Movies

It’s over six years since the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that ruptured the country’s national consciousness and political agenda, but the events are only gaining currency for European filmmakers. This year’s Berlin festival brought us Isaki Lacesta’s “One Year, One Night,” an impressionistic reflection on survivor’s guilt in the long-term wake of the

There was a time, not so long ago, when Roman Polanski was the toast of the film industry in France, where the director has been living since 1978, when he fled the United States before sentencing after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. Despite the scandal and ongoing legal issues, the

Woody Harrelson will reteam with “Triangle of Sadness” director Ruben Östlund for his next film “The Entertainment System is Down.” The Oscar-nominee broke the news during the press conference for “Triangle of Sadness” at Cannes on Monday, the morning after the movie world premiered in competition. “Ruben is a maestro so my interest was to

Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s latest documentary, “The Natural History of Destruction,” bows May 23 in the Cannes Premiere section of the Cannes Film Festival. The director returns to the Croisette one year after his last feature, “Babi Yar. Context,” won a Special Jury Prize of the Golden Eye award for best documentary. Variety has been

Morgan Freeman and Josh Hutcherson star in “57 Seconds,” a thriller based in the world of tech and big pharma. The film is directed by Rusty Cundieff (“Tales From the Hood,” “Chappelle’s Show”), and written by Macon Blair (Netflix’s “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at

A restored version of Indian master Satyajit Ray’s “The Adversary” is playing at Cannes Classics this year and films inspired by his works are being planned. Kolkata-based Indian producer-director Aritra Sen’s Roadshow Films and Los Angeles-based British writer-director Alex Harvey’s Big Bazaar Films are producing two films this year, which take their inspiration from Ray’s

Quiver Distribution got into the business of producing its own movies out of necessity. “Our goal was to go out and acquire all rights to films and exploit them on as many media as possible,” says Barry Meyerowitz, the company’s co-founder. “But we found out that we couldn’t find as many high quality feature films

Paris and Mumbai-based production service company La Fabrique Films is looking forward to a further surge in business in the wake of new Indian filming incentives that were announced in Cannes. International productions filming in India can be reimbursed up to 35% of qualifying production spend in the country. La Fabrique, which specializes in European

Russia may have been cut off from much of the international film community, but here at Cannes, members of the country’s media business are quietly trying to line up deals. Nearly three months into the war in Ukraine, the leadership of the film festival has spent its opening week fielding questions about its stance on

“Bonnie is legendary for her boundless energy on the Crosiette,” AGC Studios head Stuart Ford said of his marketing head Bonnie Voland, whose 40th Cannes Festival was celebrated by Ford and friends at an elegant beachside cocktail on Friday evening. “This is my 15th Cannes with Bonnie Voland and I’m not sure I still have the

Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy’s absurdist social satire “Feathers,” in which the good-for-nothing husband of a woman with three children is turned into a chicken, is the big winner of the sixth edition of the Critics’ Awards for Arab Films. The biting black comedy, winner of last year’s Cannes Critics’ Week prize, scooped best film,

Rocket Science has boarded the biopic “The Good Spy,” about CIA operative Robert Ames, from Oscar-nominated “Paradise Now” and “Omar” director Hany Abu-Assad. The pic is based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird’s biography of Ames. Scott Frazier (“Berliner”) is adapting for screen. “Free Solo” and “Everest” producer Evan Hayes will produce under his ACE

Though Iran is in the throes of a deep economic crisis, battered by hard-line politics and a mismanaged pandemic, it’a shaping up to be a great year for Iranian cinema. Paradoxically, Iran’s cinematic landscape is bursting with powerful, fresh films likely to make an international splash just as talks between Tehran and world powers continue

Panama’s award-winning Hypatia Films and Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante, whose most recent film, “La Llorona,” made the Oscar international film shortlist, is partnering with Jonathan Keasey of Mind Riot Entertainment to make WWII drama “Down Wind.” The film marks a rare collaboration between two major Central American filmmakers and an American writer-producer. Bustamante will direct based

Jeffrey Cooper, an architect and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has been convicted after a jury trial on three counts of felony child molestation, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. The jury’s verdict came May 20 at Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys. Cooper was arrested four years ago

The title is not, in the end, some kind of code for “Romania.” But if it were, it would be appropriate: The enormous, troubling, intricately pessimistic “R.M.N.” from director Cristian Mungiu, probably the pre-eminent filmmaker of the Romanian New Wave, is little less than a pared-back state of the nation, a microcosmic analogy for an

SPOILER ALERT: Minor plot points for Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness” are discussed below. Cannes attendees waiting for David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” to give the festival a stomach-churning shock got an electrifying surprise with the world premiere of Ruben Östlund’s latest social satire, “Triangle of Sadness.” The movie earned an uproarious eight-minute standing

Mia Hansen-Løve, the French writer-director whose previous film “Bergman Island” competed at last year’s Cannes, is back at the festival with “One Fine Morning,” a romantic drama headlined by Lea Seydoux. The movie world premiered at Directors’ Fortnight and has earned stellar reviews, with Variety‘s Guy Lodge describing it as a “wistful, wandering character study”

The closer you look at the subject of beauty, the uglier it appears. Meanwhile, wealth is obscene from practically every angle. Irreverent Swedish satirist Ruben Östlund gets right up in there, probing the pores of the elitist worlds of supermodels and the mega-rich in “Triangle of Sadness,” which takes its name from a fashion-world term

Brazil’s Habanero Film Sales has brought a slate of new films marking their debut at Cannes’ Marché du Film. Leading the pack is Cuban filmmaker Carlos Lechuga’s latest drama, “Vicenta B” as well as Cuba-U.S.-Canada co-production “Corrosive” and Brazilian coming-of-age drama “Bittersweet Rain” (“Saudade Fez Morada Aqui Dentro”), currently in post. “Resistance, migration, those who

From the 100-second tracking shot to building pulse music that opens “The Realm” to the slug-fest finale of “May God Save Us,” Oscar-nominated Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“Mother”) has filmed some of the most exhilarating shots in recent Spanish cinema. His status as a filmmaker consolidated by a series, Movistar Plus’ “Riot Police,” “The Beasts” (“As Bestas”),

Netflix is wrapping up a deal for “Pain Hustlers,” a conspiracy film from David Yates that is set to star Emily Blunt. The pact, which is for global rights to the package, is said to be in the $50 million range, according to a knowledgable insider. The sale is the biggest one so far out

A multinational panel gathered on the first day of Cannes Docs, the Cannes Film Market sidebar, to discuss how having a strong, international, diverse and expert network is more important than ever to succeed as a documentary filmmaker today. Moderated and curated by Brigid O’Shea, co-director and co-founder of the Documentary Assn. of Europe, the

Scoot McNairy, Kit Harington and Josh Lucas are set to star in “Blood for Dust,” an upcoming action thriller that will be directed by Rod Blackhurst. Former friends Cliff (McNairy), a traveling salesman struggling to make a living, and Ricky (Harington), an illegal-weapons dealer making serious money, reconnect one fateful day. Hoping to make some

New voices were given center stage at the Canada Docs-in-Progress Showcase, part of the Cannes Festival’s Film Market, with four first feature-length docs in the final stages of production presented to an industry crowd on Friday. The showcase was brought by Telefilm Canada, in partnership with RIDM (Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal) and in collaboration with Hot Docs.

The “Doctor” is still in, as Marvel’s newest film continues to lead the box office against some very proper competition. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” added another $8.5 million to its box office total on Friday, bumping its cumulative gross up to $318 million. Meanwhile, “Downton Abbey: A New Era” is estimated to

Gaumont has locked major territory deals on “Father & Soldier,” Mathieu Vadepied’s WWI action-drama about headlined by “Lupin” star Omar Sy. The movie world premiered on opening night of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. “Father & Soldier” has sold to Latin America (Sofa Digitale), Germany and Austria (Weltkino), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Spain (A Contracorriente), Italy (Minerva),

Harry Styles just released his third studio album “Harry’s House,” but it’s his acting that everyone will be talking about this fall. The singer has two movies set for release, Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” and Michael Grandage’s “My Policeman.” He has sex scenes in both movies, but it’s only in “My Policeman” where the

If Larry Clark had ever found his way onto the Pine Ridge Reservation, he probably would have come away with a film like “War Pony,” which observes its young Native American characters hustling, skating and stealing drugs from otherwise distracted adults. Presenting such behavior without judgment, first-time directors Gina Gammell and Riley Keough developed this

European Film Academy president Agnieszka Holland has criticized the Cannes Film Festival for welcoming a Russian movie to the main competition. The Polish-born director – who fled to France in 1981 when Communist authorities imposed martial law – said now was the time to stand up to Russian aggression in Ukraine. That demanded a total