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Stars: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Darya Ekamasova, Yura Borisov, Paul Weissman, Lindsey Normington, Emily Weider, Luna Sofía Miranda, Vincent Radwinsky, Brittney Rodriguez, Sophia Carnabuci | Written and Directed by Sean Baker

Since releasing his first feature in 2000, writer/director Sean Baker has built himself a name as an exciting voice in independent cinema. As his works have gotten more attention, from Tangerine being shot on multiple iPhones, to Willem Dafoe’s Oscar nomination for The Florida Project, Baker has grown in stature as a director. This leads us to Anora, the writer/director’s eighth feature which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes festival, and manages to be another exemplary piece of cinema from the creative.

British viewers may find themselves surprised in this film’s opening moments, as a remix of Take That’s ‘Greatest Day’ plays while a line of exotic dancers perform for paying customers.

Exclusive: Neon is gearing up to begin production in May on Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, with Takashi Miike set to direct. The thriller will star Shun Oguri, Lily James, and WWE star Liv Morgan (Gionna Daddio).

The film will be a U.S.-Japan co-production, produced by Jeremy Thomas for Recorded Picture Company, Sam Pressman for Pressman Film, Naoaki Kitajima for Nippon TV and Misako Saka for Olm. Executive producers include Tom Quinn, Yuzo Kuwahara, Tetsu Fujimura, Paula Paizes, Alainée Kent, Peter Watson, Ivan Kelava, Max Loeb and Mike Apgar. The deal was negotiated by Neon’s Sarah Colvin, VP of Acquisitions, and Paula Paizes from Pressman Film and Recorded Picture Company’s Ivan Kelava on behalf of the filmmakers.

Neon will release the film theatrically in North America and represent the international sales rights in Cannes this month.

The eponymous character of Anora, a feisty 23-year-old Brooklyn sex worker, lives the sort of hardscrabble and precarious life that Sean Baker has vigorously tracked across his work. But while Baker’s protagonists are typically mired in the same place, Ani (Mikey Madison), as Anora emphatically prefers to be called, manages to escape the familiar, and crash through the class divide with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball. Her quixotic quest to remain among Russian oligarchs is a riotously funny neorealist farce that will be familiar to fans of Tangerine and Red Rocket, though at times it feels like the rougher edges of Baker’s vision have been smoothed out in the interest of driving home an easily digestible allegory.

We meet Ani inside the strip club where she works as a dancer, an environment that she manages an impressive level of control over. She easily seduces the wealthy...

Anora Worldwide Box Office: Hits Significant Milestone (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Sean Baker’s Indie film ruled the Oscars 2025 by winning five awards. Anora is also enjoying a post-Oscars boost, crossing a significant mark at the worldwide box office. It has achieved enormous financial success, as it was made on a production budget of $6 million only. Keep scrolling for more.

The film features Mikey Madison as Anora Mikheeva, a New York stripper who marries the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eydelshteyn. The supporting cast includes Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova, and Aleksei Serebryakov. It has received excellent ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critics have it 93% on the Tomatometer, and the audience rating is also a favorable 86%. The collective critics’ consensus states, “Another marvelous chronicle of America’s strivers by writer-director Sean Baker given some extra pizzazz by Mikey Madison’s brassy performance, Anora is...

The 2025 Oscars, Hollywood’s biggest night, didn’t hold back on delivering plenty of emotional, laughable and awkward moments. From Anora owning the night with five wins to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s show-stopping performance to host Conan O’Brien mocking the Emilia Pérez scandal, here are some of Sunday night’s most unforgettable moments.

Anora Owns the Night With Five Wins Darya Ekamasova, Lindsey Normington, Vache Tovmasyan, Karren Karagulian, Alex Coco, Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Samantha Quan, Luna Sofía Miranda, Sean Baker, Drew Daniels and Yura Borisov during Anora‘s best picture win.

Anora steamrolled through the night, with Sean Baker‘s indie upstart winning five Oscars, including best picture and director, and star Mikey Madison staging an upset for best actress. “It’s a dream come true. I’m probably going to wake up tomorrow,” Madison said when accepting the prize. Many of the people involved with the...

[Editor’s note: This interview was originally published on October 18, 2024. For his work in “Anora,” Yura Borisov is now nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, one of six nominations for the film.]

Casting is Sean Baker’s great skill. He casts all his own films, walking through the world looking for talent to populate his stories. On his Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” Baker had characters in mind before he finished writing the script. He offered the roles of Anora to Mikey Madison and Russian muscleman Igor to Yura Borisov, who waited some six months before they got to read the final screenplay.

Baker saw the Russian actor for the first time in “Compartment Number 6” and “Petrov’s Flu.” “Those films were playing at Cannes the year that I had ‘Red Rocket’ there,” said Baker at Telluride. He called Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen and asked him how it was to work with Borisov. “He said, ‘He’s the best guy in the world.

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2024 has come to an end, and while this year wasn’t the greatest year for films or Hollywood after the disastrous pandemic and the Writers’ and Actors’ strike, it did see the release of some great films. From the much-anticipated sequel of the sci-fi film Dune to the superhero buddy-comedy film no one thought would ever happen, Deadpool & Wolverine. So, lets find out which films that were released in 2024 you should not miss out on.

A Real Pain (In Select Theaters) Credit – Searchlight Pictures

A Real Pain is a buddy comedy-drama film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. The 2024 film follows American Jewish cousins David and Benji as they embark on a tour of Poland to honour their grandmother’s memories while exploring their family history. Still, their polar opposite personalities get in the way. A Real Pain stars Jesse Eisenberg,...

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If you are a big fan of the romantic comedy-drama genre, then you are lucky. As one of this year’s most highly anticipated films, Anora is finally here. Written and directed by The Florida Project and Red Rocket‘s Sean Baker, the 2024 film stars the immensely talented and incredibly gorgeous Mikey Madison in the lead role of Anora.

Anora follows a young sex worker in New York who meets and falls for the young son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. In traditional Cinderella fashion, the young couple decides to get married. Still, once the news reaches Russia, Anora’s fairytale becomes a nightmare as her prince’s parents are heading to New York.

Anora – Streaming & VOD Release Date (Where & When to Watch It?) Credit – Neon

The critically acclaimed romantic comedy-drama film was finally released in theaters on...

Mark Eydelshteyn — dubbed the "Russian Timothée Chalamet" for his youth, slender build, and floppy brown hair — has been tapped to play the male lead in the upcoming second season of Amazon Prime Video's Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Deadline reports. This casting comes on the heels of Eydelshteyn's breakout performance in Sean Baker's Palme d'Or-winning Anora, where he played Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov, the love interest to the title character.

Details about season 2 of Mr. and Mrs. Smith are scant at the moment, though with Eydelshteyn now in the lead, it does appear that the series will take a more anthology route, with different actors playing another set of Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith, respectively. Showrunner Francesca Sloane, when asked if her show would follow this route, would only say "maybe." No word on who will play the female title character, though apparently Billie Eilish was being pursued at one point.

Stars: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Darya Ekamasova, Yura Borisov, Paul Weissman, Lindsey Normington, Emily Weider, Luna Sofía Miranda, Vincent Radwinsky, Brittney Rodriguez, Sophia Carnabuci | Written and Directed by Sean Baker

Since releasing his first feature in 2000, writer/director Sean Baker has built himself a name as an exciting voice in independent cinema. As his works have gotten more attention, from Tangerine being shot on multiple iPhones, to Willem Dafoe’s Oscar nomination for The Florida Project, Baker has grown in stature as a director. This leads us to Anora, the writer/director’s eighth feature which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes festival, and manages to be another exemplary piece of cinema from the creative.

British viewers may find themselves surprised in this film’s opening moments, as a remix of Take That’s ‘Greatest Day’ plays while a line of exotic dancers perform for paying customers.

The winner of the 2024 Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Anora, has finally arrived in theaters. Directed by Sean Baker, Anora tells the story of Anora/Ani (Mikey Madson), a stripper working in a New York City nightclub. Due to being able to converse in Russian, one night, her bosses introduce her to a client, Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eidelstein), the son of Russian oligarchs with implied criminal ties. After Vanya hires Ani to be his girlfriend for the weekend, the two get caught up in a romance that leads to them getting married. However, when Vanya's parents discover this, they send enforcers to annul the marriage, which results in Vanya running off and leaving Ani and a group of enforcers on a wild goose chase through the night to find him.

While Anora is certainly funnier than audiences might expect, its ending scene is an emotional gut punch...

This review was originally published during the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Sean Baker is the type of filmmaker who knows what it takes to make films about difficult human experiences with genuineness and without judgment. In The Florida Project, he demonstrated the hardships faced by a single mother raising a young girl from a motel. With Tangerine, heartbreak from a sex workers perspective was at the forefront. For the 77th Cannes Film Festival, Baker returned with a story about the rise and fall of an exotic dancer's American dream. Anora is an unrealistic, yet lovable rags-to-riches story that is bursting with chaos, hilarity, raunchiness, and a stupendous performance from Mikey Madison.

Anora

Director Sean BakerRelease Date October 18, 2024Studio(s) Cre Film, FilmNation EntertainmentWriters Sean BakerCast Zo Vnak, Anton Bitter, Sophia Carnabuci, Michael Sergio, Vincent Radwinsky, Charlton Lamar, Paul Weissman, Masha Zhak, Alena Gurevich, Emily Weider, Darya Ekamasova, Lindsey Normington, Ross Brodar,...

Mikey Madison is slaying the red carpet!

The 25-year-old posed for photos as she arrived at the latest premiere of her new movie Anora on Tuesday (October 15) held at Regal Times Square in New York City.

Joining Mikey at the premiere were her co-stars Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova, Lindsey Normington, Luna Sofia Miranda, and Ivy Wolk along with director and writer Sean Baker.

In the new movie, Mikey plays Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Mikey has already garnered a ton of Oscars buzz for her role in the movie, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Anora hits theaters on October 18 – watch the trailer here!

Sean Baker films are often masterclasses in casting, and Anora is no exception. In the past, Baker has been known to discover talents with his films. This much was true in Tangerine andThe Florida Project. These films exposed audiences to new actors, including Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Bria Vinaite, and Brooklynn Prince. All of these performers were not stars before acting in Bakers film, but the indie director then introduced audiences to them through intimate and well-crafted storytelling.

Anora is a little different from these Baker films of yesteryear. Instead of using a complete unknown like Viniate or Taylor, Anora finds its lead in Mikey Madison. Anora's reviews are great so far, and Madison has been especially praised for the potency of her performance in the film. Unlike the case of previous Baker protagonists, Madison has an established background in acting, and thus is a more recognizable actor. Still,...

Sean Baker's new movie Anora is one of the best-reviewed films of the year, which makes the arrival of its anticipated release all the more exciting. After the director's previously acclaimed works like The Florida Project and Red Rocket, the built-in excitement in seeing what he would do next made Anora a project to look forward to. It was only after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival that hype for the film grew to new heights. The response vaulted Anora into the thick of awards season, with it predicted to dominate 2025 Oscar nominations in multiple categories.

The 2024 movie stars Mikey Madison as a sex worker named Anora and follows her life after falling in love. Following its Cannes debut, where it won the Palme d'Or - setting it up as an Oscars 2025 Best Picture nominee, the love for Anora grew with each new festival showing. The result is a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes,...

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, director Sean Baker won the Palme d’Or when his romantic drama Anora was chosen as the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition. The movie has been generating Oscar buzz ever since, with Variety reporting that lead actress Mikey Madison could be one of the “few sure-fire bets” in the Best Actress category, while Baker could end up being nominated as producer, director, writer, and editor. That all remains to be seen, but soon enough we’ll find out how a wider audience responds to the film, as Neon (the distributor behind Best Picture winner Parasite) will be giving Anora a theatrical release this Friday, October 18th. With just a few days to go until that date arrives, a new trailer for the film has been unveiled, and you can check that out in the embed above.

The story Baker crafted for...

A new trailer offers a closer look at Anora. The critically acclaimed movie, which hold a Certified Fresh 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes from more than 80 Anora reviews following its premiere at Cannes in May, is the latest feature from writer-director Sean Baker and stars Mikey Madison in the title role as a New York City-based stripper who finds herself plunged into a whole new world of wealth and intrigue when she agrees to marry the rich Russian heir Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn).

Neon has now unveiled the second official trailer for Anora. It kicks off with a full minute exploring how Anora and Vanya meet and fall in love, before bringing in the conflict at the center of the movie when Vanya's parents send a handler to fix their son's mistake. This results in Anora physically fighting back, followed by a shot of her gagged with what appears to be a red scarf.

Tuesday delivered a big night for Mikey Madison.

“Are you kidding me? This is where I’m from. I was born and raised in Los Angeles and my entire family is here to see this movie for the first time. It’s a little nerve-wracking, too,” revealed the actress while standing outside the iconic Vista Theater in the city’s Los Feliz neighborhood. Madison, 25, has been acting for more than a decade and done many red carpet premieres in her career but the occasion of sitting through Anora for the first time amped up the anxiety with her siblings and best friend also in the building.

The Sean Baker film, released by Neon Oct. 18, marks many firsts for Madison. After racking up credits on Pamela Adlon’s Better Things, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and the 2022 reboot of Scream, Anora is the first time she’s...

Mikey Madison is hard at work promoting her highly-anticipated new movie!

The 25-year-old actress posed for photos with co-star Mark Eidelstein at a screening of their new movie Anora held during the 2024 Beyond Fest on Tuesday (Oct. 1) at Vista Theatre in Los Angeles.

Fellow cast members in attendance included Vache Tovmasyan, Karren Karagulian, Darya Ekamasova, Yuriy Borisov, and Lindsey Normington along with director and writer Sean Baker.

In the new movie, Mikey plays Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Mikey has already garnered a ton of Oscars buzz for her role in Anora, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Anora hits theaters on Oct. 18 – watch the trailer here!

El nuevo largometraje de Sean Baker llega a los cines en Halloween. © Universal Pictures

Universal ha desvelado el nuevo tráiler de Anora, la película galardonada con la codiciada Palma de Oro en el pasado Festival de Cannes que pasará por el Festival de San Sebastián dentro de la sección Perlak.

La dramedia sigue a Anora (Mikey Madison), una joven trabajadora sexual de Brooklyn, que tiene la oportunidad de vivir una historia a lo Cenicienta cuando conoce e impulsivamente se casa con el hijo de un oligarca ruso. Cuando la noticia llega a Rusia, su cuento de hadas se ve amenazado, ya que los padres parten hacia Nueva York para intentar conseguir la anulación del matrimonio.

La película está dirigida por Sean Baker (The Florida Project) y protagonizada por Mikey Madison (Scream). Completan el reparto Yuri Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Lindsey Normington, Ivy Wolk, Luna Sofía Miranda, Alena Gurevich, Aleksei Serebryakov y Darya Ekamasova.

There’s something deliciously, sadistically satisfying to films about the suffering of people in middle-management positions. These are characters that most of us slightly later into our adulthood are all the more prone to empathize with, that sense of being enough in charge to feel the burdens of responsibility, and...

The eponymous character of Anora, a feisty 23-year-old Brooklyn sex worker, lives the sort of hardscrabble and precarious life that writer-director Sean Baker has vigorously tracked across his work. But while Baker’s protagonists are typically mired in the same place, Ani (Mikey Madison), as Anora emphatically prefers to be called, manages to escape the familiar, and crash through the class divide with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball. Her quixotic quest to remain among Russian oligarchs is a riotously funny neorealist farce that will be familiar to fans of Tangerine and Red Rocket, though at times it feels like the rougher edges of Baker’s vision have been smoothed out in the interest of driving home an easily digestible allegory.

We meet Ani inside the strip club where she works as a dancer, an environment that she manages an impressive level of control over. She easily seduces the...

Over the last decade, Sean Baker has proven himself to be one of the great American independent filmmakers of the 21st century. From iPhone-shot LGBT drama Tangerine, to spellbinding motel-set coming-of-age movie The Florida Project, to Simon Rex starrer Red Rocket, the writer-director has made a fascinating filmography out of studying characters living amidst the rubble of the American Dream. His latest, Palme d'Or winner Anora, looks set to continue that trend as Baker tells a wild love story revolving around American stripper Anora (Mikey Madison) and Russian oligarch son Vanya (Mark Eidelstein). Check out the first trailer for the film below;

Hoo boy — the Pretty Woman meets Uncut Gems vibes are strong with this one! Set to Blondie banger 'Dreaming', this propulsive first look at Anora is a real tale of two halves. The first half plays out like a 21st century spin on the Richard Gere and Julia Roberts...

La película que conquistó Cannes llegará a los cines en octubre. © Neon

Neon ha publicado el primer tráiler de “Anora”, la película galardonada con la codiciada Palma de Oro en el pasado Festival de Cannes.

La dramedia sigue a Anora (Mikey Madison), una joven trabajadora sexual de Brooklyn, que tiene la oportunidad de vivir una historia a lo Cenicienta cuando conoce e impulsivamente se casa con el hijo de un oligarca ruso. Cuando la noticia llega a Rusia, su cuento de hadas se ve amenazado, ya que los padres parten hacia Nueva York para intentar conseguir la anulación del matrimonio.

La película está dirigida por Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”) y protagonizada por Mikey Madison (“Scream”). Completan el reparto Yuri Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Lindsey Normington, Ivy Wolk, Luna Sofía Miranda, Alena Gurevich, Aleksei Serebryakov y Darya Ekamasova.

“Anora” se estrena en cines el 31 de octubre.

¡Os dejamos con el tráiler de la película!

On Monday, Neon released the trailer for “Anora,” writer-director-producer-editor Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning film. It’s American audiences’ best look so far at the highly anticipated comedy-drama.

Neon describes “Anora” simply as a “love story.” It stars Mikey Madison as Anora — Ani for short — a sex worker from the Russian enclave of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. When she meets Vanya (Mark Eidelstein), the young son of a Russian oligarch, she gets swept up in a whirlwind romance that culminates in their elopement. Vanya’s parents are not happy and come to New York to force the couple to annul their marriage. But Anora is a scrapper, and she’s not going to be told what to do.

Madison, previously best known for her performances in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” and on the series “Better Things,” received rave reviews for her fierce and funny performance when the film...

The trailer for “Anora,” Sean Baker’ Palme d’Or-winning tale of the love story between a sex worker and the son of a Russian oligarch, is finally here.

The dramedy follows Anora (Mikey Madison), an Uzbek-American stripper whose boss often sets her up with Russian-speaking clients. One night, she meets Vanya (Mark Eidelstein), the wealthy young son of a Russian oligarch who pays to make her his girlfriend for the week. Unexpectedly, the two fall in love and elope — but the fairytale is threatened when Vanya’s parents find out.

“Anora” premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May to a 7.5-minute standing ovation and near universal acclaim. In Variety‘s review, chief film critic Peter Debruge called the movie a “rowdy Safdie-style movie about two cultures (Russian and American), two languages (Russian and English) and two currencies (money and sex).” At the Cannes closing ceremony, “Anora” won the festival’s...

One of the things Sean Baker does exceptionally well is draw us into a vivid and highly specific milieu, nurturing our affections for characters who are rough-edged, to put it mildly, and then whip up a vortex of steadily escalating chaos. The writer-director is like a conductor of raw symphonies about people from the marginalized fringes caught in a dizzying whirl, sometimes of their own making and sometimes not. Sex workers have been a big part of Baker’s gallery of outsiders, which makes Anora a fine addition to his terrific body of work.

As a character, played by Mikey Madison with a sweetness that humanizes even the most transactional situations and a defensiveness that makes her dangerous when threatened, Anora, who goes by Ani, stands alongside the defiantly resilient protagonists of Baker’s last handful of films, from Starlet and Tangerine through The Florida Project and Red Rocket.

Ani...

Give Me Liberty director Kirill Mikhanovsky with producer/co-writer Alice Austen: "We didn't have the title for a very long time. In the process of the writing of scenes and simple plots, we're talking about more profound things, philosophizing, if you will." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Kirill Mikhanovsky and Alice Austen joined me in New York for an in-depth conversation on their madcap adventure Give Me Liberty, shot by Wyatt Garfield (Kent Jones's Diane), starring Chris Galust, Maxim Stoyanov, and Lauren 'Lolo' Spencer, with Arkady Basin, Zoya Makhlina, Darya Ekamasova, Sheryl Sims-Daniels, Atavia Gold Star, Steve Wolski, and Josette Daniels.

Lolo Spencer in New York for Give Me Liberty Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

We discussed how Maxim Stoyanov kept saying "Leonardo DiCaprio dies at the end of Titanic!", the evolution of the screenplay, Karl Ove Knausgaard and Alexis de Tocqueville, the determination it took to make Give Me Liberty, and...

Brittany Runs a Marathon jumps into five New York and Los Angeles theaters this weekend ahead of a steady sprint nationwide in September. Amazon Studios picked up the title, starring Jillian Bell, following its Sundance premiere earlier this year. Fellow Sundancer Give Me Liberty from the festival’s Next section heads to select locations via Music Box Films, while IFC Films is opening literary drama-romance Vita & Virginia exclusively in Manhattan ahead of its L.A. bow and on-demand launch next week. Also in theaters as the summer vacation season begins its wind-down are horror film Tigers Are Not Afraid from Shudder and drama Hot Air with Neve Campbell, Steve Coogan and Judith Light via Freestyle Releasing.

Additional limited releases include Roadside Attractions’ Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles and Ammo Content’s Becoming Burlesque.

Brittany Runs a Marathon

Director-writer: Paul Downs Colaizzo

Cast: Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Lil Rel Howery,...

"They can't do what you can do, that's why you're doing what you do." Music Box Films has debuted the first official trailer for an indie dramedy titled Give Me Liberty, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It also played in Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as at BAMcinemaFest and at the Munich Film Festival this year. When a riot breaks out in Milwaukee, America's most segregated city, medical transport driver Vic is torn between his promise to take a group of elderly Russians to a funeral and his desire to help Tracy, a young black woman with Als. Give Me Liberty stars disabled actress Lauren "Lolo" Spencer, with Chris Galust, Maksim Stoyanov, Darya Ekamasova, and Zoya Makhlina. This looks a bit quirky, and odd, and original. It seems as if they're not sure how to sell it - drama, comedy,...

Independent film stalwart Ben Barenholtz, longtime supporter of David Lynch and the Coen brothers, died Wednesday in Prague after a brief illness. He was 83.

Barenholtz had been living in Prague at the time of his death, according to his friend Sony Pictures Classics executive Tom Prassis. He died in his sleep surrounded by friends, Prassis added.

Barenholtz was also a Holocaust survivor and blogged in 2010 about his experiences of escaping into the Polish countryside with 11 other people at the age of eight. He lived in the woods for two years before the war came to an end.

Barenholtz began his career in the 1960s in New York City running the now-defunct Village Theater and the Elgin Cinema. He’s credited with pioneering the concept of midnight-movie showings, including Alejandro Jodoworsky’s “El Topo,” John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos,” the six-hour Russian production of “War and Peace” and Ken Russell’s “The Devils.

Ben Barenholtz, a veteran of the distribution and exhibition world who plucked David Lynch from obscurity and invented the concept of the midnight movie, died last night in Prague after a brief illness. He was 83.

Over the course of more than 50 years, Barenholtz was a major figure in the independent film community who wore a lot of hats. He began his career in the late sixties running the now-defunct Village Theater (later the Filmore East) followed by a successful stint launching the Elgin Cinema. It was there that he pioneered the concept of buzzy midnight-movie sensations, including a six-month stint for Alejandro Jodoworsky’s “El Topo” and John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos.” He also took big gambles on daring cinematic achievements, such as the six-hour Russian production of “War and Peace” and Ken Russell’s “The Devils.”

Barenholtz then ventured into distribution with Libra Films, which boasted an adventurous slate throughout...

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Americans” Season 6, Episode 4, “Mr. and Mrs. Teacup.”]

Who thought a montage involving Paige making out and Philip line dancing could be so heartbreaking?

Thus is the power of “The Americans,” as showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg almost simultaneously doled out pleasure and pain in a bone-chilling fourth episode. Philip (Matthew Rhys) clung to his simple pleasures while he could, retreating to his favorite country bar to kick off his boots with coworkers before snacking on potato chips over a pile of mounting bills. Paige’s (Holly Taylor) date turned from a fun night out to a professional conflict as she stared at her sleeping beau’s valuable ID badge. And then there’s Elizabeth (Keri Russell): so close to getting what she needs, only to be left with nothing yet again.

She’s tired, and we’re scared. Much like joy and sorrow are contradictory emotions, each...

Back in April, producer Ben Barenholtz announced that he would be making his feature film directorial debut with “Alina.” Now, the 80-year-old legend has completed principal photography on the movie and has created a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the project’s post-production.

“Alina,” also written by Barenholtz, stars award-winning actress Darya Ekamasova as a Russian woman who goes to New York in search of the father she never met.

“Principal photography has been completed with a fantastic cast and crew,” says the helmer on the Kickstarter page. “I am now in the editing process and I think I have a good film but I won’t know how good it is until we finish post-production. And I need your help to do that.”

Read More: Producer Ben Barenholtz to Make Directing Debut at Age 80 (Exclusive)

At the time of this publication, Barenholtz’s campaign has raised over $24,000 of its $80,000 goal.

Name and focus changes for every section, which are now all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’.

The ninth Rome Film Festival (Oct 16-25) has revealed a diverse line-up including the Italian premieres for potential awards contenders including David Fincher’s Gone Girl. the world premiere of Takashi Miike’s As the Gods Will and Burhan Qurbani’s We are Young, We are Strong and European premiere of Oren Moverman’s Time Out of Mind, Toronto hit Still Alice and Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.

This year for the first time the award-winners in each section of the programme will be decided by the audience on the basis of votes cast after the screenings.

Each section has changed name and focus for 2014 and are all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’.

Italian comedies Soap Opera and Andiamo a Quel Paese bookend the line-up.

Full line-up

Cinema D’Oggi

World premiere

• Angely...

Two Indian actors Manoj Bajpayee and Vidya Balan won nominations for the 6th Asia Pacific Screen Awards to be held on November 23 in Brisbane, Australia.

Manoj Bajpayee won a nomination in “Best Performance by an Actor” category for Gangs of Wasseypur.

Vidya Balan has been nominated for “Best Performance by a Actress” for The Dirty Picture.

Read also Gangs of Wasseypur and Gattu nominated for Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2012

Established in 2007, the APSAs are one of the highest accolade in film in the Asia Pacific region. Apsa is headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland and is an initiative of the Queensland Government, Australia.

Complete list of nominations:

Best Feature Film

Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time [South Korea]

Bear [Iran]

The Horde

[Russia]

Beyond the Hill

[Turkey]

Wu Xia

[Hong Kong, China]

Best Children’S Feature Film

My Australia

[Poland, Israel]

Gattu [India]

I Wish [Japan]

The Mirror Never Lies

[Indonesia]

Off White Lies

[Israel]

Best Documentary Feature Film

5 Broken Cameras [Israel, Palestine, France]

In My Mother’s Arms...

Gattu by Rajan Khosa has been nominated in “Best Children’s Feature Film” category at the 6th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Read Rajan Khosa’s interview here). The 2012 Asia Pacific Screen Awards announced its nominations today.

Anurag Kashyap has been nominated for “Achievement in Directing” for Gangs of Wasseypur (Read Anurag Kashyap’s interview here). Manoj Bajpayee won a nomination for the same film in “Best Performance by an Actor” category.

Vidya Balan has been nominated for “Best Performance by an Actress” for The Dirty Picture.

Established in 2007, the APSAs are one of the highest accolade in film in the Asia Pacific region. Apsa is headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland and is an initiative of the Queensland Government, Australia.

All winners in the 6th annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Friday November 23 in Brisbane, Australia.

Complete list of nominations:

Best Feature Film

Nameless Gangster: Rules...