First Clip Debuts for Farah Nabulsi’s Thriller ‘The Teacher,’ Starring Imogen Poots, Saleh Bakri, Ahead of Toronto Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a first clip for Studiocanal slasher pic Wake Up, which debuts today at Austin’s Fantastic Fest.

A diverse group of stars stepped out to attend the 2023 Global Citizen Festival on Saturday (September 23) in New York City.

Naman Ramachandran A first clip has been unveiled for Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s return to feature film direction, “Dear Jassi.” Dhandwar, the filmmaker previously known simply as Tarsem, returned to the big screen and to his roots with the film which had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, where it won the 2023 TIFF Platform Award in an unanimous decision. Written by Amit Rai (“OMG 2”) and based on the reporting of journalist Fabian Dawson, “Dear Jassi” is a modern-day tragedy inspired by the tragic true story of Jaswinder “Jassi” Kaur and Sukhwinder “Mithu” Singh Sidhu, told in a Punjabi folk style. In 1996 Punjab, India, Canadian-born Jassi (Pavia Sidhu) falls in love with Mithu (Yugam Sood), a rickshaw driver beneath her social status.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor European pay TV platform Sky has released the trailer for Sky Original film “Dance First,” ahead of its world premiere at San Sebastian Film Festival on Sept. 30. The film is directed by BAFTA and Academy Award winner James Marsh (“The Theory of Everything”) and written by BAFTA winner Neil Forsyth (“Guilt”).

The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute has brought in veteran TV casting executive as Head of Talent, a newly created position focused on transitioning the Institute’s students to becoming professional actors in film and TV.

EXCLUSIVE: MAD Solutions has acquired world sales rights to Egyptian director Amr Salama’s short film 60 Egyptian Pounds ahead of its world premiere as the opening film of the upcoming El Gouna Film Festival.

With a landmark birthday just passed, shoppers have now experienced 25-years of retail and entertainment at the Trafford Centre.

Emily Longeretta Desean Terry, who portrayed former anchor Daniel Henderson on the first two seasons of Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show,” will not be part of Season 3. His contract was not picked up for the latest season of the show, Variety confirms. On Thursday, the actor took to Instagram to share a video after receiving comments and questions about his whereabouts.

Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has boarded MENA distribution of Palestinian drama The Teacher, which enjoyed a buzzy world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend.

Sharareh Drury How does one measure the worth of one’s life? Does one life have more value than another? These complicated questions are at the center of British-Palestinian writer-director Farah Nabulsi’s feature debut, “The Teacher,” which premieres in TIFF’s Discovery section. The film follows Palestinian schoolteacher Basem (Saleh Bakri), who acts as a father figure to two of his students, Yacoub (Mahmoud Bakri) and Adam (Muhammad Abed El Rahman), amidst turmoil in the West Bank.

When British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi was watching the UK media coverage of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011, it had a profound impact on her. At the time, Shalit was an Israeli occupation soldier who had been abducted in 2006 by Palestinian freedom fighters and the first Israeli soldier to be captured by Palestinians since 1994. Shalit was eventually released five years later in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners, including hundreds of which were women and children. 

House of Villains is nearly here!

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Adriano Valerio’s documentary “Casablanca,” which will world premiere on Thursday at Venice Days, has been acquired by Salaud Morisset for world sales. Variety has been given an exclusive clip from the film.

Based on a true story, they said, based on actual authentic events, but what does any of that matter if the actual story presented on screen doesn’t really resonate clearly or deeply? That’s the frustrating part of “Baltimore,” an intriguing but uneven new period-drama about an heiress turned Marxist revolutionary and radical, written and directed by Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor, two Irish filmmakers (sometimes known as the creative pair Desperate Optimists) who emigrated from Ireland to England in the fraught and tumultuous 1980s during the Troubles when the IRA continued to mount their violent campaign aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland in order to create a united Ireland.

Michaela Zee Lily Gladstone is condemning Hollywood’s depiction of the American West in film and television, particularly the Kevin Costner-led series “Yellowstone.” “Delusional! Deplorable!” Gladstone told Vulture of Taylor Sheridan’s Western drama. “Yellowstone” and its spinoff series “1883” and “1923” follow different generations of the Dutton family and their cattle ranch in Montana.

Marta Balaga Mika Gustafson’s “Paradise Is Burning” – sold by Italy’s Intramovies and previously known as “Sisters” – has debuted a trailer and exclusive first clip ahead of its premiere in Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section. Set in Sweden, it sees young sisters Laura, Mira and Steffi trying to get by on their own after their mother leaves. When social services call, Laura comes up with a plan: in order to avoid foster care, she needs to find someone to impersonate their mom.

Max has announced that the second season of original series “Our Flag Means Death,” starring Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi, will be released on Oct. 5. The streamer also released a teaser for the new season of the pirate-y, period rom-com series.

The Radford family have been forced to face medical bills after taking a family holiday to Florida, which has also been hit by a hurricane. Hurricane Idalia has been getting stronger throughout the week as it was measured as a Category 2 system on Tuesday and became a Category 3 on Wednesday, and has caused four states in the US to declare states of emergency.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Susan Sarandon, playing the U.S. Secretary of State Alaska Adams, gets the better of Bryan Brown, as the Australian prime minister, in a fast-paced verbal duel that represents the first footage from the Sean Penn-produced satirical comedy series “C*A*U*G*H*T.” An elite team of Aussie soldiers is sent to an island nation to retrieve a secret file that has gone astray.

Naman Ramachandran Paris-based sales company Charades has boarded international sales on “Stolen,” the only Indian feature selected at the Venice Film Festival. The film, which will bow within the festival’s Horizons Extra strand, tells the story of the havoc that ensues when opposite worlds collide after two urban young men become embroiled in an impoverished mother’s desperate journey to be reunited with her child. It is described as a “breathtaking action thriller” and the “hidden gem in world cinema” by Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera.