Month: May 2022

The Film Development Council of the Philippines on Sunday launched UniPhilippines, an incentive program that will reward overseas distributors of Philippines films. The FDCP also added to its stock of international cooperation agreements by promising to work with the new Mongolian National Film Council. UniPhilippines will provide up to $8,000 to distributors to underwrite their

“1976,” the awaited first feature of Chile’s Manuela Martelli, has closed first new major territories for sales company Luxbox before its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight later this upcoming week. The film is produced out of Chile by writer-directors Omar Zúñiga (“The Strong Ones”) and Dominga Sotomayor (“Too Late to Die Young”) at auteur-focused Chile-based

“Holy Spider,” a gritty drama about a real-life Iranian serial killer, stunned the Cannes Film Festival at its premiere on Sunday afternoon, earning a thunderous seven-minute standing ovation and bringing a jolt of electricity to what’s been a sleepy festival so far. The film, from Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi (“Border”), chronicles a killing spree in

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points of Disney+’s “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” currently streaming on the platform. Do not read until you’ve seen the movie. “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” are back. Director Akiva Schaffer mixes live-action with animation as John Mulaney and Andy Samberg voice the beloved chipmunks who started a detective agency.

A group of feminist protestors staged a dramatic scene at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, releasing plumes of smoke from handheld devices and displaying a long banner for the global press. At the premiere of “Holy Spider,” director Ali Abbasi’s female-centered thriller, roughly 12 women in formal wear gathered on the famed stairs of

In April, Anette Novak took over as CEO at the Swedish Film Institute, a role previously held by the high-profile Anna Serner, champion of gender equality. A trained journalist, Novak was previously head of the Swedish Media Council, a government body responsible for film classification, children and youth protection. Earlier on, she was CEO of

It’s over six years since the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that ruptured the country’s national consciousness and political agenda, but the events are only gaining currency for European filmmakers. This year’s Berlin festival brought us Isaki Lacesta’s “One Year, One Night,” an impressionistic reflection on survivor’s guilt in the long-term wake of the

Top Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, who also has a Hollywood presence (“xXx: Return of Xander Cage”), is having the time of her life serving on the Cannes jury. “It gives me goosebumps every single time I walk into the Palais and we leave – it gives me goosebumps because every single person on that seat

Half a dozen Sweden pics and co-prods are set to storm the Croisette, flagships of the solid public support system in place, and fully or partly shot in a foreign language. Headlining the slate are the completion entries “Triangle of Sadness” by former winner Ruben Östlund (“The Square”), shot in the English language, and the

Julia Roberts touched down in Cannes to attend the Chopard Trophée Dinner, in which she was tasked with presenting awards to rising actors Sheila Atim and Jack Lowden. The event was held at the Carlton Hotel Beach Club and was attended by the likes of Xavier Dolan, Saoirse Ronan, Vincent Lindon, Lashana Lynch, Rebecca Hall,

There was a time, not so long ago, when Roman Polanski was the toast of the film industry in France, where the director has been living since 1978, when he fled the United States before sentencing after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. Despite the scandal and ongoing legal issues, the

Woody Harrelson will reteam with “Triangle of Sadness” director Ruben Östlund for his next film “The Entertainment System is Down.” The Oscar-nominee broke the news during the press conference for “Triangle of Sadness” at Cannes on Monday, the morning after the movie world premiered in competition. “Ruben is a maestro so my interest was to

Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s latest documentary, “The Natural History of Destruction,” bows May 23 in the Cannes Premiere section of the Cannes Film Festival. The director returns to the Croisette one year after his last feature, “Babi Yar. Context,” won a Special Jury Prize of the Golden Eye award for best documentary. Variety has been

Morgan Freeman and Josh Hutcherson star in “57 Seconds,” a thriller based in the world of tech and big pharma. The film is directed by Rusty Cundieff (“Tales From the Hood,” “Chappelle’s Show”), and written by Macon Blair (Netflix’s “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at

Russia may have been cut off from much of the international film community, but here at Cannes, members of the country’s media business are quietly trying to line up deals. Nearly three months into the war in Ukraine, the leadership of the film festival has spent its opening week fielding questions about its stance on

Paris and Mumbai-based production service company La Fabrique Films is looking forward to a further surge in business in the wake of new Indian filming incentives that were announced in Cannes. International productions filming in India can be reimbursed up to 35% of qualifying production spend in the country. La Fabrique, which specializes in European

Quiver Distribution got into the business of producing its own movies out of necessity. “Our goal was to go out and acquire all rights to films and exploit them on as many media as possible,” says Barry Meyerowitz, the company’s co-founder. “But we found out that we couldn’t find as many high quality feature films

A restored version of Indian master Satyajit Ray’s “The Adversary” is playing at Cannes Classics this year and films inspired by his works are being planned. Kolkata-based Indian producer-director Aritra Sen’s Roadshow Films and Los Angeles-based British writer-director Alex Harvey’s Big Bazaar Films are producing two films this year, which take their inspiration from Ray’s

Though Iran is in the throes of a deep economic crisis, battered by hard-line politics and a mismanaged pandemic, it’a shaping up to be a great year for Iranian cinema. Paradoxically, Iran’s cinematic landscape is bursting with powerful, fresh films likely to make an international splash just as talks between Tehran and world powers continue

Rocket Science has boarded the biopic “The Good Spy,” about CIA operative Robert Ames, from Oscar-nominated “Paradise Now” and “Omar” director Hany Abu-Assad. The pic is based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird’s biography of Ames. Scott Frazier (“Berliner”) is adapting for screen. “Free Solo” and “Everest” producer Evan Hayes will produce under his ACE

Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy’s absurdist social satire “Feathers,” in which the good-for-nothing husband of a woman with three children is turned into a chicken, is the big winner of the sixth edition of the Critics’ Awards for Arab Films. The biting black comedy, winner of last year’s Cannes Critics’ Week prize, scooped best film,

“Bonnie is legendary for her boundless energy on the Crosiette,” AGC Studios head Stuart Ford said of his marketing head Bonnie Voland, whose 40th Cannes Festival was celebrated by Ford and friends at an elegant beachside cocktail on Friday evening. “This is my 15th Cannes with Bonnie Voland and I’m not sure I still have the

Panama’s award-winning Hypatia Films and Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante, whose most recent film, “La Llorona,” made the Oscar international film shortlist, is partnering with Jonathan Keasey of Mind Riot Entertainment to make WWII drama “Down Wind.” The film marks a rare collaboration between two major Central American filmmakers and an American writer-producer. Bustamante will direct based