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One of the more standout performances this season comes from the Emmy-nominated actors in Netflix’s limited series Adolescence, which follows a 13-year old Northern UK boy accused of murdering a fellow female student.

Whether he did it or not isn’t the approach of the show produced by Plan B and created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorn. Instead, it delves into how an earnest student from a respectable working-class family comes to embrace such evils.

It unfortunately always goes back to the parents, but in this case the accused, Jamie Miller (Limited-Anthology Series Supporting Actor Emmy nominee Owen Cooper), isn’t living with parents who are acerbic (they are played by Emmy-nominated lead actor Graham and supporting actress nominee Christine Tremarco). But Jamie has a bitterly fierce side which he unveils to the trial’s therapist (supporting actress nominee Erin Doherty), one which isn’t immediately observed by...

Films from Hlynur Palmason, Harris Dickinson and Lucile Hadzihalilovic are among the 23 titles competing in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera programme at the 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival (September 19-27).

Icelandic director Palmason is world premiering his film Joan Of Arc, about three siblings who continually create and destroy a knight-like figure. His 2022 feature Godland previously won the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera award while his last film The Love That Remains premiered at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

The strand has no restrictions on length or style, with six shorts and two medium-length titles competing equally with 15 features for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera award of €20,000 – split between...

Films from Hlynur Palmason, Harris Dickinson and Lucile Hadzihalilovic are among the 23 titles competing in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera programme at the 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival (September 19-27).

Icelandic director Palmason is world premiering his film Joan Of Arc, about three siblings who continually create and destroy a knight-like figure. His 2022 feature Godland previously won the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera award while his last film The Love That Remains premiered at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

The strand has no restrictions on length or style, with six shorts and two medium-length titles competing equally with 15 features for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera award of €20,000 – split between...

Ambitious 1-2 Special has scheduled an October 10 release for Urchin, Harris Dickinson’s feature directorial debut and prize-winning Cannes Un Certain Regard selection.

‘Urchin’ review

Frank Dillane leads the cast on the story of Mike, an addict and rough sleeper in London trapped in a cycle of self-destruction who tries to turn his life around.

The cast on the Devisio Pictures and Somesuch production includes Megan Northam, Amr Waked, Shonagh Marie, and Karyna Khymchuk.Dickinson wrote the screenplay and Archie Pearch and Scott O’Donnell served as producers.

Following Urchin’s premiere on the Croisette, Dickinson won the Firpresci Prize, and...

Harris Dickinson’s feature directorial debut, Urchin, has found a home on this year’s release calendar following its success at the Cannes Film Festival.

The movie is set to hit theaters Oct. 10 from 1-2 Special, the indie distributor that launched earlier this year. Dickinson’s film stars Frank Dillane, Megan Northam, Amr Waked, Shonagh Marie and Karyna Khymchuk.

Urchin centers on Dillane as Mike, an unhoused London-based addict who attempts to turn his life around after a stint in prison.

Dickinson helmed the film from his own script. Archie Pearch and Scott O’Donnell serve as producers.

Urchin premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Un Certain Regard competition, where Dickinson won the Fipresci Prize, while Dillane prevailed as best actor.

In his Urchin review for The Hollywood Reporter, chief film critic David Rooney wrote of the lead character, “Perhaps the key achievement of Urchin...

Netalie Braun’s anti-war drama Oxygen, about a mother who takes extreme action to prevent her 21-year-old son from returning to the front in Lebanon, scooped the Best Israeli Feature Film award at the 42nd Jerusalem Film Festival on Thursday evening.

Opening with Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prize winner Sentimental Value July 17, this edition was the second to take place since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Southern Israel, in which 1,200 people died and another 251 were taken hostage, sparking the Israeli invasion of Gaza, in which more than 57,000 Palestinian people have since been killed.

The festival unfolded amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s management of food aid distribution in Gaza, with World Health Organization head Tedros Ghebreyesus saying this week that the population faced “mass starvation”.

There has also been outcry in Israel about the situation, as well as anger about the fate of 50 hostages, who are still unaccounted for,...

Metrograph Pictures, the upstart distributor that launched in 2019 with an eye toward restorations and re-releases before pushing into new acquisitions ahead of Cannes 2024, is pausing all theatrical releases, IndieWire has learned.

This is the distribution arm of Metrograph, Alexander Olch’s company, which also operates a successful two-screen indie theater in Manhattan’s Lower East Side that opened in 2016. With theatrical releases on hold, IndieWire understands via sources that Metrograph Pictures is handling payments to third parties in due course as the distributor pauses business operations.

In better news, David Laub, the former A24 executive whom Olch tapped as Metrograph Pictures’ distribution film chief in February 2024, has now been hired by Neon to serve as senior vice president of publicity and marketing. Prior to Laub’s hiring, Metrograph Pictures was primarily focused on re-releasing unsung classics, such as Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 film “Possession” and Tsai Ming-liang’s 2003 film “Goodbye, Dragon Inn.

Exclusive: Italian sales agent Intramovies has boarded Slovak director Tereza Nvotová’s Father, which is set to world premiere in Venice’s Horizons competition.

Father is the third film from Nvotová, whose feminist horror-drama Nightsiren won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in the Filmmakers of the Present competition in 2022.

Father won the Screen International Award last year at Mia Market’s work-in-progress programme C EU Soon.

Inspired by a true story, the film follows a devoted father whose life is shattered by a single tragic mistake, pushing his marriage and his will to live to the brink. Facing a long prison sentence,...

Exclusive: Italian sales agent Intramovies has boarded Slovak director Tereza Nvotová’s Father, which is set to world premiere in Venice’s Horizons competition.

Father is the third film from Nvotová, whose feminist horror-drama Nightsiren won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in the Filmmakers of the Present competition in 2022.

Father won the Screen International Award last year at Mia Market’s work-in-progress programme C EU Soon.

Inspired by a true story, the film follows a devoted father whose life is shattered by a single tragic mistake, pushing his marriage and his will to live to the brink. Facing a long prison sentence,...

Caitriona Balfe and George MacKay have joined the cast for Georgia Oakley’s Sense And Sensibility, which has started production in the UK for Focus Features and Working Title Films.

Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum, Bodhi Rae Breathnach and Fiona Shaw have also joined the cast, alongside thepreviously announcedDaisy Edgar-Jones, Esme Creed-Miles as Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.

UK filmmaker Oakley is directing from a script by Australian author Diana Reid, based on Jane Austen’s 1811 novel. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing for Working Title, with India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett.

The story follows the Dashwood sisters as they tackle love,...

Caitriona Balfe and George MacKay are among the new cast for Georgia Oakley’s Sense And Sensibility, which has started production in the UK for Focus Features and Working Title Films.

Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum, Bodhi Rae Breathnach and Fiona Shaw have also joined the cast, alongside previously announced members Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esme Creed-Miles as Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.

UK filmmaker Oakley is directing from a script by Australian author Diana Reid, based on Jane Austen’s 1811 novel. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing for Working Title, with India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett.

The story follows...

Cover of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (Photo Credit: Flame Tree Collectible Classics)

Outlander‘s Caitriona Balfe has come on board Focus Features’ Sense and Sensibility as filming begins in the United Kingdom. Balfe joins previously announced stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles in the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel.

Focus Features and Working Title Films announced Balfe, Frank Dillane, George MacKay, Herbert Nordrum, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, and Fiona Shaw round out the cast of the romantic drama.

BAFTA nominee Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean) is directing and Diana Reid adapted Austen’s novel. Producers include Jo Wallett, Working Title Films’ Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and November Pictures’ India Flint.

“Originally published anonymously with the byline reading ‘By A Lady,’ Austen’s Sense and Sensibility established her as a literary force and remains a cornerstone of English literature,” reads Focus Features’ description. “The timeless exploration of restraint and passion...

Focus Features and Working Title Films new redo of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility has added Caitríona Balfe, Frank Dillane, George MacKay, Herbert Nordrum, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, and Fiona Shaw to the cast opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esme Creed-Miles, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Production has commenced in the U.K. with direction by BAFTA Award nominee Georgia Oakley and an adaptation by Diana Reid.

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films will produce alongside India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett.

Balfe is a 5x Golden Globes nominee, once for her supporting role in Best Picture nominee Belfast and four times consecutively for her lead role in Starz’ long-running hit Outlander. The actress is also a BAFTA nominee for Belfast and a three-time Critics Choice nominee on behalf of Outlander. Balfe’s feature credits include Ford v Ferrari, The Amateur, Now You See Me, and Super 8,...

Focus Features and Working Title’s “Sense and Sensibility” has rounded out its cast with George MacKay, Caitríona Balfe, Fiona Shaw and more joining Daisy Edgar-Jones in the Jane Austen adaptation.

The fresh take on Austen’s first novel — which follows the differing romantic journeys of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood after their father’s death forces them to leave their family’s estate — has officially started filming in the United Kingdom.

Alongside Edgar-Jones and Esme Creed-Miles as Elinor and Marianne, Balfe will star as their mother Mrs. Dashwood, MacKay (“1917”) is set to play Elinor’s love interest Edward Ferrars and Shaw will portray Mrs. Jennings, whom the sisters stay with when they visit London. “Urchin” breakout Frank Dillane stars as Marianne’s initial love interest John Willoughby, Herbert Nordrum (“The Worst Person in the World”) as her later suitor Colonel Brandon and Bodhi Rae Breathnach (Chloe Zhao’s upcoming...

A petition has been launched online after developers won an appeal to demolish the UK’s first purpose-built multiplex cinema, The Point in Milton Keynes, to build flats on the site.

The petition to stop the demolition is housed on Change.org and was started by local resident Andy Legg last week. As of today (July 21), it has just shy of 3,000 signatures.

The cinema opened in 1985 and closed in 2015, at which point it was operated by Odeon. An Odeon now operates at Milton Keynes Stadium.

Redevelopment plans for The Point site have been in the works for over a decade.

Exclusive:Harris Dickinson’s directorial debutUrchinhas sold across the globe for Charades following the film’s well-received world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Following previously announced deals to Picturehouse forUK-Ireland and 1-2 Special forNorth America, the filmhas sold to Wanted in Italy, Ad Vitam in France, Karma Films in Spain, The Searchers in Benelux, No Comboio in Portugal, Cinobo in Greece, Rio Pictures for Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland, McF in Bulgaria and ex-Yugoslavia, Bad Unicorn in Romania, Kino Pavasaris in the Baltics, Cinefil in Hungary, Lev Cinema in Israel, Bir Film in Turkey, Falcon in Indonesia, Rialto in Australia and New Zealand,...

Exclusive:Robin Elliott-Knowles and Georgia Kumari Bradburn, the co-directors of Cph:Dox and BFI London Film Festival titleThe Stimming Poolare among the 13 recipients of the thirdIndependent Cinema Office (Ico) Miles Ketley Memorial Fund bursary for emerging UK filmmakers.

Alice Russell, director of Bifa-winning documentaryIf The Streets Were On Fire(2023), and Marley Morrison, director of Glasgow audience award winnerSweetheart(2021), have also received awards.

The Ico board has approved an extension of the fund, which had been scheduled to finish this year. The fund will now continue on for three more years (2026 to 2028). The new funding includes a 40% increase in value, meaning the...

Exclusive: Picturehouse Entertainment has picked up Harris Dickinson’s Un Certain Regard world premiere Urchin for release in UK-Ireland cinemas on October 3.

Dickinson’s debut featureas director scooped both the best actor Un Certain Regard award for Frank Dillane and the Fipresci prize at Cannes.Charades represents international sales.

Urchintells the story of a rough sleeper, played byDillane, on a quest for redemption, battling both external forces and internal demons that perpetuate a cycle of self-destruction.Screen’s review described the film as “infused with an unexpected beauty”.

It was produced by the UK’s Archie Pearch at Devisio Pictures,...

Busy 1-2 Special has acquired all North American rights to Harris Dickinson’s Urchin following its world premiere in Cannes where it earned the Fipresci Prize and the Un Certain Regard best performance award for Frank Dillane.

This marks thefledgling distributor’s third Cannes acquisition since laucnhing in February. It already has Christian Petzold’s Directors’ Fortnight premiereMirrors No. 3, and Simón Mesa Soto’s Un Certain Regard jury prize winnerA Poet.

1-2 Special will release Urchintheatrically this autumn after brokering the transaction with The Gersh Agency, UTA Independent Film Group, and Charades on behalf of the filmmakers.

‘Urchin’ review

The dramafollows Mike,...

Cannes 2025 festival-goers put their stamp of approval of Harris Dickinson the filmmaker, with his directing debut “Urchin” winning the Fipresci prize out of Un Certain Regard. What can’t the “Babygirl” and “Triangle of Sadness” and “Beach Rats” and “The Iron Claw” actor and future John Lennon star do?

A favorite of IndieWire’s Screen Talk podcast and Chief Film Critic David Ehrlich, “Urchin” seemed primed for a major scoop out of Cannes alongside other actor-turned-filmmakers.

Alas, it took two months since the festival’s end for rising distribution outfit 1-2 Special to step in and buy Dickinson’s film for North American distribution. Starring Frank Dillane as an unhoused, drug-chasing drifter in London, and in the vein of Mike Leigh’s “Naked” in terms of toxic emotional candor, “Urchin” follows Mike (Dillane) as he tumbles through a cycle of addiction, self-destruction, and London’s correctional system. In addition to the Fipresci prize,...

Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut “Urchin” has been acquired for North American release by 1-2 Special, the distribution company founded in February by former Sideshow executive Jason Hellerstein. The movie, which won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Best Performance award for Frank Dillane, will be released in theaters this fall.

“Urchin” follows a “rough sleeper” in London who is trapped in a cycle of self-destruction as he struggles to turn his life around. Described as “raw and absurd,” the film is a deeply personal work for Dickinson, who broke out with acting roles in “Beach Rats” and “Triangle of Sadness” and starred opposite Nicole Kidman in last year’s “Baby Girl.”

In his positive review out of Cannes, TheWrap critic Chase Hutchinson compared “Urchin” favorably to Danny Boyle’s seminal film “Trainspotting,” because “both are films about deeply flawed people trying to do better, only to find themselves continually getting...

“Urchin,” the directorial debut of “Babygirl” and “Triangle of Sadness” star Harris Dickinson, has been acquired for North America by 1-2 Special, the New York-based distributor that launched earlier this year.

The film — a vivid portrayal of homelessness and mental health on the streets of London — bowed in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar in May to solid reviews and an enthusiastic 5-minute standing ovation. It wound up winning the competition’s best performance prize for its breakout actor Frank Dillane as well as the Fipresci Prize awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics.

1-2 Special is planning a theatrical release for the film this fall.

“Urchin” is a deeply personal work for Dickinson — who also appears in the film — and is centered on characters living on the margins of society. The story follows Mike (Dillane), a rough sleeper in London who becomes trapped in a cycle of self-destruction as...

Having a front row seat to all the goings on at the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this week meant seeing some invigorating new films that, much like Cannes did just a couple months back, confronted the frequently dark and painful parts of our world in an attempt to find whatever small slivers of humanity they could. The films couldn’t always hold onto this feeling and the searching could often be more than a little fraught, though the festival’s brightest spots came from the ones that tried to do so all the same.

In particular, the best two films in the main competition were the Czech films “Broken Voices” and “Better Go Mad in the Wild,” the latter of which rightfully took home the top prize Saturday evening while the former received a special jury mention for the exciting newcomer Kateřina Falbrová. Though their recognition opened up...

Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has unveiled a selection of more than 275 titles for its 73rd edition, including the 10 features vying for Australia’s biggest film prize.

The festival is set to run from August 7-24 across Melbourne, regional Victoria and online, and will open with Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. The US dark comedy about an overwhelmed mother pushed to her limits premiered at Sundance before going on to play the Berlinale, where Australian actress Rose Byrne won the Silver Bear for best performance.

The film will also play in Miff’s Bright Horizon’s Competition,...

It’s the year 2025 and we are blessed with not one, and dare we say not even two, but three new Jane Austen adaptations. Ms. Austen herself turns 250 years old this year, and it’s not a moment too soon to celebrate the life and works of the iconic author.

Now, exactly two decades after Joe Wright’s “Pride & Prejudice” made cinematic history with the Darcy (Mathew Macfadyen) hand flex seen ’round the world, there are a number of modern adaptations in the works, not to mention other recent works inspired by her life and most beloved novels, from the film “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” to the series “Miss Austen.”

And “Pride & Prejudice” is hardly the only Austen book getting new life in two (!!) formats, as Austen seems to suddenly be everywhere, all over again. Ahead, we break down the upcoming adaptations, and provide some guidance on...

The 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) will feature key Cannes Film Festival winners in its Horizons section and a selection of action and horror movies, both new and older, for its revamped Midnight Screenings program under the new name “Afterhours.”

In a lineup update unveiled on Friday, Kviff said it will this year screen more than 130 feature films in the picturesque Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.

The Horizons lineup, which traditionally features highlights from the festival circuit of the past year, includes the likes of Jay Duplass’ The Baltimorons, Tom Shoval’s A Letter to David, Michel Franco’s Dreams, My Father’s Shadow by Akinola Davies Jr., Mary Bronstein‘s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day, Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors, Jafar Panahi‘s Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, and fellow Cannes...

In the UK, working-class cinema has been enjoying a renaissance, from Rocks to indie goldies like Scrapper, Pretty Red Dress and Girl. Mike Leigh is firmly back with Hard Truths and Harris Dickinson’s Urchin has freshly premiered in Cannes. Like the latter, Daisy-May Hudson’s debut fiction feature film Lollipop is about homelessness, and — courtesy of its discerning, heartrending script — anchored deep in the young writer-director’s own experience.

Hudson’s film knows all the ins and outs of the brick-wall bureaucracy of the social-care system, which it makes brutally clear from the outset. An automated recording lets us know that Molly (Polly Sterling) is calling her children from inside prison, contrasted with Molly herself reassuring the youngsters that it’s just a few more sleeps until she will see them again. Cut to three days later, Molly — aka the eponymous Lollipop —waiting outside the prison gates, no family or kids in sight.

A phrase that Amanda Ogle, the no-nonsense protagonist played by Rose Byrne in Stephanie Laing’s touching film Tow, hears a lot is “people like you.” Strangers reach for it when referring to her situation as an unhoused woman in Seattle, Washington, living in her car. Social services workers — or anyone tasked with helping her — use it to preface their shock at her determination. Passers-by, assuming she is down on her luck, deploy it like a compliment, as if Amanda’s intrepidness in the face of bureaucratic systems and run-of-the-mill social indifference is a testament to her personality rather than a necessary response to state failure.

Amanda has a particularly hard time stomaching this phrase when her car — a 1991 Blue Toyota Camry — gets towed. Employees of this large auto company hauled her car, which was stolen while she was interviewing for a job at a high-end pet salon, without a second thought about its value.

In a surprise drop on the Nintendo Today app, Nintendo announced a brand new Splatoon game for the Nintendo Switch 2, the first ever spin-off for the series Splatoon Raiders . Along with the splat-tacular news, Nintendo also revealed the Splatoon 3 Season 10 update in the update video, which includes Switch 2 updates, new weapons and a returning map from the original Wii U Splatoon game. Splatoon Raiders Reveal Trailer + Splatoon 3 Season 10 Update News For Splatoon 3 players on Switch 2, outside of matches, locations like Splatsville and the Grand Festival Grounds will get visual and frame rate upgrades. In comparison, matches will continue at the same detail as both Switch and Switch 2 players can continue to play together. Outside of visuals, all versions will get 30 new weapon kits with different combinations of subs and specials and Urchin Underpass returning from the original Splatoon game. Related: The Legend of Zelda Live-Action Film Delayed Slightly Caps on...

Directed by Mark O’Connor, “Amongst the Wolves” (2024) revolves around Danny (Luke McQuillan), a man at a crossroads. He once had a promising life with a wife and a kid, but now he has barely anything to look forward to. He is separated from his family and unhoused, with hardly any hope that things will get better. His ex-wife Gill (Jade Jordan) does not want him around their son Tadgh (Manco O’Connor) and hopes to seek full custody of him. In these circumstances, Danny’s fight is less literal and more psychological. He wants to be in his son’s life, but more importantly, he wants to get back on his feet. He hopes to regain his self-respect.

With these details, O’Connor and Luke McQuillan’s screenplay introduces Danny as a familiar figure—the broken man, a trope often explored during the Golden Age of Television. Whether it’s a...

Last year, in IndieWire’s 2024 Cannes Critics Survey, there was startling unanimity, with Sean Baker’s “Anora” winning Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Director. The 2025 Critics Poll couldn’t be less unanimous, with different films topping each of those categories this time. (Read the IndieWire’s staff’s own picks for the best films of Cannes 2025 here.) Even though the 48 critics who voted, representing four continents, largely overlapped with those who voted last year (see Page 2 for the list of all who participated), they seemed insistent upon spreading the wealth this time. For instance, Bi Gan’s “Resurrection” topped the Best Director voting, without appearing at all on the Best Film or Best Screenplay lists.

Best Film in this 2025 edition of the Cannes Critics Survey went to Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât,” the French-Spanish co-production filmed in Morocco about a father searching for his daughter, who goes missing while attending...

By the end of this year’s Cannes Film Festival — well, technically, up until this Memorial Day when Netflix announced the streamer snapped up Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” — 13 of the 22 films in competition had walked away with a stateside home.

That’s impressive, but there are still many more gems waiting out throughout the Official Selection, including even Harris Dickinson’s IndieWire-adored directorial debut “Urchin”. Kristen Stewart’s acclaimed Imogen Poots vehicle “The Chronology of Water,” one of three actor-turned-director efforts in Un Certain Regard along with Dickinson and Scarlett Johansson, doesn’t have a home yet, either. She’ll get there.

Surveying the Main Competition, either films like “Eddington” (A24) or “The Phoenician Scheme” (Focus Features) or “Sentimental Value” (Neon) came to the festival with deals in place, or a handful for stateside berth were brokered on the ground. Mubi took the buzziest buy of the festival...

The red carpet is rolling up at the 78th Cannes Film Festival and the top honor, the coveted Palme d’Or has been awarded to Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, edging out favorite Sentimental Value, as well as films by Richard Linklater (Nouevelle Vogue), Ari Aster (Eddington), Wes Anderson (The Phoenician Scheme), Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind) and two-time Palme d’Or winners the Dardenne brothers (Young Mothers).

Of note, It Was Just an Accident is the first film with (partly) Iranian backing since Abbas Kiarostami’s remarkable A Taste of Cherry 1997 co-win to take home to Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film tells of a minor accident that yields consequences that none of the parties could foresee. Director Jafar Panahi has been highly critical of his home country of Iran, facing numerous arrests and even facing charges of propaganda. In his acceptance speech,...

Yes, Cannes is still rolling. And no, the Palme d’Or winner has not been crowned (that’ll come later Saturday). Cannes has been going on for so long that “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” a film that screened early in the festival, is now playing on thousands of screens worldwide. But let’s get into the happenings before this year’s festival finally closes out.

Un Certain Regard Regarded

Everyone is always in a tizzy over what will get Cannes’ big award, the Palme d’Or, but just as interesting (perhaps more so) is the competition for the Un Certain Regard, which is run in parallel to the main competition. The goal of Un Certain Regard, which was introduced in 1998, is to give a spotlight to unusual films that take narrative or stylistic risks. And this year was no different.

This year’s top prize winner was “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,...

Bearing out Brazil’s place as country of honor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” (“O Agente Secreto”) won the Fipresci Prize in the Official Selection – Competition category, granted by the International Federation of Film Critics .

Set in Brazil under military rule in 1977 and starring Wagner Moura , the film delves into themes of political repression, morality and resistance. Known for his earlier films “Aquarius” and “Bacurau,” both of which played in main comoetition at Cannes, Mendonça Filho continues his exploration of Brazil’s sociopolitical landscape with a narrative praised for its depth and ambition.

“The Secret Agent” was hailed by Variety‘s Peter Debruge as a “terrific ’70s thriller” and “dazzling period drama.”

In its assessment of the film, the Fipresci jury explained: “We chose a film that has a novelistic, epic generosity; a film that allows for digression, diversion, humor and...

Gold Derby's top news stories for May 23, 2025.

The Wheel of Time canceled after three seasons on Prime Video

Amazon has canceled fantasy series The Wheel of Time after three seasons. The series, which premiered on Prime Video in 2021, was based on the popular novel series by Robert Jordan, and featured a large ensemble cast led by Rosamund Pike. The third season made Nielsen's top 10 list of streaming originals, but the renewal bar is high for expensive fantasy series.

Cannes' Un Certain Regard winners revealed

The 2025 winners of the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, which honors early career filmmakers, have been revealed. La misteriosa mirada del flamenco (The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo), the debut feature of Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes, won the top Un Certain Regard Prize. Colombian director Simón Mesa Soto won the second-place Jury Prize with his film Un Poeta (A Poet). Palestinian...

Ahead of the 2025 awards ceremony on Saturday, May 24, the festival has announced the winners for the Un Certain Regard section, with the top prize going to “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.” A co-production between Chile, France, Belgium, Spain, and Germany, the 1980s-set drama marks the feature directorial debut of Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes.

The Best Screenplay award for the Un Certain Regard section went to Harry Lighton for his feature directorial debut, A24’s “Pillion,” starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård. In his Critic’s Pick review out of Cannes, IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio said of the film, “Dick-sucking, boot-licking, and ball-gagging are de rigueur for a movie like writer/director Harry Lighton’s wildly graphic and strangely moving Bdsm romance, ‘Pillion.’ But for a British queer film that puts the particulars of a gay dominant-submissive affair up front and up close, actors Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling find...

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, Chilean writer-director Diego Céspedes’ AIDS bigotry drama and feature debut, spotlighted by THR as a festival gem, has claimed the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s 2025 Un Certain Regard competition.

The winning drama, set in the 1980s, portrays a small mining town in Chile where an unknown illness spreads and gay men are accused of transmitting it with their gaze. That leaves Lydia, an 11 year-old girl, to find out the truth. The Un Certain Regard competition winners were revealed in an awards ceremony in the Debussy Theatre on Friday.

Other honorees included A Poet, by Colombian director Simón Mesa Soto, taking home the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize for the drama about a failed poet mentoring a talented, young woman. The best director prize went to Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser for Once Upon a Time in Gaza, a Palestinian crime thriller...

Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo has won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24).

The Chilean drama centres around an unknown illness said to be transmitted through a man’s loving gaze. Chile’s Quijote Films and France’s Les Valseurs produce, with Charades handling sales.

The jury prize went to Simon Mesa Soto’s A Poet. Shot in Medellin, Colombia, it follows an ageing man obsessed with poetry who mentors a talented teenage girl.

Best screenplay went to Harry Lighton for Pillion, starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård.

Chilean Drama The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo by Diego Céspedes won the main Un Certain Regard Prize this evening in Cannes.

Set in 1982, the film follows eleven-year-old Lidia lives with her beloved queer family in a desert mining town in northern Chile. As an unknown and deadly disease begins to spread, legend has it that it is transmitted between two men, through a simple glance, when they fall in love. While people are accusing her family, Lidia must find out whether this myth is real or not.

A Poet, by Colombian filmmaker Simón Mesa Soto, won the Jury Prize. The film is Soto’s second feature, and it follows Oscar Restrepo, whose obsession with poetry brought him no glory. Aging and erratic, he has succumbed to the cliché of the poet in the shadows. Meeting Yurlady, a teenage girl from humble roots, and helping her cultivate her talent brings some light to his days,...

Diego Céspedes’ “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo” has been named the best film of the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, the Ucr jury announced on Friday.

The film follows an 11-year-old girl growing up in the early 1980s in a queer family in a small Chilean mining town, where suspicion is growing over a mysterious disease that is rumored to be spread by glances between gay men.

Simón Mesa Soto’s “A Poet” won the Jury Prize, the second-place award.

The directing award went to Tarzan and Arab Nasser for “Once Upon a Time in Gaza,” while Cléo Diara and Frank Dillane won the performance prizes for “I Only Rest in the Storm” and “Urchin,” respectively. Writer-director Harry Lighton won the screenplay award for “Pillion.”

Un Certain Regard focuses on films from younger directors and often spotlights experimental work. This year, Ucr was also the...

At IndieWire’s annual “Screen Talk” live podcast at the American Pavilion in Cannes, Neon CEO Tom Quinn returned to share his Oscar whisperer secrets after his victory lap on “Anora,” which won the Palme d’Or last year followed by five Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Editing, and Original Screenplay. Quinn is the talk of Cannes because, as anticipated, the movie he acquired at last year’s festival, Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” starring Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve, is the frontrunner for the Palme.

While Quinn talked about the four films he brought to the festival (listen below), after our podcast, he acquired three Competition titles: Jafar Panahi’s family drama “It Was Just an Accident,” Brazil’s popular entry “The Secret Agent,” from Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Oliver Laxe’s tragic French-Spanish production “Sirât,” which polarized many Cannes watchers. Even if these four Neon titles don...

The Cannes Film Festival’s second-most prestigious competition, Un Certain Regard, is typically dominated by newer, less heralded names in world cinema. But there was more star power than usual at stake in this year’s awards ceremony, as pundits wondered whether one of the three debut features by prominent actors-turned-directors in this year’s lineup — Kristen Stewart, Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson — could land a prize.

As it turned out, people needn’t have worried about a Hollywood takeover. Stewart’s “The Chronology of Water” and Johansson’s “Eleanor the Great” both went unawarded, as the jury threw a relative curveball in handing the Prix Un Certain Regard to Chilean director Diego Céspedes for his alluringly titled first feature “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,” an offbeat study of a transgender commune living in the Chilean desert around the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

The film...

With a breakout performance in Urchin, the actor has emerged from cult TV fame to the cusp of major stardom – a new ‘post-alpha male’ lead to join the ranks of Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor

Few actors make an instant impact on their first major film festival appearance, but Frank Dillane, star of fellow actor Harris Dickinson’s directing debut Urchin, is one of them. Critics are near-unanimous in their praise, with Variety calling his performance “revelatory”, and IndieWire describing it as “magnetic”. Influential film industry publication Deadline said that Dillane “arrived in Cannes a virtual unknown, but Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut has made him a star”.

In Urchin, Dillane plays Mike, a man living on the streets who ends up in jail after committing an assault and then struggles to go straight after his release. Despite being given a place in a hostel and helped into employment, Mike...

Josh O’Connor is best known for his award-winning performance as Prince Charles in The Crown. But he may be hinting at new endeavors- this time behind the camera. The British actor, celebrated for his emotionally evolved performance in films like La Chimera, recently got candid about his increasing interest in directing.

Who ignited the spark? Harris Dickinson. The Babygirl actor recently made a bold and critically acclaimed directorial debut with the movie Urchin at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Dickinson, primarily known for his brilliant acting skills, has now shifted gears and is riding full speed towards directorial success. Urchin stands as a raw portrayal of humanity’s reality. And it’s this very masterpiece that’s caught O’Connor’s eye. In a recent interview, O’Connor opened up about being inspired by Dickinson.

Harris Dickinson’s work in Urchin has inspired The Crown fame Josh O’Connor

Harris Dickinson...

BBC Film director Eva Yates had the right idea about the after-party for Joachim Trier’s exquisitely realised film Sentimental Value: Do not dilly-dally. Get in there, play the room, then scoot.

“We’re off to sit at the kitchen table and talk about films,” Yates declares as she and two colleagues greet me whilst I’m still in line waiting to get into the soiree, or whatever it was, at the casino nightclub Silencio conveniently located next door to the Palais des Festivals.

Yates was one of several executive producers attached to Sentimental Value, which Neon has in the U.S. and Mubi in the U.K.,Ireland, Latin America, Turkey and India. The BBC Film topper has had a good festival with Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow, Harry Lighton’s Pillion and Harris Dickinson’s Urchin also included in this year’s official selection.

She was off and away,...

Deadline photo studio hosted talent at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival, as cast members of Cannes premiering films stopped by, including Spike Lee from Highest 2 Lowest; Paul Mescal and Oliver Hermanus from The History of Sound; Michael Angelo, Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Kyle Marvin for Splitsville; Richard Linklater, Zoey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck for New Wave; Frank Dillane from Urchin; Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson for Die My Love; Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Kristen Stewart from Chronology of Water, and many more.

Related: Cannes Film Festival 2025 In Photos: Awards Ceremony, Movie Premieres, Parties & More

The Deadline Studio at Cannes will run from May 14-21, where the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup sit down with Deadline’s festival team to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Cannes, France.

The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by Scad,...

Renée Zellweger has been nominated as best actress in this year’s National Film Academy awards for her return to the ‘Bridget Jones’ franchise.The group officially unveiled the full list of nominees on Tuesday (20.05.25) for its highly anticipated 11th annual edition of the prestigious National Film Awards UK. It said: “This year’s awards celebrate excellence in British and international film and television, recognising talent from emerging newcomers to established icons.”The ceremony is set to take place at the iconic Porchester Hall in London on 2 July.Public voting is live 19 May to 19 June on the National Film Academy website.Along with Renée for her role in ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’, the best actress category includes Saoirse Ronan (for ‘The Outrun’), Daisy Ridley (‘Cleaner’), and Stephanie Beacham (‘Grey Matter’.) On the Best Actor side, the competition is fierce with Aaron Pierre (‘Rebel Ridge’), Barry Keoghan (‘Bring Them Down...

Exclusive: It is Frank Dillane’s first time attending the Cannes Film Festival. He arrived a virtual unknown as the lead in Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut feature Urchin, shown in Un Certain Regard, and he will depart a star.

He notes with a hint of alarm in his voice that he hasn’t walked anywhere, “just been chauffeured around, given coffee,” and adds, “I haven’t seen any films, except our film.”

In the BFI- and BBCFilm-backed movie, Dillane plays Mike, a young man who’d known a better life in better days but had fallen through the cracks, landing with a hard thud.

Sidewalks were for sleeping on and for running away from harm. And Mike did not trust himself to depend on the kindness of strangers because he lacked the empathy to understand an act of selfless charity.

Related: ‘Urchin’ Review: Harris Dickinson’s Knockout Directorial...

It was moving to watch Denzel Washington lope up to the Lumière stage at Cannes and tear up as he accepted his Honorary Palme d’Or from Cannes veteran Spike Lee Monday night at the “Highest 2 Lowest” premiere. It was a surprise to the actor, as he watched a clip reel that ranged from his four prior roles with Lee to “Philadelphia,” “Flight,” “The Book of Eli,” “The Hurricane,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “Fences,” and more.

Festival director Thierry Frémaux knows how to make the most of a Hollywood movie star, who flew into France and out again on his one day off from doing eight sold-out shows a week as Shakespeare’s “Othello” on Broadway. If the man looked weary, it’s understandable. At 70, he’s at the peak of his powers, and if the Oscar gods are smiling, he’ll land his third Oscar (after “Training Day” and...