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Fusion Entertainment has signed actor and producer Sophie von Haselberg for management. Von Haselberg is the daughter of Bette Midler and has performed in television, film, and theater. Her notable appearances on TV and streaming include roles in several Ryan Murphy productions including “Pose,” “Versace: American Crime Story,” “American Horror Story” and “Halston.”

She made her feature film debut in Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man” and went on to appear in Sony Pictures Classic’s “Equity.” She recently starred in the romcom “Love…Reconsidered” from Carol Ray Hartsell and also starred in the one-woman film “Give Me Pity!” directed by Amanda Kramer.

Von Haselberg will next appear in Amanda Kramer’s “By Design,” Matthew Shear’s “Fantasy Life” and the short film “Poreless,” directed by Harris Doran. She also recently starred in the world premiere of Nathan Englander’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” at...

Exclusive: Fusion Entertainment has signed actor, writer, and director Mary Neely for management, Deadline has learned.

Neely rose to prominence during the Covid lockdowns with her viral reenactments of love duets from classic musicals. Singing both the male and female parts, her lip-syncs caught the attention of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Andrew Lloyd Webber and were named by The New York Times and The Washington Post as among The Best Theater of 2020.

Neely most recently completed production on 20th Century Studios’ untitled Bumble Movie opposite Lily James, Myha’la, Jackson White, and Dan Stevens, which is slated to premiere on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in all other territories in 2025. She will also appear alongside Bob Odenkirk in Acting for a Cause’s rendition of Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic The Room.

Next month, Neely will see the SXSW premiere of Stars Diner, an indie TV pilot that she co-wrote...

Exclusive: Factory 25 has acquired world rights to Rotterdam competition title The Heirloom from debut filmmaker Ben Petrie.

The company will hand the pic a theatrical release in the U.S. this fall followed by a worldwide digital release in Q1 2025.

Starring Petrie and his frequent collaborator Grace Glowicki (Strawberry Mansion), who also co-produced and shares a story credit, the features an appearance from Matt Johnson (Blackberry), Andrew Chown (Her Friend Adam), and Leah Doz (Adult Adoption). The film follows a neurotic couple whose relationship is brought to the edge by the arrival of a traumatized rescue dog.

Shot in Toronto, Canada, the film debuted at the 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam, and most recently screened at Raindance in London and Filmfest München in Munich.

The Heirloom is produced by Petrie, Glowicki, and Justin Elchakieh. Production companies are Cheekdance Spectacular and Cedar Films. Kelly Jeffrey lensed the film. His credits include...

Writer and director Kit Zauhar crafts a quiet glimpse into modern relationships in her sophomore film This Closeness. We meet Tessa, who creates relaxing videos for her Asmr channel, and her boyfriend Ben. They’ve come to Philadelphia for Ben’s high school reunion, staying in the small apartment of an acquaintance named Adam.

As Tessa and Ben navigate spending time in such close quarters with this stranger, tensions emerge between them. Ben reconnects with an old friend, making Tessa question where she fits in his life. Adam, an awkward guy with his own issues, further complicates things. The tight space exacerbates any inherent awkwardness or insecurity within this trio.

Set entirely within the apartment, Zauhar observes her characters with nuanced understanding. She explores the intimacy that develops through living in someone else’s home. The distance that remains even between partners becomes clear as unspoken doubts and needs surface.

In Kit Zauhar’s This Closeness, the narrative is confined to the space of one small apartment. There’s not even a shot where you get a view of the outside. Yet, you don’t get bothered or bored for a minute because a whole lot of things happen inside that small apartment. The three main characters—a couple and this other guy—are thrown into a sea of awkwardness. Zauhar herself plays one half of the couple, Tessa, and she is absolutely fantastic; and so is actor Zane Pais, who plays her majorly red flag boyfriend, Ben. The star of the show is, of course, Ian Edlund’s Adam, a strange, bumbling guy who gives off a very strong incel vibe. In about ninety minutes, This Closeness pulls off an astute portrayal of anxiety, desire, and loneliness. It purposefully puts a problematic relationship at the center of it and...

Kit Zauhar's This Closeness is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries.You Made Me Feel. Photographs by Lonz Espinoza.You Made Me Feel is a one-act play based off of two relationships I’ve been developing for a novel. The plot is quite simple: a girl (referred to in the script only as “A”) sits at a bar and has two conversations with two men, one after the other, in quick succession. The first scene is with “B,” someone A met during high school when he was her counselor at a filmmaking summer camp. The second scene is with a man with whom she cheated on her boyfriend: “C.” Throughout the course of the play, A interrogates, succumbs to, and defends herself against the two men, digging into the murky nucleus of her desire that has compelled her to lurch for these men, for a life full of wanting ecstatically,...

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.

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

Quick Links This Closeness Is Like Passages Meets The Rental This Closeness and Troubled Characters Raw performances and unexpected twists make This Closeness a refreshing take on modern romance. Tessa and Ben's strained relationship mirrors a troubled love triangle, adding depth to the storyline. The film evokes raw emotions of loneliness and isolation, leaving a lasting impact despite familiar tropes.

Movies like Blue Valentine and Before Midnight revolve around weekend getaways gone wrong. No, sometimes vacationing at a swanky hotel, motel, or Airbnb isn't always the answer to rekindling your romance. This concept also holds up in a micro-budget yet hard-hitting new drama from budding filmmaker Kit Zauhar, who also stars in her sophomore effort in addition to writing and directing.

This Closeness tests a couple's limits as they shack up at a rando's apartment for the weekend. They're not married like the aging couples in Derek Cianfrance and Richard Linklater's aforementioned masterpieces,...

A recent addition to Airbnb is the “Host Passport,” an enhanced information panel for those who’d like to let those who rent rooms in their places know a little bit more about them. The host’s profile picture is placed more prominently, and, if you’re hosting, the site writes, “… new sections of your profile let you share things like where you live, your hobbies, pet’s name, fun facts, and what makes staying at your place special.” Finally, hosts taking advantage of the new profile category can let renters know “how much social interaction to expect.” “Guests often enjoy spending time […]

The post “It’s Not ‘Punk Rock’ To Not Have an Intimacy Coordinator”: Writer/Director/Actor Kit Zauhar on Her Airbnb Relationship Drama, This Closeness first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

A recent addition to Airbnb is the “Host Passport,” an enhanced information panel for those who’d like to let those who rent rooms in their places know a little bit more about them. The host’s profile picture is placed more prominently, and, if you’re hosting, the site writes, “… new sections of your profile let you share things like where you live, your hobbies, pet’s name, fun facts, and what makes staying at your place special.” Finally, hosts taking advantage of the new profile category can let renters know “how much social interaction to expect.” “Guests often enjoy spending time […]

The post “It’s Not ‘Punk Rock’ To Not Have an Intimacy Coordinator”: Writer/Director/Actor Kit Zauhar on Her Airbnb Relationship Drama, This Closeness first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Kit Zauhar will adapt “How Should a Person Be?,” the 2010 novel from acclaimed Canadian author Sheila Heti, for the screen. Neon Heart Productions, which previously worked with Zauhar on her second feature “This Closeness,” is developing the book. According to the logline, the film adaptation will focus on “a young artist [who] faces an early mid-life crisis when a new friendship makes her question her marriage and everything else about her current life path.”

Heti is the author of eleven books to date including “Pure Colour,” “Alphabetical Diaries” and “Motherhood,” which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. “How Should a Person Be? will be the first film adaptation of her work.

Zauhar’s most recent film, “This Closeness,” is a relationship drama that she directed and wrote. It premiered in theaters this week after debuting at SXSW to critical acclaim. Her feature directorial debut, “Actual People,” premiered at Locarno Film Festival...

It’s true that This Closeness, by rising writer-director-star Kit Zauhar, may be too small in scale for some. But a recent trip to New York where this writer stayed alone in a West Village studio apartment oddly went about helping understand the particulars of the film a little bit better, even if it may be technically set in Philadelphia. Compressed urban living is universal, one supposes.

It charts the relationship between Tessa (the aforementioned Zauhar) and Ben (Zane Pais), who are in town for the latter’s high school reunion. They find themselves taking up residence in a walk-up Airbnb apartment (which the film won’t leave throughout its 88-minute runtime) instead of his family home. They’re not alone, though. There’s still the resident Adam (Ian Edlund), a socially awkward sports-video editor whose instantly hilarious demeanor (almost recalling the vampire Nosferatu’s gait at points) is a...

Have social interactions with strangers always been fraught with awkwardness, or has contemporary society and its technological trappings made it worse? How do we decide on new rules for behaviour and etiquette, especially when crossing cultural and class lines? I'd argue that there have always been rules that are often unspoken, and people's own idiosyncrasies that make perfect sense to them seem uncouth to others, and those others are often insensitive to differences. Perhaps our modern trappings make this worse. This awkwardness and those who carry it are on intimate display in Kit Zauhar's sophomore feature This Closeness. Something of a thematic cousin to her first film Actual People, This Closeness explores further themes of strangers thrown together, miscommunication, and living lives of quiet desperation...

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

The summer movie season continues with a handful of festival highlights coming to theaters, including Cannes premieres both from this and last year, alongside family dramas, vampire flicks, and one of the boldest experimental offerings of the year. We should also mention Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, which was on last month’s list for its all-too-limited theatrical release, will hit its final resting place on Netflix beginning June 7.

14. The Devil’s Bath (Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala; June 28 on Shudder)

Goodnight Mommy directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala are back with another harrowing tale, but this time hewing closer to real life than providing a genre twist. Savina Petkova said in her review, “Early Modern times were messy: Europe was finding its footing in rationalism, seeking independence from the centuries-long spiritual yoke of Catholicism and Protestantism. Shedding the skin of the past seems, at least from our standpoint today, the...

With her sophomore film This Closeness, a sleeper hit on the indie festival circuit in 2023, Kit Zauhar is quickly becoming one of the most interesting filmmakers on the American indie scene. Her honest and disquieting look at 20-something life, for a generation that is increasingly adrift in world that seems to have little to offer them. Making their own way is daunting, yet her characters suggest both vulnerability and ingenuity, even as they fumble towards a hoped-for satisfaction without clear direction. Factory25 will shortly be releasing the film in US cinemas. Tessa and Ben are staying in Philly for the weekend to attend Ben's high school reunion. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the couple has to rent a room in a stranger's apartment. That stranger...

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

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSAn Inconvenient Truth.Participant, the socially conscious production company, has closed, which filmmaker Julie Cohen called “devastating news to anyone who cares about documentaries.” Their twenty-year track record includes many nonfiction films, such as An Inconvenient Truth (2006), but also narrative features like Spotlight (2015) and Roma (2018).New data suggests that Hollywood production has gradually rebounded after last year’s WGA and SAG strikes, though not to the levels of the “peak TV” streaming bubble.The Archival Producers Alliance has drafted best practices for the use of generative AI in documentary, cautioning against the “danger of forever muddying the historical record.”In PRODUCTIONMartin Scorsese is reportedly developing a Frank Sinatra biopic, to star Leonardo DiCaprio as the crooner and Jennifer Lawrence as Ava Gardner.

Following a premiere at last year’s SXSW, writer-director-star Kit Zauhar’s acclaimed second feature This Closeness is now arriving this summer after an extensive festival tour. Also starring Zane Pais, Ian Edlund, Jessie Pinnick and Kate Williams, the drama was picked up by Factory 25 and will now begin a theatrical run at IFC Center on June 7 followed by an expansion and streaming release on Mubi on July 3. Ahead of the rollout, the first trailer has arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Tessa and Ben are staying in Philly for the weekend to attend Ben’s high school reunion. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the couple has to rent a room in a stranger’s apartment. That stranger is Adam, whose loneliness is immediately obvious to his new guests. Adam quickly becomes an unwilling voyeur to the most private parts of the couple’s life. While Ben seeks validation from old classmates,...

Kit Zauhar’s sophomore feature “This Closeness” follows the promise of her 2021 debut “Actual People,” which demonstrated she could tell an immersive story with few resources. Her microbudget feature “This Closeness,” a Narrative Spotlight premiere of SXSW 2023, is now about to open from Factory 25 on June 7, followed by a Mubi streaming premiere on July 3. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.

Per IndieWire’s 2023 SXSW preview, “This Closeness” “wields its lo-fi constraints with tremendous sophistication and insight. The entire story takes place within the constraints of a Philadelphia apartment, booked by a young couple (Zauhar and Zane Pais) for a high school reunion weekend; once there, they find themselves dealing with the awkward loner (Ian Edlund) who lives there. As tensions mount, the movie dances an elegant line between cringe-comedy and erotic thriller, with Zauhar’s character, an Asmr YouTuber, developing an enigmatic bond with their temporary roommate while...

Exclusive: Brooklyn-based indie film distribution and production company Factory 25 has acquired North American theatrical rights on writer-director Kit Zauhar’s sophomore feature This Closeness, which debuted at SXSW 2023.

The film will begin its theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York City on June 7, with further engagements and a worldwide digital release on Mubi on July 3.

The film stars Zane Pais (Margot At The Wedding) and Ian Edlund with Zauhar also starring as she did on her first feature Actual People, which debuted at Locarno in 2021. Factory 25 also released that film. Actress and singer Jessie Pinnick (Princess Cyd) and multimedia artist Kate Williams round out the cast.

Following SXSW, This Closeness screened at the Philadelphia Film Festival, the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival, where it received a special jury mention for best ensemble cast in the New American Cinema Competition.

This Closeness is produced...

Actual People.Because when I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and I'm even pleased that I'm falling in just such a humiliating position, and for me I find it beautiful.—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers KaramazovHumiliation is one of humanity’s cruelest jokes, one of its most repugnant punishments. The Latin root of the word, “humus,” translates to “earth,” or “dirt,” the idea that a person loses dignity and returns to something inhuman, crude and trampled on. The fear of being humiliated is a specter persuasive enough to shrink whole personalities, curtail ambitions, end life as someone knew it. Many mainstream filmmakers avoid its narrative possibilities because, maybe, to degrade a character would mean to degrade the film itself. I don’t think that’s the case. To see humiliation depicted onscreen can be like witnessing a corpse flower blooming: compelling, strange,...

This Closeness

Director Kit Zauhar uses her sophomore feature, This Closeness, as a Petri dish to explore human nature in a claustrophobic Philadelphia apartment. The plot centres on couple, Tessa (Zauhar) and Ben (Zane Pais), who are in town for his high school reunion. Renting a room in a stranger’s apartment, Tessa begins to form a bond with Adam (Ian Edlund), their temporary lonely and introverted roommate, as tensions mount with her boyfriend.

In conversation with Eye For Film at this year’s SXSW, where the film screened in the Narrative Spotlight section, Zauhar discussed her interest in critiquing white masculinity, and using 'trivialities' to scratch the surface of the human experience.

Paul Risker: Why acting, writing and directing as a means of creative expression? Was there an inspirational or defining moment?

Kit Zauhar: I don't know if I had one moment where I knew. I'm a lucky individual,...

Building on the success of her well-received debut feature Actual People, writer-director-actor Kit Zauhar’s This Closeness further explores the deviously twisty nuances of angst as experienced by people in their 20s nowadays. The plot unfolds over a weekend during which couple Tessa (Zauhar) and Ben (Zane Pais) come to stay in a “sad,” sparsely decorated Philadelphia apartment, having used an online app to book a bedroom from introverted host Adam (Ian Edlund).

But the inherent awkwardness of sharing a small space with a total stranger subtly unnerves all three characters. Tensions bubble up from the depths, especially submerged jealousies between Tessa and Ben, who have come to town for the latter’s high-school reunion. The result is a finely observed study of modern manners and mores on a micro-budget that’s nevertheless rich in feeling, especially the cringeiness one might experience from watching other people bicker or hearing people have sex through thin walls.

Have social interactions with strangers always been fraught with awkwardness, or has contemporary society and its technological trappings made it worse? How do we decide on new rules for behaviour and etiquette, especially when crossing cultural and class lines? I'd argue that there have always been rules that are often unspoken, and people's own idiosyncrasies that make perfect sense to them seem uncouth to others, and those others are often insensitive to differences. Perhaps our modern trappings make this worse. This awkwardness and those who carry it are on intimate display in Kit Zauhar's sophomore feature This Closeness. Something of a thematic cousin to her first film Actual People, This Closeness explores further themes of strangers thrown together, miscommunication, and living lives of quiet desperation...

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

Kit Zauhar's Actual People is now showing exclusively on Mubi in most countries starting January 18, 2023, in the series Debuts.Hello, Thank you for watching, considering watching, or having watched my first feature, Actual People. I shot this over the course of 10 days for 10K around New York and Philly. I was 24, surrounded by the best friends and collaborators imaginable, incredibly broke, even more exhilarated.Since then, I’ve gotten to travel to many beautiful places with the film, have written some horrible poems (maybe one good one), fallen in love a couple times, have sprouted gray hairs that remind me of tinsel stuck in my curls, made another film; and there’s so many other changes that I know you don’t care about because you don’t know me. But that’s the thing. I’ve changed. And inevitably, the film has too. When you make a film with yourself that is,...

Kit Zauhar’s debut feature takes a knowingly self-absorbed look at generation TikTok as they negotiate the tricky transition into adulthood

Writer-director-star Kit Zauhar’s debut feature feels like it’s drawing deep on her own experience as a young, biracial woman making tentative attempts “to adult”, to borrow a noun-made-verb coinage popular these days. Zauhar’s protagonist Riley is a final-year philosophy student at a New York City-based university, scheduled to graduate in a matter of weeks. She hasn’t a clue what she’ll do next, but instead of applying for a job or graduate school or even picking up an application for shifts at McDonald’s, she’s throwing herself into partying and hook-ups with random guys.

Partly the problem is heartbreak: it’s not been long since her last long-term boyfriend (Randall Palmer) chucked her for another woman. The scene where they accidentally meet and end up rowing in the street,...

New Release Wall

“Bergman Island” (The Criterion Collection): Writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve’s seventh feature is graceful and complex, a story about stories and the sometimes fragile connections between partners and friends. A couple travel to Fårö, Sweden, where Ingmar Bergman lived and worked, in order to work on their own respective filmmaking projects. There they discover more about themselves than they anticipated. The Blu-ray includes an essay from critic Devika Girish; a short film, “Bergman’s Ghosts,” made during production by actor Gabe Klinger; and interviews with Krieps and Hansen-Løve.

Also available:

“Black Adam” (Warner Bros): Dwayne Johnson is the DC Comics anti-hero, freed from his tomb after 5000 years, now ready to deliver his own version of justice.

“Bones and All” (Warner Bros): The latest from “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino is a romantic horror film about cannibals in love — it’s as divisive...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including a series on first films featuring David Cronenberg’s Stereo, Kelly Reichardt’s River of Grass, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Identification Marks: None, Fatih Akın’s Short Sharp Shock, Panos Cosmatos’ Beyond the Black Rainbow, and, with Mubi’s theatrical release of her new film Alcarràs, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993.

Additional highlights include Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight starring Vicky Krieps, Sundance favorites with films from Sean Baker, Lynn Shelton, Tom Noonan, and Andrew Bujalski, plus works from Nicolas Roeg, Claude Chabrol, and Aftersun director Charlotte Wells.

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

January 1 – Stereo, directed by David Cronenberg | First Films First

January 2 – Short Sharp Shock, directed by Fatih Akın | First Films First

January 3 – River of Grass, directed by Kelly Reichardt | First Films First

January 4 – Identification Marks: None, directed by Jerzy Skolimowski | First Films...

Kit Zauhar, the writer-director-star of her debut feature Actual People, does not want you to refer to her film as “mumblecore.” Set in New York City, the plot revolves around the near-daily indignities suffered by a young woman named Riley during her last week of undergrad at NYU: she runs into a cheating ex, roommate tensions come to a head and her ability to graduate becomes increasingly uncertain. Above all, she’s consumed by a crush she harbors for a fellow Philly native she recently hooked up with, traveling to her hometown in a desperate attempt to seduce him. Predictably, nothing […]

The post “I Just Don’t Think Nice People Are Interesting”: Kit Zauhar on Actual People first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Kit Zauhar, the writer-director-star of her debut feature Actual People, does not want you to refer to her film as “mumblecore.” Set in New York City, the plot revolves around the near-daily indignities suffered by a young woman named Riley during her last week of undergrad at NYU: she runs into a cheating ex, roommate tensions come to a head and her ability to graduate becomes increasingly uncertain. Above all, she’s consumed by a crush she harbors for a fellow Philly native she recently hooked up with, traveling to her hometown in a desperate attempt to seduce him. Predictably, nothing […]

The post “I Just Don’t Think Nice People Are Interesting”: Kit Zauhar on Actual People first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Few questions strike more fear into the hearts of 22-year-olds than, “What are you gonna do after graduation?” Unfortunately for Riley (Kit Zauhar), that’s all anyone seems to be asking.

The senior has one week left before her college experience ends, and she has a professor who wants to fail her, a roommate who wants her out, and a new love interest that just might dull the pain of her last relationship. So it’s inconvenient, to say the least, that she has to spend so much of her time deflecting questions about those postgrad fellowships she forgot to apply to.

“Actual People,” Zauhar’s directorial debut, exists in a liminal space within a larger liminal space. College is already an oasis that shields young people from reality (whether they know it or not), but the actual people who make up the film are graduating students with one foot out the door.

The 2022 BAMcinemaFest has officially unveiled its lineup. IndieWire can exclusively announce that Sundance breakout documentary “Aftershock” will make its New York Premiere on the opening night of the festival, which kicks off June 23 and runs through June 30.

The fully in-person event will begin with Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s critically acclaimed documentary. The film exposes the failures of the maternal healthcare system that have led to a disproportionate amount of Black women dying in childbirth. “Aftershock” won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Fellow Sundance selection “2nd Chance” is set to make its New York Premiere, as well as breakthrough filmmaker Andrew Infante’s “Ferny and Luca,” a fresh take on the ebbs and flows of a young Brooklyn relationship.

BAMcinemaFest will also mark the world premiere of Amber Bemak’s performative documentary “100 Ways to Touch the Border,” which...

As we look ahead to the new year, one of the first festivals of 2022 has unveiled its lineup. Slamdance Film Festival will return to both Park City, Utah for a physical festival from January 20-23, 2022, along with holding virtual screenings from January 20-30, 2022. With a lineup of 28 features, 79 shorts, and 7 episodes, the feature competition lineup was chosen from over 1,124 submissions.

“We are anti-algorithm. That’s always been true, but it’s more urgent than ever as we continue to celebrate truly unique voices that defy simple classification and transcend analytics,” said Slamdance President and co-founder Peter Baxter. “This year our programmers gravitated towards films that embody the true DIY spirit of guerrilla filmmaking and push the boundaries of what’s possible in storytelling. The Slamdance team is honored to introduce everyone of these storytellers, who are changing the media narrative and elevating the art form of independent film.”

See the lineup below.

Slamdance has announced the full film lineup lineup for its 2022 edition, with a feature film competition that boasts 23 premieres, including 13 world premieres, six North American premieres, and four U.S. debuts.

The independent film festival, known for its “by filmmakers, for filmmakers” mentality, will showcase a total of 28 features, 79 shorts, and seven episodes during its 28th edition. Slamdance will be presented in a hybrid fashion, with a physical festival returning to Park City, Utah, from Jan. 20-23, bridged with an “accessible and robust” program of virtual screenings, running Jan. 20-30.

“We are anti-algorithm. That’s always been true, but it’s more urgent than ever as we continue to celebrate truly unique voices that defy simple classification and transcend analytics,” Peter Baxter, Slamdance president and co-founder, said in a statement announcing this year’s lineup.

“This year our programmers gravitated towards films that embody the true DIY spirit of guerrilla...

Actual People Review — Actual People (2021) Film Review from the 74th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Kit Zauhar, starring Zauhar, Scott Albrecht, Isabelle Barbier, Mae Claire, Shirley Huang, Richard Lyntton, Randall Palmer, Vivian Zahuar, Tanya Morgan, and Henry Fulton Winship. As a filmmaker myself, I will never not admire anyone for pulling feature-length [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Actual People: A Keenly Critical Core at the Heart of this Monotonous Indie Drama [Locarno 2021]...

After Blue (Paradis sale)The lineup for the 2021 festival has been revealed, including new films by Bertrand Mandico, Axelle Ropert, Abel Ferrara and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEBeckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino)Free Guy (Shawn Levy)Heat (Michael Mann)Hinterland (Stefan Ruzowitzky)Ida Red (John Swab)Monte Verità (Stefan Jäger)National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis)Respect (Liesl Tommy)Rose (Aurélie Saada)Sinkhole (Kim Ji-hoon)The Alleys (Bassel Ghandour)The Terminator (James Cameron)Vortex (Gaspar Noé)Yaya e Lennie — The Walking Liberty (Alessandro Rak)Tomorrow My Love (Gitanjali Rao)Lynx (Laurent Geslin)Zeros and OnesCONCORSO INTERNAZIONALEAfter Blue (Paradis sale) (Bertrand Mandico)Al Naher (The River) (Ghassan Salhab)Espíritu sagrado (The Sacred Spirit) (Chema García Ibarra)Gerda (Natalya Kudryashova)I giganti (The Giants) (Bonifacio Angius)Jiao ma teng hui (A New Old Play) (Jiongjiong Qiu)Juju StoriesLa Place d'une autre (Secret Name) (Aurélia Georges)Leynilögga (Cop Secret...

Abel Ferrara’s contemporary thriller ’Zeros And Ones’ stars Ethan Hawke.

Abel Ferrara’s contemporary thriller Zeros And Ones and Srdjan Dragojević’s dark comedy Heavens Above are among 17 films from 12 countries having their world premiere in the international competition at the 74th Locarno Film Festival (August 4-14) under the new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

Scroll down for full line-up

In his first collaboration with Ferrara, Zeros And Ones sees Ethan Hawke plays an American soldier stationed in Rome who pursues an unknown enemy threatening the entire world after the Vatican gets blown up.

Ahead of shooting in Italy...

With Fantasia Film Festival still running strong in its third week, the award winners for the 23rd year of the international festival have been announced.

You can read the full list of Fantasia 2019 award winners below, and in case you missed it, check here to read our Fantasia reviews.

Press Release: 23 July 2019 - Montreal, Canada - The 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival, now entering its third week, is immensely proud to announce the award winners of its monumental 23rd edition. The victors were chosen through the deliberation of juries assigned to each competition, and were announced at a live ceremony on 21 July 2019.

Select statements from Fantasia juries are included alongside announcements, with all unedited jury declarations noted in full at the end of this release.

► Cheval Noir Award – Feature Films

The jury, presided over by Annick Mahnert, and comprised of Shaked Berenson, Amy Darling, Miles Finberg, and Maurizio Guarini (composer), awarded...