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Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

After over 14 months of no cinema-going, 2021 finally marked a return to theaters. The first film back––something every cinephile will forever have etched in their memory––was not a movie I heavily anticipated but one that thoroughly entertained: Guy Ritchie’s delightfully nasty B-movie Wrath of Man.

While the rest of the movie-going year had its ups and downs (the uncertain future of the arthouse marketplace as they attempt to find a footing in Disneyfied world), 2021’s cinematic output certainly wasn’t lacking for quality.

Looking back at the new releases, there’s a number of films that narrowly missed my top 15, including The French Dispatch, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, Days, The Beatles: Get Back, Annette, West Side Story, Siberia, Procession,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Year Two of a global pandemic was, in many ways, more difficult than the first. As the urgency around the coronavirus died down and its novelty wore off, we each had to continue on with our lives as disease (and its repercussions) raged on about us. If 2020 was about exposing the fragility of our current systems, then 2021 was about having to live with the missteps we took to get here. It’s appropriate, then, that many of the best films of the year reckoned with the wrongdoings of the past, investigated the sins that embedded themselves in our present without our knowing, and searched for ways to extract the poison so that it could not harm our future. Some films were more optimistic than others; The Matrix Resurrections...

Movie theaters are reopening and audiences are creeping back, but that’s only part of the story. As with last year’s shocking changes to the media landscape, no amount of shutdowns and shifting distribution paradigms could stop movies from getting out there, whether they came to small VOD entities or the biggest streaming platforms. And while the “movies versus TV” debate rages on, the cinema one hasn’t.

This year’s release calendar has been so loaded with feature-length wonders, many of which push the boundaries of art form, that even as we head straight into the belly of the “awards season” beast, our usual edict remains intact: Anyone who thinks this has been a bad year for movies simply hasn’t seen enough of them. And there are only more goodies to come.

Our list of the best movies of the year so far follows the same basic rules: In order to qualify,...

The Museum of Modern Art announced the lineup for the 14th annual edition of The Contenders on Friday. The film series will run from Nov. 4 through Jan. 22, 2022, primarily in person with a select number of virtual screenings.

The Contenders will open with Pablo Larraîn’s “Spencer,” the Princess Diana biopic starring Kristen Stewart. Larraîn and Stewart will appear for a conversation after the screening. The closing night film will be Sebastian Meise’s “Grosse Freiheit” which, translating to “Great Freedom,” is set in postwar Germany and follows the relationship between Hans, a man imprisoned for being homosexual, and his cellmate Viktor, a convicted murderer.

“This year’s Contenders lineup includes highly anticipated genre pics, new works by the most followed auteurs such as Jane Campion (‘The Power of the Dog’) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (‘Memoria’) and independent films that introduce emerging cinematic voices like Amalia Ulman (‘El Planeta’) and Ahmir ‘Questlove...

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.

About Endlessness (Roy Andersson)

“What should I do now that I have lost my faith?” is the question that animates About Endlessness; this being the new film by Roy Andersson, it is delivered in a doctor’s waiting room, over and over again, in a creaky voice, by a dumpy man in late middle age who continues his plaint even after the doctor and his receptionist gruntingly force him outside into the hallway, from whence they can hear him scratching at the door like a zombie. About Endlessness is Roy Andersson’s fourth film of this century; it looks much like the previous three, and nothing like anything else ever made. – Mark A. (full review)

Where to Stream: Hulu

Candyman (Nia DaCosta...

After offering up our picks for the best films of the first half of the year, we enter the second half with a strong release slate. Arriving this July is a stellar set of documentaries, a few promising wide releases, new films from some of the century’s most prolific directors, and much more. Check out my picks below.

15. Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) (Arie and Chuko Esiri)

Before an eventual Criterion release, Janus Films will bow the debut feature by Nigerian-raised, New York-educated twins Arie and Chuko Esiri, which recently played at Berlinale, New Directors/New Films, and more. David Katz said in his review, “Fatih Akin’s The Edge of Heaven and Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express have been directly cited by the filmmakers as inspirations for Eyimofe, and I would also mention Amores Perros for its interleaving structure and top-to-bottom dissection of a megalopolis, teeming with...

As the film industry attempts to regain its footing from a tumultuous year, it seems many of our most-anticipated (some long-delayed) titles will be arriving in the back half of 2021. But the midway point still has plenty to recommend. As we do each year, we’ve rounded up our favorite films thus far.

While year’s end will bring personal favorites from all our writers, think of the below entries (and honorable mentions) as a comprehensive rundown of what should be seen before heading forward. As a note: this feature is based solely on U.S. theatrical and digital releases from 2021, with the majority widely available, where listed.

We should also note a number of films that premiered on the festival circuit last year also had a qualifying award, therefore making them 2020 films by our standards—including I Carry You With Me, Minari, The Truffle Hunters, and The Father. Check out our picks below,...

Beauty & Banality: Andersson Ponders the Void in Potential Final Film

There might be no greater spiritual absurdist than Sweden’s premiere arthouse auteur Roy Andersson, who has sporadically been making films since the late 1960s, with only six narrative features in his highly revered oeuvre. Having labored for fourteen years on his famed Living Trilogy, which began with 2000’s Songs from the Second Floor (snatching the Jury Prize at Cannes) and ended with 2014’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Pondering Existence (read review), his unveiling of another standalone feature five years later with About Endlessness (winning Best Director in Venice 2019) was a surprise, furthering notions of this being the final narrative offering from Andersson.…...

Photo: ‘About Endlessness’ Filmmaker Roy Andersson could likely be the greatest director you've never heard of. Weighing heavily on the philosophic, Andersson is able to convey some extraordinarily poignant subtext in just a short vignette style of filmmaking. The Swedish auteur presents candid illustrations of mankind through evocative and unfeigned depictions of what makes humans so presently human and the moments in life that make you, individually you. This vignette approach affords Andersson a nearly limitless sense of scale, able to quickly move from protagonist to protagonist, purveying a sense of voyeuristic observance of a moment in time.Andersson has presented that this film will likely be his final production, retiring from the film industry. Related article: Oscars 2021 Winners: The 93rd Show With Record-Breaking Historic Successes, Shocks and Surprises Related article: A Tribute To The Academy Awards: All Best Actor/Actress Speeches From The Beginning Of Oscars 1929-2019 | From Rami Malek,...

Iconoclastic Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson has been long considered among the world’s top filmmakers, but he’s not the most prolific (just six films and two shorts in five decades). Andersson’s latest — and by credible accounts, the last — film, the bleakly, blackly comic “About Endlessness” (Om det oändliga), justly won Andersson the Silver Lion prize for Direction at the Venice International Film Festival in 2019— the first for a Swedish filmmaker—but it’s been a long, circuitous, possibly-pandemic-related delay in receiving the movie in North America.

Continue reading ‘About Endlessness’: Roy Andersson’s Reportedly Final Existential Statement Mixes Despair & Gentle Absurdism [Review] at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Roy Andersson broke out in a pretty big way with his debut feature in 1970, “A Swedish Love Story.” However, in more than 50 years since that film’s release, the director has only released five more features, including his latest, “About Endlessness.”

Read More: ‘About Endlessness’ Trailer: Roy Andersson Presents A Beautiful Peek At His Award-Winning Drama

With Andersson’s “About Endlessness” arriving today, we’re thrilled to present an exclusive clip from the film that showcases what makes his films so unique and interesting.

Continue reading ‘About Endlessness’ Exclusive Clip: Roy Andersson Returns With A New Reflection On Human Life at The Playlist.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

About Endlessness (Roy Andersson)

Watch an exclusive clip for the film, which is also now in theaters.

“What should I do now that I have lost my faith?” is the question that animates About Endlessness; this being the new film by Roy Andersson, it is delivered in a doctor’s waiting room, over and over again, in a creaky voice, by a dumpy man in late middle age who continues his plaint even after the doctor and his receptionist gruntingly force him outside into the hallway, from whence they can hear him scratching at the door like a zombie. About Endlessness is Roy Andersson’s fourth film of this...

Considering how dire last summer was for theatrical exhibition and the perpetually-in-flux release calendar, we opted to forgo our standard preview of the season. However, with theaters beginning to reopen across the country and promising releases on the horizon, there’s thankfully enough to warrant a summer movie preview this year. While potentially worthwhile studio offerings are still a bit slim, there’s still plenty to see over the next four months. As a note, while May usually indicates the start of the season, we’ve included a handful of films arriving on the last day of April, this Friday, that will roll out over the next month.

Check out our picks below and return for monthly updates as more is sure to be added to the calendar.

About Endlessness (Roy Andersson; April 30)

“What should I do now that I have lost my faith?” is the question that animates About Endlessness...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This week, […]

The post This Week In Trailers: A Space In Time, Vanquish, About Endlessness, Us Kids, Monday appeared first on /Film.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Radu Jude's Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn. Radu Jude's Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn has won the Golden Bear at the 71st Berlinale. See the list of this year's award winners here. Recommended VIEWINGFeminist film journal Another Gaze has announced the upcoming launch of its free streaming platform, Another Screen, which will be available worldwide from March 12. Programming will begin with a retrospective dedicated to the late Italian filmmaker Cecilia Mangini. The official trailer for Roy Andersson's About Endlessness, which won Best Director at the Biennale in 2019. Read Leonardo Goi's Venice review of the film here.Janus Films has released its trailer for the restoration of Eric Rohmer's Tale of Four Seasons, an elegant cycle of moral parables. Until March 23, viewers have the opportunity to watch Tsai Ming-Liang's Madam...

In the nearly 50 years that she has served as the director of Film Forum, Karen Cooper has seen more than a few threats to the future of the moviegoing experience. “The fact that you could take the damn box home and watch the movie was a real sea change,” Cooper said in an interview this week, remembering the mid-’80s rise of the VHS. “Our numbers went down terribly for a couple of years. Then the newness of it wore off and the public became sensitized to that experience being entirely different to sitting in a theater. It’s just not the same thing as your own living room. People said that was the death of cinema.”

Still, those challenges pale in comparison to the past 12 months. On Monday, it will be exactly once year since New York’s venerated arthouse closed its doors as pandemic shutdowns took hold. Since then,...

Closing out the decade, Roy Andersson’s About Endlessness premiered at the Venice Film Festival back in the fall of 2019, with hopes we’d see it sometime soon as it was picked up by Magnolia Pictures. Then the pandemic happened, pushing a 2020 summer release to that fall, then another delay to 2021. Thankfully, it’s now arriving next month both in theaters and on demand––specifically on April 30––and a new trailer and poster have arrived.

Mark Asch said in our review, “About Endlessness is Roy Andersson’s fourth film of this century; it looks much like the previous three, and nothing like anything else ever made. Mostly unrelated blackout scenes are shot on forced-perspective studio sets stripped bare of the real world; minor-key moments of human angst, like a waiter ineffectually mopping up a red wine spill with an absolutely sodden towel, or a housewife’s half-consoling, half-embittered impatience with...

"What should I do now that I lost my faith?" Magnolia Pictures has released their own official US trailer for About Endlessness, the final film from iconic Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. This first premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, where Andersson won Best Director, primarily as a nod to all of his work over the years.. Andersson's last film before this was A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence in 2014, and this one looks just as bleak and absurd and fascinating. As is usual with his films anyway, this one only features a description says it is "a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendour and banality." Featuring Tatiana Delaunay and Martin Serner. Andersson is one of those funky niche filmmakers that not many are familiar with, but he has a very distinct style and I recommend exploring his work if you're brave enough.

Trying to describe the context of images you see in the new trailer for “About Endlessness” is a difficult task. The synopsis of the film (seen below) calls the feature a “reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty.” But one thing is abundantly clear from the footage shown, filmmaker Roy Andersson has crafted a gorgeous piece of art.

Each frame of the trailer (let alone the finished film) for “About Endlessness” could be its own painting.

Continue reading ‘About Endlessness’ Trailer: Roy Andersson Presents A Beautiful Peek At His Award-Winning Drama at The Playlist.

Swedish director Roy Andersson is back with another tragicomic, vignette-based look at the absurd theater of life and death. “About Endlessness” first world-premiered at the Venice Film Festival back in the fall of 2019, where it won Andersson the Silver Lion for Best Director. Now, it is set for a release in theaters and on demand on April 30 from Magnolia Pictures.

The latest film from the revered and much-decorated director of “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence,” “You, the Living,” and “Songs From the Second Floor,” “About Endlessness” weaves together multiple, visually arresting segments to construct a larger narrative about mankind’s lack of awareness. This one is a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality.

We wander, dreamlike, guided by a female voice, who occupies the role of Scheherazade from “Arabian Nights,” guiding us from one skit to another along the periphery of a war.

Films by women writer-directors including Rose Glass, Sarah Gavron, Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell scored the most nominations for the 41st London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, which were announced on Tuesday.

Glass’s horror film “Saint Maud” earned eight nominations, including film, director, screenwriter, actress (Morfydd Clark), supporting actress (Jennifer Ehle) and British/Irish film of the year, while Clark is also nominated for British/Irish actress.

Sarah Gavron’s coming-of-age tale “Rocks” scored six nominations, Chloé Zhao’s road movie “Nomadland” five, and Emerald Fennell’s black comedy “Promising Young Woman” four. David Fincher’s biopic “Mank” and Steve McQueen’s house-party film “Lovers Rock” also had four nominations each.

The late Chadwick Boseman received nominations for his lead role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and his supporting role in “Da 5 Bloods.” Other multiple acting nominees include Morfydd Clark, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan, Riz Ahmed, Vanessa Kirby, Sacha Baron Cohen and Bukky Bakray.

Multiple nominations for ‘Nomadland’ and ‘Promising Young Woman’.

Rose Glass’ debut feature Saint Maud heads the nominations at the 41st London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, with eight nominations including film of the year and director of the year.

The horror film is also up for British/Irish film of the year, with further nominations for Glass in screenwriter and breakthrough British/Irish filmmaker, and Morfydd Clark in both actress and British/Irish actress of the year (the latter also for her role in Eternal Beauty).

Rocks, another UK title directed by Sarah Gavron with associate director Anu Henriques, received six...

We don’t want to overwhelm you, but while you’re catching up with our top 50 films of 2020, more cinematic greatness awaits in 2021. Ahead of our 100 most-anticipated films (all of which have yet to premiere), we’re highlighting 40 titles we’ve enjoyed on the festival circuit this last year (and beyond) that either have confirmed 2020 release dates or are awaiting a debut date from its distributor. There’s also a handful of films seeking distribution that we hope will arrive in the next 12 months, which can be seen here.

As an additional note, a number of 2020 films that had one-week qualifying runs will also get expanded releases in 2021, including Nomadland, Gunda, Minari, Dear Comrades!, I Carry You With Me, The Truffle Hunters, Night of the Kings, One Night in Miami, Pieces of a Woman, and Herself.

About Endlessness (Roy Andersson)

“What should I do now that I have lost my faith?...

Selection includes five documentaries.

Thomas Vinterberg’s Danish Oscar entry Another Round, Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s animation Wolfwalkers and Kitty Green’s #MeToo-era drama The Assistant are among the 17 films longlisted for the British Independent Film Award (BIFA) for best international independent film.

The longlist is the latest to be revealed this week, following the first three new talent categories on Tuesday and yesterday’s most promising newcomer list. The final longlist, for best documentary, will be revealed tomorrow.

Scroll down for the full international film longlist

Cannes 2020 label selection Another Round premiered at Toronto in September. It...

Roy Andersson’s latest film, possibly his last, offers more deadpan glimpses into the Swedish director’s surreal and sometimes horrific imagination

This typically humanist compendium of human frailty from the creator of the acclaimed “Living Trilogy” has been described by some as Roy Andersson’s final feature. That’s certainly the impression the Swedish film-maker himself gave in Fred Scott’s recent superb documentary Being a Human Person, in which Andersson is captured on camera struggling to complete what is only his sixth feature in as many decades. Following on from the Golden Lion winner A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2015), it’s tempting to read About Endlessness as an autumnal closing statement for his singular oeuvre. Yet in reality it is both less weighty and more open-ended than that, feeling at times like a familiar compilation of poignant outtakes and self-contained curios from a still vibrant body of work.

Roy Andersson has always had an eye for the absurdities of human life - both the beautiful and the bleak - and his latest and, in all likelihood, his last, film continues in the same vein. There is more melancholy in About Endlessness, however, than in his preceding 'Living Trilogy', as despite moments of humour and hopefulness, its dominant themes are regret and loss.

In fact, it's the sense of time passing, rather than being unending, that marks out one of the first of his trademark vignettes, as a couple watch geese flying south for the winter. "It's September already." says one. "How late it is," you can feel Andersson reminding us "how late." There's nostalgia for the everyday as well as a sense of the familiar, and those who make the time to catch documentary Being A Human Person, which charts Andersson making of the film, will also see the influence of his.

Swedish auteur Roy Andersson’s latest is another masterpiece of the human condition, ranging from the evils of war to the redemptive power of love

Maybe at the age of 78 he feels he’s approaching the end … of his career, of his life, of everything. Despite or because of it, Swedish auteur Roy Andersson has called his latest movie About Endlessness. And though this might not be his final film (a recent documentary hinted that he has been working on some new ideas) there is a paradox there. Just as he sees death looming up in the foreground, Andersson lifts his eyes beyond the finale of all flesh to the receding horizon of mysterious infinity, that minutely detailed distance that he always fabricates in his films.

About Endlessness is another of Andersson’s superb anthologies of the human condition: people with a zombie-white pallor enclosed in enigmatic tableaux, populating his...

Cinemas in Wales and Scotland and some islands remain open.

UK film distributors are quickly putting new release plans in place in response to the government’s new lockdown rules which will see cinemas close in England tomorrow (Thursday November 5) for four weeks.

But not all films are being postponed – and some are even proceeding with theatrical release, since cinemas remain open in parts of Scotland and on islands such as Guernsey and Isle Of Man. Wales is set to emerge from its “firebreak” next week, and cinemas in the nation are accepting bookings. Nothern Ireland’s cinemas may also...

Bookmark this page for all the latest international feature submissions.

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2021 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

Scroll down for the full list

The 93rd Academy Awards is set to take place on April 25, 2021. It was originally set to be held on February 28, before both the ceremony and eligibility period were postponed for two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Submitted films must have been released in their respective countries between the expanded dates of October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. (Last year it was October-September.

Bookmark this page for all the latest international feature submissions.

Submissions for the best international feature film award at the 2021 Academy Awards have started to come in, and Screen is keeping a running list of each film below.

Scroll down for the full list

The 93rd Academy Awards is set to take place on April 25, 2021. It was originally set to be held on February 28, before both the ceremony and eligibility period were postponed for two months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Submitted films must have been released in their respective countries between the expanded dates of October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. (Last...

The Swedish director, known for his brilliant dreamlike visions and gags, is celebrated in this documentary set around his latest film, About Endlessness

The amazing artistry of 77-year-old Swedish director Roy Andersson is illuminated in this tribute, a documentary that follows the work on his latest film, About Endlessness, which emerged last year to much acclaim at the Venice film festival (and which is due for UK release in November). Andersson himself is renowned for his brilliant tragicomic visual gags and dreamlike visions, with hints of Beckett, Fellini and Monty Python.

Andersson emerges here as a slightly mysterious figure, smiling beatifically like the much-loved elder statesman that he is, speaking in general terms about his art addressing the frailty and vulnerability of human nature, but giving little away about himself. The documentary creates what looks like a rather artificial narrative crisis about his heavy drinking: we glimpse him furtively swigging...

"Our process is so strange." Curzon's Artificial Eye has unveiled an official trailer for a cinema documentary titled Being a Human Person, profiling and examining the life and career of acclaimed, beloved, spunky Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. If you've never seen his films, you must watch them. A deeply moving documentary from Grammy-nominated director Fred Scott, Being a Human Person explores the life and work of Swedish auteur Roy Andersson - director of films including A Pigeon Sat on a Bench Reflecting on Existence, A Swedish Love Story, Songs from the Second Floor, and You, the Living. His final film, titled About Endlessness, premiered last year and is (supposedly) Andersson's final work. For now. This enjoyable doc examines his career and what makes him so unique (and his filmmaking process), and for those who've never been able to understand him, this might be the perfect insight into his mind and his art.

Read about all the leading titles coming to cinemas.

France, opening Wednesday October 7

Mainstream French comedies and dramas topped the release schedule in France once again this week, in the absence of US studio titles.

The biggest release of the week was romantic comedy The ABCs Of Love for Ugc Distribution on some 480 prints. Rising star Vincent Dedienne plays a thirtysomething babysitter, who unwittingly gets entangled in the parent teacher association of the school that his nine-year-old charge attends but finds love along the way.

Other local features included long triangle drama Dreamchild, starring Jalil Lespert, Louise Bourgoin and Mélanie Doutey...

Diving drama also closes new deals for Canada, China, Japan and Turkey.

Music Box Films has acquired US rights to survival drama Breaking Surface from TrustNordisk.

The company plans a late 2020 release under its genre film label, Doppelgänger Releasing.

TrustNordisk has also newly sold the film to Canada (Mongrel); China (Ascent Films); Japan (Gaga Communications) and Turkey (Filmarti).

Joachim Hedén directs Moa Gammel and Madeleine Martin in the story of Swedish/Norwegian half-sisters who go on a winter diving trip in Northern Norway, where they get trapped underwater after a rockslide. The film shot on location in Sweden and Norway,...

Altitude’s ‘Rocks’ opens in the UK and Ireland.

France, opening Wednesday, September 16

Two French Cannes 2020 titles were the biggest openers in France this week. Caroline Vignal’s comedy-drama My Lover, My Donkey & I opened on around 460 copies for Diaphana Distribution. This second feature for Vignal stars the popular actress as a school teacher who sets off on a donkey trekking holiday in hot pursuit of her secret lover.

Emmanuel Mouret’s contemporary love-triangle drama Love Affair(s) also launched on around 460 copies for Pyramide Distribution. Camelia Jordana co-stars opposite Niels Schneider and Vincent Macaigne as a pregnant young woman...

Gregoire Ludig, David Marsais star in slacker comedy.

Magnolia Pictures has picked up US rights to Quentin Dupieux’s surreal French comedy Mandibles, one of the most talked-about films at Venice Film Festival.

The film earned a strong reception on the Lido and stars Gregoire Ludig and David Marsais as friends who try to train a giant fly they find in the boot of a car in the hope of getting rich.

The cast includes Adele Exarchopoulos, India Hair, Romeo Elvis, Coralie Russier, and Bruno Lochet.

Hugo Selignac and Vincent Mazel produced Mandibles for Paris-based Chi-Fou-Mi Productions. Patrick Quinet of...

The fall movie season is here. While we won’t be doing our typically massive preview of the four months ahead considering how in flux the release calendar has been, we’ll still be sharing monthly overviews of the top films to see. While September brings, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF (follow our coverage here), there’s a strong lineup of new releases as well, a handful of which are coming only to theaters––a rare sight these past six months.

10. Tenet (Christopher Nolan: Sept. 3)

Although it already starting rolling out in the United States, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet will officially land in more theaters starting this Labor Day weekend. While the hype unfortunately doesn’t seem to be justified, for those still curious about the spectacle, the director seems to have delivered on that front. Hanna Flint said in our review, “No line in recent cinematic history has felt...

Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness” and Tsai Ming-liang’s “Days” are among the highlights of the Masters and Auteurs section of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival. The festival will hold screenings in front of live audiences next month.

It had originally been scheduled to take place in March, but was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The 44th edition will now run Aug. 18-31.

“Endlessness” earned Andersson the best director award at the Venice festival last year. While another selection, Pedro Costa’s “Vitalina Varela” earned the top prize at the Locarno festival last August.

Other films in the section include: “Balloon” by Pema Tseden; “Ema” by Pablo Larrain; “It Must Be Heaven,” by Elia Suleiman; “Marghe and Her Mother” by Mohsen Makhmalbaf; and “The Cordillera of Dreams” by Patricio Guzman.

The festival says that it expects to round out the section with other titles by Bruno Dumont,...

Publicists have been hard hit by cinema closures and festival cancellations.

Film publicists from around the world would have been heading into their busiest weekend of the year in the South of France on Friday (May 15) had the Cannes Film Festival not been forced to abandon its May 12-23 dates due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Instead, most are sitting at home, wondering when they will be able to crank up their activities again as lockdowns start to ease but cinemas in many countries remain closed for now.

Against this backdrop, a group of top French film publicists have launched a...

Movie theaters in Norway will be allowed to reopen on Friday after a near two-month shutdown, but drastic sanitary measures and a dearth of new films means many cinemas are staying closed.

Approved last week, the government’s decision to jump-start theaters caught exhibitors by surprise, and many haven’t had enough time to get prepared, meaning “it will be a soft launch,” according to Ivar Halstvedt, who previously ran the Sf Kino and Odeon cinema chains in Norway, and has been advising the exhibitors’ body Film & Kino.

The current health guidelines are limiting admissions to 50 people per screen, with a minimum of one meter in between each patron, and one in every two rows remaining empty.

“That means that in an auditorium of 200 seats, only 50 tickets can be sold,” said Jan Langlo, who heads the country’s network of cinematheques on behalf of the Norwegian Film Institute. The cinematheque...

Cph:dox, the Danish documentary film festival, has cancelled its opening night gala after Denmark’s government responded to the growing spread of coronavirus by asking organizers to pull events featuring more than 1,000 people. The event had been due to kick off with a screening of Kenneth Sorento’s The Fight For Greenland. The festival will otherwise go ahead as planned, with heightened hygiene procedures, unless the government introduces more severe measures to combat Covid-19, organizers said in a statement today.

This year’s Dublin International Film Festival closed over the weekend, with John Connors’ debut feature documentary Endless Sunshine On A Cloudy Day scooping the audience award. Phyllida Lloyd’s Herself, which premiered at Sundance, closed the festival as a gala screening and also took the Human Rights Film Award. Actor Liam Cunningham received the inaugural Lifetime Contribution Award. Elsewhere, Milje Li’s Confucian Dream won in the Documentary Competition,...

Swedish director was due to take part in a festival retrospective.

Swedish director Roy Andersson has been forced to cancel his appearance at the Berlinale “due to health issues”.

The 76-year-old filmmaker was due to take part in retrospective programme On Transmission, which is marking the 70th edition of the festival.

Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian called on seven directors - whose films have shaped the festival - to select a fellow filmmaker. Both would screen their films before sitting down for an on-stage discussion.

Andersson was due to attend on Wednesday (Feb 26) with his 1970 feature A Swedish Love Story,...

Alexander Rodnyansky, the producer of Cloud Atlas and Cannes-honored and Oscars-shortlisted Beanpole, is launching a new Russian festival focused on foreign films. The first edition will feature, among others, Sam Mendes' 1917 and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life.

Titled Kinotavr. Special Edition as a reference to the Russian national festival Kinotavr, of which Rodnyansky is president, the festival will run for the first time in Moscow from late January through early February.

Among other titles that will be screened are Hirokazu Kore-eda's La verité (The Truth), Roy Andersson's Om det oändliga (About Endlessness), Ala Eddine Slim's Tlamess, Amjad Abu Alala's You ...

Alexander Rodnyansky, the producer of Cloud Atlas and Cannes-honored and Oscars-shortlisted Beanpole, is launching a new Russian festival focused on foreign films. The first edition will feature, among others, Sam Mendes' 1917 and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life.

Enitled Kinotavr. Special Edition as a reference to the Russian national festival Kinotavr, of which Rodnyansky is president, the festival will run for the first time in Moscow from late January through early February.

Among other titles that will be screened are Hirokazu Koreeda's La verité (The Truth), Roy Andersson's Om det oändliga (About Endlessness), Ala Eddine Slim's Tlamess, Amjad Abu Alala's You ...

Mike Downey has taken over from Agnieszka Holland.

UK-Irish producer Mike Downey, the new chairman of the European Film Academy (Efa), took an immediate stand against sexual harassment in the film industry in his first public speech at the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday (December 7).

“The European Film Academy deplores violence against women in all its forms,” said Downey, who has succeeded Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland as chairman.

He addressed the controversy surrounding Roman Polanski’s An Officer And A Spy which was nominated for four awards including best film and best director. The film fell out of...

Mike Downey has taken over from Agnieszka Holland.

UK-Irish producer Mike Downey, the new chairman of the European Film Academy (Efa), took an immediate stand against sexual harassment in the film industry in his first public speech at the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday (December 7).

“The European Film Academy deplores violence against women in all its forms,” said Downey, who has succeeded Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland as chairman.

He addressed the controversy surrounding Roman Polanski’s An Officer And A Spy which was nominated for four awards including best film and best director. The film fell out of...

With a programme comprising 150 movies, including 18 world premieres, the most prestigious and oldest film event in the Middle East starts its nine-day run on 20 November. The Cairo International Film Festival (Ciff), which is celebrating reaching its 41st edition this year, will open with a screening of Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated new film The Irishman. The Us director’s 219-minute oeuvre, starring Al Pacino and Robert de Niro, will have its Middle Eastern premiere in Egypt, prior to its 22 November release on Netflix. The Ciff is one of the last “category A” events of the season, and as such, it nicely rounds off the 2019 clutch of such festivals, presenting 150 films from 63 countries. The programme offers 18 world and 17 international premieres, as well as screenings of many festival darlings, such as Little Joe by Jessica Hausner, About Endlessness by Roy Andersson, The Lighthouse by Robert...

Magnolia Pictures has acquired the U.S. rights to “About Endlessness,” a Swedish drama from director Roy Andersson, the distributor announced Monday. Magnolia plans to release the film theatrically in 2020.

Andersson, the director of “You, The Living” and “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence,” won Best Director at the Venice International Film Festival where the film made its premiere. It made its North American premiere at Tiff.

His latest film, “About Endlessness,” is a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality. We wander, dreamlike, gently guided by our Scheherazade-esque narrator. Inconsequential moments take on the same significance as historical events: a couple floats over a war-torn Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father stops to tie his daughter’s shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance outside a cafe; a defeated army marches to a prisoner-of-war camp.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to “About Endlessness” following its best director win at this year’s Venice International Film Festival.

It reunites the company with Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson, who previously directed Magnolia’s 2015 release “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence.” The indie studio is planning a 2020 theatrical bow for the film.

“About Endlessness” presents a dreamy look at both the historical and the banal, taking viewers through a kaleidoscope of experiences — a couple floats over a war-torn Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father stops to tie his daughter’s shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance outside a cafe; a defeated army marches to a prisoner-of-war camp.

In a positive review, Variety‘s Guy Lodge wrote, “short, bittersweet and exquisitely imagined, Roy Andersson’s latest compilation of mordant existential sketches finds him on familiar turf, and that’s fine.

Horror film “Midsommar” did it last year. A new adaptation of the Swedish classic “The Emigrants” will do it next year. Prestigious productions that could have taken advantage of beautiful Swedish locations and craft expertise continue to run away to foreign locations for lower costs and tax incentives.

Despite having a strong film industry creatively – recent Swedish films include Roy Andersson’s Toronto Film Festival player “About Endlessness” and Sweden’s Oscar entry in the International Feature Film category, Levan Akin’s “And Then We Danced” – Sweden is among a forlorn group of just four countries in the European Union and the European Economic Area that still don’t have a national government-funded film and TV filming incentive.

Whereas Finland, Norway and Iceland, with their 25% incentives, are more sought after location destinations for foreign producers, Sweden and Denmark – the most prolific countries of Nordic cinema – are still waiting for their...