Oscar Contender ‘Audible’ Offers Unique Coming-of-Age Story

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentThe latest from Belgium’s Eyeworks Film & TV Drama and director Wouter Bouvijn – who teamed on Canneseries hits “The Twelve” and “Red Light” – “1985,” sold by Studiocanal, works on multiple levels as a coming-of-age series.Two young Gendarmarie police recruits, Marc and Franky, and his sis Vicky, a law student and pirate radio DJ, move to Brussels. They are soon caught up in police corruption – insider drug trading, heavy fire arms robbery – and the rise of  the brutal Nijvel gang.Created by Willem Wallyn (“Albatros”), this is the coming-of-age story of three unbreakable friends loss of innocence, and that of a nation in its leaders.It is also an origins tale, of the forging of the modern age. Belgium’s distrust of its forces of law and order and political class rankles to this day, shared now with other countries, as does its politics of confrontation which Vicky denounces in an on-air monolog in Ep.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentHappy Anniversary — well, sort of “happy” — to Sarah Paulson, since it’s exactly 25 years since Variety ran a review of her feature film debut, “Levitation.” In the indie, she plays a pregnant teenager. Critic Leonard Klady on April 14, 1997, said it was a grim saga with “a strong cast” who were “not ably supported by the script.”It’s not the most promising debut and the film was quickly forgotten, but Paulson continued to work.Like many New York actors, she worked on stage and made her TV debut in a 1994 “Law & Order” episode, about a year after her high school graduation.She continued to do theater, including Broadway’s 2005 “The Glass Menagerie” with Jessica Lange, and films, such as the Oscar winner “12 Years a Slave,” where she proved herself a team player by working hard to promote the movie, even though she had a relatively small role.

“CODA” has won best picture at the Oscars.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBruce Tuchmann-backed Rialto International has launched a branded on-demand streaming service in Japan, focused on independent film, and housed on Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform.Rialto Channel launched in 1999 in New Zealand, where it was initially branded as The Sundance Channel. It established itself as an award-winning and industry-leading indie film destination for over twenty years.In Japan, the Rialto-branded venue will feature current and iconic independent films.

We have confirmed that "West Side Story" star Rachel Zegler has been invited to the Oscars after all.There’s word out there that the Academy has invited her to be a presenter, however, they won’t confirm. What is clear is that the actress’ production schedule in London on the Disney movie "Snow White" has loosened up so that she can head to Los Angeles and watch the show live instead of in sweatpants and her boyfriend’s flannel from her couch, as she indicated on Instagram over the weekend to her followers who were enraged to hear that the actress be a no-show.  Rachel Zegler initially told fans on social media that she wasn't invited to this year's Academy Awards despite her film being nominated.

EXCLUSIVE: Reid Miller (Joe Bell), Jonathan Silverman (Good Girls), Marguerite Moreau (Wet Hot American Summer) and Chris Mulkey (Twin Peaks) have signed on to star in the indie Feeling Randy, marking the solo directorial debut of veteran cinematographer Dean Lent.

To Western eyes, Afghanistan appears only as a land of war and devastation. But an Oscar-nominated documentary reveals a touching truth – that Afghanistan can also be a place of love.

Audible” have debuted a PSA in honor of Deaf History Month.“Audible” director Matthew Ogens and producer Geoff McLean have reteamed to produce a new public service announcement promoting Deaf History Month, which runs March 13 to April 15. The PSA features the documentary’s Amaree McKenstry-Hall, and deaf activist and model Nyle DiMarco, communicating through American Sign Language, explaining the documentary and Deaf History Month.“We are tough, we are strong, we are determined,” McKenstry-Hall signs in the PSA.DiMarco, who is a producer on “Audible,” adds, “There isn’t anything we can’t do, we will succeed.” “Audible” focuses on teenagers at Maryland School for the Deaf, specifically following the life of McKenstry-Hall, then a senior at the school.

When The Worst Person in the World premiered in competition in Cannes this year there was the sense of an arrival, notably in the case of its leading lady, Renate Reinsve, who won the festival’s award for best actress. In actual fact, the film was closer to a destination, being the third part of an unofficial triptych begun by Norwegian director Joachim Trier with his 2006 feature debut Reprise, about two young bohemian writers living in Oslo. He followed it in 2011 with Oslo, August 31st, in which Reprise’s star, Anders Danielsen Lie, by day a successful medical doctor, played a melancholic drug addict and Reinsve made her acting debut with just one line of dialogue (“Let’s go to the party!”).

Gregg Goldstein This year’s Academy Award nominations are dominated by films from deep-pocketed studios, specialty divisions and streamers. Yet as most 2021 indies were sidelined to the Spirit Awards, a few such as “Drive My Car,” “Flee,” “The Worst Person in the World” and “Writing With Fire” managed to score noms in David vs.

Joe Leydon Film CriticLet’s not mince words: “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” is a high-stepping, hand-waving, spirit-lifting gas. Co-directors Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern, with the invaluable assistance of editor Martin Singer, have fashioned an infectiously exuberant overview of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Big Easy’s unique and enormous celebration of its music, cuisine and multiculturalism, by combining their own footage of performances and interviews at the 50th iteration of the star-studded annual event — the last before COVID-19 forced cancelation of the 2000 and 2001 editions — and archival footage dating back to the festival’s earliest days.Those days might have begun earlier, fest co-founder George Wein reveals during an interview conducted before his 2021 passing, if he had accepted a 1962 invitation by locals to establish the New Orleans equivalent of his Newport Jazz Festival.

No American city is as steeped in native musical lore and legacy as is New Orleans and you get a good feeling for how that came about in Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story. It’s a documentary overflowing with performers and music that still barely begins to scratch the surface of what’s gone on musically for ages in the fabled, oft-distressed city. Music fans of assorted persuasions will be delighted with the samples served up here, although the subject is so vast and varied that something like a six or ten-hour miniseries would be required to begin to do it justice. With Sony Pictures Classics handling the U.S. release starting May 13 after it SXSW bow, the film is certain to get a nice lift-off and extensive exposure on home tubes is assured.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentA testament to her fearless nature and boundless determination, Croatian-American filmmaker Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović was nine months pregnant when she traveled from New York to present her feature debut “Murina” at the Cannes Film Festival.At the end of the festival, Kusijanović tool a 12-hour road trip with her husband to her homeland in Croatia, where she gave birth to her first child Petrus, right before scooping Cannes’ Golden Camera award with “Murina,” a double feast which earned her newborn son a lifetime festival accreditation.Eight months later, she sat with Variety to tell us how her life has changed since winning the coveted award and looked back at her journey getting there. Vibrant, bright, restless and forceful like her first feature “Murina,” Kusijanović hasn’t wasted any time.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that its feature documentary Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story, co-directed by five-time Oscar nominee Frank Marshall (The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) and Ryan Suffern (Mr. A & Mr. M: The Story of A&M Records), will hit theaters in New York and Los Angeles on May 13, before expanding to additional markets in the following weeks. It will open against IFC Films’ horror-thriller The Innocents, Roadside Attractions’ comedy Family Camp and Universal’s horror-thriller Firestarter starring Zac Efron and more.

Naman Ramachandran Celebrated Israeli filmmaker Matan Yair, whose “Scaffolding” has had festival play at Cannes, Zurich and Singapore, is nearly ready with his new film, coming-of-age drama “A Room of His Own.”The film, which is in the work-in-progress strand of Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), follows 17-year-old Uri, who has botched his first army interview. Since Uri’s father moved out, his mother has been sleeping in Uri’s room.

, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Visual Effects. Starring Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac and Zendaya, this universe is one you surely want to enter. Watch Now is based off of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction saga of the same name, and follows Paul Atreides, a nobleman, who lives in the distant future in an intergalactic feudal society ruled by one all-powerful emperor. Paul is forced to relocate with his parents to the desert planet Arrakis — the most dangerous planet in the universe, better known as Dune.

2022 Oscars was officially released last week. And while the scope of awards season has changed pretty dramatically over the last few years, the talent and unique storytelling present in this year's pack of nominees is perhaps more impressive now than ever before. Leading the way for Oscar favorites is Netflix's which racked up12 total nominations including those in major categories like Best Picture, Best Director for Jane Campion, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, and supporting acting nods for Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee.