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DC's new Kite Man: Hell Yeah! animated series is already off to a great start. Spinning off from the animated Harley Quinn television series, the new show follows the exploits of supervillains Kite Man/Charles Brown (Matt Oberg) and Golden Glider/Lisa Snart (Stephanie Hsu) as they embark on a new chapter of their lives. The literal partners-in-crime and partners-in-love take up running Noonan's, a dive bar frequented by Gotham's lesser super-criminals. After introducing their relationship in Season 3 of Harley Quinn, Kite Man: Hell Yeah! picks up with Kite Man and Golden Glider still together and completely supportive of one another. In the series premiere, "Pilot, Hell Yeah!," they decide to buy Noonan's to keep it as a safe haven for the dregs of Gotham City's criminal underbelly. What makes Kite Man: Hell Yeah! so refreshing is beginning the story with the main pairing already established right off the bat,...

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera has shown once again that he is not scared to court controversy.

The festival head has given Roman Polanski a safe festival berth for his new movie The Palace at Venice, in a selection that is likely to spark debate alongside the inclusion of Woody Allen’s Coeur de Chance.

They are among 12 films due to play Out of Competition at the 80th edition running August 30 to September 9.

Barbera told Italian journalists in a Q&a after the main lineup announcement that Polanski, who turns 90 in August, will not make the trip to the Lido, while Woody is down to attend.

Related: Venice Is Still Hopeful That Its Red Carpet Will Be Full Of Stars If Movies Such As ‘Ferrari’, ‘Priscilla’ & More Are Granted SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreements

The Palace will still make for a starry red carpet with its ensemble cast featuring Oliver Masucci,...

Gothic Fantastico-Four Italian Tales of Terror

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

Starring Barbara Nelli, Helga Liné, Franco Nero, Erica Blanc

Written by Giovanni Grimaldi, Bruno Corbucci

Directed by Massimo Pupillo, Alberto De Martino, Mino Guerrini, Damiano Damiani

The success of 1957’s I Vampiri, a grimly beautiful fantasy directed by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava, provoked an unexpected trend in the country known for neo-realism; Italian horror films began to embrace the classical romanticism of Rebecca over the modernistic shocks of Psycho. Elegant nightmares like Bava’s Black Sunday cast their spell and soon this new breed of gothics—united by sumptuous black and white photography—dominated movie theaters with tbeir come-hither promise of seductive spirits and strategically lit negligees.

A few of these thrillers were more brazen in their approach—flaunting their teasing nudity and blood-soaked denouements, exploitation fare like Atom Age Vampire and The Playgirls and the Vampire took aim at...

Click here to read the full article.

Charles Fuller, the pioneering Philadelphia playwright who received a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award and an Oscar nomination for A Soldier’s Play, has died. He was 83.

Fuller, who also explored racism and the Black experience with his earlier plays The Brownsville Raid and Zooman and the Sign, died Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, his son, David, told The Hollywood Reporter.

A Soldier’s Play tells the story of the racially charged investigation by a Black captain for the murder of a Black sergeant on a segregated U.S. Army base in Jim Crow Louisiana in 1944.

Originally produced by New York’s Negro Ensemble Company, the courtroom drama/murder mystery debuted off-Broadway at Theater Four in November 1981 and ran for almost 600 performances through January 1963. It starred Charles Brown as Capt. Richard Davenport and Adolph Caesar as the murdered Sgt. Vernon C. Waters.

White NoiseCOMPETITIONWhite Noise (Noah Baumbach)Il Signore Delle Formiche (Gianni Amelio)The Whale (Darren Aronofsky)L’Immensita (Emanuele Crialese)Saint Omer (Alice Diop)Blonde (Andrew Dominik)Tár (Todd Field)Love Life (Koji Fukada)Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths (Alejandro G. Inarritu)Athena (Romain Gavras)Bones & All (Luca Guadagnino)The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg)Beyond The Wall (Vahid Jalilvand)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Argentina, 1985 (Santiago Mitre)Chiara (Susanna Nicchiarelli)Monica (Andrea Pallaoro)No Bears (Jafar Panahi)All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)A Couple (Frederick Wiseman)The Son (Florian Zeller)Our Ties (Roschdy Zem)Other People’s Children (Rebecca Zlotowski)Out Of COMPETITIONFictionThe Hanging Sun (Francesco Carrozzini)When The Waves Are Gone (Lav Diaz)Living (Oliver Hermanus)Dead For A Dollar (Walter Hill)Call Of God (Kim Ki-duk)Dreamin’ Wild (Bill Pohlad)Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)Siccità (Paolo Virzi)Pearl (Ti West)Don’t Worry Darling...

While the new premieres at the world’s greatest film festivals usually garner much of the spotlight, the lineup of restorations should be equally as exciting to any cinephile. Venice Film Festival, which kicks off its 79th edition from August 31-September 10, has now unveiled the lineup of the Classics section.

Featuring Jacques Tourner’s Canyon Passage, Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill, Edward Yang’s A Confucian Confusion, plus films by Peter Greenaway, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Yasujirō Ozu, Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir, and more, it’s an embarrassment of riches. If you don’t happen to be in Venice later next month, hopefully we’ll get news of home video releases for these in the coming year.

See the lineup below via Screen Daily.

Teresa The Thief (Teresa La Ladra)(Italy, 1973)

Dir. Carlo Di Palma

Restored by: Cineteca Nazionale

My Little Loves (Mes Petites Amoureuses) (France, 1974)

Dir. Jean Eustache

Restored...

The section returns to the lido after two years.

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem and Yasujiro Ozu’s A Hen In The Wind are among the 18 films selected for the Venice Classics strand of the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31-September 10).

Pasolini’s Italian drama screened in competition at Venice in 1968 and received a special award from the International Catholic Film Office which was later revoked after the Vatican complained. It is restored by Cineteca di Bologna.

A Hen In The Wind is one of three Japanese films in selection. The other two are Profound Desires of the Gods by...

The section returns to the lido after two years.

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem and Yasujiro Ozu’s A Hen In The Wind are among the 18 films selected for the Venice Classics strand of the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31 - September 10).

Pasolini’s Italian drama screened in competition at Venice in 1968 and received a special award from the International Catholic Film Office which was later revoked after the Vatican complained. It is restored by Cineteca di Bologna.

A Hen In The Wind is one of three Japanese films in selection. The other two are Profound Desires of the Gods...

Paralyzed Veterans of America – the nation’s premier nonprofit for disabled veterans, their families, and caregivers, once again kicked off its annual checkout campaign alongside long-time supporters Food City and champion racecar driver Richard Petty.

Centered around helping and empowering America’s paralyzed veterans, all donations made at Food City, between June 29th and July 26th, will go directly towards life altering Pva programs and experiences impacting today’s veterans, their families and caregivers.

“Food City and Mr. Petty have been Pva partners for more than a decade and we are so grateful for their ongoing support,” said U.S. Marine Corps veteran and national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America Charles Brown. “Because of them, as well as Food City’s generous customers and hardworking staff, Pva is able to meet veterans at their bedside in Va spinal cord centers across America and help them get the specialized health care they require,...

Robert L. Lasky, attorney and cofounder of Agency of the Performing Arts whose clients once included Liberace, Johnny Cash and Harry Belafonte, died Sept. 16. He was 91. His death was announced by APA. A cause was not immediately available.

Lasky played an integral role in APA’s 1962 founding in New York, with David Baumgarten, Roger Vorce and Harvey Litwin. The agency subsequently launched offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Toronto and London, and today is a leading talent agency with a roster of clients including Gary Oldman, Mary J. Blige, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Famke Janssen, among others.

Lasky was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian and Hungarian descent, to a long line of attorneys. He attended Harvard University, where he was elected Phi Betta Kappa and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1951. He then went on to receive his LL.B. from Yale School of Law in 1955, and...

At the Efm Chiesa also presenting Roberta Torre’s Riccardo Va All’Inferno (Bloody Richard).

Adriana Chiesa has confirmed a number of deals on her Efm slate led by a pre-sale of road movie My Name Is Thomas by spaghetti western legend Terence Hill to Ksm for Germany.

Hill wrote, directed and stars in My Name Is Thomas, which has been pre-sold to Ksm for Germany. The deal was negotiated between Chiesa and Ksm’s Benjamin Krause.

In the film (formerly Gone For A While), Hill – best known for My Name Is Nobody and My Name Is Trinity and for his long collaboration with Bud Spenser – plays the titular “easy rider” who heads off across the desert on his Harley Davidson and rescues a young woman who has fallen into the hands of two bandits.

Chiesa has also secured a Chinese deal on Water And Sugar, which tells the story of her late husband Carlo Di Palma, the legendary...

“Love And Angst”

By Raymond Benson

Woody Allen came off an incredible run of five superior films released between 1983 and 1987 (Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Radio Days) and then delivered one of his occasional “serious” pictures (without his presence as an actor) in late ’87 that was so dire that it only grossed approximately $500,000 in its initial run.

Basically a six-character “play” that takes many cues from the works of Anton Chekhov, September is set in a Vermont country house where depressed Lane (Mia Farrow) is recovering from a suicide attempt. Her best friend Stephanie (Dianne Wiest) is there for moral support. Lane is in love with tenant/writer Peter (Sam Waterston), and neighbor/teacher Howard (Denholm Elliott) is in love with Lane. She doesn’t share Howard’s affections, but Peter, however, is in love with Stephanie. Coming to visit into...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind tha

Film Society of Lincoln Center

The great Carlo Di Palma shot some of the finest films ever made, so he gets a series. Featuring Antonioni, Allen, Bertolucci, and more.

Metrograph

Though well past sold-out, the uncut print of Suspiria plays this weekend, as does 3 Women.

The top 10 of director Sergei Loznitsa screens.

Film Forum

Blow Up has been restored and begins screening.

Carlo Di Palma and Woody AllenThe only thing more consistent than the quality of Carlo Di Palma’s cinematography is the routine variance of his work. Though his most prominent titles were primarily those done in collaboration with two key directors—Michelangelo Antonioni and Woody Allen—what he demonstrated over the course of his career, in these films and dozens more, revealed a remarkable exhibition of visual range. His decades-spanning career produced a gallery of fluctuating colors, lighting techniques, temperatures, movements, and tones. And more often than not, what he refined in this richly varying field proved to be a directly corresponding realization of profound psychological consequence.Born April 17, 1925 in Rome, the son of a camera repair man, Di Palma’s cinematic commencement went from focus operator on Neo-Realist essentials like Rome, Open City (1945) and Bicycle Thieves (1948) to serving various capacities on largely subpar Italian fare. A turning point came...

The cinematographer for Antonioni and Woody Allen deserves better than this reverential profile

Here’s a choice. Either you spend 90 minutes watching people trying to find different ways to say that cinematographer Carlo Di Palma “sculpted with light”. Or, better, you seek out the work that is so temptingly trailed in this documentary, films such as Antonioni’s Red Desert and Blow-Up or Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters. This film by Fariborz Kamkari is well intentioned and reverential but it feels like a tombstone for the oeuvre of a man whose photography was vividly, mercurially alive.

Continue reading...

Cinema’s magic is the running theme of this warm documentary about the life and works of visionary cinematographer Carlo Di Palma

Related: Obituary: Carlo Di Palma

The cinematographer Carlo Di Palma is the subject of this intelligent and deeply cinephile documentary tribute presented by his widow, Adriana Chiesa (Di Palma died in 2004). It’s a film to remind you of the almost miraculously collaborative nature of cinema, but also the radiant personalities of individuals.

Continue reading...

This review contains minor spoilers.

We’re reaching the business end of “The War of Jokes and Riddles.” However, when you think you know the direction in which Tom King is going, he pirouettes and does something completely different. Batman #27 isn’t only a continuation of the regular arc, but it also serves as an origin story for Kite Man. Yes, you read that right: Kite Man.

As the war gets out of hand, Batman intimidates Charles “Chuck” Brown, who worked on the Jokermobile, into getting a number for the Joker. Chuck goes to Floyd Lawton, Aka Deadshot, and gets the details for the Dark Knight. When the number proves to be untraceable, however, the Bat tells him to arrange a meeting with the Clown Prince of Crime instead, which he does. In the interim, the Riddler kidnaps and threatens Chuck into telling him when the meeting is taking place.

Writer-director Elio Petri scores big in his first feature, the story of a heel suspected of murder. Is he a killer, or just an average guy trying to get ahead, who uses women to his advantage? Marcello Mastroianni impresses as well in a serious role, with Salvo Randone shining as the police inspector trying to pry a confession from him. Beautifully restored in HD; the show is from a time when Italian film was at its zenith.

The Assassin

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Video USA

1961 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / L’Assassino / Available from Arrow Video

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Micheline Presle, Cristina Gaioni, Salvo Randone, Andrea Checchi, Francesco Grandjacquet, Marco Mariani, Franco Ressel.

Cinematography: Carlo Di Palma

Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni

Original Music: Piero Piccione

Written by Tonino (Antonio) Guerra, Elio Petri, Pasquale Fest Campanile, Massimo Franciosa

Produced by Franco Cristaldi

Directed by Elio Petri

Fans of Elio Petri...

Elle

Blu-ray

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

2017 / Color / 2.40:1 widescreen / Street Date March 14, 2017

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling.

Cinematography: Stéphane Fontaine

Film Editor: Job Ter Burg

Written by David Birke

Produced by Saïd Ben Saïd and Michel Merkt

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Michèle Leblanc, glamorous entrepreneur of a successful video game company, is the calm at the center of many storms. Her son’s girlfriend has given birth to another man’s child, an employee is stalking her with anime porn and her botox-ridden mother is betrothed to a male prostitute.

In the face of all this outrageous fortune, Michèle remains cool, calm and collected, even in the aftermath of her own harrowing sexual assault.

Elle, the new film from the Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven, begins with that already infamous assault, our heroine struggling under the weight of her attacker while an unblinking cat perches nearby, watching.

Jerry O’Connell‘s first movie, Stand By Me, was a huge hit — but he had to wait to get his first taste of fame.

At 12, O’Connell famously played the chubby sidekick Vern Tessio, but between the end of shooting and the release of the film, he hit puberty and lost weight.

“I didn’t get recognized, and I’ll tell you why. It’s really funny. I was husky as a child. I was fat. In between making Stand by Me and it coming out, I went through puberty. I got tall. I’m a tall guy. I just stretched out,...

“Trump will only make American society poorer,” Insyriated actress Hiam Abbass told Screen.

Industry executives at Berlin Film Festival are still on high alert should Us president Donald Trump get his way and impose a new travel ban.

Even though a federal appeals court has upheld a block on the Us president’s original embargo on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, Trump has intimated a revised executive order could be in the offing.

The recent ban, although only in place for days, had a meaningful impact on the film world.

Asghar Farhadi, Iranian director of Oscar nominee The Salesman has already said he will boycott the awards.

According to Screen sources, Iranian-Italian filmmaker Fariborz Kamkari was recently unable to attend the Santa Barbara International Festival with documentary Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, The Colours Of Life due to the previous ban.

Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, who stars in Syrian-set Panorama war-drama Insyriated, was damning...

Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, The Colours Of Life premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival.

Adriana Chiesa is selling Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, The Colours Of Life, the new feature doc about the legendary cinematographer (and Chiesa’s late husband), at this week’s European Film Market (Efm) and has reported deals for the UK (Swipe Films) and Spain (Film Buro). Instituto Luce will release the film in Italy this spring.

Directed by Fariborz Kamkari, the documentary profiles Di Palma’s career from being focus puller on Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948) to his credits as a cinematographer on films including Blow-Up (1966) and 11 Woody Allen films.

The film screened recently at the Santa Barbara International Festival, which Chiesa reveals that Iranian-born director Kamkari wasn’t able to attend because of the Trump travel ban then in place.

At Efm, Adriana Chiesa Enterprises has also begun sales on They Called Her Maryam...

The European Film Academy — more than 3,000 filmmakers across Europe – voted for this year’s European Film Awards. At the 29th EFAs ceremony on Saturday in Wroclaw, Poland, in a major rebuke to the Cannes competition jury that snubbed German director Maren Ade’s three-hour father-daughter comedy “Toni Erdmann,” her country’s foreign Oscar selection took home five top awards: Best European Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress. The awards ceremony is hosted by different countries each year.

Three Scandinavian Oscar entries: “A Man Called Ove” (Sweden), “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki” (Finland), and “Land of Mine” (Denmark) won awards, along with Oscar submissions from Italy (documentary “Fire at Sea”) and Switzerland (animated film “My Life as a Zucchini”). Andrzej Wajda, whose film “Afterimage” is Poland’s official Oscar entry, won an honorary award.

The U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences members participating in the...

The European Film Academy — more than 3,000 filmmakers across Europe – voted for this year’s European Film Awards. At the 29th EFAs ceremony on Saturday in Wroclaw, Poland, in a major rebuke to the Cannes competition jury that snubbed German director Maren Ade’s three-hour father-daughter comedy “Toni Erdmann,” her country’s foreign Oscar selection took home five top awards: Best European Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress. The awards ceremony is hosted by different countries each year.

Three Scandinavian Oscar entries: “A Man Called Ove” (Sweden), “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki” (Finland), and “Land of Mine” (Denmark) won awards, along with Oscar submissions from Italy (documentary “Fire at Sea”) and Switzerland (animated film “My Life as a Zucchini”). Andrzej Wajda, whose film “Afterimage” is Poland’s official Oscar entry, won an honorary award.

The U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences members participating in the...

Germany’s Oscar hopeful wins five major awards in Wroclaw at politically charged ceremony.

Toni Erdmann has been voted the best European film of 2016 at the European Film Awards in Wroclaw.

More than 3,000 members of the European Film Academy - filmmakers from across Europe - voted at this year’s awards ceremony.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The comedy also picked up awards for best European Director (Maren Ade), European Actress (Sandra Hüller), European Actor (Peter Simonischek) and European Screenwriter (Maren Ade).

The top prize for Toni Erdmann marked the first time in the EFAs’ 29-year history that the Best European Film award went to a female director as Maren Ade pointed out on accaccepting the evening’s final statuette with her partners Jonas Dornbach and Janine Jackowski of their production company Komplizen Film.

Swedish comedy drama A Man Called Ove was voted best European comedy, while there were also wins for Fire At Sea...

Germany’s Oscar contender wins five major awards in Wroclaw

Toni Erdmann has been voted the best European film of 2016 at the European Film Awards in Wroclaw. More than 3,000 members of the European Film Academy - filmmakers from across Europe - voted at this year’s awards ceremony.

The comedy also picked up awards for best European Director (Maren Ade), European Actress (Sandra Hüller), European Actor (Peter Simonischek) and European Screenwriter (Maren Ade).

Swedish comedy drama, A Man Called Ove, was voted best European comedy.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Meanwhile, Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake won the first European University Film Award (Eufa), a collaboration between the Efa and Filmfest Hamburg. Students from 13 European countries came together in Hamburg this week and selected Loach’s film from five nominated titles.

On announcing the winner in Wroclaw, Filmfest director Albert Wiederspiel revealed that the initiative had been so popular that it was likely that universities...

Germany’s Oscar contender wins five major awards in Wroclaw

Toni Erdmann has been voted the best European film of 2016 at the European Film Awards in Wroclaw. More than 3,000 members of the European Film Academy - filmmakers from across Europe - voted at this year’s awards ceremony.

The comedy also picked up awards for best European Director (Maren Ade), European Actress (Sandra Hüller), European Actor (Peter Simonischek) and European Screenwriter (Maren Ade).

Swedish comedy drama, A Man Called Ove, was voted best European comedy.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Meanwhile, Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake won the first European University Film Award (Eufa), a collaboration between the Efa and Filmfest Hamburg. Students from 13 European countries came together in Hamburg this week and selected Loach’s film from five nominated titles.

On announcing the winner in Wroclaw, Filmfest director Albert Wiederspiel revealed that the initiative had been so popular that it was likely that universities...

A selection of films from the 2016 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has been unveiled, with films by Jim Jarmusch, Maren Ade, Tom Ford, Paul Verhoeven, Damien Chazelle, and many more.Opening NIGHTThe Magnificent Seven (Antoine Fuqua)GALASDeepwater HorizonArrival (Denis Villeneuve)Deepwater Horizon (Peter Berg)The Headhunter's Calling (Mark Williams)The Journey Is the Destination (Bronwen Hughes)Jt + The Tennessee Kids (Jonathan Demme)Lbj (Rob Reiner)Lion (Garth Davis)Loving (Jeff Nichols)A Monster Calls (J.A. Bayona)Planetarium (Rebecca Zlotowski)Queen of Katwe (Mira Nair)The Rolling Stones of Olé Olé Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America (Paul Dugdale)The Secret Scripture (Jim Sheridan)Snowden (Oliver Stone)Strange Weather (Katherine Dieckmann)Their Finest (Lone Scherfig)A United Kingdom (Amma Astante)Special PRESENTATIONSLa La LandThe Age of Shadows (Kim Jee-woon)All I See Is You (Marc Forster)American Honey (Andrea Arnold)American Pastoral (Ewan McGregor)Asura: The City of...

The third cascade of world premieres in 15 days flowed from the headquarters of the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday as programmers revealed their Midnight Madness, Tiff Docs, Vanguard, Tiff Cinematheque and Short Cuts selections.

This week’s offering includes Ben Wheatley’s all-star gangster thriller Free Fire, which opens Midnight Madness one year after the premiere of the British auteur’s High-Rise; fast-rising Chadwick Boseman in revenge thriller Message From The King in Vanguard and a Tiff Docs strand that features climate change documentary The Turning Point, featuring and produced by Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio.

The 41st Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8 to 18.

Wp = world premiere, IP = international premiere, Nap = North American premiere, Cp = Canadian premiere, Tp = Toronto premiere.

Midnight Madness

Ben Wheatley’s all-star gunfight Free Fire starring Brie Larson, Armie Hammer and Cillian Murphy will open the section, which includes Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Rats, Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch, André Øvredal’s [link...

The Toronto International Film Festival has nearly completed its slate announcement this year — expect a few stragglers to be announced in the coming days, but this is about the size of it — rounding out its lineup with today’s announcement of its Docs, Midnight Madness, Vanguard and Tiff Cinematheque picks. And what a group this is, including plenty of returning favorites and some very exciting new names.

Tiff’s Docs section features a collection of works from award-winning directors including Steve James, Raoul Peck, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog. Leonardo DiCaprio even pops up for a “rousing call to action on climate change” in “The Turning Point,” made in collaboration with Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens and already picked up by National Geographic.

Read More: Tiff Reveals First Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Magnificent Seven,’ ‘American Honey,’ ‘La La Land’ and ‘Birth of A Nation’

The beloved Midnight Madness section offers...

The selection for the 2016 Venice Film Festival has been announced, with new films by Terrence Malick, Pablo Larraín, Lav Diaz, Wang Bing, Amat Escalante, Tom Ford, and more.COMPETITIONVoyage of TimeThe Bad Batch (Ana Lily Amirpour)Une vie i (Stéphane Brizé)La La Land (Damien Chazelle)The Light Between Oceans (Derek Cianfrance)El ciudadano ilustre (Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat)Spira Mirabilis (Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti)The Woman Who Left (Lav Diaz)La región salvaje (Amat Escalante)Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)Piuma (Roan Johnson)Paradise (Andrei Konchalovsky)Brimstone (Martin Koolhoven)Jackie (Pablo Larraín)Voyage of Time (Terrence Malick)El Cristo Ciego (Christopher Murray)Frantz (François Ozon)Questi Giorni (Giuseppe Piccioni)Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)Les beaux jours D'Aranjuez (Wim Wenders)Out Of COMPETITIONSafariOur War (Bruno Chiaravolloti, Claudio Jampaglia, Benedetta Argentieri)I Called Him Morgan (Kasper Collin)One More Time with Feeling (Andrew Dominik)The Bleeder (Philippe Falardeau)The Magnificent Seven (Antoine Fuqua...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth was among the big winners on an evening of political messages.Click Here For Full List Of Winners

Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth was the big winner at this year’s 28th European Film Awards on Saturday night in Berlin, taking home the top honour for European Film 2015 as well as the awards for European Director and European Actor.

These awards came only two years after Sorrentino’s previous film The Great Beauty bagged the same clutch of awards (plus Best European Editor) at the corresponding event.

Michael Caine was visibly moved when he came on stage to accept the European Actor trophy for his portrayal of an elderly composer and conductor. “It’s been 50 years and I’ve never won an award in Europe, and I’ve now won two in one evening,” the veteran actor quipped.

Earlier in the evening, nerves had almost got the better of Efa President Wim Wenders when he...

2015 European Film Awards winners and nominations Best European Film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. En Duva Satt På En Gren Och Funderade På Tillvaron. Sweden, France, Germany, Norway, 96 min. Written and directed by: Roy Andersson. Produced by: Pernilla Sandström. Mustang. France, Germany, Turkey, 100 min. Directed by: Deniz Gamze Ergüven. Written by: Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour. Produced by: Charles Gillibert. Rams. Hrútar. Iceland, Denmark, 93 min. Written and directed by: Grímur Hákonarson. Produced by: Grímar Jónsson. The Lobster. U.K., Ireland, Greece, France, Netherlands, 118 min. Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos. Written by: Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou. Produced by: Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Ceci Dempsey and Yorgos Lanthimos. Victoria. Germany, 138 min. Written and directed by: Sebastian Schipper. Produced by: Jan Dressler. * Youth. Youth – La Giovinezza. Italy, France, U.K., Switzerland, 118 min. Written and directed by: Paolo Sorrentino. Produced by: Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima and Carlotta Calori. Best...

Youth proved the big winner of the night scoring a hat-trick; Amy Winehouse documentary, The Lobster and Mustang among other winners.

The more than 3,000 members of the European Film Academy – filmmakers from across Europe – voted for this year’s European Film Awards. At the awards ceremony in Berlin on Saturday (Dec 12) the following awards were presented:

European Film 2015

Youth – La Giovinezza

Written & Directed By: Paolo Sorrentino

Produced By: Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima & Carlotta Calori

European Comedy 2015

A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence (En Duva Satt PÅ En Gren Och Funderade PÅ Tillvaron) by Roy Andersson

European Discovery 2015 – Prix Fipresci

Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven

European Documentary 2015

Amy by Asif Kapadia

European Animated Feature Film 2015

Song Of The Sea by Tomm Moore

European Short Film 2015

Picnic (Piknik) by Jure Pavlović

European Director 2015

Paolo Sorrentino for Youth (La Giovinezza)

European Actress 2015

Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years

European Actor 2015

Michael Caine in Youth (La Giovinezza...

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings brought the holiday blues to Conan Monday with a pining, web-exclusive rendition of "Please Come Home for Christmas."

Jones belted the somber, mid-tempo tune with characteristic aplomb, running vocal circles around a clever arrangement by the Dap-Kings that mixed sultry guitars, gritty horns and seasonally apt orchestral chimes.

"Please Come Home for Christmas" was originally recorded in 1960 by Charles Brown (not that Christmas sad sack) and has since been covered by an array of artists including the Eagles, Bon Jovi and Kelly Clarkson. Jones and...

Austria's terrifying Oscar submission "Goodnight Mommy" and director Yorgos Lanthimos' popular Cannes entry "The Lobster" are among the first winners of the 28th annual European Film Awards, which will be handed out by the European Film Academy Dec. 12 in Berlin. Nominees for European Film, Comedy, Director, Screenwriter, Actress, and Actor will be announced Nov. 7 at the Seville European Film Festival. Read More: "Horror Fans: Don't Miss Austria's Shocking Oscar Entry 'Goodnight Mommy'" A seven-member jury chose the prizewinners in cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, composer, and sound design from the Efa Selection list and additional film entries. Read the full list of honorees below: Read More: "Cannes: 'Dogtooth' Director Yorgos Lanthimos Scores with Surreal, Macabre 'The Lobster' (Review and Roundup)" European Cinematographer 2015 – Prix Carlo di Palma: Martin Gschlacht for Goodnight Mommy (Ich Seh Ich...

Everyone knows Woody Allen. At least, everyone thinks they know Woody Allen. His plumage is easily identifiable: horn-rimmed glasses, baggy suit, wispy hair, kvetching demeanor, ironic sense of humor, acute fear of death. As is his habitat: New York City, though recently he has flown as far afield as London, Barcelona, and Paris. His likes are well known: Bergman, Dostoevsky, New Orleans jazz. So too his dislikes: spiders, cars, nature, Wagner records, the entire city of Los Angeles. Whether or not these traits represent the true Allen, who’s to say? It is impossible to tell, with Allen, where cinema ends and life begins, an obfuscation he readily encourages. In the late nineteen-seventies, disillusioned with the comedic success he’d found making such films as Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), and Annie Hall (1977), he turned for darker territory with Stardust Memories (1980), a film in which, none too surprisingly, he plays a...

Update: Pawlikowski is only third Polish director to win Efa’s top prize; Steve McQueen pays tribute to Jean Vigo; Ukrainian diector Oleg Sentsov gets an empty seat at the awards in Riga.

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida was the big winner at this year’s European Film Awards in Riga, picking up five awards, including the top honour of European Film 2014 as well as the People’s Choice Award

“It’s been a fantastic night for us and a great night for Poland,” Pawlikowski said as he went up onto the stage of Latvia’s National Opera House for the fourth time on Saturday evening (December 13).

Earlier, when receiving the European Director 2014 trophy, the UK-based director explained that two of the film-makers competing for this honour — Turkey’s Nure Bilge Ceylan and Russia’s Andrey Zvyagintsev — are his favourite directors working today. “Thank you for being losers — this time,” he quipped...

Digital Spy readers have voted Fleur East as their favourite act of the X Factor semi-final.

The singer, who impressed with renditions of Mark Ronson's 'Uptown Funk' and Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas', won a landslide victory by claiming 51.83% of the vote.

Over 12,500 of you voted in the poll that saw Andrea Faustini come second with 19.67%.

Ben Haenow follows narrowly in third with 19.36%, after his performances of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' and Charles Brown's 'Please Come Home For Christmas'.

Lauren Platt came bottom of the reader poll, receiving 9.14% of the vote.

The X Factor continues tonight (December 7) on ITV at 8pm.

The X Factor semi-finals - gallery:...

It's the X Factor semi-final, and now only two performances stand between the final four and a place in next week's Sse Arena finale in Wembley.

In order to get there, the acts must first perform a Christmas song, before taking on a track of their own choosing. Read on to see what everyone will be performing...

Fleur East

'All I Want For Christmas Is You' by Mariah Carey

'Uptown Funk' by Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars

Andrea Faustini

'O Holy Night' by Mariah Carey

'Wrecking Ball' by Miley Cyrus

Lauren Platt

'Stay Another Day' by East 17

'Story Of My Life' by One Direction

Ben Haenow

'Please Come Home for Christmas' by Charles Brown

'Hallelujah' by Leonard Cohen

The X Factor semi-final airs tomorrow night (December 6) at 8pm on ITV.

Force Majeure, Leviathan and Nymphomaniac among nominees.

The nominations for the 27th European Film Awards have been announced at the Seville European Film Festival.

More than 3,000 European Film Academy members will now vote for the winners, who will be presented during the awards ceremony on Dec 13 in Riga.

Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac Director’s Cut - Volume I & II and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep will compete for European Film, with every director - apart from von Trier - up for European Director alongside Steven Knight for Locke and Paolo Virzi for Human Capital.

Roger Michell’s Le Week-End is up for European Comedy, alongside Paco León’s Carmina & Amen and Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer.

The full list of nominations is as follows:

European Film 2014

Force Majeure (Sweden/Denmark/France/Norway)

Written & Directed By: [link...

It's a case that sounds like it was ripped from a CSI script - a veteran crime lab worker for the San Diego Police Department, who police believe brutally murdered a 14-year-old girl three decades ago, hangs himself before the authorities can arrest him. "He knew he was under investigation," San Diego Police Department Lt. Paul Rorrison tells People of retired criminalist Kevin Charles Brown, 62. "Unfortunately, he committed suicide before we could take him into custody." Brown first came under suspicion in the unsolved, gruesome 1984 murder of Claire Hough, who had been beaten, strangled and stabbed - and had one...

It's a case that sounds like it was ripped from a CSI script - a veteran crime lab worker for the San Diego Police Department, who police believe brutally murdered a 14-year-old girl three decades ago, hangs himself before the authorities can arrest him. "He knew he was under investigation," San Diego Police Department Lt. Paul Rorrison tells People of retired criminalist Kevin Charles Brown, 62. "Unfortunately, he committed suicide before we could take him into custody." Brown first came under suspicion in the unsolved, gruesome 1984 murder of Claire Hough, who had been beaten, strangled and stabbed - and had one...

John Coltrane Offering: Live at Temple University (Resonance/Impulse!)

The question is not whether this album is good. It's freakin' John Coltrane, of course it's good (though my expectation of your agreement with that assumes that you appreciate him in free-jazz mode). It's a matter of setting up your expectations properly and prioritizing. So, although this is "the first official release struck from the original master tapes," as opposed to dingy-sounding bootlegs, you still have to be prepared for sub-par sound. This concert was recorded by the Temple radio station, apparently using one microphone up front, so the horns dominate -- though even they come and go. 

And whoever was recording it didn't get every minute; he missed the very beginning, and with just one machine at his disposal, missed the end of "Leo" when he had to change tape reels. So allowances must be made, and if you don't...

The 1967 Cannes Grand Prix winner Blowup was prestigious director Michelangelo Antonioni’s first foray into English, thanks to a deal struck with MGM by producer Carlo Ponti, who contracted the director to do three of them: this one, Zabriskie Point, and The Passenger. While this is clearly the best of that trio (though The Passenger has some merit), in the great Antonioni’s career it feels like a tangential experiment more than a fully realized piece of art.

Based on the short story “Las babas del diablo” by Julio Cortázar, Blowup stars David Hemmings as Thomas, a London photographer who spends his days straddling models while he snaps their pictures, doing various drugs, and moving from woman to woman, enjoying the swinging lifestyle commonly practiced during the era. While walking through a London park, he snaps photos of a couple in an embrace, infuriating the woman (Vanessa Redgrave), who arrives...

At the end of the most recent season of his superb FX series, Louis C.K. made an unusual pass at long-form storytelling. “Late Show” finds Louie at its most overtly dramatic and—for a show that regularly exults in narrative ellipsis and melancholia—its most accessible as well. It tells the story, over three episodes, of our hero’s unlikely journey to succeed an apparently retiring David Letterman. As an increasingly confident director, C.K. has continued to explore more adventurous possibilities. Louie is essentially a hybrid of the comedian’s impulses as a stand-up and as a straight-ahead sketch writer. The man on stage, with all his fear and responsibility and desire and dread, is dropped into a world conceived to afflict these very qualities, a world that must be endured. The jokes come later, when we can make sense of it all. Whatever truth is to be discovered...

So far, La Grande Belleza, my choice for the Oscar is in the lead!

See the full list of winners below:

The 26th European Film Awards: Winners

The more than 2,900 members of the European Film Academy - filmmakers from across Europe - have voted for this year’s European Film Awards. At the awards ceremony in Berlin the following awards were presented:

European Film

La Grande Bellezza

The Great Beauty

Italy/France , 140 min

Directed By: Paolo Sorrentino

Written By: Paolo Sorrentino & Umberto Contarello

Produced By: Nicola Giuliano & Francesca Cima

European Comedy

Love Is All You Need

Denmark, 111 min

Directed By: Susanne Bier

Written By: Anders Thomas Jensen & Susanne Bier

Produced By: Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Vibeke Windeløv

European Discovery – Prix Fipresci

Oh Boy

Germany, 83 min

Written & Directed By: Jan Ole Gerster

Produced By: Marcos Kantis & Alexander Wadouh

European Documentary

The Act Of Killing

Denmark/Norway/UK, 159 min

Directed By: Joshua Oppenheimer

Produced By: Signe Byrge Sørensen

European Animated Feature Film

The Congress

Israel/Germany/Poland/Luxembourg/France/Belgium, 120 min

Written & Directed By: Ari Folman

Animation: Yoni Goodman

European Short Film

Dood Van Een Schaduw

Death Of A Shadow

directed by Tom Van Avermaet

Belgium/France 2012, 20 min, fiction

European Director

Paolo Sorrentino for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

European Actress

Veerle Baetens in The Broken Circle Breakdown

European Actor

Toni Servillo in La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

European Screenwriter

François Ozon for Dans La Maison (In The House)

European Cinematographer – Prix Carlo Di Palma

Asaf Sudry

for Lemale Et Ha’Halal (Fill The Void)

Israel

European Editor

Cristiano Travaglioli

for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

Italy/France

European Production Designer

Sarah Greenwood

for Anna Karenina

UK

European Costume Designer

Paco Delgado

for Blancanieves

Spain/France

European Composer

Ennio Morricone

for The Best Offer

Italy

European Sound Designer

Matz Müller & Erik Mischijew

for Paradies: Glaube (Paradise: Faith)

Austria/Germany/France

European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award

Catherine Deneuve

European Achievement In World Cinema

Pedro Almodóvar

European Co-production Award– Prix Eurimages

Ada Solomon

People’S Choice Award for Best European Film

The Gilded Cage directed by Ruben Alves...

Paolo Sorrentino's "The Great Beauty" dominated the 26th European Film Awards taking home the best film, director, actor, and editing trophies. The counterpart of the Academy Awards completely ignored the big Cannes winner (and possibly Oscar contender) "Blue is The Warmest Color."

Here's the complete list of winners of the 26th European Film Awards:

European Film

La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

European Director

Paolo Sorrentino for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

European Actress

Veerle Baetens in The Broken Circle Breakdown

European Actor

Toni Servillo in La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty)

European Screenwriter

François Ozon for Dans La Maison (In the House)

European Comedy

Love Is All You Need, Susanne Bier, Denmark

European Discovery - Prix Fipresci

Oh Boy!, Jan Ole Gerster, Germany

European Animated Feature Film

The Congress, Ari Folman, Israel, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, France and Belgium

European Documentary

The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark,...

Other winners included Love Is All You Need, The Act of Killing, The Congress and The Broken Circle Breakdown.

Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty was the big winner at the 26th European Film Awards in Berlin, picking up four of the silver statuettes for European Film, European Director, European Actor for Toni Servillo, and European Editor for Cristiano Travaglioli.

The Great Beauty is Italy’s Oscar entry this year and had won the EurAsia Grand Prix at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival a matter of days before the awards ceremony in Berlin.

Sorrentino could not personally accept the two awards as he is serving on the jury at the Marrakech Film festival, but producer Nicola Giuliano brought members of the cast and crew on stage to receive the audience’s applause.

Veteran Italian composer Ennio Morricone received the European Composer statuette for his score of Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Best Offer and was given a standing...

Other winners included Love Is All You Need, The Act of Killing, The Congress and The Broken Circle Breakdown.

Paolo Sorrentino’s Italian drama The Great Beauty picked up top prizes at the 26th European Film Awards in Berlin, including best film, director and actor.

The film, which premiered in Cannes, is Italy’s submission for the 2014 Best Foreign-Language Oscar.

Winning the top Efa prize, it beat features including Cannes-winner Blue is the Warmest Colour, which walked away empty-handed from the ceremony.

More than 2,900 members of the European Film Academy voted for the awards.

Full list of winners

European Film

The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino

European Comedy

Love Is All You Need, Susanne Bier

European Discovery – Prix Fipresci

Oh Boy, Jan Ole Gerster

European Documentary

The Act Of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer

European Animated Feature Film

The Congress, Ari Folman

European Short Film

Valladolid Short Film Nominee

Death Of A Shadow, Tom Van Avermaet

European...