News

Elton John, Edward Berger collaborator Volker Bertelmann and thecomposers of Emilia Perez are among the first wave of nominees for the 25th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards (Wsa).

The winners will be announced on October 15 at the Wsa ceremony and concert, held during Film Fest Gent in Belgium.

Clément Ducol and Camille are nominated across two categories this year for their work on Emilia Pérez –film composer of the year and best original song for‘El Mal’, winner of the parallel category at this year’s Oscars. They share the latter nomination with director Jacques Audiard, who also has songwriting credits.

Longstanding VFX house Glassworks is closing down.

Glassworks was founded in 1995 in London, and also had studios in Amsterdam and Barcelona.

The company, which primarily focused on commercials but also had a film and TV division, has struggled in challenging market conditions.

Its film and TV division’s credits include seriesKaos (Netflix)andThe Rig (Amazon Prime), plus Ja Bayona features Society Of The Snow(Netflix) andA Monster Calls (Focus Features).

The business recently closed its Amsterdam office, citing “the exceptionally challenging market conditions that have affected so many in our industry.” At that point, it said “our London office remains fully operational.

New films by Fatih Akin, Bora Dagtekin and Sergei Loznitsa, plus UK co-production series Embassy, are among the projects awarded more than €12m in production support by three German film funds.

The Cologne-based regional fund Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw allocated €2m (of around €7.7m in production funding) to six-part series Embassy, produced by Turbine Studios Germany with the UK’s Ascendant Fox. It will shoot on location in North-Rhine Westphalia (Nrw) for 60 days this year.

Directed by Adolfo Kolmerer and John Strickland, Embassydepicts a raid by mercenaries on the US Embassy in London. An American diplomat and a British Sas...

New films by Fatih Akin, Bora Dagtekin and Sergei Loznitsa, plus Prime Video series Embassy, are among the projects awarded more than €12m in production support by three German film funds.

The Cologne-based regional fund Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw allocated €2m (of around €7.7m in production funding) to six-part series Embassy, produced by Turbine Studios Germany with the UK’s Ascendant Fox for Prime Video. It will shoot on location in North-Rhine Westphalia (Nrw) for 60 days this year.

Directed by Adolfo Kolmerer and John Strickland, Embassy stars Jk Simmons as a US diplomat who is forced to work together with his former lover,...

New films by Fatih Akin, Bora Dagtekin and Sergei Loznitsa, plus Prime Video series Embassy, are among the projects awarded more than €12m in production support by three German film funds.

The Cologne-based regional fund Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw allocated €2m (of around €7.7m in production funding) to six-part series Embassy, produced by Turbine Studios Germany with the UK’s Ascendant Fox for Prime Video. It will shoot on location in North-Rhine Westphalia (Nrw) for 60 days this year.

Directed by Adolfo Kolmerer and John Strickland, Embassy stars Jk Simmons as a US diplomat who is forced to work together with his former lover,...

Fatih Akin’s Amrum and Mascha Schilinski’s Sound Of Falling are among five titles shortlisted as Germany’s entry for the Oscars’ best international feature award.

Sound Of Falling premiered in Cannes Competition and follows a century of trauma in rural Germany, whilst post-war coming-of-age drama Amrum debuted in the Cannes Premiere section.

The other three titles are Joachim A. Lang’s Cranko, a biopic of dancer and choreographer John Cranko played by Sam Riley; Andres Veiel’s documentary Riefenstahl about the controversial German filmmaker; and Dennis Gansel’s anti-war drama The Tiger, which is set to become Amazon...

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

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

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

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

The Cannes Film Festival is over, and while the Marché Du Film is as booming as ever with exciting packages of future films, the main action has been for those films playing in competition, all of which could make a big splash at the box office or the awards season race for the right buyer. Last year’s “The Substance” was acquired by Mubi before it landed a Best Picture Oscar nomination and made $77.3 million worldwide.

Here are the 13 films we predicted ahead of the festival could find homes quickly, several of which already have. We’ll update the below list with all the acquisitions as they come in.

“Two Prosecutors”

Section: Competition

Distributor: Janus Films

Director: Sergei Loznitsa

Buzz: In the return to fiction filmmaking for the first time since 2018 from the “Donbass” and “The Invasion” director, Sergei Loznitsa adapted a suppressed novella set during Stalin’s Great Purge...

Jason Isaacs and Benito Skinner are stepping out during Men’s Fashion Week in Milan!

The 62-year-old White Lotus actor and the 31-year-old Overcompensating actor posed for photos as they arrived at the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 Menswear Fashion Show on Monday (June 23) in Milan, Italy.

Other stars in attendance include Simu Liu, The Handmaid’s Tale actor Max Minghella, Captain America: Brave New World actor Giancarlo Esposito, In the Fade director Fatih Akin, and Wicked costume designer Paul Tazewell.

The day before, Benito joined Benedict Cumberbatch, Harris Dickinson, and more stars at Prada‘s menswear fashion show.

In a new interview, Benito opened up about the potential for a second season of Overcompensating, and making a new movie with co-star Owen Thiele.

Click through the gallery inside for more photos of the stars at the fashion show…...

Like anyone who’s played their way through the last 30 years (or more) of Hideo Kojima’s work, I’ve come to expect a certain degree of eccentricity from Aaa gaming’s most distinctive auteur. Be that as it may, Kojima’s fetishistic cinephilia made “Death Stranding” — its cast partially composed of famous directors whose photorealistic likenesses are embodied by actors via performance capture — a uniquely strange experience for movie people like me.

Heartman, a scientist who dies every 21 minutes (only to get shocked back to life by the battery pack on his chest shortly thereafter), is modeled after Nicolas Winding Refn. Deadman, a researcher whose body has been Frankensteined together from borrowed parts, is naturally made to resemble Guillermo del Toro. A character known as “The Film Director,” seen only in hologram, is a perfect scan of Jordan Vogt-Roberts, whose long-gestating “Metal Gear Solid” adaptation will probably never be seen at all.

In their second weekends, Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning added an estimated $63m and $27.3m respectively in North America, while Wes Anderson’s Cannes Competition premiere The Phoenician Scheme delivered the highest per-theatre score of the year to date.

Comscore reported that total weekend box office amounted to $149.2m as the year-to-date tally reached $3.4bn. Box office is currently tracking 26% ahead of 2024 by the same stage.

Lilo & Stitch, Disney Live Action’s reboot of the studio’s popular animation, held on to top spot and now stands at $280.1m after last weekend’s record Memorial Day holiday weekend launch.

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Fatih Akin’s coming-of-age drama Amrum which debuted in Cannes Premiere.

‘Amrum’ review

Akin and frequent collaborator Hark Bohm, whose credits include In The Fade and Goodbye Berlin, co-wrote the screenplay based on Bohm’s personal experiences growing up on Amrum Island.

Laura Tonke, Diane Kruger, and newcomer child actor Jasper Ole Billerbeck star in the story set in the final days of the Second World War in spring 1945 as a 12-year-old helps his mother feed the family. Aspeace approaches, the enemy is far closer than the youngster imagined.

Amrum marks Akin...

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Fatih Akin’s coming-of-age drama “Amrum” after the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month. The film will be released theatrically by Kino Lorber followed by a digital, educational and home video release.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Directed by Akin and co-written by Akin and frequent collaborator Hark Bohm (“In the Fade”), “Amrum” is based on Bohm’s own personal experiences growing up on Amrum Island.

The film takes place in 1945, with 12-year-old Nanning outside the house he shares with his mother, brother and aunt on the German island of Amrum when he hears the radio deliver the news that Adolf Hitler “has fallen.” Inside the house, Nanning’s very pregnant mother, Hille, lets out a piercing scream and then a gasp, as her water breaks on the kitchen floor and she gives birth to a baby.

Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Fatih Akin’s coming-of-age drama “Amrum,” which made its world premiere as an Official Selection of this month’s Cannes Film Festival. The film will be released theatrically by Kino Lorber followed by a digital, educational and home video release. Beta Cinema is handling global sales.

Directed by Akin and co-written by Akin and frequent collaborator Hark Bohm, Amrum is based on Bohm’s own personal experiences growing up on Amrum Island. Starring Laura Tonke, Diane Kruger, and first-time child actor Jasper Ole Billerbeck, the film marks Akin’s first collaboration with Kruger since “In the Fade,” which won her Cannes’ best actress prize in 2017.

The film is set on Amrum Island in spring 1945. In the final days of the war, 12-year-old Nanning (Billerbeck) braves the treacherous sea to hunt seals, goes fishing at night, and works the nearby farm to...

Deutsch Debut

Acclaimed actor Diane Kruger has lent her voice to the first-ever German-language “Bluey Book Reads,” marking a milestone for the digital sensation. The “Troy” and “Inglourious Basterds” star, who also headlines Fatih Akin’s Cannes-bowing “Amrum,” has narrated beloved “Bluey” storybooks “The Creek” and “Camping” in her native German.

“The Creek” launched May 27 on the German “Bluey” YouTube channel, with “Camping” following May 29. Both episodes will also stream on Bluey.TV.

“Tucking in for the night in our house never happens without a good Bluey book. I’m thrilled I got the opportunity to read these two stories. I definitely got mom points for this one,” Kruger said.

The German recordings are part of Series 2 of “Bluey Book Reads,” expanding internationally alongside French narrations by Camille Cottin and Korean readings by Han Ga-in. The initiative is produced by BBC Studios Digital Brands, BBC Studios Kids & Family and Ludo Studio.

Bluey is being given a German spin with a dose of star power.

As the number of A-list fans of the all-conquering kids hit swells, Inglourious Basterds star Diane Kruger has been recruited to narrate a version of Bluey Book Reads that will be read in German for the first time.

Launching later this week on YouTube, Kruger will read Bluey books “The Creek” and “Camping” in her native German. In “The Creek”, Bluey and her friends are bored at the park and Mackenzie suggests a trip to the creek. In “Camping”, Bluey is on a family camping trip, where she makes a new friend, Jean-Luc.

Kruger said: “Tucking in for the night in our house never happens without a good Bluey book. I’m thrilled I got the opportunity to read these two stories. I definitely got mom points for this one.”

Kruger is the star of movies including Inglourious Basterds,...

In Amrum, Fatih Akin stages a sentimental conversation between himself and his mentor, the German director Hark Bohm. This project, which premiered at Cannes outside the main competition, was born of a collaboration between the two filmmakers: Bohm wrote the screenplay, which is based on memories of his youth in the waning days of World War II, and Akin directed (as well as helped edit the script). Indeed, one of the film’s intertitles calls Amrum a “Hark Bohm film by Fatih Akin.”

That’s a useful note, because it announces Amrum as atypical of the Turkish-German filmmaker’s usual offerings. It doesn’t have the thriller textures of In the Fade or the grittiness of Head-On. With its focus on the experiences of a young boy, Amrum most closely aligns with Akin’s 2016 coming-of-age drama Goodbye Berlin.

But even that film, with its surreal elements, had a touch more edge.

The 2025 Cannes Film Festival has wrapped following days of star-studded premieres, red carpets and dealmaking on the French Riviera.

This year’s lineup included major Hollywood premieres including Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme starring Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera, Richard Linklater’s Paris-shot Breathless homage Nouvelle Vague, Jochim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Titane Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau’s Alpha to name a few.

They were joined by new films from stalwart auteurs including horrormeister Ari Aster’s buzzy A24 feature Eddington, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident and Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind. Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson debuted in Un Certain Regard with her first directorial effort, Eleanor the Great.

Related: Standing Ovations At Cannes: How We Clock Those Claps, Which Movie Holds The Record and Why The Industry Loves To Hate The Ritual

Croisette regulars Kirill Serebrennikov, Raoul Peck and...

An official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in the Cannes Premieres section, Fatih Akin’s poignant coming-of-age tale of a 12-year-old boy on a remote German island in the waning days of World War II and the defeat of his homeland’s Nazi Party and Hitler, is a side of the war rarely seen in movies. Although the German competition entry in the main competition, Sound of Falling, has gotten all the attention and the hype for the country at this year’s festival (it was just picked up by Mubi today), I would say this modest film is far more impressive and moving and should be taken seriously by the Germans when it comes time for a submission into the Oscar International Film race.

Among others, Akin made the terrific arthouse hit In the Fade in 2017 and that is where I really took notice of his filmmaking acumen.

Kirsten Niehuus, the CEO of the influential film fund for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, Medienboard, welcomed guests to its traditional cocktail reception at the Cannes Film Festival for the last time on Saturday. But it’s unlikely international film folk have seen the last of Niehuus, who has a reputation for backing high-quality international films. Niehuus, who steps down at the end of June, is understood to be a frontrunner for another high-profile role within the Germany film business.

Niehuus is well-placed to become the new president of the German Federal Film Board, known as the Ffa, when Bernd Neumann steps down later this year. The Ffa is a powerful body within the German film landscape. It distributed 20 million euros ($22.5 million) to 50 projects for production and script funding last year, including cash for Cannes films like Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” and Christian Petzold’s “Miroirs No. 3,” likely box-office hits...

It was moving to watch Denzel Washington lope up to the Lumière stage at Cannes and tear up as he accepted his Honorary Palme d’Or from Cannes veteran Spike Lee Monday night at the “Highest 2 Lowest” premiere. It was a surprise to the actor, as he watched a clip reel that ranged from his four prior roles with Lee to “Philadelphia,” “Flight,” “The Book of Eli,” “The Hurricane,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “Fences,” and more.

Festival director Thierry Frémaux knows how to make the most of a Hollywood movie star, who flew into France and out again on his one day off from doing eight sold-out shows a week as Shakespeare’s “Othello” on Broadway. If the man looked weary, it’s understandable. At 70, he’s at the peak of his powers, and if the Oscar gods are smiling, he’ll land his third Oscar (after “Training Day” and...

German films and co-productions in Cannes this year are sure to entice festgoers and buyers alike with an eclectic selection heavy on historical drama and animation fare.

Highly anticipated works by Fatih Akin, Mascha Schilinski and Christian Petzold are premiering at the festival along with German co-productions from Wes Anderson, Sergei Loznitsa and Kirill Serebrennikov that explore postwar Germany, lives intertwined through time, loss and grief, international espionage, Stalin’s Great Purge and a war criminal’s escape from justice.

Unspooling in Cannes Premiere, Akin’s “Amrum” is a family drama set in 1945 on the titular North Sea German island and based on the autobiographical novel of screenwriter Hark Bohm, who also penned the script. It centers on 12-year-old Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck), who does everything he can to help his mother feed the family during the last days of the war, only to face all new challenges when peace finally arrives.

Stay at a film festival long enough, and you will eventually notice certain shared themes and connective tissues between movies. Even then, the happenstance link between Hasan Hadi’s compassionate directorial debut “The President’s Cake” and Fatih Akin’s quiet epic “Amrum” is something of a shock, as both movies send their young protagonists onto grand quests to gather around basic supplies like flour, sugar, eggs and so on at times of tragic scarcity born under dictators.

Then again, as specific as this plot similarity is, perhaps its emergence shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, considering the current, war-torn state of the world that’s once again victimizing children. Filmmakers trying to navigate our present-day realities would dig into their own pasts and memories. With “The President’s Cake,” Hadi has done exactly that, closely following his lead-character Lamia.

It’s Iraq in the 1990s — as Hadi remembers it.

Matthias Schweighöfer, star of Fatih Akin’s “Amrum,” wanted to work with the acclaimed “Edge of Heaven” and “In the Cut” director for years before an opportunity presented itself, he told Steve Pond during TheWrap’s Cannes Conversations in partnership with Brand Innovators.

The German Schweighöfer had been building a career of his own not just as an actor in projects like “Valkyrie” and Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead,” but as a director in his own right with films like “The Manny” and “You Are Wanted.”

Things worked out for Schweighöfer and Akin to work together after “he called me again and said, ‘Matthias, there is this one cool thing called ‘Amrum.’ I didn’t want to direct it. I only would produce it, but now I have to direct it. And I would love you to play a part in this,'” Schweighöfer recalled.

The resulting film...

Their meet cute was 2012 in Cannes. Diane Kruger — Hollywood star of Troy, National Treasure and Inglourious Basterds — was on the jury. German director Fatih Akin had a documentary screening at the festival. Kruger had been an Akin superfan ever since his breakout Head-On — a gritty, violent love story about a young German-Turkish woman trying to break free of her religious, restrictive family — which won Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2004. “Fatih for me is the best German director we have, the most modern,” says Kruger, who was born and raised in Germany but began acting in French and then American movies. “I had to meet him, so I sort of invited myself to the afterparty for his film, where he was DJ-ing. I went up and said: ‘I’m a fan. If you ever have a role for me, it would be a dream to work together.’ ”

“I never forgot,” says Akin,...

Fatih Akin’s poetic and elegantly spare “Amrum” asks us to take interest in a 12-year-old member of the Hitler youth as he cares for his mother in the last days of World War II, and while we’re at it, maybe even to sympathize with him. That won’t be easy for some. But as the story progresses in its patient, perceptive rhythm on the majestically windswept German island of Amrum, it becomes clear that the film isn’t looking for sympathy for the devil — which would be an oversimplification of the purpose at the heart of Akin’s graceful and profound drama.

Co-written by octogenarian German filmmaker Hark Bohm, who was originally supposed to direct the project based on his own childhood memories, the project was ultimately passed to Akin. Under his direction, “Amrum” wants us to engage with the possibility that at such a young age, the...

The third day of Cannes was noticeably sleepier, but what could compete with Tom Cruise and the cast and crew of “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” storming the Croisette?

Broken silence

On the first day of the Cannes Film Festival, a letter was published condemning the silence of the Hollywood film industry over Israel’s military action in Gaza. Now, more A-listers have added their names to the list, including Joaquin Phoenix (whose “Eddington” premieres at the festival Friday), jury president Juliette Binoche, Riz Ahmed, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Moore and Guillermo del Toro, whose long-awaited take on “Frankenstein” opens later this year.

“Since the terrible massacres of 7 October 2023, no foreign journalist has been authorised to enter the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is targeting civilians. More than 200 journalists have been deliberately killed. Writers, filmmakers and artists are being brutally murdered,” the letter stated.

What spurred the letter, specifically, was...

Leading sales agency Beta Cinema has revealed a tranche of sales to major territories for “Let It Rain,” “The Physician II” and “The Light.”

The Swedish comedy “Let It Rain,” directed by two-time Oscar-nominee Hannes Holm, was sold to Leonine (German-speaking territories), Benelux and Singapore (September Film), Czech Republic (Film Europe), Former Yugoslavia (Blitz), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and Israel (Lev Cinemas).

Robert Gustafsson (“The 100-Year-Old Man”), Jonas Karlsson (“The Snowman”) and Karin Lithman (“The Bridge”) star in the tale of a grumpy widower who, by miracle or coincidence, finds himself at the center of an event that could transform not only his own life but the fate of his entire village—and possibly the world. Holm earned two Academy Award nominations for “A Man Called Ove” in 2015. The film became an international box office hit in 2016, grossing over $30 million worldwide, and was later remade as “A Man Called Otto,” starring Tom Hanks.

It’s hard to imagine a less promising setup for a movie about a young boy’s act of kindness toward his mother than the one that’s supplied in Fatih Akin’s “Amrum,” which premiered on Thursday night at the Cannes Film Festival. The film takes place in 1945, with 12-year-old Nanning outside the house he shares with his mother, brother and aunt on the German island of Amrum when he hears the radio deliver the news that Adolph Hitler “has fallen.” Inside the house, Nanning’s very pregnant mother, Hille, lets out a piercing scream and then a gasp, as her water breaks on the kitchen floor and she gives birth to a baby.

Once the baby is born, Hille refuses to eat, suffering from a likely combination of post-partum depression and grief over the death of her Fuhrer. She insists that she only wants white bread with butter and honey,...

German-Turkish director Fatih Akin, whose “Amrum” debuts Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, is now working on two new films, a documentary, “Anatolian Dragon,” and a narrative feature, “Ghosts,” which will start shooting this summer, he has confirmed to Variety.

The documentary follows Turkish singer-songwriter Gaye Su Akyol as she works on her latest album in Berlin. Iggy Pop is a fan of her music, Akin said, and, like Pop in the 1970s, has found a creative refuge in the city.

“She had to leave Turkey after she got in trouble about her lyrics in this very misogynist society that the country has become,” Akin explained. “In the last five or six years, almost a quarter-million Turkish people, educated people, have left Turkey — doctors, scientists, you know. There has been a huge brain drain.”

Akin, whose parents moved from Turkey to Germany in the 1960s, added: “I would like to...

Beta Cinema has closed multiple international deals for Fatih Akin’s Amrum ahead of its world premiere in Cannes on Thursday, selling the German period drama to France (Dulac Distribution), Spain (A Contracorriente), Japan (Bitters End), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Cinemart), Former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria (McF) and Brasil (Imovision).

Diane Kruger co-stars in the feature, which Akin co-wrote with German director and screenwriter Hark Bohm, based on Bohm’s own childhood memories of growing up in the final weeks of World War 2 on the secluded North Sea island of Amrum. Life is hard on the island, but for 12-year-old Nanning (newcomer Jasper Billerbeck) it feels like paradise on earth. When the war ends, however, darker secrets about his family come to the surface. Laura Tonke, Lisa Hagmeister, Kian Köppke, and Matthias Schweighöfer co-star.

Warner Bros. Pictures Germany will release Amrum in Germany-speaking territories on Oct. 9.

Akin’s...

Beta Cinema has boarded international sales rights to Second World War film Each of Us, composed of four stories directed by four different women.

The film is currently in production in Poland, Germany and Spain, directed by Anne Zohra Berrached, Neus Ballús, Stina Werenfels and Anna Jadowska.

Diane Kruger, Carla Juri, Aida Folch and Ninel Geiger lead the cast, with the film written by Eva Pauné and Mirjam Ziegler and inspired by true stories.

Each of Us follows the intertwined stories of four women from different countries who struggle to preserve their humanity amidst the brutal conditions of the Ravensbruck...

Beta Cinema has secured the international sales rights for the concentration camp drama “Each of Us,” starring Diane Kruger, whose credits include “In the Fade,” for which she won best actress in Cannes, “Inglourious Basterds,” and “Amrum,” which premieres this week in Cannes.

Other lead members of the cast include Carla Juri, Aida Folch and Ninel Geiger.

The film tells a story of survival, resistance and sorority in the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp – the only one of its kind – during the final days of World War II.

“Each of Us” is directed by an all-female team of four European filmmakers: Anne Zohra Berrached (“24 Weeks”), Neus Ballús, Stina Werenfels (“Dora Or the Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents”) and Anna Jadowska.

The film, inspired by true stories, is written by screenwriters Eva Pauné and Mirjam Ziegler. It follows the intertwined stories of four women from different countries who struggle to preserve...

Beta Cinema has secured international sales rights for historical drama Each of Us, which follows four inmates at the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp during the final days of World War Two.

The cast is led by Diane Kruger, Carla Juri, Aida Folch and Ninel Geiger.

The film revolves around the intertwined stories of four women from different countries, who struggle to preserve their humanity amidst the brutal conditions of the camp. Their lives become linked through a young girl who brings both hardship to them but also hope.

The ground-breaking production, which is currently in production with shoots set for Poland, Germany and Spain, is directed by an all-female team of four acclaimed European filmmakers: Anne Zohra Berrached (24 Weeks), Neus Ballús (The Plague...

The teaser for Fatih Akin’s “Amrum” has debuted ahead of the film’s world premiere in the Cannes Premiere section of the Cannes Film Festival. Beta Cinema is handling world sales, with Warner Bros. distributing the film in Germany and Dulac Distribution in France.

The film is set on Amrum Island, off the coast of Germany, in spring 1945. In the final days of the war, 12-year-old Nanning braves the treacherous sea to hunt seals, goes fishing at night, and works on the nearby farm to help his mother feed the family. Despite the hardship, life on the beautiful, windswept island almost feels like paradise. But when peace finally comes, it reveals a deeper threat: the enemy is far closer than he imagined.

The film is based on the childhood of German actor, writer and director Hark Bohm, who wrote the original screenplay, which was then re-written and directed by Akin.

Updated 9am Pt May 8 to reflect changes to AI Summit: Brady Corbet’s Oscar and Globe-winning drama The Brutalist wound up in the eye of a brief awards season storm in January after it emerged that AI had been used to modify the dialogue of its co-stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones.

The storm was downgraded to a squall after Corbet explained that his sound team had worked with Ukrainian AI voice company Respeecher to “refine certain vowels and letter for accuracy” in the co-stars’ Hungarian-language dialogue, while English-language dialogue had not been touched.

Four months on, Respeecher CEO and co-founder Alex Serdiuk will be at the Cannes Marché du Film for a panel entitled ‘AI Voices for Hollywood and Beyond’, which will touch on the company’s involvement in The Brutalist as well as Jacques Audiard’s 2024 Cannes Jury Prize and Oscar winner Emilia Pérez.

The event is...

The Cannes Film Festival 2025 line-up reveals the films that likely will be chatted about long through the year. Here’s what’s showing.

Cannes Film Festival has published its official line-up for this year’s event, and we get our first hint at the films that are set to be part of the awards conversation for the coming months. The festival will be screening several interesting films, including the directorial debuts of Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson in the new filmmaker category.

Screening out of competition will be Spike Lee’s latest offering, Highest 2 Lowest, and Tom Cruise and company are taking Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning to the festival too. This has proved to be a public relations misstep in the past (remember Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny?) but with Mission releasing so soon after the festival, this seems like a savvy move to us.

The full list of films that will be screening at the 78th Annual Cannes Film Festival has been released. The line-up was announced this morning by the Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch at a press conference in Paris. The Hollywood Reporter has shared the program listing for this year’s event. While there are a number of anticipated high-profile titles, a bevy of auteurs will be showcasing their latest, including Kelly Reichardt, who will be returning to the competition with The Mastermind. The film is an art-heist drama and stars Josh O’Connor and John Magaro, which takes place during the Vietnam War.

Joachim Trier, the Norwegian filmmaker who made a splash in 2021 with The Worst Person of the World, returns with the new film Sentimental Value, which features Renate Reinsve. Julia Ducournau, the director of the surreal film, Titane, which got her a Palme d’Or...

The Cannes Film Festival has released the official selection for its 78th edition, featuring a mix of returning auteurs and first-time filmmakers. Scheduled to run from May 13 to 24, this year’s lineup includes world premieres from directors such as Wes Anderson, Julia Ducournau, Ari Aster, and Richard Linklater.

Announced by festival delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch during a press conference in Paris, the lineup spans the main competition, Un Certain Regard, and various sidebars. French actor and Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche will serve as jury president. The rest of the jury remains unannounced.

Among the films selected for competition is Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, debuting shortly before its theatrical release. Ari Aster returns with Eddington, a Western-inflected film distributed by A24. Linklater brings Nouvelle Vague, focused on the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. Ducournau’s Alpha is set in the 1980s and centers on...

The guessing game around which films could make the lineup for the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13—24, came to an end this morning at a press conference in Paris by Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch. If you tapped the latest works by Ari Aster (Eddington), Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind), Richard Linklater (Nouvelle Vague), Wes anderson (The Phoenician Scheme), and the Dardenne brothers (Young Mothers) to make the cut, then you were correct.

Neon, which is on a five-year winning streak of Palme d’Or winners, two of which went on to win best picture at the Oscars (Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Sean Baker’s Anora), will try to make it a sixth with, for now, either of the two films it already has in its stable: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Julie Ducournau’s Alpha.

Absent from the...

A competition filmmaker mainstay, Kirill Serebrennikov has been downgraded to the Cannes Premiere section for the world premiere to The Disappearance of Josef Mengele. He is among the veteran auteur filmmakers who make up the half dozen entries in the section which is surprisingly sans any French films. Joining the clique of Sebastián Lelio, Fatih Akin and Raoul Peck are relative newcomers in Un Certain Regard alumni pair of Michael Angelo Covino (The Climb) who surfaces with Splitsville and Alex Lutz (Une Nuit) who comes with Connemara which stars Bastien Bouillon. The actor will be in the opening night film this year in Amélie Bonnin’s Leave One Day.…...

Among the lineup for the Cannes Film Festival’s 78th edition are some big names from Hollywood and global cinema. We already knew that Tom Cruise will light the fuse on Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning on May 14 out of competition, while there was plenty of speculation that Scarlett Johansson would have a pair of movies on the Croisette. The latter has now been confirmed with Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great set for Un Certain Regard, and her acting reteam with Wes Anderson in his latest, The Phoenician Scheme, in Competition. Also confirmed is Ari Aster’s Eddington with Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone.

Many more stars are potentially in store now that the bulk of the official selection has been revealed. Not everyone is confirmed to attend the Riviera shindig, but here’s a look at some of the possibilities.

Cannes...

The Cannes Film Festival announced its 2025 lineup on Thursday morning. Several expected contenders are set for world premieres on the French Riviera, including new projects from Scarlett Johansson, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt, Joachim Trier, and more.

Among the titles that will premiere at Cannes this year are Eleanor the Great, Johansson’s directorial debut with a lead role for June Squibb; Nouvelle Vague, Linklater’s tribute to the French New Wave and the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless; The Mastermind, Reichardt’s latest about an art-world heist with roles for Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, and John Magaro; Splitsville (directed by Michael Angelo Covino), a Neon release with Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona; and Sentimental Value, Triet’s follow-up to The Worst Person in the World with Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, and Elle Fanning in the cast.

Other films of note include Alpha (Cannes winner Julia Ducournau...

The Official Selection for the 78th Cannes Film Festival was revealed Thursday, with 19 movies in Competition. See full lists below.

Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Wes Anderson, who brings his latest flick The Phoenician Scheme; Richard Linklater will launch his Paris-shot Nouvelle Vague; Jochim Trier debuts his latest feature Sentimental Value; and Titane Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau returns with Alpha.

Cannes will open this year with Leave One Day by first-time French filmmaker Amelie Bonnin. Thierry Frémaux said during his presser this morning that it was the first time a debut film has been selected to open the festival. Also hitting the Croisette for the first time is horror auteur Ari Aster, who returns to feature filmmaking with his buzzy A24 feature Eddington.

Related: Thierry Frémaux Talks ‘Mission: Impossible’; Star Presence; Hollywood Introspection & Oscar Track Record

Elsewhere, American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt will...

Ahead of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, taking place May 13 to 24, the lineup has now been unveiled. Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, have revealed the slate this morning.

Highlights include Ari Aster’s Eddington, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Joachim Trier’s Sentimal Value, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, Carla Simon’s Romeria, and more. In other sections we have Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée, the directorial debuts of Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson, Michael Angelo Covino’s Splitsville, Sebastián Lelio’s The Wave, Sylvain Chomet’s The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, and more.

See below.

In Competition

After (Oliver Laxe)

Alpha (Julia Ducournau)

The Eagles of the Republic (Tarik Saleh)

Eddington (Ari Aster)

Dossier 137 (Dominik Moll...

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is looking to be another knockout, with some of this year’s hottest features, including Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Ari Aster’s Eddington set to premiere on the Croisette.

Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch announced this year’s lineup at a press conference in Paris on Thursday morning.

The 2025 competition lineup is packed with auteur heavyweights, including Kelly Reichardt, who returns to Cannes competition with The Mastermind, an art-heist drama starring Josh O’Connor and John Magaro, set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War; Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier, who returns to the Croisette after his 2021 triumph (with The Worst Person of the World) with Sentimental Value, also featuring Renate Reinsve; and dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who will be back in Cannes competition with his latest drama, A Simple Accident.

The Cannes Film Festival will announce the lineup for its 78th edition Thursday morning at 11 a.m. Paris time (2 a.m. Pt/5 a.m. Et). Cannes Delegate General Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch, who was recently confirmed for a second three-year term in the role until 2027, will preside over the press conference.

The stream can be found on the official Cannes website as well as the festival’s official Facebook page, Twitter feed, and YouTube channel.

You can also watch the stream live here.

Deadline will also be live reporting the list of Official Selection films as the names come in. This year’s festival will run from May 13 to 24. Earlier this week, the fest confirmed Tom Cruise and Paramount‘s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will debut on the Croisette. The movie will play Out of Competition on May 14 with Cruise, director Christopher McQuarrie, and cast treading the carpet.

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.

The Cannes Film Festival will announce the Official Selection for its 78th edition, running from May 13 to 24, on April 10 in Paris.

Cannes Delegate General Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch, who was recently confirmed for a second three-year term in the role until 2027, will preside over the press conference.

The world’s biggest film festival and market is currently riding high on a record performance at the Academy Awards earlier this month, with 2024 selections Anora, Emilia Pérez, Flow and The Substance taking nine Oscars between them.

Sean Baker’s 2024 Palme d’Or winner Anora led the pack, winning Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actress, and Editing.

Ahead of the press conference, the traditional Cannes prediction talk is in full tilt.

Titles for which speculation is running high include Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Maryam Touzani’s Calle Malaga,...

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,...