiance, arrives for their wedding. A unique adventure across Asia soon brings out unexpected emotions for the hesitant groom. The distinctive project merges black-and-white visuals and modern-day documentary footage.

Continue reading ‘Grand Tour’ Trailer: Miguel Gomes’ Latest Surreality Hits Theaters March 28 at The Playlist.

"I'll hunt him down, whatever it takes." This one is for cinephiles only. Mubi has unveiled the official US trailer for a strange film titled Grand Tour, a unique creation from Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, best known for his films Tabu (2012), The Tsugua Diaries (2021), and his Arabian Nights trilogy (2015). The film premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival last year and it won the Best Director award as part of the competition, with stops at many other festivals after. Described as a "breathtaking odyssey of romance, escape, and pursuit." In 1917 Burma, a British civil servant abandons his fiancée — only to find her then relentlessly chasing him across Asia. A playful yet melancholic reimagining of the "pursuit film," blending luminous 16mm B&w cinematography with archival footage. This stars Gonçalo Waddington & Crista Alfaiate. It is a tragicomedy though also "melancholic and courageous." This is definitely not for everyone - an experimental, abstract...

Miguel Gomes, the Portuguese filmmaker behind The Tsugua Diaries, Arabian Nights, and Tabu, made his long-awaited return at last year’s Cannes Film Festival with the mesmerizing odyssey Grand Tour. After picking up Best Director at the festival, Mubi has now set a U.S. release beginning March 28 followed by a streaming release on their platform beginning April 18. Ahead of the roll-out, the new trailer and poster have arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Grand Tour by Cannes Best Director winner Miguel Gomes is a breathtaking odyssey of romance, escape, and pursuit. In 1917 Burma, a British civil servant abandons his fiancée—only to find her relentlessly chasing him across Asia. A playful yet melancholic reimagining of the pursuit film, blending luminous 16mm black-and-white cinematography with archival footage.”

Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review, “If Chris Marker and Preston Sturges ever made a film together, it might have looked something like Grand Tour,...

Miguel Gomes’ stunning “Grand Tour” is a trek through yearning, spanning both time and space.

The film, which premiered at Cannes in 2024 where Gomes won Best Director, was later acquired by Mubi for release. “Grand Tour” takes it title in stride: The film begins in 1917 Burma, where British diplomat Edward (Gonçalo Waddington) ditches his fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate) after getting cold feet before their nuptials. Edward instead sets off on a pursuit across Asia, with Molly following suit.

The film is billed by Mubi as a “melodrama and screwball comedy with a cat-and-mouse chase between lovers.”

“Grand Tour” includes black-and-white period visuals with modern-day documentary footage to span from Saigon to Shanghai onscreen. The film was Portugal’s Best International Feature entry to the 97th Academy Awards.

“I think I’m really attached to Portuguese cinema,” Gomes told IndieWire. “Portugal doesn’t have a film industry. Because of the economical context,...

Chinese sales agent Rediance is expanding into distribution, attending EFM as a buyer for China for the first time, on the lookout for commercial auteur films, both new releases and library titles.

It has established a new Beijing-­based joint venture, in collaboration with Zhijiang Pictures Media (Zhejiang) and China Magic Film, for theatrical distribution and marketing in mainland China, aiming to handle six to eight films per year. Rediance will act as the international interface, responsible for acquisitions.

“Many international films such as Anatomy Of A Fall and How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies have done incredibly well in Chinese theatres,...

A controversial entry in the Dragon Ball franchise was a significant source of inspiration for Dragon Ball Daima. Akio Iyoku, an executive producer of the Dragon Ball franchise, confirmed this detail in a recent interview.

Mantan Web interviewed Iyoku for the final episodes of Dragon Ball Daima, which will end on Feb. 28, 2025. In the interview, Iyoku confirmed that the late Akira Toriyama was heavily involved in the development of Daima -- to the point where he was "handling almost everything" himself. However, Iyoku also made a stunning confirmation that Dragon Ball Gt, often regarded as the black sheep of the Dragon Ball franchise, was the biggest source of inspiration behind Daima's development.

Related'He Ended Up Handling Almost Everything': Dragon Ball Daima Producer Confirms Akira Toriyama's Involvement in the Anime Once & For All

As Dragon Ball Daima nears its epic conclusion, a new interview reveals how involved the late Akira...

Life often imitates art, and art is often inspired by life, and finding a balance between the two is one of the great challenges of any great filmmaker. This is true regardless of a feature film's format or genre, be it a fictional narrative or a non-fictional documentation. In the case of Grand Tour, Portugal's official submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, it attempts to combine both. It's a very similar vein that Chloé Zhao and Frances McDormand's Best Picture-winning hit Nomadland tapped into, but Grand Tour takes a far more experimental approach.

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez swept the 30th edition of France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening, winning Best Film, Director and Screenplay as well Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón and Music for Camille and Clément Ducol.

The wins add further steam to the Cannes Jury Prize winner’s awards season run following its quadruple Golden Globes triumph and European Film Awards victory, where it also clinched Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actress for Gascón.

The movie is currently on six of the 10 announced category shortlists for the 97th the Academy Awards and nominated in 11 categories for the 2025 Baftas film awards.

Further awards seasons hopefuls also featured in the Lumière prizes, with Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey – which made it into Best International Feature Film (for Senegal) and Documentary Academy Award shortlists – won Best Documentary.

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow – which is also on...

Leading arthouse sales agency the Match Factory, which is part of Mubi, has appointed Agathe Valentin as sales director, a newly created role. The company’s slate includes Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore, which won best screenplay in Cannes and best actress at the Golden Globes.

The appointment comes ahead of the Match Factory’s preparations for Sundance, where the company will premiere “Magic Farm” by Amalia Ulman and Cherien Dabis’ “All That’s Left of You,” as well as for Berlinale, where it will showcase several films.

Valentin, who will report to Thania Dimitrakopoulou, VP international sales, will serve as a “key driver in executing initiatives that expand the organization’s international footprint and meet its goals,” said the company. Valentin will work from Brussels.

With nearly two decades of experience in the film industry, Valentin has worked with a broad range of companies and films. Her...

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Tuesday unveiled the shortlist of 15 films that will vie for a nomination for the best international feature film Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards.

85 countries submitted features this award season but several frontrunners quickly pulled out from the pack, and easily made it onto the longlist, including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, representing France, the Danish contender The Girl With the Needle from director Magnus von Horn, and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, an Iran-set feature submitted by co-production country Germany.

Several festival circuit favorites made the cut. I’m Still Here, Brazil’s contender comes to the Oscars on referral from Venice, where it won the best screenplay prize. Director Walter Salles scored an Oscar nom back in Central Station in the international category (then known as best foreign-language film), with Fernanda Montenegro, who has a cameo in I’m Still Here,...

As is the case every year out, films that had a legit chance of joining the shortlist pack of fifteen in Austria’s The Devil’s Bath, Belgium’s Julie Keeps Quiet, Mexico’s Sujo, Poland’s Under the Volcano and Portugal’s Grand Tour will not advance however films such as Iceland’s Touch, Palestine’s From Ground Zero, Thailand’s How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, Czech Republic’s Waves and Canada’s Universal Language have made the grade. Heavy favorites in Brazil’s I’m Still Here, Denmark’s The Girl with the Needle, Italy’s Vermiglio, Germany’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig and France’s Emilia Pérez plus dark horse picks of Latvia’s Flow and Senegal’s Dahomey are considered the front-runners in this category.…...

France’s “Emilia Pérez,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and Brazil’s “I’m Still Here” have been named to the shortlist in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category, retaining their frontrunner status in a race that had fewer high-profile contenders than usual this year.

Other films on the list are Canada’s “Universal Language,” the Czech Republic’s “Waves,” Denmark’s “The Girl With the Needle,” Iceland’s “Touch,” Ireland’s “Kneecap,” Italy’s “Vermiglio,” Latvia’s “Flow,” Norway’s “Armand,” Palestine’s “From Ground Zero,” Senegal’s “Dahomey,” Thailand’s “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” and the United Kingdom’s “Santosh.”

“Flow” is the only animated film on the list, while “Dahomey” is the only documentary. The Palestinian selection, “From Ground Zero,” is the most unusual of the shortlisted films, consisting of 22 separate short films made over the last year by directors living in Gaza.

If the Oscars shortlist is the equivalent of mid-term exams for awards contenders, then Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez” and Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” just received passing grades.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 97th Oscars ceremony.

“Emilia Pérez” landed six mentions overall, including makeup, sound, original score, international feature, and two for original song (“El Mal” and “Mi Camino”). The musical was followed another behometh in the race, Universal Pictures’ “Wicked,” which landed four.

The preliminary voting applies to animated short film, documentary feature, documentary short, international feature, live action short, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, sound and visual effects.

Oscar voting to determine the nominees in all 23 categories opens on Wednesday, Jan. 8, and concludes on Sunday, Jan. 12. Nominations will be announced on Friday, Jan. 17.

There are five 2024 Student Academy Award-winning films shortlisted: “Keeper” (documentary short), “Au Revoir...

From musicals and body horror to international gems and star-driven documentaries, Tuesday’s Oscar shortlists will reveal who’s acing awards season — and who might be struggling to pass.

The Oscar shortlists in 10 key categories are the awards season equivalent of midterm report cards. For studios and strategists, these announcements offer crucial insight into which contenders resonate with voters and which campaigns might run out of steam. As the industry braces for surprises and snubs, some big players are poised to lead the charge, while others hope for last-minute breakthroughs.

Last year, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” dominated the shortlists with five mentions, including sound, original score and three songs. However, its omission from makeup and hairstyling — a category where it seemed like a shoo-in — hinted at possible vulnerabilities. Ultimately, the film landed eight Oscar nominations, winning one for Billie Eilish and Finneas’ poignant original song, “What Was I Made For?...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez is the frontrunner at the nomination stage for the 30th edition of France’s Lumière awards.

The prizes, which are regarded as the French equivalent of the Golden Globes, will be voted on by members of the international press hailing from 38 countries this year.

They cover 13 categories spanning film, direction, screenplay, actress, actor, female revelation, male revelation, first film, animation, documentary, international co-production, cinematography and music.

Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez has clinched six nominations, followed by Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with five nominations each.

Other frontrunners with four nominations each, include François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Forum des images in Paris on January 20, 2025.

The full...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez has topped the nominations for France’s Lumière Awards.

The French-made, Spanish-language film earned six nominations for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón in her starring role as the titular transitioning Mexican drug lord.

The Lumière nominations cap a strong week for Emilia Perez, which garnered 10 nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes,and was the big winner at the European Film Awards with five prizes.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which tracks the daily life of an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Paris,...

Miguel Gomes does not consider himself a genius like Alfred Hitchcock.

The 52-year-old Portuguese director’s ravishing, cross-continental, mostly B&W feature “Grand Tour” — a mix of drama and ethnology — won him the Best Director award at Cannes back in May and is now Portugal’s Oscar submission to the 2025 Oscars. According to Gomes, unlike Hitchcock, he cannot sit around a room and dictate innovative ideas for story arcs and shots.

Speaking with IndieWire at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, in his first time in L.A. and on the first stop of his Oscars press tour amid the film’s upcoming release in France and Italy, the gracious, soft-voiced, sharp-eared Gomes said, “I have, in my case, to open the window, let the world come in, and react to it.” Cigarette puffs later, he said, “I have to catch butterflies.”

It’s fascinating to hear a modern master...

Mubi’s “Grand Tour” is Portugal’s 2025 Oscars entry for Best International Feature. Although this is director Miguel Gomes‘ third film selected (he was also chosen in 2008 for “Our Beloved Month of August” and in 2015 for “Arabian Nights: Volume 2 — The Desolate One”), he has never truly campaigned, until now.

Gomes says he’s “playing the game” this time, and he kicked off his American promotion for “Grand Tour” with a special screening and Q & A hosted by Gold Derby at The Aster in Los Angeles on Dec. 3.

“Jesus, it’s a high responsibility,” the Best Director winner from this year’s Cannes Film Festival said about representing Portugal at the Oscars.

“Grand Tour” is about a man named Edward, a civil servant who flees his fiancee Molly on their wedding day in Rangoon, 1918. His travels replace panic with melancholy. Molly, set on marriage, amused by his escape, trails him across Asia.

The fall/holiday season will see the release of several awards contenders shot on Kodak film: Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist, and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.”

Kodak, which had a momentous 2023 with more than 60 movies shot on film, also has Sean Baker’s “Anora” and Guadagnino’s “Challengers” as Oscar and ASC 35mm hopefuls.

Kodak had eight on-film premieres in competition at the 81st Venice Festival: “Maria,” “Queer,” “The Brutalist,” Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Harvest,” Alex Ross Perry’s “Pavements,” Giovanni Perrier Tortorici’s “Diciannove,” Déa Kulumbegashvili’s “April,” and Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here.”

Prior to that, Kodak had 33 on-film premieres at Cannes. These included nine winners, including “Anora,” which earned the Palme d’Or prize; Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language,” which took the first Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award; and “Grand Tour,” which grabbed Best Director for Miguel Gomes. In addition, Yorgos...

Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams biopic musical Better Man will open the 36th annual Palm Springs Film Festival on Thursday, January 2, while The Penguin Lessons, directed by Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan in the heartwarming story of a teacher who rescues and adopts an adorable penguin, closes it out January 13. Both films had premieres at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year, and Better Man first had its world premiere at Telluride.

As always a hallmark of Psiff are screenings of numerous entries into the Oscar International Feature Film race, this year with 35 scheduled to screen in the desert.

The festival has programmed 158 films from 71 countries including 68 premieres. The lineup also includes sections like Talking Pictures, a focus on Spanish films with a spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories,...

On Tuesday, the Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) announced its official 2025 lineup for the nearly two-week event that’s being held from Jan. 2 to Jan. 13.

The opening night movie will be Paramount Pictures’ “Better Man,” starring Robbie Williams and directed by Michael Gracey, which chronicles the pop star’s meteoric rise and dramatic fall. And the festival will close with Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Penguin Lessons,” starring Steve Coogan and directed by Peter Cattaneo, in the dramedy about a teacher whose life changes when he adopts a penguin. In all, Psiff will screen 158 films from 71 countries, including 68 premieres.

Artistic director Lili Rodriguez said, “Our lineup this year is truly something special. In true Psiff fashion, it spans genres and crosses borders to bring an exciting mix of films to the Coachella Valley. Over the past year, our Palm Springs International Film Festival team has carefully crafted a program that celebrates the art of storytelling,...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is set to kick off on Jan. 2 with “Better Man,” directed by Michael Gracey, while the closing film on Jan. 12 will be “The Penguin Lessons,” directed by Peter Cattaneo.

The lineup will feature 35 of the international feature film Oscar submissions. Over 11 days, the festival will screen 158 films from 71 countries, including 68 premieres.

Also set are a focus on Spanish films including a spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, and the return of sections such as New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories and World Cinema Now.

“Better Man” is based on the true story of the rise, fall and return of British musician Robbie Williams. Cattaneo will be in attendance for “The Penguin Lessons,” a dramedy about a schoolteacher in militaristic Argentina who rescues a penguin.

Several of the honorees from the Palm Springs International Film Awards are set to participate in the Talking Pictures screenings,...

The Academy has unveiled its list of eligible films for the 97th Oscars in the animated, documentary, and international feature categories, spotlighting various blockbusters and critically lauded works. Submissions span major studios and independent filmmakers alike, and the competition promises to be one of the most competitive as films seek nominations.

A total of 31 animated feature films are in contention this year, including DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” IFC Films’ “Memoir of a Snail,” and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” which recently became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. While this year’s number is slightly down from 33 submissions in 2023, it marks an increase from the 27 entries in 2022, reflecting a robust year for animation. Among the list also is Janus Film and Sideshow’s “Flow,” which will also compete in the international feature race for Latvia.

Nominees in the Animated Feature category are determined by the Academy’s Animation Branch members,...

‘Harbin’ To Be Present At Christmas

Poised to be one of the biggest blockbusters of an uneven year for Korean cinema, “Harbin” is finally confirmed to release on Christmas Day (Dec. 25). The movie had its premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival but its distributor and financier Cj Enm chose to hold back the commercial release in its native Korea until the busy end-of-year season.

The period action film follows Korean independence activists who launch a daring attack against the Japanese occupying forces in Manchuria (modern-day China).

It is directed by Woo Min-ho and stars Hyun Bin (“Crash Landing on You”), Park Jeong-min (“Decision to Leave”) and Jeon Yeo-been (“Cobweb”), who were all in action at a press launch event Monday in Seoul.

Apple Cider

Netflix has unveiled a trailer for Australian-produced “Apple Cider Vinegar,” a limited series which it will upload in 2025. The six-part drama chronicles the...

Charlie McDowell’s The Summer Book starring Glenn Close and Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language Venice Golden Lion winner The Room Next Door starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton bookend the 37th AFI European Union Film Showcase.

Running December 4-22 at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Maryland, the showcase presents 54 features representing all 27 European Union member states including 12 international feature film Oscar submissions and six US premieres.

Besides the festival’s Finnish opener The Summer Book and Spanish closing night selection The Room Next Door, Brady Corbet’s Venice Silver Lion winner The Brutalist from Hungary starring Adrien Brody is the centrepiece selection.

The Seville European Film Festival kicks off tonight in the Andalusian capital city. So, we’ve scoured this year’s program to pick ten titles that show off the selection’s breadth and quality.

“The Girl With the Needle” Magnus von Horn (Denmark)

Denmark’s submission to the International Feature race unspools in the years after World War II and follows Karoline, an out-of-work young pregnant woman who meets Dagmar, a woman who runs a clandestine adoption agency. Karoline works as a wet nurse for the agency before learning the shocking truth about the organization. An “extraordinary and upsetting film,” according to its glowing Variety review.

“Flow” Gints Zilbalodis (Latvia)

One of the year’s best-received animated features and Latvia’s Oscars submission, “Flow” heads to Seville as one of the strongest indie contenders for an animated feature nomination. In the wordless film, a small group of animals on a...

Julie Delpy’s Meet The Barbarians will open the 21st edition of the Seville European Film Festival on November 8. The Spanish festival turns the spotlight on European films during this year’s awards season.

Meet The Barbarians is a satire about the arrival of a group of refugees in a village in Brittany.

The official selection includes 19 titles in competition for its top award: the Golden Giraldillo, named after the statue that crowns Sevilla’s Cathedral, La Giralda.

The prize comes with €40,000 for the Spanish distributor of the winning film or €20,000 for the company that submitted the film to the...

Studiocanal’s romantic dramaBeating Hearts (L’Amour Ouf) topped the French box office in October during a strong month that saw admissions hit 15.53 million (€111.8m based on an average ticket price of €7.20), a 10.8% jump from last year according to figures from the Cnc.

Audiences turned out strongly for Gilles Lellouche’s film which stars Adele Exarchopolous and Francois Civil and premiered in Competition at Cannes in May. The melodrama has sold 2.17 million tickets (approximately €15.6m) after two weeks in cinemas since its October 16 release. Strong word of mouth particularly among younger audiences helped the decades-spanning romantic drama sell more tickets in...

As the Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) marks its 35th edition, the nation’s largest and longest-running film event reinforces its position as a key reference point for Singapore and Asian cinema, while showcasing its unique perspective on contemporary trends in global cinema.

Held from 28 November to 8 December, this year’s lineup features 105 films from 45 countries, with 80% of the selections hailing from Asia. International highlights this year include the horror-comedy Nightbitch featuring Amy Adams, The Shrouds by master of body horror David Cronenberg, Grand Tour by Cannes-award winning director Miguel Gomes, and a newly restored version of Bong Joon-ho’s debut feature Barking Dogs Never Bite, which will have its international premiere at Sgiff.

In keeping with one of the festival’s core missions to nurture both local and regional cinema, this year’s Sgiff boasts an impressive lineup of works originating from both at home and abroad; many of...

The 35th edition of the Singapore International Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, which features 105 films from 45 countries, with 80% of the selections hailing from Asia.

Held from 28 November to 8 December, the festival will hold special gala presentations for two films, The Fable and The Unseen Sister, with selected talents from each film in attendance.

International highlights this year include the horror-comedy Nightbitch featuring Amy Adams, The Shrouds by David Cronenberg, Grand Tour by Cannes-award winning director Miguel Gomes, and a newly restored version of Bong Joon-ho’s debut feature Barking Dogs Never Bite, which will have its international premiere at Sgiff.

The festival will also present the Screen Icon Award, which recognises exceptional Asian talents, to Yang Kuei-mei and Lee Kang-sheng.

For the first time, each festival section will have an opening film that embodies the spirit of its category, with all of them hail from the Asian region.

Academy members who are voting in the Best International Feature Film category have been given 85 different films to consider, according to emails sent to voters on Friday and obtained by TheWrap.

The 85 films make up the smallest field in the category in nine years. Last year saw 88 qualifying films, after the total number of eligible films had topped 90 in five of the previous six years. The record was 93, set in 2000.

In late September, all prospective voters in the category received emails inviting them to vote in the international category and telling them that those who opted in would receive emails with their assigned viewing on Friday, Nov. 1. But those emails came a week early, going to prospective voters on Friday afternoon, Oct. 25, and separating the members into seven separate groups.

Each group was given a list of 12 or 13 films to view, either in the Academy’s members-only screening platform devoted...

The Singapore International Film Festival is marking its 35th edition with 105 films from 45 countries, with Asian titles comprising 80% of the program.

Running Nov. 28-Dec. 8, the fest will host three world premieres of Singapore features, including Ong Keng-Sen’s “The House of Janus,” Wong Chen-Hsi’s “City of Small Blessings,” adapted from Simon Tay’s novel, and Jason Soo’s documentary “Al Awda.”

Among the international highlights are Amy Adams-starrer “Nightbitch,” David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour,” and a restored version of Bong Joon-ho’s feature debut “Barking Dogs Never Bite.”

Two special gala presentations are scheduled: Raam Reddy’s “The Fable,” starring Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee, and Myanmar-born Taiwanese filmmaker Midi Z’s “The Unseen Sister,” featuring Zhao Liying and Xin Zhilei.

The fest will present its Screen Icon Award to Taiwanese talents Yang Kuei-mei and Lee Kang-sheng. Yang, a four-time Sgiff performance award winner, recently appeared in “Yen and Ai-Lee,...

The Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain recently concluded its awards ceremony, handing out prizes to films that used elements of different genres to explore meaningful social and political issues. The festival, which ran from October 18th to the 26th, recognizes innovative works that push creative boundaries in cinema.

French director Alain Guiraudie’s film “Misericordia” took home both the Golden Spike for best picture and Miguel Delibes screenplay award. According to the jury, the film balances genres and tones in a simple yet complex way. Beneath the surface of a small-town thriller and comedy lies a profound meditation on how desire and guilt impact human relationships.

Two Silver Spikes were also awarded, split between “Stranger Eyes” from Singapore and Spanish film “They Will Be Dust.” “Stranger Eyes” examines surveillance and isolation through its genre storytelling. “They Will Be Dust” presented the serious topic of euthanasia in a unique musical format.

Maura Delpero’s Venice Silver Lion winner Vermiglio has earned the Gold Hugo award in Chicago International Film Festival’s international feature competition, while Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light has won the Silver Hugo.

Vermiglio follows three sisters in an Alpine village in the latter stages of the Second World War as a deserter’s arrival has a profound impact on the community.

All We Imagine As Light was the first Indian film in Cannes Competition in three decades and follows two nurses who head off on a road trip.

Silver Hugos in the international feature competition...

The 2024 Chicago Film Festival shined a light on films that stretch the limits of storytelling. From Italy to Cape Verde, this year’s award winners drew viewers in with stories about family, identity, and resilience, along with fresh directing approaches and standout performances. Below are some highlights from the festival’s top prize categories.

Gold Hugo for Best Film: Vermiglio

Directed by Maura Delpero, Vermiglio tells the story of a young woman finding her way within a complex family in Italy’s scenic Alps. The film won the festival’s top honor for its attention to human details and beautiful visuals, capturing relationships that feel timeless.

Silver Hugo for Jury Prize: All We Imagine As Light

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light explores choice and control across generations in a journey that invites audiences to confront life’s crossroads. It balances comfort with disruption and presents these choices with a relatable vulnerability.

Chicago – The 60th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff) announced its competitive award winners on October 25th, 2024, and the recipient of The Gold Hugo in the International Feature Film Competition – the festival’s top honor – is Italy’s ‘Vermiglio” (directed by Maura Delparo), regarding a woman and family complexities in the Italian Alps.

Picking up the Festival’s Silver Hugo in the International Feature Film competition is a multi-internationally produced “All We Imagine as Light” (directed by Payal Kapadia). In the New Directors Competition, Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise” is awarded the Gold Hugo, with Maryam Moghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha “My Favourite Cake” receiving the Silver Hugo. The complete list of honorees is below.

“The winning films at the 60th edition of the Chicago International Film Festival reflect a broad diversity of subject, style, and geography,” said Mimi Plauché, the Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival.

The Chicago International Film Festival is wrapping up its 60th edition by handing out its prizes. In fact, though the New York Film Festival has been around longer (it just wrapped its 62nd festival), Chicago is the longest running fest in North America to give out awards. And as you’d expect from this festival that’s especially focused on international film, its winners have also been standouts at Cannes and Venice.

The Best Film winner, or Gold Hugo, at the Chicago International Film Festival is Maura Delpero’s “Vermiglio,” a World War II drama centered in the Alps that drew praise out of Venice, though received a mixed reception from IndieWire. Italy has named the film its entry for next year’s Best International Feature competition at the Academy Awards. The previous three winners of the Gold Hugo at Chicago are Gabor Reisz’s “Explanation for Everything,” Hlynur Palmason’s “Godland,...

Grand Tour.Grand Tour (2024), director Miguel Gomes’s sixth feature and first to play in competition at Cannes, is a return to the globe-trotting style of his pre-pandemic work. In this follow-up to his remarkably resourceful Covid comedy The Tsugua Diaries (2021), which he codirected with his wife and frequent collaborator Maureen Fazendeiro, the Portuguese filmmaker exhibits an equal but opposite kind of inventiveness as he turns a two-page passage from W. Somerset Maugham’s The Gentleman in the Parlour, a 1930 collection of the English author’s travel writing, into a peripatetic odyssey across Southeast Asia. In 1918, Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a civil servant for the British government, spontaneously flees Rangoon the day his fiancée, Molly (Crista Alfaiate), arrives to be married. As Edward sets off by boat to Singapore, and from there to Bangkok, Saigon, Manila, Osaka, and Shanghai, telegrams from Molly inexplicably arriving all the while, the story blossoms into a surreal,...

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that he recently underwent emergency heart surgery, including the insertion of a stent, after he was suddenly taken ill after returning home from holiday.

The star of The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm, both huge hits on the streamer Amazon Prime, wrote in his column for The Sunday Times newspaper that he felt clammy, with a tightness in his chest and pins and needles in his left arm.

He wrote: “I certainly wasn’t having a heart attack. But if it hadn’t looked that way, I never would have been sent to hospital.”

The TV farmer added that a few days before, while on holiday in the Indian Ocean, he had had to “take a moment to make sure my limbs were working properly” when he stood up, “struggled” with swimming, and could not descend a flight of stairs “without holding someone’s hand.”

“These...

Un escaparate del mejor cine europeo del año. © Seff

La 21 edición del Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla se celebrará del 8 al 16 de noviembre y ya se conoce la programación completa. En total son veintidós estrenos en España, ocho mundiales y dos internacionales. 

La sección oficial contará con un jurado de altísimo nivel presidido por el productor británico David Puttnam y con el actor británico Jeremy Irons, la directora artística del Rome Film Fest, Paola Malanga, la programadora francesa Eva Rekettyei y la directora francoargelina Mounia Meddour. Ellos serán los encargados de decidir el palmarés de esta vigésimo primera edición que cuenta en su sección oficial con títulos destacados como Flow, la película representante de Letonia en los Oscars, Julie Keeps Quiet, representante de Bélgica, The Girl with the Needle, representante de Dinamaca, y Santosh, representante de Reino unido. Otros títulos de la sección oficial incluyen A Missing Part, que se presentó en Toronto,...

Carlos Marques-Marcet’s Toronto-winning musical drama They Will Be Dust, will open the 69th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as the Seminci, on October 18.

The end of life drama starring Alfredo Castro and Angela Molina won the Platform section at TIFF last month.

Valladolid, headed by José Luis Cienfuegos for a second year, is a key launchpad into the Spanish market for local and international films.

There are a total of 22 titles in the running for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Spike that comes with a €70,000 award for the Spanish distributor. The Silver Spike...

The 21st Sevilla European Film Festival will take place this Nov. 8-16, and Variety has been given an exclusive heads-up on this year’s competition juries that will choose the winners of the Gold and Silver Giraldillos as well as the special judges’ prize and a new award, the Puerta América Award.

Dedicated specifically to contemporary European film, Sevilla aims to bring the best in European cinematographic culture to the south of Spain for dialogues between the new artists and recognized figures from the industry while also dedicating space to new media for cinematographic expression.

Jurists for this year’s main competition section include British producer David Puttnam, who will chair the jury, Oscar-winning British actor Jeremy Irons, Rome Film Fest artistic director Paola Malanga, French programmer Eva Rekettyei, and French-Algerian director Mounia Meddour (“Papicha”).

Accompanying today’s jury announcements, Sevilla shared details about its new Puerta América Award, granted...

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that begins after the October 2, 2024 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 2025 Oscar predictions for Best International Feature.)

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 17, 2024.

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

The Chicago International Film Festival is gearing up for its 60th edition with an exciting lineup of global cinema, running from October 16 to 27, 2024. This year’s competition slate promises a wide array of international storytelling, with films spanning from Azerbaijan to Brazil, Japan to Tunisia, all competing for the festival’s prestigious Gold Hugo awards. The films are set to debut across multiple categories: International Feature, International Documentary, and New Directors, along with entries for the OutLook and Shorts competitions.

A remarkable 30 feature films are making their North American or U.S. premieres, with three world premieres adding to the anticipation. Some filmmakers are no strangers to Chicago, returning to the festival after prior successes, like Péter Kerekes, whose film 107 Mothers earned him the Silver Hugo for Best Director in 2020, and documentary powerhouse Joshua Oppenheimer.

Among the festival’s top-tier International Feature Competition, several standout titles have already made waves at Cannes,...

Unlike the Oscar Best Picture race, which doesn’t have a real frontrunner at this point, there’s a clear favorite in the Best International Feature Film category.

With the deadline for submissions in the category passing on Wednesday and Academy members invited to become voters in the category on Friday, one big question looms over this year’s race: Can anything beat “Emilia Perez”?

At the moment, the answer appears to be no. With 82 countries having announced their entries in the race, no other film has anywhere near the visibility of the French entry, Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes sex reassignment surgery. The film has U.S. distribution from Netflix and is considered a strong candidate for a Best Picture nomination, which in five of the last six years has been a ticket to victory in the international race.

Still, it’s...

Paddy Duffy’s The UnHolylands starring James Nesbitt is among the world premieres at the 24th Belfast Film Festival (October 31-November 9).

Duffy’s coming-of-age comedy sees two brothers attempt one last house party before their university days are over. It also stars Ciaran McCourt, Peter Jeffries and Sean Daly.

Further world premieres include Michael Head’s comedy The Spin starring Derry Girls’ Tara Lynne O’Neill and Will McConnell’s experimental drama Beautiful And Loud And Clear.

Competition

Eight films comprise Belfast’s third annual international competition including Xiaoxuan Jiang’s To Kill A Mongolian Horse, winner of best directing and...

“Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae was among the Korean celebrities to lead out a red carpet parade on the opening night of the 29th edition of the Busan International Film Festival. The festival kicked off Wednesday with a bright show of international solidarity and a spectacular, if controversial, Korean film from Netflix.

The ceremony, held under the semi-open roof of the futuristic Busan Cinema Center, was buoyant and attended by 4,500 guests, masking some the woes incurred by the festival itself and by the wider Korean film industry. Officials at the event debuted a new slogan — “Vision of Asia, Ocean of Cinema” — reflecting the South Korean port city’s revised ambitions ahead of next year’s 30th anniversary edition.

Last year, internal divisions ripped the festival management apart, causing sponsors to flee and a reduced budget. While some of the wounds have since been healed, replenished sponsorship and city government funds...