News

Yes Studios (“Fauda”) will be launching “Embassy Down,” a riveting six-part thriller from the creator “Your Honor,” at Series Mania in Lille.

Inspired by true events, “Embassy Down” unfolds in 2011 and charts the takeover of the Israeli embassy in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in Egypt, amid the Arab Spring, a time of revolts in Arab countries. The character-driven series follows five Israelis who became trapped inside the Israeli embassy for 24 hours, while thousands of angry demonstrators tried to break in by taking down the embassy wall.

“Embassy Down” was shot in Hebrew, Arabic, English and French. It has been written and co-created by Shlomo Moshiach whose best-known credits include hit series such as “Your Honor” and “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.

The strong international cast is led by Sean Softi (“Checkout”), Maor Schwietzer (“Shtisel”), Yael Elkana (“The Chef”), Ran Kaplan (“Superdaddy”), Yoel Rozenkier (“The Commune”), Ali Ali (“The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem”), Hisham Suliman,...

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,...

Netflix's Biblical epic Mary details the life of Mary, mother of Jesus, as she is forced to go into hiding following the birth of her child. While the story itself is well known, the director, D. J. Caruso, hoped to bring new light to Mary's story through depicting it as a coming-of-age tale. The Netflix movie hopes to humanize Mary and show that, before becoming the biblical holy figure that people see her as today, she started out as a normal teenager thrust into a scary situation.

While some of Mary's cast are relative newcomers, the movie does include a few familiar faces as well. Both Mary and Joseph are played by young actors at the beginning of their careers, but Herod and several of Mary's other characters are played by recognizable actors. The Netflix film presents a gripping new take on a well-known figure that leaves audiences with...

Thomas Vinterberg, the Oscar-winning Danish director of “Another Round,” will preside over the jury of the upcoming Marrakech International Film Festival, with which he has a longstanding rapport.

The Marrakech jury will award its Étoile d’Or to one of the 14 first and second films in the fest’s international competition. Recent winners include Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir’s “Mother of all the Lies” last year and French-Iranian helmer Emad Aleebrahim-Dehkordi’s “A Tale of Shemroon” in 2022.

It will mark the first time that Vinterberg attends the Marrakech Film Festival. The Danish filmmaker is one of Europe’s best known directors. He co-founder with Lars von Trier of the Danish Dogme 95 movement in the mid 1990s. His vast and widely praised filmography comprises “The Celebration,” aka “Festen,” (1998) for which Vinterberg won the Cannes jury prize when he was 28; “It’s All About Love (2003)”; “Dear Wendy” (2005); “When a Man Comes Home...

Oscar-winning Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has been announced as president of the jury at the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival, running from November 29 to December 7.

The jury awards the Étoile d’Or to one of the 14 first and second films in the international competition, recent winners of which have included Asmae El Moudir’s Mother of all the Lies (2023) and Emad Aleebrahim-Dehkordi’s A Tale Of Shemroon (2022),

“In this rapidly changing and increasingly divided world, festivals such as Marrakech provide a much-needed window into a wide variety of cultures,” said Vinterberg. “Films can describe what cannot be explained. Make us understand the unacceptable. And there is indeed a lot to understand right now.”

Marrakech has strong connections with the Danish cinema world. Last year it celebrated longtime Vinterberg collaborator Mads Mikkelsen with an honorary career achievement award. He spoke fondly of his connection with the director in his masterclass.

Vinterberg...

"Hold me tight while your still beats and warms." Studiocanal has revealed the full trailer for an intriguing series called Families Like Ours, made by acclaimed Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg. It just premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival in their "Series" section, and debuts streaming in Denmark (more countries later) in October. In a not-too-distant future, Denmark faces total evacuation due to rising water levels (climate change is definitely going to ruin everything whether we like it or not). As the nation of ~6 million people prepares to leave their homes, high school student Laura must choose between her divorced parents and the boy she's fallen in love with. It's a clever flip on the refugee crisis the world is experiencing already - what if wealthy, white people in Denmark had to flee their homes and move to other countries. What would happen? The full ensemble cast includes Amaryllis August, Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt,...

"I think we should gush out like a river."...

Exclusive: Pressman Film is set to produce Toronto-based shy kids’ first scripted feature film, AUTOBiOGRAPHY.

Alexander Weinstein, the author and writer whose short story was adapted into A24’s critically acclaimed film After Yang, is writing the screenplay for AUTOBiOGRAPHY in collaboration with shy kids. Pressman Film has also teamed with EP Jack Masterson, a UK-based tech entrepreneur and investor.

AUTOBiOGRAPHY is a coming of consciousness technological drama told from the inside of a computer looking out at the human world. When this compassionate AI connects with the internet the exponential expansion of its cognition leads to an existential crisis that propels it on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.

Toronto-based collective, shy kids, are known for their style-blending technology, innovation, humor and rhythm. They have produced animation and titles for Matt Johnson’s Blackberry, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s Nerve and The CW’s The Originals, as well as...

Exclusive: Pressman Film, the company behind hit movies such as American Psycho, Wall Street and The Crow, is eyeing the small screen.

The company, which founded by Edward R. Pressman and is now run by his son Sam Pressman, is developing a swathe of television projects with writers, directors and producers behind series such as The Wire, Bosch, Tehran and Legion as part of this new push.

It comes as the business is preparing for the release of its reboot of The Crow, starring Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs and Danny Huston, this summer.

Pressman has signed development deals with the likes of Ernest Dickerson and Eric Overmyer, who both worked on Bosch and The Wire, Omri Shenhar, writer of Apple’s Tehran, Yona Rozenkier, one of the creators of Israeli drama The Commune, and Joseph Quesada, exec producer of series including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Legion.

Overmyer and Dickerson are...

French action movie “Roads of Fear” heads the Cannes market slate for Vienna-based sales agency Fizz-e-Motion.

Emmanuel Saez’s film follows Elon Coretti, the only son of Sauveur Coretti, one of the mafia bosses in the South of France. While the Coretti clan reigns supreme across its patch, small Albanian dealers are increasingly involved in drug trafficking and other criminal activities in its territory. Sauveur decides to make an example by organizing an almost military assault on the Albanians’ site, but there is a price to pay.

The cast is led by Adrien Stoclet, Vanessa Aiffe and Vincent Andres. The production company is Indeprod.

Also on the slate is Etienne Constantinesco’s thriller “Ultimate Chance,” set in the north-east of France. Éric, a penniless man who lives in his car, rejects his 10-year-old autistic son Esteban, who is living in the care of his uncle. Because of the carelessness of his father,...

TrustNordisk has boarded suspense drama Birthday Girl, directed by Michael Noer and led by Danish star Trine Dyrholm. The company will handle international sales rights on the feature about a mother’s persevering quest for justice.

Noer, who co-wrote Birthday Girl (working title) with Jesper Fin, is known for such films as 2018’s Before The Frost, which won the Tokyo Special Jury Prize, and his 2010 debut feature R, a Dragon Award winner for Best Nordic Film in Goteborg. His English-language debut was with the 2017 remake of the classic adventure epic Papillon starring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek.

One of Denmark’s best-known and most lauded actresses, Dyrholm won the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear for Thomas Vinterberg’s 2016 The Commune and boasts such credits as Queen Of Hearts, Love Is All You Need and In A Better World. Recently, she’s been seen in crime series Face To Face (Forhøret...

Zentropa produces the Danish-language dramedy about a talent agent in the entertainment industry.

TrustNordisk has boarded international sales for the new series Agent from actor-turned-writer/director Nikolaj Lie Kaas.

Zentropa produces the Danish-language dramedy about a talent agent in the entertainment industry. The series has now started shooting, with Esben Smed (Follow The Money) in the lead role as Joe, an agent with a chaotic life.

The cast also includes Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen), Dar Salim (Darkland), Ulrich Thomsen (The Commune), and Another Round actors Lars Ranthe and Magnus Millang, all playing caricatured versions of themselves.

Louise Vesth produces the 8x40’ series,...

Exclusive: A+E Studios/Ananey Studios’ supernatural thriller series The Malevolent Bride has set cast and commenced production in Israel, with Valley of Tears’ Tom Avni and Her Dance’s Lioz Levy playing the leads.

The show from Our Boys creator and Fauda writer Noah Stollman will air on Israel’s Kan 11 later this year, with A+E taking distribution rights in the rest of the world. The Malevolent Bride is the first co-production between A+E and Israeli studio Ananey.

Joining Avni and Levy are Maya Wertheimer (Shababnikim), Hisham Suliman (Fauda), Dar Zuzovsky (The Greenhouse), Esti Zakheim (The Commune), Shai Avivi (Pillars of Smoke), Lir Katz (Shababnikim), Adi Gilat (The Arbitrator) and Elisha Banai (Fullmoon).

The eight-part modern supernatural thriller, which commences production this week, follows the hunt for a vengeful spirit terrorizing an unsuspecting Hasidic community in present-day Jerusalem. A pair of unlikely demon-hunters – Hasidic psychologist Malki Price...

Exclusive: The Commune, a buzzy Israeli Kibbutz drama series, is set for a U.S. remake with Orange Is The New Black writer Hilary Weisman Graham penning an adaptation.

Weisman Graham, who created Netflix’s lockdown drama Social Distance, has teamed up with Untitled Entertainment and Israeli companies Hot, Sumayoko and Add Content Agency to adapt the series.

It will be known as Idyllwild in the U.S. and is currently being packaged with Jennifer Levine and Stephanie Simon of Untitled Entertainment and Hadas Mozes, co-founder of Add, shopping the projects to networks and streamers.

The Israeli series, which is produced by Sumayoko, is comedic family relationship drama about a group of friends who come together to face the breakdown of their former home and tight-knit community.

It follows Yair, who is rushed back to Israel from his life in Germany, where he currently lives with his girlfriend and has a promising career.

If you’ve heard about Another Round, the Oscar-nominated Danish film starring Mads Mikkelsen, you probably know about the Dance. It happens at the end of writer-director Thomas Vinterberg’s tragicomedy about four middle-aged high school teachers who attempt an experiment in magical drinking; entire features and paeans have already been written about it. Sitting on a park bench as his students whoop and holler near a pier, Mikkelsen’s history professor tentatively starts doing a two-step. Then he bursts into the sort of musical dance routine — leaping, twirling, sliding...

Oscar-nominated Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg is set to make his television drama debut with six-part family saga “Families Like Ours.” (Via Variety.) The Dane’s profile skyrocketed recently after he nabbed a surprise Oscar nomination for Best Director for his latest film “Another Round,” which is also nominated for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. “Families Like Ours” will continue Vinterberg’s collaboration with “Another Round” producer Zentropa, the Danish company founded by Lars Von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen.

“Families Like Ours” has been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2 and will be supported by Danish Public Service funds. In addition to directing, Vinterberg will co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, co-writer of his first feature “The Biggest Heroes.”

According to Variety:

“‘Families Like Ours’ takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After...

Oscar-nominated Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, whose latest movie “Another Round” is nominated for a pair of Oscars and just won a BAFTA award, is re-teaming with Danish production outfit Zentropa on his TV drama debut, “Families Like Ours.”

The thought-provoking drama series has already been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2. A family saga, the six-part series will be directed by Vinterberg, who will also co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, with whom Vinterberg wrote his debut feature film, “The Biggest Heroes.”

“Families Like Ours” takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After a flood slowly takes over the country, Denmark is gradually evacuated. People must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and to who they are. In the coming years, Danes disperse in all directions: only houses, schools and empty streets are left.

Those...

REinvent International Sales has closed Germany on Charlotte Sieling’s anticipated epic period drama, “Margrete – Queen of the North,” starring Trine Dyrholm (“The Commune”), licensing the film to Splendid Film.

The film stars Dyrholm, the award-winning actress of Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Commune” and May el-Toukhy’s “Queen of Hearts,” as Margrete I of Denmark, who is considered the most powerful ruler in Scandinavian history, as she gathered Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a peaceful union.

“Margrete· brings a fascinating “royal” and internationally hardly-known story to the screen, in an equally fascinating historical setting,” said

Rainer Flaskamp, head of acquisitions and sales at Splendid Film.

The historical drama has “a deep emotional angle and a lot of female power and involving some of Scandinavia’s best talent,” he added.

Helene Aurø, sales and marketing director at REinvent said that the company was “thrilled that Splendid has come onboard at an...

Photo: ‘Losing Alice’/Apple TV Apple TV is proving itself to have a keen eye for talent because Sigal Avin demonstrates truly innovative Cinematic talent with her new drama series ‘Losing Alice’. A story about a screenwriter who’s lost their artistic edge, spark, and drive; it’s a tale as old as time, however, due to the creative freedom that’s at the nucleus of Apple TV’s production model, Sigal Avin steers ‘Losing Alice’’s narrative in a creatively novel direction that makes fascinating and engrossing artistic leaps within an otherwise classic Hollywood story. Related article: Fans of ‘The Crown’ Will Love ‘The Dig’: An Archaeological Meditation on Legacy in a Time of Crisis Related article: Bollywood Mega-Star Kajol’s ‘Tribhanga’: What Happens When Society Isn’t Ready For Progressive Feminism? Starring ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Munich’ actor Ayelet Zurer, ‘The Burglar’ and ‘The Commune’ actor Lihi Kornowski,...

Nordic production and distribution powerhouse Sf Studios and sales agency REinvent International Sales have revealed a sneak peek of Charlotte Sieling’s epic period drama “Margrete – Queen of the North,” starring Trine Dyrholm, a Berlin Silver Bear winner for best actress with Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Commune.”

Dyrholm, whose credits also include Susanne Bier’s Oscar winner “In a Better World” and May el-Toukhy’s “Queen of Hearts,” toplines as Margrete the First, who is considered the most powerful ruler in Scandinavian history, as she gathered Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a peace-oriented union.

With a big budget by Scandinavian standards, “Margrete – Queen of the North” marks the first biopic movie about Margrete the First, a woman ahead of her time who sacrificed herself completely for her vision and for her countries. “Margrete -Queen of the North” is one of the titles set to be presented in the work in...

HBO has acquired the rights to “The Investigation,” Tobias Lindholm’s limited series regarding the 2017 murder of journalist Kim Wall. The premium cabler unveiled the trailer for the six-episode show on Monday.

“The Investigation” will explore the complex real-life investigation surrounding the murder of Wall, who boarded a submarine built by former entrepreneur Peter Madsen for an interview in 2017. The submarine was found sunken the following morning and Wall’s dismembered body parts were found throughout the area; Madsen was convicted of the murder in 2018 and sentenced to life imprisonment in a highly-publicized court case.

The Danish-language series will premiere on HBO on February 1.

Søren Malling (“A Hijacking”) leads the cast as Jens Møller, the Head of Homicide for the Copenhagen Police, alongside Pilou Asbæk (“Game of Thrones”) as the prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen. Pernilla August (“Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace”) and Rolf Lassgård (“The Hunters”) star as Kim Wall’s parents,...

Though the network has greatly increased its productivity over the past couple of years, odds are, if you want quality TV programming, HBO is a great place to start. And it appears the network’s upcoming miniseries, “The Investigation” is going to keep that trend alive.

Read More: ‘Another Round’ Dominates 2020 European Film Awards

“The Investigation” is a new series from acclaimed writer-director Tobias Lindholm, known for “A Hijacking,” the Oscar-nominated “A War,” episodes of “Mindhunter,” and co-writing many things with Thomas Vinterberg including “The Hunt,” “Another Round,” “The Commune,” and more.

Continue reading ‘The Investigation’ Trailer: Director Tobias Lindholm’s New Scandinavian Murder Mini-Series Is Coming To HBO In February at The Playlist.

Trine Dyrholm is outstanding as a liberal-minded lawyer who has a predatory affair with her stepson in May el-Toukhy’s excellent Danish drama

There’s a core of steel to this very enthralling and glossy movie from Danish-Egyptian director and co-writer May el-Toukhy. It’s exactly the kind of drama that might prove binge-worthily addictive if it was a three- or four-part series on a streaming platform. As a standalone feature film, it had me on the edge of my seat.

Trine Dyrholm gives a terrific performance in the sophisticated and sexually candid style that she does so well. Dyrholm is Anne, an accomplished lawyer who is currently acting for the victim in a rape case; she is impeccably liberal and enlightened in the matter of sexual politics. Anne is married to a doctor, Peter (Magnus Krepper), and they have two charming twin girls, but their picture-perfect life has something emotionally stagnant in it.

Israel’s leading pay TV group Yes Studios has unveiled a first-look teaser for its new drama series “The Chef” in the run-up to the series’ local launch on Yes TV in November.

Created by Erez Kavel and Orit Dabush, “The Chef” was selected at the Zurich Festival, Berlin TV Series Festival and the SerienCamp Festival in Munich. “The Chef” is the first drama launched by Yes Studios since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The show’s production was halted in mid-March when Israel went into full lockdown, and it was one of the first series to resume production once the restrictions were lifted in mid-June.

“The Chef” follows an unemployed high-tech worker who starts working in the kitchen of a prestigious restaurant run by a brilliant chef struggling to stay relevant and keep his place at the top of Tel-Aviv’s ultra-competitive gastronomic world.

“The Chef,” produced by Ayelet Imberman and Meny Aviram,...

Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round is continuing its trajectory as one to watch this season. The Mads Mikkelsen-starrer has been shortlisted by Denmark’s Oscar Committee as one of three pictures that will vie to be the country’s entry for the International Feature Film Academy Award. The other two films are Rotterdam prizewinner A Perfectly Normal Family by Malou Reymann and Venice Critics’ Week title Shorta from Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid. The official selection will be announced on November 18.

Another Round on Sunday scooped the Virtual Audience Award for Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival. It had previously received the official selection label for Cannes’ 2020 edition and had its international premiere during the Toronto Film Festival. At San Sebastian, it won the Silver Shell for Best Actor.

At the Danish box office, the drama has sold over 500K tickets since release on...

Israel’s Yes Studios (“Fauda”) has unveiled a first look clip and photos of the anticipated third season of its hit Netflix drama “Shtisel,” and has announced two new shows, “The Chef” and “Embezzlement.”

“Shtisel,” whose first two seasons are available on Netflix, follows a Haredi family living in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem reckoning with love, loss and the doldrums of daily life.

Created and written by Ori Elon and Yehonatan Indursky, the series stars Michael Aloni, Doval’e Glickman, Neta Riskin, Sasson Gabai and Shira Haas, the star of Netflix’s “Unorthodox” who is nominated for an Emmy Award. “Shtisel” was produced by Abot Hameiri, a Fremantle company, and is directed by Alon Zingman.

The third season of “Shtisel” picks up four years after the events of the previous season. Comprising nine episodes, season three of the show started filming last month and will be airing on Yes TV in Israel later this year.

The Ukrainian story was named the winner, while the 2021 Emerging Producers were also celebrated. The jury of the Docu Talents from the East – organised by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival and presented as part of CineLink Industry Days, the industry section of the Sarajevo Film Festival (14-20 August) – announced the winner among its participating projects from Central and Eastern Europe, in production or post-production. Also including Matouš Bičák and Marie-Magdalena Kochová’s The Most Beautiful City in the World, Bruno Pavić’s Landscape Zero, about a devastating impact of industrial facilities on a small coastal area, Katya Zayaz and Alex Pukhov’s Everybody is Ok, Motherlands by Gabriel Babsi, Jakub Julény’s The Commune, Carmen Tofeni’s Letter and Martin Mareček’s The Man Behind the Muscle, summed up as “a highly contemporary and provocative testimony of the crisis of male identity at the beginning of the 21st century.

Zentropa producing show for TV2; TrustNordisk handles sales.

Thomas Vinterberg is planning to direct his first TV series, Families Like Ours, for TV2 Danmark.

Zentropa will produce the six-episode family saga, which has already been in development for a year. Sisse Graum Jørgensen, who has produced Vinterberg’s The Hunt, The Commune and Another Round, will produce alongside Kasper Dissing, who also produced Another Round.

Vinterberg will direct all six episodes and co-write the series with Bo hr. Hansen, who also co-wrote Vinterberg’s 1996 feature The Biggest Heroes.

The shoot is planned for late 2021 or early 2022. TrustNordisk is handling international sales on the series.

"We only drink during work hours." "Like Hemingway." Screen Daily has unveiled an official promo trailer for the film Another Round, also known as Druk, the latest feature from acclaimed Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg. The film was announced as a Cannes 2020 selection yesterday, meaning it would've premiered at the film festival last month, but will instead play at other fests before release. Four teachers embark on an experiment where they each sustain a certain level of alcohol intoxication during their everyday life, believing that all people in general would benefit from a bit higher Blood Alcohol Content. But, of course, they eventually take things too far. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe, Magnus Millang, and Maria Bonnevie. This looks fantastic! Not just a film about alcohol, but about society and our place in it. Can't wait to see this film. Here's the first promo trailer for Thomas Vinterberg's...

Director May el-Toukhy tackles a subject that has not yet been explored and is frightening in the possibilities it reveals to us as women assume positions of power and authority. The troublesome specter of exploitive female sexuality is also elaborated upon in the Dutch Oscar submission, ‘Instinct’.

Two highly developed Western European nations, Denmark and The Netherlands, take female sexuality to extremes here in ways we only saw before as men’s terrain with such films as Last Tango in Paris or In the Realm of the Senses.

My initial reaction to both films was a sort of shame, as if somewhere deep inside of me, I understood the impulse that impelled both these women to venture into forbidden zones of action, but wished it had not depicted it so graphically. It would take a psychiatrist to explain the impulse in human nature that makes us enter dangerous sexual territories.

Danish actress Trine Dyrholm — the star of Oscar contender Queen of Hearts — has joined the second-season cast of Danish crime series Face to Face. Dyrholm, whose credits include In a Better World, Love Is All You Need and The Commune, is one of Denmark's most acclaimed and fearless actresses. Her starring role in May el-Toukhy's Queen of Hearts — as a successful career woman who puts everything at risk when she seduces her teenage stepson — has drawn critical acclaim and a best actress nomination for this year's European Film Awards. Queen of Hearts is Denmark's official entry for ...

Dyrholm recently won awards for her role in Sundance 2019 title ‘Queen Of Hearts’.

Danish star Trine Dyrholm will follow her award-winning role in Sundance award winner Queen Of Hearts by headlining the cast of Henrik Ruben Genz’s Erna At War.

She will play a powerful woman who tries to save her mentally disabled son during the First World War. The film is set in 1918, on the borderland between Germany and Denmark, where her son is mistakenly enrolled for the Prussian Army. She disguises herself as a man to join his regiment and keep her son safe.

The cast will...

The story follows a group of high school teachers inspired by a theory that modest intoxication would open our minds to the world around us.

Thomas Vinterberg is reuniting with several key collaborators from his acclaimed 2012 drama The Hunt for new project Druk (the international title is yet to be confirmed) now shooting in Denmark.

He reteams with scriptwriter Tobias Lindholm as well as actors Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe and Susse Wold.

The other major role in Druk is played by Magnus Millang, who has previously acted in Vinterberg’s Kursk (2018) and The Commune (2016). The cast also...

The Command, a feature based on a true story, centers on a Russian nuclear powered submarine that sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea back in August 2000. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, the narrative centers on 23 sailors who attempt to survive the tragedy.

Matthias Schoenaerts, who delivered a memorable [...]

The post Matthias Schoenaerts Reunites With Thomas Vinterberg In Submarine Thriller ‘The Command’ appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

Dyrholm stars as a lawyer who has an affair with her teenage stepson.

TrustNordisk has boarded international sales for May el-Toukhy’s Danish drama Queen Of Hearts, which is now in post.

Trine Dyrholm (The Commune) stars as a successful lawyer who starts an illicit affair with her teenage stepson, played by rising Swedish talent Gustav Lindh. The story also follows the repercussions of her actions. Magnus Krepper (The Girl Who Played With Fire) plays her husband.

The film was the most buzzy presentation at Haugesund’s Works in Progress in August. El-Toukhy wrote the script with Maren Louise Käehne,...

It has been six years since Thomas Vinterberg unveiled his Oscar-nominated psycho-drama “The Hunt” at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012, though it feels as if it were just yesterday.

Read More: Toronto International Film Festival: 22 Most Anticipated Movies

As the co-founder of the Dogme 95 movement — the other forefather being Lars Von Trier — Vinterberg is hardly a novice in the cinematic world, though both of his most recent features “Far From the Madding Crowd” and “The Commune” have failed to shake up the scene when compared to “The Hunt” or his debut outing “The Celebration.”

Read More: 55 Must-See Films: The 2018 Fall Movie Preview

Nevertheless, the filmmaker’s upcoming film “Kursk” may be able to change the tide in Vinterberg’s favor.

Continue reading ‘Kursk’ Trailer: Matthias Schoenaerts Stars in Thomas Vinterberg’s Submarine Disaster Drama at The Playlist.

Untitled Zentropa Entertainment film will focus on the joys of drinking.

TrustNordisk has acquired rights and will kick off pre-sales for Thomas Vinterberg’s upcoming feature at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The untitled project revolves around four friends who embark on an experiment to remain constantly drunk. Whille initially successful, the plan eventually derails.

The film, which is now in pre-production, will star an as-yet-announced Danish cast and will be produced by Sisse Graum and Zentropa Entertainment. Vinterberg’s The Hunt and Submarino co-writer Tobias Lindholm is writing the script.

Principal photography is expected to begin in summer 2019 with a budget of €3.8m.

Eurimages Lab Project Award goes to performance artist story Burning Man from Norway.

Two Danish films were the buzz hits of Haugesund’s works in progress presentations this week. They were Queen Of Hearts, a drama starring Trine Dyrholm as a middle-aged woman having an affair; and political thriller Sons Of Denmark.

Dyrholm, whose credits include The Commune, Oscar winner In A Better World and TV’s The Legacy, stars in May el-Toukhy’s second feature Queen Of Hearts alongside rising Swedish actor Gustav Lindh. The story is about Anne, a lawyer who works with troubled youth, who shockingly starts...

‪Susanna Nicchiarelli's Nico, 1988‬ star ‪Trine Dyrholm with Anne-Katrin Titze‬: "It's a film about identity and finding your way in life and who is behind the icon, who is actually the human being." Photo: Layla Hancock-Piper

Trine Dyrholm has worked with some terrific directors, including Susanne Bier on In A Better World and Love Is All You Need opposite Pierce Brosnan, and Thomas Vinterberg on Celebration (Festen) and The Commune. In Susanna Nicchiarelli's Nico, 1988, she gives a haunting portrayal of Christa Päffgen, aka Nico.

During our conversation at Magnolia Pictures on the afternoon of the Film Forum theatrical première of Nico, 1988 in New York, Trine discussed with me the work she did with composer Max Viale of Gatto Ciliegia contro il Grande Freddo when she recorded Nico's songs in the studio for the film, finding the emotional states of mind of her character, and the human being behind the icon.

Susanna Nicchiarelli‬ on Trine Dyrholm, the star of Thomas Vinterberg's Festen and The Commune: "I wanted to work with her because she's one of my favourite actresses." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the second half of my conversation with Nico, 1988 director/screenwriter Susanna Nicchiarelli at The Roxy Hotel, we discuss how Trine Dyrholm worked on the character, going into the studio to record Nico's songs, the look from costume designers Francesca Vecchi and Roberta Vecchi, and Nico's sense of irony.

Trine Dyrholm will be on this year's Venice International Film Festival jury, headed by Guillermo del Toro along with Nicole Garcia, Taika Waititi, Naomi Watts, Sylvia Chang, Christoph Waltz, Paolo Genovese, and Malgorzata Szumowska.

Susanna Nicchiarelli on Trine Dyrholm the singer: "We took Nico's songs and went in the studio, she sang them and the character came out of there with the body language." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Dyrholm as...

“Please don’t confront me with my failures, I had not forgotten them,” sings German model-actress-musician Nico on 1967’s Jackson Browne-penned “These Days,” one of her signature post-Velvet Underground songs. It opens Susanna Nicchiarelli’s third feature, “Nico, 1988,” an exploration of the cult star’s final two years before her death at age 49, and the song’s mournful rumination on regret is tailor-made for the story.

Nico hates being called by that stage name, even though by 1986 when the film begins, it’s her last remaining meal ticket. Born Christa Päffgen in 1930s Germany, she has never been famous in the traditional sense. A teenage model who became one of Andy Warhol’s “superstars,” appearing in a handful of his experimental films, she sang three songs on an album, “The Velvet Underground and Nico,” that few people knew about at the time of its initial release, but grew in stature and influence years later.

A brain hemorrhage claimed German musician Christa “Nico” Päffgen 30 years ago this Wednesday, but American cinema-goers can celebrate her legacy later this summer. Magnolia Pictures has released the first trailer for “Nico, 1988,” the third narrative film from Italian writer-director (and occasional documentarian) Susanna Nicchiarelli. “Nico, 1988” tracks the singer’s final year, during which she attempts to reconnect with her estranged son while distancing herself from past collaborations with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground.

Denmark-born Trine Dyrholm, the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear–winning actress from 2016 (“The Commune”), stars as the nicotine-fueled songstress. For Päffgen, life was difficult from the beginning: her family fled her hometown when she was a toddler to escape World War II bombings (and her enlisted father never recovered from his injuries). In the trailer, she totes a recorder across Europe, attempting to recapture the sound of the explosions.

The 93-minute biopic visits Nico’s earlier decades,...

Writer-director-producer Barry Levinson, who will screen his HBO-produced account of the Penn State sex-abuse scandal “Paterno” at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, will be honored with the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema, the organization announced Wednesday.

At the fest, which launches its 53rd edition in the Czech Republic’s historic spa town June 29, Levinson will also introduce his Oscar-winning 1988 Dustin Hoffman-starrer “Rain Man” and 1998’s “Wag the Dog.” The impact of Levinson’s screenwriting, including 1970s TV hits and breakout courtroom drama “…And Justice for All,” will be celebrated along with his directorial work, which launched with 1982’s “Diner” and carried on with “The Natural,” “Good Morning, Vietnam,” “Avalon” and “Bugsy.”

Karlovy Vary said that Levinson’s producing work, backing directors from Mike Newell (“Donnie Brasco”) to Neil Labute (“Possession”), has made his influence on cinema comparable with that of William Friedkin, Jerry Schatzberg,...

‪Susanna Nicchiarelli‬ on Nico's relationship with Alain Delon: "I don't mention him because I don't mention any of the men she was with except Jim Morrison. I think people's lives are much more complex than what movies usually tell us, especially biopics." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Nico, 1988, a highlight of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Best Film Horizons Award winner at the Venice Film Festival, stars Trine Dyrholm as Christa Päffgen. "This is Berlin, my darling, it's burning," says a mother to her daughter. The child is to become Andy Warhol and Velvet Underground icon Nico.

Susanna Nicchiarelli's extraordinary film, shot by Crystel Fournier is not about those most famous years (which flash onto the screen in snippets of archival footage), nor, with the exception of a few flashbacks, about her war time and postwar German childhood. In Nico, 1988 the focus is on 1986 and the following years when she...

The Commune (Kollektivet) Magnolia Pictures Written by: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Martha Sofie Wallstrom Hansen, Julie Agnete Vang, Fares Fares Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 5/2/17 Opens: May 19, 2017 You don’t have to look around much to notice that human beings are social animals. Take for […]

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A couple’s experiment with group living backfires in Thomas Vinterberg’s beautifully acted but heavy-handed drama

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s own experiences of growing up in a commune during the 1970s and 80s inform his unflinching approach to the subject in this drama, which was based on his own stage play, Kollektivet. More heavy-handed than Lukas Moodysson’s similarly themed Together, less abrasively confrontational than The Idiots by fellow Dogme 95 signatory Lars von Trier, The Commune is slightly melodramatic in its exploration of the emotional fallout when an experiment in collective living coincides with the breakdown of a marriage.

When university lecturer Erik (Ulrich Thomsen) inherits a huge house on the outskirts of Copenhagen, he is dissuaded from selling it by his wife, Anna (Trine Dyrholm), who proposes sharing the space with like-minded friends as a way of easing the financial burden, and staving off the middle-class, middle-age...

The Toronto International Film Festival — aka Tiff — has announced its first round of picks for this year’s festival, including Galas and Special Presentations, along with the festival’s opening night selection, Antoine Fuqua’s “The Magnificent Seven,” and their closing night pick, Kelly Fremon Craig’s feature directorial debut “The Edge of Seventeen.” Filled with early awards contenders, returning filmmakers and favorites from other festivals from around the globe, it’s a meaty selection of offerings that firmly announces the imminent arrival of the cinematic bonanza otherwise known as the fall festival season.

There are plenty of familiar faces here, including Denis Villeneuve, who will be bringing his “Arrival” to the same festival that has also screened his “Sicario” and “Prisoners” in previous years. The year after debuting his “Being Charlie” at Tiff, director Rob Reiner will return with his Woody Harrelson-starring biopic “Lbj.” Lone Scherfig, who has...

The film-maker on how growing up in a commune informed his new movie and his mixed feelings about the EU

Thomas Vinterberg is the Danish film director who, with Lars von Trier, co-founded Dogme 95, a movement that aimed to “purify” film-making by, among other things, minimising the use of special effects. In 1998, he wrote and directed the first Dogme film, Festen (The Celebration), which won numerous awards. However, his 2003 film, It’s All About Love, starring Claire Danes and Joaquin Phoenix, was a famous flop, and his reputation did not fully recover until the Oscar-nominated The Hunt (2012), about a man wrongly accused of child abuse. His new film is Kollektivet (The Commune), set in Copenhagen in the early 70s. It stars Ulrich Thomsen as Erik and Trine Dyrholm as Anna, a middle-class couple who set up a commune, with disastrous consequences for their marriage.

To what extent was your new film inspired by your childhood?...

Fuocoammare

Italian documentary Fuocoammare (Fire At Sea) has won the Golden Bear at this year's Berlinale. The film follows the struggle of refugees trying to reach safety on the island of Lampedusa. Director Gianfranco Rosi, who hails from Eritrea like many of the refugees themselves, said his deepest concern was for those who never made it across the sea.

The Silver Bear award went to Mia Hansen-Løve for L'Avenir, which is also showing at the Glasgow Film Festival. The prize for best Actor went to Majd Mastoura for Inhebbek Hedi, a Tunisian tale set in the aftermath of the Arab Spring demonstrations, while Best Actress went to Trine Dyrholm for Thomas Vinterberg's Kollektivet, a drama about life in a 1970s Danish commune.

The winners were selected by the International Jury, headed by Meryl Streep....

After adeptly dipping his toe into the very English material of “Far From The Madding Crowd,” terrific Danish director Thomas Vinterberg returns to home soil for his new film. “The Commune” (“Kollektivet”) isn’t as dark as most of his output, from “Festen” to “The Hunt,” but despite its nostalgic comic surface it packs a characteristic emotional punch. It’s the mid-'70s. When an architect, Eric (Ulrich Thomsen), inherits his father’s enormous house in an upmarket suburb of Copenhagen, his first thought is to sell it. But Eric’s TV newsreader wife Anna (Trine Dyrholm) and teenage daughter Freja like the idea of actually living in it; more than that, Anna wants to fill it with people and introduce a spark into her marriage. “I need a change,” she tells her husband, “I need to hear someone else speak.” This rather serious man has to take that one on the chin,...