News

We first became aware of Romanian-born filmmaker Teodora Ana Mihai through her 2021 film La Civil, which screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and earned a specially created Prize of Courage. Blending documentary and fiction, she most recently explored globalization and the plight of Romanian migrants in her second fiction feature, IFFR preemed Traffic (Reostat) a fact-based story penned by Cristian Mungiu and starring Anamaria Vartolomei. Now, with her third feature, she turns her lens on another true story. Known as the Heysel Stadium disaster which took place on the 29 May 1985, when Juventus fans were escaping from an attack by Liverpool fans while they were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of the 1985 European Cup final.…...

New features by Lukas Dhont, Felix van Groeningen, and Teodora Ana Mihai will be among the projects to be showcased at Flanders Film Days 2025, a relaunch of Flanders Image’s feature showcase, previously known as Connext.

Flanders Audiovisual Fund (Vaf) is again supporting the event which will take place in Ghent from October 7-8, 2025, in close collaboration with Film Fest Gent, which opens on October 8.

Feature-length fiction, animated and documentary films at various stages of production will be pitched and shown to international industry and festival executive.. It will also be presenting work from young and emerging filmmakers. In a change from Connext,...

New features by Lukas Dhont, Felix van Groeningen, and Teodora Ana Mihai will be among the projects to be showcased at Flanders Film Days 2025, a relaunch of Flanders Image’s feature showcase, previously known as Connext.

Flanders Audiovisual Fund (Vaf) is again supporting the event which will take place in Ghent from October 7-8, 2025, in close collaboration with Film Fest Gent, which opens on October 8.

Feature-length fiction, animated and documentary films at various stages of production will be pitched and shown to international industry and festival executive.. It will also be presenting work from young and emerging filmmakers. In a change from Connext,...

Yoshida Daihachi’s Teki Cometh proved to be the big winner of the Tokyo International Film Festival’s major awards categories that were revealed Wednesday night at a glitzy ceremony in the Japanese capital.

Teki Cometh, a feature adaptation of a book by celebrated Japanese novelist Tsutsui Yasutaka, won the festival’s top prize, the Tokyo Grand Prix, as well as the best director honor for Yoshida and the best actor award for star Nagatsuka Kyozo. The meditative film, featuring monochrome cinematography, tells the story of a retired professor of French literature (Nagatsuka) who gives the odd guest lecture and plans his own end based on when his money will run out. Old friends and former students come to visit. During one of his rare excursions, he encounters an attractive young French literature student, played by Yumi Kawai.

The festival’s special jury prize went to Adios Al Amigo, Colombian...

In a stunning sweep of the main awards, Japanese drama “Teki Cometh” snared three top prizes at the closing night ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival on Wednesday.

The film was named as the Tokyo Grand Prize, or best film, winner. Its helmer Yoshida Daihachi was named best director. Veteran lead performer Nagatsuka Kyozo was also named best actor.

“Teki Cometh” is based on a 1998 novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka about a retired professor, Watanabe Gisuke, who is quietly living out his last days when he receives a mysterious message on his PC that his “enemy” (teki) is coming.

Lensed in black-and-white, the film begins as a record of his daily existence, from his meticulous meal prep – he is a something of a gourmet – to his platonic relationship with a former student (Takeuchi Kumi) that smolders with an unstated but evident mutual passion. But once the enemy announces his presence,...

Teodora Ana Mihai’s “Traffic” was named the winner of the 40th Warsaw Film Festival on Saturday. The film was written by Cristian Mungiu, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes with “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” and stars “Happening” lead actor Anamaria Vartolomei.

“Traffic” focuses on Romanian immigrants in Belgium, who go from unwanted second-class citizens to very much wanted criminals, as they decide to stage a heist that will change their lives forever.

You can watch the trailer here:

“I was excited about the opportunity to work closely with Cristian Mungiu, as he was also co-producing the project. I anticipated it would be an intense and challenging experience, but I don’t shy away from challenges, as I demonstrated with [previous film] ‘La Civil,’” Mihai told Variety.

“I believe Cristian and I have always shared a similar understanding of the themes explored in this film, which camouflages...

Belgian-Romanian director Teodora Ana Mihai, who made a spectacular fiction feature debut with “La Civil,” continues to blend genres in her next film “Traffic,” where politically charged social drama meets heist movie. “Traffic” makes its world premiere as the closing film of the Warsaw Film Festival and has its Asian premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

The film’s screenplay was written by Cristian Mungiu, Palme d’Or winner for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” and stars “Happening” breakout Anamaria Vartolomei, who starred recently in Cannes entry “Being Maria.”

While “La Civil” fused investigative thriller and social realism, focusing on a mother’s search for her kidnapped daughter, now it’s all about Romanian immigrants in Belgium, tired of being treated as second-class citizens.

Referring to Mungiu’s involvement, Mihai tells Variety: “For me, it’s an ‘auteur’ film. I was asked to carry someone’s brainchild into existence,...

The 37th Tokyo International Film Festival, taking place from October 28 to November 6, has announced a lineup opening with Shiraishi Kazuya’s 11 Rebels and closing with Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio, in-between featuring new Asian directors, an animation sidebar, restored Japanese classics, and Akira Kurosawa’s favorite films (among them Breathless and Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A Time to Live and a Time to Die). Complementing these will be masterclasses from Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Sammo Hung, as well as a Béla Tarr-led symposium. I’ll be traveling there from October 28 to November 2, with coverage to follow.

The main competition’s jury is spearheaded by Tony Leung and features Johnnie To, Chiara Mastroianni, Ildikó Enyedi, and Ai Hashimoto, while the 15-film lineup comprises an eclectic mix: nine world premieres of predominantly Asian titles, five Asian premieres, one international debut, and only a handful of European features among them.

See the competition lineup below...

The Tokyo International Film Festival revealed its full 2024 lineup on Wednesday, including its main competition program and the Asian Future section for emerging regional filmmakers, as well as the all-new Women’s Empowerment section, which highlights nine films directed by women or involving female-focussed stories.

Tokyo’s 15-title main competition reveals a preference for securing world premieres over previously shown titles by established festival names. There are eight world premieres in the section — including Big World and My Friend An Delie by China’s Yang Lina and Dong Zijian, respectively; Papa from Hong Kong’s Philip Yung; The Englishman’s Papers from Portugal’s Sergio Graciano; and three Japanese features, among others (see full lineup below). Additional highlights include the international premiere of Midi Z’s The Unseen Sister and Huang Xi’s recent Toronto Film Festival entry Daughter’s Daughter, starring Sylvia Chang.

As previously announced, the competition titles will...

Tokyo International Film Festival has announced its full line-up including its main international and Asian Future competitions, as well as the nine films selected for its Women’s Empowerment Section.

The new female-focused section will screen Iranian drama My Favourite Cake, directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who are banned from travelling by the Iranian authorities and were unable to attend the film’s premiere in Berlin.

Other titles in the Women’s Empowerment Section include Turkish director Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik’s In Ten Seconds; Hong Kong filmmaker Oliver Chan’s Montages Of A Motherhood; Memories Of A Burning Body, from Costa Rica’s Antonella Sudasassi Furniss; and the world premiere of Japanese director Naoki Tamura’s Doctor-x The Movie, among other titles.

Co-hosted with Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Women’s Empowerment Section is programmed by Andrijana Cvetkovikj and focuses on films directed by female filmmakers and/or with female-focused narratives.

Anamaria Vartolomei, the breakout star of Audrey Diwan’s Venice prizewinning “Happening,” is under the spotlight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival playing strong women in a pair of movies, “Being Maria” and “The Count Monte Cristo.” Both movies are supported by Chanel for which Vartolomei is an ambassador.

Vartolomei says since starring in Diwan’s drama “Happening,” which was set in the 1960s and centered around the then-illegal act of abortion, she has continued being lured to demanding roles with political and social themes.

“I think movies are the expressions of my engagements as a woman, and as such I often star in films that are engaged because when you’re an actress you contribute to change and we must continue to wage this battle that other women have led before,” says Vartolomei, who was wearing a glamorous dark khaki and black silk jacquard muslin dress by Chanel.

Debut fiction features by Romania’s Cristian Pascariu, Ukraine’s Valeria Sochyvets and Turkey’s Alkim Özmen are among 10 projects selected for Transilvania Pitch Stop (Tps) on June 20-21.

The international co-production platform takes place during the Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania, and is part of the industry strand Ro Days.

Titles selected include Cristian Pascariu’s A Flower Is Not A Flower about an 11-year-old girl Ana who escapes from a communist Romanian orphanage into the sewers of Bucharest where she has to use her ingenuity to survive. It is a Romanian-Latvia co-production between Point Film and Riga-based Air Productions.

The new projects from two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund (The Triangle of Sadness, The Square); Irish director Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium and upcoming Nicolas Cage thriller The Surfer); and Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska, director of Letitia Wright/Tamara Lawrance-starrer The Silent Twins, will be pitching to potential backers at this year’s Cannes Investors Circle, an event organized by the Cannes film market that aims to bring together top art-house talent with producers and financiers.

The 2024 Cannes Investors Circle event, held on May 19 at the Plage des Palmes, will showcase 10 never-before-seen films in various stages of development to an exclusive group of investors and film financing experts. The projects range in budget from €1 million ($1.07 million) to more than €20 million ($21.4 million) and have been specifically curated by the market.

“The aim of the Marché du Film with the Cannes Investors Circle is to support artistically and financially

ambitious film projects,...

Palme d’Or winning director Ruben Östlund is among 10 directors selected to present their upcoming feature film projects at the second edition of the Cannes Marché du Film’s Investors Circle initiative.

The one-day event, taking place on May 19, is aimed at connecting elevated, international feature film projects with film financiers and high-net worth individuals with a desire to invest in cinema.

Östlund, who won the Palme d’Or for The Square and Triangle of Sadness, which was also nominated for three Oscars, will attend the event in person.

The Marché du Film did not give details of the projects being showcased, but it is likely the director will be talking about upcoming airplane disaster movie The Entertainment System is Down, which he told Deadline last year he hopes to shoot in early 2025.

Other filmmakers due in Cannes for the event include Japan’s Chie Hayakawa, whose feature film debut...

The second edition of the Cannes Market’s Investors Circle will see 10 filmmakers, including Ruben Östlund and Nadav Lapid, present their latest projects to private investors.

The directors and their lead producers will pitch their films, which range from €1-20m in budget, on May 19 at an invitation-only event in the Plage des Palmes.

Alongside Östlund and Lapid is Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa, whose debut Plan 75 received a Camera d’Or special mention in 2022. Other directors include Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan, who is already at the festival for Midnight Screenings title The Surfer, and Italian director Laura Samani who...

Hans Herbots, the original director, stood down because of scheduling conflicts.

Romanian filmmaker Teodora Mihai, whose La Civil screened in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2021, will direct the feature Heysel 85, about the Heysal Stadium disaster in which 39 people died at the European football final in 1985. She takes over from original director Hans Herbots who has dropped out because of scheduling conflicts.

The project is being produced by Belgian production outfit Menuetto Films; co-founder Hans Everaert pitched the project this week at Connext, the platform where new film and TV work from Flanders and Brussels is presented to the International industry.

Teodora Miha imbues this harrowing tale of a mother’s search for justice with a documentarian’s gaze, in a solidly made descent into every parent’s worst nightmare

This film began life as a documentary about kidnaps for ransom, fuelled by narco violence in northern Mexico. But when cartels started following Belgian-Romanian director Teodora Mihai around she changed tack, turning her material into drama – working with Mexican scriptwriter Habacuc Antonio de Rosario. Still, the film’s nonfictional beginnings perhaps explain why Mihai tells her story not so much as a thriller but as a naturalistic-looking drama, intelligent and mostly absorbing. It’s inspired by true events, fictionalising the story of Miriam Rodríguez Martínez, a mother who hunted down the people responsible for the kidnap and murder of her 14-year-old daughter.

Arcelia Ramírez is outstanding as Cielo, a middle-aged woman whose daughter Laura goes missing. The next day a smirking,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Two years into the pandemic, we’re still living through a collective nightmare, a cycle of crisis/reprieve/next-wave that can be so demoralizing. All the more reason, then, to be thankful for the filmmakers who soldiered on, telling stories that helped to make things feel less bad.

What a joy it was to travel through Siberia with the protagonists of Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment Number 6 and be reminded of the sparks of chemistry we share with random passers-by in our lives. How healing it felt to see a deep, life-changing bond develop between two strangers in Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s poetic Murakami adaptation Drive My Car. And bless Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier for the bittersweet ride that is The Worst Person in the World,...

Six years on, the legacy of Connext can be seen at festival awards ceremonies and in international theatrical and TV deals.

Cannes prizes, international festival plaudits and a social media thumbs up from Ricky Gervais are among the profile -raising moments enjoyed by projects that have participated in Connext, the annual film and TV showcase run by Flanders Image in Belgium.

The event serves as an export platform for film and TV drama made in Flanders and Brussels and has been mounted virtually under the banner Re>Connext for the last two years amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite being forced online and virtual,...

Six years on, the legacy of Connext can be seen at festival awards ceremonies and in international theatrical and TV deals.

Cannes prizes, international festival plaudits and a social media thumbs up from Ricky Gervais are among the profile -raising moments enjoyed by projects that have participated in Connext, the annual film and TV showcase run by Flanders Image in Belgium.

The event serves as an export platform for film and TV drama made in Flanders and Brussels and has been mounted virtually under the banner Re>Connext for the last two years amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite being forced online and virtual,...

Based on the real-life experiences of a mother in Mexico, Romanian director Teodora Ana Mihai dives deep into the brutal and violent conditions surrounding life in Northern Mexico. Co-written by Habacuc Antonio De Rosario the film follows Cielo (Arcelia Ramírez) who, after the kidnapping of her daughter and lack of help from the authorities, ends up in a relentless search through a society crippled by systemic violence. Her journey reveals open wounds to which the population has become all too accustomed, drawing a keen picture of the idiosyncrasies that spring from said violence.

Produced by Hans Everaert’s Menuetto alongside One For the Road and some stellar names: Les Films du Fleuve (the Dardenne brothers), Mobra Films (Christian Mungiu) and Teorema Films (Michel Franco), the feature marks Mihai’s jump to fiction after having won at Karlovy Vary with her documentary “Waiting for August.” An auteur and female twist on...

Cannes' Official Selection for its 74th edition, running July 6-17.

In Competition

Annette, Leos Carax (France) - Opening Film

The Story of My Wife, Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary)

Benedetta, Paul Verhoeven (Netherlands)

Bergman Island, Mia-Hansen-Love (France)

Drive My Car, Rysuke Hamaguchi (Japan)

Ha’Berech (Ahed’s Knee), Nadav Lapid

Casablanca Beats, Nabil Ayouch (Morocco)

Compartment No. 6, Juho Kuosmanen (Finland)

The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier (Norway)

La Fracture, Catherine Corsini (France)

The Restless, Joachim Lafosse (Belgium)

Paris 13th District, Jacques Audiard (France)

Lingui, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad)

Memoria, Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand)

Nitram, Justin Kurzel (Australia)

France, Bruno Dumont (France)

Petrov’s Flu, Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia)

Red Rocket, Sean Baker (USA)

Flag Day, Sean Penn (USA)

The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson (USA)

Titane, Julia Ducournau (France)

Tre Piani, Nanni Moretti (Italy)

Tout s'est Bien Passé, François Ozon (France)

A Hero, Asghar Farhadi (Iran)

Un Certain Regard

Moneyboys, C.B. Yi (Austria)

Blue Bayou, Justin Chon (USA)

Freda, Gessica Geneus (Haiti)

Delo (House Arrest), Alexey German Jr. (Russia)

Bonne Mere, Hafsia Herzi (France)

Noche de Fuego, Tatiana Huezo (Mexico)

Lamb, Valdimar Johansson (Iceland)

Commitment Hasan, Hasan Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey)

After Yang, Kogonada (USA)

Let There Be Morning, Eran Kolirin (Israel)

Unclenching the Fists, Kira Kovalenko (Russia)

Women Do Cry, Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova (Bulgaria)

Rehana Maryam Noor, Abdullah Mohammad Saad (Bangladesh)

Great Freedom, Sebastian Meise (Austria)

La Civil, Teodora Ana Mihai (Romania / Belgium)

Gaey’s Wa’r, Na Jiazuo (China)

The Innocents, Eskil Vogt (Norway)

Un Monde, Laura Wandel (Belgium)

Out of Competition

De Son Vivant, Emmanuelle Bercot (France)

Emergency Declaration, Han Jae-Rim (Korea)

The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes (USA)

Bac Nord, Cédric Jimenez (France)

Aline, The Voice of Love, Valérie Lemercier (France)

Stillwater, Tom McCarthy (USA)...

Cannes is back in full force with the announcement of the Official Selection for the film festival’s 74th edition. Taking place in July after having been originally scheduled for May, Cannes is returning with an in-person event after the pandemic forced the festival to cancel in 2020. Spike Lee, who was supposed to head the jury and premiere his “Da 5 Bloods” out of competition last year, is returning to Cannes 2021 as jury president. Films such as Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Leos Carax’s “Annette,” and Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” were all supposed to premiere at Cannes 2020 but are now confirmed for Cannes 2021 after waiting a year to be unveiled to the world.

Given this is the first Cannes in the Covid pandemic era, there are as many questions about the event’s safety protocols as there are about the lineup. Cannes general delegate Thierry Frémaux told IndieWire...

We watch narrative films because we want to see reflections of ourselves. But we go to documentaries to discover other worlds where, if we're lucky, we might happen upon ourselves in the process. Romanian born director Teodora Mihai's "Waiting for August" is just this sort of documentary. Mihai watches, as if through a window, as a brave 15-year-old girl cares for six siblings in Romania while their mother provides for them abroad in Italy. Shot in widescreen vérité, the film is mounted in such pictorial stillness that we forget the presence of the filmmaker. From day to day in their small social housing apartment these idiosyncratic kids go about their lives knowing that their mother will eventually return from Turin. But in the meantime teenage Georgiana must assume the role of the matriarch. This is exactly what Mihai wanted to achieve with her debut, a feature close to her...