News

Although they had already scored many hits over the years, the rock band Sparks enjoyed a massive visibility increase in 2021 with the release of Edgar Wright's "The Sparks Brothers," a documentary about their decades-long career and prolific output. Brothers Ron and Russell Mael have been performing together under the banner of Sparks since 1972 and have, as of 2025, released 26 original studio albums. Those familiar with the band can tell you about their unabashed quirkiness. Sparks is whimsical, often humorous, and frequently employs puns and jokes in their music. One of their albums is called "Kimono My House." Another is titled "Angst in My Pants." The stern and strange Ron writes the music, while the charming and handsome Russel sings. They're still touring, and both brothers are in their late 70s.

For decades, Sparks possessed filmmaking ambitions and was eager to write a movie musical. They finally got their wish in 2021 with the release of "Annette,...

"A piece of divine madness." Rialto Pictures & Studiocanal have unveiled the new official restoration trailer for the stylish thriller Diva from 1981, which is getting a 4K re-release this year. Diva is the influential 1982 Neo-Noir thriller by the late director Jean-Jacques Beineix – an "arthouse sensation, playing for over a year in some cinemas, nabbing four French Césars, and launched the cinema du look, an explosion of visually stunning, punk-inspired, super-cool French movies in the early '80s, soon followed by the films of Luc Besson & Leos Carax." Two tapes, two Parisian mob killers, one corrupt policeman, an opera fan, a teenage thief, and the coolest philosopher ever filmed all twist their way through an intricate and stylish French-language thriller. Starring opera singer Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Richard Bohringer, and Frédéric Andréi. This 4K restoration of Diva was produced from the original 35mm negative & sound negative. Then scanned in 4K by TransPerfect Media & finalized by Studiocanal.

On Monday 21 July 2025, BBC Two broadcasts Only Connect!

Whitley Baes v Caraxians Season 21 Episode 1 Episode Summary

In the upcoming episode of “Only Connect,” titled “Whitley Baes v Caraxians,” viewers can expect an engaging battle of wits. Hosted by Victoria Coren Mitchell, this quiz show challenges contestants in unique and clever ways, proving that knowledge alone may not be enough to win.

In this episode, a team made up of a husband, wife, and a friend will face off against a trio of dedicated fans of the films by Leos Carax. The competition promises to be intense as both teams navigate the tricky connections and puzzles that the show is known for. Fans of Carax’s work may find themselves particularly interested in how his films influence the questions and challenges presented.

As always, Victoria brings her charm and wit to the show, guiding the teams through the rounds with her signature style.

In the upcoming season premiere of “Only Connect,” viewers will be treated to an exciting clash of knowledge and wits. Titled “Whitley Baes v Caraxians,” this episode features a unique matchup between a husband-wife-friend trio and a group of dedicated fans of filmmaker Leos Carax. The challenge is set to air on Monday, July 21, 2025, at 8:00 Pm on BBC Two, promising an engaging evening for quiz enthusiasts.

Hosted by the ever-charismatic Victoria Coren Mitchell, this episode is expected to deliver the usual blend of clever questions and brain-teasing puzzles. The format of “Only Connect” often requires contestants to think outside the box, and this season opener is no exception. The husband-wife-friend team will rely on their collective knowledge and teamwork to navigate the tricky connections, while the Carax fans will bring their passion for cinema into play.

As the competition unfolds, the stakes will rise, with each team striving to outsmart the other.

Nebraska director Alexander Payne will receive the Pardo d’Onore at the Locarno Film Festival.

The American filmmaker will be presented with the honorary leopard on Friday, August 15. He will also present his 2011 pic The Descendants and 2013 title Nebraska and participate in a public discussion.

Payne, a writer-director also behind the likes of Sideway and The Holdovers, has won two Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and been nominated for Best Director on three occasions.

After studying filmmaking at UCLA, Payne wrote and directed politically-charged comedy Citizen Ruth, starring Laura Dern, in 1996. It premiered at Sundance and led to a run of seven influential films, which have starred the likes of Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon and Jack Nicholson.

“Alexander Payne is an erudite auteur with an encyclopaedic cinephile knowledge,” said Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival. “Gifted with an unerring sense for the bittersweet facets of human comedy,...

Janus Films has acquired all North American rights to Bi Gan’s Chinese fantasy drama Resurrection, winner of this year’s Special Jury prize at the Cannes festival.

Told in six parts, the film takes place in a world where humanity has lost the ability to dream and a woman decides to follow a monstrous creature into the dream world.

Chinese singer and actor Jackson Yee stars with Shu Qi. Bi Gan wrote and directed and the film was produced by China’s Huace Pictures and Dangmai Films with France’s CG Cinema. Losange Films is handling sales.

A statement...

Janus Films has acquired North American rights to Bi Gan’s Resurrection, with the film winning the Special Jury prize at the recently-concluded Cannes Film Festival.

Marking Bi’s third feature, Resurrection stars Jackson Yee, Shu Qi, Mark Chao and Li Gengxi.

The deal was negotiated by Janus Films and Losange Films.

Resurrection unfolds in six parts spanning a century, set in a world where humanity has lost the ability to dream. However, one creature remains entranced by the fading illusions of the dreamworld.

Bi previously directed Kaili Blues and Long Day’s Journey into Night — with the latter premiering in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2018.

Resurrection was produced by China’s Huace Pictures and Dangmai Films with France’s CG Cinema, and features a score by French band M83.

“Bi Gan’s Resurrection is a kaleidoscopic, time-skipping, genre-mashing odyssey through cinema and dreams that will thrill fans of daring,...

Janus Films has acquired all North American rights to writer/director Bi Gan’s “Resurrection,” which won the Prix Spécial Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

“Resurrection” was produced by China’s Huace Pictures and Dangmai Films with France’s CG Cinema and features a score by M83. The deal was negotiated by Janus Films and Losange Films.

The movie, which is told in six parts spanning 100 years, takes place “in a world where humanity has lost the ability to dream, and one creature remains entranced by the fading illusions of the dreamworld,” according to the official synopsis. It stars singer and actor Jackson Yee and actress Shu Qi.

TheWrap’s review of the film called it “dense and delirious,” adding that “his film pastiche plays a bit like ‘Kill Bill’ replacing all narrative structure with dream logic.”

Janus Films commented in a Tuesday statement, “Bi Gan’s ‘Resurrection’ is a kaleidoscopic,...

Janus Films has acquired all North American rights to “Resurrection,” the Special Award winner at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival from visionary Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan.

The film, which premiered in competition at Cannes, marks the third feature from Bi Gan, whose previous credits include “Kaili Blues” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

Told in six parts spanning a century, “Resurrection’s” framing story takes place in a world where humanity has lost the ability to dream, with one creature remaining entranced by the fading illusions of the dreamworld. The film stars Chinese superstar singer and actor Jackson Yee and veteran actor Shu Qi, known for her collaborations with Hou Hsiao-Hsien.

“Resurrection” was praised by Variety critic Jessica Kiang as “a marvelously maximalist movie of opulent ambition that is actually five or six movies, each at once playful and peculiar and part of an overarchingly melancholy elegy for the dream of...

Yuiga Danzuka’s Brand New Landscape unfolds as a quietly resonant family drama set against Tokyo’s ever-evolving skyline. Two siblings—Ren, now a measured young orchid courier, and Emi, on the brink of marriage—must confront Hajime, the father whose career-driven absence fractured their childhood. This feature debut, arriving three years after Danzuka’s 2022 short Far, Far Away, balances hushed observation with a sudden drift into the surreal, inviting viewers to reconsider what “home” means when city blocks shift overnight.

Through long takes and expansive 2:1 framing, the film situates private grief within public redevelopment—each gallery exhibit or redeveloped park echoing the siblings’ struggle to map guilt, abandonment and the faint promise of reunion. As Tokyo’s street-level bustle and quiet domestic interiors collide, Danzuka asks whether reconnection can emerge from spaces that once felt irreparably empty—an open question that encourages reflection on how personal histories intersect...

Kicking things off with a small but enticing update, following last year’s incredible cine-memoir It’s Not Me, Leos Carax is finally prepping a 2026 shoot for his first narrative feature since Annette. While not much is known about the project, a casting call confirms Léa Seydoux and Adam Driver will star in the Paris-set feature. Speaking of Driver: he’s also set to soon shoot James Gray’s Paper Tigers, in which Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller stepped in for Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, respectively.

Last year, when we spoke to Albert Serra about his planned collaboration with Kristen Stewart for Out of This World, he seemed hesitant if the casting may come together and, indeed, it proved too good to be true. Variety now reports Riley Keough will lead the film alongside F. Murray Abraham and Liza Yankovskaia. The film follows “an American delegation traveling to...

In the shadows of Tokyo’s relentless redevelopment, rising filmmaker Yuiga Danzuka found both the canvas and the subject for his Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection “Brand New Landscape.” The debut feature transforms the Japanese capital’s architectural flux into a metaphor for a family navigating grief and disconnection. The film is subsequently playing at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

“As someone born and raised in Tokyo, I’ve long felt a complex, hard-to-articulate emotion toward the city’s rapid transformation,” Danzuka says. “When my cultural discomfort with urban life overlapped with deeply personal feelings about my own family, I instinctively felt that this was a story that needed to be made into a film.”

The film follows two siblings grappling with their mother’s absence and the return of their estranged father, a renowned architect, against the backdrop of Tokyo’s ever-changing skyline.

Danzuka, who studied under filmmaker Kunitoshi Manda...

“Leave One Day,” Amélie Bonnin’s feature film that opened the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday evening, is an unusual film for a Cannes opener in several ways.

It’s a musical, only the third to open Cannes in this century, after Leos Carax’s twisted “Annette” in 2021 and Baz Luhrmann’s lavish “Moulin Rouge!” in 2001. It’s directed by a woman, Bonnin, again only the third time that’s happened in the 2000s, after Maïwenn in 2023 and Emmanuelle Bercot in 2015. And it’s a first-time feature from a female director; the last time Cannes opened with one of those was, well, never.

In one major way, though, “Leave One Day” is quite similar to other recent Cannes openers, in that it’s likely to be largely forgotten a few days into the festival, quickly overshadowed by other films. A slight character study that strains to be charming but only occasionally gets there,...

Opening Cannes, like closing it, has traditionally been a poisoned chalice. The festival has tried a few moves to address the latter, mostly predicated on the fact that, by the end of nearly two exhausting weeks, nobody cares anymore. But first night is still a tough nut to crack, and with the selection of a very local first-time film — a modest, low-key character study with no traditional red-carpet movie stars — festival chief Thierry Frémaux might seem, at first glance, to be giving into the idea that it’s a graveyard slot.

Leave One Day, however, is a smarter choice than it might first appear — a stealth charmer, if you like — and almost certainly a film to baffle the international festivalgoers who descend on Cannes for the meatier stuff, whether that’s the Hollywood A-list fare or the more punishing arthouse discoveries. It will mean much, much more to the French, evoking memories of a country that’s fast disappearing while, at the same time, being fully cognizant of its evolving, multicultural present.

Directed by first-timer Amélie Bonnin, Leave One Day isn’t so notable just for being a musical, since Leos Carax’s Annette filled the same slot just a few years ago. But it is rare to see a film that uses its music choices so playfully and so cleverly. It’s title song, for instance, is a deconstruction of boyband 2Be3’s cheesy 1996 hit; while another key sequence involves French rapper Yannick’s 2000 hit “Ces Soirées-là,” a hip-hop version of Claude Francoise’s 1976 hit “Cette Année-là,” itself a version of The Four Seasons’ 1975 hit “December, 1963” and one of the few songs recognizable to non-French audiences. It sounds fresh, maybe even new. But it’s not new — like K. Maro’s infectious “Femme Like U,” which also features — Yannick’s hit is over 20 years old, and the way pop music distracts us like that, creating a big, blurry disjunct between what was then and what is now, between nostalgia and reality, is central to Bonnin’s film.

The lead in her story is Cécile, played by singer Juliette Armanet, best known for performing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at the opening of the Paris Olympics last year. If you didn’t know that, you might not even guess she was a professional, since Leave One Day isn’t a showcase for slick, show-stopping numbers. Rather, it’s a film that wears its ragged edges with pride, matching music to the cast with a poignancy that will resonate with the French far more than others, who may balk at the clunky translations of songs such as Claude Nougaro’s “Cécile Ma Fille,” a soppy but affecting ’60s chanson sung by Cécile’s father. The same could be said of the story, which as old as time, or at least romantic fiction.

When we meet Cécile, she is just about to find out that she is pregnant. It’s the worst possible moment; she’s something of a foodie star (a regular on cooking show Top Chef) and getting ready to open her own restaurant in two weeks’ time. Her father has just been hospitalized, having suffered a heart attack (his third), and on top of that, she has yet to figure out her new eatery’s signature dish. Nevertheless, she takes to the road and goes home, leaving her business partner/lover Sofiane (Tewfik Jallab) to hold the fort.

Cécile’s backstory is a bit on the nose; her parents, Fanfan (Dominique Blanc) and Gérard (François Rollin), are the proprietors of a roadside diner called The Pitstop, serving the kind of food that Cécile has snootily dismissed as being to haute cuisine “what flip-flops are to haute couture.” Cécile knows she said this because Gérard has made a note of all her Top Chef witticisms, especially one that cut so deeply he knows it by heart: “Truck stops are by the road so you can make a fast getaway.” It’s an awkward homecoming, but Cécile reconnects with some old friends, notably hot grunge mechanic Raphaël (Bastien Bouillon), an old flame of sorts, albeit one she never hooked up with. “We live in a time warp,” his friend says. “Nothing moves.” Which is how Cécile comes to realize that Raphaël, despite his too-cool-for-school demeanor, is still in love with her.

The ensuing love triangle among Cécile, Sofiane and Raphael plays out much as you might expect, which may sound a little underwhelming for a film that’s been given such a high-profile slot at an international festival. This is Cannes, though, and the audiences there are less likely to dwell on the details of such a familiar story and respond more viscerally to the way that it’s being told, triggering memories of all kinds of inter-generational music, all kinds of food and so many things even they wouldn’t think they’d ever see anymore, like a dog having the run of a working kitchen.

Some may wonder why Cannes would open with such a film, but festivalgoers with longer memories will remember the olden days, when someone there thought that three whole hours of The Barber of Siberia would make an awesome curtain-raiser. Compared to that, Leave One Day is a joy; a very particular kind of crowd-pleaser that doesn’t do anything especially new, and, even then, doesn’t really do it in a very distinctive way.

Crucially, though, it has heart, capturing a sense of time having passed and an optimism for the time to come. The cheesy, stopped-clock setup of The Pitstop will be instantly recognizable to any tourist who’s ever found themselves in some backwater bar that’s all Johnny Hallyday this, Pernod that and lots of Gauloises cigarettes. But Bonnin’s film not only embraces those clichés, it celebrates them, and the unexpected, emotional strength of the film lies not in its nostalgia for the past but in its touching belief in our capacity to make peace with the things we have to lose in order to get on with our lives.

Title: Leave One Day

Festival: Cannes

Sales agent: Pathé

Director: Amélie Bonnin

Screenwriters: Amélie Bonnin, Dimitri Lucas

Cast: Juliette Armanet, Bastien Bouillon, Dominique Blanc, François Rollin

Running time: 1 hr 33 min...

This episode explores the urgent need to establish venues in Latin America that showcase and nurture local cinema.Diana Bustamante Escobar is a Colombian producer, curator, and director who is responsible for some of the most acclaimed Colombian and Latin American films from the past two decades. From 2014 to 2018, she worked as the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Film Festival (Ficci), where she championed bold auteurs who have revitalized Latin American cinema. Over the past fifteen years, she has produced such notable films as Óscar Ruiz Navia’s Crab Trap (El vuelco del cangrejo), winner of the Fipresci Prize at the Berlinale; César Augusto Acevedo’s Land and Shade (La tierra y la sombra), which won the Caméra d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival; and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, which received the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2021. In 2022, Bustamante made her directorial debut with Our Movie (Nuestra película...

Francis Ford Coppola is doubling down on the perplexing Sci-Fi epic Megalopolis with a graphic novel adaptation of his original head-scratching story. Coppola famously spent decades dreaming of Megalopolis and used tens of millions of his money to fund the project’s production. Reactions to the film ranged from audiences saying it’s awful to “it’s so bad it’s good, like Leos Carax’s Annette.” Regardless of how you feel about Megalopolis, Coppola’s passion for the story of architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) is admirable in its steadfast dedication to the premise.

The official synopsis for Megalopolis reads: “Megalopolis is a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo,...

The 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF49) opened tonight at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, kicking off the 12-day festival with world premiere of Japanese director Nakashima Tetsuya’s The Brightest Sun, followed by the Malaysian feature Pavane for an Infant, directed by Chong Keat-aun and starring Fish Liew, Natalie Hsu and Ben Yuen.

The star-studded Grand Opening ceremony featured appearances by Filmmaker in Focus Louis Koo, director Nakashima Tetsuya and producer Yasunori Naruse from The Brightest Sun, director Chong Keat-aun and cast Fish Liew and Ben Yuen from Pavane for an Infant. Adding to the excitement, renowned Japanese actress Ando Sakura, one of “Face to Face” guests this year, made a special appearance and wished the festival a successful run, making the evening even more memorable.

This year’s festival will showcase nearly 200 films, including six world premieres, two international premieres, and 52 Asian premieres. In addition to the aforementioned film talents,...

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at New Order's Crystal (unused version), directed by Leos Carax. Context for this music video is mostly missing. Seemingly made as a lark by Leos Carax, this music video for New Order's Crystal showcases his dog and cat 'violently' playing with each other, while there are insert shots of Leos Carax's home-decor. In the end a title card stating the total budget drives home the facetious nature of the music video. The question is, and remains in what capacity it was made. Was this an official pitch to the producers of New Order? Was it rejected? Was it ever sent in on an official...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Sparks have shared their new single “Drowned in a Sea of Tears” from their upcoming album Mad!, which the Mael brothers will take on the road this fall on a North American tour.

The song and its corresponding Amber Navarro-directed video that documents Russell Mael’s narrator’s attempts to be “a savior” to a woman trying to pick herself up from emotional turmoil, captured in the visual when the protagonist nearly drowns in her own car as it fills with tears.

“We don’t usually get inspired by anything...

Bong Joon-ho easily has to be one of the best directors of the current generation. Over the years, he has been bending genres like a mad scientist, which feels unorthodox yet so right. Watching his movies is like a roller coaster ride; one moment, you are laughing till your stomach hurts, and the next, you end up gasping from whatever unexpected surprise he has planned for the audience.

He has mastered the art of blending social issues with genres like dark humor or sci-fi horror without making it a mess. Now, it’s hard for me to say how he does what he does. I’m sure there are people studying his movies as part of their thesis, but as someone who enjoys watching movies, I can guarantee you that you will be glued to the screen and won’t even realize where the time went by the time the movie is done.

The 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival will kick off on April 10 with dual opening features, Japanese drama The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane for an Infant. Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, will then bring the curtain down on the event on April 21 as the closing film. The festival’s lineup was unveiled Monday at a press conference at Hong Kong’s Filmart Content Market.

The Brightest Sun is filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima’s adaptation of a novel by popular Japanese author Bunzo Uchikai. It’s the first film from Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, The World of Kanako) in seven years. Pavane for an Infant, meanwhile, directed by Chong Keat Aun, is a drama exploring the issue of baby abandonment through the eyes of a female social worker (Malaysian-born Hong Kong actress Fish Liew).

Two local Hong Kong features have been...

Japanese filmmaker Nakashima Tetsuya’s The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane For An Infant, directed by Chong Keat-Aun, will open this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (April 10-21).

Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, has been set as the closing film of the festival.

Two Hong Kong productions will receive Gala Screenings – Valley Of The Shadow Of Death, starring Anthony Wong, and Oliver Chan Siu-kuen’s Montages Of A Modern Motherhood, which played in Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents section and Tokyo International Film Festival’s Women’s Empowerment strand last year.

Hkiff’s Cinephile Paradise section will screen films such as Geng Jun’s Bel Ami, Vivian Qu’s Girls On Wire, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Luis Ortega’s Kill The Jockey and Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes.

As previously announced, Hong Kong actor...

Simon Helberg was in it for the long haul on "The Big Bang Theory." He not only stayed on throughout the show's entire 12 season run, but he also appeared in all 279 episodes. When you've got a steady gig, especially in an industry where job security isn't guaranteed, sometimes it's best to hold onto what you have. Still, though he spent well over a decade playing aerospace engineer turned astronaut Howard Wolowitz (a role Helberg was hesitant to audition for), his career outside of that has proven he's willing to break out of the sitcom mold and try new things.

Besides "The Big Bang Theory," Helberg has worked with filmmakers like Leos Carax ("Annette"), Christopher Guest ("For Your Consideration"), and the Coen Brothers ("A Serious Man"). But as is the case with plenty of actors, he felt the urge to become a filmmaker kick in at one point.

In 2014, Helberg co-directed...

When you've been an integral part of a sitcom phenomenon that's been popular for over a decade, it can be easy for people to just see an actor in the confines of their character. It may seem impossible to look at Jim Parsons and not think of Sheldon Cooper, but his work in "Hidden Figures" and "The Boys in the Band" shows an actor that's able to break free beyond the "bazinga" stigma. Simon Helberg has certainly had one of the most interesting careers of the "Big Bang Theory" bunch, having directed his own feature ("We'll Never Have Paris") in addition to starring in films directed by Leos Carax ("Annette") and the Coen Brothers ("A Serious Man").

But since the show's finale, it's Kaley Cuoco who has remained the most prevalent in the spotlight. Although she made waves in 2020 with the critically acclaimed Max original series "The Flight Attendant," she's...

Exclusive: Jia Zhangke’s Cannes Competition entry Caught By The Tides has been set for U.S. release on May 9, 2025 via Sideshow and Janus Films.

The latest from the Chinese auteur, known for movies including A Touch Of Sin and Ash Is The Purest White, is love story told over 23 years and set against the backdrop of explosive growth in China. Made up of old footage shot by the filmmaker over the past century as well as some new, the film traverses personal and national history including all of his films to date. Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin star.

Written by Jia and Wan Jiahuan, pic is produced by Casper Liang Jiayan, Shozo Ichiyama and Zhang Dong. The film is an X Stream Pictures, Momo Pictures, Huanxi Media Group Limited (Beijing) and Wishart Media (Quanzhou) production in association with mk2 Films, Ad Vitam and Bitters End. It played at festivals including Cannes,...

Wherever you call home, it’s hard to be invested in cinephile culture without a mind towards its health. It was hardly some casual choice when Sean Baker took time during an Oscar-acceptance speech to plea for greater attendance––with each year every purchase at an Anthology, Spectacle, or Maysles feels more and more like an investment in the future, or perhaps a protest vote against our present. And few fight so valiantly as La Clef Revival Collective, a Parisian group who’ve earned praise from Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Justine Triet, Leos Carax, Adèle Haenel, and Céline Sciamma (the latter of whom sits on their board).

When La Clef, a Parisian theater initially open since 1973, faced severe risk of closure in 2019, the Revival Collective and aforementioned filmmakers joined forces to save the space. They are seeking $400,000 between now and April to fund renovations,...

After a long battle to secure one of Paris’ last independent cinemas, the organizers behind La Clef are bringing their efforts to New York. They are launching a film screening and fundraising tour across the city, aiming to connect with fellow cinephiles and raise the final amount needed to complete renovations.

La Clef, located in Paris’ historic Left Bank district, has been closed since 2019 when its former owner put the building up for sale. A collective of volunteers, filmmakers, and activists occupied the space, refusing to let it disappear. What started as a grassroots protest turned into a full-fledged movement to reclaim the cinema as a community-driven venue for independent film.

Last year, the group known as Cinéma Revival purchased the building after securing €2 million in funds. This was made possible through thousands of small donations, along with contributions from filmmakers including Wang Bing, Céline Sciamma, and Leos Carax. The effort also received high-profile backing,...

Paris’ La Clef cinema is heading to New York.

Organizers behind the popular venue, one of Paris’ most enduring rep houses, are heading to New York this week to host a series of film screenings at cinemas across the city to connect with fellow cinephiles and raise funds for their ongoing redevelopment project back in Paris.

La Clef has been officially shut since 2019. The cinema was saved from permanent closure last year after Cinéma Revival, a group of local volunteers and longtime patrons of the cinema, purchased the building, which had been put on the market by its previous owner. The campaign to save La Clef was an almost five-year battle and began with a bold community occupation of the building, which grew into an international movement involving film industry figures, lawyers, activists, and government officials.

The group bought the building with €2 million raised through an online fundraising campaign. €400.000 was...

The Oscar Volleys continue, even as the Academy Awards ceremony draws ever closer. Tonight, Cláudio Alves and Ben Miller discuss the Best Live-Action and Documentary Short races...

Anuja | © Netflix

CLÁUDIO: Well, we're starting to run out of Oscar categories to discuss at The Film Experience. But we couldn't go into the season's pinnacle without giving some attention to the two least-loved races - Best Live-Action and Best Documentary Short Film. And look, I get it. AMPAS rarely showcases good short-form cinema, having a bizarre predilection for miserabilism and stupid twists, moral lectures, and very little audiovisual invention. Where is Godard, or John Smith, or Leos Carax, or Steve McQueen, or Laura Citarella, or Takashi Miike? Nevertheless, AMPAS' favorite miniature pictures deserve to be considered, and there's even a highlight or two to celebrate. Do you agree?

Ben: Every year, these categories give me something that really knocks my socks off.

Bong Joon Ho, Michel Gondry, and Leos Carax are three bona fide oddballs of the international film scene, each iconoclasts with their own uniquely skewed perspective on the world. The idea of the three of these men in one room is crazy enough, let alone teaming up to make the same film, but that's what they did for the forgotten film Tokyo! in 2009. An anthology film centered on a collection of eccentric individuals getting touched by magical realist scenarios, each short story proves an ample playground for this trio to flex their styles.

Walter Salles, Johnnie To, Lav Diaz, Darius Khondji and Anna Terrazas will serve as Qumra Masters at the 11th edition of the Doha Film Institute’s annual talent and project incubator.

They follow in the wake of some 50 top cinemas figures who have also taken up the role over the past 10 editions, including Claire Denis, Leos Carax, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal and James Gray.

The event, running from April 4 to 9, will invite the producers and directors of some 40 projects supported by the Doha Film Institute (Dfi) for six days of development support and networking.

Brazilian director Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) will be in attendance at the meeting fresh from his buzzy awards season with his Oscar-nominated drama I’m Still Here.

Filipino director Diaz brings his vision of a special brand of slow cinema which includes films such as The Woman Who Left and Evolution of a Filipino Family.

Iranian-French...

MK2 Films, the Paris-based indie powerhouse behind “Anatomy of a Fall,” has tapped former Kinology executive Emmanuel Pisarra as head of acquisitions.

Pisarra, who succeeds Olivier Barbier in this role, joins MK2 Films’ growing team, alongside Vanessa Saal, who was recently named executive consultant and U.K. lead; Yasmine Talli, who oversees co-productions; as well as consultants Frances Harvey and Anna Pokorska.

He will report to Fionnuala Jamison, MK2 Films’ managing director. Pisarra, who is attending the Berlin Film Festival, will be shaping the company’s upcoming slate while also leading sales to France and Benelux.

“I’ve long admired mk2 Films for its fearless, forward-thinking approach to cinema—one that values artistic integrity as much as commercial ambition,” said Pisarra. “Joining its exceptional team at such a pivotal moment is an incredible opportunity.”Pisarra brings extensive experience in acquisitions and sales.

At Kinology, Pisarra spearheaded global sales for films...

Jennifer Lawrence obviously has clout and has been using her cache for cinematic good. After declaring she wanted to work with filmmakers like tastemaking filmmakers like Ari Aster, Leos Carax and the Coen Brothers, well, she didn’t quite do that. At least not yet. However, not long before that, she had already set up similar intentions and had linked up with projects with cinephile-friendly filmmakers like Lynne Ramsay and Academy Award-winning Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (“The Great Beauty”) on two different projects.

Continue reading Director Paolo Sorrentino Says Jennifer Lawrence Projects ‘Sue’ & Mob Girl’ Are Dead at The Playlist.

French actress Juliette Binoche has been named President of the Jury for the 2025 edition of the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The honor, which was announced on Tuesday morning Paris time, will fall exactly 40 years after the Oscar-winning The English Patient star first touched down at the festival with André Téchiné’s Palme d’Or contender Rendez-vous in 1985.

Binoche follows in the footsteps of U.S. director Greta Gerwig whose jury feted Sean Baker’s Anora with the Palme d’Or last year.

“I’m looking forward to sharing these life experiences with the members of the Jury and the public. In 1985, I walked up the steps for the first time with the enthusiasm and uncertainty of a young actress; I never imagined I’d return 40 years later in the honorary role of President of the Jury. I appreciate the privilege, the responsibility and the absolute need for humility,” said Binoche.

French actor Denis Lavant has teamed with debut Chilean filmmaker Thomas Woodroffe for ghost story Bloques Erráticos.

The Chile-France-Argentina co-production is one of ten film projects being showcased next month at International Film Festival Rotterdam’s IFFR Pro work-in-progress section Darkroom.

Lavant plays the ghost of a cinematographer who finally breaks free after a century trapped within the glaciers of Patagonia. Disoriented, he retraces places he once filmed, confronting a landscape transformed by modernity, new technologies, science, and mining, alongside remnants of an indigenous past.

Lavant’s credits include Leos Carax’s Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Claire Denis’ Beau Travail...

Leos Carax isn’t the only recent filmmaker turning the camera lens on himself. One of the most brilliant comedic minds to emerge at the turn of the millennium, Tom Green made waves on MTV, in feature films, and as of the last many years, taking a more personal, direct approach to reaching his fans. He’s now returning this month with three new projects, all coming to Prime Video.

First up, this Friday, This Is The Tom Green Documentary, directed by Green himself, will arrive. Here’s the synopsis: “This Amazon Original documentary follows Tom Green’s career as a trailblazing influence on comedy, film, television, and internet culture. With thousands of hours of digitalized personal footage, rare episodes, and unseen raw footage from past series and films, the documentary captures the early days of his humble beginnings in Canada, to stardom in Hollywood, as he goes full circle...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

In a cinematic year as rich and ripe for discovery as any of the most illustrious years in recent memory, 2024 was graced with luminaries operating at their highest level: Denis Villeneuve with the riveting second chapter of Dune; Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala taking on a niche domestic horror epidemic; Brady Corbet tackling the midcentury American dream; Robert Eggers mustachio’ing one of film’s most frightening monsters; Sean Baker bringing the Palme d’Or back to the U.S. for the first time since 2011. Long-gestating stories from living legends: Catherine Breillat on the most devastating age gap romance you can imagine; Víctor Erice on celluloid memory; Paul Schrader on an artist’s mortality; Francis Ford Coppola on everything; Leos Carax on himself. Newcomers we couldn’t...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

As always, what is considered best is first determined by what can be seen, and this year there were many films that I missed. When it came to popular releases, for example, some took too long to be released in the UK; some were showing while I was reviewing other films; and others just simply passed me by. And the same problems were even more pronounced when it came to watching short/experimental films. Nevertheless, there was much that I enjoyed this year, and several films that did not make the final cut might well do so if I were to make the list again at a later date. I hope that my current selection will point you towards something informative and/or entertaining, and that it will add,...

The Honorary Dragon Award will be given to the famous French-American actor, writer, and director Julie Delpy at the 2025 Göteborg Film Festival. Her important contributions to world cinema are honored at this event, Scandinavia’s biggest film and television festival.

It’s planned that Delpy will attend the event to show her newest movie, “Meet the Barbarians.” In this movie, we follow a Syrian family as they try to find safety in Northern France. In Göteborg on January 29, at the same time as the film’s premiere, the awards ceremony will occur at Cinema Draken. Delpy will take part in a Q&a session after the showing.

The festival’s artistic head, Pia Lundberg, praised Delpy for her unique voice in making movies. “Her work blends humor, depth, and sensitivity in a way that resonates with audiences worldwide,” he said. She breaks new ground and inspires us.” We are very...

French multi-hyphenate Julie Delpy will be honored with the Honorary Dragon Award at the 2025 Göteborg Film Festival, organizers announced Thursday.

The veteran filmmaker and actor will attend the Swedish festival to present her latest directorial effort, the satire Meet the Barbarians, and participate in an on-stage conversation about her four-decade career spanning both sides of the camera.

“Julie Delpy is a unique voice in the world of film. Her work blends humor, depth, and sensitivity in a way that resonates with audiences worldwide. She is a trailblazer and an inspiration — we are truly proud to honor her with this year’s Honorary Dragon Award,” said the Göteborg Film Festival’s artistic director, Pia Lundberg.

The festival will present a four-film retrospective showcasing Delpy’s evolution from acclaimed actor to writer-director. The program includes Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours: White (1994), Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995), and two films she directed: 2 Days in Paris...

In the grand scheme of things, 2024 might end up being remembered as a transitional year that bridged the drama-filled 2023 (which brought both the box office extravaganza of “Barbenheimer” and the SAG and WGA strikes that shut down Hollywood) and the fruitful 2025 (which boasts a slate so packed that many in the industry have spent the year mumbling “survive ‘till 25”). But even if 2024 offered moviegoers a slate that was affected by the previous year’s production shutdowns, there’s still plenty to celebrate as we wind down the year and gear up for the awards race.

To parse the year’s best cinema, IndieWire assembled an elite group of critics around the world who spent the year watching everything that premiered. IndieWire’s annual critics survey featured 177 voters who cover film and television for publications including The New Yorker, Variety, the LA Times, BBC Culture, Sight & Sound, Cineaste, Der Spiegel,...

“In many families, you encounter one fatal creature, like a disease. I am that creature for you.” So begins Leos Carax’s remarkable It’s Not Me, a delirious, self-deprecating video essay cum confession that serves as a concise articulation of the man and his art. Running a brisk 41 minutes, this seems the perfect running time even for those (like this writer) who often find his angular features difficult to stomach. Blended in concentrated form with more overt commentary than usual, the brew is a far more palatable drink even if it’s lost none of its bite.

Leos Carax’s ability to create some of the most striking and memorable images in modern cinema is beyond question, but his reasons for stringing those images together are often murkier. The idiosyncratic auteur is closer to an abstract artist than a conventional storyteller — a trade-off that has added far more to his career than it has subtracted. That tension fueled his magnum opus “Holy Motors,” which follows a man whose inexplicable need to create and perform prompts him to spend his days cycling through an endless roster of clients who ask him to don different disguises. It’s also what made him the ideal director-for-hire for the beautifully incoherent Sparks brothers musical “Annette.” And it’s why one could argue that his style is better suited to museums than traditional filmmaking.

The Centre Pompidou apparently thought so when it commissioned Carax to make a short film that used images...

Coming off the heels of his most mainstream film, the bonkers Sparks-penned Adam Driver starring rock opera “Annette,” which, in case you forgot, is about a puppet baby who becomes a star, Leos Carax returns with a self-excavating and reflective short. Yet while “It’s Not Me” is being billed as a film, it is much more essayistic and free-associative.

Continue reading ‘It’s Not Me’ Review: Leos Carax’s Film Essay Into His Own Cinematic Oeuvre Is A Little Batsh*t But Never Boring at The Playlist.

So long as there have been Leos Carax films, there has been the Leos Carax persona. After years of watching interviews, Q&a sessions, and docs on his “elusive” character, I first saw him in person this fall and chuckled on sight — seeing Leos Carax is like going to Disneyland and spotting Mickey Mouse or Captain Jack Sparrow, an actor in a costume conforming exactly to some popular (operative word) cultivated image. The distinction, here, is that it was the real thing, and he was simply sitting outside, drinking wine, smoking, surrounded by a den of admirers.

Properly meeting me the following day at a SoHo hotel, he was again wearing the Leos Carax outfit: porkpie hat, sunglasses, tan pants, and a long jacket over a dark-green sweater that fought against unseasonably balmy weather. The director was in town for New York Film Festival screenings of “It’s Not Me,...

We’ve reached another year’s end, so get ready for all the limited releases and qualifying runs primed for Oscar consideration as guild votes start propping up their prospective favorites. All while most of you cross your fingers that you won’t have to wait too long for everything to finally open at a theater near you.

And for those treating the month like any other by simply circling the popcorn tentpoles, Hollywood doesn’t disappoint with Mufasa (December 20), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (December 20), and Kraven the Hunter (December 12) all making an appearance. Pair those with the usual logjam of Christmas Day debuts and there should be something for everyone.

Portraits

Wild concept for the film aside, Better Man’s marketing campaign is effectively simple. The subject is a pop star who’s made a career in the spotlight of magazine covers and paparazzi photos, so why not lean...

Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists, in addition to organizations that support and celebrate independent film. That sponsorship can have a huge impact on the many films and film related projects, whether that’s getting them out the gate, or getting them over the finish line. FiSpo Updates, highlighting recent achievements of projects that are part of the program.

This month we have a special update from one of the great cinema cites, Paris, where Fiscal Sponsorship from some Hollywood heavyweights helped save a beloved cinéma.

La Clef Cinema was in trouble. The historic theater in the 5th Arrondissement had been fighting eviction since 2018. The theater was so beloved, that a collection of moviegoers and artists took direct action and on September 20, 2019 they occupied the cinema, and collectively didn’t leave. And while they were there, they didn...

You might need to be a fan of Carax’s oeuvre to enjoy this act of indulgence but this short autobiography is full of his grandiose whimsy and personal melancholy

Here is a 40-minute autobiographical jeu d’esprit from Leos Carax, the renowned director of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Bad Blood, Holy Motors and Annette; a body of work featuring such stars as Juliette Binoche, Michel Piccoli, Kylie Minogue, Denis Lavant and Adam Driver. First unveiled at Cannes this year, the puckish elusiveness of the piece is announced in the title itself.

C’est Pas Moi, or It’s Not Me, is a cine-collage essay in the manner of Godard, although the audio soundtrack does not quite have that papier-mache roughness that Godard often created. Godard’s voice appears briefly in an answering-machine message to Carax, a fragment that Carax might not have dared include while the great man was still alive.

At its heart, Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard’s unclassifiable transgender Mexican cartel telenovela musical, is a film about transition, transformation and rebirth.

The transformation is not just that of Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, a Mexican drug kingpin who longs to escape a life of violence and death and undergoes gender-affirming surgery to become her true self: the glamorous, vivacious Emilia Pérez. (The magnetic Spanish trans actor Karla Sofía Gascón plays both roles).

Emilia Pérez is also the story of the transmutation of Zoe Saldaña. The Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy star finally gets to inhabit her own skin on the big screen, neither blue nor green, as Rita Moro Castro, an overworked, overlooked defense lawyer closing in on 40 who has spent her career keeping unrepentant cartel slime out of prison. Manitas gives her an offer she can’t refuse: Help me transition, relocate my family and organize my disappearance,...

The casting process can always be one full of deliberation and uncertainty. For actors who have been in the film industry for decades, they are well aware that a casting director will have a specific vision in mind, backed by the director's prompts. Casting calls, auditions, or tailored roles are all a part of that process, and some actors are much luckier than others when it comes to landing parts with ease. For a film like Annette, the musical drama from 2021, the casting team would have had to deliberate over who was right for these parts. Indeed, it's always difficult to imagine someone else in an iconic role, but for the most part, so many of the biggest roles in the industry were once auditioned for and thus filled by a different performer. Every actor comes to a part with a completely different idea of how to bring that character to life,...