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Ariana DeBose, Lewis Pullman, and Grace Moretz will star in the heist thriller Dutch & Razzlekahn, with North.Five.Six introducing to international buyers in Cannes next week.

Jon S. Baird, whose credits include Filth and Stan & Ollie, will direct from a screenplay by Logan Miller and Noah Miller, the writers behind Yann Demange’s White Boy Rick.

Based on the 2022 Business Insider article ‘The $4.5 Billion Question’ by Rob Price and Becky Peterson, Dutch & Razzlekhan recounts the true story of the most expensive heist in history.

Moretz and Pullman will portray Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan and Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, who are pursued by the...

Motion Picture Exchange (Mpx) has boarded worldwide sales on the romantic comedy Books & Drinks from the producer of Berlinale Competition entry Pepe and starring Jackson Rathbone from the Twilight Saga.

Rathbone plays David, the owner of a struggling bookstore in New York City who learns he has inherited a house in the Dominican Republic from the father he never knew.

David plans to sell the residence but his life is turned upside-down when he visits the Caribbean and meets his realtor, Maria, played by Nashla Bogaert. Clara Lago also stars.

Geoffrey Cowper directed the Veranera Films production from a screenplay by Josep Ciutat.

Canada’s Hot Docs documentary festival has wrapped its 31st edition in Toronto (May 5) and named Yintah the winner of its Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary.

The award, whose winner is determined by an audience poll, comes with a cash prize of Cad 50,000.

Directed by Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano, Yintah is about the efforts of the Canadian First Nation Wet’suwet’en people to resist the construction of pipelines across their territory.

On Friday evening (May 3) Hot Docs announced the prize winners from its official competition line-up (full list below).

The festival’s Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award,...

Iran-born French filmmaker Mehran Tamadon’s The Last Days Of The Hospital won the inaugural €20,000 Eurimages co-production development award at Visions du Réel’s industry awards last night (April 17).

The documentary is set in a French psychiatric hospital where patients begin taking on jobs in the ward amid a health sector crisis.

A second €20,000 Eurimages co-production development award – focused on supporting Ukrainian projects - went to Fixing The War from Vadym Ilkov and Clare Stronge, about the importance of journalists.

The Visions Sud Et Award was given to the Columbian documentary The Shadow Of Yolüja by Hanz Rippe Gabriel. The film,...

Two new cash prizes introduced this year in Swiss film festival Visions du Reel’s industry section, VdR-Industry, were among a flurry of awards handed out as the program wrapped in Nyon, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

The Eurimages Co-production Development Award, created to promote the fund’s role in encouraging international co-production from the initial stages of a project, and which comes with a cash prize of €20,000, went to “The Last Days of the Hospital” by Mehran Tamadon.

Set in a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Paris, it tells the story of a group of patients invited to take over the wards as the health personnel gradually leave amid a crisis in the health sector.

A visibly moved Tamadon picked up the award, thanking the entire VdR-Industry team for organizing “such amazing pitching sessions.” The Franco-Iranian director was thrilled with the prize which he told Variety was a great stepping...

Another big award show took place this weekend (in addition to the SAG Awards), the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which celebrates indie film and TV. One thing about this awards show is that their idea of independent sometimes makes me scratch my head a bit, with HBO’s big-budget The Last of Us nominated a whole bunch in the TV category, along with Netflix’s Beef and several other streaming shows, which I’m not sure one could call independent. For films, there’s a $30 million budget cap. For TV, I’m honestly not sure what the benchmark is because Last of Us was notoriously an expensive show to shoot, costing at least $100 million.

Indeed, The Last of Us won some key awards on the TV side, winning Best Supporting Performance (for Nick Offerman) and Best Breakthrough Performance (for Keivonn Montreal Woodard). Over on the film side, American Fiction and...

The best in independent film and television were honored at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards!

Plenty of A-List stars were in attendance at the event on Sunday afternoon (February 25) at the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif.

Movies are only eligible for a Spirit Award if they have a budget of less than $30 million, so there are some awards favorites like Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Killers of the Flower Moon that are not nominated.

American Fiction, May December, and Past Lives lead the pack this year with five nominations each.

Make sure to check out our post with photos of Every celeb who attended the event! Also check out our best dressed list.

Head inside to see the full list of winners…

Keep scrolling to see the full list of winners…

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

All of Us Strangers

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

American Fiction

Producers: Cord Jefferson,...

The 2024 Independent Spirit Awards took place on Sunday at the traditional Santa Monica beach tent location, with Aidy Bryant hosting. “Past Lives” took home the coveted Best Feature award, with “Beef” being honored as Best New Scripted Series. Check out the full list of winners and nominees below.

Best Feature

“Past Lives”

Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

“All of Us Strangers”

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

“American Fiction”

Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, Ben LeClair

“May December”

Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Grant S. Johnson, Pamela Koffler, Tyler W. Konney, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Christine Vachon

“Passages”

Producers: Michel Merkt, Saïd Ben Saïd

“We Grown Now”

Producers: Minhal Baig, Joe Pirro

Best Lead Performance

Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”

Jessica Chastain, “Memory”

Greta Lee, “Past Lives”

Trace Lysette, “Monica”

Natalie Portman, “May December”

Judy Reyes, “Birth/Rebirth”

Franz Rogowski, “Passages”

Andrew Scott, “All of Us Strangers”

Teyana Taylor,...

While the likes of Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Killers of the Moon will likely battle it out at the Oscars, Film Independent Spirit Awards is putting the spotlight on the indie productions of the year, with budget ranges from $10,000 to $28 million. May December, Past Lives, and American Fiction lead the nominations for the 39th ceremony, each taking five nods.

Other highlights include All of Us Strangers and Passages for Best Feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt and Earth Mama for Best First Feature, Kokomo City and The Mother of All Lies for Best Documentary, Glenn Howerton for BlackBerry, Marin Ireland and Anne Hathaway for Eileen, Marshawn Lynch for Bottoms, How to Blow Up a Pipeline for Best Editing, Godland and Tótem for Best International Film, and more.

See the nominations below ahead of the ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024 (a full two weeks before the Oscars), hosted by Aidy Bryant.

Best...

Ceremony to take place on Santa Monica Beach on February 25, 2024.

The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations have been announced and May December, American Fiction, and Past Lives lead the field with five nods apiece.

The Holdovers earned four and there were three for All Of Us Strangers – winner of seven Bifas at the weekend – as the nominations were announced on Tuesday. A24 leads the studio field with 11 nominations, followed by Netflix on 10.

Andrew Scott for All Of Us Strangers, Jessica Chastain for Memory, Greta Lee for Past Lives, Franz Rogowski for Passages, and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction are...

Ceremony to take place on Santa Monica Beach on February 25, 2024.

The Film Independent 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards have been announced and May December, American Fiction, and Past Lives lead the field with five nods apiece.

The Holdovers earned four and All Of Us Strangers three as the nominations were announced on Tuesday. A24 leads the studio field with 11 nominations, followed by Netflix on 10.

Andrew Scott for All of Us Strangers, Jessica Chastain for Memory, Greta Lee for Past Lives, Franz Rogowski for Passages, and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction are in the running fort the gender-neutral lead acting category.

The full list of nominations for the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards has been announced!

Movies are only eligible for a Spirit Award if they have a budget of less than $30 million, so there are some awards favorites like Maestro and Killers of the Flower Moon that are not nominated here.

Aidy Bryant is set to host the 2024 awards ceremony, which will take place on February 25. The event will no longer air on television and will instead stream on YouTube.

American Fiction, May December, and Past Lives lead the pack this year with five nominations each.

Head inside to check out the full list of nominations…

Keep scrolling to see the full list of nominations…

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

All of Us Strangers

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

American Fiction

Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, Ben LeClair

May December

Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell,...

Funding sees a 50% boost on previous round to support projects “in times of crisis”.

The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (Wcf) has awarded a combined €592,000 to 12 projects in its latest funding round.

The level of funding allocated is up nearly 50% on the previous round in July. Organisers said it intended to “support independent cinema even more strongly in times of crisis”.

Projects receiving support hail from Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, Senegal and Turkey.

Selected directors that previously participated in Berlinale Talents include Melisa Önel (Aniden), Nelson Makengo (Rising Up At Night), Edwin,...

Bolstered by generous incentives that have sparked a production boom, Dominican filmmakers are exploring a diversity of genres, both mainstream and alternative.

Growing in equal measure are the ranks of below-the-line crew working on both local and international projects. Training programs abound for grips, lighting technicians, and so on. Pinewood Dr holds workshops in underwater filming as well as in production accounting, location management, Upm, production design and set construction, among others. More film workshops and courses have been introduced at universities or technical institutes, giving rise to a new generation that have studied at home.

“My generation had to go abroad to study film, this latest crop will have a new perspective,” says Andres Farias, an assistant director on such Dominican films as “Cocote” and “Carpinteros.”

He has taught his craft at the Chavon School of Design, which will transfer its campus to Santo Domingo by September, says its film studies director Tanya Valette,...