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Warning: This post contains major spoilers for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Furiosa ends where Fury Road begins, connecting seamlessly. Furiosa spares Dementus' life, turning him into a peach tree. The film focuses on hate, while Fury Road centers on hope.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ends where Mad Max: Fury Road begins. Directed by George Miller from a screenplay he wrote with Nico Lathouris, Furiosa features new and familiar characters, and follows the title characters beginnings. From her childhood through her adulthood, and how it was shaped by the Wasteland and the cruelty of those who reside there. While walking through the titular character's timeline, Furiosa splits its runtime into five different chapters, with each presenting the most defining moments of her journey.

While the first chapter, titled "The Pole of Inaccessibility," highlights how young Furiosa ended up leaving the Green Place and losing her mother, the second,...

In the days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, organizers of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival quickly shifted gears to offer whatever support they could. Festival director Tiina Lokk says the urgency of the moment was not lost on her or her fellow Estonians, who share a border with Russia and only won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

“The war in Ukraine has been felt very deeply here,” Lokk tells Variety. “Estonians know the price of freedom and we see that Ukrainians are now fighting a war for us all. It’s a very personal issue among the many members of the [Tallinn Black Nights] team who have been involved directly with humanitarian efforts.”

The festival announced in early March that for its annual pix-in-post showcase, Tallinn Black Nights Goes to Cannes, it would showcase five Ukrainian feature films that will be pitched to potential partners, sales agents and...

Directors demand halt to ‘collaborations with representatives of a terrorist country that threatens to destroy the whole world’

A group of prominent Ukrainian film-makers are demanding a cultural boycott of Russia, saying that it would be “an attempt to cleanse the world of the propaganda of a terrorist state”.

Seven film-makers, including Roman Bondarchuk (Volcano), Nariman Aliev (Homeward), Alina Gorlova (This Rain Will Never Stop) and Valentyn Vasyanovych (Atlantis), have each released statements outlining their support of a boycott as well as their criticism of Russian film-makers who are failing to oppose the attack on Ukraine.

As the invasion of Ukraine continues, seven leading Ukrainian filmmakers allege complicity by the Russian artistic community. They are now calling for cultural sanctions against Russia.

Valentyn Vasyanovych, director

Insidious shelling of residential areas with civilians, as well as blackmail of nuclear weapons – is a manifestation of the powerless rage of the fascist regime of Russia and the lack of chances to defeat the Ukrainian army and people in a direct military confrontation.

The whole bloody history of Russia, as imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet, is based on the bloodthirsty attitude towards its neighbors and its people, who have never been united ethnically or culturally.

What is culture for here? To the fact that at all times Russia has used cultural and artistic achievements as a cover for its aggressive actions, forming the idea that a country with great cultural achievements can not behave like a bloodthirsty cannibal. But history has shown that it can.

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Ukraine’s Oleg Sentsov, who was infamously arrested and held in a Moscow prison in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, wherein Sentsov became the subject of fabricated terrorism charges, was finally released in September, 2019 and returned to his family in Kyiv. During his highly publicized travails, which included a 145 day hunger strike in 2018, Sentsov co-directed a new feature from prison, the dystopic Numbers, with help on the outside from actor/director Akhtem Seitablayev.…...

Lendita Zeqiraj’s feature debut Aga’s House also snagged some major awards in the international section. Burak Çevik’s sophomore feature, Belonging, and Ukrainian director Nariman Aliev’s Homeward were the big winners of the Best National and International Film Awards, respectively, at the seventh Bosphorus Film Festival, which ran from 18-25 October. The National Feature Film Competition jury, led by Turkish director Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun, and comprising actress Cemre Ebuzziya, screenwriter and art director Ebru Ceylan, author Mustafa Çiftçi and actress Nalan Kuruçim, handed the 100,000 Tl Golden Dolphin to the director of Belonging. Çevik doubled the Golden Dolphins as he was also awarded for the Best Screenplay for his film. The Best Director Award was bestowed upon Semih Kaplanoğlu for his latest feature, Commitment. In the acting categories, Best Actress went to Nihan Dengiz Okutucu for her role in Long Time Ago directed by Cihan Sağlam, and Best Actor to.

Expanded shortlist of 10 films to be announced on December 16.

The Academy on Monday (7) confirmed that 93 countries have submitted films for consideration in the international feature film category for the 92nd Academy Awards.

Ghana, Nigeria and Uzbekistan are first-time entrants with Kwabena Gyansah’s Azali, Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, and Umid Khamdamov’s Hot Bread, respectively.

Earlier this year, the Academy board voted to rename the category formerly known as foreign language film, and expand the shortlist from nine to 10 films.

The shortlist will be announced on December 16. Nominations for the 92nd Oscars will be unveiled on January 13, 2020, and the Oscars...

Ukraine has selected Nariman Aliev's Homeward, a drama depicting a grieving father and son's road trip across war-torn Ukraine, for the best international feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.

The film follows Mustafa and his son Alim as they collect the dead body of Alim's older brother, killed in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia-backed rebels in East Ukraine, to transport it across the country and bury in Crimea, now annexed by Russia.

"The feature debut of young Ukrainian director Nariman Aliev, this fatalistic family drama is confidently crafted and well acted," wrote The Hollywood ...

Ukraine has selected Nariman Aliev's Homeward, a drama depicting a grieving father and son's road trip across war-torn Ukraine, for the best international feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.

The film follows Mustafa and his son Alim as they collect the dead body of Alim's older brother, killed in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia-backed rebels in East Ukraine, to transport it across the country and bury in Crimea, now annexed by Russia.

"The feature debut of young Ukrainian director Nariman Aliev, this fatalistic family drama is confidently crafted and well acted," wrote The Hollywood ...

The Cannes Film Festival always introduces a selection of ultimate foreign-language contenders for what is now called the Best International Feature Film Oscar. Last year’s final Oscar nominations were culled from 87 submissions from around the world.

Bong Joon-Ho (“Okja”) returned to Cannes with “Parasite” (Neon) and took home the Palme d’Or, the first Korean filmmaker to do so. The movie earned raves from critics and was the inevitable Oscar submission from South Korea, which has yet to score a foreign-language nomination. Neon is pushing the film in multiple categories, hoping for the range of Oscar nods scored by Netflix’s “Roma” and Amazon’s “Cold War” last year.

Winning Best Actor at Cannes was Antonio Banderas, star of Oscar winner Pedro Almodóvar’s autobiographical “Pain & Glory” (October 4), who is long overdue for a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Banderas gives a subtle, naturalistic performance unlike anything he has done...

The Grand Prix was shared with Homeward, while My Thoughts Are Silent and My Father Is My Mother's Brother were the overall winners in the National Competition. The leading Ukrainian gathering, the Odesa International Film Festival, has celebrated its tenth anniversary after a successful nine-day run (12-20 July), and it ended on Saturday night with the awards ceremony, which was held at the Odessa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. The triumphant film of the night was Levan Akin’s And Then We Danced, which won the festival’s Grand Prix, determined by audience votes. However, for the first time ever, this trophy went to two films ex aequo, as Homeward by Ukraine’s Nariman Aliev was the other winner. Akin’s film also won the hearts of the International Competition jury, which was comprised of Belgian director Peter Brosens, actress Ivanna Sakhno, director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Karel Och,...

The Sweden/Georgia co-production And Then We Danced, directed by Levan Akin, and the Ukrainian film Homeward, helmed by Nariman Aliev, shared the Grand Prix at the Odessa International Film Festival, whose closing ceremony was held Saturday in the Ukrainian port city.

And Then We Danced was also honored as the international competition's best film, and the drama's star, Levan Gelbakhiani, picked up the best actor prize.

Meanwhile, Alejandro Landes collected the best director award for Monos, which was co-produced by Colombia, Argentina, the Netherlands, Uruguay, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

The Norwegian film The Men's Room, directed by Peter Sommer and Jo Vemud ...

The Sweden/Georgia co-production And Then We Danced, directed by Levan Akin, and the Ukrainian film Homeward, helmed by Nariman Aliev, shared the Grand Prix at the Odessa International Film Festival, whose closing ceremony was held Saturday in the Ukrainian port city.

And Then We Danced was also honored as the international competition's best film, and the drama's star, Levan Gelbakhiani, picked up the best actor prize.

Meanwhile, Alejandro Landes collected the best director award for Monos, which was co-produced by Colombia, Argentina, the Netherlands, Uruguay, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

The Norwegian film The Men's Room, directed by Peter Sommer and Jo Vemud ...

Robert Beeson talks about factors that impact release dates of Cannes films.

Robert Beeson’s New Wave Films has snapped up UK theatrical rights to Elia Suleiman’s Cannes Competition title It Must Be Heaven, Un Certain Regard titles Homeward and Fire Will Come, as well as The Cordillera Of Dreams, which was a Special Screening.

New Wave has also bought Jean Paul Civeyrac’s French coming-of-age film, A Paris Education, which had its festival debut in Berlin’s Panorama, from Les Films du Losange.

Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven and Homeward, by Ukrainian director Nairman Aliev, about a...

Robert Beeson talks about factors that impact release dates of Cannes films.

Robert Beeson’s New Wave Films has snapped up UK theatrical rights to Elia Suleiman’s Cannes Competition title It Must Be Heaven, Un Certain Regard titles Homeward and Fire Will Come, as well as The Cordillera Of Dreams, which was a Special Screening.

New Wave has also bought Jean Paul Civeyrac’s French coming-of-age film, A Paris Education which had its festival debut in Berlin’s Panorama, from Les Films du Losange.

Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven and Homeward, by Ukrainian director Nairman Aliev, about a...

Visually striking, but narratively undernourished, the father-and-son-bonding drama “Homeward” unfolds against the backdrop of a fraught road trip from Kyiv to Russia-annexed Crimea and marks a flawed debut from young Ukrainian helmer-writer Nariman Aliev, a Crimean Tatar. Indeed, the plight of Crimean Tatars (both historically and currently) forms an important element of the plot. While the subtle connotations surrounding which of the film’s different languages are spoken in various situations may not be understood by all viewers, the mixed feelings of love and resentment between father and son — and their pride in their Tatar heritage and homeland — come through loud and clear.

As the film opens, Kyiv college student Alim and his father Mustafa (Akhtem Seitablayev), newly arrived from Crimea, are paying a visit to one of the capital’s morgues to claim the shrapnel-pocked body of Alim’s older brother Nazim (Anatoliy Marempolskiy), one of many Ukrainian soldiers...

Karim Ainouz’s “The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao” has been named the best film in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a jury headed by director Nadine Labaki announced on Friday.

The Brazilian family drama was adapted from a decades-spanning novel by Martha Batalha but focuses on the 1950s, when the status of women in Brazilian society was undergoing change. It deals with two women who cause family upheaval by challenging the patriarchy.

Other awards in the Un Certain Regard section were Oliver Laxe’s “The Fire Will Come,” Jury Prize; Kantemir Balagov for “Beanpole,” Best Director; Chiara Mastroianni for “On a Magical Night,” Best Performance; and Michael Angelo Covino’s “The Climb” and Monia Chokri’s “A Brother’s Love,” Un Certain Regard Heart Prize.

Also Read: 'I Lost My Body,' 'Vivarium' Win Prizes in Cannes Critics' Week Section

Bruno Dumont...