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Where high-pressure environments often dictate long shooting hours, moments of levity can make a huge difference. Some actors have been known to employ various antics to lighten the mood and keep the energy up on set. Among those, is Rhys Ifans, a Welsh actor known for his versatility.

Ewan McGregor, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Rhys Ifans in Mother Couch (2023) | Image via Film Movement.

He can play characters ranging from the eccentric Spike in Notting Hill to the calculating Otto Hightower in HBO’s House of the Dragon. Ifans’ knack for mischief didn’t just get him into trouble on one set, it’s become somewhat of a calling card, leaving co-stars both frustrated and in stitches.

Rhys Ifans’ Hilarious Habit That Makes House of the Dragon Cast Break Character Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower and Rhys Ifans as Ser Otto Hightower in House of the Dragons | HBO

Rhys Ifans, who plays Otto Hightower,...

Swedish film director Niclas Larsson’s debut work Mother, Couch is a prime example of an interesting idea bogged down by artistic demands, with the latter being forced upon the said idea and not stemming out of it. The film is based on an unusual premise, as two brothers have to face a difficult time when their elderly mother decides to sit on a couch at a furniture store with no intention of leaving. The dialogue, screenplay, and overall pacing all make it seem like Mother, Couch does not want to take you forward, and the film ultimately ends up feeling too empty and insignificant to watch.

Spoiler Alert

What is the film about?

Loosely based on a Swedish novel named “Mamma i soffa” by Jerker Virdborg, Mother, Couch begins in an empty parking lot with a man running towards an adjacent building, clutching a women’s handbag. Two lines...

It doesn’t sound like HBO thinks Tim Robinson should leave, after all. In fact, the premium network just ordered a new series from the comedian, titled “The Chair Company.”

The half-hour comedy, which was granted a pilot order in April, follows a man named William Ronald Trosper (Robinson), who finds himself “investigating a far-reaching conspiracy” after an embarrassing incident at work.

Robinson and Zach Kanin, who created “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson” together, will serve as writers and executive producers for “The Chair Company.” Adam McKay and Todd Schulman also executive produce for HyperObject Industries, with Igor Srubshchik serving as an EP and Andrew DeYoung directing and executive producing the pilot.

The supporting cast for the series includes Lake Bell as Barb Trosper, Sophia Lillis as Natalie Trosper, Will Price as Seth Trosper and Joseph Tudisco as Mike Santini. Lou Diamond Phillips also guest stars in...

Taylor Russell broke down while presenting Ellen Burstyn with the Liberatum Pioneer Award in Venice.

“Everyone in this room knows how incredible you are. I’ve been so affected by your life and your characters, and no, it’s not part of my speech,” she said on Thursday, tearing up.

The “Bones and All” actor starred alongside Burstyn in Niclas Larsson’s “Mother, Couch.”

“The most exciting part was knowing I would have the opportunity to work with you,” said Russell, raving about “every piece” of Burstyn’s “specialness.”

“I think about your spirituality and the way you’ve connected your heart, your truth and your soul to your work. And that makes me think: ‘I can attempt to do that too,’” she said.

“This is not the woman who takes the easy route. She has never stopped searching. Ellen, by sharing the gift of your work and life with us all,...

The fall/holiday season will see the release of several awards contenders shot on Kodak film: Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist, and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.”

Kodak, which had a momentous 2023 with more than 60 movies shot on film, also has Sean Baker’s “Anora” and Guadagnino’s “Challengers” as Oscar and ASC hopefuls.

Kodak had eight on-film premieres in competition at the 81st Venice Festival : “Maria,” “Queer,” “The Brutalist,” Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Harvest,” Alex Ross Perry’s “Pavements,” Giovanni Perrier Tortorici’s “Diciannove,” Déa Kulumbegashvili’s “April,” and Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here.” Also, “An Urban Allegory” (French: “Allégorie Citadine”), a short by Alice Rohrwacher, premieres out of competition.

Prior to that, Kodak had 33 on-film premieres at Cannes. These included nine winners, including “Anora,” which earned the Palme d’Or prize; Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language,” which took the first Directors...

Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin’s HBO comedy pilot “The Chair Company” has added five new cast members, Variety has learned exclusively.

Lake Bell, Sophia Lillis, Will Price, Joseph Tudisco, and Lou Diamond Phillips will all appear in the pilot. Phillips will be a guest star while the other four will be series regulars. Bell will play Barb Trosper, with Lillis as Natalie Trosper, Price as Seth Trosper, and Tudisco as Mike Santini. Phillips will appear as Jeff Levjman.

As previously announced, Robinson will star in the pilot. The official logline for “The Chair Company” states, “After an embarrassing incident at work a man finds himself investigating a far-reaching conspiracy.”

Bell is repped by UTA, Entertainment 360 and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Lillis is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Price is repped by Buchwald and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Tudisco is repped by Prestige Management Group.

Director Niclas Larsson didn’t hold back when he approached the reclusive Lara Flynn Boyle about appearing in his new film “Mother, Couch.”

“I needed someone for the character to be broken,” Larsson says. “Instead of faking a broken person, I did some research of who is really broken, and this is something I’ve been very open with Lara about.”

He continues, “I went back to the ‘90s. My mother was a hairdresser and always had all these celebrity magazines. Lara was on the cover throughout my whole childhood. Hollywood fucking raped her. That’s what they do with the starlets.”

Boyle, Ewan McGregor and Rhys Ifans star as siblings who reunite when their mother, played masterfully by Ellen Burstyn, sits on a couch in a furniture store and refuses to leave.

“I didn’t want any verbal characterization between the siblings telling the audience where Lara’s character comes from,...

A lot of family moments happen around a couch. The couch is a great place for families to connect and discuss life’s ups and downs. But in Niclas Larsson’s new, beautifully crafted family drama, “Mother, Couch,” the sofa at the center of the film isn’t in the family home. It’s in a closed furniture store. Yes, that deserves an explanation.

“Mother, Couch” follows the story of David (Ewan McGregor), a man struggling in a variety of different ways.

Continue reading ‘Mother, Couch’ Review: Ewan McGregor Shines In Niclas Larsson’s Slightly Surreal Family Drama at The Playlist.

There wasn’t a lot new opening this weekend specialty-wise but few notable holdovers continued to crank in moderate release, namely Kalki 2898 Ad, which is on fire, as well as Thelma and Kinds of Kindness.

Kalki will end at No. 8 on 925 screens in week two, the second weekend in the top 10 for the Telugu sci-fi epic from Prathyangira Cinemas, which was No. 5 a week ago. That’s unusual, as Indian films tend to do most of their business opening weekend. Kalki, also outgrossed Kill, a Hindi action film that debuted this weekend.

With a $1.79 million gross and a cume of $16 million, Kalki is one of the highest grossing Indian film in North America in well over a year, according to data provided by Comscore. Hugely popular Rrr in 2022 and Animal last year both ended their runs with about $15 million domestic. Paathan hit $17.5 million in 2023. Baahubali 2: The Conclusion took in $20 million in 2017.

Kill,...

Niclas Larsson’s debut feature, Mother, Couch, tells the story of a family brought back together under peculiar circumstances. Veteran actress Ellen Burstyn stars as the mother at the center of it all, who has inexplicably planted herself on a couch in a local furniture store and refuses to budge. Her three estranged children—played by Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, and Lara Flynn Boyle—are called in to try and persuade her to leave.

Under the unusual setup lie deeper themes of fractured family relationships and the intergenerational trauma that can stem from troubled childhoods. Burstyn portrays a mother who never wanted her own children and makes no effort to hide her resentment towards them. This has lasting effects we see play out, such as in McGregor’s character struggling to meet the expectations of both his mother and his own wife and kids.

The story shifts between dramatic scenes...

Ruben Östlund knows it sounds “absurd” to complain about winning awards, however, he admits that they add another level of “pressure” for filmmakers.

During a recent conversation with Mother Couch writer-director Niclas Larsson for Interview magazine, the Triangle of Sadness director was asked if “awards create self-confidence or make you more insecure?”

“It makes you more insecure, I would say,” Östlund responded. “For me it was a hundred percent like this. Winning one Golden Palm put more pressure on me, but winning two Golden Palms took away a lot of pressure because that means I wasn’t a one hit wonder. But then also I need pressure in order to perform.”

He continued, “So that’s why the goal with the next film is to win another Golden Palm. It’s going to be the first time in the history of filmmaking that a director wins three Golden Palms in a row.

Mother, Couch filmmaker Niclas Larsson isn’t afraid to take big swings both personally and professionally.

As a teenager in Sweden, Larsson embarked on a five-hour train ride to a Stockholm hotel just so he could have a chance to meet one of his all-time favorite filmmakers, Gus Van Sant. After waiting around all night at a hotel bar, he eventually approached the Good Will Hunting director to praise his Palme d’Or-winning film, Elephant. Their subsequent exchange altered his perspective on filmmaking a great deal, but it also paved the way for Van Sant to eventually serve in a mentor-like capacity during post-production on Larsson’s feature directorial debut, Mother, Couch.

Larsson initially paid his dues as a child actor until a Ruben Östlund-involved short film whet his appetite for filmmaking. He then proceeded to make a series of acclaimed short films, music videos and commercials, including two shorts for Vogue,...

Ruben Östlund knows it’s “absurd” to complain about winning awards, but to a certain extent, the auteur resents how buzzy plaques affect the filmmaking process.

The “Triangle of Sadness” director told Interview magazine that he believes winning the Palme d’Or puts more “pressure” on directors for their follow-up projects. When asked by “Mother Couch” writer/director Niclas Larsson if receiving awards “create[s] self-confidence or make you more insecure,” Östlund admitted that he became “more insecure” after winning his first Palme for “The Square” in 2017. He later won the prize again for “Triangle of Sadness” in 2022.

Now, he strives to make history with a third Palme.

“It makes you more insecure, I would say,” Östlund said. “For me it was a hundred percent like this. Winning one Golden Palm put more pressure on me, but winning two Golden Palms took away a lot of pressure because that means I...

Gory Hindi action film Kill opens on 827 screens via Roadside Attractions this weekend. It’s the distributor’s first foray into Indian film, which is having another moment after two pics hit the top 10 in North America last week. This is a crowded theatrical market with wide releases piling in and some high-profile indie holdovers. New indie debuts include Mother Couch and The Nature of Love in NYC.

Kill isn’t traditional Bollywood, shorter at an hour forty five minutes and without song and dance numbers in between the action. It debuted at the Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section, also screening at Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest and last month at Tribeca.

The R-rated film is being marketed to the reliable Indian diaspora — Roadside marketed the film heavily at the Cricket T20 World Cup held in the U.S. for first time in June, and won by India — but...

Mother, Couch is the type of movie with a jaw-dropping cast that you keep hoping and praying gets better but never turns that corner. And that’s saying something for a film that mercifully ends around the 90-minute mark. The film has worthy performances, particularly from its star, Ewan McGregor, who does what he can to elevate the material.

However, Mother, Couch is more interested in its existential mood than in what will draw the audience in. The story is not engaging or interesting, and, for that matter, entertaining is the story. That’s the one thing about some first-time directors—they forget their audience.

Ewan McGregor in Mother, Couch (2023) | Image via Film Movement.

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Mother, Couch Review and Synopsis

Mother, Couch’s story is set in a remote furniture store, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, run by...

When The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Lara Flynn Boyle for a rare interview in June 2021, she had a new movie to promote, Death in Texas, her first in five years. But Boyle was quick to swat away any chatter of a comeback by saying, politely, “I never went anywhere.”

The veteran star, now 54, has maintained a relatively low profile ever since but she’s back once again with another interview, this time with People, timed to the release of another new movie, Niclas Larsson’s Mother, Couch opposite Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Taylor Russell and Ellen Burstyn.

The wide-ranging, one-hour conversation with writer Eric Andersson at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Polo Lounge finds Boyle opening up about ageism in Hollywood, dating actors, and her marriage to Texas real estate developer Donald Ray Thomas. Even though it’s becoming something of a trend, Boyle once again swats away talk...

“I’ve been bleeding my whole life.”

Mother, Couch is a boiling point of a picture. Written and directed by Niclas Larsson (and based on Jerker Virdborg’s novel Mamma i soffa), this is an edgy story about small discourtesies and how they sometimes build into something big, nasty, and violent. Three half-siblings are forced back together when their mother (Ellen Burstyn) refuses to move from a couch in a big, dilapidated furniture store. The daughter (Taylor Russell) of the store owner appears very unworried by the dilemma. She even invites them to stay the night if it’s helpful.

For a debut feature, Larsson is incredibly confident in his cast and aesthetic. This is essentially a one-location narrative with a handful of sojourns to a beach, a house. McGregor leads as David, the unsure, thin-skinned of the three children. As he negotiates with their mother to get off the couch,...

“It is what it is,” says David (Ewan McGregor) in Niclas Larsson’s adaptation of the novel Mamma i soffa. The “what” he’s referring to is the fractured state of his family, in which each of three estranged siblings has a different, yet equally absent, father. “Sometimes it isn’t,” counters Bella (Taylor Russel), a young woman who minds the furniture store where David’s mother (Ellen Burstyn) has planted herself on a couch and refused to budge.

There’s a naïve wisdom to Bella’s response. Family, on the face of it, is a classic case of things being what they are, as nobody chooses their biological parents or siblings. The questions, then, that the film sets out to probe are: When isn’t family what it is, and where?

In Mother, Couch, the “where” is a family-owned furniture warehouse. Oakbeds occupies an otherwise derelict strip mall, its...

Just when you think you’ve seen just about every setup for a family drama ever, a film like “Mother, Couch” comes out and introduces yet another.

As seen in the trailer for “Mother, Couch,” the film tells the story of an elderly woman who decides she’s not going to get up from a couch she’s sitting on in the middle of a furniture showroom. Her reluctance to remove herself from the couch brings together her three estranged children, as they have to decide a plan to get their mom off the furniture and out of the store.

Continue reading ‘Mother, Couch’ Trailer: Ewan McGregor, Ellen Burstyn & More Star In Niclas Larsson’s Family Drama at The Playlist.

"You didn't have to go all crazy just to get the three of us together!" Film Movement has revealed an official trailer for Mother, Couch, a very strange dark comedy from filmmaker Niclas Larsson making his feature directorial debut. This premiered at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival last fall to plenty of mixed reviews, one of the big discoveries from last year's fest even though critics are divided on it. Three children are brought together when their mother refuses to move from a display couch in a furniture store. Which sends them all on an existential odyssey. TIFF intro adds: Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Ellen Burstyn star in this sublime and eccentric story about the grand expanse that parents occupy within our lives and the family that has to come together to help you find your way. The cast also includes F. Murray Abraham, Lake Bell, and Taylor Russell.

Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn are a toxic son-mother duo just in time for Mother’s Day.

The aptly titled indie film “Mother, Couch” marks first time filmmaker Niclas Larsson’s directorial debut. Larsson penned the script based on Jerker Virdborg’s novel “Mamma I Soffa” that centers on a dysfunctional family trying to convince their mother (Burstyn) to leave a department store.

A trio of estranged children — David (McGregor), Gruffudd (Rhys Ifans), and Linda (Lara Flynn Boyle) — must figure out how to escape the eerie store that is owned by identical twins Marco and Marcus (F. Murray Abraham) and daughter Bella (Taylor Russell). The film becomes a descent into madness and mayhem as the store melts into a surreal purgatory where the two families must purge their long-withheld resentments.

“Mother, Couch” is produced by Ella Bishop and Pau Suris for Suris/Bishop Films, Alex Black for Lyrical Media, and Sara Murphy for Fat City.

The annual SFFIlM Festival has officially unveiled its 2024 lineup, with two first-time feature filmmakers bookending the fest.

Sean Wang’s semi-autobiographical feature “Dìdi (弟弟)” opens the festival April 24 after premiering at Sundance 2024. Wang was also recently Oscar-nominated for his short film “Nai Nai & Wài Pó” which had been supported by Sffilm grants.

The 67th annual festival closes out with Josh Margolin’s “Thelma” starring June Squibb, Parker Posey, Malcolm McDowell, and late actor Richard Roundtree in his final role. The feature screens April 28.

Programming highlights include “The Idea of You,” “Sing Sing,” “Janet Planet,” and Sundance award-winning documentary “Porcelain War.” A private screening of opening night film “Dìdi (弟弟)” in Dolby Vision + Dolby Atmos will be held at the Dolby Cinema @ 1275 Market exclusively for cast and crew, Sffilm Festival filmmakers, and Sffilm fellows and grantees. A Sffilm members’ screening of “Mother, Couch” will also take place after the film debuted...

North American indie distributor Film Movement is set to co-release Niclas Larsson’s “Mother, Couch!” starring Ewan McGregor, Ellen Burstyn, Rhys Ifans and Taylor Russell with LA-based studio and distributor Memory in North America.

Based on the book “Mamma | Soffa” by Jerker Virdborg, the fim had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival followed by San Sebastian’s 2023 New Directors, and has since continued its run through the festival circuit, most recently winning Best Nordic Film at this year’s Goteborg Film Festival. Film Movement and Memory are planning a theatrical release later this year, while Charades is representing the international rights to the film at the European Film Market in Berlin this week.

“Mother, Couch!” is the story of a family mysteriously trapped in an antiquated furniture store after their elderly Matriarch (Burstyn) refuses to get up from one of the display couches, leaving her three estranged...

Ewan McGregor is set to star opposite Anne Hathaway in David Robert Mitchell’s untitled dinosaur movie at Warner Bros.

Details of the storyline are being held back but rumour has it the project is set in the 1980’s and is set to be a family adventure in which McGregor and Hathaway star as the parents.

Mitchell, best known for directing ‘It Follows’, wrote and produced the horror film alongside J.J. Abrams, Hannah Minghella, and Matt Jackson.

Also in news – First look images emerge for season 2 of ‘Extraordinary’

Jake Weiner and Chris Bender of Good Fear Content will serve as executive producers. Sheila Walcott and Zach Hamby are overseeing the project for Warners.

McGregor has recently worked as an executive producer on Showtime and Paramount Global’s adaptation of the novel ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles. He has also produced two other movies, ‘Mother Couch’ and ‘Bleeding Love...

Exclusive: Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) has signed on to star opposite Anne Hathaway in Warner Bros Motion Picture Group’s currently untitled new film from David Robert Mitchell, the filmmaker behind titles like It Follows and Under the Silver Lake.

Pic’s logline is under wraps, though it’s previously been described as a “thrill-ride” to be shot in Imax. Mitchell will direct from his own original script and produce alongside J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella for Bad Robot, and Jackson Pictures’ Matt Jackson. Jake Weiner and Chris Bender of Good Fear Content will serve as executive producers. Sheila Walcott and Zach Hamby are overseeing the project for Wbmpg.

Recently reprising his role as Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in Disney+’s Emmy-nominated limited series of the same name, McGregor won an Emmy for his starring turn on Netflix’s Halston, also appearing in films like Birds of Prey, Doctor Sleep and Christopher Robin.

Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest and Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers lead the winners at the 2024 London Film Critics’ Circle awards, with three prizes each.

At the ceremony held this evening in London, The Zone Of Interest received film of the year, director of the year and the technical achievement award – the latter for Mica Levi and Johnnie Burn for music and sound.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

All Of Us Strangers received British/Irish film of the year, actor of the year for Andrew Scott, and was one of the films credited...

Mother, Couch, the Niclas Larsson-directed film, took the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at the Göteborg Film Festival. The film was awarded Sek 400,000, which is about $38,000.

The film stars Ewan McGregor, who had also received an honorary Dragon Award during 47th edition of the festival.

Mother, Couch made its debut at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. The debut film by Larsson is based on Swedish author Jerker Virdborg’s novel Mamma i soffa, a story of three children who are brought together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store.

Other winners at Göteborg included Oona Airola’s Best Acting award for The Missile, with Juan Sarmiento G. taking the award for cinematography and Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land taking the Audience Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film.

Full list of winners Best Nordic Film

Mother, Couch

Best Acting

Oona Airola...

Niclas Larsson’s “Mother, Couch” was awarded the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at Goteborg, taking home the considerable amount of Sek 400,000.

Led by Ewan McGregor – this year’s recipient of the Honorary Dragon Award – the U.S.-Swedish-Danish co-production also features Ellen Burstyn and “Bones and All” breakout Taylor Russell, making it one of the starriest Goteborg winners in recent years.

“My therapist was wrong! I pitched him this idea a few years ago and he said: ‘Don’t do it.’ I am from here and this festival has meant the world to me. Standing on this stage is a bit surreal,” said Larsson.

Jurors Lena Endre, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, William Spetz, Tonia Noyabrova and Anna Novion appreciated the way it shows “how difficult it is to let go of the past, accept loss and finally embrace the future.” They praised “original and bold storytelling, with a lot of humor,...

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival unveiled its 2024 lineup today, featuring 250 feature films set to screen across ten days, with highlights including Handling the Undead, Norwegian filmmaker Thea Hvistendahl’s feature debut, starring Renate Resinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie. Other buzzy titles include the Finish title The Missile from filmmaker Miia Tervo and Morbius director Daniel Espinosa’s return to Nordic filmmaker with Madame Luna.

Handling the Undead opens the festival following its debut bow at Sundance. The pic, an adaptation of a novel by Let The Right One In writer John Ajvide Lindqvist, tells the story of three families recently left in mourning after the passing of loved ones. Suddenly, the power grid goes out, and the deceased begin to move.

Guests set to pass through Gothenburg include actor Ewan McGregor, who will receive the festival’s honorary dragon award for career achievement. He will also be in town to...

Actors Ewan McGregor, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, directors Ruben Östlund, Ernst de Geer, Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Cannes Film Festival honcho Thierry Frémaux are some of the stellar guests set to walk the red carpet at the 47th edition of Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival.

This year’s Göteborg Fest unspools from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4.

For his last run as artistic director of Scandinavia’s biggest film festival, Jonas Holmberg has selected 240 films from 82 countries, and what he calls “one of the strongest lineups ever” for Göteborg’s main Nordic competition strand. Among the highly anticipated titles vying for the coveted Best Nordic Film Dragon Award worth Sek 400,000, is Norway’s “Handling the Undead” by Thea Hvistendahl, set to kickstart the festival on the heels of its Sundance world premiere.

“This will be the first time we open with a zombie horror,” notes Holmberg, who looks forward...

The Göteborg Film Festival has unveiled the competition titles selected for its 47th edition, which runs from January 26 to February 4. (Scroll down for the full list).

Göteborg is split into four competition strands. The main strand is the Nordic Competition, which features nine films from the Nordic region. The competition’s winner takes home the Dragon Award and a Sek 400,000 cash prize. The rest of the festival comprises the Nordic Documentary Competition, the Ingmar Bergman Competition for first-time filmmakers, and the International Competition.

Among the Nordic highlights is Madame Luna, Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa’s return to Nordic filmmaking following a series of Hollywood titles such as Morbius and Safe House. Inspired by real-life events, the film follows an Eritrean refugee who gets stuck in Libya and becomes a notorious human trafficker known as “Mama Luna” with deep ties to the Italian Mafia. When she is forced to flee to...

Scottish actor will present ‘Mother, Couch’ and classic ‘Trainspotting’.

Sweden’s Goteborg Film Festival will present its 2024 Honorary Dragon award to Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.

McGregor will attend the festival to receive the award, where he will also participate in an Actors Talk, and present the Nordic premiere of Niclas Larsson’s Mother, Couch, in which McGregor plays the lead.

The Honorary Dragon award ceremony will be in conjunction with a screening of Danny Boyle’s 1996 classic Trainspotting, followed by an on-stage conversation with McGregor.

“Ewan McGregor is an androgynous symbol of the Cool Britannia era, a romantic icon for the millennial generation,...

Ewan McGregor is set to receive the Honorary Dragon Award at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival in Sweden.

The “Star Wars” and “Trainspotting” star will attend the festival to collect the honor and participate in an Actors Talk. He will also be present at the Nordic premiere of his latest film, Niclas Larsson’s “Mother, Couch,” and a retrospective of his most notable films will be featured at the festival.

“Ewan McGregor is an androgynous symbol of the Cool Britannia era, a romantic icon for the millennial generation and a saber-swinging franchise holder in the pop-cultural center of the galaxy. But above all, he is an incredibly skilled artist,” Göteborg Film Festival artistic director Jonas Holmberg said in a statement. “By mastering stylized extravagance, literary precision and nuanced realism with the same relaxed self-evidence, Ewan McGregor has shown that he is one of the truly great actors of our time.

Scottish star Ewan McGregor will receive this year’s Honorary Dragon Award, a lifetime achievement honor, at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival.

McGregor will attend the Göteborg event, which runs from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4, and will present the Nordic premiere screening of his latest feature, Mother, Couch. McGregor stars alongside Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle as three siblings bought together when their eccentric mother, played by Ellen Burstyn, sits herself down on a couch in a vintage furniture store and refuses to get up. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Niclas Larsson, Mother, Couch is adapted from Swedish author Jerker Virdborg’s novel Mamma i soffa. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

McGregor will receive his Dragon Award following a screening of his 1996 breakthrough Trainspotting, after which he will participate in an onstage conversation.

“Ewan McGregor is an androgynous symbol of the Cool Britannia era, a...

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival has tapped actor Ewan McGregor to receive its honorary dragon award for career achievement during its 47th edition, running from January 26 to February 4.

McGregor will attend Göteborg to receive the award, participate in an ‘actors talk’ Q&a session, and present the Nordic premiere of Niclas Larsson’s Mother, Couch, in which he plays the leading role alongside Taylor Russell. The festival will also host a retrospective of McGregor’s films.

Some of McGregor’s most notable credits include Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, and the Star Wars trilogy. The Scottish actor is next set to exec produce and star in Paramount+ & Showtime’s A Gentleman in Moscow.

“Ewan McGregor is an androgynous symbol of the Cool Britannia era, a romantic icon for the millennial generation, and a saber-swinging franchise holder in the pop-cultural center of the galaxy,” said Jonas Holmberg,...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival will open its third edition, running from November 30 to December 9, with local movie Hwjn, a fantasy romance combining Arabian folklore with modern themes that unfolds against the backdrop of the event’s home of Jeddah.

Deadline exclusively revealed a trailer for the production earlier this year. Watch it here.

The choice of a Saudi movie marks a break with Red Sea’s first two editions – which kicked off with English-language features Cyrano and What’s Love Got To Do With It? in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Hwjn is the most ambitious production to date to come out of a partnership between major Gulf players Image Nation Abu Dhabi, Vox Studios and Mbc Studios first announced in Cannes in 2019.

“Opening the festival with a highly anticipated film like Hwjn is a momentous event,” Rsiff Arab Programs & Film Classics Director Antoine Khalife said of the opening night honor,...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has announced a new batch of mostly international titles set to launch in its Festival Favorites and Treasures strands, including the international premiere of U.S. actor-turned-director Jennifer Esposito’s New York City mob drama “Fresh Kills.”

Inspired by Esposito’s upbringing in Staten Island, “Fresh Kills” – in which Esposito co-stars with Annabella Sciorra – bowed stateside at the Tribeca Festival in June.

Other international talents peppered throughout the Red Sea sections likely to be making the trek to Saudi include Anna Kendrick with her period crime drama “Woman of the Hour”; David Oyelowo, producer of high-profile soccer doc “Allihopa: The Dalkurd Story”; Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn for Swedish director Niclas Larsson’s “Mother, Couch”; Serena and Venus Williams as executive producers of “Copa 71,” the story of the groundbreaking 1971 Women’s World Cup; and French writer-director Laetitia Colombani with her drama “The Braid.

Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman Of The Hour and family drama Mother Couch, starring Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn, are headed to the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival, running from November 30 to December 9 in the port city of Jeddah.

The titles will play in the Festival Favorites sidebar which was announced on Thursday alongside the event’s Red Sea: Treasures strand.

Kendrick directs and stars in Netflix-acquired drama Woman Of The Hour as a woman whose path crosses notorious serial killer Rodney Alcala, whilst in Niclas Larsson’s first film Mother Couch, McGregor plays a man whose mother squats the family furniture store.

Further films in the line-up – showcasing 21 buzzy festival titles from the last 12 months – include the David Oyelowo produced documentary Allihopa: The Dalkurd Story; Women’s World Cup doc Copa 71, executive produced by Serena and Venus Williams, Jennifer Esposito’s Fresh Kills,...

Ellen Burstyn is busier than she has ever been and she has an idea why.

During a recent conversation with her Law and Order: Organized Crime co-star Christopher Meloni for Interview magazine, the 90-year-old actress said she finds it “so bizarre” how many roles she has landed in the past few years.

“I turn 91 in December and I’m busier than I can ever remember being at any point in my career,” she quipped. “And I don’t understand it at all. I mean, what’s all this stuff about ageism in Hollywood? How did I get left out of it?”

When Meloni asked why she thinks her acting career has seen such a boom, Burstyn responded, “I don’t know, except possibly that everybody else who could play those parts has already died, so I’m the only actress still standing who can play the great-grandmother or something.”

The...

Ellen Burstyn is a screen legend, and at age 90, she said she’s more in demand now as her peers have all already “died.”

The “Exorcist: Believer” star, who returns to the franchise 50 years after William Friedkin’s original film, told her “Law and Order: Organized Crime” co-star Christopher Meloni while in conversation for Interview magazine that it’s “bizarre” how busy she is in her later years.

“This is so bizarre. I turn 91 in December and I’m busier than I can ever remember being at any point in my career,” Burstyn said. “And I don’t understand it at all. I mean, what’s all this stuff about ageism in Hollywood? How did I get left out of it?”

She continued, “I don’t know, except possibly that everybody else who could play those parts has already died, so I’m the only actress still standing who can play the great-grandmother or something.

It looks like Harry Styles and Taylor Russell may have a new romance on their hands. The pair were spotted getting coffee in London on Sept. 24, per People, adding fuel to relationship rumors that have been swirling since the two were first spotted in June.

Before Russell, Styles, 29, was most recently linked to model Emily Ratajkowski. In late March, the two were seen kissing in Japan but they never commented on the connection. Before that, Styles dated Olivia Wilde from the fall of 2020 until their split was reported in November 2022. Meanwhile, Russell, 29, doesn't have much of a public dating history, though some fans thought she was dating her "Bones & All" costar Timothée Chalamet last fall.

Styles, who recently wrapped his Love on Tour, began touring his 2019 album "Fine Line" in 2021 (those dates were delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic). He then released his third album "Harry's House" in May 2022 and began touring again.

The San Sebastian International Film Festival has long been considered the most intimate of the A-list festivals, neatly wrapping up a hectic fall festival season as delegates descend on the enchanting seaside city in Northern Spain. But in the last few years, the event has cemented itself into a festival reputed for championing new talent and emerging voices across all sections of its programming.

Indeed, in the last four years, San Sebastian has awarded its top prize, the Golden Shell, to either directorial debut titles or second features, a sure sign that it takes its role as a promoter of rising talent seriously.

This year’s edition, which takes place September 22-30, is no different, with the official competition having 11 films from first or second-time directors including: Raven Jackson’s debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, which premiered in Sundance; Isabel Herguera’s animation Sultana’s Dream; Noah Pritzker’s second feature Ex-Husbands,...

What happens when an immovable object meets a fatigued force that keeps whacking its head against said object in defeated frustration? That’s the question proposed by Niclas Larsson’s debut feature, “Mother, Couch.” Executive produced by and starring the once-boyish, now often forlorn Ewan McGregor, the film follows David, a frumpy middle-aged family man whose mother (Ellen Burstyn) plants herself on an old couch in the storage room of a furniture outlet, flatly refusing to vacate the premises. Though Larsson builds from the increasingly existential dilemma in striking ways, “Mother, Couch” finds itself caught running in place before grasping for sentimentality in its final minutes.

The central kerfuffle kicks off as David surveys the far-flung outlet Bob’s Furniture, tagging along with his older brother, Gruffudd (Rhys Ifans). The dim swamp of a business lays out an absorbing, homely stage for the drama, with awkwardly arranged floor plans and...

Furniture stores are strange places. The liminal feeling they give off is something like a life-size dollhouse or home you once lived in but can’t remember when. If you’ve ever been into an Ikea, chances are you thought about what it’d be like to spend the night in one of the staged rooms that has a sink with no running water.

A friend told me once that when she was younger, her parents would take her and her older sister to Bob’s Furniture for snacks and movies. While her parents would pretend to shop around for a pressboard dresser, she and her sister would raid the store’s self-serve cafe for popcorn, ice cream, candy, cookies and then sit down in the store’s small theater while something like “Finding Nemo” or “Shrek” played.

At its core, Swedish director Niclas Larsson’s debut feature “Mother, Couch,...

Timm Kröger’s feature debut title is being sold by Paris-based sales outfit Charades.

Picturehouse Entertainment has taken UK and Ireland rights for Timm Kröger’s Venice competition title The Theory Of Everything from Paris-based sales outfit Charades.

German director Kröger’s black-and-white metaphysical noir is set in the Swiss Alps in the winter of 1962. It centres on a young doctor-to-be attending an international convention where he finds a mysterious pianist, a bizarre cloud formation in the sky and a dark, booming secret under the mountain, all part of the titular “theory of everything.”

The genre-hopping film is produced by Germany’s ma.

One of the great joys of a film festival is poring through the film program to see what stands out beyond the big galas and headlining premieres. Whether it's a particularly striking still image, the right talent attached, or an intriguing concept, it's so much fun to see what's on offer. One such film that stood out in the packed program of the Toronto International Film Festival is "Mother, Couch," which immediately compelled me with a single-line synopsis: "Three estranged children come together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store." It didn't hurt that the cast was stacked to the nines: Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, Taylor Russell, F. Murray Abraham, and Ellen Burstyn all feature.

The debut from Niclas Larsson, "Mother, Couch" delivers on its premise while simultaneously offering something stranger, bolder, and more dreamlike than I could have anticipated. The...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Film Movement releases “Mother Couch” on Friday, July 5.

There is something so haunting about “Mother, Couch” that the term surreal doesn’t quite cover it. Could it be a recent career-best-of-many performance by Ellen Burstyn, or the realization that why, yes, Lara Flynn Boyle has an uncanny resemblance to the iconic actress and is perfectly cast as her daughter?

Or is it just how frazzled Ewan McGregor becomes as he starts contemplating whether or not he is a bad parent to his young children while his onscreen wife, played by Lake Bell, is drowning in her own swirl of domestic stress? In short, “Mother, Couch” is a triumph that marks, bafflingly, writer-director Niclas Larsson’s feature debut.

To start with the title, “Mother, Couch” does very well need the comma: This is a presentation of a...

The way Swedish filmmaker Niclas Larsson describes his trickery of an all-star cast for Mother Couch – led by Ewan McGregor, Ellen Burstyn, Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, Taylor Russell and F. Murray Abraham – you’d have thought he’d mined a CIA manual for Cold War field agents to shoot his directorial debut on a soundstage in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“I think a powerful tool for directors is to actually misdirect,” Larsson, a former child actor turned filmmaker, told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Mother Couch, based on the existential novel Mamma i Soffa by Swedish novelist Jerker Virdborg, takes place entirely in a remote furniture store, where Mother (Burstyn) is seated on a green couch and refuses to get up and leave.

That has her three estranged children – David (McGregor), Gruffudd (Ifans) and Linda (Boyle) — questioning with varied trust...

Licorice Pizza and If Beale Street Could Talk producer Sara Murphy arrives at TIFF this week with the intimate yet ambitious feature Mother, Couch, the first project produced under Fat City, the production label she launched last year alongside War Pony producer Ryan Zacarias.

Starring Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor, and Ellen Burstyn, the pic is written and directed by Swedish filmmaker Niclas Larsson in his feature film debut. The story is adapted from a novel of the same name by Swedish filmmaker Jerker Virdborg.

“The book is very different from the film,” Larsson said of his adaptation. “In fact, the first thing I asked Jerker was how free I could be with the adaptation, and he said, ‘Look, steal whatever you want to steal, and go with it.’ So that’s that’s what I did.”

The biggest change Larsson made on screen was moving the story from Sweden to the US.

Forget reading palms: What if the key to finding your soulmate was at the tip of your fingernail?

Director Christos Nikou’s (“Apples”) feature “Fingernails” offers a sci-fi love triangle rooted in nature over nurture. The film is co-written by Nikou, Stavros Raptis, and Sam Steiner, and is set in an alternate reality where a machine can determine whether a couple is in love or not by studying the makeup of their discarded fingernails.

Jessie Buckley stars as Anna, a new employee at the institute where the machines are housed. She starts training with senior instructor Amir (Riz Ahmed). Yet Anna is already dating Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) and the machine has confirmed they are a perfect match. So why is she developing feelings for Amir?

“Fingernails” is the second feature and first English-language film from visionary director/writer/producer Christos Nikou, whose directorial debut was the critically acclaimed “Apples.