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In the past two years, Kiefer Sutherland has gotten the chance to work with two legendary directors at the tail end of their careers. 2023 saw him collaborate with late Exorcist helmer William Friedkin on what would be his final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, in the role of the unstable Lieutenant Commander Queeg. After that, he'd then be picked by Clint Eastwood for a smaller role in his 2024 legal thriller, Juror #2, starring Nicholas Hoult. Though not completely confirmed to be Eastwood's final project, at 95 years old, he's unlikely to have many more turns in the director's chair. The prospect that the Million Dollar Baby Oscar winner might retire, however, was what drove Sutherland to pursue what could be his last opportunity to work with one of his idols with a letter and a bit of gratitude.

During a panel with his Young Guns co-star Lou Diamond Phillips at FanX's Atlanta Comic Convention,...

Sony honored young filmmakers from around the world at the third annual Future Filmmakers Awards ceremony held on Thursday night in the historic Scenic Arts Building on the Sony lot.

The competition attracted over 11,750 short films submitted by 7,500 filmmakers representing 158 countries. Winners were chosen by a jury comprised of director Jason Reitman, writer Minhal Baig, Sony 3000 president Elizabeth Gabler and actor-director Justin Chadwick.

“Our purpose is to fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology,” said Sony president Hiroki Totoki in his introductory remarks. “These awards underscore our ongoing commitment to nurture and elevate new voices and champion diverse perspectives and to create opportunities for breakthrough talent from around the globe.”

The black tie affair began with a wine reception followed by a surf and turf dinner of steak and sea bass. After guests were well fed, awards were handed out in four different categories: fiction,...

The 2025 winners of the third annual Sony Future Filmmaker Awards were revealed on Thursday night at a special black-tie ceremony in Los Angeles hosted by Emmy-winning “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent Denny Directo.

Created by Creo and sponsored by Sony, the global awards program is designed to spotlight short films made by up-and-coming artists from around the world and help push them forward on their respective filmmaking paths. In 2025, over 11,750 films were submitted to the program from over 7,500 filmmakers originating from 158 different countries and international territories.

This year’s awards jury included filmmakers Minhal Baig (“We Grown Now”) and Jason Reitman (“Saturday Night”), president of 3000 Pictures Elizabeth Gabler and director Justin Chadwick (“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”), the latter of whom served as Jury Chair. The group of industry figures came together to choose winners from a wider shortlist for the program’s four award categories this year — Fiction, Non-Fiction, Animation and Student.

Sony and Creo have unveiled the 2025 winners for this year’s Sony Future Filmmaker Awards.

The 2025 winners include Rossana Montoya’s “My Demon” in the fiction category, Juliet Klottrup’s “Travelling Home” in the non-fiction category, Santiago O’Ryan and José Navarro’s “Hermanos Casablanca” in the animation category, and Hayder Hoozeer and Franz Böhm’s “Rock Paper Scissors” in the student category. The recipients were flown out to Los Angeles for an immersive four-day industry program at Sony Pictures Studios from June 2 to June 5, where they met with industry leaders and executives. In addition to being flown out to Los Angeles, winners received Sony Digital Imaging equipment and cash prizes. The winners were announced at the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

The recipients were selected by a panel of judges that included Jason Reitman, Minhal Baig, Elizabeth Gabler, and Chair of the Jury Justin Chadwick.

“It is...

Exclusive:Highland Film Group has locked key international deals in all media for crime thriller The Deputy starring Duke Nicholson, William H. Macy, Tiffany Haddish, Stephen Dorff, and Julia Fox as it continues sales in Cannes.

Director Matt Sukkar is preparing to go into production in Mississippi this week on his feature directorial debut about part-time Deputy Toby Sawyer (Nicholson) who is tasked by his boss with (Macy) with guarding a corpse until the coroner arrives. When the body goes missing, he unwittingly uncovers decades of wrongdoing and risks his life to unravel the town’s deep web of corruption.

Billie Lourd,...

Following the streaming success of her Netflix original film, Trigger Warning, Jessica Alba is returning to the action genre once again as the lead in a new spy thriller, The Mark.

Per Deadline, Alba is set to lead The Mark, a new action spy thriller from director Justin Chadwick. Written by Ronnie Christensen, The Mark follows Eden (Alba), an "enigmatic spy on a covert and dangerous mission. When Eden pulls single father Ben Dawson into her world of high-stakes espionage, his life is turned upside down," per the official synopsis. Currently, no other stars are attached to the project, but production on the film is set to begin in July. There is no official release window for The Mark.

After a five-year absence from movies, Alba returned to the limelight in 2024 with Trigger Warning, a Netflix original action movie that became a streaming success in the weeks after its release on the platform.

Deadline reports that Jessica Alba is set to star in The Mark, a spy thriller from director Justin Chadwick (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom). Production is slated to kick off in Australia in July from a script by Ronnie Christensen (Passengers).

Alba will play Eden, “an enigmatic spy on a covert and dangerous mission. When Eden pulls single father Ben Dawson into her world of high-stakes espionage, his life is turned upside down. Mistaken for the world’s deadliest assassin, Ben becomes the perfect decoy for Eden. She uses the mix-up to expose a powerful network of corrupt politicians, placing Ben in the crosshairs of the CIA, Interpol, and ruthless crime syndicates. With enemies closing in from all sides, Eden must keep Ben alive long enough to complete her mission — while Ben must summon his inner action hero to stay alive and return to the person who matters most: his daughter.

Exclusive: Jessica Alba (Trigger Warning) has signed on to lead action thriller The Mark, a spy flick set to begin production in Australia in July.

In the film from director Justin Chadwick (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Alba plays Eden, an enigmatic spy on a covert and dangerous mission. When Eden pulls single father Ben Dawson into her world of high-stakes espionage, his life is turned upside down. Mistaken for the world’s deadliest assassin, Ben becomes the perfect decoy for Eden. She uses the mix-up to expose a powerful network of corrupt politicians, placing Ben in the crosshairs of the CIA, Interpol, and ruthless crime syndicates. With enemies closing in from all sides, Eden must keep Ben alive long enough to complete her mission — while Ben must summon his inner action hero to stay alive and return to the person who matters most: his daughter.

Ronnie Christensen penned the script.

Directed by Justin Chadwick, Fear is a thought-provoking series that leaves you thinking about how you perceive everything in your life. I have always believed that life is not entirely black and white; people are not just straight up right or wrong. What we perceive as wrong or unacceptable might be totally justified to another individual. That’s how the human mind functions. Yes, we do have certain morals and codes of conduct that we use as a yardstick to judge a person, but sometimes moral nihilism prevails. So, let’s find out what happened in the 3-part series and if the protagonists were able to overcome the challenges that came their way.

Spoiler Alert

What happened between Jan and the Berwicks?

Martyn and Rebecca Berwick wanted to make a fresh start, and so they moved to Glasgow with their kids, Fay and Paul. Martyn was an architect, and he...

Highland Film Group has unveiled the first image from Muzzle: City Of Wolves starring Aaron Eckhart, and announced key territory deals and additional casting as it continues sales at EFM this week.

Rights to the thriller about a retired police dog handler who gets pulled back into action to protect his family have closed with Vertigo Releasing for the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; Capelight Pictures for Germany; YouPlanet Pictures for Spain; and Italian International Film (Iif) for Italy.

Deals have also closed in Benelux (Three Lines Pictures), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Greece (Spentzos Film), Scandinavia (Mis. Label), Eastern Europe (Daro Film Distribution...

The Glasgow Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 21st edition this year and will host Glasgow-born Hollywood star James McAvoy to look back on his career during an “In Conversation” event.

“Across 12 packed days, Scotland’s largest annual celebration of cinema will showcase 92 world, U.K. and Scottish premieres from 39 countries,” including 12 world premieres, organizers said on Tuesday.

The gala world premiere of survival thriller Tornado, the sophomore feature from Scottish director John Maclean (Slow West), will open the fest on Feb. 26. “Set in the rugged landscape of 1790s Britain, Tornado (played by model-songwriter Kōki,) finds herself caught in a perilous situation when she and her father’s traveling puppet show crosses paths with a ruthless criminal gang led by Sugarman (Pulp Fiction star Tim Roth) and his ambitious son Little Sugar (Slow Horses’ Jack Lowden),” says a plot summary. “In an attempt to create a new life,...

The world premiere of John Maclean’sTornado, starring Tim Roth and Jack Lowden. will open the 21st edition of theGlasgow Film Festival (Gff).

The survival thriller, which shot on location in Scotland, is set in 1790s Britain. A woman named Tornado, played by Japanese model and songwriter Kōki, finds herself caught in peril when she and her father’s travelling puppet show cross paths with a ruthless criminal gang.Lionsgate UK will release the film theatrically in the UK and Ireland from May.

Maclean’s previous film was 2015 western Slow West starringMichael Fassbender.

Gff closes with the world premiere of...

The third annual Sony Future Filmmaker Awards has announced the jury members for its 2025 kudos.

Four-time Oscar nominee Jason Reitman, filmmaker Minhal Baig, President of 3000 Pictures Elizabeth Gabler, and director Justin Chadwick make up this year’s panel. Reitman is currently in the Oscar discussion for directing, writing, and producing the feature film “Saturday Night.”

Mark your calendars for April 29, 2025, as that’s when this year’s group of 30 shortlisted filmmakers will be announced. The 2025 Sony Future Filmmaker Awards will include a five-day program at the legendary Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, Calif., from June 2 to June 6.

The special event includes hands-on workshops for the aspiring filmmakers, plus industry intuition from top professionals, backstage access, keynotes by major cinematographers, screenings, Q&a sessions, talent agency resources, and more.

The awards ceremony will take place on June 5, 2025, which is when the winners of the four major categories will be...

The 2025 Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, which is returning for its third edition next June, has announced the filmmakers who will work to select budding filmmaking talent to participate in workshops, screenings, and networking events that will help launch their careers.

Creo, the not-for-profit group that organizes the awards, along with Sony announced that director Minhal Baig (“We Grown Now“), president of 3000 Pictures Elizabeth Gabler (“Where the Crawdads Sing“), and Oscar-nominee Jason Reitman (“Saturday Night“) will serve on the jury to select the 2025 recipients. Returning to the awards for the third year as jury chair is filmmaker Justin Chadwick (“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”).

The panel will work to shortlist a group of aspiring filmmakers from around the globe, and the selected filmmakers will then get the chance to fly to Los Angeles and participate in a five-day program on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City between June...

Kiefer Sutherland returns his action roots in a new Sierra Madre image as hopes remain high he'll return for a 24 movie. Directed by Justin Chadwick, Sierra Madre stars Sutherland as Captain Jordan Wright, the leader of an elite squadron who finds himself in a battle with violent cartels after he and his men take leave for a wedding in Mexico. Delbert Hancock and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers penned the script for the film, which also stars Ashton Sanders, Laura Osma, Solly McLeod, and Omar Chaparro, among others.

Screen Daily now provides a first look at Sutherland in Sierra Madre, which they say is currently filming in Colombia. The image features Sutherland, sporting a beard and wearing a black jacket in a jungle-like environment, holding a submachine gun and looking worriedly at something off-screen. No other cast members are present in the image, unfortunately, but the star certainly looks right at home back in the action genre.

Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich is set to headline Protector, a Taken-esque action thriller that Highland Film is pitching to buyers at this year’s American Film Market. Adrian Grünberg (Rambo: Last Blood, Get the Gringo) is set to direct from a screenplay by Bong-Seob Mun. Production is slated to begin this winter in New Mexico.

The film’s log line has Jovovich playing Nikki, a former war hero who believed she had left her violent past behind to raise her daughter, Chloe, in peace. When she wakes up in an abandoned factory and learns that Chloe has been kidnapped, Nikki has navigate the city’s criminal underworld, pursued by both the cops and the military, to get her daughter back.

Protector is one of a slew of action projects heading to AFM this week as producers double down on a return to shoot-’em-up thrillers.

Kenneth Kim, Bang-Ok Joo...

Kiefer Sutherland is making another return to the action genre with his new movie Sierra Madre, and fans have been given a first look at the 24 star in what is sure to be his latest hit. The gritty thriller set in Mexico sees Sutherland playing a military officer who finds himself and his squad caught up in a deadly battle with a local cartel while on leave of duty. For Sutherland, this kind of tough action role has been the backbone of his career for more than two decades, and the Justin Chadwick-directed film seems certain to deliver another role to be savored by his fans. The synopsis of the movie reads:

"When Captain Jordan Wright (Sutherland) and his squadron are granted leave from their mission to attend a crewmates wedding in Mexico, festivities are interrupted by a cartels murderous descent on the small village. As Jordan attempts to...

Kiefer Sutherland is the actor you want when a film or TV show falls under the action/thriller genre. Sutherland is a veteran with shows like 24, Designated Survivor, and Rabbit Hole under his belt. Next, the actor will be seen in Sierra Madre, a thriller film set in Mexico that finds a military squad engaged in combat with a murderous cartel when the latter invades a village. Sutherland plays Captain Jordan Wright in the film directed by Justin Chadwick. Sierra Madre is currently in production in Colombia. Read the official synopsis below.

Screen has obtained the first-look image from Justin Chadwick’s action thriller Sierra Madre starring Kiefer Sutherland, which has begun production in Colombia with a host of new cast additions. Highland Film Group continues worldwide sales at the AFM this week.

Mexican actor and producer Omar Chaparro, whose credits include Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and Netflix original series Thursday’s Widows, joins alongside rising Colombian actress Laura Osma from Prime Video’s recent Toronto premiere Pimpinero: Blood And Oil and Sky Original’s Blocco 181, and Ashton Sanders from Moonlight and Equalizer 2.

Additional new cast include Tommy Martinez (ABC’s Good Trouble...

Highland Film Group has bulked up its AFM slate and acquired international sales rights to Fantasia entry Witchboard from The Mask director Chuck Russell.

The reimagining of the 1986 horror film follows Emily and her fiancé Christian, who are preparing to open a café business in New Orleans when Emily discovers an ancient artifact once used to summon spirits.

When Emily becomes obsessed with the witchboard’s power, Christian seeks the help of an occult expert who lures the couple deeper into the occult. They find themselves in a race against time to break the board’s deadly curse before Emily becomes its next victim.

Exclusive: English actress, activist, entrepreneur, musician and style icon Cara Delevingne has signed with Anonymous Content in all areas, we can tell you.

Delevingne continues to be repped by Shemarya Artists, The Lede Company and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

Most recently, Delevingne completed her run as Sally Bowles in Rebecca Frecknall’s rendition of Cabaret in the West End. She can also be seen in the recently completed 12th season of FX’s American Horror Story anthology, American Horror Story: Delicate, which this year won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. She also has a guest-starring role on the 12th season of the animated sci-fi series Futurama.

Delevingne made her acting debut in 2012 in Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina opposite Keira Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Her TV credits include starring in and executive producing the Amazon Prime series Carnival Row; developing,...

Sasha Calle, Mamoudou Athie and Jeffrey Donovan join Dane DeHaan in crime thriller “Wardriver,” directed by Rebecca Thomas and written by Daniel. The film is produced by Tim and Trevor White’s Star Thrower Entertainment alongside David M. Wulf, Daniel Casey, DeHaan and Highland Film Group, which is repping international at TIFF. CAA Media Finance has domestic.

Production recently wrapped in Utah.

In the film, tech-savvy thief Cole (DeHaan) exploits his highly specialized skills to commit high-tech robberies from his laptop. When criminal Oscar (Athie) uncovers Cole’s abilities, he forces him to hack the account of the beautiful Sarah (Calle), draining nearly a million dollars. But Cole soon discovers that a powerful, mob-connected lawyer (Donovan) has been using Sarah to hide his money. As Cole falls hard for Sarah, he initiates a plan to replace the stolen money, while protecting her. Ignoring warning signs that something greater is at play,...

Over 8,400 short films were submitted for the 2nd annual Sony Future Filmmaker Awards in Los Angeles, but only six filmmakers walked away with a win Thursday night.

148 countries were represented at the event held at the Cary Grant Theatre on the Sony Pictures Studios lot, with films competing in six categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Environment, Animation, Student and Future Format.

Created by Creo and sponsored by Sony, the black tie affair hosted by “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent Denny Directo was preceded by a week-long industry immersion program and workshops with established Hollywood executives.

Winners were selected by a group of industry experts — including Sony Pictures Classics cofounders/co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, and cinematographers Rob Hardy and Kate Reid, with Unjoo Moon and Robert

Primes selecting the initial longlist. Director Justin Chadwick chaired both selection processes.

2nd Annual Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, winners

Ultimately, the winners were Katie Blair, Olawunmi Hassan & Adaobi Samson,...

Amid a generally positive market the familiar gripe of high asking prices has sent a clear message that buyers and sellers are finding it increasingly tough to reconcile their respective financial models.

The tension remains particularly acute on A-list market packages, where independent producers have fought (and paid) to attract and hold on to talent in a post-strike world where hefty offers from studios and streamers, driven by talent agents, have been hard to resist.

The ripple effect has forced sales agents to push up their asks in order to recoup financiers’ investments. Sales estimates set more than a year ago,...

Kiefer Sutherland, known by most for his iconic role as Jack Bauer in 24, is slated to star in a new action thriller titled Sierra Madre. The film, directed by Justin Chadwick (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), starts production this fall in Colombia. A release date has yet to be announced. Ian McKenzie Jeffers (The Grey) and Delbert Hancock have written Sierra Madre.

Kiefer Sutherland will star in action thriller 'Sierra Madre'.The 57-year-old actor will take on the leading role in the upcoming movie from director Justin Chadwick.According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film tells the story of Captain Jordan Wright (Sutherland) and his team "who are granted leave from their mission to attend a crewmate’s wedding in Mexico. While there, festivities are interrupted by a murderous cartel, and, as Jordan attempts to lead his remaining men to safety, war breaks out between his squad and the cartel. Jordan has to engage in a full-scale battle to save his men".Kiefer said: "I’m thrilled to be joining the team on Sierra Madre, led by director Justin Chadwick. I feel it is a compelling thriller with great emotional and dramatic opportunities. Or more simply put, a d*** good story."Highland Film Group CEO Arianne Fraser said: "[Sutherland] will capture the intensity...

Kiefer Sutherland is set to star in action thriller Sierra Madre.

The story centers on Sutherland’s Captain Jordan Wright and his squadron, who are granted leave from their mission to attend a crewmate’s wedding in Mexico. While there, festivities are interrupted by a murderous cartel, and, as Jordan attempts to lead his remaining men to safety, war breaks out between his squad and the cartel. Jordan has to engage in a full-scale battle to save his men.

The project, which is being sold out of the Cannes film market by Highland Film Group, is set to be directed by Justin Chadwick from a script by and Delbert Hancock and The Grey writer Ian Mackenzie Jeffers. Production is due to start this fall in Colombia, with Robert Stein (The Call), James Keach (Walk the Line) and Griff Furst (Devil’s Peak) producing.

Highland Film Group is co-financing the action thriller and handling worldwide rights,...

The star of Disney+’s Shardlake has addressed having a different disability to the character he portrays in the C.J. Sansom adaptation, which launches today.

Arthur Hughes, who was the first person with a disability to portray Richard III for the Royal Shakespeare Company, stressed that Shardlake was always going to have a disabled lead – whether him or another actor – coming as debate rages over authentic representation in TV and film.

Hughes has radial dysplasia in his right arm, while the titular Matthew Shardlake is a crime-solving barrister with scoliosis.

Hughes said at a London screening: “I was aware that Shardlake has a disability that is not my own, and I wanted to find a level of truth in what I was doing and not necessarily affecting something that was not my own experience. We look at hunchbacks in film, and they’re often mad, kind of grotesque caricature kind of things,...

Out of battery. Out of signal. Stamped underfoot. Dropped into drains. Crime writers have found inventive ways to remove suspense-killing mobile phones from their stories, but no solution is as thorough as Cj Sansom’s. By setting his murder mysteries in Tudor times, Sansom’s 16th century lawyer Matthew Shardlake has to investigate without mobiles, forensics or DNA databases, armed with only his mind and principles. Or rather: his mind, principles, and the fearful reputation of his boss Thomas Cromwell whose name Shardlake draws “like a sword”.

This four-part historical crime drama is adapted from the first of Sansom’s seven Shardlake novels by Stephen Butchard, the writer who so successfully translated Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories to the screen in The Last Kingdom. If it lands well with an audience, there’s hope of many more series, each one a self-contained mystery for ‘the Tudor Morse’ to solve against...

In Hulu’s Shardlake, as in Arthurian legend, a hand emerges from a body of water bearing a sword. Though lacking Excalibur’s magical touch, this blade’s discovery does serve the ambitions of a monarch. After splitting England from the Catholic Church in 1534, King Henry VIII and his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean), have begun dissolving monasteries across the realm and seizing their wealth. The decapitation of Cromwell’s representative (Michael Rivers) at an abbey near the remote, boggy town of Scarnsea presents an opportunity to advance that crusade, with Cromwell sending an odd couple of agents to investigate the incident, commanding them to find sufficient reason to shutter the order.

In the third episode, the monks watch in horror as endearingly determined lawyer Matthew Shardlake (Arthur Hughes) and Jack Barak (Anthony Boyle), the cocksure enforcer assigned to accompany him, find the submerged murder weapon on their grounds.

“Shardlake” is a new live-action ‘Tudor England’ era, 4-part drama series, directed by Justin Chadwick, following the adventures of the hunchbacked lawyer/detective ‘Matthew Shardlake’ (Arthur Hughes) co-starring Sean Bean as ‘Thomas Cromwell’, streaming May 1, 1023 on Hulu:

“…drenched in mystery, suspense, and deception, this four-part drama is an eerie whodunnit adventure set in 16th century England during the dissolution of the monasteries.

“The sheltered life of ‘Shardlake’ (Hughes) as a lawyer is turned upside down when Cromwell (Bean) instructs him to investigate the murder of one of his commissioners at a monastery in the remote town of Scarnsea.

“The commissioner was gathering evidence to close the monastery, and it is now imperative for Cromwell’s own political survival that Shardlake solve the murder and closes the monastery.

“As failure is not an option, Cromwell insists Shardlake be accompanied by ‘Jack Barak’ (Anthony Boyle) to Scarnsea, where the duo are met with hostility,...

Hulu has shared the trailer and key art for Shardlake, the new series based on the popular Tudor murder mystery novels by C.J. Sansom. The series premieres on Wednesday, May 1, on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America, and Disney+ in select territories.

Drenched in mystery, suspense, and deception, this four-part drama, based on the first novel in C.J. Sansom’s book series, is an eerie whodunnit adventure set in 16th-century England during the dissolution of the monasteries.

Shardlake’s sheltered life as a lawyer is turned upside down when Cromwell instructs him to investigate the murder of one of his commissioners at a monastery in the remote town of Scarnsea. The commissioner was gathering evidence to close the monastery, and it is now imperative for Cromwell’s own political survival that Shardlake both solves the murder and closes the monastery.

He leaves Shardlake in no doubt...

Creo has announced the jury for the 2024 Sony Future Filmmaker Awards.

Director Justin Chadwick serves as chair for the second year in a row. He is joined on the jury by Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, co-founders and co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics; cinematographer Rob Hardy ASC, Bsc; cinematographer Kate Reid Bsc; cinematographer Robert Primes ASC; and Australian filmmaker Unjoo Moon.

Chadwick said, “It is such a pleasure to return as Chair of this new prestigious panel of decorated creatives. Last year, we brought to the forefront 30 exceptionally talented filmmakers from across the world, each of whom had the unique chance to access the inner workings of the industry in Los Angeles, opening doors to career-launching opportunities. From my own experience, the art of the short film is by no means one to be underestimated, and I look forward to discovering more brilliant, talented individuals through this upcoming selection.”

In...

The second series of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, starring Nicole Kidman, has accessed the maximum amounts possible in production funding from incentive schemes in Germany and Austria. Production is now underway in Bavaria and Austria as well as in sound stages at Penzing Studios west of Munich this year.

Nine Perfect Strangers was awarded €10m by the German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf), almost a quarter of the total of €44.8m funds paid out by the Berlin-based fund in 2023.

The production has also received the maximum amount of €7.5m from Austria’s Fisa+ scheme, designed to attract international productions to the country.

The second series of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, starring Nicole Kidman, has accessed the maximum amounts possible in production funding from incentive schemes in Germany and Austria. Production is now underway in Bavaria and Austria as well as in sound stages at Penzing Studios west of Munich this year.

Nine Perfect Strangers was awarded €10m by the German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf), almost a quarter of the total of €44.8m funds paid out by the Berlin-based fund in 2023.

The production has also received the maximum amount of €7.5m from Austria’s Fisa+ scheme, designed to attract international productions to the country.

In Kenneth Branagh's 2011 fantasy clunker "Thor," Chris Hemsworth plays an extraterrestrial once worshiped on Earth as the Norse God of Thunder. Thor and his retinue traverse the galaxy using a carefully protected device called the Bifröst, a.k.a. the Rainbow Bridge, which can zap travelers anywhere in the galaxy instantaneously within a massive laser beam. The Bifröst is protected and controlled by a powerful armored guard/engineer named Heimdall, a hulking hunk decked out in gold and leather and sporting eerie golden eyes. Those golden eyes allow Heimdall to see great distances and into other realms. 

Heimdall was played by actor Idris Elba, who would go on to play the character in five additional Marvel Cinematic Universe pictures. 

Elba, as many know, first broke into the public eye for his role on the hit HBO series "The Wire" in 2002. Since then, Elba has become a proper movie and TV star,...

Exclusive: South Africa’s Videovision Entertainment is heading to next week’s Mip Africa event with a new TV sales division.

The unit will bring a significant number of titles from South Africa, comprising over 100 feature films and more than 10,000 hours of television programs. Videovision is one the country’s oldest and most successful production houses.

Videovision’s CEO Anant Singh has secured a deal to represent e.tv’s daily soap House of Zwide, which the company produces. Other Videovision titles produced over the past four decades will also be included on the slate, with notable features include Sarafina!, starring Leleti Khumalo, Whoopi Goldberg and Miriam Makeba; Cry, the Beloved Country starring James Earl Jones, Richard Harris and Vusi Kunene; Red Dust starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor and directed by Tom Hooper; and Yesterday, which received South Africa’s first Academy Award nomination.

See a trailer for the slate here.

Nata­lie Port­man will be honored at the 49th edition of Deauville Amer­i­can Film Fes­ti­val, which will bestow her with its Deau­ville Talent Award. She will attend a screening of her new film, Todd Haynes’ sex scandal drama “May Decem­ber,” at the festival, which runs from Sept. 1 to 10.

Among her career highlights, the festival singles out her performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” for which she won an Oscar in 2011. She was also an Oscar nominee for Mike Nichols’ “Closer” in 2005 and Pablo Larraín’s “Jackie” in 2017.

Other standout roles the festival pointed to were her performances in “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” in 1999, Anthony Minghella’s “Cold Mountain” in 2003, and Kar-Wai Wong’s “My Blueberry Nights” in 2007.

“All of these roles are marked by her ambivalent presence, a blend of strength and fragility,” the festival commented.

Other performances...

Benedict Cumberbatch has proven himself one of the most versatile actors working, but how do his films rank from worst to best? This Academy Award-nominated actor may have hit some snags in his career, but overall, he boasts a filmography as varied and versatile as his talents. Benedict began his career on the British stage before transitioning into television, breaking out in a big way with 2010's Sherlock, a show for which he's been nominated for four Emmy Awards, finally winning one in 2014. That show's popularity gave rise to a Cumberbatch fandom, and soon the actor found himself a fixture in multiple franchises, eventually donning the cloak of Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Cumberbatch seems to have had little trouble transitioning from franchise fare to serial television to prestige cinema. Whether playing Star Trek's wrathful Khan or The Hobbit's dragon Smaug, he's an actor who radiates both intelligence and warmth,...

Disney+ is set to take viewers on a journey through Tudor England with its latest series, “Shardlake.”

Based on the internationally acclaimed Tudor murder mystery novels by C.J. Sansom, the four-part drama is set in 16th century England during the dissolution of the monasteries.

The series will follow the story of Matthew Shardlake, played by Arthur Hughes, a lawyer with an acute sense of justice and one of the few honest men in a world beset with scheming and plots. Shardlake works for Thomas Cromwell, played by Sean Bean, the dangerous and all-powerful right-hand man to Henry VIII.

Despite Shardlake’s unwavering loyalty to Cromwell and the Crown, his position in society is unfavored due to his appearance, as a person living with scoliosis during the Tudor period, suffering the indignity of being abused as a “crookback” wherever he turns. As he investigates the murder of one of Cromwell...

An array of on-the-rise filmmakers were honored at the first edition of the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards on Wednesday at the Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City, California.

The event was organized by Creo and awarded prizes in six categories, which followed 30 filmmakers getting shortlisted for the ceremony last month. The shortlisted individuals received a flight to Los Angeles and a two-day industry immersion experience courtesy of Sony execs. Additionally, the winners received cash prizes and gifts from Sony Digital Imaging.

Winning the fiction category was U.K.-based Dan Thorburn for the film Salt Water Town, telling the story of a father-son dynamic amid the impending closure of a caravan park. Daniela Lucato from Italy was awarded the top prize for the non-fiction category for The Things You Don’t Know About Me, Mom, centering on a survivor of Chile’s Pinochet regime imagining tough conversations with her mother.

Rising filmmakers were honored Wednesday night at the inaugural Sony Future Filmmaker Awards. The award show, created by Creo and Sony, celebrates creators and independent filmmakers across the globe. The filmmakers received a cash prize, a trip to Los Angeles and an industry immersion experience led by Sony Pictures execs.

Thirty filmmakers were honored across six categories, with six individuals winning the awards. Director Justin Chadwick chaired the panel that created the shortlist and chose the winners. Also serving on the jury was Nicole Brown, president of TriStar Pictures, Jeremy Barber, a partner at UTA for motion picture literary and talent, and Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger A. Deakins.

“I was so impressed by the breadth and diversity of the submissions from such an incredibly talented generation of new filmmakers,” Brown said. “The amount of passion and creativity was astounding and made the task of narrowing it down no small feat! I...

The shortlist for the first edition of the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, sponsored by Creo, has been announced. The awards aim to elevate original voices from around the globe with a fresh perspective on storytelling.

The awards ceremony will take place Feb. 22 on the Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City, Calif. After the awards, the 30 shortlisted filmmakers will then take part in a three-day workshop program.

The jury included filmmaker Justin Chadwick, president of TriStar Pictures Nicole Brown, UTA Partner Jeremy Barber, and cinematographer Roger Deakins.

Chadwick said, “The global response has been truly exhilarating. New voices from all over the world have sent in films in all categories in huge numbers. Films that are original, diverse and fresh, filled with passion and originality.”

Creo organizes events and programming related to photography, film and contemporary art.

More than 4,000 films from 3,000 filmmakers in 140 countries were submitted.

The shortlisted films are...

Exclusive: Disney+ is ready to give the greenlight to an adaptation of Cj Sansom’s bestselling Shardlake novels, depicting an unlikely detective working under Henry VIII’s reign.

The streaming service will bolster its UK originals slate with the series, which will be made by The Forge, the All3Media-backed production company behind Starz’s Becoming Elizabeth.

Disney and The Forge have lined up Justin Chadwick to direct the Shardlake series. Chadwick was the lead director on Becoming Elizabeth and has form when it comes to Tudor storytelling, having directed The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Eric Bana, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.

Working titled Shardlake, the series will shoot in the UK this year and sources said it could comprise four episodes. Should it be successful, there is plenty of material for The Forge to mine, with Sansom having written seven novels in the Shardlake series.

The first book, Dissolution,...

The ninth annual Miami Film Festival Gems will present Iranian filimmaker Jafar Panahi with the Precious Gem Award. The award will be presented virtually before Friday’s screening of “No Bears.”

The festival, sponsored by Miami Dade College, runs Nov. 3-10 at Mdc’s Tower Theater.

“I thank all the people involved in the Miami Film Festival, who considered me worthy of receiving this award.” Panahi stated in an audio message relayed from prison. ”But… I have dreams that go beyond all the awards in the world. I dream and have always dreamed that in the current situation my country is facing, I could be with my people and portray their struggle for freedom. I also wish that I could make films instead of receiving awards, because a filmmaker lives to make films. Anyway, I hope a day will come when I can make a film, and attend your festival with it.

Selections include new projects from directors Farkhat Sharipov and Ash Mayfair.

The 3rd Tokyo Gap-Financing Market (Tgfm) has unveiled 20 projects selected for financing and development at Tiffcom, the affiliated content market of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

Selections include new projects by known directors such as recent Berlinale Generation 14plus prize-winner Farkhat Sharipov (Scheme), Ash Mayfair (The Third Wife) and Tom Waller (The Cave).

Hong Kong’s Toe Yuen, known for Annecy prize-winner My Life As McDull (2001), also has a new animation in the lineup.

Organised by UniJapan, Tgfm will run as part of Tiffcom online October 25-27. The 35th...

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It’s not that Elizabeth Tudor (Alicia von Rittberg) can’t see the board. “It’s a great game of keep or kill to them all,” she remarks with no small amount of bitterness when she’s sent without say to live with Catherine Parr (Jessica Raine), widow of her father King Henry VIII. At the point we meet her in Starz’s Becoming Elizabeth, however, she’s not yet learned to play the game for herself.

Her evolution from pawn to key player comprises the narrative spine of the series, and it’s no spoiler to acknowledge here that she’ll eventually go on to win the whole thing, ruling over England for nearly half a century. But creator Anya Reiss brings to Elizabeth I’s saga an intimate perspective that prioritizes personal experience over the epic sweep of history. The result...

Amsterdam-based Fortissimo Films has acquired international rights to UK-China co-production Untamed and is showing early footage to buyers in Cannes.

The drama will revolve around the true story of Zhu Shenghao, the first person to translate nearly all of Shakespeare’s works into Chinese in the 1930s, who died aged just 32 from tuberculosis.

It will be set in three time frames: the 1930s; 16th century England as a young playwright struggles to stage his play; and modern-day China where a rising director struggles for funding for his film about Shenghao and Shakespeare. Angus Yellowlees will play Shakespeare.

The UK section...

Emmy-nominated director Justin Chadwick is set to co-direct the fantasy/drama/biopic Untamed, a U.K.-China co-production about the remarkable, improbable life of Zhu Shenghao, who famously translated the complete works of Shakespeare into Chinese singlehandedly.

The innovative project, which will be told in both English and Chinese and shot between London and Shanghai, will actually feature two filmmakers at the helm. Chadwick will handle the English components, while a Chinese director, to be announced at a later date, will handle the Chinese shooting. The filmmakers will then come together to collaborate on the final edit.

The film will begin production in ...

Emmy-nominated director Justin Chadwick is set to co-direct the fantasy/drama/biopic Untamed, a U.K.-China co-production about the remarkable, improbable life of Zhu Shenghao, who famously translated the complete works of Shakespeare into Chinese singlehandedly.

The innovative project, which will be told in both English and Chinese and shot between London and Shanghai, will actually feature two filmmakers at the helm. Chadwick will handle the English components, while a Chinese director, to be announced at a later date, will handle the Chinese shooting. The filmmakers will then come together to collaborate on the final edit.

The film will begin production in ...