Mubi Boards Andrea Arnold Documentary ‘Cow’ – Cannes

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaKevin Lewis will follow up “Willy’s Wonderland” by directing “The Accursed,” a new horror movie about demonic possession that its creators predict will be like if “Sam Raimi and Dario Argento had a love child and James Wan was its uncle.”Mena Suvari (“American Beauty”), Sarah Grey (Netflix’s “The Order” and DC’s “Legends of Tomorrow”), and Alexis Knapp (“Pitch Perfect” franchise) head up the cast, which also includes Meg Foster (“The Lords of Salem”)

the British press has dubbed “the pingdemic” — harsh, mandatory isolation rules in which any close contact of an infected person must stay home for 10 days regardless of their vaccination status or negative test result. It’s estimated that soon some 10 million Britons could be couch-bound. The business-crippling strictures, which are due to end Aug.

EXCLUSIVE: Signature Entertainment has boarded international sales rights and UK distribution on revenge thriller Bull, starring Neil Maskell (Kill List) in the lead alongside David Hayman (Fisherman’s Friends).

Guy Lodge Film CriticCANNES — At a banner ceremony for female filmmakers, Russian writer-director Kira Kovalenko’s sophomore feature “Unclenching the Fists” won the top prize for best film in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival this evening, from a jury headed by British filmmaker Andrea Arnold.

Tatiana Huezo’s eye for lyrical truth has materialized in documentaries like “Tempestad” or “The Tinniest Place,” works that penetrate some of the most tenebrous corners in recent Latin American history with shimmering compassion. Her stance as an acute observer of the people that survive and persevere through tumultuous sociopolitical and economically disadvantaged contexts produces thought-provoking filmic meditations.

What do we really know about children? Until the Renaissance, artists were still painting them as freakish shriveled adults. Only in the last century-ish did American society decide they probably should go to school instead of laboring all day in sweatshops.

EXCLUSIVE: Streamer and theatrical distributor Mubi has closed its first on-the-ground Cannes business, signing a multi-territory deal for Sebastian Meise’s second feature Great Freedom, which premiered here in Un Certain Regard.

Just a few days on the heels of “Stillwater,” another American entry in the Cannes Film Festival main competition section explores the complicated relationship between a father and daughter rooted in down-home Americana and close brushes with the law. “Flag Day” marks Sean Penn’s latest directorial return to Cannes since the critically-lambasted “The Last Face” from 2016.

It’s been a rocky four-plus years in American foreign policy, and nowhere is this more apparent than in “Stillwater,” the new thriller-slash-family drama from “Spotlight” director Tom McCarthy, which premiered out-of-competition at Cannes.

Andrea Arnold turns her astute observational skills to the bovine world in Cow, a Cannes Premiere with a difference. It’s a documentary that follows a cow on an English farm over time, watching her intently as she gives birth and gives milk. Humans are only featured when they enter her orbit, and snatches of dialogue inform us of basic information. Her name is Luma, she is protective of her calves, and she isn’t getting any younger.

Andrew Haigh is one of the most respected English filmmakers working today because of the humane and tender qualities he lends his projects. Whether it’s his LGBT-themed dramas like “Weekend” and “Looking,” or the truly excellent “45 Years” from 2015, Haigh brings a subtle and tender style reminiscent of a novelist’s sensibility.

EXCLUSIVE: European arthouse sales force The Match Factory and ICM Partners are teaming up to jointly represent four films playing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

After gaining prominence with American studio films such as “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Basic Instinct,” “Starship Troopers,” and “Hollow Man,” it’s clear Dutch director Paul Verhoeven has gone in a different direction with his later works. He made a big transition with the WWII Dutch resistance film “Black Book” led by future “Game of Thrones” and “Valkryie” actress Carice van Houten.

K.J.

A new series about the American AIDS epidemic and ACT UP New York (from 1987-1993) is coming to the small screen. Deadline reports that British filmmaker Andrew Haigh (“Weekend,” “Looking“) will showrun “Let The Record Show,” based on a new novel that covers New York activism surrounding the AIDS crisis.

EXCLUSIVE: Let The Record Show, written by Sarah Schulman, has been called the most comprehensive political history of American AIDS activism and ACT Up.

EXCLUSIVE: Brandon Thomas Lee (The Hills: New Beginnings), Jackson Rathbone (Twilight) & Diane Gaeta (Adopt a Highway) will co-star opposite Chase Sanchez in his debut feature, Zero Road, which recently wrapped production.