The relaunch of the Directors Notes Podcast is a multi-faceted episode with a variety of voices where we bring you a roundup of our activity from the 2024 BFI London Film Festival. I dove into the proverbial trenches of the festival, immersing myself in as many films as possible and catching up with filmmakers both old and new to the site as I trod the well trodden paths between Picturehouse Central, BFI Southbank and other festival venues.
Featured below is my chat with Dr. Dario Llinares from The Cinematologists, longtime friends of Dn and a much loved stronghold in the film discussion podcast landscape – you should definitely sign up to their Patreon. We follow that with an interview with directing duo Daisy-May Hudson and Sophie Compton about their Lff feature documentary Holloway which premiered at the festival this year and provides a canvas for six women to return to Holloway Prison...
Featured below is my chat with Dr. Dario Llinares from The Cinematologists, longtime friends of Dn and a much loved stronghold in the film discussion podcast landscape – you should definitely sign up to their Patreon. We follow that with an interview with directing duo Daisy-May Hudson and Sophie Compton about their Lff feature documentary Holloway which premiered at the festival this year and provides a canvas for six women to return to Holloway Prison...
- 10/27/2024
- by Sarah Smith
- Directors Notes
Hard Truths
Scheduled to take place in England’s capital from the 9th to the 20th October is the 2024 edition of the London Film Festival. The UK’s premier film celebration will be taking over the city with screenings at a whole host of London-wide venues including the BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, Prince Charles Cinema and Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall to name but a few. As it has done for a number of years now, the festival will also be presenting a number of select screenings in regional cinemas too as part of Lff on Tour. For those who aren’t able to make it to cinemas there will be a number of films, of both feature and short length, made available for free on the BFI Player once the festival gets underway.
The lineup of feature films on offer has once again excited us here at Dn headquarters.
Scheduled to take place in England’s capital from the 9th to the 20th October is the 2024 edition of the London Film Festival. The UK’s premier film celebration will be taking over the city with screenings at a whole host of London-wide venues including the BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, Prince Charles Cinema and Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall to name but a few. As it has done for a number of years now, the festival will also be presenting a number of select screenings in regional cinemas too as part of Lff on Tour. For those who aren’t able to make it to cinemas there will be a number of films, of both feature and short length, made available for free on the BFI Player once the festival gets underway.
The lineup of feature films on offer has once again excited us here at Dn headquarters.
- 10/7/2024
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
Lorcan Finnegan’s “The Surfer,” screening at Taormina Film Festival following its premiere at Cannes, promises to be one of the year’s cult films. A bizarro mix of Kafka and Ozploitation, the film boasts a late phase Cage performance and a psycho-comedy that appears all the darker for its sunbaked setting. The Irish director of “Vivarium” and “Nocebo” spoke with Variety as the Mediterranean glittered tantalizingly in the distance.
Were you familiar with surfing culture before making the film?
I wouldn’t call myself a surfer, as I’m more of a skateboarder, and so I didn’t really know much about that culture. And this whole toxic masculinity stuff never really appealed to me, but I didn’t want to reject something, just because I didn’t know about it. It’s an interesting challenge.
Why did you choose Australia as the setting?
It was going to be California,...
Were you familiar with surfing culture before making the film?
I wouldn’t call myself a surfer, as I’m more of a skateboarder, and so I didn’t really know much about that culture. And this whole toxic masculinity stuff never really appealed to me, but I didn’t want to reject something, just because I didn’t know about it. It’s an interesting challenge.
Why did you choose Australia as the setting?
It was going to be California,...
- 7/20/2024
- by John Bleasdale
- Variety Film + TV
The “elevated” psychological thriller The Surfer, starring Nicolas Cage (who can currently be seen on the big screen in Longlegs), received a six minute standing ovation when it screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and now Deadline reports that a wider audience will have the chance to watch this ovation-inspiring film when Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions give it a theatrical release sometime in 2025.
Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium) directed The Surfer from a screenplay by Thomas Martin. Here’s the synopsis: When a man (Cage) returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, “The Surfer” decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates,...
Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium) directed The Surfer from a screenplay by Thomas Martin. Here’s the synopsis: When a man (Cage) returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, “The Surfer” decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates,...
- 7/19/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
A psychological thriller directed by Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium, Nocebo), The Surfer has been acquired for early 2025 theatrical release by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions.
Check out a first-look image above and expect more soon.
In The Surfer, when a man (Nicolas Cage) returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood.
Wounded, “The Surfer” decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates, the stakes spin wildly out of control, taking “The Surfer” to the edge of his sanity.
Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn, Finn Little and Charlotte Maggi star alongside Nicolas Cage in the upcoming film.
Check out a first-look image above and expect more soon.
In The Surfer, when a man (Nicolas Cage) returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood.
Wounded, “The Surfer” decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates, the stakes spin wildly out of control, taking “The Surfer” to the edge of his sanity.
Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn, Finn Little and Charlotte Maggi star alongside Nicolas Cage in the upcoming film.
- 7/16/2024
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Following its six-minute standing ovation as a midnight movie selection at the Cannes Film Festival, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have acquired North American distribution rights to The Surfer, the psychological thriller directed by Lorcan Finnegan.
Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, and Roadside Attractions co-presidents Eric d’Arbeloff and Howard Cohen made the announcement.
“Lorcan’s movie is a stunning visual experience with an incredible palette, coupled with Nicolas Cage at his absolute best,” said Lauren Bixby, SVP of Acquisitions and Co-Productions, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “We could not be more proud to bring this film to theaters.”
Cohen and d’Arbeloff concurred, “We cannot wait for The Surfer to ride the theatrical wave next year. One man’s gnarly quest to introduce his son to a legendary surf spot ranks among the greatest Nicolas Cage performances.”
Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn,...
Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, and Roadside Attractions co-presidents Eric d’Arbeloff and Howard Cohen made the announcement.
“Lorcan’s movie is a stunning visual experience with an incredible palette, coupled with Nicolas Cage at his absolute best,” said Lauren Bixby, SVP of Acquisitions and Co-Productions, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “We could not be more proud to bring this film to theaters.”
Cohen and d’Arbeloff concurred, “We cannot wait for The Surfer to ride the theatrical wave next year. One man’s gnarly quest to introduce his son to a legendary surf spot ranks among the greatest Nicolas Cage performances.”
Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn,...
- 7/16/2024
- by Mirko Parlevliet
- Vital Thrills
Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have jointly acquired North American rights to Lorcan Finnegan’s Cannes selection The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage.
‘The Surfer’: Cannes Review
Set in Australia, The Surfer premiered in Cannes Midnight and centres on a man who returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son and is pushed to breaking point when he gets drawn into a conflict with powerful locals.
The cast includes Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn, Finn Little, and Charlotte Maggi.
Thomas Martin wrote The Surfer and the producers are Leonora Darby,...
‘The Surfer’: Cannes Review
Set in Australia, The Surfer premiered in Cannes Midnight and centres on a man who returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son and is pushed to breaking point when he gets drawn into a conflict with powerful locals.
The cast includes Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn, Finn Little, and Charlotte Maggi.
Thomas Martin wrote The Surfer and the producers are Leonora Darby,...
- 7/16/2024
- ScreenDaily
Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have acquired North American rights to “The Surfer,” a psychological thriller starring Nicolas Cage that premiered at Cannes Film Festival.
The movie will be released in theaters on a yet-to-be-determined date in 2025. Lorcan Finnegan directed “The Surfer,” a story about a man who returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. But, according to the official logline, “he is humiliated by a group of powerful locals and drawn into a conflict that rises with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him right to his breaking point.”
“Lorcan’s movie is a stunning visual experience with an incredible palette, coupled with Nicolas Cage at his absolute best,” said Lauren Bixby, Lionsgate’s senior VP of acquisitions and co-productions. “We could not be more proud to bring this film to theaters.”
Roadside Attractions co-presidents Eric d’Arbeloff and Howard Cohen believe the...
The movie will be released in theaters on a yet-to-be-determined date in 2025. Lorcan Finnegan directed “The Surfer,” a story about a man who returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. But, according to the official logline, “he is humiliated by a group of powerful locals and drawn into a conflict that rises with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him right to his breaking point.”
“Lorcan’s movie is a stunning visual experience with an incredible palette, coupled with Nicolas Cage at his absolute best,” said Lauren Bixby, Lionsgate’s senior VP of acquisitions and co-productions. “We could not be more proud to bring this film to theaters.”
Roadside Attractions co-presidents Eric d’Arbeloff and Howard Cohen believe the...
- 7/16/2024
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Saint Clare starring Bella Thorne will open this year’s Taormina Film Festival.
The July fest has unveiled gala lineup, including action title Twisters directed by Lee Isaac Chung starring Daisy Edgar-Jones; psychological thriller The Surfer by Lorcan Finnegan starring Nicolas Cage and Il giudice ed il boss, which comes from the director of Placido Rizzotto, Pasquale Scimeca.
The main titles are completed by three rom-coms with the British-Icelandic Touch, directed by filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur and starring Kôki; and two Italian films, L’invenzione di noi due by Corrado Ceron starring Lino Guanciale, Silvia D’Amico and Paolo Rossi; and Finché notte non ci separi by Riccardo Antonaroli starring Pilar Fogliati, Filippo Scicchitano and Valeria Bilello, which closes the festival.
There will be an international premiere of From Ground Zero that presents the “tale of untold stories” signed by 22 young Palestinian filmmakers who have filmed daily life in Gaza. As ever,...
The July fest has unveiled gala lineup, including action title Twisters directed by Lee Isaac Chung starring Daisy Edgar-Jones; psychological thriller The Surfer by Lorcan Finnegan starring Nicolas Cage and Il giudice ed il boss, which comes from the director of Placido Rizzotto, Pasquale Scimeca.
The main titles are completed by three rom-coms with the British-Icelandic Touch, directed by filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur and starring Kôki; and two Italian films, L’invenzione di noi due by Corrado Ceron starring Lino Guanciale, Silvia D’Amico and Paolo Rossi; and Finché notte non ci separi by Riccardo Antonaroli starring Pilar Fogliati, Filippo Scicchitano and Valeria Bilello, which closes the festival.
There will be an international premiere of From Ground Zero that presents the “tale of untold stories” signed by 22 young Palestinian filmmakers who have filmed daily life in Gaza. As ever,...
- 6/28/2024
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
The world premiere of Mitzi Peirone’s horror film “Saint Clare” will open the Taormina Film Festival, this year celebrating its 70th anniversary edition. The adaptation of Don Roff’s novel stars Bella Thorne, Ryan Phillippe, Frank Whaley and Rebecca De Mornay. It’s the first of four world premieres to screen at the outdoor Teatro Antico in the Sicilian town, which looks out towards Mount Etna, an active volcano, to the West.
Lee Isaac Chung’s highly anticipated remake/sequel “Twisters,” distributed by Warner Bros. in Italy, is blowing into town for its local premiere. Starring “Normal People’s” Daisy Edgar Jones and “Hitman” star Glen Powell, the “Minari” director’s film is a reupping of Jan de Bont’s mid-90s classic, with a James Cameron-esque title promising to multiply the mayhem.
Marco Mueller, who has taken over as the festival’s artistic director (see interview), commented...
Lee Isaac Chung’s highly anticipated remake/sequel “Twisters,” distributed by Warner Bros. in Italy, is blowing into town for its local premiere. Starring “Normal People’s” Daisy Edgar Jones and “Hitman” star Glen Powell, the “Minari” director’s film is a reupping of Jan de Bont’s mid-90s classic, with a James Cameron-esque title promising to multiply the mayhem.
Marco Mueller, who has taken over as the festival’s artistic director (see interview), commented...
- 6/28/2024
- by John Bleasdale
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Director Cameron Van Hoy has entered production on The Prince, a new feature drama penned by Pulitzer Prize winner and Oscar nominee David Mamet. Scott Haze (Old Henry) leads a starry ensemble that also includes Nicolas Cage (Pig), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Giancarlo Esposito (Parish) and Andy Garcia (Ocean’s Eleven).
The Prince chronicles an addict’s tumultuous odyssey through the high-stakes world of power, pleasure, and pain on a transformative journey toward recovery.
While unconfirmed, we’re told by multiple sources close to the project that the lead character Parker, played by Haze, is inspired at least in part by Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, whose abuse of drugs and alcohol is well documented — including in his 2021 memoir Beautiful Things — and who was found guilty Tuesday in Delaware of three felony counts related to the purchase of a gun in 2018.
Mamet alluded to his work on...
The Prince chronicles an addict’s tumultuous odyssey through the high-stakes world of power, pleasure, and pain on a transformative journey toward recovery.
While unconfirmed, we’re told by multiple sources close to the project that the lead character Parker, played by Haze, is inspired at least in part by Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, whose abuse of drugs and alcohol is well documented — including in his 2021 memoir Beautiful Things — and who was found guilty Tuesday in Delaware of three felony counts related to the purchase of a gun in 2018.
Mamet alluded to his work on...
- 6/12/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Frontières has announced the full line-up of its 16th co-production market running July 24-27 in Montreal alongside Fantasia International Film Festival.
The selection of projects seeking partners encompasses a broad range of genre. It includes new work from Sophie Mair and Dan Gitsham with UK-set grief horror Ginger; Québecois filmmaker Patrice Laliberté with coming-of-age sci-fi He Who Sows Misery, Reaps Wrath; and Caye Casas’s Spanish dark comedy Sueños Son.
Also from Quebec is Eric Tessier with psychological horror Flots; while Germany’s Till Kleinert brings the supernatural thriller Turn On The Bright Lights; Australian Robyn Grace has pre-apocalyptic, coming-of-age...
The selection of projects seeking partners encompasses a broad range of genre. It includes new work from Sophie Mair and Dan Gitsham with UK-set grief horror Ginger; Québecois filmmaker Patrice Laliberté with coming-of-age sci-fi He Who Sows Misery, Reaps Wrath; and Caye Casas’s Spanish dark comedy Sueños Son.
Also from Quebec is Eric Tessier with psychological horror Flots; while Germany’s Till Kleinert brings the supernatural thriller Turn On The Bright Lights; Australian Robyn Grace has pre-apocalyptic, coming-of-age...
- 6/11/2024
- ScreenDaily
So, is it The Watchers or is it The Watched? In North America it’s the former, in the UK and Ireland it’s the latter, and it’s a testament to the all-over-the-shop plotting of Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut that it doesn’t really make much difference whichever way you look at it. Working from a folk-horror novel by A.M. Shine, Shyamalan takes a simple single-location genre premise — literally, it’s a cabin-in-the-woods story — and somehow creates a thriller that’s both unnecessarily complex and almost entirely uninteresting.
Alarm bells ring when the curtain rises, and a voiceover tells us of the forest that’s not on any map, that draws in lost souls “like a moth to a flame” and is so deadly that “those that wander in never come back out”. To illustrate this, we see a stranded backpacker — whose identity we learn later — running...
Alarm bells ring when the curtain rises, and a voiceover tells us of the forest that’s not on any map, that draws in lost souls “like a moth to a flame” and is so deadly that “those that wander in never come back out”. To illustrate this, we see a stranded backpacker — whose identity we learn later — running...
- 6/7/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
In The Surfer, an exploitation film set to pressure-cook, a mild-mannered man is pitted against a group who even Andrew Tate might find a touch extreme. It’s set in South Australia on fictional Luna Bay, the kind of place where if the heat doesn’t get you, something else probably will. The water shines turquoise-blue but the beaches look like scorched earth. Into this furnace arrives an unnamed man (Nicolas Cage) hoping for nothing more than to view a cliffside property and catch a wave, but the locals have other ideas: “Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” one says, offering about as much hospitality as a switchblade.
The director of this entertaining potboiler is Lorcan Finnegan, an Irish filmmaker who seems acutely aware of the hand he’s holding here: one of the very best things about The Surfer is how alive it is to Cage’s image,...
The director of this entertaining potboiler is Lorcan Finnegan, an Irish filmmaker who seems acutely aware of the hand he’s holding here: one of the very best things about The Surfer is how alive it is to Cage’s image,...
- 5/23/2024
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
French film finance, production and distribution group Logical Pictures is out in force in Cannes this year with connections to 11 films, including Competition titles Emilia Perez, Limonov and Parthenope.
The company helped bankroll the Palme d’Or contenders through its three-year co-production and co-financing deal with French major Pathé, which was announced in early 2023 and involves its Logical Content Ventures fund.
Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patellière’s The Count of Monte Cristo, which world premieres Out of Competition later this week, was also partly financed under the deal.
Logical Pictures President Frédéric Fiore and COO Yannick Bossenmeyer co-founded Logical Pictures in 2016 with a focus on film finance as well as digital innovation around blockchain and rights management.
Early investments included Coralie Fargeat’s first feature Revenge, Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure as well as Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s The Deep House.
Less than a decade later, the...
The company helped bankroll the Palme d’Or contenders through its three-year co-production and co-financing deal with French major Pathé, which was announced in early 2023 and involves its Logical Content Ventures fund.
Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patellière’s The Count of Monte Cristo, which world premieres Out of Competition later this week, was also partly financed under the deal.
Logical Pictures President Frédéric Fiore and COO Yannick Bossenmeyer co-founded Logical Pictures in 2016 with a focus on film finance as well as digital innovation around blockchain and rights management.
Early investments included Coralie Fargeat’s first feature Revenge, Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure as well as Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s The Deep House.
Less than a decade later, the...
- 5/20/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
"Everybody's gone surfin'..." Except for you and you! One of the highlights within the 2024 Cannes Film Festival line-up is the Out of Competition presentation of The Surfer starring the legendary Nicolas Cage. It's the fourth feature film from Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan, who also made his mark back at Cannes 2019 with the sci-fi flick Vivarium (here's my review of that one). He's back once again in Cannes with another entertaining contained, minimal (though maximal on the craziness), one-location story titled The Surfer, about a dude who starts a fight with the local surf bros who stop him from catching some waves on a secluded Australian beach. I had a fantastic time with this film! It's funny and absurd, but also clever and astute, commenting on way more than just the bro culture of surfers. In fact, I was intrigued to discover by the end that it's not actually about surfing culture or beaches,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Nicolas Cage plays the title character of “The Surfer,” but it’s not until the film’s final minute that he climbs onto a surfboard. The movie, while set on a muscle beach in Australia, isn’t about surfing. It’s about male anxiety, male power, male midlife crisis, male rituals of pain and dominance, and how much theater Nicolas Cage can wring out of all of that. “The Surfer” premiered last night at a Cannes midnight show, and that’s smart programming, because it really is a midnight movie — the kind of trippy slapdash comic nightmare where the only way to watch it is to sit back and “go with it.”
Cage makes that easy to do. The film has been designed as a bad-trip psychodrama that’s also a high-camp Nicolas Cage freak-out. I only wish that “The Surfer,” as directed by Lorcan Finnegan and written by Thomas Martin,...
Cage makes that easy to do. The film has been designed as a bad-trip psychodrama that’s also a high-camp Nicolas Cage freak-out. I only wish that “The Surfer,” as directed by Lorcan Finnegan and written by Thomas Martin,...
- 5/18/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
There’s no point in hiring Nicolas Cage if you’re not going to let him rip with a wackadoodle, Ott performance, and he duly delivers in the sly psychological thriller The Surfer. Calibrating his character’s descent into mental and physical disarray so that it happens by evenly distributed degrees, Cage is in only moderately demented form overall here. That suits director Lorcan Finnegan (Without Name, Vivarium) and screenwriter Thomas Martin’s ambitions to call back to and yet also spoof vintage Australian New Wave films like Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout (1971), dreamtime stories about alienated outsiders.
Toxic masculinity, the Big Bad de nos jours, also seems to be on their mind although the performances and cinematic quirks (zooms, jump cuts, all that jazz) are so hammy and gestural there’s nothing subtle about the critique. But that’s what makes it fun.
Unfolding largely on a beach and its...
Toxic masculinity, the Big Bad de nos jours, also seems to be on their mind although the performances and cinematic quirks (zooms, jump cuts, all that jazz) are so hammy and gestural there’s nothing subtle about the critique. But that’s what makes it fun.
Unfolding largely on a beach and its...
- 5/18/2024
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Goodfellas has acquired world sales rights for Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa’s Tokyo-set drama Renoir ahead of the project’s presentation in the Investors Circle event at the Cannes Marché du Film on Sunday.
The film is Hayakawa’s second film after dystopian euthanasia drama Plan 75, which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2022, garnering a Special Mention in the Caméra d’Or contest for best first film.
The drama went on to play in more than 30 film festivals and was selected as Japan’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards.
Renoir is set in suburban Tokyo in 1987 and revolves around 11-year-old Fuki, whose father is battling cancer, and is in and out of hospital.
With her mother stretched between caring for him and holding down a full-time job, Fuki is left to her own devices. Turning to her rich imagination, she becomes...
The film is Hayakawa’s second film after dystopian euthanasia drama Plan 75, which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2022, garnering a Special Mention in the Caméra d’Or contest for best first film.
The drama went on to play in more than 30 film festivals and was selected as Japan’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards.
Renoir is set in suburban Tokyo in 1987 and revolves around 11-year-old Fuki, whose father is battling cancer, and is in and out of hospital.
With her mother stretched between caring for him and holding down a full-time job, Fuki is left to her own devices. Turning to her rich imagination, she becomes...
- 5/18/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Irish director Lorcan Finnegan – already behind “Vivarium” – returns to Cannes with “The Surfer.” Starring Nicolas Cage, it follows a man who just wants to surf on a beach next to his old childhood home in Australia. But he is not a local anymore and he will have to fight for it – or lose his mind.
Nic’s character actually references “surfing as a metaphor for life.” Why did you want to explore – and maybe also mock – this philosophy?
I met Thomas Martin, who wrote the film, years ago. We wanted to do something together and then he mentioned “The Surfer.” It was about this one man, trying to deal with who he thinks he is and what he actually wants over the course of five days. It felt very contained, challenging and appealing to me as a filmmaker.
At the beginning of the film, The Surfer says: “You either surf,...
Nic’s character actually references “surfing as a metaphor for life.” Why did you want to explore – and maybe also mock – this philosophy?
I met Thomas Martin, who wrote the film, years ago. We wanted to do something together and then he mentioned “The Surfer.” It was about this one man, trying to deal with who he thinks he is and what he actually wants over the course of five days. It felt very contained, challenging and appealing to me as a filmmaker.
At the beginning of the film, The Surfer says: “You either surf,...
- 5/18/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Nicolas Cage soaked up the applause as his new trippy psychological thriller “The Surfer” scored a six-minute standing ovation at a Cannes Film Festival midnight screening on Friday night.
Cage appeared to be having a ball, beaming from ear to ear and waving across the room as cheers erupted around the Palais for the film, a wild, mind-bending adventure that sees the fan favorite hit the sort of deranged peaks not witnessed on screen since “Mandy.” At one point he took the mic to ask how to say “eat the rat” in French — a line from the film (and likely to become a meme) — roaring “mangez le rat!” to the delight of the crowd.
Cage also used the opportunity while on the mic and standing next to Thierry Fremaux to claim that, back in 2021, he’d phoned the Cannes director to ask if his drama “Pig” could premiere in at the festival.
Cage appeared to be having a ball, beaming from ear to ear and waving across the room as cheers erupted around the Palais for the film, a wild, mind-bending adventure that sees the fan favorite hit the sort of deranged peaks not witnessed on screen since “Mandy.” At one point he took the mic to ask how to say “eat the rat” in French — a line from the film (and likely to become a meme) — roaring “mangez le rat!” to the delight of the crowd.
Cage also used the opportunity while on the mic and standing next to Thierry Fremaux to claim that, back in 2021, he’d phoned the Cannes director to ask if his drama “Pig” could premiere in at the festival.
- 5/18/2024
- by Alex Ritman and Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
An office drone must suffer the machismo of an Australian coastal town in this barmy, low-budget thriller about a would-be wave-chaser
Here is a gloriously demented B-movie thriller about a middle-aged man who wants to ride a big wave and the grinning local bullies who regard the beach as home soil. “Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” they shout at any luckless tourist who dares to visit picturesque Lunar Bay on Australia’s south-western coast, where the land is heavy with heat and colour. Tempers are fraying; it’s a hundred degrees in the shade. The picture crash-lands at the Cannes film festival like a wild-eyed, brawling drunk.
The middle-aged man is unnamed, so let’s call him Nic Cage. Lorcan Finnegan’s film, after all, is as much about Cage – his image, his career history, his acting pyrotechnics – as it is about surfing or the illusory concept of home.
Here is a gloriously demented B-movie thriller about a middle-aged man who wants to ride a big wave and the grinning local bullies who regard the beach as home soil. “Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” they shout at any luckless tourist who dares to visit picturesque Lunar Bay on Australia’s south-western coast, where the land is heavy with heat and colour. Tempers are fraying; it’s a hundred degrees in the shade. The picture crash-lands at the Cannes film festival like a wild-eyed, brawling drunk.
The middle-aged man is unnamed, so let’s call him Nic Cage. Lorcan Finnegan’s film, after all, is as much about Cage – his image, his career history, his acting pyrotechnics – as it is about surfing or the illusory concept of home.
- 5/18/2024
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
For some years now, Nicolas Cage has been a genre unto himself: desperate, deranged, deliciously cheesy, with that special mastery of dialogue that moves seamlessly from a panting whisper to a bellow and back again. Put Cage’s name above the title and your film has an immediate brand that not only rides over script glitches but does a full Fast and Furious speed-jump over the top of any yawning gaps in probability.
Nic Cage as a surfer dude? Unlikely, but who cares? Nic Cage as an Australian? “I thought you were American,” says someone he meets on the beach in The Surfer. So did we all, my friend. So, he moved to California in his teens and now he’s back, intent on buying back the house where he grew up, which is why he sounds straight outta Noo York? No one would swallow that one, but whatever!
The...
Nic Cage as a surfer dude? Unlikely, but who cares? Nic Cage as an Australian? “I thought you were American,” says someone he meets on the beach in The Surfer. So did we all, my friend. So, he moved to California in his teens and now he’s back, intent on buying back the house where he grew up, which is why he sounds straight outta Noo York? No one would swallow that one, but whatever!
The...
- 5/17/2024
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
Ireland’s screen industry is having a moment. With the Cannes Film Festival well underway, there’s a notable strong Irish presence in this year’s line-up including Element Pictures’ three entrants – Competition title Kinds of Kindness from Yorgos Lanthimos, Rungano Nyoni’s sophomore feature On Becoming A Guinea Fowl and Ariane Labed’s directorial debut September Says (both in Un Certain Regard). There’s also Competition title The Apprentice, which is co-produced with Irish outfit Tailored Films and Lorcan Finnegan’s Nicolas Cage starrer The Surfer premiering in the Midnight Screenings strand. Even Andrea Arnold’s Competition title Bird is rich with Irish talent with star Barry Keoghan and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan both having worked on the film.
Irish actors continue to earn international acclaim – from Cillian Murphy’s Oscar win earlier this year for Best Actor in Oppenheimer and talent such as Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley Keoghan...
Irish actors continue to earn international acclaim – from Cillian Murphy’s Oscar win earlier this year for Best Actor in Oppenheimer and talent such as Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley Keoghan...
- 5/17/2024
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
Oscar winner Nicolas Cage is currently all over the news, for getting tangled in the Marvel web as Spider-Man. But that’s not all. Right after media outlets reported Cage’s involvement in the upcoming MGM+ and Prime Video live-action series Noir, the actor’s upcoming psychological thriller The Surfer released its first clip.
Nicolas Cage in his upcoming movie The Surfer (2024)
Set to release in May 2024, Nicolas Cage’s psychological thriller first made headlines in 2023, after THR exclusively reported The Surfer’s sale at Cannes. From Vivarium director Lorcan Finnegan, the movie thereafter dropped its first trailer right when People magazine announced Cage’s involvement in Marvel as an older version of the web-slinger.
Nicolas Cage’s Psychological Thriller The Surfer Dropped its First Clip
As per THR, Nicolas Cage started preparing to ride some waves for the first time on screen, after being cast to lead director Lorcan...
Nicolas Cage in his upcoming movie The Surfer (2024)
Set to release in May 2024, Nicolas Cage’s psychological thriller first made headlines in 2023, after THR exclusively reported The Surfer’s sale at Cannes. From Vivarium director Lorcan Finnegan, the movie thereafter dropped its first trailer right when People magazine announced Cage’s involvement in Marvel as an older version of the web-slinger.
Nicolas Cage’s Psychological Thriller The Surfer Dropped its First Clip
As per THR, Nicolas Cage started preparing to ride some waves for the first time on screen, after being cast to lead director Lorcan...
- 5/15/2024
- by Krittika Mukherjee
- FandomWire
The new projects from two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund (The Triangle of Sadness, The Square); Irish director Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium and upcoming Nicolas Cage thriller The Surfer); and Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska, director of Letitia Wright/Tamara Lawrance-starrer The Silent Twins, will be pitching to potential backers at this year’s Cannes Investors Circle, an event organized by the Cannes film market that aims to bring together top art-house talent with producers and financiers.
The 2024 Cannes Investors Circle event, held on May 19 at the Plage des Palmes, will showcase 10 never-before-seen films in various stages of development to an exclusive group of investors and film financing experts. The projects range in budget from €1 million ($1.07 million) to more than €20 million ($21.4 million) and have been specifically curated by the market.
“The aim of the Marché du Film with the Cannes Investors Circle is to support artistically and financially
ambitious film projects,...
The 2024 Cannes Investors Circle event, held on May 19 at the Plage des Palmes, will showcase 10 never-before-seen films in various stages of development to an exclusive group of investors and film financing experts. The projects range in budget from €1 million ($1.07 million) to more than €20 million ($21.4 million) and have been specifically curated by the market.
“The aim of the Marché du Film with the Cannes Investors Circle is to support artistically and financially
ambitious film projects,...
- 4/30/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Palme d’Or winning director Ruben Östlund is among 10 directors selected to present their upcoming feature film projects at the second edition of the Cannes Marché du Film’s Investors Circle initiative.
The one-day event, taking place on May 19, is aimed at connecting elevated, international feature film projects with film financiers and high-net worth individuals with a desire to invest in cinema.
Östlund, who won the Palme d’Or for The Square and Triangle of Sadness, which was also nominated for three Oscars, will attend the event in person.
The Marché du Film did not give details of the projects being showcased, but it is likely the director will be talking about upcoming airplane disaster movie The Entertainment System is Down, which he told Deadline last year he hopes to shoot in early 2025.
Other filmmakers due in Cannes for the event include Japan’s Chie Hayakawa, whose feature film debut...
The one-day event, taking place on May 19, is aimed at connecting elevated, international feature film projects with film financiers and high-net worth individuals with a desire to invest in cinema.
Östlund, who won the Palme d’Or for The Square and Triangle of Sadness, which was also nominated for three Oscars, will attend the event in person.
The Marché du Film did not give details of the projects being showcased, but it is likely the director will be talking about upcoming airplane disaster movie The Entertainment System is Down, which he told Deadline last year he hopes to shoot in early 2025.
Other filmmakers due in Cannes for the event include Japan’s Chie Hayakawa, whose feature film debut...
- 4/30/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The second edition of the Cannes Market’s Investors Circle will see 10 filmmakers, including Ruben Östlund and Nadav Lapid, present their latest projects to private investors.
The directors and their lead producers will pitch their films, which range from €1-20m in budget, on May 19 at an invitation-only event in the Plage des Palmes.
Alongside Östlund and Lapid is Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa, whose debut Plan 75 received a Camera d’Or special mention in 2022. Other directors include Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan, who is already at the festival for Midnight Screenings title The Surfer, and Italian director Laura Samani who...
The directors and their lead producers will pitch their films, which range from €1-20m in budget, on May 19 at an invitation-only event in the Plage des Palmes.
Alongside Östlund and Lapid is Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa, whose debut Plan 75 received a Camera d’Or special mention in 2022. Other directors include Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan, who is already at the festival for Midnight Screenings title The Surfer, and Italian director Laura Samani who...
- 4/30/2024
- ScreenDaily
Updated: The Cannes Film Festival will have an admirable UK and Irish presence in 2024, including three films from Dublin, London and Belfast-based production company Element Pictures, Andrea Arnold’s Bird in Competition and features from fresh talents Sandhya Suri and Rungano Nyoni, as well as Sister Midnight in Directors’ Fortnight.
Competition is still proving a tricky spot to land for UK or Irish directors. In 2022, none made the cut, while in 2023, UK filmmakers Ken Loach and Jonathan Glazer made it through with The Old Oak and The Zone Of Interest respectively.
This year, Arnold is flying the flag with her...
Competition is still proving a tricky spot to land for UK or Irish directors. In 2022, none made the cut, while in 2023, UK filmmakers Ken Loach and Jonathan Glazer made it through with The Old Oak and The Zone Of Interest respectively.
This year, Arnold is flying the flag with her...
- 4/17/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Cannes Premiere section stocked up on films from France with Alain Guiraudie’s Misericorde among the mix, the Out of Competition section added a Canuck oddity from Winnipeger Guy Maddin and co., the Midnight Section Screenings landed Nicolas Cage starring The Surfer by Lorcan Finnegan and Sergei Loznitsa once again drops a docu film on the Croisette with an item in the Special Screenings section. Here are nineteen titles that dropped this morning:
Cannes Premiere
“C’est Pas Moi,” Leos Carax
“En Fanfare” (“The Matching Bang”), Emmanuel Courcol
“Everybody Loves Touda,” Nabil Ayouch
“Le Roman de Jim,” Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu
“Misericorde,” Alain Guiraudie
“Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot,” Rithy Panh
Out Of Competition
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” George Miller
“Horizon, an American Saga,” Kevin Costner
“Rumours,” Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin
“She’s Got No Name,” Chan Peter Ho-Sun
Midnight Screenings
“I, the Executioner,” Seung Wan Ryoo
“The Balconettes...
Cannes Premiere
“C’est Pas Moi,” Leos Carax
“En Fanfare” (“The Matching Bang”), Emmanuel Courcol
“Everybody Loves Touda,” Nabil Ayouch
“Le Roman de Jim,” Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu
“Misericorde,” Alain Guiraudie
“Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot,” Rithy Panh
Out Of Competition
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” George Miller
“Horizon, an American Saga,” Kevin Costner
“Rumours,” Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin
“She’s Got No Name,” Chan Peter Ho-Sun
Midnight Screenings
“I, the Executioner,” Seung Wan Ryoo
“The Balconettes...
- 4/12/2024
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
As expected, the Cannes Film Festival line-up is pretty spectacular with new films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold and David Cronenberg heading to the fest.
As the days are getting longer and there’s a tiny bit more sunshine in between the showers of rain, that can only mean one thing. The Cannes Film Festival is almost upon us.
Of course, us peasants rarely get to go, but it is fun to read the reactions from the glitzy world premieres as the stars gather in the picturesque town of Cannes.
And this year’s festival line-up is a doozy. We already knew George Miller was heading to the Croisette with Furiosa, Francis Ford Coppola is bringing Megalopolis and Kevin Costner will be premiering his new film, too, but there’s a whole heap of great filmmakers heading out to the beach with their films.
The highlights include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds Of Kindness,...
As the days are getting longer and there’s a tiny bit more sunshine in between the showers of rain, that can only mean one thing. The Cannes Film Festival is almost upon us.
Of course, us peasants rarely get to go, but it is fun to read the reactions from the glitzy world premieres as the stars gather in the picturesque town of Cannes.
And this year’s festival line-up is a doozy. We already knew George Miller was heading to the Croisette with Furiosa, Francis Ford Coppola is bringing Megalopolis and Kevin Costner will be premiering his new film, too, but there’s a whole heap of great filmmakers heading out to the beach with their films.
The highlights include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds Of Kindness,...
- 4/11/2024
- by Maria Lattila
- Film Stories
Descubre las películas que estarán en Cannes 2024: una lista completa de todas las secciones.
Esta mañana, Thierry Frémaux ha anunciado la programación oficial de la 77ª edición del Festival de Cannes. La pasada edición del festival fue testigo de los estrenos mundiales de las aclamadas películas “Anatomía de una Caída”, “Killers of the Flower Moon” y “The Zone of Interest”. Unas películas que posteriormente fueron nominadas al Oscar a la mejor película, de modo que este año el listón está muy alto.
Desde su primera edición en 1946, el Festival de Cannes se ha consolidado como uno de los acontecimientos cinematográficos más importantes de la industria del cine y la edición de este año ofrece una gran variedad de películas de todo el mundo; desde directores consagrados hasta nuevas voces de la industria. Aunque, por desgracia, España no tendrá representación en el festival este año.
La presidenta del jurado de...
Esta mañana, Thierry Frémaux ha anunciado la programación oficial de la 77ª edición del Festival de Cannes. La pasada edición del festival fue testigo de los estrenos mundiales de las aclamadas películas “Anatomía de una Caída”, “Killers of the Flower Moon” y “The Zone of Interest”. Unas películas que posteriormente fueron nominadas al Oscar a la mejor película, de modo que este año el listón está muy alto.
Desde su primera edición en 1946, el Festival de Cannes se ha consolidado como uno de los acontecimientos cinematográficos más importantes de la industria del cine y la edición de este año ofrece una gran variedad de películas de todo el mundo; desde directores consagrados hasta nuevas voces de la industria. Aunque, por desgracia, España no tendrá representación en el festival este año.
La presidenta del jurado de...
- 4/11/2024
- by Marta Medina
- mundoCine
The Official Selection for the 77th Cannes Film Festival was revealed Thursday, with 19 movies in Competition (see full lists below).
Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Ali Abbasi, who brings The Apprentice, a feature pic about the early life of Donald Trump. Andrea Arnold returns with Bird, starring Barry Keoghan, and Jacques Audiard’s latest, Emilia Perez, a musical with Selena Gomez will also debut in competition.
Elsewhere, American filmmaker Sean Baker brings Anora to the Croisette. Poor Things filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos will launch Kinds of Kindness, his latest collab with Emma Stone. David Cronenberg returns with The Shrouds, and Paul Schrader will debut Oh Canada starring Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman and Richard Gere.
Related: ‘The Apprentice’: First Look At Sebastian Stan As Donald Trump & Jeremy Strong As Roy Cohn In Cannes Competition Film
There’s a strong English-language and American presence in the...
Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Ali Abbasi, who brings The Apprentice, a feature pic about the early life of Donald Trump. Andrea Arnold returns with Bird, starring Barry Keoghan, and Jacques Audiard’s latest, Emilia Perez, a musical with Selena Gomez will also debut in competition.
Elsewhere, American filmmaker Sean Baker brings Anora to the Croisette. Poor Things filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos will launch Kinds of Kindness, his latest collab with Emma Stone. David Cronenberg returns with The Shrouds, and Paul Schrader will debut Oh Canada starring Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman and Richard Gere.
Related: ‘The Apprentice’: First Look At Sebastian Stan As Donald Trump & Jeremy Strong As Roy Cohn In Cannes Competition Film
There’s a strong English-language and American presence in the...
- 4/11/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Ahead of a festival kicking off in just about a month, Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, have unveiled the selection of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
Led by the previously announced major highlight, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, the competition lineup features the latest films from Jia Zhangke, David Cronenberg, Paul Schrader, Andrea Arnold, Sean Baker, Miguel Gomes, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jacques Audiard, Ali Abbasi, Payal Kapadia, and more.
Other sections include the previously new films from George Miller and Kevin Costner, alongside Leos Carax’s personal short C’est Pas Moi, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson’s Rumors, Alain Guiraudie’s Miséricorde, and more.
Check out the lineup below.
Competition
All We Imagine As Light – Payal Kapadia
L’amour Ouf – Gilles Lellouche
Anora – Sean Baker
The Apprentice – Ali Abbasi
Bird – Andrea Arnold
Caught by the Tides – Jia Zhang-ke...
Led by the previously announced major highlight, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, the competition lineup features the latest films from Jia Zhangke, David Cronenberg, Paul Schrader, Andrea Arnold, Sean Baker, Miguel Gomes, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jacques Audiard, Ali Abbasi, Payal Kapadia, and more.
Other sections include the previously new films from George Miller and Kevin Costner, alongside Leos Carax’s personal short C’est Pas Moi, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson’s Rumors, Alain Guiraudie’s Miséricorde, and more.
Check out the lineup below.
Competition
All We Imagine As Light – Payal Kapadia
L’amour Ouf – Gilles Lellouche
Anora – Sean Baker
The Apprentice – Ali Abbasi
Bird – Andrea Arnold
Caught by the Tides – Jia Zhang-ke...
- 4/11/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump drama The Apprentice, Anora, the latest from The Florida Project and Red Rocket director Sean Baker, and Andrea Arnold’s Bird, starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, are among the highlights of this year’s Cannes Film Festival competition.
Abbasi, the Iran-born, Sweden-based director, whose Holy Spider was a sensation of the 2022 Cannes festival, returns with his story of how a young Donald Trump and the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn built up Trump’s real estate business in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, Succession‘s Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) is wife Ivana.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness will also premiere in the Cannes competition. The film, featuring the Oscar-winning Poor Things star Emma Stone, will be high on every Cannes attendee’s must-see list. The Greek auteur has again...
Abbasi, the Iran-born, Sweden-based director, whose Holy Spider was a sensation of the 2022 Cannes festival, returns with his story of how a young Donald Trump and the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn built up Trump’s real estate business in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, Succession‘s Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) is wife Ivana.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness will also premiere in the Cannes competition. The film, featuring the Oscar-winning Poor Things star Emma Stone, will be high on every Cannes attendee’s must-see list. The Greek auteur has again...
- 4/11/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In what looks to be another robust year in the making, the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will bring together several iconic filmmakers, including Francis Ford Coppola with “Megalopolis” starring Adam Driver, George Miller with “Furiosa” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, as well as George Lucas who will be feted with an honorary Palme d’Or. Kevin Costner will also be on hand with the first installment of his Western epic “Horizon, an American Saga.”
Some of the high-profile films in the pipeline for this year’s competition include Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” a stylized three-part story set in the present that reunites the “Poor Things” helmer with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe; Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” with Richard Gere, based on a novel by the late Russell Banks (“Affliction”); Jacques Audiard’s musical melodrama “Emilia Perez” starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez; Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” with...
Some of the high-profile films in the pipeline for this year’s competition include Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” a stylized three-part story set in the present that reunites the “Poor Things” helmer with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe; Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” with Richard Gere, based on a novel by the late Russell Banks (“Affliction”); Jacques Audiard’s musical melodrama “Emilia Perez” starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez; Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” with...
- 4/11/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy, Ellise Shafer, Alex Ritman and Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 77th edition (May 14-25)
The competition includes films by Andrea Arnold, David Cronenberg, Yórgos Lánthimos, Paul Schrader and Paolo Sorrentino.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux revealed the Official Selection at a press conference at the Ugc Normandie theatre in Paris alongside festival president Iris Knobloch.
Previously announced titles include Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act, which will open the festival on May 14 out of competition, George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Kevin Costner’s Horizon, An American Saga and Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis.
Barbie director Greta Gerwig will preside over the jury.
The competition includes films by Andrea Arnold, David Cronenberg, Yórgos Lánthimos, Paul Schrader and Paolo Sorrentino.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux revealed the Official Selection at a press conference at the Ugc Normandie theatre in Paris alongside festival president Iris Knobloch.
Previously announced titles include Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act, which will open the festival on May 14 out of competition, George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Kevin Costner’s Horizon, An American Saga and Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis.
Barbie director Greta Gerwig will preside over the jury.
- 4/11/2024
- ScreenDaily
European Film Promotion has announced the 10 up-and-coming European acting talents for its 2024 European Shooting Stars list.
The actors, which include performers from this year’s award-season contenders Poor Things, Ferrari, and The Peasants, among others, will be lauded at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, next year.
The Shooting Stars class of 2024 includes:
Suzy Bemba (France) Suzy Bemba in ‘Homecoming’
French actress Suzy Bemba, who plays a Parisian sex worker who befriends Emma Stone’s character in Poor Things, and whose credits include standout roles in Anthony Chen’s Sundance film Drift and Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming.
Valentina Bellè (Italy) Valentina Bellè in ‘The Good Mothers’
Valentina Bellè from Italy, who plays Cecilia Manzini in Michael Mann’s Ferarri, won Italy’s Nastro D’Argento award for best supporting actress for her turn in Disney+ mafia drama The Good Mothers and has appeared in Disney+ series Genius: Picasso with...
The actors, which include performers from this year’s award-season contenders Poor Things, Ferrari, and The Peasants, among others, will be lauded at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, next year.
The Shooting Stars class of 2024 includes:
Suzy Bemba (France) Suzy Bemba in ‘Homecoming’
French actress Suzy Bemba, who plays a Parisian sex worker who befriends Emma Stone’s character in Poor Things, and whose credits include standout roles in Anthony Chen’s Sundance film Drift and Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming.
Valentina Bellè (Italy) Valentina Bellè in ‘The Good Mothers’
Valentina Bellè from Italy, who plays Cecilia Manzini in Michael Mann’s Ferarri, won Italy’s Nastro D’Argento award for best supporting actress for her turn in Disney+ mafia drama The Good Mothers and has appeared in Disney+ series Genius: Picasso with...
- 12/14/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Production in Western Australia has wrapped on psychological thriller “The Surfer,” starring Nicolas Cage. Producers have released a first-look image of a tousled and confused-looking Cage inside a car that his character may have slept in.
When a man returns to Australia to buy back his family home after many years in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a group of local surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, he defies them and remains at the beach, demanding acceptance. As the conflict escalates he is brought to the edge of his sanity and his identity is thrown into question.
The film is directed by Lorcan Finnegan (“Vivarium”) and written by Thomas Martin, with production taking place entirely a single location in Yallingup in Western Australia.
Joining Cage is an Australian ensemble cast including Julian McMahon (“Nip/Tuck”), Nicholas Cassim...
When a man returns to Australia to buy back his family home after many years in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a group of local surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, he defies them and remains at the beach, demanding acceptance. As the conflict escalates he is brought to the edge of his sanity and his identity is thrown into question.
The film is directed by Lorcan Finnegan (“Vivarium”) and written by Thomas Martin, with production taking place entirely a single location in Yallingup in Western Australia.
Joining Cage is an Australian ensemble cast including Julian McMahon (“Nip/Tuck”), Nicholas Cassim...
- 12/13/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The Surfer has just wrapped filming in Australia – and it sounds like a very Cage-ean enterprise. More below…
Put yourself in director Lorcan Finnegan’s shoes for a second. You’ve got the premise for a hit new movie: an Australian man has spent many years building a family in the US until, in what sounds like a bit of a midlife crisis, he decides to buy back his old house down under.
He has fond memories in particular of a certain secluded beach. As a child he spent many happy days there – but in the present day, it’s been taken over by those vagabond enemies of public order: surfer dudes. Claiming ownership over the beach, the man is humiliated in front of his teenage son. Pride shattered, his life falling apart, he stands on the beach, defiant in the face of sunburn and salty-stiff hair, demanding acceptance by...
Put yourself in director Lorcan Finnegan’s shoes for a second. You’ve got the premise for a hit new movie: an Australian man has spent many years building a family in the US until, in what sounds like a bit of a midlife crisis, he decides to buy back his old house down under.
He has fond memories in particular of a certain secluded beach. As a child he spent many happy days there – but in the present day, it’s been taken over by those vagabond enemies of public order: surfer dudes. Claiming ownership over the beach, the man is humiliated in front of his teenage son. Pride shattered, his life falling apart, he stands on the beach, defiant in the face of sunburn and salty-stiff hair, demanding acceptance by...
- 12/12/2023
- by James Harvey
- Film Stories
Nicolas Cage is ready to show audiences he’s no Barney when it comes to joining the Dawn patrol for some heavy waves in The Surfer, a psychological thriller from Vivarium director Lorcan Finnegan. The project recently wrapped production in Western Australia, with Cage taking the lead as “a man who returns to Australia to buy back his family home after many years in the U.S. but is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a group of local surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, he defies them and remains at the beach, demanding acceptance. As the conflict escalates, he is brought to the edge of his sanity, and his identity is thrown into question.” (via Deadline)
Today’s image for The Surfer depicts Cage with a look of bewilderment as he stares at a bullet. With a wound across his forehead and wrinkled clothing,...
Today’s image for The Surfer depicts Cage with a look of bewilderment as he stares at a bullet. With a wound across his forehead and wrinkled clothing,...
- 12/11/2023
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Exclusive: Here’s your first look at Nicolas Cage in psychological thriller The Surfer, which has recently wrapped shoot in Western Australia.
Oscar winner Cage will play a man who returns to Australia to buy back his family home after many years in the U.S. but is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a group of local surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, he defies them and remains at the beach, demanding acceptance. As the conflict escalates he is brought to the edge of his sanity and his identity is thrown into question.
Directed by Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium) and written by Thomas Martin, the feature film was shot in a single location in Yallingup in Western Australia.
Joining Cage in the ensemble cast are Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck), Nicholas Cassim (Mr Inbetween), Miranda Tapsell (The Dry), Alexander Bertrand (Australian Gangster), Justin Rosniak...
Oscar winner Cage will play a man who returns to Australia to buy back his family home after many years in the U.S. but is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a group of local surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, he defies them and remains at the beach, demanding acceptance. As the conflict escalates he is brought to the edge of his sanity and his identity is thrown into question.
Directed by Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium) and written by Thomas Martin, the feature film was shot in a single location in Yallingup in Western Australia.
Joining Cage in the ensemble cast are Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck), Nicholas Cassim (Mr Inbetween), Miranda Tapsell (The Dry), Alexander Bertrand (Australian Gangster), Justin Rosniak...
- 12/11/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Nicolas Cage is hitting the beach to film scenes for his new movie.
The 59-year-old actor was all bloodied and bruised as he filmed a fight scene for The Surfer on Saturday (November 11) in Yallingup, Western Australia.
Photos: Check out the latest pics of Nicolas Cage
Nicolas was seen running across the beach with a giant side, which he hit his co-star with over the head.
A few weeks ago, Nicolas was spotted filming a few scenes for the movie on a highway.
The Surfer will be directed by Lorcan Finnegan, however, plot details are being kept under wraps.
Nicolas‘ next movie, Dream Scenario hits theaters later this month, and you can watch the trailer here!
If you haven’t seen already, check out what Nicolas had to say about his recent cameo in The Flash.
The 59-year-old actor was all bloodied and bruised as he filmed a fight scene for The Surfer on Saturday (November 11) in Yallingup, Western Australia.
Photos: Check out the latest pics of Nicolas Cage
Nicolas was seen running across the beach with a giant side, which he hit his co-star with over the head.
A few weeks ago, Nicolas was spotted filming a few scenes for the movie on a highway.
The Surfer will be directed by Lorcan Finnegan, however, plot details are being kept under wraps.
Nicolas‘ next movie, Dream Scenario hits theaters later this month, and you can watch the trailer here!
If you haven’t seen already, check out what Nicolas had to say about his recent cameo in The Flash.
- 11/11/2023
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
Things are getting rough down under for Nicolas Cage as he shoots his new movie!
The 59-year-old actor spent a day on set of his upcoming thriller The Surfer on Thursday (October 19) in Yallingup, Western Australia. For part of the time, Nicolas‘ face was covered in fake blood, as crew members helped to touch up the artificial damage.
The National Treasure star also wore an all-black outfit on set.
The Surfer will be directed by Lorcan Finnegan. The remainder of the film’s cast has been kept under wraps for now.
Nicolas‘ next movie, Dream Scenario, releases in November, and you can watch the trailer here!
Additionally, Nicolas recently addressed how being turned into a meme inspired his new role!
Browse through the gallery for 30+ photos of Nicolas Cage on the set of The Surfer in Australia…...
The 59-year-old actor spent a day on set of his upcoming thriller The Surfer on Thursday (October 19) in Yallingup, Western Australia. For part of the time, Nicolas‘ face was covered in fake blood, as crew members helped to touch up the artificial damage.
The National Treasure star also wore an all-black outfit on set.
The Surfer will be directed by Lorcan Finnegan. The remainder of the film’s cast has been kept under wraps for now.
Nicolas‘ next movie, Dream Scenario, releases in November, and you can watch the trailer here!
Additionally, Nicolas recently addressed how being turned into a meme inspired his new role!
Browse through the gallery for 30+ photos of Nicolas Cage on the set of The Surfer in Australia…...
- 10/19/2023
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
The mystical and the industrial cross paths in this haunting debut from India, screening at this year’s Locarno Film Festival in the event’s parallel competition for first and second movies. It begins in an almost documentary style, showing the harsh, eerie beauty of Jharia, a once-proud mining community that’s now an apocalyptic ruin of a city, where toxic waste is dumped 24/7 and noxious fires burn just as endlessly. Midway through, however, Lubdhak Chatterjee’s film begins to change direction, as its passive hero becomes attuned to the natural mysteries lurking in the adjacent woods.
The set-up is a clear-cut juxtaposition of ancient and modern, as sound artist Shiva (Sagnik Mukherjee) arrives in Jharia with a boom mic and recording apparatus to find material for use in an art installation back home in Kolkata. At first these are simply ambient sounds, like kids playing football or, more ominously,...
The set-up is a clear-cut juxtaposition of ancient and modern, as sound artist Shiva (Sagnik Mukherjee) arrives in Jharia with a boom mic and recording apparatus to find material for use in an art installation back home in Kolkata. At first these are simply ambient sounds, like kids playing football or, more ominously,...
- 8/9/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Nicolas Cage plays a retired Caribbean beach bum-turned-assassin in the trailer for The Retirement Plan, an action comedy thriller from writer/director Tim Brown and Falling Forward Films that’s set to hit theaters on Aug. 25.
Cage is Matt, the estranged father of Ashley (Ashley Greene) and her young daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell), who get entangled in a criminal gang that threatens their lives. Matt, coming to their rescue, is chased down by gang leader Donnie, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and his lieutenant Bobo (Ron Perlman).
To save his family, Matt has to kill a slew of bad guys in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the criminal gang in hot pursuit. “The old guy. He keeps killing everybody. Everybody!” Bobo exclaims at one point in the trailer.
Soon, Ashley learns her father has a secret past now revealed as he looks to get back to the...
Cage is Matt, the estranged father of Ashley (Ashley Greene) and her young daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell), who get entangled in a criminal gang that threatens their lives. Matt, coming to their rescue, is chased down by gang leader Donnie, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and his lieutenant Bobo (Ron Perlman).
To save his family, Matt has to kill a slew of bad guys in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the criminal gang in hot pursuit. “The old guy. He keeps killing everybody. Everybody!” Bobo exclaims at one point in the trailer.
Soon, Ashley learns her father has a secret past now revealed as he looks to get back to the...
- 7/12/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It is important for me to get the name right- Nightmare Radio: The Night Stalker. Yes, that’s the name. And it is literally centered around a nighttime radio horror show host getting stalked by a creepy dude. But that’s not all. The movie also doubles down as a horror anthology as the show host, her listeners, and even the stalker guy share their own little horror stories. Some of those work way better than the main story; the others fall flat. The movie uses lots of signature horror tropes and leaves quite a lot to your own interpretation. In the recap of Nightmare Radio: The Night Stalker, I will to explain all of that.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In ‘Nightmare Radio’?
We are dropped right in the middle of the first story, titled “Playtime.” In about three minutes or so, the short successfully manages to get...
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In ‘Nightmare Radio’?
We are dropped right in the middle of the first story, titled “Playtime.” In about three minutes or so, the short successfully manages to get...
- 6/3/2023
- by Rohitavra Majumdar
- Film Fugitives
“It’s about creating monsters to start wars and steal natural resources.”
Lorcan Finnegan, whose sci-fi Vivarium premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019, is in town with wife and Lovely Productions partner Brunella Cocchiglia to meet financing partners and sales agents for his upcoming dystopian fable Goliath.
Set in the near-future, the subversion of the David and Goliath myth follows the inhabitants of a pig-breeding community next to a lake containing an island inhabited by a giant who according to legend ate the early settlers’ babies.
When the pigs fall ill, the head of the settlement orders a militia of youngsters to kill the monster.
Lorcan Finnegan, whose sci-fi Vivarium premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019, is in town with wife and Lovely Productions partner Brunella Cocchiglia to meet financing partners and sales agents for his upcoming dystopian fable Goliath.
Set in the near-future, the subversion of the David and Goliath myth follows the inhabitants of a pig-breeding community next to a lake containing an island inhabited by a giant who according to legend ate the early settlers’ babies.
When the pigs fall ill, the head of the settlement orders a militia of youngsters to kill the monster.
- 5/22/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Flawless, XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions have acquired the Cannes Critics’ Week selection “Vincent Must Die” for all English-speaking territories from Goodfellas.
Flawless, the pioneering film technology company and a leader in the field of visual translation, recently announced it has launched a partnership with XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions to acquire rights to foreign-language films, converting them to English for distribution in relevant markets.
Directed by Stéphan Castang, “Vincent Must Die” is written by Mathieu Naert, produced by Thierry Lounas and Claire Bonnefoy, and stars Karim Leklou and Vimala Pons. In the film, an ordinary man finds himself fighting for his life after he goes out one day and is mysteriously attacked by random strangers in the street with the intent to kill him.
This is the first film from the production company Wild West. Goodfellas and Capricci joined forces to create Wild West, a production company...
Flawless, the pioneering film technology company and a leader in the field of visual translation, recently announced it has launched a partnership with XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions to acquire rights to foreign-language films, converting them to English for distribution in relevant markets.
Directed by Stéphan Castang, “Vincent Must Die” is written by Mathieu Naert, produced by Thierry Lounas and Claire Bonnefoy, and stars Karim Leklou and Vimala Pons. In the film, an ordinary man finds himself fighting for his life after he goes out one day and is mysteriously attacked by random strangers in the street with the intent to kill him.
This is the first film from the production company Wild West. Goodfellas and Capricci joined forces to create Wild West, a production company...
- 5/21/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Nicolas Cage has been set to lead the cast in the new psychological thriller ‘The Surfer.’
Cage takes on the role of a man who returns to his hometown in Australia and takes on a local gang of surfers.
The synopsis reads; When a man (Cage) returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, “The Surfer” decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates, the stakes spin wildly out of control, taking “The Surfer” to the edge of his sanity.
Also in news – Aimee Lou Wood & Matt Dillon join cast of ‘The Gambler Wife’
Lorcan Finnegan is directing from a screenplay by Thomas Martin.
Cage takes on the role of a man who returns to his hometown in Australia and takes on a local gang of surfers.
The synopsis reads; When a man (Cage) returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S., he is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. Wounded, “The Surfer” decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates, the stakes spin wildly out of control, taking “The Surfer” to the edge of his sanity.
Also in news – Aimee Lou Wood & Matt Dillon join cast of ‘The Gambler Wife’
Lorcan Finnegan is directing from a screenplay by Thomas Martin.
- 5/19/2023
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
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