Notícias

Anette Ostrø’s debut feature-length film “The Golden Swan” took the seasoned filmmaker, who has been directing documentaries for television for decades, nearly 30 years before she was ready to make it.

The film, which was first pitched at IDFA, tells the story of Ostrø’s brother Hans Christian, a Norwegian actor who was abducted and murdered by a terrorist group during a trip to India in 1995. Now in post-production, the doc was one of five films presented this week as part of the Norwegian showcase at Visions du Réel’s industry program. Variety caught up with Ostrø and her producer Beathe Hofseth in VdR’s host town of Nyon, Switzerland.

Hans Christian and five other tourists — from Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. — were abducted in Kashmir in July 1995. The kidnapping made headlines around the world at the time. Five weeks later, Hans Christian’s beheaded body was discovered.

The 27th edition of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, launching on April 3, will feature a lineup of 34 feature documentaries and 15 short docs. The Durham, N.C.-based, four-day doc film fest will kick off with Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe’s “Prime Minister, “about the life of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

“Prime Minister” debuted at Sundance 2025, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award. The film is one of 16 Sundance feature docs screening at Full Frame this year. Others include U.S. Grand Jury Prize winner “Seeds,” “The Librarians,” “Preditors, “Nat. Geo’s “Sally” and “The Perfect Neighbor,” which Netflix recently acquired.

Often referred to as “a filmmaker’s festival,” Full Frame is not a premiere or market-focused fest. Instead, it’s known within the doc industry as a well-organized, intimate gathering that gives well-received docs out of Sundance, Camden Intl. Film Festival and the...

As Cph:dox gears up for its 2025 edition, organizers have unveiled an audacious program of more than 200 films with a sharp focus on human rights under the theme “Right Here, Right Now.”

With 94 world premieres – 68 of them feature-length, the highest number in the festival’s history – Cph:dox continues to expand its global footprint.

For the third consecutive year, all main competition titles are world premieres. While this is not a formal selection criterion, artistic director Niklas Engstrøm tells Variety, “The fact that top directors chose to premiere their films with us speaks volumes about how the festival has grown.” He adds that shifting the festival from November to March in 2017 strengthened its global standing, positioning it as the go-to European launchpad for U.S. filmmakers after Sundance.

Niklas Engstrom

Hot Sundance titles heading to Cph:Dox include “Mr Nobody against Putin,” “The Dating Game” and “Zodiac Killer Project.”

Among the world...

Cph:dox has selected 68 feature-length world premieres for its 2025 event – a record across the 22 editions of the festival.

The festival has unveiled its full programme, with out of competition titles including Animality, the new film from Germany-based Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei.

Animality examines humans relationship with animals, travelling through China, Egypt and to Danish mink farms.

The festival has added a new thematic strand, ‘Right Here, Right Now’, for films focusing on human rights and the rules-based international order.

The curated programme for the non-competitive section will include films, debates and talks with international guests including Ai Weiwei, Ukrainian activist Inna Shevchenko,...

The conference program of Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, a.k.a. Cph:Dox, will explore topics such as AI in non-fiction, immersive storytelling, investigative journalism and climate justice.

Speakers attending the program, running March 24-28 and held in partnership with Documentary Campus, include Christo Grozev, James Jones, Alexis Bloom, Kate Townsend, Sam Soko, Mstyslav Chernov and Nathan Grossman.

The conference this year is curated by Mandy Chang, former head of BBC Storyville, and global documentaries at Fremantle.

Mara Gourd-Mercado, head of industry and training at Cph:dox, said the conference “creates space to explore how documentary filmmaking shapes the world around us.” She added: “Through hands-on discussions and insights from industry leaders, the conference promises to spark fresh ideas and equip filmmakers with new tools for telling impactful stories.”

Donata von Perfall, managing director of Documentary Campus, added: “The documentary filmmaking community has an immense sense of shared responsibility and values.

Sundance is a place for discovery, where new stars are minted because of the fresh, invigorating images they bring to the screen. It was where Steven Soderbergh helped kick off the indie film revolution in 1989 with “sex, lies, and videotape” and Quentin Tarantino launched “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992. They showed that, at Sundance, if you have something to say, you can have a seat at the table.

This year, that daring new voice belongs to Eva Victor, whose comedic character study “Sorry, Baby,” about a young professor reeling from a trauma, sold to A24 for $8 million. “Sorry, Baby” also has the distinction of placing first in many of the categories in IndieWire’s 2025 Sundance Critics Survey, including Best Performance (for Victor herself), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film, and Best Film itself.

Though “Sorry, Baby” was the undeniable favorite across the board at Sundance 2025, our critics survey shared the love...

February 2 Update: Ryan White’sCome See Me in the Good Light won theFestival Favorite Award on Sunday, marking the final piece of business for the festival, which endedon February 2.

The US film charts two poets’ “journey through love, life and mortality”.

Original January 31 Report:Sundance Film Festival announced its awards winners on Friday, with grand jury prizes going to Atropia, Seeds, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), and Cutting Through Rocks.

In the audience awards, Twinless, André Is An Idiot, DJ Ahmet, and Prime Minister prevailed.The Next Innovator Award went to Zodiac Killer Project and Next Audience Award was presented to East Of Wall.

Ahead of the final weekend of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the annual event in Park City, Utah, announced its big winners on Friday, with Atropia, Seeds, and Twinless among those taking the biggest prizes.

“Arriving at our awards ceremony after seven days of connection and discovery is especially rewarding this year,” said Eugene Hernandez, director, Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming. “We are thrilled to honor these filmmakers fore their inventiveness, generosity, and for their valuable conversations, moments of levity, and deep insights their work has offered.”

See: ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman,’ ‘Sorry, Baby’ and other 2025 Sundance titles that could shape the awards conversation this year

Written and directed by Hailey Gates, Atropia earned the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film, Sundance’s top award. Alia Shawkat stars as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, and...

Top L–R: Zodiac Killer Project. Mad Bills to Pay, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Coexistence, My Ass!, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, Cutting Through Rocks; Second Row L-r: DJ Ahmet, Two Women, The Things You Kill, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), Plainclothes, Twinless; Third Row L-r: Sorry, Baby, Ricky, Atropia, Selena y Los Dinos, Life After, André is an Idiot; Bottom L–R: The Perfect Neighbor, Seeds, East of Wall, Prime Minister Photo: Sundance Institute

The Sundance Film Festival has announced its winners from this year's festival, with the US Grand Jury prizes going to Atropia and Seeds.

In the World section, the Grand Jury prizes went to Cactus Pears (sabar Bonda) and Cutting Through Rocks. The Next award went to UK director Charlie Shackleton for Zodiac Killer Project.

Atropia, written and directed by Hailey Gates stars Alia Shawkat as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility, who falls in love...

Atropia, Seeds, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) and Cutting Through Rocks were among the key winners at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

During a ceremony held Friday in Park City, Atropia won the Grand Jury prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition, while Seeds picked up the U.S. Documentary Competition award. Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) prevailed for the jury prize for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section, while Cutting Through Rocks nabbed the award for World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Among the audience awards, Twinless won in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and André Is an Idiot topped the U.S. Documentary Competition. DJ Ahmet collected the audience award for World Cinema Dramatic Competition, with Prime Minister prevailing for the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Additionally, Zodiac Killer Project landed the Next innovator award, with East of Wall receiving the audience award for the Next section.

Sundance Institute acting CEO Amanda Kelso said in a statement,...

The snow from this year’s Sundance Film Festival has mostly melted off of Hollywood’s Dior boots, and as the Utah event draws to a close the time has come to crown a new class of indie filmmaking stars.

Multiple pedigreed juries will hand out prizes to movies in competition on Friday at Park City’s The Ray Theater — where buzzy titles will duke it out for honors including directing, acting, screenwriting and the most coveted honors, the audience award and the grand jury prize.

“Storytelling is important, part of human continuity,” Sundance interim CEO Amanda Kelso said at the top of the ceremony, quoting its founder Robert Redford.

This year’s U.S. dramatic jury consists Reinaldo Marcus Green, Arian Moayed (“Succession”) and Celine Song. Steven Bognar, Vinnie Malhotra, and Marcia Smith are presiding over the domestic documentary section. Actor Elijah Wood is the sole juror for the Next section,...

This year's awards season is wrapping up, which means it's time to look forward to the films we'll be discussing this time next year. Some of those hopefuls just premiered in Park City during the Sundance festival, which generally provides one of our first glimpses at next year's landscape. If...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

2025 Sundance Film Festival

While Sundance Film Festival kicked off last week in Park City, those across the country can now experience the festival from home through this Sunday with online offerings. As of this publishing, there’s still online tickets available for some of my favorites of the festival, including Blknws: Terms & Conditions, The Perfect Neighbor, Two Women, Zodiac Killer Project, Obex, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Cutting Through Rocks, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, and Predators. Check out all our coverage here and we’ll be sharing much more in the coming days.

Where to Stream: Sundance.org (through Sunday)

Babygirl (Halina Reijn)

Premiering with much fervor at the Venice Film Festival, Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies follow-up Babygirl finds Nicole Kidman...

In the wave of documentaries about the Ukraine War that have come out over the past two years, there hasn’t been one that’s offered what David Borenstein’s “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” does — and certainly not with such wit, verve, and insight: The view inside Russia.

Borenstein is the credited director, but the footage itself was largely shot by Pavel “Pasha” Talankin, a guy with an impish grin and a freethinking sensibility who worked as a videographer and events coordinator at Karabash Primary School #1. Karabash is a small town of 10,000 in the Ural Mountains, which outside visitors have tried to paint as the “most polluted town in the world” due to its copper smelting plant that one observer says has resulted in the town’s population having an average life expectancy of 38. “It’s not so bad,” Pasha says in his voiceover right after that. And as much...

Day 3 of the Sundance Film Festival continues with premiering films today, from writer Hailey Gates’ directorial debut, Atropia, to James Griffiths’ The Ballad of Wallis Island.

Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, and Hailey Gates graced the red carpet at the Eccles Theatre on Jan 25 for the premiere of director Gates’ comedy, Atropia. Produced by Luca Guadagnino, the film follows an aspiring actress who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent while training at a military role-playing facility. Their nonsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance. The film also stars Tim Heidecker and Jane Levy.

Related: Sundance Film Festival 2025: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

Later, Griffiths presented the premiere of his latest film, The Ballad of Wallis Island, starring Tom Basden and Tim Key, opposite Carey Mulligan, Sian Clifford, and Akemnji Ndifornyen. Basden and Key, longtime collaborators who previously brought their 2015 film Two Films About Loneliness to Sundance,...

Pavel Talankin, a teacher at a small town in the Ural Mountains, found himself in an extraordinary situation when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led to the militarization of his school. He began filming his life and the changes around him, and that footage became the basis for Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Mr. Nobody Against Putin will premiere as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition. Talankin, the film’s co-director and cinematographer, sheds some light on what spurred him to begin filming below. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]

The post “A Way to Capture the Spirit of the Times”: Dp Pavel Talankin, Mr. Nobody Against Putin first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Pavel Talankin, a teacher at a small town in the Ural Mountains, found himself in an extraordinary situation when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led to the militarization of his school. He began filming his life and the changes around him, and that footage became the basis for Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Mr. Nobody Against Putin will premiere as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Competition. Talankin, the film’s co-director and cinematographer, sheds some light on what spurred him to begin filming below. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]

The post “A Way to Capture the Spirit of the Times”: Dp Pavel Talankin, Mr. Nobody Against Putin first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Pasha is a nonconformist and a teacher in a small town in the Ural Mountains who finds his world turned upside down when Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Director David Borenstein’s documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, follows Pasha, himself the cinematographer and credited co-director, as he watches his institution transform into a militarized indoctrination center for nationalist ideology. Mr. Nobody Against Putin screens as part of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition. Below, editor Nicolaj Monberg explains how he balanced the desire for an entertaining film about contemporary Russian politics with the gravity of its subject matter. See […]

The post “An Entertaining Film About a Very Pressing and Complicated Topic”: Editor Nicolaj Monberg on Mr. Nobody Against Putin first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Pasha is a nonconformist and a teacher in a small town in the Ural Mountains who finds his world turned upside down when Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Director David Borenstein’s documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, follows Pasha, himself the cinematographer and credited co-director, as he watches his institution transform into a militarized indoctrination center for nationalist ideology. Mr. Nobody Against Putin screens as part of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition. Below, editor Nicolaj Monberg explains how he balanced the desire for an entertaining film about contemporary Russian politics with the gravity of its subject matter. See […]

The post “An Entertaining Film About a Very Pressing and Complicated Topic”: Editor Nicolaj Monberg on Mr. Nobody Against Putin first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

David Borenstein’s Sundance-premiering Mr. Nobody Against Putin stars Pavel “Pasha” Talankin (also credited as co-director), an “unlikely hero” in an even more unlikely collaboration. A jokey primary school teacher in his Ural Mountains hometown of Karabash (which has the dubious distinction of being one of the most polluted cities on the planet), Pasha spends many days mentoring the kids who use the thirty-something’s open door office as a hangout/safe haven. That is, when he’s not documenting their young lives as the school’s videographer. Which is why things get rather complicated for this pro-democracy, but non-activist, educator. For once Putin decides […]

The post “I Filmed It, and I Posted It. Now, Watch”: David Borenstein on His Sundance-Debuting Mr. Nobody Against Putin first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

David Borenstein’s Sundance-premiering Mr. Nobody Against Putin stars Pavel “Pasha” Talankin (also credited as co-director), an “unlikely hero” in an even more unlikely collaboration. A jokey primary school teacher in his Ural Mountains hometown of Karabash (which has the dubious distinction of being one of the most polluted cities on the planet), Pasha spends many days mentoring the kids who use the thirty-something’s open door office as a hangout/safe haven. That is, when he’s not documenting their young lives as the school’s videographer. Which is why things get rather complicated for this pro-democracy, but non-activist, educator. For once Putin decides […]

The post “I Filmed It, and I Posted It. Now, Watch”: David Borenstein on His Sundance-Debuting Mr. Nobody Against Putin first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

“Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” which has its world premiere on Saturday in the World Cinema Documentary Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, delivers an insider’s view of the impact of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine on the lives of Russia’s children. Variety spoke to the film’s director, David Borenstein, who worked alongside Pavel “Pasha” Talankin, the subject of the film and its co-director. The film has its European premiere at Göteborg Film Festival on Jan. 31. The trailer is shown below.

The genesis for the project came when Pasha, a high-school teacher in a provincial town in Russia, responded to a request from a web content company for people to explain how the “special military operation” in Ukraine, as they call the invasion in Russia, had impacted their jobs.

“Pasha responded to it with a passionate, political diatribe, talking about how his job had been turned upside down,...

It’s no secret that corporations like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple have lost their appetite for current event documentaries that tackle politics. The good old days when streamers shelled out seven figures for docus about polarizing politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“Knock Down the House”), and eye-opening mock-government teen conferences (“Boys State”) after their Sundance debuts are behind us. That type of nonfiction, streamers would like you to think, doesn’t attract enough eyeballs and doesn’t lead to new subscriptions. Algorithms suggest that doc audiences are mostly interested in watching docus about celebrities, cults and true crime.

But Sundance programmers aren’t making their selections with commercial potential as their priority. Between the fraught political climate and growth of right-wing documentaries and streaming buyers’ taste for crowd-pleasing subjects, it falls to festivals to program the bold titles that will garner awards attention down the line.

“We know that some distributors...

Screen can reveal the first trailer for Mr. Nobody Against Putin, a documentary filmed undercover showing Russian propaganda, that will have its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 25.

The film has sold to broadcasters in Sweden (Svt), Norway (Nrk), Vrpo (the Netherlands) and Rts (French-speaking Switzerland) ahead of its launch. Denmark-based sales firm Dr Sales will be conducting further sales including for theatrical releases following the world premiere, with Cinetic handling the North America rights.

It was the first title in the World Documentary programme at this year’s Sundance to sell out all its screenings, with...

Moving a week later in the calendar this year, the Sundance Film Festival kicks off this Thursday and runs through February 2, offering a first glimpse at the year in cinema with (once again) a mix of in-person and virtual offerings. While the annual festival has its fair share of returning filmmakers, it is certainly most renowned as a beacon of discovery, and we look forward to providing extensive coverage that one can follow via our daily newsletter.

Before the festival begins and our reviews arrive, we’re highlighting the premieres that should be on your radar––a few of which we’ve already had the opportunity to see. If you’re interested in experiencing Sundance in person or from afar, one can see available tickets here ahead of Thursday’s in-person opening and an online viewing window that kicks off January 30.

Blknws: Terms & Conditions (Khalil Joseph)

Exhibition-turned-feature, Blknws actually began...