Jewish Film Institute Awards Completion Grants to Six Independent Films (EXCLUSIVE)

Naman Ramachandran U.K.-based sales and distribution company Blue Finch Film Releasing has secured global distribution rights, excluding North America, for Teresa Sutherland’s film “Lovely, Dark, and Deep.” The film debuted at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Blue Finch is set to kick off sales at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival. North American rights for the film are held by XYZ Films.

Martin Scorsese's films, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 80.Born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1943, Robertson started playing guitar at age 10, and when he was 16, joined The Band drummer Levon Helm in The Hawks, the backing band for rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad” will be the opening night film of the Hamptons International Film Festival. The event will take place on Oct. 5, according to HamptonsFilm, which runs the festival.

Oppenheimer has passed $500million (£392m) at the global box office, making it the most successful WW2 film ever.Cillian Murphy stars in Christopher Nolan‘s critically acclaimed film as Robert J. Oppenheimer, the real-life American physicist who played a pivotal role in the creation of the atomic bomb.This past weekend, the film passed the huge box office milestone and its total figure now sits at $552.9m.According to Box Office Mojo, that takes it beyond Dunkirk ($527m), Saving Private Ryan ($482m), and Pearl Harbor ($449m) to become the highest grossing film of all time to be set during the second world war.However, it is still lagging behind its box office rival Barbie, which hit $1bn at the global box office this weekend.Oppenheimer scored a glowing five-star review from NME upon its release, with Paul Bradshaw writing: “Not just the definitive account of the man behind the atom bomb, Oppenheimer is a monumental achievement in grown-up filmmaking.

Marta Balaga FilmSharks has picked up world sales rights to Finnish children’s film “Snot & Splash: The Mystery of Disappearing Holes.” “It was a bidding war. They got offers from everybody,” said FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud. “Snot & Splash” (“Räkä ja Roiskis”) is produced by It’s Alive Films – founded by director Teemu Nikki and Jani Pösö – and set for distribution in its native Finland (Scanbox), Scandinavian sub distribution by Sweden (Folkets Bio) and Norway (Norsk Filmdistribusjon), and Italy in the spring (I Wonder Pictures).

Jamie Foxx is apologizing after an Instagram post he issued was widely criticized for being antisemitic.

Bam! 

JFK filmmaker Oliver Stone posted a series of tweets Tuesday praising Christopher Nolan’s latest film Oppenheimer during which he revealed he once turned down a project based around J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life because he couldn’t crack the narrative.

Steven Kotanski’s ‘Frankie Freako’ Comedy Has Wrapped Production Steven Kotanski’s forthcoming horror-comedy “Frankie Freako” has wrapped production, with Shout! Studios acquiring U.S. distribution rights.

Oppenheimer.The Jewish comedian and writer suggested in a new interview that he isn’t totally on board with Murphy, an Irish actor who isn’t of Jewish descent, portraying “the father of the atomic bomb”.Tom Conti, who portrays the Jewish theoretical physicist Albert Einstein in the film, isn’t Jewish.“Authenticity casting I think of as an a priori thing that exists,” Baddiel told The Times.“Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, I can promise you that in this business – and I am in this business still – casting directors are now frightened to cast except in line with the minority they are casting. But they are not so worried about Jews.”Baddiel has previously spoken about non-Jewish actors playing Jewish characters in film and TV productions.In an opinion piece published in The Guardian last year, Baddiel discussed Maureen Lipman’s comments that Helen Mirren should not play former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir in the 2023 film Golda because she isn’t Jewish.Baddiel wrote at the time: “Casting a non-minority actor to mimic that identity feels, to the progressive eye, like impersonation, and impersonation may carry with it an element of mockery.”The real-life Oppenheimer was the child of two Jewish immigrants.

Red Rooms won a leading three awards including Best Feature at the 27th annual Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, with the thriller Femme taking Best Director for Sam H. Freeman & Ng Choon Ping and Outstanding Performance for Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. See the full list of winners below.

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is refusing to row back on his decision to invite controversial movie-biz bigwigs Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson to the late summer event, which will take place despite the potential disruption by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. “Luc Besson has been recently fully cleared of any accusations. Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved,” Barbera said in a new interview with Variety.

Marta Balaga Six U.K. works-in-progress have been selected for the 12th edition of Locarno’s First Look, an international launchpad for films in post-production taking place during Locarno Pro Days. Since its introduction in 2012, First Look has already focused on Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Israel, Poland, the Baltic Countries, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland and Germany This year, the late Mike Hodges – known for “Get Carter” or “Flash Gordon” – will be celebrated in “All at Sea,” produced by Hurricane Films, a semi-autobiographical documentary depicting his life.

Jaden Thompson Women in Film (WIF) has created a resource guide and included a dedicated day on their help line to offer assistance to those impacted both physically and emotionally by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. On Thursdays from 9 a.m.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is in a good mood after Tuesday’s lineup announcement managed to stave off the impact of the SAG-AFTRA strike, something which could have been “devastating” to the event, he says. In the end, the only U.S. film that skipped the Lido is Luca Guadagnino’s Zendaya-starrer “Challengers,” which Barbera says was against Guadagnino’s wishes.

Sophia Scorziello editor Live Nation’s concert streaming platform Veeps has set its first-ever global film premiere with rock documentary “What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?” The doc’s exclusive PVOD release on Veeps follows its March 2023 theatrical release, which was helmed by Abramorama. The exclusive Veeps screenings will take place on August 20 at 12 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET. Veeps is offering two tiers of tickets, the first going for $12.99 which gives access to the screening, and the second for $24.99, which includes screening access along with a CD copy of the documentary’s soundtrack. Both tickets provide audiences with a 3-day rewatch window. In addition, each of the two PVOD screenings will host a live Q&A with filmmaker John Scheinfeld and Blood, Swear and Tear’s band member Bobby Colomby.

EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous Content has partnered with New Europe Film Sales to handle North American rights for animated feature The Peasants, directed by Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent filmmakers D.K. Welchman and Hugh Welchman. 

Dow Griffith is set to receive the Location Managers Guild International’s (LMGI) Lifetime Achievement Award at the 10th Annual LMGI Awards taking place on Aug. 26, the guild announced Wednesday. With a lifetime career defined by over 65 motion pictures, Griffith is being honored for his rich creativity and enthusiasm that have “set the scene for movies sites literally around the world.” Griffith’s movie credits span across titles including “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” “Jumanji,” “And Justice For All,” “Proof of Life,” “Carrie,” “Dinosaur,” “Mission to Mars” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” among others.

On-location filming in Los Angeles has plummeted during the ongoing Writers Guild strike to levels not seen since the dog days of the Covid pandemic, according to FilmLA, the city and county film permit office.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Congressman Joaquin Castro and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have launched a nationwide call for Latino films to nominate for the National Film Registry. The U.S.’s preeminent archive of films with cultural, historic or aesthetic significance is essential in preserving cinema. Every year, the Librarian of Congress adds 25 new movies to the registry after reviewing titles nominated by the public and conferring with National Film Preservation Board members and Library film curators. As of 2023, there are 24 Latino films on the National Film Registry, less than three percent of the 850 movies in the registry. “Since the earliest days of cinema, Latino actors, writers, directors, and creatives have made extraordinary contributions to American filmmaking,” said Congressman Castro. “As the Library of Congress works to preserve the films that shaped American culture, public nominations will put a spotlight on the Latino-driven films that have sold out theaters and defined generations. As we launch this year’s push for inclusion, I look forward to hearing from folks across America about the Latino films that have made an enduring impact on their lives.”