News

Exclusive: Cinefrance International, the global sales arm of Paris-based Cinefrance Studios, will kick off sales for Naomi Kawase’s Yakushima’s Illusion starring Vicky Krieps at Locarno Film Festival where it willpremiere in competition. Ad Vitam will release the film in France.

Krieps plays a French coordinator of paediatric heart transplants who is sent to Japan, where she fights to save the life of a young child just as the man she loves suddenly vanishes.

Cinefrance Studios produced the film alongside Kawase for Japan’s Kumie Inc. Co-producers are Belgium’s Tarantula, Luxembourg’s Viktoria Productions, and France’s Prod Lab and Marignan Films.

Gold Derby's top news stories for May 23, 2025.

The Wheel of Time canceled after three seasons on Prime Video

Amazon has canceled fantasy series The Wheel of Time after three seasons. The series, which premiered on Prime Video in 2021, was based on the popular novel series by Robert Jordan, and featured a large ensemble cast led by Rosamund Pike. The third season made Nielsen's top 10 list of streaming originals, but the renewal bar is high for expensive fantasy series.

Cannes' Un Certain Regard winners revealed

The 2025 winners of the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, which honors early career filmmakers, have been revealed. La misteriosa mirada del flamenco (The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo), the debut feature of Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes, won the top Un Certain Regard Prize. Colombian director Simón Mesa Soto won the second-place Jury Prize with his film Un Poeta (A Poet). Palestinian...

Update, 16.10 BST 23/5/25: Neon has acquired North America rights to Oliver Laxe’s Cannes Competition titleSirât.

It is the distributor’s fifth buy from the Competition, afterAlpha,It Was Just An Accident,The Secret Agent andSentimental Value.

Original story:

Mubi has bought yet more distribution territories from the Cannes Competition, taking Italy, Turkey and India rights on Oliver Laxe’s Sirât.

The Match Factory, which Mubi owns, handles international sales on the film.

Sirât had its world premiere in Competition on Thursday, May 15. The film follows a father and son at a rave in the mountains of southern Morocco, looking for their daughter/sister.

Mubi has bought yet more distribution territories from the Cannes Competition, taking Italy, Turkey and India rights on Oliver Laxe’s Sirât.

The Match Factory, which Mubi owns, handles international sales on the film.

Sirât had its world premiere in Competition on Thursday, May 15. The film follows a father and son at a rave in the mountains of southern Morocco, looking for their daughter/sister.

The film is produced by Pedro Almodovar, Agustin Almodovar and Esther Garcia for their El Deseo banner, with Xavi Font and Laxe for Filmes Da Ermida, Oriol Maymo for Uri Films, Mani Mortazavi and Andrea Queralt for 4A4 Productions,...

UK post-production house and film equity investor LipSync has entered administration, the company has confirmed to Screen.

A statement from the company said it was “business as usual” during the process, that no redundancies had been made and ” an announcement sale would be made soon”.

Lipsync was founded in 1984 and has worked on films includingThe Brutalist,The Salt PathandTornado,as well asWe Need To Talk About Kevin,Nowhere BoyandTestament Of Youth.

Lipsync has long been a fixture of the London film production scene, with an office on Wardour Street in Soho. Its parent company is Glenthorp Ltd, owned by Lipsync...

Vicky Krieps have joined the cast of The Idiots, the upcoming feature by Polish filmmakers Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert.

They join previously announced cast members Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn in the feature, which is being sold internationally by The Match Factory.

The drama is adapted from Andrew D. Kaufman’s novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky.

Szumowska and Michał Englert, whose previous joint directorial credits include Woman Of… (2023) and Never Gonna Snow Again (2020), have also co-written the adaptation with Kasper Bajon and Bríd Arnstein. Englert will also serve as cinematographer.

The novel follows the lives of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna during a period that inspired him to write The Idiot. The novel was...

“Corsage” and “Phantom Thread” actor Vicky Krieps and “The Zone of Interest” and “White Lotus” star Christian Friedel have joined Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn in the cast of “The Idiots.”

Krieps won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard best performance award and the European Film Award for “Corsage” in 2022. Friedel is a two-time nominee for best actor at both the European and German film awards.

Other actors joining the cast are Barbara Marten and three-time German Film Award nominee Rainer Bock.

The film is to be directed by Polish filmmakers Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, and is co-written by Szumowska and Englert together with Kasper Bajon and Bríd Arnstein. Englert will also serve as cinematographer. International sales are being handled by the Match Factory.

The story is based on the novel “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky” by Andrew D. Kaufman,...

Award-winning European actors Vicky Krieps (Corsage, Phantom Thread) and Christian Friedel (The Zone of Interest, White Lotus) have joined the ensemble cast of The Idiots, the new film from Polish directors Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert (Woman of…, Never Gonna Snow Again).

Friedel’s White Lotus co-star Aimee Lou Wood, and Ripley actor Johnny Flynn headline the project in a cast that also includes Dune: Prophecy actress Barbara Marten, and Rainer Bock (Wonder Woman, The White Ribbon).

Szumowska and Englert co-wrote The Idiots together with Kasper Bajon and Bríd Arnstein, basing the story on Andrew D. Kaufman’s 2021 novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky, which follows the lives of the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna during a period that inspired him to write his classic The Idiot.

Wood and Flynn play Anna and her husband, nicknamed Fiedya.

Vicky Krieps and Christian Friedel have joined the cast of Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s The Idiots.

Krieps, Friedel, Barbara Marten and Rainer Bock join previously-announced cast members Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn, with filming scheduled to begin next month.

The Idiots is based on Andrew D. Kaufman’s 2021 novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky. The film will tell the story of Russian writer Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna on their honeymoon trip to Baden – the period in his life that inspired him to write The Idiot.

Szumowska...

The Match Factory has come on board as sales agent for “The Idiots,” the new feature by Polish filmmakers Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert.

The film stars “White Lotus” actor Aimee Lou Wood, a BAFTA winner for best female performance in a comedy program for “Sex Education,” alongside Johnny Flynn, nominated for the best supporting actor at the Critics Choice Award for his role in “Genius.”

The film’s principal photography is set to start next month.

The story is based on the novel “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky” by Andrew D. Kaufman, published in 2021, which follows the lives of the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna during a period that inspired him to write “The Idiot” – at the time a commercial flop, but today, considered one of the greatest novels in the history of literature.

The film follows...

The Netflix charts prove once more that many movies have a second chance on streaming. In 2022, Naomi Watts starred in a mountain rescue adventure film that wasn't a big hit, but it's now on the global charts.

Streaming has facilitated users with new releases straight on the platform, as well as a series of older, licensed films. Some of them didn't get a chance to become hits during their theatrical releases or didn't have a wide release, just like Naomi Watts' Infinite Storm. Three years after its release, Infinite Storm reached the global charts on Netflix, per Tudum.

Naomi Watts' adventure filmInfinite Storm has just premiered on Netflix, and it has already drawn a lot of attention. The movie premiered in the global charts in ninth place with 4.8 million views and 7.9 million hours viewed.

The adventure film is not available to stream on Netflix in the U.S., but it's streaming on Hulu.

Independent international production company and financier Gold Rush Pictures has signed a deal with Ilya Stewart’s Hype Studios to participate in financing and co-producing a slate of at least five feature films, Variety can exclusively reveal.

The news comes ahead of the world premiere of Tom Tykwer’s contemporary German drama “The Light” (pictured), which was co-produced by Gold Rush Pictures and will open the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 13.

Two of the five titles on the companies’ slate will be collaborations with the Polish screenwriter-director and two-time Berlinale prizewinner Małgorzata Szumowska, including “The Gambler Wife,” a dark comedy about Russian literary figures Anna and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The anticipated feature, which was announced in Variety, is due to begin principal photography this spring. A second feature from Szumowska is currently in development.

Rounding out the slate are three titles with long-time Hype Studios collaborator Kirill Serebrennikov, whose previous four...

With all of the podcasts dedicated to sensationalizing them, it's easy to forget how truly disturbing cults really are. Audiences become invested in the path of one demented group when they hear about it in a YouTube video or on a Netflix series, but to see the real impacts of this kind of abuse, to watch the lengths individuals will go to for their perceived God? It's a twisted aspect of society that many horror films draw from, with few doing this as disturbingly well as Małgorzata Szumowska's The Other Lamb.

Miuccia Prada’s fashion brand Miu Miu has unveiled the talent-packed program of its Tales & Tellers conversations lineup which will unfold at the Palais d’Iena during the Art Basel Paris. Miu Miu is an official partner of the public program.

Tales & Tellers was conceived by Polish artist Goshka Macuga and curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona. An immersive, site-specific art project and series of short film screenings and conversations, Tales & Tellers was influenced by Miu Miu’s collaborations within the worlds of filmmaking and art.

Kicking off with a chic vernissage on Oct. 15 on the eve of opening of Art Basel Paris, this year’s inaugural Tales & Tellers program will bring together directors, talent and artists coming from different horizons who have participated in Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales and/or collaborated with the brand on the fashion shows.

Five panels hosted in two days,...

Hungarian director Gábor Reisz’s Explanation For Everything received the Grand Prix and a cash prize of €10,000 at the 24th edition of the New Horizons International Film Festival (18-28 July) in the Polish city of Wroclaw.

Reisz’s third feature film, which is being handled internationally by Films Boutique, premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival where it won the award for best film in the Orizzonti competition.

It also won a Golden and Silver Hugo Award in Chicago as well as prizes at Les Arcs, Febiofest Bratislava and Uruguay Iff, among others.

The International Competition Jury, which included...

Brazilian romantic comedy “Perfect Endings” has sold to distributors in North America and several territories in Europe. Berlin-based sales agency M-Appeal is handling world sales rights.

“Perfect Endings” is directed by Daniel Ribeiro, who won the Berlinale’s Teddy Award, given to the best film with a queer theme in the festival, with “The Way He Looks.”

“Perfect Endings” follows João, played by Artur Volpi, an aspiring filmmaker, who is thrown into the dating world after breaking up with his boyfriend of 10 years. At a crossroads in both his personal and professional life, he ends up directing amateur erotic films, while finding his way through the confusion of modern romance.

Dark Star Pictures and Uncork’d Entertainment have nabbed the rights for North America, where “Perfect Endings” will have its international premiere at Frameline on June 27.

Mike Repsch, president of Dark Star Pictures, commented: “We are incredibly excited to bring ‘Perfect Endings’ to North America.

Following the October parliamentary election that saw the defeat of the right-wing Law and Justice party and appointment of leader of the opposition party Donald Tusk as prime minister, Polish filmmakers are cautiously readying for change.

“So far, our cinema authorities have not changed. It remains to be seen whether they will change their approach to funding more topical or controversial projects. Recent years have been very difficult in this regard,” says acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland.

Holland’s latest film, refugee drama “Green Border,” had been attacked by the right-wing government last year. Her next film, “Franz,” about Franz Kafka, is a Czech-German-Polish co-production to be sold at EFM by Films Boutique.

“We know everything and nothing about Kafka. There are dozens of detailed biographies and the reasons for his growing importance remain a mystery. I am trying to put this film together like a scattered jigsaw puzzle,” she adds.

The BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival has revealed the line-up for its 38th edition which takes place March 13-24.

The programme comprises 57 features across the Hearts, Bodies and Mind strands, four of which are world premieres.

Scroll down for full line-up

World premiering is Karen Knox’s sophomore feature We Forgot To Break Up about a trans musician caught in a love triangle with his bandmates. The Canadian actress and filmmaker’s debut Adult Adoption premiered at Glasgow Film Festival in 2022.

Other world premieres are Kat Rohrer’s Austrian romantic comedy What A Feeling about two women who meet...

Helsinki-based production company It’s Alive Films has boarded upcoming “Copernicus Secrets” as ca o-producer, joining Orka Studio’s Magdalena Zimecka (Poland) and 4film’s Anita Juka (Croatia.)

Recently, Orka co-produced Naomi Watts survival drama “Infinite Storm” by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, as well as Marta Minorowicz’s “Illusion.”

“We like to try new things and we have never been involved in this kind of co-production before. Copernicus was an intellectual giant, whose vision had a tremendous effect on modern science. In a way, this story has been relevant since the 15th century,” said Finland’s Jani Pösö.

Running It’s Alive Films alongside director and longtime collaborator Teemu Nikki, Pösö is also behind “Euthanizer,” Finland’s 2018 Oscar submission, Venice-winning “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic” or children’s film “Snot & Splash – The Mystery of Disappearing Holes,” starring Pekka Strang.

Currently, the duo is shopping their new feature “100 Liters of Gold.

Festival selection includes Nikolaj Arcel’s ‘The Promised Land’ and Ernst De Geer’s ‘The Hypnosis’.

Goteborg Film Festival has selected almost 250 films for its 47th edition, including recent Nordic favourites The Promised Land starring Mads Mikkelsen and The Hypnosis by Ernst De Geer.

The festival, which runs from January 26 to February 4, has also programmed events including a talk between Ruben Ostlund and Cannes director Thierry Fremaux; and selected Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen to receive its Nordic Honorary Dragon award.

Scroll down for the list of festival titles

The 10 films competing in the Nordic Competition include Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land,...

Memento International has boarded “Arenas,” Camille Perton’s feature debut set in the world of professional soccer, starring Édgar Ramírez (“Carlos”), Iliès Kadri (“Nobody’s Hero”), Sofian Khammes (“November”) and Lorenzo Zurzolo (“Eo”).

Now in post-production, the film shot across Lyon, Monaco, Nice and Baku in Azerbaijan. Memento International will kick off sales at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous showcase in Paris next week.

The film follows Brahim, a rising soccer star who is about to sign his first contract at his prestigious hometown club. But when a mysterious and powerful agent disrupts the negotiations, Brahim discovers the shady side of the business. Torn between loyalty and money, he will engage in a race against time to claim his destiny.

“Arenas” is produced by Eve Robin and Judith Lou Lévy for Les Films du Bal, the ambitious independent company behind Mati Diop’s Cannes prizewinner “Atlantics,” “Ahed’s Knee” by Nadav Lapid and the...

Exclusive: Agnieszka Holland’s migrant drama Green Border will open the 22nd Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, running from March 6 to 28 in various locations across London.

The opening gala screening at the BFI Southbank will tie in with the film’s UK release by Modern Films, which kicks off on March 8. The picture previously made its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.

The timely drama explores the migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border from a variety of points of view, from the people stuck in the treacherous natural environment, to activists trying to help them and border guards charged with keeping them out.

The work hit the headlines earlier this year when Holland was attacked by Poland’s far-right government as the film world premiered to acclaim at the Venice Film Festival in September, where it won the Special Jury Prize.

Polish distributor Kino Świat pushed on with the...

“Woman Of…,” Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s pioneering trans drama, has been sold by Memento International across Europe.

Set against the landscape of the Polish transformation from communism to capitalism, “Woman Of” stars Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik as Aniela Wesoły. “Woman Of…” spans 45 years of Aniela’s life as she aspires to find personal liberty as a trans woman and faces hardships in marriage and parenthood, strained family relations and complicated attitudes in her environment.

The movie has been acquired for Italy (I Wonder), France (UFO), Germany (Salzgeber), Austria (Filmladen), Spain (Karma), Benelux and Israel (Cinemien), Switzerland (Xenix), Sweden (Lucky Dogs), Greece (Cinobo), Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic) and Czech Republic and Slovakia (Film Europe).

Discussions are ongoing in other territories including the U.K. and Scandinavia. North American sales are handled by Anonymous Content and Memento International. The film will be released in Poland by Next Films and is set for March...

Memento International has scored further deals on “Omen,” the feature debut of artist and musician turned director Baloji. The film world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, where it won the New Voice Award, and was acquired by Utopia for North America.

“Omen” follows Koffie, who after spending years in Belgium, returns home to the Congo to find himself confronted by his past and culture at a family event. Koffie visits his birthplace after being mysteriously ostracized by his family and spending years abroad in Europe. With his soon-to-be wife and unborn child in tow, Koffie’s arrival sets in motion a sprawling, nightmarish and psychedelic fairy tale about ancestry, belief, wrestling, witchcraft and sorcery in Africa today.

The movie was acquired for France (Pan Distribution), Italy (I Wonder), Spain (Filmin), Germany and Austria (Grandfilm), the U.K. (Aya Films), Switzerland (Outside the Box) and Eastern Europe (HBO). The movie...

Writers’ Development

The U.K.’s National Film and Television School (Nfts) has partnered with “The Crown” producer Left Bank Pictures on the Nfts Diverse Writers Development Program that kicks off in March 2024. It will select six emerging U.K. screenwriters from under-represented backgrounds to contribute their voices to the entertainment landscape and inject fresh perspectives into scripted drama.

The chosen writers will embark on a paid 10-week program, during which four full series ideas will be developed and pitched, with the aim of creating commercially viable television drama concepts. The participants will work through a curriculum designed by the Nfts. The initiative will connect writers with production executives from Left Bank Pictures and potentially other British production companies.

Applications are open now and close Oct. 31.

Promotion

Alexandre Moreau has been promoted to head of sales at Paris-based company Memento International. The executive will oversee Memento International’s slate of films and strategy,...

A pair of noteworthy Cannes titles in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and Tran Anh Hung’s The Pot-au-Feu, some Locarno items such as Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World but with a major slew of Venice-preemed films are part of the 21 newly added titles to be considered for a whole bunch of prizes for the upcoming European Film Awards. The European Film Academy have now set their 4600 members with a batch of 40 films competing for various prizes at the ceremony that will be set for December 9th in Berlin. Here are the added films:

Animal – Sofia Exarchou (Greece/Austria/Bulgaria/Romania/Cyprus)

Blaga’s Lessons – Stephan Komandarev (Bulgaria/Germany)

Club Zero – Jessica Hausner (Austria/UK/Germany/France/Denmark/Qatar)

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World – Radu Jude (Romania/Luxembourg/France/Croatia)

Excursion – Una Gunjak (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia...

40 feature films now selected for Academy’s 2023 shortlist.

The European Film Academy has added a further 21 features to its shortlist for the 2023 European Film Awards, including Cannes premieres The Zone of Interest and Club Zero and Venice competition titles The Green Border and Io Capitano.

The shortlist for the European Film Awards now comprises 40 features. The first 19 titles titles in the running for the 2023 European Film Awards were unveiled in August and included Anatomy Of A Fall, How To Have Sex, The Old Oak and Firebrand.

The European Film Academy said that more than 40% of all selected films are directed by women.

We came, we saw, we conquered. Our Nicholas Bell was in review overdrive assessing the entire competition and much more. We’ll still have film reviews to populate the site and this page in the near future, but for the time being here is a handy quick link to the wealth of richness (and some rubbish) selections that made up all sections of the Lido this year.

Competition:

Adagio – Stefano Sollima [Review]

La Bête – Bertrand Bonello [Review]

Comandante – Edoardo De Angelis [Review]

Dogman – Luc Besson [Review]

El Conde – Pablo Larraín [Review]

Enea – Pietro Castellitto [Review]

Evil Does Not Exist – Ryusuke Hamaguchi [Review]

Ferrari – Michael Mann [Review]

Finalmente l’alba – Saverio Costanzo [Review]

Green Border – Agnieszka Holland [Review]

Holly – Fien Troch [Review]

Io capitano – Matteo Garrone [Review]

The Killer – David Fincher [Review]

Lubo – Giorgio Diritti [Review]

Maestro – Bradley Cooper [Review]

Memory – Michel Franco [Review]

Origin – Ava DuVernay [Review]

Hors-saison – Stéphane Brizé [Review]

Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos [Review]

Priscilla – Sofia Coppola [Review]

The Promised Land – Nikolaj Arcel [Review]

The Theory of Everything – Timm Kröger [Review]

Woman Of…...

Exclusive: Poland will submit animated feature drama The Peasants for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

The picture is the latest work from Dk Welchman (previously known as Dorota Kobiela) and Hugh Welchman, the creative duo behind the groundbreaking, Oscar-nominated, hand-painted biopic Loving Vincent.

The pair co-wrote The Peasants screenplay adaptation from Nobel Prize-winning writer Władysław Reymont’s classic 1905 novel of the same name about a young woman determined to forge her own path within the confines of a late 19th century Polish village.

Poland’s Oscar entry choice was made Monday by a selection committee overseen by the Polish Film Institute. There was a strong offering of Polish films this year, with other potential contenders including Agnieszka Holland’s migrant drama Green Border and Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englerts’ transgender drama Woman Of.

Related: Agnieszka Holland’s Migrant Crisis Drama ‘Green Border’ Posts Record Opening Weekend...

Seated before a photo of filmmaker Sarah Moldoror, panelists at this year’s Women in Film roundtable shared strategies for greater industry parity, while reflecting on recent successes and standstills in that ongoing pursuit. Variety has been give access to the video of the panel discussion.

Organized by Magaajyia Silberfeld and Winta Ghebre, and moderated by journalist and filmmaker Rahmatou Keïta, the Venice Film Festival roundtable brought together filmmakers Malgorzata Szumowska (“Woman Of”), Gina Kim (whose 3D-360 doc “Comfortless” screens in Venice Immersive), and Leila Basma (director of the Horizons-selected short “Sea Salt”), alongside set decorator Brandi Kalish (“The Killer”).

Moderator Rahmatou Keïta stressed the need for historical memory and for a greater degree of focus in order to prevent real gains from slipping into PR lip service. Keïta made mention of the equality charter signed at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival before caustically pointing out that five years prior,...

Pieces of a Woman: Szumowska & Englert Compose Compassionate Portrait of Trans Woman

“Testosterone is power,” confirms one physician advising Andrzej, the protagonist of Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s latest, Woman Of…, which parallels a trans woman’s eternally inhibited sex reassignment with the shifting political landscape of Poland over four decades. It’s a statement reflecting the staunchly heteronormative and conservative sentiments of a country struggling to divorce itself from the grip of nationalism in its post-Communist era, where manliness remains close to godliness. An anguish crystallized by countless consultations with a medical community in a country whose policies actively impede women and the LGBTQ+ community is one of many shifting facets of Andrzej’s journey to becoming Aniela.…...

With her enigmatically titled Woman Of… (Kobieta z..), Malgorzata Szumowska returns from the magical satire of Never Gonna Snow Again to trenchant social realism, recounting a journey lasting half a lifetime, of sacrifice, sorrow and resilience.

Written and directed in collaboration with regular cinematographer and creative partner Michal Englert, this is a rare close-up of an older trans woman making tough choices in a majority Catholic country that remains legislatively and socially hostile. The film’s compassionate gaze and stirring performances make it an illuminating window into gender recognition in an unaccommodating environment.

Like many dramas focused on a highly specific community and developed out of extensive interviews, Woman Of… doesn’t entirely escape the feel of a representational project that ticks all the required boxes in a not entirely seamless narrative. However, that doesn’t make it any less sincere or moving, not only in the principal character’s...

The first real clue comes when Andrzej is called up for national service and, standing in front of the army medics in his underwear, refuses to take his socks off. His toenails were painted blue, he tells his mates cheerfully a couple of years later, as if it were a joke. But it isn’t a joke; it is the most serious thing in his life. He is waving a flag at the time; they are in the bloom of the Solidarity movement and the promise of a new world, when it feels like anything goes.

But it isn’t quite like that, either. Poland will soon find its conservative heart. An occasional magazine article about newly recognized gender dysphoria may pop up. The internet is full of sex sites offering new combinations, even if that doesn’t quite chime with what Andrzej, who has a beloved wife and children,...

Trans women are women, deserving of all the respect and rights of their cis counterparts. That reality is conveyed poignantly in “Woman Of,” from Polish directors Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, a sprawling, lyrical, and sensitive journey of a woman becoming her true self.

While it occasionally bags at the seams, spending time meandering down inconsequential tangents bereft of purpose, the film’s characters are acted with such nuanced specificity that even at two hours and 20 minutes, “Woman Of” is a never-tiring portrait of gender and sexuality told across 45 years of Poland. We begin in the 1970s and move through communism, independence, and Covid, but society still largely languishes in the bureaucratic hell that awaits Polish LGBTQ+ people seeking lives without discrimination, to marry who they please, or to be legally recognized for their gender.

Aniela Wesoly, or Andrej as her parents named her, has spent her whole life in...

There will come a time, perhaps not even too far from now, when films like “Woman Of…” may feel, if not old hat, at least familiar, part of a genre unto itself: not a coming-of-age story but a coming-of-self one, tracing the particular life stages of identifying oneself as transgender, accepting oneself as such, and finally living that truth out loud. Spanning decades in its closeup portrait of a Polish trans woman traveling that trajectory in a social climate hostile to her very existence, Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert’s heart-on-sleeve film isn’t aiming to be revolutionary — there’s an old-fashioned melodramatic heft to its episodic construction, setting its heroine’s tale in a pointedly mainstream context. But it still represents a bold gesture of cinematic allyship, drawing attention as it does to Poland’s dire record on LGBT rights.

Those merits will serve this Venice competition premiere well on the festival circuit,...

Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s transgender drama Women Of world premieres in Competition at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.

As ever the filmmaking team – who have been working together for more than two decades on titles such as Mug, In The Name Of and French-language drama Elles – are pushing boundaries in their native Poland.

Set against the backdrop of the country’s transition from communism to capitalism, Woman Of follows protagonist Aniela Wesoły across the course of 45 years as she seeks to live freely as a trans woman in a small provincial town.

The film charts Wesoly’s journey with her wife, as the couple navigate her transition in an environment where it is neither recognized nor accepted.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time. The first impulse was 20 years ago when Michal [who is also a cinematographer] filmed one of the first [transition] surgeries,” says Szumowska.

“But there...

The fall festival circuit features a powerhouse lineup of Polish cinema that showcases an industry in full stride, with hard-hitting topical dramas, award-season hopefuls and potential box-office breakouts highlighting the strength and diversity of filmmaking in a country with a storied cinematic history.

Among the hotly anticipated premieres at this week’s Toronto Film Festival is “The Peasants,” a lavish, hand-painted animated feature from the filmmaking team behind Oscar nominee and box-office sensation “Loving Vincent.” Meanwhile, three-time Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland will be on hand for the North American premiere of “Green Border,” her searing portrayal of Europe’s refugee crisis that just bowed in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Also on the Lido, two-time Berlin Silver Bear winner Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert are vying for the Golden Lion with “Woman Of,” their decades-spanning portrait of a transgender Polish woman on a journey of self-discovery.

Producer Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska,...

The film is about a woman accused of the brutal murder of her mother.

Memento International has boarded Edoardo Gabbriellini’s third feature Holiday, a suspense thriller set on the Italian Riviera that is premiering in Toronto in September.

Produced by Olivia Musini for Cinemaundici in association with Lorenzo Mieli’s The Apartment and Luca Guadagnino’s Frenesy Film Company, Holiday is about a woman who returns to her family-owned hotel after being released from prison. But even after being acquitted of the brutal murder of her mother and her mother’s lover and maintaining her innocence, she finds herself...

Memento International and Anonymous Content have boarded “Woman Of,” a bold Venice competition entry written and directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert. The film is a pioneering trans drama set in against the landscape of the Polish transformation from communism to capitalism.

“Woman Of” stars Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik as Aniela Wesoły, who lived more than half of her adult life in a provincial Polish town as a man. “Woman Of…” spans 45 years of the life of Aniela as she aspires to find personal liberty as a trans woman and faces hardships in marriage and parenthood, strained family relations and complicated attitudes in her environment.

“‘Woman Of’ is the result of many years of work, a film that tells a story of a mature trans woman living in Poland, who does not fit the social norms of a traditional family,” said Szumowska and Englert, who have been working on movies together for over 20 years.

La BêteCOMPETITIONComandante (Edoardo De Angelis)The Promised Land (Nikolaj Arcel)Dogman (Luc Besson) La Bête (Bertrand Bonello) Hors-Saison (Stéphane Brizé) Enea (Pietro Castellitto) Maestro (Bradley Cooper)Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)Finalmente L’Alba (Saverio Costanzo)Lubo (Giorgio Diritti) Origin (Ava DuVernay) The Killer (David Fincher)Memory (Michel Franco)Io capitano (Matteo Garrone)Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)The Green Border (Agnieszka Holland)The Theory of Everything (Timm Kröger)Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)El conde (Pablo Larrain)Ferrari (Michael Mann)Adagio (Stefano Sollima)Woman OfHolly (Fien Troch)Out Of COMPETITIONFictionSociety of the Snow (J.A. Bayona)Coup de Chance (Woody Allen)The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson)The Penitent (Luca Barbareschi)L’Ordine Del Tempo (Liliana Cavani)Vivants (Alix Delaporte)Welcome to Paradise (Leonardo di Constanzo)Daaaaaali! (Quentin Dupieux)The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin)Making of (Cedric Kahn)Aggro Dr1ft (Harmony Korine)Hitman (Richard Linklater)The Palace (Roman Polanski...

The Venice Film Festival celebration is getting closer, and despite the current strikes at Hollywood, some really anticipated titles will be shown to attendees. With many productions halted, both for cinema and television, many studios are considering pushing some of their next releases back, since actors won't be able to promote their upcoming projects.

But the acclaimed Italian festival is just around the corner, and the situation across the ocean won't stop the organization to include some amazing movies within its lineup, with a long list of celebrated filmmakers set to appear to present their art.

Luca Guadagnino's upcoming sport comedy Challengers, which was recently pushed back, is one of the big loses that the 80th celebration of the Venice Film Festival had this year, but since the lineup was already closed when the SAG-AFTRA strike began, most of the titles expected to be featured will be present.

We have twenty-three competition entries and all the America films that were tipped to compete for the Golden Lion have indeed stuck to their plans of launching on the Lido. Of the big surprises of the line-up announcement we can add Ava DuVernay‘s Origin and especially Ryûsuke Hamaguchi‘s Evil Does Not Exist at the top of the list. That thinking could be extended to Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert‘s Woman Of, Nikolaj Arcel‘s The Promised Land and even Luc Besson‘s Dogman and especially for two films we thought were headed into 2024 with Stéphane Brizé‘s Hors-Saison and Agnieszka Holland‘s disturbing border drama (shot in secrecy) The Green Border.…...

The Venice Film Festival revealed the lineup for its 80th edition Tuesday morning, and its Official Competition featured works by five women filmmakers, including Ava DuVernay, who makes history as the first African American woman in selection.

The selected films and filmmakers are Priscilla (Sofia Coppola), Origin (Ava DuVernay), The Green Border (Agnieszka Holland), Woman Of, and Holly (Fien Troch).

There are 23 films in Competition overall, meaning the fest falls far below any sort of gender parity mark. The festival said 32% of submissions this year were from women filmmakers against 66% from male filmmakers. 60 movies did not declare a gender. Nonetheless, DuVernay’s Origin will mark a significant landmark for Venice as the first film by an African American woman to play in Competition.

Related: Venice Lineup Will Generate Debate, Not Least For Inclusion Of Roman Polanski & Woody Allen; Latter Set To Attend Festival

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The Venice Film Festival sails on in Italy — even with much of Hollywood at a standstill.

The annual cinema celebration hosted by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Alberto Barbera runs from August 30 through September 9. Despite already having lost Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” from its opening night slot due to its SAG-AFTRA talent including star Zendaya being unable to accompany the world premiere due to strike work stoppage orders, Venice has plenty of movie goodness in store for its 80th edition.

Competition highlights include Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” David Fincher’s “The Killer,” Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” Ava DuVernay’s “Origin,” Luc Besson’s “Dogman,” Michel Franco’s “Memory,” Pablo Larrain’s “El Conde,” and many more. Out of competition, Venice will screen new films from Harmony Korine, Richard Linklater, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Roman Polanski, and William Friedkin.

On the heels of yesterday’s TIFF announcement, the first major fall festival of the season––Venice International Film Festival––is unveiling its lineup. Taking place August 30-September 9, the competition jury this year is chaired by Damien Chazelle.

Highlights include new films from David Fincher, Michael Mann, Wes Anderson, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Sofia Coppola, Bradley Cooper, Bertrand Bonello, Frederick Wiseman, Roman Polanski, William Friedkin, Ava DuVernay, Harmony Korine, Richard Linklater, Woody Allen, and more.

Competition

Adagio; dir. Stefano Sollima

The Beast; dir. Bertrand Bonello

Io Capitano; dir. Matteo Garrone

Comandante; dir. Edoardo de Angelis

El Conde; dir. Pablo Larraín

Die Theorie von Allem; dir. Timm Kröger

Dogman; dir. Luc Besson

Enea; dir. Pietro Castellitto

Evil Does Not Exist; dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Ferrari; dir. Michael Mann

Finalmente L’Alba; dir. Saverio Costanzo

Green Border; dir. Agnieszka Holland

Holly; dir. Fien Troch

Hors-Saison; dir. Stéphane Brizé

The Killer; dir. David Fincher

Lubo; dir. Giorgio Diritti

The Promised Land; dir.

Includes films from David Fincher, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay, Yorgos Lanthimos, Bradley Cooper and Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

Venice Film Festival announced the programme for its 80th edition, including a 23-strong Competition with new films from David Fincher, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay, Yorgos Lanthimos, Bradley Cooper and Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

Scroll down for full line-up

The selection was announced by festival president Roberto Cicutto and artistic director Alberto Barbera. The SAG-AFTRA strike in the US has had a “quite modest” impact on the selection according to Barbera, who was forced to pull Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers as the opening film over the weekend due to the strike.

This year’s selection will be announced at 11:00 Cest (10:00 BST) by Roberto Cicutto and Alberto Barbera.

The line-up for the 80th Venice International Film Festival (August 30-September 9) will be revealed this morning at 11:00 Cest (10:00 BST) by festival president Roberto Cicutto and artistic director Alberto Barbera

The press conference will be live-streamed below, and this page will be updated with the films as they are announced.

Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers was originally set to open the festival but was pulled by MGM amid the actors’ strike. It was replaced by Edoardo De Angelis’ Comandante.

The closing film...

Aimee Lou Wood and Matt Dillon have signed on to play Anna and Fyodor Dostoevsky in Małgorzata Szumowska’s ‘The Gambler Wife.’

Written by Szumowska and Kasper Bajon adapted from Andrew D. Kaufman’s book The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky, is a dark comedy about one of literature’s most towering figures.

The project follows Fyodor, or Fyedya to his intimates, and his much younger, pregnant wife, Anna, as they travel to Switzerland for their honeymoon. Anna tolerates Fyedya’s gambling addiction as this will serve as inspiration for his burgeoning literary career. However, Fyedya’s compulsive roulette playing continues to cause problems for the couple until they are forced to return to a Russia that is not quite as they remember.

Also in news – First look image revealed for Sky original film ‘Arthur’s Whisky’

Szumowska describes the feature as...

BAFTA-winning “Sex Education” star Aimee Lou Wood and Oscar-nominee Matt Dillon (“Crash”) have been tapped to star as Anna and Fyodor Dostoyevsky in “The Gambler Wife,” a dark comedy about one of world literature’s most towering figures, by two-time Berlinale prize winner Małgorzata Szumowska.

“The Gambler Wife” follows the Russian novelist and his much younger, pregnant wife, Anna, as they travel to Switzerland for their honeymoon. Anna tolerates her husband’s gambling addiction, which will serve as inspiration for his burgeoning literary career. However, Fyodor’s compulsive roulette playing continues to cause problems for the couple until they are forced to return to a Russia that is not quite as they remember.

“This dark comedy explores the patriarchal, nationalistic Russian identity which keeps on waging war between the West and the East, which is as relevant today as it was two hundred years ago,” said Szumowska.

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Variety has been given access to the teaser (below) for “Murals,” an immersive 3D documentary that has its world premiere on May 18 at Cannes Next, a sidebar to the Marché du Film in Cannes.

The experience, which is created in Unreal Engine and displayed on LED screens, features murals by Banksy, created following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The project was initiated by Artem Ivanenko, a 3D artist from Irpin, Ukraine, which was one of the first towns to be hit during the Russian invasion. Later, when the Russians withdrew, Ivanenko returned to Irpin to record the devastating destruction using 3D scanning.

The directors are Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro of the New York-based production company Aggressive, alongside Ivanenko. Spain’s Tigrelab handled art direction and CG/Unreal animation.

In a statement, the filmmakers said: “An audacious war of conquest is being waged in the heart of Europe, a criminal,...