News

French actor Ludivine Sagnier, best known for “Swimming Pool” and “8 Women,” welcomed the European Shooting Stars – 10 up-and-coming European actors – on stage at the Berlinale Palast Monday.

Sagnier was one of the jury members that selected the Shooting Stars, alongside Romanian director Radu Muntean, Swiss producer Amel Soudani, Swedish casting director Pauline Hansson and journalist Vuk Perović from Montenegro.

The Shooting Stars award ceremony, held during the Berlin Film Festival, is the festive highlight and closing event of an intensive four-day program where the actors meet international casting directors and are presented to the international press. German actor Thelma Buabeng introduced the actors to the Berlinale Palast audience.

The Shooting Stars had earlier been greeted on the red carpet by Berlin festival director Tricia Tuttle and Claudia Roth, Germany’s federal government commissioner for culture and the media, in what is likely to be her final official engagement in that...

“Unspoken,” “Genealogy of Violence,” and “Aferrado” have won a trio of top honors at this year’s Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, with each title winning a grand prize in the respective international, national and lab competitions.

Best known for his acting work on Australian film and television, “Unspoken” director Damian Walshe-Howling can now burnish his behind-the-camera bona fides with Clermont-Ferrand’s top international trophy. Set in late-70s Sydney, the film follows a young, Croatian born woman whose life spins out into chaos as Croatian independence protests overtake her adopted hometown.

Led by Quebecois star Marc-André Grondin (“C.R.A.Z.Y.”) and directed by Pier-Philippe Chevigny, the slaughterhouse-set slow-boil “Mercenary” won a special jury prize, while Maha Haj’s Locarno-winner “Upshot” can now add a Clermont-Ferrand audience prize to a long list of honors.

U.K.-based duo Zhang & Knight claimed two prizes for their film “A Bear Remembers,” taking home...

When the Light Breaks, a quiet and haunting drama about grief from Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson, won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at the 48th Göteborg Film Festival. The award, which comes with a 400,000 Swedish krona ($36,000) cash prize, was announced during the closing gala Sunday night.

Shot on 16mm, When The Light Breaks stars Elín Hall (Cold, Let Me Fall) as a young art student confronted with a sudden loss who has to navigate love, friendship and grief over an endless long summer day in Iceland. The film premiered in the Cannes’ Un Certain Regard lineup.

The Göteborg jury, which included filmmakers Ella Lemhagen, Philippe Lesage, Athina Rachel Tsangari, cinematographer Jp Passi and actor Frida Gustavsson, praised the film for its “masterfully calibrated mise en scène, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, and its unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief.”

The Audience Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film went to Eirik Svensson’s Safe House,...

When The Light Breaks, the latest film from Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson, has won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival. The award is the festival’s top competitive honor.

The award comes with a Sek 400,000 cash prize. The competition jury featured filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, cinematographer Jp Passi, filmmaker Ella Lemhagen, director Philippe Lesage, and actor Frida Gustavsson.

The jury said Rúnarsson’s film was chosen “for its masterfully calibrated mise en scène, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, its director’s unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief, acutely portrayed by a perfect young ensemble.”

The flick debuted at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The official synopsis reads: An accident plunges Iceland into national mourning, and for young art student Una, that fateful 24-hour day will change her life forever. She carries a secret, and while her friends find solace in community, Una...

Prominent Icelandic auteur Rúnar Rúnarsson who was Oscar-nominated in 2006 for his short film “The Last Farm,” was handed out the Göteborg Film Festival’s hefty SEK400,000 Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film for his fourth feature “When the Light Breaks” at tonight’s closing gala of the festival’s 48th edition.

Shot in 16mm, the subtle coming-of-age drama starring Elín Hall world premiered last May as the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.

The story turns on Una, a young art student who encounters love, friendship, sorrow and beauty during on a long summer day in Iceland. The jury for Best Nordic Film including filmmakers Ella Lemhagen, Philippe Lesage, Athina Rachel Tsangari, cinematographer Jp Passi and actor Frida Gustavsson, said the film was awarded the festival’s top prize “for its masterfully calibrated mise en scène, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, its director’s unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief,...

Runar Runarsson’s Icelandic feature When The Light Breaksled the winners at the 48th Goteborg Film Festival, taking the Dragon Award for best Nordic film.

Runarsson’s film, which opened the Cannes Un Certain Regard sidebar in May last year, received the 400,000 Sek Goteborg prize.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

The jury awarded the film “for its masterfully calibrated mise-en-scene, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, its director’s unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief, acutely portrayed by a perfect young ensemble”.

A special mention went to Sylvia Le Fanu’s My Eternal Summer.

Eirik Svensson’sSafe House, which...

Göteborg’s prime Nordic Film Market where last year’s Cannes sensations “The Girl with the Needle,” “Armand” and “When the Light Breaks” were first showcased as works in progress, has announced exclusively to Variety its full 2025 program.

Over Jan. 29-31, more than 60 completed films, titles in development and post-production will be showcased to 500-plus industry delegates from 38 countries.

As always, several acclaimed-directors will share the spotlight with promising newcomers, as reflected in the centre-piece 15-title Works in Progress lineup.

Five years after his Cannes selection with “Godland,” Iceland’s festival darling Hlynur Pálmason makes a comeback with “The Love that Remains,” a vignette-driven family drama toplining Sverrir Guðnason and Saga Garðarsdóttir (“Balls”).

A Cannes Directors’ Fortnight habitué, Afghan-born Shahrbanoo Sadat (“The Orphanage”) will bring “No Good Men,” her first romcom, set inside a Kabul newsroom in 2021 pre-Taliban ruled-Afghanistan.

Sweden’s Lisa Langseth (“Pure”) returns to feature length after her...

Goteborg Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its 48th edition, with 22 feature world premieres and four feature competition sections.

World premiere titles include Asier Urbieta’s Spanish thriller Pheasant Island in the international competition section. The debut feature from Spanish filmmaker Urbieta sees a young Basque couple’s relationship put to the test when a dead body is found on the mysterious titular island.

Scroll down for the feature competition sections

It is one of 18 films in the international competition, alongside 2024 festival favourites Santosh, To A Land Unknown and All We Imagine As Light.

The nine-strong Nordic competition includes three world premieres.

Scandinavia’s biggest film-tv event, the Göteborg Film Festival, has unveiled the complete lineup for its 48th edition, due to unspool Jan. 24-Feb. 2 in Sweden’s second largest city.

For her first gig as artistic director, Pia Lundberg and her team will be treating the festival’s usual 270,000-plus film fans in theaters and online to a rich program of 270 films from 83 countries, including 25 world premieres.

Setting the tone for this year’s overarching theme of “Disobedience” and civil resistance will be the opening film “Safe House” by Norwegian helmer Eirik Svensson starring “Sick of Myself”’s Kristine Kujath Thorp and “Gladiator 2”’s Alexander Karim. Based on the real-life story of Doctors Without Borders’ Director General in Norway Lindin Hurum, the story is set in a refugee camp during the 2013 civil war in the Central African Republic. Norwegian aid worker Linn is under severe pressure as she strives to...

This year I lost my London Film Festival virginity and amongst some of the incredible films I was enthralled by I caught my number 1 for this year’s Top Ten. I am a woman who unashamedly wears her emotions very proudly on the surface but this is also the year I developed my tactical cry, where I had to rush to the bathroom after screenings to release the raw and unrestrained pouring of emotions films evoked in me so I was able to pass through Picture House Central and the BFI Southbank and network without being a snotty mess. Here at Directors Notes, we launched our BIFA partnership for The Douglas Hickox Award and I was truly blown away by the talent, execution and fucking formidable stories told by these debut feature filmmakers – none of which was even comparable to each other. I ended the year in a very traditional...

It’s that time of year again when the European Film Promotion has announced the ten up-and-coming European acting talents selected for the 28th edition of European Shooting Stars.

Presented to the international press, film industry, and public during the 75th Berlinale (13–23 February 2025). As part of this initiative, the actors will participate in a tailor-made, four-day programme – substantially supported by Creative Europe’s Media Programme of the European Union – that will peak with the European Shooting Stars Awards Ceremony on 17 February 2025 at the Berlinale Palast.

Selected by an international jury, comprised of Romanian director and screenwriter Radu Muntean, Swedish casting director Pauline Hansson, Swiss producer Amel Soudani, French actress and former Shooting Star Ludivine Sagnier and Montenegrin journalist and curator Vuk Perović. The five experts recognised the talents‘ remarkable potential for an international career, citing several factors, including their outstanding work in feature films and drama series.

With Cyprus and...

The jury for European Shooting Stars, the program that promotes rising actors from Europe, has revealed its 2025 lineup. Shooting Stars from previous editions have included Riz Ahmed, Leonie Benesch, George MacKay, Carey Mulligan, Alba Rohrwacher, Bill Skarsgård, Alicia Vikander and Maisie Williams.

The actors will be presented to the international press, film industry and public during the 75th Berlinale, which runs Feb. 13 – 23. They will take part in a tailor-made, four-day program that will culminate with an awards ceremony on Feb. 17 at the Berlinale Palast. The program is organized by European Film Promotion and is supported by Creative Europe’s Media Programme of the European Union.

The 10 actors selected for its 28th edition are Marina Makris (Cyprus), Besir Zeciri (Denmark), Maarja Johanna Mägi (Estonia), Devrim Lingnau (Germany), Elín Hall (Iceland), Kārlis Arnolds Avots (Latvia), Šarūnas Zenkevičius (Lithuania), Lidija Kordić (Montenegro), Vicente Wallenstein (Portugal) and Frida Gustavsson (Sweden).

The Shooting Stars were...

Watching When the Light Breaks on a recent day in Thessaloniki, I spared a thought for anyone in the audience who might be wary of Gen-z’s famed sensitivity. For a film built around a painful secret and an awful tragedy, it’s delivered with refreshingly buoyant energy, yet the thing you hear most often is the sound of a stifled sob. It follows the death of a boy, Diddi (Baldur Einarsson), and how his group of friends cope with the immediate fallout. But here’s the twist: up until his death, he has been having an affair with a girl named Una behind the back of his girlfriend Klara (Katla Njálsdóttir). So when Klara eventually arrives on the scene, understandably devastated and taking the spotlight, it’s Una who must grit her teeth and hold back those tears.

When the Light Breaks is the latest from Rúnar Rúnarsson. This...

Coralie Fargeat’s body horror movie The Substance, Jacques Audiard’s Mexican crime musical Emilia Pérez and Magnus von Horn’s Danish period drama The Girl With the Needle are among the first winners of the 2024 European Film Awards, picking up Efa Excellence Awards in the technical categories.

Benjamin Kračun won best cinematography for his lensing of The Substance, a campy feminist fable starring Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging celebrity who takes a dangerous drug that promises to restore her youth. The Efa jury praised Kračun’s use of “highly stylized lens distortions and manipulations” to explore Sparkle’s physical and psychological demise. “It is loud and glossy, but also manages to eke out an unexpected intimacy and vulnerability. The audience is transported through to an unbearably painful, and hilariously raucous ending.”

The Substance also took the Efa for best visual effects for the team of Bryan Jones,...

Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez are among the winners of the European Film Academy’s 2024 Excellence Awards, celebrating arts and crafts achievements in eight categories.

The winners, which are decided by a specialist eight-member jury, will receive their trophies at the European Film Awards ceremony in the Swiss city of Lucerne on December 7.

The UK’s Benjamin Kračun won best European Cinematography for his work on The Substance with the jury praising the way he captured the demise of protagonist Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore).

“He playfully explores her physical and psychological demise with highly stylised lens distortions and manipulations. It is loud and glossy, but also manages to eke out an unexpected intimacy and vulnerability,” read the jury comments.

|The audience is transported through to an unbearably painful, and hilariously raucous ending, achieved only through collaboration with all departments and is undoubtably a celebration of cinematography and cinema.

France’s Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 16th edition of its mountaintop movie marathon, taking place from December 14-21, 2024.

Eight European films will vie for the festival’s Crystal Arrow awards.

They include Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap, a comedy about titular west Belfast hip-hop trio that is Ireland’s entry for the best international feature Oscar race and leads the Bifa 2024 nominations, Runar Runarsson’s Icelandic drama When the Light Breaks that opened this year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard, and Kurdwin Ayub’s Moon about a former Austrian martial arts master hired to train...

Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia,” Carlos Marqués-Marcet “They Will be Dust” and Yeo Siew Hua’s “Stranger Eyes” all won big at Spain’s auteurist haven Valladolid Film Festival on Saturday, in a second edition under José Luis Cienfuegos whose prizes served as a vindication of the changes he has wrought at the festival as well as an indication of some ways European arthouse is going.

All three directors’ awards build on prior upbeat reception. Playing Cannes Premiere, “Misericordia,” which scooped Valladolid’s best picture Golden Spike and its screenplay trophy, was hailed by Variety as a “darkly comic backwoods fable of pansexual desire and small-town sociopathy” which marks a “welcome re-embrace of the streamlined murdery perversities of his terrific ‘Stranger by the Lake.'”

The Valladolid jury, made up of Greek director Sofia Exarchou, Spanish actress Aida Folch, critic and editor Devika Girish, German producer Ingmar Trost and Spanish director and writer Luis López Carrasco,...

The Chicago International Film Festival is gearing up for its 60th edition with an exciting lineup of global cinema, running from October 16 to 27, 2024. This year’s competition slate promises a wide array of international storytelling, with films spanning from Azerbaijan to Brazil, Japan to Tunisia, all competing for the festival’s prestigious Gold Hugo awards. The films are set to debut across multiple categories: International Feature, International Documentary, and New Directors, along with entries for the OutLook and Shorts competitions.

A remarkable 30 feature films are making their North American or U.S. premieres, with three world premieres adding to the anticipation. Some filmmakers are no strangers to Chicago, returning to the festival after prior successes, like Péter Kerekes, whose film 107 Mothers earned him the Silver Hugo for Best Director in 2020, and documentary powerhouse Joshua Oppenheimer.

Among the festival’s top-tier International Feature Competition, several standout titles have already made waves at Cannes,...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prix winner All We Imagine As Light and Mohammad Rasoulof’s special prize recipient The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, along with Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Venice selection Harvest are among the international competition selections at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival running October 16-27.

A packed line-up also brings Joshua Oppenheimer’s Telluride entry The End to the International Feature Competition, along with the North American premiere of The Quiet Son from Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, which debuted on the Lido.

There are world premieres for Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges’s Suçuarana...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prix winner All We Imagine Is Light and Mohammad Rasoulof’s special prize recipient The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, along with Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Venice selection Harvest are among the international competition selections at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival running October 16-27.

A packed line-up also brings Joshua Oppenheimer’s Telluride entry The End to the International Feature Competition, along with the North American premiere of The Quiet Son from Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, which debuted on the Lido.

There are world premieres for Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges’s Suçuarana...

Rúnar Rúnarsson’s latest film, “When the Light Breaks,” has found distribution in major markets around the world ahead of its North American premiere. The drama tells a universal story about loss and transformation through its main character Una, played by Elín Hall. Shot on film, the movie draws from Rúnarsson’s own experiences with grief.

The film first screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it received critical acclaim. Since then, distribution deals have brought the movie to audiences in key territories like Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan, Australia, and Brazil. Paris-based sales company The Party Film Sales secured these agreements.

This international success underscores Rúnarsson’s growing reputation as a director. His past works such as 2011’s “Volcano” and award-winning “Sparrows” and “Echo” have earned him praise on the festival circuit. “When the Light Breaks” marks his fourth full-length feature.

The movie will focus...

In the run up to its North American premiere at Toronto Film Festival, Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Icelandic film “When the Light Breaks” has been picked by international distributors. The critically acclaimed movie world premiered at Cannes and is being handled by Paris-based The Party Film Sales.

Shot in 16mm, the movie stars Elín Hall (“Let Me Fall”) as Una, whom Rúnarsson previously described in an interview with Variety as an “outsider in the events that unfold around her, even though she is in fact at their center.” It marks Rúnarsson’s fourth feature. He broke through internationally in 2008 with his Oscar-nominated short “Two Birds.” He went on to helm the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2011 entry “Volcano,” San Sebastian 2015 winner “Sparrows “ and 2019 Valladolid and Lübeck fest winner “Echo.”

Following its premiere at Cannes and screenings at Karlovy Vary and Munich FilmFest, The Party Film Sales closed theatrical deals for “When the Light Breaks...

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.

New episodic series from Alfonso Cuarón, Thomas Vinterberg, Joe Wright and Janicza Bravo will screen in the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival’s Primetime program, TIFF organizers announced Friday.

Cuarón will be at the festival with his Apple TV+ psychological thriller series “Disclaimer,” starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline; Vinterberg with “Families Like Ours,” a six-episode series set in a future when Denmark must be evacuated because of rising sea level; Wright with “M: Son of the Century,” a limited series about the rise of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini; and “Zola” director Bravo with “The Listeners,” starring Rebecca Hall.

Other projects in Primetime include “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” director Tomas Alfredson’s “Faithless,” an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical 2000 film written by Ingmar Bergman and directed by Liv Ullman; Australian director Dylan River’s “Thou Shalt Not Steal”; and two projects from Canadian filmmakers, Courtney Montour and Tanya Talaga’s “The Knowing...

In the run up to its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Elizabeth Lo (“Stray”)’s anticipated second feature documentary “Mistress Dispeller” has been boarded by The Party Film Sales.

The Paris-based company has acquired international sales rights to the movie and has unveiled a clip. AC Independent and Submarine Entertainment are handling North American sales.

“Mistress Dispeller” will bow in the Horizons section at Venice on Sept. 2 before having its North American premiere at Toronto.

“Mistress Dispeller” takes place in China, where a new industry has emerged devoted to helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity. Wang Zhenxi is part of this growing profession, a “mistress dispeller” who is hired to maintain the bonds of marriage — and break up affairs — by any means necessary.

The documentary follows a real, unfolding case of infidelity as Teacher Wang attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis.

More than 250 international guests, including 53 buyers from 18 countries, have signed up for the Norwegian International Film Festival’s three-day industry event New Nordic Films in Haugesund, which will fête its 30th anniversary and kickoff with Charlotte Sieling’s drama “Way Home”, Aug. 20.

Some of the strongest filmmakers from the region and beyond – including Erik Poppe, Dag Johan Haugerud, Selma Vilhunen, Zaida Bergroth, Rúnar Rúnarsson – will be screening or pitching their next projects, next to scores of rising talents.

“Our DNA hasn’t changed,” said Line Halvorsen, who joined New Nordic Films four years ago and is serving as acting director, temporarily filling in for Gyda Velvin Myklebust.

“Our core is to gather Nordic filmmakers and industryites interested in Nordic films, to serve as a launching pad for new talents, and to spotlight latest industry trends. Together with our twin event in the Göteborg Nordic Film Market, we are here to support our Nordic industry,...

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the 43 features selection for the Centrepiece programme including world premieres for Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s feuding matriarchs comedy Front Row and Laura Piani’s romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

Taking their place in the global cinema showcase alongside the latest work from 41 countries are features that have already impressed at festivals, such as Mohammad Rasoulof’s Cannes award winner The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and Steven Soderbergh’s Sundance selection Presence.

The 18 world premieres include Iranian filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi’s human rights drama Seven Days written by Rasoulof,...

A drama about an Iranian human rights activist and a documentary about the hacking of queer indie pop duo Tegan and Sara are among the films that have been added to the lineup of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which unveiled its Centrepiece section on Tuesday to kick off a second week of programming announcements.

The 43 films come from filmmakers representing 41 countries, with 18 of the titles receiving their world premieres at TIFF. Those premieres include “Seven Days,” a film about an imprisoned Iranian activist directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi and written by Mohammad Rasoulof, a filmmaker who was himself sentenced to flogging and prison by Iranian authorities; “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” a romantic comedy from French writer-director Laura Piani; “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,” a debut from the Nigerian filmmaking group known as the Agbajowo Collective; and Erin Lee Carr’s “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara,...

Steven Soderbergh’s spooky ghost story Presence — starring Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and newcomer Callina Liang — will receive its international premiere as part of the Centerpiece sidebar at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival.

Soderbergh first screened Presence at Sundance earlier this year, some 35 years after the debut of his breakout film, Sex, Lies and Videotape, in Park City. In all, TIFF’s Centerpiece section, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema, unveiled 43 films from 41 countries on Tuesday.

There’s world premieres for Marcelle Lunam’s rom com Addition, starring Teresa Palmer and Joe Dempsie; Erin Lee Carr’s documentary Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara, a Hulu title about the Canadian pop duo falling victim to identity theft; French director Laura Piani’s Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, with a Frederick Wiseman cameo; Sofia Bohdanowicz’s Measures for a Funeral, written by actor Derah Campbell; and Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s Front Row,...

Danis Tanović’s ‘My Late Summer’ To Open Sarajevo

Bosnian director Danis Tanović’s My Late Summer will open the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival this August. The film is billed as a comedy-drama about a young woman Maja who comes to a remote island to solve an issue of family inheritance. In a whirlwind of new emotions and through a series of unpredictable situations, she will finally face questions from her past. The search for inheritance becomes a search for her own identity, but also for forgiveness. Tanovic is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina most acclaimed directors. He broke out internationally with his Bosnia War inspired No Man’s Land which clinched the Oscar and Golden Globe for best foreign language film in 2002. He has also won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (2013) and Death in Sarajevo (2016). My Late Summer is produced...

Michael Douglas Set As Guest Of Honor Of 50th Deauville Film Festival

Michael Douglas will be guest of honor at the 50th Deauville American Film Festival. It will be the actor’s fifth trip to the fall festival unfolding in the swanky northern French beach resort. The organisers suggested Douglas has a special connection with the festival as the place where he met now wife Catherine Zeta Jones. “Everyone says that the Deauville Festival is special, but few people say like me that it changed their lives,” the announcement release quoted him as saying. The actor was last at the festival in 2013 with My Life with Liberace. His late father Kirk Douglas was also an honorary guest at Deauville and was feted with a posthumous retrospective in 2020. Douglas is a regular visitor to France and has previously been honored by Cannes and the César awards. The Deauville Film Festival runs...

Viggo Mortensen, Clive Owen and Daniel Brühl will each receive the President’s Award at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff), which runs from June 28-July 6.

Actor-director Mortensen’s second outing as a director, The Dead Don’t Hurt, plays as the opening film of this year’s festival. The film world premiered at Toronto last year and follows on from his acclaimed 2020 feature directing debut Falling. The Dead Don’t Hurt’s premiere comes ahead of its July 4 theatrical launch in the Czech Republic through Aerofilms.

British actor Clive Owen will receive the President’s Award at Kviff’s closing ceremony.

Viggo Mortensen, Daniel Brühl and Clive Owen will receive Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) honors at the Czech fest’s 58th edition this year.

Organizers revealed on Wednesday that actor-director Mortensen will receive the Kviff President’s Award on opening night, June 28, and also present his feminist western The Dead Don’t Hurt, which he wrote and directed, as the opening film of the fest.

German-Spanish star Brühl will also be a guest of the fest, receiving the Kviff President’s Award and presenting his directorial debut Next Door. And British actor Owen will, at the closing ceremony on July 6, receive the Kviff President’s Award.

Last year’s Kviff honorees included Alicia Vikander, Ewan McGregor and Russell Crowe, who also got the bucolic spa town of Karlovy Vary rocking when he showed off his musical chops in an open-air concert with his band Indoor Garden Party.

This year, its 25th year on the scene,...

Actor-director Viggo Mortensen, actor Clive Owen and actor-director Daniel Brühl will be honored at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Central and Eastern Europe’s leading movie event, which will open with Mortensen’s “The Dead Don’t Hurt.”

The festival also revealed Wednesday that director-producer Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter-director Nicole Holofcener will attend the event.

Mortensen, Owen and Brühl will each receive the Festival President’s Award.

The festival will screen Mike Nichols’ 2004 drama “Closer,” for which Owen was Oscar nominated, to mark his award.

Brühl will present his directorial debut “Next Door,” which premiered at the 2021 Berlinale, at Karlovy Vary to coincide with his award.

Soderbergh will present two of his films, “Kafka” (1991) and “Mr. Kneff” (2021), which are being shown as part of the festival’s retrospective for films inspired by the works of Kafka, titled “The Wish to Be a Red Indian: Kafka and Cinema.”

Karlovy Vary will be...

Opening night at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival often lures a top talent to accept the Kviff President’s Award, in this case Viggo Mortensen, the writer/director/star of his sophomore film, western “The Dead Don’t Hurt,” co-starring Vicky Krieps, which will open in the Czech Republic on July 4.

Every year, Kviff presents a new black-and-white short film at the opening night ceremony, to serve as a trailer of sorts for the festival. This year’s main protagonist is Oscar-winning actor and producer Benicio del Toro (“Traffic”), recipient of the Kviff President’s Award in 2022. The short film was written and directed by long-time creator of Kviff trailers Ivan Zachariáš. Del Toro took time off while shooting Wes Anderson’s new film in Berlin to work with Zachariáš, who collaborated on the trailer with cinematographer Jan Velický and editor Filip Malásek, and composed the music.

“We are glad...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds Of Kindness, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, are among the films that will screen in CineMasters, the main competition of this month’s Munich International Film Festival (Miff), taking place from June 28 to July in Germany.

Fourteen films are in the running for CineMasters’ €50,000 Arri Award which is presented to the producers of the best international film. Further titles include Jia Zhang-ke’s Caught By The Tides, Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When The Light Breaks, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section last month, as well as Jaione Camborda...

Cannes Do Spirit

Coralie Fargeat’s Demi Moore-starring feminist body horror film “The Substance” has been set as the closing night title for the New Zealand International Film Festival. The picture is one of 16 which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month selected for the Nziff which is now under the artistic leadership of Paolo Bertolin.

The Nziff’s Fresh” strand features: “Good One,” by India Donaldson (daughter of New Zealand cinema legend Roger Donaldson); “To A Land Unknown,” by Mahdi Fleifel; Truong Minh Quý’s “Viet and Nam” a journey of young miners in Vietnam; Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise”; and Agathe Riedinger’s “Wild Diamond.”

The “Widescreen” strand showcases films including: Chinese director Guan Hu’s Un Certain Regard-winning “Black Dog”; Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which took home Cannes’ Special Jury Prize; Boris Lojkine’s “The Story of Souleymane...

Rolling off its buzzy world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, Oscar-nominated Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson’s poignant drama “When The Light Breaks” has sold to a raft of territories.

Represented in international markets by The Party Film Sales, the movie has been picked up for Italy (Movies Inspired), Switzerland (Xenix), Norway (Arthaus), Denmark (Ost for Paradis), Finland (Cinemanse), Hungary (Vertigo), Greece (Cinobo), Israel (New Cinema), Poland (Aurora), Turkey (Bir Film) and Baltics (Estofilm). Cherry Pickers will release the film in Benelux, while Jour2fête will handle French theatrical distribution. The Party Film Sales is negotiating several deals.

As previously announced, The Party Film Sales is also selling Rúnarsson’s short film “O” which has just been completed.

While pitching the project at Goteborg Film Festival‘s work-in-progress showcase, Rúnarsson said he inspired by a personal event for “When the Light Breaks”. “Ever since experiencing the loss of a friend as a young man,...

The dark loss of grief expands to fill the long magic-hour light of an Icelandic summer day in this delicately worked study of a youth cut short by Rúnar Rúnarsson. The Icelandic director has long had a handle on what makes young people tick and their unpredictable energies - exploring them in the likes of 2 Birds and Sparrows - and they are again to the fore here in a film that is also stylish in terms of its repeated imagery and elegant framing.

The hopefulness of new beginnings is emphasised by a conversation at sunset between fellow students Una (Elín Hall) and Diddi (Baldur Einarsson). They’re in the flush of a first love that they’ve been keeping to themselves. But the morning will see Diddi make the trip back to his hometown to tell his girlfriend Klara (Katla Njálsdóttir) that it's over.

When morning comes, it brings a tunnel,...

A pair of young adults sit on a rocky coast staring at the sun as it hovers on the horizon, casting an ochre glow over the landscape. They trade dreams, jokes and promises while smoking a joint. She teases him about being horny. He vows to break up with his girlfriend, so they no longer have to hide their relationship. Later, in bed, nestling into the grooves of each other’s bodies, they will excitedly murmur their visions of tomorrow.

None of their tomorrows comes true because the boy, Diddi (Baldur Einarsson), dies. On his way out of town, an explosion engulfs a tunnel in Reykjavik in flames, indiscriminately incinerating vehicles and bodies like his own. When the girl, Una (Elin Hall), hears the news, she is enveloped by a gutting despair.

Without ever working above a whisper, Runar Runarsson’s When the Light Breaks (Ljósbrot) finds distinctive and unexpectedly...

Grieving Rights: Runarsson Explores Interrupted Mourning

For his fourth narrative feature, Iceland’s Rúnar Rúnarsson returns to themes of emotional disruption with When the Light Breaks. The film’s Icelandic title, Ljósbrot, roughly translates to ‘refraction of light,’ which is arguably a more meaningful metaphor paired with the film’s bookend visual motifs of a rising sun. Between these moments, a drastic shift occurs for its protagonist, a young woman who loses a secret lover before he had the chance to break up with his current girlfriend. It’s a simple set-up but an agonizing exercise considering the complicated performative measures she must master for the sake of others.…...

In our first encounter with Una (Elín Hall) and Diddi (Baldur Einarsson) in the long dusk of a Reykjavik spring night, they are thinking only of the future. The immediate future: will they be able to sleep overnight together without Diddi’s flatmate noticing? The near future, meaning the next couple of days, when Diddi officially breaks off his longstanding relationship with his high-school sweetheart Klara and starts a new life with Una. And the long term. A trip to Japan. A different life with a wider scope than Iceland can provide. “Should we make babies?” Diddi murmurs into Una’s ear as they lie, wrapped around each other like kittens, in his single-pillowed bed.

But when Diddi is killed in a freak fire in a road tunnel the next morning – a national disaster that claims upwards of a dozen lives – Una finds herself alone with her searing grief. Diddi...

The longest days in your life are those where a loved one dies. Exhausting waves of feeling lap each other over the hours, stretching and blurring them as disbelief gives way to panic, to fatigue, to deep and paralyzing sadness, all while practical tasks mount and accelerate. As you struggle through forms, travel plans and an immediate onslaught of phone calls, the memory of yesterday taunts you with its nearness and distance. How could life have been so different then? Will it ever be so ordinary again? In “When the Light Breaks,” Rúnar Rúnarsson poignantly dramatizes the vastness, smallness and strangeness of one such day, following rawly bereaved art student Una (Elín Hall) through the immediate, suffocating aftermath of her lover Diddi’s sudden passing — with spiraling emotions further confused by unresolved secrets between her and the dead.

For Una cannot openly speak of her love for Diddi (Baldur Einarsson...

In his fourth feature “When the Light Breaks,” Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson starts with a heartbreaking tragedy. Una (Elín Hall) finds out that the boy she loves was in an accident. What follows is a day full of grief — and sunlight. The film opens Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.

As proven by “Sparrows,” you are not afraid to tells stories with younger protagonists. Is it easy for you to go back to that mindset?

Everything I write is based on my first- or second-hand experiences, which I then mix with fiction. I also had an amazing cast, which is probably one of the first things you have to have. There is a lot of talent in Iceland, but we wanted the crème de la crème. It was crucial to find the right people to portray these characters and turn them into human beings.

It’s different when you work with young adults,...

Paris-based The Party Film Sales and Heather Millard of Iceland’s Compass Films have reunited with “When the Light Breaks” director Rúnar Rúnarsson on his next poetic filmic venture “O.”

The Icelandic film “When the Light Breaks” is due to open Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section May 15.

Headlining Iceland’s major international star Ingvar E. Sigurðsson (“A White, White Day,” “Fantastic Beasts, the Crimes of Grindelwald”), the 20-minute film “O” is a “humanistic and poetic story of a fragile man, trying to achieve a simple task where his main obstacle is within himself,” according to the official logline.

“We’re very excited to also accompany Rúnar on his new short film,” said The Party Film Sales’ Samuel Blanc. “O” and “When the Light Breaks” have a lot in common and resonate with each other. We’re confident distributors will be interested in programming both films in tandem: in the frame of special screenings,...

Canadian actor and filmmaker Xavier Dolan will be joined on this year’s Un Certain Regard Jury by French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir, German-Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps, and American film critic and writer Todd McCarthy.

The jury will be in charge of awarding prizes for the Un Certain Regard sidebar. This year, 18 films have been selected, including eight first features. The 2023 Un Certain Regard top prize went to director Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature How to Have Sex. When the light breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson will open the Un Certain Regard section on May 15.

A self-taught filmmaker, Dolan made his feature directorial debut at 19 with I Killed My Mother, an adaptation of his own short story, which was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards. He followed up that film with the 2010 romantic drama Heartbeats, which brought him into the Un Certain Regard section...

Actress Vicky Krieps and filmmaker Maimouna Doucoure are among the jury members for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Also joining are Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir, and American film critic and writer Todd McCarthy.

Xavier Dolan was announced as jury president earlier this year.

The quintet will watch 18 films as part of the Un Certain Regard selection, including eight debut films.

Last year’s Un Certain Regard jury, headed by John C. Reilly, awarded six prizes including the main award to Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex.

This year’s Un Certain Regard...

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled new additions to the Official Selection for its upcoming 77th edition from May 14 to May 25.

Three new films have been added to the Competition lineup: Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius’ animated feature The Most Precious of Cargoes, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s Seed of the Sacred Fig and Emanuel Parvu’s Three Miles to the End of the World.

The Artist skyrocketed Hazanavicius to international fame in 2011 as the film won best picture at the Academy Awards, and received 10 Oscar nominations and five wins. Hazanavicius for his latest film adapted the Second World War novel of the same title by Jean-Claude Grumberg that is set against the events of the Holocaust and told with magical realism.

Rasoulof is not expected to attend his Cannes premiere as the director a year ago was barred by Iranian authorities from leaving the country to attend the Cannes Film...

Oliver Stone is unveiling his long-awaited documentary “Lula” at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Stone filmed the documentary about thrice-elected Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that encompasses the ruler’s incarceration between 2018 and 2019 and his return to power. Stone was in production on the feature in 2021 during which time Lula da Silva contracted Covid while filming in Cuba.

“Lula” is the latest addition to the star-studded Cannes lineup, which also includes new films from Paul Schrader, Francis Ford Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold, David Cronenberg, Ali Abbasi, Sean Baker, Jia Zhangke, and Paolo Sorrentino.

Stone teased “Lula” to Jacobin earlier this year, saying that the film would be released “hopefully before the end of the year.”

“As you know, I had him in the other films with Hugo Chávez. And of course, he’s gotten a very dramatic story, with his going to jail after his second term. Now...