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The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center has announced the full lineup for the 54th edition of New Directors/New Films, unspooling at MoMA on April 2–13.

The event, presenting 24 features and nine short films — including 20 North American or U.S. premieres — will open with Sarah Friedland’s Venice award-winner Familiar Touch and close with Alex Russell’s Lurker from Sundance and Berlin. Both are New York premieres.

Familiar Touch, Friedland’s debut, won three top prizes in the 2024 Venice Film Festival Orizzonti Competition and showcases an astonishing performance by Kathleen Chalfant.

Russell’s feature debut Lurker, is a tense thriller about the darker side of pop-star worship.

Films in the Nd/Nf program probe a diverse array of themes, including community and co-existence, family histories, the lives of artists, global political issues, and the complexities of youth and coming of age. A number of works experiment with hybrid forms,...

After showcasing work from the likes of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Souleymane Cissé, Jia Zhangke, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar-wai, Agnieszka Holland, Denis Villeneuve, Luca Guadagnino, and more, New Directors/New Films is back for their 54th edition, taking place from April 2-13 at Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. The 2025 lineup has now been unveiled, including Sarah Friedland’s Opening Night selection Familiar Touch, Alex Russell’s Closing Night selection Lurker, as well as more acclaimed features such as Invention, Drowning Dry, Fiume o morte!, No Sleep Till, Two Times João Liberada, Timestamp, and more.

Dan Sullivan, 2025 Nd/Nf Co-Chair and Flc Programmer, says, “The lineup for this year’s edition of New Directors/New Films inevitably reflects the uncertainties and tragedies of our global situation in 2025, yet it also evinces the sheer resilience of cinema and the...

The 54th annual New Directors/New Films festival is almost here. IndieWire can unveil this year’s lineup of the beloved program from theMuseum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center. The 2025 New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf) will take place April 2 – April 13.

Sarah Friedland’s debut feature “Familiar Touch” will open the festival with its New York premiere. The drama centers on octogenarian Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant) who has a surreal experience after relocating to an assisted-living facility. The feature earned three awards in the 2024 Venice Film Festival Orizzonti Competition, including the Lion of the Future, Best Director, and Best Actress for Chalfant.

Nd/Nf will close with the New York premiere of buzzy Sundance 2025 film “Lurker,” directed by “Beef” and “The Bear” writer and supervising producer Alex Russell. Théodore Pellerin stars as a retail worker who becomes obsessed with an up-and-coming musician (Archie Madekwe). “Lurker” is Russell’s feature directorial debut.

Exclusive: UTA has inked filmmaker and choreographer Sarah Friedland whose movie Familiar Touch made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last fall.

Friedland’s debut feature film received both the Lion of the Future – Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Debut Film and the Horizons Award for Best Director at Venice.

The pic which stars Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen with H. Jon Benjamin follows an octogenarian woman who transitions to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires. Chalfant received the award for Best Actress, making Familiar Touch the most awarded film selected for the Horizons category in the festival’s history.

On the heels of her success at Venice, Friedland was also honored with an Independent Spirit Award in the Someone to Watch category.

Friedland’s previous work has been...

The fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia brought out big stars, from Wicked‘s Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Yeoh to Jeremy Renner, Michael Douglas and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as new movies from the Middle East, Asia and Africa along with festival favorites of the year.

It also presented an opportunity to bring together six filmmakers who have made names for themselves as game changers and innovators for the second annual Hollywood Reporter roundtable at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

Rsiff 2024 jury president Spike Lee took time out of his busy festival schedule to take part in the discussion at the historic Nassif House Museum in Jeddah’s Old Town Al-Balad. Representing host nation Saudi Arabia was Meshal Al Jaser, whose humorous thriller Naga, which tells the story of a young woman who sneaks out for a date that goes wrong, screened...

Exclusive: Saul Rubinek has joined the cast of James Wan and Simu Liu’s untitled Peacock espionage thriller series.

The actor will appear in all episodes as Victor Simonek, a retired special agent and confidante to Liu’s character.

The series is set five minutes in the future when first-generation American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Liu) realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.

The cast also includes Melissa Barrera as Michelle; Sinclair Daniel as Parker; Brian d’Arcy James as John Moira; Mark O’Brien as Cobb; Sara Amini as Elle; and Kathleen Chalfant as St. George.

UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, is the studio. Jennifer Yale serves as co-showrunner and executive producer.

Music Box has acquired North American rights to “Familiar Touch,” Sarah Friedland’s feature debut which won three major awards in Venice including the Lion of the Future prize.

Represented by Memento International, “Familiar Touch” also won best actress for Kathleen Chalfant, and best director in the Horizons section at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Friedland is now nominated in the “Someone to Watch” award category ahead of the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards.

“Familiar Touch,” which could be described as a “coming-of-old age film,” stars Ruth as Chalfant, an older woman who faces dementia and transitions into assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship with herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity and desires. Chalfant stars in the film opposite Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen and H. Jon Benjamin.

“Music Box has been a steadfast champion of bold, artist-driven, independent cinema and I’m delighted to...

After a great debut at the Venice Film Festival, a poignant indie movie about ageing and memory is gaining notice in the international film market. Sarah Friedland directed “Familiar Touch,” which has gained critical acclaim and significant distribution deals, making it a remarkable hit in independent film.

The film portrays the story of an octogenarian woman living in an assisted living facility and dealing with the realities of dementia. This intimate portrayal has sparked interest among festival juries and international distributors alike. At the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, “Familiar Touch” received three major awards: the Lion of the Future for Best Debut Film, Best Director for Friedland, and Best Actress for lead actress Kathleen Chalfant.

Friedland directed the film and wrote and produced it alongside Alexandra Byer of Rathaus Films and Matthew Thurm of Go For Thurm. Their collaborative approach featured genuine residents and staff from Villa Gardens,...

Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, which won a trifecta of awards when it premiered at Venice, has been picked up for key territories.

Memento International has closed sales for Spain (Flamingo Films), China (HugoEast), Indonesia (Pt Falcon) and airlines (Skeye). It was previously acquired by Gulf Film for the Middle East and will screen at the Red Sea International Film Festival this week.

The story follows an octogenarian woman adjusting to life in an assisted living facility as her dementia causes her to shift between age identities. It won a trifecta of trophies when it premiered in Venice’s Horizons...

Lithuanian drama Toxic, the debut feature of Saule Bliuvaite, has picked up the Golden Peacock award for best film at the 55th International Film Festival of India.

At the closing ceremony of the festival in Goa, the film also scooped the best actress award, shared between co-leads Vesta Matulyte and Ieva Rupeikaite.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Toxic follows two teenage girls from a bleak industrial town who join an extreme local modelling school. Featuring a cast of non-actors, it premiered at Locarno in August where it won the Golden Leopard for best film as well as the best first feature award.

In 2022, the slasher franchise Scream reinvented itself with a new film, serving as a requel: it served as a direct sequel to the franchise but also revised the previous installments. It had a new leading cast, with Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega as the Carpenter sisters, a role they reprised in 2023's Scream VI, and the franchise was to further expand with Scream 7, but the plans were put on hold after Barrera's sudden firing.

Barrera publicly showed her support for Palestine in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, leading Spyglass, the studio behind the Scream films, to fire her. The actress played Sam and her role took Neve Campbell's Sydney Prescott "final girl" role, alongside her sister, Ortega's Tara. With plans to further focus on her legacy as Billy Loomis' daughter, all plans were delayed with her firing. Ortega and director Christopher Landon left the project, as well. In...

Exclusive: Sara Amini (Lucky Hank) is set for a major recurring role on James Wan’s untitled espionage techno-thriller series at Peacock, starring Simu Liu.

From creator/writer/executive producer Thomas Brandon (Legacies), the Untitled James Wan & Simu Liu Project is set five minutes in the future when first-generation American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Liu) realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.

Amini will play Ellie, who works with admin support for Alexander’s new operation.

Cast also includes Melissa Barrera (In the Heights) as Michelle; Sinclair Daniel (The Other Black Girl) as Parker; Brian d’Arcy James (Spotlight) as John Moira; Mark O’Brien (City on a Hill) as Cobb and Kathleen Chalfant (Wit) as St.

The 2024 fall film festivals — Venice, Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF — are behind us, but critics deliberating their riches continues. IndieWire has polled 66 critics who attended one or more of these festivals to name their picks for best film, best screenplay, best director, and best first feature, and the results are fascinating, if not exactly shocking.

No films that played at Cannes or festivals earlier than Venice were eligible for consideration here. That means that “Anora,” which won best film, best screenplay, and best director on our Best of Cannes 2024 Critics Survey, was not eligible here. Nor was “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” or “The Substance,” other films that a few of the critics tried to sneak in on their ballots.

But looking at just the films that actually premiered at the fall fests, there was a clear victor: Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” received the most overall votes for both Best Film and Best Director,...

Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, about a woman adjusting to life in an assisted living facility, has sold widely in Europe and the Middle East for Memento International following a trifecta of wins in Venice including the Lion of the Future award for best debut film.

The film has been scooped up by Arizona Distribution in France, Fandango in Italy, Vedette in Benelux, Edge in Scandinavia and the Baltics, Imovision in Brazil and Gulf Film for the Middle East.

Familiar Touch debuted in the Horizons section at Venice in September. Friedland won the best director prize in the section and...

Familiar Touch Photo: Courtesy of Venice Film Festival London Film Festival starts on October 9 and there are plenty of eye-catching films in the line-up, from Cannes winners Anora and All We Imagine As Light to celebrated Sundance film Sujo and Berlin Golden Bear winner Dahomey. When it came to selecting these films to catch, we've chosen some of those which, at the time of writing, still have tickets remaining, so you have the opportunity to judge for yourself. The festival runs until October 20 - and you can see all the films that still have ticket availability left here.

Familiar Touch

As populations age globally, memory loss continues to provide a rich seam for filmmakers and Sarah Friedland's quietly observational and moving drama is one of the best from recent years. Veteran star Kathleen Chalfant has arguably never been better as she takes centrestage as Ruth. Once a cookbook author -.

Back in February, it was announced that Simu Liu of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was set to star in an untitled espionage techno-thriller series for the Peacock streaming service and producer James Wan, with Jennifer Yale, who has worked as a writer and executive producer on the Apple+ series See and Netflix’s Chambers, coming on board the project to serve as co-showrunner alongside creator/writer/executive producer Thomas Brandon, who was a writer on Legacies. Now, five more actors have signed on to star in the series alongside Liu. They are Melissa Barrera of the two most recent Scream films, Sinclair Daniel (Insidious: The Red Door), Brian d’Arcy James (13 Reasons Why), Mark O’Brien (Ready or Not), and Kathleen Chalfant (The Affair). The only information Variety was able to dig up about their characters is their names: these actors will be playing Michelle, Parker, John Moira,...

Scream star Melissa Barrera is among five to join an upcoming thriller series, which Shang-Chi's Simu Liu leads. Being made for Peacock, with James Wan executive producing, the project will be the latest for Barrera following her high-profile exit from the Scream franchise. She has also recently appeared in the vampire film Abigail and will next be seen in the romcom horror Your Monster, which releases on October 25.

Barrera, well-known for her performance as Sam Carpenter in the last two Scream movies, has joined the untitled thriller series and will appear alongside Liu. Sinclair Daniel (The Other Black Girl), Brian dArcy James (the Paramount+ series Evil), Mark OBrien (Your Honor), and Kathleen Chalfant (House of Cards) have also been cast.

What To Know About The New Thriller Series It's Set Five Minutes Into The Future

Described as a technological espionage thriller, the upcoming Peacock show is set five minutes into the future.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu has had several of his co-stars for his upcoming Peacock series revealed. The untitled espionage thriller series will feature Liu in the lead, and now five co-stars have just been announced.

Per Variety, the new series has cast former Scream franchise star Melissa Barrera, marking another big role for the scream queen after her controversial exit from the horror movie series. Along with Barrera (In the Heights), other stars of the Peacock series will include Sinclair Daniel (The Other Black Girl), Brian d'Arcy James (13 Reasons Why), Mark O'Brien (City on a Hill), and Kathleen Chalfant (The Affair). Their respective character names have also been revealed as Michelle, Parker, John Moira, Cobb, and St. George.

Related Simu Liu Gives Honest Shang-Chi Review on Anniversary of MCU Movie's Debut

Marvel star Simu Liu gets brutally honest with his review and...

Simu Liu’s upcoming thriller series at Peacock is building out it cast.

Variety has learned that Melissa Barrera, Sinclair Daniel, Brian d’Arcy James, Mark O’Brien, and Kathleen Chalfant will all appear alongside Liu in the series. They will play Michelle, Parker, John Moira, Cobb, and St. George respectively.

The untitled series was picked up at Peacock in February. The official logline states, “Five minutes in the future, a first-generation-American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Liu) realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.”

Barrera is repped by Sugar 23, WME, imPRint, and Gang Tyre. Daniel is repped by Nicolosi & Co., Entertainment 360, and Bloch Law. d’Arcy James is repped by Gersh, Thruline Entertainment, and PRStudio.

Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), Sinclair Daniel (The Other Black Girl), Brian d’Arcy James (Spotlight), Mark O’Brien (City on a Hill) and Kathleen Chalfant (Wit) have been set as series regulars in the still-untitled James Wan and Simu Liu thriller series for Peacock.

The upcoming espionage techno-thriller is set five minutes into the future when first-generation American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Liu) realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.

Barrera will play Michelle, a deceptive character who will keep everyone guessing; Daniel will play Parker, an intelligence officer who gets swept up into a new world she must figure out quickly; James will play John Moira, a boss and mentor who is not afraid to...

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.The first film I saw on the Lido this year wasn’t a feature but a twenty-minute VR project: Mammary Mountain. Playing in the Venice Immersive sidebar, and directed by Tara Baoth Mooney, Camille C. Baker, and Maf’j Alvarez, it promised an “embodied haptic experience” of breast cancer treatment, as remembered by a few survivors. I’d never worn a VR set before, much less a mammography gown, which was strapped around my chest after a nurse sat me down to explain the procedure and its possible complications. I signed the consent form, followed her into another room, and pressed play. All through the film, a multi-sensorial journey designed to stoke the fantasy of being in someone else’s body, I kept thinking about Roger Ebert’s characterization of cinema as an empathy machine. The voices of chemotherapy patients, discussing their relationship with the illness and its treatment,...

Depicting aging and diminishing mental acuity, with increasing candor about same, essentially has become its own subgenre—the drama of descent or disappearance. Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch feels like something different, eschewing the conventions of linear decline to stay rooted in the present-tense bodily experience of its protagonist: Ruth Goldman, played by a galvanizing Kathleen Chalfant. Beyond the subjective design of the filmmaking—comprising not just what we hear, but how we understand the premise of any given scene—this is a catalyzing collaboration between Chalfant, storied veteran of both stage (Wit) and screen, and Friedland, a student of choreography who sought out […]

The post “We Ascribe this Cuteness to Older Women”: Sarah Friedland on Familiar Touch first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Depicting aging and diminishing mental acuity, with increasing candor about same, essentially has become its own subgenre—the drama of descent or disappearance. Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch feels like something different, eschewing the conventions of linear decline to stay rooted in the present-tense bodily experience of its protagonist: Ruth Goldman, played by a galvanizing Kathleen Chalfant. Beyond the subjective design of the filmmaking—comprising not just what we hear, but how we understand the premise of any given scene—this is a catalyzing collaboration between Chalfant, storied veteran of both stage (Wit) and screen, and Friedland, a student of choreography who sought out […]

The post “We Ascribe this Cuteness to Older Women”: Sarah Friedland on Familiar Touch first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Apocalypse in the Tropics

Venice, Telluride

Brazilian documentarian Petra Costa chronicles the dire state of democracy with this eye-opening exposé, delving into the troubling ties linking Christian evangelism and politics. Getting up close and personal with some powerful people amid a wave of social and political unrest, she shifts between the epic and the intimate, history and the present, to shed light on a phenomenon not only in her home nation, but around the world. — Jordan Mintzer

April

Venice, Toronto

Dea Kulumbegashvili’s miraculous feature centers on an Ob-gyn (a marvelous Ia Sukhitashvili) who performs secret abortions for desperate women in deepest rural Georgia. Like Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the drama emphasizes the risks of backstreet terminations as well as the shame and expense that prevent access. Offsetting the grimness of it all are bouts of transcendent beauty. — Leslie Felperin

Babygirl

Venice, Toronto

A spectacular Nicole Kidman...

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in ‘The Room Next Door’ (Photo Credit: Sony Classics)

The 2024 Venice Film Festival winners were announced on September 7th, with Oscar-winner Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her) earning the Golden Lion for Best Film for The Room Next Door. Almodóvar took home the coveted prize for this first English-language film, and he dedicated the win to his family. “It is my first movie in English but the spirit is Spanish,” said the acclaimed filmmaker.

Academy Award-winner Nicole Kidman was named Best Actress for her starring role in director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl. Kidman wasn’t able to attend the ceremony, and Reijn read a statement accepting the award. “Today, I arrived in Venice to find out shortly after that my brave and beautiful mother Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed. I’m in shock and I have to go to my family. But this award is for her.

Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

Almodóvar’s first English-language feature marks the first time he has won the top award at one of the three major film festivals. Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore star in the story of a woman who makes the decision to end her life, and the friend who re-enters her world around this time.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in the US on December 20, with Warner Bros handling multiple international territories including UK-Ireland.

The Venice awards ceremony had a political edge on Saturday evening as multiple winners used their acceptance speeches to express sympathy for the Palestinian people and condemn Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“As a Jewish American artist working in a time-based medium, I must note, I’m accepting this award on the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and 76th year of occupation,” said U.S. director Sarah Friedland as she accepted the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film for Familiar Touch.

“I believe it is our responsibility as filmmakers to use the institutional platforms through which we work to redress Israel’s impunity on the global stage. I stand in solidarity with The people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation,” she continued.

Friedland’s film, which played in the Horizons competition, also won the section’s best director award, while Kathleen Chalfant, clinched...

Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” won the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice Film Festival. The Spanish auteur’s first feature in English took the top prize at the awards ceremony on Saturday, where he accepted the honor in person. Based on Sigrid Nunez’s novel “What Are You Going Through,” the film stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as friends who reunite after several years.

Though Almodóvar’s latest was not reviewed as enthusiastically as most of his films (a high bar to cross), the drama was still favored to do well at the Venice awards. When it premiered earlier this week, it was met with a lengthy standing ovation of almost 20 minutes — a warm reception even for festival audiences. And few are the cinephiles in Europe who do not consider the director of “All About My Mother,” “Talk to Her,” “Volver,” “Bad Education” and “Parallel Mothers” a living great.

The 81st Venice Film Festival comes to a close today with the awards ceremony, held at the Sala Grande in the Palazzo del Cinema.

Starting at 7pm Cet (6pm BST), viewers can watch the ceremony live in the video above; Screen will be updating this page with the winners as they are announced.

Scroll down for the latest winners

The ceremony will be hosted by Italian actress Sveva Alviti, who also hosted the opening ceremony on August 28. A Competition jury led by Isabelle Huppert will award eight prizes, including the Golden Lion for best film. There are further awards in the Horizons,...

While last year’s strikes created a somewhat subdued energy on the Lido with very few talent able to be present, this year’s 2024 Venice Film Festival proved to hot and steamy. And we’re not just talking about the excessive heat movie stars and fan alike were subjected to. Films like Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” and Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burrough’s short novel “Queer” aroused audience interest with career-best performances from Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and highly revealing sexual interplay. However it was Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” that took home the coveted Golden Lion, marking the first time the filmmaker has won a top prize at any major festival throughout his career.

Brady Corbet returned to the Palazzo del Cinema with his four-hour post-wwii epic “The Brutalist,” which screened to rave reception and earned the director the Silver Lion,...

The 2024 Venice Film Festival awards ceremony has wrapped up after a sweltering week and a half on the Lido.

The prestigious Golden Lion award for best film went to Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. The Spaniard’s first-ever English-language feature received a whopping 17-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the festival. Almodóvar said in his acceptance speech Saturday: “I would like to dedicate it to my family, who is here now… This movie The Room Next Door, it is my first movie in English.. but the spirit is Spanish.”

His film, an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, follows best-selling writer Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) as they rekindle their friendship after losing touch. As they immerse themselves in past memories, anecdotes, art and movies, Martha, battling terminal cervical cancer, wants to die with dignity and asks Ingrid to be...

Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door has won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion main prize.

Jury president Isabelle Huppert and her jury were on hand to bestow the Golden Lion along with the other main prizes. Scroll down to see the list of laureates.

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore star in Almodóvar’s euthanasia drama, which marked the acclaimed filmmaker’s English-language debut.

The movie follows Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Swinton) who were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme and bittersweet situation. Check out our review here.

Among other prize-winners on the night were Vermiglio by Maura Delpero, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, and Nicole Kidman for Babygirl whose filmmaker Halina Reijn accepted the award on behalf of Kidman who she explained could not be there in...

As late-life dates go, for octogenarian widow Ruth, it seems like a good one. The guy is younger, quite personable, and has an interesting job in sustainable architecture, even if she’s embarrassed to initially admit that she’s forgotten his name. She prepares them her favorite brunch — salmon and cream cheese on toast — before he takes her on a surprise getaway. Arriving at the hotel, the lobby looks polished and comfortable, though she’s thrown by the pacifying tone of the staff, and by her date referring to her as his mother. “I’m not a mother,” she clarifies. “I didn’t want kids.” It’s a moment of intense discomfort and acute tenderness — a fine balance that Sarah Friedland’s remarkable debut “Familiar Touch” sustains across a tight but searching 91 minutes.

As viewers will have surmised some time before Ruth (an extraordinary Kathleen Chalfant), she’s being checked into Bella Vista,...

Sarah Friedland’s debut film Familiar Touch delves gently into the experiences of Ruth Goldman, an octogenarian grappling with dementia. Played with empathy and strength by veteran stage actress Kathleen Chalfant, Ruth must adjust to life in an assisted living center.

Director Friedland, who also wrote the sensitive script, anchors viewers firmly in Ruth’s perspective. We see the world unfold through her eyes as she navigates an uncertain situation.

Premiers took place at the renowned Venice Film Festival, a testament to the film’s nuanced handling of a challenging topic. Ruth’s journey taps into universal themes of identity, connection, and finding purpose in life’s later chapters, told with warmth and understanding.

The Heart of Ruth

Familiar Touch tells the moving story of Ruth Goldman, a woman living with dementia. Played brilliantly by Kathleen Chalfant, Ruth was once a wife, mother, and chef with a vibrant personality. Now,...

Most coming-of-age stories deal in the vagaries of adolescence — that confusing time defined by dramatic confrontations with unfamiliar feeling. But Sarah Friedland’s affecting debut Familiar Touch, remixing the genre, considers the emotional valence of older adulthood.

The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section, follows Ruth Goldman, an inquisitive octogenarian played by Kathleen Chalfant, as she grapples with the realities of her dementia and comes to terms with moving into an assisted living facility.

Movement guides Familiar Touch. From the opening moments of this graceful feature, Friedland zeroes in on the minor details of bodies in motion. We meet Ruth as she rummages through her closet. The camera (cinematography by Gabe C. Elder) stays on the nape of her neck as the slow screech of clothing hangers sliding across a rod accelerates into a frenzied rattle, a measure of her desperation. The film cuts,...

“Amour” or “The Father” this is not. Where the much-lauded of the few films tackling dementia without sentimentality take us to the worst horizon of degenerative disease, “Familiar Touch” adopts a more delicate approach. Writer/director Sarah Friedland’s deftly choreographed — literally, as Friedland comes to the film as a choreographer herself who works with aging adults — follows character actress and Tony winner Kathleen Chalfant as Ruth. She’s a once-vibrant Southern California octogenarian now slipping away to dementia.

After her son (H. Jon Benjamin) moves her into a Los Angeles memory care facility, Ruth, a former cook who still knows her recipe for Borscht note by note, must become acquainted with her surroundings — and with connections made with patient, nonjudgmental care workers (Carolyn Michelle and Andy McQueen). Even as she, in her dementia, feels betrayed by the son she had already started to forget.

“Familiar Touch” is a sales...

Around 300 filmmakers have signed an open letter opposing two Israeli films set to screen at the Venice Film Festival.

The protest by filmmakers and artists amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict is aimed at Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film Al Klavim Veanashim (Of Dogs and Men), which is set against the backdrop of the Oct. 7 terror attacks in southern Israel, and Amos Gitai’s Why War. The latter stars Irène Jacob, Mathieu Amalric, Micha Lescot and Jérôme Kircher and is set for a world premiere on Aug. 31 out of competition.

“Of Dogs and Men, shot in the midst of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza, whitewashes the genocide. Like Of Dogs and Men, Why War was created by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation and now genocide through their silence or active participation in artwashing,” the letter, published by Artists for Palestine Italia, states.

The artists are represented...

France’s Memento International has added the English-language Venice Horizons title Familiar Touch to its festival slate.

Familiar Touch is the debut feature from US filmmaker Sarah Friedland and is about a woman’s transition to assisted living and the impact it has on her identity and desires.

Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle, Andy McQueen, and H. Jon Benjamin star.

“It is a coming-of-age film that reimagines the genre for an older woman,” explained Friedland. “It is both a character study and a portrait of caregiving relationships.”

Friedland wrote the script and produces with Alexandra Byer’s Rathaus Films and Matthew Thurm’s Go For Thurm.

When the 77th Tony Awards nominations are announced this morning, those honored with recognition will have been selected by a small group of theatre professionals who commit to seeing each and every eligible production that opened during the 2023-2024 season. They are thus able to make informed decisions on what shows, performers and creatives should earn the spotlight of New York theatre’s top honor.

This past season, 60 theatre professionals saw all 36 eligible musicals, play, and revivals and will select the nominees in 26 competitive categories.

Below, see a complete list of the 2023-2024 Tony Awards nominating committee members, including their professions plus past Tony nominations and wins. Some of these nominators may have to recuse themselves prior to voting if they have a conflict, such as if a production that they worked is eligible for a nomination this year.

Watch 2024 Tony Awards nominations slugfest: Final predictions in 17 competitive categories

Warren Adams,...

One of the best things horror can do is play into the fears of its audience, whether that be through childhood fears such as the dark or clowns, or a classic haunted house story. But one of the most subtle ways to really get under the skin is to depict a seemingly normal family’s descent into madness and terror – and Hereditary does just that with finesse. The film follows the Graham family, led by Annie (Toni Collette) and Steve (Gabriel Byrne), as they navigate the complicated feelings surrounding the loss of Annie’s mother, Ellen (Kathleen Chalfant). On the surface, the Grahams seem like your typical family; a mother and father, their son and daughter, and a dog. But as Hereditary goes on, we discover that the Graham family is anything but normal and the secrets that run throughout their bloodline are much more sinister than they seem. But...

This is day 99 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Actors in New York City nearing day 100 on strike said a polite no thank you Friday to an offer from top stars to fund their health care by lifting the cap on SAG-AFTRA dues — to the tune of more than $150 million over three years — and to rework residual payments to benefit rank-and-file union members.

“It seems like not a good idea,” actor Kathleen Chalfant told Deadline during Friday’s rainy picket outside Netflix offices near Manhattan’s Union Square, in response to a proposal Thursday by A-listers to let their dues rise and, relatedly, to reverse the normal order of residual payouts so that actors at the bottom of the call sheet are paid first.

Union leaders have praised George Clooney and others for “their creativity and earnest desire to help solve the impasse.” But in a letter to members they also said...

This is Day 92 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

At the first actors to picket after Wednesday night’s breakdown of their talks with the studios and streamers, SAG-AFTRA members in New York City said that they were disappointed by the setback but “holding strong” to their demands.

Striking actors who gathered Thursday outside Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery offices also cheered the announcement of bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate to protect them from artificial intelligence.

Writers joining them on the picket line after ratifying their own contract this week urged the actors to stay strong.

“It’s tactics,” The Wire creator David Simon told Deadline, speaking of the studios’ decision to suspend the talks and criticize SAG-AFTRA for demanding a share of studio profits. “They say you can’t have something and you’ll never get something, and ‘DGA settled for this and you don’t understand our industry.

This is Day 83 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The language was salty but the mood was upbeat at a union rally in Midtown Manhattan by striking actors and their supporters from the 150,000-member Transportation Workers Union.

With talks between the actors union and the production studios paused until Wednesday, the crowd at SAG-AFTRA’s solidarity picket with the Twu filled two lanes of the street outside NBCUniversal headquarters and made a sometimes Nsfw din that could be heard for blocks.

Oscar-winning actor F. Murray Abraham, one of the rally speakers, dropped an F-bomb in remarks calling for all working Americans to receive a livable wage and health care. “And since our corrupt Congress won’t give that to us, we got a f*ckin’ union,” he said to cheers.

But it was Twu chief John Samuelson who really let fly, railing at “p*ick bosses” in a pugilistic speech that compared contract negotiations to fist fighting.

Ain’t No Mo star and playwright Jordan E. Cooper, Kpop composer Helen Park, and Ojibwe and Oneida performance artist Ty Defoe are among the new members of the Tony Award nominating committee.

The trio are among 25 new members of the 2023-2024 committee announced today by the Tony Awards Administration Committee. Other newcomers include Dear Evan Hansen composer Benj Pasek, writer-director Miranda Haymon, actors Jason Tam, Bob Balaban and Adam Chanler-Berat, and Flying Over Sunset lyricist Michael Korie.

The 2023-2024 committee of the Tony nominators will include 60 members, each of whom serve a three-year term. The Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

The 2023-2024 Nominating Committee includes:

Warren Adams – Director/Choreographer/Producer

Becky Ann Baker – Actor

Bob Balaban** – Actor/Producer/Director/Writer

Pun Bandhu – Actor/Producer

Danielle Barlow** – Theatre Administrator

Sarah Benson** – Director

Rick Boynton** – Creative Producer, Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Christopher Burney – Producer...

The Tony Awards has added new members to its nominating committee, including Ain’t No Mo star and playwright Jordan E. Cooper and Kpop composer Helen Park, who have both been outspoken about the need for change within the industry.

Other new members joining for the 2023-2024 Broadway season include The Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen songwriter Benj Pasek, actor Bob Balaban, actor and playwright Adam Chanler-Berat, interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe and director Miranda Haymon.

The Tony Awards nominating committee is typically younger and more diverse than the larger Tony Awards voting body. However, the addition of Cooper and Park is particularly notable, as both had shows this past season that posted early closing notices and have spoken out about the need for Broadway to improve how it markets to and welcomes diverse audiences (Kpop is about competing Korean pop bands, while Ain’t No Mo’ follows a series...

Jim Wilhelm, a theatrical agent who represented actors including Olivia de Havilland, Daniel Dae Kim, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Lea Salonga and Cybill Shepherd, has died. He was 68.

Wilhelm died Monday in New York after a brief battle with cancer, a publicist announced.

Wilhelm was one of the original founding partners of Douglas, Gorman, Rothacker & Wilhelm, one of New York’s most preeminent theatrical agencies since its inception in 1988. In 2010, he became the first theatrical agent to be made a voter for the Tony Awards.

Over the years, Wilhelm also counted as clients Lynn Cohen, Sandy Duncan, Lainie Kazan, Alice Ripley, Kathleen Chalfant, Elaine Paige, Sierra Boggess, Douglas Sills, Keala Settle, Paige O’Hara and Jodi Benson.

He served as the vice president of the board of directors of the National Association of Talent Representatives and was an active participant in, and a founding board member of, Broadway Cares, which assists those with HIV and AIDS.

Susan L. Schulman, a longtime Broadway publicist whose five-decade career included such theater milestones as Applause starring Lauren Bacall, Death of a Salesman with George C. Scott and Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, died Wednesday, October 18, at Mt. Sinai West Hospital in New York City following a brief illness.

Her death was announced by friends Leslie Krakowe, actor Kathleen Chalfant and Roy Bernstein. Her age was not immediately available.

A member of the theatrical union Atpam (Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers) since 1973, Schulman, a New York native, opened her own theatrical Times Square press office in 1978, with early clients including Jack Gilford, Manhattan Theatre Club, Joffrey Ballet, and Garrison Keillor.

Over the years she would take on clients from Broadway, Off Broadway, dance, film, TV and books. A small Broadway sampling: Requiem For A Heavyweight (with John Lithgow and George Segal), City Of Angels, Death And The Maiden with Glenn Close,...

The Courtroom Topic Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Lee Sunday Evans Screenwriter: Arian Moayed Cast: Kristin Villanueva, Linda Powell, Michael Chernus, Mike Braun, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Kathleen Chalfant, Bd Wong Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 6/7/22 Opens: June 16, 2022 at New York’s Metrograph Theatre After teaching […]

The post The Courtroom Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

"Hereditary" might well be one of the most unsettling films of the last decade, but it's not always an easy one to follow. At first glance, it's a highly-strung family melodrama with a dark secret hiding beneath the surface.

And director Ari Aster goes to great lengths to keep that secret just out of sight.

"Hereditary" is the story of the Graham family, which is struggling with loss after the death of its unseen matriarch, Ellen Tapper Leigh (Kathleen Chalfant). There's very clearly something wrong here as the creeping tension engulfs the family, whether it's seen through eerie miniatures made by Annie (Toni Collette) or the outright weirdness of the family's...

The post Hereditary Ending Explained: All Hail Paimon appeared first on /Film.

It's undeniable — "Hereditary" is one of the most unsettling films of the last decade. A highly strung family melodrama that hides elements of the supernatural, "Hereditary" goes to great lengths when keeping its hideous secrets just out of sight. And that's only the beginning.

"Hereditary" tells the story of the Graham family, whose matriarch, Ellen Taper Leigh (Kathleen Chalfant), has passed away. Immediately beginning with Ellen's funeral, the entire film takes an off-kilter turn as the family begins to unravel. An unresolved tension runs deep through the Graham family. Young Charlie (Milly Shapiro) was her grandmother's favorite and is now clearly struggling after her...

The post The Reason Ari Aster Didn't Pitch Hereditary as a Horror Movie appeared first on /Film.