‘Saint Omer’ Takes Top Honors At 34th Palm Springs International Film Festival

Dutch-born filmmaker Malou Reymann picked up the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at the Göteborg Film Festival Saturday evening with her second feature Unruly.

Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, French filmmaker Alice Diop and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu have demanded that Iran’s Fajr International Film Festival remove their films from the line-up of its current edition, running from February 1 to 11.

Netflix once again claimed the most titles among the Top 10 programs on Nielsen’s U.S. streaming chart for the week of January 2 to January 8. Ginny & Georgia, which debuted its second season on January 5, sat in the No. 1 spot with 2.5B viewing minutes.

The Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City after a two-year virtual hiatus and that means the in-person awards ceremony returned as well. Well, sorta.

The Persian Version, directed and written by Maryam Keshvarz stars Layla Mohammadi, and Niousha Noor as a mother and daughter at odds with one another.

Written and directed by Nida Manzoor, Polite Society stars Priya Kansara (Bridgerton), Ritu Arya (Umbrella Academy) and Nimra Bucha (Disney+ Ms. Marvel). The Focus Features movie had its world premiere Friday in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival.

So far nearly all the films I have been seeing for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival are based on true stories, from a teacher in Radical to a gay single father in San Francisco circa 70’s and 80’s to Michael J. Fox as himself, and now yet another iconic character gets his story told on the big screen. World Premiering at Sundance tonight is Cassandro, a wild story of the first openly gay wrestler in the ultra macho sport of Mexico’s Lucha Libre.

I love the title of Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth documentarian Davis Guggenheim’s wonderful new docu on the life and times of Michael J. Fox. It is called Still a Michael J. Fox Movie. The Sundance website has a colon where you might expect it to be, right after Still, but the press notes leave it out which is how I hope Apple Studios — which has the film for an unspecified future release date and is world premiering it Friday at the Sundance Film Festival — would officially call it. That’s because what Guggenheim, and importantly his editor MIchael Harte, have made is simply that, A Michael J. Fox Movie from start to finish and all that implies.

Prince Edward To Present New Production Guild of Great Britain Talent PrizePrince Edward, who is the royal Patron of the Production Guild of Great Britain (PGGB), will present the body’s new film and TV industry award that has been created in his name as part of its inaugural Talent Showcase, presented in association with Disney Studios Content and supported by Entertainment Partners. Four industry organizations have been shortlisted for The Earl of Wessex Award, created to recognise professionals working in the UK film and TV industry who have created “a successful way of inspiring local talent or skills, widening access or being more inclusive.”  The nominees are youth-led production company Fully Focused; media charity MAMA Youth Project; social change enablers Resource Productions and mental health and wellbeing nonprofit 6ft From the Spotlight. He will present the prize at the first PGGB Talent Showcase on January 24. The Earl of Wessex recently visited the MAMA Youth Project. He said after his visit: “Congratulations to all the organisations who have been nominated for this new Award. The finalists are shining examples of how the production industry is attracting more people from different backgrounds to pursue careers in the business.”

The Santa Barbara Film Festival has today unveiled the lineup for its 38th edition, taking place in-person from February 8-18.

‘This Is Going To Hurt’, ‘Munich – The Edge Of War’ Scribes Honored At WGGB Awards

The Sundance Film Festival is back in Park City. Really.

A24’s The Whale crossed the $11-million mark in week six as it jumped to 1,500 screens from 835 as the Brendan Fraser-starrer and other contenders continue to tweak theatrical runs through awards season.

Alice Diop’s French drama Saint Omer opens in theaters today, and I remember the emotions I felt when I saw the film at Venice last year. It was a very personal experience for me — as if someone was telling my story on screen. At the beginning of my eventual interview with Diop, I asked where she sees herself within the French film industry. She made it clear she has stopped contemplating how she fits in. “It’s a question that I’m asked a lot, but I no longer ask myself where I fit in with French cinema,” she said. Can’t blame her for thinking that way. Creators of color often are asked those questions — or about the state of inclusion in Hollywood and how they would improve it. Questions that their white counterparts frequently and unfairly avoid. 

Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl is set to debut a new combined version of his 2022 films Rimini and Sparta at the Rotterdam Film Festival later this month.

In “Saint Omer,” the taut courtroom drama by French-Senegalese director Alice Diop, the revelations arrive not in the totality of the evidence, not between the imposing walls of the courtroom, or in the loneliness of a witness. It happens in the silent spaces between the words, and in the unconscious spasm of a muscle.  READ MORE: Overlooked & Underrated: The 25 Best Films Of 2022 You (Prolly) Didn’t See The accused is Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a student and Senegalese immigrant who arrived in France for school, but now finds herself on trial for the murder of her baby.

On The Golden Globes’ 80th celebration and return to NBC, it was Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans and Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin walked away with the top prizes as Best Picture Drama and Musical or Comedy. In the first televised event of the Oscar season, both writer-directors were rewarded additional prizes to go alongside their Best Picture wins, with Spielberg winning Best Director and McDonagh winning Best Screenplay.

The Banshees of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have been tapped to receive the Cinema Vanguard Award at the 38th annual Santa Barbara Film Festival.