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Strand Releasing offers a bold mix of international films, documentaries, and Lgbtqia+ stories.

When I studied film at USC, my love for movies went way beyond the big blockbusters. Sure, I grew up on Hollywood hits, but it was in my Critical Studies courses where I really got hooked on independent and foreign films — the kind that push boundaries, tell bold stories, and leave you trying to figure out what really happened over the last two hours. That’s why I love digging into streamers that specialize in the kind of cinema you won’t always find on the home page of the big platforms. If you’re like me and appreciate films that challenge, inspire, and come from all corners of the world, Strand Releasing is a video streaming service worth checking out. Known for its eclectic mix of international films, documentaries, and Lgbtqia+ cinema, Strand Releasing brings some...

French filmmaker Christophe Ruggia has been ordered by a French magistrate to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting actress Adèle Haenel when she was a minor in the early 2000s.

The Paris trial date is set for December 9 and 10, according to French media reports. Ruggia has denied all charges and his lawyers have yet to comment publicly on the trial.

Haenel, now 35, filed a complaint against Ruggia in 2019 accusing him of “constant sexual harassment” when she was between 12 and 15 years old and he was in his 30s, which she says included “forced kisses on the neck” and unwanted touching.

Spanish director Jonás Trueba’s The Other Way Around (Volveréis) has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

The prize is judged by four members of the Europa Cinema network representing independent exhibitors operating 3,121 screens across Europe. Under the prize, the film will receive the support of these cinemas as it goes on release.

This year’s jury omprised Louise Casey Conneally; Maarja Krass; Rémi Labé and Tamara Visković.

“Jonás Trueba’s well-crafted and nuanced film has an unusual premise – it tells the story of a couple who embrace a novel ritual. Prior to their separation, they elect to celebrate their 15-year relationship with a party,” read their statement.

“Humorous and cleverly written, the film’s circular structure manifests generosity of spirit in its inspiring look at human relationships.

by Chad Kennerk

Director Thomas Cailley behind the scenes.

All images courtesy of Magnet Releasing

While participating in a jury at the French film school La Fémis, writer/director Thomas Cailley read a script by Pauline Munier exploring a hybridization between humans and animals. It was a metaphor that fascinated Cailley, one that would provide an opportunity to talk about the world we inherit and the one we leave behind for future generations. Cailley and Munier began developing the script in 2019 and the eventual introduction of a certain world-disrupting virus validated their idea of what a new normal might look like and demonstrated how quickly humans adapt in unforeseen circumstances. Firmly cemented as a recent memory in society, the pandemic experience provides yet another lens to view Cailley’s multi-layered creation The Animal Kingdom.

Following his 2014 feature debut Love at First Fight, The Animal Kingdom marks Thomas Cailley’s second feature as writer/director.

The 49th Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Justine Triet‘s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall emerging as the big winner.

The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.

Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.

The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography...

The French horror film The Animal Kingdom has been making the festival rounds for the last year, and after reaching theatres in its home country last October it ended up earning 12 Nominations at this year’s César Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor. We’ll have to wait a couple weeks to find out if it’s going to win those César Awards (the ceremony is set to be held on February 23rd), but in the meantime a trailer for the film’s American release has made its way online and can be seen in the embed above. Magnet Releasing will be giving The Animal Kingdom a theatrical and VOD release on March 15th.

Directed by Thomas Cailley, who also wrote the screenplay with Pauline Munier, The Animal Kingdom, which is described as “a visionary thriller”, drops viewers into an extraordinary world where mutations...

France has unveiled the five titles in the running to be its entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

The full shortlist is:

Anatomy Of A Fall by Justine Triet The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley Sons of Ramses (Goutte d’Or) by Clement Cogitore (int’l sales, mk2 films) The Taste Of Things (previously The Pot-Au-Feu) by Tràn Anh Hùng On The Wondering Paths by Denis Imbert)

The short list was decided by a selection committee of film professionals on Wednesday in a process overseen by the country’s National Cinema Centre (Cnc).

This year’s committee features former Lionsgate film co-chief Patrick Wachsberger; international sales veterans Sabine Chemaly...

After braving a massive backlash over her fiery political speech at the Cannes Film Festival, French director Justine Triet has succeeded in luring wide audiences in local theaters with her Palme d’Or winning film “Anatomy of a Fall.”

A courtroom drama exploring the collapse of a marriage and a mother-son relationship, “Anatomy of a Fall” has scored the best B.O. score at the French box office for a Palme d’Or winner since “Blue is the Warmest Color,” the 2013 erotic drama starring Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos.

The movie, which was bought by Neon at Cannes, is hotly tipped to represent France is the Oscar race. The other French films that will likely be shortlisted by this year’s French committee include “The Taste of Things”; and “Jeanne du Barry,” Maiwenn’s Versailles-set period starring Johnny Depp as Louis Xv. “The Taste of Things” and “Jeanne du Barry...

Brazil’s Raccord Produções, Chile’s Araucaria Cine and France’s Nord-Ouest Films are teaming to produce acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker Gabe Klinger’s feature drama project “Okonomiyaki.”

“Okonomiyaki” will topline celebrated Brazilian actor-helmer Leandra Leal, Yuki Sugimoto, star of Disney+ series “Mila in the Multiverse,” and feature Marco Pigossi, of Netflix’s “Invisible City” and “Tidelands.”

The feature-length project has been selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, its industry centerpiece, which runs Sept. 25-27.

The film is produced by Clélia Bessa and Marcos Pieri at Raccord, Araucaria’s Isabel Orellana and Nord-Ouest Films’ Ola Byszuk, who are looking fo further financing and co-production, as well as sales and distribution partners for the project.

Offscreen talent includes longtime Pablo Larraín Dp Sergio Armstrong and editor Soledad Salfate, of Sebastián Lelio’s Oscar-winner “A Fantastic Woman.”

Principal photography on “Okonomiyaki” is scheduled to kick-off second quarter next year in Sao Paulo.

Distributor plans 2024 release.

Magnet Releasing, Magnolia Pictures’ genre arm, has acquired US rights from Studiocanal to Cannes Un Certain Regard selection The Animal Kingdom.

‘The Animal Kingdom’: Cannes Review

Thomas Cailley, who was last in Cannes in 2014 with Directors’ Fortnight entry Love At First Fight, directed the story of genetic mutations that are causing humans to become hybrid creatures.

It stars Roman Duris, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Paul Kircher. Cailley co-wrote the screenplay with Pauline Munier, and Pierre Guyard produced the Nord-Ouest Films production. Magnet plans a 2024 release.

“The Animal Kingdom is a wild ride of a film,” said Magnolia Pictures...

Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, has bought U.S. rights to “The Animal Kingdom,” Thomas Cailley’s creature-filled dystopian thriller which world premiered as the opening night selection of Cannes Un Certain Regard.

Produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord-Ouest Films, “The Animal Kingdom” was financed and co-produced by Studiocanal, which handles French distribution and international sales. The film is set in a world where mutations in human genetics cause people to transform into hybrid creatures. It boasts stellar performances by Roman Duris (“Final Cut”), Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”) and Paul Kircher (“Winter Boy”). Magnet will release the film next year.

Duris stars as François, who sets off to save his wife, who has been affected by this mysterious condition. As some of the creatures disappear into a nearby forest, François embarks with Emile (Kircher), their 16-year-old son, on a quest to find her with...

“Creatura,” the feature debut of Elena Martín, exploring female sexual desire and repression, has won this year’s 20th Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European Film at the 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the closing ceremony this afternoon, the prize is one of two at Directors’ Fortnight, and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners, given the section is non-competitive.

A second partner plaudit, the Sacd Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced simultaneously to the Europa Cinemas Label.

“Creature” hit Cannes will multiple tailwinds. Like last year’s Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” it’s made by an emerging woman director associated by the so-called Catalan New Wave of helmers and producers making films twinning a strong sense of place and universal issues.

The second feature from 2021 Málaga best director Martín (“Júlia ist”) and a “Veneno” writer and “Perfect Life” director,...

Updated with Sacd prize details: Spanish director Elena Martín Gimeno’s Creatura won the Europa Cinemas prize as Best European Film, while Pierre Caton’s Le Prince scooped the Sacd for best French film at Directors’ Fortnight on Thursday.

The prizes were announced ahead of the evening closing ceremony for the non-competitive parallel Directors Fortnight section.

The Europa Cinema label and Sacd prizes are the key collateral prizes awarded to films world premiering in the section.

Under the Europa Cinema prize, the release of Creatura will receive the support of cinemas belonging to the independent exhibitor network representing 3,060 screens in 38 countries. The jury consists of four exhibitor members of the network.

Creatura revolves around a seemingly perfect couple who no longer manage to have sex, prompting one partner to probe her past and her sexual sexual awakening, from adolescence back to early childhood.

French writers guild Sacd’s prize is...

A bold departure from France’s cinema tradition of social realism, Thomas Cailley’s widely ambitious sophomore outing “The Animal Kingdom” is equally a creature-filled dystopia, an emotionally charged father-and-son drama and a coming-of-age tale.

The character-driven film world premiered to warm reviews at the Cannes Film Festival where it bowed the Un Certain Regard section. “The Animal Kingdom” is represented in international market by Studiocanal and was produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord Ouest Films, and co-produced by Artemis.

“The Animal Kingdom” takes place in an undetermined future in France which has been swept by a genetic disease causing people to transform into creatures that are being hunted down and killed or institutionalized by authorities. Kircher, the breakout star of Christophe Honoré’s “Winter Boy,” plays 16-year-old Emile whose mother was institutionalized after showing first signs of a genetic mutation. He lives with his father Francois (Romain Duris) who is struggling to overcome grief.

Director Thomas Cailley made an arresting debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 as part of the Directors’ Fortnight with Love At First Fight or Les Combattants. He’s back in Un Certain Regard (with his brother David again as chief cinematographer) with an ecological piece of sci-fi fantasy that is breathtakingly well-paced and visually arresting.

During the break he has been working on television series but here he exploits the big screen experience in his take on the state of the planet in which people are literally being turned into animals of various descriptions.

The opening scenes in which a father and son (Romain Duris and Paul Kircher) are stuck in a horrendous traffic jam with the family’s pet dog in tow, could not be more mundane and barely prepare the audience for what is about to be unleashed. It would be churlish to divulge any more details.

It’s a measure of the state we’re in today that Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to his 2014 debut Love at First Fight could be described as a metaphor for just about anything you like. It takes the surreal premise of Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2015 Cannes hit The Lobster and, through a peculiar kind of cinematic alchemy, makes a surprisingly credible family drama out of it. Its overarching themes of love and tolerance go a long way, and it’s by no means a stretch to see a bunch of current hot-button topics — the world refugee crisis, climate change and trans rights to name but three — refracted through Cailley’s lens.

In The Lobster, people who fail to find a partner at least get to choose what animal they would like to be, but in The Animal Kingdom — selected to open the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes — the process is way more random.

While the world was grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, French director Thomas Cailley was imagining another kind of coronavirus, one he’d cooked up before the crisis, but which suddenly took on new real-world relevance. In “The Animal Kingdom,” a mysterious malady is sweeping France, unlocking something at a genetic level that causes people to transform into hybrid creatures. The mutations are slow and somewhat unpredictable: One person might sprout feathers, observing over weeks as their arms develop into wings, while another grows scales and winds up slithering like a snake.

Through it all, 16-year-old Émile (Paul Kircher) and his father, François (Romain Duris), are just trying to stay calm, which isn’t easy when something akin to a zombie apocalypse has left the entire country jittery and suspicious. What’s causing the mutations? Is it contagious? Can the creatures be trusted, or are they a threat to others? A scar on Émile’s cheek,...

Warning: This article contains Spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.David Dastmalchian returns in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, but not in the role he's been previously known for. Scott Lang is joined by several familiar faces in his trek across the Quantum Realm, but noticeably missing is his crew of ex-convict friends. Perhaps the subatomic journey would’ve been a bit much for Luis, Kurt and Dave, so they were rightfully left out of the film.

The MCU is no stranger to reusing actors in different roles, like Gemma Chan starring as Sersi in Eternals after playing Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel. However, David Dastmalchian is one of the only to have played two characters in the same trilogy. Voicing the character Veb, Dastmalchian’s new role is a nice nod to the first two films.

Related: Who Exiled Kang To The Quantum Realm & Why

Who & What Is Veb,...

Directed by Anita Rivaroli

There’s one thing that can be said about We Are the Thousand that sets it apart from almost any other movie, and that’s that there will never be another movie like it. It tells the story of a thousand musicians coming together to perform the Foo Fighters’ song ‘Learn To Fly’ In an attempt to get them to play a concert in their small town.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like something that you could make an eighty-minute documentary out of but there’s a lot going on. Starting with an idea is where this would start and end with many people but that idea grows. Then, even with a small following and backing, you have to get a thousand people to turn up and play the song together. What is, pretty much, a thousand strangers then have to play in harmony and make...

Starring Léa Seydoux, Mia Hansen-Løve’s “One Fine Morning” won this year’s Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European film at the 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the closing ceremony this evening, the prize is one of two at Directors Fortnight, and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners given the section is non-competitive.

A second partner plaudit, the Sacd Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced later today at an awards ceremony.

“One Fine Morning” was always a frontrunner for a prize at Directors’ Fortnight, though never a shoo-in. The award comes just three days after Sony Pictures Classics announced it had acquired North American, Latin American and Middle East rights to the film.

Marking Hansen-Løve’s return to Directors’ Fortnight after Cannes competition player “Bergman Island,” “One Fine Morning” stars Séydoux as a woman stretched between long-time single motherhood,...

After two highly successful years of drive-in events due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Race to Erase Ms gala makes its long-awaited return to the foundation’s original home at the newly renovated Fairmont Century Plaza on May 20th, 2022.

This year’s guests will be treated to a celebration featuring a performance from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame legend, Nile Rodgers & Chic to help raise funds and awareness for multiple sclerosis. The event will also boast a fashion show featuring Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive’s latest collection. Launched in 2017, the line features innovatively designed clothing that makes dressing easier for adults and children with disabilities.

Expected to attend are Race to Erase Ms founder Nancy Davis, Headliners Nile Rodgers & Chic, and additional special guests including Alan Bersten, Amanda Kloots, Angela Lewis, Anna Fiamora, Anna Trebunskaya, Anne Heche, Big Boy, Brandee Evans, Brian Austin Green, Camerone Parker, Candace Nicholas-Lippman, Carmen Electra, Christine Devine,...

The Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation has announced that Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum selling global superstar, actor, producer and philanthropist Nick Jonas will receive the Golden Glove Award at its 11th annual “Big Fighters, Big Cause” Charity Boxing Night presented by B. Riley Securities on Wednesday, May 25 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The star-studded evening is set to be hosted by Chris Spencer with a National Anthem performance by Empire Nashville recording artist Sophia Scott, action-packed live fights presented by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and a live and silent auction display featuring iconic memorabilia and one-of-a-kind items and experiences.

The 2022 Golden Glove Award will acknowledge Jonas’ commitment to helping raise awareness for diabetes. In addition to his many accomplishments, Jonas also co-founded Beyond Type 1, a global nonprofit organization that provides education and resources to support those affected by diabetes. With the largest digital footprint of any diabetes nonprofit,...

"Studio 666" always has its tongue in its cheek. The horror-comedy, in which Dave Grohl becomes possessed and devours the rest of the Foo Fighters, never takes itself seriously in the slightest. The jokes and kills go big. Maybe beneath the grilling, the cannibalism, and the band's infighting over a never-ending song, there's a story about the fear of losing your friends or band mates and, as a result, yourself. It's a story older than rock and roll.

For "Midnight Meat Train" screenwriter Jeff Buhler and comedy writer Rebecca Hughes, it's simply a party movie, not a meditation on morality and the creative...

The post Studio 666 Co-Writers Jeff Buhler and Rebecca Hughes Kill The Foo Fighters [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

If you ever wanted to hang out with the Foo Fighters, and get killed by them, there’s only one game in town: “Studio 666,” a goofy horror comedy that, if nothing else, seems to have given the Foo Fighters a time-consuming little project to help get them through the pandemic.

The whole movie exists to waste a few hours away, chilling with one of the most popular rock bands in the world as they share their love of scary movies, act like dorks and eat an alarming number of Doritos.

“Studio 666” stars, in descending order of screen time, the Foo Fighters, Doritos snack chips, and Whitney Cummings. There are so many Doritos on-screen throughout “Studio 666” that we can only imagine that either a lot of money has changed hands or, like Joan Crawford before them, at least one of these so-called “fighters of foo” married into the...

Starring the Foo Fighters, the horror-comedy Studio 666 is coming to theaters on February 25, and the Red Band trailer this afternoon is jam-packed with messy, gory insanity! Dave Grohl stars in Studio 666 from Hatchet III filmmaker Bj McDonnell, and if this trailer is any indication, we’re in store for a Sam Raimi-style blast that’s filled […]

The post ‘Studio 666’ Red Band Trailer Splatters the Foo Fighters in Extreme Gore! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The deepest blues are black, as are the color of Dave Grohl’s eyes in the first trailer for Foo Fighters’ horror comedy Studio 666.

The band shot their first feature film during the pandemic and have now unveiled the first look, which you can see above.

It looks like Evil Dead if it was set at Sound City Studios (or Grohl’s own Studio 606), rather than in the backwoods of Tennessee.

Out February 25, the film stars members of the band – Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee, as well as the likes of Whitney Cummings, Leslie Grossman, Will Forte, Jenna Ortega and Jeff Garlin.

It follows what happens to the stadium rockers as they rent an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history, to record their 10th album. The trouble is, frontman Grohl is creatively blocked, and when evil forces in the house sink into his consciousness,...

The always busy legendary rock band the Foo Fighters are going to be in movie. It was recently revealed that he band which were just recently inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame have announced that they are going to be in a horror-comedy movie called Studio 666. The movie which was shot in secret will be about a legendary band that rents a haunted Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history, to record their 10th album. Trouble starts a brewing when the front man, Grohl is creatively blocked, and when evil forces in the house sink into his consciousness, the creative juices begin flowing but so does the blood. Can the Foo Fighters’ complete the album without meeting a bloody end? The Foo’s are comprised of bandmates Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Rami Jaffee, and Chris Shiflett. The film was directed by Bj McDonnell.

Saturday Night Live picked up its fifth straight win in the Emmy Variety Sketch Series category on Sunday.

The long-running NBC comedy series beat HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show. It takes SNL’s Emmy total to 86 wins.

(Update: some confusion as to the previous count of 81 as the Academy hadn’t previously included NBC’s Saturday Night, the show’s original title, in its win total).

Macdonald anchored Weekend Update for three and a half seasons and was on the show for five seasons between 1993 and 1998.

“Weekend Update has been part of SNL for 46 seasons and here I’d like to pay tribute to one of the best we ever had, Norm Macdonald,” said Michaels.

Michaels also talked about how the show coped during the pandemic and the election.

“We began our last season with six live election shows in a Covid bubble with everyone wearing masks and...

On August 25 MTV announced the host for the 2021 Video Music Awards: singer Doja Cat revealed on Instagram that she landed the gig, so she’ll be presiding over the event on Sunday night, September 12, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Which means she’s going to be very, very busy that night. Scroll down for her Instagram post.

Doja Cat was already announced as a performer at the event, so she’ll have that on her plate. And she’s also nominated for five awards: Video of the Year and Best Collaboration for “Kiss Me More” with Sza, Best Art Direction for “Best Friend” with Saweetie, Best Visual Effects for “You Right” with The Weeknd, and Artist of the Year for her body of work this past year.

Seemtv VMAs introduce US Global Icon Award: Foo Fighters to receive the inaugural prize

Since the VMAs are voted on by fans,...

Bad Bunny is arguably the biggest Latin crossover star of the last decade, with Spanish-language albums and Spanish-language singles consistently in the top 10 or topping the charts. So it’s pretty surprising that he hasn’t won Best Latin at the MTV Video Music Awards yet, especially since the VMAs are decided by music fans and Bad Bunny has fans in droves. But this year he could finally take home a moon person. And he has two chances to do so.

He’s nominated this year for two collaborations: “Dakiti” with Jhay Cortez and “Un Dia (One Day)” with J Balvin, Dua Lipa, and Tainy. According to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users, “Dakiti” will be his winner, with 13 of our Top 24 Users currently betting on that video, and for good reason. It’s by far the highest-charting hit in the category, reaching number-five on the Billboard Hot 100, and as mentioned above,...

A full complement of actors and TV hosts has been added to the lineup for May 2’s “Vax Live” taping at So-Fi Stadium, for a Global Citizen special that will air on major networks and online platforms the following Saturday, May 8.

David Letterman, Gayle King, Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, Jimmy Kimmel, Sean Penn, Nomzamo Mbatha and Olivia Munn are the non-musical additions expected to be appearing in person at the Inglewood stadium for the taping this Sunday.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have also just been announced as Vax Live’s campaign co-chairs and “will be delivering an important global message for vaccine equity during the event.”

Also newly added for the vaccination awareness special — appearing remotely with pre-recorded messages — are world leaders and cultural figures including President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Macron of France,...

Saturday Night Live continues to have a field day with the results of the 2020 presidential election, with numerous skits about Donald Trump’s eventual departure from the White House. On Saturday night, the SNL team gave the reality television star’s exit an O.J. Simpson spin.

Ego Nwodim and Dave Chappelle portrayed two Washington, D.C. newscasters tracking down a car chase originating from the White House. Upon turning to the “live” footage of the president on the highway, SNL shows the infamous clip of Simpson’s White Ford Bronco speeding down the highway as police chase after him, with Donald Trump Jr. taking the wheel.

“This is a volatile situation. If they spook the president, he could unleash an army of Proud Boys and flag-waving trucks,” Chappelle’s newscaster warns. “He’s like Aquaman but instead of fish he could summon the entire parking lot of a Cracker Barrel.

Despite the utter glut of fighting games out there right now, the sad fact is that things are winding down for most of them. Games like Street Fighter V, Mortal Kombat 11, Tekken 7, and Dragon Ball FighterZ are reaching the end of their post-launch content roadmaps, which means we need some new blood out there soon.

Luckily, Arc System Works has been teasing its next big Guilty Gear game for a while now, and now we know when we’ll be able to play Guilty Gear Strive. The game will be available on April 9 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Steam. The Ultimate Edition and Deluxe Edition will be available digitally on April 6. The news was announced in this trailer:

Last weekend, Arc System Works held an event called Arcrevo in Japan, which included online tournaments based on some of their kickass fighting games like Under Night In-Birth and BlazBlue: Centralfiction. There was...

The fighting game genre has been strong and saturated in the past few years. So many classics from the ’90s have been reintroduced to modern consoles that it’s easier to make a list of titles that haven’t been remastered, remade, repackaged, or updated in some way. Without counting Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting, which have been absorbed into King of Fighters, then Darkstalkers, and Virtua Fighter remain the only two major fighting game franchises to not receive some kind of modern version.

But now Sega says we might be getting something for Virtua Fighter. We’re not sure what it is, but it’s something.

During the Tokyo Game Show, Sega hosted a stream to celebrate the company’s 60-year history. Towards the end of the broadcast, CEO Haruki Satomi dropped a teaser clip featuring series main character Akira Yuki in front of a screen playing blurry Virtua Fighter footage.

Stéphane Batut, director of Burning Ghost (Vif-Argent) starring Thimotée Robart and Judith Chemla: “I saw a lot of films on TV very late in the evening, a lot of American films, John Ford, Vincente Minnelli.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

On Tuesday afternoon, Film at Lincoln Center’s Florence Almozini made a surprise announcement that the Burning Ghost (Vif-Argent) director would be doing a brief Q&a following the Us première. This gave me the opportunity to comment to Stéphane Batut on the costumes designed by Dorothée Guiraud (Céline Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire; Lucie Borleteau’s Perfect Nanny; Mathieu Amalric’s The Blue Room) for his début feature.

Stéphane Batut on Juste’s (Thimotée Robart) costume anchoring the love scene: “I needed for the jacket to be particularly striking.”

Known as a much-in-demand casting director (Serge Bozon’s Mrs. Hyde; Mathieu Amalric’s Barbara; Claire Denis’ Let The Sunshine In...

Exclusive: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire star Adèle Haenel has signed with CAA. The multi-award winning French actress recently received a Best Actress César nomination for her role in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait, and previously took the prize for 2014’s Les Combattants (Love At First Fight).

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe and BAFTA this year, despite not being the official French submission to the Academy Awards. The drama releases in the U.S. via Neon on February 14.

Haenel’s other credits include last year’s Deerskin; 2017’s Bpm (which was France’s entry for the Oscars); the Dardenne brothers’ The Unknown Girl in 2016; 2013’s Suzanne; 2011’s House Of Tolerance from Bertrand Bonello; and Sciamma’s 2007 breakout Water Lillies. In total, she has been nominated for six César Awards. Along with the lead honor for Love At First Fight,...

Update 11/4: French filmmaker Christophe Ruggia has been expelled from the French directors’ guild after allegations surfaced yesterday (November 3) about his conduct with an actress, Adèle Haenel, who was a minor at the time.

The action marks a new precedent for the organization, which hasn’t expelled a member before. Ruggia had co-presided over the guild for several years. The Srf published a note on its Twitter feed stating that it “gives its full support to Adèle Haenel”.

Original Story, 11/3: Adèle Haenel, the multi-award-winning French actress whose recent credits include Cannes hits Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Deerskin, has publicly accused French director Christophe Ruggia of sexually harassing her from the age of 12.

In an extensive report published by Paris-based investigative journal Mediapart, the actress claims Ruggia began harassing her after she was cast in his 2002 drama The Devils. Haenel says...

Adèle Haenel, star of this year’s festival favorite “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” has publicly accused “The Devils” director Christophe Ruggia of sexual harassment. Details first emerged in the Paris-based journal Mediapart, before being reported by Deadline.

Haenel alleges that Ruggia made advances on her after she was cast in his 2002 drama “The Devils” beginning at the age of 12, and that the harassment continued until she was 15 years old. According to the French report, Haenel does not intend to pursue legal action, stating that she thinks “justice ignores” voices such as hers.

In response to the piece, Ruggia sent a missive to Mediapart via his legal team categorically refuting any harassment or misconduct, and said that he and Haenel maintained a “professional and affectionate relationship” while calling the report “slanderous.”

Haenel says that the incidents unfolded between 2001 and 2004, and when the director was 36 years old through 39. The misconduct...

Coming seven years after 2011’s Sleeping Sickness (Schlafkrankheit) and his longest time off between features, after his feverish study of settler psychology in West Africa, Ulrich Köhler premiered In the Room at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. A disquieting, wonderfully imagined essay on survivalism, here the filmmaker examines second chances via a man-child during a human apocalypse. Defined by its taciturn characters and ambiguity, this falls somewhere within the utopian subgenre of recent studio efforts Divergent to Elysium, and art-house output of Snowpiercer and Love at First Fight (2014). In My Room deals with the hypothetical and refreshingly makes the argument for an alternative / different society that feels authentically in symbiosis with current returning ways of the past.…...

Bac Films, the Paris-based film group behind the Venice Horizons title “My Days of Glory,” has bolstered its international sales division with a new team topped by Marine Goulois and Andrea Dos Santos.

Goulois previously worked at Snd, the sales arm of the commercial network M6, and Les Films du Losange, while Dos Santos worked at Orange Studio and Alfama Films. They will head the international sales division together.

Goulois, who has a track record handling both prestige auteur movies such as Michael Haneke’s films at Les Films du Losange, and high-concept genre or comedy movies at Snd, will also be in charge of international acquisitions.

The new team will be completed by Juliette Béchu, who will work on sales, and Marine Dorville, who will be the festival manager.

“Our ambition is to continue to develop an international lineup of independent European cinema, high-profile English-language projects and animated feature,...

Distributor sets autumn release for rom-com.

Kino Lorber has acquired Us rights to Pierre Salvadori’s romantic comedy The Trouble With You, starring Adele Haenel from recent Cannes sensation Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Audrey Tautou.

The film premiered as the centerpiece of the 50th anniversary of Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2018 and earned nine César Awards earlier this year including best actress for Haenel, who won the honour in 2015 for Love At First Fight.

In The Trouble With You Haenel plays Yvonne, the young widow of a corrupt cop who sets out to meet the man he framed.

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight will open with French comedy Deerskin, starring Jean Dujardin (The Artist) and Adèle Haenel (Bpm).

Dujardin plays a man who becomes obsessed with owning an expensive designer deerskin jacket, leading him to blow his life savings and even turn to crime. The film will have its world premiere on May 15, and will be released theatrically in France on June 19, distributed by Diaphana. Producers are Thomas and Mathieu Verhaeghe for Atelier de Production with Arte France. Sales are handled by WTFilms.

Dujardin won Best Actor awards both at Cannes and at the Oscars for The Artist. Rising star Haenel is well known for movies including Bpm, Love At First Fight and The Unknown Girl.

The film is the seventh from director Quentin Dupieux (Keep An Eye Out). The filmmaker began his career making music videos and commercials working with Michel Gondry. His previous movies include Rubber, selected for...

From Brazilian oil-rig workers to a German U-boat crew, from a Chinese concubine to a Spanish spy in Ava Gardner’s home, international TV has served up some memorable characters this year. Variety’s international correspondents take a trip around the world and pick a dozen buzzed-about shows — some of which can be seen soon on Hulu, Amazon Prime and HBO. As for the others — paging Netflix!

“Iron Island” (Brazil)

Following a group of oil workers, “Iron Island” was a big-ticket action drama for Brazilian powerhouse Globo, which went all out on the series’ VFX. With a raft of local talent, it follows the protagonists’ high-pressured lives at home and work. Accidents happen, love blossoms, and events ultimately have widespread political ramifications in the 12-part series.

“The Story of Yanxi Palace” (China)

A hit in China and beyond, “The Story of Yanxi Palace” runs to a hefty 70 episodes, posing a...

Paris-based outfit Kelija, the Lagardere Studios-owned company behind the acclaimed series “Trepalium” and “Ad Vitam,” is developping “Cine Amore,” a thought-provoking dystopian mini-series exploring the relationship between men and women.

“Sine Amore” was created and is being written by Sebastien Mounier, who co-wrote “Trepalium” and “Ad Vitam,” and the novelist Filippo D’Angelo (“La Fin de L’Autre Monde”).

The six-part series takes place in a world where all men have had to be castrated before puberty to prevent the spread of a deadly and uncurable disease. A scandal errupts after a woman claims to have been raped, leading to a trial which proves divisive and disrupts society.

The mini-series follows several characters, including the rape victim, as well as her best friend and the alleged rapist’s lawyer who happen to form a couple.

Katia Raïs, the producer and managing director of Kelija, said the series was initiated...

Jada Pinkett Smith came up with the perfect solution for her youngest son’s absence their latest family trip!

“The fam made a trip overseas to praise Will all day for Father’s Day...

A dingy apartment door is kicked in from the outside and a slick-looking detective bursts in brandishing a gun. Bullets fly, kicks are roundhoused, and the cop is put through an interior wall, resulting in his arms and fists fighting off one foe, while his flailing legs dispatch another in the next room over. This choppy, exaggerated melee is not the typical beginning to a film selected for Cannes, even one in the occasionally genre-friendly Directors’ Fortnight, and though it’s quickly revealed to be imaginary — a bedtime story told to a little boy grieving for his dead hero-cop father — the tone of merry lunacy sets the bar for Pierre Salvadori’s “The Trouble With You.”

The loopy plot follows Yvonne (Adèle Haenel), a police officer on desk duty who, two years after the death of her cop husband Santi (Vincent Elbaz) inadvertently discovers he was far from the crusading...

Cannes — Gaspar Noé’s “Climax,” charting the descent into physical hell of a young dance troupe, won the biggest prize out at Cannes’ 2018 Directors’ Fortnight, its Art Cinema Award.

“Lucia’s Grace,” Italian Gianni Zanasi’s woman’s empowerment comedy, snagged the Europa Cinemas Label, awarded to the section’s best European film.

Granted by France’s Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers, the Sacd Award for best French-language film went to Pierre Salvadori’s screwball crime romcom “The Trouble with You.”

Prices are given by the section’s sponsors. Notably, two went to potentially crowd-pleasing comedies. All three are directed by men but turn principally on women.

“Climax” marks the French-Argentine Gaspar Noé’s return to his grand theme – the imperatives, joy and hell of physical experience.

Sold and co-produced by Wild Bunch, its first 45 minutes delivered what appears to be among the most critically-praised of cinema on this...

Amazon Prime Video has acquired more than 40 premium French series and films from several key French distribution companies to feed the library of Prime Video in France, which launched at the end of 2016.

The streaming giant signed deals with TF1 Droits Audiovisuels, France TV Distribution, Ab Droits Audiovisuels, Newen Distribution, EuropaCorp, About Premium Content, Roissy Films and The Bureau Sales.

“We are thrilled to partner with such respected French content creators and distributors and will continue to add leading content to Prime Video in France,” said Jay Marine, vice president of Prime Video Europe.

The new French programs acquired by Amazon Prime include popular TV series such as “Sam,” the remake of the Danish show “Rita,” procedural “Les Innocents,” cop show “Captain Sharif,” family comedy series “Desperate Parents,” and World War II-set series “A French Village.”

Amazon Prime Video also acquired French films such as Régis Roinsard’s “Populaire,” Thomas Cailley...

The French star on playing a Gp with a conscience in The Unknown Girl, the state of emergency in Paris and why coming out was ‘no big deal’

French actor Adèle Haenel stars in The Unknown Girl, the latest film by Belgian duo the Dardenne brothers. She plays a doctor facing up to her feeling of responsibility after the death of a young African woman near her surgery. Her other films include Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies, Katell Quillévéré’s Suzanne, Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room and survivalist comedy Les Combattants, which won her a César award for best female performance in 2015.

There’s a sense of political defeat right now, not just in France but across Europe

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Every day, more and more films are added to the various streaming services out there, ranging from Netflix to YouTube, and are hitting the airwaves via movie-centric networks like TCM. Therefore, sifting through all of these pictures can be a tedious and often times confounding or difficult ordeal. But, that’s why we’re here. Every week, Joshua brings you five films to put at the top of your queue, add to your playlist, or grab off of VOD to make your weekend a little more eventful. Here is this week’s top five, in this week’s Armchair Vacation.

5. Cinderella (VOD)

While much of the love surrounding Hollywood films this year has centered on the bombastic masterpiece that is Mad Max: Fury Road, there is one blockbuster that hit early in the summer season, and has since been forgotten about. From Disney comes their live action telling of the legendary story of Cinderella.