Norwegian documentary filmmaker Silje Evensmo Jacobsen wanted to follow a family living the dream. Instead, she witnessed them going through a nightmare. “Maria Vatne had this blog called ‘Wild+Free’ and I was fascinated by it. I discovered it 10 years ago,” the director of “A New Kind of Wilderness” – which has its world premiere
Movies
Tenerife’s Bendita Film Sales has picked up worldwide sales for “Memories of a Burning Body,” a hybrid-doc just selected for the Berlinale Panorama. Directed by Antonella Sudasassi Furniss, the Costa Rican writer-director-producer, this is her second film following the critically acclaimed “The Awakening of the Ants.” Her debut film, which premiered at Berlinale 2019, was
Prominent Italian producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli are exiting their Fremantle-owned companies — Wildside and The Apartment, respectively — in an industry shakeup expected to lead them to jointly form a new independent scripted content outfit. Gianani and Mieli co-founded Wildside in 2009 and turned it into the powerhouse behind major global dramas such as
Taking a one-for-us victory lap after one-for-them studio smash “Captain Marvel,” indie duo Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden blow a big, self-indulgent kiss to the late-’80s East Bay with “Freaky Tales.” Berkeley-born Fleck was all of 10 years old in early 1987, when this nostalgia-fueled anthology film is set, which explains the wide-eyed way he
“Skywalkers: A Love Story” lends new meaning to the words “high anxiety.” It’s a documentary set in the world of rooftoopers, the new generation of daredevils who scale the tallest buildings they can find, climbing to the tips of skyscrapers and posting top-of-the-world footage of themselves on social media. Directed by Jeff Zimbalist (a former
If Ann Landers had it right, and hanging on to resentment amounts to letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head, then “Your Monster” is what happens when you kick open the door and let those feelings run amok. Drawing from personal experience, writer-director Caroline Lindy delivers a clumsy metaphor of a movie, in
Robert Downey Jr. trekked to Sundance Film Festival‘s opening night gala to reveal that a “terrible tragedy” has befallen Christopher Nolan. But don’t worry about the filmmaker behind “Oppenheimer.” His hardship is really just a bad case of the blues, and it’s because Nolan — as Downey explained on Thursday while bestowing Nolan with the first-ever
“Veni Vidi Vici” — a jaw-dropping Austrian shocker that’s part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival – came, saw and conquered at its Thursday premiere. The film follows a ruthless and charismatic billionaire family whose patriarch guns down innocent citizens in his free time, and left many speechless at the Egyptian Theater in Park City.
After a snowy Wednesday in Park City dampered some of the arrival fanfare of previous festivals, Sundance soaked up the sun on Thursday’s opening day. With plenty of powder to lend an idyllic backdrop to selfies and social media updates, the festival crowd was buzzing in line for the day’s largest film opening: “Freaky Tales,”
“Taking from an elderly person is as bad as stealing from a child,” growls Jason Statham in “The Beekeeper,” reinforcing the image of “helpless” old people in need of defending. (He spends the rest of the movie knocking heads after scammers steal money from his gullible landlady.) With “Thelma,” writer-director Josh Margolin tries out a
Hailing from the country that gave us such grim social critics as Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl (fittingly, the latter serves as a producer here), Vantablack Austrian satire “Veni Vidi Vici” opens with a senseless homicide. It’s a startling scene, no less upsetting than the Scorpio killing that kick-starts “Dirty Harry” — except that in
Few issues have defined and divided the United States this decade like policing, and Yance Ford’s “Power” seeks to explore its origins. With few exceptions, the Netflix documentary/visual essay is more factual than emotional — let alone revelatory in its examinations — but the film covers enough historical ground to function as a contemporary cinematic
Kristen Stewart is being honored with the visionary award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival opening night gala, a prize that is a bit unusual for the actor to accept. Speaking to Variety‘s Angelique Jackson, Stewart said her job is to serve the vision of filmmakers and not to always have her own sense of
Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler are reuniting once again, with both attached to an original genre film still shrouded in secrecy. The package was showcased to executives and buyers last week at the offices of WME, with additional meetings set to take place to seek a production commitment from suitors. The project marks
Rob Lowe might want to double check who he is sending text messages to in the future. During a recent visit to “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the ” 9-1-1: Lone Star” actor revealed that he accidentally texted Bradley Cooper a congratulations for winning a Golden Globe thinking the message was going to Robert Downey Jr. The
Composer Kris Bowers calls the score to Ava DuVernay‘s “Origin” “one of the most meaningful” of his career, but there’s one music cue, “Leaves,” which he says “stands out as one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever composed.” Inspired by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, “Origin” follows Wilkerson’s journey
Even next to David Bowie, with his alien regalia and mutating persona, it was Brian Eno who always seemed like the supreme spaceman of the pop-music universe. In 1972, when he first came onto the scene as the 24-year-old synthesizer wizard of Roxy Music, he sported a look that was pure glam, except that he
‘Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning,’ a Korean-made animated horror film, has been added to the European Film Market slate of sales agent Finecut. The picture is derived from a novel and webtoon that are among the most successful in Korean history, about four individuals bestowed with special powers rooted in religion, the supernatural, and legend. The
Fusion Entertainment has signed Keith Kupferer, the veteran stage and screen actor whose new film “Ghostlight” premieres this week at the Sundance Film Festival. Kupferer has also recently been cast in a recurring role in the new MGM+ series “Emperor of Ocean Park” from John Wells, which is currently in production in Chicago. The thriller series is
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to stream “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” when it arrives on Paramount+ very soon. The seventh “Mission: Impossible” movie will be added to the Paramount+ on Jan. 25 in the U.S. and Canada. It will arrive in additional international markets beginning in February. Notably, the original
This article first appeared as part of Jenelle Riley’s Acting Up newsletter – to subscribe for early content and weekly updates on all things acting, visit the Acting Up signup page. cast and crew of “Poor Things” teased Mark Ruffalo about replacing him with Oscar Isaac — even bringing the other actor to set one day. Despite having
Film Movement will give “A Nice Jewish Boy” a home – several, in fact, as the New York-based distributor has picked up North American rights to Noé Debré’s bittersweet comedy with plans for both festival and theatrical plays later this year. Charades’ Hélène Espeisse brokered the deal with Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg. Written and
Jodie Foster has shocked the “Star Wars” fandom by confirming she was offered the role of Princess Leia in “Star Wars,” which unquestionably would’ve changed the course of her career. The two-time Oscar winner told Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” that she was already locked into a contract for a Disney movie at the
Toni Servillo, who played Roman socialite Jep Gambardella in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty,” will appear as Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro, dubbed “the last godfather,” in upcoming drama “Iddu” directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”). After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in
Dana Carvey has returned to the “Fly on the Wall” podcast for the first time since his son, Dex, died last fall (via Entertainment Weekly). The podcast is jointly hosted by Carvey and David Spade and features the “Saturday Night Live” alums telling behind-the-scenes stories from their time on the NBC sketch comedy series. In Carvey’s absence,
Premieres of new and returning TV shows fell sharply last year while the number of movies getting a theatrical wide release went way up. The volume of TV programs in the true crime genre went through the roof and non-English language films are becoming a bedrock of streaming platforms. Those are among the notable content
The disparate themes of immigration, white privilege, the politics of art and art galleries, cryogenics and even corporate espionage are woven through Julio Torres’ upcoming feature directorial debut, “Problemista.” The film, which he also wrote and stars in, was a hit at SXSW in 2023 and screened at Outfest LA. Originally set for release last
In “Ibelin” Norwegian filmmaker Benjamin Ree focuses on Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died in 2014 of a degenerative muscular disease at age 25. Ree, who as a child was family friends with the Steen family, conceived of the project after reading a 2019 BBC article. The piece explains that after Mats’ death his parents discovered
Ahead of its international bow in World Cinema Dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival, Beverly Hills-based United Talent Agency’s Independent Film Group has pounced on domestic sales representation for the unconventional narco narrative “Sujo,” from “Identifying Features” creators Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez. UTA joins Paris-based outfit Alpha Violet (“Apples”), which handles international sales as
What happened to “Barbie”? This is likely to be one of the hot-button questions following the announcement of the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards nominations on Thursday, which saw Greta Gerwig’s cultural phenomenon and box office juggernaut emerge without nods in the best film and director categories. While the film’s five BAFTA nominations (including leading actress,