Brazilian Bonanza

Carlos Aguilar Smoking weed and telling off Catholic priests are just two of the ways Malu Rocha (Yara de Novaes) asserts her rebellious spirit. The eccentric, indomitable and idiosyncratic actress at that center of Pedro Freire’s feature debut “Malu” is the embodiment of a highly flammable substance. Her volatile personality, capable of consuming everything in her way, ignites a Rio de Janeiro-set intergenerational drama inspired by the life story of the director’s mother.

Another year draws to a close, one in which we may have (almost) seen the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, a UK Prime Minister managed to stay in office for more than five minutes and audiences were dazzled by an array of TV shows and performances including a once-in-a-generation week that saw a royal Coronation and Eurovision. This was part of the reason the BBC comfortably overcame ITV in the ratings rankings this year, returning eight of the top 10 shows. Below, we unveil the most-watched UK TV programs of the year (excluding sport) according to 7-day-post-launch Barb data from our friends at overnights.tv. Plus, while 12-months-ranking data isn’t available for streaming services, we have a recap of the UK shows that performed best on Netflix per the SVoD’s recent data dump. Read on.

Independents are out in force with high-profile fall festival fare from Pricilla to The Holdovers, a big Viva Pictures push with Inspector Sun (voiced by Ronny Chieng), Cannes documentary winner Four Daughters and Waikiki, the debut feature by Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana. the first homegrown feature to be shown there.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains spoilers about the reason for all the killing. Years ago, Indian director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat fell asleep on a cross-country train ride, only to discover upon reaching his destination that the cars on either side of his had been robbed by armed bandits, known as “dacoits.” The heist couldn’t have been too intense, or it would have awakened him, but it got the helmer’s gears turning about what a truly terrifying train raid might look like. The answer: “Kill,” in which a crew of 40-odd thieves board a train, intending to steal passengers’ watches and phones, then turn bloodthirsty after running into a pair of hardheaded commandos.

Studiocanal has nearly sold out worldwide on Andrew Garfield-Florence Pugh romantic drama “We Live in Time,” executive produced by Benedict Cumberbatch. Owned by Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group, Studiocanal has also closed half the world on both James McAvoy’s “Control” and Thomas Cailley’s Un Certain Regard opening film “Animal Kingdom,” a critics’ favorite at this year’s festival.   The banner sales news, replicated across other titles on Studiocanal’s broad sales slate, follows quick on the heels of two signature deals at Cannes: A24’s U.S. pickup on “We Live In Time”; a pact with Sony Pictures for the U.S., Canada and much of the world for “Paddington in Peru.”

autumn/winter 2023 show to Los Angeles, A-listers and international editors flocked to the West Coast to witness the most seductive of fashions in the flesh. While there were numerous stars on the FROW—like Cher, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Paris Hilton, and , to name a few—the runway was, naturally, awash with supermodels, both legendary and new-era. Naomi Campbell at Versace’s autumn/winter 2023 show in Los Angeles.Gigi Hadid, who’s made headlines recently as the host of Netflix’s Next in Fashion second season, opened the show at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood wearing a black razor-sharp skirt suit, black leather gloves, stilettos and a black holdall bag (she later wore a breathtaking low-slung gown with sheer corset panels).

Even on a specialty level, horror just works post-pandemic with the latest pop from a strong showing by a trio of films, Fear and Infinity Pool, released this weekend, and Skinamarink in week three.

It’s been a funny year, one that started with Omicron stealing headlines (doesn’t that feel a while ago) and ended with strike action and snow causing disruption to the masses and a strange Qatar World Cup concluding with a cracking final, while Britain gets used to its third Prime Minister in the space of 12 months. In between, viewers were enchanted by dancers, singers, bomb disposal experts and a former Health Secretary eating camel penis. Here, Deadline unveils the most-watched UK TV shows of the year (excluding sport) according to 7-day-post-launch Barb data from overnights.tv, while rounding up the most-watched World Cup games at the bottom. Read on.

The late Michael Landon‘s grandson was tragically hit and killed by a public transit bus in August — but is there more to this story than meets the eye?

“A hitman’s job is never done:” is the tagline from the trailer for the forthcoming action-comedy movie “Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday,” which follows Mike Fallon (AKA The Accident Man) (played by Scott Adkins) as he tries to “top the best assassins in the world, protect the ungrateful son of a mafia boss, save the life of his only friend and rekindle his relationship with his maniacal father figure.” Of course, The Accident Man will accomplish all of this during a run time of 96 minutes.

Emmy Awards? Save your breath. They and other ratings successes failed to make a dent in nominations for Monday's ceremony. Instead, the haul went to shows that are critical darlings or possess a higher degree of cool, “Stranger Things" and “Squid Game” among them.

Holly Jones The lives of a self-obsessed film star and a struggling filmmaker collide in Brazilian director-producer Diogo Leite’s first feature, “Monstro,” set to screen as a pic-in-post at the Ibero-American Work in Progress strand of this week’s Sanfic Industria.“Monstro” follows Magaiver, a young filmmaker who moonlights as an Internet technician in order to survive. His life takes a bittersweet turn as he’s hired to film a retrospective on ageing cinema star Laura.

Guy Lodge Film Critic“Rule 34,” a challenging and sexually explicit film from Brazilian director Julia Murat, has emerged as the surprise winner of the Golden Leopard award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival — an edition where typically audacious and formally ambitious work dominated the program.

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Preparations for this years’ Dundee Brew-Fest have stepped up sparking excitement with Scotland’s real-ale drinkers.

Afternoon subscribers, Max Goldbart here. It’s been a busy week but International Insider has you covered. Read on for in-depth analysis of the biggest international headlines of the week.

Afternoon subscribers and a very happy new year. 2022 is only a few days old but we’re back with the biggest stories of the week and some more long-term stuff to look out for. 

After a 2020 dedicated to being stuck in our living rooms, things vaguely started returning to normal in 2021 (don’t mention the ‘O’ word) and there was plenty of time for breakout hits and established ratings giants.

Chris Willman Music WriterThe Grammys got a little more predictable this year — which was good, if you have a bookie, or if you’e a journalist who’s been sulking for years over your consistent failure rate in prognosticating these things. Much of it comes down to the nominating committees having been abolished this year after being gatekeepers for the last quarter-century.

is in talks with the local authority to shoot the as yet unnamed feature film in Scotland's largest city. And the plans took a step forward today with the announcement that a £150,000 Filming Incentive Grant had been signed off by councillors.