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Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the North and Latin American rights to Rebecca Zlotowski’s French murder mystery film “Vie Privée,” TheWrap has learned.

The project stars Jodie Foster as a renowned psychiatrist who investigates the suspicious death of one of her patients. She is joined by Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira (“Other People’s Children”), Mathieu Amalric (“Serpent’s Path”), Vincent Lacoste (“Lost Illusions”) and Luàna Bajrami (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”).

The project’s promo was unveiled at the European Film Market by Goodfellas, which has sold it nearly everywhere worldwide. In France, the film will be released by Ad Vitam.

The film reunites Zlotowski with her longtime producer, Frédéric Jouve, at Les Films Velvet. Zlotowski’s previous credits include 2023 Venice Golden Lion contender “Other People’s Children,” “An Easy Girl,” “Planetarium,” “Grand Central” and “Dear Prudence.”

It also marks Foster’s first French-language role in two decades following her role...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American and Latin American rights for Rebecca Zlotowski’s French-language murder mystery movie Vie Privée, starring Jodie Foster as a renowned psychiatrist who investigates the suspicious death of one of her patients.

Foster, who speaks fluent French, is joined in the cast by Auteuil and Efira (Other People’s Children), Mathieu Amalric (Serpent’s Path), Vincent Lacoste (Lost Illusions) and Luana Bajrami (Portrait of a Lady On Fire).

The acquisition follows a slew of deals on the film, which is being sold internationally by Goodfellas.

As announced by Deadline over the weekend, it has sold out in Europe with deals to UK (Altitude), Spain (Caramel Films), Germany (Plaion Pictures), Italy (Europictures), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Frenetic Films), Portugal (Pris Audiovisuais), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), ex-Yugoslavia (McF), Hungary (Cinetel Ltf), Romania (Independenta Film), Poland (Best Film), the Baltics and Cis (Pro:vzglyad).

Danish distributor Another World Entertainment has acquired Scandinavian rights,...

Exclusive: Goodfellas has posted a slew of deals for Rebecca Zlotowski’s French-language murder mystery movie Vie Privée, starring Jodie Foster alongside a host of top French talent including Daniel Auteuil and Virginie Efira, and unveiled a first look.

The movie – which shot last fall between Paris and Normandy – is currently in post-production, with an expected festival push this year.

It has sold out in Europe, with deals to UK (Altitude), Spain (Caramel Films), Germany (Plaion Pictures), Italy (Europictures), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Frenetic Films), Portugal (Pris Audiovisuais), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), ex-Yugoslavia (McF), Hungary (Cinetel Ltf), Romania (Independenta Film), Poland (Best Film), the Baltics and Cis (Pro:vzglyad).

Danish distributor Another World Entertainment has struck a multi-territory deal for Scandinavia, covering Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Outside of Europe, it has been acquired for Israel (Lev Cinemas) and Turkey (Yeni Bir Films) and Australia and New Zealand (Transmission)

North America, Latin...

“Cloud,” the action thriller from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa that was Japan’s official submission for the 97th Oscars, has been acquired for North American release by Sideshow and Janus Films, IndieWire has learned exclusively.

“Cloud” made its world premiere out of competition at Venice in 2024 and also played Toronto, Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest, the Busan International Film Festival, and many more. The film failed to make the cut for the Best International Feature shortlist at the Oscars this year, but the title was widely acclaimed and will now be released theatrically in summer 2025. In fact, IndieWire listed it among the year’s Best Undistributed Films.

“Cloud” stars Masaki Suda as a sleazy online reseller of junk and fake goods who is obsessed with making a profit and the thrill of making money in real time. But after turning down a promotion at his day job, he’s approached with a...

After highlighting the 50 best films you may have missed this year and our overall top 50 films of 2024, today we put our spotlight on those that still need a home: movies we loved on the festival circuit––from Berlinale, Sundance, Cannes, TIFF, NYFF, Rotterdam, and beyond—still seeking U.S. distribution.

We hope that highlighting these titles spurs some distributor interest and a forthcoming release; we’ll be sharing any updates in this regard in on social media, so make sure to follow us. As we move into 2025, one can also track our upcoming festival coverage here.

Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)

Following up his career-best work with the mesmerizing Pacifiction, Albert Serra is back just a couple years later, this time with a work of non-fiction. Afternoons of Solitude is a mesmerizing portrait of bullfighting star Andrés Roca Rey, set over just a handful of extended sequences in which we...

Remaking your film is a daring, almost confrontational act for a filmmaker, especially when the original, like Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1998 Serpent’s Path, is already known for its stark, minimalist approach to the revenge thriller. Kurosawa’s latest French-language reworking of the same story does more than just translate the dialogue; he transplants the narrative into a new cultural and cinematic world, replacing Japan’s harsh industrial locations with the restrained elegance of Parisian surroundings.

At its core, the film is a revenge story centered on Albert (Damien Bonnard), a bereaved father trying to discover the truth about his young daughter’s tragic murder. Serpent’s Path explores the psychological toll of vengeance, the ambiguities of morality, and how trauma reshapes human relationships. It is more than just a search for justice.

The film adheres to classic genre patterns as a revenge thriller. Still, Kurosawa’s touch adds psychological and symbolic depth that enriches the material.

Sony Group Corporation is in talks to acquire fellow Japanese conglomerate Kadokawa, according to media reports that emerged this week. The firm’s animation and games properties may underlie the possible M&a activity.

Kadokawa is a 79-year-old company that spans film, games, publishing and animation and is listed on the main Tokyo Stock Exchange. Its shares soared some 23% on Tuesday after the Reuters news agency published a report about the negotiations, quoting two anonymous sources.

Contacted by Variety, Sony declined to comment. Kadokawa has not so far responded.

Hostile takeover bids are extremely rare in Japan. And if talks are moving forward, the most likely outcomes would be either an agreed deal or collapsed talks. However, commentators in Japan have already started to ask whether Sony would attempt to buy the entire Kadokawa group, or to extract its anime and games businesses.

Sony’s senior management has not hidden...

Sony is reportedly in discussions to acquire Kadokawa Corporation, the Japanese media giant behind recent features by Takeshi Kitano and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Sources say that if ongoing talks are successful, a deal could be signed within weeks, according to Reuters.

Sony has held a 1.93% stake in Kadokawa since 2021, when the two firms formed a capital alliance alongside digital advertising firm CyberAgent. Sony also owns a stake in FromSoftware, the Kadokawa subsidiary outfit behind hit video games such as Elden Ring.

Kadokawa was founded in 1945 as a publisher and is known in the film business for Kadokawa Daiei Studio, which was...

Every year is a good year to admire Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose filmography runs far and deep enough to essentially guarantee you’ve yet to discover something wondrous. 2024 is of particular note, though: it’s brought Cloud, a thrilling detour into action cinema; the French-language remake of his essential Serpent’s Path; and Chime, which spends its fleet 50 minutes hitting every key note of his greatest projects sans one dull step.

Kurosawa appeared at this year’s Beyond Fest, where he took time from presenting 2024’s trio to speak with me, via Zoom, on the subjects of prolificacy, pride, and resurrecting an elder form of filmmaking.

Thanks to Junko Goda for providing interpretation.

The Film Stage: I’ve seen two of the three films you made this year––Cloud and Chime. You work at a frequent pace––one pleasure of loving your cinema is that there’s always so much of it...

Writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa returns with this movie, “Cloud,” along with his 50-minuter horror-thriller revisionist “Chime” and the French remake of “Serpent’s Path” to treat the audiences waiting for him for four years since his period-thriller, “Wife of a Spy.” Genre-bending may be a good cinephiliac way to describe “Cloud”, but what Kurosawa achieves in this movie is not to merely bend and shift, but to stack genres one after the other. Or more accurately, to chain genres, in a way that his treatment goes back and forth after each one.

Cloud is screening at Hawai’i International Film Festival

Similar to the decision to have “Chime” run at merely short of an hour, the genre-chain is gutsy, risky, and at times imbalanced. But it is tricky over all: are we to trust Mr. Kurosawa because he is Mr. Kurosawa to treat his film in this way and not fail? But...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa has spent the fall festival season dazzling critics with “Cloud,” a thriller that follows the petty feuds of a sleazy online reseller to their bloody ends in a brilliant send-up of the internet’s unique ability to connect people who would never otherwise realize that they hate each other. The film earned rave reviews after its Venice premiere on its way to being submitted as Japan’s official entry to the Academy Awards. It has received the kind of response that would be a dream come true for any filmmaker — and it’s just one of three new films that Kurosawa released this year.

The “Cure” director is basking in the aftermath of a creative hot streak. Having also unveiled “Serpent’s Path,” his gender-swapped French-language remake of his 1998 thriller of the same name and the 45-minute horror film “Chime,” he’s currently in the midst of a globetrotting...

Renowned Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa received an award for his contributions to Asian cinema at the Busan International Film Festival (Biff) in South Korea. Festival organizers gave Kurosawa the prize for Asian Filmmaker of the Year. This award recognizes the impact Kurosawa has made through his movies and his work growing the Asian film industry.

The 69-year-old director shared insights from his long career during a class at the festival. Kurosawa discussed the creative process behind his films and recent projects. He also talked about how Japanese cinema has evolved over time. Kurosawa’s psychological thriller “Cloud” shows his skill at adapting classic storylines to modern issues. The film explores how ordinary people can turn to violence in extreme situations, similar to American action movies from the 1970s.

“‘Cloud’ follows a man named Yoshii who gets caught up in a series of troubling events after problems arise from his online business,...

Veteran Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa says he took on his latest psychological thriller Cloud with an attempt to make an atypical action film where ordinary people are led to violence under extreme circumstances.

In a masterclass of Kiyoshi arranged by the Busan International Film Festival on Sunday, the Japanese master of genre film talked about classic American action films he grew up watching in the 70s where ordinary people are pushed to the edge of life and end up pointing guns at each other.

“I wondered if I could turn a movie like the ones I saw in the ’70s into a story of Japan today,” says the 69-year-old director who was honored as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year in Busan, given to Asian film professional or organization that has made notable contribution to the development of Asian film industry and culture. “I wanted to make a story of...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, recently selected as Japan’s entry to the Oscars, has been sold to key territories in Asia and Europe by Nikkatsu Corporation.

The suspense thriller has been acquired for the UK and Ireland (Blue Finch Film Releasing), German-speaking Europe (Plaion Pictures Gmbh), South Korea (Media Castle) and Hong Kong/Macau (Golden Scene). They add to sales made to France, Spain, Italy and Taiwan.

The film premiered at Venice in August and went on to play Toronto. It is screening at Busan International Film Festival (Biff), where Japanese auteur Kurosawa collected the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award on Wednesday.

Insiders, it’s me again. Jesse Whittock here to run you through the main international film and TV news. Off we go, and don’t forget to sign up to the newsletter here.

‘Cheers’ To That

Where everybody knows your script: Making your way in the entertainment world today can take everything you’ve got, so it makes sense that you might think remaking an existing program could make things that little bit easier. That feels part of the thinking behind Big Talk Studios’ plan to relocate the Boston bar that Cheers made famous to the UK. On Monday, Jake revealed that Big Talk, known for BBC/Prime Video comedy The Outlaws and many others, has tapped CBS Studios for the rights to remake iconic sitcom Cheers, 30 years after Ted Danson rang the bell for last orders in America. Simon Nye, writer of Men Behaving Badly and The Durrells, is...

Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, this year’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year at Busan International Film Festival, talked about the two films he has playing here, as well as the recent wave of young talent emerging in Japan, during a press event on the second day of the festival.

Mentioning that he turns 69 years old this year, Kurosawa said he decided to churn out two films in a short space of time – Cloud, starring Masaki Suda as a factory worker with a dubious online side hustle, and Serpent’s Path 2024, a French-language remake of his 1998 Japanese film of the same name. Both films are screening as Galas in Busan after Cloud premiered at Venice film festival and Serpent’s Path in San Sebastian.

“It wasn’t my intention, but when I received an invitation from a French producer to remake one of my films in France, I chose Serpent’s Path without hesitation,...

Quick ViewStarfield Shattered Space: How to Reach the Serpent’s Path RitualThe Serpent’s Path Choices in Shattered SpaceWhich Effigy Should You Pick to Get the Armiger Title in Shattered Space?

Starfield received its first major expansion, Shattered Space, recently, and like the base game, the expansion has brought a plethora of content to explore. The expansion takes players to the mysterious home world of House Va’ruun, and they need to complete missions to explore the story further. Even players can earn different titles, including the Armiger title.

The world of Shattered Space is different than its base game. The darkness is overwhelming, and players may easily miss some activities. Therefore, if you are curious about how to earn the Armiger Promised title in Starfield: Shattered Space, this guide will help you with all the required information.

This title comes as a consequence of a choice during a ritual in the Serpent’s Path,...

The opening night of the 29th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) saw a starry audience of more than 4,500 guests in fits of laughter as well as reduced to tears at a ceremony tonight (October 3).

Staged under the illuminated roof of the Busan Cinema Center in South Korea, directors, actors and producers from more than 70 films in Biff’s official selection walked the red carpet, including Thai star Billkin from blockbuster How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, India’s Banita Das from Village Rockstars 2 and Filipino director Brillante Mendoza. Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae was also in attendance as well as Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes,...

“Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae was among the Korean celebrities to lead out a red carpet parade on the opening night of the 29th edition of the Busan International Film Festival. The festival kicked off Wednesday with a bright show of international solidarity and a spectacular, if controversial, Korean film from Netflix.

The ceremony, held under the semi-open roof of the futuristic Busan Cinema Center, was buoyant and attended by 4,500 guests, masking some the woes incurred by the festival itself and by the wider Korean film industry. Officials at the event debuted a new slogan — “Vision of Asia, Ocean of Cinema” — reflecting the South Korean port city’s revised ambitions ahead of next year’s 30th anniversary edition.

Last year, internal divisions ripped the festival management apart, causing sponsors to flee and a reduced budget. While some of the wounds have since been healed, replenished sponsorship and city government funds...

These are not easy times for film festivals, with many of the world’s largest buffeted by political and financial headwinds, and South Korea’s highly-regarded Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has not been immune to the current instability.

Following last summer’s management turmoil, during which many of the festival’s founders and top executives quit, Biff put interim leaders in place and achieved a level of stability for its October 2023 edition. Earlier this year, Park Kwang-su, a veteran filmmaker with long ties to the festival, was appointed as chairman. Ellen Y.D. Kim, also an industry veteran who has previously worked at Biff and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, was appointed as head of Biff’s industry platform, Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm).

But the recruitment process for a permanent festival director did not yield the desired results. With time running out for this year’s edition, former...

“The first version is the work of a talented amateur,” said Alfred Hitchcock to François Truffaut of his 1934 thriller “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” remade by Hitch himself in 1956. “The second was made by a professional.” Few are the filmmakers who gather sufficient career mileage and goodwill to take a second pass at their own work; fewer are those who make something worthwhile in the process. But Kiyoshi Kurosawa, not unlike Hitchcock, is the kind of tireless genre craftsman who seems to approach every feature as a test of his own proficiency: “Serpent’s Path,” a brisk, harsh and, yes, clinically professional update of his own 1998 thriller of the same title, passes said test without a moment’s strain.

There’s no urgent reason to remake “Serpent’s Path” except, one presumes, the primarily self-serving pleasures of doing so. The original, a cold-blooded little revenge tale that twists itself into ever more perverse psychological contortions,...

This review may contain spoilers.

2024 has been a busy year for Kiyoshi Kurosawa. This festival season, the circuit has been circulating three (!) fresh releases of his.“Chime” premiered at Berlinale, “Cloud” at Venice, “Serpent’s Path” is slated for San Sebastian. Of these, “Cloud” has been well-regarded. It has just been selected as Japan’s entry for Best International Film for the 97th Academy Awards and as of Thursday, made its North American debut at Toronto International Film Festival.

Cloud is screening at Toronto International Film Festival

Audiences buzzing with excitement greeted the film on the first night of the fest, and “Cloud” answered well in kind. The feature follows Ryosuke Yoshii (played by the indelible Masaki Suda), who quits his job as a factory worker to get into the Internet reselling business. At first, everything seems to go swimmingly. He moves to a large house in the countryside with his lover,...

Busan International Film Festival has revealed the full line-up for its 29th edition, which will open with the world premiere of Netflix period drama Uprising, produced and co-written by Park Chan-wook, and close with Eric Khoo’s Spirit World, starring Catherine Deneuve.

At a press conference in Seoul today (September 3), it was also announced that Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa will receive the Asian Filmmaker of the Year award, while organisers addressed ongoing funding challenges facing the festival.

Uprising marks the first time a streaming title has been set as the opening feature of Asia’s largest film festival. The South...

Korea’s Busan International Film Festival has unveiled the full program of its 29th edition, which will open with the world premiere of Uprising, produced and co-written by Park Chan-wook, and close with Spirit World, starring Catherine Deneuve and directed by Singapore’s Eric Khoo.

Directed by Kim Sang-Man, Uprising marks Park’s first collaboration with Netflix. Gang Dong-won and Park Jeong-min star in the period epic, which Park co-scripted with Shin Chul, about two childhood friends who are turned into bitter adversaries.

Spirit World stars Deneuve as a legendary singer who flies to Japan for a final sold-out concert after which she embarks on an unexpected life in the spirit world with one of her biggest fans as her guide. Masaaki Sakai also stars in the film, a France-Singapore-Japan co-production that is being sold internationally by Goodfellas.

Busan also announced that Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa has been named Asian Filmmaker Of The Year.

The Busan International Film Festival will expand its screening program by some 8% in what it calls “an effort to maintain a scale befitting Asia’s top film festival.” This is despite a 50% cut in government financial support.

The festival will open on Oct. 2 with “Uprising,” a star-studded period drama from Netflix that was scripted and produced by Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”) and directed by Kim Sang-man.

It will close on Oct. 11 with the Eric Khoo-directed “Spirit World,” which the Singaporean director shot in Japan with French icon Catherine Deneuve in the lead role.

“Uprising” involves a servant (played by Gang Dong-won) and his master, the som of a noble family with military connections. While they agree that the servant should be free, complications arise. The film also stars Cha Seung-won, Kim Shin-rock, Jin Sun-kyu and Jung Sung-il. “With Park Chan-wook’s signature humor oozing through the well-woven narrative, full of intense conflict and tension,...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is having quite the year. Chime, a mid-length chiller, was a standout at the Berlinale. A French-language remake of his own Serpent’s Path will have its European premiere at San Sebastian. And now we have Cloud: a cold thriller with a dark, satirical edge that shows the master filmmaker at his leanest and meanest, taking a clean core idea (what if an online reseller was hunted down by the people he ripped off) and stretching it out until it’s misshapen and disfigured and, much like its protagonist, an unsettling version of its former self.

We might not be quite into late-period Kurosawa just yet, but after four decades behind the camera there are already signs of that same lack of fuss to his filmmaking. Just watch the opening sequence of Cloud, which delivers a full psychological profile of the film’s protagonist before even a title card appears.

Before highlighting 40 films confirmed to be arriving in theaters this fall that you should have on your radar, we turn our attention to the festival-bound films either without distribution nor a confirmed fall release date. Looking over Venice, Toronto, the New York Film Festival, and other selections, we’ve rounded up 20 we can’t wait to see over the next few weeks.

Find our 20 most-anticipated festival premieres below and return for our reviews, as well as news if some of these hit theaters this fall.

2073 (Asif Kapadia; Venice)

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia returns with what appears to be his most ambitious feature yet. Billed as a documentary thriller set in a dystopia 50 years into the future, 2073 borrows inspiration from Chris Marker’s La Jetée, in which a time-traveler attempted to save humanity after an apocalyptic World War III. The Oscar-winning director, primarily known for capturing intimate portraits of sports...

"You sneaky bastard." "Let's kill him." Another sneaky look at this. Tokyo Theater Nikkatsu has debuted a "full" 60-second official trailer for the Japanese film titled Cloud, which is getting a grand premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Fesitval in a week. It's one of three (!!) brand new films from prolific Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa due out in 2024. He also has another one Chime and yet another French one called Le chemin du serpent (or Path of the Snake) in post already. The tile Cloud is a reference to the digital space known as the cloud, as it's a peculiar horror story about how hatred spreads online. Yoshii, a young man who resells goods online by flipping cheap products for high prices, finds himself at the center of a series of mysterious events that put his life at risk. Online threats against him start to become real. The film stars Masaki Suda,...

La sección oficial a competición del Ssiff se llena de grandes nombres. © 72Ssiff

Hace unas semanas se dieron a conocer los títulos españoles que competirán por la Concha de Oro en la 72ª edición del Festival de Cine de San Sebastián, que se celebrará del 20 al 28 de septiembre. Éstos son Soy Nevenka, de Icíar Bollaín, El llanto de Pedro Martín-Calero, Los destellos, de Pilar Palomero, y Tardes de soledad, de Albert Serra.

Hoy se han anunciado títulos restantes de la sección oficial a competición del festival, los cuales acompañarán a Bollaín, Martín-Calero, Palomero y Serra en la contienda por el prestigioso galardón. Entre los títulos más destacados encontramos Cónclave, The End, Hard Truths y The Last Showgirl.

Cónclave, de Edward Berger, director de Sin novedad en el frente, se presenta como un fuerte contendiente a la Concha de Oro. Este film tendrá su premiere mundial en el Festival de Cine...

Eleven Golden Shell competition films have been announced this morning, joining the previously selected quintet. This year’s lineup features a mix of veteran directors, and filmmakers transitioning from non-fiction to narrative debuts, and they even made room for two directorial debuts. Costa-Gavras, François Ozon, Mike Leigh and Kiyoshi Kurosawa are joined by Joshua Oppenheimer‘s The End (Telluride/TIFF) and Maite Alberdi‘s El Lugar De La Otra — the Chilean filmmaker’s fiction debut is actually backed by Netflix and is a period film set 1950s Santiago and focuses on the case of novelist Maria Carolina Geel who killed her lover in front of stunned diners at the Hotel Crillón.…...

At long last, we now have at least one festival premiere set for one of our most-anticipated films of the year. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path, a remake of his superb, bad-vibes 1998 thriller that stars Damien Bonnard, Mathieu Amalric, Ko Shibasaki, and Drive My Car‘s Hidetoshi Nishijima, is now set for a premiere as part of San Sebastián Film Festival’s Official Selection.

Taking place September 20-28, the lineup also features the latest from Edward Berger, Gia Coppola, Costa-Gavras, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mike Leigh, Diego Lerman, Joshua Oppenheimer, and François Ozon. While we could see Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path pop up at other fall fests, it’s exciting to know it’s finally seeing the light of day.

Check out the full lineup below.

Bound In Heaven

Xin Huo (China)

Country(ies) of production: China

Cast: Ni Ni, You Zhou

This film narrates the poignant tale of a...

Edward Berger, Mike Leigh and Joshua Oppenheimer titles have joined the competition line-up at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Berger heads to San Sebastian with Toronto premiere Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, about a cardinal who is tasked following the Pope’s sudden death with supervising the conclave from which his successor will be chosen.

Mike Leigh is appearing in official selection for the first time, with UK-Spain co-production Hard Truths, another Toronto world premiere, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin. Leigh portrays the everyday life of a London family, addressing such issues as family relations, mourning and mental health.

Two Netflix Originals and new movies from Mike Leigh, Joshua Oppenheimer, Gia Coppola and Edward Berger will vie for San Sebastian’s top Golden Shell this September.

The festival features a main competition that is stronger than usual on both bigger-name directors and ‘A’ list stars, such as Tilda Swinton in Oppenheimer’s “The End,” Jamie Lee Curtis and Pamela Anderson in Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl” and the ensemble cast of Berger’s “Conclave” that includes Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini.

Bound for Toronto and Telluride before San Sebastián, Oppenheimer’s “The End” stars Swinton, George MacKay and Michael Shannon in what is described as a post-apocalyptic “Golden Age” musical.

“Conclave,” from “All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger,” is a psychological thriller written by Peter Straughan, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Robert Harris and starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow.

The San Sebastián Film Festival has revealed a bumper Official Selection for its latest edition, which will unfold from September 20 — 28.

The festival, which is celebrating its 72nd edition, will screen new films from established filmmakers such as Edward Berger, Gia Coppola, Costa-Gavras, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mike Leigh, Diego Lerman, Joshua Oppenheimer, and François Ozon alongside works from new filmmakers including Laura Carreira and Xin Huo.

Coppola’s The Last Showgirl heads to San Sebastián following a debut in Toronto. The film stars Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Dave Bautista. The film’s plot follows a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show closes after a 30-year run. Also heading to Spain from The Six is Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin. The British-Spanish production is said to portray the everyday life of a London family, addressing such issues as family relations,...

Who's at the door? Tokyo Theater Nikkatsu has revealed a chilling 30-second teaser trailer for a new horror film titled Cloud, set for release in September in Japan later this year. It's one of three (!!) brand new films from prolific Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa due out in 2024. He also has another one Chime and yet another French one called Le chemin du serpent (or Path of the Snake) in post already. The tile Cloud is a reference to the digital space known as the cloud, as it's a peculiar horror story about how hatred spreads online. Yoshii suddenly becomes a "target" when he hears a voice saying "I'll kill this guy" while looking at an online screen. A man wearing a mask then appears at his door. What happens next? This stars Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Daikan Okudaira, Okayama Amane, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Masataka Kubota. Even with only 30 seconds so far,...