Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Zurich Film Festival, which runs Sept. 28 – Oct.
29.08.2023 - 13:07 / variety.com
Addie Morfoot Contributor The upcoming Woodstock Film Festival will kick off with Chloe Domont’s “Fair Play” and present a lifetime achievement award to James Ivory. The 24th edition of the fest, which runs from Sept.
27 to Oct. 1 in New York’s Hudson Valley, about 100 miles north of Manhattan, features a lineup of world, U.S.
and New York premieres of feature films directed by filmmakers ranging from Steve Buscemi (“The Listener”) and Wim Wenders (“Anselm”) to Roger Ross Williams (“Stamped From the Beginning”). Opening night “Fair Play,” an erotic thriller about a power-hungry couple contending for power at a cutthroat financial firm, was acquired by Netflix for $20 million after debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
WFF will be held at venues in Woodstock, Rosendale and Saugerties, all of which are Hudson Valley towns where many Academy members own homes, making the fest an award season campaign hotspot.
Additional narrative feature titles include “I Am What You Imagine,” by Matthew Modine; Nicol Paone’s “The Kill Room,” starring Uma Thurman and Samuel L.
Jackson; and “The New Boy,” directed by Warwick Thornton and starring Cate Blanchett.
Buscemi, who made his feature directing debut with “Tree Lounge” in 1996, will do a Q&A following the screening of “The Listener,” written by Alessandro Camon and featuring a cast including Tessa Thompson and Rebecca Hall.
Woodstock Film Festival co-founder and executive director Meira Blaustein is crossing her fingers that some talent associated with the WFF movies will receive SAG-AFTRA waivers and be able to attend.
“Many of the production companies with films at the festival have applied for a SAG-AFTRA waiver,” she says. “We are hopeful that some of the waiver requests
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Zurich Film Festival, which runs Sept. 28 – Oct.
Organizers of the Camden International Film Festival in coastal Maine are moving ahead with regular programming today, as Hurricane Lee – downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone – aims further north towards Nova Scotia.
Found, the NBC series from All American‘s Nkechi Okoro Carroll, is heading to the Boston Film Festival.
Players chosen to represent their country at Africa Cup of Nations 2024 could miss up to nine Manchester United games.
Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor The 24th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) has unveiled its lineup for this year’s festival, taking place Oct. 12-19. It includes 91 films from 19 countries, including 14 world premieres.
Michael Keaton, after making his directorial debut with 2008’s The Merry Gentleman, steps behind the camera for only the second time with his latest film, Knox Goes Away in which he also delivers one of his finest and most poignant performances as a man facing a rare form of fast moving dementia, but who is racing the clock to save his estranged son’s life before it is too late.
In the realm of road movies, family ties, and the complexities of sisterhood, the Hulu/20th Century Studio offers up Quiz Lady a film that charts a familiar course. Directed by Jessica Yu and penned by Jen D’Angelo, the film boasts an ensemble cast led by the undeniable talent of Sandra Oh and Awkwafina, supported by the comedic prowess of Will Ferrell, Holland Taylor, and Jason Schwartzman.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Patricia Arquette, Lulu Wang, Finn Wolfhard, Barry Jenkins, Camila Morrone, Willem Dafoe and Colman Domingo mixed and mingled at Variety and Chanel’s annual female filmmaker dinner during the Toronto Film Festival. At the glamorous event, held on Saturday night at Soho House and hosted by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, VIP attendees nibbled on tuna tartare, striploin steak and heirloom tomato salad as they toasted the recipients of Chanel’s Women Writers’ Network. The year-round program is designed to advance the careers of women and non-binary alumni of the TIFF Writers’ Studio.
The Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion has been given to a winner!
French filmmaker Claire Denis has been announced as the jury president for the Official Section of the 71st San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 22-30.
Brent Lang Executive Editor The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off its 48th edition with the North American premiere of “The Boy and the Heron,” the first feature from animation icon Hayao Miyazaki in a decade and the picture that is likely to serve as his cinematic swan song. The 82-year-old filmmaker isn’t doing any promotion for the film, so he wasn’t on hand at the Princess of Wales Theater on Thursday to look out at the adoring crowd of film lovers, who cheered every time his name or that of Studio Ghibli, his creative home, was invoked.
Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore‘s new movie May December is set to introduce the 2023 New York Film Festival later this month!
Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 4-13) has unveiled its full line-up, including opening and closing films, and announced that Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat has been named as Asian Filmmaker of the Year.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The international trailer for “A Whole Life,” which will have its world premiere in the Gala section of the Zürich Film Festival (Sept. 28 to Oct. 8), has debuted with Variety (below).
The plan was for renowned director William Friedkin to be appearing at the Venice Film Festival presenting the out of competition World Premiere of his latest production, an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s 1954 play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Unfortunately Friedkin died August 7th, but the show goes on anyway.
In principle, using the rainy-day, kitchen-sink post-rock of Manchester band The Smiths so prominently in a film like The Killer seems incredibly perverse, given that it’s an exotic, globe-trotting thriller about an American assassin. But in reality, it’s actually very sound choice indeed: legend has it that the band’s singer, Morrissey, had two reasons for naming his band so, the first being that “Smith” is one of the most common and thus unremarkable surnames in the world. The second, and much more subversive theory, suggests that it’s also a reference to David and Maureen Smith, brother-in-law and sister of ’60s serial killer Myra Hindley, the snappily dressed couple whose testimony blew open the Moors Murderers case and whose beatnik likenesses adorn the cover of Sonic Youth’s 1990 album “Goo”.
Five years after his triumphant A Star is Born world premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Bradley Cooper is back on the Lido with Maestro. Except, the director and star is only here in spirit owing to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Naman Ramachandran The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, which includes galas and special presentations of films by contemporary masters. As previously announced, Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” will open the festival and Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s “The Kitchen” will close it.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with World War II drama “Comandante” by young Italian auteur Edoardo De Angelis packing a strong political punch. Tensions due to the SAG-AFTRA strike lurked in the background, though without stealing the thunder of strong expectations for this year’s lineup.
The 80th Venice Film Festival officially kicked off Wednesday evening with the world premiere screening of Edoardo De Angelis’ Italian World War II submarine drama Comandante. Running in competition, the film took over the slot vacated by Luca Guadagnino’s tennis drama Challengers, which backed out of the spot amid the actors strike.