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With a title like “Murderess,” there can be little surprise where Greece’s submission to the Oscar international feature category is headed. The third adaptation of Alexandros Papadiamantis’s acclaimed novella follows the slow psychological unraveling of an elderly midwife as she contends with the ever-worsening patriarchal society she aides. Though director Eva Nathena and screenwriter Katerina Bei attempt to trace out their protagonist’s state of mind, it is frequently lost in a muddled approach to blending cold reality with feverish flashbacks and fantasy.

Marked by an endemic sense of isolation, “Murderess” begins with a group of unidentified girls dancing in a circle, singing a song wishing that there were only boys in their midst. Following a quotation from Greek poet Odysseas Elytis about the inevitability of the past asserting itself in the present, Hadoula (Karyofyllia Karabeti) is introduced as she is so often seen in the film: walking...

In this virtual Q&a, Academy Award-winning director Alexander Payne steps up to interview Eva Nathena, director of Greece’s official International Feature Oscar submission Murderess (Fonissa). Despite being on opposite sides of the globe — Nathena at home in Athens and Payne, who had just been in Greece, in New York — the two Greek filmmakers and longtime friends share a candid and illuminating discussion about Nathena’s adaptation of Alexandros Papadiamantis’ classic novel.

Set on a remote Greek island at the turn of the 20th century, Murderess is a poignant exploration of maternal dominance, societal oppression and the complex bonds between women. The film follows Hadoula, a woman suffocating under the weight of patriarchal expectations and familial rejection, as she fights for freedom not only from those around her but from her own internalized fate. With striking visuals and a profound emotional core, the film captures the timeless struggles of identity and liberation.

Deadline on Monday launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: International, its daylong showcase of movies in the conversation for this year’s International Feature Oscar race.

The casts, directors, writers and producers behind 13 movies joined Deadline’s reporters and editors at the virtual awards-season event Saturday for panel discussions about their films’ journeys to being submitted by their respective countries for the Academy Awards.

Click here to launch the livestream.

This year’s list of films includes 815 Pictures’ Old Fox (representing Taiwan), Dawson Films’ Waves (Czech Republic), FAMart Association’s Three Kilometers to the End of the World (Romania), Leyth Production and Hamzeh Mystique Films’ Take My Breath (Tunisia), Lizart Film’s Under the Volcano (Poland), Mavi Film’s Life (Turkey), Nexiko’s The Last Journey (Sweden), Outsider Pictures’ Queens (Switzerland), Sony Pictures Classics’ I’m Still Here (Brazil) and Kneecap (Ireland), Tanweer Productions’ Murderess (Greece), La Terraza Films’ Saturn Return...

After two decades as a leading costume and set designer in Greece, artist Eva Nathena has stepped behind the camera to direct her first feature with Murderess.

Based on Alexandros Papadiamantis’ popular novel The Murderess — a seminal piece of literature in Greece — the film is set in 1900s Greek society in which Hadoula (Karyofyllia Karabeti), an older woman trapped in her own mother’s rejection, struggles to survive the dictates of a patriarchal society. She turns to murdering young girls in the town, to “release” them from their social fate.

“I first read the book when I was 16 in high school,” Nathena said. “They teach us this great novel in school, and I felt a very strange familiarity with the main character. And I was frightened. How could I ever be related to a woman that kills babies? So I took some distance from the book.”

Nathena said she revisited...

Just as the Oscar Best Picture race remains wide open as 2024 comes to an end, there’s a similar sense of excitement mounting about the breadth and range of films competing for Best International Feature Film. The submissions process found 85 of the 89 films presented eligible, but the real work starts now, in terms of whittling those down first to a shortlist of 15 and then to the final five.

Perhaps more so than in recent years, the diversity is eye-popping, ranging from action thrillers and personal dramas to intimate documentaries. The cross-section is well represented at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International showcase, which kicks off today beginning at 9 a.m. Pt.

Click here to launch the livestream.

As ever, this year’s lineup offers a snapshot of film festival highlights, taking us on a whistle-stop tour of the big five — Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto — with titles that made an impact at events in Warsaw,...

France has selected Jacques Audiard’s bold musical “Emilia Perez” to represent the country in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film race, giving that category an instant frontrunner at the 97th Academy Awards.

The Netflix film, which caused a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival with its story of a Mexican drug lord undergoing sex reassignment surgery, is considered one of the year’s likeliest Best Picture nominees, making it a clear favorite in the international category as well.

It was chosen on Wednesday by a selection committee that had narrowed its choices to four: “Emilia Perez,” Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light,” Matthieu Delaporte’s “The Count of Monte Cristo” and Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia.”

Last year, that committee chose “The Taste of Things” over “Anatomy of a Fall,” going with a ravishing romance over an edgier drama that had won the top prize in Cannes. “The Taste of Things...

After a scandal-plagued month that called the legitimacy of the Greek Oscar selection process into question and threatened to torpedo the country’s chances at the 97th Academy Awards, Greece has selected Eva Nathena’s historical drama “Murderess” for the international feature film race. Out of the 26 eligible films, “Murderess” is the only one left standing, after the remaining competitors withdrew from the selection process in protest.

In a brief statement, Deputy Minister of Culture Iasonas Fotilas announced the selection of “Murderess,” saying the decision was reached by a “quorum” of industry professionals on the evening of Sept. 10, and that the six-person committee determined that the film “meets the requirements for a dynamic presence” in the upcoming Oscar race.

The Greek filmmaking community was quick to voice its outrage, with commenters describing the selection process as a “disgrace,” a “theater of the absurd” and an “absolute debacle,” and one social...

The fate of Greece’s participation in this season’s international feature film Oscar race hangs in the balance after a chaotic selection committee process has left the culture ministry and Hellenic Film Academy (Helfiac) at loggerheads.

Helfiac president Lefteris Charitos told Screen on Thursday night that the ministry’s behaviour “undermines the selection proceedings and forces us to distance ourselves from them” after the government department rescinded its invitations to a four-person selection committee in early August and replaced them with a new group.

The original committee members – Vassilis Kekatos, winner of the 2019 Cannes short film Palme d’Or...

The Hellenic Film Academy, Greece’s national cinema body, has said it’s “outraged” and is seeking clarity from the country’s cultural ministry after a series of chaotic government-mandated U-turns paralyzed the selection of Greece’s submission to the 96th Academy Awards.

The confusion began in early August when the Greek Ministry of Culture, as is customary, invited a committee of Greek film professionals to select the country’s submission to the international Oscar race. The committee included Milky Way filmmaker Vasilis Kekatos, film critic Leda Galanou, actress Kora Karvounis, and screenwriter Kallia Papadakis. All four accepted and Kekato, best known for The Distance Between Us and the Sky, which won the short film Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019, was set at committee president.

Online links to view this year’s selection of films were sent to the members. However, a few days later, the four members...

Sofia Exarchou’s Animal won seven prizes at the Hellenic Film Academy’s Iris Awards, including best film, director, screenplay, actress and supporting actress.

The Greek-Austrian-Romanian-Bulgarian co-production about a group of young entertainers working in a Greek resort hotel was nominated in 14 categories. Animal world premiered at Locarno 2023, winning the best actress award for Dimitra Vlagopoulou.

The producers are Maria Drandaki and Maria Kontogianni from Homemade Films with support from the Greek Film Centre, Ekome and Ert Public TV.

Scroll down for list of winners

An emotional Willem Dafoe went up to the stage to receive the best actor award for psychological suspense thriller Inside,...