Month: February 2025

India’s Tips Films Ltd. has struck a significant production partnership with Earthsky Pictures, the banner helmed by power couple Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari, whose critically acclaimed directorial ventures include “Nil Battey Sannata” and “Dangal” respectively. The pact signals Tips’ strategic move to bolster its content slate with the kind of distinctive storytelling that

French-Moroccan multi-hyphenate Roschdy Zem (“Days of Glory,” “The Innocent”) and Italy’s Barbara Ronchi (“Kidnapped”) are set to star in psychological drama “Elisa — Io la volevo uccidere” by Italian director Leonardo Di Costanzo (“The Inner Cage,” “The Intruder”). Zem, who is one of France’s most bankable actors, will play a compassionate criminologist named Alaoui, whose life intersects with a

Berlin-based helmer Ameer Fakher Eldin, who was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, to Syrian parents from the Golan Heights, is in the Berlinale competition with “Yunan,” the story of a prominent Arab author Munir, who is living in exile in Berlin and going through some heavy inner turmoil. Burdened by “an unforgettable past and an unidentifiable

Spanish sales company Filmax has secured international rights to “The Hanged Woman,” the latest film from director Miguel Ángel Lamata. Known for films such as “Our Lovers” and “The Footballest,” Lamata ventures into the highly sought-after horror genre with this adaptation of Mayte Navales’ popular thriller novel. The story revolves around a woman who takes

Italian director Silvio Soldini’s “The Tasters,” which reconstructs the true story of the women conscripted to be Adolf Hitler’s food tasters, is scoring a slew of sales at the European Film Market. Vision Distribution has closed deals for dozens of territories on the German-language drama starring Germany’s Elisa Schlott (“Das Boot” TV series), Max Riemelt (“Sleeping

Ukrainian filmmaker Kateryna Gornostai makes a case for optimism with the Berlinale doc “Timestamp.” “It’s a sad film, but there’s a lot of hope in these kids and in our education system that still works. It was crucial to make a film about war, but war is not in the frame,” she told Variety. Bowing

Four years after winning the Golden Bear for his irreverent satire “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” Romanian auteur Radu Jude returns to the Berlinale with his latest feature, “Kontinental ’25,” which premieres Feb. 19 in the festival’s main competition. The film follows a bailiff, Orsolya (Eszter Tompa), who’s plunged into a moral crisis after a homeless man

Carmen Maura, the famed Spanish actor and Pedro Almodóvar muse, stars in “Calle Malaga,” the upcoming Spanish-language film directed by Maryam Touzani. The movie, which is represented internationally by Berlin-based Films Boutique, marks Touzani’s follow- up to “The Blue Caftan” and “Adam,” which both screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and were Morocco’s Oscar entries

The biggest robbery in Danish history gets the big-screen treatment in “The Quiet Ones,” a somber piece whose chronicle from a heist’s inception to its disastrous (for the perps) aftermath has stirred comparisons to Michael Mann’s “Heat” 30 years ago. This well-cast and -crafted thriller does echo that film in some respects, albeit without the

Spoiler alert: The crazy, unpredictable Oscar season? Still crazy. Still unpredictable. Fresh off a one-two punch weekend where “Anora” cleaned up at the PGA and DGA Awards, the BAFTAs decided to stir the pot with their own take on the race. If history tells us anything, it’s that BAFTA can be either a crystal ball

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds made their first big red carpet appearance together amid their legal battle against Justin Baldoni. The married couple were among the numerous celebrities who showed up at the “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” event in New York City Sunday night. While Reynolds made an appearance at the National Board of Review

Pitched somewhere between science-fiction and fable, director Gabriel Mascaro’s “The Blue Trail” finds a beacon of optimism within its own dystopian view of the future. Set in the director’s native Brazil — and showcasing the astonishing natural beauty (side by side with decay) of the Amazon in every high-definition frame — the film centers a

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then every shot in Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s cine-kaleidoscopic “Reflection in a Dead Diamond” is worth its weight in cubic zirconia. The latest eyegasm from the French couple behind “The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears” continues their pop-art worship of guilty-pleasure ’60s cult cinema. This

German director Jan-Ole Gerster’s mesmerizing, mostly English-language “Islands” opens with a scene that for many would mark “rock bottom” — reason to check oneself into rehab — as Sam Riley’s Tom awakens in a field of sand dunes. He could have been dropped from heaven or belched up from below, but most likely just passed

Some of David Tennant’s Donald Trump jokes during his BAFTAs monologue ended up on the BBC’s cutting room floor. Several of the host’s quips — one of which compared the U.S. president to Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice character — were cut from the BBC’s broadcast of the British awards ceremony on Sunday night, which is pre-recorded

Min Kyu-dong’s South Korean action-drama “The Old Woman with the Knife” adapts Gu Byeong-mo’s novel of the same name with results at once languid and overstuffed. While it features an enticing premise, slotting a 65-year-old woman into the underground assassin genre (a position usually reserved for grizzled men and young vixens), its story remains rooted

The Trump Administration has banned Julianne Moore‘s 2007 children’s book “Freckleface Strawberry” from schools operated by the Department of Defense, the “Far from Heaven” star shared on Instagram Sunday morning. “It is a great shock for me to learn that my first book, ‘Freckleface Strawberry,’ has been banned by the Trump Administration from schools run

After winning the BAFTA Award for best supporting actress, “Emilia Pérez” star Zoe Saldaña dedicated the prize — and the film itself — to her trans nephew. Though she didn’t have time to make the dedication during her speech, Saldaña mentioned to journalists in the winners’ room that there was “one last thing that I