Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Evil Does Not Exist’ Gets Nearly 8-Minute Ovation At Venice Premiere

BreAnna Bell Sherri Shepherd attempts to clear any confusion regarding The “Sherri” show’s return amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in her Season 2 return on Monday. The actress and comedian opened the show addressing the controversy, telling viewers that the talk show is not in violation of the guild’s strike rules by returning despite other shows like “The Talk” and “The Drew Barrymore Show” going on pause shortly after announcing their returns.

Unassuming Japanese master Ryusuke Hamaguchi was jolted into the dehumanizing glare of the Oscar machine after “Drive My Car” became an unexpected cause célèbre a few years ago. That generational masterpiece saw him ascend to the pinnacle of instant and unanimous global adoration and forged a salivating fanbase eagerly anticipating his subsequent work.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Fresh off the world premiere of her last directorial effort, “Priscilla,” at the Venice Film Festival (where star Cailee Spaeny won best actress), Sofia Coppola joined Rolling Stone to reflect on the 20th anniversary of her beloved “Lost in Translation.” Coppola, whose script for “Lost in Translation” won the Oscar for original screenplay, partly used the dissolution of her marriage to fellow director Spike Jonze as inspiration for the film, which follows a college graduate (Scarlett Johansson) who accompanies her celebrity photographer boyfriend (Giovanni Ribisi) on a trip to Tokyo. While he’s out flirting with a Hollywood actress (Anna Farris), she befriends a faded movie star (Bill Murray) who’s in town to shoot a commercial. Since the film premiered in 2023, viewers have associated Johansson’s character with Coppola and Ribisi’s with Jonze.

EXCLUSIVE: Lighthouse Media & Management has signed the multi-hyphenate Kiko Mizuhara, best known for starring in Toho’s adaptation of Norwegian Wood and the beloved manga Attack on Titan, for representation in all areas.

After just being officially confirmed for a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement the day before, the cast of Memory hit the Venice Film Festival red carpet Friday night. Michel Franco’s movie, starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, was greeted with a seven-minute ovation during its world premiere inside the Sala Grande.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Adriano Valerio’s documentary “Casablanca,” which will world premiere on Thursday at Venice Days, has been acquired by Salaud Morisset for world sales. Variety has been given an exclusive clip from the film.

New footage of Wendy Williams has surfaced — and she does not seem exactly her old self in it.

Ellise Shafer Ava DuVernay’s latest film, “Origin,” premiered in competition at Venice Film Festival to a 5 minute and 46 second standing ovation. Based on Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” “Origin” chronicles “the remarkable life and work” of Wilkerson “as she investigates the genesis of injustice and uncovers a hidden truth that affects us all,” according to the film’s synopsis. The drama stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Niecy Nash-Betts, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, Connie Nielsen, Emily Yancy, Jasmine Cephas-Jones, Finn Wittock, Victoria Pedretti, Isha Blaaker and Myles Frost.

Republic Pictures President Dan Cohen and producer Annabelle Dunne were among the main representatives of William Friedkin’s last film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial at its posthumous world premiere at Venice Film Festival over the weekend.

Richard Linklater brought his Hit Man to the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, world premiering the comedy thriller out of competition to a six-minute ovation inside the Sala Grande.

Neon has acquired worldwide rights for Ava DuVernay’s Origin ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday (September 6).

Woody Allen received a three-minute standing ovation at the Venice premiere of “Coup de Chance” on Monday night, which would have gone on longer had the filmmaker not started to exit. After two minutes and 30 seconds of sustained applause once the film finished, Allen began to make his way toward the door, cutting the standing ovation short.

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Monday. The film, which was directed and written by Allen himself, received a five-minute ovation from the audience.

Jessica Kiang A wild deer with a hunter’s bullet in its belly may attack a human, no matter how mild its nature normally. This is one of the droplets of woodland wisdom dispensed by the otherwise taciturn Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), the woodcutter, water-gatherer and all-round odd-job-man of Mizubiki village, the setting of “Drive My Car” director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s meditative and moving, yet ultimately unsettling new feature. Takumi’s few words all relate to such matters: the flow of a stream, the thorns on a Siberian Ginseng, the tang of wild wasabi.

When Venice head Alberto Barbera announced his competition lineup in July, he confessed that he and his selection team were surprised to see one submission in their database: a feature project by Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. 

Shinrin-yoku, which translates as “forest-bathing,” was a Japanese invention of the 1980s: a meditative therapy that connects burnt-out urbanites with the healing power of nature. Evil Does Not Exist, the latest film from the celebrated director of Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi – and a contender for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival — opens with a long series of scenes of trees that are so serenely paced and beautifully scored that they leave you feeling as if you have been forest-bathing for real. 

The plan was for renowned director William Friedkin to be appearing at the Venice Film Festival presenting the out of competition World Premiere of his latest production, an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s 1954 play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Unfortunately Friedkin died August 7th, but the show goes on anyway.

David Fincher’s latest feature, The Killer, earned 6 minutes and 45 seconds of applause Sunday evening after the lights went up on the film’s world premiere screening at the Venice Film Festival.

Roman Polanski’s Venice Film Festival feature The Palace received a 3 minute ovation tonight at its world premiere screening.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent In 2021, Hamaguchi Ryusuke won truckloads of awards and nearly universal critical acclaim for his three-hour drama “Drive My Car,” including three prizes at Cannes and a best picture Academy Award nomination, the first ever for a Japanese film. (That Oscar went elsewhere, but “Drive My Car” was named best international feature film.) Instead of trying to top this triumph with a bigger budget and more internationally known names in the cast, Hamaguchi has returned to his indie roots with “Evil Does Not Exist,” which premieres in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival.