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Naysayers be damned. The mainstream film industry may be on its last legs but the cinematic art form is alive and well. I enjoyed so many films this year I actually have two top-ten lists that are largely interchangeable. If you want to hear my other ten, feel free to check out the end of year review on my podcast The Cinematologists. Following on from last year’s approach, here are my ten for Dn. All ten were released in UK cinemas (or debuted on streaming) in 2024 and are listed here alphabetically.

Honourable mentions: The Delinquents, Sky Peals, The Holdovers, The Settlers, Sometimes I Think About Dying

10. Adam Sandler: Love You | Josh Safdie

The last two Sandler specials for Netflix have been wonderful. I admire his commitment to being silly, and sentimental. In a world as messy as this, there needs to be places for silliness, and there are...

A new film festival titled Chinese Cinema Today is set to launch in Japan, featuring 15 Chinese films including four Japanese premieres. The program, running Nov. 22-Dec. 12 at Tokyo’s Cinelibre Ikebukuro before moving to Osaka (Dec. 13-26), spotlights both commercial hits and festival favorites from mainland China’s growing film industry.

The festival is structured in four distinct sections. Director in Deep Focus presents a special spotlight on artist and filmmaker Qiu Jiongjiong, screening three of his works: “Madame,” “Mr. Zhang Believes” and “A New Old Play.” This marks the first special screening of Qiu’s works in Japan.

The Chinese Now Hits section features recent commercial successes, including the thriller “Hidden Blade,” directed by Cheng Er and starring Tony Leung and Wang Yibo. The film marks Cheng’s return after a seven-year hiatus. Also featured are “Like a Rolling Stone,” starring Berlin Film Festival best actress winner Yong Mei,...

A leading voice among China’s post-1990s generation of filmmakers, Wei Shujun has made four thematically diverse features in as many years — with three premiering at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. This week, he’s in Japan to present his critically lauded latest, Mostly Sunny, at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

The new film, which premiered at the Shanghai Film Festival in June, stars Huang Xiaoming in a transformative performance as a cheerful but mentally challenged man who lives with his nearly 70-year-old mother (Hsiao-Fen Lu). Just as the man has begun to find community and joy with a mysterious organization called Sunshine Club — led by a vaguely cult-like figure played with considerable charisma by leading Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke — his mother falls gravely ill. The man and his brother, a medical doctor, then embark on drastically different missions to cure their mother, the elder relying on medical science...

The 37th Tokyo International Film Festival began its 10-day run on October 28 with a colorful Red Carpet event featuring Japanese and international cinema luminaries, ahead of the TIFF Opening Ceremony.

The Red Carpet festivities got underway with brief stage appearances by over 200 filmmakers, actors and luminaries from across sections of the festival, as well as the TIFF juries. They then moved along the 162-meter serpentine walk, stopping for multiple autographs and selfies with fans from far and wide before arriving at the elegant staircase leading into the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater. The theater was built in the style of yesteryear’s grand movie houses, providing the perfect backdrop for TIFF’s Opening Ceremony.

Among the international luminaries making the stroll were Chinese actor Zhao Liying and director Midi Z (at TIFF with the film The Unseen Sister); Hong Kong actor Michael Hui (The Last Dance); Taiwanese director Huang Xi and Hong...

Even though director Wei Shujun’s Chinese neo-noir crime thriller Only the River Flows is adapted from writer Yu Hua’s novella, Mistakes by the River, genre fans can’t help but notice the myriad similarities the movie shares with Bong Joon-ho’s masterpiece, Memories of Murder—be it through its narrative and visual composition, moody and atmospheric small town aesthetics, or its exploration of themes of ethics, social consciousness, and scope of morality through investigation of serial killings. But aside from all this, what’s going to excite genre fans—the subtle use of dark humor to poke at the decrepit administrative system and the degenerated state of conscience among people in power—are some of the major signifiers that the movie shares with its South Korean spiritual predecessor. Gorgeously shot in 16-mm film to capture the Chinese rural town in the mid-90s it uses as its setting,...

Yang Suiyi’s Karst won best film in the Fei Mu Awards for up-and-coming Chinese filmmakers at this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival, while Swiss director Ramon Zurcher’s The Sparrow In The Chimney won best film in the Roberto Rossellini Awards for emerging international directors.

The Fei Mu jury praised Karst, about a woman reconnecting with her childhood in Guizhou Province, for “the great fullness, simplicity, subtlety and portrait of a region and a woman.” The award came with a $143,000 (RMB1m) cash prize, half of which is given to the film’s director to develop their next film, and half to the film’s Chinese distributor. Chinese actor Duan Yihong partly sponsored the award.

Also in the Fei Mu awards, Tang Yongkang won best director for Stars And The Moon, while Xu Lei’s Green Wave won the Jury Award and best actor for Xu Chaoying. Best...

Leveling Up

Sony-owned anime company Crunchyroll has acquired North American and select international theatrical rights for “Solo Leveling – ReAwakening.” The presentation represents a recap of the “Solo Leveling” anime series’ hit first season and a sneak peek of the first two episodes of the second season.

Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment will bring “Solo Leveling -ReAwakening” to theaters in the U.S. and Canada on Dec. 6, 2024.

The anime series “Solo Leveling” is adapted from the best-selling Korean web novel written by Chugong, which was later adapted into a film, a webtoon and manhwa in 2018, with illustrations by Dubu. The first season of “Solo Leveling” debuted globally on Crunchyroll on Jan. 6, 2024, with a second season announced for January 2025.

“Solo Leveling” is animated by A-1 Pictures (“Sword Art Online”), with motion graphics by Production I.G. The series is directed by Nakashige Shunsuke (“Sword Art Online”).

An official synopsis reads: “Over a...

Popular police procedural dramas, like Fincher’s Zodiac (2007) or Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave (2022), often feature cunningly plotted mysteries that blend realistic police work with the forlorn heroism of classic hardboiled fiction. The narratives typically hit the ground running, filled with shocking twists, climactic build-ups, and often violent confrontations. Ultimately, they allow characters to carve meaning out of the darkness. However, the Chinese whodunit Only the River Flows is a slow burn that defies conventional approaches. Its artistic style presents the protagonist with a complex array of choices as he navigates an investigation that challenges his psychological well-being. The treatment and progression of the story are reminiscent of Diao Yinan‘s Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014). However, it is endowed with a distinctive meditative pace and a deeper exploration of the protagonist’s internal struggles. This approach makes the film even more bleaker and more sinister. It also...

His latest film is a sideways take on the crime genre and was a surprise hit in China. As it opens in UK cinemas, Wei explains why he’s working at the edge of reason

A village, a murder and a chain-smoking detective. The building blocks of the gritty new procedural, Only the River Flows, are familiar. But as the mysteries and secrets pile up, this spellbinding Chinese noir transports the viewer into a world of uncertainty that has made it a surprise hit in China. Its precociously young director hopes western viewers will be similarly enthralled.

Speaking via video from Los Angeles, Wei Shujun, a Beijing native, is confident about his work. “There’s no movie where the story isn’t intentional,” the 33-year-old says. But when it comes to the fate of a Chinese film in western cinemas, he is less certain. Attracting international attention to Chinese films is hard,...

Only The River Flows

Chinese director Wei Shujun's Nineties-set crime thriller, Only The River Flows (He Bian De Cuo Wu), follows Police Chief Ma Zhe's (Yilong Zhu) investigation into the murder of a woman found near the river in Banpo Town, rural China. Despite a quick arrest and the eagerness of his superiors to close the case, when Ma Zhe pursues other evidence, he struggles to explain why three unrelated murders resemble one another.

Only The River Flows represents a departure for Shujun after his 2020 feature debut, Striding Into The Wind (Ye Ma Fen Zong), about a film student's road trip across China, and his 2021 sophomore feature, Ripples Of Life (Yong An Zhen Gu Shi Ji), set on a chaotic film production in a remote town.

In conversation with Eye For Film, Shujun discussed philosophy, psychology, and the limitations of the human perspective. Readers should be aware that there is a spoiler in.

Sony’s “It Ends With Us” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office, with £4.5 million ($5.7 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

However, the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni drama-romance faced stiff competition from Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which held onto second place in its third week with £4 million, bringing its cumulative total to £42.9 million.

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” continues to draw audiences in its fifth week, securing third place with £1.5 million and pushing its total to £35.5 million. Warner Bros. saw success with its new release “Trap,” which opened at No. 4, pulling in £1.1 million.

Lionsgate U.K.’s “Borderlands” rounded out the top five in its opening weekend, earning £843,159. Warner Bros.’ “Twisters” maintained its appeal in sixth place during its fourth week, adding £619,801 to surpass the £12 million mark.

Disney’s “Inside Out 2” demonstrated remarkable staying power, holding the seventh position in its ninth week with £618,055, bringing its total to £54.1 million.

An ambitious police detective attempts to solve a series of murders from a disused cinema in director Wei Shujun’s crime drama

Wei Shujun’s new film, adapted from a novella by Yu Hua, is a deadpan existential riddle presenting as noir crime, set in provincial China and taking its cue from Albert Camus’s Caligula: “There’s no understanding fate, therefore I choose to play the part of fate …” It’s a movie that wryly questions the thriller genre’s assumptions about the essential knowability of motive and agency; the idea that people commit crimes for clear reasons and their means and opportunity are governed by the equally explicable conditions of the physical world. But in this drama, chaos and meaninglessness keep peeping through – I can imagine David Lynch directing an alternative version.

Zhu Yilong plays Captain Ma, a smart and ambitious young officer brought in to solve...

Set along the banks of a remote Chinese river in the 1990s, Only the River Flows presents a gripping puzzle for Detective Ma Zhe to solve. But this is no ordinary crime procedural. Behind the initial murder lies a web of unspoken secrets that will take Ma Zhe on a disturbing journey.

Directed by Wei Shujun, who has garnered acclaim for his previous films at Cannes, Only the River Flows transports viewers to a small riverside town. Here, the local police force operates from an abandoned movie theater, a fitting background given how the town’s inhabitants conceal their truths behind closed doors.

We first meet Detective Ma Zhe as he begins investigating the killing of an elderly woman. All signs point to the “madman” who lived with her. But diligent Ma Zhe senses more lies just beneath the surface. As he delves deeper, he unwittingly exposes long-buried secrets, from...

Wei Shujun’s detective noir Only the River Flows (based on a story of the same name by Chinese author Yu Hua) is set in a small town along a river in China’s Jiangdong province where it seems the sun never shines. The atmosphere is unrelentingly melancholy: the town’s infrastructure is crumbling, the police have turned the local cinema into their headquarters (no one sees films there anymore), Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” plays frequently, and––yes––there is a murder.

Heading the investigation is Chief of Police Ma Zhe (played beautifully by Yilong Zhu), a talented investigator with a slightly depressive aura. An older woman is found murdered by the river, and as the team investigates they don’t exactly uncover misdeeds, but rather the secret lives of people crushed by the demands of conformity: a clandestine couple, a person repressing their gender identity, and a man so...

In Only the River Flows, Wei Shujun’s adaptation of the Yu Hua novella, an old woman (Cao Yang) is murdered on the bank of a Chinese town’s river. There are no taunting notes or occult artifacts left behind in the weeds. The body hasn’t been cut up or otherwise contorted into a nihilistic art project. It simply lies in the mud, blood trailing from a neck wound.

Wei has crafted a noir that rejects the more dramatic trappings of such stories. In a too-knowing bit of contrast, the rural town’s police operate out of an abandoned movie theater, as if to suggest that the tidy fictions once projected there are at odds with a reality that’s more mundane yet far less explicable. Even when an arrest is made, the loose ends haunt lead investigator Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong), despite pressure from his superior (Hou Tianlai...

As you catch up on our list of the best 20 films from the first half of the year, it’s also time to look at what the latter half brings. While July may be a bit lighter in worthwhile cinematic offerings, it does provide a few promising wide releases, some of the year’s best documentaries, and a few TIFF and Sundance favorites finally arriving.

13. Eno (Gary Hustwit; July 12)

One of the most curious experiments to premiere out of Sundance this year was Gary Hustwit’s Eno, which uses generative technology to produce an entirely new movie every single time it’s screened. That experiment’s now being put to a major test as it opens at Film Forum with new versions every day. John Fink said in his review, “So what we’re left with is a random series of threads, some organized quite well (by Hustiwit and editors...

What did five of the most critically acclaimed Asian movies that premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival have in common? They all were edited by rising Taiwanese studio Cutting Edge Films.

Formally established only in 2022, the company comprises a small group of film professionals who have worked together for over a decade. They are co-led by French editor Matthieu Laclau (Touch of Sin), known for his long-running collaboration with Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke, and Taiwanese producer Justine O. (The Chinese Mayor, Black Dog), whose work has nabbed a succession of festival prizes in recent years. The company says its recent successes point to the maturity and expanding reach of Taipei’s post-production sector, which has been buoyed by steady government support and a growing reputation for high-quality work at globally competitive prices.

“Taipei’s post-production scene is definitely having a moment,” says Laclau. “For VFX, editing or color grading,...

A jury headed by French Vietnamese director Tranh Anh Hung awarded its Golden Goblet (Jin Jue) prizes for the Shanghai International Film Festival’s main competition.

The top prize for best feature went to “The Divorce,” directed by Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Salamat. The jury praised the film for its sophisticated story-telling which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy, and “which moves fluidly from public sphere to the intimate relationship of a couple in crisis” and its feeling of innocence.

The other jury members were Rolf de Heer (Australia), Matthias Glasner (Germany), Tony Leung Ka Fai (Hong Kong), Santiago Mitre (Argentina), Sonthar Gyal (China) and Zhou Xun (China).

In the separate Asian New Talents section, the best film prize went to “Friday, Funfair,” while double honors were accorded to Abhilash Sharma’s “in the Name of Fire.”

Prizes for the festival’s Siff Project market for co-financing scripts and works in progress...

The 26th Shanghai International Film Festival came to a glitzy conclusion Saturday as Kazakh film The Divorce, directed by Daniyar Salamat, took home the top Golden Goblet award for best feature at a star-studded closing ceremony in the Chinese commercial capital.

A period drama set in the 1920s during the establishment of Soviet authority on the Kazakh steppe, the film explores the convergence of marriage, religion and women’s rights through the story of a typical couple wrestling with the prospect of divorce.

Salamat was presented onstage with his trophy by the Oscar-nominated Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung (Scent of Green Papaya, The Taste of Things), who served as Shanghai’s competition jury president this year. Hung and his fellow jurors praised the “sophisticated form” of The Divorce‘s story, “which mixes comedy, farce and tragedy,” and they hailed Salamat’s “ability to create the feeling of innocence, which radiates...

The promise from organizers of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival is for a mix of the “old and the new” and to that end this year’s program offers a look at emerging contemporary filmmakers as well as movies that chart a course from the local industry’s development in the early 1900s through to today.

The bustling Chinese metropolis has been transformed by its annual celebration of cinema, with 47 theaters spread out across the city’s 16 districts hosting an estimated 1,600 screenings of 461 films across the June 14-23 event. There’s heavy promotion everywhere you look — hanging from lampposts, dominating the billboards that inform this city of more than 26 million people.

Domestic productions are taking pride of place throughout the program and — most noticeably this year — across the festival’s four central Golden Goblet competitions for feature films, which boast no less than 12 mainland Chinese films.

“As the only...

It has been commonplace in academic circles to divide up and label Chinese filmmakers into generations that reflect socio-political currents as much as cinematic style.

Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, who were educated at the end of the Cultural Revolution, are considered the leading lights of the “fifth generation.” The rebellious cluster that followed them, Zhang Yuan, Wang Xioashuai, Jia Zhangke and Lou Ye are among those labelled as “sixth generation.”

But with substantial bodies of work under their belts and international reputations already established, the sixth generation are no longer quite so new, nor so angry.

The four Chinese films selected for the main competition – all world premieres – at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival represent a showcase of directors who are also known-quantities, but who are worthy of higher profiles. (The festival’s Asian Talent selection has a further selection of six more directors seeking to break through.

Less than a decade ago, the Shanghai International Film Festival was the preeminent annual hotspot for Hollywood and European dealmakers determined to forge alliances and carve out a foothold in China’s then-booming commercial film sector. In the post-pandemic era, however, as the Chinese industry continues to mature and the Hollywood hype over the country’s market potential long ago gave way to grim reality, the festival has transitioned into a somewhat more inward-facing occasion.

That domestic focus is on display in the Shanghai event’s 2024 lineup, which features 10 Chinese movies among the 25 titles of the two main international competition sections (and not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea). For international film buffs, the Shanghai festival is now best viewed as an opportunity to take stock of current trends in Chinese filmmaking — and on that front, the event’s 2024 lineup is rich with potential.

The 26th...

Premiering in the Un Certain Regard section at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Wei Shujun’s stylish neo-noir Only the River Flows became one of the highest-grossing independent films in China and now it’s coming to the U.S. and Canada starting next month. The Zhu Yilong-led film will open in the U.S. from KimStim Films starting at NYC’s Metrograph on July 26, LA a week later, and followed by select cities. Ritual Films will also release it in Canada starting at the TIFF Lightbox on August 1, followed by an expansion on August 9. Ahead of its release, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer and poster.

Here’s the synopsis: “1990s small town China. A woman’s body washes up in the local river. The chief of police, Ma Zhe, is tasked with heading up the investigation. An obvious perp leads to a hasty arrest,...

The Shanghai International Film Festival has unveiled a selection that is weighted heavily to world premieres and Chinese, local titles.

That gives the festival showcase screenings for the newest works by established Chinese directors Gu Changwei, Wei Shujun and Guan Hu (“Old Fish”).

Guan was rewarded in Cannes only last week for his Un Certain Regard-winning picture “Black Dog,” but will unveil his next effort “The Hedgehog in Shanghai’s main competition.

All but two of the 14 competition section films are world premiere screenings – only “Un Homme en Fuite” recently released in France, and “Le Seconda Vita,” recently released in Italy are international premieres – and all 11 films selected in the Asian New Talent Competition are debut screenings.

That makes the Shanghai lineup have little in common with other international festivals being held at this time of year. Most of those, typically, find house room for a sprinkling of standout titles from Sundance,...

The latest films by acclaimed Chinese directors Guan Hu, Wei Shujun, Gu Changwei and Zhang Dalei are among 14 features selected for the main competition at the upcoming 26th Shanghai International Film Festival.

The festival has announced a total of 50 films in contention for the Golden Goblet Awards, which further include 11 titles for the Asian New Talent competition, five each for the animated feature and documentary feature competition, and 15 for the short film competition. Between them are 38 world premieres – a new record for Siff – as well as six international premieres and six Asian premieres.

The main competition section carries four Chinese titles,...

The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled the competition selection for its upcoming 26th edition Wednesday, featuring a lineup characteristically heavy on Chinese titles. As in recent years, the lineup also includes a bevy of European, Japanese and Central Asian movies, but not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea.

The most anticipated film from the festival’s 14-title main competition in 2024 is undoubtedly Chinese director Guan Hu’s drama A Man and a Woman, featuring a pair of lead performances from the big local stars Huang Bo and Ni Ni. Guan wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival just a week ago with his darkly comic thriller Black Dog, which took home the French festival’s prestigious Un Certain Regard prize. Guan also is no stranger to the Shanghai festival. His WWII tentpole The Eight Hundred was scheduled to open the 2019 edition of the event, but it...

You might not get the dog you want, but you always get the dog you need. That old dog lover’s adage applies peculiarly well to Chinese director Guan Hu’s “Black Dog.” A far smaller-scale project than his recent blockbusters “The Eight Hundred” and “The Sacrifice,” Guan’s latest — an Un Certain Regard standout at Cannes this year — nonetheless has the grandly cinematic vision to lend an intimate tale a gloriously epic, allegorical edge.

Set in a dying town on the fringes of the Gobi desert, “Black Dog” has elements of the genre Western, like taciturn loner antihero Lang (a fantastic Eddie Peng), who returns to his eroded hometown himself hollowed out by repressed guilt for the incident that caused his recent imprisonment. But, dipped in the caustic soda of social commentary and steeped in the fatalistic mood of a place barely chugging by on borrowed time, the film...

Everyone is invited to the 67th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express!

The BFI London Film Festival, founded in 1957, now at its 67th edition, is a renowned annual event that celebrates international and British cinema. It offers a diverse array of films, premieres, and engaging discussions, attracting filmmakers, industry professionals, and movie enthusiasts. This festival is a vital platform for promoting cinematic excellence and storytelling. Once again, this year's selection of Asian titles is rich and articulated.

Find all the Asian films and the Festival's trailer, here:

Cobweb 

In this electric meta-comedy, The Good, the Bad, the Weird director Kim Jee-Woon captures the turbulence of South Korea's film industry in the 1970s.

Evil Does Not Exist 

Drive My Car director Ryusuke Hamaguchi's new drama sees a community fighting to preserve its principles and the integrity of their natural world.

Self-Portrait: 47 Km 2020 

The eleventh instalment in Zhang Mengqi...

Rediance is also involved in Anthony Chen’s segment of the omnibus film The Year Of The Everlasting Storm, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or contender Memoria.

Beijing-based Rediance has acquired two Cannes-bound Chinese films for international sales: Ripples Of Life from Directors’ Fortnight and Zhao Liang’s latest documentary I’m So Sorry.

Ripples Of Life marks the third Cannes outing for Chinese director Wei Shujun whose debut feature Striding Into The Wind was in last year’s official selection, while his short film On The Border received a special mention in 2018.

Ripples Of Life follows a big...

The lineup for the 2021 Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) at Cannes has been announced. See also the full lineups of the Official Selection and Critics’ Week.Our MenFEATURE Films A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano): The story of 15-year-old Chiara whose close-knit family falls apart after her father abandons them in Calabria. Chiara starts to investigate to understand why her father disappeared and as she gets closer to the truth, she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.Ali & Ava (Clio Barnard): Both lonely for different reasons, Ali and Ava meet through their shared affection for Sofia—the child of Ali’s Slovakian tenants, whom Ava teaches. Over a lunar month, sparks fly and a deep connection begins to grow.Between Two Worlds (Emmanuel Carrère)The Braves (Anaïs Volpé)A Brighter Tomorrow (Yassine Qnia)Clara Sola (Nathalie Álvarez Mesen)The Employer and the Employee (Manuel...

The lineup for the Cannes Directors Fortnight was revealed on Tuesday, featuring new films by Clio Barnard, Joanna Hogg and Alice Rohrwacher. Of the 24 films selected for the lineup, exactly half have at least one woman director.

The 12 of 24 films in the Cannes Directors Fortnight, which is the independent arm of the Cannes Film Festival kicking off next month, dwarfs the number of female directors in the Cannes main competition lineup, in which only four of the 24 selected movies were directed by women. However, some of the movies for the Directors Fortnight feature women as co-directors, so 12 of 29 of the total directors are women.

The Directors Fortnight will host a special screening of Hogg’s “The Souvenir Part 1,” as “Part 2” will be playing in competition. Other notable films include “A Night of Knowing Nothing,” the first feature by actress Payal Kapadia, and “Hit the Road,” another debut feature by Panah Panahi,...

On the heels of yesterday’s announcement of the Cannes Critics’ Week lineup, now comes confirmation of the 25 movies that will screen in the festival’s other prestigious sidebar section, Directors’ Fortnight. The lineup includes eight debut features, including “Hit the Road” by Jafar Panahi’s son, Panah Panahi. Directors’ Fortnight 2021 opens with Emmanuel Carrère’s “Between Two Worlds,” starring Juliette Binoche as an author experiencing job insecurity. Other notable titles include “A Chiara,” the latest movie from “Mediterranea” and “A Ciambra” director Jonas Carpignano.

Perhaps the biggest draw for U.S. audiences will be the world premiere of Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir Part II,” starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Charlie Heaton, Harris Dickinson, and Joe Alwyn. The film is executive produced by Martin Scorsese, who is also an executive producer on Fortnight title “Murina” (directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović). Hogg’s original “The Souvenir” was one...

A full picture of the Cannes Film Festival is now coming into focus with the unveiling of the Directors’ Fortnight lineup. Following the Official Selection and the Critics’ Week lineups, this sidebar features Joanna Hogg’s highly-anticipated sequel The Souvenir Part II, as well as new films by Miguel Gomes, Jonas Carpignano, Clio Barnard, Pietro Marcello, Alice Rohrwacher, Matías Piñeiro, and more.

See below.

Features

A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano)

Ali & Ava (Clio Barnard)

Between Two Worlds (Emmanuel Carrère)

The Braves (Anaïs Volpé)

A Brighter Tomorrow (Yassine Qnia)

Clara Sola (Nathalie Álvarez Mesen)

The Employer and the Employee (Manuel Nieto)

Europa (Haider Rashid)

Futura

Întregalde (Radu Muntean)

The Hill where Lionesses Roar (Luàna Bajrami)

Hit the Road (Panah Panahi)

Magnetic Beats (Vincent Cardona)

Medusa (Anita Rocha da Silveira)

Murina (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović)

Neptune Frost

A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)

Our Men (Rachel Lang)

Returning to Reims (Fragments) (Jean-Gabriel Périot...

The Directors’ Fortnight parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its lineup for the 2021 edition which runs from July 7-17. Scroll down for the full list.

Fortnight chief Paolo Moretti, who took over the reins in 2019, presented the roster from the Forum des Images in Paris, saying, “After a very painful year for everyone, we are happy to present a selection of discovery.” Out of 24 features, 22 filmmakers are showing their films for first time at Cannes. Half of the films this year are directed or co-directed by women including Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava; documentary Futura from Alice Rohrwacher, Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi; and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir: Part II with Tilda Swinton and Richard Ayoade.

There are eight debut features in the lineup, including Jadde Khaki (Hit the Road), the first film from Jafar Panahi’s son Panah Panahi, and Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s Murina...

Parallel Cannes section will unveil 24 new films.

Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II will be among the 24 features world premiering in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running July 7-17 this year.

The non-competitive Cannes parallel section, overseen by French directors guild the Société des Réalisateurs (Srf), has unveiled an eclectic 2021 line-up of new films by established directors and emerging talent at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (June 8).

Scroll down for the full selection

UK directors Barnard and Hogg were hotly tipped for Cannes 2020 until the main festival and parallel selections were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Parallel Cannes section will unveil 24 new films.

Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II will be among the 24 features world premiering in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running July 7 to 17 this year.

The non-competitive Cannes parallel section, overseen by the French directors guild the Société des Réalisateurs (Srf), has unveiled an eclectic 2021 line-up of new films by established directors and emerging talent at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (June 8).

Scroll down for the full selection

UK directors Barnard and Hogg were hotly tipped for Cannes 2020 until the main festival and parallel selections were cancelled due to the pandemic.

After canceling its last edition due to the pandemic, Directors’ Fortnight, a section running alongside the Cannes Film Festival, will be back with a stylish and eclectic international lineup, including Joanna Hogg’s highly anticipated “The Souvenir Part II,” Clio Barnard’s “Ali & Ava,” Jonas Carpignano’s “A Chiara,” Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman’s Rwanda-set sci-fi film “Neptune Frost,” and Alice Rohrwacher, Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi’s “Futura.”

The highlight of this edition will likely be the world premiere of “The Souvenir Part II,” which will mark the first presence of Hogg, an acclaimed British writer-director, at Cannes. The romance-drama is headlined by Tilda Swinton — who will also be in Cannes for “The French Dispatch” and “Memoria” competing in the festival’s Official Selection — as well as Richard Ayoade, Charlie Heaton and Harris Dickinson. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the film revolves around a student who begins to...

Virtual festival to run from October 14-25.

A host of Cannes Label and autumn festival selections populate the competitions line-up at the upcoming virtual edition of the 56th Chicago International Film Festival announced on Monday (September 21).

Venice and Toronto selections in the International Feature Competition include Apples (Greece) from Christos Nikou and Philippe Lacôte’s Ivorian Night Of The Kings, while among the New Directors highlights are João Paulo Miranda Maria’s Memory House from Brazil, and Palestine-set Gaza Mon Amor from Tarzan and Arab Nasser.

True Mothers (Japan) from Naomi Kawase in International Feature Competition and Spring Blossom (France...

Summer of 85The Festival de Cannes has announced 56 films selected for their 2020 Festival, scheduled to have taken place between May 12—23 and cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Films with the official Cannes 2020 label set for a theatrical release before spring 2021 will receive additional support from the Festival when theaters reopen. Films that were predicted to play at the festival and not included in the Cannes 2020 Official Selection—including Leos Carax's Annette, Mia Hansen-Løve's Bergman Island, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria—may premiere elsewhere, while, as previously announced, Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta has delayed its premiere to summer 2021.Official SELECTIONThe French Dispatch (Wes Anderson)Passion Simple (Danielle Arbid)Josep (Aurel)Au Crépuscule (Sharunas Bartas)Les hommes (Lucas Belvaux)Rouge (Farid Bentoumi)Here We Are (Nir Bergman)Teddy (Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma)Un triomphe (Emmanuel Courcol)9 jours à Raqqa (Xavier de Lauzanne)Soul (Pete Docter)Vaurien (Peter Dourountzis)Slalom (Charlène Favier)The Real...

La Fortaleza’s sales agent is using Breaker’s blockchain technology to track its revenues.

Us-based blockchain-powered streaming platform Breaker, the company behind Alex Winter’s Trust Machine, The Happy Worker, executive-produced by David Lynch, and Rotterdam Tiger title La Fortaleza, has unveiled a slew of new projects.

It has boarded Keith Bearden’s completed Us-set suburban coming of age drama, Antarctica, starring Chloë Levine and Kimie Muroya, backing low-budget Guatemalan drama Luz, and investing in Chinese director Shujun Wei’s Striding In The Wind.

Owned by SingularDTV, Breaker is also involved in a long-gestating TV drama called San Pedro,...