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David Laub has joined Neon as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Publicity.

Laub, who served as Head of Metrograph Pictures from February 2024 through July 2025, will work closely with Ryan Werner, Neon’s new President of Global Cinema, further strengthening the studio’s position as a champion of bold, auteur-driven filmmaking. In this newly created role, Laub will bring his years of experience in marketing, publicity, and awards to Neon’s growing slate.

During his time at Metrograph, Laub acquired and released such films as India Donaldson’s highly acclaimed feature debut “Good One,” which played both Sundance and Cannes and was on over 100 year-end top ten lists; Cannes selection “Santosh,” which was on the shortlist for this year’s International Oscar award; and the highly lauded Venice prize-winner “April,” by Dea Kulumbegashvilli.

Laub spent almost 9 years at film and television studio A24, where he worked in all aspects of film distribution including marketing,...

David Laub, the former head of Metrograph Pictures, is joining Neon as SVP Marketing and Publicity, a newly created position in which the exec will focus on marketing, publicity and awards.

Laub will work closely with Ryan Werner, Neon’s new President of Global Cinema.

Laub had been head of Metrograph Pictures since February 2024. During his run, he acquired and released such films as India Donaldson’s feature debut Good One, which played both Sundance and Cannes and was on more than 100 year-end top 10 lists; Cannes selection Santosh, which was on the shortlist for this year’s International Feature Oscar; and the lauded Venice prize-winner April by Dea Kulumbegashvilli.

Laub previously had spent close to nine years at A24, where he worked in all aspects of film distribution including marketing, publicity, acquisitions and exhibition. He oversaw a slate of films for the company that included Charlotte Wells’ Oscar nominee Aftersun,...

This year’s edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival will host British filmmaker Ken Loach and his longtime creative collaborators, writer Paul Laverty and producer Rebecca O’Brien.

The trio will discuss the acclaimed films they have created together over the years including Palme d’Or winners The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), on Aug. 20. The group will then introduce a special retrospective screening on 35mm print of the The Wind That Shakes The Barley, starring Cillian Murphy, the fest confirmed.

Eiff’s In Conversation strand also features a range of other major filmmaking talent who will discuss their creative careers to date, including director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void, One to One: John & Yoko) speaking with his brother, producer Andrew Macdonald (Trainspotting, Civil War, 28 Years Later). Kevin Macdonald will also present a screening of The Cranes are Flying...

Chris Cunningham is an embodiment of a time and place, of 1990s and early 2000s British underground cool, a moment when avant-garde art forms and personalities were enmeshed with the overground mainstream. Pop culture at large was still up for getting weird and transgressive, even during primetime, and commercials and promo videos were full of libido and artistry (just think of iconoclasts like Chris Morris and music-video talents like Hype Williams).When I was a teen, two DVD collections were pivotal to me. The first was Palm Pictures’ Directors Label series, which compiled the visionary commercial and music-video work of such directors as Cunningham, Williams, Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer, Anton Corbijn, and Stéphane Sednaoui, many of whom broke into feature filmmaking around the year 2000. The pipeline of working at an ad house, then making a promo, then directing a feature was a route to admire and...

Jonathan Glazer has made four films in 25 years. Following The Zone Of Interest, we won’t be waiting as long for the next one.

Jonathan Glazer’s films always feel like an event, in part because of the quality of them. Of course, the British director’s films also feel like an event because we have to wait such an incredibly long time for them to arrive. With just four films in the last 25 years to his name, it’s clear that Glazer is only drawn to directing when the compulsion strikes him and that’s perhaps why his films are so incredibly compelling: each of his movies feels like an artist being impelled to draw something out from deep within themselves.

Following the release (and Oscar-winning triumph) of last year’s The Zone Of Interest, Glazer has promised us that we won’t have to wait another decade for his next film.

As he approaches his 76th birthday, which falls on July 26, Jeremy Thomas shows no signs of slowing up.

“I am never going to stop [producing]. It’s my life,” said the taboo-breaking UK producer of The Last Emperor, Crash and Naked Lunchat Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival (Mff),where he is receiving a lifetime achievement award.

As ever, the Recorded Picture Company founder has plenty of new work in the pipeline, including“five or six workable scripts that I am trying to make”.

He is also readying a slate of projects to be unveiled in the coming months: Takashi Miike’s...

A World War 2 movie with a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes has been named the best film of the decade so far. The century’s greatest military conflict had barely begun before Hollywood started making films about it, some of them propagantistic in nature, others more interested in real human drama.

Acclaim was heaped upon some of these movies right away, as in the cases of Casablanca and The Best Years Of Our Lives. But the war would continue to fascinate moviemakers and their audiences long after the last shot was fired, as evidenced by Steven Spielberg’s pair of all-time-great war epics, Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

The immensity of World War 2 as a historical event indeed guarantees the film world’s ongoing interest. In recent years, the torch has been carried by movies like Blitz, Greyhound, Operation Mincemeat and, of course, 2023’s blockbuster Oscar-winner Oppenheimer.

The...

Because of the intense nature of a drama series that unfolds over 15 hours in as many episodes, you might assume that Max’s “The Pitt” is made with that same frenetic energy. But editor Mark Strand insisted the team was never beholden to time in the same way Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle), charge nurse Dana (Katherine Lanasa) and the rest of the staff of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center are.

“We paid a lot of attention to the fluidity and continuity of the time space,” Strand said. “But we didn’t pay a lot of attention to the accuracy of how the minutes fall within the hour. So if a character says a time of death is at 11:37 or something like that, I don’t know that it landed at the 37th minute of the hour. When I was cutting the pilot, there was an idea of, ‘How much of...

Note: This review was originally published as part of the U.K. release. Emmanuelle arrived on VOD in the U.S. on June 6.

The most striking thing about Audrey Diwan’s reinterpretation of Emmanuelle––the infamous novel-turned-softcore franchise from fabulously named director Just Jaeckin––is that the original dramatic beats largely remain intact. Perhaps this is why it received a critical drubbing at its San Sebastian premiere: those expecting the drastically different, radically feminist take on this material you’d assume would materialize courtesy of the filmmaker behind the Golden Lion-winning Happening would be disappointed by an unexpected faith towards its source. The way Diwan and co-writer Rebecca Zlotowski recontextualize this material is also out-of-step with recent cinephile backlash towards the lack of sexuality in contemporary cinema. As soon as the film opens with Emmanuelle (Noémie Merlant) joining the mile-high club, the tryst framed as dispassionately as its heroine’s blank expression,...

Joachim Lang’s bleak film shows a preening Goebbels and a careworn Hitler as they battle to convince the German public, and themselves, they will win the war

In an appropriate spirit of cynicism and bleakness, German director Joachim Lang has made a film about the private life of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, the Hexenmeister or chief sorcerer of lies, and his always strained relationship with Hitler. Robert Stadlober plays the preening and self-pitying Goebbels and Fritz Karl is a careworn Hitler. Franziska Weisz plays Goebbels’s wife Magda, who at first resented his infidelities with showbusiness starlets but for the sake of the Fatherland submitted to the public image of a good Nazi wife and mother of six adorable children – whom Joseph and Magda finally murdered in the bunker before killing themselves.

In its subversive, austerely satirical way, the film feels almost like a B-side to Oliver Hirschbiegel’s...

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

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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

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

The 2025 Cannes Film Festival concluded on Saturday following two weeks packed with screenings, stars, press, and parties. With the prizes having been handed out for the festival’s 78th anniversary, awards pundits can now start looking at what contenders might be in the best spot to get into the upcoming Oscar race.

This year's prestigious Palme d’Or was awarded to It Was Just an Accident from the long-persecuted Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. The revenge story centers on five former prisoners who believe they’ve identified and found the person responsible for torturing them. It’s Panahi’s first project since his ban on making films was lifted by the country’s religious leaders who had imprisoned him for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” It marks the second Iranian film to win Cannes' top honor after Taste of Cherry (tied with The Eel from Japan) in 1997 from Abbas Kiarostami, whom...

Throughout the impressively crafted and increasingly exasperating 135 minutes that make up Kirill Serebrennikov’s postwar Nazi-in-hiding chronicle, The Disappearance of Josef Menegele, the same question keeps coming to mind: Why am I watching this?

Certainly, for those curious to know how the notorious Auschwitz doctor, aka the “Angel of Death,” eked out the final decades of his life in various South American countries, changing homes and identities, farming, scheming and, yes, getting the occasional handjob, the film answers that question many times over. But for those who aren’t Third Reich completists, nor have any interest in historical fantasy that does little beyond embellishing Mengele’s ignoble reputation, this intellectually vacuous exercise can be tough to stomach — despite how well put together the whole thing is.

The Russian-born Serebrennikov is a talented auteur with plenty of style to boot, showcasing his directorial chops in six eclectic features made since 2016. He jumps easily between genres,...

Auschwitz survivor Ryszard Horowitz, now aged 86, is in Cannes to support the launch of Picture From Auschwitz, a digital replica of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp for use in film and television productions.

“Given the Museum does not allow any feature film crews into the camp, it’s a wonderful way to help more people to do their work and also to get interest in the story,” said Horowitz, rescued by Oskar Shindler and one of the youngest known survivors of the camp.

Horowitz went on to become an acclaimed photo composer, graphic designer and art director. He...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe's latest big-screen feature, Thunderbolts*, tells the tale of the titular former villains trying to overcome their past traumas, with the Void spaces reminding them of their most painful memories ad nauseam. The superhero blockbuster's director reveals that the inspiration for those spaces came from a classic '90s film exploring the subconscious in the critically acclaimed Being John Malkovich.

Marvel Studios (via X) unveiled an in-depth behind-the-scenes featurette chronicling the Void spaces, created by the dark alter-ego of Lewis Pullman's Sentry, The Void, and how they were conceptualized. Director Jake Schreier revealed that one of the projects that inspired this concept was Being John Malkovich, the hit fantasy comedy chronicling the future MCU star.

"Just the encouragement to try to do something different of, like, Spectrum, some old Jonathan Glazer commercial, I think for Levi's, where they're bursting through walls and there's explosions when they do that,...

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

Broken silence

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

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

What spurred the letter, specifically, was...

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

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

Cosmo Jarvis, star of FX’s smash hit series “Shōgun,” will star as future Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in “Young Stalin.” Georgian-French helmer Géla Babluani has signed on to direct the period thriller that is being financed by Len Blavatnik‘s Access Entertainment, which backed Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning Holocaust film “The Zone of Interest” and last year’s “Conclave.”

Based on the acclaimed bestseller by Simon Sebag Montefiore, “Young Stalin” charts the early days of the Soviet strongman when he was a bank-robbing gangster in pre-revolutionary Russia. Babluani and Sebag Montefiore wrote the screenplay for the film that is also being backed by AI Film and Monte Rosso Prods.

Set against the backdrop of Imperial Russia’s criminal underworld and revolutionary ferment, the film explores the making of the bloody dictator who would reshape the 20th century through terror, war and ideology — and the largest bank heist in Russian history,...

When I spoke to Alan Rudolph a couple months ago, he confirmed that Criterion had sought to release his Remember My Name but were held up by music rights––a situation so complicated that a lawyer hired by the director himself simply gave up. I like to think something’s changed in less than 60 days: the Criterion Channel will stream Remember My Name as part of a quartet featuring Afterglow, Trouble In Mind, and Breakfast of Champions, the latter recently given a 4K restoration. It’s part of a retrospective-heavy month that also includes a 12-title Johnnie To series, numerous films by René Clair, highlights of Amy Holden Jones and Ougie Pak, and Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip saga in both television and theatrical editions. Meanwhile, Gene Hackman is celebrated with six titles.

One of those, Night Moves, gets a Criterion Edition; so do Les Blank’s A Poem Is...

Re-elected for a second mandate earlier this year, Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch is kicking off the 78th edition in high spirits. Her arrival at the helm of the festival two years ago has coincided with Cannes’ renaissance and closer-than-even bonds with Hollywood. Curated by longtime artistic director and general delegate Thierry Fremaux, last year’s selection premiered a record number of Oscar nominations with movies such as Sean Baker’s “Anora,” which made history by winning four major statuettes including best picture and best director; as well as Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” and Gints Zilbalodis’s “Flow.” A year prior, Cannes was also behind two best picture nominees, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” In an interview with Variety on the eve of the festival’s kick off, the hands-on Knobloch, who previously headed Warner Bros. in Europe,...

Scarlett Johansson has wanted to direct since she was 12 years old. On the set of Robert Redford’s 1998 film The Horse Whisperer — her seventh movie as an actor — she saw the specific way he worked, the way he understood his actors, and she had a clear thought: I want to do that someday.

Related: ‘Eleanor The Great’ Cannes Premiere Photos: Scarlett Johansson, Colin Jost, Adrien Brody & More

Obviously, in the almost 30 years since Johansson made that private wish, it’s not as though she’s been waiting for something to happen. Oscar-nominated twice and a Tony winner for her work on Broadway, she serves as executive producer and stars as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She founded her production company These Pictures in 2017, and, along with Redford, her director collaborators over the years include Christopher Nolan, Sofia Coppola, Jonathan Glazer, the Coens, Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson. She...

More than 350 film world figures, including Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Javier Bardem, have published an open letter on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival condemning “silence” over the deadly impact of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

The letter, published on the website of France’s Libération newspaper on Monday evening, was headed “In Cannes, the horror Gaza must not be silenced”. It was addressed “For Fatem”, in memory of 25-year-old Gaza artist and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna.

The young woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in mid-April just 24 hours after it was announced a documentary exploring her life in the Gaza Strip would world premiere in the Cannes. Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed in same strike.

“She was a Palestinian freelance photojournalist. She was targeted by the Israeli army on 16 April, 2025, the day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi’s...

September 5 took top honors at the German Film Awards, or Lolas, held in Berlin Friday night.

Tim Fehlbaum’s real-life thriller, based on the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, picked up nine Lolas, including for best director, best editing, best cinematography, best sound design, best screenplay, best makeup and best production design.

Leonie Benesch won best supporting actress for her performance as a translator for the U.S. television network broadcasting the attacks live to the world. September 5 premiered at the Venice film festival last year before becoming an awards contender and landing a best original screenplay Oscar nomination for Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder and Alex David.

Accepting his best director prize, Fehlbaum praised his German team, and, with a side swipe at Donald Trump and his promised tariffs on “foreign films,” noted that “they can raise the tariffs as high as the want, there is not reason to make films anywhere else [than here].”

Wolfram Weimer,...

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial is working on a project to create a certified digital replica of the preserved concentration and extermination camp which can be used as a virtual film location.

The initiative is likely to draw considerable interest from the film world because the production of fiction feature films is not permitted at the memorial, situated on the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in southern Poland, where around 1.1 million people died in horrific conditions during World War Two.

Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, for example, was made in cooperation with the memorial and museum, which gave the production access to camp documents, survivors’ testimonies, and expert guidance, and also allowed it to scan parts of the area of the former camp.

However, none of the dramatic reconstructions were filmed on the site. Documentary films are allowed to film with permission, which meant the final sequences of the Oscar-nominated drama,...

“April” is a film grounded in realism. In the story of Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili), a Georgian Ob-gyn who provides abortions to the women of the neighboring village, the protagonist’s patients are played by first-time performers drawing from their own lives in the rural areas where the film was shot. Writer/director Dea Kulumbegashvili is so detail-oriented that she spent the better part of a year in the hospital, where “April” also filmed, studying the doctors, even convincing them to allow her to capture the birth that opens the film.

“April” is also a formally bold piece of cinema, that breaks from what is expected from social realistist film — most notably in the scenes featuring that unexplained appearance of Nina as the “creature” (Sukhitashvili wearing something akin a less grotesque version of Demi Moore’s “The Substance” prosthetics), which are embued with expressionistic lighting and sound at times are reminscent...

Luc Besson's outlandish 2014 sci-fi actioner "Lucy" was a bigger hit than you remember. Modestly budgeted at only $40 million (much of which likely went to the salary of star Scarlett Johansson) and armed with an incredibly ludicrous plot, "Lucy" made over $450 million at the international box office, baffling just about everyone. Critics were merely warm on "Lucy," giving it largely indifferent and/or vaguely positive reviews. The movie has a 67% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 236 reviews), with the words "silly" and "ridiculous" being used a lot to describe it.

As of this writing, "Lucy" is becoming a hit again on Netflix, with /FlixPatrol reporting that the film has ranked among the service's top 10 movies in the U.S. since (at least) April 15, 2025, on through to April 21. No one can really say why an 11-year-old sci-fi thriller has suddenly grabbed the attention of so many Netflix subscribers, but we...

It is a mixed bag for UK and Irish films at this year’s Cannes – there’s a strong showing in Un Certain Regard, but it is a weak year overall for UK-Ireland female representation.

In Competition, as it stands, there are no films from UK or Irish directors.

However inUn Certain Regard, there are three UK-Irish debut features in selection.UK-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr’sMy Father’s Shadowstars UK actor Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù. The semi-autobiographical tale is set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian capital Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis.

UK-Ireland outfit Element Pictures produces,...

It is a mixed bag for UK and Irish films at this year’s Cannes – there’s a strong showing in Un Certain Regard, but it is a weak year overall for UK-Ireland female representation.

In Competition, as it stands, there are no films from UK or Irish directors.

However inUn Certain Regard, there are three UK-Irish debut features in selection.UK-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr’sMy Father’s Shadowstars UK actor Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù. The semi-autobiographical tale is set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian capital Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis.

UK-Ireland outfit Element Pictures produces,...

“Film records the profound suffering that war brings to mankind.” That is how the Beijing International Film Festival explained a focus it has unveiled on war and peace in a special “Film and Peace” program that it is featuring during its 15th edition starting on Friday.

It will showcase “12 masterpieces” depicting “the tragedy of war” on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II this year to “immerse ourselves in history,” organizers said. “Filmmakers at home and abroad use light and shadow to remember the cruelty and endless pain of war and use memory, emotion and shocking reality to preserve recollection and sound the alarm for today.”

Among the movies screening at the Chinese fest will be the winner of the first-ever Cannes Film Festival in 1946, The Last Chance, a 1945 movie directed by Austrian-Swiss filmmaker Leopold Lindtberg. Also featured are such classics as Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah,...

Nicole Kidman came to our attention in the 1990s, first in supporting roles with her then-husband Tom Cruise and then as a striking, distinctive leading lady in some of the era’s most enduring cult classics. In the new millennium, the Academy Awards came calling to give some long-overdue recognition to her skillset (she won for “The Hours” in 2002). Anyone would forgive her for resting on her laurels thereafter as she approached middle age, but not Nicole.

A year later, she appeared in Lars von Trier’s avant-garde drama “Dogville,” and from there, has continued to make it a mission statement to work with some of the most fascinating filmmakers in the world – Jonathan Glazer, Park Chan-wook, Yorgos Lanthimos; at the height of her fame, she took a year out to work with Stanley Kubrick. That’s before we even mention her fruitful and admirably frequent collaborations with female directors,...

The Oscars have done something the Academy too often resists: It listened.

On Wednesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the creation of a new competitive category for achievement in stunt design, set to debut at the 100th Academy Awards in 2028. The category will honor films released in 2027. The news arrives just last year after the Academy’s historic announcement of a best casting category, which will be awarded for the first time at the 98th ceremony in 2026.

The Academy has made its share of questionable decisions over the years (#Rip best popular film). There have been controversial winners, baffling snubs, hosting woes, and a long-standing reluctance to evolve with the times. But when they get it right, it’s worth pausing the criticism long enough to offer some well-earned applause.

Two new categories in just over two years mark the most significant expansion of Oscar recognition...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, the director’s sumptuous, occasionally surreal tribute to his hometown of Naples, and Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition, a political biopic about Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer, are the frontrunners for this year’s David Di Donatello awards, Italy’s version of the Oscars.

Parthenope and The Great Ambition picked up 15 nominations each, including for best film and best director. In the best film category, they will face up against Maura Delpero’s Italian WW2 drama Vermiglio and Valeria Golino and Nicolangelo Gelormini’s L’arte della gioia (The Art of Joy), which received 14 nominations each, and the Francesca Comencini-directed drama The Time It Takes, which received four nominations. Other multiple nominees include Margherita Vicario’s debut feature Gloria!, about women musicians at a Church-run establishment in early-1800s Italy, which scored nine nominations, and Francesco Costabile’s crime thriller Familia, with eight.

In the best international film category,...

Michel Hazanavicius’s sentimental tale about a baby found in the woods features sweet little cartoon birds and rabbits as well as the real horror of Nazi death camps

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, this postmodern Holocaust fairytale premiered at Cannes last year, and turns out to be a dreamy animated curiosity which is certainly different to the icy realist rigour of other films which have appeared there on the same theme, such as Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest or László Nemes’s Son of Saul. It is adapted from a novella by author and screenwriter Jean-Claude Grumberg (who collaborated with Truffaut on The Last Metro), whose own father was murdered in the Nazi death camps.

The late Jean-Louis Trintignant has his final credit as the narrator, introducing us to scenes that could, at first glance, be from the Brothers Grimm. We see a dense central European forest … through...

One of the directors of No Other Land is calling out the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science letter, and he isn't alone as he has support from major A-list stars. On Mar. 24, Hamdan Ballal, the co-director of the Oscar-winning Best Documentary Feature film No Other Land, was assaulted by Isreali settlers and detained near his home by the Israeli armed service. After 24 hours, when he was blindfolded and held at an Israeli army base and fearing for his life, Ballal was released.

No Other Land's Yuval Abraham, one of the film's four co-directors alongside Ballal, criticized the Academy's failure to support Hamdan following his arrest. It wasn't until after the director publicly criticized the Academy leadership that they sent out an open letter to Academy voters. Via Deadline, the Academy's letter said they were against “harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints” but also...

Updated: Hamdan Ballal and his fellow “No Other Land” filmmakers are expressing gratitude to top members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for signing a letter urging Academy leadership to take a stronger stance in condemning an attack on Ballal by Israeli settlers.

The Academy released a statement Wednesday condemning “harming artists” but did not name the individuals involved. By Thursday morning, a letter began circulating among AMPAS members criticizing the Academy’s leadership for failing to publicly support Ballal.

As of Monday afternoon, nearly 900 Academy members — including actor Mark Ruffalo, director Ava DuVernay and Oscar-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón — had signed the letter denouncing the Academy’s silence following Ballal’s reported detainment by Israeli authorities. Most recent signatories include J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, Ben Affleck, Jane Fonda and more.

Ballal and his fellow “No Other Land” directors shared the following letter with all the signatories:

Dear friends,...

Meeting follows letter signed by prominent members urging more forceful response on Hamdan Ballal’s arrest

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has convened an extraordinary meeting to address a crisis over its tepid response to the arrest and detention of the Oscar-winning director Hamdan Ballal, of the documentary No Other Land, by Israeli authorities.

The meeting on Friday morning Pacific time, first reported by Deadline, follows a strongly worded letter signed by many prominent members – including the actors Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, Penélope Cruz and Emma Thompson, directors Ava DuVernay, Alfonso Cuarón, Adam McKay and Jonathan Glazer and writer Tony Kushner – calling for a more forceful response from the Academy’s board of governors than an initial statement that did not refer to Ballal or No Other Land by name and cited the Academy membership’s “many unique viewpoints”.

British leading lights Olivia Colman, Jonathan Glazer, Riz Ahmed, and Jessie Buckley are among hundreds of Academy members who have signed a letter circulating on Friday in which they lambast the Oscar body’s response to the reported attack on and detention of No Other Land co-director Hamdan Ballal.

The missive has been sent to Academy members and decries the Academy’s “indefensible” position, after CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang sent a letter to members on Thursday in which they condemned harm or suppression of artists based on their viewpoints, but did not mention Hallal by name, and...

British leading lights Olvia Colman, Jonathan Glazer, Riz Ahmed, and Jessie Buckley are among hundreds of Academy members who have signed a letter circulating on Friday in which they lambast the Oscar body’s response to the reported attack on and detention of No Other Land co-director Hamdan Ballal.

The missive has been sent to Academy members and decries the Academy’s “indefensible” position, after CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang sent a letter to members on Thursday in which they condemned harm or suppression of artists based on their viewpoints, but did not mention Hallal by name, and...

A new open letter signed by around 600 Oscar voters, including Ava DuVernay, Olivia Colman and Javier Bardem, has criticized the leadership of the The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its initial response to the recent assault and arrest of Oscar winner Hamdan Ballal.

“It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later,” the open letter updated Friday and signed by AMPAS members across a range of genres, including documentaries, stated.

The AMPAS voters were reacting to a statement put out Wednesday by Academy leaders Bill Kramer and Janet Yang that suggested the beating and arrest of recent Oscar-winner Hamdan Ballal is something Academy members will have “many unique viewpoints” on.

Other well-known Academy members who signed the letter include Mark Ruffalo, Oscar-winning Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer,...

Updated, 12:50 Pm: More than 900 Academy members have now signed the letter, including actors Carey Mulligan, Glenn Close, Andrew Garfield, America Ferrera, Edward Norton, Jane Fonda, Pedro Pascal, Kristin Scott Thomas, Frances Fisher and Elizabeth Olsen; actor-directors Taika Waititi, Ben Affleck and Todd Field; filmmakers Denis Villeneuve, Michael Moore, Stephen Frears, Abigail Disney, Asif Kapadia, Jay Roach, J.J. Abrams and Michael Mann; composer Carter Burwell; Board of Governors VP/Secretary Howard Rodman (writers branch); and all three documentary branch Governors — Simon Kilmurry, Chris Hegedus, and Jean Tsien.

Exclusive: Deadline has learned the Academy’s board of governors is meeting in extraordinary session this morning to confront a deepening crisis over its response to the beating and detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of No Other Land.

As that meeting nears an 11 am Pacific Time start, Deadline can report a new statement has been signed by...

The 2024 documentary film No Other Landcaused quite a political stir upon its release due to its unflattering depiction of the Israeli military's forceful displacement of a Palestinian community in the West Bank to use its buildings for military training. Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature a couple of weeks ago, no major American distributor picked it up to show in US theaters. Nevertheless, a handful of independent theaters have screened it for local audiences. One such theater is the O Cinema in Miami Beach, Florida.

However, Miami Beach's Jewish mayor, Steven Meiner, called the film one-sided and “egregiously antisemitic" (even though it was a collaborative effort by two Palestinians and two Israelis) and threatened to defund the O Cinema and cancel its lease if they continued screening it, which would effectively evict the proprietors from the building. The mayor's move prompted widespread backlash by hundreds of filmmakers,...

Oscar contenders September 5 and The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and Andreas Dresen’s historic drama From Hilde, With Love are the frontrunners for this year’s German Film Awards, also called the Lolas, Germany’s equivalent of the Oscars.

September 5, Tim Fehlbaum’s real-life thriller based on the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, picked up 10 nominations, including for best film and best director, as well as a supporting actress nom for Leonie Benesch, who plays a translator for the U.S. television network broadcasting the attacks live to the world.

Second and third in the running are Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love, which picked up seven Lola nominations, including for best film and best director, with Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig right behind with six.

Rasoulof’s depiction of an Iranian family torn apart by conflicting loyalties to an increasingly oppressive Tehran regime,...

What do Jonathan Glazer, Miguel Gomes, and now, Karyn Kusama all have in common? A shared appreciation for Spanish auteur Luis Buñuel.

During a visit to the Criterion Closet, “Jennifer’s Body” director Kusama cited how Buñuel played with power onscreen, especially in his satirical films focusing on the elite class. Kusama selected features that all dealt with the theme of power: who has it, who is seeking it, and who deploys it.

“Back to that notion of power, I feel like somebody who’s really always poked fun at it and done a great job of exploring it with humor and surrealism is Luis Buñuel,” Kusama said. “There’s a Buñuel set of three films: ‘Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,’ ‘The Phantom of Liberty,’ and ‘That Obscure Object of Desire,’ all in one set. I’m going to get that and have my mind blown again.”

Buñuel directed 35 movies between...

A24 horror movies have garnered a reputation for being some of the best entries in the genre. The independent entertainment company is largely responsible for the “elevated horror” boom. They attract an array of auteur filmmakers with distinct visions and tend to give them a fairly loose leash when it comes to creative control. The end result can be a mixed bag, but more often than not viewers are treated to a memorable horror experience worthy of the crown worn by King Paimon.

Which is the best of the A24 horror movies? 10. Talk To Me (2022) Talk to Me: A24 horror movies Directed by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou

Danny and Michael Philippou take audiences on a wild ride through the world of spirits, possession and a mysterious embalmed hand in their feature directorial debuts. Following a group of friends who discover that they can conjure spirits and become hooked...

Jump scares are a staple of modern horror. The sudden jolt, the sharp musical sting, and the inevitable moment of relief after the initial shock can make for a thrilling experience. But horror doesn’t always come from things that go bump in the night. Some of the scariest movies in history don’t rely on bursts of adrenaline -- they crawl under your skin, haunt your thoughts, and linger in your nightmares.

These films prove that a horror movie doesn’t need to make you jump to be truly terrifying. Whether through psychological dread, eerie atmosphere, or the simple horror of human nature, each movie delivers a bone-chilling experience without resorting to sudden frights. If you’re looking for slow-burning terror, existential dread, or pure, unrelenting tension, these films are a must-watch.

Under the Skin Shows the Unsettling Alien Horror of Everyday Life 2014 Image via A24

Before tackling the...

A year after the Academy Awards rightfully honored director Jonathan Glazer's Holocaust drama "The Zone of Interest" for Best International Feature Film, the voting body made an equally monumental decision by awarding the heart-rending Palestinian feature "No Other Land" for Best Documentary -- yet, for the vast majority of audiences, moviegoers have been unable to watch the film in theaters. In a highly-charged political landscape, the film world has had to reckon with the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel and the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Both films represent two of the most critical artistic efforts of the century, with each creative team making an effort to urge the world to wake up and pay attention to the plight of the Palestinian people. However, despite enjoying an acclaimed film festival run and the #1 spot on /Film's own "10 Most Underrated Movies Of 2024" rankings, "No Other Land...

The Zone Of Interest filmmaker Jonathan Glazer wasn’t on hand in Paris last night to accept his César award for Best Foreign Film but he did send a striking message which echoed the much-discussed speech he gave this time one year ago at the Oscars.

Despite the controversy that Oscar speech stoked — it was also praised by others — the acclaimed director was undeterred in repeating a similar tone last night.

The Holocaust film’s French distributor David Grumbach of Bac Films read the acceptance message from Glazer in the director’s absence. It was read in French but has been translated by Deadline.

“Thank you to the Academy, Bac Films and the Cannes Film Festival,” he began. “Our film had its premiere in France and it’s an honor to be recognized here. Thanks to A24 Film4 and Access [Industries] and to our Polish producer, Ewa Puszczynska.

“The fact that...

Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez was named best French film of the year at the 50th César awards on Friday night (February 28), taking home seven awards from 12 nominations.

The Mexico-set musical crime thriller that won the jury prize and shared best actress award at Cannes Film Festival last May also earned a best director and adapted screenplay prize for Audiard and awards for cinematography, original music, visual effects, and sound. The film has sold some 1.2million tickets at the French box office since its August 2014 release for Pathé.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez was named best French film of the year at the 50th César awards on Friday night (February 28), taking home seven awards from 12 nominations.

The Mexico-set musical crime thriller that won the jury prize and shared best actress award at Cannes Film Festival last May also earned a best director and adapted screenplay prize for Audiard and awards for cinematography, original music, visual effects, and sound. The film has sold some 1.2million tickets at the French box office since its August 2014 release for Pathé.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

“Emilia Pérez” won Best Film from the French 2025 César Awards, a major win for the Netflix film ahead of the Oscars. Jacques Audiard’s movie had earned 13 Oscar nominations but then fell out of frontrunner status.

The film also won both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, though Zoe Saldaña, who has dominated the awards circuit all year, lost in an upset to Hafsia Herzi for the film “Borgo.” Saldaña though was nominated alongside Karla Sofía Gascón in the Best Actress category, and not in Best Supporting Actress.

In all, “Emilia Pérez” took home seven Césars out of 12 nominations, including Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Original Music, and Best Cinematography. “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a new version of the Dumas revenge tale, led all nominees with 14, and it won two.

While the Césars this year largely did not resemble the Oscars, a few others won...