Telluride Lineup Includes World Premieres of ‘Saltburn,’ ‘The Bikeriders’ and ‘Rustin’ With Tributes for Yorgos Lanthimos and Wim Wenders

The Gotham Awards said today that Rustin, director George C. Wolfe’s snapshot of the life of civil rights icon Bayard Rustin that stars Colman Domingo, will receive its Icon & Creator Tribute for Social Justice. The Netflix pic will be honored at the 33rd annual Gotham Awards on November 27 at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan.

Naman Ramachandran The 19th Zurich Film Festival promises to be a star-studded affair with plenty of Hollywood A-list talent attending. Todd Haynes will be honored with the festival’s A Tribute to… Award and will present his film “May December.” Previous recipients include Paolo Sorrentino, Wim Wenders, Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Oliver Stone, Maïwenn and Luca Guadagnino. “It’s a real honor to celebrate this master of American cinema.

French director Mehdi Fikri spent a decade working as a reporter covering social conflict and the issues of police violence and justice in France’s notoriously deprived out-of-town suburbs.

It’s interesting how the Venice Film Festival has gone from one of the festivals of the fall festival season to arguably the best film festival in the world now, even overshadowing Cannes in recent years thanks to the fact that Netflix now avoids the Croisette for the most part because of France’s theatrical laws and save their Oscar contenders for the Lido. Venice has had an amazing run, arguably since 2017 when Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape Of Water” won the top prize and then went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, which has happened one more time since with “Nomadland” and several key Oscar contenders since).

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor With “American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson, best known for penning television episodes of “Succession” and “Watchmen,” helms one of the finest directorial debuts seen since Sam Mendes’ “American Beauty.” In the style that feels like an audacious blend of the screenplays of Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” and Nicole Holofcener’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me,” he shepherds an audacious dramedy anchored by a career-best and Oscar-worthy performance from star Jeffrey Wright. After debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s a movie that could be a contender for the coveted TIFF Audience Award, and it would be deserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Distributor-producer Lucky Red is one of Italy’s most respected independent film and TV companies. Run by former actor Andrea Occhipinti since 1987, the firm has released more than 500 titles and produced more than 50 films.

Sophia Scorziello editor Virginia’s Middleburg Film Festival, now in its 11th year, is set to open this October with Netflix’s Bayard Rustin biopic “Rustin” starring Colman Domingo. Director George C.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events.

Fremantle kicked off its presence at the Venice Film Festival with a bang this year with the announcement of its new €150M ($162.7M) Scripted Fund forged in partnership with Israel-based IBI Investment House. 

Japan has selected Perfect Days, the Tokyo-based fiction feature from German filmmaker Wim Wenders, as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor In “Nyad,” the titular character is entitled, mean, self-centered and treats people around her terribly… and she’s our hero? Supporting actors Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans manage to keep the film moving along, but the main subject, played passionately by Annette Bening, is one who is difficult to connect with and root for in this modern take on a sports drama. A still Oscar-less Bening could be a possibility for traction in the best actress race – at least, Netflix hopes so.

Lukas Gage and Chase Stokes partied the night away with their partners while attending the Variety and Golden Globes Party during the 2023 Venice Film Festival on Thursday night (August 31).

Mads Mikkelsen and his son Carl Jacobsen Mikkelsen make quite a dashing pair!

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne returns to the big screen with his entertaining and crowd-pleasing film “The Holdovers” which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival on Thursday night, where he was in-person to introduce. With a 1970s aesthetic, a sharp script by David Hemingson, and a trio of exquisite performers, the film feels like the slam-dunk Oscar contender the establishment members of the Academy can get behind. “The Holdovers” reunites Payne with his “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” brings style, swag and a whole lot of Barry Keoghan’s manhood to the award race. After having its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on Thursday night, festivalgoers were in for a wild bonanza of colors, lights and one of the sexiest films to grace the big screen so far this year. Fennell’s previous film as a director, 2020’s “Promising Young Woman,” was a hit with Oscar voters, scoring five nominations, including one for best picture.

Thank god for Alexander Payne. The filmmaker is, and always have been, a true humanist. A writer/director more interested in human beings, something that has always been the special effect of his movies. A two-time Oscar winning writer, his latest film, The Holdovers, which had its World Premiere Thursday at the Telluride Film Festival, is one of the rare movies in which he doesn’t also have a writing credit. David Hemingson did the screenplay, but the idea, an inspired one, came from Payne, a real film buff who was always intrigued by Marcel Pagnol’s 1935 French film Merlusse about a group of boarding school students stuck over the holidays with a much-despised teacher. The director thought it had the bones for a new story and developed with Hemingson. Still, set in 1970, it is Payne’s first period film after a celebrated career for movies like Sideways, The Descendants, and many others. He has made some contemporary classics, no doubt, but the warm humanity of a trio of people left alone at Christmas in a snowy boarding school, ranks right up there with his very best. It is funny, sad, witty, poignant, filled with snark and heart and great acting. It also manages to be a film set at the holidays that offers something truly new for the genre, and also delightfully not only evokes the period in which it is set, it also purposely looks like a movie made then.

Ellise Shafer The stars were out in Venice for Variety and the Golden Globe Awards’ party on Thursday night, featuring Chase Stokes, Kelsea Ballerini, Lukas Gage and Pablo Larraín. Presented by Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment, the event celebrated breakthrough talent and excellence in Italian filmmaking, handing out several awards under the moonlight.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Gap-Financing Market is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year with record-breaking attendance and impressive new figures on the projects that the core component of Venice’s industry side has helped bring to the big screen. All told, over the span of a decade, “We have had 370 films (including immersive) from 70 countries and 80% of them have been completed within six months after the festival,” says Pascal Diot who heads the Venice Production Bridge, as the Lido’s market is known.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent France’s UFO Distribution has acquired French rights to Venice Horizons entry “An Endless Sunday” by first-time Italian director Alain Parroni from Fandango Sales. The film will segue from Venice to Toronto where it screens in the fest’s Discovery section.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Jeff Nichols brings pure Americana to the Telluride Film Festival with his luscious period drama “The Bikeriders,” which feels like the distant older cousin of “The Outsiders.” It stands as his single best directorial outing, and in tow are a trio of invigorating performances from Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy, all putting their stamp on an awards season that will be undoubtedly competitive. Based on the 1968 photo and interview book by Danny Lyon, “The Bikeriders” tells a fictional story inspired by a Midwestern motorcycle club, seen through its members’ lives over a decade. Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.