News

UK-Ireland top five, July 25-27 RankTitle (origin)DistributorJuly 25-27TotalWeek 1 The Fantastic Four: First Steps(US) Disney £6.1m £8.1m 1 2 Superman(US) Warner Bros £1.9m £21.4m 3 3 The Bad Guys 2(US)

Universal £1.6m £1.6m 1 4 Jurassic World Rebirth(US) Universal £1.6m £28.8m 4 5 F1: The Movie(US) Warner Bros £649,942 £19.7m 5

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.34

The Fantastic Four: First Steps made a strong start at the UK-Ireland box office with a £6.1m opening weekend – the biggest for a Fantastic Four title by £2m.

Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) title took a £9,173 average from 665 sites. Having opened on Thursday, July 24, the film has £8.1m in total.

Netalie Braun’s anti-war film “Oxygen” took the top prize at the 42nd Jerusalem Film Festival which kicked off on July 17 with an honorary tribute to Gal Gadot.

“Oxygen” stars Dana Ivgy (“Zero Motivation”) has Anat, a mother who sets out on a perilous journey to bring her soldier son home after learning that he’s been deployed on the front lines.

The long-gestated movie, which was developed at the Sam Spiegel Lab, won the Haggiag Award for best feature from a jury comprising Israeli director-actor Menashe Noy; Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival founder Tiina Lokk and filmmaker Julie Shles

The jury praised “Oxygen” for its “radical reading of Israeli existence centered on a mother who boldly chooses to stop being a victim of the Israeli ethos, no matter the cost,” and presents Israeli society “from a new perspective, giving an almost biblical dimension to the story of a mother...

Netalie Braun’s anti-war drama Oxygen, about a mother who takes extreme action to prevent her 21-year-old son from returning to the front in Lebanon, scooped the Best Israeli Feature Film award at the 42nd Jerusalem Film Festival on Thursday evening.

Opening with Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prize winner Sentimental Value July 17, this edition was the second to take place since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Southern Israel, in which 1,200 people died and another 251 were taken hostage, sparking the Israeli invasion of Gaza, in which more than 57,000 Palestinian people have since been killed.

The festival unfolded amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s management of food aid distribution in Gaza, with World Health Organization head Tedros Ghebreyesus saying this week that the population faced “mass starvation”.

There has also been outcry in Israel about the situation, as well as anger about the fate of 50 hostages, who are still unaccounted for,...

Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads this week’s new releases in the UK and Ireland, opening in 665 cinemas.

Marvel parent company Disney is distributing the second reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise. The first Fantastic Four film opened to £3.5m in 2005 and ended on £12.7m. Its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer opened with £4.1m and closed on £12.4m. The franchise was then rebooted for a first time in 2015 withFantastic Four,opening to £1.9m and ending on £6.2m.

In the latest reboot Pedro Pascal plays Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, alongside Vanessa Kirby as Sue, Joseph Quinn...

American director, screenwriter and producer Todd Haynes has been named president of the international jury of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. The Berlinale diamond jubilee (a 75th anniversary) will take place from February 13-23, 2025.

”Todd Haynes is a dazzlingly gifted writer and director with an impressive range; his body of work is at once stylistically versatile but also unmistakably his,” Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle said in a Thursday statement. “Ever since his debut feature ‘Poison’ won the Teddy Award in 1991, the Berlinale has followed and loved his filmmaking, and we are overjoyed to have him join the festival as the President of the International Jury for our 75th edition.”

The Teddy Award is the festival’s queer-film prize. “Poison” also won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Haynes’ 2002 film “Far From Heaven” was nominated for four Oscars.

His other notable work includes “Safe” (1995), “Velvet Goldmine” (1998), the...

Matthias Glasner’s “Dying” is three hours long but it passes by like a breeze. As its English title suggests, the film is more about the verb than the noun. It isn’t about the hopeless finality of death as much as it is about the process of dying. While it examines the effects of loss, it remains focused on following the gradual loss of life in whatever ways we choose to define it. Glasner’s script mainly revolves around six characters – four family members and two people related to them. Through their lives, Glasner explores ‘dying’ in different contexts and shows the gradual journey that precedes and/or follows a loss; be it of a person or our hopes, passions, or lifelong ambitions.

The film is divided into a few chapters and it ends with an epilogue. Splitting it into these individual chapters helps the film connect its different...

The world premiere of David Dietl’s Long Story Short will open the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Poff) on November 8.

It is one of 15 new German films as part of a focus programme on Germany at this year’s festival.

Long Story Short is a comedy drama about the parties, tragedies, love and friendship experienced by a close group of friends. German stars Laura Tonke and Ronald Zehrfeld are among the cast. With a script by Elena Senft, it is adapted from May el-Toukhy’s 2015 Danish feature of the same name.

Dietl’s film is produced by Quirin Berg,...

The world premiere of David Dietl’s Long Story Short will open the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Poff) on November 8.

It is one of 15 new German films as part of a focus programme on Germany at this year’s festival.

Long Story Short is a comedy-drama about the parties, tragedies, love and friendship experienced by a close group of friends. German stars Laura Tonke and Ronald Zehrfeld are among the cast. With a script by Elena Senft, it is adapted from May el-Toukhy’s 2015 Danish feature of the same name.

Dietl’s film is produced by Quirin Berg,...

The European Film Academy has announced that documentaries and animated features will now be considered for the European Film prize at its annual awards.

The category had previously only included fiction films. “The aim of this change is to better reflect the fact that documentaries and animated feature films are an essential part of European cinema culture, adding much to its great diversity,” a press release states. “Both documentary and animated films come in a plethora of genres, storytelling traditions and narrative forms, for any audience.”

The change is effective starting this year. The 37th European Film Awards are set to take place on Dec. 7 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

“Simply said, the best film of Europe can from now onwards also be a feature-length documentary film or animated feature film, and not only a fiction film,” European Film Academy CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol said in a statement. “The decision of the...

Otros de los títulos seleccionados incluyen ‘Bird’, ‘Emilia Perez’, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ y ‘The Substance’.

La Academia de Cine Europeo ha anunciado la primera selección de títulos que optan a las nominaciones de los Premios del Cine Europeo. Se han seleccionado 29 producciones y en septiembre se ampliará la lista con una nueva tanda de títulos.

En esta primera lista se encuentran tres películas españolas: Un amor, de Isabel Coixet, con siete nominaciones a los premios Goya 2024, O Corno, de Jaione Camborda, ganadora de la Concha de Oro en el Festival de San Sebastián 2023, y Volveréis, de Jonás Trueba, premio a la Mejor Película europea en la Quincena de Realizadores de Cannes.

La ceremonia de los Premios del Cine Europeo tendrá lugar el 7 de diciembre en Lucerna (Suiza). Pueden optar a los Premios del Cine Europeo los largometrajes europeos que, entre otros criterios, hayan tenido su primera proyección oficial entre el...

The first wave of titles in contention for the 2024 European Film Awards include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds Of Kindness and Sundance award-winner Kneecap.

Cannes premieres feature predominantly in the 29 titles unveiled today (August 14), including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez; Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig; Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour; Halfdan Ullmann Tønde’s Armand and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance – all of which picked up prizes on the Croisette.

Other films from Cannes include Andrea Arnold’s Bird; Emanuel Pârvu’s Three Kilometers To The End Of The World; The Count Of Monte-Cristo; and Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle.

The European Film Academy has revealed the first tranche of film titles that members can consider for nominations for the European Film Awards, which take place on Dec. 7 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The academy’s selection of 29 titles covers films that had their first official screening between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024. Further titles will be announced in September, which will include films that had their premieres in the summer and early autumn festivals, such as Locarno and Venice.

Among the selection are Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” Cannes’ best actress and jury prize winner, Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour,” Cannes’ best director winner, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds Of Kindness,” best actor winner at Cannes, Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” jury special prize winner at Cannes, Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” best screenplay winner at Cannes, “Armand” by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the Golden Camera winner at Cannes, Matthias Glasner’s “Dying,...

The European Film Academy has selected the first 29 productions in the running for the 2024 European Film Awards.

The selection, announced Wednesday, is a list of this year’s festival highlights, including Jacques Audiard, Coralie Fargeat and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Cannes winners Emilia Pérez, The Substance and Kinds of Kindness, respectively; Rich Peppiatt’s Sundance hit Kneecap; and Berlinale favorites Crossing from Levan Akin, The Devil’s Bath from Austrian directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz and German melodrama Dying from Matthias Glasner.

By far the most commercially successful title in the selection is Paola Cortellesi’s Italian dramedy There’s Still Tomorrow, which topped the local box office in 2023, selling more tickets in Italy than Barbie did.

To be eligible for the 2024 EFAs, a feature has to have had its first official screening between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024 and have a European director. Non-European directors with European refugee status, or those who have lived...

Cannes Competition titles The Substance, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and Emilia Perez are among the first set of titles recommended for nominations at this year’s European Film Awards.

Overall, 29 titles have been selected for the first stage of nominations by the European Film Academy Board. The selection includes films from 26 countries. In the coming weeks, the 5,000 members of the European Film Academy will start to vote on the selected films. The winners will be announced at the European Film Awards ceremony in Lucerne, Switzerland, on December 7.

To be eligible for a European Film Awards, films must be European feature films which, among other criteria, had their first official screening between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024 and have a European director. The rule book states that should a film director not be European, exceptions can be made if the filmmaker is “provided they have a European refugee or similar status...

Germany has revealed the 13 titles that it will consider for submission to the 97th Academy Awards, including Cannes award-winner The Seed Of The Sacred Fig by Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof.

Further features in the selection include Andreas Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love and Matthias Glasner’s Dying, which both played in Competition at this year’s Berlinale; Fabian Stumm’s Sad Jokes, set to screen at Toronto; and documentary Hollywoodgate, directed by German-based Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at, which premiered at Venice in 2023.

Although set in Tehran with a predominantly Iranian cast and crew, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig...

A jury headed by French Vietnamese director Tranh Anh Hung awarded its Golden Goblet (Jin Jue) prizes for the Shanghai International Film Festival’s main competition.

The top prize for best feature went to “The Divorce,” directed by Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Salamat. The jury praised the film for its sophisticated story-telling which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy, and “which moves fluidly from public sphere to the intimate relationship of a couple in crisis” and its feeling of innocence.

The other jury members were Rolf de Heer (Australia), Matthias Glasner (Germany), Tony Leung Ka Fai (Hong Kong), Santiago Mitre (Argentina), Sonthar Gyal (China) and Zhou Xun (China).

In the separate Asian New Talents section, the best film prize went to “Friday, Funfair,” while double honors were accorded to Abhilash Sharma’s “in the Name of Fire.”

Prizes for the festival’s Siff Project market for co-financing scripts and works in progress...

The 26th Shanghai International Film Festival came to a glitzy conclusion Saturday as Kazakh film The Divorce, directed by Daniyar Salamat, took home the top Golden Goblet award for best feature at a star-studded closing ceremony in the Chinese commercial capital.

A period drama set in the 1920s during the establishment of Soviet authority on the Kazakh steppe, the film explores the convergence of marriage, religion and women’s rights through the story of a typical couple wrestling with the prospect of divorce.

Salamat was presented onstage with his trophy by the Oscar-nominated Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung (Scent of Green Papaya, The Taste of Things), who served as Shanghai’s competition jury president this year. Hung and his fellow jurors praised the “sophisticated form” of The Divorce‘s story, “which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy,” and they hailed Salamat’s “ability to create the feeling of innocence, which radiates...

Along with a red-carpet opening ceremony, a press conference with the members of the main competition jury is a staple event of major film festivals and the 26th edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival kicked off in traditional form on Friday.

Along with Vietnam-French director Tran Anh Hung, previously revealed as jury president, the other members of the decisive committee this year are: Australian director and screenwriter Rolf de Heer; German director Matthias Glasner; Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka Fai; Argentinian director Santiago Mitre; Chinese director Sonthar Gyal; and, the jury’s only woman, star actor Zhou Xun.

A packed audience lobbed familiar questions about the criteria they jurors would employ to decide the Golden Goblet prize winners, and what informs those views.

Tran, who is based largely in France, rejected the idea of an East-West clash of sensibilities. “Film is its own language, and I try to...

The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled the competition selection for its upcoming 26th edition Wednesday, featuring a lineup characteristically heavy on Chinese titles. As in recent years, the lineup also includes a bevy of European, Japanese and Central Asian movies, but not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea.

The most anticipated film from the festival’s 14-title main competition in 2024 is undoubtedly Chinese director Guan Hu’s drama A Man and a Woman, featuring a pair of lead performances from the big local stars Huang Bo and Ni Ni. Guan wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival just a week ago with his darkly comic thriller Black Dog, which took home the French festival’s prestigious Un Certain Regard prize. Guan also is no stranger to the Shanghai festival. His WWII tentpole The Eight Hundred was scheduled to open the 2019 edition of the event, but it...

Picturehouse Entertainment has made its first animation pickup, acquiring UK-Ireland distribution rights to Sylvain Chomet’s The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol.

The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol follows the life of Pagnol, a playwright, novelist and filmmaker who became one of the world’s most inventive and prolific artists in the mid-20th century.

The film is currently in production ahead of completion in 2025. It is produced by Ashargin Poire and Valerie Puech for What the Prod. Co-producers are Lilian Eche’s Bidibul Productions, Adrian Politowski’s Align and Aton Soumache for On Classics (Mediawan Kids & Family), in...

After four Oscar wins for “All Quiet on the Western Front” last year and the Oscar nomination for “The Teachers’ Lounge” this year, Germany’s film sector seemed to be on the up, but while a government plan to revamp the country’s film funding system is broadly welcomed, its painfully slow progress is also causing some anxiety.

The fact that Cannes’ various sections contain not one feature by a German filmmaker may be seen as a cause for concern, but 13 German productions and co-productions have been selected. This underscores how Germany’s current funding structures nurture co-productions, which in turn benefits local producers. For example, both Karim Aïnouz’s “Motel Destino” and Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour” in the Competition section have Germany’s Match Factory Productions as a co-producer.

The Berlinale was a better showcase for German talent, with Matthias Glasner picking up the screenplay award for “Dying,” and...

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, following its world premiere at Sundance in January.

The film stars Lucy Liu, Julia Fox and Chris Sullivan, in the story of a family who moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced that they’re not alone. Neon International handles worldwide sales.

Presence was written by David Koepp, and produced by Julie M. Anderson and Ken Meyer.

The latest buy from Picturehouse’s revamped acquisitions team, it joins a slate that includes Alonso Ruizpalacios’ La Cocina, Matthias Glasner’s Dying and Andreas Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love.

Sydney Film Festival (June 5-16) has unveiled the 12 titles that will play in competition at its 71st edition, including six features that are set to premiere at Cannes this month.

Fresh from playing in Competition at Cannes will be Kinds of Kindness, starring Emma Stone and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who won the Sydney Film Prize in 2012 with Alps. Further Palme d’Or contenders selected for Sydney include Grand Tour from Portugal’s Miguel Gomes, whose Arabian Nights won the Sydney Film Prize in 2015; Christophe Honoré’s French-Italian comedy Marcello Mio; and Payal Kapadia’s Indian romantic drama All We Imagine As Light.

Roschdy Zem, Sandrine Kiberlain and Elodie Bouchez have signed to star in Unchained, a prison-set dance feature to be directed by France’s Valerie Muller and choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj. Le Pacte is handling international sales.

Muller and Preljocaj previously collaborated on 2016 ballet drama Polina that screened in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori.

Zem will play an international renowned choreographer who launches a dance workshop in prison and guides inmates to break free of the chains binding them through dance as they seek redemption among their families outside the prison walls.

Unchained is being produced by Nicolas Mauvernay’s Mizar Films.

Matthias Glasner’s Dying was the winner of the top prize at this year’s German Film Awards, clinching the Golden Lola in the best film category along with a cash prize of €500,000 for the producers to invest in a future project.

The production by Port au Prince Film & Kultur Produktion, Schwarzweiß Filmproduktion and Senator Film Produktion, which had its world premiere in competition at this year’s Berlinale where it won the best screenplay Silver Bear, also garnered another three statuettes: Corinna Harfouch (best lead actress), Hans-Uwe Bauer (best supporting actor), and Lorenz Dangel (best film score).

Glasner’s family drama,...

Matthias Glasner’s epic dysfunctional family drama Dying has won the top prize for best film at the 2024 German Film Awards, the Lolas.

Dying was one of the critical favorites at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where Glasner won the Silver Bear for best screenplay. The film stars Lars Eidinger as a classical conductor with an extremely dysfunctional family.

In addition to the top prize, Corinna Harfoch won the best actress Lola for her role in Dying, where she plays Eidinger’s sharp-tonged and cold-hearted mother. Her Dying co-star Hans-Uwe Bauer took best supporting actor, and the film also took the Lola for best film music for composer Lorenz Dangel.

Ayşe Polat took best director and best screenplay for In the Blind Spot, her twisty documentary-style conspiracy thriller set in modern-day Turkey. The film, which premiered in Berlin’s Encounters section last year, won the top prize at the Oldenburg Film Festival,...

Matthias Glasner’s Dying leads the Lolas, the German Film Awards, with nine nominations, including for best feature film, director, screenplay, and score.

Additionally, Lars Eidinger has been nominated as best actor and Corinna Harfouch as best actress; Robert Gwisdek and Hans-Uwe Bauer have both been nominated for best supporting actor.

The family drama premiered in competition at the Berlinale last month and will be released in Germany by Wild Bunch on April 25.

The Lolas will take place at a ceremony in Berlin on May 3.

Timm Kröger’s second feature The Universal Theory, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section last September,...

The German Film Academy has announced the movies in competition this year for the German Film Awards, the local equivalent of the Oscars.

Matthias Glasner’s epic family drama Dying, Timm Kröger’s experimental sci-fi feature The Universal Theory, and In the Blind Spot, Ayşe Polat’s documentary-style conspiracy thriller set in modern-day Turkey, are among the favorites for this year’s awards, called the Lolas.

Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger as a classical conductor with an extremely dysfunctional family, picked up nominations in every major category, including best film, best director and best screenplay nominations for Glasner, a best actor nom for Eidinger and a best actress nomination for Corinna Harfoch, who plays Eidinger’s mother. In total, the film is up for nine Lolas.

The Universal Theory, a black-and-white drama about the multiverse, is also in the running for the best film Lola, and Kröger is up for best director.

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Matthias Glasner’s Berlinale Competition Dying from The Match Factory.

The melodrama follows a woman secretly enjoying her husband’s deteriorating health before death knocks on her door as well, causing estranged family members to reconnect.

Corinna Harfouch, Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg, Ronald Zehrfeld, Robert Gwisdek and Anna Bederke lead the cast.

Dying picked up several prizes in Berlin including the silver bear in best screenplay. It scored a solid 2.8 on Screen’s critics jury grid.

‘Dying’: Berlin Review

The feature is written by Glasner who also produces with Jan Krüger and Ulf Israel.

Recommending that someone sits down to a three-hour drama named Dying is not the easiest sell, but Matthias Glasner’s film is a lot more sprightly and funny than it sounds on paper. Death is present but there’s also a hell of a lot of living going in this enjoyably complex, character-driven drama that isn’t afraid to tackle weighty subjects including suicide, addiction and terminal illness. Split into overlapping segments, three of which come from different perspectives of a single family, Glasner puts ideas including love and commitment under the microscope so we can see their intricate layering and contradictions.

Though an ensemble piece, the film largely revolves around orchestra conductor Tom Lunies (Lars Eidinger) - although it’s a while before that will become apparent. First, we meet his mother Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) in the middle of a crushingly awful morning. She is sitting in a mess of her own excrement,...

Writer-director Matthias Glasner’s Dying, a nuanced anatomy of a dysfunctional German family, begins with Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) prostrated on the living room floor covered in feces and unable to move. Meanwhile, her husband, Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer), aimlessly parades around their apartment in the buff. Clearly withdrawn from reality, he doesn’t register Lissy’s presence, let alone her distress, as he walks in front of her.

We’ll learn across this poignant and unforgiving saga of the origins and results of lovelessness that this is an average day in the life of the elderly couple. And while it’s easy to read this disturbing opening as a raw portrait of the predicaments of old age, the scene is ultimately understood as the embodiment of an entire family’s sad state of affairs: It always seems as if someone in the Lunies clan is drowning in shit and everyone else is looking the other way.

The Match Factory has unveiled multiple distribution deals for its Berlinale competition titles Dying by Matthias Glasner and Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky.

Dying has secured distribution in key territories including France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed.

Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, along with the...

The Match Factory has unveiled multiple distribution deals for its Berlinale competition titles Dying by Matthias Glasner and Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky.

Dying has secured distribution in key territories including France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed.

Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, along with the...

The Match Factory has revealed multiple distribution deals for two Berlinale competition titles: German director Matthias Glasner’s “Dying,” which won the festival’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, and Russian director Victor Kossakovsky’s documentary “Architecton.”

“Dying,” which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, also picked up the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award. Variety‘s review describes the film as “a profoundly affecting exploration of life and loss.”

The Match Factory closed deals for the film in France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film) and South Korea (Pancinema). A U.K. deal has also been signed with the buyer yet to be announced. Wild Bunch will be distributing the film in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland.

The Match Factory has locked multi-territory deals on Berlinale titles Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky and Dying by Matthias Glasner, which picked up the festival’s Silver Bear for Best Screenplay.

Alongside the Silver Bear, Dying also picked up the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas Prize and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award. The pic has sold to France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Match Factory has said negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed. Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury described the film as a “deep and darkly funny family drama.” The film stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg, and Corinna Harfouch.

Elsewhere, Kossakovsky’s Architecton has sold to me Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (Be Water), Benelux (Cherry Pickers Filmdistributie...

Dahomey won the Golden Bear Photo: Les Films Du Bal - Fanta Sy French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop took home the top prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival for her documentary Dahomey. The film considers the return of plundered artefacts to Berlin. It is the second year in a row a documentary has taken the Golden Bear after On The Adamant won last year.

The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to prolific South Korean director Hang Sang-soo for his tale of a French teacher (Isabelle Huppert) navigating a new life, A Traveler's Needs.

Bruno Dumont's spoof that transports a Star Wars-style plot to the French countryside, The Empire, won a Silver Bear, while Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias' experimental hippo drama Pepe won the Best Director prize. Matthias Glasner's Dying, which dives into the heart of a family with an ailing matriarch and patriarch, won Best Screenplay.

Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey, about artefacts being returned from Paris to present-day Benin, was awarded the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (February 24).

The film, handled internationally by Les Film du Losange, is the second from the African continent to take the Berlinale’s top prize after Mark Dornford-May’s musical U-Carmen eKhayelitsha in 2005. It is also the second year in a row that a documentary has clinched the Golden Bear, following Nicolas Philibert’s On The Adamant last year.

In her speech, Diop said: “To restitute is to do justice. We can...

Winners have been announced at the 74th Berlin Film Festival, with Dahomey by French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop scooping the coveted Golden Bear for best film. Scroll down for the full list of winners, which were revealed Saturday evening at the Berlinale Palast.

The doc borrows its name from the former West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin. It was founded in the 17th century by King Houegbadja. Under his reign and that of his descendants — a three-century dynasty — the kingdom was a considerable regional power, with a highly structured local economy, a centralized administration, a system of taxes, and a powerful army, including the famous Amazon women (Agodjié).

Diop’s doc opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, these artifacts were...

After two weeks of new cinema, the Berlin Film Festival comes to a close this Sunday, February 25, with its annual awards ceremony. This year’s event marks one of change, as festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian, at his post since 2018, steps down to make way for Tricia Tuttle, who will take over for next year’s outing.

This year’s Berlinale has already stirred plenty of buzz for films like Alonso Ruizpalacios’s “La Cocina,” a drama set in a New York City kitchen and starring Rooney Mara, and Tim Mielants’ opener “Small Things Like These,” starring likely Oscar winner Cillian Murphy. Both films are eligible for awards, along with “Timbuktu” director Abderrahmane Sissako’s “Black Tea,” “Goodnight Mommy” filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Devil’s Bath,” “The Guilty” director Gustav Möller’s “Sons,” Olivier Assayas’ “Suspended Time,” plus Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance hit “A Different Man,” and many more.

Dahomey, a documentary from French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, has won the Golden Bear for best film at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.

The multifaceted docu-fictional essay explores the return, in November 2021, of plundered royal treasures of the African Kingdom of Dahomey from Paris to the present-day Republic of Benin, examining the complicated response of those in Benin, whose culture has developed for more than a century without these artifacts.

While taking the stage to accept her award, Diop made a direct political statement, calling out, “I stand with Palestine!”

Jury president, the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong’o, announced the Golden Bear winner from the stage of the Berlinale Palast Saturday night. Nyong’o is the first Black and first African to chair the Berlinale jury.

Dahomey is only the second African film to win the top prize at Berlin, following Mark Dornford-May’s...

The independent juries of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival early Saturday unveiled their picks of the best movies at the 2024 Berlinale.

Matthias Glasner’s German family epic Sterben (Dying), and the Iranian feature My Favourite Cake from directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, both of which are considered frontrunners for the top prize at the official festival ceremony on Saturday night, received multiple awards for the indie juries, as did Dag Johan Haugerud’s Norwegian drama Sex, a critical favorite from this year’s Panorama sidebar.

Sterben, which follows a classical conductor (played by Lars Eidinger) and his very dysfunctional family, won the best film honor from the guild of German arthouse cinemas and the top prize awarded by the jury of Berliner Morgenpost readers representing the Berlin newspaper.

My Favourite Cake, a quiet drama about a 70-year-old widow who takes a chance on new love, won the Fipresci...

The Berlin Film Festival kicked off its 74th edition February 15 with the opening-night world premiere screening of Small Things Like These, the Irish drama starring Oscar-nominated Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy. It started 10 days of debuts including for movies starring Rooney Mara, Isabelle Huppert, Gael García Bernal, Kristen Stewart and more.

This year’s Competition lineup features films from a swath of international filmmakers including Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Hong Sangsoo, Bruno Dumont and Abderrahmane Sissako.

The Berlinale runs through February 25.

Keep checking back below as Deadline reviews the best and buzziest movies of the festival. Click on the titles to read the full reviews.

Another End ‘Another End’

Section: Competition

Director: Piero Messina

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Renate Reinsve, Bérénice Bejo, Olivia Williams, Pal Aron

Deadline’s takeaway: The script, while ambitious, is laden with philosophical musings that often feel detached from the emotional core of the story. Another End...

The awards ceremony for the 74th Berlin International Film Festival kicks off Saturday night, where this year’s jury, headed by 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o, will hand out the coveted Gold and Silver Bears.

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...

Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs and Mati Diop’s Dahomey earned strong average scores on Screen’s Berlin jury grid, while Bruno Dumont’s The Empire divided critics.

A Traveler’s Needs stars Isabelle Huppert as a French woman teaching in Korea and is currently on an average of 2.9, with one score still to come (from Paolo Bertolin from cinematografo.it). Screen’s own critic awarded it four stars (excellent), while three critics gave it three stars (good) and three gave it two (average).

Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.

The score is currently slighter...

The Berlin Film Festival hosted the 10 young European actors selected for the Shooting Stars program, run by European Film Promotion, at a gala event Monday.

The presentation of the Shooting Stars took place prior to the screening of Claire Burger’s “Langue Étrangère,” which plays in competition.

They were welcomed on stage at the Berlinale Palast by German actor Corinna Harfouch, who stars in the competition entry “Dying,” directed by Matthias Glasner.

The ceremony, hosted by Jenny Augusta, is the festive highlight and the closing event of the four-day program, where the talented young actors meet up with casting directors and are presented to the international press.

The Shooting Stars are Thibaud Dooms from Belgium, Margarita Stoykova from Bulgaria, Suzy Bemba from France, Salome Demuria from Georgia, Katharina Stark from Germany, Éanna Hardwicke from Ireland, Valentina Bellè from Italy, Džiugas Grinys from Lithuania, Kamila Urzędowska from Poland and Asta Kamma August from Sweden.

Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) is huddled on the floor in her nightgown, trying to ring her son. Her legs and nightgown are smeared brown with her regular nightly incontinence, but it is her husband who worries her: Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer) has wandered outside again, not sure where he is and wearing no pants. Her neighbor is at the door, insisting on being helpful, while Lissy just wants her to cut short this humiliation; has she spotted that even the phone is now daubed with excrement?

Old age ain’t no place for sissies, as Bette Davis famously said. The usual riposte is that it’s better than the alternative, but Matthias Glasner’s long, absorbing and intermittently very funny film calls that into question. Life, even before the debilities of age become its main feature, is the real difficulty.

Glasner’s story is a version of a traditional family saga, but...

Family Matters: Glasner’s Sprawling Portrait of Chaotic Dysfunction

Exemplifying Tolstoy’s famous Anna Karenina quote on ‘every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,’ German filmmaker Matthias Glasner makes his first narrative feature in over a decade with the cryptically titled Dying. At three hours running time split up into chapters, it’s something of an intimidating saga of the fluctuating unhappiness of one German family long estranged from one another. With an iciness akin to Bergman (whose Fanny & Alexander is referenced to assist in Glasner’s rather morbid Christmas spirit), two unhappy siblings, who are unhappy in their own way, are forced to begrudgingly interact as their equally detached parents’ health declines over the course of a year.…...

Unabashedly sporting the most inauspicious of titles, a three-hour running time and a logline that features terminally ill elders and self-destructive descendants, German feature Dying (Sterben) looks like a hard sell on paper. And yet writer-director Matthias Glasner’s crisscrossing family drama manages to be exceedingly funny, often in some of its darkest moments, as well as expectedly sad.

Anchored by a nuanced, detailed performance by Lars Eidinger as Tom, an orchestra conductor juggling all manner of personal and professional commitments, and pitch-perfect turns by Corinna Harfouch, Lilith Stangenberg and Ronald Zehrfeld as the rest of his combustible nuclear family, this richly rewards the time investment it requires. Sure, a few trims here and there wouldn’t have necessarily ruined it, and some might suggest this could work better as a multi-part limited series for upscale TV.

But it’s hard to imagine watching the musical performance set pieces anywhere...

Kirsten Niehuus, head of German film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, is confident that the changes to film funding proposed by the German government recently will have a “very positive effect on the production scene in Berlin-Brandenburg.”

The proposed changes to the funding system were presented last week to German lawmakers in the Bundestag by commissioner for culture and media Claudia Roth (see here).

Kirsten Niehuus, Martin Moszkowicz

Speaking to Variety Saturday at a party Medienboard hosted at Berlin’s Holzmarkt, Niehuus said the changes “will mean that we would have a tax system in place that could compete, for instance, with Budapest or Prague, so that not so many German productions would go and shoot somewhere else, and more foreign productions would come and shoot in Germany.”

Looking at the media landscape across Germany she notes that one major challenge is the decision by high-end outlets such as Paramount+, HBO and Sky to cancel local productions,...

An unsung master of movie magic, Solon Luigi Colani has worked on some of the biggest Hollywood movies ever shot in Germany and beyond, among them works by Quentin Tarantino, Ron Howard, George Clooney, Denis Villeneuve, Paul W.S. Anderson, Gore Verbinski and the Wachowskis.

His enormous range of practical visual effects have also become regular fixtures in Germany’s domestic film and TV industry, where he has helped filmmakers and showrunners bring their visions to life.

In Matthias Glasner’s current Berlinale Competition screener “Dying,” for example, he created a pneumatic pump, hose system and the necessary chunky liquid for a dramatic scene in which a character falls ill at the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall.

Colani established his Berlin-based company Pyro Labs in the 1990s as a side business while working as a young It specialist. Initially focused on firework displays for weddings, birthday parties and other live events, the...