Month: September 2023

It’s the stock answer that many a happy long-term couple has given prying friends and relatives to explain why they haven’t married: “We don’t need a piece of paper to prove our love.” True enough. What can official documents tell you of something as wily and elusive as human desire? Is a band of gold

UPDATED: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers sent the Writers Guild of America its best and final offer on Saturday afternoon after four days of intense negotiations to secure a new three-year contract and bring the nearly five-month writers strike to an end. Industry sources report that a last, best and final offer

Michael Caine questioned the purpose of intimacy coordinators in a recent interview with the Daily Mail. “Really? Seriously? What are they? We never had that in my day,” he said. “Thank God I’m 90 and don’t play lovers anymore is all I can say.” An intimacy coordinator for film and TV specializes in choreographing and

Sweden’s Isabella Eklöf has followed up her acclaimed debut “Holiday” with the Greenland-set “Kalak,” this time around opting for a male protagonist. “He’s a guy, but the story is exactly the same,” she says. “It’s still about sexual assault and ‘restaging’ your trauma, or looking for family and connection, but I have never explored that

“All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” director Raven Jackson is taking her time.  “I’m interested in patience,” she says ahead of her feature debut’s San Sebastian screening, following the Sundance premiere earlier this year.  “I am interested in slow cinema, even though in the U.S. it’s not as prominent. When I was in the edit

As one of five intriguing titles selected by the Madrid Film School’s ECAM Incubator, now on its sixth year, Charli Bujosa Cortés’ feature debut “¿Es usted secuestrable?” (“Are You Kidnappable?”) offers a hybrid of sorts. He describes it as non-binary, just like him.  Developed at Eurodoc, Mallorca Talents Lab and the Mentoring Project of L’Alternativa Desarrolla among others, the film turns

A sardonic view of Popular Unity, the left-wing alliance once led by the assassinated Chilean socialist president Salvador Allende, Raul Ruiz’s docu-fiction hybrid, “Socialist Realism,” world premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Sept 23, 50 years after the prolific filmmaker was forced to abandon it. It finally unspools after his widow, filmmaker-editor Valeria

“Modestly speaking, we’ve tried to create a culture at Movistar Plus+ which attracts talent. We have a lot of respect for what creators want to tell and believe in them,” Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus+ director of fiction and entertainment, has said. One case in point is Berto Romero, whose latest series, “The Other Side” (“El

As directorial head-to-heads go, Jack Huston versus Stanley Kubrick isn’t anyone’s idea of a fair fight. But that’s exactly the clash the actor and Hollywood scion sets up for himself in his directorial debut “Day of the Fight” — named for Kubrick’s famous 1951 documentary short of the same title, and likewise following an Irish-American

Audiences don’t seem to intend to attend the latest “Expendables.” The fourth entry in the ensemble action franchise is notching a series-low opening day from 3,518 theaters with $3.2 million, a figure that includes a meagre $750,000 in Thursday previews. “Expend4bles” is projecting a debut that’ll fall well short of the $15 million to $17

“A Hunt for Hedgehogs,” the new film by Hungarian director Mihály Schwechtje and “Rock Bottom,” the feature debut of Spaniard María Trénor mark two potential highlights of San Sebastian’s pix-in-post sidebar WIP Europa, that runs Sept 25-27.  In 2020, the San Sebastian Film Festival, the highest-profile film event in the Spanish-speaking world, launched two new

San Sebastian’s pix-in-post showcases have often launched standout movies, such as Sebastian Lelio’s “Gloria,” winner of the Films in Progress Award at the 2012 edition, plus notable directors, such as Jayro Bustamante, whose praised debut “Ixcanul” played at the festival in rough cut in 2015 before winning the Alfred Bauer prize for innovation at 2016’s Berlinale,

Norway’s Lilja Ingolfsdottir won the top prize this week at the Finnish Film Affair for her feature directorial debut “Lovable,” a relationship drama about a woman forced to find herself as her marriage falls apart. Pic is produced by “The Worst Person in the World’s” Thomas Robsahm and Nordisk Film Production, with Scandinavian powerhouse TrustNordisk

A first trailer has been unveiled for Nicole Midori Woodford’s feature debut “Last Shadow at First Light,” which world premieres at the New Directors strand of the San Sebastian Film Festival. The film is in competition for the New Directors Award. Starring acclaimed Japanese actor Nagase Masatoshi (“Sweet Bean”) and newcomer Shirata Mihaya, the film

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses plot points in “No One Will Save You.” Horror Film School is a new feature in which talent in front of and behind the camera share the ins and outs of creating the biggest onscreen scares. “No One Will Save You,” out Friday on Hulu, is an incredibly lean genre movie:

Russell Brand has made his first public comments since The Sunday Times of London published an article disclosing five women’s allegations of “sexual assaults and emotional abuse” and, in one case, rape. In a video posted to his official YouTube channel Friday afternoon, Brand did not directly acknowledge the details of the accusations, but instead

The Italian premiere of Illumination and Universal Pictures’ upcoming animated feature “Migration” rounds out the lineup for this year’s VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy. The conference, which brings together top industry professionals, thought leaders and enthusiasts to celebrate the latest achievements in animation, VFX and games, runs from Oct. 15 through Oct. 20. “Migration” director

Just a few months after Macro lined up a new $90 million round of investment, Hollywood went on strike. Charles D. King, Macro’s CEO and founder, has been using his entrepreneurial drive to make the best of a tough situation. “When there are moments of chaos, we find opportunity,” said King in a conversation at

Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation “A Haunting in Venice” has been rattling North American theaters for a week now, signaling the start to spooky season with a packed ensemble cast featuring the likes of Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh and “Yellowstone” star Kelly Reilly. Branagh’s players (and the director himself) weren’t

In what marks a departure in her filmmaking, Carla Simon, director of Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” is preparing a flamenco musical for her fourth feature. Like “Alcarrás,” the project is set to be produced by María Zamora at her Valencia-based production-distribution house Elástica Films. “Romería,” the third part of Simón’s trilogy begun by 2017’s