‘Skywalkers: A Love Story’ review: Dir. Jeff Zimbalist [Sundance]

Guy Lodge Film Critic Tea can be an energizer or a sedative. “Black Tea,” the first film in a decade from veteran Mauritanian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako, sips exclusively from the latter end of the shelf, passing through chamomile-type calm into outright soporific territory.

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are enjoying their life in Miami. The couple was photographed this Monday in Coconut Grove, one of Miami’s most vibrant areas, as they enjoyed the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. Lauren Sanchez congratulates her ex Tony Gonzalez on premiere of new movieLauren Sánchez effortlessly transitions from red-carpet glam to off-duty chicPhotos captured show the two happy to be spending time together as they looked relaxed and dressed comfortably for the occasion.

Guy Lodge Film Critic “We need a new idea of beauty,” says Michele De Lucchi, the Italian architect who talks us through certain stretches of “Architecton,” a singularly imposing and sonorous new documentary from Russian non-fiction auteur Victor Kossakovsky. His argument is that the earth can no longer sustain the kind of hefty architectural grandeur, built from the fabric of the Earth itself, that we’ve asthetically prized for centuries, and nor can the cycle of more disposable concrete construction continue without devastating environmental impact.

Refresh for latest…: Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love brought folks together around the world in its opening frame, singing up a sweet estimated $80M global bow. After coming on strong in early overseas play this week, and as audiences turned a deaf ear to critics, the international box office portion of that is $29M, landing well ahead of expectations.

Somebody — or something — is speaking from inside a timber crate. “It’s so dark in here… a night so deep and opaque” read the subtitles; the voice is speaking in Fon, the local language of the West African country that was once called Dahomey and is now Benin. As the slats are nailed down, the voice is increasingly muffled; we are outside, but we are inside too, watching the light disappear.

Catherine Bray In the grasslands of Southern Ukraine, between Crimea and mainland Ukraine, a natural history researcher named Yura (Dmytro Bahnenko) is hoping to track down and photograph a groundhog. If he succeeds, the land can be protected as a European reserve. This apparently simple premise — the kernel at the outset of “The Editorial Office” — can’t begin to hint at the rugged tapestry of thematic and topical threads that Roman Bondarchuk’s second narrative feature proceeds to weave together, the unique product of both the director’s vision and ambition, and also of the circumstances under which it gestated.

Director Daniel Roher is making no secret who he blames for the death behind bars of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, focus of his 2023 Oscar-winning documentary Navalny.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of Content Since the beginning of the Academy Awards in the late 1920s, Hollywood filmmakers have been making socially conscious films. Many of the best of those have scored the film town’s top honor — Oscar best picture.

Siddhant Adlakha There’s a slim overlap in the Venn diagram of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Patti Smith. Into that nearly infinitesimal space fits Abel Ferrara’s obliquely reflective, geopolitical documentary “Turn in the Wound.” For that alone it deserves attention, though the Ukrainian president and the American poet/punk rocker aren’t Ferrara’s subjects so much as they are his featured co-authors — fellow painters of a portrait depicting the feeble but essential human instinct to chronicle the horrors of war.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Films Boutique has closed a raft of deals on the Chinese movie “Brief History of a Family,” which will play at the Berlinale in the Panorama section. Chinese filmmaker Lin Jianjie‘s feature debut, “Brief History of a Family” premiered at Sundance and will be screening for buyers at the EFM as well. Films Boutique has sold the movie to Benelux (September Films), Italy (Movies Inspired) and Spain (Karma Films).

Alex Ritman “Superpower,” the Sean Penn fronted and co-directed documentary following the Oscar-winner as he embeds himself with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the wake of Russia’s invasion, has scored new sales. Ahead of the Berlinale, where “Superpower” first premiered in 2023 while still in production, Fifth Season — which financed the film alongside Vice Studios — has unveiled broadcast deals with streamer Stan and Nine Network (Australia), Movistar Plus (Spain), HBO (CEE and Baltics), PCCW for Now TV (Hong Kong and Macau), DPG Media (Belgium), A+E Networks/History Channel (Germany) and Kyivstar TV (Ukraine).

UPDATED: The companywide layoffs at Paramount Global on Tuesday impacted about 20 employees at CBS News, including correspondents Catherine Herridge and Jeff Pegues, several sources said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sony Pictures has acquired international distribution rights to “YOLO,” a mainland Chinese comedy film that releases in China on Saturday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday. The film is written, directed by and stars Jia Ling, China’s top-grossing female filmmaker. She portrays Le Ying, an unemployed woman in her thirties who still lives with her parents until one day, she meets a boxing coach (portrayed by Lei Jiayin), who just may change her life.

Internationally renowned Israeli-born photographer Rafael Fuchs has always used his art to push boundaries and highlight the absurdities of modern life — even during wartime.Called to serve in Lebanon in 1983 while he was still an art student at Jerusalem’s prestigious Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design brought his avant-garde style to the battlefield.“I started taking picture showing how ridiculous war is,” Fuchs told The Post in Brooklyn on Wednesday.Fuchs began subverting the war photography genre by taking a series of self-portraits, in typical battle scenes, donned in Japanese Butoh-inspired theatrical makeup to highlight his anxiety about serving.“Where does it say in the Israeli army rule book that a soldier cannot perform his duties with makeup on?” Fuchs had asked his then-commanding officer.Following graduation and a stint in Paris where he was noticed by the eminent curator Francois Hebel, Fuchs emigrated to New York, where he was immediately enchanted by the city’s “spontaneity.”“It was hot. It was May 1st.

EXCLUSIVE: WTFilms has snapped up international sales rights for Dutch directorial duo Steffan Haars and Flip Van Der Kuil’s English-language debut Krazy House following its world premiere at Sundance.

Guy Lodge Film Critic In “Porcelain War,” a resilient Ukrainian couple divide their time between two seemingly antithetical pursuits: When enterprising Slava Leontyev isn’t training fellow civilian soldiers in the ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion, he and his partner Anya Stasenko are skilled ceramic artists, casting and painting dainty porcelain figurines inspired by local nature and folklore. If the title already suggests something pointed in that disparity, this emotive debut by Leontyev and American co-director Brendan Bellomo leaves nothing to chance in ensuring we get it: Porcelain, we are told, is “fragile but everlasting, and can be restored after hundreds of years.” Lest the point still be lost on us, the couple’s combined voiceover later offers a blunter paraphrase: “Ukraine is like porcelain — easy to break, but impossible to destroy.” The metaphor is clear enough, then; whether it’s quite complex enough to sustain a feature-length documentary is another question.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has landed the Sundance Film Festival buzz title documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story. The film premiered January 18 at The Ray Theatre.

Michaela Zee Netflix has acquired “Skywalkers: A Love Story” following the documentary feature’s debut at the Sundance Film Festival. “Skywalkers,” which premiered Jan. 18 at the Ray Theatre, follows daring couple Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus from Moscow, who saved their relationship and career by climbing one of the world’s tallest buildings.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Rod Holcomb, an Emmy-winning TV director of “ER,” “Lost” and other series, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 80. Holcomb was best known for directing both the pilot and the series finale of “ER,” winning an Emmy for that farewell episode in 2009.

It might come as a surprise to most that the skirmish between Russia and Ukraine has been active for nearly a decade. However, international headlines would raise awareness to new heights upon Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February of 2022.