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Although Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film "The Shining" is frequently cited as one of the scariest films of all time, it's widely known that Stephen King — who wrote the 1977 novel on which it's based — hates it. Kubrick famously altered several details of King's book, and the author felt that the changes were arbitrary at best and insulting at worst. King wrote his story as the tale of an ordinary man who was gradually driven to madness. King expressed interest in gentler actors like Martin Sheen or Michael Moriarty for the role of Jack Torrance, feeling they would be sympathetic immediately. Kubrick, however, cast Jack Nicholson in the role, and King felt that Nicholson was already unstable from the jump. With Nicholson, it wasn't a tale of a sane man going insane, but an already-insane man cracking open.

Kubrick, however, was already granted permission by Warner Bros., so he went ahead...

The great actress Isabella Rossellini was the face of Lancôme beauty for more than a decade beginning in the early 1980s, but strangely, if you look back, rarely is she the lead in any of her iconic films.

Sometimes a shadow, sometimes on the periphery, a Rossellini character is nonetheless always knowing, from tragic lounge singer Dorothy Vallens in her then-partner David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” to ethereal beauty whisperer Lisle Von Rhuman in Robert Zemeckis’ “Death Becomes Her” and a wealthy Italian widow who dates below her station in David O. Russell’s “Joy.”

In Edward Berger’s papal potboiler “Conclave,” Rossellini has fewer lines than ever — and probably they could fit on one page — as Sister Agnes. Here is a glowering nun who has seen some shit. In the case of Berger’s English-language follow-up to Oscar-winning heavy-hitter “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Agnes is the eyes...

Michelangelo Antonioni, the iconic Italian auteur, has been immortalized in cinema history thanks to his acclaimed classics “L’Avventura,” “Blow-Up,” and “The Passenger,” which redefined film grammar.

Yet three years prior to his international breakthrough with “L’Avventura,” which won the Cannes Jury

Prize, Antonioni directed his lesser-known feature “Il Grido.” The 1957 drama is relatively obscure and has rarely been screened stateside; however, the film is an early look at the themes of loneliness and fractured relationships that Antonioni later became synonymous with.

The official synopsis for “Il Grido” reads: “Michelangelo Antonioni crafted his first masterpiece with ‘Il Grido,’ a raw expression of anguish that remains one of Italian cinema’s great under-appreciated gems. Bridging Antonioni’s early, neorealism-inspired work and his hallmark stories of existential rootlessness, ‘Il Grido’ centers on Aldo (Steve Cochran), a sugar-refinery worker in the Po Valley. When Irma (Alida Valli), his lover of seven years, learns that...

The 32nd Hamptons International Film Festival (Hiff) has officially unveiled its 2024 winners.

The festival, which took place from October 4 through October 14, marked the U.S. premiere of John Crowley’s “We Live in Time,” with screenings of “Nightbitch,” “A Real Pain,” “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” and R.J. Cutler’s Martha Stewart Netflix documentary “Martha” among the acclaimed features.

Now, IndieWire can exclusively announce the films that the Hiff jury and audience members selected for the top awards. “Armand,” also Norway’s 2025 Oscar submission, won the Hiff Award for Best Narrative Feature. “Armand” stars “A Different Man” and “Worst Person in the World” breakout Renate Reinsve as a mother of a seemingly disturbed six-year-old; the film debuted at Cannes before screening at Hiff. “Armand” is directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the grandson of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. IFC Films has U.S. distribution rights for “Armand.”

“’Armand’ is...

While many filmmakers throughout the last century have come to view entry into the Cannes Film Festival as the pinnacle of talent — a forum where the best of the best can unveil their work on a global scale — 81 year-old Canadian horror master David Cronenberg understands that it’s not without its tradeoffs. Premiering his latest project, “The Shrouds,” there back in May, Cronenberg was met with a relatively tepid response (though our own review listed it as a Critic’s Pick). As he continued to screen the film at TIFF in his home country and now in the U.S. at the New York Film Festival last week, favor around the film has warmed. As reported on by Deadline, while speaking at Alice Tully Hall following the film’s screening, Cronenberg admitted that the Cannes audience didn’t quite respond to “The Shrouds” in the way that he intended.

“They didn’t get the movie,...

Movies like Lonely Planet on Netflix: Susannah Grant’s ‘Lonely Planet’ on Netflix is a gorgeous romance drama that stars Laura Dern in the leading role. Dern has had an illustrious acting career of over five decades. With projects ranging from David Lynch’s ‘Inland Empire’ to Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jurassic Park’, from Noah Baumbach’s ‘Marriage Story’ to HBO’s ‘Big Little Lies’, she has proved herself to be a versatile actor. After a string of intricate performances, she has returned with a breezy, tender romance that celebrates the value of leisure for a much-needed soul-searching.

In this gorgeous romance, Dern plays Katherine, a reclusive novelist who travels to Morocco for a writer’s retreat. She hopes a change in setting will help her get over her writer’s block. While there, she meets her apprentice, Owen (Liam Hemsworth) and falls for him. What starts out as an...

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Almodóvar’s cinema, it’s that tough love leaves an illuminating and longer-lasting echo. Pedro Almodóvar, now 75, must have found the light in Ingmar Bergman’s work at some point recently. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. After all, Bergman came before the filmmakers of Almodóvar’s generation, and frankly, he explored it all: the intricacies of the female psyche (check), the confrontation with inner demons and existential dread (check), and even the psychological unraveling of human struggles led by female characters set in secluded villas deep in the woods (check). On a technical level, we can also credit Bergman for teaching us the subtle art of using bold color to its fullest potential in a shot or perfecting how to fit two faces into a single close-up.

What’s peculiar here is that Almodóvar, a director who has...

Anastasia.François Truffaut saved his most pointed barb for last. Ending a short review in 1957 with a kiss-off, the notoriously venomous critic urges: “Anatole Litvak despises you; despise him back.”1 He was writing about Anastasia (1956), “a most mediocre film which has for its theme a historical enigma, one of the stupidest and emptiest subjects in a category that never fails to fill the theaters.” Anastasia certainly filled the Jolly Cinema in Bologna this June, the opening night film in Il Cinema Ritrovato’s centerpiece retrospective on the Ukrainian filmmaker, himself something of a historical enigma.The selection made for a curious introduction to the first major showcase for a director billed in the festival’s program preview as “an unjustly overlooked master…[who] made some of the most riveting and innovative films in the history of cinema.” It’s on such approbative epistles that flights are hastily booked, festival passes acquired,...

David Cronenberg certainly has enough experience to know when an audience is not connecting with a film.

Case in point: last May’s world premiere in Cannes of The Shrouds, the 81-year-old Cronenberg’s latest outing as writer-director. “They didn’t get the movie, partly because of the language and cultural things and the fact that maybe people felt if they laughed it was being disrespectful or something,” he said. “It’s the pressure of the Cannes Film Festival. We didn’t get the kind of laughs that I knew we would get, let’s say, at the Toronto Film Festival or that we would get here”

Cronenberg shared his thoughts after The Shrouds had its U.S. premiere Saturday night at the New York Film Festival (after a September bow in his native Toronto). “I wasn’t here while the movie was playing, but I hope you laughed a little bit,...

Though HBO’s latest comedy is called “The Franchise,” there’s never any doubt which franchise creator Jon Brown has in mind. The beleaguered crew, stressed-out producers and insecure stars of “Tecto: Eye of the Storm” comprise a tiny fiefdom of a sprawling empire. Overseen by an invisible puppetmaster, the master narrative is a jumbled knot of continuity errors. Actors get yanked off the set for a day’s cameo elsewhere on the drab, generic backlot as plot holes demand. Directors and performers with prestigious résumés do time for a paycheck, getting praise for their visionary genius as their every contribution is overruled or ignored. If this IP abomination had a name, it’d be Blah-rvel Cinematic Universe. But of course, it doesn’t need one.

A byproduct of the superhero era has been a slew of (barely) fictionalized laments about what the superhero era hath wrought. “The Boys” has...

Unlike the Oscar Best Picture race, which doesn’t have a real frontrunner at this point, there’s a clear favorite in the Best International Feature Film category.

With the deadline for submissions in the category passing on Wednesday and Academy members invited to become voters in the category on Friday, one big question looms over this year’s race: Can anything beat “Emilia Perez”?

At the moment, the answer appears to be no. With 82 countries having announced their entries in the race, no other film has anywhere near the visibility of the French entry, Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes sex reassignment surgery. The film has U.S. distribution from Netflix and is considered a strong candidate for a Best Picture nomination, which in five of the last six years has been a ticket to victory in the international race.

Still, it’s...

Dame Maggie Smith, the British actress who starred in Harry Potter films, the wildly popular Downton Abbey series and scores of other movies, TV shows, West End and Broadway productions in a career that brought two Oscars, five BAFTAs, four Emmys and a Tony Award, died today. She was 89.

Smith’s death was confirmed by her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. In a statement shared with UK media, they said: “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”

Smith was one of the finest British screen and stage stars of her generation and will be remembered for her performances in iconic films and TV shows, including Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. Her...

Iran has selected In the Arms of the Tree as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation made the announcement this morning. Irna, the country’s English-language news service, said the pick was made after “a 10-day review process.”

Irna said a “nine-member selection committee” picked the film from a final selection process that included two other finalists. Those films Isatis, directed by Alireza Dehghan, and The Silent City, directed by Ahmad Bahrami.

Directed by Babak Lotfi Khajepasha, In the Arms of the Tree screened at the Shanghai International TV Festival and the Fajr Film Festival. The film’s official synopsis reads: In the Arms of the Tree follows the complex life crisis of Kimia and Farid, who have been married for twelve years and destroy the beautiful world of their children, children who know nothing but simplicity and kindness in life.

“His Three Daughters” is a movie starring Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne. It is written and directed by Azazel Jacobs.

“His Three Daughters” is a cinematic experience that delves deeply into the intricacies of character development, psychological landscapes, and the internal worlds of its protagonists, rather than relying on external action to drive the narrative. It would be easy to categorize the film as adopting a theatrical approach, yet that would be an oversimplification. Azazel Jacobs adeptly transforms what could have been a stage play into an astutely crafted visual masterpiece. The structure and narrative forms might evoke comparisons to some of Ingmar Bergman’s iconic films, adding an extra layer of sophistication.

Plot

The storyline centers on three sisters who are confronted with the imminent death of their father. Forced to come together to navigate his final days, they find themselves cohabiting with an elderly man in another room,...

Der Dokumentarfilm „The Last Journey“, in dessen Zentrum der Vater des Ko-Regisseurs Filip Hammar steht, geht für Schweden ins Rennen um eine Oscarnominierung in der Kategorie „Bester internationaler Film“.

„The Last Journey“ geht für Schweden ins Oscarrennen (Credit: Nexiko / Atlantic film)

Schweden hat den Dokumentarfilm „The Last Journey“ bei der Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences für eine Oscarnominierung in der Kategorie „Bester internationaler Film“ eingereicht.

Für Filip Hammar, der „The Last Journey” zusammen mit Fredrik Wilkingsson inszeniert hat, ist der Film ein sehr persönlicher, steht doch sein Vater Lars Hammar im Mittelpunkt.

Lars war 40 Jahre lang ein beliebter Französischlehrer in der schwedischen Kleinstadt Köping. Als er in den Ruhestand geht, wird er passiv und müde, anstatt mit seiner Frau auf Reisen zu gehen und das Leben zu genießen.

Sein Sohn Filip und Fredrik Wikingsson kommen auf die Idee, Lars nach Frankreich zu bringen, an Orte, die er liebt.

Halfdan Ullmann Tøndels Debütfilm „Armand“, an dem die Berliner One Two Films als Koproduzent beteiligt ist, geht für Norwegen ins Rennen um eine Oscarnominierung in der Kategorie „Bester internationaler Film“.

Norwegischer Oscaraspirant: „Armand“ (Credit: Eye Eye Pictures)

Im Rahmen der Cannes-Nebenreihe Un Certain Regard hat Halfdan Ullmann Tøndels „Armand“ (hier unsere Spot-Besprechung) in diesem Jahr seine Weltpremiere gefeiert und wurde dort als erster norwegischer Film mit der Camera d’Or ausgezeichnet. Jetzt wurde er bei der Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencess für eine Oscarnominierung in der Kategorie „Bester internationaler Film“ eingereicht.

Der Debütfilm des Enkels von Liv Ullmann und Ingmar Bergman, an dem die Berliner One Two Films als Koproduzent beteiligt ist, setzte sich bei der Wahl des norwegischen Oscaraspiranten letztlich gegen Erik Poppes „Quisling – The Final Days“ und Dag Johan Haugeruds „Sex“ durch.

In „Armand“ spielen Renate Reinsve und Ellen Dorrit Petersen spielen die Mütter von sechsjährigen Grundschülern,...

Norway has selected Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s Armand, starring Renata Reinsve, to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Oscars.

The drama was selected from a short list of three films that also included Erik Poppe’s psychological drama Quisling – The Final Days and Dag Johan Haugerud’s dark comedy Sex.

Armand is the first feature of Ullmann Tøndel, who is the grandson of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman. It world premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard this year, becoming the first Norwegian film to win the Camera d’Or, for best first film across Official Selection and the parallel sections.

Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) and Ellen Dorrit Petersen co-star as the mothers of 6-year-old elementary schoolboys, called in for a mediation session over whether one of their children abused the other.

The truth of the matter is nebulous, but as the meeting progresses,...

Writing and directing a series is a rite of passage for any celebrated European filmmaker — so why shouldn’t Oscar winner Thomas Vinterberg follow in the footsteps of Ingmar Bergman and Rainer Werner Fassbinder? The Danish director, who won the Best International Feature Film Oscar for “Another Round” in 2021, was in Toronto to promote his new series, “Families Like Ours,” which first premiered in Venice alongside Alfonso Cuarón’s “Disclaimer” and Joe Wright’s “M. Son of the Century.” He spoke to IndieWire about his seven-episode television show, which finds Denmark in a state of environmental collapse, flooded by rising water levels as its citizens panic toward a way out. Denmark, like everywhere else, has been hit by storm surges in recent years, so this series is all too prescient in its imagining of a widespread catastrophe that would push its people out.

Vinterberg first made an arthouse splash with...

Horror films have always been a way to interrogate the anxieties of a time, society, or culture and reflect them to the viewer -- like a twisted funhouse mirror. Fear is a universal emotion and history is known to repeat itself, so horror is a genre filled with remakes, some of which are very good. Sometimes, like in the case of Leigh Whannell's "The Invisible Man," a remake evolves into something entirely different than the original story to better resonate with modern audiences. And sometimes a remake is, unfortunately, nothing more than a blatant cash grab from a studio looking to squeeze some blood out of the all-holy stone of "Recognizable IP."

And then there are the most controversial of all remakes: the Americanized remake.

Despite the knee-jerk reaction claiming otherwise, American remakes are neither inherently inadequate nor synonymous with "unnecessary." TV shows like "Shameless" and "The Office" are American remakes,...

Pedro Almodóvar has dealt with the subject of death throughout his career. Be it as an inciting incident in All About My Mother, a looming threat in Talk to Her, or a cheeky provocation in Matador, an existential darkness has always lurked behind the vibrant, expressive surfaces of his films. Centering the impermanence of human existence in the euthanasia drama The Room Next Door doesn’t indicate resignation to a “late period” style so much as it suggests a natural outgrowth of Almodóvar’s formidable body of work.

The Spanish auteur’s adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through begins with Julianne Moore’s Ingrid signing copies of her new book, On Sudden Deaths, describing it as her attempt to process the mystery of her subject. But not long into The Room Next Door, she soon finds that she must grapple with a non-spontaneous end. And...

Some people claim you can’t touch anything Ingmar Bergman was involved in. Tomas Alfredson is not one of these people.

“Not everything Bergman did was genius, but a lot of it was,” he tells Variety. Swedish director is behind new series “Faithless,” premiering in Toronto and based on the 2000 film directed by Liv Ullman and written by Bergman himself.

“This is his most autobiographical work. Ever. He started writing it several times and couldn’t finish, because he was so tormented by guilt. There was something in this material I felt could tackle in a different way. It would be different if I remade ‘The Seventh Seal’ or ‘Fanny and Alexander,’ but this? It was open for reinterpretation.”

Alfredson, of “Let the Right One In” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” fame, made a show that’s “very free from the original,” he underlines. Even though Lena Endre returns to the role of Marianne,...

The story of Faithless, the new six-part TV series from director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) is familiar to European arthouse fans. Renowned director David Howard, 73, is reunited with the great love of his life, the actress Marianne Vogler, 75, and forced to reflect on the painful consequences of their affair decades earlier when Marianne was married to David’s best friend, Markus. In 2000, actress-director Liv Ullmann (Cries and Whispers), muse and frequent collaborator to the legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal), adapted the story from Bergman’s previously unproduced screenplay. The tale of lust, adultery, and the damage wrought by desire, premiered in Cannes and has been hailed as a modern-day classic.

For his limited series adaptation, Alfredson teamed with screenwriter Sara Johnsen (July 22) to reexamine and expand Ullmann and Bergman’s original story. The basics of the plot are the same.

The Toronto Film Festival is awash with international titles. Led by Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig” and Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” the festival’s huge Centrepiece spread alone has 38 titles from outside Canada and the U.S. The Discovery section has another 18.

Not all Toronto international titles are world premieres, however. Here are 16 which are sparking good word of mouth. Variety isn’t claiming they are the best. The buzz might not be justified. But they are certainly worth tracking.

“Sunshine,” (Antoinette Jadaone, Philippines)

Anima, the Filipino studio behind Erik Matti’s Venice winner “On The Job 2: The Missing 8” and Sundance winner “Leonor Will Never” Die, joined Project 8 Projects to co-produce Antoinette Jadaone’s teenage pregnancy drama “Sunshine.” It turns on a young gymnast who discovers she is pregnant on the week of the national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal abortion drugs,...

Characters die in movies every day. Whether you’re watching a violent thriller or a death-bed tearjerker like “Steel Magnolias” or some of the more macabre meditations of Ingmar Bergman, you might say that the movies, in some grand collective way, are nothing less than a rehearsal for death. Yet it’s still rare to encounter a big-screen drama that grabs death by the horns, that looks it in the eye, that asks us to confront its daunting reality on every level the way Pedro Almodóvar’s lyrical and moving “The Room Next Door” does.

The movie, in form, is quite simple. It’s about two women, both in their early 60s, who’ve been friends for a long time but haven’t seen each other in years: Ingrid (Julianne Moore), an art-world author based in New York City, and Martha (Tilda Swinton), a former globe-trotting war correspondent for the...

Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman’s iconic film “Faithless” is now being remade into a limited series, continuing the trend of TV reimaginings of past Bergman features like “Scenes From a Marriage.”

“Faithless” is directed by “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Let The Right One In” helmer Tomas Alfredson. Sara Johnsen wrote the script adapted from Bergman’s original screenplay for the 2000 feature. The official first look trailer is debuted by IndieWire below.

The “Faithless” series will premiere at TIFF 2024. Fremantle is handling the worldwide sales. The show is a six-part TV series.

The official synopsis reads: “In the present day, renowned director David Howard, 73, is reunited with his former great love, actress Marianne Vogler, 75 (Lena Endre). Their encounter forces them to confront the painful repercussions of their past relationship, not only for themselves but also for their families. 40 years prior, a young David (Gustav Lindh) and Marianne (Frida Gustavsson...

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for “Strange Darling,” now playing in theaters. Seriously — there are some great twists in this movie. Go check it out first and then come back to read this!

J.T. Mollner is earning raves for his new thriller “Strange Darling.” However, the writer-director didn’t even feel the need to make a movie unless he could do something unique.

“There are so many great horror films that are better than anything I could ever make because they’re just so perfect, that I felt like unless we could find a different angle and turn things inside out, there’s no reason to do it,” he says. “I was excited because it seemed like, ‘Oh, this is a way to play with people’s expectations and assumptions.'”

Luckily, Mollner wrote a sexy and shocking script for “Strange Darling,” where the strength lies in manipulating stereotypes...

Writer-director Jt Mollner’s “Strange Darling” is one of the best American genre films in years, an electrifying thriller that’s in the same league as John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” the Coen brothers’ “Blood Simple,” and Quentin Tarantino‘s “Reservoir Dogs” when it comes to reinventing old traditions and making them feel startlingly new again. It’s a film best entered cold, since its surprises — of which there are many — are among its greatest pleasures, but it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that the movie takes the “final girl” convention of slasher films like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Friday the 13th” and breathes exhilarating new life into it.

“I was like, what can we do with the final girl that gives her more depth?” Mollner told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “That peels layers of her psyche away and shows us something more? I started...

Charles Melton is spilling the beans on “Beef” Season 2.

While the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Netflix and A24 limited series has not officially been renewed for a second season, Melton confirmed that he is indeed cast in the next installment. “Beef” starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as two L.A. residents whose road rage incident spurs mutual destruction in their respective personal lives.

Deadline reported that Season 2 will instead focus on two warring couples, with “May December” breakout Melton and “Priscilla” star Cailee Spaeny playing one duo. While both Melton and Spaeny have separately confirmed their respective castings, the other actors Deadline reported have not.

Those stars are rumored to be Oscar winners Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as the other couple; Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway were rumored to have also been asked to join the series. And this wouldn’t be the first time Gyllenhaal and Isaac...

The series adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Faithless from Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson will debut in competition as part of the Primetime & Short Cuts line up at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list.

The series will screen on Wednesday 11th September at TIFF before hitting Svt and Arte France in 2025. Fremantle is handling international sales on the series. We shared the first look at the project and interviewed Alfredson back in February. You can check that out here.

Billed as a “searing tale of love and betrayal,” the project is a six-part TV series based on the 2000 feature Faithless, which Ingmar Bergman penned for his former partner Liv Ullmann. The original film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and starred Lena Endre and Erland Josephson. The entire series is directed by Alfredson from scripts adapted by Norwegian writer Sara Johnsen.

New episodic series from Alfonso Cuarón, Thomas Vinterberg, Joe Wright and Janicza Bravo will screen in the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival’s Primetime program, TIFF organizers announced Friday.

Cuarón will be at the festival with his Apple TV+ psychological thriller series “Disclaimer,” starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline; Vinterberg with “Families Like Ours,” a six-episode series set in a future when Denmark must be evacuated because of rising sea level; Wright with “M: Son of the Century,” a limited series about the rise of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini; and “Zola” director Bravo with “The Listeners,” starring Rebecca Hall.

Other projects in Primetime include “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” director Tomas Alfredson’s “Faithless,” an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical 2000 film written by Ingmar Bergman and directed by Liv Ullman; Australian director Dylan River’s “Thou Shalt Not Steal”; and two projects from Canadian filmmakers, Courtney Montour and Tanya Talaga’s “The Knowing...

Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Primetime programme unveiled with the Short Cuts selections on Friday includes new series from Joe Wright, Thomas Vinterberg, Alfonso Cuarón, and Tomas Alfredson.

A trio of high-profile Primetime selections premiere in Venice: Wright’s M. Son Of The Century for Sky and Fremantle explores the rise to power of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini; Cuarón’s psychological miniseries Disclaimer for Apple TV+ stars Cate Blanchett as a journalist with a dark past; and Vinterberg’s family drama Families Like Ours from Studiocanal and Zentropa stars Paprika Steen.

There is a world premiere for Alfredson and Sara Johnsen’s Faithless,...

World premieres of Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer, Joe Wright’s M. Son of the Century, Tomas Alfredson’s Faithless and Thomas Vinterberg’s debut TV series Families Like Ours were unveiled as part of the Toronto Film Festival’s Primetime program on Friday.

The Toronto focus on new TV series has booked a Canadian premiere for Disclaimer, the seven-part psychological thriller for Apple from Cuarón that stars fellow Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Kevin Cline. The Apple Studios series will bow Oct. 11 and marks Cuarón’s first show under his overall deal with the streamer.

There’s also a world bow for Alfredson, the director Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and co-helmer Sara Johnsen’s Faithless, an adaptation of the 2000 feature Faithless — directed by Liv Ullmann from a script by Oscar winner Ingmar Bergman — as a limited TV series.

Lena Endre will reprise her role as Marianne for the series with...

More than 250 international guests, including 53 buyers from 18 countries, have signed up for the Norwegian International Film Festival’s three-day industry event New Nordic Films in Haugesund, which will fête its 30th anniversary and kickoff with Charlotte Sieling’s drama “Way Home”, Aug. 20.

Some of the strongest filmmakers from the region and beyond – including Erik Poppe, Dag Johan Haugerud, Selma Vilhunen, Zaida Bergroth, Rúnar Rúnarsson – will be screening or pitching their next projects, next to scores of rising talents.

“Our DNA hasn’t changed,” said Line Halvorsen, who joined New Nordic Films four years ago and is serving as acting director, temporarily filling in for Gyda Velvin Myklebust.

“Our core is to gather Nordic filmmakers and industryites interested in Nordic films, to serve as a launching pad for new talents, and to spotlight latest industry trends. Together with our twin event in the Göteborg Nordic Film Market, we are here to support our Nordic industry,...

With the third installment of their Danza Macabra series, the fine, twisted folks at Severin Films shift focus from the boot of Italy to the Iberian peninsula. This collection spotlights four fascinating Spanish examples of the sort of moody gothic filmmaking that Italian directors like Mario Bava and Antonio Margheriti, not to mention Hammer Films in Britain, helped to popularize for international markets.

Rife with reptilian monsters, vampires, zombified Knights Templar, and even a cameo from Frankenstein and his misbegotten creation, these films vary considerably in tone and approach, ranging from rambling shaggy-dog tales to almost esoteric fables. They also differ in how far they’re willing to go with their respective lashings of sex and violence, growing bolder as the restrictions of the Franco regime lifted after the dictator’s passing in 1975.

Writer-director Miguel Madrid’s schizoid Necrophagous, from 1971, divides its time between two principal storylines that barely cohere in the end.

When IndieWire recently ranked the 25 best films of Alfred Hitchcock, it was probably no surprise to anyone that “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” the director’s sole attempt at a light romantic comedy, didn’t make the cut. Even Hitchcock himself tended to underrate the film, as when he told interviewer François Truffaut that “since I didn’t really understand the type of people who were portrayed in the film, all I did was photograph the scenes as written.” From a filmmaker who regularly dismissed movies he considered uncinematic as mere “photographs of people talking,” this was the ultimate self-directed insult.

Yet even a casual reappraisal of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” newly available in an exquisite Blu-ray special edition from Warner Archive, undermines Hitchcock’s claims about his own movie. While it would be a bridge too far to declare the film a masterpiece on a par with “Psycho” or “Rear Window,...

Ab August bietet das Kino filmkunst 66 jeden Sonntag ausgewählte Werke der Meister der Filmkunst der 1920er bis 1960er Jahre.

Das Kino Filmkunst 66 präsentiert ab August sonntags „Frühe Meister der Filmkunst“ (Credit: filmkunst 66)

Kuratiert von Theaterleiter Klaus Stawecki bietet das Kino filmkunst 66 ab August sonntags ausgewählte Werke der frühen Meister der Filmkunst aus den 1920er bis 1960er Jahren. Wie das Kino heute mitteilt, wolle man damit „sowohl erfahrenen CineastInnen (die viele bedeutende Filme lange nicht mehr im Kino sehen konnten) als auch interessierten Newcomern eine Möglichkeit zu bieten, sich Beispiele der Filmgeschichte auf der Leinwand anzusehen“.

Beim Angebot wolle man sich am Alphabet nach den Nachnamen der jeweiligen Meister orientieren, heißt es in der Mitteilung weiter. Und so macht am 4. August Michelangelo Antonionis „Die mit der Liebe spielen“ den Auftakt zu der Filmreihe. Am 11. und 18. August folgen mit „Liebe 1962“ und „Blow Up“ zwei weitere Filme von Michelangelo Antonioni. Am 25. August,...

Bill Klages, a trailblazer in the field of television lighting design and a seven-time Emmy recipient, died Sunday at his home in Santa Monica, his son, Jonathan Klages, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 97.

Klages in 2012 became the only lighting designer inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. His six-decade career spanned the early days of black-and-white live television through the sophisticated high-definition productions of today.

The native New Yorker lighted the Emmys, the Tonys, the Grammys and The Kennedy Center Honors as well as a range of high-profile entertainment programs that included Kraft Music Hall, My Name Is Barbra, Sills and Burnett at the Met, Baryshnikov by Tharp and The Dorothy Hamill Special.

Nominated for 22 Emmys, Klages collected his first trophy in 1974 — when he won for The Lie, an Ingmar Bergman-written telefilm that starred George Segal and Shirley Knight — and his last in 1991, when he was honored...

Zoltán Fábri’s 1976 film follows military veteran Karoly in wartime Hungary as he asks fellow drinkers in a bar what they would choose: be the slave master or the slave

The seventh seal that gave Ingmar Bergman’s film its title is the one whose opening is said to herald the seven angelic trumpeters and the seven bowls of divine wrath emptied out over the wretched sinners. This 1976 film from Hungarian director Zoltán Fábri, adapted from a novel by Ferenc Sánta, is named after something fractionally less dramatic: the fifth seal, whose opening reveals the martyrs’ prayers, beseeching God’s vengeance. Martyrdom, of a tragicomically compromised kind, is perhaps the film’s subject. It’s an arrestingly spiky political cabaret of cruelty and fear, recognisably from the same era of European cinema that brought us Pasolini’s Salò or Marco Ferreri’s La Grande Bouffe.

The person broodingly obsessed with...

George Miller’s high-octane prequel film “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” doesn’t have a ton in common with “Janet Planet,” the quiet, small-scale indie darling from playwright-turned-filmmaker Annie Baker. The films were only released a month apart, so any real influence is pretty unlikely. But according to Baker, she can still see a connection.

Speaking in a recent interview with Letterboxd, Baker was asked what fascinates her about mother/daughter stories. She denied that “Janet Planet” was influenced by any one story in particular. But she did just see “Furiosa,” which centers on a daughter losing her mother and trying to find her way back home, and Baker felt it definitely made an impression.

“I really liked ‘Furiosa,’” she said. “I can’t say it was an influence on ‘Janet Planet’ since I saw it last weekend, but I’m a big fan. I’m a big fan. ‘Furiosa,...

The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 to July 6) boasted not one but two competitions, the Crystal Globe and Proxima, presided over by the festival president Jiří Bartoška, artistic director Karel Och, and executive director Kryštof Mucha. The festival is the main summer event in the country, which attracts many sponsors and patrons who want to attend, and faces none of the financial hardships of such festivals as Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance. 130 films are shown, with 140,000 tickets sold. There is no room for growth, given the limited venues, from the many screening rooms at the festival hub, the Hotel Thermal, where juror Christine Vachon mixed Negronis for her fellow jurors between screenings, to the colorful arthouse Kino Drahomira, named after a revered Czech woman director.

The Eastern European festival falls between Cannes and Venice, and programs many films in its Crystal Globe Competition that did not make the cut at Cannes,...

“May December” is a drama movie directed by Todd Haynes starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.

“May December” is a cinematic gem that impresses critics and movie enthusiasts alike with brilliant performances from two of the industry’s leading actresses, a complex screenplay, stunning cinematography, a talented supporting cast, and a director who knows how to weave all elements into a special masterpiece. Rooted in the realms of discontent and deconstructed characters, the film explores the art of acting and self-discovery through the creation of a character.

Elisabeth, portrayed by Natalie Portman, is a well-known television actress preparing to play Gracie, a character played by Julianne Moore, a woman who ends up in jail for having an affair with a thirteen-year-old boy, Joe Yoo. Years after being released from prison, Joe and Gracie have a son and lead a serene life in Savannah.

The film pays homage to the cult...

Ingmar Bergman is the Oscar-winning Swedish auteur who helped bring international cinema into the American art houses with his stark, brooding dramas. But how many of his titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 25 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden, Bergman started off as a screenwriter before moving into directing. His early hits “Summer with Monika” (1953), “Sawdust and Tinsel” (1953) and “Smiles of a Summer Night” (1955) helped make him a favorite amongst American audiences hungry for world cinema.

He hit his stride in 1957 with a pair of noteworthy titles: “Wild Strawberries” and “The Seventh Seal.” Both films dealt with the absence of God and the inevitability of mortality — the former concerning an aging professor (Victor Sjostrom) coming to terms with his life, the latter focusing on a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) playing a game of chess with Death (Bengt Ekerot...

Am 5. Juli feiert „Wir für immer“ von Johannes Schmid in der Reihe Neues Deutsches Fernsehen des Filmfest München Weltpremiere. Über die Arbeit an dem feinen, fein beobachteten, mit feiner Farbkomposition und Lichtgestaltung versehenen Drama um ein Mutter-Sohn-Gespann in einem ungesunden Abhängigkeitsverhältnis, erzählt der Filmemacher im Interview.

Johannes Schmid arbeitet als Regisseur für Film, Theater und Oper sowie als Drehbuchautor. Zuletzt hat er die erfolgreichen „Geschichten vom Franz“-Filme inszeniert. Im Jahr 2000 gründete er zusammen mit Philipp Budweg die Filmproduktionsfirma schlicht und ergreifend, aus der 2011 Lieblingsfilm hervorging. Nach vielfach ausgezeichneten Kurzfilmen legte er mit „Blöde Mütze!” sein Langfilmdebüt vor, das auf dem Roman seines Bruders Thomas Schmid basiert. Der Film erhielt zahlreiche Preise (Credit: privat)

„Wir für immer“. Der Titel kann positiv konnotiert gelesen werden, zum anderen negativ. Das spiegelt auch die Geschichte wider…

Johannes Schmid: „Wir für immer“ erzählt darüber, wie zwei Menschen erkennen, dass sie sich gegenseitig loslassen müssen.

Dustin Hoffman’s journey to stardom is no less than a testament to resilience and an unwavering dedication to his craft. Starting his career on Broadway, Hoffman found fame and acclaim despite his ‘unconventional’ looks. Breaking barriers with his extraordinary performances, the actor’s initial run is often regarded as an era of nuanced and deeply human storytelling, even when most of his roles can be categorized as ‘anti-heroes’.

Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate | Embassy Pictures

However, at the top of his game, Hoffman made the surprising decision to reject the legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg four times. While Spielberg isn’t the only director he refused, the actor now deeply regrets making those mistakes.

Dustin Hoffman Jeopardized His Career by Rejecting Steven Spielberg Four Times!

Hoffman in a still from Hook | TriStar Pictures

Dustin Hoffman was just a star on Broadway when he ended up getting his breakthrough role in the 1967 movie,...

In the latest installment in the “Beverly Hills Cop” franchise, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” premiering on Netflix next week, “Zola” star Taylour Paige plays daughter to Eddie Murphy’s classic character Axel Foley, but it seems she’d rather be taking on his older roles. A huge fan of Murphy’s reinterpretation of the Jerry Lewis comedy “The Nutty Professor,” she said in a recent piece for The New York Times that she couldn’t help but quote it back to him on repeat.

“I recited every line to him almost every day I shot with him,” Paige said. “I had a lot of questions, like, ‘How do you play six to eight people believably?’”

Paige has spoken previously of her admiration for Murphy. In a profile for Empire, she said, “I grew up watching ‘The Nutty Professor’ and ‘Dr. Dolittle.’ It was like I knew him — it was surreal.

Maxwell Atom's animated series "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy" debuted on the Cartoon Network on June 13, 2003, and would go on to run for 84 episodes over the course of six seasons. The premise was delightfully ghoulish. The cluelessly happy Billy (Richard Steven Horvitz) and the angry misanthrope Mandy (Grey DeLisle) once cheated Death by rigging a limbo competition; it seems that Death will grant favors to the living should they win at a competition à la Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal."

Because of Billy and Mandy's limbo victory, a grim reaper named Grim (Greg Eagles) becomes their indentured servant. Grim constantly wants to kill Billy and Mandy, while the kids just want to go on adventures. Grim begrudgingly goes along. Early Billy & Mandy segments were originally aired as part of the diptych series "Grim & Evil," which shared its 22-minute airtime with another Maxwell Atom series, "Evil Con Carne.

Death takes the most unexpected of forms in “Tuesday,” a sui generis debut from Croatian director Daina O. Pusić. Her strikingly original if occasionally counterintuitive film brings the central idea of Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” into the modern era — trying to stall Death, if only for a matter of hours — anchored by a committed performance from a curiously miscast Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

According to Pusić’s singular imagination, Death isn’t a scythe-wielding skeleton, nor a winged figure in a pitch-black plague cloak. Rather, it appears as a ruddy-colored, computer-generated macaw with a rumbling Darth Vader-esque bass (performed by Arinzé Kene), his words low like glaciers calving and a syntax like Jabba the Hutt. Why a macaw? It seems that these exotic parrots are harbingers of death in some cultures (though the film doesn’t explain that). This one — an intimidating red bird that can shrink and swell...

Martin Starger, a producer for such films as Robert Altman’s Nashville and Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask, died Friday at 92 in his Los Angeles home of natural causes. His death was confirmed by his niece, casting director Ilene Starger.

“He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man,” Starger said. “He had wonderful taste in projects, and, on a highly personal level, he was like a father to me, given that his older brother, my father, died very suddenly when I was a teenager.”

As the first president of ABC Entertainment, he helped bring such projects as Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man to television.

As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982).

Martin...

Martin Starger, who shepherded Roots, Happy Days and Rich Man, Poor Man as the first president of ABC Entertainment before producing such films as Robert Altman’s Nashville and Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask, has died. He was 92.

Starger died Friday at his home in Los Angeles, his niece, New York-based casting director Ilene Starger, announced. “He was a brilliant, elegant, remarkable man and had wonderful taste in projects,” she noted.

As an executive producer, Starger worked on films including Stanley Donen’s Movie Movie (1978), Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982) and Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982)

He received Tony nominations in 1987 and 1989 for producing the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express and the comedy Lend Me a Tenor, respectively,

Starger was born on May 8, 1932, in the Bronx, New York. After graduating from City College,...

Cannes awards have become hugely influential in subsequent awards races, especially the Oscars. The top honor, the Palme d’Or, confers prestige and a stamp of approval — this year from the Competition jury led by multi hyphenate Greta Gerwig — that awards voters take seriously.

Palme winners “Parasite,” “Triangle of Sadness,” and “Anatomy of a Fall” were all Best Picture Oscar contenders and won Oscars. And they were all picked up by specialty distributor Neon before they won their Cannes prize. Neon did not break its streak. It acquired two eventual prize-winners before the closing ceremony: Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” the first American film to win the prize since Terence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in 2011, and Iranian dissident filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which took home a special award.

Thus “Anora,” from veteran indie filmmaker Baker (Cannes entry “The Florida Project...