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Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley’s Number 9 Films, andLloyd Levin and Beatriz Levin’sShadowplay Features, producers of hit UK indie film The Salt Path, have issued a statement in response to allegations published in UK newspaper The Observer on July 6 that key parts of the memoir on which the film is based had been fabricated.

“When we were recently made aware that The Observer was planning to publish, we advised our key collaborators, filmmakers and stakeholders,” said the producers. “There were no known claims against the book at the time of optioning it or producing and distributing the film and...

In this edition of Screen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, director Dominik Moll and actress Léa Drucker explain how they worked the real-life yellow vest protests into their Cannes Competition title Case 137.

The police corruption drama is set against the backdrop of the 2018 Paris protests against economic inequality, and Moll incorporated real-life footage into film.

“It’s not a documentary, it’s a work of fiction,” says Moll. “But the images that we see from the yellow vest movement is partly footage that we shot ourselves and recreated, and also partly footage from journalists at that time.”

Drucker also...

In this edition ofScreen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, Scottish producer Andrea Calderwood discusses the thrill of coming back to the festival with Lynne Ramsay 26 years afterRatcatcherand how Martin Scorsese got the ball rolling onDie, My Love.

To be back in Cannes this year “is particularly meaningful” for Calderwood as she celebrates Ramsay’s “filmmaker journey” and honours the late Ruth McCane, an executive producer and frequent collaborator.

Die, My Love, screening in Competition, stars Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, Lakeith Stanfield, and Nick Nolte and is an adaptation of the eponymousnovel by the Argentinian author Ariana Harwicz.

In this edition ofScreen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, Scottish producer Andrea Calderwood discusses the thrill of coming back to the festival with Lynne Ramsay 26 years afterRatcatcherand how Martin Scorsese got the ball rolling onDie, My Love.

To be back in Cannes this year “is particularly meaningful” for Calderwood as she celebrates Ramsay’s “filmmaker journey” and honours the late Ruth McCane, an executive producer and frequent collaborator.

Die, My Love, screening in Competition, stars Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, Lakeith Stanfield, and Nick Nolte and is an adaptation of the eponymousnovel by the Argentinian author Ariana Harwicz.

In this edition ofScreen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, UK producer and executive Daniel Battsek recalls his favourite Cannes deals, and how he used to pride himself for getting into parties without an invite.

UK-born, New York-based Battsek is wearing “two hats” at Cannes year; as the newly appointed president of Film At Lincoln Center and also as chairman of Film London, representing the interests of British cinema.

Battsek, formerly chairman of Film4 after senior roles at Cohen Media Group, National Geographic, Miramax, Disney and Palace Pictures, is a true Cannes veteran.

On his favourite deals on the Croisette, he...

UK creative industries minister Chris Bryant underlined the government’s vision for supporting the UK film industry in an emphatic speech at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16.

“We want to do two things in the UK as the Labour government in relation to film,” said Bryant. “We want to be the best place in the world to make film,” pointing towards the roles played by local authorities, film studios, business rates for studios, and promoting a deep pool of talent.

He encouraged the industry to continue to access funding from “the United States of America, or from India, or Nigeria,...

Exclusive: Thierry Klifa’s The Richest Woman In the World starring Isabelle Huppert as French billionaire Liliane Bettencourt has seduced global distributors ahead of its Out of Competition premiere in Cannes.

Playtime has sold the film to Germany and Austria (Neue Visionen), Switzerland (Frenetic Films), Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (Europictures), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films), Israel (New Cinema), Portugal (Pris), Poland (Galapagos), Greece (Rosebud.21), Hungary (Cirko Film), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), and the Baltics (Bestfilm).

The film is loosely inspired by the titular real-life heir to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune whose unlikely friendship with a dandy-writer-photographer in Paris to whom she...

Exclusive: Thierry Klifa’s The Richest Woman In the World starring Isabelle Huppert as French billionaire Liliane Bettencourt has seduced global distributors ahead of its Out of Competition premiere in Cannes.

Playtime has sold the film to Germany and Austria (Neue Visionen), Switzerland (Frenetic Films), Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (Europictures), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films), Israel (New Cinema), Portugal (Pris), Poland (Galapagos), Greece (Rosebud.21), Hungary (Cirko Film), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), and the Baltics (Bestfilm).

The film is loosely inspired by the titular real-life heir to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune whose unlikely friendship with a dandy-writer-photographer in Paris to whom she...

Exclusive: Tel Aviv-based documentary sales outfit Cinephil has added two new features to its Cannes slate: Natchez from director-producer Suzannah Herbert, which is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival next month, and Volia Chajkouskaya’s Not Made For Politics, about a group of Belarusian women who are challenging the country’s 30-year dictatorship.

Natchez explores life in small Mississippi town that romanticises its past for the sake of the tourists but tries to downplay the debt it owes to the descendants of slavery. Cinephil has closed early deals for Svt (Sweden), Vpro (Netherlands), and Dr (Denmark).

Cinephil is also launching...

Exclusive: Festival regulars Joe Yanick, Hugues Barbier and Justin Timms of US specialty sales and distribution outfit Yellow Veil Pictures are in Cannes talking to international buyers about two new pickups: Australian genre titles A Grand Mockery and Salt Along The Tongue, which they will distribute in the US.

The New York- and Los Angeles-based company acquired worldwide rights, which enables the co-founders to coordinate international rollout with the US release, and share materials with their partners around the world.

“We’ve been doing more worldwide pick-ups [like this] from filmmakers so we can sell internationally and distribute ourselves in the US,...

Exclusive: TheFilm Sales Company has added the sports comedy The Real All Americans to its Cannes roster based on Washington Post sportswriter Sally Jenkins’ book about an all-conquering Native American college football team.

Sydney Freeland, whose credits include the 2024 TIFF Netflix Rez Ball about a Native American high school basketball team, will direct from a screenplay by Best Shot (aka Hoosiers) writer Angelo Pizzo.

The book charted the rise of the Carlisle Indian School, whose early 20th century team was founded by Brigadier General Richard Pratt. In a single season the team beat Harvard, Yale, and the rest of the Ivy League teams,...

Exclusive: Prime Video has acquired international rights from XYZ Films to thriller and Cannes sales title Over Your Dead Body (formerly The Trip) starring Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant, and Juliette Lewis.

Jorma Taccone directed from the adapted screenplay by Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney based on Tommy Wirkola’s Norwegian cult thriller I Onde Dager. Segel and Weaving play a dysfunctional couple who head to a remote cabin to reconnect, while secretly harbouring plans to kill the other. The cast includes Paul Guilfoyle and Keith Jardine.

The film will receive a wide US theatrical release through Independent Film Company,...

Exclusive: UK actors Robert Bathurst, Lee Mack, and Sue Johnston, along with Johnston’s pet German Shepherd are lining up to appear in Roy Boulter’s dog-walking musical Fetch to be produced by Liverpool-based Hurricane Films.

Paul Heaton from The Beautiful South has written a song for the film and UK band The Lightning Seeds are also working on songs.

Fetch marks the feature directorial debut of Boulter, the award-winning producer of Terence Davies’ Of Time And The City and Sunset Song and of Gillies MacKinnon’s The Last Bus.

The bare bones of the plot are that a disparate...

The first ofScreen’s Cannes Close-Up interviews for 2025 hears from UK producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, co-founders of Number 9 Films, about their favourite Cannes memories.

These include signing a contract on a napkin, the thrilling ovation for Todd Haynes’ Carol, and seeing “Monsieur Bob” (Hoskins) rushing back on a private plane to pick up the best actor award for Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa.

Karlsen and Woolley are in town this year as the co-producers of Kei Ishikawa’s A Pale View Of Hills, an adaptation of Nobel prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel that is screening in Un Certain Regard.

Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, Peter Cattaneo’sThe Penguin Lessons and Dylan Southern’sThe Thing With Feathers are among the 14 titles to receive the latest round of UK Global Screen Fund award (Ukgsf) totalling £448,330 through its international distribution fund.

Administered by the British Film Institute (BFI), 111 awards totalling over £3.1m have now been given out by this strand, financed through the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms).

Support for international distribution provides sales agents and producers with funding via two tracks – prints & advertising (P&a) and festival launch.

The Penguin Lessons,starring Steve Coogan, has received the...

It is a mixed bag for UK and Irish films at this year’s Cannes – there’s a strong showing in Un Certain Regard, but it is a weak year overall for UK-Ireland female representation.

In Competition, as it stands, there are no films from UK or Irish directors.

However inUn Certain Regard, there are three UK-Irish debut features in selection.UK-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr’sMy Father’s Shadowstars UK actor Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù. The semi-autobiographical tale is set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian capital Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis.

UK-Ireland outfit Element Pictures produces,...

It is a mixed bag for UK and Irish films at this year’s Cannes – there’s a strong showing in Un Certain Regard, but it is a weak year overall for UK-Ireland female representation.

In Competition, as it stands, there are no films from UK or Irish directors.

However inUn Certain Regard, there are three UK-Irish debut features in selection.UK-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr’sMy Father’s Shadowstars UK actor Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù. The semi-autobiographical tale is set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian capital Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis.

UK-Ireland outfit Element Pictures produces,...

Exclusive: House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy has joined Tom Cruise in Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s untitled feature movie that’s shooting at Pinewood Studios in the UK.

D’Arcy confirmed the news in a comment they released exclusively to Deadline. “I’m delighted to be working with such extraordinary and exacting artists as Alejandro and Tom,” they told us. “They are the masters of their craft, and witnessing them in combination has been a privilege.”

Back in December, Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment announced that González Iñárritu’s film will premiere on October 2, 2026. Per the synopsis, the movie concerns “the most powerful man in the world [who] embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.”

González Iñárritu is once again collaborating with his Birdman co-writers Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone, with Sabina Bierman also sharing a screenwriting credit.

The sci-fi thriller The Assessment, starring Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Elizabeth Olsen (WandaVision), and Himesh Patel (Station Eleven), had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and is now heading for a March 21st theatrical release, courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. With that date just a week away, a poster for the film has been unveiled and can be seen at the bottom of this article.

The feature directorial debut of music video director Fleur Fortuné, who was working from a screenplay by John Donnelly and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, The Assessment centers on Mia (Olsen) and Aaryan (Patel), a successful couple who hope to become parents in a near future where resources are extremely limited and the government keeps firm control over reproduction. In looking to do so, the pair are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Vikander), who moves into their home for seven days to...

Actor and filmmaker Harris Dickinson is among the speakers participating in Picturehouse’s inaugural industry event, Picturehouse Create, running April 3-5.

The three-day event will be held at Picturehouse Central in London and includes panels, screenings, masterclasses and networking events.

Dickinson will present a screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’sPunch-Drunk Lovefollowed by a conversation about how the film influenced theBabygirlstar’s acting career as well as his upcoming directorial debutUrchin.

Producers Mike Goodridge, Fiona Lamptey and Mary Burke will participate in a panel on lessons learned in their career. Further sessions tackle topics covering film finance, virtual reality and audience development,...

The sci-fi thriller The Assessment, starring Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Elizabeth Olsen (WandaVision), and Himesh Patel (Station Eleven), had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and now Deadline reports that Magnolia Pictures has picked up the U.S. distribution rights to the film. Their plan is to get it into theatres on March 21st. You can check out the trailer above!

The feature directorial debut of music video director Fleur Fortuné, who was working from a screenplay by John Donnelly and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, The Assessment centers on Mia (Olsen) and Aaryan (Patel), a successful couple who hope to become parents in a near future where resources are extremely limited and the government keeps firm control over reproduction. In looking to do so, the pair are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Vikander), who moves into their home for seven days to evaluate whether they...

Elizabeth Olsen doesn’t appreciate Alicia Vikander meddling in her plan to start a family in the trailer for the sci-fi feature The Assessment.

Director Fleur Fortuné’s movie hits theaters March 21 from Magnolia Pictures after premiering at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Rounding out the cast are Himesh Patel, Minnie Driver, Indira Varma, Charlotte Ritchie, Nicholas Pinnock, Leah Harvey and Anaya Thorley.

Set in the near future where parenthood is heavily controlled, The Assessment centers on a couple played by Olsen and Patel, whose relationship is examined over a seven-day period by an assessor (Vikander) ahead of their pregnancy plan.

“Over the next seven days, you’ll undergo close observation and formal testing to ascertain suitability for parenting,” Vikander tells the couple in the trailer. “I want to get to know the real you.”

Later, a frustrated Olsen exclaims to Patel, “I want a real child — not this.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired US rights to TIFF 2024 selection The Assessment starring Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen, and Himesh Patel and has set a March 21 theatrical release.

Music video director Fleur Fortuné’s feature film feature directorial debut follows a couple’s unfolding nightmare when they apply to have children in a near-future state where reproduction is strictly regulated.

The Assessment is a Number 9 Films, augenschein Filmproduktion, ShivHans Pictures and Project Infinity feature production in association with Tiki Tāne Pictures.

Thomas and John Donnelly co-wrote the screenplay and the producers are Stephen Woolley, Elizabeth Karlsen, Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo, Shivani Rawat,...

Exclusive: Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to The Assessment, a sci-fi thriller starring Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Elizabeth Olsen (His Three Daughters) and Himesh Patel (Station Eleven), which will be released in theaters on March 21, after world premiering at last year’s Toronto Film Festival.

Marking the feature directorial debut of veteran music video helmer Fleur Fortuné, the film follows Mia (Olsen) and Aaryan (Patel), a successful couple who hope to become parents in a near future where resources are extremely limited and the government keeps firm control over reproduction. In looking to do so, the pair are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Vikander), who moves into their home for seven days to evaluate whether they deserve to move forward in their parenting journey. What Mia and Aaryan are hoping is a routine test quickly unravels into a psychological nightmare, forcing them to question the very foundations of...

An upcoming film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View Of Hills is to be co-produced by Lava Films, the Polish production company whose credits include Oscar-nominated The Girl With The Needle.

Lava Films will handle post-production on the mystery drama, which is directed by Japanese filmmaker Kei Ishikawa and was shot in Japan and the UK.

It has also been confirmed that Japan’s Gaga Corporation will handle international sales and is set to introduce the title to buyers at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin next month.

Also joining the production team is Pawel Mykietyn, the...

Lithuanian filmmaker Saulė Bliuvaitė’s “Toxic” took home the best film award at the 55th International Film Festival of India (Iffi) in Goa. The jury, headed by Indian director Ashutosh Gowariker, recognized the film for its portrayal of adolescence and economic hardship.

Previously, at Locarno, “Toxic” won not only the Golden Leopard for Best Film in the fest’s premier International Competition — from a jury chaired by Austrian auteur Jessica Hausner — but also, in an unusual double, the top prize in the separately juried First Feature Competition.

Variety‘s positive review of “Toxic” described the film as “sobering but not without glimmers of tenderness and humor as female friendship takes root in a hopeless place,” adding that its “alternation between chilly composure and kinetic movement roughly corresponds with [the protagonist’s] wavering sense of self.”

Romanian director Bogdan Muresanu nabbed the best director prize for “The New Year That Never Came,” a multi-narrative feature set during a revolution.

The UK Global Screen Fund’s (Ukgsf) next round of awardees from its distribution strand of support includes The Penguin Lessons, Bring Them Down, The Salt Path and Kneecap.

The Ukgsf has issued 18 new awards, administered by the BFI, to support international opportunities for the UK’s independent screen sector. Ukgsf is financed through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), and the awards see a further £413,995 allocated through the £7m per year fund’s international distribution strand.

The international distribution strand is now managed by Jordan Allwood, who joined the team in October from UK sales agent Independent Entertainment and replacesFrancesca Walker.

The opening ceremony of the 55th International Film Festival of India (Iffi) in Goa on Wednesday crammed in several Bollywood-style performances. But it also took some time to deal with the business of cinema, as well.

The spectacle came from “The Perfect Couple” breakout star Ishaan Khatter dancing to a medley of Bollywood hits and Manushi Chhillar to hit film songs from India’s various creative industries. Sanya Malhotra and Sunny Kaushal enacted a musical tableau chronicling the journey of Indian cinema from 1913 to the present day, which included showstoppers “Naatu Naatu” from “Rrr” and “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Australia is Iffi’s Country of Focus this year and there was a performance from Australian dancers as well.

On the business front, on the back of the India-Colombia audiovisual coproduction agreement that was signed in October, the first look at a film examining the role of guru and spiritual...

The 55th International Film Festival of India (Iffi) has unveiled its main competition lineup, with 15 features vying for the Golden Peacock award carrying an INR4 million prize purse, notably featuring nine films directed by women.

Among the world premieres are Manijeh Hekmat and Faeze Azizkhani’s Iranian drama “Fear & Trembling,” exploring an older woman’s struggles with isolation, and Nikhil Mahajan’s “Raavsaheb,” an Indian crime thriller examining man-animal conflict in tribal lands.

The slate includes festival circuit standouts like Louise Courvoisier’s “Holy Cow” (France), which nabbed the Un Certain Regard Youth Prize at Cannes 2024, and Saulė Bliuvaitė’s “Toxic” (Lithuania), winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno 2024. Bogdan Mureșanu’s Romanian revolution drama “The New Year That Never Came” arrives fresh from winning Venice’s Horizons and Fipresci awards.

The lineup also includes Belkis Bayrak’s “Gulizar” (Turkey), which played at Toronto and San Sebastian, and George Sikharulidze’s “Panopticon” (Georgia-u.

It is your last chance to grab a ticket for Screen International’s ‘The Future Of UK Film’ Summit where speakers include Alex Hamilton from Studiocanal UK, Zygi Kamasa from True Brit Entertainment, Julia Stuart from Sky Original Film, Elizabeth Karlsen from Number 9 Films and actor/producer Jack Lowden.

The event takes place tomorrow (September 24) at the BFI Southbank in London.

Click here for the full schedule.

The day will start with the latest news on the UK Independent Film Tax Credit (Iftc), with insights coming from BFI deputy CEO Harriet Finney, Neon Films’ producer Nicky Bentham, Coutts’ executive director...

Bafta’s talent programme, Bafta Elevate, has launched an initiative for creatives in documentary and specialist factual from underrepresented backgrounds.

Bafta has partnered with men’s fashion brand dunhill to deliver the two-year programme aimed at mid-senior development producers, producers, directors and producer-directors.

The 20 participants selected – 50% of which will be women - will have access to networking and industry exposure alongside a host of wider knowledge-building and focused professional development over two years.

Documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia and presenter, actor and director Reggie Yates are among the creatives to endorse the programme.

The programme comes as a result of extensive...

Barbie, Wonka and Paddington producer David Heyman was among the winners at the biennial Production Guild of Great Britain (Pggb) 2024 awards, which took place in London on September 14.

Heyman received the contribution to the industry award. “This has been a challenging period for the film and television industries in the UK – we’ve had Covid, we’ve had the strikes and the economy in general has been struggling, to put it mildly. But I feel we’re turning the corner,” said Heyman on receiving the accolade.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

“In the next year, I think more productions will start up,...

It is a deceptively simple premise for a two-hour feature film. A married couple who had planned their retirement in a B&b are, due to dire financial circumstances and bum luck, forced out of their home at a point that is, on the surface at least, completely devastating. With their kids now off at school, they make the decision to pack up what they can in their backpacks and take off on the Salt Path, a 630-mile stretch from Dorset to Somerset on the Southwestern English Coast. To make matters worse, the husband has just been diagnosed with a terminal neurodegenerative disease, but they are bound and determined to complete this adventure, perhaps the last of their lives because they have no other choice.

Oh, and it is a 100% true story.

Exquisitely directed by four-time Tony Award winner Marianne Elliott with a screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz (She Said) based on Raynor Winn’s 2018 memoir, The Salt Path is an inspiring story of love and resilience in a situation that might otherwise break most people, especially a couple entering their later years with little hope against an unforgiving system. This is certainly not the first film based on someone setting out on an ambitious walk for various personal reasons. Martin Sheen starred as a man tackling El Camino de Santiago trail in 2010’s spiritual The Way; Reese Witherspoon played the depressed Cheryl Strayed in Wild, the 2014 true story of her 1100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail; and Mark Wahlberg starred in another true story, 2020’s Joe Bell, about a father who walks across America in protest of the bullying of his son.

All of these films, and other similar stories of determination against all odds, were admirable attempts but not always successful movies as sometimes dramatizing the journey can be a little repetitive. Where Elliott succeeds with a fine Lenkiewicz template, is getting us instantly engaged in the travails of Ray (Gillian Anderson) and Moth (Jason Isaacs), a couple who could be you or me as life hits them hard in the gut and the Salt Path becomes somehow a cure, a spiritual redemption however temporary, to set them on a new path (literally and figuratively) in life. Is it an adventure? Is it insanity or an existential mid-life crisis? In some ways, it is reminiscent of the premise of John Cheever’s The Swimmer and its film adaptation, in which Burt Lancaster swam from one neighbor’s pool to another, encountering various people along the way. But moreover, it is the tale of these two born to come together to experience life together, no matter how hard that gets.

After unreasonably being evicted from their B&b, having their bank account dried up due to legal expenses and losing their farm, this likable couple decides to fullfil a dream and live off the land as it were by embarking with just chump change on an ambitious walk covering 630 breathtaking miles, even as Moth has had a pretty devastating diagnosis. This might stop most people in their tracks, but in this case only sets this couple off in theirs.

The story from this point on becomes episodic as they make their way, stopping at various points and towns, interacting with the locals and relatives, bleeding an Atm dry just for enough to get food, and even for Ray getting a job shearing sheep. Nothing hugely life-threatening happens along the way, no sudden tidal wave or earthquakes, none of the usual movie tropes, but rather a love story of two people making the most of where life has brought them to this point. Of course to make this work, you need actors of the extraordinary grace and talent of Anderson and Isaacs who are entirely believable as this pair staring down nature as an antidote to the cards life has dealt. Both are excellent in essentially a two-hander, although they get support along the way from various people they meet or stay with.

With Helene Louvart’s excellent cinematography a real plus, The Salt Path is a cinematic journey worth taking. It had its world premiere Thursday at the Toronto International Film Festival. Producers are Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley, Lloyd Levin and Beatriz Levin.

Title: The Salt Path

Festival: Toronto

Director: Marianne Elliott

Screenwriter: Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Cast: Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, James Lance, Hermione Norris, Megan Placito

Sales agents: Rocket Science, Black Bear

Running time: 1 hr 55 min...

Bafta winner and Emmy nominee Jack Lowden is the latest high-profile industry figure to join Screen International’s ‘The Future Of UK Film’ Summit, set for September 24 at BFI Southbank.

Lowden will take part in the session titled ‘The Talent Game - Packaging a UK Film’ alongside producer Elizabeth Karlsen from Number 9 Films, Jane Epstein from Independent Talent and Katie Ellen from HanWay Films. The panel will consider points including the skill of matching UK talent with the right projects, approaches producers can take to putting together their projects with “bankable” talent, the current state of the international market for UK projects,...

The press have been digging up old interviews with GOP Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance in which he suggests there should be a dividing line in society between those who have children, perhaps even giving those parents more than one vote, and those who don’t by suggesting they should be lesser in society. That sounded like political absurdity to me, and then I saw The Assessment.

Supposedly in the near future this “sci-fi” premise creates a world in which prospective parents must pass an initial test in order to prove their basic worth for having a child, and then endure a seven-day live-in visit from a facilitator known as the assessor who will put them through the ringer in all kinds of imaginable and unimaginable situations where at the end they will either get a passing grade — or not. Sounds like the ideal job for Vance should he decide to switch careers.

Filmmaker Fleur Fortuné says it was necessary to take Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen, the cast of her thrilling debut feature The Assessment, into “a danger zone” for them to fully comprehend the implications involved in making a movie set in a dystopian future where couples have to grovel for permission to have a child.

The film is an emotional minefield where people are harshly appraised by assessors to judge whether or not they would make suitable parents.

Fortuné says that she knew it was vital for her and the two actors to meet together before the shoot. “I wanted to put them at ease,” she says.

The Paris-based director had already conversed with Vikander. “When I met with Alicia, she was like, ‘This scares me a lot, but I really want to do it.’ That’s good, because I felt if she tells me that, it means that she...

Exclusive: Movie producers in Hollywood and London would court three-time Tony-winning director Marianne Elliott and ask her what she wanted to do. She’d reply that what she really wanted to do was to film a story about an older woman who’s a protagonist. “They’d smile at me, and then I’d never hear from them again,” she says with a mischievous grin.

Let’s mark, then, The Salt Path — her film directorial debut, which was screened to press today at the Toronto Film Festival and will have its world premiere September 12 — as a win and a sock to those who rebuffed her efforts to tell stories about women who no longer are ingenues but something much more interesting: They’ve experienced and lived life.

The Salt Path stars Gillian Anderson, at the height of her powers, as Raynor “Ray” Winn, who learns two things in quick succession...

Prime Video has acquired international rights excluding Germany to TIFF sci-fi drama The Assessment starring Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen.

The film marks the feature directorial debut of Paris-based commercials, shorts and music video director Fleur Fortuné and will receive its world premiere in Special Presentations on Sunday.

The Assessment follows a couple as their seven-day assessment for the right to have a child turns into a nightmare. Himesh Patel also stars, and John Donnelly and writing duo Nell Garfath Cox and David Thomas co-wrote the screenplay.

Number 9’s Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen developed and produced the film, and Germany’s Augenschein Filmproduktion,...

Full programme details have been revealed for Screen International’s ‘The Future Of Film’ Summit taking place in London on September 24 at BFI Southbank.

Click here for the full schedule.

The day will start with the latest news on the UK Independent Film Tax Credit (Iftc). Insights will come from experts who are helping with the development of the Iftc and others who are cash-flowing it. They are Neon Films’ producer Nicky Bentham, Coutts’ executive director of media banking Judith Chan, BFI deputy CEO Harriet Finney, and partner, film and TV team, at Saffrey, Moses Nyachae.

‘State Of The Nation’ will see four top producers,...

Exclusive: In what we understand to be a high seven-figure deal, Prime Video has scooped up all international rights (excluding Germany) to Toronto Film Festival sci-fi movie The Assessment, starring Alicia Vikander (Tomb Raider), Elizabeth Olsen (WandaVision), and Himesh Patel (Station Eleven).

Set in a near future where parenthood is strictly controlled, the film charts a couple’s seven-day assessment for the right to have a child. The ordeal unravels into a psychological nightmare, forcing them to question the foundations of their society and what it means to be human.

Also starring are Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Nicholas Pinnock (Captain America: The First Avenger), Charlotte Ritchie (Wonka), and Leah Harvey (Foundation).

We’ve heard good things about the movie, which marks Fleur Fortuné’s feature debut. Fortuné has previously directed music videos for 83, Skrillex and Drake, and ads for brands such as Chanel, Apple,...

Screen International’s ‘The Future of UK Film’ summit will host a panel focused on how the UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf) can help support international collaborations.

The high-level conference will be held on September 24, 2024, at BFI Southbank, London.

Buy tickets here

The Ukgsf panel will feature recipients from the programme’s three funding strands – international co-production, international business development and international distribution – talking about how they have benefitted from Ukgsf funding.

The panelists are:

Ken Anderson, founder and executive producer at Wild Child Animation, Zoo Lane Productions, Tg Entertainment; and Red Kite Animation. With over 30 years of experience, Anderson...

Screen International’s ‘The Future of UK Film’ summit will host a panel focused on how the UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf) can help support international collaborations.

The high-level conference will be held on September 24, 2024, at BFI Southbank, London.

Buy tickets here

The Ukgsf panel will feature recipients from the programme’s three funding strands – international co-production, international business development and international distribution – talking about how they have benefitted from Ukgsf funding.

The panelists are:

Ken Anderson, founder and executive producer at Wild Child Animation, Zoo Lane Productions, Tg Entertainment; and Red Kite Animation. With over 30 years of experience, Anderson...

A feature adaptation of A Pale View of Hills, the debut novel of Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, has begun filming in Japan.

The mystery drama is adapted and directed by Japanese filmmaker Kei Ishikawa, whose previous feature A Man scooped eight awards including best film at the Japanese Academy Awards following its premiere at Venice in 2022.

The upcoming film is presented by U-Next, Japan’s leading local streaming company, and produced by Bunbuku, the Japanese production company founded by Hirokazu Kore-eda, in association with the UK’s Number 9 Films, led by producers Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen.

Ishiguro serves...

“A Pale View of Hills,” the debut novel of Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, is being adapted as a feature film. The picture is now in production and being directed by Japan’s Ishikawa Kei.

The film is presented by U-Next, Japan’s leading local streaming company. Production is by Bunbuku in association with Number 9 Films, the U.K. company headed by Stephen Woolley (“The Crying Game”) and Elizabeth Karlsen.

Gaga Corporation will handle distribution in Japan after the film’s anticipated completion in summer 2025. No sales agent or international distributor has been attached.

Number Nine Films previously produced “Living,” the Ishiguro-scripted, Bill Nighy-starring adaptation of Kurosawa Akira’s classic film “Ikiru,” and earned two Oscar nominations.

Gaga describes the film as: “a mystery drama that unravels the secrets of a Japanese widow’s memories that cross over between post-war Nagasaki, Japan in 1950s and England in 1980s,...

The special Early Bird deal for Screen International’s ‘The Future of UK Film’ summit closes tomorrow (Friday 16).

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The high-level conference, to be held on September 24, 2024, at BFI Southbank, London, will bring together leading industry executives to debate how the UK independent film sector can build on its strengths to become a fully thriving, equitable and sustainable industry.

The Early Bird price of £215+Vat will be available until midnight on August 16, after which it will revert to £250+Vat.

Here is the list of confirmed speakers thus far, with further speakers to be announced ahead of the summit:

Marie-Claire Benson,...

Neon Films producer Nicky Bentham, Lionsgate UK head Marie-Claire Benson and Independent Talent’s Jane Epstein have joined the high-profile speaker line-up for Screen International’s ‘The Future of UK Film’ summit, to be held on September 24, 2024, in London at BFI Southbank.

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Bentham’s credits include Roger Michell’s 2020 title The Duke, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, and the upcoming Brides, the feature directorial debut of Nadia Falls.

As executive vice president and head of Lionsgate’s UK motion picture group, Benson steers a slate that has included Oscar- and Bafta-winner Anatomy Of A Fall, and...

Screen International has unveiled the first six high-profile industry speakers for its ‘The Future of UK Film’ summit, to be held on September 24, 2024, in London at BFI Southbank.

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They include Alex Hamilton, CEO at Studiocanal UK, whose recent successful UK releases include Back To Black, and Wicked Little Letters; Bafta-winning producer Elizabeth Karlsen, co-founder of Number 9 Films, the company behind Living, Collette and Carol; and Harriet Finney, deputy CEO of the British Film Institute.

Also participating are Kate Gardiner, marketing director at Searchlight Pictures, Emea; Zygi Kamasa, founder and CEO at UK theatrical producer and distributor...

Exclusive: Here’s a big one in the European M&a world. Beta Film has taken a stake in Number 9 TV, a new small screen subsidiary of Carol and Living producer Number 9 Films.

Number 9 TV will be helmed by Kate Laffey, who has left her role running Paramount TV International Studios in the UK. She becomes Head of TV as the London indie expands its business to series.

Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Beta said the partnership will combine Number 9’s creative expertise with The Swarm seller’s experience in developing, financing and distributing TV and film. Beta has around 30 labels including Sweden’s Unlimited Stories, X Filme Creative Pool and Italy’s Cross Productions. Beta already has several ties to the UK TV market, for instance distributing series such as Professor T and Sam Heughan-starrer The Couple Next Door. This new partnership with Number 9 joins one...

The UK industry gathered at the Cannes UK pavilion yesterday (May 16) to celebrate the work of the eight projects taking part in this year’s Cannes Great 8 showcase.

Christopher Andrews’ Bring Them Down starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, Sean Dunn’s The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford and Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path were among the eight titles taking part, with filmmakers taking to the stage to discuss their projects.

Scroll down to see the full line-up

The only documentary in this year’s line-up is Witches, from Elizabeth Sankey, in which the filmmaker explores the unexpected connections...

Christopher Andrews’ Bring Them Down starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, Sean Dunn’s The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford and Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path, featuring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, are among the eight films taking part in the Great 8 showcase, which presents new UK feature films from first-and second-time UK filmmakers to international distributors and festival programmers.

Now in its seventh year, the 2024 Great 8 showcase is funded and produced by the BFI and the British Council, with support from the Great Britain & Northern Ireland campaign, BBC Film and Film4.

In preparation for Cannes, unseen footage from...