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Leading arthouse sales agency the Match Factory, which is part of Mubi, has appointed Agathe Valentin as sales director, a newly created role. The company’s slate includes Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore, which won best screenplay in Cannes and best actress at the Golden Globes.

The appointment comes ahead of the Match Factory’s preparations for Sundance, where the company will premiere “Magic Farm” by Amalia Ulman and Cherien Dabis’ “All That’s Left of You,” as well as for Berlinale, where it will showcase several films.

Valentin, who will report to Thania Dimitrakopoulou, VP international sales, will serve as a “key driver in executing initiatives that expand the organization’s international footprint and meet its goals,” said the company. Valentin will work from Brussels.

With nearly two decades of experience in the film industry, Valentin has worked with a broad range of companies and films. Her...

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...

Awards contenders dominate new releases at UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend as Babygirl, Maria and A Real Pain all launch.

Nicole Kidman returns withBabygirl,which Entertainment Film Distributors is opening in 575 locations. Halina Reijn’s 18-ratederotic drama stars Kidmanas a high-powered CEO who becomes embroiled in an affair with a young intern, played by Harris Dickinson. Further cast include Antonio Banderas and Sophie Wilde.

Other awards contenders with 18-ratings include this year’s Anora, which grossed just shy of £2m for Universal and 2023’s Poor Things, with a £1.6m opening and a £7.1m total run for Disney’s Searchlight.

Swedish filmmaker Magnus von Horn finds himself in some rarefied, multi-cultural air this awards season, appearing on both the International Oscar shortlist and the BAFTA longlist in the comparable category for his first Danish-language feature, The Girl with the Needle.

Von Horn’s Swedish-produced debut, The Here After, premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2015, while his second feature film, the Polish-produced Sweat, was part of the official program of the Covid-canceled Cannes in 2020.

The filmmaker currently resides in Poland and has dual citizenship with Sweden, so what drew his interest in pivoting to a Danish movie? In the Q&a below, he explains it was the story itself that touched upon his own inner fears.

Starring Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, The Girl with the Needle is inspired by one of Denmark’s most notorious murder cases. It follows Karoline (Sonne), a young factory worker struggling to survive in post-wwi Copenhagen.

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.

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will open with a world premiere screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket).

Set during the Central African Republic’s civil war in 2013, the film centers on a desperate Muslim man seeking refuge in a field hospital on Christmas Eve, while a threatening Christian militia gathers outside, demanding his life. At the heart of the events is Norwegian aid worker Linn, played by Kristine Kujath Thorp, who must make moral decisions to protect the man without endangering her colleagues.

The film will screen in satellite venues across Sweden at the same time as the Göteborg premiere. The film will also be available to watch through the festival’s digital platform.

Göteborg will this year also hand honorary awards to Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival has said it is honoring Vinterberg for his deft talent for portraying “deeply...

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...

The Göteborg Film Festival, Sweden’s leading film fest, has unveiled its 2025 lineup, which features several award season contenders, including Brady Corbet’s Golden Globe winner The Brutalist, Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle, and Luca Guadagnino’s Queer.

The Brutalist picked up three Golden Globes this Sunday, including for best picture, drama, best director for Corbet and best actor, drama for star Brody. In the historical epic, Brody plays László Tóth, a Jewish architect who arrives in America from Budapest after surviving World War II. The film co-stars Felicity Jones as László’s wife and Guy Pearce as billionaire Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.

Daniel Craig scored a best actor, drama nomination at the Globes for his starring role in Queer as William Lee, based on William S. Burroughs’ alter ego, following his journey through Mexico and South America with Drew Starkey as Gene. The Girl with the Needle,...

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,...

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will open with a world premiere screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket).

Set during the Central African Republic’s civil war in 2013, the film centers on a desperate Muslim man seeking refuge in a field hospital on Christmas Eve, while a threatening Christian militia gathers outside, demanding his life. At the heart of the events is Norwegian aid worker Linn, played by Kristine Kujath Thorp, who must make moral decisions to protect the man without endangering her colleagues.

The film will screen in satellite venues across Sweden at the same time as the Göteborg premiere. The film will also be available to watch through the festival’s digital platform.

Göteborg will this year also hand honorary awards to Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival has said it is honoring Vinterberg for his deft talent for portraying “deeply...

The 2024 global film festival circuit featured something for every taste — from celebrated Lithuanian art house fare, such as Locarno winner Toxic and Drowning Dry, to such audience favorites as Sean Baker’s Anora and Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, from the highs to the lows, all garnished, of course, with a big serving of star power.

Some film events, such as Poland’s Camerimage, were hit by controversy, while others boosted their prominence, with Switzerland’s Locarno, for example, cementing its role as a top-tier global fest, and Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic showed once again why it is known as Central Europe’s biggest film party of the summer.

Here’s a look at The Hollywood Reporter highlights of the 2024 film festival season.

Female power at Cannes.

Anora, Emilia Pérez and body horror The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, were among the revelations of the world premieres on the Croisette.

Mubi has unveiled their first streaming lineup of the new year and they are kicking things off in a major way with the streaming debut of Víctor Erice’s masterpiece Close Your Eyes. Additional highlights include the first digital release of Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias’ Berlinale and NYFF selection Pepe, with the debuts of Luca Guadagnino and James Gray also in the lineup. After releasing the biggest album of 2024, one can get a deeper glimpse into the life and work of Charli Xcx with the documentary Charli Xcx: Alone Together.

Recently naming Close Your Eyes one of the best films of 2024, Z.W. Lewis said, “Eríce’s latest is the ultimate cinephile catnip: the triumphant return of a director known to only make masterpieces, a film filled with in-group references and nods to cinema history (including a lengthy performance of a song from a Howard Hawks film), and...

Inspiring or irritating, empowering or exploitative, maternal or manipulative — with many shades of gray in between — female mentorship is a common dynamic in many of 2024’s most affecting stories.

In films as diverse as “All We Imagine as Light,” “Babygirl,” “Emilia Pérez,” “The Girl With the Needle,” “Inside Out 2” “The Last Showgirl,” “My Old Ass” and “The Substance,” women develop relationships with one another that alternately risk harm as much as they mean to be helpful, forge camaraderie out of competition or simply provide a mirror reflecting — frequently uncomfortably — who they once were or may one day become.

Inspired by its writer-director’s curiosity about multi-generational friendship, Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” tells the stories of three nurses — Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha) and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) — navigating the sociopolitical complexities of Mumbai. “When there is a lot of difference in the generations, there is a sort of conflict that,...

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Tuesday unveiled the shortlist of 15 films that will vie for a nomination for the best international feature film Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards.

85 countries submitted features this award season but several frontrunners quickly pulled out from the pack, and easily made it onto the longlist, including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, representing France, the Danish contender The Girl With the Needle from director Magnus von Horn, and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, an Iran-set feature submitted by co-production country Germany.

Several festival circuit favorites made the cut. I’m Still Here, Brazil’s contender comes to the Oscars on referral from Venice, where it won the best screenplay prize. Director Walter Salles scored an Oscar nom back in Central Station in the international category (then known as best foreign-language film), with Fernanda Montenegro, who has a cameo in I’m Still Here,...

Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 17, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

Prior to the shortlists announcement, there had definitely been folks walking around in denial about “Emilia Pérez” being the dominant Best International Feature contender; less so because of negative feelings about the Netflix film, and more because the raft of submissions from all over the world have been so good this year.

Looking at the Oscars 2025 shortlists generally, Jacques Audiard’s musical got recognized just about everywhere it would have wanted to, even nabbing two spots on the Best Original Song shortlist. But looking at...

The Academy has unveiled the 10 shortlists for the 97th Academy Awards in March, with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig and Walter Salles’sI’m Still Here among the international feature film category heavyweights.

Besides the French, German and Brazilian contenders, the list includes Mati Diop’s Dahomey for Senegal, Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap for Ireland, Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio for Italy, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh for the UK, and Matthew Rankin’sUniversal Language for Canada.

Europe accounts for 10 or two-thirds of the shortlist, Africa and Middle East two, and Americas two,...

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...

The Girl With The Needle star Besir Zeciri and Devrim Lingnau, lead in Netflix series The Empress are among the 10 actors selected for the 2025 edition of European Film Promotion’s European Shooting Stars.

The 10 Stars will participate in a four-day programme at next year’s Berlinale, culminating with the European Shooting Stars awards ceremony on February 17 at the Berlinale Palast.

Scroll down for the full list

Each Shooting Stars submission must highlight one performance from the actor’s career, which may be from an as-yet-unreleased work.

Danish entry Zeciri hails from Copenhagen, and played a leading role in Magnus von Horn...

Except perhaps Souleymane’s Story‘s Abou Sangare biking away with the European Actor award (beating out Conclave‘s Ralph Fiennes) there were no surprises at last night’s European Film Awards with Jacques Audiard‘s Emilia Pérez winning four of the five prizes it was nominated for. Karla Sofía Gascón won Best Actress, Audiard won Best Screenwriter and Director while the film the top prize of the evening. Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal’s No Other Land continues to dominate the docu awards circuit which means here is a legit shot at a future Oscar. Here are the noms and winners:

European Director:

Winner: Jacques Audiard for Emilia PÉREZ

Andrea Arnold for Bird

Pedro Almodóvar for The Room Next Door

Mohammad Rasoulof for The Seed Of The Sacred Fig

Maura Delpero for Vermiglio

European Screenwriter:

Winner: Jacques Audiard for Emilia PÉREZ

Magnus von Horn & Line Langebek...

Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” won best film, director, screenwriter and actress at the 37th European Film Awards, which were held Saturday in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The best film nominees included narrative features “The Room Next Door,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” “The Substance” and “Vermiglio,” as well as documentaries “Bye Bye Tiberias,” “Dahomey,” “In Limbo,” “No Other Land” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” and animated films “Flow,” “Living Large,” “Savages,” “Sultana’s Dream” and “They Shot the Piano Player.”

The statuette for actress was won by Karla Sofía Gascón for “Emilia Pérez.” The other nominees were Renate Reinsve in “Armand,” Trine Dyrholm in “The Girl With the Needle,” Vic Carmen Sonne in “The Girl With the Needle” and Tilda Swinton in “The Room Next Door.”

The director award went to Audiard for “Emilia Pérez,” who beat Andrea Arnold for “Bird,” Pedro Almodóvar for “The Room Next Door,” Mohammad Rasoulof...

The European Film Awards is taking place in the Swiss city of Lucerne tonight (December 7) and Screen is revealing the winners live from the ceremony, which kicked off at 20.00 Cet.

Scroll down for winners

To read the winners as they are announced, you can refresh the page and scroll down to the full list below.

The ceremony is also being live-streamed below.

Emilia Pérez and The Room Next Door are the front-runners for this year’s awards with four nominations apiece.

Fifteen features compete for the best European film prize, up from five last year. This follows a recent rule...

There exist moments in the majority of films, moments where anything from a pleasant exchange between characters, a well-placed joke, or an unassuming smile can create levity often when it’s needed most. The near-absence of such moments in director/co-writer Magnus von Horn’s latest effort, “The Girl with the Needle,” sits on full display throughout, making the scant few instances all the more jarring the instant they show up to such a bleak affair.

Continue reading ‘The Girl With The Needle’ Review: Early 20th Century Pregnancy Anguish Plunges Into A Haunting World at The Playlist.

Today, in a world which, for all the material comforts it offers to many, is familiar with a landscape of endless traumas, it is perhaps difficult to appreciate the full psychic impact of the First World War. It was not just that destruction on that scale had not been seen before; it had not, with the exception of a few grim prophets like Hg Wells, been imagined before. When the fighting stopped, society was left reeling, without even the direction that military imperatives had brought. Damaged people were everywhere; family structures that had endured for generations were shattered; and with economies in ruin, it was difficult simply to survive day to day. It is, then, no surprise that some of the individual solutions people found for themselves were equally bleak.

Loosely based on a true story, Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle is Denmark’s submission for the 2025 Oscars.

In the world of Danish true crime, one name looms large over all the rest: Dagmar Overbye. Between 1913 and 1920, Overbye operated a fraudulent adoption agency that claimed to find homes for babies without parents able to care for them — but she secretly killed the children that were placed in her care. She was estimated to have murdered between 9 and 25 infants and was sentenced to death in a high profile murder trial in 1921.

As the country’s first female serial killer, Overbye is now a household name in Denmark. But director Magnus von Horn and screenwriter Line Langebek Knudsen believed that the public hadn’t looked past the salacious headlines and engaged with the substance of Overbye’s life. That led them to make “The Girl with the Needle,” Denmark’s official Oscar submission that offers a fictionalized retelling of a true story that hasn’t lost an iota of topicality.

Caroline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young factory worker living in abject poverty, serves as our window into the perilous post-war landscape of Copenhagen circa 1919 in The Girl with the Needle. Her dire situation is compounded by her social position as a working class woman, particularly since her husband, Peter (Besir Zeciri), has been out of the picture since he signed up to fight in the Great War (despite the country’s broader policy of neutrality). After she becomes pregnant by her wealthy boss, Jorgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), Caroline anticipates a new life of abundance and relative privilege. Of course, this inter-caste […]

The post “This World Is Hell for Women”: Magnus von Horn on The Girl with the Needle first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Caroline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young factory worker living in abject poverty, serves as our window into the perilous post-war landscape of Copenhagen circa 1919 in The Girl with the Needle. Her dire situation is compounded by her social position as a working class woman, particularly since her husband, Peter (Besir Zeciri), has been out of the picture since he signed up to fight in the Great War (despite the country’s broader policy of neutrality). After she becomes pregnant by her wealthy boss, Jorgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), Caroline anticipates a new life of abundance and relative privilege. Of course, this inter-caste […]

The post “This World Is Hell for Women”: Magnus von Horn on The Girl with the Needle first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Agniezska Holland knows a thing or two about the Oscar appeal of a dark historical drama.

The Polish filmmaker has made three Academy Award-nominated period dramas: Best international film nominee Angry Harvest (1985), about a Jewish woman on the run during World War II; best screenplay nominee Europa, Europa (1990), which tells the true story of Solomon Perel, a Jewish German who enrolled in the Hitler Youth to save himself; and best international feature nominee In Darkness (2011), the story a Polish sewage worker gave shelter to Jewish refugees hiding from the Nazis.

For the 97th Academy Awards, Holland is throwing her weight behind The Girl With the Needle, Denmark’s best international feature contender, and the third film from Swedish director Magnus von Horn’ (Sweat, The Hear After).

The 1920s-set drama, loosely based on a true story, follows a poor but resilient seamstress, played by Danish actress Vic Carmen Sonne, who finds herself unemployed,...

Casa de los Babys: von Horn Hits a Bleak Streak

You know you’re in for something dark and dreary when a film opens upon a character in a world where despair has coagulated into grim apathy. Such is the case with Swedish filmmaker Magnus von Horn’s third feature, The Girl with the Needle. A sinister title ushers us into 1919 Copenhagen. While Denmark didn’t take part in WWI, the degrading effects of the war hasn’t left the country’s morale unscathed—though Germany’s surrender only suggests life will go on as wearily as before for those of the working class. A tattered young woman who makes a few poor decisions becomes the lethargic focus, and circumstances will lead her into the arms of a woman who may debatably be a monster.…...

As 2024 comes to a close, much of the month will be dedicated to wrapping up the year in cinema with a plethora of year-end features (bookmark here for those), but let’s take a deeper look at the December line-up. Featuring some of the most-praised films of the year, including my favorite shortest and longest works, and much more, it’s a great time for holiday movie-going.

We should note also that a number of notable films are getting Oscar-qualifying runs before the end of the year, which we’ll feature on this in proper when they get their official releases.

15. A Complete Unknown (James Mangold; Dec. 25)

Nabbing the last spot on this for sheer fascination with Bob Dylan alone and not much else, James Mangold in biopic mode is often far less interesting than some of his other work. However, with what seems to be a committed Timothée Chalamet...

In ways both literal and figurative, the face plays a central role in The Girl with the Needle, Magnus von Horn’s unsparing black-and-white drama about a woman whose life spirals from bad to worse after an unexpected pregnancy. What does a face show and hide? Is there even such a thing as a trustworthy face? The film opens with a tone-setting montage of disfigured faces that portends the societal decay of post-World War I Copenhagen—a rot that becomes apparent in the story as it increasingly infects a young woman facing motherhood.

The film proper begins on Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), who believes that her husband died in the war, being evicted from her flat by her landlord (Per Thiim Thim) because of overdue rent. Things would seem to take a turn for the better for the woman when she becomes pregnant by Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), the well-to-do owner...

Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams biopic musical Better Man will open the 36th annual Palm Springs Film Festival on Thursday, January 2, while The Penguin Lessons, directed by Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan in the heartwarming story of a teacher who rescues and adopts an adorable penguin, closes it out January 13. Both films had premieres at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year, and Better Man first had its world premiere at Telluride.

As always a hallmark of Psiff are screenings of numerous entries into the Oscar International Feature Film race, this year with 35 scheduled to screen in the desert.

The festival has programmed 158 films from 71 countries including 68 premieres. The lineup also includes sections like Talking Pictures, a focus on Spanish films with a spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories,...

On Tuesday, the Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) announced its official 2025 lineup for the nearly two-week event that’s being held from Jan. 2 to Jan. 13.

The opening night movie will be Paramount Pictures’ “Better Man,” starring Robbie Williams and directed by Michael Gracey, which chronicles the pop star’s meteoric rise and dramatic fall. And the festival will close with Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Penguin Lessons,” starring Steve Coogan and directed by Peter Cattaneo, in the dramedy about a teacher whose life changes when he adopts a penguin. In all, Psiff will screen 158 films from 71 countries, including 68 premieres.

Artistic director Lili Rodriguez said, “Our lineup this year is truly something special. In true Psiff fashion, it spans genres and crosses borders to bring an exciting mix of films to the Coachella Valley. Over the past year, our Palm Springs International Film Festival team has carefully crafted a program that celebrates the art of storytelling,...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is set to kick off on Jan. 2 with “Better Man,” directed by Michael Gracey, while the closing film on Jan. 12 will be “The Penguin Lessons,” directed by Peter Cattaneo.

The lineup will feature 35 of the international feature film Oscar submissions. Over 11 days, the festival will screen 158 films from 71 countries, including 68 premieres.

Also set are a focus on Spanish films including a spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, and the return of sections such as New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories and World Cinema Now.

“Better Man” is based on the true story of the rise, fall and return of British musician Robbie Williams. Cattaneo will be in attendance for “The Penguin Lessons,” a dramedy about a schoolteacher in militaristic Argentina who rescues a penguin.

Several of the honorees from the Palm Springs International Film Awards are set to participate in the Talking Pictures screenings,...

When Polish cinematographer Michal Dymek first read the script for “The Girl With the Needle” – the winner of this year’s Camerimage main prize – he says he could instantly see the scenes in his mind: stark, shadowy images of a decrepit Danish slum, where sweatshop workers during World War I bend over creaking machinery.

He saw classical onscreen shot compositions framing crumbling, claustrophobic spaces where desperate people are ensnared.

“It was amazing, strong – like the best script I ever read,” says Dymek. He knew instantly that the film had to be in black and white, he says. “I wanted to create a time machine. All we know of that time is from black and white photographs so we had to film that.”

Over the two years of prep time, as the production grew into a Danish-Swedish-Polish project, says Dymek, Leica Hugo lenses were decided on to help create the distortions...

Polish-born cinematographer Michal Dymek has won Golden Frog — the main compeition prize — at this year’s Camerimage Film Festival.

Dymek was handed the award this evening at the festival’s closing ceremony by the Camerimage competition jury, which was headed by Cate Blanchett. She was joined by Anna Higgs, Sandy Powell, Anthony Dod Mantle, Rodrigo Prieto, Lukasz Zal, and Jolanta Dylewska.

Directed by Magnus von Horn, The Girl with the Needle debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and has been selected as Denmark’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars.

The film follows Karoline (Sonne), a young factory worker, who is struggling to survive in post-World War I Copenhagen. When she finds herself unemployed, abandoned, and pregnant, she meets Dagmar (Dyrholm), a charismatic woman running an underground adoption agency, helping mothers find foster homes for their unwanted children. With nowhere else to turn,...

The acclaimed Danish period horror drama The Girl with the Needle, shot by cinematographer Michal Dymek, took home the Camerimage Film Festival’s Golden Frog Saturday night in Toruń, Poland. The winner was selected by a jury led by two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.

Camerimage famously celebrates the art of cinematography, so its honors are extended to the directors of photography behind the movies exhibited in its main competition. But this year’s jury made a point of adding a “special mention” for The Girl with the Needle‘s 40-year-old director, Magnus von Horn.

The masterfully realized period thriller is loosely based on the true story of Danish serial killer Dagmar Overbye, who helped impoverished women kill their unwanted children in 1910s Copenhagen.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s contributing film critic, Leslie Felperin, summed up the film as “a dark, urgently timely Danish drama” that’s “like one of those fiendish...

La danesa ‘The Girl With The Needle’ se hace con cuatro premios y la letona ‘Flow’ con tres. © Ssiff

El 21 Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla ha hecho público su palmarés, poniendo fin a una edición que ha querido hacer zoom in a lo mejor del cine europeo y que ha contado con la visita especial de Johnny Depp a la capital hispalense, causando furor en las calles.

El Jurado de la Sección Oficial, presidido por David Puttnam y que completan Jeremy Irons, Paola Malanga, Mounia Meddour y Eva Rekettyei, ha decidido que el Giraldillo de Oro a la Mejor Película, el que es el máximo galardón del Festival, recaiga en And Their Children After Them, de los franceses Ludovic y Zoran Boukherma. La película – que no fue del todo bien recibida en la Biennale – también ha obtenido el Premio al Mejor Actor para su protagonista, Paul Kircher, quien ya...

A star-studded edition of the Seville European Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend, with Ludovich and Zoran Boukherma’s French coming-of-age drama “And Their Children After Them” taking home the Giraldillo de Oro, the Festival’s top honor. Its lead, Paul Kircher, also scored a best actor win.

This year’s Official Selection jury included legendary British producer David Puttnam (“Chariots of Fire”) as president alongside Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons, Rome Film Festival artistic director Paola Malanga, Algerian filmmaker Mounia Meddour (“Papicha”) and Yelmo Cines programming manager Eva Rekettyei.

Now, in its second year under director Manuel Cristobal, Seville has expanded its selection to include all types of European cinema, from the most experimental arthouse indies to broad four-quadrant fare. The festival also aims to increase its influence on the awards season with the addition of the Puerto América Award – given to the best Oscar-submitted film in the program...

The 21st edition of the Seville European Film Festival wrapped on Saturday (November 16) giving its top award, the Golden Giraldillo, to the French drama And Their Children After Them, directed by twin brothers Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma. The film’s star Paul Kircher also won the best actor award.

An adaptation of the Goncourt-winning novel of the same name by Nicolas Mathieu, And Their Children After tells the story of blue-collar youths living over four summers starting in 1992, and world premiered in competition at Venice this year. Charades are handling international sales.

Latvian Oscar entry Flow, an animation feature directed by Gints Zilbalodis,...

Looking outside America this Oscar season, there are plenty of candidates for the Best International Feature award. You might gravitate to Latvia’s Cannes entry Flow, a dialogue-free animation in which a black cat, a bird and a ragtag band of other creatures fight for survival in a human-free world after a catastrophic flood. Or maybe you’ll fancy the chances of raucous Irish-language Sundance comedy Kneecap, a wildly stylized biopic of the English-baiting, all-male hip-hop trio from Belfast.

But these two are outliers; the international Oscar race this year is dominated by stories of women, from all over the world. For example, the U.K.’s Hindi-language drama Santosh, filmed in Uttar Pradesh, Northern India, finds a policeman’s widow thrown into her late husband’s world, where she must battle police indifference and solve the murder of a low-caste local girl. From Bulgaria there is Triumph, a political...

After a strong showing at the Cannes Film Festival, “The Girl With The Needle” hits US theater next month, hoping to capture nominations this awards season. But does Denmark’s entry for the Best International Feature Film Oscar have a chance against “Emilia Pérez,” “I’m Still Here,” and others?

Read More: Did Another Best Picture Candidate Just Premiere At Cannes?

Continue reading ‘The Girl With The Needle’ Trailer: Magnus von Horn’s Dark Historical Thriller Hits US Theaters On December 6 at The Playlist.

Inspired by a true story, The Girl with the Needle draws from one of the most heinous murder cases in Danish history. Mubi has unveiled an official trailer that introduces the grim tale, told in stunning Gothic style.

The Girl with the Needle releases in theaters on December 6, 2024.

The film “follows Karoline, a young factory worker, as she is struggling to survive in post WW1 Copenhagen. When she finds herself unemployed, abandoned and pregnant, she meets Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), a charismatic woman running an underground adoption agency, helping mothers to find foster homes for their unwanted children. With nowhere else to turn, Karoline takes on the role of a wet nurse. A strong connection is formed between the two women, but Karoline’s world shatters when she stumbles upon the shocking truth behind her work.”

Magnus von Horn directs The Girl with the Needle from a script he co-wrote with Line Langebeck.

"The world is a horrible place. But we need to believe it's not so." Mubi has revealed the official trailer for a striking, unsettling gothic tale called The Girl with the Needle, made by acclaimed Danish filmmaker Magnus von Horn. This initially premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year in the Main Competition section, and it also showed up at Karlovy Vary, TIFF, Vancouver, Chicago, Montclair, and Beyond Fest. The B&w thriller is set in the depths of Copenhagen in 1919. A young worker finds herself unemployed and pregnant. She meets Dagmar, who runs an underground adoption agency. A strong connection grows but her world shatters when she stumbles on the shocking truth behind her work. Inspired by a true story, which is even scarier to realize. The film features an extraordinarily haunting score by Frederikke Hoffmeier (aka Puce Mary), with cinematography by Michael Dymek. It has been on...

On Thursday, Mubi (via IndieWire) released the trailer for “The Girl with the Needle,” Denmark’s Oscar entry. Director Magnus von Horn’s stylized period crime drama is a creepy serial killer story told through the eyes of the killer’s unwitting helper.

Here’s Mubi’s official synopsis: “Struggling to survive in post-wwi Copenhagen, a pregnant young factory worker is taken in by a charismatic woman to help run an underground adoption agency. A deep connection forms between them, until an unthinkable discovery changes everything.” Vic Carmen Sonne stars as Karlone, the wet nurse, who is working for Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm). Dagmar is based on Dagmar Overbye, Denmark’s most notorious serial killer, who was convicted of killing nine babies that were left in her care. The film has an Expressionist style that’s appropriate for the time period and the horror of the subject matter.

Von Horn wrote the script with Line Langebek.

After making a splash with his influencer satire Sweat, Swedish director Magnus von Horn returned to Cannes Film Festival earlier this year with the black-and-white drama The Girl with the Needle. Picked up by Mubi for a release on December 6, the first trailer has now arrived for Denmark’s Oscar entry.

Here’s the synopsis: “Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young factory worker, is struggling to survive in post WW1 Copenhagen. When she finds herself unemployed, abandoned and pregnant, she meets Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), a charismatic woman running an underground adoption agency, helping mothers to find foster homes for their unwanted children. With nowhere else to turn, Karoline takes on the role of a wet-nurse. A strong connection is formed between the two women, but Karoline’s world shatters when she stumbles upon the shocking truth behind her work. Inspired by a true story and directed by Magnus von Horn...

One of the darkest and most timely additions to the Oscar race for Best International Feature is Magnus von Horn’s “The Girl with the Needle” from Denmark. The black-and-white drama, set for release from Mubi later this year, tells the story of one of the country’s most notorious serial killers: Dagmar Overbye, a woman who murdered between nine and 25 infants during the early 1920s. But what sets this powerful drama apart is that it’s told through the eyes of one of Overbye’s proteges, Karlone (Vic Carmen Sonne), a wet nurse who unwittingly assists Dagmar in her operation. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.

Per Mubi’s synopsis, “Struggling to survive in post-wwi Copenhagen, a pregnant young factory worker is taken in by a charismatic woman to help run an underground adoption agency. A deep connection forms between them, until an unthinkable discovery changes everything.”

This...

Now that's how you do a trailer! Today's first look at The Girl With The Needle, the official Danish entry for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards, gives absolutely nothing away but still manages to be bleak and weird and completely intriguing. The main character, Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne) might have killed her husband.

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,...