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Millennium Docs Against Gravity just wrapped the in-person edition of the nonfiction festival, which takes place simultaneously in seven cities in Poland (the online edition runs today until June 2).

The Grand Prix – the Bank Millennium Award – went to Yintah, directed by Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano. The award automatically qualifies Yintah for Academy Award consideration (Mdag is one of the few festivals in the world with the distinction of being an Oscar qualifier for Best Documentary Film).

The jury – made up of Salma Abdalla of the Austrian Film Institute, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont and two-time Oscar-nominated producer Rémi Grellety – awarded a Special Mention to A Want in Her, directed by Myrid Carten (the filmmaker appeared on Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast after the world premiere of her film at IDFA).

For the first time, Doc Talk traveled to Poland to cover Mdag. In the new episode of the pod,...

The 2024 global film festival circuit featured something for every taste — from celebrated Lithuanian art house fare, such as Locarno winner Toxic and Drowning Dry, to such audience favorites as Sean Baker’s Anora and Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, from the highs to the lows, all garnished, of course, with a big serving of star power.

Some film events, such as Poland’s Camerimage, were hit by controversy, while others boosted their prominence, with Switzerland’s Locarno, for example, cementing its role as a top-tier global fest, and Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic showed once again why it is known as Central Europe’s biggest film party of the summer.

Here’s a look at The Hollywood Reporter highlights of the 2024 film festival season.

Female power at Cannes.

Anora, Emilia Pérez and body horror The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, were among the revelations of the world premieres on the Croisette.

Mexico’s official entry to the Oscars, “Sujo,” made a sweep of the 22nd Morelia Int’l Film Festival (Ficm), winning the festival’s Ojo Awards for Best Film, Director and Screenplay.

Co-helmer-scribes Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, whose debut pic “Identifying Features” won a couple of Sundance awards and took the Best International Feature prize at the Gotham Awards in 2021, also snagged the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema with “Sujo,” their sophomore feature, in January.

Hailed by Variety as an “optimistic alternative to violent drug war movies,” the poignant coming-of-age story revolves around the impact of drug cartels on the youth. The tale follows young Sujo (played by Kevin Uriel Aguilar Luna and Juan Jesús Varela) who grows up surrounded by their violence. When his father, a sicario (hired assassin), is killed, he becomes a target but Sujo’s intrepid aunt rescues him.

Sujo’s win caps...

Universal animation The Wild Robot leads the new releases at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Paramount’s Smile 2 and Studiocanal’s The Apprentice also open.

Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot is opening in 675 locations. Produced by Dreamworks, the film follows a service robot shipwrecked on an uninhabited island who forms relationships with the local wildlife.

A starry ensemble comprises the voice cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill and Catherine O’Hara.

It has already proven a box office hit abroad, topping the global charts last week to bring its total up to $150m.

Paramount and Hasbro Entertainment’s “Transformers One” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office earning £1.6 million ($2.2 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

Warner Bros.’ “Joker: Folie a Deux” held strong in its second week, securing the second spot with £1.4 million bringing its total to £8.6 million.

Signature Entertainment’s “Terrifier 3” opened in third place with just over £1 million. The film marks the distributor’s record for its largest-ever opening weekend in the territory overtaking their previous champion “Orphan: First Kill,” which had a £464,616 opening gross in 2022. It is also the highest-opening for an 18-certificated horror film in 2024, over vampire horror “Abigail,” 1980s-set slasher “MaXXXine” and Sydney Sweeney starrer “Immaculate.” It also set a new record as 2024’s highest U.K. and Irish box office opening for an 18-certificated independent film – the record was previously held by rapper biopic “Kneecap.”

Warner Bros.’ “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” continued to show staying power in its sixth week,...

Predicting the winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar becomes a lot easier on December 17 when the academy announces the 15 films that make the shortlist. Those semi-finalists will be culled from the more than 100 titles that qualified this year for consideration. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Documentary Feature.)

To winnow those down to a manageable number, the academy adds newly eligible documentary feature to a virtual screening room available to all 500-plus members of the documentary branch. While all members are encouraged to watch as many of these as they can, one-fifth of the voters are assigned each title. Each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.

All of these ballots are collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members are then encouraged to watch films on that list which they haven’t seen yet before casting another preferential ballot with their top five choices.

"Everything was about color, and form, and line." She was a master! Conic Film has unveiled the official trailer for a documentary film called A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, the latest doc creation from acclaimed Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins. This recently premiered at the 2024 Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Main Competition (here's my review), where it won the top Crystal Globe competition prize. Featuring Tilda Swinton as the voice of Scottish painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, better known as "Willie", this feature documentary tells the story of a remarkable artist and a magnificent obsession. Exploring the pivotal 1949 experience atop Switzerland's Grindelwald glacier that reshaped the British modernist painter's artistic perspective for decades to come. Made with the support of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust, the film delves into her archives, private notebooks and diaries from her 65-year career. Two decades after her death in 2004, the film represents a major reassessment of Barns-Graham's life and work,...

Director Mark Cousins shines a light on the remarkable artistic journey of 20th-century Scottish painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in his poetic new documentary A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things. Known to friends as Willie, Barns-Graham immersed herself in the St Ives artistic community in Cornwall yet routinely faced dismissal from critics during her career. Cousins steps back from a traditional biographical approach, instead exploring Willie’s life and work through her own eyes. We learn of her upbringing, time with the St. Ives group, and how nature’s rhythms inspired a breakthrough during a 1949 hike in Switzerland’s Grindelwald Glacier. With Tilda Swinton’s narration of Willie’s writings and striking visuals of her paintings, Cousins draws us intimately into Willie’s world. Through this rose-tinted lens, her overlooked genius is brought vibrantly to light. Premiering at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it took the top prize, A Sudden Glimpse...

Telluride Film Festival has announced the line-up before the festival starts on Friday, with world premieres for Edward Berger’s Conclave, RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys, and Robbie Williams musical biopic Better Man.

Also making the cut in the main programme are documentaries Leonardo Da Vinci from Ken Burns, Kevin Macdonald’s One To One: John & Yoko, and R. J. Cutler’s Martha Stewart film.

Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 and Joshua Openheimer’s The End are in the main programme, alongside Cannes favourites Anora, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, All We Imagine As Light, and Emilia Pérez.

The 51st...

Everybody loves painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, including Tilda Swinton.

“I messaged her a while ago, saying I was making this film. She said: ‘I’m on fire for Willie,’” Mark Cousins, director of biographical documentary “A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things,” tells Variety.

“Willie didn’t live a dramatic life, she wasn’t going to fancy parties. Then there was the sexism of the art world and agism. She changed her style, too, and the art world doesn’t like that. The film world doesn’t like that either. It wants a Hitchcock film to be like a Hitchcock film.”

“Abbas Kiarostami told me once he wanted his films to be pure on the outside and rich on the inside. Willie’s life seemed undramatic but inside, there was a raging fire.”

In his Karlovy Vary Film Festival winner “A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things,” Cousins peeks inside the mind of the forgotten artist,...