‘Congrats. So What’s Next?’: Short-Film Directors Look to Make the Feature-Length Leap at Cannes’ Focus COPRO’

Naman Ramachandran Ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has released “Uprooted,” a powerful short film featuring and made by Ukrainian refugees now living in Germany. The film shows loud noises – a door slamming, the sirens of an ambulance, the bangs of a firework display – and how they can trigger terrifying memories of war.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterFor hundreds of Swifties in New York City, today was a fairy tale.That’s because Taylor Swift made a rare public appearance, at Tribeca Festival, to screen her short film “All Too Well” and talk with filmmaker Mike Mills (“C’mon C’mon,” “20th Century Women”) about bringing the 10-minute track to the big screen.“This is not a music video,” she informed the audience at the Beacon Theatre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “We approached everything differently.”In a wide-ranging conversation, the notoriously private pop star also revealed easter eggs in the short film, discussed her ambitions to direct a movie and treated fans to a surprise performance of “All Too Well.” Seated near the stage, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were among the many in the crowd who enthusiastically sung along, clapped and took videos of Swift throughout the lengthy track.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large“Music has always been a part of the storytelling process,” she points out. Even in the broadcast era.We may not remember these moments because, in many cases, songs that aired on TV episodes then were cleared for one-time use and stripped out of repeats.

Teddi Mellencamp joined her fellow host Tamra Judge on Tuesday to review their observations from the MTV Movie & TV Awards earlier this month, and Teddi's may have been the most consequential of them all. Both women headed to Tom Tom Restaurant and Bar in West Hollywood after the awards, where they ran into Lisa and Ken Vanderpump and Teddi had a chance to speak to Lisa for the first time in years. Both of the former stars have been locked in a feud since the 2019 puppygate scandal allegedly pushed Lisa to leave the show.

dropped Wednesday. The clip, shared on social media by Zombie, features Jeff Daniel Phillips (“Westworld,” “Claws”) as door-crashing Herman Munster, Sheri Zombie — wife of Rob — as Lily Munster and Daniel Roebuck as Grandpa Munster.Zombie announced in June 2021 that he would be directing a remake that, according to him, had been his dream project for decades.“Attention Boils and Ghouls! The rumors are true! My next film project will be the one I’ve been chasing for 20 years! THE MUNSTERS! Stay tuned for exciting details as things progress,” Zombie wrote on his Instagram account last summer.

Brit monarch Queen Elizabeth II and Paddington Bear have starred in a special short film to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorToro y Moi, a.k.a Chaz Bear, has officially released “Goes By So Fast: A Mahal Film,” a short film starring Eric André and Chaz that, according to the announcement, “brings the world of Toro y Moi’s seventh studio album, ‘Mahal,’ to life.” The film was in partnership with Dropbox and directed by long-time Toro y Moi collaborator Harry Israelson, written by Sidney Schleiff and Israelson and produced by Ways & Means.Watch the film below.Israelson says, “Having worked with Chaz for over a decade, there’s been this natural evolution of our storytelling; with ‘Mahal,’ from day one we discussed a companion film. To me, the idea was to create a world around the record, so listeners could stick their head inside the album cover itself and have a look around.

Showtime announced the new half-hour anthology series Spotlights: A Showtime Short Film Series premiering Sunday, June 12. All 5 episodes will be available on streaming and on-demand for Showtime subscribers and will also air weekly on Sundays at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentA group of prominent Algerian film directors is launching an alarm over the de-facto cancellation of the country’s national film fund which they say puts Algerian cinema “at risk of death.”In an open letter to Algerian culture minister Malika Bendouda, the North African country’s filmmakers are lamenting that they “see no future for our films” after the government support scheme called the National Fund for the Development of the Arts and Techniques of Cinema (Fdatic) was scrapped by last year by the government.The culture ministry has given Algeria’s film community vague assurances that this fund would be replaced by another support scheme which however has not materialized. Nor has the minister replied to several previous, less clamorous, requests for clarification about the future of what is considered a crucial driver for local filmmaking.

Kate Winslet looks so stylish while arriving for the L’Oreal Lights on Women Award Ceremony held in Cannes, France on Friday (May 27).

Calvin Harris has released his new single ‘Potion’, which features Dua Lipa and Young Thug – listen below.‘Potion’ will appear on Harris’ new album, ‘Funk Wav Bounces Vol.2’, which is coming this summer. His forthcoming sixth studio album will be his first in five years – his last one being the first volume of ‘Funk Wav Bounces’, which arrived in 2017.The video for the single is due to be released later tonight (May 27).Harris teased the track on TikTok earlier this week, sharing a new video of himself working on the song and agreeing with Dua Lipa to have her sing on it.

Donald Glover is enjoying a very rare day out with his longtime girlfriend!

A balloon shaped like a heart flies from the open window of a taxi. It is late at night and the woman (Leila Hatami) who this gift was bestowed upon simply couldn’t care less about the useless trinket, far more interested in comparing the quality of the accompanying chocolate boxes dispensed by a handful of men who wish to have her as a Valentine.

Lise Pedersen New voices were given center stage at the Canada Docs-in-Progress Showcase, part of the Cannes Festival’s Film Market, with four first feature-length docs in the final stages of production presented to an industry crowd on Friday.The showcase was brought by Telefilm Canada, in partnership with RIDM (Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal) and in collaboration with Hot Docs.Of the four Canadian projects showcased at last year’s edition, both “Geographies in Solitude” and “Cette Maison” went to world premiere at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival, before moving on to Hot Docs along with “And Still I Sing.” “Geographies in Solitude” picked up three gongs along the way, including best Canadian feature doc in Toronto. “Back Home”This year’s showcase started with “Back Home” by Vancouver-based filmmaker, photographer and artist Nisha Platzer.It follows her pursuit to get to know her older brother more than 20 years after he took his own life. Through vérité scenes shot with her brother’s friends, intimate recollections re-imagined on 16mm and Super8, and lyrical, handmade visuals, “Back Home” explores questions of identity, forgiveness, loss and healing.Platzer, whose last short “Vaivén” (2020) competed at festivals worldwide, works with and teaches handmade film.For “Back Home,” she used experimental techniques on celluloid to play with light and shadow.