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The Cannes Film Festival will announce the Official Selection for its 78th edition, running from May 13 to 24, on April 10 in Paris.

Cannes Delegate General Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch, who was recently confirmed for a second three-year term in the role until 2027, will preside over the press conference.

The world’s biggest film festival and market is currently riding high on a record performance at the Academy Awards earlier this month, with 2024 selections Anora, Emilia Pérez, Flow and The Substance taking nine Oscars between them.

Sean Baker’s 2024 Palme d’Or winner Anora led the pack, winning Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actress, and Editing.

Ahead of the press conference, the traditional Cannes prediction talk is in full tilt.

Titles for which speculation is running high include Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Maryam Touzani’s Calle Malaga,...

What’s going to be this year’s “Anora”? As the Cannes Film Festival rapidly approaches, that’s the question for artistic director Thierry Fremaux and movie buffs around the world.

A month before Cannes Film Festival’s press conference, the official selection is still very much a work in progress, with little reliable information filtering through about which movies have already been invited. In fact, as of Friday — despite the volume of splashy prediction stories — it appears that only three films have so far been given a golden ticket to compete in Cannes. Variety can reveal that one of them is Jim Jarmusch’s anticipated “Father Mother Sister Brother“ starring Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and Tom Waits.

The last edition of the festival, which Fremaux had warned would be slightly weaker due to the impact of the double Hollywood strikes, proved to be anything but. Headlined by Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anora,...

While this is, admittedly, Not A Movie, Hideo Kojima has perhaps come closest to bridging the video game-cinema divide, either through decades of indispensable work or the recent assistance of A24. It helps collecting onscreen talent that would make any producer blush: as revealed in trailers dating all the way back to 2022, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach returns Léa Seydoux, Norman Reedus, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Guillermo del Toro from its predecessor while adding to the fold George Miller, Fatih Akin, Elle Fanning, Luca Marinelli, and Shioli Kutsuna. With the announcement of a June 26 release comes the project’s new trailer, edited by Kojima himself.

Per his standards, Kojima hasn’t revealed too great a deal––little surprise from a man who’d craft games around characters seen across zero marketing––but there’s no mistaking its borderline-vérité visual sense, off-center comic sensibility, melodramatic pathos, or apocalyptic foreshadowing for anyone else.

You should always take a movie’s claims of being “based on a true story” with a grain of salt. Sure, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is technically inspired by the crimes of Ed Gein and the Conjuring franchise more or less follows the Warrens’ case notes, but the fact is that most horror flicks are more interested in providing audiences with a good scare than informing the public about real events.

Of course, that’s not always the case. Over the years, several genre filmmakers have tried their hand at adapting horrific True Crime stories to the big screen without messing too much with the facts. And in honor of these intrepid storytellers, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six True Crime horror movies.

For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining True Crime Horror as any genre film that actively adapts a...

It’s all quiet on the Berlin deals front as the sales agencies wind down their operations at the European Film Market. By Monday, many offices and stands were almost completely deserted. Deals are being reported but it’s more of a “steady flow” than a gush. That said, most sales agents remain happy that the EFM continues to be an “efficient” place to do business.

AGC Studios’ Stuart Ford tells Variety, “Overseas business has been very solid. International buyers are taking their time, but we’ve been seeing a steady flow of deals closing and fully expect that trend to continue apace, particularly on Bill Condon’s ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ and Noah Hawley’s ‘Nowhere Fast.’”

Oliver Berben, head of German production and distribution powerhouse Constantin Film, comments, “The market at this year’s EFM is okay. It’s a bit quieter than other recent markets that we’ve seen,...

While the official lineup of films at the Cannes Film Festival taking place in May won’t be made public until mid-April, there are already some early rumblings of what projects we should expect to see on that list and there are plenty of reasons to get excited.

That group of potential entries as compiled by Deadline includes directorial debuts with Kristen Stewart‘s “The Chronology Of Water” (still a chance it might not be completed in time), and Scarlett Johansson‘s “Eleanor The Great.”

Read More: Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ Potentially Eyeing Cannes Film Festival Screening

Notable and high-profile films that are expected to screen at Cannes, pending official confirmation: Jim Jarmusch‘s latest effort “Father, Mother, Sister, Brother,” Spike Lee‘s “Highest 2 Lowest” (a remake of the Akira Kurosawa kidnap drama that stars Lee’s longtime muse Denzel Washington), Wes Anderson‘s...

Exclusive: With one of Europe’s three flagship film festivals approaching half way stage, minds are already beginning to focus on the shape of the next two: Cannes and Venice. The former will be upon us before we know it.

As ever, there is no shortage of anticipated movies in contention. Indeed, one leading producer we spoke to remarked that 2025 is looking like “a particularly tough year, a much stronger year than 2024”. The surprise to us during our research for this piece is just how many big movies look like they will push to fall rather than launch on the Croisette. That’s not to say that Cannes won’t be box office. It remains the gold standard. The importance of both Cannes and Venice as launchpads is at an all-time high. Just look at how many Oscar nominees now start out at those two festivals — five of this year...

Germany’s film industry may have been hit hard by the economic slowdown, resulting in an overall gloomy outlook, but it’s still celebrating the biggest number ever of local films and co-productions at this year’s Berlinale and looking forward to a diverse lineup of 2025 releases, among them a number of high-profile sequels.

Compounding the sector’s overall predicament was the collapse of the federal government in November, forcing snap elections scheduled for Feb. 23. The political crisis left an ambitious reform of the country’s federal film funding system only partially implemented and a matter to be tackled by the next government.

The industry nevertheless welcomed the current government’s last-minute extension and increase of two key funding incentives in December that has ensured planning security for producers, studio operators and production service providers.

In the meantime, the local film community is cheering the strong showing of German titles at the Berlin Film Festival.

SXSW 2025 already has a stacked horror lineup this year, and they’ve made it even moreso with the announcement of the fourth round of Keynote and Featured Speakers this year. That includes the cast and creators of HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us, and Kojima Productions’ own Hideo Kojima, who is set to discuss and share new details about Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.

Ahead of the second season of The Last of Us debuting this spring, co-creators, executive producers, writers, and directors Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, and cast members Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, and Young Mazino will be on hand to provide a glimpse into the upcoming season.

Meanwhile, Hideo Kojima will sharing more about Death Stranding 2, which includes the returning Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges, as well as George Miller, Fatih Akin, Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna.

“Probably the best co-producers in the world?” is the provocative title of one of the International Film Festival Rotterdam panels during “Pulling Focus,” IFFR Pro’s day dedicated to the global influence of Dutch cinema held on February 4.

The Dutch don’t normally boast; their lack of egotism is what can make them such excellent collaborators. Nonetheless, leading producers in the Netherlands agree they are indeed now adept at co-production - and that is partly because it has become a market necessity.

“Over the last 10 or 15 years, the Dutch have really oriented themselves toward the international market. In the past,...

True Crime is well-treaded territory for horror. The '80s had its based-on-a-true-story boom, the '90s its gritty detectives, and the 2000s its thrillers that aimed to subvert it all. Through every era, portrayals of serial killers stand out. At the “true” end, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and David Fincher’s Zodiac have captivated audiences and critics alike while fictional serial killers like Hannibal Lecter and Patrick Bateman are cultural staples. Fatih Akin, director of the acclaimed German film Head-On, tests the audience's love of depraved killers in The Golden Glove. A horror-comedy like the book it’s based on, The Golden Glove doesn’t use the dissonant genre to make light of murder. Instead, it leans into the absurdity of red flags exhibited by these offenders and how the beliefs of those around them condone their atrocities.

Hamburg’s regional film fund Moin has secured an additional €10m for its budget for the next two years.

Moin’s annual budget will rise from its current €15m to €20m for 2025 and 2026 and will be spent in part on more support for Filmfest Hamburg as well as for graduation films by students of Hamburg Media School and the University of Fine Arts Hfbk.

The extra spending was announced on Thursday morning (12 Dec) by members of Hamburg’s coalition of the Social Democratic Party and Alliance 90/The Greens when they visited the set of the Norwegian writer-director Itonje Søimer Guttormsen...

Kojima and company made an appearance at Tokyo Game Show 2024, bringing new info and footage for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, including a new Photo Shoot Event, character names and, by performing certain actions in the game, an in-game performance by Daichi Miura.

For starters, Kojima revealed some of the new characters for the sequel to the 2019 hit, with George Miller providing his likeness for Tarman (voiced by Mitsuru Miyamoto in Japanese), Dollman being portrayed by Fatih Akin (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita in Japanese), Elle Fanning‘s Tomorrow (voiced by Shion Wakayama in Japanese), and Rainy (portrayed and voiced by Shioli Kutsuna).

Not to be confused with a Photo Mode (which will be added to Death Stranding 2), the “Photo Shoot Event” allows the player to photograph the characters with an instant camera. Kojima suggested that while this may seem like a fun extra, it does have some influence on the story.

A brand-new actor and character for Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding 2: On The Beach has been announced at this year's Tokyo Game Show. As talented as this Japanese voice actor is, Kojima admitted he picked her because he loved her in an acclaimed anime action series.

A social media fan account of The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus -- who stars in the Death Stranding series as Sam Porter Bridges -- shared a clip of the PlayStation sequel's presentation at the Tokyo Game Show 2024 event in Japan. The brief clip on X (formerly Twitter) features Shion Wakayama, one of the newly announced actors for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, talking to the audience. It also features Kojima admitting he hired Wakayama because he enjoyed her performance as Takina Inoue in Lycoris Recoil, the critically acclaimed "Girls with Guns" anime series from 2022.

Related Death Stranding Creator Hideo Kojima Discusses...

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will officially be released sometime around next year exclusively for the PlayStation 5, and the gaming community has high expectations from a Hideo Kojima video game. The first game was released on the PlayStation 4 and pushed the limits of the hardware thanks to the advanced properties of the Decima engine that was graciously gifted by Guerrilla Games and the engine has evolved immensely since then.

The gaming community is eager to deliver more parcels in the Death Stranding sequel. Image Credit: Kojima Productions

Some players often use graphics and visuals as a metric to determine if a game is worthy of being called a next-gen title. Fortunately, Hideo Kojima is arguably one of the best game directors working today and is an expert in storytelling and great visuals. There is no telling how far the sequel will push the limits of the PlayStation 5, especially amidst...

Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to “Viet and Nam” which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard.

Directed by Truong Minh Quý, the film tells the passionate love story of two young coal miners who face separation and ultimately make sacrifices to stay together. Represented in international markets by Pyramide International, “Viet and Nam” stars Pham Thanh Hai and Dao Duy Bao Dinh.

“’Viet and Nam’ was one of the most mesmerizing films I’ve seen in awhile, romantic, tragic and tender directed with a unique style that embodies the auteurs we cultivate,” said Marcus Hu of Strand Releasing.

“We are very happy that after its wonderful journey at Cannes in Un Certain Regard, Viet And Nam can now meet the American audience. We are also delighted to collaborate once again with Strand, one of our long-standing partners. We are confident that they...

Fatih Akin’s latest film, Rhinegold, tells the fascinating true story of German rapper Xatar, born Giwar Hajabi. Hailing from Iranian Kurdistan, Hajabi endured immense hardships from a young age after his family was forced to flee political turmoil. As a refugee, Hajabi bounced between Iraq, France, and Germany, struggling to find stability in his youth. Facing discrimination and financial troubles, he drifted towards crime, dealing drugs, and getting embroiled in Amsterdam’s criminal underworld.

Just when it seems his future is sealed, Hajabi discovers a passion for music. Enrolling in a prestigious conservatory, he nurtures his musical talents yet stays tangled with gangsters. A botched gold heist lands Hajabi in a Syrian prison, where unspeakable torture awaits. Remarkably, this is where Hajabi’s career truly begins, as he starts recording rap songs, honing his lyrical skills. Upon release, Hajabi emerges, reborn as Xatar, rapidly rising to fame throughout Germany.

Biopics about musical artists seem to be pumped out without much consideration of whether or not the artist in question has a story that’s really worth telling. But Giwar “Xatar” Hajabi, a Kurdish rapper famous in Germany, has a genuinely extraordinary life story, having gone from an Iranian refugee who spent time as a child in a Bagdad prison to a gangster to a highly successful artist and businessman. It’s the type of rags-to-riches ascent that you couldn’t script better — which makes it a shame that the thoroughly mediocre “Rhinegold” can’t shape Habaji’s life into anything particularly engaging.

“Rhinegold” comes from director Fatih Akin, a Golden Bear winner for his 2004 breakout film “Head-On,” whose other achievements include a Best Screenplay prize for 2007’s “The Edge of Heaven” and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film for 2017’s “In the Fade.” Despite Akin’s obvious pedigree...

“Wild Diamond,” the feature debut of Agathe Riedinger which competed at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has been acquired by Strand Releasing for North American rights.

The critically acclaimed film tells the story of Liane, a 19-year old girl whose quick rise to fame in the world of social influencers and media explodes when she gets cast in a reality TV show entitled Miracle Island.

“We’re thrilled to be handling the debut feature by Ms. Riedinger, we were entranced by this directorial new voice appearing in competition at the Cannes main slate,” said Strand Releasing’s Jon Gerrans who negotiated the deal and Agathe Mauruc at Pyramide International. Gerrans added that “Wild Diamond” “will resonate with audiences in North America as the film addresses our fascination and obsession with popularity on social media.”

“Wild Diamond” has sold in the following territories, Baltics, Benelux, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cis, Czech Republic,...

"Life writes its own story." Strand Releasing has debuted their own official US trailer for the German film titled Rhinegold (originally written as Rheingold in German for their release), from the Turkish-German director Fatih Akin. This already opened in Germany back in 2022 - we posted the trailer back then as well. It didn't have much of an impact, and I doubt anyone in the US will be watching this movie either. Fatih Akin's Rhinegold captures the life of German hip-hop rapper, entrepreneur, and ex-convict Giwar Hajabi - best known by his stage name "X A T A R" or Xatar. Born to Kurdish parents in Iran, he was imprisoned in Iraq for being Kurdish. From the hell of that Iraqi prison, Giwar Hajabi came to Germany as a young boy with his family in the mid-1980s and fought through even more challenges to make a name for himself in music.

Mubi has unveiled next month’s streaming lineup, including Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s five-part series Penance, Kit Zauhar’s new release This Closeness along with her debut feature Actual People, a pair of films by Paul Schrader, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, Luke Lorentzen’s stellar documentary A Still Small Voice, Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth, and more.

In his review of This Closeness earlier this month, Ethan Vestby said, “The film is made with a great deal of formal control, and even though the low stakes and small scale will have it be compared to mumblecore films, this is far sleeker than the average Joe Swanberg joint of yesteryear: long takes, a fixed camera, strategic employment of close-ups, and a rich soundscape (the audio emanating from outside the window of traffic and birdsong is instantly identifiable to anyone living in a city).”

Check out the lineup below, and get 30 days free here.

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who fled Iran last week after being given an 8-year prison sentence, will be in Cannes for the world premiere of his new film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

Representatives of Rasoulof confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Rasoulof will attend the premiere of The Seed of the Sacred Tree in Cannes on Friday, May 24, and will do press events and promotion for the movie.

The director escaped Iran by ditching all his trackable electronic devices and fleeing by foot over the mountains out of the country. He has found shelter in Germany. In an interview with The Guardian, Rasoulof said he expects he will soon return to his home country and sit out his prison sentence, but that he had “no choice” but to flee the country because he was determined to continue to make movies about his people and the real situation in Iran.

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof is set to attend the Cannes premiere of his latest feature, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, after receiving an eight-year prison sentence from Iranian authorities and fleeing his home country.

Speculation had been rife that the dissident director would attend the festival when the film receives its world premiere in Competition on Friday (May 24), having found asylum in Germany, but Cannes’ general delegate Thierry Fremaux has now confirmed his attendance.

“We are particularly touched to welcome [Rasoulof] here as a filmmaker,” Fremaux said in a statement to Agence France-Presse (Afp).

Our joy will be that of...

International filmmakers are calling for solidarity with Mohammad Rasoulof and persecuted filmmakers in Iran in an open letter, shared with Variety.

Rasoulof – about to screen his latest film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in Cannes’ main competition – was sentenced to imprisonment and torture by the Islamic Republic of Iran. He fled the country.

“We condemn the inhumane treatment of Rasoulof and numerous other independent artists in Iran, who are being severely punished, criminalized and silenced for exercising their artistic freedom,” it was stated in the letter, already signed by “Holy Spider” star Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Fatih Akin, Atom Egoyan, Ildiko Enyedi, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Laura Poitras, Sandra Hüller, Sean Baker, Payal Kapadia and Ariane Labed.

“We stand in full solidarity with Rasoulof’s demands and call upon the international film community to raise our voices against an Islamist dictatorship that systematically oppresses every aspect of their society’s lives.

Strange but true: after 15 years as an international movie star, propelled to fame in 2004 by Wolfgang Petersen’s historical epic Troy, German-born Diane Kruger won the Best Actress award in Cannes for her first-ever performance in her native language. Fatih Akin’s provocative 2017 drama In the Fade, in which she played a widow consumed by revenge after a terror attack, revealed an unexpectedly tough new side of her glamorous persona.

This year she returns to Cannes starring alongside Vincent Cassel in David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, a very different, and for its director highly personal film about the very same subject, love and loss, following his own wife’s death in 2017. This typically Cronenbergian plot centers on Karsh (Cassel), a businessman and grieving widower who creates a device to connect with the dead, using a high-tech burial shroud. This burial tool — installed at his own state-of-the-art but controversial cemetery — allows...

“I took it hard. I wanted it to be special for him,” says Diane Kruger of performing in David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, a film the legendary director wrote as part of his grieving process after the death of his late wife, Carolyn.

The Shrouds, which is screening in competition in Cannes, follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel), a prominent businessman and widower who, inconsolable since the death of his wife, invents a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their departed loved ones in their graves. Kruger plays three roles — that of the late wife and her sister, as well as a virtual avatar that is a rendering in CG animation.

“One thing [David] said to me, which I think Vincent says in the film, is that when his wife passed and they put her in a coffin, he had this horrible, horrible urge to jump in with her...

After four Oscar wins for “All Quiet on the Western Front” last year and the Oscar nomination for “The Teachers’ Lounge” this year, Germany’s film sector seemed to be on the up, but while a government plan to revamp the country’s film funding system is broadly welcomed, its painfully slow progress is also causing some anxiety.

The fact that Cannes’ various sections contain not one feature by a German filmmaker may be seen as a cause for concern, but 13 German productions and co-productions have been selected. This underscores how Germany’s current funding structures nurture co-productions, which in turn benefits local producers. For example, both Karim Aïnouz’s “Motel Destino” and Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour” in the Competition section have Germany’s Match Factory Productions as a co-producer.

The Berlinale was a better showcase for German talent, with Matthias Glasner picking up the screenplay award for “Dying,” and...

Glenn Kendrick Ackermann will kick off worldwide sales in Cannes through his V International Media on the supernatural drama Can You Hear Me starring Peter Facinelli from The Twilight Saga.

Charlotte Radford, who starred alongside Daryl Hannah in The American Connection, also stars and wrote the screenplay.

The cast includes James Cosmo from Game Of Thrones, John Standing from The Crown, Matt Barber of Downton Abbey, and Jane Thorne from Night Train To Lisbon.

Simon Hunter, who helmed Mutant Chronicles, directs the story about the whirlwind romance and marriage between Annabel and Samuel, an American soldier who is severely wounded in the first World War.

Glenn Kendrick Ackermann will kick off worldwide sales in Cannes through his V International Media on the supernatural drama Can You Hear Me starring Peter Facinelli from The Twilight Saga.

Charlotte Radford, who starred alongside Daryl Hannah in The American Connection, also stars and wrote the screenplay.

The cast includes James Cosmo from Game Of Thrones, John Standing from The Crown, Matt Barber of Downton Abbey, and Jane Thorne from Night Train To Lisbon.

Simon Hunter, who helmed Mutant Chronicles, directs the story about the whirlwind romance and marriage between Annabel and Samuel, an American soldier who is severely wounded in the first World War.

Cannes Film Festival has completed its 2024 Official Selection with 13 new films, including three new Competition titles.

Michel Hazanavicius’ The Most Precious Of Cargoes, Emanuel Parvu’s Three Kilometres To The End Of The World and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig join the Competition line-up, bringing it to 22 films.

There are four additional special screenings, including Oliver Stone’s documentary Lula, about Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Also added are Arnaud Desplechin’s Filmlovers! [pictured], Lou Ye’s An Unfinished Film and Tudor Giurgiu’s Nasty.

Un Certain Regard will open with Runar Runarsson’s When The Light Breaks,...

Diane Kruger is re-teaming with her In the Fade director Fatih Akin on the new German period drama Amrum, which began principal photography in Hamburg today.

The film follows a family living in a small village on Amrum Island in rural northern Germany in early 1945, in the final days of World War II. The story is based on the childhood memories of Akin’s In the Fade co-screenwriter, German author and director Hark Bohm. Bohm had initially planned to direct the film himself before handing the reins over to Akin, who co-wrote the Amrum screenplay.

The movie is a coming-of-age story of Nanning, a 12-year-old boy (played by Jasper Billerbeck) and his best friend Hermann (Kian Köppke). Laura Tonke (When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before) plays Nanning’s mother, Hille Hagener. Kruger plays Tessa Bendixen, a farmer’s wife. Matthias Schweighöfer (Oppenheimer), Detlev Buck (Same Same...

Fatih Akin’s WWII coming-of-age tale Amrum has begun shooting in Hamburg with newcomer Jasper Billerbeck joining German stars Laura Tonke and Diane Kruger in the cast.

The feature, which was first announced in 2022, is set on Germany’s North Sea island of Amrum in the spring of 1945, in the final days of World War Two.

It revolves around a 12-year-old boy called Nanning who goes seal hunting, fishing at night and toils in the fields to help his mother feed the family. When peace is declared, completely new conflicts arise, and Nanning must learn to find his own way.

The screenplay is based on the childhood memories of German director and screenwriter Hark Bohm, a long-standing friend of Akin.

The pair previously collaborated on the screenplay of Turkish-German director Akin’s award-winning 2017 feature In The Fade.

“What began as a Hark Bohm film now becomes my twelfth feature film...

Production is underway today in Hamburg on Fatih Akin’s Second World War drama Amrum, with Jasper Billerbeck, Laura Tonke and Diane Kruger leading the cast.

Beta Cinema has boarded the film and will launch international sales in Cannes next month. The film is produced by Akin’s own company bombero international with Warner Bros Film Productions Germany, in co-production with Rialto Film.

Warner Bros Pictures will release the film in Germany in September 2025.

Written by Akin and his In The Fade co-writer Hark Bohm, Amrum is set on the eponymous German island in spring 1945, as a 12-year-old boy helps...

Beta Cinema is launching international sales in Cannes for director Fatih Akin’s upcoming film “Amrum,” which starts shooting in Hamburg Monday. The film stars Jasper Billerbeck, Laura Tonke and Diane Kruger.

“Amrum” will be released in German theaters in September 2025, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

It is set on the island of Amrum in spring 1945. Seal hunting, fishing at night, toiling in the fields – nothing is too dangerous or too arduous for 12-year-old Nanning to help his mother feed the family in the final days of World War II. With the longed-for peace, however, completely new conflicts arise, and Nanning must learn to find his own way.

The story is based on the childhood memories of German director and screenwriter Hark Bohm. Akin said: “What began as a Hark Bohm film now becomes my 12th feature film and an extraordinary mission: ‘Amrum’ is the journey of young Nanning, who...

German acting legend Hanna Schygulla will be honored this year with a lifetime achievement award at the German Film Awards.

Best known for her work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), and Lili Marleen (1981), Schygulla’s career has included collaborations with the likes of Wim Wenders (1975’s Wrong Move), Jean-Luc Godard (1982’s Passion) and Fatih Akin (2007’s The Edge of Heaven). More recently, the 80-year-old actress has a scene-stealing cameo in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-winner Poor Things as Martha von Kurtzroc, the eccentric woman Emma Stone’s character befriends on the cruise ship.

“Hanna Schygulla is an institution of German and European cinema,” said Alexandra Maria Lara, president of the German Film Academy, explaining the decision of the honorary jury. “Through her long-standing collaboration with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, she wrote herself into film history. She became an icon of German auteur cinema with international appeal.

The awards ceremony for the 74th Berlin International Film Festival kicks off Saturday night, where this year’s jury, headed by 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o, will hand out the coveted Gold and Silver Bears.

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...

Sebastian Stan, whose “A Different Man” screens in the Berlin Film Festival, Christoph Waltz and Tom Wlaschiha, the “Faceless Man” in “Game of Thrones,” were among the guests at Studio Babelsberg Night, the historic Berlin film studios’ party at Soho House Berlin held to celebrate the 74th edition of the festival. The event was supported by Mexican tequila brand Don Julio, the Motion Picture Assn. and Little Moons. Variety was the media partner.

Among the leading filmmakers welcomed by Babelsberg were Fatih Akin, who won Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2004, Julia von Heinz, whose film “Treasure,” starring Lena Dunham, plays at the Berlinale, and Tom Tykwer, who shot series “Babylon Berlin” at Babelsberg and recently shot feature film “The Light” there.

Christoph Waltz

Other directors and writers at the party included “Dark” creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, who shot Netflix’s “1899” at Babelsberg, Lars Kraume, Detlev Buck and David Wnendt.

The Berlin Film Festival officially kicked off Thursday evening with an eventful opening ceremony at the Berlinale Palast theater in the German capital.

After a divisive build-up to the fest, the opening ceremony was, in contrast, a relatively conventional affair. High-profile attendees included veteran German filmmakers Wim Wenders and Fatih Akin, Phantom Thread actress Vicky Krieps, and international jury president Lupita Nyong’o alongside her fellow jury members Brady Corbet, Ann Hui, Christian Petzold, Albert Serra, Jasmine Trinca and Oksana Zabuzhko.

The evening’s opening film was Small Things Like These, starring Cillian Murphy, who was in attendance with producer Matt Damon and co-star Emily Watson. Directed by Tim Mielants (Peaky Blinders), Small Things Like These is the first Irish film to open the Berlinale.

Related: ‘Small Things Like These’ Review: Cillian Murphy Plays A Father In Torment In ’80s-Set Irish Trauma Tale

Before the pic opened, the crowd inside the...

After more or less a solid decade of notable parts in multiple languages (most notably Fatih Akin’s 2017 In the Fade), seasoned German-Turkish actor Numan Acar (who will next be seen in Terrence Malick’s long-awaited The Way of the Wind) returns behind the camera to unpack some personal memories with The Suitcase (aka Waliz). Working with two distinct time frames, the short (which had its world premiere at the 2023 Red Sea Film Festival) looks at themes of displacement, powerlessness and identity, we are witness to all strands of violence on a people who unfortunately come to think of this object as vital to their survival and acts as a lifeline to their past, their family history and physical safety.…...

Norman Reedus was surprised and impressed by the Death Stranding 2 trailer and found new meaning in certain lines. Reedus described the complexity and scale of the world, expressing that some elements are still mysteries for him. Other actors involved in the game, such as Elle Fanning and George Miller, also had positive reactions to the trailer.

The newest trailer for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a fascinating window into the game, and it seems like star Norman Reedus shares that sentiment. As the actor who lends face, voice, and motion capture to the role of Sam Porter Bridges, Norman Reedus has one of the most direct windows into the world of Death Stranding that anyone besides director Hideo Kojima himself can boast. When it comes to the PlayStation State of Play trailer for the game, however, it seems like Reedus was in for some surprises of his own.

No one is doing it quite like video game auteur Hideo Kojima. Boasting massive budgets and even bigger ideas for interactive experiences we’ve never seen before, the famed game developer has more than just Death Stranding 2 on the docket. Here’s a quick breakdown of all the upcoming Kojima Productions titles for PlayStation and Xbox, including release dates and trailers where available!

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) reached the Beach at the end of Death Stranding and learned the truth not only about his Bb Lou but his own origin. Cutting ties with the Uca to live a life off the grid with Lou, Sam’s journey across post-apocalyptic America was over. But the rest of the world is still waiting to be reconnected, according to the trailers for the highly-anticipated sequel, and it’ll be up to Sam to make the long...

That rumour last week regarding Death Stranding 2 and Until Dawn proved to be correct, as Sony addressed both games during their State of Play today. Not only that, but we also finally got an update regarding Bloober Team’s upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, the long-awaited Silent Hill: The Short Message, Judas and more!

After multiple leaks that Konami seemingly ignored, they’ve finally announced Silent Hill: The Short Message. Not only that, but you can grab it today for free on the PlayStation 5! A spin-off of the main Silent Hill series, The Short Message is set in modern-day Germany. You play as Anita, who after receiving messages from her friend Maya, ends up trapped in a crumbling apartment block known as The Villa. Unlike previous Silent Hill titles, The Short Message is played from a first-person perspective.

Following the reveal of The Short Message, Konami gave us a long-awaited...

The Red Sea International Film Festival Closing Night Gala was attended by Halle Berry, Nicolas Cage, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Andrew Garfield, Henry Golding, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joel Kinnaman Jason Statham on December 07, 2023 in Jeddah.

The Festival Awards night will close with the Mena Premiere of Ferrari, the new biopic from Michael Mann and starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz. Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki’s most recent film The Boy and the Heron, will screen as the Public Closing Film.

In celebration of female voices in film, the Red Sea International Film Festival (RedSeaIFF) and Vanity Fair Europe hosted the 5th Women In Cinema Dinner event this evening, shining a light on the achievements of women both on and behind the camera who are helping shape the film industry and inspire a new generation of talent in Saudi Arabia, Africa, and India.

The event was held at the Shangri-La in Jeddah,...

Exec has previously headed sales for HanWay, Protagonist and eOne.

Lemming Film, the Netherlands-based producer of festival titles including Sweet Dreams and Milk, has appointed Charlotte van Weede as managing director.

Van Weede was previously sales director for ITV Studios’s global entertainment division whose catalogue includes formats such as The Voice and Love Island.

Before that, she worked at Anton Capital as head of distribution and Global Road as president of international sales. Van Weede has also worked as a feature film consultant at the Dutch Film Fund and spent four years as SVP of eOne Features in London...

The Match Factory has acquired the international rights to the recently remastered 4K version of Fatih Akin’s 2005 documentary “Crossing the Bridge — The Sound of Istanbul.” The film is celebrating its new restored version with the premiere tomorrow at Red Sea Film Festival.

In the film, Akin goes on a journey through Istanbul, the city that bridges Europe and Asia, and challenges familiar notions of East and West. His voyage led to the discovery of a broad spectrum of music ranging from modern electronic, rock and hip-hop to classical “Arabesque.”

“Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul” is a crossover experience of both traditional and modern music where East meets West in the bustling Bosporus metropolis. The documentary is a significant component of Akin’s filmography with a mix of Turkish culture, German background and a good pinch of music and lifestyle.

“This restored documentation can serve as a reminder of what was lost.

Remastered 4K version is premiering tomorrow at Red Sea International Film Festival

The Match Factory has acquired the international rights to the recently remastered 4K version of Fatih Akin’s Crossing The Bridge - The Sound Of Istanbul (2005).

The documentary’s restored version is premiering tomorrow (December 2) at Red Sea International Film Festival.

It sees Akin goes on a journey through Istanbul’s music scene, discovering a broad spectrum ranging from modern electronic, rock and hip-hop to classical “Arabesque”.

“This restored documentation can serve as a reminder of what was lost. It gives a precise portrait of a momentum of two decades ago in Turkey.

The Match Factory has acquired international rights to the newly restored 4K version of Fatih Akin’s documentary Crossing The Bridge: The Sound Of Istanbul ahead of its retrospective screening at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

The film, which originally played Out Of Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005, goes on a journey through Istanbul, exploring its position as a city that bridges Europe and Asia through its music.

The crowd-pleasing work, which won Audience Award at the music-focused Ghent International Film Festival in 2005, brings in a wide spectrum of music from modern electronic, rock and hip-hop to classical “Arabesque.”

The documentary is considered a significant component of Akin’s filmography, which is infused with his Turkish roots and German upbringing.

“This restored documentation can serve as a reminder of what was lost. It gives a precise portrait of a momentum of two decades ago in Turkey. The...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival kicked off its third edition on Thursday with the world premiere of Dubai-based Iraqi director Yasir Al-Yasiri’s fantasy “Hwjn” and a glitzy red carpet featuring Will Smith, Sharon Stone, Baz Luhrmann, Ranveer Singh and a slew of Arabic stars.

Johnny Depp also posed on the red carpet and attended the opening gala, but kept a lower profile.

Depp is at the festival with Maïwenn’s Cannes-opener “Jeanne du Barry,” which was funded by the Red Sea Film Foundation. Maïwenn also made the trek to Jeddah. Depp’s relationship with the foundation now continues with his directorial effort “Modi,” a biopic about Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani also backed by the fund. The actor is scheduled to deliver an onstage conversation in the coming days.

The Israel-Hamas war that has caused cancellations of several movie celebrations across the Arab world has...

Seven classic feature films, to be screened for the first time in Saudi Arabia, are showing at the Red Sea Film Festival’s Treasures sidebar in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Director of Arab programs and film classics Antoine Khalife tells Variety: “We really wanted to focus this year on the musical, as well as films about cinema itself.”

Films with a musical theme include a screening of a 4K restoration of Fatih Akin’s 2005 documentary about the music scene in Turkey “Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul” and Jacques Demy’s classic French musical “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort,” starring Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac and Gene Kelly from 1967.

“From the Arab world, we wanted to have something unusual: ‘The Victory of Youth,’ which stars Farid Al-Atrash and Asmahan,” Khalife says. The real-life siblings play brother and sister singer-musicians looking for fame via the silver screen. “We looked really hard to find...

Though the Red Sea Film Festival will feature a slew of films from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region – including 11 feature films from Saudi Arabia – there is a rich roster of international fare set to launch locally from Jeddah.

Kaleem Aftab, the festival’s director of international programming, says they received lots more submissions for this year’s third edition. He is particularly proud of the presence in competition of Indian-born auteur Tarsem Singh’s romancer “Dear Jassi,” the first film set in India by the flamboyant director of “The Cell,” and of Japanese master Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Venice prizewinner “Evil Does Not Exist.”

Peppered through various Red Sea sections are the Mena region premieres of other high-profile titles such as Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla”; Belgian-based Moroccan duo Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah flashy third feature “Gangsta”; British director James Marsh’s biographical film about Irish playwright Samuel Beckett...