News

Unlike most late fall festivals, Thessaloniki in Northern Greece regularly draws packed crowds of passionate and youthful patrons, largely thanks to the city’s significant student population. On Saturday at the festival’s Olympia Theatre, however, a distinct waft of emotion was in the air when Athina Rachel Tsangari arrived to present her latest feature Harvest.

A loose adaptation of British writer Jim Crace’s novel of the same name, Harvest, a psychedelic trip of great ambition and scale, is the first feature from Tsangari in almost a decade. Tsangari, who learned her trade first as a student and later film programmer in Thessaloniki, has spent much of that time outside of Greece and now resides in Los Angeles, where she teaches film directing at CalArts. Saturday’s screening was a homecoming.

“I was crying at the start. It was quite emotional,” she told us the morning after the screening.

Exclusive: Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari has finally returned to feature filmmaking with Harvest, for which we can share a first-look clip above.

Harvest stars an interesting ensemble led by Caleb Landry Jones. Tsangari completed the feature in northern Scotland earlier this year without much publicity. The pic is a loose adaptation of Jim Crace’s novel of the same name. The film’s synopsis reads: Over seven hallucinatory days, a village with no name, in an undefined time and place, disappears. In Tsangari’s tragicomic take on a Western, townsman turned-farmer Walter Thirsk and befuddled lord of the manor Charles Kent are childhood friends about to face an invasion from the outside world: the trauma of modernity.

Tsangari wrote the screenplay alongside Joslyn Barnes. The film was produced by Rebecca O’Brien (Sixteen Films), and Joslyn Barnes (Louverture Films) alongside Match Factory Productions, Tsangari’s Haos Film, and Meraki Film.

When Pietro’s (Lupo Barbiero) father passes away and leaves him a plot of land in the small Alpine village of Grana, he decides to return to the mountainous locale to build a house. Upon his return, he bonds anew with Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), who he first met when he visited with his mother as an 11-year-old boy many years ago. The winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, The Eight Mountains from directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch is an engrossing look at a friendship that transcends time and distance. Editor Nico Leunen tells Filmmaker […]

The post “I Studied Experimental Filmmaking, Not Editing”: Editor Nico Leunen on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

When Pietro’s (Lupo Barbiero) father passes away and leaves him a plot of land in the small Alpine village of Grana, he decides to return to the mountainous locale to build a house. Upon his return, he bonds anew with Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), who he first met when he visited with his mother as an 11-year-old boy many years ago. The winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, The Eight Mountains from directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch is an engrossing look at a friendship that transcends time and distance. Editor Nico Leunen tells Filmmaker […]

The post “I Studied Experimental Filmmaking, Not Editing”: Editor Nico Leunen on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Flemish auteur’s latest is one of the buzz projects being presented as a work in progress at Connext.

Back in 2016, leading Flemish auteur Fien Troch won the best director award in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section for her drama Home, about troubled adolescents. Now, a full six years later, she is in post-production on, and putting the final touches to, her next feature Holly.

The film is one of the buzz projects being presented as a work in progress at Connext, the annual industry showcase for new films and TV dramas made in Flanders and Brussels which...

Belgium’s Fien Troch, who won best director in Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section in 2016 with “Home,” returned to the Lido last week to pitch her fifth feature, “Holly,” in the Venice Gap-Financing Market.

The project, which is budgeted at €2.5 million, is produced by Antonino Lombardo’s Belgian outfit Prime Time. The Dardenne Brothers’ company, Les Films du Fleuve, is among the co-producers.

“[The Dardenne Brothers] have been following Fien’s work for a long time, so it’s great to be able to finally work with them,” says Elisa Heene, who produces alongside Lombardo.

The film tells the story of a 15-year-old girl who unwittingly becomes a savior figure in the aftermath of a school fire. A traumatized community looks to her for consolation, but very soon the line between support and abuse blurs.

“It’s about the power of a community, what connects people, how they interact with each other...

Belgian director Felix van Groeningen (“Beautiful Boy”) and Charlotte Vandermeersch have started shooting in the Alps on “The Eight Mountains,” an Italian drama based on a bestseller about male bonding set against a mountainous backdrop.

Vision Distribution will launch international sales of the film at the upcoming Cannes virtual market.

The film will be released in France by Pyramide Distribution and in Benelux by Kinepolis Film Distribution and Dutch FilmWorks.

Pic marks the first foray into Italian-language filmmaking for Van Groeningen who prior to “Beautiful Boy,” his English-language debut, broke out with Oscar-nominated “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” which is in Dutch, followed by “Belgica” winner of a prize at Sundance.

Van Groeningen has teamed up on “Eight Montains” with Vandermeersch, his partner in life, an actor and writer now making her directorial debut. They previously collaborated professionally on “Breakdown” on which she served as a co-writer.

“Bringing this deeply human,...

Felix van Groeningen's Beautiful Boy co-screenwriter Luke Davies: "Amy Ryan and Maura Tierney, mother and stepmother. I wish we had more for the women because they're amazing in the film." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the final instalment of my conversation with Luke Davies on Beautiful Boy we discuss the family dynamics between the roles Steve Carell (David Sheff), Maura Tierney (Karen Barbour) and Amy Ryan (Vicki Sheff) play in the life of Timothée Chalamet (Nic Sheff), the "experimenting" done by Felix van Groeningen with his longtime editor Nico Leunen, and how the Oscar-nominated screenwriter (for his adaptation of Saroo Brierley's A Long Way Home for Garth Davis's Lion), enjoys dealing with parent-child relationships.

Karen Barbour (Maura Tierney) with her husband David Sheff (Steve Carell): "For the first time this alpha male who is a high achiever comes up against that thing that he not only...

“Beautiful Boy” uses non-linear storytelling, intercutting frequent flashbacks — sometimes very brief, sometimes longer — in the fact-based tale of a dad (Steve Carell) dealing with his son’s (Timothee Chalamet) drug addiction and rehab.

Director Felix van Groeningen and his editor Nico Leunen have used this method of storytelling for five of the six films they’ve made together. The style is a good match for the story of the Amazon-Plan B film: “The flashbacks are important to show the emotional journey of these characters, to see the unique bond, and to see David questioning himself,” says van Groeningen. “This shows how his memory works and shows their higher highs and lower lows.

“I give Nico a lot of credit for being able to jump around time and not confuse the audience. With the first cut, we had to find the emotional logic that makes sense. Other versions jumped back and forth more,...

Exclusive: Film revolves around native American family. Bac Film showing first images in Cannes.

Swiss producer Michel Merkt has boarded Babak Jalali’s upcoming drama Land about a native American family dealing with the scourge of alcoholism and the death of a loved one serving in Afghanistan.

Merkt, whose recent credits include the Oscar-nominated My Life As A Courgette, Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only The End Of The World and Toni Erdmann, has helped close a post-production financing gap.

The deal was begun during the Doha Film Institute’s talent development event Qumra in March, where Land was presented as a work-in-progress. “It’s a great asset for us. Michel’s doing a fantastic job and is behind so many high-quality cinema productions right now,” said lead producer Ginevra Elkann of Rome-based Asmara Films.

The picture is now close to picture lock with Belgian editor Nico Leunen attached and sights set on an autumn festival release...

This morning the Toronto Film Festival announced its slate of 12 films that will be competing in this year’s Platform section. Included in the directors-focused competition is Fien Troch’s fourth feature film, “Home.”

The drama portrays the struggle between two generations: teenagers who explore a thin line between trust, friendship, and loyalty, and adults who seem alienated from their past younger selves. Both find it difficult to communicate and understand each other’s closed-off worlds, making their clash more brutal than expected. The story centers mostly around 17-year-old Kevin who starts an apprenticeship at his aunt’s store and moves in with her and her family. After meeting his cousin Sammy’s friend John, he discovers that John lives an unbearable situation with his mother and feels the urge to help out his new friend.

Read More: Tiff Announces Platform Titles, Including ‘Jackie,’ ‘Moonlight,’ ‘Daguerrotype’ and More

“Home” features...

Academy invitee Eddie Redmayne in 'The Theory of Everything.' Academy invites 322 new members: 'More diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before' The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has offered membership to 322 individuals "who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures." According to the Academy's press release, "those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2015." In case all 322 potential new members say an enthusiastic Yes, that means an injection of new blood representing about 5 percent of the Academy's current membership. In the words of Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs (as quoted in the press release), in 2015 "our branches have recognized a more diverse and inclusive list of filmmakers and artists than ever before, and we look forward to adding their creativity, ideas and experience to our organization." In recent years, the Academy membership has...

©Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©Studio Pali Fekete architects/©A.M.P.A.S.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this week that the Los Angeles City Council, in a unanimous vote, approved plans for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Construction will begin this summer, and ceremonial groundbreaking festivities will occur this fall.

“I am thrilled that Los Angeles is gaining another architectural and cultural icon,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “My office of economic development has worked directly with the museum’s development team to ensure that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will create jobs, support tourism, and pay homage to the industry that helped define our identity as the creative capital of the world.”

“We are grateful to our incredible community of supporters who have helped make this museum a reality,” said Dawn Hudson, the Academy’s CEO. “Building this museum has been an Academy...

Strangely dropping a press release on a historic day where the nation's attention is elsewhere, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed their annual list of new member invitees this morning. For those who criticize the makeup of the Academy there was some good news and the stark realization the organization still has a long way to go. The Academy has spent the last eight to 10 years attempting to diversify its membership and this year's class mostly reflects that. There are significantly more invitees of Asian and African-American descent, but the male to female disparity is still depressing. Out of the 25 potential new members of the Actor's Branch only seven are women. And, no, there isn't really an acceptable way for the Academy to spin that sad fact. Additionally, It's important to realize the 322 people noted in the release have only been invited to join Hollywood's most exclusive club.

When I asked writer-director Felix van Groeningen what he would do after the Oscar-nominated "Broken Circle Breakdown," he insisted he's stick close to home. And so he has. His next project is drama "Belgica" with Belgium's hottest star, Cesar-winner Matthias Schoenaerts ("Rust and Bone") opposite Stef Aerts ("Oxygen"). Belgica, Groeningen’s fifth feature film, is a family drama set in the midst of Belgium’s nightlife scene. Two brothers who open up a successful bar get swept up in its early success. Groeningen wrote the script with his "With Friends Like These" co-writer Arne Sierens. Groeningen will reteam with a number of his collaborators from "The Broken Circle Breakdown." Menuet returns as producer in coproduction with Topkapi and Pyramide Productions, along with longtime producer Dirk Impens, director of photography Ruben Impens, and editor Nico Leunen. Principal photography will begin this Fall in Belgium. "The Broken Circle...