Filmfest Hamburg Pulls Douglas Sirk Award For Ulrich Seidl But Will Screen ‘Sparta’

Luke Shaw has been hailed by Manchester United fans for scoring England’s first goal in their 3-3 Nations League draw with Germany on Monday evening.

After a year of waiting, Strictly Come Dancing is finally back on our screens and a whole new host of celebrities are dancing it out to get their hands on the infamous glitterball trophy. But while the likes of Kaye Adams, Kym Marsh and Helen Skelton may be new to the Strictly ballroom, it’s not just the celebrities who will be stepping onto the BBC dancefloor for the first time. In fact, in what is the biggest Strictly professional line-up to date, four new pros will be heading to our screens for the first time ever, including newbie Carlos Gu.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent An English-language reimagining of the world of Sergio Corbucci’s cult 1966 spaghetti western “Django,” which launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is set to launch from the Rome Film Festival in October. The high–concept TV series, titled “Django,” will play in 2023 exclusively on Sky and its streaming service NOW in all countries where Sky operates, including the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. It will also air on Canal+ in France, Switzerland, Benelux and Africa. The Rome Film Festival runs from Oct. 13-23. The 10-episode “Django” show stars Matthias Schoenaerts (“Rust and Bone,” “Bullhead”) as the iconic gunman who is the title character, alongside Nicholas Pinnock (“For Life”) as John Ellis, described as the “visionary founder” of the town of New Babylon. Lisa Vicari (“Dark”) plays Django’s daughter Sarah and Noomi Rapace (Millennium Trilogy) has the adversarial role of John’s powerful and ruthless enemy Elizabeth Thurman. 

Ulrich Seidl has canceled his trip to San Sebastian for the premiere of his latest film Sparta following a report in German magazine Der Spiegel that raised concerns about the treatment of younger cast members during the production.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Austrian director Ulrich Seidl has cancelled his visit to San Sebastian for the Sept. 18 world premiere of “Sparta,” amid allegations of impropriety and child exploitation made against the director. The world premiere will still go ahead at San Sebastian with the film playing in main competition contending for San Sebastian’s Gold Shell. Seidl’s decision comes after the Toronto Film Festival pulled “Sparta” and on Sept. 14, FilmFest Hamburg announced that it would no longer be giving Seidl its Douglas Sirk Award, though it would be screening “Sparta.”

really is — alone in the darkness, wearing a mask that covers her entire face, claiming she’s just had a medical procedure that prevents them from looking at her.Mommy has rules, like no visitors, no play dates and no entering quite a few rooms of the house. And while at first Elias and Lukas make the most of this weird visit, they quickly come to suspect that Mommy — who refuses to sing their favorite song, and has torn up the pictures they made for her — might not be their real mother at all.Sobel (“Take Me to the River”) gets the most mileage out of the film’s first half, where the mystery mounts and the children’s imagination runs rampant.

While she might not have the same A-list status in the US as someone like Jennifer Lawrence, Vicky Krieps is easily one of the best actors working today. After her breakout role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread,” Krieps has been one of the most consistent performers, delivering one astounding performance after another.

Jessie J has penned an emotional post as she finished her tour and reflected on a serious car crash that almost cut her career short two years ago. The 34-year-old finished her tour at Brazil’s Rock In Rio festival after playing dates in London, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and New York. In the now-deleted post, the Price Tag singer told fans she “never thought she would tour again” following the accident in 2020, which caused her lose her voice, suffer bouts of extreme tiredness and pain, as well as tissue and nerve damage.

The San Sebastian Film Festival is pushing on with a competition screening of Austrian director Ulrich Seidl’s new film Sparta, following a report in German magazine Der Spiegel raising concerns about the treatment of its young cast, saying only a court order would result in it dropping the film.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Ulrich Seidl’s “Sparta” has been pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival amid allegations of impropriety and child exploitation against the director, but its premiere at next week’s San Sebastian Film Festival will continue as planned, Variety can reveal. A spokesperson for the Spanish festival tells Variety on behalf of festival management that “Sparta” will remain in competition. Providing a three-point list explaining their reasoning, San Sebastian said “the festival team assesses the films after their viewing according to their interest and quality” and that the event “does not have the ability to judge how a film has been shot and whether a crime has been committed in the course of the filming. If anyone has any evidence of a crime, they should report it to a judge.”

UPDATED w/TIFF Statement: Sparta, the German-Romanian drama from Austrian director Ulrich Seidl that is in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the Toronto Film Festival, has been pulled from the festival lineup.

Manori Ravindran International Editor The Toronto International Film Festival has withdrawn the film “Sparta” following allegations of on-set impropriety against director Ulrich Seidl. “Sparta” was due to have its world premiere in Toronto on Friday afternoon. However, there has been speculation as to whether the film would remain in the festival after allegations against Seidl and the production were published last week in German news magazine Der Spiegel. The investigation alleges that Seidl did not communicate the film’s theme of paedophilia to its young actors, who were between the ages of 9 and 16. It’s also alleged that the actors were confronted with alcoholism, nudity and violence during the production without adequate preparation or support.

EXCLUSIVE: Global Screen has sealed a fresh round of deals on the 3D-animated feature My Fairy Troublemaker, about a mischievous, rookie tooth fairy who gets stuck in the world of humans on her first mission.

EXCLUSIVE: Director Joachim Hedén (Breaking Surface) is underway in Belgium on shark attack thriller The Last Breath, written by Nick Saltrese (Prayer Before Dawn).

One of the first post-WWII trials to hold Germans to account, the January 1946 Kiev trial took place in the USSR and has since become known as the Kiev Nuremberg. Overlapping in both time and scope with that infamous trial, the tribunal took place over the course of two days where 15 Germans stood trial for war crimes, ultimately being convicted and hanged for atrocities committed.  Utilizing three hours of courtroom footage that he found in an archive while constructing his 2021 documentary “Babi Yar.

Christopher Vourlias The pursuit of justice in the wake of unspeakable war crimes is at the heart of Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s timely new feature, “The Kiev Trial.” Produced by Atoms & Void for the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, the film had its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. The trailer can be viewed below. Held in January 1946 in the former Soviet Union, the film’s titular trial was among the first court cases to hold Nazis and their collaborators accountable for atrocities committed during World War II — acts that would come to be known as “crimes against humanity” during the historic tribunals held in Nuremberg, Germany.