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For 17 million film fans on Letterboxd, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two was the spice of 2024.

The popular movie-reviewing app has published its annual year in review, a ranking of the most popular and beloved films of the past 12 months, as determined by user ratings. Villeneuve’s sci-fi blockbuster topped the charts as the highest-rated, most popular, and most obsessively rewatched film of 2024. Unsurprisingly, the Canadian helmer was also Letterboxd’s most-watched director of the year. The site’s users ranked the sequel to Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune: Part One even higher than the original, giving Dune: Part 2 a 4.4 out of 5 average rating, compared to 3.9 for the first movie.

“I’m gonna sleep well tonight,” said director Denis Villeneuve in response to the news. “The idea that there’s a community, the Letterboxd community of film lovers, cinephiles, that are sharing film lists and their love and their passion, it...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Daaaaaalí! (Quentin Dupieux)

At the time of year where every other film is a biopic chasing prestige respectability, we are lucky to have Quentin Dupieux, the prolific, serious-minded, silly filmmaker perfectly positioned to take a sledgehammer to the genre. His second 2023 feature has been described as a “real fake biopic” of Salvador Dalí but is best understood as a return to the heightened analysis of cinematic storytelling à la 2010 breakthrough Rubber––a movie which increasingly looks like the rare weak spot in a filmography equal-parts playful and thoughtful. – Alistair R. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Daddio (Christy Hall)

Daddio, written and directed by Christy Hall, is a two-hander that bristles with energy from the start. A young professional (Dakota Johnson) steps...

There’s an honesty to Rap World, the feature debut of co-directors Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharar, beyond its vérité stylings. With Scharar playing the director, Ben, Rap World is a mockumentary following three friends—Matt (O’Malley), Casey (Jack Bensinger) and Jason (Eric Rahill)—from Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, as they trudge through one long night in a quixotic attempt to make a rap album. It is January 11th, 2009: a month earlier The Dark Knight was released on home video, in nine days George W. Bush will leave office, the Great Recession looms and America feels like it is on the cusp of some […]

The post “Nostalgia for When Things were Terrible”: Conner O’Malley, Danny Scharar and Jack Bensinger on Rap World first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

There’s an honesty to Rap World, the feature debut of co-directors Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharar, beyond its vérité stylings. With Scharar playing the director, Ben, Rap World is a mockumentary following three friends—Matt (O’Malley), Casey (Jack Bensinger) and Jason (Eric Rahill)—from Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, as they trudge through one long night in a quixotic attempt to make a rap album. It is January 11th, 2009: a month earlier The Dark Knight was released on home video, in nine days George W. Bush will leave office, the Great Recession looms and America feels like it is on the cusp of some […]

The post “Nostalgia for When Things were Terrible”: Conner O’Malley, Danny Scharar and Jack Bensinger on Rap World first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Awards courting, auctioning among distributors and corporate-sponsored parties can really take the “film” out of “film festival,” with moviegoing sometimes becoming an afterthought to more market-oriented activities at the industry’s legacy gatherings. The Los Angeles Festival of Movies is not one of those film festivals.

Launching this coming weekend, Lafm is screening an eclectic and diverse slate of independent features across a trio of theaters on the east side of Los Angeles, a world away from the shadows of studio lots and agencies. The festival is co-presented by the world cinema streamer Mubi and the non-profit Mezzanine, which has been programming in L.A. for more than two years, screening contemporary indies, avant garde work and underseen repertory features for an audience that has grown to trust its adventurous taste.

Lafm represents a new endeavor for Mezzanine: providing a sustained weekend of contemporary programming for a city that has...

From a pandemic and Hollywood’s dual strikes to fundraising issues, film festivals have faced a number of challenges in recent years. But a new one is braving the scene and about to hit the circuit.

The Los Angeles Festival of Movies will present its inaugural edition on April 4-7, co-presented by Mubi and Mezzanine and featuring 12 titles (one world premiere), three 4K restorations, a featured artist talk, documentary series and a short film program. Passes are currently on sale with single tickets on sale March 14. Lafm screenings will take place at three recently opened venues across Los Angeles: Vidiots in Eagle Rock, 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown and Now Instant Image Hall in Chinatown.

A24’s I Saw the TV Glow from filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun will open the fest with a West Coast premiere at Vidiots on April 4. Closing Lafm three days later will be the world premiere of...

A new Los Angeles film festival featuring independent films, documentaries and artist talks is set for April 4-7 at venues in Chinatown, Eagle Rock and Filipinotown.

The Los Angeles Festival of Movies was launched by Micah Gottlieb and Sarah Winshall, and will open April 4 with Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow.” Closing night film is Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharar’s “Rap World” on April 7. Both films screen at Vidiots.

Screenings will be spread between Vidiots in Eagle Rock, 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown and Now Instant Image Hall in Chinatown.

An artist’s talk will feature musician and artist Kim Gordon and writer Rachel Kushner in conversation about their relationships to the city and cinema of Los Angeles.

The city’s last festival focused on independent films, the L.A. Independent Film Festival, closed in 2018. For several years, Sundance hosted an L.A. screening series, which hasn...

The LA film festival scene just got a bit brighter.

The Los Angeles Festival of Movies (Lafm), co-presented by Mubi and Mezzanine, announced the full lineup for its inaugural festival taking place April 4-7, 2024. The new festival will screen 11 titles including one world premiere, three 4K restorations, plus a featured artist talk, documentary series, and a curated short film program. Passes are currently on sale, and single film tickets go on sale March 14.

Per the festival’s organizers, Lafm was created to redefine Los Angeles as a destination for independent film. There are many film festivals in LA, primarily led by AFI Fest in the fall, but rarely do they make independent film their only focus.

The festival’s screenings will all take place at three recently opened venues on the east side of Los Angeles: Vidiots in Eagle Rock, 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown, and Now Instant Image Hall in Chinatown.

The Hulu series The 1619 Project and the Showtime feature Nothing Lasts Forever scored a leading three nominations apiece today as the Cinema Eye Honors announced its first round of contenders for the prestigious documentary-focused awards.

The 1619 Project, based on Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of slavery in North America and its impact up until the present day, earned nominations for Best Anthology Series, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Oprah Winfrey, Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams and Hannah-Jones are among the producers of the six-part series.

‘Nothing Lasts Forever’

Nothing Lasts Forever, director Jason Kohn’s glittering examination of the world of diamonds – the real kind and the emergence of undetectable “synthetic” diamonds – earned nominations for Best Broadcast Film, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Scroll for the full list of nominations announced today.

Other films and series that scored multiple nominations include Hulu’s Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields...

Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead all broadcast documentaries in nominations for the 17th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which were announced on Thursday during the Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles.

Each of the programs received three nominations in the five broadcast categories, with “The 1619 Project” nominated in the Anthology Series, cinematography and editing categories and “Nothing Lasts Forever” singled out in Broadcast film, cinematography and editing categories.

Other programs with multiple nominations include the broadcast movie “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” the nonfiction series “Dear Mama” and “Paul T. Goldman” and the anthology series “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin” and “Our Planet II.”

Hulu led all networks and platforms with eight nominations, followed by Netflix with five and Showtime with four.

Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based organization devoted to honoring all facets of nonfiction filmmaking, also...