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No Other Choice, the highly anticipated dark comedy thriller by South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, has been set as the opening film of the 30th Busan International Film Festival (Biff).

The film, which stars Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun, will receive its Asian premiere at the landmark edition of the festival on September 17 after receiving its world premiere in competition at Venice.

It marks the first feature in three years from director Park, whose noir melodrama Decision To Leave premiered in Competition at Cannes in 2022, winning best director. He has since made US drama series The Sympathizer starring Robert Downey Jr. for HBO.

Arguably, there was no other choice…. The Busan International Film Festival has selected the latest wildly anticipated feature from Korean maestro Park Chan-wook to open its landmark 30th edition on Sept. 17. A black-comedy survival thriller starring Korean leading man Lee Byung-hun, Park’s 12th feature, No Other Choice, will have its world premiere in competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival before heading to Korea’s biggest cinema event for its Asian debut.

No Other Choice stars Lee and beloved Korean actress Son Ye-jin as a married couple struggling to hold their family together amid mounting economic desperation. The film follows Man-su (Lee), a once-content middle-class family man who is abruptly laid off from his job, sending him into a spiral of anxiety and desperation. As he scrambles to regain employment and preserve the life he’s built, his wife Miri (Son) becomes equally determined to protect their children and home at any cost.

Lee Byung-hun stars in Oldboy director Park Chan-wook’s stylish, blackly comic-looking thriller, No Other Choice. Here’s the first trailer:

Update 15th July 2025: Neon, the indie film distributor, has released a new version of the same teaser trailer. We’ve updated this post with that embed (see below).

Our original story follows…

22nd July 2025: Park Chan-wook, the director of Oldboy, Stoker, The Handmaiden and more corkers besides, has a new movie primed for release this year. It’s No Other Choice, a characteristically dark-looking thriller based on a novel called The Ax by Donald Westlake (a writer best known for his Parker series of books).

Transporting the source’s events to present day South Korea, No Other Choice stars Lee Byung-hun (star of I Saw The Devil and Squid Game) as Man Soo, a mild-mannered manager who’s fired from his job at a paper merchant’s.

Among the bigger premieres announced for this year’s Venice Film Festival is Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice (Neon will handle the U.S. release) and ahead of which comes a brief, staccato teaser that hints at Donald E. Westlake’s source material The Ax. Adapting the 1997 novel (which Costa-Gavras first filmed in 2005) the black comedy thriller follows a man laid off from the paper company he worked at for 25 years. Some time later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition. Adapted by Park, Lee Kyung-mi, Don McKellar (The Sympathizer), and Lee Ja-hye (Decision to Leave, The Handmaiden), it features Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won, and Yoo Yeon-seok.

“I think it’s been about 17 years since I started writing the script for this movie. I’m so touched that I’ve finally finished filming the work...

Neon has reteamed with Korean director Park Chan-wook and Parasite studio Cj Enm by taking the North American rights to the violent comedy thriller No Other Choice.

Korean film royalty Lee Byung-hun and Son Yejin star in the thriller about Man-soo (Lee), who is abruptly laid off by the paper company where he worked tirelessly for many years. Man-soo grows increasingly desperate in his hunt for new work, and eventually resolves to kill his job competitors.

Son plays Man-soo’s wife, the warm-hearted Mi-ri in the latest film from Korean cinema to reflect beyond a core narrative the Asian country’s underlying economic and political tensions. Chan-wook’s 12th movie is an adaptation of American novelist Donald Westlake’s 1996 novel The Ax.

Westlake’s novel was previously adapted into French by Costa Gavras as the 2005 film Le Couperet (The Ax). The ensemble cast for Chan-wook’s Korean adaptation includes Park Hee-soon,...

Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” has found a North American distributor.

Neon has acquired the North American rights to the South Korean auteur’s latest, which is expected to premiere later this year at Venice.

“No Other Choice” is based on Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel “The Ax.” It follows a middle-aged man who is laid off from his longtime job and becomes increasingly desperate. When he discovers the other people who are up for the same position he starts … thinning out the competition. The novel was previously adapted in 2005 by Costa-Gavras (his daughter is one of the producers of the new film).

Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin play the husband and wife, with a supporting cast that includes Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won and Yoo Yeon-seok.

Neon and Cj Enm previously teamed on “Parasite,” which was a critical darling and awards powerhouse, eventually becoming the first...

Film critic Roger Ebert once said that no good movie is truly depressing, a belief that the programmers at the American Cinematheque have taken to heart with “Bleak Week,” an annual celebration of downbeat movies. Since its inception in 2022, the series has become one of Los Angeles’ most eagerly anticipated repertory events with screenings spread across the Cinematheque’s three venues, and last year the Paris Theater in New York joined the fun with its own Bleak Week programming that featured in person appearances by Ari Aster, Isabella Rossellini and Paul Schrader.

Now in its fourth year, Bleak Week is expanding across the country — and, via the Prince Charles Cinema, across the pond to London — to hold screenings at 11 venues in eight cities. The festival kicks off in Los Angeles and Chicago (at the Music Box Theatre) June 1 to 7, continues in Portland (Hollywood Theatre) and Minneapolis (Trylon Cinema) June 6 to 12, then heads to New York,...

When Donbass arrived in 2018, sandwiched between the start of the 2014 Russian-backed conflict in the titular eastern Ukrainian region and full-scale invasion of the country four years since its release, the world Sergei Loznitsa trained his camera on was a surreal, decaying wasteland. It’s not that the film was necessarily prophetic about the atrocities that would later spread across Ukraine. But it spoke to concerns that now feel especially of-the-moment, the same that have long served as a cornerstone of the Belarus-born, Kiev-raised director’s oeuvre. While Donbass was a work of fiction, its preoccupations with the way truth can be manipulated also haunt the archive-based documentaries for which Loznitsa is arguably best known. From Blockade (2006) to The Kiev Trial (2022), the director hasn’t exhumed Ussr-era footage as a sort of time machine, but a means to reappropriate history from the regime’s official narratives. Which is why to salute...

More than 350 film world figures, including Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Javier Bardem, have published an open letter on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival condemning “silence” over the deadly impact of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

The letter, published on the website of France’s Libération newspaper on Monday evening, was headed “In Cannes, the horror Gaza must not be silenced”. It was addressed “For Fatem”, in memory of 25-year-old Gaza artist and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna.

The young woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in mid-April just 24 hours after it was announced a documentary exploring her life in the Gaza Strip would world premiere in the Cannes. Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed in same strike.

“She was a Palestinian freelance photojournalist. She was targeted by the Israeli army on 16 April, 2025, the day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi’s...

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its public-oriented Cinéma de la Plage sidebar at its 78th edition kicking off next week.

The sidebar will screen a selection of films, many of which have past Cannes connections, on the big screen on the beach beside the Palais des Festivals.

The titles include Terrence Malick’s drama A Hidden Life about Austrian conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, which premiered at in Competition at the festival in 2019,

Older selections include King Vidor’s 1946 classic Dual in the Sun, presented and restored by Walt Disney Studios in association with The Film Foundation, with the participation of The George Eastman Museum and The Museum of Modern Art, and the involvement of Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.

Further highlights include Japanese animation director Mamoru Oshii’s 1985 animated feature Angel’s Egg to mark the 40 th anniversary of its release, Oshii is best known internationally...

The Locarno Film Festival will hand its Pardo alla Carriera career achievement award to veteran actor Jackie Chan during this year’s edition, which runs August 6-16.

Chan will pick up the award on Aug 6. The actor will also introduce his films Project A (1983) and Police Story (1985) as part of the tribute and take part in a Q&a session on August 10.

“Director, producer, actor, screenwriter, choreographer, singer, athlete, and daredevil stuntman, Jackie Chan is both a key figure in contemporary Asian cinema and one whose influence has rewritten the rules of Hollywood cinema,” Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, said in a statement.

“From his years at the China Drama Academy under Master Yu Jim-Yuen, working at a very young age as a stuntman in King Hu’s masterpiece A Touch of Zen, Chan has continually reinvented martial arts cinema and much beyond it. A pure comic talent,...

The Locarno Film Festival will honor Jackie Chan with a lifetime career award honoring the martial arts master who helped define Hong Kong action cinema before becoming a Hollywood mainstay.

Chan is “beloved for action films that bridged the gap between East and West,” the Swiss event dedicated to indie cinema noted in a statement.

Chan, who made his name in martial-arts films in his native Hong Kong before establishing himself in Hollywood with 1995’s “Rumble in the Bronx” and then achieving global attention in the wildly popular “Rush Hour” films, will be making the trek to the Swiss fest where he will introduce his early films “Project A” (1983) and “Police Story” (1985) – both of which he directed and starring in – as part of the tribute.

Chan will hold an onstage conversation in Locarno on Aug. 10.

A far more complete filmmaker than is widely appreciated, Chan has co-directed, stunt-directed, financed or...

While the Trump administration has sparked uproar in the European Union over the president’s aggressive new trade policy, it’s also fueled tensions between the U.S. and European film industries.

Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Perez”), Costa-Gavras (“Z”), Audrey Diwan (“Happening”) and Claude Lelouch (“A Man and a Woman”) are among the French filmmakers who have called out the the offensive led by the American film community against EU regulations, including the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Avms), which forces foreign streaming services to invest a portion of their revenues into local productions.

In an open letter signed on behalf of France’s two main film orgs, Arp and Srf (Society of French Directors), French filmmakers said they were “astonished” by the memorandum signed by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

The message, which was sent in March to the United States...

As Trump’s divisive second term threatens the liberties of many Americans, movies from Z to Spartacus to V for Vendetta have become more and more relevant

From its opening frame, Costa-Gavras’s political thriller Z promises to be an unflinching denunciation of authoritarianism. The kinetic camera work matches its forthright narrative of state-sponsored violence and the erosion of democracy. The Greek expatriate director’s film is loosely based on the 1963 assassination of the democratic leader Grigoris Lambrakis and although it was released in 1969, when Costa-Gavras reigned as a political storyteller, the film still has something to say today in this “golden age” for the United States.

In the flurry of Donald Trump’s executive orders, I found myself watching Z again as I contemplated how we arrived at this political moment – the polarization, disinformation, corruption and complicity by individuals and institutions that precede and abet the collapse of democracy...

With the television industry continuing its painful transition from the peak TV era, it’s perhaps a surprise that Series Mania is expecting more international executives than ever to attend its 2025 edition, running March 21-28.

Laurence Herszberg founded the event in 2010 with some 250 industry attendees. This year, organisers are expecting around 4,500 accredited professionals in Lille, up 5% from last year, and 84 exhibitors at the industry-focused Forum, 25% more than last year.

Despite a global tightening of budgets and Series Mania taking place just weeks after Mip London and the London Screenings, organisers say they have seen no slowdown in the quality or...

With the television industry continuing its painful transition from the peak TV era, it’s perhaps a surprise that Series Mania is expecting more international executives than ever to attend its 2025 edition, running March 21-28.

Laurence Herszberg founded the event in 2010 with some 250 industry attendees. This year, organisers are expecting around 4,500 accredited professionals in Lille, up 5% from last year, and 84 exhibitors at the industry-focused Forum, 25% more than last year.

Despite a global tightening of budgets and Series Mania taking place just weeks after Mip London and the London Screenings, organisers say they have seen no slowdown in the quality or...

Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez was named best French film of the year at the 50th César awards on Friday night (February 28), taking home seven awards from 12 nominations.

The Mexico-set musical crime thriller that won the jury prize and shared best actress award at Cannes Film Festival last May also earned a best director and adapted screenplay prize for Audiard and awards for cinematography, original music, visual effects, and sound. The film has sold some 1.2million tickets at the French box office since its August 2014 release for Pathé.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez was named best French film of the year at the 50th César awards on Friday night (February 28), taking home seven awards from 12 nominations.

The Mexico-set musical crime thriller that won the jury prize and shared best actress award at Cannes Film Festival last May also earned a best director and adapted screenplay prize for Audiard and awards for cinematography, original music, visual effects, and sound. The film has sold some 1.2million tickets at the French box office since its August 2014 release for Pathé.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

Jacques Audiard swept the board at the 50th Césars on Friday evening, winning Best Director and Film for Emilia Pérez against expectations after its award-season campaign was derailed by the uncovering of racist tweets by its star Karla Sofía Gascón.

“It’s such a pleasure although I fear you actually don’t like me,” quipped a visibly moved Audiard as he received the Directors Award, which was announced first, with Anatomy of Fall Oscar and César winner Justine Triet handing it over. “I thank my marvellous team and when I say my team it’s not in the sense of ownership, but rather a declaration of love.”

Audiard also cited Gascón, who he has publicly distanced himself from in the wake of the tweet scandal, as well as co-star Zoe Saldaña, referring to them as “My darling Zoe, my Darling Karla.”

Audiard’s Oscar hopeful also clinched Best Adapted Screenplay,...

Subhash K Jha revisits Neeraj Pandey’s political drama Aiyaary as it clocks seven years on February 16th.

Neeraj Pandey is no Costa-Gavras. But for our hard-earned bucks, this filmmaker delivers a forceful message on subterfuge in the defence hierarchy better than any Indian filmmaker. One day, I hope to see him do a film on Bofors and then the Rafel deal to complete his defence trilogy.

At first, Aiyaary seems less seamless than it actually is. Where is all this leading to? You wonder at the outset, as writer-director Neeraj Pandey sets up what eventually turns out to be pieces of a jigsaw that fits perfectly into the mindboggling zigzag of India’s political conditioning in contemporary times.

It is very hard to point out plot points in Aiyaary that stand out to build the compelling construct on corruption in military forces. It seems miraculous that Siddharth Malhotra, playing an army renegade,...

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patelliere’s epic literary adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo leads the nominations for France’s Cesar Awards with 14.

There were also strong showings from Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts with 13 and Jacques Audiard’s Oscar and Bafta-nominated Emilia Perez with 12.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

The Count Of Monte-Cristo and Emilia Perez are in the running for best film alongside Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band.

All of the films nominated for best film had their world premiere at the...

Veteran Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook has wrapped production on No Other Choice, which stars Lee Byung-hun (Squid Game) and Son Ye-jin (Crash Landing on You).

The five-month shoot kicked off in August 2024, with Moho Film attached as the production company and Cj Enm as distributor. Above is a first-look image released by Cj.

Based on the 1997 novel “The Ax” by Donald Westlake, the film follows Man Soo (played by Lee), a man who is suddenly fired from a paper company. He is determined to find a new job and deals with those standing in his way.

Park Hee-soon (Moving), Lee Sung-min (The Spy Gone North), Yeom Hye-ran (The Glory), Cha Seung-won (Uprising) and Yoo Yeon-seok (Hospital Playlist) are also part of the cast for No Other Choice.

Park first talked about his plans to adapt Westlake’s novel during the Busan International Film Festival in 2009.

Park won Best Director at...

It’s shaping up to be a major year for South Korean cinema as Hong Sang-soo and Bong Joon Ho get ready for Berlinale premieres of their latest work and later this year we’ll see the premiere of Park Chan-wook’s next feature No Other Choice. With filming kicking off last August and now having just wrapped on January 15 after five months of filming, the first images have now arrived for one of our most-anticipated films of 2025.

Adapting Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax, which Costa-Gavras first adapted in 2005, the black comedy thriller follows a man laid off from the paper company he worked at for 25 years. Some time later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition. Adapted by Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyung-mi, Don McKellar (The Sympathizer), and Lee Ja-hye (Decision to Leave, The Handmaiden), the cast includes Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin,...

The board of Paris’ French Cinematheque has apologised for failing to contextualise a screening of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 film Last Tango In Paris in December, which was ultimately cancelled.

Filmmaker Costa-Gavras, who is the Cinematheque’s president, joined other members of the directorial board to face a French National Assembly commission on sexual violence yesterday (January 16).

The Cinematheque had programmed a screening of the film, which includes a rape scene shot without the consent of actress Maria Schneider, as part of a retrospective of Marlon Brando’s career on December 15.

The programming decision was harshly criticised by film figures and feminist organisations,...

Greek-French filmmaker Costa Gavras, Japanese director Miike Takashi and Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, whose latest film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is Oscar shortlisted, have joined the roster of speakers at International Film Festival Rotterdam for the upcoming 54th edition, running from Jan. 30 – Feb. 9.

IFFR will present two strands of conversations: Big Talks, featuring dialogues between world-renowned figures from diverse disciplines, and Tiger Talks, offering explorations of film-related themes and addressing various issues including feminism, the legacy of colonialism, and cinema’s sociopolitical role.

Additional talks will take place during the Rtm Day, IFFR’s program dedicated to Rotterdam on Jan. 31.

Furthermore, the IFFR Pro Dialogues program of industry-focused discussions will be held during the IFFR Pro Days, running between Jan. 31 – Feb. 5.

Also during the festival, IFFR will welcome further special guests to present their titles in selection, including Payal Kapadia (“All We Imagine as Light”), Jan-Willem van Ewijk (“Alpha.

In the late 1960s, Paramount Pictures was getting a young-gun makeover with upstart producer Robert Evans taking the reins of the struggling studio. With the New Hollywood movement exploding thanks to provocations like "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Easy Rider," Evans was keen to hire exciting young filmmakers to apply their unique talents to the day's bestsellers. When he hit critical and commercial paydirt with Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby," he turned his attention to another hot novel owned by the studio, one that had the potential to revitalize the gangster film.

Author Mario Puzo hadn't even finished "The Godfather" when Paramount executive Peter Bart offered him $115,000 for the manuscript. His instincts proved spot-on. Within two years of its 1969 publication, "The Godfather" had become a phenomenon, selling in the neighborhood of nine million copies. A feature film adaptation was inevitable. All Evans and Bart had to do was find the right...

At 91, Costa-Gavras, master of political thrillers like Z (1969) and Missing (1982), switches his vision from geopolitical intrigues to the intimate universality of death in The Last Breath.

Inspired by Régis Debray and Claude Grange’s philosophical treatise, the film is less a narrative and more an intellectual meditation—an invitation to reflect on mortality alongside its aging author. True to form, Costa-Gavras approaches this serious issue with care, incorporating themes of dignity, autonomy, and existential fear into the fabric of modern healthcare.

The film explores the friendship between Fabrice Toussaint, a philosopher, and Dr. Augustin Masset, a palliative care specialist. Through an episodic narrative, the two encounter patients embodying diverse approaches to death: rebellion, tranquility, and denial.

From Charlotte Rampling as an affluent woman demanding control over her death to Angela Molina as a Romany matriarch turning her final moments into a clan celebration, these vignettes explore the human condition with poignancy and intellectual rigor.

Toian Matchinga, who guest-starred three times on the 1960s CBS series The Wild Wild West and appeared on such other shows as Death Valley Days, I Dream of Jeannie and The Odd Couple, has died. She was 82.

Matchinga, who later in her acting career went by her birth name, Caryn Matchinga, died Sunday of natural causes at home in Belmont, Massachusetts, her family announced.

In films, Matchinga appeared for Don Siegel in Madigan (1968), for Irvin Kershner in Up the Sandbox (1972) and NBC’s Raid on Entebbe (1977) and, in her final onscreen role, for Costa-Gavras in Mad City (1997).

The Ohio native booked gigs on The Wild Wild West, which starred Robert Conrad and Ross Martin, in 1965, 1967 and 1969. Her résumé also includes episodes of The Wackiest Ship in the Army, The Rat Patrol, The Flying Nun, The Big Valley, Rango, Ellery Queen and Rich Man, Poor Man.

Caryn Lee Matchinga was born in Painesville,...

Venice Prize Winner ‘Familiar Touch’, ‘ ‘Black Dog & ‘Eephus’ Set For Red Sea Fest

In the first film program announcement for its upcoming edition, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled the 12 titles in its Festival Favourites line-up. The sidebar celebrates films that have enjoyed a high-profile outing on the festival circuit in recent months such as Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, which won the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film at Venice, and Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Black Dog by Guan Hu. The other titles comprise Agora (Tunisia), East Of Noon (Egypt), Eephus (U.S.), Freedom Way (Nigeria), The Inevitable Journey To Find A Wedding Dress (Egypt), The Legend Of The Vagabond Queen Of Lagos, Little Jaffna (France), Quiet Life (Greece), Santosh (UK) and U Are The Universe (Ukraine). “This year’s selection continues to demonstrate our commitment to showcasing diverse...

The 16th edition of the Lumière Film Festival kicked off in high style, with a glittering lineup of stars including Benicio del Toro, Tim Burton, Monica Bellucci and Vanessa Paradis plus high-profile directors Costa-Gavras and Giuseppe Tornatore gracing the red carpet in Lyon.

Bellucci, who’s in town to present a new documentary about the stage play in which she portrays Maria Callas, was among the last to take to the red carpet. After taking a few steps, she turned back with a playful gesture as if she had forgotten something, reached through the curtain, and drew out Tim Burton, to the delight of the 5,000-strong crowd: Burton’s unannounced appearance drew massive applause.

The pair famously met and fell in love in Lyon in 2022, when Burton was the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement Lumière Award, which was handed to him by Bellucci. The Italian actress has since...

The French Film Academy will honor legendary political filmmaker Costa-Gavras with its lifetime achievement award at the upcoming 2025 César Awards.

The 91-year-old auteur, born in Greece before fleeing to exile in Paris, is best known for his politically-charged cinema, including Oscar winners Z (1969) — a thinly fictionalized account of the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963 that led to the country’s long military dictatorship — and English-language feature Missing (1982), about the disappearance of an American journalist in the aftermath of the United States-backed Chilean coup of 1973.

Z was the first film to be nominated both for best picture and best international feature at the Academy Awards, winning the latter, as well as the Oscar for best film editing for Françoise Bonnot. Missing, starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes and was nominated for four Oscars, winning for best adapted screenplay.

Costa-Gavras’ other notable...

Costa-Gavras’ single hyphenated trade name has been synonymous with political thrillers since Z shot from the starting gates in 1969 to win two Oscars and bring the world’s attention to the machinations of the military junta then ruling Greece. Among the numerous films he has made over the ensuing decades, based in France but working also in English, it is the on-brand political films that have been most prominent: State of Siege, Missing, Amen.

Costa-Gavras has, however, other strings to his bow. Witness Last Breath (Le Dernier Souffle), a truly marvelous film, screening in competition in San Sebastian. It’s about dying. Not at the end of a gun barrel, but in the normal course of things, whether the dying person is serenely unafraid, fighting tooth-and-nail to stay alive, or in denial. Based on a book by Regis Debray and Claude Grange, who collaborated with the director in writing the script,...

José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastian Film Festival, has just over a week until opening night when he sits down for an interview with Deadline, and he is still plagued by one niggling organizational issue.

“It’s always so difficult to close the jury,” Rebordinos explains as he rushes out of the room to take a call about his potential jury head.

When he returns, he explains: “A few weeks ago I was speaking with Thierry Fremaux. He said even for him it’s always a problem because jury members have to be at your festival for 10 days, you don’t pay, and it’s complicated because people are often working and when they aren’t, they want to spend time with their families and friends.”

A few days later, the competition jury is finally confirmed, with Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda leading alongside Leila Guerriero, Fran Kranz, Christos Nikou,...

In terms of stars — Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton, Pamela Anderson — and auteur power — Pedro Almodóvar, Sean Baker, Costa Gavras, Edward Berger, Mike Leigh, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Joshua Oppenheimer, François Ozon, Lupita Nyong’o, Mohammad Rasoulof, Walter Salles, Maite Alberdi — this year’s San Sebastián Festival promises one of its biggest editions ever.

Yet it’s the Spanish festival’s wealth of new talent and rising names in its industry competitions sets it apart. Here are 10 things to expect from the fest, which runs Sept. 20-28 at the stunning Basque seaside resort:

Blanchett, Almodóvar, Bardem, Depp, Swinton, Anderson

Blanchett, Almodóvar and Bardem will collect career achievement Donostia Awards, with Blanchett talking up Guy Maddin’s Cannes hit “Rumours,” set for U.S. theatrical release via Bleecker Street on Oct. 18; Almodóvar and Swinton will present Venice success “The Room Next Door.” Depp will unveil “Modi,” his second film as a...

This year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival will feature the most eye-catching list of international superstars it has ever hosted, including A-list actors such as Cate Blanchett and Javier Bardem – who will both receive Donostia career achievement awards, Andrew Garfield, Pamela Anderson, Tilda Swinton and Lupita Nyong’o and filmmakers like local legend Pedro Almodovar – another Donostia award recipient, Adam Elliot, Gia Coppola, Mike Leigh and Walter Salles.

Other international actors who have confirmed they will attend this year’s festival include Monica Bellucci, Jamie Campbell Bower, Johnny Depp, Isabelle Huppert, Noémie Merlant, Ángela Molina, Franco Nero, Charlotte Rampling and Will Sharpe, among others.

Normally, many directors attend San Sebastian with their latest films, but the number of titles from consecrated directors at this year’s festival has increased noticeably. Filmmakers bringing their latest to this year’s festival include Jacques Audiard, Sean Baker, Edward Berger, Leos Carax, Costa-Gavras, Audrey Diwan,...

Pulsar Content has boarded “A Survivor’s Tale,” produced by Kg Prods. (“Custody”), the banner founded by Costa Gavras and Michèle Ray-Gavras. The movie is headlined by Salomé Dewaels, the star of Xavier Giannoli’s Venice competition film “Lost Illusions.”

Directed by Belgian filmmaker Micha Wald, ”A Survivor’s Tale” is based on the true story of Marguerite de la Rocque, a young noblewoman abandoned in the wilderness of 16th century Canada. Condemned for being pregnant with a child born from a violent assault, she’s abandoned with her rapist and her maid on a deserted island near Newfoundland.

Marguerite must survive two harrowing years on the “Island of Demons,” facing starvation and the relentless cold. As she battles to keep herself and her unborn child alive, Marguerite’s journey becomes one of profound transformation and emancipation. Orignally titled “L’île de la Demoiselle,” the movie also stars the rising...

We Live In Time, the upcoming romance flick starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, will close out the official selection at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival.

The film will screen out-of-competition and the festival will serve as the romcom’s European Premiere.

The film’s official synopsis reads: Almut and Tobias are brought together in a surprise encounter that changes their lives. Through snapshots of their life together − falling for each other, building a home, becoming a family − a difficult truth is revealed that rocks its foundation. As they embark on a path challenged by the limits of time, they learn to cherish each moment of the unconventional route their love story has taken in this decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.

John Crowley directed the film from a screenplay by Nick Payne. StudioCanal developed the script and produced with Sunny March. Leah Clarke, Adam Ackland, and Guy Heeley are producers,...

Johnny Depp will premiere his latest directorial effort, Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness, at the 72nd San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. The film tells the story of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani through his turbulent life in Paris during World War I.

Modi stars Riccardo Scamarcio as Modigliani. The movie focuses on a chaotic 72-hour period and depicts Modigliani’s struggles with art and love against the backdrop of war. Well-known actor Al Pacino plays a role in the film’s creation and encouraged Depp to direct it. Depp called the experience of making the film “incredibly fulfilling” and thanked Pacino along with the committed cast and crew.

Along with Scamarcio and Pacino, Modi features acclaimed actors like Stephen Graham and Antonia Desplat. While some expected the film at the Venice Film Festival, it will instead debut out of competition at San Sebastian on September 20th.

Johnny Depp‘s second directorial feature Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness will premiere out of competition at the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival.

The film fest released the updates to its program Tuesday. Depp’s movie is a biopic on Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

The actor, widely considered a controversial figure in Hollywood following the legal frenzy around his split from actress Amber Heard, first made his debut behind the camera with The Brave in 1997.

He received the prestigious Donostia Award at the 2021 San Sebastian Film Festival for his lifetime achievement.

Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness stars Riccardo Scamarcio as the Bohemian artist Modigliani, in a film which also features Al Pacino, Stephen Graham and Antonia Desplat. “The film, a tale of art, love, and rejection, follows a 72-hour whirlwind of chaotic events through the streets and bars of a Paris torn apart during World War I,...

Acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-wook has his next movie lined up. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Oldboy director is set to begin production on I Can't Help It, an adaptation of Donald Westlake's novel The Ax, this weekend. Director Park's 12th feature film sees the beloved filmmaker team up with Squid Game star Lee Byung-hun and acclaimed South Korean actress Son Ye-jin. This isn't Lee Byung-hun's first outing with Director Park Lee starred in the filmmaker's feature debut, the acclaimed thriller Joint Security Area.

Published in 1996, Westlake's novel follows Burke Devore, who's laid off from his job at a paper company. After months of unemployment, Devore resorts to murdering the other candidates for a prospective job. The Ax was previously adapted into a French-language film in 2005 by Costa Gavras. The official synopsis reads:

"Burke Devore is a middle-aged manager at a paper company when the cost-cutting ax falls, and he is laid off.

Australian Film Television and Radio School

Australia’s finest film and television school draws applicants from far and wide with its picturesque Sydney campus and many lecturers with deep ties to the Australian screen industry. Notable alumni include The Power of the Dog Oscar winner Jane Campion and Poor Things screenwriter Tony McNamara and a long list of accomplished craftspeople like Margaret Sixel (editing on Mad Max: Fury Road), David White (sound editing for Mad Max: Fury Road) and Andrew Lesnie (cinematography for The Lord of the Rings). In July, Aftrs also tapped Peter Noble, a local industry veteran of Indigenous background, to serve as director of the school’s First Nations and Outreach program, which develops training pathways for emerging and experienced industry practitioners from Australia’s culturally and racially marginalized groups.

Beijing Film Academy

The de facto USC of the world’s second-largest movie market, the Bfa was...

Park Chan-wook, the eminent director of Oldboy and Stoker, is about to start filming his latest thriller – I Can’t Help It.

Acclaimed director Park Chan-wook has begun work on his latest movie, it’s been announced. Called I Can’t Help It, it’s based on The Ax – one of the later novels by prolific novelist Donald E Westlake.

Filming is due to begin this Saturday – the 17th August if you’re reading this in the future – and will star Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Published in 1996, The Ax introduced Burke Devore, a middle-aged chemist who, when he loses his job at a paper firm during a round of cost-cutting, goes to violent lengths in order to get his job back. There’s black comedy as well as violence in the story, then, which sounds of a piece with some of Park’s best-known films,...

South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook is set to begin shooting his adaptation of US novel The Ax on Saturday (August 17), according to distributor Cj Enm.

The English-language title of the film is No Other Choice (the Korean title directly translates as I Can’t Help It).

It will mark the first feature from the Oldboy director since 2022 noir melodrama Decision To Leave, which premiered in Competition at Cannes where Park won best director and subsequently secured nominations at the Baftas and Golden Globes. He has since made US drama series The Sympathizer starring Robert Downey Jr. for HBO.

The upcoming...

South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook is set to begin shooting his adaptation of US novel The Ax on Saturday (August 17), according to distributor Cj Enm.

An English-language title has yet been revealed but the Korean title directly translates as I Can’t Help It.

It will mark the first feature from the Oldboy director since 2022 noir melodrama Decision To Leave, which premiered in Competition at Cannes where Park won best director and subsequently secured nominations at the Baftas and Golden Globes. He has since made US drama series The Sympathizer starring Robert Downey Jr. for HBO.

The upcoming film is...

The San Sebastian Film Festival will fete legendary filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar with its prestigious Donostia Award at its 72nd edition, running September 20-28.

Presentation of the honorary award, which the festival said recognizes “extraordinary contributions to the world of cinema”, will take place in the Kursaal Auditorium before a screening of his latest movie, The Room Next Door. The film is Almodóvar’s first in English and stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. The Room Next Door will debut at Venice. Swinton will present Almodóvar with the award in San Sebastian.

Almodóvar first screened at San Sebastian with his second feature, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón / Pepi, Luci, Bom, competing in the New Filmmakers section. He competed in the Official Selection with his next film, Laberinto de pasiones / Labyrinth of Passions (1982).

Almodóvar has also previously handed out Donostia Awards in San Sebastian. Over the years, he presented...

Following up his noir melodrama Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook ventured into the world of American television with the forthcoming Max series The Sympathizer, adapting Viet Thanh Nguyen’s acclaimed novel and teaming with Robert Downey Jr. As revealed earlier this year, he’s now set to return to South Korea for his next feature and as production begins this week more details have been unveiled.

Set to begin shooting this Saturday, August 17, Park will be adapting Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax, which the legendary Costa-Gavras first adapted in 2005. The black comedy thriller follows a man laid off from the paper company he worked at for 25 years. Some time later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition. Adapted by Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyung-mi, Don McKellar (The Sympathizer), Lee Ja-hye, the cast includes Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran,...

Eleven Golden Shell competition films have been announced this morning, joining the previously selected quintet. This year’s lineup features a mix of veteran directors, and filmmakers transitioning from non-fiction to narrative debuts, and they even made room for two directorial debuts. Costa-Gavras, François Ozon, Mike Leigh and Kiyoshi Kurosawa are joined by Joshua Oppenheimer‘s The End (Telluride/TIFF) and Maite Alberdi‘s El Lugar De La Otra — the Chilean filmmaker’s fiction debut is actually backed by Netflix and is a period film set 1950s Santiago and focuses on the case of novelist Maria Carolina Geel who killed her lover in front of stunned diners at the Hotel Crillón.…...

At long last, we now have at least one festival premiere set for one of our most-anticipated films of the year. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path, a remake of his superb, bad-vibes 1998 thriller that stars Damien Bonnard, Mathieu Amalric, Ko Shibasaki, and Drive My Car‘s Hidetoshi Nishijima, is now set for a premiere as part of San Sebastián Film Festival’s Official Selection.

Taking place September 20-28, the lineup also features the latest from Edward Berger, Gia Coppola, Costa-Gavras, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mike Leigh, Diego Lerman, Joshua Oppenheimer, and François Ozon. While we could see Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path pop up at other fall fests, it’s exciting to know it’s finally seeing the light of day.

Check out the full lineup below.

Bound In Heaven

Xin Huo (China)

Country(ies) of production: China

Cast: Ni Ni, You Zhou

This film narrates the poignant tale of a...

New films from directors Mike Leigh, François Ozon, Edward Berger, Joshua Oppenheimer, and Costa-Gavras will vie for the Golden Shell at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. Organizers on Tuesday announced the competition line-up for the 72nd edition of San Sebastian, which runs from September 20-28.

Highlights include Leigh’s hotly-anticipated new film Hard Truths, which will see the iconoclastic British director reunite with his Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste; and Conclave, Berger’s follow-up to his multiple-Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front. The Vatican thriller stars Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal tasked with supervising a conclave following the sudden death of the Pope to choose a successor.

Veteran political filmmaker Costa-Gavras (Missing, Z) returns to San Sebastian with Last Breath, a drama about a palliative care doctor. Ozon will make his sixth appearance in the festival’s official selection with When Fall Is Coming, a French drama starring Hélène Vincent,...

Edward Berger, Mike Leigh and Joshua Oppenheimer titles have joined the competition line-up at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Berger heads to San Sebastian with Toronto premiere Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, about a cardinal who is tasked following the Pope’s sudden death with supervising the conclave from which his successor will be chosen.

Mike Leigh is appearing in official selection for the first time, with UK-Spain co-production Hard Truths, another Toronto world premiere, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin. Leigh portrays the everyday life of a London family, addressing such issues as family relations, mourning and mental health.