Locarno Film Festival Sets Shift To Gender-Neutral Acting Categories

Soft Crash, the Berlin-based electronic duo of Phase Fatale and Pablo Bozzi, will share their first collaborative LP next month. Your Last Everything is due out October 28 via BITE, the label co-founded by Fatale (the Berghain resident born Hayden Payne stateside).

When September rolls around, it means one thing for many of the top filmmakers in the world – time to hit the road. Venice, Telluride and Toronto come in rapid succession, to the point of overlapping. But for documentary filmmakers eager to showcase their work, there’s another important stop to make in September: the Camden International Film Festival in mid-coast Maine.

Clayton Davis “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story,” “White Noise” and “The Whale” are among the first films announced for this year’s Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia, celebrating its tenth anniversary. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” breakout star Stephanie Hsu will be given the Rising Star Award, for her incredible performance in The Daniels’ critically-acclaimed dramedy, which has generated awards buzz. The fest will also hold a special screening of the movie after its huge success, becoming A24’s first film to surpass $100 million. The entire festival will be held in person with screenings, conversations and events from Oct. 13-16. Opening the fest on Thursday is Netflix’s “White Noise” starring Adam Driver. Writer and director Noah Baumbach will return after bringing “Marriage Story” (2019), to accept the 10th Anniversary Spotlight Filmmaker Award.

The Rome Film Festival has unveiled its first line-up under the new management team of former Rai executive Paola Malanga as artistic director and Cineteca di Bologna director Gian Luca Farinelli as president, who were both appointed to their roles last March.

EXCLUSIVE: The Icelandic Film and Television Academy has selected Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Beautiful Beings as Iceland’s official entry in the Best International Feature Film category for the 2023 Academy Awards.

Olivia Wilde is looking stunning on the red carpet!

EXCLUSIVE: Keeping in line with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s business belief that movies are destined for theatrical, not streaming, the originally conceived Steven Soderbergh directed HBO Max threequel Magic Mike’s Last Dance is heading to theaters on Feb. 10, 2023 – Super Bowl weekend. Warner Bros. already had the date set aside on the release calendar.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Super, the boutique distribution label from Neon, has acquired U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” after it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize in Venice along with the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future award. “Saint Omer” was recently shortlisted for France’s submission to the Academy Awards and will premiere at the New York Film Festival and play the BFI London Festival. Neon plans a theatrical release. “Saint Omer” is Diop’s debut fiction feature, which she co-wrote with Amrita David and Marie NDiaye, and it stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit. Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral of Srab Films produced alongside Arte France Cinéma and Pictanovo Hauts-de-France.

An exceptional and, one might venture, unprecedented group of politicians, diplomats, policy wonks, elected officials and veteran Washington insiders expound on the effectiveness of international military intervention—and the lack thereof—in The Corridors of Power. Israeli director Dror Moreh made one of the great political documentaries of recent times in The Gatekeepers (2012), as well as the excellent The Human Factor (2019), and this time he has assembled an all-star cast of more than 30 political heavyweights including Henry Kissinger, Hilary Clinton, George Shultz, Madeleine Albright and Condoleeza Rice, who in deep, original interviews, help to build a picture of how and why the best intentions can come unglued. The film deserves to be seen in any and all venues by audiences interested in the state of the world and clarity about how we got here.

The Locarno Film Festival will introduce gender-neutral acting awards for its 76th annual ceremony in 2023, festival organizers announced Wednesday. Already a festival that embraces diverse voices and gender parity – in 2018 it became the second world festival and first in Switzerland to sign the Programming Pledge for Parity and Inclusion in Cinema – Locarno’s announcement comes on the heels of other film organizations like the Independent Spirit Awards announcing similar initiatives. It is among the first world festivals to present gender-neutral acting categories.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Locarno Film Festival is switching to gender-neutral categories starting from next year’s 2023 edition. The prominent Swiss fest dedicated to global indie cinema is following in the footsteps of the Berlin Film Festival, which in 2021 awarded its first gender neutral acting prize. Unlike Berlin, however, Locarno will hand out two gender-neutral prizes for best performance in both the fest’s main competition and its Cineasti del Presente competition for first and second works. When Berlin did away with awards for the best actor and actress it subbed them with single gender neutral prizes for best leading performance and best supporting performance.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It was supposed to be all about the movies. But even here at the Toronto International Film Festival, an ocean away from the United Kingdom, the death of 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has loomed large. It has provided an opportunity for festival organizers, filmmakers and talent to reflect on the life and legacy of a monarch whose 70-year reign ranks as the longest in her country’s history. That’s partly due to Canada’s status as a member of the British Commonwealth, but it’s also because the festival is such an international A-list affair, one that attracts movie stars and directors who have often had personal encounters with the queen.

“The Fabelmans” made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, and a new trailer offers a glimpse of the latest film from acclaimed director Steven Spielberg.

K.J. Yossman Independent Entertainment, the finance, sales and production company behind films including “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and the upcoming “My Policeman,” which is set to have its world premiere at TIFF, celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this year. Since its founding by CEO Luc Roeg in 2007, the film landscape has undergone unimaginable change, from the ascendance of streaming platforms to the global pandemic followed by a cost of living crisis that has brought cinemas to their knees. Despite the challenges, Independent Entertainment has gone from strength to strength, adapting to market changes while remaining true to what Roeg describes as its “creative core.”

Trinidad Barleycorn Founded more than 25 years ago by Manuel Catteau, independent French producer and distributor ZED has become over the years a major player in the documentary field. At TV market Unifrance Rendez-vous in Biarritz, ZED revealed to Variety the acquisition of three ambitious history documentary projects, which are available for presales. “Ukraine 1933: Seeds of Hunger,” a documentary by Guillaume Ribot, produced by Les Films Du Poisson for France Télévisions, recalls the tragedy experienced by Ukrainians between 1931 and 1933: the Holodomor, the great famine organized by Stalin to punish those who refused the collectivization of the countryside and communist ideology, resulted in the deaths of more than 4 million of them.

Brad Pitt joins Ana de Armas and the rest of the cast of Blonde on the red carpet at the film’s premiere during the 2022 Venice Film Festival Thursday (September 8).

Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (October 5-14) has announced its full line-up, including opening film Scent Of Wind, directed by Iran’s Hadi Mohaghegh, while Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-Wai will be honoured as Asian Filmmaker Of The Year.

Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” will close out the 2022 AFI Fest, the American Film Institute announced Tuesday. “The Fabelmans,” which has been touted as Spielberg’s most personal film to date, stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch in a story inspired by Spielberg’s own childhood. The film follows the formative years of a young man as he discovers a shattering family secret, causing him to use movies as a means to help him see the truth about others and himself. The ensemble cast for “The Fabelmans” includes Jeannie Berlin, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett and Keeley Karsten, with music by John Williams. Janusz Kaminski serves as cinematographer, and the film is edited by Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar. Production design is helmed by Rick Carter, and the costume design is overseen by Mark Bridges.

Naman Ramachandran A first trailer has been unveiled for Toronto selection “Salt Lake,” Kasia Rosłaniec’s exploration of late-life desire and emancipation. In the film, 64-year-old Helena announces her intention to pursue sexual experiences with other men – much to the shock of her husband of 40 years. The cast includes Katarzyna Butowtt, Krzysztof Stelmaszyk, Adam Ferency, Dorota Kolak, Dagmara Krasowska, Judyta Paradzińska and Jacek Poniedziałek. The film will screen at Toronto as part of Industry Selects – 10 titles chosen by festival programmers for their sales potential. It is produced by Warsaw-based Mañana in co-production with Common Ground Pictures from Gothenburg, Sweden, the partners behind “United States of Love,” which won a Silver Bear at Berlin in 2016. The project was presented at the Berlinale coproduction market 2020, received a Creative Europe – MEDIA development grant and Polish Film Institute production support. “Salt Lake” will be released in Poland in spring 2023.