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The five nominees for the 2020 Nordic Council Film Prize have just been announced, sporting a solid quintet of award and festival favourites. For the 18th time around, sharp-minded juries based in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have each picked their brilliant brains in search of the most splendid national representative of their respective national cinema, as dictated by the nomination procedure of the Nordic Council Film Awards. From Denmark comes Frelle Petersen’s mild-mannered story of the barren Danish countryside, Uncle. From Finland, devoid of such manners is the existential Bdsm comedy Dogs Don’t Wear Pants by J.-P. Valkeapää. Iceland is represented by Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Echo, a tour-de-force journey into modern society, made up of 56 different scenes. From Norway comes Beware of Children, the story of an accidental death of a young boy and the consequences of it among the many affected parties, meticulously written, directed and fine-tuned.

This year’s selection will be announced over two waves to account for pandemic conditions.

The first 32 features up for the 2020 European Films Awards has been announced with a second wave of “pandemic year” titles due to be revealed in September.

Scroll down for first selection of films

The titles include Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History Of David Copperfield and Viggo Mortensen’s Falling as well as Berlinale award-winners Undine, by Christian Petzold; Hidden Away, by Giorgio Diritti; Bad Tales, by the D’Innocenzo Brothers; Dau. Natasha, by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel; and Delete History, by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern.

Venice Days pic “Beware of Children” and Sundance alumnus “Charter” are among the five Nordic films nominated for the coveted Nordic Council Film Prize.

“Beware of Children” was directed by Norwegian scribe/helmer Dag Johan Haugerud and produced by Yngve Sæther. The drama is set in the aftermath of a tragic event in a suburb of Oslo, where the teenage daughter of a prominent Labour Party member seriously injured her classmate, the son of a high profile right-wing politician, during a school break.

“Charter,” meanwhile, world premiered at this year’s Sundance festival and marks Swedish director/screenwriter Amanda Kernell’s second feature following “Sami Blood.” “Charter” is a character study of a flawed mother who impulsively embarks on a perilous attempt to reconnect with her children after leaving them with their father to start a new life in Stockholm. “Charter” was produced by Lars G. Lindström and Eva Åkergren.

Titles are from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

This year’s five nominees for the Nordic Council Film Prize 2020 have been unveiled as the New Nordic Films market kicks off in Haugesund.

The lucrative prize, now in its 18th year, comes with an award of $55,300, which is shared equally between the screenwriter, director and producer,

Films are chosen by national committees in the five Nordic countries, with this criteria: “The nominated films must have deep roots in Nordic culture, be of high artistic quality, distinguish themselves by their artistic originality, and combine and elevate the many elements of film...

On Friday, at the 2020 Winter Television Critics Association (TCA) Press Tour, Hulu announced a straight-to-series order for a series starring comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short.

Described as a series about “three strangers who share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one,” it is co-created by Martin and John Hoffman (“Grace & Frankie”), who will serve as executive producers alongside “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman. The project hails from 20th Century Fox Television.

“Hulu’s success in original content is driven by highly curated programming from world class talent, said Craig Erwich, Svp of Originals, Hulu. “From the Steve Martin project, second series orders of ‘Ramy’ and ‘Dollface,’ to shows like ‘Little Fires Everywhere,’ our momentum in original content is stronger than ever.”

This series is the latest creative offering to come out of Martin and Short’s 35-plus year friendship and comedic collaboration.

After two straight-to series orders on the comedy side to Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s Mayor half-hour starring Ted Danson and Dwayne Johnson and Nahnatchka Khan’s Young Rock, as well as a pilot order to Night School, NBC has given its first drama greenlight this cycle, handing a pilot pickup to Debris.

The sci-fi drama hails from Almost Human creator J.H. Wyman and Legendary Television.

Written by Wyman, Debris is said to be in the vein of The X-Files and Men In Black. In it, two agents from two different continents, and two different mindsets, must work together to investigate when wreckage from a destroyed alien spacecraft has mysterious effects on humankind.

Wyman executive produces through his Frequency Films alongside Jason Hoffs.

Debris has been one of several buzzed about early NBC drama scripts, several of them in the high-concept/sci-fi genre. Others that are being talked about include Echo,...

The Museum of Modern Art has unveiled its full festival lineup of 28 features and shorts for Doc Fortnight 2020, its annual showcase of the best of nonfiction film, on Monday. The list includes the latest works from the likes of Michael Almereyda, Terrence Nance, Denis Côté, Sky Hopinka, Lucretia Martel, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ben Rivers, Lynn Sachs, Kazuhiro Soda, Roger Ross Williams, Maya Khoury and the Abounaddara Collective.

Now in its 19th year, Doc Fortnight will run from February 5 to 19, 2020, and will include 12 world premieres, 17 North American premieres, and 14 Us premieres from 38 countries. Doc Fortnight 2020 opens with the New York premiere of “Crip Camp,” a portrait of Camp Jened—a camp for disabled teenagers near Woodstock, New York, that thrived in the late 1960s and ’70s—which established a close-knit community of campers who would become pioneering disability advocates. The film is co-directed and produced by Nicole Newnham and James Lebrecht,...

After highlighting the most overlooked films of 2019 with our 50 favorite movies that made less than $100K at the U.S. box office, today we’re putting a spotlight on the truly overlooked: the 30 films (and honorable mentions) that we loved on the festival circuit that are still seeking U.S. distribution.

Acting also as a 2020 preview, we hope that highlighting these titles spurs some distributor interests and a release in the next twelve months. Featuring favorites from Berlinale, Cannes, Locarno, Tiff, Nyff, and beyond, make sure to follow us on Twitter to get the latest distribution updates. As we move into a new decade, one can also track all of our festival coverage here.

Bait (Mark Jenkin)

For his debut feature, writer-director-cinematographer Mark Jenkin takes a parable about a contemporary fishing community under threat from wealthy outsiders and presents it in a style reminiscent of documentaries of the early 20th century,...

Valentyn Vasyanovych’s “Atlantis,” a dystopian film set in war-torn Ukraine, won the Crystal Arrow Award of the 11th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival.

The film, which won the top prize at Venice’s Horizons section this year, takes place in 2025 in Eastern Ukraine after a ten-year war against Russia which has left the country in ruins. “Atlantis” follows two war veterans, Sergiy (Andriy Rymaruk) and a mate, who are both affected by the war and are living in an abandoned building.

Presided over by the French filmmaker Guillaume Nicloux, the jury was comprised of Santiago Amigorena, the Colombian screenwriter, producer and author, Mélanie De Biasio, the Belgian musician, Nina Hoss, the German actor, Atiq Rahimi, the Afghan director, and Antoine Reinartz, the French actor.

Besides the Cystal Arrow prize, five other kudos were handed out at les Arcs, including the Grand Jury Prize which went to Sarah Gavron’s “Rocks,...

Wile E. Coyote is destined for the big-screen as Variety has reported that Dave Green, best known for directing Earth To Echo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows, has been tapped to helm the Wile E. Coyote movie for Warner Bros. [Seemore] Dave Green will also help to develop Coyote Vs. Acme, which will be a live-action/animated hybrid. The search is currently underway for a…...

Cue the falling pianos: Warner Bros.’ Wile E. Coyote movie, “Coyote vs. Acme,” is one step closer to the big screen, having secured director Dave Green.

Green will help develop the live action-animation hybrid, which is currently seeking a writer. The animated feature follows the infamous Looney Tunes prairie woof whose objective is obliterating his nemesis Road Runner. Acme is the fictional company that provides Coyote with his many weapons, all of which invariably fail, leaving him squashed flat or burnt to a crisp.

Green most recently helmed 2016’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” which was released by Paramount and earned over $245 million worldwide. Prior to that, he directed the cult animated film “Earth to Echo,” about a group of kids who come to the rescue of a visiting alien. He is a protege of Sam Raimi, and a prolific music video and short film director. Green is with UTA,...