‘The Beasts’ Wins Three Prizes, Including Top Jury Award, at Miami Film Festival

In 1982, the same year Sir Ben Kingsley won his Best Actor Oscar for Gandhi, the year’s other big movie was Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Now, 40 years later, Kingsley has found his own E.T., a sort of combination of that classic with a bit of Cocoon, and perhaps The Father. But Jules, the new dramedy having its World Premiere as opening night of the Sonoma Film Festival, marches to its own sweet beat, and represents yet another game attempt to bring that older adult audience back to theaters. A smart distributor should take a close look.

EXCLUSIVE: The UK Asian Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and today, Deadline can share the official lineup for the jubilee edition, running at venues across the UK from May 4 — 14.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Like & Share” from Indonesia’s Gina S. Noer was named the best picture and collected the Grand Prix on Sunday at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. “All of us on the jury were struck by the film’s clear and powerful message, which affirms young women’s sexual curiosity and desire while clearly saying no to sexual violence. The style of the film is also original. The sweet, poppy feeling that fascinates the audience in the first half of the film becomes darker as the story progresses, making us shudder. “Like & Share,” with its strong message and brilliant direction, is a film that needs to be seen now more than ever,” said the jury in a statement.

Riley Keough shared what it was like for her to receive the Caméra d’or prize for her directorial debut in War Pony at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: The Sands: International Film Festival of St Andrews, held in northern Scotland, has set the lineup for its second edition, running April 14 – 16.

Charna Flam The Sun Valley film festival announced Emilio Estevez is set to receive the Pioneer Award at the festival’s upcoming pioneer party.  Estevez joins previously announced Sun Valley film festival honorees including Variety‘s 10 Producers to Watch, Josh Brolin, Sophie Thatcher and Nina Yang Bongiovi, who are set to receive the Vision Award, the Rising Star Award and the Variety Creative Impact Award in Producing, respectively.  On March 31, Estevez will receive his Pioneer Award, and on April 1, will host a special screening of his 2011 feature, “The Way.” 

Charna Flam The ReelAbilities Film Festival returns for its 15th year, as the largest film festival in the U.S. dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation for the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with disabilities. The festival announced Academy Award winner Troy Kotsur as the 2023 Spotlight Award recipient, as well as listed the festival’s lineup, which includes 10 features and 24 shorts, from nine countries. Features include “Unidentified Objects,” “Being Michelle,” “Jasmine Is a Star,” “No Ordinary Campaign,” “Pushing Boundaries,” “The Quiet Epidemic,” “Shadow,” “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “Upside Down” and “Okay! (The ASD Band Film).” The 24 shorts are divided into five categories: Out of the Box, Mental Health, Family Friendly, The Art of Living and With an Edge. The entire schedule can be found here.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Two days after ”Everything Everywhere All at Once“ won seven Oscars, including best picture, the SXSW Film Festival, where Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s movie launched last year, has announced its own awards. To be clear, “EEAAO” was a studio-backed opening night premiere (not one of the smaller movies launched in competition at the indie-focused fest), but you can still feel the excitement in Austin around the landmark Oscar win. After all, SXSW was the first festival to take Daniels seriously, awarding them top prize for their Battles music video (“My Machines”) in 2012. Will any of the movies or directors screening here this year go on to change film history?

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Asian premiere of Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate” is just one of three locally-produced movies that have been set as the opening and closing titles of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival. “Mad Fate” is joined in the festival opening slot on March 30 by “Elegies,” Ann Hui’s documentary portrayal of the topography of contemporary local poetry, which will have its world premiere. The closing film, another world premiere, is “Vital Sign,” an affecting drama directed by Cheuk Wan-chi and starring Louis Koo, Yau Hawk-sau, and Angela Yuen, which will wrap up proceedings on 10 April. In total, the festival has programmed some 200 films from 64 countries and territories. These include nine world premieres, six international premieres, and 67 Asian premieres.

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) will open with two local films – Soi Cheang’s noir thriller Mad Fate and the world premiere of Ann Hui’s Elegies, a documentary about contemporary local poetry.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Kuwaiti-born writer-director Zeyad (also known as “Z”) Alhusaini, whose action movie with comedic undertones “How I Got There” recently won the audience award at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, has joined United Talent Agency for representation in all areas. The groundbreaking film about two best buddies from childhood, named Salem and Asad, who stumble upon a gun shipment and try to seize this opportunity to get rich quick is set entirely in the Persian Gulf. “How I Got There” provides a relatively realistic glimpse of Kuwait’s present-day melting-pot of cultures, and its underworld of gun-running mercenaries, gangs, and terrorists, plus the local rap scene.

Emily Longeretta Amid a bit of drama surrounding HBO’s “The Idol,” the Weeknd-led series is in talks to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, multiple sources confirm to Variety. Star Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye previously attended Cannes Film Festival and is hopeful the show premieres there, according to one source, but the festival has not yet screened the drama, which has undergone a great number of changes behind the scenes. HBO is not commenting at this time. Though primarily a film festival, a handful of TV series have been brought to Cannes in the past, including “Twin Peaks: The Return” and “Top of the Lake: China Doll.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Locarno Film Festival is launching a first-of-its-kind contest, offering a free complete restoration service to a selected vintage cinema classic. The contest is part of The Swiss fest’s Heritage Online program that was launched in 2021 when its Locarno Pro industry side branched out into vintage cinema creating a platform that serves as a database of film titles that premiered prior to 2005. The goal of the fest dedicated to indie cinema is to play an active role in restoring older films to their former glory and also to become a business facilitator between rights holders and classic film distributors, streaming platforms and other outlets.

Charna Flam Outfest has announced the lineup for its 2023 Outfest Fusion QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Film Festival, which will run from March 24 through April 2. Outfest Fusion will be celebrating its 20th anniversary by showcasing LGBTQIA+ filmmakers and their various films depicting queer and transgender stories. There will be nine features, including two 2023 Sundance documentaries, “Little Richard: I Am Everything” from Lisa Cortés and “The Stroll” from Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker. Cortés documentary explores how Richard “Little Richard” Penniman worked through his struggles with his sexuality, all while he made his mark on rock n’ roll. While Lovell and Drucker follow transgender women of color as they detail the community’s history of sex work in New York City.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival marks its 40th edition, running March 3-12, with a full-blown return to the in-person festival experience with a sidebar of only 10 titles available online.  “We’re celebrating the human connection and getting back into cinemas again,” says programming head Lauren Cohen who in her first year flying solo at the helm, is putting her personal stamp on the festival with female-centric topics dominating the Master Classes.  “It’s our 40th anniversary, which is such a milestone for us, we want it to be bigger and better than ever,” she continues. 

EXCLUSIVE: The British Film Institute is close to appointing a new Festivals Director, with an announcement expected imminently, Deadline understands.

Killers Of The Flower Moon, Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, and Asteroid City are among the high-profile movies in contention for a Cannes splash this year.

Chris Pine is clearing up the air on what really happened with Harry Styles at the Venice Film Festival in a viral moment known as “Spitgate.”

Organizers of the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival said Wednesday that they are canceling their opening ceremony and “all festive events and concerts” related to the event following a tragic train crash in Greece late Tuesday that killed at least 38 people and injured more than 60.

Katie Reul editor Actors Josh Brolin and Sophie Thatcher are set to receive top honors at the 2023 Sun Valley Film Festival amid a jam-packed slate of cinematic programming. Brolin will take home the festival’s Vision Award, which is annually bestowed to industry gamechangers whose work has irrefutably shaped the entertainment sphere. The honor will be presented to Brolin during an April 1 ceremony, followed by a conversation on his career. Most recently, Brolin starred in and executive produced the Prime Video series “Outer Range.” The actor scored an Academy Award nomination in 2008 for his performance in Gus Van Sant’s “Milk,” and has held key roles in other acclaimed films including “No Country for Old Men,” “American Gangster,” “Sicario” and “Oldboy.” The “Avengers” franchise star will join an elite group of past honorees such as Geena Davis, Clint Eastwood, Gal Gadot, Ethan Hawke and Amy Poehler.