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Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux had a special bond with David Lynch. During his very first edition of the festival as artistic director in 2001, Fremaux had programmed “Mulholland Drive,” which won best director at the festival and went on to earn an Oscar nomination.

From then on, Fremaux and Lynch became friends. A year later, he brought Lynch back as president of the jury. When Lynch presented his follow-up to the groundbreaking TV series “Twin Peaks,” he brought the first two episodes of “Twin Peaks: The Return” Cannes, which made an exception by showing the episodes as part of the official selection, traditionally confined to movies. Prior to Fremaux’s tenure, Lynch won Cannes’ Palme d’Or with “Wild at Heart,” then had “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” and “The Straight Story” in the official selection.

Fremaux felt connected to Lynch for many reasons besides his lifelong loyalty to Cannes.

The Cannes Film Festival has paid tribute to director David Lynch who was a long-time habitué, winning it Palme d’Or prize for Wild at Heart in 1990 and serving as jury president in 2002.

“It is with infinite sadness that we learn of the passing of David Lynch, a unique and visionary artist whose work has influenced cinema like few others,” the festival said in a statement following the announcement of the director’s death on Thursday at the age of 78.

“Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes in 1990 for Sailor and Lula (Wild At Heart), then the Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director) in 2001 for Mulholland Drive, he elegantly presided over the Jury in 2002,” it continued. “He leaves behind a rare and timeless body of work, whose films will continue to nourish our imagination and inspire all those who see cinema as an art capable of revealing the unspeakable.

For Akira Kurosawa, “Man is a genius when he is dreaming.” While films like Seven Samurai, Rashomon, and Ran quickly spring to mind when one thinks of the Japanese filmmaker, some of his deeper cuts have inevitably slipped under the radar.

A still from High and Low | Credits: Toho Co

For a career that spanned over fifty years, with over thirty films released across multiple decades, even Kurosawa’s lesser-known works offer a compelling watch for film buffs.

Here, we rank ten overlooked Kurosawa films that show the breadth of the director’s cinema, his boundless curiosity, and his innate understanding of humanity.

10. I Live in Fear (1955)

Akira Kurosawa opens with Tokyo’s bustling intersections, scored by a theremin – a 1950s Atomic Age paranoia hallmark. We meet Dr. Harada, a dentist-cum-mediator, summoned to resolve a family dispute involving Kiichi Nakajima, a wealthy industrialist.

Nakajima’s obsession with nuclear fallout drives...

Illustrations by Stephanie Lane Gage.As the year draws to a close, we’d like to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of our contributors. Here are some of their finest essays, interviews, festival coverage, and more from this year. We’re looking forward to much more in the new one. As always, thank you for reading.ESSAYSIllustration by Zoé Mahamès Peters.The current cinema:Sasha Frere-Jones on Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Eiko Ishibashi’s GIFTPhilippa Snow on Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor ThingsAdam Nayman on Pascal Plante’s Red RoomsCassie da Costa on RaMell Ross’s Nickel BoysAmanda Chen on Trương Minh Quý’s Việt and NamSanoja Bhaumik on Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s The SettlersNathalie Olah on Andrea Arnold’s BirdRobert Rubsam on Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimeraGrace Byron on Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV GlowZach Schonfeld on M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap and Michael Showalter’s The Idea of YouSam...

In recent years, many filmmakers have expressed their views on the death of cinema. Scorsese mentioned it in the context of the kind of films he grew up with being scarce. From David Cronenberg to Aki Kaurismaki, some other filmmakers also mentioned their discontent with the state of the currently-made films. More recently, Scorsese said that cinema is not dying but rather transforming. As it happens, several film-related artists are actively losing their jobs, making them lose their faith in the industry. So, there’s art and there’s a need for survival. Somehow, Quentin Dupieux’s ‘The Second Act’ (Original title: Le Deuxieme acte) touches upon both through its meta-comedy.

Dupieux, a multi-disciplined artist, is known for his eccentric and surrealist work in filmmaking. He often uses humor to drive a point in his endlessly amusing stories that examine different aspects of human experience. He is one of those...

With its stationary long-shots of domestic life, “Family Time” is like the “Paranormal Activity” of dysfunctional-holiday-gathering movies: There’s a sense of spying on people who don’t realize they’re under a microscope. Of course, Tia Kouvo’s debut feature is duly scripted, directed and professionally acted. But her approach is so effectively low-key, you might occasionally forget you’re watching a staged fiction.

There’s no new ground broken by this seriocomedy of three generations in one ordinary clan enduring each other over Christmas, then glimpsed in their separate lives afterward. Yet the canny level of observation — at once casual, caustic and empathetic — makes for a film that adds up to considerably more than the sum of its seemingly offhand parts. Finland’s Oscar submission won Jussi Awards for best film, direction and screenplay, and while it seems unlikely to make a splash internationally, it marks Kouvo as a promising talent.

Mubi, which recently planted a flag in the U.S. with the wide release of Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” has welcomed Zhang Xin to its board of directors, as part of a new chapter for the rapidly expanding company which will also see Zhang’s New York-based film production and financing group Closer Media become an investor in Mubi.

A billionaire entrepreneur, Zhang co-founded Closer Media and previously co-founded Soho China, a construction giant in Beijing and Shanghai known for its iconic projects designed by leading architects from around the world. She left the company in 2022 and partnered with William Horberg, a veteran producer whose credits include “The Queen’s Gambit” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” to break into the media world.

A patron of the arts, Zhang also serves as a Trustee of MoMA, and is a member of both the Harvard Global Advisory Council and Asia Business Council.

Cannes festival boss Thierry Frémaux will be presenting some of the world’s oldest moving images at the Red Sea International Film Festival when he premieres his latest documentary, Lumière! The Adventure Continues, a deep dive into the origins of cinema.

The doc, a sequel to Frémaux’s Lumière! The Adventure Begins (2016) will be screened as part of the festival’s International Spectacular sidebar. It features some 100 immaculately restored short films sourced from the Lumière Institute (where Frémaux is the director), shot by cinema pioneers Louis and Auguste Lumière.

The Lumière’s technical prowess, as inventors of the cinematograph, the groundbreaking photographic camera and projection technology that made films possible, is well-known. But in his new film, which he also narrates, Frémaux examines the Lumière’s artistic vision as they pioneered the “grammar of cinema” from scratch.

“Louis Lumière is the last of the inventors but the first of filmmakers,...

For those of you tired of the usual holiday movie diet of sleigh bells, snowflakes, and sugarplum fairies, The Hollywood Reporter‘s international team has whipped up a menu of new foreign films, currently available to screen in the U.S., that offer something for a more refined cinema palate.

Whether your taste runs to Irish hip-hop or Mexican musicals, Austrian horror or Danish romance, family-friend Thai comedy, or adult-only Aussie animation, we’ve got you covered for those long winter nights.

Banel & Adama (Stream/Rent On: Apple, Amazon, Fandango) ‘Banel & Adama’

French-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s bold debut illuminates the complexities of love and identity in a Romeo and Juliet-style story set in rural Senegal. Featuring captivating performances by Khady Mane and Mamadou Diallo as the titular couple, Banel & Adama combines rich, humanistic storytelling with stunning visuals to conjure a deeply imagined world. While the director...

For a filmmaker on the rise, few honors are more exciting than an invitation to the legendary Criterion Closet. The latest auteur to share their picks is Payal Kapadia, the visionary director behind “All We Imagine as Light,” who stopped by the famed closet to pick up Blu-rays from some of her favorite directors. She took the opportunity to opine on everyone from Pier Paolo Pasolini to Aki Kaurismäki, explaining how her distinct style is a product of her truly global taste in film. Watch the video below.

Kapadia’s extensive knowledge of cinema should come as no surprise. In a recent interview with IndieWire’s Anne Thompson, the auteur explained that years of following the arthouse and festival ecosystem helped her cast the film’s two leads, Divya Prabha and Kani Kusruti.

“They are quite well-known in the arthouse cinema circuit in Kerala in the South,” Kapadia said. “They...

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s Oscar hopeful The Seed of the Sacred Fig has won the sixth edition of the Arab Critics‘ Award for European Films, a joint initiative between European Film Promotion (Efp) and the Arab Cinema Center (Acc).

The drama, produced by Germany’s Run Way Pictures in co-production with Parallel45, Arte France Cinéma, was among 22 European-produced films in the running for the award, voted on by 89 critics from 15 Arab countries,

Taking inspiration from Iran’s Woman Life Freedom protests, the film revolves around a devout man who is promoted to the position of investigating judge at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, just as his daughters become swept up in the pro-equal rights and democracy movement.

The award was announced on the fringes of Egypt’s El Gouna International Film Festival. Rasoulof could not attend in person, but sent greetings via a video message, while producer Mani Tilgner...

The Seed of the Sacred Fig, the Iranian drama from exiled director Mohammad Rasoulof has won the top prize for best film at the Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films.

The prize was announced at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival. A jury of critics from 15 Arab countries picked Rasoulof’s drama from among 22 European productions. The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a French-German-Iranian production and is Germany’s official entry for the 2025 Academy Awards in the best international feature category.

The film, a depiction of a conservative Iranian family that breaks apart amid the political turmoil of the Women Life Freedom protests, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year, where it won a special jury prize, and the Fipresci honor from international film critics.

Rasoulof, a sharp critic of the Iranian regime — Rasoulof had been arrested and imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin jail in July 2022 for...

The independent movie service has become the streaming home to some of the best cinema in the world.

After just over a month in theaters, Coralie Fargeat’s acclaimed and outrageous body horror film “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, will make its exclusive streaming debut this Halloween on the global film streamer Mubi, and to prepare from the switch, it’s time to countdown some of the platform’s best films!

Whether you’re activating or stabilizing your Mubi subscription to watch the must-see new release, the arthouse movie streamer is not only housed with classics like “In the Mood for Love,” “All About My Mother,” and more, it’s also packed with its own collection of Mubi-exclusive releases. From black comedies to neo-noir love stories, here are some of the best movies available to stream right now exclusively on Mubi!

7-Day Trial via amazon.com Mubi...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2, 2024.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Finland has picked the dramedy Family Time to represent the country for the 2025 Oscars in the best international feature category.

The film, by writer/director Tia Kouvo, is a sharp look at the familial ties that bind, following three dysfunctional generations as they come together at their grandparents’ house over the holidays. Ria Kataja, Elina Knihtilä, Leena Uotila, Tom Wentzel and Jarkko Pajunen star in the dark comedy which puts the cringe back in Christmas.

Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka produced the feature for Aamu Film Company together with Vilda Bomben Film. The film is a feature adaptation of Kouvo’s 2018 short of the same name.

Family Time premiered in Berlinale’s Encounters section last year and bowed in Finland last November. It went on to sweep Finland’s Academy Awards, the Jussis, taking best film, best director and best screenplay. The Match Factory is handling international sales.

Finland has...

Kenichi Ugana’s “The Gesuidouz” is a delightful deadpan oddity about a Japanese punk group, whose 26-year-old lead singer Hanako (Natsuko) is convinced she’ll be dead at 27, the same age as Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. The quartet’s sardonic musical energy translates visually at every turn, with bright, subdued visual affectations that find humor in the morose.

The result is a fluffy, self-assured ode to creativity and finding one’s voice through genre cinema — the group’s songs and albums revolve around Hollywood horror films — with a particular viewer in mind. The film is, on one hand, undoubtedly Japanese in its sensibilities. Natsuko translates Hanako’s despondent mood into reflections and refractions on feeling trapped in her skin; she seldom strays from the character’s icy stillness, though she reveals a stunning sense of warmth on occasion. On the other hand, North American midnight movie fans who frequent...

Exclusive: TV industry veteran Katharina Feistauer has joined film service Mubi.

She has taken on a VP of Global Programming role at the film distributor, producer and streamer, having exited Paramount Global’s PlutoTV recently. Feistauer will report to Jason Ropell, Mubi’s Chief Content Officer.

Based in Mubi’s London office, she will lead Mubi’s programming team across all markets, driving the overall strategy of the streaming service and managing the pipeline of indie and filmmaker-driven content.

Mubi’s upcoming releases include Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, the Demi Moore-starring horror that was acquired for north of $10M in Cannes and will release wide in theaters on September 20.

Other films on the slate include Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Ira Sachs’ Passages, Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life, Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, Kevin Macdonald’s documentary High & Low...

The follow-up to his anarchic debut feature The Twentieth Century, a postmodern restaging of Canadian history that eschewed accuracy and realism in favor of strange psycho-sexual fetishes and aesthetic fixations, Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language takes a similarly irreverent approach to depicting his country’s geography and socio-political environment.

The film initially centers on what appears to be an Iranian middle school, albeit one situated in an incongruously wintry landscape, where an irate teacher (Mani Soleymanlou), ranting at his misbehaving pupils, asks them, “Can’t you at least fool around in French?!” We soon follow two young girls (Saba Vahedyousefi and Rojina Esmaelli) who set out to retrieve a banknote stuck inside a frozen puddle, as Rankin’s sophomore effort gradually reveals itself to be set in a parallel-universe Canada that recalls 1980s Iran as envisioned by one of the auteurs of the Iranian New Wave. Meanwhile, a character named...

Saudi Arabian film industry pioneer Faisal Baltyuor is opening the first arthouse cinema in Riyadh in what amounts to a milestone in the kingdom’s moviegoing trajectory ever since Saudi lifted its 35-year ban on cinema in late 2017.

The plush state-of-the-art 80-seat venue, called Cinehouse, is set to open in the Saudi capital later this month. The symbolic opening film will be a 1975 documentary titled “Development of Riyadh City” by Saudi helmer Abdullah Al-Muheisen. Before the religion-related Saudi ban on cinema went into effect, Al-Muheisen had been instrumental in laying the groundwork for the embryonic Saudi film industry. His vast body of work delved into social and humanitarian issues.

A curated program comprising local and international films at Cinehouse will follow after the “Development of Riyadh City” doc.

“For our opening film we actually went back to our Saudi film industry legacy,” said Baltyuor, a former CEO of the Saudi...

We first meet Remo Manfredini in a rundown Buenos Aires bar, nursing one too many drinks. As a champion jockey once feared on the racetrack, Remo now finds himself in a downward spiral. Alcohol and debts to the local gangsters have him firmly in their grasp. Into this gloomy scene emerge the thugs, who come to haul Remo to his next race. Though talented in the saddle, his drinking makes winning a losing bet.

This sets the stage for Luis Ortega’s genre-bending drama Kill the Jockey. Ortega proves himself a director to watch, weaving together elements of sports movies, gangster thrillers, and magical realism. When an accident leaves Remo badly injured, he awakens changed, embarking on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.

Led by a committed performance from Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Kill the Jockey takes us on a shape-shifting ride. Through colorful visuals and a surreal soundtrack, Ortega explores identity...

Luis Ortega’s absurdist comedy “Kill the Jockey,” which plays in Venice competition, is set in Argentina’s horse-racing community. “It’s a wild, wild world,” he tells Variety. “I encountered some very exotic jockeys and horse owners and I thought it’s so great. They’re so crazy and exciting, and [the jockeys] risk their life every race.”

The central character, Remo Manfredini, is clearly psychologically damaged – abusing drugs and alcohol to the extent that we see him fall off his horse even before it leaves the gate – but nonetheless he retains the self-possession and panache of a matador. “There is a lot of pride in that attitude,” says the Argentine filmmaker, whose previous film “El Angel,” about a baby-faced killer, premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Remo, played by Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, always keeps his race-track cronies at a distance and can seem aloof. “The only way I could relate...

Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (Bpm) stars as a troubled jockey whose identity shifts radically after a serious accident on the track in Kill the Jockey (El Jockey), a Venice Film Festival entry by Argentinian director Luis Ortega (El Angel, Dromómanos). Visually lush and full of playful mystery, this equestrian-themed psychological thriller-comedy-whatsit strikes plenty of poses that may tickle the fancy of viewers with a taste for camp, surrealism and/or the absurd. However, others might feel underwhelmed by the film’s strenuous efforts to charm and find it slows to a trot by the end.

Ortega’s knack for nifty needle drops has been noted before, and Kill the Jockey, partly financed by Warner Music Entertainment, stays true to form with a killer soundtrack mixing Latin pop, synth-heavy Edm, local tangos and original music by Sune Rose Wagner. Paired with the saturated color palette, boxy 1:85 aspect ratio and deliberately still and stilted performances,...

To be a jockey is to be both athlete and adjunct. While the horse gets the glory, its human partner is a literal hanger-on: ostensibly in control, but subject to animal impulses. That paradox allows Remo Manfredini, the star rider at the center of “Kill the Jockey,” more scope for invisibility than most top-of-their-game sportsmen — though when an accident in a crucial race lands him in hospital, his very identity begins to disintegrate. Restlessly switching lanes from frenzied farce to pulpy gangster movie to gender-confusion musing, Argentine director Luis Ortega’s alternately dark and daffy eighth feature is suitably untethered for a story concerned with the malleability of the self. That comes at some cost to its impact, however: Awash with kooky gags and bolstered by the strange, soulful presence of leading man Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, it’s fun but flighty, liable to throw some viewers from the saddle.

Ortega...

Luis Ortega’s slow, unpredictable dramedy set in the world of mob-run racing in Buenos Aires, “Kill the Jockey,” plays its cards close to its chest. If surprising shifts into magical realism and existential rumination mean we are kept guessing about the film’s ambitions, there is also a sense that Ortega has let the material get away from him like a runaway horse.

Someone bested by a beast before the title even has a chance to flash up on screen is our titular jockey. We are first introduced to Remo Manfredini (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) catatonic in a bar before he is found by a menacing male search party. They revive him by the uncharming method of inserting a riding crop into his mouth and drive him to a race track. Here he pre-games with horse drugs mixed with booze and cigarettes and then takes a slow walk through a...

Announced as the big comeback of veteran Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki, Cannes Jury Prize winner 2023 “Fallen Leaves” was one of the biggest Nordic successes worldwide between 2020-2023 with over one million admissions.

So what inspired release campaigns were used by arthouse banners in territories as diverse as Taiwan, Norway and the Czech Republic to widen Kaurismäki’s core audience and make him a cool name on social media?

The topic was explored Aug. 22 at the Europa Distribution panel, Around the World in 80 Minutes: The Distribution and Promotion of Nordic Films Internationally, hosted by New Nordic Films in Haugesund, Norway.

One of the highlights of the three-day Nordic market, the Europa Distribution panel was moderated by seasoned industryite Petri Kemppinen, founder of Good Hand Production, a consultant at Finland’s post-production house Totalpost and co-head of Baltic Event’s TV Beats Forum.

First, outlining his domestic release strategy for Kaurismäki’s Helsinki-set love story,...

Finnish director Ulla Heikkilä chose the “best actors she could think of” for sophomore feature “Summer is Crazy,” featuring “Fallen Leaves” star Jussi Vatanen, Aamu Milonoff (“Girl Picture”), Jani Volanen (“Hatching”), Pirjo Lonka and Bruno Baer (“Light Light Light”).

“They brought their general ‘bestness’. It’s simply a luxury to work with such intelligent, skillful and charismatic actors. They are all very good at showing human condition in a bold and ‘naked’ manner,” she told Variety.

In the upcoming “Summer is Crazy,” set in the Finnish archipelago during the Midsummer week, one family – as well as their friends and lovers – deal with disappointments and dream of a better tomorrow.

After the bankruptcy of their fine-dining restaurant, the Eerolas are stuck in a seaside village. In the shadow of the father’s depression, both the mother and the teenaged daughter rebel against their stagnant life – each in their own way.

“I...

Dag Johan Haugerud’s Norwegian title Sex and Levan Akin’s Crossing are among six nominees for the 2024 Nordic Council Film Prize, awarded by the Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The six nominees were announced during the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund.

Scroll down for the full list of nominees

Both Sex and Crossing debuted in Panorama at this year’s Berlin film festival, with Swedish production Crossing opening the strand.

The other titles include Baltasar Kormakur’s romantic drama Touch from Iceland and Aki Kaurismaki’s Golden Globes-nominated Fallen Leaves from Finland. Two documentaries round out the selection:...

Forget about “The Magnificent Seven”: It’s time for The Magnificent Six, competing for the Nordic Council Film Prize this year.

The nominees – consisting of four fiction and two documentary feature films and each representing one of the Nordic countries – were announced by Nordisk Film & TV Fond at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund.

Denmark is represented by “The Son and the Moon,” directed by Roja Pakari and Emilie Adelina Monies. Written by Pakari – documenting her own struggle with cancer – and Denniz Göl Bertelsen, it’s produced by Sara Stockmann for Sonntag Pictures.

“Twice Colonized” by Lin Alluna, hailing from Greenland, was written by Aaju Peter and Alluna. Pic is produced by Emile Hertling Péronard for Ánorâk Film, Red Marrow Media and EyeSteelFilm.

“I’m extremely happy about the nomination and the fact that Greenland is now, for only the second time, represented at the Nordic Council Film Prize.

Art house distributor and streamer Mubi and the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland are partnering to offer a new prize at the film festival given to first-time filmmakers.

The Mubi Award — Debut Feature will be awarded to an outstanding debut feature playing in Locarno’s official program, and the award intends to celebrate “boldly distinctive visions for storytelling and the aesthetic possibilities of the medium, spotlighting the new films that will shape the future of cinema,” according to a statement from the festival.

The Locarno Film Festival is now in its 77th year and this year runs between August 7-17. The festival’s First Feature jury will award the prize, and this year the jury includes Moroccan director-producer Khalil Benkirane (Doha Film Institute), Finnish actor Alma Pöysti, who starred in Aki Kaurismäki’s film “Fallen Leaves” that Mubi released last year, and make-up designer Esmé Sciaroni, who worked on Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera.

The Locarno Film Festival is partnering with Mubi on an award for first-time directors.

The Mubi award – debut feature is a cross-section prize given to a first-time director showing their film as a world or international premiere in the festival’s official selection.

The prize is worth 10,000 Swiss Francs to be shared equally between the director and the producer, given to an outstanding debut in the official programme.

The award will be given by the Locarno Film Festival’s first feature jury, composed of Moroccan director-producer Khalil Benkirane of the Doha Film Institute, Finnish actor Alma Pöysti who starred in...

Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi and the Locarno Film Festival are teaming up on a new award given to a first feature in the official selection of the Swiss fest.

The prize, called the Mubi Award – Debut Feature, “celebrates boldly distinctive visions for storytelling and the aesthetic possibilities of the medium, spotlighting the new films that will shape the future of cinema,” according to a Locarno statement.

It will provide the winning film with 10,000 Swiss francs to be shared equally between its director and producer. A Mubi deal may or may not ensue, but is certainly within the realm of possibilities.

The Mubi Award – Debut Feature at Locarno will be decided by a jury made up of Moroccan director-producer Khalil Benkirane, who is head of grants at the Doha Film Institute; Finnish actor Alma Pöysti, star of Aki Kaurismäki’s Mubi-distributed hit “Fallen Leaves”; and prominent Swiss makeup designer Esmé Sciaroni,...

The saying goes that miracles are everywhere for those with eyes to see them, which helps to explain why Rita Lopez — the most pious and competitive member of her rural Argentinian community — seems to find one in the first place she looks. Nearing 70, terminally bored of her marriage, and desperate for a heavenly sliver of the recognition that she’s been denied here on Earth, our heroine decides that an old sculpture she uncovers in the musty storeroom of her local church must be the statue of Saint Rita that’s been missing for 30 years, and was assumed to be lost forever.

It’s a big deal. So big, in fact, that Rita (Argentinian icon and “Wild Tales” star Mónica Villa) enlists her sweet and doddering husband Norberto (Horacio Marassi) to help smuggle the statue out of the church so she can spruce it up and unveil it to the...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Paris Theater

Prints of Salò, Make Way for Tomorrow, The Turin Horse, There Will Be Blood, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Au Hasard Balthazar, and Rome, Open City all screen for “Bleak Week.”

Film at Lincoln Center

Films by Minnelli, Bergman, Powell and Pressburger, Lubitsch, and more screen in an Annie Baker-curated series.

Anthology Film Archives

A five-film Aki Kaurismäki retrospective begins, while “Essential Cinema” brings von Stroheim’s Greed on Friday.

Film Forum

Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine begins playing in a new restoration, while films by Jim Jarmusch, George Miller, and more screen in “Out of the 80s“; Stormy Weather shows on Sunday.

Museum of the Moving Image

The Last of the Mohicans and The Bridges of Madison County play on 35mm as part of “See It Big at the ’90s Multiplex”; an Agnieszka Holland retrospective continues...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSSorcerer.“They simply can’t afford another strike,” said Teamsters Local 399 leader Lindsay Dougherty ahead of the first bargaining session with AMPTP this week. She called the matter of driverless trucks “a priority” and promised to “claw back things that we gave away in years past.”After two extensions, IATSE hopes to conclude their own negotiations with AMPTP by June 27, a month before the current contract expires. Having reached tentative agreements on artificial intelligence, subcontracting, and other subjects, the parties have yet to agree on the matter of money, with wage increases and a $670 million gap in pension and health plans at stake.SAG-AFTRA is calling on the US Congress to pass the No Fakes Act, which would...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.For more Cannes 2024 coverage, subscribe to the Weekly Edit newsletter.Eephus.For all the thrills that come from watching the latest film by this or that renowned auteur, I don’t come to Cannes for confirmation, but for the pleasure of discovery. And nothing quite matches the exhilaration of reckoning with a new voice—the kind that jolts you out of your festival torpor and reminds you of all the beauty and magic the cinema can muster. As usual, those epiphanies were a lot harder to come by in the official competition than in the risk-friendlier Directors’ Fortnight, an independent sidebar born in 1969 as a counterprogram dedicated, per its mission statement, “to showcasing the most singular forms of contemporary cinema.” It is here that some of the greatest have shown their earliest stuff, an illustrious pedigree that’s flaunted before each screening through a short reel...

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig from Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has swooped to a late victory on Screen’s 2024 Cannes jury grid with an average score of 3.4.

See the final jury grid below.

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Most Precious Of Cargoes were the final two titles to land on the grid, with the latter scoring 1.2, the lowest score this year.

Rasoulof attended last night’s (May 24) Cannes premiere after fleeing his country following an eight-year prison sentence from Iranian authorities. The family drama follows a judge in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court grappling...

Sean Baker’s Anora has stormed to the top of Screen’s Cannes jury while Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope divided critics and Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio scored the lowest of this year’s festival so far.

Baker’s latest feature received a solid 3.3 - the first film this year to score an average above three stars, overtaking last year’s jury grid winner, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves (3.2).

The US comedy-drama about a sex worker received six scores of four stars (excellent) and four marks of three stars (good). Critics Katja Nicodemus (Germany’s Die Zeit) and Anton Dolin (Meduza) were less convinced,...

When it comes to the indie movie business, you don’t get more old-school than Kino Lorber. The New York outfit, founded as Kino International in 1977, has been the first source of independent cinema for U.S. audiences. It was the first to distribute films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Aki Kaurismäki, Wong Kar-wai, Andrei Tarkovsky and Michelangelo Antonioni in U.S. theaters and the first to restore and rerelease silent classics like Metropolis, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, and the films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

In 2009, when Richard Lorber’s home entertainment company Lorber Ht Digital acquired and merged with Kino International, physical media got added to the mix, and the newly minted Kino Lorber became known for its home entertainment releases, ranging from classic (Nosferatu, The Sacrifice) to cult (Mad Max, Emmanuelle). The Kino Lorber library now counts more than 4,000 titles and the company is continually adding to the list,...

Arthouse streamer Mubi has snatched up Andrea Arnold’s Bird for the U.K. and Ireland ahead of the film’s world premiere in competition in Cannes.

Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Nykiya Adams, and Jason Buda co-star in the new drama from the American Honey and Red Road director. The film follows a 12-year-old who lives with her brother and single dad in a squat in North Kent. As she approaches puberty she seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.

Bird was produced by Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Lee Groombridge for House Productions (The Iron Claw, The Wonder).

Cornerstone is handling international sales for Bird and is co-repping U.S. rights with CAA Media Finance.

Recent Mubi releases include Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Wim Wender’s Perfect Days, Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, and Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, all festival hits. The streamer’s upcoming slate includes Levan Akin’s Crossing,...

Screen International can reveal the critics participating in this year’s jury grid at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25).

Joining Screen’s reviewing team will be critics from 11 international outlets to give their verdict on the 22 films in Competition this year for the Palme d’Or.

This year’s critics are all returners to the jury grid with the exception of Nt Binh who replaces Michel Ciment for France’s Positif. Ciment passed away in November last year at 85 and was a long-time contributor to the jury grid.

The selection also includes Justin Chang for The New Yorker who...

Exclusive: Mubi has tapped Amazon MGM Studios and IFC distribution vet Mark Boxer as their U.S. Head of Distribution. Boxer will be on the Croisette during the run of this year’s Cannes Film Festival scoping out product for Mubi. In the new job, Boxer will be based in the New York office, and he’ll report to Mubi Chief Content Officer Jason Ropell.

The two decades-plus theatrical distribution vet, who first cut his teeth at Savoy Pictures, is known for building out distribution ops and tailoring myriad distribution plans for an array of movies. With Boxer, Mubi gets an internal distribution executive who’ll champion their slate to the fullest, giving their pics the best possible exposure across theaters coast to coast. The hire puts Mubi on a new level of distribution stateside as they make larger investments in features and expand their executive ranks.

Mubi’s upcoming slate,...

German director Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge has won the 2024 Lux European Audience Film Award.

The Teachers’ Lounge was one of five films shortlisted for the award alongside Spanish director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s 20,000 Species Of Bees, Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, French director Nicolas Philibert’s On The Adamant and Estonian director Anna Hints’ Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.

Organised by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinema since 2020, the Lux Audience Award combines the ratings of the European public with the ratings of MEPs, each accounting for 50% of the final result.

With John Travolta, Gregory Nava and a host of other luminaries lighting it up, the 12th Panama International Film Festival wrapped Sunday on a high note, with general attendance exceeding expectations.

Speaking at the closing ceremony held at the Canal Museum, Pituka Ortega-Heilbron, Iff Panama Board President, hailed this latest edition as a vibrant rebirth for the festival.

“We were hit by the phenomenon of the pandemic, and we certainly don’t want to complain or victimize ourselves because to fight is synonymous with living, but this festival has fought tirelessly for the last four years to thrive.”

“There’s still much ground to cover. We must work together – government, community groups, and businesses – to understand how important cultural and creative industries are for our country’s economy and society to grow,” declared Culture Minister Giselle González Villarué, who later told Variety that a delayed feasibility study that would explore...

UK filmmaker Andrea Arnold will be honoured with the Directors’ Fortnight’s Carrosse d’Or award at the 56h edition of the Cannes parallel section running May 15-25.

She will receive the prize from French directors guild La Société des Réalisateurs (Srf) during the opening ceremony.

Launched in 2002, the Carosse d’Or - or “Golden Coach” in French - recognises “innovative” directors for their storied careers behind the camera.

Last year, Souleyman Cissé received the honour that has also previously been given to Frederick Wiseman, John Carpenter, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Aki Kaurismaki, Jia Zhangke, Naomi Kawase and Nanni Moretti.

Running April 4-7, the Iff Panama brings to this year’s edition a rich mix of standout director driven titles from Europe, the Spanish-speaking world and beyond, spangled by highlights from Central America, including Panama:

“Bila Burba,” (Duiren Wagua, Panama)

Documentary. Wagua’s debut feature. The Gunadule nation’s ties with the Panamanian government were fraught with territorial and cultural disputes. In 1925, leaders Simral Colman and Nele Kantule, inspired by their warrior ancestors, joined forces to unite their communities in the ‘Dule Revolution’ against police brutality. Today, their descendants honor this legacy through street theater, transforming community streets into stages to commemorate their ancestors’ struggle.

Bila Burba

“Brown,” (Ricardo Aguilar, Panama)

Penned by Aguilar’s regular collaborator, Manolito Rodríguez, the story centers on Teófilo Alfonso, also known as “Panamá Al” Brown, the first Latin American World Boxing Champion. After a fixed fight costs him his title, he retires to Paris.

Dupieux’s melancholic comedy sees a disillusioned audience member pull a gun before demanding a word processor to write the actors a better play

Quentin Dupieux is one of the vanishingly small number of film-makers on the non-Anglo-American distribution circuit who really is interested in – and allowed to make – straight-up comedy, albeit flavoured with melancholy or violent absurdity. For me, only Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern are comparable. Aki Kaurismäki, for example, is different; although gently and wonderfully comic, his films don’t try to hit the laugh lines in the same way.

The prolific Dupieux has now created a 67-minute sketch, a one-act cine-play about a mediocre Paris stage company performing a dinner-theatre comedy called The Cuckold to a bored, half-empty house. Just as they are grinding through their tired old routines, a guy called Yannick (Raphaël Quenard) stands up in the auditorium and announces that this so-called comedy...

The Argentinan government has moved ahead with plans to withdraw all state funding from the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (Incaa), the film body that backs the majority of Argentinian films and festivals and events including Ventana Sur (with the Marche du Cannes) and the Mar Del Plata International Film Festival.

The announcement was made on March 11 via the country’s Ministry of Human Capital. It claimed the Incaa had a $4m deficit.

“Our commitment to a zero budget deficit is non-negotiable,” said the government in a statement. “The time when film festivals were financed with the hunger...

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

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Oscars Predictions:

Best Original Screenplay Past Lives, from left: Teo Yoo, Greta Lee, John Magro, 2023. © A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection

Weekly Commentary: Following its victories at the Golden Globes for best screenplay and the BAFTA for original screenplay, it appears almost inevitable that “Anatomy of a Fall” will secure the Oscar for its co-writers,...

The César Awards are always the biggest night of the year for French cinema, but the massive award season impact of “Anatomy of a Fall” ensured that this year’s event took on additional importance for Oscar watchers around the globe. When the 49th César Awards took place in Paris on Friday night, all eyes were on Justine Triet and her Palme d’Or-winning film.

Predictably, “Anatomy of a Fall” swept many of the night’s biggest categories. In addition to winning the top prize of Best Film, Triet was honored with Best Director and shared Best Screenplay with her partner Arthur Harari. Stars Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud also won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

The night’s other big winner was Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” which won awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Sound.

Keep reading for a complete list of winners from the 2024 César Awards.

Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall won Best Film and Best Director at the 49th edition of the French César awards Friday.

Triet is only the second women to clinch the Best Director prize in the near 50-year history of the César Awards, after Tonie Marshall for Venus Beauty in 1976.

The director took to the stage with her producers Marie-Ange Luciani at Les Films de Pierre and David Thion at Les Films Pelléas.

Luciani suggested the Best Film honor, which is voted on by the some 4,600 members of the César Academy, was a sign of solidarity for the film and Triet in the light of her controversial Cannes d’Or acceptance speech which provoked a political backlash after she criticized the attitude of Emmanuel Macron’s government towards culture and cinema.

“After Justine’s speech in Cannes and the lively debate she provoked we’d like to say this...