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"You know you're safe here, right?" Yeah, not so sure about that... Strand Releasing has unveiled an official US trailer for the sweaty, sultry indie film Motel Destino made by acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz. This premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival last year to very mixed & negative reviews – it's an overlong, overly-sexual, meandering fever dream of a movie... drenched in neon and bodily fluids. Under the burning sky on a roadside on the coast of Ceará, "Motel Destino" is the scene of dangerous games of desire, power and violence. One night, the unexpected arrival of 21-year-old Heraldo, on the run after a botched hit, disrupts the established order. As the tropical noir plays out, loyalties and desires intertwine to reveal that destiny has its own enigmatic design.

The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão and Firebrand director Karim Aïnouz returned to Cannes Film Festival last year with Motel Destino, an erotic drama which was picked up by Strand Releasing. Ahead of an August 29 beginning at NYC’s IFC Center, the new trailer and poster have now arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “The neon-hued Motel Destino, a roadside sex hotel steaming under the burning blue skies of the northeastern coast of Brazil, is run by hot-headed Elias and his restless younger wife Dayana. The unexpected arrival of 21-year-old Heraldo, on the run after a botched hit, disrupts the established order. As the tropical noir plays out, loyalties and desires intertwine to reveal that destiny has its own enigmatic design.”

Savina Petkova said in her Cannes review, “Simply put, Brazilian motels are places for people to have sex. Everyone knows it, no one objects to it. You pay by the...

The Directors’ Factory at Cannes is notching up its 10th year with this edition, which has Brazil as its focal point and, more specifically, the environs of Fortaleza in the north-eastern region of Ceara. This year’s edition was “under the patronage” of Futuro Beach director Karim Aïnouz. For each film in the showcase, local filmmakers are paired with international partners.

The shorts are all by emerging filmmakers who are all working on their first features.

This year’s Directors’ Factory features – with descriptions provided by Directors’ Fortnight – click the titles below to read the full reviews:

Blind Spot - Marta is an engineer responsible for the security cameras at the port of Fortaleza, an environment where silenced women deal with anonymity and contempt. But Marta is ready to speak out.

The Cowgirl, The Showgirl And The Pig - A trans cowgirl enters the bar where her lover, a black showgirl,...

At the Cannes halfway mark, talk is turning to the Venice Film Festival line-up.

Benny Safdie’s A24 title The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, and films from Chloe Zhao, Edward Berger, Alice Winocour and Yorgos Lanthimos are all being tipped to debut on the Lido.

After a quiet 2024 in Venice, Netflix may be back with Berger’s Macao-set The Ballad Of A Small Player starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton. Focus Features has two major possibilities: Zhao’s Hamnet, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal (although the Nov 27 US release date may suggest a later festival...

Riley Keough has joined the cast of “Out of This World” directed by Albert Serra, the Spanish director whose 2022 film “Pacifiction” competed at Cannes and won a pair of Cesar Awards. Keough will star opposite F. Murray Abraham and Liza Yankovskaia (“Frau”).

Serra’s English-language film debut, “Out of This World” follows an American delegation traveling to Russia in the midst of the Ukrainian war to try to find a solution to an economic dispute. The project explores the decades-long rivalry between Russia and the U.S. While it will mainly shoot in English, it will also include some Russian dialogue. Kristen Stewart was previously attached to star in the movie.

“Out of This World” is being represented internationally by Alice Lesort’s sales team at Losange Films, Charles Gillibert’s auteur-driven sales and production boutique which is a sister label to CG Cinema. The feature, which marks Serra’s eighth film,...

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated several times since.

Deserved or not, French cinema has a reputation for being a little racy. From classics like “Belle de Jour” to controversial modern films like “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” French film has consistently pushed the boundaries of sexuality and sensuality onscreen. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the country’s premier film festival Cannes is such an oasis for sexually explicit films, ones that have frequently generated controversy over its history — especially when these films feature unsimulated sexual acts.

Unsimulated sex onscreen at Cannes dates back to at least 1973, when the film “Thriller — a Cruel Picture,” featuring several acts of hardcore unsimulated porn, played at the festival. In the years afterwards, particularly provocative and avant-garde works like “Sweet Movie” and “The Idiots” caused shock at Cannes by presenting audiences with real, unvarnished sexual content.

Exclusive: Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Acid title Drunken Noodles from Berlin-based M-Appeal on the first day of the market.

Drunken Noodles is the latest English-language feature from Argentinian-born, New York–based filmmaker Lucio Castro.

The queer drama stars Laith Khalifeh as a young art student who arrives in New York City to flat-sit for the summer. He begins interning at a gallery where an unconventional older artist he once encountered is being exhibited. The film co-stars Joel Isaac, Ezriel Kornel, and Matthew Risch.

Castro was inspired to write the story by the real-life artist Sal Salandra,...

This is Mubi’s time. With studio specialty divisions almost a relic of the past and international and independent cinema soaring on the awards stage, the arthouse mini-studio founded by Efe Cakarel is cutting a growing swathe across the film landscape. Mubi is back on the Cannes Croisette with three films in Competition and another in Un Certain Regard.

Director Luca Guadagnino, a previous collaborator, is one of the company’s many fans in high places: “Mubi is a great and passionate company,” he says. “They will grow a lot as a business.”

Eye-catching growth has certainly been a hallmark of the company’s last few years.

Jason Ropell

Former investment banker and MIT graduate Cakarel founded the London-based company — then known as The Auteurs — back in 2007. These days, the headcount stands at more than 400 globally across 14 offices. And Cakarel believes that Mubi can become “many times its current size” in coming years.

UK-Ireland top five, May 9-11, 2025 Rank Film (origin) Distributor May 2-4 gross Total Week 1 Thunderbolts*(US) Disney £2.4m £11.7m 2 2 Sinners(US) Warner Bros £1.1m £13.1m 4 3 A Minecraft Movie(US) Warner Bros £621,814 £54.9m 6 4 Ocean With Davd Attenborough (UK) Altitude £321,963 £573,551 1 5 The Accountant 2(US) Warner Bros £227,269 £2.3m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.31

Disney’s Thunderbolts* held the top spot at the UK and Ireland box office, on a weekend where takings were affected by warm weather across much of the territory.

Dropping 53% in its second weekend, Thunderbolts* brought in £2.4m. The latest superhero venture now stands at £11.7m, behind the £13.2m of Captain America: Brave New World...

Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow) has set Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) and Gillian Anderson (Sex Education) to lead Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, their next film for Mubi, which will go into production in British Columbia this summer.

In Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the infamous Camp Miasma slasher franchise is getting rebooted yet again. But when the latest movie’s director becomes obsessed with the mysterious, reclusive actress who played the “final girl” in the original film, a whole new kind of slasher emerges from the bottom of the lake.

Plan B is producing. Daniel Bekerman from Scythia Films is exec producing and will provide local production services. Mubi is financing the film and will distribute in select territories, including North America, Latin America, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Turkey, India, Australia, and New Zealand, with The Match Factory handling remaining worldwide sales.

Mubi will finance and distribute in select territories Jane Schoenbrun’s next feature film Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma.Plan B will produce the film starring Hannah Einbinder from Hacks and Gillian Anderson from The X-Files and The Crown.

Schoenbrun also wrote the screenplay for their follow-up to 2024 Sundance selection I Saw The TV Glow and 2021 Sundance entry We’re All Going To The World’s Fair.

Production is scheduled to commence this summer in British Columbia.Daniel Bekerman of Scythia Films is executive producer and will provide local production services.

Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma takes place...

“Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder and “The X-Files” legend Gillian Anderson are teaming up to take on a new kind of slasher movie.

“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” will mark the third feature from Jane Schoenbrun, whose psychological horror drama “I Saw the TV Glow” became one of the most acclaimed indies of 2024.

Plan B is producing the film, with Mubi financing and to distribute across will distribute in select territories, including North America, Latin America, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Turkey, India, Australia, and New Zealand. The Match Factory is handling remaining worldwide sales.

In “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” the infamous “Camp Miasma” slasher franchise is getting rebooted yet again. But when the latest movie’s director becomes obsessed with the mysterious, reclusive actress who played the “final girl” in the original film, a whole new kind of slasher emerges from the bottom of the lake.

Jane Schoenbrun’s latest feature film “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” has been boarded by Mubi, which will finance and distribute the film in select territories.

Newly announced by Mubi on Friday, “Camp Miasma” will star “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder and “X-Files” star Gillian Anderson, and it will go into production this summer in British Columbia.

Schoenbrun wrote and will direct the film about a director hired to yet again reboot a slasher horror franchise called “Camp Miasma.” But when the latest movie’s director becomes obsessed with the mysterious, reclusive actress who played the “final girl” in the original film, a whole new kind of slasher emerges from the bottom of the lake.

Brad Pitt’s Plan B has also boarded the film and is producing. Daniel Bekerman, who is executive producing, will provide local production services via his Scythia Films. Mubi is financing the film and will distribute in select territories,...

Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow) has set their next feature film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hacks star Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.

Plan B Entertainment will produce, with arthouse distributor and streamer Mubi financing and distributing the film in North America, Latin America, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Turkey, India, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Match Factory is handling worldwide sales on the project.

“I make movies I wish existed when I was a kid,” said Schoenbrun. “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is my best attempt at the ‘sleepover classic’: an insane yet cozy midnight odyssey that beckons to unsuspecting viewers from the horror section at the local video store. I couldn’t be more excited to be heading to sleepaway camp this summer with the mad comic genius Hannah Einbinder, the legendary Gillian Anderson, and the daring folks at Mubi and Plan B,...

Vertigo Releasing’s The Surfer leads the new releases in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend as Universal’sThe Wedding Banquetand Altitude’sOcean With David Attenboroughare also out.

Nicholas Cage stars in Lorcan Finnegan’s psychological thriller The Surferwhich rides into 388 locations. The acclaimed actor plays a father who returns to his childhood beach in Australia and conflicts with the locals. The film premiered in Cannes Midnight Screenings last year.

Cage’s recent openings include Longlegs; Dream Scenario and Renfield.

Also out is The Wedding Banquetin 254 locations for Universal. A remake of the 1993 film of the same name, Bowen Yang...

The tropes of film noir play out in neon colours in Karim Aïnouz’s vibrant Motel Destino. Opening with two lean, muscular and barely dressed young brothers play-fighting on a beach, it contrasts shades of gold and terracotta with blue skies, a turquoise ocean and the vivid greens of cacti, ferns and palms. This is Ceará, where the sun beats down relentlessly. It’s a coastal territory effectively governed by gangster matriarch Bambina (Fabiola Liper). Heraldo (Iago Xavier), one of the brothers, dreams of going to São Paolo to earn money so he can return and open his own garage, but Bambina has work she wants the two of them to do first. When things go wrong, Heraldo finds himself on the run, and takes shelter in a seedy motel.

When a man has nothing else, he has his body. Dayanna (Nataly Rocha), who co-owns the motel with her partner...

Mubi, the global streamer, producer and distributor behind “The Substance,” has struck a major three-year co-production, financing and distribution agreement with Our Films, the new Rome-based company founded by prominent European producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli.

Our Films, which is part of Mediawan, was launched last year by Gianani and Mieli, and has already become a creative hub for world-class filmmakers from Europe, the U.S. and overseas. Mubi and Our Films share the same passion for artistically ambitious movies that resonate internationally. The agreement also underscores Mediawan’s drive to further strengthen their status as a leading prestige European film studio.

The first film to emerge from this strategic alliance will be the next feature from Paweł Pawlikowski, the Oscar-winning director of “Ida” and “Cold War.”

Mieli previously successfully collaborated with Mubi on three high-profile films: Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” starring Cailee Spaeny; Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” starring...

Disney and Marvel’s ensemble feature “Thunderbolts*” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £5.9 million ($7.9 million), according to Comscore.

In second place, Warner Bros.’ “Sinners” showed staying power, adding $2.5 million in its third weekend. The film has now reached a cumulative $14.1 million. Warner Bros.’ “A Minecraft Movie” slipped to third with $1.6 million in its fifth weekend but lifted its total to a towering $71.1 million, extending its reign as the year’s top-grossing title to date.

Also from Warner Bros., “The Accountant 2” took fourth place with $622,989 in its second week, bringing its total to $2.3 million. Sony’s horror-thriller “Until Dawn” followed in fifth, scaring up $442,953 in its second frame for a cumulative $1.5 million.

Lionsgate U.K.’s “The Penguin Lessons” claimed sixth place with $276,178 in week three, and is now at $3.5 million. Debuting at No. 7, “Bluey At The Cinema: Let’s Play Chef Collection” brought in $238,972, a...

The Cannes Film Festival revealed its Official Selection on Thursday morning in Paris, and it was a typically star-studded and intriguing lineup. You can see the full lineup here. Below are our five key takeaways from the reveal.

1. Changing Of The Guard? Julia Ducournau poses with the Palme d’Or for ‘Titane’ in 2021

This is a fresh lineup. Cannes Film Festival head Thierry Frémaux said there’s more to come, but this wasn’t your typical Cannes Competition lineup studded with older, familiar auteurs. The festival is opening with a female debut filmmaker for the first time in the shape of Amélie Bonnin’s Leave One Day, and seven of the 19 films in Competition are first-time Palme d’Or contenders. The average age in Competition must be significantly lower than most years. Yes, there are three previous Palme d’Or winners in the lineup, but the likes of Mascha Schilinski,...

The Cannes Film Festival will reveal its 2025 lineup on Thursday morning European time and expectations are high for a typically bountiful lineup of starry fare and arthouse treats. Cannes remains the Super Bowl for indie film lovers.

It’s always a nervous waiting game for those connected to Cannes hopefuls. Multiple festival regulars have told us that selectors are later than ever in giving them notice. The festival has often announced a major movie or two by now, but not this year. The identity of Juliette Binoche‘s fellow jury members are still also under wraps.

In terms of films in the running, much of the reporting we did in February in our Cannes and Venice prediction piece has either come to pass or is shaping up as we forecast. You can read that story here.

Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning remains the most likely big Hollywood studio splash.

Flóra Anna Buda, Andrea Gatopoulos, Xiwen Cong, Simon Maria Kubiena, Constance Tsang and Rodrigo Ribeyro have been named as the latest cohort of emerging directors to participate in the Cannes Film Festival’s La Résidence initiative, which is now in its 49th edition.

The six filmmakers are being hosted in the program’s residency in the Pigalle neighborhood of Paris, from March 15 to July 31, where they are benefiting from personalized screenwriting support and a collective program of meetings with film professionals.

Hungary’s Buda made waves in 2023 with her animated short film 27, which won the Cannes Palme d’or for best short, and then the Cristal Award at the Annecy Festival in 2023.

Italian and Greek director, producer and distributor Gatopoulos’s most recent work, the short film The Eggregores’ Theory, opened the 39th Venice Film Critics’ Week and made history as one of the first AI films to show in the sidebar.

With just three weeks until the line-up for the Cannes Film Festival 2025 is announced on April 10,Screentakes a look at the films from around the world looking increasingly likely to debut on the Croisette.

North America

English-language auteurs Wes Anderson, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch and Kelly Reichardt could all unveil their anticipated next films at the Cannes – and if they do, it will drum up the kind of red-carpet glamour Thierry Fremaux loves.

Two years after The French Dispatch played in Competition, Anderson looks a safe bet to return with The Phoenician Scheme, a spy comedy thriller featuring...

Pamela Anderson is joining the cast of Kornél Mundruczó’s upcoming drama movie, Place to Be. The film is currently shooting in Sydney, Australia.

Deadline reports that Anderson has joined the project, with other cast members including Ellen Burstyn and What We Do In The Shadows star Taika Waititi. Place to Be tells the story of "no-nonsense" Brooke (Burstyn) and "discombobulated divorcee" Nelson (Waititi) as they travel from Chicago to New York to bring a lost racing pigeon home. Anderon's role is Molly, Brooke's daughter, who is finding herself after the end of her second marriage. "Anxious about re-homing her elderly mother, she is resistant to any plan to move her to a retirement facility," the character description reads.

Mundruczó spoke about Anderson's talents, including her most recent role in the 2024 film The Last Showgirl, in the casting announcement. "I really love Pamela - she's such a versatile actress, and...

Pamela Anderson began a new stage of her career with her acclaimed performance in The Last Showgirl, and Deadline reports that she’ll be keeping that momentum going with a starring role in Place to Be, a new drama from Kornél Mundruczó (White God).

Place to Be stars Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi and is currently shooting in Sydney, Australia. The film follows “no-nonsense Brooke ( Burstyn) and discombobulated divorcee Nelson (Waititi) as they travel from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon home.” Anderson will play Molly, “Brooke’s daughter, who is finding her feet after the end of her second marriage. Anxious about rehoming her elderly mother, she is resistant to any plan to move her to a retirement facility.“

Mundruczó told Deadline that he’s “thrilled” at the cast he’s assembled. “I really love Pamela – she’s such a versatile actress and her most...

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

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

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

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

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

Place to Be,...

What’s going to be this year’s “Anora”? As the Cannes Film Festival rapidly approaches, that’s the question for artistic director Thierry Fremaux and movie buffs around the world.

A month before Cannes Film Festival’s press conference, the official selection is still very much a work in progress, with little reliable information filtering through about which movies have already been invited. In fact, as of Friday — despite the volume of splashy prediction stories — it appears that only three films have so far been given a golden ticket to compete in Cannes. Variety can reveal that one of them is Jim Jarmusch’s anticipated “Father Mother Sister Brother“ starring Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and Tom Waits.

The last edition of the festival, which Fremaux had warned would be slightly weaker due to the impact of the double Hollywood strikes, proved to be anything but. Headlined by Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anora,...

Brazil’s film industry has reached a new pinnacle with I’m Still Here securing the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. Directed by Walter Salles, the political drama has not only garnered global attention but has also placed Brazil’s cinematic achievements firmly on the world stage.

The victory, announced at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 2, represents a breakthrough for both Brazilian cinema and Globo, the media giant behind the film’s production. I’m Still Here is the first movie produced with support from Globo’s streaming service, Globoplay, to win an Academy Award. This success coincides with the 100th anniversary of Globo, making it a particularly poignant moment for the company.

Manuel Belmar, Globo’s Director of Finance, Legal, Infrastructure, and Digital Products, expressed pride in the achievement, noting that the win exemplifies the company’s long-standing commitment to supporting Brazilian talent. “Seeing this talent...

After celebrating its three Oscar nominations for Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” with the same excitement it normally reserves for the soccer World Cup, Brazil went into overdrive when it took home the best international feature statuette.

The Sambadrome at Rio de Janeiro Carnival was hosting processions when it erupted in jubilation as the Oscar win for “I’m Still Here” was announced by the Carnival commentator. The period political drama was already part of the event as best actress nominee Fernanda Torres was named one of the Carnival’s muses.

Brazilian president Lula issued a statement that “Today is a day to feel even prouder of being Brazilian, proud of our cinema, our artists and above all proud of our democracy. A recognition to this extraordinary work which showed Brazil and the world the importance of the struggle against authoritarianism.”

Globo, Brazil’s TV giant, issued a press release celebrating the win,...

Brazil will be the official country of honor at this year’s Marché du Film, the Cannes film market, an acknowledgment of the growing strength of Brazilian cinema internationally.

Brazilian cinema is riding a wave right now, helped by the global success of Walter Salles’ political drama I’m Still Here, which is up for 3 Oscars this weekend: Best International Feature, Best Actress for lead Fernanda Torres, and Best Film.

The Brazilian industry will have a strong presence throughout the Marché, which runs from May 13 to May 21 during the 78th Cannes film festival, with key industry figures featuring in events and panels devoted to strengthening international ties and expanding the global reach of Brazilian storytelling.

In a great piece of news for market attendees, Brazil will also host the Marché’s official opening night party at the Plage des Palmes on May 13.

Brazilian cinema has been a near-constant feature in Cannes over the decades,...

While the official lineup of films at the Cannes Film Festival taking place in May won’t be made public until mid-April, there are already some early rumblings of what projects we should expect to see on that list and there are plenty of reasons to get excited.

That group of potential entries as compiled by Deadline includes directorial debuts with Kristen Stewart‘s “The Chronology Of Water” (still a chance it might not be completed in time), and Scarlett Johansson‘s “Eleanor The Great.”

Read More: Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ Potentially Eyeing Cannes Film Festival Screening

Notable and high-profile films that are expected to screen at Cannes, pending official confirmation: Jim Jarmusch‘s latest effort “Father, Mother, Sister, Brother,” Spike Lee‘s “Highest 2 Lowest” (a remake of the Akira Kurosawa kidnap drama that stars Lee’s longtime muse Denzel Washington), Wes Anderson‘s...

Top Brazilian production company Gullane Entretenimento is ramping up efforts to widen its scope through Gullane+, the company’s fast-growing distribution arm. Partners Fabiano and Caio Gullane will now focus on production, with Débora Ivanov taking over the distribution operation. Gullane+ inherits the company’s rich catalog of over 40 projects, including Karim Aïnouz’s “Mariner of the Mountains” and Laís Bodanzky’s classic “Brainstorm,” as well as featuring a slate of new exciting projects by André Ristum and Flavia Moraes.

Speaking with Variety out of Berlin, where Gullane is heavily promoting its distribution efforts, Fabiano Gullane said the three partners always “really liked the distribution part of the process” and realized they could employ their many years of expertise in handling some of their titles. Initially, Gullane+ will focus on documentaries and smaller productions, with major projects still benefiting from their long-standing partnership with Brazilian distributors like Paris Filmes.

“The...

As São Paulo State and Brazil at large gears up its funding for film, TV, vid games and beyond, there is a distinct possibility that Brazil’s Congress will approve this year a global streamer investment quota for Brazilian films and series. If that happens, it could see R$700 million-r$800 million ($122 million-$140 million) being invested in independent Brazilian production, producer Fabiano Gullane (“Senna”) estimates.

Already Brazil is Latin America’s comeback story and its players, thanks to “I’m Still Here” and “Senna” walk the world stage. Following, the often remarkable São Paulo companies known to be at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, often aided in their attendance by São Paulo State. As often frequent international co-producers, they are well worth knowing. A drill-down on companies at Berlin, with some more to come.

44 Toons, Ale McHaddo

An animation studio and, from 2016, live action producer behind toon series “Osmar” and Netflix...

All roads in the Brazilian film industry seem to lead to lead to Marcelo Rubens Paiva, and he considers many of the people he has worked with in the last 40-odd years of his life to be family. By coincidence, family is also the subject of the film that has changed his life dramatically over the last six months. Based on Paiva’s 2015 autobiography Ainda estou aqui, Walter Salles’ film I’m Still Here tells the story of his mother, Eunice Paiva, whose politically active husband Rubens was taken by military police in January 1971 and never returned home.

Paiva is no stranger to drama, having overcome tetraplegia after diving into a shallow lake at the age of 20, an incident that informed his first bestseller, Feliz Ano Velho (Aka Happy Old Year) in 1983. But he admits to being overwhelmed by the international goodwill that has followed I’m Still Here since its world...

Gabriel Mascaro’s “The Blue Trail,” playing in competition in Berlin, marks another great milestone for Brazilian cinema in a year where the country got its first best picture Oscar nomination with Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here.” Mascaro follows in the footsteps of Salles playing in competition in Venice and Karim Aïnouz playing in competition at Cannes with “Motel Destino,” three consecutive Brazilian films playing in the most prestigious strands of the three most important European film festivals.

“Each one of these films is so different from each other but has great strengths,” Mascaro tells Variety ahead of his Berlinale bow. “I feel very proud to be a part of it.”

“The Blue Trail” takes place in a near future Brazil where the government relocates the elderly to senior housing colonies so the younger generations can fully focus on productivity and growth. Tereza (Denise Weinberg), nearing 80, refuses to accept her fate,...

Exclusive: This year’s Manchester Film Festival is set to run from March 14 – 23 and will open with a screening of The Penguin Lessons, directed by British filmmaker Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan.

Based on the best-selling memoir, the film tells the story of an Englishman’s personal and political awakening during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history, brought about by his unlikely adoption of a penguin.

Manchester will screen 37 features, including 15 UK premieres and 4 world premieres. All films will be screening in Manchester for the first time. This includes the Manchester premiere of the UK’s Oscar selection Santosh from Sandhya Suri, Sundance, and Cannes hit Good One directed by India Donaldson, and South by Southwest Audience Award Winner My Dead Friend Zoe from Kyle Hausmann-Stokes.

Other highlights include the UK premieres of Y2K, A24’s latest horror comedy starring Fred Durst and directed by Kyle Mooney, the...

Tandem Films has pre-bought French distribution rights for Canadian filmmaker Jeremy Comte’s directorial debut, Canada and Ghana-set drama thriller Paradise.

Film Constellation represents sales on the title, which recently wrapped principal photography between Quebec and Ghana.

In the wake of his father’s disappearance at sea, a young Ghanaian is drawn into a world of street gangs and deception. Meanwhile, in Quebec, a man discovers his mother’s relationship with a sailor, who may hold the key to finding his father.

Newcomers Daniel Atsu Hukporti and Joey Boivin-Desmeules star in the leading roles.

Paradise is produced by Entract Studios...

Pamela Anderson delivers a career best performance in The Last Showgirl, but her next role will call upon a completely different talent from the character drama. Known best for her breakout role in Baywatch, Pamela Anderson has remained a fixture of pop-culture for decades even if she hasn't always received the respect she deserves. Shows like Pam & Tommy have capitalized on her story, while the actor herself has consistently worked in the industry since 1990. However, her latest performance, released almost thirty-five years after her screen debut, highlights her full talent.

The Last Showgirl has won Pamela Anderson the best reviews of her career, even earning her a Golden Globe and SAG Award Nominations for Best Actress. It's been an impressive showing from Anderson, and speaks to her true potential as a dramatic actor. While she does have dramatic films currently in the works (like Karim Aïnouz's upcoming adaptation of...

Exclusive: Early one morning up in Haddon Hall, a grand Tudor hall in Derbyshire, England, this corpulent, menacing-looking man swathed in a richly brocaded tunic trimmed with fur shuffled over to have a chat with filmmaker Karim Aïnouz and the Oscar-winning actor Alicia Vikander.

I had no idea who he was.

We were on the set of Firebrand, about Henry VIII’s marriage — his sixth and final one — to Katherine Parr.

Jude Law was supposed to join them. “Where is he?” I asked Gabby Tana, Firebrand’s producer.

“He’s in front of you talking to Karim,” Tana responded.

“That’s Jude Law?” I blurted.

Jude Law is bemused when I recount the story

He’s calling me from New York, and when he realizes that I’m in Beverly Hills, his voice breaks as he mentions that he’s been in touch with friends “who have lost everything” in...

After scoring her first Golden Globe nomination for her star turn in The Last Showgirl, Pamela Anderson caught up with Deadline to tease upcoming projects and discuss what this long-awaited moment in her career means to her.

In terms of upcoming films for Anderson at present, the buzziest would have to be Paramount’s The Naked Gun reboot, in which she stars opposite Liam Neeson, who she says she adores. “It was physical comedy, so it’s completely different,” Anderson says. “I’m literally running into walls, so I’m really excited about that one.”

Then, there’s Rosebush Pruning, a thriller in which she stars opposite a slew of “incredible young actors” including Riley Keough, Elle Fanning, and Lukas Gage. That project called for “a very serious, classic style of acting,” Anderson says, “which is really fun to be around because it’s always the stuff I responded to.

Mubi, which recently planted a flag in the U.S. with the wide release of Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” has welcomed Zhang Xin to its board of directors, as part of a new chapter for the rapidly expanding company which will also see Zhang’s New York-based film production and financing group Closer Media become an investor in Mubi.

A billionaire entrepreneur, Zhang co-founded Closer Media and previously co-founded Soho China, a construction giant in Beijing and Shanghai known for its iconic projects designed by leading architects from around the world. She left the company in 2022 and partnered with William Horberg, a veteran producer whose credits include “The Queen’s Gambit” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” to break into the media world.

A patron of the arts, Zhang also serves as a Trustee of MoMA, and is a member of both the Harvard Global Advisory Council and Asia Business Council.

On December 5, the IndieWire Honors Winter 2024 ceremony will celebrate the creators and stars responsible for crafting some of the year’s best films. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the filmmakers, artisans, and performers behind films well worth toasting. We’re showcasing their work with new interviews leading up to the Los Angeles event.

Ever since “The Last Showgirl” premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, Pamela Anderson has said it over and over: This is the screenplay, the project, that she’s been waiting to make her whole life. However, what often goes unsaid it is it’s the movie we’ve hoped she’d make, too.

Everyone knows Pamela Anderson, pop icon: Playboy! Blonde! Red swimsuit! Sex tape! Marriages! Maybe you thought of her more deeply, maybe you didn’t, but what was clear to everyone is the image only...

Two Brazilian titles, Marcelo Gomes’ “Portrait of a Certain Orient” and Marianne Brennand’s “Manas,” swept the three biggest awards at Spain’s Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, which wrapped Saturday night in the Southern Spanish city.

With Brazil’s Marcelo Caetano scooping a fourth trophy of a total seven on offer for competition titles, Huelva served to confirm the building renaissance of Brazilian cinema, already seen in Karim Aïnouz making Cannes main Competition cut two years running – with “Firebrand” and “Motel Destino” – and Walter Salles’ comeback and Brazilian Academy Award entry “I’m Still Here’s” reaping a rave review and reporting in Variety and other media, prompting Oscar buzz.

“Portrait of a Certain Orient,” Marcelo Gomes, Brazil, Italy: Golden Columbus, Best Picture

Shot in black-and-white and a 4:3 box format, “Portrait,” which took Huelva’s Best Picture Golden Columbus, tells a tender, lamenting parable of the tragedy of bigotry and patriarchy,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Alien: Romulus (Fede Alvarez)

It’s a dire, inhospitable environment, wherein corporate interests can give way to ghoulish monstrosities, and those just trying to navigate the chokehold of capitalism are doing their best to survive. In a way, Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus may be the most meta Alien film to date. No stranger to playing in others’ sandboxes, the Evil Dead helmer is, at first glance, an encouraging fit for the sci-fi horror franchise. Like the original, 2017’s Alien: Covenant––an underrated high point for these films––was at its peak when threading its headier notions with gleefully mean-spirited cynicism towards its human subjects. Alvarez has that same kind of nasty streak in him, and much of Romulus’ mandated fan service...

From the day that Christopher Columbus set sail from Huelva to beach up in the Caribbean, the Spanish city has always had strong ties to Latin America.

With Spain still laboring under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, when a group of young film buffs at Huelva’s Film Club aimed to galvanize the city’s culture, “It was logical that we looked to the richness and plenitude of culture that came from abroad,” recalls José Luis Ruíz Díaz, Huelva’s first director. “It was also logical that we had a large interest in Latin America, adds Vicente Quiroga, its longtime head of press. Relaxing, censorship in Spain also allowed access to a suddenly broader sweep of foreign titles.

Huelva’s first 50 editions have proved a faithful reflection of the evolution of cinema in Latin America, Portugal and Spain. Some milestones:

1975: Ruíz Díaz launches Huelva’s first Ibero-American Film Week with Argentina’s “La Raulito.

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in February 2022 and has been updated multiple times since.]

Sex on film is nothing new, and yet unsimulated intercourse in non-pornographic movies has raised eyebrows and drawn eyeballs for decades. From Vincent Gallo’s controversial directing for “The Brown Bunny” to Robert Pattinson’s masturbatory method acting in “Little Ashes,” genuine intimate encounters captured on film — however staged they may be — can pull audiences into the bigger stories their writers and directors are trying to tell.

Catherine Breillat’s first film in 1976, “A Real Young Girl,” adapts her own controversial novel about a 14-year-old exploring her newfound sexuality. Breillat’s later work, 1999’s “Romance,” tells the story of a woman desperately seeking human connection and featured similar scenes, including sadomasochistic sex play.

“Actors are prostitutes because they’re asked to play other feelings,” Breillat told IndieWire. “This prostitution is not profane; it’s a sacred act that we give them.”

John Cameron Mitchell set out to “honor” sex as a pastime for real people,...

MetFilm Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Silje Evensmo Jacobsen’s documentary A New Kind of Wilderness.

The film follows the Paynes family, who live an isolated life on a Norwegian forest farm; when tragedy strikes and forces them to forge a path into modern society. MetFilm Distribution will release it in UK-Ireland cinemas in early 2025.

A New Kind of Wilderness won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival in January – an award previously won by Oscar-nominated documentary Honeyland.

It has since been on a festival tour including Cph:dox, Docville, Visions du Reel, Hot Docs and Edinburgh film festivals.

Cannes has announced the six first and second-time filmmakers selected for its annual Résidence programme, whose 48th session kicked off on October 1 in Paris and will run through February 15, 2025.

This year’s crop of rising talents includes four female filmmakers, among them: French-Moroccan director Sofia Alaoui, a 2022 Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow and 2023 Unifrance 10 to Watch talent, whose debut feature Animalia won the 2023 Sundance special jury prize; Lithuanian director Eglé Razumaite whose latest short Ootidé competed at Cannes 2024; India’s director Diwa Shah, whose Bahadur: The Brave screened at San Sebastián; and Germany’s Anastasia Veber whose short Trap won...

The opening sequences of Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz’s films are, for the most part, composed of immaculate static shots of nature—a detailed look into the place that his characters inhabit—as if to imply some sort of geographic determinism. In the particular case of “Motel Destino” (2024), the bordering red cliffs could signify the hardened, rough edges of its protagonist; while the occasional pops of lush green vegetation found in this arid land may represent the resilience and mutability of his character; and the brightly turquoise waters that ever so gently bathe the shore may very well comment on his pathological need for affection as he was abandoned by his father, abused by his step-father and neglected by his mother.

But perhaps most prominently, the blistering sunlight suggests the hot-headed temperament of everyone in this coastal town. If bodies aren’t drenched in sweat due to the extreme heat of the region’s climate,...

Riley Keough and Callum Turner are to replace Kristen Stewart and Josh O’Connor in ‘Rosebush Pruning’.The upcoming movie - which is being helmed by Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz - was initially going to see 34-year-old Stewart and O’Connor, also 34, in the leading roles, though it has now been revealed the ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ actress, and the ‘Masters of the Air’ star have taken the former pairs’ parts. The two actors will be joining the likes of Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson, Jamie Bell, Lukas Gage, Tracy Letts and Elena Anaya in the flick, which is currently filming in Spain. While exact plot details about the picture are unknown at the moment, Aïnouz teased that the project would challenge audiences’ preconceived concepts of "the traditional family and the patriarchy".He told Variety: "I’m so excited to bring this audacious and delicious script to life, which challenges our...

How’s this for an epic cast list? Karim Aïnouz‘s “Rosebush Pruning” had enough hype surrounding it already: Elle Fanning as the star; Efthimis Filippou penning a script that adapts the 1965 classic “Fists In The Pocket“; Mubi, The Match Factory, and Fremantle‘s The Apartment footing the bill. But the ensemble Aïnouz cast around Fanning now makes his follow-up to “Motel Destino” one of next year’s most anticipated films.

Continue reading ‘Rosebush Pruning’: Karim Aïnouz’s Dark Satire With Elle Fanning Adds Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell & More at The Playlist.