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A lost homeland is the focus of one of Doc NYC‘s most acclaimed premieres, Emily Mkrtichian’s “There Was, There Was Not.”

The ethnically Armenian Republic of Artsakh was dissolved at the beginning of 2024 after Azerbaijan’s defeat of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory last year, making Mkrtichian’s years-in-the-making project especially timely and emotionally resonant. Here, Mkrtichian crafts an intimate portrait centered on four Armenian women caught in the lead-up to and aftermath of Azerbaijan’s unexpected invasion of the former state.

The film premieres at the documentary film festival on Monday, November 18. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.

Here’s the synopsis, courtesy of the film’s press notes: “Emily Mkrtichian initially set out to make a film about the daily lives and hopes of women in Artsakh — an autonomous, disputed ethnically Armenian territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia with an enduring legacy of conflict. She followed a minesweeper,...

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...

Halloween approaches and with it the desire to revisit some of your favorite horror movie franchise, in order, from start to finish. What better franchise to binge than “Friday the 13th,” the celebrated slasher film series that started with Sean S. Cunningham’s 1980 original before spawning sequels that would introduce iconic killer Jason Voorhees before sending him to Manhattan, outer space and back in time (Ok we made that last one up).

Ostensibly the cornerstone of the 1980s slasher film craze, “Friday the 13th” is one of the more inventive franchises, particularly when the concept was given a little more elasticity. For more than a decade, though, the franchise has been fully dormant – the last movie was 2009’s Michael Bay-produced reboot/remake “Friday the 13th.” A24 did recently announce a “Crystal Lake” series to be overseen by “Hannibal”/”Pushing Daisies” mastermind Bryan Fuller, so at least we have that to look forward to!

Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried will star in director Paul Feig’s film adaptation of “The Housemaid,” the novel by Freida McFadden, set up at Lionsgate.

Sweeney’s deal has closed and Seyfried is in final negotiations for the psychological thriller film based on the bestselling 2022 book.

In the film, Sweeney will play Millie, a struggling young woman who is relieved to get a fresh start as a housemaid to upscale, wealthy couple Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew. Millie soon learns that the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own.

Rebecca Sonnenshine wrote the screenplay.

Todd Lieberman will produce for Hidden Pictures, and Carly Kleinbart Elter will oversee the project. Feigco’s Feig and Laura Fischer are also producing, and Sweeney and Seyfried will executive produce alongside Alex Young and McFadden.

“I’m thrilled to have ‘The Housemaid’ join our upcoming slate,” Adam Fogelson, the chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group,...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.To participate in the Toronto International Film Festival Scavenger Hunt, simply take a selfie with each of the eight “landmarks” around Festival Street—the three-block stretch of King Street where you’ll find key festival venues, food trucks, and brand activations—then enter a raffle to win a prize. I wondered what a “landmark” would look like as I began my search one evening, killing time before Roberto Minervini’s existentialist war movie The Damned (all films 2024). I imagined informational placards on the festival’s main theaters—maybe I could learn something about the architecture of Roy Thomson Hall, the distinctive concert hall that resembles a mirrored funnel? Or some bizarre trivia about the Reitman family, that cinematic dynasty who developed the Lightbox Theater?I spotted the first landmark: a black square of poster board, affixed to a crowd-control barricade. It was adorned with plain white text,...

Tras su estreno mundial en Toronto, la película inaugurará la Seminci. © Elástica Films

Polvo serán, la tragicomedia musical de Carlos Marqués-Marcet, se ha alzado con el Premio Platform en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto, donde ha tenido su estreno mundial.

En Polvo serán, tras serle diagnosticada una enfermedad terminal, Claudia decide hacer su último viaje a Suiza. Flavio, que lleva más de cuarenta años sin separarse de ella, decide acompañarla en este viaje sin retorno.

La película, escrita por el propio Carlos Marques-Marcet, junto a Clara Roquet (Libertad) y Coral Cruz (Verónica), está protagonizada por Ángela Molina (Los abrazos rotos), Alfredo Castro (El club) y Mònica Almirall (El médico).

Atom Egoyan, presidente del jurado Platform, ha destacado «las conmovedoras interpretaciones de Alfredo Castro y Ángela Molina» y «la capacidad de la película para mezclar momentos de extremo patetismo con humor, única y completamente convincente» en «una historia cargada...

“The Life of Chuck,” director Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation starring Tom Hiddleston, has won the People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards ceremony on Sunday.

In TheWrap’s review of the film, Chase Hutchinson called it “less of a horror film than it is an existential grappling with the end — while also being a jubilant celebration of the moments that make life worth living along the way. It’s Flanagan’s vibrant equivalent of Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Synecdoche, New York’ that finds hope and meaning in his own way just as it is one of the best modern Stephen King adaptations one could hope for.”

Unlike festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and Venice, Toronto does not give out a jury award to the festival’s top film. Instead, viewers at all public screenings are invited to vote for their...

Exclusive: A new Canadian film distributor is launching in the shape of New Mountain Films.

Canadian film and TV producer Khaled Sabbour is spearheading the indie outfit and is growing the team now with marketing being overseen by Frank Mendicino, former Head of Marketing at Alliance Atlantis and Entertainment One.

The company says it is “committed to building a diverse slate of films for both the Canadian and U.S. markets, and has a mandate of distributing world-class content that not only drives corporate growth but also inspires positive social change”.

The new venture has said it is both privately and institutionally financed but didn’t disclose its backers. Initial titles are set to be revealed in coming weeks. Company execs are currently at the TIFF market.

“New Mountain Films is dedicated to cultivating strong relationships with creatives and talent,” said Sabbour. “We believe in nurturing the next wave of...

One moment, award-winning chef Almut (Florence Pugh) is waking her beloved Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and asking him to sample her latest concoction, the next, it’s the middle of the night, and now-pregnant Almut is parked on the toilet while he times her contractions.

Effective love stories are composed of moments large and small. In “We Live in Time,” John Crowley has made what’s meant to be a greatest-hits version of your typical romantic comedy, serving up all the key scenes from Almut and Tobias’ relationship — meeting one another’s families, the marriage proposal, parenthood, divorce, cancer diagnoses and so on — just not in that order.

It’s a klutzy way to tell a story, but Crowley is confident that the chemistry between Pugh and Garfield is so compelling, people will want to watch his movie again and again, at which point, Almut and Tobias’ memories will have become our memories,...

In ihrem Dokumentarfilm „I Will Revenge This World With Love – S. Parajanov”, der in den Venice Classics bei der Mostra läuft, beschäftigt sich Zara Jian mit dem Einfluss des in Georgien geborenen Regisseurs Sergei Paradschanow auf Regisseure wie Atom Egoyan und Emir Kusturica, die darin auch zu Wort kommen. Jetzt wurde der Trailer veröffentlicht.

„Mein Ziel war es, einen Film mit Helden aus der ganzen Welt zu machen, um den Einfluss zu zeigen, den Paradschanow international und über die Jahre hinweg hatte, nicht nur während der Sowjetunion“, Zara Jian über ihren Dokumentarfilm „I Will Revenge This World With Love – S. Parajanov”, der im Rahmen der Venice Classics seine Weltpremeire feiert. Zu Wort kommen Regisseure wie Atom Egoyan und Emir Kusturica, die über den Einfluss, den der 1924 in Tiflis geborene und 1990 in der heutigen armenischen Hauptstadt Eriwan verstorbene Regisseur auf ihre Arbeit hatte, sprechen.

The legacy and inspiration of Soviet director Sergei Parajanov is at the center of I Will Revenge This World With Love – S. Parajanov, a new documentary from director Zara Jian, which premieres at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

The Hollywood Reporter has gotten the exclusive first look at the trailer for the film — see below — in which an impressive array of auteur directors, including Atom Egoyan, Tarsem Singh and Emir Kusturica, as well other artists such as Russian actress-in-exile Chulpan Khamatova discuss the impact of Parajanov’s cinema on their lives and work.

The Georgian-born Parajanov became a revolutionary force in international cinema with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965), his first film to reject the socialist realism of officially-sanctioned Soviet cinema in favor of a more experimental, poetic visual storytelling. Hugely influential on independent and arthouse cinema — several of his movies, including Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and The Colour of Pomegranates...

Toronto International Film Festival has brought back the renamed Best Canadian Discovery Award after a five-year hiatus.

The C$10,000 award recognises emerging filmmakers and will go to a first or second feature film in official selection.

The roster of this year’s TIFF awards includes Best Canadian Feature Film, for which all Canadian features in official selection — excluding first or second features — will be considered for a C$10,000 cash prize.

The jurors are Guadalajara International Film Festival and Cineteca Ficg general director Estrella Araiza, Toronto-based director Chelsea McMullan, and Japanese Canadian artist and filmmaker Randall Okita. The award is presented by Canada Goose.

Crispin Glover is a man in search of an exit — from a hotel — in the TIFF-bound “Mr. K.” The cult-favorite character actor — known for “Willard,” “River’s Edge,” “Dead Man,” and, who could forget, Cousin “I’m making my lunch!” Del in David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” — stars in Tallulah H. Schwab’s surreal tale headed for the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival’s Platform section. IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film ahead of the festival, which runs September 5-15 in the thick of the fall fest season.

Here’s part of the synopsis courtesy of TIFF: “The ordeal for Mr. K’s misfortunate protagonist — a traveling magician played by Crispin Glover in one of the richest performances in his long and continually surprising career — begins when he checks into a once-stately hotel. The following morning, Mr. K is understandably confused by his inability to find the exit. Then again,...

The second poster for Piero Messina's Another End features two lovers sleeping towards each other, almost touching hands, on an 'endless' bed of beige. For me, it evokes the key art for Atom Egoyan's 1997 Canadian masterpiece, The Sweet Hereafter.  The image is a compelling one, but what drew me to the poster was the typesetting of the title. By simply bolding select letters, Italian designer Federico Mauro subtly indicates the story of the film, or the central relationship between Gael García Bernal's and Renate Reinsve's characters with "The End" Pretty much everything else, the festival logos, the credit block, and other funding sources, is designed to stay out of the way of the central image and the title. Even the colours are muted to help emphasize...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

This article is part of IndieWire’s 2000s Week celebration. Click here for a whole lot more.

After Sam Raimi’s darkly playful 2009 fright fest “Drag Me to Hell” came out, star Alison Lohman said she faced a question. “It was kind of like: Do you want to be a household name?” she remembers in a recent phone call.

She didn’t. “I don’t think I really really wanted that, to be in the public eye,” she said.

If you had told film fans in the 2000s that Lohman would have essentially vanished from the big screen in 2024, they might have a hard time believing you. The decade offered Lohman an incredible run, starting with her breakout role in 2002’s “White Oleander,” Peter Kominsky’s melodrama, where she played the daughter of Michelle Pfeiffer. She played the love of Ewan McGregor’s life in Tim Burton’s “Big Fish,...

International auteurs Miguel Gomes, Wang Bing and Roberto Minervini will be part of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival’s Wavelengths program, TIFF organizers announced on Thursday.

The festival will present the North American premieres of “Grand Tour,” a period piece for which Gomes won the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; Minervini’s “The Damned,” a Civil War-era drama that screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section; and two films by Chinese documentarian Wang Bing, “Youth (Hard Times)” and “Youth (Homecoming).”

The Wavelengths section, which is devoted to daring cinema and contemporary art, will also include “exergue – on documenta 14,” a 14-hour documentary by Greek director Dimitris Athiridis that will be presented over three separate screenings.

Wavelengths is divided into different sections – one consisting of 11 feature films, another with a special presentation of Egyptian director Wael Shawky’s “Drama 1882” and another showcasing 13 different short and medium-length films grouped into thematic programs.

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced its Wavelengths programme highlighting visionary work including Dimitris Athiridis’s 14-hour documentary exergue - on documenta 14, and a Classics line-up featuring work from Atom Egoyan and Frederick Wiseman.

The Wavelengths programme comprises 11 features, three shorts programmes, and an in-cinema looped presentation of Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s Drama 1882.

The features selections includes Cannes entries Viêt And Nam by Trương Minh Quý, Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes and The Damned by Roberto Minervini, and Berlin selection Pepe by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias.

exergue - on documenta 14 receives its North American premiere after...

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its Wavelengths program for artist-driven experimental work that includes films by avant garde directors Wang Bing, Roberto Minervini and Miguel Gomes.

With 11 features on offer, the Wavelengths section includes a 14-hour documentary, exergue – on documenta 14, from director Dimitris Athiridi set to be presented over three screenings.

The section will also feature North American premieres for the remaining chapters of Wang Bing’s Youth trilogy: Youth (Hard Times) and Youth (Homecoming); Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour, which won best director at Cannes; The Damned by Roberto Minervini, an American Civil War drama that won best director in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes; and Pepe, by director Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, about the life and death reflections of a hippo with connections to Pablo Escobar.

Wavelengths last year in Toronto screened Wang’s Youth (Spring), the Cannes competition title about Chinese garment workers.

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival continues to update its robust programming lineup. This year’s Wavelengths and Classics programs boast various hits, now including the North-American premiere of buzzy Cannes title “Viêt and Nam,” directed by Trương Minh Quý.

The Wavelengths lineup tallies 11 features, three shorts programs, and a special in-cinema looped presentation. Wavelengths alums Miguel Gomes (“Grand Tour”), Roberto Minervini (“The Damned”), and Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias (“Pepe”) return with their respective North-American premieres. Jessica Sarah Rinland is also back to the program with “Collective Monologue.”

There is also the 14-hour documentary “exergue – on documenta 14” from Greek filmmaker Dimitris Athiridi, which will be presented over the course of three screenings.

The program is curated by Senior Curator Andréa Picard and Associate Curator Jesse Cumming, with contributions by Giovanna Fulvi, Nataleah Hunter-Young, and June Kim.

For the shorts selections, the late auteur Jean-Luc Godard’s final film “Scénarios...

Nacho Vigalondo’s Daniela Forever, starring Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding, will open the Toronto Film Festival’s Platform competition program with a world premiere.

The Madrid-set sci-fi romancer has Golding playing Nicolas, a man grieving after the sudden death of his girlfriend (Beatrice Grannò) six months earlier and taking part in a clinical trial for a drug that reunites him with his former lover via lucid dreams, only to leave him obsessed with a fantasy world. XYZ financed the indie from the Spanish filmmaker Vigalondo, who is best known for movies like Timecrimes and Colossal, starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis.

Toronto unveiled in all 10 features with world premieres for the festival section where international films outside of the Hollywood studio orbit compete.

There’s selections for Netflix’s Mexican novel-to-screen adaptation Pedro Páramo, which marks the feature directorial debut of Rodrigo Prieto, the celebrated cinematographer behind Greta Gerwig...

The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled the 10 films that will comprise its Platform lineup, a section that is intended to highlight emerging filmmakers from around the globe.

The selection includes “Pedro Páramo,” the feature directing debut of acclaimed cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto; “Viktor,” a documentary about the Russian invasion of Ukraine told by war photographer Olivier Sarbil; and “The Wolves Always Come at Night,” Gabrielle Brady’s look at the impact of climate change on Mongolian herders. There’s also Tallulah H. Schwab’s Kafkaesque “Mr. K” featuring the mercurial Crispin Glover as a traveling magician, as well as Goya-winner Carlos Marqués-Marcet’s contemporary dance-musical and ensemble drama “They Will Be Dust.”

Nacho Vigalondo’s “Daniela Forever,” which stars Henry Golding and “The White Lotus” breakout Beatrice Grannò, will be the section’s opening film. The films represent 17 countries including Spain, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Mexico and Ukraine.

This...

Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) competitive Platform section will open with Daniela Forever by Nacho Vigalondo, whose Colossal premiered at the festival in 2016.

The 10-title selection also includes Mexico-set Pedro Páramo from renowned cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, 10,000Km filmmaker Carlos Marqués-Marcet’s They Will Be Dust, and Gabrielle Bradys’ hybrid documentary The Wolves Always Come At Night set in Mongolia.

The Platform jury will be led by Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan whose Seven Veils premiered at TIFF last year. His two fellow jurors are South Korean filmmaker Hur Jin-ho who also played the festival last year with A Normal Family,...

The Platform lineup for the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has been unveiled, along with its jury.

The festival’s competitive program dedicated to strong, singular visions includes 10 films from 17 countries, with Canadian staple Atom Egoyan serving as the jury head. Hur Jin-ho, whose “A Normal Family” had its world premiere at TIFF 2023, is also on the jury along with “I Saw the TV Glow” writer/director Jane Schoenbrun.

The Platform program has awarded past prizes to films such as Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” which received multiple Oscar nominations and won Best Sound and Best Film Editing.

This year, “Colossal” director Nacho Vigalondo will open the program with his latest film, “Daniela Forever,” starring Henry Golding as a grieving man who reunites with his lost love. Highlights include Tallulah H. Schwab’s sophomore film “Mr. K...

TIFF has announced the competitive Platform lineup today with a jury that includes Oscar nominated filmmaker Atom Egoyan as its Head, South Korean filmmaker Hur Jin-ho and award-winning American filmmaker and essayist Jane Schoenbrun. Jin-ho directed last year’s A Normal Family which made its world premiere at TIFF.

Named after Jia Zhang-Ke’s groundbreaking second feature, Platform, the nine-year old program showcases bold and distinct directorial voices and emerging international talent. This year there’s ten in the sidebar from 17 countries. Of those Platform films that continued on to bigger success are Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal, which received multiple Oscar nominations, winning Best Sound and Best Film Editing. The 10 films in the section are eligible for the Platform Prize, an award of $20,000 Cad given to the best film in the program.

Previous jury members include: Claire Denis,...

Seven Veils.Following the critical and commercial success of Exotica (1994)—Atom Egoyan’s erotic thriller about a tax auditor who frequents a Toronto strip club for a particular dancer—the Canadian Opera Company approached the director to adapt Richard Strauss’s Salome, first performed in 1905,for their upcoming season. There were notable similarities between the structures of sexual pleasure in John the Baptist’s decapitation and the nocturnal sleaze of nightclub culture: intemperate gawking by paternal figures, the aesthetics of high-risk environments, and a figurative and literal unclothing. The production emerged at an especially vulnerable time for Toronto sex workers, who were experiencing high rates of violence and targeted homicide. Egoyan’s production was a suitably macabre, postmodern spin on both the Bible story and Oscar Wilde’s one-act tragedy, which inspired Strauss’s opera. The Judean palace was swapped for a viridescent sanatorium on a steeply angled stage, with...

Anthony (Tony) Cianciotta, a Canadian film industry veteran of 50 years, has died. The well-regarded distribution and exhibition executive passed away peacefully on June 26. He was 85.

Cianciotta started his career in the film industry in 1965, in Toronto, as a key film buyer for the J. Arthur Rank Organization, which ultimately became Cineplex Odeon in 1980.

Following that, Cianciotta held a variety of prominent executive positions, including Vice President and General Manager at 20th Century Fox, Canada and Senior Vice President, Film at Cineplex Odeon, among others. He is perhaps most recognized for his tenure as Senior Vice President and General Manager of theatrical distribution at Alliance Releasing from 1992 to 1997.

Cianciotta is remembered for his ability to establish theatrical release strategies in Canada with great precision. From platforming groundbreaking films like Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, The English Patient, Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting, to working on blockbuster such as the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise,...

The Canadian industry is paying tribute to distribution veteran Tony Cianciotta, who died last month (June 26). He was 85.

Cianciotta began his career in 1965 in Toronto as a film buyer for J. Arthur Rank Organization, which became Cineplex Odeon in 1980.

He went on to work in senior executive roles such as vice president and general manager at 20th Century Fox, Canada, and senior vice president, film at Cineplex Odeon, among others, before becoming senior vice president and general manager at Alliance Releasing from 1992-97.

In this role he championed Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, The English Patient, Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting and many others,...

In what seems like an odd choice for an English-language remake, helmer-writer Savi Gabizon transfers the action of his least successful Israeli drama, “Longing” (2017), to Canada. Alas, the story of a confirmed bachelor who learns that he fathered a son 19 years earlier fails to translate by striking far too many duff notes. Richard Gere struggles as the unlikable protagonist, whose attempts to learn more about the lad come off as creepy rather than poignant. After a limited theatrical release, the Lionsgate release will segue to digital and on-demand on June 28.

Gere plays busy New York businessman Daniel who is thrown for a loop when former girlfriend Rachel (Suzanne Clément) turns up with some big news. Not only did she return to Canada pregnant with his child, but the boy, Allen, recently died in a car accident. In spite of never wanting children, Daniel flies to Ontario for Allen’s memorial service,...

Cate Blanchett: 'I’ve never been directed before by a threesome' Photo: Richard Mowe Normally Canadian director Guy Maddin has shunned casting star names in his body of work which now spans more than four decades.

Although his compatriots Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg have been regular fixtures in the Cannes Film Festival firmament until this year Maddin, 68, had never reached the giddy heights of the Croisette with any of his idiosyncratic works.

That omission has changed after a collaboration with his directorial co-conspirators, the brothers Evan and Galen Johnson (also Canadians) on Rumours, an excoriating and dark political satire about world leaders meeting for a G7 submit in the isolated surrounds of a dank schloss in the heavily wooded German countryside turns into a zombie apocalypse and quest for survival.

Cate Blanchett: 'It is very hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation' Photo: Richard Mowe...

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof is set to attend the Cannes premiere of his latest feature, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, after receiving an eight-year prison sentence from Iranian authorities and fleeing his home country.

Speculation had been rife that the dissident director would attend the festival when the film receives its world premiere in Competition on Friday (May 24), having found asylum in Germany, but Cannes’ general delegate Thierry Fremaux has now confirmed his attendance.

“We are particularly touched to welcome [Rasoulof] here as a filmmaker,” Fremaux said in a statement to Agence France-Presse (Afp).

Our joy will be that of...

International filmmakers are calling for solidarity with Mohammad Rasoulof and persecuted filmmakers in Iran in an open letter, shared with Variety.

Rasoulof – about to screen his latest film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in Cannes’ main competition – was sentenced to imprisonment and torture by the Islamic Republic of Iran. He fled the country.

“We condemn the inhumane treatment of Rasoulof and numerous other independent artists in Iran, who are being severely punished, criminalized and silenced for exercising their artistic freedom,” it was stated in the letter, already signed by “Holy Spider” star Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Fatih Akin, Atom Egoyan, Ildiko Enyedi, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Laura Poitras, Sandra Hüller, Sean Baker, Payal Kapadia and Ariane Labed.

“We stand in full solidarity with Rasoulof’s demands and call upon the international film community to raise our voices against an Islamist dictatorship that systematically oppresses every aspect of their society’s lives.

The Cannes Film Festival launches auteur filmmakers, and the best among them have known scenes of triumph at the iconic French seaside festival.

But not Guy Maddin, who for all his accolades as an original and idiosyncratic auteur prized for titles like The Forbidden Room and The Saddest Music in the World, has never — until now, that is — brought a film to the Croisette.

It took Maddin and co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson casting Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander and getting the backing of executive producer Ari Aster to get their absurdist political satire Rumours to the Cannes red carpet.

“Once we got some legitimate Oscar-winning movie stars, and other movie stars that are amazing, all of a sudden Cannes cleaned its glasses off for a closer look,” Maddin tells The Hollywood Reporter of the stars aligning ahead of a May 19 world premiere at the Lumière theater. Rumours...

Al Pacino and Dan Stevens have teamed up for exorcism horror film “The Ritual” from director David Midell.

XYZ Films has acquired worldwide rights to the feature, with plans to release it theatrically in 2025 and arrange international distribution at the upcoming Cannes market.

“The Ritual” was written by Midell and Enrico Natale and produced by Andrew Stevens, Mitchell Welch and Natale. Ashley Greene and Abigail Cowen round out the cast.

Based on a true story, “The Ritual” follows two priests — one questioning his faith (Stevens) and one reckoning with a troubled past (Pacino) — who must put aside their differences to save a possessed young woman through a difficult and dangerous series of exorcisms. The film is an authentic portrayal of Emma Schmidt, an American woman whose demonic possession culminated in harrowing exorcisms. Her case remains the most thoroughly documented exorcism in American history.

BondIt Media Capital provided financing for the project,...

“Shazam” star Zachary Levi is set to headline rock-climbing action thriller “Free Fall” for XYZ Films, with acclaimed New Zealand stuntwoman and stunt coordinator Zoë Bell tapped to direct.

The film — written by Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker — tells the story of a father’s attempt to reconcile with his estranged daughter on a rock-climbing trip that turns deadly as an accident leaves them stranded hundreds of feet in the air. Production is set to start later this year in New Zealand. Tom Hern and Nua Finau of Tavake are producing, with Navid McIlhargey and Erik Olsen executive producing alongside Finegan, Parker and Levi.

Bell began her career as a stunt performer on “Xena: Warrior Princess” and then alongside Quentin Tarantino as a stunt woman and coordinator over a decades-long relationship. She has worked on films such as “The Hateful Eight,” “Django Unchained,” “Kill Bill,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,...

Former Flanders Image manager Christian De Schutter has joined Tine Klint’s Denmark-based Scandinavian sales and aggregation company LevelK as festival consultant.

De Schutter left Flanders Image suddenly in December last year, announced via a short email from Flanders Audiovisual Fund CEO Koen Van Bockstal. Over 150 leading international industry figures then signed an open letter in support of De Schutter.

De Schutter had worked at Flanders Image since 2003, with responsibility for promoting Flemish films and TV dramas internationally. The organisation boosted the careers of filmmakers including Lukas Dhont, Fien Troch and Felix Van Groeningen, and scored Oscar nominations for films including Bullhead,...

Qumra master Atom Egoyan has expressed his desire for a new “wave” of Armenian filmmakers and encouraged international projects to consider the region for post-production.

Speaking to Screen following his Qumra masterclass at the Doha incubator, Egoyan – who is Canadian, born in Egypt and of Armenian heritage – described Armenia as “an extraordinarily resilient, stubborn country” with “a rich cinema history”.

“I’m nothing but positive about the ability to make films in Armenia,” said Egoyan, who did acknowledge “political instability” following the Azerbaijani military offensive in the disputed Artsakh region on September 19 and 20 last year, which has been classified as...

Qumra master Atom Egoyan has expressed his desire for a new “wave” of Armenian filmmakers and encouraged international projects to consider the region for post-production.

Speaking to Screen following his Qumra masterclass at the Doha incubator, Egoyan – who is Canadian, born in Egypt and of Armenian heritage – described Armenia as “an extraordinarily resilient, stubborn country” with “a rich cinema history”.

“I’m nothing but positive about the ability to make films in Armenia,” said Egoyan, who did acknowledge “political instability” following the Azerbaijani military offensive in the disputed Artsakh region on September 19 and 20 last year, which has been classified as...

Qumra master Atom Egoyan has expressed his desire for a new “wave” of Armenian filmmakers; and encouraged international projects to consider the region for post-production.

Speaking to Screen following his Qumra masterclass at the Doha incubator, Egoyan – who is Canadian, born in Egypt and of Armenian heritage – described Armenia as “an extraordinarily resilient, stubborn country” with “a rich cinema history”.

“I’m nothing but positive about the ability to make films in Armenia,” said Egoyan, who did acknowledge “political instability” following the Azerbaijani military offensive in the disputed Artsakh region on September 19 and 20 last year, which has been classified as...

Atom Egoyan has revealed that he was so traumatized by the negative reception to his Ryan Reynolds-starring thriller The Captive at the Cannes Film Festival that he will never return again with a film.

The pedophilia thriller, starring Reynolds as a man dealing with the disappearance of his nine-year-old daughter, was widely panned by the Cannes critics corps when it world premiered in competition in 2014.

“It was actually the worst reviewed film that I ever did. We should never have taken it to Cannes,” the Canadian-Armenian director told a masterclass at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra meeting in Qatar on Wednesday.

“It got this really crazy reception. It was in competition on the Friday night. I haven’t been to Cannes since because I just don’t ever want to come back to what we had that night. The last couple of films, we showed in Venice or Berlin.

French filmmaker Leos Carax discussed the sacred nature of the image and the challenge of retaining its power on the big screen in the digital age in an on-stage conversation at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event on Monday.

The filmmaker said he had transitioned to shooting in digital in his segment of the 2008 feature Tokyo!, one of his first works after the death of his beloved cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier, who died age 52 in 2003.

Carax revealed this move had changed his filmmaking process as he took the decision to stop watching the dailies from then on, which resulted in him ditching his habit of doing multiple retakes.

The director admitted that 15 years on, he is not a huge fan of shooting in digital.

“I don’t come from there. I still feel It’s a bad thing, even for the eyes… it’s become such a problem with digital...

Upcoming directing and producing projects are expanding Toni Collette’s creative horizons, according to the Australian actress speaking at Qumra this weekend.

She will soon star in A French Pursuit, a comedy feature directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Collette will produce the film through her Vocab Films company, alongside UK producer Christopher Simon’s New Sparta Films.

“Meeting the production team we’re working with in France, casting people – it’s stuff you don’t get to do as an actor, it’s incredibly satisfying,” said Collette, speaking in Doha where she gave a masterclass to emerging filmmakers and attending industry...

Jim Sheridan has dispelled rumors around a possible return to acting by Daniel Day-Lewis, who gave an Oscar-winning performance in the Irish director’s drama My Left Foot and also starred in his subsequent films In The Name Of The Father and The Boxer.

Rumors have been rife that Day-Lewis, who retired from acting in 2017, might be contemplating a return to the big screen after he was photographed by paparazzi coming out of a New York restaurant with Sheridan and Steven Spielberg in early January.

Sheridan said the trio had been holding a meeting about a possible reboot of his long-gestating project about the Kennedy family, focused on its social climber-patriarch Joseph Kennedy.

“We were talking about a project. Daniel was only going to be involved, if he did get involved, as an executive producer, not as an actor,” said Sheridan.

“It was on the life of Joe Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy family…...

Actress Toni Collette discussed her journey from a working-class neighborhood in northwest Sydney to Hollywood star in a masterclass at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent and project development event on Friday.

The Oscar-nominated Muriel’s Wedding, Little Miss Sunshine, Knives Out and Unbelievable acting star is among six top cinema professionals attending Qumra, alongside directors Leos Carax, Claire Denis, Atom Egoyan and Jim Sheridan as well as sound editor and designer Martin Hernández.

Colette said she had been drawn to performance from an early age, firstly through musical theatre and tap dance.

“My father said I came out of the womb with jazz hands towards the light,” she joked.

Looking back on her early career, Collette recalled how she had dropped out of Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art Nida after being offered the part of Sonya in a 1992 stage production of Uncle Vanya by Neil Armfield.

This...

Exclusive: Sky has acquired UK rights to true-crime documentary series Inheritance: The Jersey Murders, which has been six years in the making.

The under-the-radar three-part series is set amidst the 1987 Great Storm on the island of Jersey, where Elizabeth and Nicholas Newall vanish. Suspicion falls on their sons, Roderick and Mark, when blood is found, leading to a murder investigation. Roderick evades the police but is eventually apprehended off the coast of Africa, while Mark is arrested in Europe. Legal complexities result in a secret deal: Roderick serves 12 years for double murder, while Mark serves 22 months and inherits the entire Newall fortune. More than three decades later, this three-part documentary uses 70 hours of unheard taped recordings between the brothers to reveal new insight and uncovers how Mark Newall went on to co-found a major e-commerce company.

The limited series was directed and produced by Eloise Singer at Singer Studios and...

The Doha Film Institute’s unique Qumra incubator kicks off Friday with six days of master classes, labs and mentoring sessions and some 200 industry professionals – including programmers from Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin and many other major festivals – expected to make the trek to the Qatari capital.

Qumra, which is an Arab word believed to be the origin of the word “camera,” is dedicated to supporting and shepherding first and second works by Arab directors but also supports some projects from other parts of the world. The mentors, through one-on-one meetings and master classes, will nurture the talent attached to more than 40 projects from 20 countries that are in development or post-production.

Projects in development will take part in group and individual sessions in script consulting, marketing and co-production advice, along with individual matchmaking. Projects in post-production are presented in a series of closed rough-cut and picture lock screenings for leading festival programmers,...

It is the busiest time of the year for Doha Film Institute (Dfi) CEO Fatma Hassan Al Remaihi and her team as they gear up the 10th edition of the org’s Qumra talent and project incubator.

The initiative is a cornerstone of the activities of the Dfi which was launched in 2010 to help nurture a local film and TV sector as well as the wider independent filmmaking community in the Middle East and North Africa.

From March 1 to 6, some 250 professionals – including this year’s Qumra Masters Leos Carax, Toni Collette, Claire Denis, Atom Egoyan, Martín Hernández, and Jim Sheridan – will gather in Doha to support 40 projects by emerging directors, selected from recent Dfi grantees.

The Dfi also runs year-round grants programs, workshops and screenings for locally based filmmakers as well as Mena directors and a handful of emerging talents outside of the region. In a separate funding stream, it...

Qatar’s Doha Film Institute (Dfi) kicks off the 10th edition of its Qumra project and talent incubator event meeting this Friday.

Running from March 1 to 6 in downtown Doha and the lofty surroundings of the city’s I. M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art, the event will welcome the filmmakers and producers of 40 projects across all formats for six days of masterclasses, workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions.

Participants include UK director Ana Naomi de Sousa with Naseem, Fight With Grace about boxing star Naseem Hamed; Moroccan filmmaker Alaa Eddine Aljem with Eldorado, The Taste of the South, his second feature after Cannes Critics’ Week title The Unknown Saint; Tunisian director Mehdi Barsaoui with Aïcha, which follows 2019 drama A Son for which Sami Bouajila won Best Actor in the Venice’s Horizons sidebar, and Palestinian director Saleh Saadi with TV series Dyouf, about a young man who returns to his...

Horror film “The Voices of Our Mother,” headlined by Sheila McCarthy (“Women Talking”), has wrapped principal photography.

The film is written and directed by Mark O’Brien, who is also an actor, with his most recent credit being Atom Egoyan’s Toronto and Berlinale selection “Seven Veils.” It tells the story of a family who is brought together when their matriarch falls ill, only to find that their lineage is connected by more than blood. The film was shot in Hamilton, Ontario.

The cast also includes Georgina Reilly (“Quantum Leap”), O’Brien, Carolina Bartzcak (“Painkiller”), Alex Ozerov-Meyer (“The Americans”), Anna Ferguson (“Lost Girl”) and Shawn Doyle (“Star Trek: Discovery”).

The film is produced by Canada’s Vortex Productions, a subsidiary of boutique distributor Vortex Media. This marks the second collaboration between O’Brien and Vortex Media who helped to finance and distribute the filmmaker’s Fantasia and Grimmfest-winning feature directorial debut “The Righteous.

Amanda Seyfried looked stunning at the Berlin Film Festival!

The 38-year-old actress stepped out for a premiere and photo call for her movie Seven Veils during the festival on Thursday (February 22) in Berlin, Germany.

Amanda was joined by co-stars Douglas Smith and Ambur Braid, as well as writer and director Atom Egoyan.

During her appearance at the festival, Amanda talked about how she’s only been playing mothers after having kids.

Keep reading to find out more…

“In my career, it’s still a bit new to play a mother. It seems like once I popped out a baby, I was just playing mothers, and that’s Hollywood for you. But I do think that the roles have become way richer and definitely challenging in ways that I didn’t have earlier in my career,” Amanda said (via Variety). “I felt like Jeanine [in Seven Veils], specifically as a mother, trying...

From his breakthrough work Family Viewing, which dates back to 1987, Atom Egoyan has been exploring the possibilities of different communication technologies by showing screens within screens, stories within other stories and the ways unconnected stories may merge with each other and with real life. Seven Veils is named for the biblical character Salome, whose seductive dancing as she shed those veils earned her a grisly prize: the severed head of John the Baptist, the ascetic prophet who predicted the coming of Jesus Christ.

The title is just as suggestive, however, of Egoyan’s approach to storytelling. One diaphanous layer of Salome’s wrappings drops to reveal another beneath; in the same way, Egoyan story is peeled back, one reveal after another. It is understandable that, after its world premiere in Toronto, some critics described the film as muddled; for anyone unfamiliar with his source stories, this dense thicket of magic-lantern slides could well be bewildering.