Noticias

Exclusive: Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to Thomas Ray’s novella, Silencer, enlisting Ben Jacoby (The First Omen) to adapt it for the big screen.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura will produce as part of his first-look deal with the studio alongside NeoText Corporation, the publisher of the novella. Russell Ackerman, John Schoenfelder, and Jay Schuminsky will produce for NeoText, with Greg Cohen overseeing development for di Bonaventura Pictures.

The story follows a CIA field agent who is sent to bring in the ultimate CIA target who’s been out in the cold for decades. An operative who dates back to the dark times of Mk Ultra, the target is a silencer — someone who can read minds, and wipe them from a distance, making him impossible to find or catch.

Alongside Chase Palmer, Jacoby is co-writer on The Whisper Man, Netflix and Agbo’s adaptation of the novel by Alex North,...

Exclusive: Sony Pictures has preemptively acquired “H.A.V.E.N.”, a sci-fi short story by Carter Blanchard, who will pen an adaptation for the big screen.

While plot details for the film are under wraps, we’ve heard the short story described as Men in Black meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It follows a woman who wakes up in a field with no memory of how she got there and learns that she’s been missing since 1976, yet hasn’t aged a day. She finds herself living in a world she no longer recognizes — all her friends and family, long gone — until learning she had a daughter who went missing with her in 1976, but never came back. A daughter who has been mysteriously erased from her memory.

“H.A.V.E.N.” was recently published by NeoText Corporation, the short form publishing company owned by Russell Ackerman, John Schoenfelder and Jay Schuninksy. Schoenfelder will produce...

Artem Vasilyev, the Russian producer and CEO of Metrafilms and its animation arm Studio Metrafilms, has launched the new label Lazy Sunday, based in Ireland and dedicated to developing and producing both animation and live-action projects for international audiences.

The new outfit will serve as a bridge linking Western Europe with Eastern Europe, Vasilyev hopes, while also connecting with his current base of operations in Moldova.

“I strongly believe that the Eastern European region is extremely rich in world-class talent and exciting stories that are yet to be told,” he said. “Eastern European talent can bring a lot to the international film industry table, and Lazy Sunday is a company that can bridge East and West thanks to our experience, history and where we are today. This is truly an exciting position to be in.”

Lazy Sunday, which will have an office in Dublin, is actually the rebranded Irish arm of Film and Music Entertainment,...

Patricia Arquette has really been bitten by the true crime bug. The Severance actor is set to star in Murdaugh Murders, a new limited series from Michael D. Fuller and co-creator Erin Lee Carr. The series will be partially adapted from Liz Farrell and Mandy Matney's popular Murdaugh Murders Podcast,...

Director Andy Muschietti and his producer / sister Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking team behind Mama and the $1 billion grossing adaptations of Stephen King’s It, recently teamed up with Skydance to form a new horror label called Nocturna, and the first project to come out of the Nocturna partnership is the horror thriller They Will Kill You, which has New Line Cinema on board to co-finance and distribute. Last week, we heard that Patricia Arquette (True Romance) and Tom Felton of the Harry Potter franchise had signed on to star in the film alongside Zazie Beetz, whose credits include Joker, Bullet Train, and Deadpool 2. Now The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Heather Graham of Boogie Nights and Suitable Flesh will also be in the film, and Deadline reports that Myha’la of Industry and Bodies Bodies Bodies is in the cast as well.

Details on the characters Graham and...

The first project from Skydance’s new horror label Nocturna is They Will Kill You, which has Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die!) on board to co-write and direct.

Deadline reports today that Myha’la has joined a cast that includes the previously announced Zazie Beetz (Joker), Patricia Arquette, Heather Graham and Tom Felton. The upcoming film “follows a woman who answers an ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise.”

The horror twist for this one? The plot synopsis details, “She doesn’t realize she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years.”

They Will Kill You is written by Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak.

Nocturna is the new label from Andy Muschietti & Barbara Muschietti (It, It: Chapter Two).

David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, the Muschiettis and Dan Kagan produce alongside Nocturna’s Co-Heads of Film, Russell Ackerman and John Schoenfelder.

Exclusive: Industry star Myha’la is getting ready to slay in the New Line-Skydance-Nocturna horror film They Will Kill You.

She joins already announced castmembers Zazie Beetz, Patricia Arquette, Heather Graham and Tom Felton.

New Line, as we previously told you, is co-financing and releasing the movie which is from Andy and Barbara Muschietti’s Nocturna Pictures, the horror label they formed this year with Skydance. Kirill Sokolov is writing and directing from a script co-written with Alex Litvak.

The UTA, 11:11 Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen repped Myha’la plays Harper Stern in Industry, currently in its third season on HBO.

Myha’la recently starred in the Sam Esmail-directed Netflix movie Leave the World Behind based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, oppossite Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali. The pic was one of the streamer’s most viewed titles last year. Upcoming, Myha’la can be...

Last week while I was on vacay THR announced that Patricia Arquette and Tom Felton were joining Zazie Beetz in Kirill Sokolov's horror thriller They Will Kill You.    Zazie Beetz is toplining They Will Kill You, which is described as a horror feature laced with black humor and telling the story of a woman (Beetz) who answers a help wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious high-rise in New York City, not realizing she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years and may be under the grip of a Satanic cult. The project has been described as being a tonal mix of Ready or Not and The Raid. THR   Today, THR has announced that...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Heather Graham has joined the cast of They Will Kill You, the thriller being produced by Nocturna Pictures, the horror label formed earlier this year by Skydance and Andy and Barbara Muschietti.

New Line is co-financing and distributing the feature, which will have Kirill Sokolov in the director’s chair when shooting gets underway in mid-September.

Zazie Beetz is toplining They Will Kill You, which is described as a horror feature laced with black humor. It tells the story of a woman (Beetz) who answers a help wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise, not realizing she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years. The project has been described as being a tonal mix of Ready or Not and The Raid.

Graham’s role is being kept in the basement, but she joins Oscar winner Patricia Arquette and Tom Felton,...

Una siniestra secta en Nueva York.

De acuerdo con The Hollywood Reporter, Zazie Beetz, Patricia Arquette y Tom Felton protagonizarán la película de terror del director Kirill Sokolov (¿Por qué no te mueres?), They Will Kill You, coescrita junto a Alex Litvak (Predators).

La película, cuyo rodaje está previsto para mediados de septiembre, se presenta como una película de terror aderezada con humor negro que cuenta la historia de una mujer que responde a un anuncio de empleo para ser ama de llaves en un misterioso rascacielos de Nueva York, sin saber que se adentra en una comunidad en la que se han producido varias desapariciones a lo largo de los años y que podría estar en las garras de una secta satánica. La han descrito como una mezcla tonal de Ready or Not y The Raid.

En They Will Kill You, Beetz interpreta a la mujer que se convierte...

Yesterday, we heard that Patricia Arquette (True Romance) has joined the cast of Kenneth Branagh’s contemporary psychological thriller The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Arquette is also in the cast of the horror thriller They Will Kill You, which also stars Tom Felton of the Harry Potter franchise and Zazie Beetz, whose credits include Joker, Bullet Train, and Deadpool 2.

New Line Cinema are on board to co-finance and distribute They Will Kill You. Director Andy Muschietti and his producer / sister Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking team behind Mama and the $1 billion grossing adaptations of Stephen King’s It, recently teamed up with Skydance to form a new horror label called Nocturna, and this is the first project to come out of the Nocturna partnership.

Kirill Sokolov – who is said to be known for his dark sense of humor – will be...

They Will Kill You just received a game-changing casting update. Tom Felton and Patricia Arquette have joined the cast of the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project is set to be directed by Kirill Sokolov, with principal photography set to begin next month. The film is currently being described as a horror feature laced with black humor. Zazie Beetz was previously cast as the lead of the story. Her character will accept a job as a housekeeper in a mysterious high-rise in New York City, but unfortunately for her, the community is entrenched in a Satanic cult.

Patricia Arquette and Tom Felton have joined the cast of They Will Kill You, the thriller being produced by Nocturna Pictures, the horror label formed earlier this year by Skydance and Andy and Barbara Muschietti.

New Line is co-financing and distributing the feature, which will have Kirill Sokolov in the director’s chair when shooting gets underway in mid-September.

Zazie Beetz is toplining They Will Kill You, which is described as a horror feature laced with black humor and telling the story of a woman (Beetz) who answers a help wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious high-rise in New York City, not realizing she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years and may be under the grip of a Satanic cult. The project has been described as being a tonal mix of Ready or Not and The Raid.

Arquette is...

Director Andy Muschietti and his producer / sister Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking team behind Mama and the $1 billion grossing adaptations of Stephen King’s It, recently teamed up with Skydance to form a new horror label called Nocturna, and a couple months ago we learned the first project that will be coming out of the Nocturna partnership is called They Will Kill You. Zazie Beetz, whose credits include Joker, Bullet Train, and Deadpool 2, has the lead role in this film – and now The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that New Line Cinema has come on board to co-finance and distribute They Will Kill You.

Kirill Sokolov – who is said to be known for his dark sense of humor – will be directing the film from a screenplay he wrote with Alex Litvak. Sokolov previously directed the action comedy No Looking Back and the comedic thriller Why Don’t You Just Die!,...

New Line is set to co-finance and distribute “They Will Kill You,” a new horror feature from Nocturna Pictues, the label formed earlier this year by Andy and Barbara Muschietti and Skydance.

“They Will Kill You,” which is directed by Kirill Sokolov from a script by Sokolov and Alex Litvak, stars Zazie Beetz as a woman who answers a help wanted ad for a housekeeper. The job is in a mysterious New York City high-rise and what she doesn’t realize, of course, is that the building is known for a number of disappearances over the years.

David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Dan Kagan are set to produce “They Will Kill You,” with Russell Ackerman, John Schoenfelder, Sokolov, Litvak and Carl Hampe serving as executive producers.

The movie is a homecoming of sorts, since the Muschietti team was responsible for “It,” which remains the highest...

New Line has come aboard to co-finance and distribute They Will Kill You, a thriller being produced by Nocturna Pictures, the horror label formed earlier this year by Skydance and It filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti.

Zazie Beetz is set to star in the feature, which is heading towards a mid-September start in South Africa.

Kirill Sokolov, who wrote and directed the 2019 black action comedy Why Don’t You Just Die!, is directing. Sokolov co-wrote the script with Alex Litvak (Predators).

Kill You is described as a horror feature laced with the black humor that is Sokolov’s trademark, telling the story of a woman (Beetz) who answers a help wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious high-rise in New York City, not realizing she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years.

David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger will produce via...

New Line is co-financing and releasing the Zazie Beetz horror movie They Will Kill You from Skydance and Andy and Barbara Muschietti’s genre label Nocturna Pictures.

The movie, which Deadline first told you about, reunites New Line with It franchise filmmakers, the Muschiettis, who are already expanding that Stephen King franchise with the HBO prequel series Welcome to Derry.

Kirill Sokolov will direct from a script by Sokolov and Alex Litvak. They Will Kill You follows a woman who answers a help-wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise. She doesn’t realize she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years.

Producers are David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, the Muschiettis, and Dan Kagan. EPs are Russell Ackerman, John Schoenfelder, Kirill Sokolov, Alex Litvak and Carl Hampe.

Nocturna, which was launched earlier this year by Skydance and the Muschiettis,...

Director Andy Muschietti and his producer / sister Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking team behind Mama and the $1 billion grossing adaptations of Stephen King’s It, recently teamed up with Skydance to form a new horror label called Nocturna – and the first project that will be coming out of the Nocturna partnership is called They Will Kill You. Deadline reports that Zazie Beetz, whose credits include Joker, Bullet Train, and Deadpool 2, has just signed on to star in the film.

Beetz will be taking on the role of a woman who answers a help-wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise. She doesn’t realize she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years.

The Muschiettis are producing They Will Kill You alongside David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, and Dan Kagan, as well as Nocturna Co-Heads of Film, Russell Ackerman and John Schoenfelder.

It was announced back in March that Skydance was launching a new horror label titled Nocturna, partnering with Andy Muschietti & Barbara Muschietti (It, It: Chapter Two) on the genre venture. We had been told when the deal was first inked, “the Muschiettis will co-own the label and will run its creative direction.” What’s Nocturna working on, you ask?

The first project from the Nocturna team will be a horror film titled They Will Kill You, which has Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die!) on board to co-write and direct.

Deadline reports that Zazie Beetz (Joker) will star in They Will Kill You, which “follows a woman who answers an ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise.”

The horror twist for this one? The plot synopsis details, “She doesn’t realize she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years.

Exclusive: We can tell you first that Joker and Deadpool 2 actress Zazie Beetz has signed on to headline They Will Kill You, the first feature from Nocturna, the horror label formed this year by Skydance and Andy & Barbara Muschietti.

They Will Kill You is written by Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak, with Sokolov attached to direct.

Sokolov is known for his dark sense of humor, and this movie follows a woman who answers a help-wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise. She doesn’t realize she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years.

They Will Kill You will be produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, the Muschiettis and Dan Kagan. It will also be produced by Nocturna Co-Heads of Film, Russell Ackerman and John Schoenfelder.

Launched in 2024 by Skydance and the Muschiettis, Nocturna produces...

Director Andy Muschietti and his producer / sister Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking team behind Mama and the $1 billion grossing adaptations of Stephen King’s It, have now teamed up with Skydance to launch a label called Nocturna, which will be focused on making “high quality genre features for global audiences in both theatrical and streaming, with the goal of producing two films per year.” The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, and also revealed that the first feature being developed for the Nocturna label is called They Will Kill You.

Written by Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak, They Will Kill You is set to be directed by Sokolov, who previously wrote and directed the 2019 Russian-language action comedy Why Don’t You Just Die. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new film is said to be a “horror feature laced with the black humor that is Sokolov’s trademark.” The story centers on...

Every studio wants a piece of the profitable horror pie and it looks like Skydance is no exception. THR reports that Skydance is forming the brand new horror division Nocturna, and they’re partnering with Andy Muschietti & Barbara Muschietti!

THR notes in their report, “the Muschiettis will co-own the label and will run its creative direction. The focus of Nocturna will be on high quality, genre features for global audiences in both theatrical and streaming, with the goal of producing two films per year.”

The first project from the Nocturna team will be a film titled They Will Kill You, which has Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die!) on board to co-write and direct.

The site details, “They Will Kill You is described as a horror feature laced with the black humor that is Sokolov’s trademark, telling the story of a woman who answers a help wanted ad...

Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking team behind the $1 billion grossing It movies and last year’s The Flash, have teamed up with Skydance to launch a brand new horror division.

Named Nocturna, the Muschiettis will co-own the label and will run its creative direction. The focus of Nocturna will be on high quality, genre features for global audiences in both theatrical and streaming, with the goal of producing two films per year.

Nocturna is not launching with an empty casket. The first project out of the gate will be They Will Kill You, written by Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak, with Sokolov, who wrote and directed the 2019 black action comedy Why Don’t You Just Die!, attached to direct.

“Under this label, we are excited to deliver the full range of emotions that our movies pack: Heart, humor and horror,” said the Muschiettis in a statement.

The division will be...

Exclusive: Scott Stoops has been elevated to Partner at management and production co. Good Fear Content, Partners Chris Bender and Jake Weiner announced on Tuesday.

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A manager at Good Fear since its 2015 founding, Stoops’ roster includes numerous prominent writers and directors across film and TV, a number of which have reached EP or Co-ep level. Among his most notable clients is Megan McDonnell, who was the first writer in on Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels, after serving as a staff writer on the Emmy-winning WandaVision and its forthcoming spin-off Agatha: Coven of Chaos, as well as Apple’s Dark Matter. Others include Rayna McClendon,...

Exclusive: Kirill Sokolov set to direct TriStar Pictures’ thriller Ultra, with script penned by Colin Bannon. TriStar preemptively purchased the spec amid significant buzz in November 2021, just before it placed in the Top 10 on the Black List in December. Plot details are being kept under wraps.

Sukee Chew of Sugar23 is producing. Caellum Allan is overseeing the project on behalf of TriStar.

Sokolov made his feature directorial debut with Why Don’t You Just Die, which screened in competition at Sitges. His follow-up film, No Looking Back, premiered at SXSW 2022. Sokolov is represented by CAA and Good Fear.

Bannon most recently sold his Black List script First Ascent to Netflix in a bidding war. The project is being produced by Chew and Scott Free. Bannon is repped by Verve and Sugar23.

Chew joined Sugar23 last June and was previously at Hopscotch Pictures which she founded. There, she was most recently...

Fantaspoa 2022 Announced: "After two years of successful online editions, the 18th edition of the beloved Brazilian genre festival Fantaspoa will return to the cinemas from April 15th through May 1st. This year, attendees will discover a very different Fantaspoa from its last on-site edition (a very distant 2019): instead of its usual two venues, the fest will take place simultaneously in five cinemas, with part of its program also being available online, geo-blocked for viewers within Brazil.

The poster for this year’s festival was conceived by the festival’s art director Thalles Mourão, with the drawing from local artist Fernanda Moreira. The striking image is a mashup of two centenary anniversaries: The Modern Art Week, one of Brazil’s greatest art movements, and F. W. Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece of cinema, Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror.

Nosferatu will also have a very special screening on the opening night of the festival,...

Centenary screening of Nosferatu, world premiere of stoner comedy The Smoke Master bookend event.

Brazil’s Fantaspoa genre festival, billed as the largest of its kind in Latin America, is returning to an in-person event for the first time since 2019 and has unveiled its first wave of titles.

This year’s International Fantastic Film Festival of Porto Alegre will take place in five cinemas around the southern city from April 15-May 1. It is bookended by a special opening night centenary screening of F. W. Murnau’s vampire classic Nosferatu accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by Carlos Ferreira and Brazilian...

Writer/Director Kirill Sokolov possesses a unique ability to transform family strife into pitch-black, hyper-violent physical comedy for our amusement. Sokolov’s debut, Why Don’t You Just Die!, let the bone-crunching action and bloodletting unfurl drama between a father and daughter. His latest, No Looking Back, pits generations of women against each other for a no holds barred grudge match. While […]

The post ‘No Looking Back’ SXSW Review – Family Dysfunction Gets Hyper Violent appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

”Those Russian voices that oppose the aggression committed by their country will always have a place at the San Sebastian Film Festival.”

The San Sebastián International Film festival has issued a statemnet saying it will consider films from Russian filmmakers who “oppose aggression committed by their country”. The festival is due to take place from September 16-24.

“Our selection processes evaluate films on an individual basis, never on the basis of their nationality, even when they come from countries with governments that violate fundamental rights, and we will continue to do so in these turbulent times,” said the festival.

“We...

Netflix has paused all future projects and acquisitions from Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine, Variety has learned.

The streamer had four Russian originals in the pipeline, including a crime thriller series directed by Dasha Zhuk, which was shooting and has been put on hold. The 1990’s set series was Netflix’s second original series filming in Russia, following “Anna K” which wrapped last year.

A source close to Netflix said the company was assessing the impact of current events.

On Monday, The Walt Disney Company announced it will similarly be pausing all theatrical releases in Russia, including Pixar’s “Turning Red,” set to premiere in the country on March 10. A few hours after the announcement, Warner Bros. halted the release of “The Batman” in Russia.

Elsewhere in the film and TV industry, Russia has been barred from major festivals and award shows. The Cannes Film Festival announced on Tuesday...

Follows calls from the Ukrainian Film Academy to boycott Russian cinema

The Glasgow Film Festival has pulled two Russian titles from its upcoming edition following the invasion of Ukraine.

The festival, which runs March 2-13, has withdrawn Kirill Sokolov’s No Looking Back and Lado Kvataniya’s The Execution.

A statement from the festival said: “This decision is not a reflection on the views and opinions of the makers of these titles. We just believe that it would be inappropriate to proceed as normal with these screenings in the current circumstances.”

The move follows a plea from the Ukrainian Film Academy,...

Due to the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian pavilion at the upcoming Biennale arts exhibition in Venice has been scrapped, as the Venice Film Festival continues to mull its response to calls for a boycott of Russian movies at the event’s 77th edition.

Meanwhile, the Locarno Film Festival said on Monday that it will certainly be showing Russian films at its upcoming edition in August.

Kicking off in April, the Venice Biennale, which is the multidisciplinary arts organization behind the Venice Film Festival, expressed solidarity with Russian visual artists Alexandra Sukhareva and Kirill Savchenkov and the exhibition’s curator Raimundas Malašauskas, who on Sunday announced they were pulling out of the art show on their own initiative because “this war is politically and humanly intolerable,” as Malašauskas put it in a statement.

“La Biennale expresses its complete solidarity for this noble act of courage and stands beside the motivations...

The Glasgow Film Festival has withdrawn two Russian titles from its 2022 program in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The films are Kirill Sokolov’s No Looking Back and Lado Kvataniya’s The Execution.

In a statement, the fest said the move was “not a reflection on the views and opinions of the makers of these titles”.

“We just believe that it would be inappropriate to proceed as normal with these screenings in the current circumstances,” it added.

Glasgow runs March 2-13. Organizers said that replacement films would be confirmed in the next few days. Anyone who has purchased a ticket will be eligible for a refund.

Separately, Locarno Film Festival has told Deadline that it does not intend to boycott Russian films this year.

The Swiss festival, which is due to take place August 3-13, said it stood for “freedom of expression and for the cinematographic art...

The Russian director’s ‘No Looking Back’ is benig sold by M-Appeal in the EFM.

Russian director Kirill Sokolov is in advanced development on the comedy drama To Banya, set in the steamy world of Finnish saunas, which he aims to shoot in the summer. Artem Vasilyev’s Metrafilms is producing together with Sergey Selyanov’s Ctb and Yellow Film & TV in Finland.

The story takes place against the backcloth of the world sauna championships in Helsinki as a Russian man tries to earn some much needed money.

Sokolov’s latest feature No Looking Back (pictured) is being sold...

In-person festival to run in Austin, Texas, from March 11-20.

A starry SXSW 2022 film line-up announced on Wednesday (2) includes world premieres of new work from Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Richard Linklater and Nicolas Cage, among many others.

The Austin, Texas, festival ran online editions over the past two years and is planned to take place from March 11-20 as an in-person event against a backdrop of declining Omicron infection levels across the United States.

The roster includes Irish filmmaker and actor Campbell-Hughes’s It Is In Us All (pictured) in Narrative Feature Competition starring Cosmo Jarvis, Claes Bang and Campbell-Hughes about a...

Other winners included German drama ‘Other Cannibals’ and Lithuania’s ‘Runner’.

Andreas Kleinert’s German drama Dear Thomas has been awarded the Grand Prix at the 2021 Black Nights Film Festival, held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

The black-and-white historical biopic follows the struggles of East German author and filmmaker Thomas Brasch, played by Albrecht Schuch who was also named best actor at Black Nights’ closing ceremony on Saturday evening (November 27).

Scroll down for full list of winners

It marks the latest feature of prolific Germany filmmaker Kleinert, known for titles such as Leb Whol, Joseph; Lost Landscape; and Head Under Water,...

The 25th edition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is about to kick off, and between 12-28 of November the audience will have the oportunity to watch a great number of films from Asia, strewn across festival’s various program sections, including all competition segments. We went through the complete program and counted no more or less than 69 films from the broader Asian region.

Quite surprising is the amount of competition titles in the main selection, with three world premieres, four international. Lu ZHang’s “Yanagawa” will have its European premiere at PÖFF.

Yerzhanov returns to Tallinn a year after he presented two films at the festival, the main competition title “Ulbolsyn” about a woman who comes to a Kazhak village to “steer trouble”, and the oddball comedy “Yellow Cat” screened in the Current Waves program. Kirill Sokolov is also back two years after the premiere of his critically acclaimed...

Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has acquired “No Looking Back,” a dark action film with a dysfunctional family at its core in which three generations of warring women face-off. The film world premiered at Kinotavr – Open Russian Film Festival in September and makes its international premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Intl. Film Festival in November in the main competition section.

The film is director Kirill Sokolov’s follow-up to black comedy “Why Don’t You Just Die!,” which competed at Sitges and closed multiple deals worldwide, marking out Sokolov as an up-and-coming auteur.

The film centers on Olga, a troubled woman who has just been released from prison and been reunited with her 10-year-old daughter, Masha. Masha has been in the care of Olga’s overbearing mother, Vera. The tempestuous relationship between Olga and Vera is instantaneously reignited, resulting in a violent altercation. This prompts Olga to take off with Masha in...

Happy Thursday, everyone! On tap today is a brand new list of streaming recommendations that I have put together as part of our ongoing Indie Horror Month celebration. This time, we’re showcasing five fantastic films that are available to stream on the Arrow player and are well worth your time. One note: Clapboard Jungle doesn’t arrive on Arrow until the 19th, but I thought it was a perfect title to include here, so you just have to hang on a few days until you can finally check it out for yourself.

Read on for my Arrow indie horror recommendations and happy streaming!

The Bloodhound (Directed by Patrick Picard)

I just recently watched The Bloodhound for a discussion happening on an upcoming episode of Corpse Club, and it has just stuck with me over the last 10 days or so now. It’s a movie that I wasn’t even...

Production in Russia has continued apace throughout much of the coronavirus pandemic, and a broad slate of titles launching at the virtual edition of this year’s European Film Market — from high-concept period dramas to psychological thrillers to horror pics — will look to tap into international interest in the fast-growing industry. “For us, it’s business as usual — boosting that potential,” says Vadim Vereshchagin, CEO of Central Partnership.

During EFM, Vereshchagin’s production and distribution outfit will launch sales on a raft of titles including “The World Champion,” a drama based on the legendary 1978 chess match between Soviet world champion Anatoly Karpov and the dissident Viktor Korchnoi. The co-production with Nikita Mikhalkov’s Studio TriTe and pubcaster Russia-1 is directed by Alexey Sidorov, who helmed the WWII blockbuster “T-34.”

Set in the noir atmosphere of 1920s Russia, “December” follows the last days of Sergey Yesenin, a famous Russian poet and...

Rising Russian director Kirill Sokolov (“Why Don’t You Just Die!”) and “Vikings” star Danila Kozlovsky have boarded “Alone in the Ocean,” a big-budget survival drama based on the true story of a Soviet man who spent three days lost at sea.

Pic is produced by Artem Vasilyev of Metrafilms, Roman Borisevich of Plan 9 and Konstantin Buslov of Rb Production, and co-produced by André Logie of Belgium’s Panache Prods. It’s being prepped to go into production in 2022.

Set in the 1970s and based on the book of the same name, “Alone in the Ocean” tells the story of Slava Kurilov, an oceanographer aboard a Soviet vessel plying the Philippine Sea who decides to leap overboard, only to learn that after a grave miscalculation he’s more than a hundred miles offshore. Kurilov spends the next three days at sea fighting for survival, determined to live his passion for the ocean,...

Let the best-of-the-year lists commence. While guilds and critics groups will soon be delivering their opinions, one of the few of genuine interest each year comes from a single person: the wonderfully eccentric director John Waters, whose eclectic tastes always includes a mix of the unexpected and underseen.

Topping his list this year is Tyler Cornack’s spring release Butt Boy, which features a strange tale of missing persons potentially disappearing up someone’s rectum, followed by the recommended psychological body horror film Swallow. Also among the list are the latest films from Pedro Almodóvar, Craig Zobel, Quentin Dupieux and, as a 10th place tie leading to 11 selections, new courtroom dramas by Steve McQueen and Aaron Sorkin.

Check out the list below via Baltimore Fishbowl, which will appear in the next issue of Artforum. We’ve also included links to our reviews.

1. Butt Boy (Tyler Cornack)

2. Swallow (Carlo Mirabella-Davis)

3. The Hunt...

In the weeks following the inaugural edition of the Key Buyers Event, a showcase for new Russian productions held in Moscow last fall, Roskino CEO Evgenia Markova reached out to scores of international guests who had made the trip to the Russian capital. After what was largely perceived as a successful event, in which dozens of Russian titles sold to foreign buyers, Markova wanted to understand what else the film promotion body could do to support the continued growth of the Russian industry.

One piece of advice stood out. “Not many Russian names are known abroad,” says Markova. The consensus among many of the buyers in attendance was that “this is definitely what [Roskino] should work on: you should promote your actors, your producers, your directors. You should show the world you exist.”

For the Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition, an online platform to showcase and promote Russian content that takes...

Why Don’T You Just Die! is currently available on Blu-ray From Arrow Video

Shades of early Tarantino, Edgar Wright and Sam Raimi abound in this violent, stylish and riotously entertaining slice of family life, Moscow style, described as a splatterpunk action comedy drenched in gleefully dark Russian humor (The Hollywood Reporter) and an amazing first feature from a filmmaker to watch (Screen Anarchy).

Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) has just one objective: to gain entry to his girlfriend s parents apartment and kill her father Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev) with a hammer to restore her honor. But all is not as it initially seems, and Matvey s attempts to bludgeon the family patriarch to death don t quite go to plan as Andrey proves a more formidable not to mention ruthless opponent than he anticipated and Matvey, for his part, proves stubbornly unwilling to die.

Making his feature debut, writer/director Kirill Sokolov...

As individual states and the film industry at large begin to think about when the right time to reopen theaters might be, digital and streaming services deliver the strongest weekly slate of new releases since the shutdown.

Many saw it as a sign of the times when HBO acquired critically acclaimed Hugh Jackman drama ”Bad Education” at the Toronto Film Festival last year, never imagining that it would be a blessing for the film that it was bypassing theaters to debut on the premium network. Meanwhile, on Netflix, two new tentpoles — including one from the team behind “Avengers: Infinity War” — give subscribers some studio-caliber entertainment to watch at home.

Here are all the new releases, with excerpts from reviews and links to where you can watch them.

Independent films, directly on demand:

Bad Education (Cory Finley) Critic’S Pick

Distributor: HBO

Where to Find It: Premieres Sat., April 25 on HBO...

Hello, dear readers! We have a brand new batch of Blu-ray and DVD releases coming our way this week, and there are some killer titles that you’re definitely going to want to pick up, including Scream Factory’s Blu-ray release of The Curse of the Werewolf.

We also have some excellent recent titles headed to various formats this week, including Why Don’t You Just Die! (which this writer absolutely loved), Sea Fever (another film I really enjoyed immensely), The Turning, and Party Hard, Die Young.

Other releases for April 21st include Prey, Colour of the Dark, and a brand new Blu-ray for Fatal Attraction.

The Curse of the Werewolf

His beast-blood demanded he Kill ... Kill ... Kill! Directed by legendary horror filmmaker Terence Fisher, this atmospheric tale of terror stars Oliver Reed as the orphan of a maniacal beggar and a mute girl. From his birth to young manhood, he discovers a horrible secret.

Writer/director Kirill Sokolov's feature debut Why Don't You Just Die! is a stylish and grisly dark comedy about greed and corruption in modern Russia. Set almost entirely within a small Moscow apartment over the course of one day, the story involves Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov), a young man charged by his girlfriend, Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde ) to murder her abusive father, Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev) . Naturally, this proves more difficult than anticipated, and within the first five minutes the film has wasted no time in delivering some eye-popping and expertly choreographed violence.

Through flashbacks we learn more about our players. Andrey is a corrupt cop with more than a few skeletons in his closet; Olya's motivations are less about revenge than sheer avarice; and when Andrey's...

Manchester-based genre festival to offer horror features and shorts for the duration of quarantine.

UK genre film festival Grimmfest is to launch a streaming platform today (April 20) that will offer horror films and shorts for free during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Grimmfest TV will launch with several features and around 25 short films, most of which have screened and won awards at the Manchester-based festival. The collection will be made available to watch on the festival’s website and at least two titles are set to be added weekly for the duration of the ongoing quarantine.

With the future of its next edition uncertain,...

For his feature film directorial debut, Russian filmmaker Kirill Sokolov delivers up a blisteringly funny and relentlessly brutal pitch-black comedy in Why Don’t You Just Die! The basic setup of the film follows a young guy named Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov), whose girlfriend shares a disturbing family secret with him, and he sets out to right the wrong by attempting to kill her father (Vitaliy Khaev). Things don’t necessarily go according to plan for the naïve Matvey, and from there, blood, chaos, and a string of surprising revelations come about.

Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak with Sokolov about the inspirations behind Why Don’t You Just Die!, and he discussed how he had to change up his approach early on for his first feature, the challenges of making his central locale continually interesting for viewers, and how his special effects team was able to achieve some mind-blowing practical gags in the film.

Russian director Kirill Sokolov wears his influences on his sleeve in Why Don’t You Just Die!, a revenge tale in which a boyfriend will try to fulfill his girlfriend’s (Evgeniya Kregzhde as Olya) wish: kill her father Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev), a rough police detective who apparently raped her when she was just a teenager. A highly stylish movie that riffs on westerns, torture porn, crime and action cinema, and that’s mostly set in the apartment of Olya’s parents (Elena Shevchenko is the mother), Why Don’t You Just Die! constantly mixes tones as well, ranging from gory and exaggerated violence and a dose of horror to a lot of comedy. Not to mention the fact that it uses non-linear narrative to...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...