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The festival’s 14th edition opens with Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse and closes with Giovanni Tortorici’s Diciannove, framing a lineup of 38 premieres, including 20 features, representing 21 countries

Museum of the Moving Image is pleased to announce the complete lineup for the 14th edition of First Look, the Museum’s festival of new and innovative international cinema, which will take place in person March 12–16, 2025. Each year, First Look offers a diverse slate of major New York premieres, work-in-progress screenings and sessions, and fresh perspectives on the art and process of filmmaking.

The 2025 lineup will present 38 films, of which 20 are features, including 4 world premieres and 23 U.S. or North American premieres, from 21 countries. Each day will be anchored by a Showcase screening. The festival will open and close with the U.S. premieres of two scintillating debut features from the 2024 Toronto and Venice Film Festivals, Durga Chew-Bose’s lush, heart-wrenching Bonjour Tristesse...

A yearly highlight of New York programming (and North American options at large), the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look returns on March 12 with an opening-night, US-premiere screening of Durga Chew Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse, closes March 16 with the stateside debut of Giovanni Tortorici’s Diciannove, and in intervening days combines programming of recent cutting-edge highlights with in-person talks and seminars.

First Look’s fixture “Working on It” will run between March 12 and 14, offering “a laboratory for works in progress and dialogues about process, bringing together festival guests, filmmakers, students, writers, and the general public.” Meanwhile, writers and editors from Reverse Shot “will welcome a new cohort for its Emerging Critics Workshop, with writers attending throughout the festival”; submissions may be made here through February 14.

So says Eric Hynes, MoMI’s Senior Curator of Film and First Look’s Artistic Director:

“In so many ways, First Look serves...

The annual First Look festival at the Museum of the Moving Image has unveiled its 2025 program. IndieWire can announce that the 14th edition of the beloved festival will take place March 12-16, and open with Durga Chew-Bose’s “Bonjour Tristesse.” The feature previously debuted at TIFF’s Discovery Program.

The film, which is an adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s novel, centers on 18-year-old Cécile (Lily McInerny) who is enjoying the French seaside with her father, Raymond (Claes Bang) and his lover Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune). Yet the arrival of her late mother’s friend Anne (Chloë Sevigny) changes everything. Per the official synopsis, “amid the sun-drenched splendour of their surroundings, Cécile’s world is threatened and, desperate to regain control, she sets in motion a plan to drive Anne away with tragic consequences.”

The 2025 lineup will present 38 films, of which 20 are features, including 4 world premieres and 23 U.S. or North American premieres,...

“In the Moment of Match-Strike” is available via direct subscription or in select stores around the world.Ah, to be young! Issue 6 is dedicated to different expressions of youth in cinema, a time of surprise, invention, rebellion, and hope for the future. In a cross-generational feature, a group of parents curate a short film program and share the reactions (and drawings) of their own children. Plunging bravely into the madcap “microcinematic” world of videos found across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram feeds, filmmaker Nikita Lavretski provides a critical guide to one day’s intense viewing; in another artist contribution, Fox Maxy handwrites an inspiring letter to her younger self. Other features include academic Christopher Holliday on digital de-aging, visual artist Jonas Staal on product placement’s childhood targets, critic Philippa Snow on teenage fascination with visual extremity, and writer Adam Wray on bootleg movie merchandise. In a roundtable feature, the makers...

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to UnBroken, the award-winning documentary that tells an extraordinary story of survival from Nazi Germany.

The distributor plans a February 21 theatrical release of the film from first-time director Beth Lane (watch the film’s trailer below). UnBroken bowed at the Heartland Film Festival in 2023 where it won Best Premiere Documentary Feature, going on to screen at Doc NYC and other festivals across the U.S. It won audience awards at RiverRun International Film Festival in North Carolina, Julien Dubuque International Film Festival in Iowa, and Berkshire International Film Festival in Massachusetts.

An animated sequence in ‘UnBroken’

The Weber siblings — Alfons, Senta, Ruth, Gertrude, Renee, Judith and Bela — faced incredible danger as World War II erupted and the Nazis implemented their hideous plan to exterminate all Jews. After their mother was seized and sent to Auschwitz where she was killed, their father made...

Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes had a mini-“Maid in Manhattan” reunion at Variety‘s 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards brunch at the Parker Palm Springs on Saturday morning.

While presenting Lopez with Variety‘s Legend and Groundbreakers award in honor of her recent film “Unstoppable” and for the breadth of her career, “Conclave” star Fiennes recounted his experience with Lopez on the 2002 rom-com. He remembered, “Once upon a time in another life and perhaps in a different epoch of movie storylines, there was this Republican senatorial candidate mooching about in a hotel in Manhattan, and there was as well in this same other life a maid in this hotel.”

“This wannabe Republican senator was struck by her good looks, but he couldn’t quite truly see her. This maid was masking something in her demure and mindful way. She was sweet and charming, but actually she was concealing something.

The Golden Globes are just around the corner.

In other words, Hollywood will be rolling out red carpets all over town before, during and after the big show on Sunday.

Here, Variety presents the ultimate Golden Globes party guide.

Friday, Jan. 3

Golden Gala: A Celebration of Excellence

Viola Davis receives the Cecil B. DeMille Award from Meryl Streep and Ted Danson is presented with the Carol Burnett Award by his wife Mary Steenburgen.

Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills

7-9 p.m.

Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Awards

Honorees include Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet (Chairman’s Award), Kieran Culkin, Colman Domingo, Ariana Grande (Rising Star Award), Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman (International Star Award), Mikey Madison, Denis Villeneuve (Visionary Award), “Conclave” (Ensemble Performance Award) presented to Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Lucian Msamati, “Emilia Pérez” (Vanguard Award) presented to director Jacques Audiard and Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoe Saldaña,...

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired Durga Chew-Bose’s directorial debut, Bonjour Tristesse, starring Chloë Sevigny (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans), Claes Bang (The Square), and Lily McInerny (Palm Trees and Power Lines), on the heels of its premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival.

Based on the acclaimed 1954 novel from Françoise Sagan — which Otto Preminger previously adapted into a BAFTA-nominated feature — pic will hit U.S. theaters next summer via Greenwich as Elevation releases it in Canada. The film has sold to Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo) Mena (Falcon), Cis (Nashe Kino), Former Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), and Airlines (Skeye), with Universal Pictures distributing internationally.

A Babe Nation Films and Elevation Pictures production, Bonjour Tristesse follows 18-year-old Cécile (McInerny), who at the height of summer, is languishing by the French seaside with her handsome father, Raymond (Bang), and his lover, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune), when the arrival of her...

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired US rights to Toronto premiere Bonjour Tristesse starring Chloë Sevigny and Claes Bang, which has scored territory sales through Films Constellation.

Durga Chew-Bose directed the Babe Nation Films and Elevation Pictures production, based on Françoise Sagan’s novel.

Films Constellation has licensed rights to Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo) Mena (Falcon), Cis (Nashe Kino), former Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom), and Bulgaria (Cinelibri), with Universal Pictures distributing in other key territories.

Greenwich will release Bonjour Tristesse theatrically in summer 2025 and Elevation distributes in Canada.

Lily McInerny plays 18-year-old Cécile, who is spending the summer by the French seaside...

Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novel “Bonjour Tristesse” introduced generations of readers to a carefree summer spent along the sunny coastline of southern France. At just 18 years old, Sagan captured the melancholy joys and simmering jealousies of adolescence with insight well beyond her years. Her tale of a teenage girl navigating relationships both new and old during a family vacation quickly became a classic.

Two adaptations followed—the first a 1958 film directed by Otto Preminger. Known for his no-holds-barred approach, Preminger brought Sagan’s story of youthful passions and reckless desires to vibrant life. Over half a century later, writer-director Durga Chew-Bose took on the challenge of interpreting this beloved coming-of-age story for a new audience. Her 2024 film update seeks not just to retell Sagan’s plot but to recreate the bittersweet atmosphere and quietly profound insights of those memorable summer days.

Set along the sun-drenched Mediterranean coast that first drew readers in,...

AFI Fest is primed and ready to roll out.

The American Film Institute revealed the full lineup for this month’s festival, scheduled to take place in Los Angeles from Oct. 23-27. Joining the previously announced roster of films will be Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, Samir Oliveros’ The Luckiest Man in America, Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault’s abortion rights documentary Zurawski v Texas (executive produced by Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence), and Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, among many others.

The lineup includes six red carpet premieres, 12 special screenings, 13 luminaries picks, 15 discovery films, 12 world cinema films, 14 documentaries, four after-dark titles, 54 films in the short film competition and 28 films from the AFI Conservatory Showcase presented by AMC Networks. Other notable titles include Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse with Chloë Sevigny; Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste; Paolo Sorrentino...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.The cinema is a house. Part of the beauty and potential of this house is that it is at once material and metaphorical. The projection of a film onto a screen always denotes a living space around it, whether physical walls and roof or a more nebulous zone, as outdoors under a night sky. This space is inclusive of some things and exclusive of others; its center looks different than its perimeter. The movie itself can also create a house, building within and between shots an architecture of imagination abiding by unspoken rules and formed by plans known only to its makers, whose contours, coherence, and meaning are discovered through exploration by guests. What kind of house a film forms, on what ground it was built, what keeps it together, and what it’s like to move through it are questions whose pursuit animates some of cinema’s great pleasures.

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The latest adaptation of Bonjour Tristesse, based on Franoise Sagans beloved yet controversial 1954 novel, had a shining premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 5. Written when Sagan was a mere 18 years of age, the book follows young Ccile (Lily McInerny), who is visiting the French seaside with her father Raymond (Claes Bang) and his nearly-as-young-as-Ccile girlfriend Elsa (Nalia Harzoune). In the midst of her potential romance with a village boy (Aliocha Schneider), Ccile's world is upended when she receives a visit from her late mothers friend Anne (Chlo Sevigny).

Bonjour Tristesse serves as writer-director Durga Chew-Boses feature film debut, and her modern take on the classic story adds new layers to bring the audience closer to the material. It is also a potentially star-making turn for McInerny, who is a new face in the industry that first appeared in Elton John...

by Matt St Clair

Photo Credit: Giacomo Bernasconi

When the 1958 film adaptation of the novel Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan was released, it was both a beacon for the arrival of star Jean Seberg and a showcase for six-time Oscar-nominated legend Deborah Kerr to play with her star persona. Kerr’s interpretation of the high-strung Anne Larsen was a send-up of her “proper English ladies” casting niché that simultaneously allowed her to play into her sex appeal seen previously in From Here to Eternity and An Affair to Remember.

The newest film adaptation from author-turned-director Durga Chew-Bose follows the same story beat-for-beat...

The Toronto Film Festival kicked off September 5 with a multi-move opening night that included David Gordon Green’s family comedy Nutcrackers starring Ben Stiller. It kicked off a slate of world premieres and buzzy movies across 11 days for the 49th edition of one of North America’s biggest film festivals.

Other key titles making their debuts in Toronto included The Luckiest Man in America starring Paul Walter Hauser, the Amy Adams-starring Nightbitch, theater guru Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path, DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot and Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck, which won the coveted People’s Choice Award.

Documentaries that made a splash included Elton John: Never Too Late and Paul Anka: His Way.

Click below to read Deadline’s reviews from the ground in Toronto, where the festival wrappred September 15.

The Assessment ‘The Assessment’

Section: Special Presentations

Director: Fleur Fortune

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen,...

Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck starring Tom Hiddleston is this year’s surprise winner of Toronto International Film Festival’s 2024 TIFF People’s Choice Award, a historically reliable bellwether of an Oscar nomination.

Over a sample pool of the last 15 years, all but one People’s Choice winner has gone on to garner a best picture Oscar nomination, and several – like 12 Years A Slave, Green Book and The King’s Speech – have won the top prize at the Academy Awards.

Yet The Life Of Chuck presents an anomaly – it currently lacks a US distributor. Buyers had been circling...

Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck starring Tom Hiddleston is this year’s surprise winner of Toronto International Film Festival’s 2024 TIFF People’s Choice Award, a historically reliable bellwether of an Oscar nomination.

Over a sample pool of the last 15 years, all but one People’s Choice winner has gone on to garner a best picture Oscar nomination, and several – like 12 Years A Slave, Green Book and The King’s Speech – have won the top prize at the Academy Awards.

Yet The Life Of Chuck presents an anomaly – it currently lacks a US distributor. Buyers had been circling...

Shabana Shines

The International Film Festival of South Asia (Iffsa) Toronto 2024 will honor “Halo” and “Fire” star Shabana Azmi‘s five-decade career during its 13th edition, running Oct. 10-20. The festival’s tribute program includes a screening of Shyam Benegal’s “Mandi,” a masterclass, and a musical celebration titled “Shab-e-Sur.”

The festival will feature premieres and events with industry figures including Imtiaz Ali, Deepa Mehta, Boman Irani and Anup Singh. Irani’s directorial debut “The Mehta Boys,” co-written by Oscar winner Alexander Dinelaris, will open the festival with its Canadian premiere. Ali’s Netflix film “Amar Singh Chamkila” will receive a theatrical screening, followed by a masterclass and a “Chamkila Night” musical event.

The lineup includes Payal Kapadia‘s Cannes Grand Prix winner “All We Imagine as Light” and Madhumita’s “Kaalidhar Laapata” starring Abhishek Bachchan and Nimrat Kaur. Films from Srijit Mukherji, Leesa Gazi and Kaushal Oza will also be featured.

London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has added new sales for Cannes Critics’ Week supernatural horror “Animale” by Emma Benestan, ahead of its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest later this month.

“Animale” sold to Scandinavia (Edge Entertainment), Cis (Nashe Kino), the Czech and Slovak republics (Film Europe), Brazil (Belas Artes), and Indonesia (Falcon Pt), adding to the previously announced territories which include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), and Middle East and North Africa (Falcon).

Wild Bunch Distribution will release the film in French theaters nationwide on Nov. 27, with O’Brother releasing in Belgium on Dec. 18.

After its world premiere as closing film of the Cannes Critics’ Week, the film has been selected in some of the world’s foremost genre festivals including Fantastic Fest, Sitges Film Festival, MOTELx, and Neuchâtel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival to name a few.

This year’s 2024 TIFF Tribute Award honorees addressed a packed black-tie Fairmont Royal York Ballroom. Sometimes the tributees go on to Oscar glory. For example, after his 2019 tribute, Joaquin Phoenix went on to win Best Actor for “Joker,” Variety Artisan Award winner Roger Deakins landed a cinematography win for “1917,” and after his 2020 tribute, Anthony Hopkins grabbed an Oscar for Best Actor for “The Father” and TIFF tributee Chloé Zhao won Best Director for her movie “Nomadland.” The list goes on. Eventual Best Actress Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain was tributed at TIFF for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” as was Brendan Fraser for his work as an actor on the movie “The Whale.” And tributee Michelle Yeoh went on to win Best Actress for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Many on this year’s list harbor similar hopes. Here are the award winners:

Angelina Jolie, TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media,...

Cate Blanchett thanked Knix, the underwear maker, for sponsoring her TIFF Tribute Award on Sunday night, which was ironic because the Elizabeth and Carol actress apparently went bottomless to the glittering festival event.

“I’m not actually wearing any underwear,” Blanchett revealed, jokingly or not, while wearing a long party dress on stage at the Royal York Hotel. “As Michelle Obama says, when I go low, you go high,” she added during a freestyle acceptance speech without the use of a teleprompter or her cellphone.

On a more serious note, Blanchett paid tribute to fellow women actors. “We have to keep asking questions that open locked doors and knowing our worth — our worth creatively as well as financially — as greater inclusivity on our sets leads to less homogenous and more vibrant storytelling,” she said.

“I think homogeneity is the enemy of everything we make,” Blanchett, also the star of Tár and Blue Jasmine,...

When “Bonjour Tristesse” was first released in 1954, it was an overnight sensation, to the point that it was turned into a film only four years later in 1958. Now, just over 65 years after that, it’s hitting screens once again, thanks to Durga Chew-Bose. However, the director didn’t want to bring it to today’s audience simply for the sake of modernizing a classic.

Originally written by Françoise Sagan, the story centers on Cécile (played in the latest film adaptation by Lily McInerny), a young woman who heads to the south of France to spend the summer with her widowed father Raymond (Claes Bang) and his latest love interest, Elsa (Nailia Harzoune).

Stopping by TheWrap’s 2024 TIFF Studio sponsored by Moët & Chandon and Boss Design with her cast, Chew-Bose explained to TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman that even though the book and first film adaptation came out so long ago...

Lifestyles of the Rich, Conflicted & Coddled: Dull Vacation in the South of France for Debut

Ah, summer in the south of France. The cerulean waves of the Baie de Cassis, bowls overflowing with strawberries, and warm evening breezes swimming like an embrace as wine turns your lips red. It sounds like a dream, a perfect setting in one of the most beautiful places on Earth to unwind. Unless, you’re one of the wealthy, privileged people in the latest adaptation of Francois Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse. Committed to spending the season projecting curdled resentment and lashing out with passive-aggressive iciness, Durga Chew-Bose’s film is an unpleasant time spent with even more unpleasant people.…...

There was slight trepidation going into Bonjour Tristesse. Justifying itself as another “adaptation” of Françoise Sagan’s text rather than remake of Otto Preminger’s masterpiece of mise-en-scène, there’s still some hesitation about the chutzpah that must go into thinking you can top that great craftsman at the height of his power. As directed by writer-turned-filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose with a great deal of formal assurance, this 2024 iteration is a highly respectable effort that’ll speak to countless people the original didn’t. One major difference being that Preminger made the film as a showcase for the muse he was having an affair with, Jean Seberg, casting some leering-male element onto the whole project. Chew-Bose’s project isn’t so much feminist as feminine––that a working-out of neurosis that doesn’t provide completely easy answers.

For those unfamiliar with any telling of the story, our “heroine” is the teenage...

Whether Brat Summer has ended or not, the Brat girls are continuing to stay booked and busy. For Chloë Sevigny, she will soon be starring in Ryan Murphy’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and she also just celebrated the premiere of Durga Chew-Bose’s “Bonjour Tristesse” at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The latter is an adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s 1954 coming-of-age novel, showcasing the complexities of relationships among women and how they can come to wield influence over one another’s fates.​ Sevigny tells us that the film is “very different” from the book.

“The book is very eternal,” she told IndieWire on the red carpet for the “Bonjour Tristesse” TIFF premiere. “So most of that Lily [McInerny] is having to play. It’s her responsibility, not mine. She’s playing the stakes [laughs]. But I think we capture the essence of the book and the essence of...

1958 was quite the year for French novelist Françoise Sagan, who had not one but two film versions of her works given the Hollywood treatment: A Certain Smile and Bonjour Tristesse. The latter was directed by Otto Preminger to mixed reviews despite a starry cast including David Niven, Deborah Kerr and newcomer Jean Seberg who had made her debut in Preminger’s Saint Joan the year before. She was enthralling, but the Preminger take of Sagan’s coming-of-age tale set on the French Riviera is largely forgotten today. Both studio films had the feel of a lavish soap so popular for these widescreen romantic dramas of the time. Now we have a new take.

Though Bonjour Tristesse has also since been made a couple of times for French TV, this is the first major international film version since Preminger’s, and it is a gorgeous-looking, quite lilting tale of an 18-year-old...

The setting of Bonjour Tristesse is so enticing — a Mediterranean town in the South of France, where a large villa looks out toward the sea — that it instantly draws you into this adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s classic novel. The first film by writer-director Durga Chew-Bose, its story of adolescent longing, jealousy and sexual awakening, updated here to the present, is always glorious to look at — from the brightly colored floor tiles to the glittering water. But once you’re inside, its emotional trajectory is curiously flat, even though the cast includes two usually vibrant actors, Claes Bang and Chloë Sevigny.

The plot is essentially the same one that made Sagan a sensation when the book was published in 1954. The author was just 18, the age of the film’s central character, Cecile (Lily McInerny), whose point of view we largely share. She is on vacation with her father, Raymond (Bang), and his latest young girlfriend,...

The 1958 version of “Bonjour Tristesse” is everything Hollywood seems to be wary of these days: a notoriously mean, allegedly misogynistic filmmaker’s interpretation of a book written by and about a French teenage girl. “He used me like a Kleenex and then threw me away,” Jean Seberg said of director Otto Preminger. Well, get out your hankies for a more sensitive (and plenty chic) take, one that asks: What might an adaptation of “Bonjour Tristesse” look like if it were a woman interpreting Françoise Sagan’s words? Better yet, how might it feel?

Montreal-born writer-director Durga Chew-Bose offers an impressionistic retelling, emphasizing tactile details: the way the Côte d’Azur sun hits the skin, the relief of sitting before an open icebox on a hot summer night, the smell of Dad’s aftershave. While promising, Chew-Bose’s attractive but ultimately hollow debut offers audiences a vicarious vacation to the south of France,...

The Toronto Film Festival on Thursday returned post-strikes with Hollywood star wattage as Ben Stiller and director David Gordon Green gave a glittering lift-off for their opening night film Nutcrackers.

Gordon Green introduced Stiller to the crowd at Roy Thomson Hall in the Canadian city that looked primed for film fest fun with the opening night comedy. The Zoolander and Tropic of Thunder star then recalled making movies in Canada.

“When people will talk to me sometimes about the Night at the Museum movies, they’ll say, Wow, what’s it like to shoot in the Museum of Natural History? And I’ll say it was actually a warehouse in Vancouver,” Stiller recounted.

“I’ve made a bunch of movies in Canada, and it’s always been an amazing experience,” Stiller added. His comments followed Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau touting Canada as a foreign location destination for Hollywood. “Our...

As the Toronto International Film Festival gets underway, The Hollywood Reporter’s critics weigh in on this year’s crop of titles, from biopics to documentaries, sweeping epics to intimate character studies, tear-jerking dramas to laugh-out-loud comedies.

Several of this year’s slate have already debuted at other festivals throughout the year. For those curious about the very best the TIFF calendar has to offer, a few — but not nearly all — of the highlights include the Steven Soderbergh ghost story Presence, which David Rooney hailed as “masterfully done” out of Sundance; the Icelandic grief drama When the Light Breaks, which Lovia Gyarkye described as “impossible to shake” at Cannes; and the literary adaptation Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, which Caryn James praised at Telluride for the “astonishing” child performance at its center.

In addition, the lineup includes a number of highly anticipated world premieres — we’re curious about David Gordon Green’s Nutcracker,...

Filmmaker Jacques Audiard gave virtually no notes when he sent French songwriting and composing duo Clément Ducol and Camille an early draft of his latest film, “Emilia Perez,” but by the time they got to the last page of the script, they were inspired to write a song called “Para.”

The duo will be feted at the at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival with the TIFF Variety Artisan Award, which recognizes a distinguished creative or in this case, creatives, who has excelled at their craft and made an outstanding contribution to cinema and entertainment.

Dalmais and Ducol are among the artists being honored at the festival’s Tribute Award fundraising gala on Sept. 8, with Canada’s own Sandra Oh serving as the gala’s honorary chair.

“Emilia Perez,” which premiered at Cannes in May and unspools in TIFF, stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón in a genre-defying...

With the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival now underway, we at Filmmaker picked 12 films we are anticipating seeing. Consider it a given that higher-profile Telluride and Venice premieres such as the two Sigrid Nunez adaptations (The Friend and The Room Next Door), Conclave, Saturday Night are on our list too, but don’t overlook these films, for which TIFF is either their world premiere or North American launch. Bonjour Tristesse. For her debut feature author (Too Much and Not the Mood) and cultural critic Durga Chew-Bose — she interviewed Mia Hansen-Love for Filmmaker several years back — has ambitiously adapted […]

The post 12 Films to Anticipate at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

With the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival now underway, we at Filmmaker picked 12 films we are anticipating seeing. Consider it a given that higher-profile Telluride and Venice premieres such as the two Sigrid Nunez adaptations (The Friend and The Room Next Door), Conclave, Saturday Night are on our list too, but don’t overlook these films, for which TIFF is either their world premiere or North American launch. Bonjour Tristesse. For her debut feature author (Too Much and Not the Mood) and cultural critic Durga Chew-Bose — she interviewed Mia Hansen-Love for Filmmaker several years back — has ambitiously adapted […]

The post 12 Films to Anticipate at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Intoxicating ocean views and cascading sunshine at a seaside villa welcome audiences into Durga Chew-Bose’s feature directorial debut, “Bonjour Tristesse.” The beauty creates a too-good-to-be-true environment — the perfect setting for summer romance, youthful exploration and, also, somehow, something dark and unnerving.

“Bonjour Tristesse” premieres Sept. 5 at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, where Chew-Bose is also receiving the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by Amazon MGM Studios honor at the Sept. 8 TIFF Gala.

Adapted from the controversial 1954 novel of the same name by Françoise Sagan, who was just 18 when she penned it, the film follows a young Cécile (Lily McInerny) and her widowed father Raymond (Claes Bang) spending the summer in the south of France along with his latest partner, Elsa (Nailia Harzoune). A seemingly perfect holiday is disrupted when Anne ( Chloë Sevigny), an old friend of Cécile’s parents, comes to visit.

Chew-Bose’s rendition is only mildly transformed for modern audiences,...

The Zurich Film Festival has lined up world premieres of Constantin Film’s fantasy drama Hagen and western The Unholy Trinity starring Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson as part of its Gala programme.

Two Swiss productions - Frieda’s Case by Maria Brendle and Aiming High - A Race Against The Limits by Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans – will also world premiere in the ten strong Gala section.

Produced by Constantin, Hagen is a reimagining of the medieval Nibelungen folk saga directed by Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stenner. As well as a feature, it has been made as a six-part series.

Zurich Film Festival has revealed a second wave of Gala titles, which includes films starring Tilda Swinton, Sebastian Stan, Nicole Kidman, Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson.

Among the 10 added titles are four world premieres, two international premieres and one European premiere.

Zurich will screen, among others, Ali Abbas’ “The Apprentice,” starring Stan, Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Swinton, and Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” starring Kidman.

Richard Gray’s Western “The Unholy Trinity,” starring Brosnan and Jackson, has its world premiere.

The other world premieres are “Frieda’s Case” by Maria Brendle, “Aiming High – A Race Against the Limits” by Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans, and German epic adventure “Hagen.”

“The fact that we have the opportunity to present so many world and European premieres goes to show that the Zff holds a strong position in the international calendar,” Christian Jungen, artistic director of the festival, said.

Film Constellation has taken international sales rights to “Chaplin, Spirit of the Tramp,” a feature documentary directed by Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Carmen Chaplin, and set to world premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

The documentary delivers an intimate portrait of the iconic English-born Hollywood filmmaker and comedian from within his family, and explores his Romani roots, which inspired the creation of his beloved character the Tramp. The doc boasts interviews, film extracts, home movies and contributions from renowned contemporary Roma artists including Tony Gatlif, Stochelo Rosenberg, Lita Cabellut and Farruquito, among others.

Carmen Chaplin’s directorial feature debut benefits from unprecedented access to the Chaplin estate, thanks to the participation of the Chaplin Office, the Chaplin family and MK2 films. The director spoke to many relatives, including Michael J. Chaplin, Geraldine Chaplin, Victoria Chaplin, Jane Chaplin and Christopher Chaplin.

“The story of my grandfather, Charlie Chaplin, has been told many times,...

Angelina Jolie will receive the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media, the Toronto film festival announced on Tuesday. Presented by Anne-Marie Canning, the prize honors “leadership in creating a union between social impact and cinema,” according to the festival.

Jolie, whose new film “Without Blood” will have its world premiere on September 8 at TIFF, will be honored the same day, alongside Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, Durga Chew-Bose, David Cronenberg, Clément Ducol and Camille, Jharrel Jerome, Mike Leigh, and Zhao Tao. Sandra Oh will serve as the inaugural Honorary Chair of the fundraising gala.

“Angelina Jolie is a multifaceted talent who has entertained audiences for decades while consistently using her platform to champion important causes,” TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said via statement. “We’re honoured to present her with the 2024 TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media. This award recognizes her exceptional achievements in filmmaking, and her unwavering commitment for positive change,...

Academy Award–winning actor-turned-filmmaker Angelina Jolie is set to receive the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey announced on Tuesday.

Jolie will receive the award at the 2024 TIFF Tribute Awards, taking place at Fairmont Royal York Hotel on Sunday, September 8, while in town for the world premiere of her latest directorial effort, Without Blood, a war drama based on the book of the same name by Alessandro Baricco, which stars Salma Hayek and Demián Bechir.

Previously bestowed upon the likes of Pedro Almodóvar, Mira Nair, and Alanis Obomsawin, the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media is presented by Anne-Marie Canning and recognizes leadership in creating a union between social impact and cinema. Other honorees set for the TIFF fundraising gala, for which Sandra Oh is serving as the inaugural Honorary Chair, include Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, Durga Chew-Bose, David Cronenberg,...

Angelina Jolie will receive Toronto International Film Festival’s TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media at the festival’s awards fundraiser on September 8.

The Impact Award recognises leadership in creating a union between social impact and cinema. Prior recipients include Pedro Almodóvar, Mira Nair and Alanis Obomsawin.

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said Jolie was “a multifaceted talent whose unwavering commitment to positive change” cemented her reputation as “a veritable humanitarian and global force to be reckoned with”.

Jolie will attend the world premiere of her latest film as director, Without Blood, on September 8. She previously attended the 2017 festival as director...

Angelina Jolie is being honored for her humanitarian work at TIFF.

The Academy Award–winning actor, Tony Award–winning producer, writer, and director will receive the 2024 TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media. The award recognizes leadership in creating a union between social impact and cinema, per the festival. Previous recipients have included Pedro Almodóvar, Mira Nair, and Alanis Obomsawin.

“Angelina Jolie is a multifaceted talent who has entertained audiences for decades while consistently using her platform to champion important causes,” TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said in a press statement. “We’re honored to present her with the 2024 TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media. This award recognizes her exceptional achievements in filmmaking, and her unwavering commitment for positive change, solidifying her status as a veritable humanitarian and global force to be reckoned with.”

Jolie will debut her latest film “Without Blood,” starring Salma Hayek Pinault and Demián Bichir, at the festival.

Angelina Jolie is set to receive the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

The Oscar-winning actress will be honored on Sept. 8 at the TIFF fundraiser, while also bringing her latest film, Without Blood, to Toronto for a world premiere. Written, directed and produced by Jolie, Without Blood is a war drama based on the Alessandro Baricco novel of the same name and tells the story of a girl’s quest for revenge and healing during a time of conflict. Salma Hayek Pinault and Demián Bichir have lead roles.

Jolie will be feted alongside fellow trophy winners Amy Adams, Jharrel Jerome, Cate Blanchett, Mike Leigh, Durga Chew-Bose, David Cronenberg, Clément Ducol and Camille, and Zhao Tao. TIFF Tribute Award honorees tend to have films in Toronto’s official lineup.

Jolie also brought her earlier films First They Killed My Father and The Breadwinner, which she executive produced,...

This year’s TIFF Tribute Awards are shaping up to be shiny indeed. Today, Toronto International Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey has announced a pair of additional honorees who will be receiving TIFF Tribute Awards at this year’s festival. They include American award-winning (including recently picking up one of our own IndieWire Honors!) actor and rapper Jharrel Jerome, who will receive the TIFF Tribute Performer Award, and award-winning actor Zhao Tao, who will be presented with the TIFF Special Tribute Award.

Both actors have films at the festival this year: Jerome leads William Goldenberg’s fact-based “Unstoppable,” which will world premiere at TIFF, while Tao returns to the festival for the North American premiere of Jia Zhang-he’s “Caught by the Tides.”

“From ‘Moonlight’ to ‘Unstoppable,’ Jharrel Jerome’s depth, strength, and vulnerability on screen have made him one of his generation’s finest actors. It’s an...

The Toronto International Film Festival’s Discovery sidebar is the festival’s launchpad for emerging directors, and just a few in its alumni stable include the likes of Alfonso Cuarón, Yorgos Lanthimos, Christopher Nolan, Barry Jenkins, Maren Ade, and Emma Seligman.

A filmmaker to watch this year is Danish director Frederik Louis Hviid with “The Quiet Ones,” a true-story heist thriller debuting in the Discovery section alongside films like Durga Chew-Bose’s “Bonjour Tristesse” with Chloë Sevigny. “The Quiet Ones” is inspired by a real crime that took place in 2008 amid Europe’s swelling financial crisis, and IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film below.

TIFF’s programming notes on “The Quiet Ones” compare Hviid’s first solo directing feature to crime thrillers from the likes of Jules Dassin, William Friedkin, and Michael Mann. “Working with a larger canvas and benefitting from Anders Frithiof August’s tightly written screenplay...

French songwriting and composing duo Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol have been presented with the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival Variety Artisan Award for composing the soundtrack for Jacques Audiard’s Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez.”

The duo will be feted as part of the TIFF’s 2024 class of tribute award honorees, which will also include Mike Leigh (awarded the TIFF Ebert Director Award) and Durga Chew-Bose (awarded the TIFF Emerging Talent Award).

Dalmais (“Corsage”) and Ducol (“Little Tickles”) are prominent figures in the French music scene. Dalmais is known for her vocal style and blending of pop, folk and avant-garde elements and Ducol for his creative arrangements and musical prowess.

Though Dalmais has found success with her solo albums, “Le Sac des Filles” and “Le Fil,” together they form a “dynamic duo, pushing the boundaries of contemporary French music.”

“Variety is honored to be giving Camille and Clément our annual...

British filmmaker Mike Leigh will be feted at this year’s Toronto Film Festival with the TIFF Ebert Director Award for career achievement. The announcement was made this morning by TIFF head Cameron Bailey.

Leigh returns to TIFF this year for the World Premiere of his 23rd film, Hard Truths, screening as part of the Special Presentations programme. He reunites with Academy Award nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies) in the pic which is described as an “intimate study of modern family life.” Hard Truths will be distributed by Bleecker Street in the US and by Mongrel Media in Canada. Leigh has had eight films in Official Selection at the festival, including Another Year, Happy-Go-Lucky, and Mr. Turner.

Named after legendary film critic Roger Ebert, previous recipients of the award include Martin Scorsese, Claire Denis, Ava DuVernay, Wim Wenders, and the late Agnès Varda.

The Canadian festival further announced this...

This year’s Toronto International Film Festival continues to catch some major stars. Today, festival head Cameron Bailey has announced the addition of more more honorees who will be receiving a TIFF Tribute Award at this year’s festival. Those honorees include Academy Award–nominated and renowned British filmmaker Mike Leigh, who will be honored with the TIFF Ebert Director Award.

Leigh will premiere his twenty-third film “Hard Truths,” at the festival, which will screen as part of the Special Presentations program and reunites him with Academy Award nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Secrets & Lies”). Named after legendary film critic Roger Ebert, the award has gone to celebrated visionaries such as Martin Scorsese, Claire Denis, Ava DuVernay, Wim Wenders, and the late Agnès Varda. Past recipients who received the TIFF Ebert Director Award since the TIFF Tribute Awards were introduced include Spike Lee in 2023; Sam Mendes in 2022; Denis Villeneuve in 2021; Chloé Zhao...

Mike Leigh is one of four new honorary awardees for the 2024 Toronto film festival.

UK filmmaker Leigh will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award, a prize previously given to filmmakers including Spike Lee, Sam Mendes, Denis Villeneuve, Chloe Zhao and Taika Waititi.

Leigh’s 23rd film Hard Truths will have its world premiere in the Special Presentations programme at the festival – the eighth time he has screened a film in Toronto Official Selection.

Canadian filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose will receive the TIFF Emerging Talent Award. The Montreal-based filmmaker will present her debut feature Bonjour Tristesse, adapted from Francoise Sagan’s 1954 novel of the same name,...

Mike Leigh is set to received a Tribute Award at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival.

Leigh, who returns to the festival with the world premiere of Hard Truths, will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award on Sept. 8 after earlier bringing films like Another Year, Happy-Go-Lucky and Mr. Turner to the Canadian festival. Prior awards for Leigh include seven Oscar nominations, the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Golden Lion at Venice.

TIFF will also give Canadian director Durga Chew-Bose the TIFF Emerging Talent Award. The Chloë Sevigny-starring adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s classic novel Bonjour Tristesse from Chew-Bose is set to open TIFF’s Discovery program with a world premiere.

Toronto organizers also announced that French songwriting and composing duo Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol will receive the TIFF Artisan Award for composing the soundtrack for Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez. French director Audiard’s crime musical earned the...

Reserved for debut and sophomore films from emerging filmmakers, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival’s Discovery programme consists of two dozen feature films and it’ll include some noteworthy items beginning with the film that opens the section in Canadian writer-turned filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose‘s directorial debut Bonjour Tristesse – the book to film adaptation that follows Cécile (Lily McInerny), a young woman spending the summer in a villa in the south of France with her widowed father Raymond (Claes Bang) and his latest love interest, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune). The spicy addition here might be in the character of the late mother’s friend Anne – played by Chloë Sevigny.…...