Movies

“Monster,” Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan Described by Variety critic Peter Debruge as a “convoluted portrait of a pre-teen in turmoil,” Kore-eda ‘s Palme d’Or best script and Queer Palm winner stars Sakura Andō as a mother who confronts a teacher after noticing odd changes in her son’s demeanor. Written by Yuji Sakamoto, it’s scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. “Peafowl,” Byun Sungbin,

Speaking at the press conference announcing the Monterrey Film Festival’s 2023 edition, Lorena Villarreal, the festival’s president of the board, hailed the event’s ambitions for its @Nuevo León industry section, “which will undoubtedly be an important hub connecting Mexican and global cinema,” she said.    With newly hired Diana Cadavid, a seasoned programmer at TIFF and

“Yo no moriré de amor,” the feature debut of theatre actress Marta Matute, among the five titles selected by the Madrid Film School’s ECAM incubator program, has been boarded by Elastica Films, whose credits include Berlinale Golden Bear prize winner “Alcarràs” and “Creatura,” Elena Martin’s best European film winner at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.  The family drama is lead

Latido Films is venturing yet more into the inspiring world of e-sports and viral fame with Goya Award winning producer-helmer Alvaro Longoria’s new doc-feature, “La vida de Brianeitor.” The film serves as a spin-off from Javier Fesser’s Spanish box office smash hit, “Championext,” which Latido is also selling.   The doc follows Brian Albacete, better known

China’s remarkable box office recovery this year took a pause on a weekend with no new releases and the quietest attendance levels since January. Next week’s crop of blockbuster holiday releases will show if the latest weekend was aberration attributable to timing. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed nationwide box office worth just $25

Negotiators for the WGA and Hollywood’s major studios and streamers gathered Sunday afternoon around 4 p.m. PT for more talks about the final terms of a three-year contract that has taken shape over the past week, raising hopes of ending the nearly five-month writers strike. Some representatives for the Writers Guild of America and Alliance

In my opinion, the two greatest directors to emerge from the nexus of international cinema in the 1990s were both Scandinavian. One of them, Lars von Trier, became quite famous, for reasons both good and bad. (Von Trier the court jester of controversy has always had detractors, but “Breaking the Waves” is one of the

“Taxi Driver” screenwriter Paul Schrader has expressed his disapproval of Robert De Niro reprising his role as Travis Bickle in an Uber ad campaign. “Ouch. Why Bob would do this is beyond my reckoning,” Schrader wrote on Facebook on Wednesday evening. “But I haven’t seen it. If I’m lucky I never will.” Reports began circulating

“The Expendables 4,” an action-thriller starring Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, misfired in its box office debut, tumbling to a franchise-low $8.3 million. It landed in ever-so-slightly second place behind “The Nun II,” which collected $8.4 million in its third weekend. It’s possible the order could flip by the time the final tally is revealed

Timothy Spall is ready to bring “Joy to the World.” “It’s a Christmas story, but an unusual Christmas story,” he tells Variety about his upcoming film, directed by Edward Hall. Calico Pictures and Studio Hamburg are on board, while James Nesbitt co-stars. “It’s about a troubled 12-year-old kid who is pretty obnoxious, really. He is

Evil, as conceived by Stephen King, is an inexorable force as old as the world itself. It exists in countless forms, some of which can be staved off for a time but none of which can be extinguished permanently. It’s as much a part of the earth as it is a part of us, and

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

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

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

“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 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

“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

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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:

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