Sean Baker Makes Movies About Sex Workers in Hopes of ‘Helping Remove the Stigma’ — and He’s ‘Already Talking About the Next One’

EXCLUSIVE: Matthew Lewis, Parvinder Shergill and Kayleigh-Paige Rees are leading comedy-drama Touché, a UK indie feature set in the world of fencing.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent To make war crimes doc “The Cranes Call,” which premiered at Tribeca on Sunday, director Laura Warner embedded with investigator Anya Neistat of the Clooney Foundation for Justice. While in Ukraine, Warner watched Neistat as she doggedly documented evidence of human rights abuses to bring Russian commanders and soldiers to trial in courts across Europe. Neisat worked closely with Solomiia Stasiv, her young Ukrainian interpreter, who quickly became her invaluable sidekick as they traveled to all corners of Ukraine and spoke to survivors of violence, sifting through wreckage and piecing together clues from a still ongoing conflict.

A ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings went ahead in the Falkirk village of Bonnybridge despite vandals cutting the flagpole rope that was to be used in the event.

Murtada Elfadl From its very first moments, “Antidote” unspools like a propulsive thriller. An off-camera voice asks Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev, “Did you ever think you’d be investigating an assassination plot against yourself?” From that startling introduction, director James Jones’ galvanizing documentary moves at a fast speed to tell its high-stakes story about Vladimir Putin’s Russia, contemporary investigative journalism and the people who put their lives in jeopardy for what they believe in. In addition to Grozev, the film follows two other activists.

Almost four million people tuned into the most recent series of Celebrity Gogglebox, and many of them wondered not only what the cast thought of their TV programmes, but also what the cast of Celebrity Gogglebox earn - and if they chipped in for their takeaways. With over a million viewers a week, watching other people watch TV - and now watching celebrities watch TV - has made Gogglebox one of the nation’s favourite pastimes.

Star Wars universe is continuing to expand. When “The Acolyte” premieres tonight on Disney+, June 4, the High Republic Era will make its way into live-action canon after years of canonical comics and novels. In “The Acolyte,” an investigation into a spree of murders pits a Jedi Master and his former Padawan against forces of evil long thought to be extinct within the galaxy.

EXCLUSIVE: The movie Donald Trump doesn’t want people to see is going global.

Angelique Jackson Emmy nominee Elle Fanning is in talks to star in “Badlands,” a standalone movie from Dan Trachtenberg that expands the “Predator” universe. Trachtenberg is set to direct the movie for 20th Century Studios from a script he co-wrote with Patrick Aison.

On Thursday July 4, Britain will get to vote for the first time since 2019 on which party should lead the country.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “The Regime” showrunner Stephen Frears is a man of few words when it comes to music — at least according to award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat. But that wasn’t a bad thing. The two had previously collaborated, and Desplat liked that approach, as it gave him free reign to come up with compositions that he could bring back to the director.

Variety presents their favorite discoveries. Indian director Payal Kapadia’s second feature is a wise, gently lambent portrait of two roommates, both Mumbai nurses, at different points in their romantic lives. Spanning the city and the seaside, an understated yet profound bond grows between them despite different ages and outlooks, and both actresses are outstanding.

Sophie Wessex has humbly brushed off praise for her 'brave' visit to Ukraine, the first by a Royal since the conflict with Russia began.The Duchess of Edinburgh journeyed to the outskirts of Kyiv in April, just as Russia was forced to make a hasty retreat from moving towards the capital city. During her trip, Sophie engaged with victims of wartime sexual violence, listening to their harrowing experiences.

In accepting the Palme d’Or today for his latest movie Anora, Sean Baker gave a shoutout for the survival of cinema.

Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comic but devastating Brooklyn odyssey about a sex worker who marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or.Baker accepted the prize with his movie’s star, Mikey Madison, watching in the audience at the Cannes closing ceremony Saturday. The win for “Anora” marks a new high point for Baker, the director of “The Florida Project.” It’s also, remarkably, the fifth straight Palme d’Or won by indie distributor Neon, following “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness” and last year’s winner, “Anatomy of a Fall.”“I don’t really know what’s happening right now,” said Baker.While “Anora” was arguably the most acclaimed film of the festival, its win was a slight surprise.

It just had to be, didn’t it.

Director Sean McNamara‘s Reagan, the first full-length feature on the 40th U.S. president, is out with its first trailer.

Alex Ritman If Mark Eidelstein’s career takes off in Hollywood, he can thank his decision to record a self tape of himself fully naked. In Sean Baker‘s raucous comedy “Anora,” the young Russian actor plays Ivan, the hilariously energetic, fast-living son of an oligarch happily spending his parents’ millions while decamped in their New York mansion who then falls in love with Mikey Madison’s Manhattan sex worker Ani. It’s a wild ride from start to finish, awash in drugs, sex, violence, gangsters, Vegas weddings and a lounge full of expensive ornaments getting smashed to pieces.

Better Things actress Mikey Madison goes the distance in a raw and revealing performance as a high-class stripper who is romanced, and married by, the son of a Russian oligarch in Sean Baker‘s Anora.

CANNES – The “Anora” in Sean Baker’s latest creation is actually the birth name of Ani (Mikey Madison), a private dancer who works in a pretty nice strip club in New York City. Sure, the hours ain’t ideal, and there’s that long subway ride back to the rundown duplex she shares with her sister in Brighton Beach, but she’s not complaining.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Atoms & Void, the Netherlands-based production and sales company run by Sergei Loznitsa and Maria Choustova, has closed a French sale on Loznitsa’s most recent feature documentary “The Invasion,” which premiered on Thursday as a Special Screening in Cannes. Potemkine Films has taken all rights for France, while the film’s French co-producer ARTE France maintains its exclusive TV/VOD window.