Sámi Film Institute’s Anne-Lajla Utsi to Receive First-Ever WIFTI Peace Prize: ‘We Have to Hold Onto Hope’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Todd Haynes, who has appeared on behalf of his latest directing outing, May December, since its splashy debut in Cannes, turned to a new collaborator when promoting it at the New York Film Festival.

Alissa Simon Film Critic Sometimes films highlight little-known events in their country of origin that wind up catalyzing a re-evaluation of their nation’s history. Finnish director Klaus Härö’s “Never Alone” is shaping up to be that sort of film. It follows the deportation from Finland of eight Austrian-Jewish refugees by the Gestapo during World War II and the work of Abraham Stiller, a pillar of the Helsinki Jewish community, who tried to stop it from happening.

Asghar Farhadi has arguably been a household name in world cinema since his 2011 breakout “A Separation.” But despite winning a Best International Feature Film Oscar for that movie, and doing so again for 2016’s “A Salesman,” Farhadi’s earlier films have never received a North American release. Until now, that is.

Lisa Kennedy In “Silver Dollar Road,” documentarian Raoul Peck foregrounds two resolute women, Mamie Reels Ellison and Kim Renee Duhon — the heir of a deceased landowner and her niece — to tell a story of familial grit, land grabs and the failings, if not the outright biases, of the courts. “Going to the water for me was always magical,” Ellison says early in the film, reminiscing about the pier and beach at one end of the family’s 65 acres in Carteret County, N.C. A montage of home movie footage and photo stills of children splashing, teens striking poses and adults having a fine time captures the warmth of the place.

Marta Balaga Sweden’s Isabella Eklöf has followed up her acclaimed debut “Holiday” with the Greenland-set “Kalak,” this time around opting for a male protagonist. “He’s a guy, but the story is exactly the same,” she says. “It’s still about sexual assault and ‘restaging’ your trauma, or looking for family and connection, but I have never explored that perspective before.

Christopher Vourlias Miia Tervo’s “The Missile,” an absurdist dramatic comedy based on the real-life story of a Soviet missile landing in Finnish Lapland in 1984, took home the top prize Thursday at the Finnish Film Affair, an annual industry event running parallel to the Helsinki International Film Festival — Love & Anarchy. “The Missile” was one of five fiction feature works in progress that were pitched to an audience of industry guests in Helsinki on Sept.

Jeannie Mai is not ready to say goodbye to Jeezy yet!

The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute has brought in veteran TV casting executive as Head of Talent, a newly created position focused on transitioning the Institute’s students to becoming professional actors in film and TV.

Karen Idelson Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit returns Sept. 21, bringing together industry powerhouses who will weigh in on reaching audiences across platforms, utilizing progressive technologies and helping brands connect with viewers. The summit, presented by City National Bank, will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills and feature a full day of panels and speakers.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Ozu Yasujiro, the leading Japanese film director behind classics including “Tokyo Story” and “Late Spring,” has had his double birth and death anniversaries – Ozu died in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday, a little more than a year after the release of his last film “An Autumn Afternoon” – celebrated throughout 2023 at places as varied as the Cannes Film Festival, Los Angeles’ Margaret Herrick Library and the Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute. But it falls to October’s Tokyo International Film Festival to put on this year’s biggest and most comprehensive reconstruction of Ozu’s surprisingly varied career. Working in conjunction with the National Film Archive of Japan, the festival will present an extensive retrospective that covers almost all the films that Ozu directed (TIFF/NFAJ Classics: Ozu Yasujiro Week) from Oct. 24-29. Ozu spent his entire career, from camera assistant in 1923 to renown director in 1962, as an employee of major Japanese studio Shochiku, with all the advantages and disadvantages such an arrangement brought. While Ozu is best known for his stripped-down dramas, often centered on family relationships, sometimes troubled or contentious, involving parents and young or grown-up children, many hinging on questions of marriage, generational misunderstandings or the loneliness of the elderly, the director’s register may not entirely have been of his own choosing. “The apparent consistency of the post-war films surely owes as much to this production situation as to Ozu’s aesthetic choices,” wrote critic Tony Rayns in a recent Sight & Sound portrait.

The Last Dinner Party have announced their first-ever North American tour.Kicking off on October 31, the five-piece will make their way to the East Coast for their first show at The Atlantis in Washington D.C.. From there, they will make stops in New York City and Philadelphia before heading over to the West Coast to play a show at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, California.Their final show of the tour will take place on November 9 at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago.

Anette Novak is out at the Swedish Film Institute. 

EXCLUSIVE: Director Tarsem Singh thought of his own sainted mother as he tried to understand why a Canadian woman of Indian heritage would plot to have her daughter abducted then murdered. 

McKinley Franklin editor Ahead of Drake’s eighth studio album “For All the Dogs,” the Canadian-born rapper has recruited SZA for their first in-studio collaboration, “Slime You Out.” The single was released Friday and is co-produced by Drake and OVO signee Noel Cadastre. The single includes lyrics like “I’m slimin’ you for them kid choices you made / Slimin’ you out, slimin’ you out, slimin’ you out,” which provides a clear explanation for the album artwork that the duo shared on Instagram a few days ago. Drake took to his Instagram to tag SZA in an image of Halle Berry covered in green slime at the 2012 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian director Farhad Delaram was in the midst of shooting his subversive road movie “Achilles” when Mahsa Amini died in Tehran on Sept. 16, 2022, while being detained for allegedly violating the country’s hijab law that mandates covered hair. Amini’s death triggered months of nationwide demonstrations and riots under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom.” The ongoing protests mark the most serious challenge to the country’s regime since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979.

Stockport is gearing up to host its first Full Moon Festival later this week as the town comes together to host three-days of colourful celebrations.

The S Club Party is coming to the States!

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Anna Wintour was running over an hour late. It was an anomaly for the regimented and exalted editor of Vogue, who typically works through lunch but dined that day with her old friend Bruce Bozzi. Tucked away at the Italian spot Via Carota in New York’s West Village, she was unusually candid about showing up for personal relationships while creatively navigating Condé Nast. They weren’t alone.

Marta Balaga Director Katja Gauriloff has made history with “Je’vida,” the first feature shot in the Skolt Sámi language. “It’s my native tongue, but because of forced assimilation in Finland [of the Sámi people] I didn’t actually learn it. I am studying it only now,” she tells Variety ahead of the Toronto premiere.

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