U.S distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films president Peter Goldwyn has weighed in on the backlash to India’s selection of its competitor for this year’s best international film race at the Oscars, calling candidate “The Last Film Show,” which it will release in North America, “a really strong contender.” Directed by Pan Nalin (“Samsara,” “Valley of Flowers”),
Movies
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read unless you have seen “Don’t Worry Darling,” in theaters now. Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” is set in the blissful utopia of the Victory Project in the 1950s. Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) are residents in the insular desert town, where husbands routinely drive off to work, wives
Frequent method actor Christian Bale typically has no problem morphing into his characters on set. But on his latest film, David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam,” he ran into an obstacle: his co-star Chris Rock. Bale says the director had Rock tell him some stories while on set, but “Chris is so bloody funny” that it prevented
Trying to follow in the footsteps of last year’s best original screenplay winner Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”), Focus Features is trying to position writer, director and co-producer James Gray as one of the awards season’s breakout nominees for “Armageddon Time.” The film is currently sitting with a respectable 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the awards team
Netflix’s “Our Man From Jersey,” starring Halle Berry, Mark Wahlberg and J.K. Simmons, is coming close to wrapping its shoot in Croatia and Slovenia, according to Film New Europe. The film, based on a screenplay by David Guggenheim and Joe Barton, has been described as a “blue-collar James Bond.” Wahlberg plays a down-to-earth construction worker
Cinedigm has acquired all North American rights to horror film “The Outwaters,” a throwback to the early days of the found footage genre. Written and directed by Robbie Banfitch, “The Outwaters” plays out over three memory cards found in a sun-drenched section of the Mojave Desert. The footage within is that of a foursome, who
Utopia has acquired worldwide rights to a feature documentary about Hollywood’s voracious autograph hunters. “Hollywood Signs, which will receive a Sept. 27 digital release in the U.S., explores the unique and often hilarious relationship between Hollywood celebrities and their fans through the lens of the autograph collecting subculture. Some of the celebrities featured in “Hollywood
In “Captain America: Civil War,” the “Avengers” movies and, of course, “Black Panther,” Chadwick Boseman brought King T’Challa to life, marking an important moment in representation in superhero films and breaking box office records along the way. After Boseman’s shocking death in August 2020 due to colon cancer, which the actor had kept private, audiences
Italy on Monday took a sharp turn towards the right as Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, emerged as big winners in the country’s national elections. Final results on Monday showed Meloni and her party winning roughly 26% of the vote and the center-right coalition she leads scoring 44%
A trio of French films, the melodrama “A Family for 1640 Days,” political thriller “Goliath” and comedy “Adieu Paris,” are set to be released in the U.S. by the New York-based company Distrib Films. Both Fabien Gorgeart’s “A Family for 1640 Days” (“Une vraie famille”) and Edouard Baer’s “Adieu Paris” are represented in international markets
There are plenty of valid reasons to be skeptical about “Avatar: The Way of Water.” It’s been more than a decade since James Cameron’s otherworldly sci-fi epic “Avatar” opened in theaters in 2009, smashing expectations on its way to becoming the biggest movie in history with $2.85 billion in global ticket sales. But times, tastes and
For Bill Nighy, the road to a character’s heart runs through his tailor. “The clothes govern how you move, how you think and how you feel,” he says. In the case of “Living,” the story of Mr. Williams, a bureaucrat in 1953 London grappling with a fatal illness, the meant donning a bespoke pin-striped suit.
Actor, writer and director Celyn Jones (pictured above, left, and below) is the triple threat no one saw coming. Originally from Wales, where he still films a lot of his projects, Jones built his career first as an actor of both theater and screen before pivoting to writing features such as “Set Fire to the
Veteran film executive Kylie Munnich has joined leading Australian independent producer Goalpost Pictures as its CEO. She takes up the newly-created position from Nov. 1, 2022, after recently departing from Screen Queensland, which she headed for the past three years. Prior to Screen Queensland, Kylie worked as a scripted sales and co-production executive for Seven
Actor-singer-influencer Nadine Lustre, Louise delos Reyes and film and TV actor Mccoy Deleon are the leads in rising star Philippines director Mikhail Red’s “Deleter.” A first teaser has been released for the film that straddles the techno-horror and psychological thriller genres. Based on a script by Mikhail and Nikolas Red, the film follows Lyra, who
The release of revered Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s hugely anticipated epic adaptation of Kalki Krishnamurthy’s classic Tamil-language novel “Ponniyin Selvan” is the realization of his childhood dream. One of India’s most celebrated filmmakers whose films include “Nayakan,” “Bombay” and “Iruvar,” Ratnam read the novel when he was in high school and wanted to make it
Sally Aitken a two-time Emmy nominated writer and director (“Playing with Sharks”) and producer and media executive Aline Jacques (“Lindy Chamberlain: The True Story”) have launched SAM Content. The Sydney-based independent production company will develop and produce all genres of unscripted and scripted projects for local platforms and the international marketplace. They open their doors
“Don’t Worry Darling” cast member KiKi Layne has shared a post celebrating her time working on the film, while also alleging that a large fraction of her scenes didn’t make the final cut of the film. In an Instagram post shared on Sunday, Layne wrote that her and her co’star Ari’el Stachel were largely omitted
Excerpts from Alan Rickman’s diaries published by The Guardian offer a glimpse into the late actor’s decade-long journey through the “Harry Potter” franchise, with insight into why he decided to continue playing the role of Severus Snape across all eight films. Prior to production beginning on the series’ fifth entry “Harry Potter and the Order
In the end, there was no need to worry, darling. Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling,” a psychological thriller with off-screen drama that rivaled any antics in the actual movie, scored at the box office in its opening weekend, collecting a leading $19.2 million from 4,113 North American theaters. At the international box office, the film
Next year’s Golden Globes promises to be a major relaunch for the troubled awards show as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) continues to seek ways to reinvent the event, according to president Helen Hoehne. Speaking at the Zurich Film Festival on Saturday, Hoehne listed the changes the HFPA has undertaken to address the criticisms
The lasting effects of the pandemic and skyrocketing energy prices in Europe mean continued hardship for arthouse cinemas in Europe, but some theater chains are finding new ways to survive and prosper, particular when the movies work their magic. That was the takeaway at Zurich Summit discussion between Christian Bräuer, managing director of Berlin-based Yorck
The Sámi, the indigenous people in the far north of Europe and Russia, are ready to share their stories with the world. But only under certain conditions, says film commissioner Liisa Holmberg from the International Sámi Film Institute (ISFI). “The most important thing is respect,” she notes, mentioning the Pathfinder Film Protocol – a set
As protests continue to erupt in Iran and around the world sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini – the young Iranian woman who died last week while being held in custody by morality police for allegedly wearing a loose headscarf – the country’s film community is intensely engaged and keenly aware that their voices
Finnish director Katja Gauriloff won the top prize this week at the Finnish Film Affair’s showcase of fiction works in progress for “Je’vida,” an intimate historical drama that is the first film ever shot in the Skolt Sámi language. The film centers on Iida, an elderly Skolt Sámi woman who finds herself in the process
Former President Bill Clinton believes that “democracy is fragile right now,” and he spoke candidly on Saturday at A+E Networks and the History Channel’s History Talks about the issues “tearing us apart.” “What’s more important? Our common humanity or differences?” he mused on stage. “And what works better to build the kind of future we
Leslie Grace, the star of the now-canceled DC Comics film “Batgirl,” has shared more behind-the-scenes footage of the production, nearly two months after the project was axed by Warner Bros. Discovery. “I couldn’t resist,” Grace wrote in the description for a TikTok that she posted on Saturday morning. Set to “Evergreen” by Omar Apollo, the
Former Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger and renowned film composer John Williams were selected for 2022 Honorary KBE laurels by Queen Elizabeth II, the U.K. government disclosed this week. The Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire kudos for Iger and Williams were part of a number of honorary awards for foreign nationals that were approved
James Earl Jones, who has voiced Darth Vader for nearly 40 years of “Star Wars” films, seems to be stepping away from the role. According to Vanity Fair, the 91-year-old actor has signed off on archival voice recordings being used by young filmmakers, who plan to utilize artificial intelligence synthetic speech technology to recreate Jones’
Colombian director Laura Mora’s coming-of-age drama “Kings of the World” has taken the Golden Shell for Best Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival, marking the third consecutive year that a female filmmaker has taken the top prize at the Spanish fest. The film, Mora’s second feature, is a raw, unusual coming-of-age drama, supplanting the