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Exclusive: Agnieszka Holland is among the jurors for the second Eliso Awards, the Georgian film awards launched last year by the country’s Nato Vachnadze Foundation.

Holland will sit alongside Georgian director Elene Naveriani; Carlos Reygadas, who was last in Cannes with 2012 Competition title Post Tenebras Lux; director Dito Tsintsadze; producer Thomas Hakim; actress Angeliki Papoulia; and critic Salome Kikaleishvili.

The seven jurors will judge Georgian fiction and documentary features released last year, in six categories including best film, best director and best acting.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony on June 14, at the museum and house of Georgian acting icon Vachnadze.

Clarisa Navas’ “The Prince of Nanawa” claimed Swiss doc fest Visions du Réel’s top prize, while Iranian filmmaker Bani Koshnoudi’s “The Vanishing Point” took the top Burning Lights honor.

Clarisa Navas’ “The Prince of Nanawa” has taken home the Grand Prix at international Swiss doc fest Visions du Réel, while Bani Koshnoudi’s “The Vanishing Point” earned the top award in the Burning Lights section.

Argentina’s Navas, best known for her 2020 San Sebastián-winning film “One in a Thousand,” spent a decade filming “The Prince of Nanawa.” The documentary follows the story of Ángel, a charismatic boy with fierce love for his Guarani roots and a vision for his Paraguayan hometown of Nanawa. With a camera in hand, Ángel helps craft his own story.

The jury, comprising Japanese film festival director Hama Haruka, U.S. filmmaker Eliza Hittman and Greek director Athiná-Rachél Tsangári, praised the film as “a work that straddles autofiction,...

The 56th edition of Nyon-based Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel (April 4-13) is to open with the world premiere of Blame.Billed as “part investigation, part thriller,”Swiss director Christian Frei’s film is about three scientists battling the Covid pandemic and misinformation around it.

This will be preceded by a “pre-opening” screening the night before of Irish director Gar O’Rourke’s Sanatorium, a documentary set in a largely deserted health spa near Odesa in Ukraine where people come for health and fertility treatment as war rages nearby.

A record 57 countries are represented in this year’s selection across 154 films,...

Switzerland’s Visions du Réel documentary festival will screen 14 films, 13 of which will be world premieres, as part of its official competition strand at this year’s festival, which runs from April 4-13.

The festival launched its full lineup this morning. The official competition jury will feature Hama Haruka, director of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, American filmmaker Eliza Hittman, and Greek filmmaker Athiná-Rachél Tsangári (Harvest).

Competition titles include Anamocot by French artist Marie Voignier (Na China), Julien Elie (Shifting Baselines), and Little, Big and Far by Jem Cohen (Museum Hours). Scroll down for the full lineup.

As previously announced, Raoul Peck will be the festival’s guest of honor and will receive the Prix d’Honneur on Monday 7 April, with a tribute by IDFA festival director and producer Orwa Nyrabia, before a screening of his latest film Ernest Cole: Lost and Found. He will...

Un thriller papal, un (no) biopic de Los Planetas o un slasher desde el Pov del asesino, entre el top del 2024.

© mundoCine | Universal Pictures | De A Planeta | Elástica Films | BTeamPictures

Adiós, 2024… ¡hola, 2025! Se va un año que, cinematográficamente hablando (como no podía ser de otra manera por nuestra parte), ha estado repleto de propuestas variadísimas y de lo más interesantes que han dejado huella en nuestras retinas. Claro, algunas otras no tanto, pero ese no es el foco de este artículo.

Marta Medina, Mario Hernández y Álvaro Campoy, miembros del equipo de mundoCine, escogen las que, a su juicio, han sido las mejores películas del 2024, compartiendo con vosotros sus porqués y, de paso, os cuentan dónde podéis verlas en este mismo momento (información muy útil si no habéis visto algunas de las que mencionamos).

Eso sí, antes de entrar en materia, hay un detalle importante: este ranking tiene en cuenta...

Cannes Critics’ Week has picked the projects that will be part of the 11th edition of Next Step, a programme aimed at helping filmmakers whose short films played at Critics’ Week develop their feature debut.

Since its creation 11 years ago, Next Step has accompanied the development of 96 feature projects, with 39 already completed. Recent Next Step alumni that stood out in the festival circuit include Molly Manning Walker with “How to Have Sex;” Chilean director Felipe Gálvez with “The Settlers;” Valentina Maurel with Locarno winner “I Have Electric Dreams;” as well as Matthew Rankin with Universal Language” which won Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award and represents Canada in the Oscar race.

In 2025, seven new features developed at Next Step are expected to roll out at major festivals, notably Morad Mostafa’s “Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore” which won Venice’s industry prize, Final Cut, for a film in post production. Next...

Eight international filmmakers whose short films have been previously selected for Cannes’ Critics’ Week are participating in the 11th Critics’ Week’s Next Step programme (December 8 – 13) to help them prep their first features.

Two French directors are attending with comedies: Mathilde Chavanne’s A La Recherche Du Miraculeux, produced by Haut et Court, is about a theatre director working with secondary school students; while Guil Sela’s “anti-romantic” comedy Life Is A Beach about a shy lifeguard trying to fit in.

Polish writer-director David Bodzak is attending with his coming-of-age horror drama Episode about a VHS-obsessed skateboarding high schooler who...

With an awards season and year-end lists that tend to favor films that have been released in the last few months, there’s many films that can go overlooked. For our yearly feature highlighting the 50 best films you might have missed––arriving before our overall top 50 films––we’ve sought to dig deep to find the gems that deserved more attention upon their initial release and have mostly been left out of year-end conversations. Hopefully, with many widely available on a variety of streaming platforms, they will begin to find an expanded audience.

While many documentaries would qualify for this list, we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. We also haven’t included 2024 films that only got awards-qualifying runs this year, including Universal Language and Armand. And while there’s some films that deserved bigger audiences, such as Here, Juror...

As the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry arm, Agora, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, organizers are looking to maintain the right balance for an event that continues to grow in stature while retaining its carefully curated, almost intimate feel.

To that end, industry head Angeliki Vergou — an Agora veteran who assumed her current post in 2022 — is pragmatic in her approach to the Thessaloniki event and where it fits into the broader marketplace. While several thousand exhibitors and industry professionals will descend on Las Vegas next week for a whirlwind, new-look AFM, Vergou stresses that the Agora is determined to maintain its “friendly,” personal approach.

“We really want to keep having this scale of a market — not too big, but the right amount of professionals coming and meeting with each other,” Vergou tells Variety. “Our specialty is to nurture talents and offer them their first experience in a market. An...

Blueberry Dreams. Elene Mikaberidze: 'I added a bit of artistic flair because I love working with visuals' Photo: Courtesy Cph:dox Georgian cinema has been rising on the global stage In recent years, with filmmakers such as Dea Kulumbegashvili, Sandro Koberidze, Salome Jashi, Elene Naveriani and Tato Kotetishvili gaining international recognition and prizes. Now, Elene Mikaberidze steps into the spotlight with her documentary Blueberry Dreams, which premiered at Cph:dox in March and received a Special Jury Mention in Odesa's European Competition in July.

The film tells the story of a Georgian family farming blueberries in Mingrelia, near the border of the occupied region, Abkhazia. In this interview conducted at Kutaisi International Short Film Festival (which also shows feature-length works such as Blueberry Dreams), Mikaberidze shares the journey behind the film and her reflections on its challenges.

How accidental was your encounter with the family who became the subject of your film?...

Exclusive: The Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s industry-focused Agora section has selected 15 projects from 17 countries for this year’s Crossroads Co-production Forum. Scroll down for the full list of projects.

Hailing from across southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean region, the projects are in various stages of development. The selection features debut and sophomore feature films alongside more experienced directors.

Among the notable projects is the latest feature film by prolific Romanian director Adrian Sitaru. There are also sophomore film projects from Yorgos Goussis, Kaltrina Krasniqi, Diego Llorente, Nikola Mijović, Ahu Ozturk, Sonia Liza Kenterman, and Ahmad Ghossein. Debut feature filmmakers are Neritan Zinxhiria and Thelyia Petraki.

The selected projects hail from countries including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Kosovo*, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Palestine, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. This year’s selection was co-curated by an advisory committee featuring industry consultant Thibaut Bracq...

Georgian filmmaker Tato Kotetishvili, whose feature directorial debut, “Holy Electricity,” won the Golden Leopard in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente section at the recently wrapped Locarno Film Festival, is prepping his next film, a docufiction that follows a family trying to illegally enter the U.S. from across the Mexican border.

The director also released a trailer for his prize-winning debut, which plays this week in competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access below.

The untitled project from the cinematographer-turned-director traces the odyssey of a Georgian family trying to make it to America via an arduous, three-week journey across Latin America. The family’s first trip overseas, it will be seen through the eyes of a child “who is not really concerned with the problems of the past or the anxieties of the future,” said Kotetishvili.

The film, which reunites the director with producer Tekla Machavariani of Tbilisi-based Nushi Film,...

Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, starring Eka Chavleishvili as a woman navigating the prospect of growing older on her own, headed the winners at the inaugural Eliso awards, the new national film awards ceremony for Georgia.

Naveriani won best director, with Chavleishvili taking the best actress prize.

Ani Mogeladze received a special mention for her performance in the film; as did Nina Eradze for her role in Liza Go On.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2023.

Lomero Akhvlediani won the best cinematography prize for work on Luka Beradze’s documentary Smiling Georgia. The film also received...

US filmmaker Carson Lund’s debut feature Eephus has been acquired for France by Capricci, with a theatrical release plotted for the first half of 2025.

London and Paris-based Film Constellation is handling world sales on the film that premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last month.

The New England-set comedy drama unfolds as a construction project looms over a small-town baseball field, leaving a pair of Sunday league teams to face off for the last time over the course of a day.

The cast includes Keith William Richards, Wayne Diamond and Keith Poulson, with a voice cameo by celebrated director Frederick Wiseman.

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.

American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)

Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is in a rut. He’s still trying to get a publisher to accept his latest book in a market that doesn’t exactly embrace his erudite style. His gig as a college professor lecturing to students that are too “goddamn delicate” to embrace thorny topics of race has him ostracized from colleagues. He’s estranged from family, all of whom are juggling their own issues––health problems, divorce, the financial strain that comes with both. When Monk concocts an elaborate joke to get more fame and acceptance, it’s taken shocking seriously, setting off a series of misadventures exploring how white America is more willing to accept the most reductive, pandering stories of Black...

Record Intake

The European Film Academy has added a record 709 new members in its 2024 annual intake. New members include Cate Blanchett (Australia/U.K.), Jovan Marjanović (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Maria Bakalova (Bulgaria), Juraj Lerotić (Croatia), Anna Hints (Estonia), Ariane Toscan du Plantier (France), Stéphan Castang (France), David Thion (France), Marie-Ange Luciani (France), Latifa Saïd (France), Rebecca Houzel (France), Thomas Hakim (France), Sami Mustafa (France/Kosovo), Mohamed Siam (France), Hanna Bergholm (Finland), Hamze Bytyçi (Germany) and Christian M. Goldbeck (Germany).

The intake also includes Behrooz Karamizade (Germany), Jerry Hoffmann (Germany), Aylin Tezel (Germany), Jasmin Tabatabai (Germany), Sofia Exarchou (Greece), Phedon Papamichael (Greece), Kate McCullough (Ireland), Matteo Garrone (Italy), Enzo d’Alò (Italy), Francesco Montagner (Italy), Uljana Kim (Lithuania), Cindy Jansen (Netherlands), Fatih Rağbet (Netherlands), Cristi Puiu (Romania), Anca Puiu (Romania), Elene Naveriani (Switzerland), Selahattin Paşalı (Turkey), Molly Manning Walker (U.K.), Melanie Hoyes (U.K.), Lizzie Francke (U.K.), Charles Newland (UK), Jad Salfiti (U.

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (May 3-5)Total gross to dateWeek 1. The Fall Guy (Universal) £3.2m £4.9m 1 2. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (Disney) £1.2m £1.4m 1 3. Challengers (Warner Bros) £986,858 £4m 2 4. Back To Black (Studiocanal) £770,973 £10.8m 4 5. Kung Fu Panda 4 (Universal) £562,659 £20.9m 6

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.25

Universal action comedy The Fall Guy opened top of the UK-Ireland box office with a £3.2m weekend.

Starting in 702 sites, the film brought in a £4,542 average from Friday to Sunday. The Fall Guy recorded its biggest day on the Bank Holiday Monday with £1.3m, and including last Thursday’s previews it is up to a £4.9m total.

Action comedy The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt heads the new titles at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, opening in 702 cinemas through Universal.

Directed by David Leith, The Fall Guy is written by Drew Pearce and loosely based on a 1980s TV series of the same name about stunt performers.

Gosling plays a stuntman working on his ex-girlfriend’s directorial debut action film, where he becomes involved in a conspiracy surrounding the lead actor.

The Fall Guy debuted at SXSW on March 12; it is Gosling’s first credit as producer since his 2014 directorial debut Lost River.

Elene Naveriani’s film tells the story of a middle-aged single woman in a remote Georgian village whose life is changed for ever after a near-death experience

Here is a marvellously tender story of loneliness and love which starts with a bigger bang than most thrillers. Etero, played by Eka Chavleishvili, is a middle-aged single woman in a remote Georgian village who is out walking near a steep ravine, collecting blackberries for the cakes she likes to bake. She looks up, transfixed by the beauty of a blackbird – having been, we are perhaps invited to assume, only waiting for this moment to arrive – when she loses her footing and disappears from the frame; film-maker Elene Naveriani switches the viewpoint to something terrifying and vertiginous: straight down to a near death experience.

Etero sees her own corpse in a parallel universe of her own stricken imagining, but this heartstopping near-miss, together...

Elene Naveriani in Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

A special presentation of Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry at the Ica on 12 May will see the London cinema embark on a trial of relaxed screenings. These are designed to make cinema more accessible to people with sensory issues, some other neurodivergent people and disabled people who find that standard cinema environments don't work for them.

The screening will see the house lights slightly raised and volume levels lowered. Viewers will be able to move around and retreat to a quiet area if they feel overwhelmed. The film itself, by Georgian director Elene Naveriani, is gently paced, and although it includes some surprising moments there are no sudden loud noises or visuals designed to shock.

Relaxed screenings have been growing more popular around the world. The Glasgow Film Theatre (Gft) was among the pioneers and has attracted a regular audience, going on to form partnerships with local charities which help to.

A month so staggering in quality new releases that a new Mad Max film from George Miller barely cracked the top five, May kicks off the summer movie season with a bang. From the best American film of the year to a long-awaited U.S. release from the director who topped last month’s list, and much more, check out my picks of the best movies arriving this month below.

17. Aggro DR1FT (Harmony Korine; May 10-16 in theaters)

Though a film I almost actively hated in the moment, reflecting back on Harmony Korine’s Aggro DR1FT, it’s certainly a nightmare that has stayed with me. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Is it possible to leave your enfance without losing your terrible? The one-and-only Harmony Korine, now 50 years young, returns with Aggro Dr1ft, a premiere out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival this week and, by my count, the only...

Mubi’s May 2024 (streaming) lineup embraces their latest (theatrical) coup with a Radu Jude program. In addition to Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World arriving May 3, the Romanian director is highlighted with a six-film program launching on May 10. Lee Chang-dong and Bertrand Bonello are each given two-title highlights. While most of us can’t be at Cannes (I guess that’s a pun), the festival’s greatest tradition, booing, is celebrated with Jodie Foster’s The Beaver, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, and Olivier Dahan’s Grace of Monaco. Among new releases, Al Warren’s Dogleg and the Ross brothers’ Gasoline Rainbow are notable selections.

As Lee Chang-dong recently told us in an extended interview, “Experiences in my life are what shaped me as a filmmaker, as obvious as that sounds. My artistic taste was shaped by the mountains and fields of my childhood village,...

Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the line-up for its 56th edition running from May 15 to 23, at a press conference in Paris’ Forum des Images cultural center.

The section, launched in 1969 and overseen by the French Directors Guild, will present 21 feature films and 10 short films.

It is the second line-up overseen by Delegate General Julien Rejl, who took up the role last year.

Discoveries of his inaugural edition included Georgian director Elene Naveriani’s late coming-of-age drama Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry; U.S. indie film Riddle Of Fire by Weston Razooli, as well as Vietnamese filmmaker Phạm Thiên Ân’s 2023 Cannes Caméra d’Or winner Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell.

The 2024 edition will open with late director Sophie Fillières’ final feature This Life of Mine, starring Agnès Jaoui as a woman whose sense of self starts to unravel as she turns 55.

Fillières died shortly after completing the shoot and her...

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, Theo Angelopoulos, Lynne Ramsay, Tsai Ming-liang, Michael Haneke, Lee Chang-dong, Terence Davies, Shōhei Imamura, Bi Gan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-wai, Yorgos Lanthimos, Denis Villleneuve, Céline Sciamma, Guillermo del Toro, Kelly Reichardt. Those are just a few of the filmmakers introduced to New York audiences at New Directors/New Films over the last half-century across over 1,100 premieres.

Now returning for its 53rd edition at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art from April 3-14, this year’s lineup features 35 new films, presenting prizewinners from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered fourteen films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.

All, or Nothing at All (Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)

In All, or Nothing at all, director Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang employs an experimental...

Georgian director Elene Naveriani’s late-coming-of-age, female empowerment drama Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry topped the prizes at the Swiss Film Awards in Zurich over the weekend.

The drama, which world premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year, revolves around an independent-minded, single woman in her 40s in a small Georgian village, who faces a personal crossroads when she unexpectedly falls in love.

The feature won Best Feature Film, as well as Best Screenplay and for Best Screenplay for Naveriani and for Best Film Editing for Aurora Franco Vögeli.

The Swiss-Georgian co-production was produced by Thomas Reichlin, Ketie Danelia and Bettina Brokemper for Alva Film in Switzerland and Takes Film in Georgia.

Pierre Monnard’s clandestine fight club drama Bisons also won three prizes: Best Film Score for Nicolas Rabaeus, Best Cinematography for Joseph Areddy and Best Actor for Karim Barras.

Swiss-French Barras will also soon be seen in period drama Winter Palace,...

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has unveiled its slate of public programming for the 2024 spring season, which will include a tribute and retrospective of the work of Marlon Brando, a May the 4th “Star Wars” celebration and a world premiere 4K restoration of “Amadeus,” among others.

The Academy Museum will screen John Waters’ short films “Roman Candles” and “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket” with live commentary by Waters. Exhibitions include a celebration of Oscar-winning music in Indian cinema, a film series focused on queer female lensers in early Hollywood, a retrospective on actor Youn Yuh-Jung, a behind-the-scenes presentation of Dykstraflex, used to film the original “Star Wars” trilogy.

Special guests will include Ed Begley Jr., Cary Elwes, Jane Fonda, Yunte Huang, Nyla Innuksuk, Dr. Naomi Oreskes, Patricia Rozema, Bird Runningwater, Mink Stole, John Waters, Youn Yuh-jung and more.

“This spring, we’re delighted to present an array of one-of-a-kind programming,...

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 announced on January 31, 2024 that 8 more films have been added to the line-up. The number of films chosen for this year's festival comes to 63 in total, including The Special Opening Film and The Closing Film.

The films that have been added are:

[Competition]

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry / Georgia, Switzerland / Director: Elene Naveriani / 2023 / 110min / Japan Premiere

*The total number of films in Competition: 14 films

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

[Spotlight]

Tenement / Cambodia / Directors: Inrasothythep Neth,  Sokyou Chea / 2023 / 88min / Asia Premiere

[Spotlight] / [Special Program <Special Focus on Hong Kong 2024>]

Out of the Shadow / Hong Kong / Director: Ricky Ko / 2024 / 90min/ World Premiere

[Special Program <Thai Cinema Kaleidoscope 2024>]

Supposed / Thailand / Director: Thanakorn Pongsuwan / 2023 / 98min / International Premiere

Death Whisperer / Thailand / Director: Taweewat Wantha / 2023 / 121min / Japan Premiere

*The total number of films in this program: 8 films (including 2 films programmed in other sections)

[Special Program <Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2024>]

The Winter of 1905 / Hong Kong / Director: Yu Wei-Cheng / 1981 / 94min / Japan Premiere

*The total number of films in this program: 7 films (including 3 films programmed in other sections)

[Special Program <Special Focus on Hong Kong 2024>]

Nomad (4K Restored...

Blackbird Lands In Osaka

The Osaka Asian Film Festival has added eight more titles to its line-up, including the award-winning Georgian drama “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” which will play in competition.

Elene Naveriani’s “Blackbird,” about a middle-aged woman’s relationship decision, has had wide festival play in Europe and earned multiple prizes for lead actor Eka Chavleishvili.

Other additions are Cambodian directing duo Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea’s “Tenement”; the world premiere of Hong Kong director Ricky Ko’s “Out of the Shadow”; “Supposed,” by Thanakorn Pongsuwan and “Death Whisperer,” by Taweewat Wantha, which expand the festival’s selection of Thai films to eight; and “The Winter of 1905,” a 1981 film by Hong Kong director Yu Wei-Cheng, which joins the Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2024 special section.

Other revival inclusions are: the 4K restored director’s cut of Patrick Tam’s 1982 Hong Kong movie “Nomad” and “240 Hours in One Day,...

After a bumper 40th anniversary edition of IFFR Pro last year, there’s a sense that Rotterdam’s industry strand has fined tuned things rather than introduced major changes for 2024.

IFFR Pro centres around key initiatives including co-production market CineMart, talent development programme Rotterdam Lab, works in progress section Dark Room and financial support for filmmakers through the festival’s Hubert Bals Fund.

Head of IFFR Pro a.i. Alessia Acone, who is overseeing the industry strand while IFFR Pro head Inke Van Loocke is on maternity leave, says one of the main differences about CineMart this year is that...

Tamara Tatishvili is going full steam into her first edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which runs Jan. 25 – Feb. 4, following her appointment as the head of the festival’s funding arm, the Hubert Bals Fund. She started full-time in early January.

“I will use the festival to connect to professionals outside of IFFR, hosting informal think tank meetings with industry professionals, producers and sales agents within a close environment to see what their observations and ideas are, and how this could feed into the future thinking strategies of Hubert Bals Fund,” she tells Variety.

She went on to emphasize the importance of festivals from a funder’s point of view. “Festivals are key platforms to connect the stories funds help create to audiences. Audience engagement is a key topic. Funders and producers believe films need to be made to reach audiences. It’s how you create impact and how...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Something you often hear cinephiles proclaim is that “Every year is a good year in film.” Well, that’s obviously true––if one pays attention and knows where to look––but then there are also years that are simply better. To me, 2023 has turned out to be one of those.

It’s a year where the top festivals like Cannes, Berlin, and Venice all overperformed with stellar lineups. Geographically speaking, American/UK cinema can be proud of its output while productions from the rest of the world, especially France, Japan, Latin America, didn’t disappoint either. It’s also a year where not only indie/arthouse films delivered, but (some) blockbusters dared to get smart too. Even the presumed Oscar contenders this season include legitimate masterpieces in the mix.

2023 was a year of seemingly seismic change for the film industry, as superhero movies (especially Marvel) lost their grip on the box office while more auteur-led efforts such as Oppenheimer and Barbie made serious bank. Audiences seem hungry for a return to thoughtful and engaging efforts, voting for their wallets against a decade of cape-clad hegenomy in favour of more challenging (and visually interesting) cinema. But as with the majority of contemporary film analysis, these are mostly concerns for Hollywood. The international arthouse scene plugs away as usual, providing a diverse range of exciting visions that once again expand the very possibilities of the cinematic form. I went back and forth on this list several times, only coming to a final top ten this very morning. With courtroom drama, oddball romance, epic character study and even outright horror, this year’s selection subverted and expanded genre norms, showing that great cinema,...

“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” from Romania’s Radu Jude, added to its ever larger silverware collection, winning the top Albar Award at Spain’s Gijón Festival.

Gijón’s big win join not only a Special Jury Prize at August’s Locarno Film Festival, where the film was the most talked about – one of Jude’s aims– and lauded of competition titles among reviewers, plus a Chicago Silver Hugo best performance nod (Ilinca Manolache) in October and a Lisbon Fest Jury Prize late last month.

Over 61 editions, and most especially when José Luis Cienfuegos, now Valladolid chief, took over its reins in 1995, the Gijón-Xijón Film Festival (Ficx) has carved out an identity as highlighting edgier international auteurs and indie fare, moving into promoting often more singular movies from a burgeoning new generation of Spanish filmmakers, greeted with enthusiasm by discerning and predominantly YA audiences...

‘Slow’ and ‘Animalia’ both world premiered to acclaim at Sundance while ’The Hypnosis’ picked up prizes at Karlovy Vary.

Paris-based Totem Films has agreed a slew of deals for acclaimed Sundance premieres Slow and Animalia as well as Karlovy Vary-winning feature The Hypnosis.

Marija Kavtaradze’s second feature Slow has sold to KimStim for theatrical distribution in North America and to Conic Film for the UK and Ireland. It was also scooped up by Salzgeber in Germany, Filmin in Spain, Falcon for Indonesia, New Horizons in Poland and HBO for Eastern Europe.

Slow world premiered at Sundance this year in...

Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest leads the nominations for this year’s European Film Awards (EFAs), picking up five nominations, including for best film and best director, in nominations announced via video on Tuesday.

Zone of Interest, the U.K. official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category, also scored Efa nominations for best screenwriter, for Glazer, and best actress and best actor noms for leads Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel.

Hüller will be competing against herself in the best actress category, having picked up a second Efa nom for her starring role in Justine Triet’s courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. The Palme d’Or winner recieved four Efa noms, including for best European Film, best director for Triet and best screenplay for Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari.

Other best European film nominees include Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano from Italy,...

Elene Naveriani in Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

An unforgettable film about an extraordinary woman who gradually comes to see beyond the bounds of her very ordinary Georgian village life, Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry has been flying around the festival circuit and has just alighted at Belfast. With a stunning central performance by Eka Chavleishvili as shopkeeper Etero, it focuses on an unexpected middle aged romance, but the heroine’s journey takes her far beyond that on a voyage of self discovery. When Elene and I met up ahead of the festival, she explained how the story got a grip on her and how she felt compelled to bring that character to the screen.

“In 2020 there was the release of the new feminist novel by Tamta Melashvili, the writer. I was in Georgia. I was visiting the family, and I bought it because it's something that I always do. She's a very interesting author.

Swiss festival programmes 148 films for this year’s edition.

The Zurich Film Festival (Zff) has unveiled a line-up of 148 films for its 2023 edition which takes place from September 28 to October 8.

The festival’s Focus Competition – which showcases feature films and documentaries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland - has six world premieres. They include Swiss films The Driven One by Piet Baumgartner, a long-term study of students at the elite university Hsg St. Gallen, and road movie Return To Alexandria by Zurich-based Tamer Ruggli, which stars Nadine Labaki and Fanny Ardant.

Scroll down for Focus and Feature Film Competition line-up

Other...

Fund supports filmmakers from countries where funding and infrastructure is lacking or restrictive.

Tamara Tatishvili has been appointed as head of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)’s global film fund, the Hubert Bals Fund.

A strategy consultant, producer and programmer, Tatishvili is a former director of the Georgian National Film Center and is currently head of studies at Medici, a training and exchange forum for decision makers of international public film funds.

She will take up the position heading the Hubert Bals Fund following the departure of its previous head, Bianca Taal. Taal took over last year following a major restructure at the IFFR.

Georgian cinema continues to show thriving signs of life in Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, a film about a contently independent woman who is faced with the thrills and spills of companionship for the first time. A breakout at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes earlier this year and a deserved winner, last week, of both best film and actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Blackbird is the latest from Elene Naveriani, a 38-year-old director who co-wrote the script with the writer and feminist activist Tamta Melashvili. From that collaboration springs an unlikely tale about the shock of attraction, about how bodies appear depending on how we see them and who’s looking, and about the joys of touch and solitude and whether or not they need be mutually exclusive.

Naveriani’s third feature opens with swagger and a literal cliffhanger: Eto, our immediately likable champion of self-sufficiency, is out picking berries when she...

Mubi has snagged all rights for the film in Germany and Austria and will release it theatrically in those territories.

Paris-based international sales and production house Totem Films has sold Anna Roller’s road movie Dead Girls Dancing to Mubi for Germany and Austria following the film’s parallel Tribeca and Munich premieres in June, and has boarded the German writer-director’s second feature Manatee, which they will also co-produce.

Mubi has snagged all rights for the film and will release it theatrically in those territories.

Dead Girls Dancing, Roller’s debut feature, is produced by the company’s production...

Other prize winners included Philip Sotnychenko’s ’La Palisiada’ and Vladimir Perisic’s ’Lost Country’.

Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry was the big winner at the Sarajevo film festival’s awards ceremony on Friday (August 18), taking home prizes for best feature and best actress for Ekaterine Chavleishvili.

Scroll down for list of key winners

The Georgia-set romantic drama premiered in Directors’ Fortnight, and stars Chavleishvili as a prickly, self-sufficient woman whose life changes after she narrowly escapes a fatal accident. Totem are handling international sales.

Philip Sotnychenko won the €10,000 best director prize for Ukrainian cop thriller La Palisiada, which premiered at Rotterdam.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, Elene Naveriani’s Georgian drama about a 40-something independent woman who has an affair that triggers an existential awakening, has won the top prize for best film at the 2023 Sarajevo International Film Festival.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry star Ekaterine Chavleishvili also took the best actress honor at the Heart of Sarajevo awards, which were handed out in the Bosnian capital Friday night.

The best actor prize went to newcomer Jovan Ginic for his role in Vladimir Perisic’s Lost Country as a Serbian teenager in the 1990s, caught between student protests against the authoritarian regime of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and his loyalty to his mother, who happens to be the spokeswoman for the regime.

Ukrainian filmmaker Philip Sotnychenko won best director for La Palisiada, a slow-burning crime drama about two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist, who investigate the murder of their colleague in...

Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani clinched the Best Feature Award in the main international competition of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival with her latest pic Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry. The award comes with a €16,000 cash prize.

The film also picked up the Best Actress award for Ekaterine Chavleishvili, which comes with a €2,500 cash prize. Overall, eleven films battled it out in the main competition, and Mia Wasikowska’s jury—including MoMA Film Head Josh Siegel, actor Zlatko Burić, actress Danica Ćurčić, and director Juraj Lerotić, spread the love quite widely.

The Ukrainian pic La Palisiada won the Best Director Award for Philip Sotnychenko, while Jovan Ginić won the Best Actor prize for the Serbian film Lost Country. In the festival’s documentary section, the top prize went to Bottlemen by Slovenian director Nemanja Vojinović.

Check out the full list of winners below:

Honorary Heart of Sarajevo

Mark Cousins, director and screenwriter

Lynne Ramsay,...

Elene Naveriani’s “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” won the top prize, the Heart of Sarajevo Award for best feature film, Friday at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Georgian film, in which a stoically independent woman in her late 40s experiences a gentle existential awakening during an affair with a local deliveryman, also won the best actress prize for Ekaterine Chavleishvili’s performance.

The award for best director went to Ukraine’s Philip Sotnychenko for “La Palisiada,” and the best actor prize was picked up by Serbia’s Jovan Ginić — who won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award at Cannes — for “Lost Country.” Serbian director Nemanja Vojinović’s “Bottlemen” took the documentary film award.

The awards were given by a jury headed by actor Mia Wasikowska (“Club Zero”), which included Danish-Croatian actor Zlatko Burić (“Triangle of Sadness”), Serbian-Danish actor Danica Ćurčić (“The Chestnut Man”), Museum of Modern Art Department of Film...

Further Cannes titles to be selected include ’Firebrand’ and ’The Old Oak’.

The first titles in the running for the 2023 European Film Awards have been revealed by the European Academy, including Cannes premieres Anatomy Of A Fall, How To Have Sex, The Old Oak and Firebrand.

Anatomy Of A Fall won the Palme D’Or for French director Justine Triet at Cannes. The Hitchcockian mystery thriller is about a woman, played by Sandra Hüller, accused of murder when her husband dies of suspicious causes. Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion produce.

How To Have Sex won the top Un Certain Regard...

The European Film Academy has fired the starting gun in the race for the European Film Awards. It has recommended 19 films to its members who will then select the nominees from this list, as well as some additional titles from the summer festivals, which will be announced next month.

Among the selected films are Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall,” and the winner of its Jury Prize, “Fallen Leaves,” along with fellow Palme d’Or contenders “Kidnapped,” “Firebrand,” “La Chimera” and “The Old Oak.”

Other titles include “How to Have Sex,” which won the Un Certain Regard Award in Cannes, “The Animal Kingdom,” which also played in Un Certain Regard, Cannes Directors’ Fortnight titles “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” and “The Goldman Case,” and “Close Your Eyes,” which played in the Cannes Premiere section.

Also selected are “Afire,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale,...

Cannes Competition titles Anatomy Of A Fall, The Old Oak, and La Chimera are among the first set of titles recommended for nominations at this year’s European Film Awards.

Overall, 19 titles have been selected for the first stage of nominations by the European Film Academy Board. The selection includes films from seventeen countries. In the coming weeks, the 4,600 members of the European Film Academy will watch and vote for the selected films. The winners will be announced at the European Film Awards ceremony in Berlin on December 9.

Films eligible for the European Film Awards must be deemed European features, and have had their first official screening between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023. Eligible films must also have a European director. The rules state that if the director is not European, “provided they have a European refugee or similar status or have lived in Europe and worked in the European film industry...

Bono made a surprise appearance at the Sarajevo Film Festival this evening, where he accompanied the crew behind the U2-inspired Bosnian war documentary Kiss The Future, which opened the festival.

Bono was joined by his U2 band member The Edge on the red carpet at Bosnia’s National Theatre alongside CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, who also features in the doc, during which she recounts her time as a young reporter covering the Bosnian conflict.

Directed by filmmaker Nenad Cicin-Sain, Kiss the Future tells the story of the underground community that continued to work and live throughout the 1990s siege of Sarajevo. Amid the breakup of Yugoslavia, the citizens of Sarajevo woke up to find their city under siege and wider Bosnia at war.

Bono and Christiane Amanpour.

In a far-fetched scheme inspired by local resistance, Bill Carter, an American aid worker living in Sarajevo, reached out to the world...

When the Sarajevo Film Festival returned to full strength last year after successive, slimmed-down pandemic editions, a robust turn-out was to be expected. For nearly three decades, the audience-facing event has been the cultural lifeblood of the lively, cosmopolitan city it calls home.

The 2022 edition broke attendance records set in 2019, and just days after its online ticketing system launched this month, the fest appears on pace to surpass that mark again. It is a testament to the enduring love affair between a city and a festival that was founded in impossible circumstances in 1995, at the tail end of a brutal, four-year siege — proof that even in times of war and scarcity, cinema could endure.

The festival returns Aug. 11 – 18, with organizers insisting the event’s 29th edition will stay true to its roots. “We wanted to keep the festival focused on its main goals: presenting the best of cinema today to...

The Sarajevo Film Festival has long been the biggest showcase of Southeast European cinema and this year’s edition, which unspools on August 11, is on course to be its most reflective and regionally focused edition yet.

“Our manifesto has always been to support young filmmakers and productions from the region while rebuilding an international film industry around it and this year our aim is to strengthen that even further,” says festival director Jovan Marjanović, who is currently in his second year in the role after taking over from festival founder Mirsad Purivatra, who started the event in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War.

This year’s official selection will see 49 films compete for Heart of Sarajevo awards across its four competition sections – feature, documentary, short and student film – and included in this are 22 world, two international, 22 regional and three national premieres. Films in the official line-up include...