Annemarie Jacir, Aisling Walsh, Jim Sheridan & Anca Damian Head To Venice Gap-Financing Market – Full Feature Film Project List

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Recently restored versions of William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist,” Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “One From the Heart” feature in the Venice Classics section of the 80th Venice Film Festival. The lineup of recently restored films in Venice Classics, which is curated by the festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera in collaboration with Federico Gironi, was unveiled on Friday. “The Exorcist” is screened, 50 years after it was produced by Warner Bros., alongside Disney’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” starring Shirley Temple and directed by “the prolific and sometimes brilliant” Allan Dwan, to mark the Hollywood studios’ 100th anniversaries.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 80th Venice Film Festival has revealed its selection of projects for Venice Immersive, the XR-Extended Reality section of the festival, which runs Aug. 30 – Sept. 9. The program will include VR experience “Wallace & Gromit in the Grand Getaway” and a Fatboy Slim project. Venice Immersive is devoted to immersive media and includes all XR means of creative expression: 360° videos and XR works of any length, including installations and virtual worlds. The program, which will take place on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, will present 44 projects from 25 countries, and 24 works in the Worlds Gallery section. It will comprise:

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Forty-nine films will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo awards at the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, which runs in Bosnia and Herzegovina from Aug. 11 to 18. The Feature Film Competition will present 11 titles, with two world premieres, one international and five regional premieres. World premieres include “Europa” from Austrian-Iranian filmmaker Sudabeh Mortezai, whose credits include 2018 Venice Days entry “Joy,” the Best Film winner at London Film Festival, and “Macondo,” which competed for the Golden Bear at Berlin Film Festival in 2014. The other world premiere is “Medium,” from Greek director Christina Ioakeimidi, whose debut feature was “Harisma” in 2010.

Naman Ramachandran “The Lady of Heaven,” “The Batman,” and “The Kashmir Files” were the most complained about films in the U.K. in 2022, the British Board of Film Classification’s (BBFC) annual report reveals. “The Lady of Heaven,” which the BBFC describes as “a drama concerning the life of Fatima, a daughter of the prophet Muhammad,” topped the list with 1,573 complaints “from people who felt that the film was blasphemous and historically inaccurate.” The film was pulled from some U.K. cinemas upon release due to these concerns. “Sometimes, we also receive complaints which do not relate directly to BBFC classifications, but instead reflect people’s wider objections to a certain film,” the BBFC said in its annual report. “Filmmakers are free to explore historical or controversial themes and events within their films. Our role is to ensure that we classify the content appropriately based on our guidelines, in order to protect children and other vulnerable groups from potential harm and to empower consumers to make informed viewing decisions.”

What would a “Star Wars” film or TV show look like if everything was peaceful and there was no actual war to speak of? That’s the question that apparently caused quite a bit of discussion during the development of the upcoming “Star Wars” series, “The Acolyte.”  In a new interview with EW, showrunner Leslye Headland explained how “The Acolyte” fits in the grand timeline of “Star Wars” stories.

Florence Pugh is on a mission to rid Hollywood of its obsession with “vanity.” 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival will pay tribute to late Italian icon Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January, with a pre-opening event featuring a double bill of freshly restored works in which she stars. The Lido’s annual pre-opening event on Aug. 29 will feature a 27-minute short by Orson Welles titled “Portrait of Gina.” In 1968, Welles interviewed Lollobrigida in her villa on the Appian Way as the pilot for an ABC TV series — a U.S. version of “Around the World With Orson Welles”– that ABC rejected. Welles’ portrait of the diva remained in the vaults until 1986, when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival one year after Orson Welles’ death. This piece has been defined by Welles as a “personal essay” on Lollobrigida. Interestingly, when Lollobrigida saw “Portrait of Gina” in Venice in 1986, she reportedly tried to have it banned. The short’s restoration was done by the Munich Film Museum and Italy’s Cinecittà.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Movie stars Zhou Xun and Jelly Lin head the cast of “Imperfect Victim,” a new mainland Chinese drama series that focuses on workplace sexual harassment and leads to a rape trial. Zhou (“Cloud Atlas,” “The Silent War,” “Painted Skin”) plays a lawyer who steps in to represent the character played by Lin (“The Mermaid”), who alleges assault by her boss at work. He is portrayed by TV veteran Liu Yijun (“Nirvana in Fire,” “The Pretender”). The case becomes complicated and Zhou’s character is forced to question her own ethics. The show is highly topical, given the slowly building #MeToo movement in China. This is being fuelled by numerous instances of sexual discrimination, sexual assault and outright violence towards women, many instances of which have gone viral on Chinese social media before being deleted by censors.

It’s a Wednesday lunchtime and the rain is coming in sideways. Nevertheless, here at a world-famous market in Greater Manchester, the winding pathways and narrow streets between stalls are packed out - it takes more than a bit of bad weather to deter these seasoned shoppers.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Seven films have been selected for the 11th edition of Final Cut in Venice, the works-in-progress section of the 80th Venice Film Festival. Final Cut in Venice, which runs Sept. 3-5, provides support for the completion of films from Africa and five Middle Eastern countries: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. It is one of the programs run by the festival’s industry section, Venice Production Bridge. Over three days, the working copies of the selected films will be presented to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies and film festival programmers. The first two days are devoted to screenings, and then one-to-one meetings between the producers of the projects and the professionals attending the Venice Production Bridge will take place on the third day. The program will conclude with the awarding of prizes in kind or in cash, the purpose of which is to provide support for the films’ post-production.

Fans said they "can't wait" for the return of comedy series as star Michelle Keegan shared a behind the scenes snap. The former Coronation Street actress posted a photo to her Instagram story showing her with cast mates in the Sky comedy drama.

The Streets have announced details of a new album and feature film, both titled ‘The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light’, alongside details of a new tour.Mike Skinner will return under the name for his first full-length album as The Streets since 2011’s ‘Computers And Blues’. ‘The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light’ will be released on October 20 via 679 Records/Warner Music UK.Skinner has shared a preview of the record in the new single ‘Troubled Waters’, which finds the artist lamenting modern society’s lack of accountability and the hedonism that takes place at night.

The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the names who will join Damien Chazelle on the main Competition jury of its 80th edition, running Aug 30 — Sep 9.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Jane Campion, Laura Poitras, Mia Hansen-Løve and Martin McDonagh are among high-caliber members of the Venice Film Festival’s main jury. The prominent directors, most of whom are Venice regulars – Poitras last year scored the Golden Lion with documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” – will be joined on the Venice jury panel by Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“Wajib”); Chinese star Shu Qi (“The Assassin”); Italian director Gabriele Mainetti, who was at Venice last year with “Freaks Out”; and Argentinian auteur Santiago Mitre whose “Argentina, 1985” also launched from the Lido last year. They will join Damien Chazelle who – as previously announced – will serve as president of the Venice competition jury. 

Todd Hayes’ May December will open the New York Film Festival on September 29, organizers said today.

Brent Lang Executive Editor James Ashcroft will direct the feature film adaptation of “Old Haunts.” The “Coming Home In the Dark” filmmaker was tapped for the gig by AWA Studios, the film and television division of Artists, Writers & Artisans (AWA), which published the popular graphic novel that is inspiring the movie. Ashcroft will direct the “Old Haunts” adaptation from a script by in-demand scribe Aaron Rabin, who is hot off of the newly launched Marvel series, “Secret Invasion.” Zach Studin, president of AWA Studios, will produce the movie. Since the world premiere of “Coming Home In The Dark” at Sundance, where the psychological thriller made a stir, Ashcroft has become an in-demand filmmaker, lining up projects with AGBO, Legendary, and Netflix.

After delivering a blisteringly saucy trailer, Luca Guadagnino’s latest film “Challengers” will set the Venice Film Festival ablaze as their opening night film, screening out of competition, TheWrap has confirmed. The film follows Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a successful tennis champ drawn to two men, played by Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor.

Well, it’s official: Variety reports that Luca Guadagnino‘s latest, his tennis love triangle film “Challengers,” will open the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival. No surprise there, as Guada has premiered five of his seven feature films on the Lido.

UK star Riz Ahmed will be feted with a career achievement award at the upcoming 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, running August 2 and 12.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Films Boutique will handle international sales on Filipino master Lav Díaz’s “Essential Truths of The Lake,” one of the highest-profile titles in the just announced main International Competition at this year’s Locarno Festival.  The Berlin and Lyon-based production-sales company’s fifth collaboration with Diaz following, among others, Venice Golden Bear Winner “The Woman Who Left” and Berlin Silver Bear Winner “Lullaby To A Sorrowful Mystery,” “Essential Truths of The Lake” marks a prequel to Diaz’s ‘When The Waves Are Gone’ that premiered out of competition at Venice last year. It reprises the character of the ethically conflicted police lieutenant Hermes Papauran, one of the best investigators of the Philippines. When asked what drives a man to search for the truth, Papauran says dejectedly that maybe he just wants to keep inflicting pain on himself.