Month: October 2021

Cologne-based The Match Factory, one of the world’s leading arthouse sales agencies, is at MIA Market in Rome with two German features and one upcoming Italian project, following a busy summer with 20 premieres between Cannes and Toronto. Nana Neul, best known for her film “My Friend From Faro,” is back with an entertaining German-Italian-Greek

“I don’t know my neighbors. There is a wall between us,” muses immigrant handyman Moha (Mohamed Mellali) in voiceover in Neus Ballús’ deceptively modest, gently ingenious third feature, “The Odd-Job Men.” “Water, electricity, gas, telephone. Our building is connected to all the others in the city and to all the other cities. And yet, we’re

Films can take years to finance, but for the filmmaking team behind the documentary feature “Bull Run,” the production was fully financed within 24 hours of launching the idea to a group of private investors. Then the money landed in their crypto currency wallet. Filming proper begins on Monday. “We did the presentation on the

A lot gets lost in Radu Muntean’s fantastic “Intregalde.” Stuck in the mud as night falls in the thick of an increasingly sinister Romanian forest, people lose tempers, minds, control of their bowels, loyalties, ideals and maybe even a sense of themselves as decent, altruistic souls. But this uncannily gripping tragicomedy never loses your attention:

Prolific Filipino filmmaker Brillante Ma Mendoza (“Kinatay,” “Thy Womb”) steps into the boxing ring with the heartfelt if rather thin drama “Gensan Punch.” Inspired by the true story of Naozumi Tsuchiyama, an amputee who was denied a license to box professionally in Japan and traveled to the Philippines in pursuit of his dreams, “Gensan” lands

The first 40 minutes of “Hard Luck Love Song” are so aggressively off-putting, even the unluckiest of audiences may be tempted to to walk out of the theater or turn off the TV. The arrantly contrived last 20 minutes are equally patience-testing — and borderline loony to boot. Everything in between is bearable, if only

Marking its 25th edition later this month, the Czech Republic’s Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival will celebrate its silver anniversary with an expanded slate, a streamlined number of sections and pointed focus on renewal and wellbeing. As it runs from Oct. 26-31, this year’s in-person edition will screen 300 films, including 54 world premieres spread

There’s just so much summer in “The Tsugua Diaries” — great lashings of sunlight warming and slightly melting every 16mm frame, tangles of hyper-green foliage that seem to sweat in the heat, a generally horny, indolent air of human mischief — that you’d be forgiven for assuming “Tsugua” is some idyllic holiday spot you’ve never

A morose drama that never quite lives up to the promise of its moody, noirish atmosphere, Wang Qi’s “The Bargain” does at least look the part of the gritty, crime-shaded sprawling urban saga. But however tactile and textured the photography, and however pleasurable the rendering of the city’s outskirts as a kind of gloomy nocturnal

The Busan International Film Festival announced joint winners in both of its prestige sections, the New Currents competition for emerging Asian filmmakers and the Kim Jiseok showcase for works by the region’s more established directors. Korean-made “The Apartment With Two Women” and Chinese film “Farewell, My Hometown,” both first features, shared the New Currents award.

The fire that engulfed a section of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival’s Festival Plaza on Wednesday turned out to be a minor deterrent as the event’s fifth anniversary got off to a rousing start on Thursday. The fire, the cause of which has not yet been confirmed but is possibly a short circuit, was contained

Diane Weyermann, chief content officer at Participant and former director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program died Thursday of cancer in New York. She was 66. For the last three decades, Weyermann played a seminal role in supporting the documentary community and shaping the nonfiction landscape during stints at Participant and the Sundance Institute.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees reported on Thursday that negotiators were making “good progress” in bargaining, but advised members to be ready to go on strike on Monday if a deal is not reached. The union also put out a detailed FAQ on Thursday, which is posted in its entirety below. The FAQ

In 2004, Banjong Pisanthanakun and then-collaborator Parkpoom Wongpoom kickstarted their directorial careers with “Shutter,” a supernatural thriller so effective it’s been remade (albeit to lesser effect) abroad three times to date. Less likely to translate that widely is Pisanthanakun’s latest solo effort, “The Medium.” Marking his return to straight horror after a couple romances and

George Clooney and Grant Heslov have joined Austrian director Friedrich Moser’s feature documentary “How to Build a Truth Engine” as executive producers through their Smokehouse Pictures banner. The docu, now in the final stages of filming, tackles investigative journalism and the fight against fake news. Moser follows award-winning journalists from the New York Times, the

“The Addams Family,” the big-screen adaptation of Charles Addams’ comic stories of an aristocratic family with a taste for the macabre, became a box office sensation when it opened in theaters in 1991. The film, which had built-in interest thanks to the popularity of the 1960s television show that was also spawned by Addams’ cartoons,

LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD announced a preliminary list of celebrities, shows and networks set to participate in this year’s Spirit Day, the anti-bullying campaign taking place on Oct. 21. Among the names announced are Zuri Adele, Ryan Michelle Bathé, Michael Judson Berry, Michael Bolton, Bob The Drag Queen, Kent Boyd, Crystal Lee Brown, Sterling

Oscar Isaac is one of the hottest actors working in Hollywood, showcased by his distinct and invigorating performances in films such as “The Card Counter” from Paul Schrader, “Dune” from Denis Villeneuve and “Scenes from a Marriage,” the limited series that just completed its run on HBO. Knowing firsthand about the hustle of making it

Saban Films President Bill Bromiley and Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Shanan Becker have renewed their contracts with the Los Angeles-based global film acquisition and distribution company through the end of 2024. The new deals keep the two critical executives in the fold. Bromiley and Becker founded the company in May 2014, and