Lee Isaac Chung’s ‘Twisters’ To Screen At Italy’s Taormina Film Festival

Addie Morfoot Contributor Ken Burns attended the 29th annual Nantucket Film Festival, which concludes Sunday, to give audiences a glimpse of his latest PBS documentary “Leonardo da Vinci.” The two-part, four-hour doc — directed by Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns and his son-in-law David McMahon — explores the life and work of the 15th-century polymath. “Leonardo da Vinci,” which begins airing in November, marks the first project Burns has directed that unfolds entirely outside the continental United States.

Saint Clare starring Bella Thorne and Ryan Phillippe will open Italy’s Taormina Film Festival. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Paolo Cortellesi’s “There’s Still Tomorrow,” a box office smash in its native Italy, was Sunday named winner of the Sydney Film Prize at the end of the Sydney Film Festival (June 5-16) A jury headed by Danis Tanovic called the film about an industrious woman in post WWII Rome “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous.” The prize is one of the richest awarded at any festival and is worth A$60,000 ($39,600). The announcement was made at the city’s State Theatre ahead of the Australian premiere screening of the Demi Moore-starring Cannes hit “The Substance.” The A$20,000 ($13,200) Documentary Australia award went to local filmmaker James Bradley, for “Welcome to Babel,” which charts Chinese-Australian artist Jiawei Shen’s plans to create an epic work.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent U.S.-based Italian director Mitzi Peirone’s comic horror thriller “Saint Clare” has been set as the opening night film of Italy’s upcoming Taormina Film Festival with protagonist Bella Thorne in attendance. “Saint Clare” follows Peirone’s debut, the horror film “Braid,” which launched from Tribeca in 2018. Based on U.S.

the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival is back with a trove of diverse and innovative fare. There are character-driven indies with Hollywood stars, a documentary about one of the world’s greatest sports figures of all time and an entire mini-festival celebrating Tribeca co-founder Robert De Niro.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Shanghai International Film Festival has unveiled a selection that is weighted heavily to world premieres and Chinese, local titles. That gives the festival showcase screenings for the newest works by established Chinese directors Gu Changwei (“Peacock, “Till Death Do Us Part”), Wei Shujun (“Only the River Flows,” “Striding Into the Wind”) and Guan Hu (“Old Fish”). Guan was rewarded in Cannes only last week for his Un Certain Regard-winning picture “Black Dog,” but will unveil his next effort “The Hedgehog in Shanghai’s main competition.

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) announced the dates for the Moebius Film Festival, an annual two-day screening series showcasing graduate student filmmakers. The festival will take place May 30-31, 2024.   

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 32-strong official selection of the 58th edition of Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Central and Eastern Europe’s leading cinema fete, will feature 15 directorial debuts as well as the latest works of established filmmakers such as Mark Cousins, Oleh Sentsov, Noaz Deshe, Antonin Peretjatko, Beata Parkanova and Burak Cevik. Karel Och, artistic director of Karlovy Vary, said Tuesday that he’d identified a number of themes and genre in the selection, which included “a freshly revisionist take on the esthetical canons of a period film; a balanced, caring but also provocative look on the fate of a woman in the contemporary society in any moment of her life; and the immediate influence of political events on the life of an individual human being anywhere in the world.” The festival, which runs June 28-July 6 in the Czech Republic, has also revealed the juries of the Crystal Globe and Proxima competitions.

Glen Powell has revealed that he “puked in the bushes” after his first viewing of Hidden Figures because he thought he’d “ruined” the film.The US actor played real-life astronaut and former US senator John Glenn in Theodore Melfi’s Oscar-nominated film about the three African-American mathematicians – played by Octavia Spencer, Taraji P Henson and Janelle Monáe – who were pivotal in his historic launch into space back in 1962.Speaking on a recent episode of Therapuss with Jake Shane, the actor admitted that he had seen Top Gun: Maverick, in which he played pilot Hangman, four times.When host Shane reacted with surprise that the star was able to watch his performances back, Powell responded that “it does get in your own head”, adding: “People forget that when you’re watching a rough cut of a movie, it’s probably like watching the footage of yourself that you’re having to edit. So you sit there and you’re like, ‘I hate myself.’”The Anyone But You star then recalled his experience seeing the first cut of the 2016 film.

Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comic but devastating Brooklyn odyssey about a sex worker who marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or.Baker accepted the prize with his movie’s star, Mikey Madison, watching in the audience at the Cannes closing ceremony Saturday. The win for “Anora” marks a new high point for Baker, the director of “The Florida Project.” It’s also, remarkably, the fifth straight Palme d’Or won by indie distributor Neon, following “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness” and last year’s winner, “Anatomy of a Fall.”“I don’t really know what’s happening right now,” said Baker.While “Anora” was arguably the most acclaimed film of the festival, its win was a slight surprise.

CANNES – After 12 days of screenings, the Cannes Film Festival has drawn to a close. That means it’s time for Greta Gerwig and her jury to reveal the winners of the competition section of the festival.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic CANNES — Hosted by “Call My Agent” star Camille Cottin, the awards show for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival competition is underway. Presenters started making political statements right away, as short film jury president and Belgian actor Lubna Azabal called for the release of all hostages in Gaza.

Kelly Rowland stole many red carpet headlines from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with a visible confrontation with a female security officer as she made her way up the famous steps and into the Palais.

Demi Moore appeared to also scold the audience while introducing Cher on stage at the amfAR Cinema Against AIDS Cannes Gala.“I’m going to see if this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Moore said in a video shared by Vanity Fair’s Ramin Setoodeh via X, formerly Twitter. “I’m just making sure that you’re really, really with me.”“Because this incredible woman that I’m about to introduce — she’s a Grammy winner, an Oscar winner, an Emmy winner.”The “A Few Good Men” actress then paused and appeared to address a heckler.“Are you an Emmy winner over there in the back of the room?” She asked an attendee in the back of the audience.

It has been a big week for the beloved 1964 musical, The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the 1964 Palme d’Or and went on to international acclaim and five Oscar nominations, plus served as one of the key inspirations for Damien Chazelle’s Oscar winning La La Land.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival may be winding down, but the Cannes market is still heating up.  IndieWire reports that Netflix currently has the splashiest deals of this week so far, with the streamer picking up the US and UK rights for Jacques Audriard‘s Palme d’Or favorite, “Emilia Pérez.”  And that’s not the only thing Netflix snagged today. The streaming giant also acquired John Lee Hancock‘s legal thriller “Monsanto,” which has Glen Powell, Laura Dern, and Anthony Mackie attached to star.

transforming the red carpet of the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival into a chichi bridal aisle. Stealing the spotlight from the marquee movies premiering at this year’s fête along the French Riviera, celebrated starlets such as Anya Taylor-Joy, Uma Thurman, Kelly Rowland and Helena Christensen stunned in wedding-inspired gowns from luxe houses of design. And the radiantly white regalia left online onlookers saying “yes” to each dress.

There has been a lot of noise at this year’s Cannes Film Festival about France’s accelerated MeToo movement, particularly by female cinema stars leading the charge. So whether coincidental or not, the world premiere in the Cannes Premiere section last night of Being Maria (aka Maria) seemed like perfect timing and more relevant than ever

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch said she learned about the “power of cinema to carry messages, liberate speech and accomplish a duty of remembrance” from her parents, who are Holocaust survivors. Speaking at the Kering Women in Motion Talks at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, the Munich-born Knobloch said her parents took her to the movie theater several times a week.

appeared to scold security at the red carpet premiere of the French-Italian film “Marcello Mio” during the Cannes Film Festival.Photos from the event showed Rowland pointing her finger towards a female security guard during their heated exchange.But according to insiders, Rowland was not the instigator in the incident.“The people who are assigned to helping stars walk the red carpet were being aggressive and Kelly was trying to ignore it,” a source claimed to the Daily Mail Wednesday.They continued: “By the time she got to the last woman she had had it because she scolded Kelly and told her to move when she was trying to wave to fans and help the paparazzi get their shot.”Rowland appeared to be enjoying herself at the glitzy premiere before the incident. As the source noted, she was initially smiling and waving to fans in her gorgeous red gown with a long train as she made her way up the red carpet steps.But according to the insider, the former Destiny’s Child member isn’t bothered about being in the center of drama.“She doesn’t care if she comes across like a diva if she knows that she is advocating for herself,” said the source.