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Kornél Mundruczó's 2020 drama "Pieces of a Woman" boasts one of the best performances of its year, and will leave you emotionally hollowed out. There is an extended, unbroken sequence early in the film where Martha Weiss (Vanessa Kirby) goes into labor at home. Their usual midwife isn't available, so they have to rely on a last-minute substitute named Eva (Molly Parker). The birth is swift, but it's not easy. The baby's heart rate begins to drop in the middle of one of Martha's contractions. Eva says to call 911, but the baby comes right away. The baby is fine at first, but then ... 

Look, the film is very upsetting, and looks directly at some of the greatest pains parents can face. After the death of her infant child, Martha and her husband Sean (Shia LeBoeuf) go through hell. She tries to accept the reality of the situation, while Sean buries...

Exclusive: Weeks after signing on to lead Reminders of Him, Universal’s adaptation of the novel from It Ends with Us scribe Colleen Hoover, Maika Monroe has found another new project in Place to Be, the latest indie drama from Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó (Pieces of a Woman).

Character details are under wraps. Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi lead the film examining the unlikely friendship of an elderly woman and middle-aged man as they travel from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon home. Others in the cast, as previously announced, include Murray Bartlett, Pamela Anderson, Edgar Ramírez, and Lena Waithe.

Written by Mundruczó and Kata Wéber, the filmmaker’s wife and frequent collaborator, Place to Be is shooting at Disney Studios Australia in Sydney. Producers on the project include Jomon Thomas, Megan Wynn, and Alexander Rodnyansky. The...

Cannes laureate Kornél Mundruczó is juggling high-profile projects across different continents.

There’s the Ellen Burstyn-starrer “Place to Be,” currently filming in Australia and “At the Sea” featuring Amy Adams and now in post-production.

The Hungarian filmmaker, who won the Fipresci prize at Cannes for “Delta,” and the festival’s Un Certain Regard prize for “White God” and gained further recognition with Venice winner and Oscar-nominated Netflix feature “Pieces of a Woman,” is clearly continuing to diversify his portfolio.

“Place to Be,” Mundruczó reveals, was inspired by his desire to work with Ellen Burstyn again after their brief but impactful collaboration on “Pieces of a Woman.”

“I’m so much of a fan of hers. I love what she did in her entire career, how brave she was,” Mundruczó tells Variety. “She told me, ‘I never really played a romance.’ It stayed with me, and I felt that would...

“The White Lotus” star Murray Bartlett has returned to his native Australia to film “Place to Be,” the latest project from Cannes and Venice winner Kornél Mundruczó, which is currently shooting.

In “Place to Be,” Bartlett plays Ron, Pamela Anderson’s hapless brother, with the siblings plotting to re-home their mother Brooke (Ellen Burstyn) and access their late artist father’s inheritance.

“We’re attempting to shuffle our mother into a high-end aged care facility,” Bartlett tells Variety. “He kind of presents as prickly… But there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot happened in this family dynamic, particularly with his father, who has passed away.”

The drama, written by award-winning screenwriter Kata Wéber (known for “Pieces of a Woman” and “White God”), follows the unlikely friendship between no-nonsense Brooke and discombobulated divorcee Nelson, played by Taika Waititi, as they travel from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon.

Exclusive: The cast for Kornél Mundruczó’s next feature drama Place to Be, continues to grow, with Primetime Emmy winner Lena Waithe joining Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi, Pamela Anderson and Edgar Ramirez, all of whom we previously told you about.

The film, written by Kata Wéber (Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman, White God), is backed by S’YA Concept with further support from the Nsw government through Screen Nsw’s Made in Nsw fund. WME Independent is handling international sales.

The feature centers on the last passions of life and follows the unlikely friendship of kindly but no-nonsense Brooke (Burstyn) and discombobulated divorcee Nelson (Waititi) as they travel from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon.

Waithe plays the role of Shy, who helps Brooke on her journey to track down the owner of the lost pigeon.

Production is underway at Disney Studios in Sydney.

Hungarian-born Mundruczó...

Pamela Anderson is set to star in new drama 'Place to Be'.'The Last Showgirl' actress, 57, will lead the film alongside Ellen Burstyn, 92, and Taika Waititi, 49, while Kornél Mundruczó directs.The 49-year-old filmmaker said he was "thrilled" to have such a talented cast, as he told Deadline: "I really love Pamela – she’s such a versatile actress, and her most recent performance in 'The Last Showgirl' was unbelievable."She showed such bravery, and I’m tremendously excited to work with her."'Place to Be' will follow no-nonsense Brooke (Burstyn) and divorcee Nelson (Waititi) as they embark on a journey from Chicago to New York in an effort to return a lost racing pigeon home.Anderson is set to portray Brooke's daughter Molly, who is trying to make her own way in life in the aftermath of her second marriage breaking down. Apprehensive about letting go of her elderly mother,...

Exclusive: Following her comeback role in the awards season sensation The Last Showgirl, Pamela Anderson has found her next feature project, and that’s Kornél Mundruczó’s poignant drama Place to Be.

The pic from the filmmaker of the Oscar nominated Pieces of a Woman also stars Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi, as we first told you. Cameras are rolling in Sydney, Australia.

Mundruczó says he’s “thrilled” to have drawn together such a diverse and talented cast.

“I really love Pamela – she’s such a versatile actress and her most recent performance in The Last Showgirl was unbelievable. She showed such bravery and I’m tremendously excited to work with her,” the filmmaker tells Deadline.

Anderson was nominated recently for SAG, Golden Globe and Gotham awards for Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl in which she plays a veteran Vegas dancer whose legendary show finally shuts down.

Place to Be,...

Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi have been cast in Place to Be, a feature drama directed by Kornél Mundruczó and written by his longtime collaborator Kata Wéber. The film follows an elderly woman and a middle-aged man as they travel from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon. Production is underway at Disney Studios Australia in Sydney.

Burstyn, at 92, has arrived in Sydney for filming, marking a return to Australia after her stage debut in 33 Variations in 2019. She described the opportunity to work with Mundruczó again as a significant factor in taking on the role. The two previously collaborated on Pieces of a Woman, for which Mundruczó earned an Academy Award nomination. “I had every desire to direct the legendary Ellen Burstyn in a leading role, not only because I admire her amazing talent, but also because the time has finally come to celebrate older women on screen,...

Exclusive: Oscar winners Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi are set to star in Kornél Mundruczó’s feature drama Place to Be.

Written by Mundruczó’s frequent collaborator Kata Wéber, Place to Be follows the unlikely friendship of an elderly woman (Burstyn) and middle-aged man (Waititi) as they travel from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon home. The feature will shoot this month at Disney Studios Australia in Sydney.

Hungarian-born Mundruczó is known for his auteurial breakthrough film White God and Venice winner and Oscar-nominated Netflix feature Pieces of a Woman, both penned by Wéber.

The new pic is produced by Jomon Thomas, Megan Wynn, and Alexander Rodnyansky. EPs are Natalya Pavchinskaya (S’YA Concept), Stuart Manashil, Pankaj Mamtora (Lonestar Films), Kanesh Mohana Sundaram (Gvkm Elephant Pictures), Ashley

Levinson, Sam Levinson, Viktoria Petranyi, David Edelstein and the late Kevin Turen.

Exclusive: Pieces of a Woman‘s Kornel Mundruczó has five new additions to his new drama At the Sea, co-written with longtime collaborator Kata Wéber. They are Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso), Chloe East (The Fabelmans), Daniel Levy (Good Grief), Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), and Rainn Wilson (The Office).

As previously announced, Amy Adams and Murray Bartlett will also star. Production is now underway outside of Boston.

At the Sea follows the life of Laura (Adams) as she returns to her family at their holiday beach home following a long rehabilitation. There, she must readjust to the complicated life she left behind and face the next chapter without the career that gave her fame, fortune and, most importantly, identity.

Producers on the project include Alexander Rodnyansky of Ar Content, Stuart Manashil of Novo Entertainment, Alex Lebovici and Jon Oakes of Hammerstone Studios, Viktória Petrányi and Mundruczó, and...

Exclusive: Emmy-winner Murray Bartlett is set to join Amy Adams in At the Sea, a new drama from Kornel Mundruczó and Kata Wéber — the director and writer of such acclaimed films as Pieces of a Woman and White God — as well as Hammerstone Studios, Ryder Picture Company and Ar Content.

Set to enter production in Boston in June, the film follows the life of Laura (Adams) after a long rehabilitation, as she returns to her family at their beach holiday home where she has to readjust to the complicated life she left behind. Now she is forced to face the following next chapter of her life without the career that gave her fame, fortune and, most importantly, identity. Bartlett will play Adams’ husband.

Pic will be produced by Alexander Rodnyansky of Ar Content, Stuart Manashil, Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett for Ryder Picture Company, Hammerstone Studios’ Alex Lebovici and Jon Oakes,...

Rai Cinema International Distribution (Rcid) has taken international sales rights for “Of Dogs and Men,” an upcoming drama directed by Dani Rosenberg and produced by Ar Content. Rcid is introducing the film to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival’s market, where Variety has been given exclusive access to a first-look image.

Written by Rosenberg, Ori Avinoam and Itai Tamir, “Of Dogs and Men” is produced by two-time Academy Award nominee Alexander Rodnyansky of Ar Content and Itai Tamir (“Under a Blue Sun”) of Laila Films.

Set and filmed in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, the film follows 16-year-old Dar, who is returning to her kibbutz to look for her dog which was lost during the terror spree. She navigates the horrors inflicted upon the place and on the faces of people she meets while encountering the stark reality of the unfolding disaster beyond the fence. Between those...

Exclusive: Israeli director Dani Rosenberg has set his next film with Alexander Rodnyansky’s Ar content. The film, which Rosenberg wrote with Ori Avinoam and Itai Tamir, is called Of Dogs and Men and Ar Content will produce with Tamier (Under a Blue Sun) of Laila Films.

The story follows 16-year-old Dar, who returns to her kibbutz to look for her dog who was lost during the terror attack of October 7. She navigates through the horrors etched upon the place and on the faces of people she meets while encountering the stark reality of the unfolding disaster beyond the fence. Between those who seek revenge and those whose faith in mankind remains unwavering, Dar will try to find her own voice.

Financed by Ar Content, Of Dogs and Men was shot in October and November 2023 in the kibbutzim lining the border with Gaza.

Amy Adams has been cast in 'At the Sea'.The 49-year-old actress will appear in director Kornel Mundruczo's upcoming drama flick, which is due to enter production in Boston in June.The picture will follow the life of Laura (Adams) as she returns to her family at their beach holiday home after a long rehabilitation. While she adjusts to leaving her complicated life behind, the young woman is forced to face coming challenges without relying on a career that gave her fortune, fame and identity. Mondruczo will once again collaborate with writer Kata Weber after the pair worked together on the acclaimed films 'Pieces of a Woman' and 'White God'.The Hungarian filmmaker is producing the flick with Alexander Rodnyansky for Ar Content, Ryder Picture Company's Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett as well as Alex Lebovici and Jon Oakes for Hammerstone Studios.Amy portrayed the character...

Amy Adams will play the lead in At the Sea, a new film by acclaimed filmmakers Kornel Mundruczó and Kata Wéber, who were behind films like Pieces of a Woman and White God. Adams plays Laura, who returns home after going through rehabilitation. She stays at the family's holiday beach home but must readjust to the complicated life she left behind. She begins the next chapter of her life without her career, which made her famous and rich and gave her identity. Production is set to start in Boston in June.

Based on what I can gather about her new film, At the Sea, Amy Adams needs a pair of sandals and a stiff drink. Adams is teaming up with Kornel Mundruczó and Kata Wéber – the director and writer of Pieces of a Woman and White God – for a new drama about rejuvenation and adjusting to a life you had not planned to live.

According to Deadline, At the Sea finds Adams’s Laura returning to her family at their holiday beach house after a long rehabilitation. Once there, Laura must readjust to her new lot in life, still haunted by aspects she tried to leave behind. Staring down the barrel of a new chapter of her life, Laura must cope without her fame, fortune, and, of all things, her identity.

Adams, a six-time Academy Award-nominated actress, recently wrapped production on the sci-fi drama Klara and the Sun, which Taika Waititi directs.

Amy Adams will star in At the Sea, the latest drama from Kornél Mundruczó, the Hungarian filmmaker behind acclaimed films Pieces of a Woman and White God.

Sea reteams Mundruczó with Kata Wéber, his frequent collaborator who wrote Pieces of a Woman and White God and penned the script for the latest feature.

Producing the drama are Ar Content’s Alexander Rodnyansky (Loveless), Ryder Picture Company’s Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett (Dumb Money, Arrival), Hammerstone Studios’ Alex Lebovici (Barbarian) and Jon Oakes (Drive). Stuart Manashil and Viktória Petrányi, who produced Pieces of a Woman, are also producing along with Mundruczó.

Per the producers, the story follows the life of a woman who, after a long rehabilitation, returns to her family at their beach holiday home where she has to readjust to the complicated life she left behind. Now she is forced to face the following next chapter of her...

Amy Adams has been tapped to star in At the Sea, a new drama from Kornel Mundruczó and Kata Wéber — the director and writer of such acclaimed films as Pieces of a Woman and White God — as well as Hammerstone Studios, Ryder Picture Company and Ar Content.

Set to enter production in Boston in June, the film follows the life of Laura (Adams) after a long rehabilitation, as she returns to her family at their beach holiday home where she has to readjust to the complicated life she left behind. Now she is forced to face the following next chapter of her life without the career that gave her fame, fortune and, most importantly, identity.

Pic will be produced by Alexander Rodnyansky of Ar Content, Stuart Manashil, Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett for Ryder Picture Company, Hammerstone Studios’ Alex Lebovici and Jon Oakes, and Viktória Petrányi and Mundruczó. Exec producers are Paul J. Diaz, Maria Breese of 3:33 Creative, Lee Broda of Lb Entertainment, Jeff Rice of Jeff Rice Films, and Michael Kupisk. Zsofi Oblath and Rachel Rubin will co-produce.

Ar Content, Paul J. Diaz, and Hammerstone Studios will finance the film, with WME Independent to rep domestic rights, Capstone Pictures handling international, and Sacker Law to oversee production legal.

A six-time Academy Award nominee, Adams most recently wrapped production on 3000 Pictures’ Klara and the Sun, the next film from Oscar winner Taika Waititi, which adapts the dystopian sci-fi story from Kazuo Ishiguro. Up next, she’ll be seen starring in Searchlight Pictures’ Nightbitch from filmmaker Marielle Heller, a dark comedy she also produced through her production company Bond Group Entertainment that hits theaters December 6.

A married director-writer pair out of Hungary, Mundruczó and Wéber are perhaps best known for their 2020 pregnancy drama Pieces of a Woman, which premiered in Venice and brought star Vanessa Kirby her first Oscar nomination following its release on Netflix. Prior to that, the duo collaborated on White God, which won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes in 2014; Jupiter’s Moon, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or; and Evolution, which also played the French festival. Separately, Mundruczó directed the pilot of the Apple TV+ limited series, The Crowded Room, starring Tom Holland and Amanda Seyfried.

Most recently, Hammerstone produced the action thriller Boy Kills World starring Bill Skarsgård, which will release wide on April 26, and the horror-thriller Don’t Move, starring Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock, for Netflix.

Ryder Picture Company has produced acclaimed titles like Dumb Money and Bruiser.

Ar Content is known for Cannes prize winners like 2019’s Beanpole, from filmmaker Kantemir Balagov, and 2021’s Unclenching the Fists from Kira Kovalenko.

Adams is represented by WME, Linden Entertainment, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Mundruczó and Wéber are repped by United Agents and Novo.

Martin Scorsese Joins ‘Evolution’ As Exec Producer

Martin Scorsese is joining Kornél Mundruczó’s Cannes title Evolution as an executive producer. This marks his second collaboration with the filmmaker and screenwriter Kata Wéber after Oscar nominee Pieces Of A Woman. “Every new movie by Mundruczó and Wéber comes as a welcome shock to the senses for the viewer and for the filmmaker – they never stop advancing into uncharted territory. With Evolution, they find a way to dramatize the movement of time itself, the ways that we remember and the ways that we forget,” said Scorsese. The pic, which explores a family’s experiences from World War II to present-day Berlin, had its world premiere at on the Croisette earlier this year. It stars Lili Monori (Delta), Annamária Láng (Nothing Really Happened), Goya Rego, Padmé Hamdemir and Jule Böwe (The Silence). The movie is produced by Viola Fügen, Michael Weber and Viktória Petrányi,...

"You raised me... to be suspicious of the world." The Match Factory has released an early promo trailer for a riveting time-jumping, generation-spanning film called Evolution - premiering at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival this month. This is the latest work from Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó working with screenwriter Kata Wéber - they both collaborated on Pieces of a Woman most recently and this is their ambitious follow-up to that film. In Evolution, the duo offers a powerful drama tracing three generations of a family, from a surreal memory of World War II to modern day Berlin, unable to process their past in a society still coping with the wounds of its history. This looks like a fascinating and poignant look back at how much history affects us, whether we like it or not. These filmmakers are telling such exhilarating stories in the cinema recently. "I don't want to be a survivor.

Over its final week, the Cannes Film Festival will be screening a few films that qualify as anthologies of one sort or another: Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” (five discrete stories under one umbrella concept) on Monday, the anthology “The Year of the Everlasting Storm” (seven different directors tackle life during the pandemic) on Wednesday and, to kick off the mini-trend, Kornél Mundruczó’s “Evolution” on Sunday.

“Evolution” is, in some ways, the most unified of the trio; it tells three stories from three generations of the same family, using similar techniques to different ends to explore the complicated history of Jews in and around Germany from the end of World War II to the present day. Shot in only 13 days during the pandemic and assembled largely from lengthy, unbroken shots, it feels like a small, experimental movie, but it’s also a meditation on trauma that cuts deep emotionally.

Building on what has come before, the opening act of Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber’s “Evolution” recalls a monologue from the Hungarian duo’s previous film, “Pieces of a Woman,” when a Holocaust-hardened Jewish matriarch played by Ellen Burstyn repeats the mythology of her own survival — the idea that she somehow chose to live when so many around her were murdered. She tells the story of being hidden under the floorboards as an infant, and how even the doctor considered her a lost cause: “He picked me up by my feet and held me up like a chicken and said, ‘If she tries to lift her head, then there’s hope.’”

In “Evolution” — which Mundruczó adapted for the screen from his longtime collaborator’s logistically audacious Proton Theatre stage production — three generations of Jewish survivors choose to lift their heads, one after the other, across a trio of bravura single-take vignettes.

Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó is back at the Cannes Film Festival for the seventh time with his latest film, “Evolution.” Mundruczó reunites with “Pieces of a Woman” writer and collaborator Kata Wéber for this time-spanning exploration of three generations of a Jewish family. Exclusive to IndieWire, watch the trailer for the film below ahead of its bow in the Cannes Premiere section this weekend.

Here’s the official synopsis: “In ‘Evolution,’ acclaimed filmmaking team Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber return with a powerful drama tracing three generations of a family, from a surreal memory of World War II to modern day Berlin, unable to process their past in a society still coping with the wounds of its history. Like the water that connects the episodes in this triptych, memory and identity are fluid, and how we relate to it can drown or buoy. The pain and stigma that trickles from Eva,...

In Pieces of a Woman, Vanessa Kirby plays Martha, a first-time mother who loses her baby daughter at birth. Based on the experiences of screenwriter Kata Wéber and her director partner Kornél Mundruczó, the narrative explores Martha’s journey through grief, forgiveness and identity, as her mother Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn) pushes her to seek legal retribution for the midwife’s supposed negligence. Nominated in the Academy’s Best Actress category, Kirby has also received Globes and BAFTA nominations for her eviscerating portrayal of a woman fighting for emotional survival. In order to authentically inhabit the role, she spoke with bereaved mothers, shadowed a doctor and even witnessed a birth.

Deadline: This is such a harrowing story, and it required such deep emotional connection, how did you protect yourself?

Vanessa Kirby: I thought about it a lot in the middle of the movie when I thought, Oh, every day I’m tortured.

Vanessa Kirby’s harrowing and incredibly challenging Pieces of a Woman role earned her an Oscar nomination on Monday morning, and in response, a self-deprecating Kirby drew attention to all the bereaved women who helped her research her character of Martha, a woman who loses her baby at birth. She also paid tribute to her co-star Ellen Burstyn, who was sadly left off the Academy’s list this year.

“I knew my main job was to try and access the collective experiences of all the different women I’d spoken to, whether they’d lost babies really early on, or had to give birth to them, or lost them just after birth,” Kirby said of how she dug into the role. “The unbearable grief that came with losing your baby like that. I just knew that every day I had to try and do what they described to me justice.

“I loved every single minute on set. Everything about it was just a complete joy,” admits BAFTA winner and Emmy nominee Vanessa Kirby about her role in “Pieces of a Woman,” in which she stars as Martha, a woman suffering from suffocating grief and trauma after the death of her infant child. While the film tackles difficult subject matter sensitively and honestly, Kirby enthusiastically valued the opportunity to take on the role, her first time as the star of a film, and shine a light on a subject that is often left unspoken.

“It’s my first lead and I waited a really long time to do it. I’d watched so many people do it,” she says. “I felt so ready to take on the responsibility of playing a lead, knowing what that meant. So every second on set, well, I just really loved it!” Watch our exclusive video interview with Kirby above.

Long ago, about a year ago to be exact, when Covid-19 first reared its ugly head and the United States was not yet the fiery petri dish of percolating viral plague it would soon come to be, friends and I gathered in our Los Angeles area homes, expecting lockdown to last three, four weeks, at most. It’s insane to think so now, but there was a faint haze of domestic bliss in the air as people envisioned not having to drive to the office, staying home cocooned in weighted blankets while baking bread and writing that long overdue Great American Novel as the children busied themselves with pastel paints, macaroni art and TikTok videos.

Even as Los Angeles was ordered to lockdown on March 19, with schools, restaurants and various other brick and mortar businesses shuttered, there remained this fleeting notion that by summer, all would return to normal. Kids would head to summer camps,...

The phrase “hard labour” may not have been created to describe the opening 30 minutes of Pieces Of A Woman – but it could have been, not only for actress Vanessa Kirby, whose character Martha spends the time giving birth in real time, Martha’s husband Sean (Shia Labeouf) and midwife Eva (Molly Parker), but for anyone sitting on the other side of the screen watching it.

The grimness of what happens sets the tone for what is to come and, at some point around the 40-minute mark, my mind began idly drifting to the question of who, while scrolling through Netflix after another day in lockdown, is going to not only start, but stick with this slog of a film, despite Kirby’s incredible investment in her character. The film marks the first in English for Hungarian Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber – who, interviews indicate, drew on their own experience...

Despite being snubbed by both the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, humor us as we hold out hope that Ellen Burstyn earns the Oscar recognition she deserves for her work in “Pieces of a Woman.” 88 years young, Burstyn gives one the most searing performances of the year. And the Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award winner is more than worthy of what would be her seventh Academy Award nomination.

Read More: Vanessa Kirby and how a “Euphoria” edit room visit led to “Pieces of a Woman” [Interview]

Inspired by events in the lives of director Kornél Mundruczó and screenwriter Kata Wéber, the drama finds Burstyn as a mother fixated on punishing a midwife (Molly Parker) who is potentially legally responsible after her daughter (Vanessa Kirby) has a miscarriage.

Continue reading Ellen Burstyn On ‘Pieces of a Woman’ & Why She Thankfully Won’t Retire [Interview] at The Playlist.

The awards season’s narrative has been the “year of the women,” as female filmmakers, screenwriters and artisans have been making strong cases for nominations at the Oscars in categories like best picture and director. The Writers Guild of America Awards, however, might have missed the memo, only nominating four women over two films: Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman” and Jena Friedman, Erica Rivinoja and Nina Pedrad, three co-writers from “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”

In the three categories for original, adapted and documentary feature, 31 total screenwriters were nominated, four of which are women, and three come from the same feature film.

Many high-profile contenders were not eligible for recognition, including “Nomadland” (Chloé Zhao) and “Pieces of a Woman” (Kata Wéber), along with independent darlings like “The Assistant” (Kitty Green), “Farewell Amor” (Ekwa Msangi) and “Herself” (Clare Dunne). Despite this fact, there were still many to choose from.

Nina Pedrad, sister...

The Writers Guild of America Awards announced their nominations where big boosts were given to films like “Judas and the Black Messiah” from Shaka King, “Palm Springs” from Max Barbakow and “The White Tiger” from Ramin Bahrani.

Missing from the lineup, that was eligible, are “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” in the original screenplay category and “First Cow” and “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” in the adapted.

The full list of nominations is below:

Original Screenplay

“Judas and the Black Messiah” (Warner Bros) – Screenplay by Will Berson & Shaka King, Story by Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas “Palm Springs” (Hulu/Neon) – Screenplay by Andy Siara, Story by Andy Siara & Max Barbakow “Promising Young Woman” (Focus Features) – Written by Emerald Fennell “Sound of Metal” (Amazon Studios) – Screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder, Story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (Netflix) – Written by Aaron Sorkin...

Every year, the Writers Guild of America leaves out several Oscar-contending screenplays in its award nominations. But this year’s ineligible list is massive, from “Mank” to “Nomadland.” The WGA maintains jurisdiction over whether scripts are produced under a Writer’s Guild contract, and who finally gets credit on a screenplay. The guild insists on withholding non-signatories from being part of the WGA Awards.

That’s why, unlike the other guilds, every year a long list of WGA ineligible indie, British, and animated movies are excluded. A WGA nomination isn’t essential for Oscar nomination; plenty of exceptions include American indie “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Iranian Oscar-winner “A Separation,” Oscar-winning British films “Les Miserables,” and “The Favourite,” and all Pixar animated contenders, from “Up” to “Incredibles 2.” “The Artist” and “The King’s Speech” both won Best Picture without the benefit of a WGA nomination.

The WGA nominees listed below...

Every year, the Writers Guild of America leaves out several Oscar-contending screenplays in its award nominations. But this year’s ineligible list is massive, from “Mank” to “Nomadland.” The WGA maintains jurisdiction over whether scripts are produced under a Writer’s Guild contract, and who finally gets credit on a screenplay. The guild insists on withholding non-signatories from being part of the WGA Awards.

That’s why, unlike the other guilds, every year a long list of WGA ineligible indie, British, and animated movies are excluded. A WGA nomination isn’t essential for Oscar nomination; plenty of exceptions include American indie “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Iranian Oscar-winner “A Separation,” Oscar-winning British films “Les Miserables,” and “The Favourite,” and all Pixar animated contenders, from “Up” to “Incredibles 2.” “The Artist” and “The King’s Speech” both won Best Picture without the benefit of a WGA nomination.

The WGA nominees listed below...

This morning, actress Vanessa Kirby received her first Golden Globe nomination for her shattering turn in Netflix drama, Pieces of a Woman.

“I feel, more than anything, just so honored that this was my first lead role,” she told Deadline, “and that this is the film that I’ve been nominated for.”

In the “deeply personal” film directed by Kornél Mundruczó, from a script by Kata Wéber, Kirby plays Martha, a Boston mother who goes through a yearlong journey of mourning, after her home birth ends in tragedy.

For the actress, the recognition serves as a tribute to all the powerful and resilient women she’d spoken with, in the course of making the film, who had shared with her their own experiences with loss. “Because honestly, every day throughout filming, it was always about the women that had sat with me and told me their stories,” she said. “So,...

Back in 1971, when Ellen Burstyn was first catapulted to movie stardom with The Last Picture Show, she received a letter.

“It was from a young man in Texas who told me that he was suicidal,” she says. The man wrote that he’d decided to see one final movie before he killed himself: The Last Picture Show. And that her performance had changed his mind. “He came out of there feeling, ‘Well, if she can make it through life,’ meaning the character I played, ‘if she can make it, I guess I can too.’” He thanked Burstyn for saving his life.

An inspiring and indomitable spirit isn’t confined to Burstyn’s work though; it seems inherent to who she is. As an up-and-coming actress, before she made her name on the stage and in television, before the big film roles came in, she never thought of quitting. “Honestly, I...

With six Oscar nominations (and one win), seven Globe film nominations, eight Emmy nods (and two wins), Burstyn knows how to pick her roles. If she likes a script, she asks about the director. Only when she watched Darren Aronofsky’s “Pi” did she get why she should take the role of the drug-addicted mother in “Requiem for Dream.” “Ok, I get it, the guy’s a poet,” she said. “Twice in my life at the end of a screening there was a 10-minute standing ovation,” she said, “‘Spitfire Grill’ at Sundance and ‘Requiem for a Dream’ at Cannes.” It yielded another Oscar nod.

With Kornél Mundruczó’s “Pieces of a Woman,” she read the script by Hungarian playwright/screenwriter Kata Wéber, who drew upon her own silent reaction to a miscarriage. Burstyn watched Mundruczó’s Oscar submission “White God.” “I liked the script, investigated Kornél’s work,” Burstyn said.

With six Oscar nominations (and one win), seven Globe film nominations, eight Emmy nods (and two wins), Burstyn knows how to pick her roles. If she likes a script, she asks about the director. Only when she watched Darren Aronofsky’s “Pi” did she get why she should take the role of the drug-addicted mother in “Requiem for Dream.” “Ok, I get it, the guy’s a poet,” she said. “Twice in my life at the end of a screening there was a 10-minute standing ovation,” she said, “‘Spitfire Grill’ at Sundance and ‘Requiem for a Dream’ at Cannes.” It yielded another Oscar nod.

With Kornél Mundruczó’s “Pieces of a Woman,” she read the script by Hungarian playwright/screenwriter Kata Wéber, who drew upon her own silent reaction to a miscarriage. Burstyn watched Mundruczó’s Oscar submission “White God.” “I liked the script, investigated Kornél’s work,” Burstyn said.

Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”) and Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) sat down for a virtual chat for Variety‘s Actors on Actors, presented by Amazon Studios. For more, click here.

Vanessa Kirby, who played Princess Margaret on the first two seasons of Netflix’s “The Crown,” has returned to the streaming service in the ac­quisition “Pieces of a Woman.” In the Kornél Mundruczó film, Kirby plays Martha, whose home birth ends in tragedy, upending her life. The birth scene, early in the movie, is a harrow­­ing 24-minute single take, based on the experience of “Pieces of a Woman” screenwriter Kata Wéber. For Amanda Seyfried, whose first film role was Karen in “Mean Girls,” David Fincher’s “Mank” (also on Netflix) was “a dream come true, actually.” In “Mank,” Seyfried’s Marion Davies forges a warm bond with Gary Oldman’s Herman Mankie­wicz — but that won’t stop...

For “White God” director Kornél Mundruczó and his wife, screenwriter Kata Wéber, their latest collaboration, “Pieces of a Woman,” has been more dramatic than your typical cinematic endeavor. Inspired by the couple’s own miscarriage, the story of a woman attempting to deal with her loss went from a play to a screenplay to a movie set in the United States starring Vanessa Kirby, Shia Labeouf, Ellen Burstyn, Benny Safdie, Sarah Snook, and Molly Parker.

Continue reading ‘Pieces Of A Woman’ Filmmakers Reflect On Their Own Miscarriage, Shia Labeouf & Casting Benny Safdie [Interview] at The Playlist.

“Pieces of a Woman” marks the English-language debut for director Kornél Mundruczó, who gained a passionate following with his breakout film “White God” in 2014. The Hungarian filmmaker has brought his latest project to the streaming giant Netflix, earning acclaim for his singular vision and an outstanding performance by Vanessa Kirby.

“Pieces of a Woman” is written by Kata Wéber, Mundruczó’s partner, based on their shared personal experience. The follows a Boston couple, Martha (Kirby) and Sean (Shia Labeouf), whose lives are changed irrevocably during a home birth at a midwife’s hands. Ellen Burstyn’s plays Martha’s mother.

In August, ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Martin Scorsese joined as an executive producer even before it had distribution. “It’s lucky to see a movie that takes you by surprise,” Scorsese says in a statement to Variety. “I was emotionally invested in it from the first scene,...

One of the most intensely personal entries in this year’s festival season saw Romanian director Kornél Mundruczó and his writer partner Kata Wéber draw on their own private life for Pieces of a Woman, in which Vanessa Kirby plays Martha, a first-time mother whose daughter dies in childbirth. Ellen Burstyn co-stars as Elizabeth, Martha’s mother, who leads the charge to prosecute the midwife present at the birth.

The Netflix film sent shockwaves when it bowed at the Venice Film Festival in August, not least because of the harrowing 24-minute single take that captures the film’s central tragedy in real time.

Writer Kata Wéber admits during Netflix’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film awards-season event that the script was very, very difficult to write.

“I was really afraid,” she says. “I almost felt like I couldn’t do it. It felt like a really dark place—I...

“Pieces of a Woman” has garnered a lot of awards buzz for Vanessa Kirby’s fearless performance as Martha, a woman grieving the loss of her baby in childbirth. Since premiering at the Venice Film Festival in September, talk has also centered on a scene that depicts the birth — which was filmed in one 24-minute, unbroken take as her character moves throughout the apartment, including in and out of the bathtub.

And while it was intimidating to shoot, Kirby told Variety’s Award Circuit podcast that it was actually a relief to be done in one take. “Some people are kind of surprised when I describe it like that, because they think that it would be scarier but honestly, truthfully, it’s not,” she said. “I was definitely more afraid of the idea of breaking for lunch [and then] coming back, having to go into the bath and try and get myself...

“Pieces of a Woman” premiered at the Venice Film Festival last September, earning high praise from critics and, in particular, the film’s star Vanessa Kirby. Kirby was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in Venice and Oscar buzz for the actor has continued to spread since Netflix released the film to a wide audience on January 7. Watch highlights of Kirby’s performance in an exclusive new featurette from Netflix above.

“‘Pieces of a Woman’ is an odyssey of grief,” Kirby explains in the three-minute reel. “It’s a very powerful exploration of one woman’s journey, but one that I think is incredibly universal.” Executive producer Martin Scorsese, director Kornél Mundruczó, screenwriter Kata Wéber and actress Ellen Burstyn also discuss their journey with the Netflix original film and witnessing what they describe as Kirby’s “stunning” and “brilliant” performance. “I feel mother’s pride,” says Burstyn when asked about working alongside Kirby.

Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber are taking a deep look into grief and motherhood in their gut-wrenching drama Pieces of a Woman. 

The Netflix film stars Vanessa Kirby and Shia Labeouf and follows a young couple Martha and Sean grappling with the loss of their newborn baby following a complicated home birth. The tragic event leads to a yearlong journey of Martha navigating her grief and fractured relationships in the face of unimaginable tragedy.

The story is a personal one for director Mundruczó and writer Wéber who both experienced the loss of a child.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter along with ...

Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber are taking a deep look into grief and motherhood in their gut-wrenching drama Pieces of a Woman. 

The Netflix film stars Vanessa Kirby and Shia Labeouf and follows a young couple Martha and Sean grappling with the loss of their newborn baby following a complicated home birth. The tragic event leads to a yearlong journey of Martha navigating her grief and fractured relationships in the face of unimaginable tragedy.

The story is a personal one for director Mundruczó and writer Wéber who both experienced the loss of a child.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter along with ...

In “Pieces of a Woman” — Netflix’s Oscar-worthy melodrama about a couple devastated by loss of their baby after a home birth — Shia Labeouf plays Sean, the husband to Vanessa Kirby’s Martha, who is struggling with the unfathomable tragedy.

In one scene, Sean becomes intimate, somewhat forcibly, with his wife, who is uninterested and unengaged, as she feels emotionless and empty after losing her child. In another scene, Sean, under the influence of drugs, throws an object at Martha, calling her belittling and demeaning profanities as he slurs his words.

The scenes depict one side of grief, filled with anger and out-of-character emotions that have gone too far. The film is about working through loss, and the tough-to-watch scenes are part of the character’s journeys.

In real life, Labeouf was accused of abusive behavior, both verbal and physical, by his ex-girlfriend, the musician, dancer and actress Fka Twigs,...

Ignore the cringeworthy title, which brings to mind several lives’ worth of Lifetime movies — Pieces of a Woman, a portrait of personal disintegration and the from-the-ashes process of piecing things back together, gives you three distinct reasons to pay attention to this late-breaking entry in the seasonal Pretty People in Pain sweepstakes. (It hit theaters on December 30th for a qualifying run; it starts streaming on Netflix on January 7th.) The first is The Shot, a set piece that kickstarts the drama in motion. We’ve already briefly met Martha...

To celebrate the release of Pieces of a Woman, the new drama from film-making duo Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber, we sat down with them and the film’s star – and HeyUGuys favourite – Vanessa Kirby to chat about the heartbreaking new film that is getting plenty of Oscar buzz.

Kirby plays Martha, a Boston woman who is on the verge of parenthood with husband Sean (Shia Labeouf) when their idyllic homebirth turns to heartbreak. At the hands of a flustered midwife, who faces charges of criminal negligence, Martha begins a year-long odyssey to navigate her grief while working through fractious relationships with her husband and her domineering mother (Ellen Burstyn), along with the publicly vilified midwife whom she must face in court.

After her star-making turns in The Crown, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and Hobbs & Shaw, Kirby was looking for something “scary” to do and talks about the challenges of playing an expectant mother,...

While the arrival of a newborn child can strengthen a couple’s relationship, the loss of one can accentuate fissures that were already there. Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman is an emotionally high-pitched study of the Ptsd that results from a home birth gone fatally wrong. Based on a stage play by Mundruczó’s partner, Kata Wéber, this film adaptation moves the action to Boston and casts as its two leads Vanessa Kirby and Shia Labeouf. Following its world premiere at last fall’s Venice International Film Festival (where Kirby was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress), press coverage for […]

The post "What Does It Mean When We're Working in 360?": Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber on Pieces of a Woman first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

While the arrival of a newborn child can strengthen a couple’s relationship, the loss of one can accentuate fissures that were already there. Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman is an emotionally high-pitched study of the Ptsd that results from a home birth gone fatally wrong. Based on a stage play by Mundruczó’s partner, Kata Wéber, this film adaptation moves the action to Boston and casts as its two leads Vanessa Kirby and Shia Labeouf. Following its world premiere at last fall’s Venice International Film Festival (where Kirby was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress), press coverage for […]

The post "What Does It Mean When We're Working in 360?": Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber on Pieces of a Woman first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.