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The Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the films that will play in its Open Air Program, which include Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “Sentimental Value,” Michel Franco’s Berlin competitor “Dreams,” Nadia Fall’s Sundance competition title “Brides,” Dominik Moll’s Cannes competitor “Case 137,” and Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s Locarno title “The Birthday Party.”

Some of the screenings will be attended by stars or directors of the films, who will be in Sarajevo to receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, including Willem Dafoe with “The Birthday Party,” Stellan Skarsgård with “Sentimental Value,” Franco with “Dreams,” and Paolo Sorrentino with “The Great Beauty.”

The program is divided into two sections: Open Air is for festival favorites and cinematic classics, and Open Air Premiere will showcase films from the former Yugoslav region.

Open Air Program

The Pavilion – Opening Film

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, 2025, 100 min.

Director: Dino Mustafić

Cast: Rade Šerbedžija,...

The 31st edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its Open Air Program, consisting of two sections, Open Air and Open Air Premiere.

The program set for the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema will be “showcasing some of the most important arthouse films of the year, as well as cinematic classics,” organizers said. “Some of the films in this program will be presented by acclaimed directors, actors, and screenwriters, [2025] recipients of the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, including Paolo Sorrentino, Willem Dafoe, Ray Winstone, Stellan Skarsgård, and Michel Franco,” who received the honor several years ago.

Meanwhile, the new Open Air Premiere lineup will “showcase films from the former Yugoslav region in the unique setting of the Uniqa Open Air Cinema Stari Grad,” fest organizers highlighted.

Check out the full Sarajevo open air lineups below.

Open Air Program

The Pavilion (Paviljon) – opening film

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia,...

"I came here to be with you..." An international trailer is out for the provocative new film from acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco, who's on a roll with prickly films nearly every year. Recently he made Memory with Jessica Chastain and now he's back with another new project with her. Dreams premiered at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival and is next playing at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival now in Czechia, which is where this trailer is from - though it's entirely with English dialogue. Fernando, a young ballet dancer from Mexico, dreams of international fame. Believing his lover Jennifer, a wealthy socialite & philanthropist, will support him, he leaves everything behind & narrowly escapes death while crossing the border. His arrival, however, disrupts Jennifer's carefully curated world. She will do anything to protect their future together – and the life she has built for herself. Featuring Jessica Chastain and Isaac Hernández, with Rupert Friend,...

Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco has arrived in the German capital to debut his latest feature, Dreams, in competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The film is led by Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, who joined the prolific filmmaker this afternoon at a presser for the flick. The session was politically-orientated, with most questions directed at Chastain. Early on, the Oscar winner was quizzed on political affairs in her native U.S., and her answer was resolute.

“I make my home in the U.S. because I’m a hopeful person,” Chastain said. “I believe you have to participate to create the environment, culture, and society you want. I’m not going to give up on my country. So yes, I would like to say there’s a lot of us there that are still quite hopeful, and we’re fighting the good fight.”

In Dreams, Chastain stars as wealthy San Francisco socialist and philanthropist Jennifer.

The new film The Great Seduction is a tale of an island on the verge of losing everything. The islanders have all been unemployed for quite some time. The island depended on fishing, and without a fishing plant set up on the island, leaving the island and sending money from a big city was the only option. Germán, a soccer-loving islander, feels the island is like a paradise on earth, and he will do anything to save it from dying. With just 110 people remaining on the island, the need of the hour was to get a permanent doctor to live on the island named Santa Maria. This was an essential requirement for the contractors to set up a fishing plant. Santa Maria has not had a permanent doctor for years. Who would want to leave the comfortable city life and come live in the no-internet zone of Santa Maria? When Mateo,...

If you’ve found yourself having just too good a time lately and need that to come to an end, hotfoot it to New Order, the new ordeal from Mexican director Michel Franco. In just 86 brisk, effectively brutalizing minutes, any tentative optimism you might have been feeling — say, due to a jaunty walk to a newly-reopened movie theater in sunny weather — will completely dissipate into a far more familiar downer fug. Not to suggest it’s all doom and depression! The film also makes you feel unpleasantly dirty.

Franco is...

"That happens to men when they go crazy. They run... until they can't anymore." Netflix has unveiled the official trailer for the Mexican indie drama titled Tragic Jungle, which first premiered at last year's Venice Film Festival. It also stopped by the San Sebastian, Hamburg, Busan, Warsaw, and New York Film Festivals last fall. Set in the 1920s in the Mayan jungle on the border between Mexico and Belize, the film is about a mysterious young Belizean woman. She encounters a group of Mexican gum workers. "Filled with new vigor, they face their destiny, without knowing that they have woken up Xtabay, a legendary being that lurks in the heart of the jungle." Netflix's description provides a somewhat different perspective: To escape an arranged marriage, a woman flees into the depths of the Mayan jungle, where untamed nature merges the human and the supernatural. The film stars Indira Andrewin, Gilberto Barraraza,...

Exclusive: Arthouse outfit Mubi has struck a deal with sales firm The Match Factory for all UK and Ireland rights to Michel Franco’s Venice Film Festival drama New Order, which won the festival’s Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize.

Conceived six years ago, Franco’s (After Lucia) timely class conflict drama sees a high-society wedding interrupted by the arrival of unwelcome guests as protests rage on the streets. We debuted first footage for the film earlier this month.

Parasite distributor Neon just picked the Spanish-language film up for North America. It will next play at BFI London Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival. The movie also played at San Sebastian Film Festival and made its North American debut at Toronto.

Written, produced and directed by Franco, the film features an ensemble cast comprised of Naian González Norvind, Darío Yazbek Bernal, Lisa Owen, Fernando Cuautle, Mónica Del Carmen, Eligio Meléndez,...

Dystopian drama plays next at BFI London Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival.

Neon has picked up North American rights to Michel Franco’s Venice grand jury prize-winner New Order.

The distributor will announce a theatrical release in due course. New Order screened at Toronto and San Sebastián, and will play next at BFI London Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival.

Franco’s drama chronicles a shocking class uprising set in the near future in an unspecified Mexican location.

The story opens with indigenous protestors storming a society wedding and charts the ensuing developments as the army takes control,...

Neon has acquired the North American rights to “New Order,” the latest feature from Mexican auteur Michel Franco that won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival this year.

“New Order” also made its North American premiere at Toronto and will next play at the BFI London Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival. Neon is planning a theatrical release for the film but will announce release plans at a later date.

“New Order” is a dystopian drama set in the near future that grapples class dynamics and government recapitulation, and it concerns a woman from a high society family trying to prepare for a wedding but is unable to keep protests and the real world from disturbing the party.

Franco conceived the film six years earlier, but critics have already hailed the film for its prescient themes. “New Order” is the follow-up to Franco...

Neon has taken North American rights to Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco’s latest feature New Order, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize.

Conceived six years ago, Franco’s timely class conflict drama sees a high-society wedding interrupted by the arrival of unwelcome guests as protests rage on the streets. We debuted first footage for the film earlier this month.

Mason Speta negotiated the deal for Parasite distributor Neon with ICM Partners on behalf of the filmmakers. The Match Factory is handling international sales.

Neon intends a theatrical release that will be announced at a later date. The film will next play at BFI London Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival. It also played at San Sebastian Film Festival and made its North American debut at Toronto.

Written, produced and directed by Franco, the film features an ensemble cast comprised of Naian González Norvind,...

Once you’ve seen “New Order,” you’ll never look at green paint again without shuddering. In Michel Franco’s harrowing, ultra-violent coup d’etat thriller, lurid green paint is what crowds of anti-government protesters throw at cars and riot shields, so it’s a spine-tingling moment when a woman turns on the tap in her swanky bathroom and the water gushes green. A minute later, the water is clear again, but there is no mistaking the omen. This is not going to be a good day.

It all starts promisingly for Marianne (Naian González Norvind), the daughter of a wealthy Mexican businessman. She’s about to get married in the chic city-center house designed by her architect brother (Diego Boneta): all those glass walls, reminiscent of the ones in “Parasite,” are perfect for glimpsing protesters outside. As groups of well-dressed movers and shakers boast about the planning permits they’ve finagled,...

Mexican director Michel Franco’s latest, dystopian shock drama “New Order,” proves to be the most punishing entry in a difficult oeuvre, which may sound harsh but isn’t meant as an insult.

A cold and sometimes overly intellectual filmmaker, Franco knows how to make an audience squirm. That’s part of the bargain when we buy a ticket to one of his movies. In “After Lucia,” he asked viewers — trapped in their seats, helpless to intervene — to observe a vulnerable teen’s life go off the rails after a video of her having drunken sex went viral. In “Chronic,” he spotlighted the emotional burden society heaps upon hospice nurses, with tragic results.

But how many people actually saw these films? Now, in Franco’s sixth feature, the director demands the public’s attention, launching a full-on assault on our collective comfort zone while doubling down on the very thing...

New work from Idris Elba, Halle Berry, Mark Wahlberg, Vanessa Kirby.

It is a slimline Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this year but there are still plenty of acquisition titles on offer for distributors looking to fill 2021 and 2022 slots.

Here we take a look at some of the available films that are likely to be among the more sought after prospects.

TIFF runs from September 10-19 and opens on Thursday with David Byrne’s American Utopia directed by Spike Lee. Click here for Screen’s report on the line-up, and here for the TIFF Industry Selects roster.

Good Joe Bell...

One intriguing title that has caught our eye on the fall festival slate this year is Tragic Jungle (Selva trágica), the fifth feature from director Yulene Olaizola. Set to premiere this week at Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti competition, it’ll soon head to the 58th New York Film Festival where it is part of the Main Slate selection. Set in 1920 in the border between Mexico and Belize, the film follows a group of Mexican gum workers who cross paths with Agnes, a beautiful and mysterious Belizean woman. Ahead of the premiere, the first trailer and poster have now arrived.

“The film is set in the early 1920s on the Mexico-Belize border during the years of gum extraction in the region; gum workers penetrated deep into the jungle for as long as eight months at a time,” said the director. “Tragic Jungle takes viewers into this hostile environment, absorbing...

I Dream In Another Language (Sueño en otro idioma) FilmRise Director: Ernesto Contreras Written by: Carlos Contreras Cast: Fernando Álvarez Rebeil, Eligio Meléndez, Manuel Poncelis, Fátima Molina Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 7/20/17 Opens: July 28, 2017 Latin is considered a dead language but compared to Zikril, the idiom of the Church would be almost […]

The post I Dream in Another Language Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:

Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:

I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is well under way and have already premiered films like Alex Ross Perry’s “Golden Exits,” David Lowery’s “A Ghost Story” and more. The World Dramatic section has already premiered a few of his films, including Ernesto Contreras’ “I Dream In Another Lanuage,” about a linguist desperate to record a dying language. The young Martin (Fernando Álvarez Rebeil) lands in a remote Mexican village with the intention of recording an ancient dying language. He finds the last two speakers of the language — Evaristo (Eligio Meléndez) and Isauro (Manuel Poncelis) — but they refuse to speak to each because of a 50-year grudge. Now Martin and Evaristo’s granddaughter Lluvia (Fátima Molina) must work to convince the men to reconcile. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.

Read More: 10 Surprises and Hidden Gems from the 2017 Sundance Lineup

Contreras previously directed the feature film “Blue Eyelids,” which...

Exclusive: The Latino film sales subsidiary of Im Global heads to Park City this week with worldwide rights to Don’t Swallow My Heart Alligator Girl! and I Dream In Another Language.

Don’t Swallow My Heart Alligator Girl! marks the solo directorial debut of Brazil’s Felipe Bragança and premieres in World Cinema Dramatic Competition on Sunday ahead of its European premiere in Berlin next month.

Cauã Reymond, Eduardo Macedo, Adeli Gonzales and Zahy Guajajara star in the story of a Brazilian boy who must fight for the love of a Paraguayan girl as war brews between rival gangs on opposite sides of the border.

Producers on the Brazil-Netherlands-France-Paraguay drama are Marina Meliande, Marcos Prado, Dijana Olcay-Hot, Yohann Cornu and Raymond van der Kaaij on behalf of Revolver.

Bragança previously co-directed A Alegria (The Joy) with Meliande, which screened in Cannes Directors Fortnight in 2010.

Mexican filmmaker Ernesto Contreras wrote and directed I Dream In Another Language (Sueño...