Month: April 2022

Pretend it was one year ago, when the streaming revolution, stoked by the pandemic (when is a pandemic good for business? When your business depends on people staying home), was feeling the first flush of being the New Paradigm That Ate The World. And pretend, in that spring of 2021, that you’d been asked to

Cinecittà CEO Nicola Maccanico, who is a former Warner Bros. and Sky Italia senior exec, is implementing a major upgrade and expansion of the iconic Rome studios where he recently installed Europe’s largest LED Wall on the lot near the large Studio 5 that was once Federico Fellini’s second home. Maccanico, who has ambitions for

Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” and Gabriele Mainetti’s “Freaks Out” lead the pack at the David di Donatello Awards this year with 16 nominations each. Here’s the complete list of nominees: PICTURE“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter),

As they celebrate being held as a physical event, Italy’s upcoming 67th David di Donatello Awards epitomize the ongoing shift in generations and genres that is underway in Cinema Italiano. Leading the pack this year are seasoned auteur Paolo Sorrentino’s most personal film “The Hand of God” and young helmer Gabriele Mainetti’s second feature, the

Bill Murray has offered his first statement on the suspension of production on “Being Mortal,” which Searchlight Pictures deemed necessary after investigating complaints of inappropriate behavior against the actor. Murray shared his comments during an interview on CNBC Television at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Neb. on Saturday. Without going into detail about the

For a headlining appearance at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night, the group Haim does have two official support acts (Waxahatchee and Buzzy Lee). But for hometown fans who really want to make a full day of it, there’s an additional opening act: a screening just a couple of blocks down the hill of the complete

Cognizant of the ever-raw emotion elicited by monumental civil unrest, Chilean producer-directors Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdeavellano glimpse boldly into the Neoliberal structures that seemingly divided and destroyed a nation’s prosperity.  With a lens on the uphill battle to achieve a semblance of peace amidst a global pandemic, a country makes an historic and eager

International sales company Andana Films has acquired Islamic State documentary “Rojek,” which has its North American premiere in Hot Docs’ Canadian Spectrum section on Saturday. The film, which had its world premiere in the International Competition section at Visions du Réel, will have a theatrical release in Canada through Maison 4:3. [embedded content] In the

Next week, Sam Raimi will be making his long-awaited return to the superhero genre with the Marvel blockbuster “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” The film represents his first time back in the director’s chair after a nine-year hiatus following “Oz the Great and the Powerful” in 2013, as well as his first superhero

Two years ago, Kate Mara watched a rough cut of “The Smell of Money” – a documentary about Elsie Herring’s decades-long fight to stop a multibillion-dollar corporate hog farm from spraying animal waste on her family’s land in North Carolina – and signed on to become an executive producer alongside David Lowery. Directed by Shawn

Viewers before them had first-generation “Saturday Night Live” and “SCTV.” But five Canadian lads turned out to be “kind of the only comedy group that reflected Gen X,” as fan Fred Armisen puts it in “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks.” Reg Harkema’s documentary is a breezy, worthy overview of a collective career now

The VFX team on “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” is no stranger to the intensive process of de-aging a known figure such as Nicolas Cage. For the film, the team was tasked to make Cage, who is 58 years old, appear about 20-25 years younger for the character of Nicky Cage. Nicky, Cage’s imagined

As soon as Daniel Craig announced in 2019 that “No Time to Die” would be his fifth and final film as international spy James Bond, rumors began — and haven’t stopped — swirling about who might take his place. Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill, Idris Elba and even “Euphoria” star Jacob Elordi have been whispered about

Anxieties about a climate in crisis, the plight of refugees, and the destructive legacy of war are among the subjects that will take center stage as part of Hot Docs’ Changing Face of Europe program, a collaboration between North America’s largest documentary film festival and European Film Promotion (EFP). Now in its fifth year, the

Rohit Shetty, the filmmaker known for his Singham cop franchise, and Reliance Entertainment, will produce a biopic on one of Mumbai’s most revered top cops and former commissioner of police, Rakesh Maria. The biopic will be based on Maria’s 2020 memoir “Let Me Say it Now” and will be mentored by Shetty. A director and

Louise Archambault’s World War II drama “Irena’s Vow,” starring Canada’s Sophie Nélisse (“Yellowjackets,” “The Book Thief”), the U.K.’s Dougray Scott (“My Week with Marilyn,” “Mission: Impossible II”), and Poland’s Maciej Nawrocki and Andrzej Seweryn, is in production in Poland, and is set to premiere next year, according to Film New Europe. The film tells the