Barbara Neri’s Blanche DuBois-Themed LGBTQIA+ Film ‘Unlocking Desire’ Launches Sales at Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cohen Media Group has scooped rights to “Kidnapped,” the latest movie by revered Italian master Marco Bellocchio, which world premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The drama reconstructs the true tale of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy who was kidnapped and forcibly raised as a Christian in 19th-century Italy. Described by Variety as a “handsomely mounted period drama,” “Kidnapped” opens in 1858, in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, where the Pope’s soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family. By order of the cardinal, they have come to take Edgardo, their seven-year-old son. The child had been secretly baptized by his nurse as a baby, and the papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education.

Blondshell has shared an exclusive playlist to accompany the launch of this week’s NME Cover.The LA-based artist stars on The Cover this week (June 5) as we renew our commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover, and the full interview with Blondshell can be read here.To celebrate, Blondshell has curated an ‘After The Beach’ playlist, featuring songs from The Beach Boys, Harry Nilsson, The Mamas and Papas and more.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the dates of its 77th edition which will take place May 14-25, 2024. This year’s festival wrapped May 27 with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” winning the Palme d’Or, Jonathan Glazer’s “A Zone of Interest” take home the Grand Prize, and Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves” nabbing the Jury Prize. The jury of the 76th edition was presided over by Ruben Ostlund, the two-time Palme d’Or winning director of “The Square” and “Triangle of Sadness.” The first post-pandemic edition, 2023 was marked by an overall well-received Official Selection lineup and a strong presence of American talent and studios. Some of the anticipated films spotlighted at the festival included Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”, Todd Haynes’ “May December” and Wes Anderson‘s “Asteroid City,” as well as Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” Pedro Almodóvar’s short film “Strange Way of Life” and Pixar’s “Elemental.”

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights for Catherine Breillat’s drama Last Summer (L’été dernier) following its well-received premiere in competition in the final days of the Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27).

You'd think that the Desert Island Dumpling were an Affleck's Palace staple with how busy it is. But the quaint little vegan café drenched in Simpson's memorabilia is just over a week old - and it's already a hit.

Beanie Feldstein and Bonnie-Chance Roberts have officially tied the knot! shared a look inside the couple's camp-themed wedding Thursday, which was held at Cedar Lakes Estate in the Berkshires on May 19 — the pair's «happy place.»«I grew up going to summer camp for ten years, and my parents and both sets of my grandparents met at summer camp, so camp is a lineage of love through the generations of my family,» Feldstein said of the theme and location of their happy nuptials. «Even though we met in London and fell in love on a film set, to get married at a camp was a truly beautiful emotional homecoming.»Photos shared from the wedding see the pair in Gucci, with the  star wearing two versions of a white wedding dress and Roberts in two ensembles as well — a light pink suit, and a more formal, black number for their photoshoot with the outlet.The wedding itself was a star-studded affair, with Feldstein's  co-star, Sarah Paulson in attendance, alongside her partner, Holland Taylor.

Whether it’s the flat white lighting and washed-out color grading that gives The Delinquents the look of a ‘70s TV serial, or the fact that much of it is set in a mountain swimming beach where people claim to see apparitions, there is an undercurrent of genuine oddity running beneath this long, complex film. Screening at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section for innovative or personal cinema, Rodrigo Moreno’s story begins with a bank robbery. The very ease with which this crime is committed is odd in itself: Moran (Daniel Elias) simply walks into the bank vault, puts a pile of American dollars in his gym bag and goes home. Not what you expect in a heist film, but here is the point. Over the next three hours, Moreno will deconstruct the genre with the calm focus of a safecracker taking apart a lock.

d4vd has shared an exclusive playlist to accompany the launch of NME’s The Cover.The Houston-based artist stars on this week’s cover (May 29) as we renew our commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover, and the full interview with d4vd can be read here.To celebrate, d4vd has curated a ‘songs for tour’ playlist, featuring songs from Holly Humberstone, The Japanese House, Clairo, Billie Eilish and more.

At least once, I can say the winners of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival competition are actually the right ones. Maybe not exactly in the order I would have put them, but still, out of the 21 movies competing, it is hard to argue about almost all of the choices made by the Ruben Ostlund-led jury that, among others, included Americans Brie Larson and Paul Dano. I said almost.

Heidi Klum accidentally exposed herself during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. During the red carpet event, Klum, 49, stepped out in a daring yellow dress and truly flaunted it all.  The German and American supermodel stunned in a Zuhair Murad high-slit gown with diamond-shaped cut-out designs on top, showed off major skin and topped off her look with bejeweled beads embellished on the shoulders of her flowing cape. Klum accessorized with large diamond rings, a pair of clear heels and her blonde hair flowed over her shoulder.

Wes Anderson is a genre; one of decorative embellishment, ornamental whimsy, baroque fantasy, and symmetrical precision. It wasn’t always this way, and it’s also not just superficial embroidery.

Neon has acquired North American rights to Justine Triet’s Cannes Competition feature Anatomy of a Fall.

An English lieutenant, an American cowboy, and a mixed-race Chilean sheepherder venture into the inhospitable limits of the Tierra de Fuego region at the southernmost tip of the South American continent—the ends of the Earth, some might call it. Under the orders of their employer, landowner José Menéndez (the always masterful Alfredo Castro), the trio’s mission is to savagely murder as many Indigenous people as they encounter in their path.  READ MORE: 2023 Cannes Film Festival: 21 Must-See Movies To Watch Set in 1901, “The Settlers” (Los Colonos), a scorching Western on Chile’s blood-soaked national myth, takes aspects from the official text-book history and probes at their conveniently sanitized interpretations of how they shaped the country’s future.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent CAA Media Finance has come on board to handle sales in North America on Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye Julia,” the first film from Sudan to launch from the Cannes Film Festival. CAA will be working in tandem with Egypt-based producer Ali El Arabi’s Ambient Light Films, which holds North American rights for the timely drama that premiered on May 21 in Un Certain Regard. “Goodbye Julia” takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan. It revolves around two women, one from the north, the other from the south, that are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities.

Martin Scorsese unveiled “Killers of the Flower Moon” at Cannes on Saturday, debuting a sweeping American epic about greed and exploitation on the bloody plains of an Osage Nation reservation in 1920s Oklahoma.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Palestinian-British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s upcoming drama “The Teacher,” which is shot and set in Palestine’s Left Bank, has been acquired by top Italian indie distributor Eagle Pictures just as Vincent Maraval’s Goodfellas launches sales on the timely title in Cannes. Goodfellas, formerly known as Wild Bunch, on Thursday will be presenting to buyers the almost completed film that takes its cue from a real prisoners swap that took place in 2011 when Israel freed more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one soldier who had been kidnapped by Palestinian militants. In “The Teacher” a Palestinian school teacher played by Saleh Bakri (“Costa Brava, Lebanon”) struggles to reconcile his commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students. There is also a subplot involving his romantic relationship with a British volunteer worker, played by Imogen Poots (“The Father”).

William Earl Variety has announced the initial lineup for the Kering Women in Motion talks at the Cannes Film Festival. Moderated by Variety’s Senior Correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister, this year’s talks include some of the most important women working in cinema and offers a mix between up-and-coming talent and iconic figures such as Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. On Thursday, May 18, playwright, actor and philanthropist Jeremy O. Harris, who stars in Directors’ Fortnight premiere “The Sweet East,” will kick off the Women in Motion series to discuss female representation in his work. Following Harris’ talk, actress and director Katie Holmes will speak about her work as a director and how the industry has changed in its approach to female directors since she first began working in television.

EXCLUSIVE: Tye Sheridan is launching his new production company, Dogwood Pictures with its debut film, Black Flies, is set to play in competition at the 76th Annual Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, the pic reunites Sheridan with Sean Penn after over a decade since Malick’s The Tree of Life. Sheridan first became involved with the film in 2018 and continued on throughout the film’s execution and release.

Sophia Scorziello editor The 2024 Independent Spirit Awards are set to take place in Los Angeles on Feb. 25. The 39th annual awards will recognize achievements in American independent film and television and celebrate the power of independent visual storytelling. The February date, on a Sunday, puts the awards two weeks ahead of the March 10 Oscars, rather than the day before as the Spirits had been in some previous years. This year, the Spirit Awards embraced non-gendered award categories. ““For the first time in history, all the men will know how all the women feel when they find out they are competing against Cate Blanchett,” said the host of the evening, comedian, producer and writer Hasan Minhaj. The joke was met with a close-up of Blanchett looking quite confused.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy nominee Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games) and Oscar nominee John C. Reilly (Chicago) are set to lead timely Cannes market package Dreamquil, an AI thriller which HanWay Films is launching.