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As Screen Scotland doubled its development investment earlier this summer with the launch of its £1.2 million ($1.6 million) Talent Builder scheme, the move was welcomed as a timely expansion of early-career support. Aimed at nurturing emerging voices, the initiative built on the agency’s longstanding emphasis on script development and short-form funding.

“We just want to give people more opportunity,” Kieran Hannigan, head of scripted at Screen Scotland, tells Variety. “People’s practice evolves, their taste evolves, their skill evolves. And we want to give the space to grow and showcase what they’re able to do.”

Yet inevitably, there will never be enough public money to go around.

A growing wave of filmmakers, frequently working in collectives, sometimes alone, is turning away from the conventional trajectory. Operating on limited means, they are writing with their resources in mind, shooting quickly or in grabbed moments between other work, and building peer-to-peer...

After carving out a name for itself as a home for independent and classic cinema in the UK, BFI Player, the British Film Institute’s streaming platform, is now expanding internationally.

In May, BFI Player launched in Finland, and last month it debuted in Sweden.

Next year it is likely to launch in Ireland, according to Paul Lewis, director of the BFI Player. “We aim to launch in one new territory each year.”

Lewis says English-speaking, culturally similar countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand are among key territories also being considered.

India is also “really interesting” as a...

BFI Player, the British Film Institute’s streaming platform, has carved out a name for itself as a home for independent and classic cinema in the UK.

Slowly but surely, it is now expanding into international markets. In May, BFI Player launched in Finland, and last month it debuted in Sweden.

Next year it is likely to launch into Ireland, according to Paul Lewis, director of the BFI Player. “We aim to launch in one new territory each year.”

Lewis says English-speaking, culturally similar countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand are among key territories being considered after this.

You can learn a lot about an actor when they make their directorial debut. For better or worse, it reveals how they see themselves as an artist, sometimes far removed from the image they’ve cultivated on screen. In the case of Harris Dickinson, however, his first venture behind the camera is fully consistent with his young but impressive acting career. The star who has largely eschewed profitable franchise fare for unusual independent and art-house assignments shows through in “Urchin,” a jagged, perceptive slice of life from London’s grimier sidewalks, addressing a nationwide homelessness crisis with unassuming care and candor. Centered on a single young man ricocheting between prison, hostels and the streets, the film makes no claims to represent an entire disenfranchised demographic, but there’s resonant human texture and political feeling in its close-up individual portrait.

Now 28 years old, Dickinson joins an emerging generation of British filmmakers...

“Hesitation Wound” is less a legal thriller and more a quiet, simmering study of a moral crossroads. Directed by Turkish filmmaker Selman Nacar, “Hesitation Wound” follows Canan, a criminal lawyer (played by Tülin Özen), who is defending Musa (played by Oğulcan Arman Uslu)—a man accused of murdering his former boss. While Canan is in the process of defending her client, she’s also dealing with a deeply personal crisis: her mother is in a coma, nearing death. As these two worlds—professional duty of saving a man’s life and emotional vulnerability of seeing her mother’s slow death up close—begin to overlap, she makes a choice that impacts not only the case but her identity as a lawyer, and as a person.

The first act of the film focuses on the beginning of an important day in Canan’s life. We observe what she does, who she is,...

On Falling (2024) Movie Review —

“The complexity of a human character is directly proportional to financial struggle and social behaviour.”

Laura Carreira’s debut feature, “On Falling” (2024), is a deeply moving and intimate portrayal of loneliness, resilience, and survival. Much like Ken Loach’s masterful social realist movies, Laura Carreira crafts an experience that is both heavy and delicate, drawing us into the life of Aurora, a Portuguese immigrant trying to find her footing in Scotland.

Aurora works as a warehouse picker, spending her days in mundane, physically demanding labour. She moves through life in a repetitive cycle—going to work, doing her job well, and returning home with her fellow Portuguese colleague. Her hard work earns her a simple reward: a bar of chocolate. Yet, when she needs a day off to attend a job interview, they refuse the request. Beneath this quiet routine, we sense an unspoken tension—Aurora...

In On Falling, first time director Laura Carreira exposes the hardships and humiliations of a woman struggling to earn a living in a ‘fulfilment centre’ in Glasgow

A lonely woman trudges the aisles of a cavernous warehouse, accompanied by the accusatory bleeps of the scanner that directs her every move. She picks objects off the shelves that serve other people’s needs – a baby doll, a vibrator, a rope washing line – as her own are slowly obliterated.

Laura Carreira’s acclaimed debut feature, On Falling, charts the exhausting and repetitive working week of an e-commerce employee. It is a testament to her skill as a director that she injects it with the pace, tension and jeopardy of a thriller.

If you have never heard about the Luxembourg City Film Festival before, it may surprise you to know that the biggest annual film event in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which is surrounded by France, Germany and Belgium, is turning 15 this year.

Long considered a hidden gem on the global fest circuit, the event has steadily gained in stature, routinely attracting big industry names to a country with a population of only around 670,000. Just take last year as an example, when the fest set an attendance record with a 10 percent increase to 19,962. For its 2024, LuxFilmFest, it attracted the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Chinese director Wang Bing, Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, French director Gaspar Noé — who hosted a retrospective and a masterclass — and a jury that included Luxembourg star Vicky Krieps, German actor Sebastian Koch, and U.S. director Ira Sachs.

For this year’s 15th edition, which kicks off on Thursday,...

Universal’s “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” continued its reign at the U.K. and Ireland box office, pulling in £4.1 million ($5.2 million) in its third weekend, according to Comscore. The fourth installment in the “Bridget Jones” franchise has now grossed $45.6 million, maintaining a solid lead over the competition and proving to be one of the year’s biggest hits so far.

Disney’s “Captain America: Brave New World” held onto second place with $1.8 million in its third weekend, pushing its cumulative total to $19.8 million. While overshadowed by the continued success of “Bridget Jones,” the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is showing decent legs as it heads into its fourth week.

Universal’s “Dog Man” took third place, adding $861,838 in its fourth weekend. The animated family feature has now reached $15.2 million. Black Bear’s horror entry “The Monkey” earned $763,907 in its second weekend in fourth place, bringing its total to $2.7 million.

Irish filmmaker Myrid Carten’s feature documentary A Want In Her scooped the audience award at the 23rd Dublin International Film Festival (Diff) on Sunday, March 2.

The film follows the filmmaker on a search for her missing mother, also won the documentary award. It premiered at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2024.

Scroll down for all winners

“As is true of many of the most important things in life, I didn’t know if this film would work,” said Carten. “Many great people had to take a risk for this film to exist. So it is such a delight to have...

On Falling director Laura Carreira: 'It was influenced by the idea of things being transitory. She is surrounded by people even though she’s lonely' Photo: Sixteen Films

Laura Carreira's On Falling charts the loney life of a Portuguese warehouse picker (Joana Santos) in a Scottish fulfilment warehouse. The result is a thoughtful character study that highlights the pressures of the modern working environment, particularly for those in the gig economy. The film shared the Silver Shell for Best Director at San Sebastian (with Pedro Martín-Calero's The Wailing) and went on to win the Sutherland Award for best first film at London Film Festival. This week it had its Scottish premiere at Glasgow Film Festival and it will be on release across the UK from Friday, courtesy of Conic. In the first part of our interview, Carreira told us about her concerns that the gig economy is "consuming us". In the second part,...

"When you're not at work, what sort of things do you like to do?" Letterboxd has debuted the full official UK trailer for an indie film titled On Falling, the feature directorial debut of Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira. This premiered at TIFF 2024 last year, and also played at the London, San Sebastian, Thessaloniki, and Rome Film Festivals. it focuses on Aurora, a Portuguese worker in a Scottish warehouse, navigating loneliness and alienation in an algorithm-driven gig economy as she seeks meaning and connection amidst solitude and workplace confines. The film stars Joana Santos, Inês Vaz, Piotr Sikora, Jake McGarry, and Neil Leiper. This received mostly positive reviews. It's described as "social cinema that is worthwhile" that's a "clear, cold, tender, merciless and, above all, unforgettable film." Fits right alongside Ken Loach's films; the poster states it's from the same producers as I, Daniel Blake & The Old Oak anyway. Take a look.

Tim Roth, Ed Harris, and Jessica Lange are among the high-profile names that have been confirmed as guests at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival.

The Scottish festival announced its full 2025 guest list this afternoon.

Roth will attend the festival alongside Japanese model, musician, and actor Kōki, Shogun actor Takehiro Hira, and filmmaker John Maclean for the world premiere of their survival thriller Tornado, which will open the festival on February 26.

Harris and Lange will attend for the UK premiere of Long Day’s Journey into Night, the new big-screen adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s seminal play, on 28 February. Lange will also appear in an In Conversation event on March 1.

Elsewhere, James McAvoy will introduce a screening of his breakthrough role in Kevin McDonald’s fiction debut The Last King of Scotland (2006). He will also take part in a In Conversation event on March 2. Athina Rachel Tsangari will also visit...

Jonathan Kent’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris will make its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival as the full line-up is confirmed.

Adapted from Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer-winning play, the film marks Kent’s directorial debut and also stars Ben Foster. Filming took place in County Wicklow before wrapping in 2022 and facing several delays.

Both Lange and Harris will attend the festival where they will be honoured with the Volta Award, which recognises filmmakers and actors who have had an “extraordinary impact” on world cinema.

The festival will open with...

The Glasgow Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 21st edition this year and will host Glasgow-born Hollywood star James McAvoy to look back on his career during an “In Conversation” event.

“Across 12 packed days, Scotland’s largest annual celebration of cinema will showcase 92 world, U.K. and Scottish premieres from 39 countries,” including 12 world premieres, organizers said on Tuesday.

The gala world premiere of survival thriller Tornado, the sophomore feature from Scottish director John Maclean (Slow West), will open the fest on Feb. 26. “Set in the rugged landscape of 1790s Britain, Tornado (played by model-songwriter Kōki,) finds herself caught in a perilous situation when she and her father’s traveling puppet show crosses paths with a ruthless criminal gang led by Sugarman (Pulp Fiction star Tim Roth) and his ambitious son Little Sugar (Slow Horses’ Jack Lowden),” says a plot summary. “In an attempt to create a new life,...

Let the buzz begin as this year’s Glasgow Film Festival will open with Tornado and close with Martin Robertson’s Make it to Munich, in what is another world premiere.

Undoubtedly a highlight each year in the film calendar Gff kicks off on February 26th until March 9th and is bursting with variety. Some highlights include the UK premiere of Long Day’s Journey into Night starring Jessica Lange & Ed Harris, Argentinian crime-caper Kill the Jockey and On Falling from Scottish filmmaker Laura Carreira.

The festival will play host to a number of UK premieres including The Return, Bob Trevino Likes It as well as Luckiest Man in America starring Paul Walter Hauser to name but a few.

In Conversation With returns with a star-studded line-up of Jessica Lange and Glasgow’s own, James McAvoy, who will take a look back on their careers.

As with true Gff tradition is...

The 2025 BAFTA Film nominees were announced this morning but there was no recognition for high profile movies such as Queer, Challengers, Babygirl, and Paddington In Peru. Meanwhile, musical Wicked was shut out of the Best Film category.

Luca Guadagnino’s duo Queer and Challengers were both Golden Globe nominated, including for leads Daniel Craig and Zendaya, but neither made the cut this morning. Both had made the BAFTA longlist.

Nicole Kidman won a best actress award at Venice and was also Golden Globe nominated but couldn’t woo the BAFTA crowd for her performance in steamy drama Babygirl.

Related: 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More

Paddington in Peru, the third film in the beloved bear franchise, had the biggest opening for a British film since 2021 and has made a whopping $43M in the UK, but reviews weren...

Goteborg Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its 48th edition, with 22 feature world premieres and four feature competition sections.

World premiere titles include Asier Urbieta’s Spanish thriller Pheasant Island in the international competition section. The debut feature from Spanish filmmaker Urbieta sees a young Basque couple’s relationship put to the test when a dead body is found on the mysterious titular island.

Scroll down for the feature competition sections

It is one of 18 films in the international competition, alongside 2024 festival favourites Santosh, To A Land Unknown and All We Imagine As Light.

The nine-strong Nordic competition includes three world premieres.

Scandinavia’s biggest film-tv event, the Göteborg Film Festival, has unveiled the complete lineup for its 48th edition, due to unspool Jan. 24-Feb. 2 in Sweden’s second largest city.

For her first gig as artistic director, Pia Lundberg and her team will be treating the festival’s usual 270,000-plus film fans in theaters and online to a rich program of 270 films from 83 countries, including 25 world premieres.

Setting the tone for this year’s overarching theme of “Disobedience” and civil resistance will be the opening film “Safe House” by Norwegian helmer Eirik Svensson starring “Sick of Myself”’s Kristine Kujath Thorp and “Gladiator 2”’s Alexander Karim. Based on the real-life story of Doctors Without Borders’ Director General in Norway Lindin Hurum, the story is set in a refugee camp during the 2013 civil war in the Central African Republic. Norwegian aid worker Linn is under severe pressure as she strives to...

Emilia Pérez and Conclave led the British Academy of Film and Television Arts longlist selections on Friday, the first step toward securing BAFTA Awards nominations when the list of official 2025 award contenders is revealed on Jan. 15.

Netflix’s top contender Emilia Pérez landed on 15 longlists — tying a record set by Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front two years ago and Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Barbie last year. Among its mentions were Best Film, Best Film Not in English Language, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, and four longlist nods for its quartet of actresses — with Karla Sofia Gascon hitting the lead actress longlist and co-stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz all appearing on the supporting actress longlist. The four actresses shared the Best Actress honors at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Emilia Pérez made its debut.

Conclave was second with 14 longlist mentions,...

The British Academy has unveiled the results of the first round of voting across all 25 categories for the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards, with two very different thrillers leading the pack of longlisted features.

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” a Spanish-language music-thriller that was picked up by Netflix in Cannes, has emerged ahead of the race with slots in 15 categories, including best film, director, leading actress and three in the supporting actress list. Meanwhile “Conclave,” Focus Features’ Papal mystery-thriller from Edward Berger set within the Vatican, has 14, including best film, director and leading actor for Ralph Fiennes.

Further down, a tight pack of films includes “The Substance,” “The Brutalist” and “A Complete Unknown” on 11 lists, “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two” on 10 and “Anora” and “Gladiator 2” on nine. All, with the exception of “Gladiator 2,” are on the best film longlist. Ridley Scott’s epic return to the coliseum also missed out...

BAFTA on Friday unveiled its longlists for this year’s film awards with Emilia Pérez, Conclave, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist and The Substance setting the pace.

Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical tops the longlists (15), including leading actress and supporting actress mentions for Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez. Edward Berger’s Conclave follows with 14 nods, including leading actor and supporting actor for Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, respectively.

After that, it’s a three-way tie between Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (11). Sean Baker’s Anora is honored with nine mentions on the longlists, including for lead star Mikey Madison. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are included for their roles in Jon M. Chu’s Wicked, and Timothée Chalamet is among the leading actor list for his performance in A Complete Unknown.

Round two of voting kicks off Friday,...

On Falling, the debut feature from Laura Carreira is among the titles set to feature as part of the Ingmar Bergman Competition at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival.

On Falling follows Aurora, a young Portuguese woman who struggles to make ends meet across one week in her adopted home of Glasgow, Scotland. Long days spent grabbing packages off shelves for an anonymous e-commerce giant barely cover the bills and leave her exhausted and desperate for something more. Per the synopsis: Aurora seeks to resist the loneliness, alienation, and ensuing small talk that begin to threaten her sense of self. Set against a landscape dominated by an algorithm-driven gig economy, designed to keep us apart. The film was produced by Jack Thomas-o’Brien of Sixteen Films alongside the Portuguese-based Bro Cinema. Backers include BBC Film, BFI, and Screen Scotland. Conic will release the pic in UK cinemas in early 2025.

Other titles...

Screenis listing the 2024 release dates for films in the UK and Ireland in the calendar below.

For distributors who wish to add/amend a date on the calendar, please get in touch withScreenhere.Screenis also running a calendar for festival and market dates throughout 2025here.

January

Wednesday, January 1

Nosferatu(Universal),2073(Altitude),Vanangaan(DJ Tech),Game Changer(Dreamz),We Live In Time(Studiocanal)

Friday, January 3

Nickel Boys(Curzon),Rocco And His Brothers(BFI),Diabel(Magnetes)

Wednesday, January 8

A Real Pain(Disney)

Friday, January 10

Babygirl(Efd),The Girl With The Needle(Mubi),Maria(Studiocanal),The Damned(Vertical/Miracle),It’s Raining Men...

Bernhard Wenger’sPeacockwill screen as part of a special focus on Austria taking place at the Glasgow Film Festival (Gff), running from February 26 to March 9, 2025 in Scotland.

It will be the final edition for festival director Allison Gardner after 30 years with the organisation.

Peacock,which screened first at the Venice Film Festival, is Wenger’s debut feature. It starsAll Quiet On The Western Frontactor Albrecht Schuch as a man working at a friend-for-hire scheme who grows to realise he can pretend to be anyone but himself.

Gff’s ’From The Heart of Europe: Austria on Screen’ programme will also showcase...

The UK Global Screen Fund’s (Ukgsf) next round of awardees from its distribution strand of support includes The Penguin Lessons, Bring Them Down, The Salt Path and Kneecap.

The Ukgsf has issued 18 new awards, administered by the BFI, to support international opportunities for the UK’s independent screen sector. Ukgsf is financed through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), and the awards see a further £413,995 allocated through the £7m per year fund’s international distribution strand.

The international distribution strand is now managed by Jordan Allwood, who joined the team in October from UK sales agent Independent Entertainment and replacesFrancesca Walker.

Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays has won the Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which ran from October 31-November 10.

The family drama centring on an Arab-speaking Israeli family premiered earlier this year in Venice’s Horizons strand, winning best screenplay. Copti had previously won the best film and screenplay prizes at Thessaloniki in 2009 for his Academy Award nominated Ajami.

The Silver Alexander for best director went to Belgian Leonardo van Dijl for his debut feature Julie Keeps Quiet, winner of the Sacd award in Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar.

The jury of the international competition,...

Happy Holidays, the latest feature from Palestinian Filmmaker Scandar Copti, has taken the top prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.

Copti’s film won the Best Feature Film Award, which comes with a 10,000-euro cash prize. Awarding the prize, the jury, headed by Sara Driver, praised the film for “intricately weaving different narratives and perspectives that fully expose the complexity of national, gender and class dynamics that can divide societies and for seeing the future in the face of a young woman the Golden Alexander goes to Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti.”

Happy Holidays debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The story open after a minor accident sets off a chain of events, unraveling lies and unspoken truths that sow division within a multifaceted patriarchal society.

The festival’s Best Director Award, which comes with a 5,000-euro cash prize, was picked up Leonardo Van Dijl for Julie Keeps Quiet.

Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti’s Israel-set family drama “Happy Holidays” won the top prize Sunday at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, taking home the Golden Alexander for best feature film.

Copti’s sophomore feature, his first film since his Oscar-nominated 2009 debut “Ajami,” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar, winning the best screenplay prize. Variety’s Siddhant Adlakha described it as “a piercing, realistic family drama, the inflection points of which reveal deep cultural and political dimensions surrounding gender and ethnicity.”

“Happy Holidays” follows four interconnected characters who share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations and cultures. The ensemble cast — comprised of Arab and Jewish characters alike — creates a multifaceted portrait of life in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.

The Thessaloniki jury, which included filmmaker and producer Sara Driver (“Boom for Real”), filmmaker Denis Côté (“Vic + Flo Saw a Bear”) and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis (“How to Have Sex...

The humming machines and beeping scanners fill the cavernous warehouse as Aurora makes her rounds, hunting items from an endless checklist. As a “picker” at a vast fulfillment center somewhere in Scotland, her days pass in a blur of repetitive motions under the watchful eye of an automated system that monitors her every move. Outside of these gray walls, her lonely existence continues in an austere flat shared with transient workers like herself, strangers who drift in and out but never linger.

Burrowing into Aurora’s solitary routine is Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira with her outstanding debut feature, On Falling. Produced by Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films, the film immerses us in Aurora’s weary world to shine a light on the immense human cost concealed within the sleek packaging and brisk transactions of online shopping.

Carreira, who hails from Edinburgh originally, directs with an assured yet tender touch; her...

The 68th BFI London Film Festival (Lff) recorded the highest in-person attendance for 10 years as Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers wins the audience award.

This year’s edition reached an audience of 230,342. This is up by 18% from 2023 and breaks the record previously held from 2018 of 205,630 attendees.

The figure includes the 12 days of screenings in London and across the UK, and encompasses features, series, shorts, immersive art and extended reality works via Lff Expanded, Lff For Free events, and the Lff Industry Forum.

Occupancy across paid-for and free screenings increased to 92% with 49% of tickets coming from first-time attendees.

Audience awards

Taking...

The British Film Institute today said that its annual London Film Festival clocked its largest in-person attendance for a decade during this year’s edition, which ran from October 9 – 20.

Figures published by the BFI said attendance across both free and paid-for in-person screenings and events at London venues increased by 92%, with 49% of tickets being booked by first-time Lff attendees. Overall, 230,342 attended the festival in person, an increase of 18% from 2023’s 194,960.

“Our biggest thanks go to the artists and industry colleagues from the UK and across the globe who fueled our collective curiosity this year,” BFI London Film Festival Director Kristy Matheson said in a statement this afternoon. “It was a delight to see audiences engage with each other and this programme – proving once again the joy and comfort we all find in screen culture.”

The BFI today also announced the winners of the festival’s audience awards. Darren Thornton’s comedy-drama Four Mothers,...

Despite blue skies over Greece’s second city ahead of the opening ceremony, the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival kicks off Oct. 31 under clouds of uncertainty, with the war in Ukraine raging toward its three-year anniversary and the year-old Israel-Hamas conflict spilling into neighboring countries and threatening to engulf the entire Middle East. The U.S., meanwhile, heads to the polls next week for an election that’s been framed as a referendum on the fate of American democracy itself — with the eyes of the world watching.

For Thessaloniki festival director Orestis Andreadakis, a veteran film critic who’s been at the helm of the festival since 2016, global events have only brought a renewed sense of urgency “to find movies that matter,” he tells Variety on the eve of opening night. “Movies that say something about our lives, our situation in the world, with so many changes, so many dangers — wars,...

Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival returns this evening for its 65th edition with a screening of Maria, the latest feature from Chilean director Pablo Larraín.

The pic, which stars Angelina Jolie and debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival, will screen for audiences at Thessaloniki’s Olympia Theatre following an opening ceremony.

Running 31 Oct – 10 Nov, Thessaloniki will this year screen 12 films in its international competition. Titles include Edinburgh-based filmmaker Laura Carreira’s haunting debut feature On Falling. The pic, which debuted at Toronto and landed the Sutherland Award for debut film at London, follows Aurora, a young Portuguese woman who struggles to make ends meet across one week in her adopted home of Glasgow, Scotland. Other titles include Ariane Labed’s debut feature September Says and the buzzy Palestinian feature To A Land Unknown. A total of 252 feature and short films will be screened at Thessaloniki. The international...

Memoir Of A Snail took the Best Film title in London Photo: Courtesy of London Film Festival Adam Elliot’s Memoir Of A Snail has won the Best Film Award in Official Competition at the 68th BFI London Film Festival.

The stop-motion sees a woman (voiced by Sarah Snook) recall the unfortunate events that have peppered her life with tragicomic verve. It continues a winning run for the Aussie director, who also took the top prize in Annecy in June. The film is due for release in the UK and Ireland next February.

Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming A Guinea Fowl received a special mention.

Laura Carreira’s UK debut On Falling, about a migrant working as a picker in a Scots fulfilment warehouse, which already took the directing Silver Shell in San Sebastian, won the Lff Sutherland Award for Best First Feature. It will be distributed in the UK by Conic.

After taking home the prestigious Cristal at Annecy earlier this year, Adam Eliot’s stop-motion wonder Memoir of a Snail has now added another feather to its cap, winning the coveted top award at the 68th BFI London Film Festival.

Elliot’s meticulous craftsmanship shines through in every frame of Memoir of a Snail, where each stop-motion character exudes a lifelike depth. The film’s visual design, much like its predecessor Mary and Max, is filled with minute, painstaking details that bring the story to life.

The snails, though ornamental in Grace Pudel’s collection, become a powerful metaphor for the slow, often isolating, passage of time in her life. Each snail represents a chapter of Grace’s existence, echoing the themes of loneliness and personal reflection. Through Elliot’s distinct visual language and his ability to extract profound emotions from inanimate figures, the film invites viewers to reflect on...

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...

After claiming the Cristal at Annecy earlier in the year, Australian animation “Memoir of a Snail” has now won the top honor at the BFI London Film Festival.

Adam Eliot’s acclaimed stop-motion feature won the best film award in the official competition, selected by a jury led by Alexandre O. Philippe.

“Our jury was incredibly moved by Adam Elliot’s ‘Memoir of a Snail,’ which is a singular achievement in filmmaking,” the jury said. “Emotionally resonant and constantly surprising, Memoir tackles pertinent issues such as bullying, loneliness and grief head-on, creating a crucial and universal dialogue in a way that only animation can. The jury is delighted to recognise an animated film alongside its live-action peers.”

Rungano Nyoni’s Cannes hit “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” was given a special mention, described as an “intricately crafted story brimming with imagination that dares to say the unsayable about a sexual...

Memoir Of A Snail, the latest stop motion pic from Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam Elliot, and Edinburgh-based filmmaker Laura Carreira’s haunting debut feature On Falling are among the top prize winners at this year’s London Film Festival.

The competition winners were announced this afternoon by the London Film Festival’s various juries. The jury heads were Alexandre O. Philippe, (Official Competition), Dionne Edwards (First Feature Competition), June Givanni, (Documentary Competition), and Chloe Abrahams (Short Film Competition).

Memoir Of A Snail took Best Film while Carreira’s On Falling, produced by Jack Thomas-o’Brien of Sixteen Films, won the Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition. On Falling is the first British feature to win the Sutherland Award since 2010. Clio Barnard won it that year with The Arbor. Previous winners include Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay, Robert Eggers, Julia Ducournau, and Mati Diop.

Memoir Of A Snail tells the tale of separated twins in 1970s Australia.

Adam Elliot’s stop-motion animation Memoir Of A Snail has won the Best Film Award in Official Competition at the 68th BFI London Film Festival (Lff).

Australian director Elliot’s second feature-length animation is a story of a melancholic woman – voiced by Sarah Snook – who is a hoarder of snails, romance novels and guinea pigs.

Scroll down for the full list of Lff 2024 winners

The film had its world premiere in competition at Annecy in June where it also won the top prize, and went on to open Melbourne film festival and win awards at festivals in Sitges and Ottawa.

It’s easy to divorce the online purchases that arrive so swiftly and conveniently on your doorstep from the individual labor that got them there: The packaging is so uniform, the buying process so entirely impersonal, that it’s tempting to believe they were somehow selected and delivered by robotic magic. But in many cases, someone hand-picked the item from an intricately coded shelf in a vast, airless warehouse, just as someone else had the unrewarding zero-hours job of driving it to your home, or carrying out how many intermediate menial stages in between. Where Ken Loach’s recent “Sorry We Missed You” shed light on the loneliness of the long-suffering delivery driver, Laura Carreira’s remarkable “On Falling” turns warehouse-picking from an ignorable abstract process into a human routine of vivid, slowly erosive despair.

Any comparison to Loach is backed by the film’s DNA, as Jack Thomas-o’Brien, son...

Filmmakers from Bring Them Down, The Ceremony and Tuesday feature prominently on the filmmaker new talent longlists for the 2024 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas).

Bring Them Down’s Christopher Andrews is longlisted for the Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director and the best debut screenwriter award, while the film’s debut producer Jacob Swan Hyam is longlisted for breakthrough producer.

Scroll down for the filmmaker New Talent longlists

The Ceremony repeats that trio for writer-director Jack King and producers Hollie Bryan and Lucy Meer; as does Tuesday for writer-director Daina O Pusic and producer Helen Gladders.

Four filmmaker new...

Conic has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Laura Carreira’s On Falling, ahead of the film’s UK premiere at BFI London Film Festival this evening.

Conic will release the film in the UK and Ireland in early 2025, having acquired the title from the film’s producer Jack Thomas-o’Brien of Sixteen Films.

The film has also sold to Benelux (Vedette), former Yugoslavia (McF), Greece (Cinobo), Middle East (Teleview), Spain (Vertigo) and Switzerland (Frenetic). Advanced negotiations are underway for France and the US.

The debut feature of 2022 Screen Rising Star Scotland Carreira, On Falling tells the story of a Portuguese migrant...

While there’s a few more fall film festivals popping up in the next month, the major ones are behind us, which means we have a strong sense of the films to have on your radar in the coming months and even through 2025. We’ve asked our writers from across the globe to weigh in on their favorite world premieres from Locarno Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival.

Our coverage will continue with a few more reviews this week, and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections, so continue to explore all of our festival coverage here. In the meantime, check out top picks from our writers below and return soon for our extensive year-end coverage.

Soham Gadre (@SohamGadre)

1. April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)

2 and 3. Youth (Homecoming and Hard Times) (Wang Bing...

Argentinian director, screenwriter and producer Pablo Trapero is to chair the jury of the Progressive Cinema Competition, the competition section of the Rome Film Festival.

Trapero will be joined on the Rome jury by editor Francesca Calvelli, French actress Laetitia Casta, UK producer Gail Egan, and writer and screenwriter Dennis Lehane.

Trapero won the Silver Lion for dest director at the 2015 Venice Film Festival for The Clan. His other directing credits include crime series ZeroZeroZero.

Meanwhile, a jury chaired by Italian director and screenwriter Francesca Comencini, will award Rome’s best first feature prize to a fiction feature film in...

Thessaloniki Film Festival has revealed its International Competition section, which showcases 12 films by up-and-coming directors from around the world. The selection includes “Julie Keeps Quiet,” which is Belgium’s entry in the Oscars, and “Under the Volcano,” which is Poland’s entry.

Also selected are “Arcadia,” which won best director at Sarajevo for Yorgos Zois; “Happy Holidays,” which won best screenplay in Venice Horizons for Scandar Copti; “On Falling,” which won best director at San Sebastian for Laura Carreira; and “Pierce,” which won best director at Karlovy Vary for Nelicia Low.

The jury is composed of filmmaker and producer Sara Driver, filmmaker Denis Côté and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis.

The top prize is the Golden Alexander for best feature film, accompanied by a 10,000 euro cash prize. There is also the Silver Alexander for best direction, accompanied by a 5,000 euro cash prize; the best actor and actress awards; and the best screenplay and best artistic achievement award.

The upcoming 2024 London Film Festival will feature an array of films from renowned directors around the world. Festival organizers have crafted a lineup that includes international stories on important issues as well as biopics of iconic figures. Films showcasing both new and veteran talents from genres like drama, historical fiction, and surreal experiences will be part of the event.

One of the most anticipated premieres is Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut film “The Room Next Door.” Starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, the film explores human connection during a moment of crisis. Almodóvar recently won the Golden Lion award for the film at the Venice Film Festival. Festival organizers described the film as examining “the complexities of human connection.”

Acclaimed British filmmaker Steve McQueen will debut his new historical drama “Blitz” about London during World War II. The film follows a woman, played by Saoirse Ronan, searching for her missing son amid German air raids.

The First Feature Competition at the 68th BFI London Film Festival 2024 is an exciting platform that celebrates bold, imaginative debuts from new directors. This year, the competition is as diverse as ever, showcasing fresh talent and unique stories from around the world, all vying for the prestigious Sutherland Award, which honors the most original and visionary directorial debut.

One of the standout entries is Crocodile Tears, a genre-blending film from writer-director Tumpal Tampubolon. This atmospheric and eerie debut is a testament to the thriving cinema culture in Southeast Asia, immersing viewers in a world where boundaries between genres and emotions blur effortlessly. Another notable contender is Hanami, Denise Fernandes’ stunning tribute to her homeland, Cape Verde. This coming-of-age drama beautifully captures the magic and rawness of life in the West African islands, a poignant exploration of identity and home.

Neo Sora’s Happyend brings a different flavor to the competition,...

This year’s San Sebastian Film Festival Official Competition was a strong one, featuring veteran filmmakers including Albert Serra - who ultimately took the top prize Golden Shell for his documentary Afternoons Of Solitude - Mike Leigh and François Ozon. There was room for new voices, too, including that of Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira, whose debut feature On Falling charts a handful of days in the life of a lonely migrant warehouse picker working in Scotland. The film, which stars Joana Santos as Aurora, a woman who struggles to find connections after relocating from her homeland to Edinburgh, won the Silver Shell for best director at the festival. We caught up with Edinburgh-based Carreira in Spain to chat about expanding on ideas from her short films, including The Shift, living precariously and...

La controvertida película sobre el mundo de la tauromaquia se llevó el máximo galardón en una gala que se cerró con el estreno europeo de ‘We Live in Time’. © Ssiff

La 72 edición del Festival de San Sebastián, celebrada entre el 20 y el 28 de septiembre, ha concluido este sábado con la ceremonia de entrega de premios, celebrada en el Auditorio Kursaal, en la que la película Tardes de soledad, el documental de Albert Serra que sigue la vida del torero Andrés Roca Rey durante un día de corrida, desde que se viste de luces hasta que se desviste, ha obtenido la Concha de Oro, el máximo galardón del festival.

Un galardón no exento de polémicas – ya Pacma, incluso antes de que se proyectara la película, pidió su retirada del festival – que fue entregado por la presidenta del jurado, Jaione Camborda, quien destacó su «poder artístico» y señalando, en nombre del jurado,...