Sam Mendes to Receive Ebert Director Award at Toronto Film Festival

EXCLUSIVE: Léa Seydoux who played Dr. Madeleine Swann in the two most recent 007 films, Spectre and No Time to Die, posed a mischievous question about whether audiences will see the mother of James Bond’s daughter in the next instalment of the long-running film franchise.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In the era where content is king, Sam Mendes still believes in moving pictures. “Empire of Light” is the proof. While the world was in lockdown these past couple years, Mendes let his imagination run to his happy place: a grand old English movie palace he dubbed the Empire Cinema. Thousands pass through its Art Deco doors seeking escapism, but Mendes is more interested in the employees — the projectionist, the ticket-takers, the box office attendant and so forth, who collectively form an ersatz family — whose stories, he senses, are every bit as interesting as the ones they show. And so he put them up on screen where they belong. But “Empire of Light” is more than just Mendes’ homage to an endangered art form — in fact, it spends a lot less time valorizing the medium than you might imagine. He has assembled a terrific cast, trusting that these performers can go deeper than their dialogue makes explicit, whether it’s Olivia Colman (who can do anything) as the romantically frustrated theater manager Hilary or relative newcomer (and “Blue Story” breakout) Micheal Ward as Stephen, Mr. Ellis’ latest hire (in an unusually sleazy cameo, Colin Firth plays the boss).

American actress Glenn Close has been announced as the jury president for the Official Section of the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 16-24.

The 49th Telluride Film Festival opens Friday in a much-awaited edition that is set to feature world premieres of Searchlight’s Oscar hopeful Empire of Light from director Sam Mendes, starring Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth; Women Talking from director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara and Frances McDormand in the ensemble; Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh; and Sony/Netflix’s sizzling new version of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover with Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell; among other films.

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full list of titles, with the program comprised of 164 features and 23 world premieres across film and TV.

Over the past 20+ years, filmmaker Sam Mendes has released numerous films, each earning acclaim. Even his two James Bond films, “Spectre” and “Skyfall,” are seen as high watermarks in the world of 007.

Empire Of Light, starring Olivia Colman, has been released. You can watch it below.Directed by Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall), the upcoming film tells the story of a romance that takes place in a scenic old cinema on the South Coast of England in the 1980s.Micheal Ward (Blue Story, Top Boy) stars opposite Colman as her love interest, while Toby Jones (Detectorists) plays a projectionist.“Film: It’s just static frames with darkness in between,” Jones’s character narrates in the trailer, which reveals very little about the film’s plot.

Sam Mendes is set to be honoured by the Toronto International Film Festival following the Canadian premiere of his latest fil, “Empire Of Light”.

Over the past 20+ years, filmmaker Sam Mendes has released numerous films, each earning acclaim. Even his two James Bond films, “Spectre” and “Skyfall,” are seen as high watermarks in the world of 007.

Brendan Fraser will receive the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance for his role in A24’s upcoming film “The Whale.”TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey announced the news.  “Brendan Fraser gives a performance of staggering depth, power and nuance in ‘The Whale,’” Bailey said. “This former Torontonian has been an action star, a screen comic and a romantic lead.

Brendan Fraser is getting the recognition he’s long deserved.

Brendan Fraser will be honored with a TIFF Tribute Award for Performance at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival’s eponymous gala fundraiser, which is set for an in-person return at Fairmont Royal York Hotel on Sunday, September 11. The award comes in recognition of Fraser’s work on Darren Aronofsky’s anticipated drama The Whale, which makes its North American premiere in Toronto after bowing in Venice.

Actor Brendan Fraser will receive the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Monday.Fraser is attending the festival for the North American premiere of Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” in which he stars as a severely obese man attempting to repair a fractured relationship with his teenage daughter (played by “Stranger Things” star Sadie Sink). He will receive the award during the TIFF Tribute Awards, an in-person gala fundraiser that will take place on Sunday, Sept.

Sam Mendes is set to be honoured by the Toronto International Film Festival.

Director Sam Mendes will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Friday.Mendes will be at the festival for the Canadian Premiere of his new movie, “Empire of Light,” which stars Olivia Colman as a woman who works in a seaside movie theater in 1980s England. It is his ninth film as a director and second as writer in a career that began with the Oscar-winning “American Beauty,” which made its world premiere at TIFF in 1999.

Sam Mendes, whose latest movie from Searchlight, Empire of Light, is making its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, will be receiving the event’s TIFF Ebert Director Award.

“Empire of Light,” the latest feature film from Oscar winner Sam Mendes, has locked its European premiere with a gala screening at the 66th annual BFI London Film Festival. Starring Olivia Colman, Michael Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones and others, the 1980s–set film “is a powerful and poignant story about human connection and the magic of cinema,” distributor Searchlight Pictures said in a statement. The film’s stars – including Colman, Firth, and on-the-rise BAFTA winner Ward – are expected to be in attendance at the festival’s American Express Gala screening on Oct.

Naman Ramachandran Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” starring Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward and Colin Firth, will be this year’s American Express Gala at the 66th BFI London Film Festival.Written, produced and directed by Oscar and BAFTA winning filmmaker Mendes, the film also stars Toby Jones, Tanya Moodie, Tom Brooke and Crystal Clarke. Set in an English seaside town in the early 1980s, the film is about human connection and the magic of cinema. It marks Mendes’ first solo credit as screenwriter and reunites him with Oscar winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (“1917,” “Skyfall”).The film is produced by Mendes and Pippa Harris’ Neal Street Productions, in partnership with Searchlight Pictures.

The 66th BFI London Film Festival has set Empire Of Light, the latest film from Sam Mendes, as its American Express Gala screening.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterHBO has ordered a comedy pilot about the making of a superhero movie, Variety has learned.The half-hour pilot is titled “The Franchise.” It follows a hopeful crew trapped inside the dysfunctional, nonsensical, joyous hellscape of franchise superhero movie-making. If and when they finally make the day, the question they must face — is this Hollywood’s new dawn or cinema’s last stand? Is this a dream factory or a chemical plant?The pilot story was written by Jon Brown, Keith Akushie and Armando Iannucci, with Brown and Akushie writing the pilot.