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Janis Pugh’s debut feature Chuck Chuck Baby won two awards at last night’s Bafta Cymru ceremony, which took place in Cardiff and is a celebration of the Welsh film and TV industries.

Pugh’s feature won in the breakthrough and feature/TV film categories. The BFI, Ffilm Cymru Wales and BBC Film-backed musical romance world premiered at the 2023 edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival ahead of playing at last year’s Toronto.

Chuck Chuck Baby filmed in north Wales, where Pugh is from, and Cheshire.

It follows a woman stuck in a rut, working in the local chicken factory,...

Janis Pugh’s debut feature Chuck Chuck Baby wastes no time in establishing itself as a non-conformist. Behind the camera is Pugh, taking on directing and writing duties, crafting an intimate story of self-discovery. She brings together a talented pair of leads in Louise Brealey and Annabel Scholey. Brealey plays Helen, living an unfulfilling life in small-town Wales until the return of her old neighbor Joanne, played by Scholey, rekindles long-buried feelings.

Pugh breathes new life into familiar tropes of romance and musicals. Rather than rigidly sticking to formula, she allows her characters’ emotions to shine through in creative ways. Scenes transform delightfully as they passionately lip-sync classic tunes that reflect their feelings.

Pugh also crosses genres with ease, infusing drama, comedy, and coming-of-age themes into a heartfelt LGBTQ love story. While touching on universal ideas of empowerment and acceptance, the intimate portrayals feel refreshingly genuine.

From the outset, Pugh...

Chuck Chuck Baby is one of those fabulously rare feel-good movies that stays with you long after you leave the theater. In the vein of other soul-stirring films like Before Sunrise, The Way Back, Billy Elliot, The Full Monty, and even Tarsems deeply moving The Fall, writer/director Janis Pugh manages to capture our hearts while colorfully revealing the ever-shifting emotional kaleidoscope of regular life.

Theres the longing for something better, the deep comfort of having great friends, and the unbridled joy that emerges from a surprise reunion that can open our hearts so wide that it literally takes our breath away. Its all here in this powerful and entertaining musical comedy/drama that celebrates the female working class.

Steered by a resilient cast featuring Louise Brealey (Sherlock) and Annabel Scholey (The Split), Chuck Chuck Baby may have a catchy tagline "a film of love, loss, and music set amongst...

Issue 51 of Film Stories – the UK’s biggest film magazine – is now on sale, and we’re proud to put Alice Lowe on our cover.

It’s issue 51 of Film Stories, the UK’s biggest film magazine. Once again, the new issue is 168 pages, on really nice paper too. We could have led on Marvel. We could have led on a Hollywood blockbuster. We chose Alice Lowe: she’s ace, and we’ve been eagerly awaiting her new film, Timestalker, since we started the magazine.

She tells us the story in a huge exclusive this issue. We’re really proud to put her and her film on our cover if you can’t tell.

We hope you’re going to like the magazine, and we hope you might consider supporting it. Sold primarily via mail order, and popping up in a few WHSmiths stores around the country too, here’s...

‘Kneecap’, the name of the Irish hip hop group, and the music biopic about — and starring — the groundbreaking trio, opens today on 700+ screens, following up a U.S. tour last fall and leading into another one.

The hybrid documentary, which was a buzzy Sundance title when Sony Pictures Classics nabbed it, recently swept the Galway Film Fleadh and was named Ireland’s Oscar International Feature submission.

Written and directed by Rich Peppiatt, it features group members — Naoise Ó Cairealláin “Móglaí Bap”; Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh “Mo Chara”; and JJ Ó Dochartaigh “Dj Provaí” as themselves, but it’s scripted, and actors, including Michael Fassbender, play their younger selves and family members. With Josie Walker, Fionnuala Flaherty, Jessica Reynolds, Adam Best and Simone Kirby.

The film follows Belfast schoolteacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed “low-life scum” Naoise and Liam Og. When they come together as three, the needle drops on...

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (July 19-21) Total gross to date Week 1. Despicable Me 4 (Universal) £4.9m £17.4m 2 2. Twisters (Warner Bros) £3.1m £4.1m 1 3. Inside Out 2 (Disney) £1.5m £47.2m 6 4. Longlegs (Black Bear) £1.3m £4m 2 5. A Quiet Place: Day One (Paramount) £447,000 £9m 4

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.29

Despicable Me 4 withstood the Twisters whirlwind at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, as the Universal animation held top spot for a second successive weekend.

Despicable Me 4 added £4.9m – a 49% drop on its opening session, which brought it to £17.4m from two weekends in play. The film took a strong £2.3m on Saturday alone.

Warner Bros’ Twisters is the leading title at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, opening in 675 cinemas 28 years after the original film was a hit in the territory.

Twisters stars 2020 Screen Star of Tomorrow Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, as a meteorologist and social media tornado chaser who team up with a new team and new technologies. The film has over £1m banked already from previews on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18.

Jan de Bont’s Twister opened to over £3m in July 1996, ending on an impressive £15m total – equivalent to £29.3m today. This new film is not a direct sequel, although...

Working class British dramas historically — and still — often fall into a box-ticking exercise of certain tropes and clichés. Musicals have certainly helped shift certain portrayals and representations, with stage adaptations of Billy Elliot, The Full Monty, Kinky Boots and, most recently, West End production Standing At The Sky’s Edge often elevating underrepresented perspectives and voices. While writer/director Janis Pugh’s North Wales-set jukebox musical Chuck Chuck Baby can, at times, fall into those tropes, it proves a welcome female-led addition to the canon.

Despite the oppressive nature, there’s a moving vulnerability juxtaposed with endearing humour at the heart of the central performances.

With a mix of gritty, melodramatic social realism, fairy tale and musical whimsy, Chuck Chuck Baby can, at times, be quite tonally jarring. But the heartfelt and moving performances from Louise Brealey and Annabel Scholey elevate the plucky proceedings, with a sweet and affecting sapphic...

Annabel Scholey and Louise Brealey in Chuck Chuck Baby. Janis Pugh: 'Bel came in and the chemistry between her and Lou was lovely' Photo: Studio Soho Distribution Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby finally makes it to cinemas this week, almost a year after its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival. It’s generally upbeat nature makes it perfect for a summer release. It charts the story of Helen (Louise Brealey), whose life is at a low ebb. Her spoilt and unpleasant husband Gary (Celyn Jones) has moved his much younger girlfriend into their house, while still expecting his wife to look after his ailing mum Gwen (Sorcha Cusack). She takes refuge among the camaraderie at the chicken factory where she works and allows her emotions to flood out while listening to songs. Pugh mixes the sort of northern humour fans of Victoria Wood and Caroline Ahearn will...

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” has claimed the top spot at the U.K. and Ireland box office, earning £8.8 million ($11.4 million) in its opening weekend, according to numbers from Comscore.

The animated sequel’s strong debut pushed Disney’s “Inside Out 2” to second place after a five-week run, with the latter adding £2.2 million, bringing its running total to £44.4 million. Newcomer “Longlegs” from Black Bear secured the third position with a £1.3 million opening, while Sony Pictures’ “Fly Me To The Moon” debuted at No. 4, collecting £862,358.

Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” held steady in its third week, rounding out the top five with £824,948, bringing its cumulative total to £8 million. Other notable entries include DJ Tech Ltd’s Tamil-language “Indian 2,” which opened at No. 6 with £213,245, plus a further £39,127 for its Telugu-dubbed version “Bharateeyudu 2,” and Sony Pictures’ “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die,” maintaining its presence in the chart after six...

Louise Brealey plays Helen, a chicken factory worker who gets a second chance at love, in Janis Pugh’s uplifting crowdpleaser

There is a terrific warmth and emotional generosity to this romantic comedy-drama from the Welsh film-maker Janis Pugh, and if the storytelling in the end hits some familiar C-major chords, it’s not before a lot of inventive entertainment with quasi-musical sequences showing people singing along to the radio or the stereo morphing into full-on fantasy. I can imagine this being a stage musical crowdpleaser with serious ker-ching potential, packing the audiences in like something by Tim Firth or Willy Russell.

Louise Brealey and Annabel Scholey give seductive lead performances. Brealey plays Helen, a gentle soul living in a small town on the Welsh border with Merseyside, working at a local chicken factory. Her personal life is a deeply unhappy mess: her bullying and emotionally damaged husband has brought...

Studio Soho Distribution has announced the UK and Irish release date of the 19th of July for the British movie ‘Chuck Chuck Baby’ alongside its new poster.

Set in present-day industrial North Wales, Helen spends her nights packing chickens and her days caring for a dying mother-figure Gwen. Helen’s world takes an unexpected turn with the return of Joanne. Twenty years ago, they were the objects of the other’s unspoken teenage passions. One night, Helen encourages Joanne to start a playful wooing game that re-awakens their youthful feelings.

As they fall in love and lust, Helen’s zest for life returns but Joanne feels the walls closing in as she faces something much darker from her past. Helen’s world is shattered when Gwen dies and Joanne’s painful memories cause her to flee. Separated and alone, will both women reflect on their unfulfilled chance to break their...

The Yellow Affair has sold Janis Pugh’s debut Chuck Chuck Baby to a slew of territories, including Dark Star Pictures in North America and Studio Soho for UK-Ireland.

The Edinburgh premiere, which also played at Toronto, has also sold to Scandinavia and Baltics (NonStop), Germany and Austria (Salzgeber), Spain (Yoda Films) and for airlines (Aardwolf).

LA-based Dark Star Pictures has a theatrical release planned for this summer.

Anne Beresford, Adam Partridge, Andrew Gillman and Peggy Cafferty produced the UK feature. The cast includes Louise Brealey, Annabel Scholey, Sorcha Cusack, Celyn Jones and Emily Fairn.

Chuck Chuck Baby takes place in the present day,...

The Yellow Affair has boarded world sales on Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Competition title “Reinas,” directed by Klaudia Reynicke. Variety has been given access to the trailer (below).

The film is set in Lima in the summer of 1992. Lucia, Aurora and their mother Elena are about to leave. They are apprehensive about saying goodbye to a country, to family and friends, but above all to Carlos, a father and ex-husband who has all but disappeared from their lives.

In the midst of Peru’s social and political chaos, this announced departure will give rise to contradictory feelings, reviving old regrets and generating new illusions. Facing the uncertainty of their future head on, their frustrations and fears are mixed with excitement and expectation, as the family faces the difficult truth about the losses this departure implies.

The Yellow Affair says the film is a “beautiful, dramatically intense and ultimately heart-warming film...

A total of £208,217 was awarded to 10 projects through the international distribution strand.

Hoard, The Radleys and How To Have Sex are among the 10 titles to receive funding from the latest round of UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf) awards, totalling £208,217 through the international distribution strand, administered by the British Film Institute (BFI).

To-date, this strand has made 57 awards totalling nearly £2m, financed through the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms).

Financial support for international distribution provides sales agents and producers with funding via three tracks – film sales, prints & advertising (P&a) and festival launch.

Venice Critics’ Week award winner Hoard,...

Pauline Burt left the Welsh film agency in September.

Ffilm Cymru, the development agency for Welsh film, has named Lee Walters as its incoming CEO, taking up the position from November.

Walters joins from Media Cymru, an organisation set up to drive economic growth in the Welsh media sector, where he was a senior producer and funding manager.

Prior to that, he was senior change manager at BBC Cymru Wales, where he was instrumental in delivering the new headquarters to the centre of Cardiff. In 2020 he joined Cardiff University as programme manager for Clwstwr, an innovation programme supported by both...

Anna Higgs is chair of the Bafta film committee and managing director of talent agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associate

Anna Higgs, chair of the Bafta film committee and managing director of talent agency Casarotto Ramsay & Associate, will be the keynote speaker at Film London’s Production Finance Market (Pfm), which runs October 10-11 as part of the BFI London Film Festival’s Industry strand.

The two-day film financing event will take place at London’s The Thistle hotel with 60 projects and 50 financiers expected to attend.

Higgs, who was recently re-elected Bafta chair, will sit down for an interview with Film London...

Recipients including Screen Star of Tomorrow 2023 Rory Fleck Byrne and ’Chuck Chucky Baby’ producers Anne Beresford and Andrew Gillman.

The British Film Institute (BFI) and Film4 have unveiled the nine short films that will receive funding through their Future Takes programme,.

It will see each filmmaking team receive between £55,000 and £90,000 of National Lottery funding, with recipients including Screen Star of Tomorrow 2023 Rory Fleck Byrne and Chuck Chucky Baby producers Anne Beresford and Andrew Gillman.

Actor-director Fleck Byrne, who stared in BBC drama series This Is Going To Hurt, has been selected for In Heat, produced Radha Bhandari, whose short For...

Sometimes things fit together when you least expect them to and while a marriage of musical, a sapphic will they/won’t they love story, very British humour and a chicken factory might not immediately sound like a match made in heaven, Janis Pugh’s ability to blend crowdpleasing comedy and emotional poignancy should not be underestimated.

Perhaps it's because everything in her film, no matter how heightened, is rooted in a real place, whether it's the feelings of the characters or even the music - it does, indeed, feel as its initial intertitle suggests like a “land not so far away”.

That land, specifically, is Wales, and it’s where Helen (Louise Brealey) is living a less than happy life. Stuck in the “baby’s room” for the child she sadly never saw arrive, her casually sexist husband Gary (Celyn Jones) has moved his much younger airheaded girlfriend Amy (Emily Fairn) and baby in.

The Academy CEO and Bafta director will discuss ’academies, awards and the future of cinema’.

Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Bafta managing director Jane Millichip will participate in a conversation as part of the 67th BFI London Film Festival’s industry programme.

The talk is titled ‘Academies, awards and the future of cinema’ and will be hosted by BFI CEO Ben Roberts on October 5.

There will also be three Spotlight conversations with industry leaders: Jennifer Lee, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ chief creative officer and the co-writer and co-director of the Frozen films, will be in conversation with Tricia Tuttle, head...

Exclusive: Actor and filmmaker Celyn Jones, best known for his work on pics like The Almond And The Seahorse, Six Minutes to Midnight, and Chuck Chuck Baby, has signed with UK agency United Agents.

Jones has parted ways with 42Mp and signed with Lorna Fallowfield for acting and Jonny Jones for writing at United Agents.

Jones can most recently be seen in the feature Chuck Chuck Baby, directed by Janis Pugh for BFI and BBC Films, which debuted at the Edinburgh Film Festival and is set to play TIFF this month. 2022’s The Almond And The Seahorse, which Jones co-wrote, directed, produced, and starred in, has landed UK distribution and is set for an imminent release.

The UK-set film debuted at Zurich last September and was released in North America by IFC Films on 16 December. The pic stars Rebel Wilson and Charlotte Gainsbourg and follows an archaeologist and an architect...

A documentary about musician Pete Doherty will have its world premiere at this year’s Zurich Film Festival in the Sounds section.

Described as “an intimate film portrait of his scandalous rockstar life,” “Peter Doherty — Stranger in My Own Skin” is helmed by Doherty’s wife, Katia deVidas. Doherty will present the film in-person, and also perform live following the documentary’s screening.

“The biopic chronicles the British rockstar who, after reaching the pinnacle of his career, sinks into the depths of a serious drug addiction,” Zff artistic director Christian Jungen said in a statement. “His wife, director and musician Katia deVidas, followed the wild life of the Libertines frontman at close quarters for over 10 years. We’re looking forward to welcoming them both to Zurich.”

The Sounds section of Zff, which launched last year, showcases feature or documentary films centered on musical themes or that feature exceptional soundtracks. This...

When attending a UK film festival, you inevitably run into films that display some very tired clichés about the British Working Class. As the latest word from director Janis Pugh, Chuck Chuck Baby deserves to put them all to shame as a film scripted entirely from tired tropes and ideas. As though she asked ChatGPT to write a queer romance after feeding it ten years’ worth of The Sun.

So, we have a film that bizarrely tries to mix musical theatre and social realism, telling the story of Helen (Louise Brealey) an utterly downtrodden factory worker, relegated to the status of handmaiden by her gammon-faced ex-husband Gary (Celyn Jones). Lodging in Gary’s spare room to care for his ailing mother Gwen (Sorcha Cusack), Helen’s been rendered all but invisible by the spectre of his new baby with a younger woman. Which is great for thematic resonance but terrible for building a compelling protagonist.

Helen (Louise Brealey) wakes in a bright, all-pink room, but the reality of her life is nothing like the whimsical room she's awoken in. She lives with her ex-husband Gary (Celyn Jones) and his girlfriend Amy (Emily Fairn in a hilarious performance evoking "Little Britain"). She's not moved out as she has a strong connection to Gary's mother Gwen (Sorcha Cusack), who she cares for when not working night shifts at the local chicken plant. Leaving is all too tempting -- in the opening scene, she takes a suitcase out from under her bed but doesn't go through with packing. Her friends at the plant, Lynn (Emily Aston), Clare (Cat Simmons), and Paula (Beverly Rudd) try and get her to open up, but she seems resigned to the predictable monotony of her life in a small Welsh town.

That all changes when Joanne (Annabel Scholey) re-appears in their quiet town after years away.

Louise Brealey is put-upon Helen, a chicken factory worker who gets a second chance at love, in Janis Pugh’s generous and gritty film

Here’s a rousing empowerment-anthem of a movie that’s not afraid to paint its romance plotline in big, bold brushstrokes; occasionally it overdoes things but the rush of emotion carries everything along in its path, helped by the deployment of radio-friendly standards by Neil Diamond and the like that turns the film into an impromptu musical and allows writer-director Janis Pugh to stage (relatively) elaborate dance sequences and big emotional scenes.

The central figure is put-upon chicken-processing factory worker Helen (played by Louise Brealey) who has a complicated domestic situation: she lives in the same crummy terrace as her oafish husband Gary, from whom she is separated but seemingly not actually divorced, and shares the place with his new, much younger, girlfriend Amy (Emily Fairn) and their newly arrived baby.

The importance of laughter during times of loss is often undervalued. With her feature directorial debut, Janis Pugh showcases the significance of friendship and humor when grief strikes. A musical rom-com drama, “Chuck Chuck Baby” underscores the power of female companionship through the ups and downs of life.

Premiering as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s LGBTQ Stories section and also headed to Toronto Film Festival, “Chuck Chuck Baby” follows the life of Helen (Louise Brealey), a chicken factory worker in a small industrial town in northern Wales, whose life is mired in quotidian details, packaging chickens and caring for her ailing mother-figure Gwen. Helen’s life is turned upside down, however, with the unexpected arrival of her former high school love Joanne (Annabel Scholey), who inspires a renewed appreciation in Helen of her hometown, her life and herself. Yet, the couple’s reunion is quickly muddled. The...

Recruitment for a new CEO is underway.

Pauline Burt – the founding CEO of Welsh film agency Ffilm Cymru Wales – is to step down after 17 years.

Since Burt founded the agency in 2006, it has invested £15.8m of National Lottery funding in supporting 89 feature films through to production, and many more in development. These include Gideon Koppel’s documentary Sleeping Furiously, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch, Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, Lee Haven’s Gwledd (The Feast), Euros Lyn’s Dream Horse, Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby, Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd’s Unicorns and animation Kensuke’s Kingdom.

The Toronto Film Festival on Thursday revealed its Centerpiece program lineup that includes the Cannes Film Festival-winning Wim Wenders movie Perfect Days. The festival also revealed another couple of star-driven world premieres including Paramount’s Finestkind starring Jenna Ortega, Ben Foster and Tommy Lee Jones and 20th Century Studios/Hulu’s comedy Quiz Lady starring Awkwafina, Sandra Oh and Will Ferrell.

Finestkind comes from Oscar winner Brian Helgeland and follows two brothers who are pulled into a deal with an organized crime syndicate in Boston. The pic is playing as one of TIFF’s galas.

Quiz Lady follows a brilliant but tightly wound, game-show-obsessed woman Anne (Awkwafina) and her estranged, train-wreck of a sister Jenny (Oh) who must work together to help cover their mother’s gambling debts. When Anne’s beloved dog is kidnapped, they set out on a wild cross-country trek to get the cash the only way...

Auteurs Agnieszka Holland, Wim Wenders, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Aki Kaurismaki are among the filmmakers featured in the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Centrepiece program.

The strand, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema, which honors and celebrates global cinematic achievements, features 47 titles from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

TIFF has also revealed the additional lineup of galas, special presentations and documentaries, which feature star wattage from around the world including Tommy Lee Jones and Anil Kapoor.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece program, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF chief programming officer. “The rebranding of the TIFF program, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.

Ahead of Toronto International Film Festival kicking off in less than a month, the festival announced more additions, including Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Close Your Eyes by Víctor Erice, Fallen Leaves by Aki Kaurismäki, Green Border by Agnieszka Holland, Perfect Days by Wim Wenders, About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and more.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece programme, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer. “The rebranding of the TIFF programme, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the Festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

See the lineup below.

Centrepiece Programme 2023

100 Yards Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng | China

International Premiere

About...

Exclusive: Helsinki-based sales company The Yellow Affair has acquired world sales rights to the TIFF Centrepiece title Je’Vida, a Sámi language historical drama by Finnish filmmaker Katja Gauriloff.

The film had its world premiere at Tribeca International Film Festival earlier this year and is one of the first feature films to feature the indigenous Skolt Sámi language. The pic also won the top prize at Finnish Film Affair, Helsinki Film Festival’s parallel industry section.

Set in a time following the Second World War when fierce policies of assimilation fueled attacks on Sami culture, the pic follows an aunt and her niece who’ve never met before when they embark on a trip to Lapland to empty a house they’ve inherited. However, it turns out the withdrawn and distrusting aunt had been a victim of the assimilation policies, and the niece must make a big decision. By taking an interest in each other,...

The programme comprises 47 films from 45 countries.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the line-up for its Centrepiece programme, with 47 titles screening from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

Included in the programme (previously known as Contemporary World Cinema) are Victor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, getting its North American premiere; Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, receiving its Canadian premiere; and Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, a North American premiere.

Scroll down for the full list of Centrepiece titles

TIFF also announced additional titles for its Galas, Special Presentations and Documentaries programmes, among them the world premiere of Brian Helgeland’s Finestkind.

The Toronto International Film Festival has added 59 more films to the lineup of its 2023 festival, including 47 international films in the Centrepiece program, which in previous years was known as Contemporary World Cinema. New films were also added to the Galas, Special Presentations and Documentary sections.

World premieres among the new selections include “Finestkind,” a crime thriller from Brian Helgeland (screenwriter of “L.A. Confidential”) starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Foster; The Movie Teller,” a film set in Chile starring Berenice Bejo from “An Education” director Lone Scherfig; and Jessica Yu’s “Quiz Lady,” with Sandra Oh and Awkwafina.

The Centrepiece selections include a number of films from May’s Cannes Film Festival, among them Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses,” Aki Kaurismaki’s “Fallen Leaves,” Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s “Banel & Adama,” Amjad Al Rasheed’s “Inshallah a Boy,” Joanna Arnow’s “The Feeling That the...

The Toronto International Film Festival continues to expand its 2023 lineup with 47 films from 45 countries in the Centerpiece program, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema. The highlights include Cannes Film Festival winners “Fallen Leaves” from Aki Kaurismäki and “Perfect Days” from Wim Wenders as well as Agnieszka Holland’s Venice-bound “Green Border.” See the full lineup below.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece program, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer, in an official statement. “The rebranding of the TIFF program, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, for acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

Centerpiece Program 2023

About Dry Grasses (Kuru Otlar Üstüne) Nuri Bilge Ceylan...

Despite the ongoing SAG-AFTRA actors and WGA writers strikes, the Toronto Film Festival continues to turn up the star wattage for its 48th edition, adding movies with Dakota Johnson, Bérénice Bejo, Awkwafina, Sandra Oh and Mads Mikkelsen to its lineup on Thursday.

For the Gala section, TIFF unveiled the A-list heavy crime drama Finestkind from Brian Helgeland, the Oscar-winning writer-director behind Mystic River and L.A. Confidential; and A Knight’s Tale, which stars Ben Foster, Jenna Ortega, Tommy Lee Jones and Toby Wallace.

Also headed to Roy Thomson Hall is the South Korean drama A Normal Family, directed by Hur Jin-ho, the Korean auteur who in the past premiered Dangerous Liaisons and April Snow in Toronto. TIFF earlier tapped fellow Korean director Ryoo Seung-wan’s Smugglers for its Special Presentations sidebar, and has now bumped that drama up to a gala screening in Toronto after a world bow in Locarno.

The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Photo: Courtesy of Eiff Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced its line-up this year will feature five world premiere features, including The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, documentary Choose Irvine Welsh and Welsh-set romantic drama Chuck Chuck Baby.

The slate of 24 films - which is abbreviated due to the event being hosted by the International Festival after the collapse of Eiff's parent organisation The Centre for the Moving Image last year - also features the already announced premiere of Silent Roar as the opening night film and Scottish thriller Kill.

Afire Photo: Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films Hope Dickson Leach's Jekyll and Hyde has been created as a live hybrid performance with the National Theatre of Scotland. Ian Jefferies' Choose Irvine Welsh looks at the career of the Trainspotting author, while Janis Pugh's Chuck Chuck Baby...

A total of 24 feature films, including five world premieres, make up this year’s programme.

Edinburgh International Film Festival has unveiled a 24-title programme for 2023, featuring the world premiere of Janis Pugh’s feature debut Chuck Chuck Baby, and international titles spanning Europe, China, India and Japan.

There are five world premieres, plus five retrospective titles, five short films and an outdoor screening weekend of seven features.

Chuck Chuck Baby unfurls in a chicken factory in north Wales, and stars Louise Brealey, Annabel Scholey, Sorcha Cusack, Celyn Jones and Emily Fairn. It’s set in the present day, with a...

The event showcases UK titles and UK sales companies to mainly European buyers.

Animated features Kensuke’s Kingdom, an adaptation of a Michael Morpurgo novel directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry.and sold by Bankside, and Tim Harper’s Ozi - Voice Of The Forest, about an orphan orangutang, that is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and sold by Gfm, are among the high-profile projects that will screen to distributors at this year’s London Screenings.

The three-day event will take place at Picturehouse Central in Piccadilly Circus from June 19 - 21 2023,

UK and international sales companies will be...

Sales company also takes on Janis Pugh’s Great 8 selection ‘Chuck Chuck Baby.’

The Yellow Affair has boarded international sales for Mark Leonard Winter’s feature directorial debut The Rooster starring Hugo Weaving (The Lord Of The Rings) and Phoenix Raei (The Night Agent).

When the body of his oldest friend is found buried in a shallow grave, a small-town cop, forms a strange relationship with a volatile hermit who may have been the last person to see his friend alive.

Winter is an acclaimed actor who previously appeared in The Dressmaker, Elvis and Top of the Lake: China Girl.

The buyers’ event is organised by the BFI and British Council.

Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby, Amrou Al-Kadhi’s Layla and Daniel Kokotajlo’s sophomore feature, Starve Acre, are among the eight features selected for Great8, the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from emerging directors organised by the British Film Institute (BFI) and British Council.

The showcase, now in its sixth year, presents UK feature films from first and second-time filmmakers to international distributors and festival programmers. It is funded and run by the BFI and British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4.

In preparation for the Marché,...

The BFI and British Council have unveiled the eight new British films that will be presented to international distributors and festival programmers at the Cannes film market as part of the annual Great8 showcase.

Unseen footage from the films, from first and second time U.K. filmmakers, will be introduced by their filmmakers and screened on May 11. Now in its sixth year, the initiative is in partnership with BBC Film and Film4. Films previously highlighted by Great8 include Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Rungano Nyoni’s “I Am Not A Witch,” Georgia Oakley’s “Blue Jean” and Rose Glass’ “Saint Maud.”

Agnieszka Moody, BFI head of international and industry policy, said: “The lineup of films and filmmakers featuring in this year’s Great8 continues to shine a light on the exciting diversity of filmmaker voices and stories continuing to come out of the U.K. We are proud alongside our partners at the British Council,...

Here’s our annual rundown of the 10 largest production awards given out by the British Film Institute’s Film Fund in 2022. Backed by National Lottery money, the grants are a key supporter of indie cinema in the UK.

Top of the list is Timestalker, the debut feature film from actor and writer Alice Lowe. Billed as a “reincarnation romcom,” the film follows the tale of one woman’s unrequited love spanning several centuries. Lowe directs from a screenplay she wrote. She also stars in the film alongside Jacob Anderson (Game Of Thrones), Aneurin Barnard (David Copperfield), Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education), and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz). Vaughan Sivell and Western Edge Pictures are producers. The film is currently eyeing a 2023 release.

Second on the list is Starve Acre, a supernatural horror film from BAFTA-nominated Apostasy creator Daniel Kokotajlo. The Crown star Matt Smith and Saint Maud’s Morfydd Clark lead pic,...

Louise Brealey and Annabel Scholey star.

Filming has started in north Wales on UK writer-director Janis Pugh’s debut feature Chuck Chuck Baby, a musical drama set in a chicken factory in industrial north Wales.

The cast is headed up by Louise Brealey and Annabel Scholey, with Sorcha Cusack, Celyn Jones and Emily Fairn also starring.

Anne Beresford and Andrew Gillman are producing through their label Artemisia Films, alongside Adam Partridge of Delta Pictures and Peggy Cafferty of Play House Studios.

It is funded by the BFI, with Lizzie Francke executive producing, and Ffilm Cymru Wales, both awarding National Lottery funding,...

Ten film projects, including features from Doctor Who director Euros Lyn and Borrowed Time producer Olivier Kaempfer, have been selected to progress to the first round of the Film Agency for Wales’ low budget film scheme.

The teams behind these projects will now participate in a training and mentoring programme supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund, which is funded by the National Lottery via the BFI, and through the Skills Investment Fund (Sif).

The Film Agency for Wales devised and developed Cinematic in partnership with the BFI Film Fund, BBC Films, S4C and Soda Pictures to support emerging filmmaking talent from Wales in making “contemporary, dynamic and distinctive feature films” with budgets of around £300,000 ($480,000).

A total of 56 applications were made to the programme following its launch in June. The ten projects and their filmmaking teams selected to continue with the programme are:

Craig’s Film (working title)

Producer: Pip Broughton

Writer / Director: [link...