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The South East European Film Festival is partnering with Darkroom on a new streaming service option that will bring some of the best in Eastern and Southeastern European cinema to anyone in the U.S. and Canada.

Under the SEEfest Spotlight banner, select titles from the festival will be available on Darkroom as part of premium content on the streaming platform, currently priced at $1.99 a month. Films include:

The Constitution (Croatia), “both funny and deeply touching story of a gay professor confronting homophobia as well as his own biases.” Zana from L.A.-based Kosovo filmmaker Antoneta Kastrati about the lingering post-conflict tragedies. Serbian medical detective story Guardians of the Formula about the first bone marrow transplant during the Cold War years. Libertate (Romania), “a long-overdue account of an attack on a police station in Sibiu during the 1989 revolution, a turmoil that spirals into armed clashes between all sides.” Valley of Peace,...

Stephen Frears and Christopher Hampton stay they are struggling to get their previously announced adaptation of Jonathan Coe’s novel Mr Wilder & Me off the ground, but still hope to work together on the project.

“We’d like to make it happen but it’s a difficult time for finding money,” Oscar-nominated The Queen director Frears said of the project entitled Wilder & Me first announced in 2024.

He was speaking to Deadline ahead of receiving a life-time achievement award alongside Hampton at the Scad Lacoste Film Festival in France’s Provence region this weekend, followed by an open-air screening of their 1988 classic Dangerous Liaisons which won three Oscars including Best Writing for Hampton.

Coe’s novel unfolds against the backdrop of Hollywood director Billy Wilder’s struggles to get his penultimate movie Fedora off the ground. Hampton said the previously announced cast of Christoph Waltz, Maya Hawke, John Turturro...

The 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 4-12) boasts not one but two competitions, the Crystal Globe and Proxima, curated by artistic director Karel Och under the supervision of executive director Kryštof Mucha. The festival is the main summer event in the country, which attracts many sponsors and patrons who want to attend, and faces fewer financial hardships than such festivals as Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance.

Last year, 130 films were shown and 140,000 tickets sold. There is little room for growth, given the limited venues, from the many screening rooms at the festival hub, the Hotel Thermal, where jurors hang out between screenings, to the colorful arthouse Kino Drahomira, named after a revered Czech woman director.

The Central European festival falls between Cannes and Venice, and programs many films in its Crystal Globe Competition that did not make the cut at Cannes, as well as films that weren’t yet finished.

Karlovy Vary has set the series of actors and filmmakers who will receive honorary awards during this year’s edition, which runs from July 5 to 12.

Stellan Skarsgård will be handed the festival’s Crystal Globe award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. Skarsgård will also screen his latest feature, Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier. Skarsgård previously was a guest of the festival in 2002, when he presented director István Szabó’s film Taking Sides.

Vicky Krieps will receive the festival’s President’s Award and screen her latest film, Love Me Tender, directed by Anna Cazenave Cambet, which also debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Dakota Johnson will also receive a President’s Award and screen her summer rom-com The Materialists, directed by Celine Song. Peter Sarsgaard will get a President’s Award and screen his seminal 2003 journalism drama Shattered Glass.

Today, Karlovy Vary also added a...

Ralph Fiennes in Sunshine. István Szabó on being a director: 'You have to be on set one hour at least before the work for the day starts and shake hands with everyone and give them energy' Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival

Although veteran Hungarian film director István Szabó is feeling “happy” and “honoured” about his presence at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, accompanying a restored version of his 1999 historical epic Sunshine as well as receiving a special tribute from Fipresci to mark the international film critics’ centenary celebration, he confides he harbours some misgivings.

Ensconced in a luxury hotel bedroom high up from the throngs on the Croisette he confessed: “Every time I see one of my films a few years on I always have this feeling about what I would have done differently and what would I have changed. It would be the same for you as journalist,...

Swedish director Tarik Saleh would be a left-field but great pick for a Bond movie, and the third entry in his Cairo trilogy — following The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) and Boy from Heaven (2022) — is the proof. Like his previous films, it stars terrific Lebanese-Swedish actor Fares Fares (an actor so good they named him twice), in another precision-tooled political thriller that starts with a good deal more humor that seen previously in his works but rapidly ratchets up the tension for a shattering climax. Deftly and daringly blending fact and fiction, it shares DNA with István Szabó’s 1981 Nazi-era drama Mephisto.

Like Mephisto, it is about a self-seeking actor whose arrogance gets him into bad company. Fares plays George Fahmy, the biggest movie star in Egypt. They call him “The Pharoah of the Screen,” and that adoration has been the ruin of him. Having abandoned his wife and son, he lives...

István Szabó is bringing some “Sunshine” to Cannes Classics.

His 1999 historical epic, starring Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, John Neville and Jennifer Ehle, followed generations of a Hungarian-Jewish family until the mid-20th century. No stranger to Cannes thanks to award-winning “Mephisto” (which also picked up an Academy Award) and “Colonel Redl,” Szabó wrote the script with Israel Horovitz.

The full 4K digital restoration of the film was “prepared especially for Cannes,” reveals Nfi’s Filmlab director Viktória Sovák.

“The frames of the 181-minute-long film were partially corrupted and dotted with large white spots. During color grading, carried out with [the film’s original] cinematographer Lajos Koltai, the opportunity arose to make minor adjustments to the digital material that were not possible at the time it was shot. His greatest pleasure came with being able to bring out even the most minute details, which was impossible in the analogue era.”

Overall, Szabó’s nine feature...

Quentin Tarantino will be the guest of honour at Cannes Classics, the repertory cinema strand of Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection.

Tarantino will present two western films by George Sherman – 1949’s Red Canyon, and 1950’s Comanche Territory – and will take part in a discussion with critic and filmmaker Elvis Mitchell.

Scroll down for the full selection of Cannes Classics titles

The Classics lineup includes the Cannes pre-opening film, a 4K restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 The Gold Rush, restored by the L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory at the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna. Mk2 Films is arranging a worldwide re-release of the...

Quentin Tarantino will be guest of honor of Cannes Classics this year with a special tribute devoted to late low-budget westerns director George Sherman.

The Cannes regular, who won the Palme d’Or winner for Pulp Fiction and President of the Jury in 2004, will share his passion for Sherman’s work with screenings of two of his westerns made for Universal Pictures – Red Canyon and Comanche Territory – in one of his most creative periods.

Tarantino will participate in a conversation about Sherman moderated by critic and documentary filmmaker Elvis Mitchell.

Other highlights of the program devoted to classic cinema include a pre-opening screening of Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, to mark the centenary of its making, as well as a 25th anniversary screening of Amores perros by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, in the presence of director, and the 50th anniversary screening of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Shia Labeouf...

Although “All We Imagine as Light” was not selected by India as its nominee for Best International Feature Film, the indie from India has broken through to find acclaim and an arthouse audience here in the U.S. The contributors to Film Comment recently named it as the Best Film of 2024, while IndieWire’s survey of 177 critics had the film at number four on its list. And, on Sunday night, director Payal Kapadia was nominated for Best Director at the Golden Globes, alongside the directors of Oscar favorites like “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez,” and “The Substance.”

The story of the lives of two nurses living in Mumbai is filled with quiet, intimate vignettes of the everyday life in Mumbai, but it is also brimming with exciting cinematic poetry that brings to life their emotional lives. While Kapadia was on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, the director broke down how she used the camera,...

Following a recent Los Angeles screening for “Semmelweis,” Hungary’s 2025 Oscars entry for Best International Feature, director Lajos Koltai was greeted by a standing ovation before sitting down for a Q & A hosted by Gold Derby. The Oscar-nominated cinematographer (“Malena”) discussed why he decided to direct his third feature film, which has gone on to become one of Hungary’s biggest hits of the year.

“It was a lucky thing,” he said of the film’s success. “People went to see it and we had record numbers in Hungary. Young people went to see it. Teenagers! They talk to each other and say, ‘I have to see it again tomorrow. I want to learn about it. I want to understand. So they come back the next day and bring their friends. People deeply love it, which is a really good thing.”

“Semmelweis” stars Miklós H. Vecsei as Dr. Semmelweis Ignác...

The scream that pierces through the opening of “Semmelweis” sets the tone for the 19th century-set drama from Lajos Koltai, about the groundbreaking Hungarian obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis, immediately showing its concern for a very pregnant young woman desperately roaming the streets for a proper place to give birth. Loath to check in to local clinics that have acquired a reputation for patients mysteriously dying in postpartum care, her shaken faith in the health care system sets a distinctly modern emphasis for the sturdy, old-fashioned Vienna period piece, selected as Hungary’s official Oscar selection after it became a local box office hit.

Even without taking a look at a picture of the real balding and bespectacled Dr. Semmelweis, it’s immediately clear Koltai wants to deliver something that’s more popcorn than medicinal when he gives a movie star entrance to the dashing Miklós H. Vecsei, playing the film’s title role.

Andras Hamori, the Hungarian film and television producer whose credits included Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter, István Szabó’s Sunshine and David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ, has died. He was 71.

Hamori died Sept. 2 in Budapest after a long illness that prevented him from working in recent years, his friend Mia Taylor announced.

Hamori, who worked out of Toronto early in his career and was a partner in Alliance Entertainment, also guided the cult horror classic The Gate (1987), starring Stephen Dorff in his first major role; Stephen Frears’ Chéri (2009), starring Michelle Pfeiffer; and the 2014 History Channel miniseries Houdini, starring Adrien Brody.

The Sweet Hereafter (1997), which earned Egoyan Oscar nominations for best director and adapted screenplay, revolved around a school bus accident in a Canadian town that killed 14 children.

Sunshine (1999) told the story of several generations of a Jewish family set against the backdrop of Hungarian history. It starred Ralph Fiennes, was...

Hungary has picked Lajos Koltai’s biopic Semmelweis as its contender for the 2025 Oscars in the best international feature category.

The feature traces the life of Hungarian doctor Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures who became known as “the savior of mothers” for his efforts in fighting deadly infections following childbirth. Set in 19th-century Vienna, it shows Semmelweis, played by Miklós H. Vecsei as a passionate, if short-tempered, doctor determined to find the cause of puerperal fever, a mysterious epidemic decimating patients after childbirth. Even after he discovers the cause of the infection and a means to prevent it, his peers and superiors work to discredit him.

Semmelweis was a commercial hit back home, selling more than 350,000 tickets and grossing more than $2 million on its theatrical release, becoming the most successful Hungarian movie of the past five years. Nfi World Sales is handling world sales on the title.

The European Film Academy has unveiled its new board which has been voted in under updated guidelines aimed at ensuring a more balanced geographical representation of its members.

Three incumbent board members have been re-elected for a fresh two-year term running from 2024-25. Mike Downey (Ireland/UK) will continue as chair of the board with Joanna Szymańska (Poland) joining Ada Solomon (Romania) as Deputy Chair.

Another eight new members have been voted in for the next two years, while a further six incumbent members will continue their mandate until the end of 2024.

The new structure has increased board representation of members in countries in Northeastern and Southeastern Europe such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia.

A new seat representing members from transnational populations is dedicated to Sámi filmmakers from 2024-2025, followed by Romani filmmakers for 2026-2027.

Anne-Lajla Utsi (Sápmi/Norway), who is head...

Board has greater representation of filmmakers from North- and Southeastern Europe.

Eight people have been voted onto the board of the European Film Academy following a restructure to improve representation from across Europe.

They include Giorgos Karnavas, co-founder of Athens- based production company and sales firm Heretic; Tine Klint, founder of Copenhagen sales company LevelK; and Hanka Kastelicová, HBO Max’s VP documentaries for Emea, from the Czech Republic.

Also joining the board are Lithuanian producer Marija Razgutė, whose most recent film Slow world premiered at Karlovy Vary this year; Turkish producer and festival director Başak Emre; Spain’s Paz Lázaro,...

It’s been more than 15 years since Oscar-nominated cinematographer and director Lajos Koltai helmed his last film, “Evening” (2007), a poignant meditation on mortality, regret and womanhood that featured a star-studded ensemble cast, including Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close, Eileen Atkins and Meryl Streep, and was released domestically by Focus Features.

For his return to the director’s chair, the Hungarian-born filmmaker also returns closer to home with “Semmelweis,” a period biopic drama about a Hungarian doctor who turns the medical establishment on its head in 19th-century Vienna. The film opens the 21st Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs Oct. 27 to Nov. 2 at the Laemmle Monica Film Center.

“Semmelweis” is set in 1847, as a mysterious epidemic is raging in a maternity clinic in Vienna. The film follows the Hungarian-born doctor Ignác Semmelweis, played by rising Hungarian actor Miklos H. Vecsei, in a race against the clock to solve the mystery...

Federation of European Screen Directors (Fera) issues statement strongly defending Holland and her film ’The Green Border’

The Federation of European Screen Directors (Fera) has added its voice of support to Agnieszka Holland after she was strongly criticised by Poland’s minister of justice for her depiction of the treatment of refugees in her Venice competition film The Green Border.

Earlier this month, Poland’s hard-right justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “In the Third Reich, the Germans produced propaganda films showing Poles as bandits and murderers. Today they have Agnieszka Holland for that.

Annette Bening was center stage in 2004 at the Toronto International Film Festival when Being Julia, directed by Istvan Szabo, served as the opening night film. “We are thrilled to open this year’s festival with Being Julia,” Piers Handling, the TIFF Group’s then CEO and director, said. “Annette Bening gives an award-worthy performance surrounded by tremendous Canadian and international talent.” And, in fact, Bening went on to receive the third of her four Oscar nominations for her performance as a middle-aged London stage actress who discovers a new lease on life when her husband (Jeremy Irons) introduces her to a young actor (Shaun Evans) with whom she begins an affair.

“We love our movie. We’re hopelessly partial to it,” the actress enthused to Hello! Magazine on the red carpet. “It’s something that I worked very hard on and I really care very deeply about it.” Accompanying her was her husband,...

The European Film Academy is changing the date of its annual award ceremony, the European Film Awards, so that it will be positioned within the awards season at the start of the year.

After the 37th edition in December 2024, the 38th edition will take place mid-January 2026 and will celebrate the best European films from the previous year. The date change is a next step in the repositioning and rebranding process of the event and the work of the European Film Academy.

With the European Film Awards moving a month later to the beginning of the calendar year, European nominees and winners will be featured much more visibly within the awards season, culminating with the Oscars.

As the nominations for the European Film Awards will continue to be announced by mid-November each year, the date change will create a larger window for nominated films to be promoted. Academy members eligible to...

Ragalyi worked with filmmakers including Istvan Gaal, Istvan Szabo.

Elemer Ragalyi, the Hungarian cinematographer who worked with directors including Istvan Gaal and Istvan Szabo, died last week on March 30, at the age of 83.

Described by Hungary’s National Film Institute as ‘one of the greatest talents of modern Hungarian cinema’, Ragalyi shot films including Gaal’s Falcons, which won the jury prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1970.

Journey Of Hope, the Swiss feature he shot for director Xavier Koller, won the best foreign language film (now best international feature) Oscar in 1991; while Ragalyi received the Emmy for outstanding cinematography for...

Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2023 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between January 1, 2022 and November 30, 2022. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 3, 2022.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

The Before Trilogy (Richard Linklater)

Earning its status amongst the likes of Three Colors, Apu, Human Condition, Antonioni’s ’Decadence’ trilogy, and Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke’s exploration of romance both fledgling and tested is one of the great film trilogies of all time. Though there’s Before Movie, Says Julie Delpy”>no plans for a fourth film in sight, one can enjoy all three films, now available to stream on The Criterion

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)

After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due...

William Hurt, an Oscar winner for Kiss of the Spider Woman who often played a quiet intellectual in his early acting roles but later took more strident turns in science fiction and Marvel films, died today, a week before his 72nd birthday.

William Hurt’s son, Will, posted today that his father has died. It was announced in May 2018 that the elder Hurt had terminal prostate cancer that had spread to the bone.

William Hurt Remembered As A Giant Talent By His Peers In The Acting Community

“It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday,” his son wrote. “He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes. The family requests privacy at this time.”

Hurt had three consecutive Best Actor Academy Award nominations in the mid-1980s for Kiss of the Spider Woman...

Rarely one finds a friend on the Criterion Channel—discounting the parasitic relationship we form with filmmakers, I mean—but it’s great seeing their March lineup give light to Sophy Romvari, the <bias>exceptionally talented</bias> filmmaker and curator whose work has perhaps earned comparisons to Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman but charts its own path of history and reflection. It’s a good way to lead into an exceptionally strong month, featuring as it does numerous films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara, newfound cult classic Arrebato, and a number of Criterion editions.

On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.

See the full...

Mari Törőcsik, one of Hungary’s most prominent actors who won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and starred in two Oscar-nominated films, died on Friday in Budapest after a long illness. She was 85.

Törőcsik’s first international appearance was at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival where she starred in Palme d’Or contender Körhinta (Merry-Go-Round), from director Zoltán Fábri. In that film, she played a young farmer girl who falls in love with a peasant boy against her father’s wishes.

Francois Truffaut, who was then a journalist with the weekly Arts, said he would have given her the Best Actress Award and French poet Jean Cocteau also praised her talent. Truffaut wrote: “without the twenty-year-old artist knowing it, she was the biggest star of the festival.”

Over the past half century, she played more than 100 roles. She worked with Fábri as well as Miklós Jancsó, Márta Mészáros and Károly Makk on multiple occasions.

Mari Torocsik, the Hungarian actress who appeared in István Szabó’s Sunshine and Costa-Gavras’ Music Box, died Friday after a long illness, the Hungarian National Film Institute confirmed. She was 85.

An iconic figure in her native country, where many consider her to be the greatest actress of modern Hungarian cinema, Torocsik appeared in more than 170 films, from her 1956 debut in Merry-Go-Round from Zoltán Fábri — she was cast while still in her first year at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest — to her final starring role in the 2017 drama Aurora Borealis: Északi fény, from director Márta ...

Mari Torocsik, the Hungarian actress who appeared in István Szabó’s Sunshine and Costa-Gavras’ Music Box, died Friday after a long illness, the Hungarian National Film Institute confirmed. She was 85.

An iconic figure in her native country, where many consider her to be the greatest actress of modern Hungarian cinema, Torocsik appeared in more than 170 films, from her 1956 debut in Merry-Go-Round from Zoltán Fábri — she was cast while still in her first year at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest — to her final starring role in the 2017 drama Aurora Borealis: Északi fény, from director Márta ...

Celebrated performer starred in more than 100 films.

Hungarian actress Mari Torocsik, who starred in more than 100 films over six decades, has died aged 85.

Hungary’s National Film Institute (Nfi) confirmed that Torocsik, who won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976 for her performance in Gyula Maár’s Mrs. Dery Where Are You?, died today (April 16) following a long illness.

Born in the northern Hungarian village of Pély in 1935, Torocsik came to attention with her first leading role in Zoltán Fábri’s Merry-Go-Round, which played at Cannes in 1956. During the festival, Francois Truffaut (then a critic) said...

Mari Törőcsik, one of Hungary’s leading actors, died on Friday, at the age of 85, in Budapest after a long illness. She won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival, and appeared in two Oscar nominated films.

Törőcsik’s first international appearance was in 1956 at Cannes, where she starred in Zoltán Fábri’s Palme d’Or competitor “Körhinta” (Merry-Go-Round), playing a country girl in love with a peasant boy, battling against the opposition of her father to the relationship.

During the festival, Francois Truffaut, who was then a journalist with the weekly Arts, said he would have given her the best actress award, and Jean Cocteau also praised her performance. Truffaut wrote: “Without the 20-year-old artist knowing it, she was the biggest star of the festival.”

Since then she has played more than 100 roles. She worked with directors Fábri, Miklós Jancsó, Márta Mészáros and Károly Makk on multiple occasions.

Several...

German author Erich Kästner is most celebrated for the children’s novel Emil and the Detectives, but he was one of the more renowned men of letters of his day, publishing poetry, reviews, and satirical columns in Berlin liberal newspapers like Berliner Tageblatt and Vossische Zeitung––both of which were shut down as the Third Reich ascended to power. His novel Fabian – Going to the Dogs was published earlier in 1932, but is now perceived as a prophetic harbinger for the Weimar Republic’s demise. And of course, notions of liberal democracy’s twilight are rich in the minds of artists and commentators today, so here we have German literary film-specialist Dominik Graf with a timely and maybe predictable adaptation of Fabian.

Except, as sundry early viewers of Fabian have identified, this is a story and milieu bathed in overfamiliarity, and Graf’s three-hour film version doesn’t distinguish itself well...

Exclusive: Veteran indie executive and filmmaker Jeff Lipsky is hooking up with Kino Lorber to launch The Jeff Lipsky Collection on growing streaming service Kino Now. The collection, which becomes available on March 5, will include five out of seven of Lipsky’s directing efforts dating from 2006-2019. Other filmmakers who are similarly represented with Kino Now Auteur Collections include Jean-Luc Godard, Lina Wertmüller, Derek Jarman, István Szabó and F.W. Murnau.

On the Lipsky roster are Flannel Pajamas (2006), a relationship story co-starring Julianne Nicholson and Justin Kirk; family drama Twelve Thirty (2011), starring Jonathan Groff; surreal comedy Molly’s Theory Of Relativity (2013) with Sophia Takal and Lawrence Michael Levine; character study Mad Women (2015), co-starring Reed Birney and Jamie Harrold; and Holocaust-themed family drama The Last (2019), starring Rebecca Schull. Lipsky hopes to add his first film, 1997’s The End, to the collection as soon as its restoration is complete.

Says Lipsky, “Being inducted...

Matthijs Wouter Knol took over as director of the European Film Academy at the start of the year, having served as director of the European Film Market since 2014. He speaks to Variety about how the academy seeks to protect and promote European cinema as the film industry continues to morph.

Among the priorities of the academy – under the leadership of its president Agnieszka Holland and its chairman Mike Downey – is the need for unity within the European industry, and one area where this is relevant is how it responds to the continued expansion and growing influence of the streaming giants.

The pandemic has accelerated the consumption of films on streaming platforms, and the consequences for European cinema of this shift in consumption – with linear TV, which was once a significant backer of European films, and exhibition both facing financial challenges – are still being worked out.

One issue for the academy...

The festival is underway in Estonia with 80 international guests in town.

When the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia opened last Thursday November 12, festival director Tiina Lokk stood in front of a socially-distanced, fully masked audience at the Coca-Cola Plaza cinema before a gala screening of Oskar Roehler’s Rainer Werner Fassbinder biopic Enfant Terrible.

Images were streamed around the world to accredited guests. For as has become commonplace in 2020, the festival is taking place as a hybrid event this year, with around 80 international guests, down from 1,500 last year.

But on opening night, Lokk admits she was unnerved; after...

Twelve films to receive their world premiere in competition at the festival.

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (November 13-29) has unveiled the full lineup of its main competition strand as it prepares to go ahead as a mix of physical and online events.

The festival’s official selection comprises 12 world premieres, 12 international and two European premieres. Eight of these films were previously announced, including István Szabó’s Final Report.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Titles set to receive their world premiere include rural drama Armugan from Spanish director Jo Sol, who won a best new director...

The line-up includes new films by István Szabó, Laila Pakalnina, Dalibor Matanić, Georgi Mindadze, Nisan Dağ, Anna Melikyan and Leonardo António. The 24th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights International Film Festival, taking place physically with a stripped-back programme from 13-29 November, has announced the first eight titles of its main Official Selection - Competition. Six of the films will have their world premieres at Tallinn. The line-up includes the international premiere of the most recent film by the Tallinn's 2013 Lifetime Achievement Awardee István Szabó, Final Report (Hungary), the story of a cardiology professor played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, who returns to his home village after retirement to become the local Gp. The film was released in Hungary in February before the lockdown. Latvian director Laila Pakalnina returns to Tallinn with In the Mirror (Latvia/Lithuania) a playful take on the Snow White motif, after winning the Best Cinematography award.

Line-up includes six world premieres, international debut of István Szabó’s ‘Final Report’.

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (November 13-29) has announced the first eight films in its main competition strand as it prepares to go ahead as a physical event.

The line-up includes the international premiere of Final Report by Oscar-winning Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó, having previously been released in its native Hungary before lockdown in February.

The film centres on a retired cardiologist, played by Klaus Maria Brandaue, who stirs up old resentments when he returns to his home village. Szabó, a four-time Oscar nominee and winner in 1982 with Mephisto,...

Line-up includes six world premieres, international debut of István Szabó’s ‘Final Report’.

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (November 13-29) has announced the first eight films in its main competition strand as it prepares to go ahead as a physical event.

The line-up includes the international premiere of Final Report by Oscar-winning Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó, having previously been released in its native Hungary before lockdown in February.

The film centres on a retired cardiologist, played by Klaus Maria Brandaue, who stirs up old resentments when he returns to his home village. Szabó, a four-time Oscar nominee and winner in 1982 with Mephisto,...

Line-up includes six world premieres, international debut of István Szabó’s ‘Final Report’.

Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 13-29) has announced the first eight films in its main competition strand as it prepares to go ahead as a physical event.

The line-up includes the international premiere of Final Report by Oscar-winning Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó, having previously been released in its native Hungary before lockdown in February.

The film centres on a retired cardiologist, played by Klaus Maria Brandaue, who stirs up old resentments when he returns to his home village. Szabó, a four-time Oscar nominee and winner in 1982 with Mephisto,...

This year’s selection will be announced over two waves to account for pandemic conditions.

The first 32 features up for the 2020 European Films Awards has been announced with a second wave of “pandemic year” titles due to be revealed in September.

Scroll down for first selection of films

The titles include Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History Of David Copperfield and Viggo Mortensen’s Falling as well as Berlinale award-winners Undine, by Christian Petzold; Hidden Away, by Giorgio Diritti; Bad Tales, by the D’Innocenzo Brothers; Dau. Natasha, by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel; and Delete History, by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern.

Fera represents some 20,000 directors across Europe.

The Federation of European Film Directors (Fera) has suggested when production starts up again, every scene will have to be set up with the same level of care as a dangerous stunt scene.

Its members’ creativity will be central to getting this to work, the body said in a statement titled ’Love in the time of corona: Developing health and safety guidelines on set, a director’s perspective’, on Monday (May 18).

“For decades screen directors have been shooting dangerous stunts Safely. ‘Selling’ a punch between two actors by positioning the camera so it can...

Fera represents some 20,000 directors across Europe.

The Federation of European Film Directors (Fera) has suggested that when production starts up again, every scene will have to be set up with the same extra care of a dangerous stunt scene and that its members’ creativity will be central to getting this to work.

“For decades screen directors have been shooting dangerous stunts. Safely. ‘Selling’ a punch between two actors by positioning the camera so it can’t see the safe space between them is an early example of successful social distancing,” the body said in the statement headlined ’Love in the...

Dieter Laser, a veteran German actor best known to international audiences for playing the evil Dr. Heiter in cult horror film The Human Centipede, has died. He was 78.

Laser's wife Inge told media on Friday that her husband had died in Berlin on Feb. 29.

Laser appeared in more than 60 films and TV series, starring alongside Bruno Ganz in a TV production of Peer Gynt, with Glenn Close in István Szabó's Meeting Venus (1991) and with John Malkovich in Volker Schlöndorff's The Orge (1995). But international audiences knew him best for roles in schlocky cult hits,...

Dieter Laser, a veteran German actor best known to international audiences for playing the evil Dr. Heiter in cult horror film The Human Centipede, has died. He was 78.

Laser's wife Inge told media on Friday that her husband had died in Berlin on Feb. 29.

Laser appeared in more than 60 films and TV series, starring alongside Bruno Ganz in a TV production of Peer Gynt, with Glenn Close in István Szabó's Meeting Venus (1991) and with John Malkovich in Volker Schlöndorff's The Orge (1995). But international audiences knew him best for roles in schlocky cult hits,...

Nfi World Sales, the institute’s sales arm, is also introducing buyers to Oscar-winning István Szabó’s latest feature Final Report.

Details have emerged at Berlin’s Efm of the latest investments from the Nfi (National Film Institute Hungary) under new film commissioner Csaba Kael.

The latest Nfi grants have gone to János Szász’s Journey by Moonlight, produced by Mythberg Films and adapted from the Antal Szerb novel; a documentary about three-time Olympic swimming champion Katinka Hosszú, produced by Szupermodern Stúdió; and Áron Gauder’s family animation As Long As the Grass Grows, produced by Cinemon Entertainment, which will...

At the Efm, the new National Film Institute will be pinning its hopes on a series of titles currently in post-production, many of them feature debuts. Although Hungarian productions are absent from the selection of new films at the 70th Berlinale (20 February - 1 March), that is not the case at the European Film Market, which will be attended by Nfi World Sales, the international sales division of the Nfi (National Film Institute), the new public entity which replaces the Hnff (Hungarian National Film Fund).Standing out from the line-up handled by Klaudia Androsovits are Those Who Remained by Barnabas Tóth (which had made the shortlist for this year's Best International Film Oscar), Final Report by István Szabó (coming out on 27 February in the cinemas of its country) and the fascinating Eden by Ágnes Kocsis (recently revealed in Rotterdam), as well as On The Quiet from promising director Zoltán...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

“To Hong Kong with Love” looks at one of the world’s most luminous cities in its past and present.

The great Hal Hartley is given an extended retrospective.

A new print of New York, New York begins screening.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople screens early, while Scarface shows late.

Anthology Film Archives

Time to...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

The great Hal Hartley is given an extended retrospective.

Dead Poets Society screens early, while Police Story shows late.

Film Forum

A tribute to Anna Karina contains plenty Godard and an underseen Rivette masterwork.

“Black Women: Trailblazing African American Performers & Images, 1920 – 2001” continues.

The restoration of István Szabó’s Mephisto continues.

Anthology Film Archives...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Museum of the Moving Image

What do The Earrings of Madame De…, How the West Was Won, and an avant-garde series have in common? They’re all inspired 2001: A Space Odyssey and play in a program this weekend, as does a 70mm print of Kubrick’s film alongside the museum’s incredible new exhibit.

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Film at Lincoln Center

Bong Joon-ho’s “The Bong Show” is underway, with a mixture of his own films and work by Imamura, John Boorman, Clouzot and more.

Museum of Modern Art

“To Save and Project,” a highlight of any given year, has returned. The first weekend includes work by Stan Brakhage, Ken Jacobs, and George A. Romero.