News

Whit Stillman’s funny and evergreen comedy of manners Metropolitan is back in UK cinemas this week, with the US writer/director touring with it from July 22 with stop-offs in Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Oxford. The film follows a young man (Edward Clements) as he unexpectedly finds himself swept up by the party lifestyle of a group of debutantes and their escorts over the Christmas period. Sharply observational scripting saw Stillman’s debut nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar (it lost out to Ghost). The filmmaker, now 73, has gone on to showcase his scripting dexterity in films including The Last Days Of Disco, Love & Friendship and Damsels In Distress. We caught up with him as he juggled paying for his lunch in Portugal with considering his career to date, the new lease...

French distributor and exhibitor Sophie Dulac has announced the end of the Champs-Élysées Film Festival championing independent American and French cinema, following a tumultuous 14th edition in June in the wake of accusations of deteriorating staff conditions at her cinema group.

In a statement, Dulac said she had taken the “difficult decision” to stop the festival, thanking past cinema professionals, partners and members of the public who had supported the event.

She cited press reports and attacks, with “heavy consequences”, in the lead up to the festival as well as the progressive closure of cinemas on the Champs-Élysées, and a lack of financial support as the reasons.

Dulac’s decision follows a rocky edition for the festival in the wake of the firing in early June of Jean-Marc Zekri as the long-time director of the Reflet Médicis Cinema in Paris’ Latin Quarter, one of five theaters in the Dulac Cinémas network.

In a cinematic world so often dominated by spectacle and suspense thrillers, Whit Stillman’s trilogy is a gentle rebellion. If one says that watching Fincher’s ‘Seven’ is analogous to the feeling of an adrenaline rush one might get from running from someone/something dangerous, then Stillman’s trilogy is analogous to watching tea brew on a kettle. Characters rambling on about specific topics and cultural commentary that reads more like a novel than a screenplay are central to Stillman’s work. Stillman crafts delicate portraits of class and identity in his films. Although “Metropolitan” (1990), “Barcelona” (1994), and “The Last Days of Disco” (1998) were released across the decade, they chronologically span the late ’60s through the early ’80s, tracing the lives of young Americans with too much education and not quite enough self-awareness. And yet, somehow, we root for them.

Barcelona – Love and NATO

We begin in “Barcelona,” the film set earliest,...

If you are a fan of movies by writer-directors, you might want to catch three fine examples of the form on Netflix before they leave at the end of June. All three movies exit the platform after June 30.

As a genre, writer-director movies tend to focus more heavily on story and character and perhaps a little less on spectacle and visual design. The stories are often contemporary, have limited casts, and confine themselves to a few primary locations. However, in the hands of creative artists, they can still tell very big stories.

There has been a mostly untrue narrative suggesting that writer-directors are more inclined to come from the East Coast and New York, where the influence of live theater elevates the writer’s role in a project. LA and the West Coast, it is argued, emphasize the visual above all. Screenplays exist merely to give the director a subject for his camera.

As he makes his transition from “Saturday Night Live” into cinema with films like “Wicked” and Andrew Ahn’s upcoming re-imagining of Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet,” Bowen Yang is taking time out to pay homage to the filmmakers who have shaped his tastes. Taking a quick trip to the Criterion Closet, he offered his praise to filmmakers such as Wim Wenders and Whit Stillman, but reserved his highest appreciation for the “pope of trash” himself, John Waters.

Describing Waters as “probably my favorite director ever,” Yang took home his film “Multiple Maniacs” and highlighted the filmmaker’s ability to turn the “abject” into something “beautiful and elevated and filmic.”

“What Divine and Mink Stole do in the church, kind of the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen,” said Yang. “I’m not a pearl-clutcher. It takes a lot to shock me. John Waters is a timeless shocker.

Quick LinksDogfight Was Initially A Flop Upon Its Theatrical DebutRiver Phoenix and Lili Taylor Give World-Class Performances in DogfightDogfight Is a Thought-Provoking Deconstruction of Masculinity

Nancy Savoca's 1991 period coming-of-age romantic drama Dogfight is a massively underrated gem from the 1990s American independent film movement. Following a decade of blockbuster excess in the 1980s, the 1990s saw an explosion in low-budget independent moviemaking led by filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, Quentin Tarantino, and Kevin Smith. Although the 1990s independent film movement produced countless high-profile auteurs, many prominent directors from that era have fallen out of the public consciousness. Filmmakers such as Savoca, Carl Franklin, and Whit Stillman were all integral members of the 1990s independent film movement, yet their films remain largely unknown to modern audiences.

After graduating from film school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Savoca began her movie career as a production...

Thirty years ago, Edward Burns won the coveted Grand Jury prize for his low-budget indie feature The Brothers McMullen at Sundance. The charming actor and filmmaker would go on to co-star in Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Saving Private Ryan, guest-star in shows like HBO's infamous Entourage (where the guys called him "Eddie"), and continue to shoot his own independent films throughout the years. His latest is Millers in Marriage, which, with its New York-set subject matter, might even bring you back to that acclaimed project that put Burns on the map three decades ago. If you haven't seen The Brothers McMullen, that's A-ok — and might even work in Burns' favor.

Some of your favored and long-lost performers, both on the big and small screen, populate the ensemble Burns puts together for his new drama film out this week. And while some of these big names use their trademark perks to boost the film,...

Wow… has it really been 40 years? It sure has, and that’s a reason to celebrate! From our first year at a restaurant on La Cienega Blvd. to a worldwide live stream, the Film Independent Spirit Awards have grown a lot.

That first year the awards, then called the Findie (Friends of Independents) Awards, awarded both Marty & Joel Coen the Best Director prize. Since then, we’ve celebrated artists like Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler, Whit Stillman, Robert Rodriguez and Kasi Lemmons, among many, many others. Next month on the blog, we’ll take deep dive into all the history of the awards, so make sure to check back with us to read all about the last 40 years of the Spirit Awards!

This year, we’re headed back to the beach in Santa Monica with returning host and Saturday Night Live alum Aidy Bryant. The show, which will be held at the beach in Santa Monica,...

Quick Links What is The Incident About? How Does The Incident Connect to Good Time? The Incident Deserves More Love

New York City has been the setting for countless classic movies over the years. For decades, Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen were King 1 and King 2 of New York, but plenty of other filmmakers have made works that personify the city. From Spike Lee to Sam Raimi to Greta Gerwig and beyond, the city is a melting pot, and every single iteration has something different to showcase. The loudest, most prevailing voices of the new New York generation, however, have undoubtedly been the Safdie brothers.

With Uncut Gems, Good Time, Heaven Knows What, and more under their belt, they clearly have a distinct vision for the city. Dark, gritty, and characterized by hustle culture, The Safdie's aren't setting out to portray the high end of the New York City populace, like Martin Scorsese or Whit Stillman.

There’s a new sensation in Tinseltown and she’s playing a younger version of Cate Blanchett in The Lord of the Rings. Welsh actress Morfydd Clark has been active in the industry since 2014. Trained at the Drama Centre London, she has a theatrical background. In films and TV, she predominantly landed roles in period dramas, horror, and fantasy.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Credits: Prime Video

In 2020, she was cast in a main role in the spin-off series to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. She played Galadriel in The Rings of Power, the role Blanchett played in the original. Clark’s performance has received a positive response from the audience.

Clark has shown her distinct acting skills in a wide variety of roles in the past. She was first noticed in her role as Frederica Vernon in Whit Stillman...

The 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards is looking to a familiar face to celebrate its 40th anniversary: “SNL” alum Aidy Bryant.

The “Shrill” star returns to host the 2025 Spirit Awards after being the master of ceremonies in 2024. Bryant got some big laughs doing a “roast” of the honorees like Natalie Portman, Sterling K. Brown, and Charles Melton.

“We couldn’t ask for a better host for our 40th anniversary!” Josh Welsh, President of Film Independent, said in a press statement. “As we prepare to celebrate this incredible milestone honoring the outstanding achievements and contributions within the independent world, we welcome Aidy back with open arms. After her unforgettable turn last year, we can once again anticipate an evening filled with laughter, inspiration, and recognition of excellence.”

The 2025 nominees will be announced on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, with winners being revealed at the awards show on Saturday, February 22, 2025. The show will be streamed live...

After a successful run hosting last year’s Spirit Awards, former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Aidy Bryant is returning for the event’s 40th anniversary. Now four decades strong, the awards have become a key fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round initiatives.

“We couldn’t ask for a better host for our 40th anniversary! As we prepare to celebrate this incredible milestone honoring the outstanding achievements and contributions within the independent world, we welcome Aidy back with open arms. After her unforgettable turn last year, we can once again anticipate an evening filled with laughter, inspiration, and recognition of excellence,” said Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent.

Bryant was on “SNL” for 10 years, earning three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also co-created and starred in the Hulu show “Shrill,” for which she earned an Emmy nomination in 2021 for Outstanding...

Exclusive: Vertical has acquired North American and UK & Ireland rights for A New York Story, about a New Yorker torn between the gilded cage of her wealthy uptown life and the bohemian downtown world of a new love interest from outside her social circle.

The romantic drama is the second film from siblings Sophia and Fiona Robert, who work under the banner of The Robert Sisters. They co-wrote the screenplay, with Fiona Robert directing.

Fiona Robert also stars as Annabel, a young woman who risks being ostracized from her insular New York clique, led by her socialite best friend Virginia (Sophia Robert), when she falls for charming photographer Theo, played by Paul Karmiryan (Veronica Mars).

Grappling with the sudden loss of her father, she finds herself torn between the comfortable opulence of her upper crust circle and the vibrant ambitions of the artists downtown.

Other cast members include Annabella Sciorra...

Stars: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, Peter Dawson | Written by Daniel Waters | Directed by Michael Lehmann

Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) is the leader of the “Heathers”, a clique of mean girls running their Ohio high school. There are two other Heathers in the group, and then there’s the runt of the litter: Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder). Veronica is a bitch, but her engagement with the girls’ cycle of bullying and mockery is reluctant. Smooth, smarmy Jason Dean (Christian Slater) spots this self-doubt and lures Veronica into his carefree, rebellious world. Veronica and Jason spark up an immediately passionate yet toxic romance. Veronica has often thought about killing Miss Chandler, not to mention other bullies at the school, but now she’s met someone who’s really willing to do it.

From the opening scene, where we meet Veronica (who’s also the narrator) buried...

Jay Alvarez’s “Something’s More Than One Thing,” executive produced by the Russo Brothers, has unveiled its first trailer.

The film will have its world premiere at the 32nd Raindance Film Festival in London, where it is also nominated for the Spirit of Raindance Award. It stars comic Devan Costa, Alex Sgambati (“The Walking Dead”), James Scully (“You”), César-winning actor and musician Soko (“In the Beginning”) and longtime Alvarez collaborator, Will Hand (“I Play With the Phrase Each Other”).

Styled as a contemporary satire, the ensemble cast of over 300 actors aims to portray the multifaceted nature of online life, exploring modern-day dating and hyperconnected existence.

The plot follows Caitlin and her boyfriend Dylan, whose relationship unravels after a disturbing revelation. Seeking advice online, they encounter conflicting guidance — Dylan delves into the manosphere (online communities discussing men’s rights and masculinity) while Caitlin faces online mobs demanding the relationship’s end.

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.

It was only a few days ago that the Criterion Collection had a surprise flash sale. The home video company’s entire catalog was slashed down to 50% off list prices. While that sale only lasted for 24 hours, there are a number of titles that are still on sale for half-off at Amazon.

We rounded up the best deals on Criterion Collection releases, including Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider,” Whit Stillman’s “The Last Days of Disco” and much more. In fact, even a few boxed sets are half off, such as Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “The Dekalog” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology.

Ahead, check out the best Criterion Blu-ray discs currently on sale for 50% off at Amazon:

‘Do the Right Thing...

Summer is long gone and it’s time to look beyond the blockbuster. Our latest study of recent books about or related to the world of filmmaking is full of artistic titans––Sofia Coppola, Whit Stillman, Clint Eastwood, Christian Petzold, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Wes Anderson. This column also boasts a lengthy rundown of noteworthy novels, many of which will surely be brought to large and small screens in years to come.

Archive by Sofia Coppola (MacK)

In recent years this column has covered several books focused on the iconic, inimitable Sofia Coppola, including a hardcover career overview and interview collection. Archive is constructed from the personal collection of the writer-director of The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette herself. And as one would expect from a filmmaker known for her sense of style, fashion, and design, the result is positively gorgeous. It is packed with photos, ephemera, collages, and text––nearly 500 pages’ worth.

Jean-Michel Basquiat in Sara Driver’s Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat

In the first instalment with author, critic and artist Lucy Sante we touch on transitioning and two of the documentaries she has been interviewed for - Andrew Rossi’s The Andy Warhol Diaries and Sara Driver’s Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat. William Burroughs and crime novels, Whit Stillman and Steiff animals, writing lyrics for The Del-Byzanteens led us to music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman.

Lucy Sante with Anne-Katrin Titze and Ed Bahlman: “99 Records was the most perfect single-model representation of the zeitgeist in my youth.”

From there we go back in time to Ed producing and mastering Bush Tetras’ iconic Two Many Creeps (99-02), Lucy’s memories of 99 and her friendships with Pat Place and Cynthia Sley (Bush Tetras), Richard McGuire, and the late inventive photographer...

In 1989, with a budget of a quarter-million dollars, Whit Stillman couldn’t afford to make a true period piece, which is why Metropolitan is vaguely set “not so long ago.” This phrase, tinged with the melancholy that imbues the film, also serves as the title for a modest new companion to Stillman’s career, Whit Stillman: Not So Long Ago, which features a long interview, critical essays by Serge Bozon, Charlotte Garson, Félix Rehm, and Beatrice Loayza, and a dossier of materials from the production of Metropolitan put together by Haden Guest.

Also included in the book are some of Stillman’s writings from various magazines (mostly book reviews), but anyone hoping for a fount of the filmmaker’s prose waiting to be discovered will be disappointed, as these brief pieces are mostly disposable. The real value of Not So Long Ago is found in the lengthy conversation between Stillman and the book’s editor,...

Lila Aviles received best director in the international competition.

Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria and Juraj Lerotic’s Safe Place lead the winners of the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which handed out 1m Ils in prizes this evening (July 20).

Ama Gloria, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes this year, won the best international film award. The film depicts the last summer between a six-year-old girl and her nanny Gloria, before the latter returns to Cape Verde to care for her own children.

Scroll down for the full list of feature winners

A jury led by Claire Denis and consisting of Whit Stillman,...

Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria has won the Best International Film Prize at the 40th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival, running from July 13 to July 26.

The feature, which world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Critics’ Week in May, revolves around a motherless six-year-old girl who travels to Cape Verde to reunite with her longtime nanny.

The jury presided over by Claire Denis, and also figuring Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller, Joana Vicente, and Maria Schrader praised the film’s “extraordinary poignancy, beauty and insight”.

Ama Gloria is produced by Bénédicte Couvreur, the long-time producer of Céline Sciamma and her films Petite Maman and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.

Other winners in the International Competition include Best Director for Mexico’s Lila Avilés for Berlinale-selected family drama Totem and a Special Mention for the ensemble cast of Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, which debuted in Un Certain Regard this year.

The Last Days of Disco. Barely a few minutes into Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco (1998), a young Manhattanite refers to the city’s bustling nightclub scene as a full-blown movement—partying is not a lifestyle nor a hobby, but a kind of mission. His name is Josh (Matt Keeslar), a recent graduate who still cringes at the “social wasteland” of his college years, and evidently thought clubs would fix that overnight. “What I found so encouraging,” he tells a pal, “was the idea that when the time came to have a social life, there’d be all these places where people could go to.” Except the right places are impossible to get into. Ironically, the disco enthusiast has never actually stepped foot inside a disco, and as he sneaks his way into one of New York’s most iconic, he marvels at the neon-lit world as if...

Jurors include Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller, Maria Schrader, Joana Vicente.

French filmmaker Claire Denis will lead the international competition jury for the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which runs from July 13-23.

Denis will be joined by directors Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller and Maria Schrader on the jury, plus Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente.

Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo will preside over the Israeli competition jury. Directors make up the majority of the jurors across the competitive sections, including Jasmila Zbanic, Ali Abbasi, Sebastian Meise, Julian Rosefeldt, Joseph Cedar, Sebastien Lifshitz, Barbara Albert, Alexandru Belc and Manuela Martelli, plus Mathilde Henrot from Locarno Film Festival.

Florian Zeller, the Oscar-winning director and playwright of “The Father” and “The Son,” received the Medal of Honor, France’s highest decoration, at an intimate ceremony in Paris on Wednesday.

The event, hosted in the gardens of the French authors and composers guild (Sacd), gathered a flurry of talent and luminaries from the worlds of film, TV, theater and literature — reflecting the breadth of Zeller’s body of work. Zeller was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor by France President Emmanuel Macron.

Guests included Isabelle Huppert, Pierre Arditi, Catherine Frot and Elodie Navarre who have starred in Zeller’s plays; Christopher Hampton, with whom he shares a best adapted screenplay Oscar for “The Father;” “Simone” actor Elsa Zylberstein; Mediawan boss Pierre-Antoine Capton, with whom he launched the L.A.-based company Blue Morning Pictures; Victoria Bedos (“La famille Belier”); Orange Studio’s Kristina Zimmermann and Sebastien Cauchon, who distributed...

Greenbird Flies To New Owner

Scotland’s Stv Studios has acquired the 15 companies operated by “Lego Masters” company Greenbird Media for £21.4 million ($27.3 million). Israel’s Keshet International acquired 60% of Greenbird five years ago. Stv Studios has now acquired 100% of Greenbird, including Keshet’s stake.

Greenbird founders, Jamie Munro and Stuart Mullin, will join the Stv Studios board in the roles of chief commercial officer and finance and integration director respectively, working alongside COO, Paul Sheehan, and under the leadership of MD, David Mortimer.

The deal boosts the number of labels within Stv Studios from nine to 24. As a result of the acquisition, Stv Studios now has expanded bases in Glasgow and London, as well as offices in Cardiff, Belfast, Brighton and Manchester.

Hit shows made by the producers in Greenbird’s cluster include: “Lego Masters” (Tuesday’s Child for Channel 4/Fox) and “The Hit List” (Tuesday’s Child for BBC One...

German director Angela Schanelec to head international competition jury.

The Marseille International Film Festival (FIDMarseille) has selected 45 films for its competition sections, of which 34 are world premieres.

World premieres in the international competition include An Evening Song (For Three Voices) by US director Graham Swon, who previously directed 2018 feature The World Is Full Of Secrets.

Germany’s Khaled Abdulwahed also world premieres Background, having formerly co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea.

FIDMarseille, which takes place July 4-9, bills itself as a pioneering festival, championing new styles and ways of production, and puts its First Film Competition and films by young filmmakers...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.Extra! Extra!A new Notebook publication has been released into the world! Our limited-edition, print-only Notebook Cannes Special is exclusively available at the Cannes Film Festival. It includes interviews with Souleymane Cissé and Alice Rohrwacher, an insider’s guide to the festival, a crossword, a comic, and much more. The publication is pictured above, but the bright red Pantone color must be seen on the page to be truly appreciated! (As an online preview: Yasmina Price's interview with Souleymane Cissé is available online.)NEWSIn production news, writer Durga Chew-Bose will make her directorial debut with an adaptation of Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse, starring Chloë Sevigny and Claes Bang (The Square). Filming began last week in the south of France.Noémie Merlant (of...

Miss Whit Stillman and his charming, highly literate cinema? Well, not to worry: the filmmaker has his first project since 2016’s “Love & Friendship” lined up. And it’s Stillman’s first foray into TV, too.

Read More: The 70 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2023

Stillman will team up with Infinity Hill, Lauranne Bourrachot, and Global Screen for “The Splendid Affinities,” a European-set romantic comedy adventure series.

Continue reading ‘The Splendid Affinities’: Whit Stillman’s Next Project Will Be A Rom-Com Adventure TV Series Set In London, Paris & Madrid at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan) is turning his hand to big budget rom-com adventure TV with The Splendid Affinities, a series set across Paris, Madrid and London.

Global Screen is co-producing and will feature The Splendid Affinities on its Berlinale slate and Stillman has teamed with Argentina 1985 producer Infinity Hill and Lauranne Bourrachot (A Prophet) on the project, which is one of Stillman’s first major TV offerings.

The show is set 30 years after the end of the Soviet era, where the fictional Baltic republic of Vronyia is under threat along with the life of its beloved Prince Michael, elder statesman of the country’s return to democracy. Violence extends to London, Paris and Madrid and the main characters have to save the nations in the most stylish way possible, with dreams of finding love while doing so.

Stillman said the once popular rom-com adventure genre has “become rarer.

Widely translated since its initial publication 16 years ago, Colombian novelist Hector Abad Faciolince’s “Oblivion: A Memoir” was an acclaimed reminiscence of his father Hector Abad Gomez. That crusading academic’s public criticism of institutionalized inequities led to his 1987 murder by paramilitary assassins. Retitled “Memories of My Father” for a belated U.S. release, veteran Spanish director Fernando Trueba’s screen version plays to his own familiar strengths, creating what’s primarily a nostalgic flashback to the author’s boisterous family life in 1970s Medellin.

The sharp political divisions and dangerous climate for dissent that ultimately claimed Gomez’s life become a somewhat vague backdrop in this warm-and-fuzzy approach. It does not make for the most penetrating history lesson. Still, those seeking a pleasantly expansive, somewhat old-school dose of laughter and tears — one not so distant from the director’s Oscar-winning “Belle Epoque” three decades ago — will enjoy this handsomely produced tale.

Fernando Trueba, director of the Oscar-winning Belle Époque and, more recently, The Queen of Spain, The Artist and the Model, and Chico & Rita, is back this year with the U.S. release of Memories of My Father. Set for a release on November 16—alongside the Quad Cinema’s retrospective “The Ages of Trueba: From Opera Prima to Memories of My Father,” taking place Nov. 14-17—we’re pleased to exclusively debut a new poster and clip from the acclaimed drama.

Based on Héctor Abad Faciolince’s book Oblivion. A Memoir, the film dramatizes the true story of Héctor Abad Gómez (Javier Cámara), a renowned Colombian doctor and human-rights activist in Medellín during the violent 1970s. Driven by sadness and rage after cancer takes the life of one of his daughters, he devotes himself to social and political causes without regard to his personal safety.

Also starring Whit Stillman, Patricia Tamayo,...

Poland’s American Film Festival readies for its — lucky — 13th edition, unspooling Nov. 8-13 in Wrocław.

The fest, which will open with “Bones and All” and close with Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” will once again combine classics with contemporary titles, for instance pairing Nancy Buirski’s doc “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” with John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winner, or introducing retrospectives dedicated to Robert Altman and Nina Menkes.

Menkes — behind “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” — will also get Aff’s Indie Star Award. Previous recipients include Todd Solondz, David Gordon Green, Hal Hartley, Whit Stillman, Rosanna Arquette and John Waters, who came to Poland last year.

“It was amazing,” Waters tells Variety, and he was “pleasantly surprised and flattered” by the local audience’s knowledge of his work.

“They really knew who I was! My favorite thing happened during a Q&a, when this man, who looked like an old Communist,...

Hitting theaters with director David O. Russell's signature brand of humor and a star-studded cast, Amsterdam is the comedy mystery that many fans have been waiting for. Ripping its story from the pages of history, Amsterdam is a unique blend of its two genres, but it follows in a long line of amazing flicks.

From quirky films such as The French Dispatch to legendary comedies like The Big Lebowski, there are plenty of wonderful movies to enjoy after experiencing Amsterdam. Though the mystery and comedy genres have intermingled on numerous occasions, only the very best movies capture the raucous spirit of the hit new film.

Fletch (1985) Rent From Apple TV And Prime Video

Based on the uproariously funny book series, Fletch put star Chevy Chase's comedic abilities to good use. Irving Fletcher is an intrepid reporter with a chameleon-like ability to go undercover. When put on a story about the drug trade,...

When Chloë Sevigny found herself walking the Oscars red carpet nominated for her work in 1999’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” it was surprising, to say the least. Her brand of indie film anarchy, which she shared with her sometime boyfriend Harmony Korine, wasn’t really Oscar material. “I remember like the year before Harmony and I watching and being like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we could like nuke the Oscars and like just wipe away all the status quo?,'” she told IndieWire during a recent interview.

Sevigny’s 1990s in film started with her breakout role in Larry Clark’s ever-controversial 1995 “Kids” and ended with her at the Academy Awards, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, playing the girlfriend of Brandon Teena. It was a journey from the sensational fringes of the avant-garde to the biggest platform imaginable. “I told my publicist that the minute I’m in People magazine,...

“Mr. Malcolm’s List” has a scrumptious light charm. It’s a Regency romance set in London in 1818, where someone in the film is being fooled at every moment. The deceptions and symmetries are standard, but this is the kind of movie that rises or falls on whether the actors can carry the duplicity — and the innocence — aloft. And the actors here are marvelous: tart, stylish, emotionally vibrant, never more knowing than when they’re being duped.

The film, directed with an alluring blend of badinage and upper-crust sensuality by Emma Holly Jones, is based on a novel by Suzanne Allain (who wrote the screenplay), which was published in 2020 and designed to be a playful riff on Jane Austen. Yet it’s funny how big-screen adaptations in the “Masterpiece Theatre” genre can work. “Mr. Malcolm’s List” is Jane Austen Lite, but if you watch, say, the 2005 film version of “Pride and Prejudice,...

In a British cinema scene increasingly dominated by multiplexes, Islington’s Screen on the Green remains something of a landmark. It may no longer be the independent it once was — having been bought 14 years ago by the boutique Everyman chain — but the North London stalwart still stands out, its quirky half-moon facade, red neon signage and pun-heavy marquee beckoning audiences into its single, intimate auditorium.

The programming these days mixes artsy discernment with commercial necessity: this week’s bill, for example, balances “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,” with an offbeat short film screening and album launch on the weekend. That balance of inclusivity and eccentricity has kept it a go-to venue for London film lovers, and is very much the legacy of its former owner, British exhibition and distribution legend Romaine Hart, who passed away last December at the age of 88.

In...

The latest in our series of writers highlighting lesser-seen gems is a recommendation of Whit Stillman’s acerbic Jane Austen adaptation

Though the novels of Jane Austen positively drip with witticisms, catty descriptive asides and zingy ironies, their film versions all too often tend to soft-sell the comedy. Emma Thompson’s elegant adaptation of Sense and Sensibility was wry and knowing, though only the most hopeful of high-school English teachers would argue for it as genuinely side-splitting; Joe Wright’s take on Pride and Prejudice played up swooning romance over barbed interplay. Both the Paltrow- and Taylor-Joy-starring iterations of Emma are light, pastel-hued baubles, but more feathery than they are genuinely funny; the laughs only came with a rewrite as drastic as Amy Heckerling’s Clueless.

Love & Friendship, then, is a delicious rarity: an Austen interpretation taken on by an established, distinctive comic film-maker, bent to his cockeyed sensibility even as it honours the zesty,...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "Metropolitan"

Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max, Criterion Channel

The Pitch: Whit Stillman has built a career on exploring the humor and hypocrisies of the privileged class. Through just five feature films over the last 32 years, he has crafted a collection of prickly egoists enclosed in a social bubble who are just counting down the days before it is popped. His directorial debut, 1990's "Metropolitan," takes aim at the old money, preppy young...

The post The Daily Stream: Metropolitan Takes Aim At The Bourgeoisie And Its Critics appeared first on /Film.

Tributes are pouring in after director and standard-bearer for classic Hollywood moviemaking Peter Bogdanovich died today at 82.

Francis Ford Coppola gave the following statement to Deadline:

Oh dear, a shock. I am devastated. He was a wonderful and great artist. I’ll never forgot attending a premiere for The Last Picture Show. I remember at its end, the audience leaped up all around me bursting into applause lasting easily 15 minutes. I’ll never forget although I felt I had never myself experienced a reaction like that, that Peter and his film deserved it. May he sleep in bliss for eternity, enjoying the thrill of our applause forever.

Barbra Streisand starred the director’s 1972 comedy What’s Up Doc?. “Peter always made me laugh!” she wrote today in remembrance. “He’ll keep making them laugh up there too. May he rest in peace.”

Friend and fellow director Guillermo del Toro called...

After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.

Metrograph

Tsai Ming-liang’s masterpiece Goodbye, Dragon Inn has been restored and begins a run, while also streaming on their site. “Holidays at Metrograph” has a delectable selection: Eyes Wide Shut, Carol, Phantom Thread, Elle, and Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan.

Film Forum

Newly restored, Powell & Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going! is now playing, while The Harvey Girls and a 16mm print of Lady Windermere’s Fan screen this Sunday.

Roxy Cinema

A prints of Speed Racer screens on Sunday.

IFC Center

Peas in a pod? A Clockwork Orange and Willy Wonka are available for a double feature,...

With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.

Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.

See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020

5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952

After Migration: Calabria,...

Exclusive: Roadside Attractions, the Oscar winning distributor of such movies as Judy and Manchester by the Sea, saw a shake-up today with two of its longtime executives, Marketing Boss Dennis O’Connor and SVP of Publicity, David Pollick departing the company, in addition to other cuts in their departments.

Also departing is Head of Field Publicity Ronit Vanderlinden and David Hawkins in Distribution, we hear.

Roadside Attractions Co-Presidents and Co-Founders Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff tell Deadline, “As we emerge from Covid and assemble a new slate of films for the changing theatrical marketplace, we have decided to restructure Roadside’s marketing and distribution organization for the near-term future.”

Lionsgate continues to maintain a 40% stake in Roadside Attractions, and the distributor remains one committed to theatrical with their releases seeing subsequent PVOD, DVD and streaming windows.

“A number of veteran team members at Roadside will be taking on additional responsibilities:...

[This post originally appeared as part of Recommendation Machine, IndieWire’s daily TV picks feature.]

Where to Watch ‘The Pursuit of Love’: Amazon Prime Video

It should be impossible to condense a single life (much less a pair of them) into three hours, but Emily Mortimer gets about as close as you can get in “The Pursuit of Love.” The two in question: a couple of cousins, Linda (Lily James) and Fanny (Emily Beecham), who journey from growing up together on the comfortable estate of Linda’s family to diverging lives that test the strength of their deep bond.

Linda soon finds herself caught in a middle ground between yearning for a marriage of swoon-worthy love and being drawn in by the various libertines who flit through her social circle. Fanny, narrating this story in retrospect, is spooked in part by the reputation of her mother, who left her behind to chase an endless string of flings that burn bright and short.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the richest medieval texts, a delightful story one could spend hours discussing with no possible end to the interpretations available in its verse. To watch David Lowery’s adaptation The Green Knight, with or without having read the Gawain poet’s brilliant work, is to witness a mess of scenes that infer depth but hold none.

To put the story simply: both tales cover the aftermath of Sir Gawain accepting a challenge from the Green Knight, who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will do the same in exchange in a year and a day. Upon beheading the Green Knight (who promptly picks up his head and moves on), Gawain must take a journey of growth through a series of challenges and offbeat experiences.

From the get-go, Lowery seems determined to set himself apart from this source material.

While Netflix is far from being a haven for admirers of classic cinema, they thankfully are backing strong repertory programming in New York City. After acquiring The Paris Theater, located on 58th Street in Manhattan, and briefly reopening with some runs of Netflix features and other specialty programming, they are now officially opening their doors again on August 6 with a more substantial slate of classic cinema.

Featuring two programs, one curated by Radha Blank and another by the theater’s programmer David Schwartz, the reopening lineup features work by John Cassavetes, Kathleen Collins, Luis Buñuel, Mira Nair, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Ingmar Bergman, Terence Davies, and much more––with many on film prints.

One can also enter to win a pass for Schwartz’s series “The Paris is For Lovers,” with a newly-unveiled scavenger hunt tied to Ira Deutchman’s new documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff, which opens on August 13 and is part of the lineup.

The Paris Theater, an NYC cinematic landmark rescued by Netflix in 2019, will officially reopen August 6 with the streamer’s The Forty-Year-Old Version by Radha Blank and a week of repertory films programmed by the director.

The only single-screen movie theater in Manhattan and the borough’s largest, with 545 seats, has hosted limited theatrical engagements since March that included Netflix’ 17 Oscar-nominated films, retrospectives of Charlie Kaufman and Orson Wells, zombie movie classics and a Bob Dylan film series.

The Paris closed in August of 2019 after its lease with City Cinemas expired. That November, Netflix entered an extended lease agreement, said to be for ten years with owner the Solow Family, to keep the theater open and use it for events, screenings and theatrical releases of its films. The first was Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. The theater was shuttered by Covid-19 last spring.

(In May of 2020, Netflix acquired another storied theaters,...

Exclusive: Kate Beckinsale will star in the Catherine Hardwicke-helmed family drama Prisoner’s Daughter, penned by Mark Bacci.

“Mark Bacci’s script is a raw, personal look at a deeply fractured family, similar to my first film Thirteen (with Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter.) With Prisoner’s Daughter, I want to fully immerse the viewer in Kate’s character’s intense world as she, her father, and her young son try to heal generational family trauma and find a new way forward,” said Hardwicke.

The film tells the story of a tough but proud ex-con who’s struggling to find a way to reconnect with his only daughter and grandson; once he begins an attempt at reconciliation, his violent past once again catches up to him.

“We are committed to making films that reflect the struggles and issues faced by not only Americans but worldwide audiences. We are...

Nothing happens in James Vaughn’s Friends and Strangers in the same way that nothing happens in the films of Hong Sangsoo. The people navigating this entrancing debut feature (a lively pantheon of Australian twenty-somethings plus the occasional grownup proper) meet and talk; couples come together and drift apart; plans are shared and swiftly abandoned. But even a non-event can have its own sense of happening, and even a maze of chance encounters can reveal its own intelligent design. Populated by young adults fumbling after a coherent identity, Friends and Strangers behaves like them. It is a film of detours, digressions, and everyday surrealism––one that draws its unsettling allure from the angst that comes when you realize the path you’ve walked along isn’t paved anymore, and the future you’re venturing into will be entirely your own making.

At the center of it is Ray (Fergus Wilson). A videographer in his twenties,...

With the Super Bowl behind us and the Oscars looming (and a pandemic-dampened Valentine’s Day as a marketing peg), American distributors are releasing their most robust slate of new releases in months this weekend.

Awards contenders “Judas and the Black Messiah” (about the FBI-sanctioned murder of Fred Hampton) and “Land” (starring and directed by Robin Wright) arrive in theaters, hot off their premieres at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. Also on the awards-worthy indie front, A24 releases last year’s Sundance winner “Minari” on demand. Steven Yuen stars in this immigrant story with universal appeal. And if theaters are open (and safe) near you, consider catching Michelle Pfeiffer in the wickedly funny “French Exit.”

Targeting teens with Valentine’s offerings, Amazon delivers the “Groundhog Day”-esque romance “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” to Prime subscribers, while Netflix completes its “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” trilogy with “Always and Forever.

The Sundance Film Festival has always been one of the premiere places for discovery, providing a launching pad for breakout films en route to mainstream acclaim and awards. But oftentimes, the best of Sundance — films that are truly original, fresh, and worthy — go on to smaller victory laps. These are the festival’s hidden gems, and though they might not be getting Oscar nods, they’re just as deserving of our attention. In advance of this year’s virtual fest, we’ve partnered with AMC+ to assemble a varied list of past Sundance stunners. Featuring early films from the likes of Miranda July and the Safdie’s to Spike Lee’s adaptation of a hit Broadway musical, all of these gems are available via AMC+ streaming platform.

“Daddy Longlegs”

The brothers Safdie are, by now, an indie household name — but a decade ago, they burst onto the map with this captivating dramedy.