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Jonathan Majors' comeback film about an aspiring bodybuilder chasing superstardom fails to flex at the box office. The acclaimed actor's first movie since his assault and harassment conviction, Magazine Dreams, struggles to muscle up significant audience interest following its Mar. 21 debut.

Via Deadline, Magazine Dreams, a title under the umbrella of The Apprentice distributor, Briarcliff Entertainment, earned around $700,000 across 815 theaters spanning New York, Los Angeles and other American cities. Though a solid number for an independent film, Magazine Dreams fell below the $1 million opening weekend Briarcliff hoped for following good reviews and strong online engagement.

Magazine Dreams endured a rocky ride to its theatrical debut, coming two years after its well-received premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. However, a month after its Sundance release, Majors' career took a downturn following a domestic violence incident involving his then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. Before Majors received his assault and harassment conviction in late 2023, Magazine Dreams...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt heard about the controversies surrounding Jonathan Majors. It lost him his role as Marvel’s Big Bad Kang, and shelved his Sundance hit, which had been getting Oscar Buzz. But then it was unceremoniously dropped and the question became whether it’d even get a release at all. Now, nearly two years later, we’re finally seeing the release of Magazine Dreams, and it’s being done in a major way. I was absolutely blown away by the film, but it’s certainly not going to be for everyone.

The pure fact that Majors is doing a press tour says that he’s trying to face this head-on and move past it. As such, I felt I needed to ask him directly why he wanted to see the film through to its theatrical release. He points to the...

In 2023, Jonathan Majors was enjoying a blossoming career with the critically and commercially successful Creed III, a spot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Kang the Conqueror, and an Emmy nod for Lovecraft Country under his belt. That January, Magazine Dreams, about a conflicted amateur bodybuilder, debuted at Sundance to critical acclaim and talks of an Oscar nomination for Major. But that March, his career came to a screeching halt when he was arrested following a domestic dispute with ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. He was subsequently found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment. Now, two years later, Magazine Dreams is finally in theaters and its reception signals a comeback for Majors.

Written and directed by Elijah Bynum, Magazine Dreams centers on Majors' Killian Maddox, an amateur bodybuilder who "battles both the limits of his physical body and his own inner demons to gain recognition." It boasts an impressive 81% on Rotten Tomatoes,...

McVeigh is a haunting psychological thriller based on one of America's most infamous figures. After the Waco siege, a chilling plan brews in the mind of army veteran Timothy McVeigh. What follows are the harrowing events leading up to the single deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

Alfie Allen plays the movie's title character and he's surrounded by a phenomenal supporting cast that includes Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), and Anthony Carrigan (Superman).

Earlier this week, we were fortunate enough to speak with them about their work on the must-see new movie. While we'll bring you a full transcription of our interview soon, Anthony was kind enough to share a few brief remarks about his role as Metamorpho in James Gunn's upcoming Dcu reboot.

The character's role in the story has been kept under wraps, though we did catch a glimpse of...

Two years ago, prior to Jonathan Majors being arrested for assault and harassment of his former girlfriend, his movie Magazine Dreams was a critical hit. Reviews praised the actor as "a revelation" who was Oscar-bound for his "astonishing lead performance" as Killian Maddox, an aspiring bodybuilder. The film received an 82 percent at Rotten Tomatoes (based on 95 reviews), and a 72 score at Metacritic (based on 22 reviews). But Majors was arrested and the film was shelved, abandoned by its distributor, Searchlight Pictures.

Cut to today, and Magazine Dreams' new distributor, Briarcliff Entertainment, is finally dropping the film in theaters on Friday. Have critics changed their tune following the actor's many recent controversies, which include his eventual conviction on one assault count and and the release in recent days of audio with him admitting that he "aggressed" his ex-girlfriend?

Surprisingly, the answer is no.

While Metacritic remains static with the same number of reviews,...

Exclusive: Companion and Homeland star Rupert Friend is joining Chloë Grace-Moretz in serial killer thriller The Edge Of Normal, which is due to start filming this spring.

As we revealed last week, this is the first English-language feature from director Carlota Pereda (Piggy). Pic was written by Matt Venne (Dexter: Resurrection) with revisions by Lori Evans Taylor (Final Destination: Bloodlines), based on Carla Norton’s novel of the same name from St. Martin’s Press.

XYZ Films is producing and financing with funding from Ipr.Vc. Vanishing Angle will produce alongside Andrew Deane and Ava Jamshidi for Industry Entertainment. CAA Media Finance is co-repping domestic sales with XYZ.

The synopsis reads: “Reeve LeClaire (Moretz) is still haunted from when she was held captive as a teenager by a sadistic man, but when her psychiatrist (Friend) asks her to mentor a newly rescued survivor, she’s pulled into a chilling game of cat-and-mouse...

If you have been waiting for Jonathan Major’s Magazine Dreams after its initial premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, you’re not alone. The movie has been delayed multiple times due to controversial events surrounding Jonathan Majors, the star of the film.

The controversies led to Walt Disney Studios deciding against the release of the film. However, Briarcliff Entertainment has picked the film and it is now ready to be released in the theatres.

A still from Magazine Dreams | Credit: Briarcliff Entertainment

Magazine Dreams, a movie created from the mind of writer-director Elijah Bynum, follows the life of a bodybuilder Killian Maddox, who aims to be the best of the best among his peers. However, the path to success is a long one, and before realizing it, his obsession with pushing his body to its ultimate limit brings him hamartia. Want to experience Jonathan Majors in action in the theatres?...

In the aftermath of the Oscars, a new slate of blockbusters and indie films are hoping to drum up excitement about what 2025 has to offer in the cinema landscape.

Starting with the weekend’s wide releases, Disney is back with the live-action adaptation of “Snow White,” starring “West Side Story” breakout Rachel Zegler in the lead alongside “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot as the wicked queen. The film has already been marked by controversy, mainly for Gadot and Zegler’s opposing views on Palestine and Israel, but Variety’s Owen Gleiberman gave the film an overall positive review, calling it “chirpy, vivacious, just-romantic-enough-to-get-by.”

Barry Levinson’s “The Alto Knights” stars Robert De Niro, Debra Messing and Cosmo Jarvis in a biographical crime drama set in ’50s New York. As Frank Costello (De Niro) and Vito Genovese (Jarvis) fight for control of the streets, betrayals lead to the downfall of the...

Actor Jonathan Majors is widely known for portraying Kang the Conqueror in MCU’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and appeared as another variant of the character in Loki. Majors rose to fame after he starred in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, followed by his appearance in Da 5 Bloods, Lovecraft Country, The Harder They Fall, Devotion, and others.

Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror | Credits: Marvel Studios

The actor was sentenced to a 52-week Domestic Violence Intervention Program after he was convicted of reckless assault in the third degree and harassment in December 2023. He was arrested in March 2023 after an alleged domestic violence altercation with his then-girlfriend. After he was convicted of misdemeanor counts, Jonathan Majors was dropped by MCU, but now he’s willing to make a return.

Jonathan Majors expresses his desire to make an MCU return

Actor Jonathan Majors was at the peak of...

Jonathan Majors celebrates a significant life announcement as he continues his Hollywood comeback campaign following his domestic violence conviction. The embattled ex-Marvel actor confirms his marriage to former DC Extended Universe star Meagan Good days before the premiere of his next film, Magazine Dreams.

Speaking on Sherri Shepherd's talk show, Sherri, Majors revealed he and Good secretly wedded on Mar. 18, calling it the "happiest day of my life." According to the acclaimed actor, "it was always the plan" for him and the Shazam! franchise star to tie the knot, having gotten her father's blessing before they walked the aisle.

"I said to Meagan yesterday, I said, 'Today might be the happiest day of my life,'" he said while holding back tears. "I love that woman so much. So how it had happened — well, Lord, Sherri thank you. We fell in love." He added, "I asked her father for permission.

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Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good are reportedly married.

Recently, the actor did an in-depth interview as part of an apparent attempt to repair his image.

It’s likely to work — even if some critics argue that he’s merely using the language of therapy to depict himself as a changed man.

But Majors has clearly convinced one person that he has changed. Or that he was never a bad dude. Because now she is reportedly his wife.

Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good attend the Los Angeles Premiere of Apple TV+’s “Number One on the Call Sheet” at Tcl Chinese Theatre on March 12, 2025. (Photo Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty Images) Reportedly, Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good are married

Entertainment Tonight reports that on Tuesday, March 18, Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good married.

According to the report, the small, private wedding ceremony went down at the Los Angeles home that they already share.

Jonathan Majors answers whether he could return as Kang the Conquerorafter being fired from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor was once set to be the star of the Multiverse Saga. Majors did not only play Kang, but all of his multiverse variants. The Council of Kangs would have been the driving force of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. However, Majors was fired by Marvel in December 2023 after being convicted of misdemeanor third-degree assault and second-degree harassment of his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. Now that Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom took over Kang's role, Majors talks about a possible return.

Speaking to USA Today, Jonathan Majors revealed he would love to come back as Kang if Marvel came calling. The Kang actor recalled some of the MCU stars he worked with in his time in the franchise, commenting on how he loved working with actors like Loki's Tom Hiddleston. He...

The Marvel actor Jonathan Majors’ shocking audiotape surfaces, where he admits strangling his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. The news has taken over the internet, as the heated conversation between the two suggests that Majors reportedly strangled her and slammed her into a car. The audiotape is from September 2022, when Majors was filming Loki and was living with Jabbari in London.

Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man 3 [Credit: Marvel Studios]

Jabbari filed a civil lawsuit last April, and the audiotape that has been resurrected serves as evidence of a long-standing fight that took place in 2022 between the then-couple. The lawsuit has now been settled, but the newly unearthed audio of the two fighting has returned to the news. This was not the first lawsuit the Loki star has had under his name. In late 2023, a different lawsuit, reportedly charging Majors of physical assault, was lodged.

Loki star Jonathan Majors calls...

The world premiere of The Brightest Sun by Japan’s Nakashima Tetsuya will open the 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), along with Pavane For An Infant by Malaysia’s Chong Keat-Aun.

Johan Haugerud’s Dreams (Sex Love), winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale last month, has been set as the closing film.

The full line-up of the festival, which runs from April 10-21, was announced on the first day of Filmart with Hong Kong star Louis Koo, this year’s filmmaker in focus, and Angela Yuen, the new festival ambassador, in attendance.

Nearly 200 films from 69 countries...

The 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival will kick off on April 10 with dual opening features, Japanese drama The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane for an Infant. Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, will then bring the curtain down on the event on April 21 as the closing film. The festival’s lineup was unveiled Monday at a press conference at Hong Kong’s Filmart Content Market.

The Brightest Sun is filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima’s adaptation of a novel by popular Japanese author Bunzo Uchikai. It’s the first film from Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, The World of Kanako) in seven years. Pavane for an Infant, meanwhile, directed by Chong Keat Aun, is a drama exploring the issue of baby abandonment through the eyes of a female social worker (Malaysian-born Hong Kong actress Fish Liew).

Two local Hong Kong features have been...

Japanese filmmaker Nakashima Tetsuya’s The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane For An Infant, directed by Chong Keat-Aun, will open this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (April 10-21).

Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, has been set as the closing film of the festival.

Two Hong Kong productions will receive Gala Screenings – Valley Of The Shadow Of Death, starring Anthony Wong, and Oliver Chan Siu-kuen’s Montages Of A Modern Motherhood, which played in Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents section and Tokyo International Film Festival’s Women’s Empowerment strand last year.

Hkiff’s Cinephile Paradise section will screen films such as Geng Jun’s Bel Ami, Vivian Qu’s Girls On Wire, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Luis Ortega’s Kill The Jockey and Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes.

As previously announced, Hong Kong actor...

In December 2023, Jonathan Majors walked through a dense thicket of news cameras and climbed into the back of a black Chevy Suburban pulling away from the criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan. After a highly publicized trial, Majors had just learned that a jury convicted him of one count of misdemeanor third-degree assault and one count of second-degree harassment of his ex-girlfriend, British dancer Grace Jabbari. Inside the hushed car, a member of his legal team turned around from the front seat and delivered the next piece of news. “He goes, ‘I’m just gonna tell you now,’” Majors says. “That way you’re not surprised, and you can start processing it. They fired you. Marvel fired you.’”

Before his arrest that March, Majors was fresh off the Warner Bros. box office hit Creed III, the Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and an Emmy nomination for the HBO series Lovecraft Country.

"I was simply head over heels in love with Johanna. That's why I wrote it down. To keep it with me." After another long winter film festival at the end of February, the 2025 Berlin Film Festival announced the award winners - giving the Golden Bear top prize to Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud and his film known as Dreams (in English). This warm and fuzzy Norwegian film is deserving of the top prize at this year's festival, finally a winner that seems to be less of a political pick and more about wonderful filmmaking getting reconigition. I'm glad I had a chance to catch up with Dreams at the end of Berlinale, right before it would go on to win, as it is a seriously wholesome and uplifting cinematic experience. Everyone feels better after watching it. And I'm glad I could catch this one on the big screen and take it in,...

by Elisa Giudici

First love is by definition all-consuming, reshaping one’s world with overwhelming intensity. In Dreams (Sex Love), a multi-generational reflection on first love from Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud, captures this transformative experience, The movie tells the story of Johanne, a high school student who falls deeply for her French teacher. While the premise may seem familiar, the film’s execution is anything but. With remarkable authenticity, Dreams conveys the raw, feverish energy of youthful desire—both in mind and body—while weaving in a broader meditation on love across different stages of life...

Michel Franco’s “Dreams” (2025) is not a love story, though it begins as one. It is not a tragedy either, though it moves inexorably toward collapse. Instead, it is an excavation of the illusions we create about class, gender, and control. A tale where desire collides unapologetically with social reality. In his talk at Berlinale, Franco talks about his love for Bresson’s “Notes On The Cinematographer.” By taking a page from there, the film unfolds deceptively simple in its linearity but devastating in its implications. Every scene is a quiet reckoning, and every gesture a negotiation of power.

From the very first scene, Franco establishes his thematic terrain with an almost mythic clarity: an isolated trailer, its interior filled with unseen voices, restless and pleading. Then, Fernando (Isaac Hernández) emerges—silent, deliberate, walking through an unnamed town towards a restaurant. Dehydrated, he drinks from a leftover jug before being thrown out.

Kathryn Bigelow’s political thriller movie Zero Dark Thirty has officially found its newest streaming home for the month of March. The 2012 movie was led by Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain, who portrayed the role of a CIA intelligence analyst named Maya.

Starting on March 1,Zero Dark Thirty will finally be available for streaming on Peacock. The story takes place after the dreadful 9/11 attacks, where Chastain’s Maya has been tasked to search for the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who has been identified as the mastermind behind the 9/11 tragedy. The film chronicles the decade-long global manhunt for the most dangerous man on the planet, with an elite team of intelligence and military operatives devoting themselves to finding and eliminating the enemy. At the moment, it is currently one of Bigelow’s highest-rated movies to date, with a Certified Fresh rating of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Related15 Amazing War...

The Berlin Film Festival kicked off its 75th anniversary edition February 13 with the opening-night world premiere screening of The Light, Tom Tykwer’s politically charged film that takes stock of German society in the first quarter of the 21st century. It starts 11 days of debuts including for movies starring Jessica Chastain, Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Rupert Friend, Marion Cotillard, Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky, Emma Mackey and more.

The 2025 Berlinale runs through February 23.

Keep checking back below as Deadline reviews the best and buzziest movies of the festival. Click on the titles to read the full reviews.

Blue Moon

Section: Competition

Director: Richard Linklater

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott

Deadline’s takeaway: Richard Linklater’s Broadway chamber piece looks back to a lost time and mourns a lost soul in Lorenz Hart as the booze is about to consume him. In a bravura theatrical performance, Ethan Hawke...

Refreshingly unexpected, Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams (Sex Love) — the first Norwegian film to win the Berlinale’s Golden Bear — breathes new life into the often oversimplified genre of sexual awakening that seems to draw on his twinned career in both cinema and books. This headlong, hyper-nuanced account of a teenage girl’s first love fuses the interiority of novels and the sensuous embrace of cinema in ways that other films fumble. Led by a smartly underplayed performance by Ella Øverbye, this third, stand-alone entry in a trilogy (released in Norway last October) moves engrossingly between her romantic entrancement and insightful commentary, both her own and her family’s.

Seventeen-year-old Johanne (Øverbye) is a subdued, pensive teen who seems swaddled in cozy scarves and the Nordic light, taking in more of the world than she ever says aloud. She’s surprised by her stirrings of interest in a kind, self-effacing...

The 75th Berlin International Film Festival announced the winners of the fest at the awards ceremony held at the Berlinale Palast on February 22.

19 films competed for the awards in this year’s competition with director Todd Haynes heading the International Jury alongside director Nabil Ayouch, costume designer Bina Daigeler, actor Fan Bingbing, director Rodrigo Moreno, film critic and author Amy Nicholson, and director, actor, and screenwriter Maria Schrader.

Related: Berlin Film Festival: Norwegian Film ‘Dreams (Sex Love)’ Wins Golden Bear, Andrew Scott & Rose Byrne Take Acting Honors — Full List

The Golden Bear for Best Film was awarded to Dreams (Sex Love) by Dag Johan Haugerud. Rose Byrne won The Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for her role in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, while Andrew Scott received The Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance in Blue Moon. Huo Meng was honored with The Silver Bear for Best...

The Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival was awarded to Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud for Dreams (Sex Love) tonight (February 22), the first time this honour has gone to the country.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Dreams (Sex Love) sees Haugerud complete his Sex Love Dreams trilogy with the story of a young woman whose writings about a crush on her French teacher shock her mother and grandmother, causing them to re-examine their own fantasies. M-Appeal is handling sales.

Haugerud said on stage that it was “beyond [his] wildest dreams” to win the Golden Bear and, speaking...

The 2025 Berlin International Film Festival announced its award winners on Saturday, with Dreams (Sex Love) from filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud winning the prestigious Golden Bear. Acting honors went to lead performer Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and supporting performer Andrew Scott for Blue Moon.

This year’s 2025 Berlinale competition jury was led by filmmaker Todd Haynes (his narrative feature debut Poison was awarded the Teddy Prize for queer filmmaking in Berlin in 1991). Other jurors included Nabil Ayouch (Morocco/France), costume designer Bina Daigeler (Germany), actor Fan Bingbing (China), director Rodrigo Moreno (Argentina), Los Angeles Times critic Amy Nicholson (U.S.), and filmmaker and actor Maria Schrader (Germany).

See the complete list of 2025 Berlin International Film Festival award winners below.

Golden Bear: Dreams (Sex Love) by Dag Johan Haugerud

Silver Bear Jury Prize: The Message by Iván Fund

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: The Blue Trail...

“Dreams” introduces us to a poignant tale of first love and personal discovery, the final chapter in a carefully constructed thematic series. The film follows a young protagonist as she recounts her experiences with a captivating mentor, setting up a narrative that is both intimate and thoughtfully crafted.

Set against the backdrop of Oslo, the city is presented not simply as a locale but as an active element that influences mood and atmosphere. The storytelling approach uses an introspective voiceover by Johanne, which gives the film a reflective and personal air.

Her narration lends insight into her innermost thoughts, presenting moments of vulnerability alongside a measured confidence. This method invites viewers to engage with the text in a straightforward manner, making the film accessible to those who appreciate clear storytelling paired with a strong sense of place and a personal point of view.”

Narrative Structure and Plot Development

The film...

Fipresci, the international film critics association, has announced its winners for the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, with Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud’s Drømmer (Dreams (Sex Love)) taking the top honor in the Competition section.

The film, the concluding chapter of Haugerud’s Sex, Love, Dreams trilogy on emotional and physical intimacy, follows 17-year-old Johanne (Ella Øverbye), who becomes infatuated with her new teacher, Johanna (Selome Emnetu). As Johanne navigates her romantic awakening, the lines between memory and fiction blur, culminating in a self-reflective literary account of first love. Infused with Haugerud’s signature droll humor and sensitive observations, the film marks a shift in the trilogy’s focus to queer first love. M-Appeal is handling world sales.

In the newly introduced Perspectives competition, Slovenian director Urška Djukić was honored for her debut feature Kaj ti je deklica (Little Trouble Girls), a coming-of-age drama that follows the reserved Lucia (Jara Sofija Ostan...

As Germany prepares for a general election, Berlin International Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle has raised concerns about the growing influence of the far-right AfD party. Speaking ahead of the vote, she addressed the potential impact on the festival’s direction.

“I don’t know anyone that has an interest in a pluralistic society that values difference, that isn’t worried about what’s happening with the rise of the far-right,” she said. “It’s about closing down and fearing difference. I’m as worried as a lot of other people are here.”

Asked whether a shift in government would affect her role, she explained that it would depend on whether she could continue shaping the event as intended. “I’m here at the Berlinale to build a dynamic, international film festival that shows off German cinema on an international stage and also energizes local audiences,” she said. “But if...

There’s a scene at the start of Dreams (Drømmer) in which 17-year-old Johanne, played with churning depths of melancholy introspection by Ella Øverbye, explains to an instructor after a modern dance class why she didn’t try classical ballet: “Because I read somewhere that it’s about outdated gender attitudes and it should be banned.” The droll humor embedded in that sweeping, unironic dismissal — with its wry dig at the rigid codification of 21st century sexual politics and its absolute authority despite only the vaguest recollection of its source — is characteristic of Dag Johan Haugerud’s smart, sensitive queer coming-of-age story.

The film is the concluding chapter of the talented Norwegian writer-director’s trilogy about emotional and physical intimacy. That he’s made three thematically related but narratively distinct features in a year is remarkable enough; that they are all terrific, even more so. All three are extremely talky,...

Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25 makes a strong debut on the Berlin critics jury grid while Johanna Moder’s Mother’s Baby, Ameer Fakher Eldin’s Yunan and Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams (Sex Love) also land.

Kontinental ’25scored a 3.1 average rating from the critics, putting it second behind Gabriel Mascaro’s The Blue Trail on 3.4. Jude’s Romanian-set drama received three four-stars (excellent) four three-stars (good) and two two-stars (average) – the latter from Barabara Hollender and Kalapapruek.

Click on the grid above for the most up-to-date version

Jude was last in Berlin with his Golden Bear-winning Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn...

Jessica Chastain gives one of the gutsiest performances of her career in Michel Franco’s “Dreams,” here as a San Francisco philanthropist in love with a younger, undocumented Mexican immigrant who she’s convinced to cross over into the United States.

Emotionally lobotomized by her wealthy scion father (Marshall Bell) and brother (Rupert Friend), Jennifer (Chastain) gives money to good causes and believes she’s contributing to some greater good. Meanwhile, Fernando, a 10-plus-years-younger ballet dancer from Mexico City, is at her every mercy trying to start a life in America after a harrowing journey over the border.

The characters may function metaphorically as stand-ins for the U.S. and Mexico and how those countries, like these people, need each other. But politics aside, what makes the “New Order” director’s latest film, and his second with Chastain after the dementia-addled romance “Memory,” throb and thrum beneath the filmmaking’s...

This year’s Berlin Film Festival, under new artistic director Tricia Tuttle, moves closer toward popular tastes than arguably under the stead of Carlo Chatrian. He departed the festival last year while leaving behind a legacy of programming a more arthouse-minded slate. Italian cineaste Chatrian came from Locarno as well as more niche festivals throughout Europe; Tuttle is an American with a history of film journalism and programming in the States and at the BFI London.

Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” and the Berlin premiere of “A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight Pictures) brought stars like Robert Pattinson and Timothée Chalamet (along with his girlfriend Kylie Jenner) to the festival for viral moments that have put an energizing, social-media-friendly spotlight on the European showcase here in the U.S. “Mickey 17” needs all the help it can get, as the sci-fi comedy has been re-dated several times and, in the David Zaslav...

Hot off his searing social indictment “Dreams,” Michel Franco will next produce “Moscas” (“Flies”) for director Fernando Eimbcke.

Now finishing pre-production, with cameras set to roll next month, the project follows an 8-year-old boy and a middle-aged woman as they crisscross contemporary Mexico City. Eimbcke wrote the script with frequent collaborator Vanesa Garnica, and will produce alongside Franco and Eréndira Núñez Larios through their respective Kinotitlán and Teorema banners.

“I’ve known Michel for a long time,” says Eimbcke. “We started out together, making shorts three decades ago, and I’ve learned a lot from him. Our work is very different – and l love that — so after not making a film for 10 years, I wanted to ask how to be more prolific!”

In 2004, Eimbcke broke out of Cannes’ Critics Week with his feature debut, “Duck Season.” Shot in black and white, and set entirely within a Mexico City apartment, the...

Before Shawn Levy directed Hugh Jackman in 2024’s Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine, the pair teamed up for a 2011 sci-fi sports movie. That film, Real Steel, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2012, will head to free streaming service Tubi starting March 1.

Levy directed and produced the movie, which was written by Dan Gilroy (Andor)and Jeremy Leven. The DreamWorks film is based on a short story called “Steel” by Richard Matheson that was first published in a 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The story was also adapted into a Twilight Zone episode in 1963.

Real Steel features Jackman in the role of a former boxer named Charlie Kenton, who, when boxing is taken over by robot opponents, builds and trains a robot with the help of his son. Evangeline Lilly and Anthony Mackie, also both vets of the MCU in the...

The dynamic between student and teacher can be a charged, intimate one even in its most appropriate form: As children, we spend so much time with our educators, and are so dependent on their attention and approval, that the relationship can evolve into fast loathing or quasi-familial affection — an impression, either way, that often lives far longer in the memory than whatever it is they taught us.

For naive 17-year-old Johanne (Ella Øverbye), an instant affinity with her new teacher Johanna (Selome Emnetu) begins with the similarity of their names, before she projects a far deeper emotional bond between them. Or perhaps she isn’t projecting at all. Intricately shaded and unfailingly sensitive on a volatile subject, Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Dreams” captures the disorienting bifocal lens of first love, where on the one hand, the world around you becomes a hormonal haze, while on the other, you see more...

Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud has completed his trilogy with “Dreams (Sex Love),” presented in Berlinale’s main competition. Its previous parts, “Sex” and “Love,” were shown at Berlinale’s Panorama and in Venice. M-Appeal handles sales.

“It’s very, very good that it’s over. It has been a long run. Making these three movies wasn’t that hard – releasing them so quickly was,” laughs Haugerud. Admitting the journey wasn’t actually supposed to end with “Dreams.”

“In Norway, it’s ‘Sex,’ ‘Dreams,’ ‘Love.’ Love is the conclusion,” he says.

“I thought it was interesting to first visit a couple that has been together for many years, then go back to first love, and eventually talk about what love can be if it’s as much about caring and responsibility as it is romantic. Also, both ‘Sex’ and ‘Dreams’ end with people going towards the city hall in...

Love on the Brain: Haugerud Caps Trilogy with Teenage Wasteland

With his latest film Dreams (Sex Love) (aka Drømmer), the final installment in his thematic trilogy, Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud clasps his most cohesive segment on a teenage girl’s ineffable, transformative brush with first love. The title of each film in the trilogy can feel misleading as each segment/situation/character is caught up in the intersection of these three states, each designed to reflect on the angle of intention. So perhaps it is most appropriate that the formative stage of desire, which leads to sex and love, begins in the mind of a dreamy seventeen-year-old who is led to comprehend her own awakening by comparing unnamed emotions to those of a fictional girl she first reads about in an obscure French novel.…...

Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon and Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are among the latest titles dividing critics on this year’s Berlin jury grid.

Ethan Hawke stars as songwriter Lorenz Hart in his latest collaboration with Linklater which scored an average of 2.8 stars after proving divisive. Blue Moon received three four stars (excellent) while Martin Horyna and Kalapapruek gave it just one star (poor). The rest of the scores comprised two or three stars with one critic left to score.

Linklater’s last outing at Berlin was over 10 years ago with Boyhood which topped...

Nawi begins with a quiet glimpse of childhood aspiration. The 13-year-old protagonist yearns to leave her rural Turkana home through learning. However, her father sells her into marriage, her value measured by a dowry of livestock—sixty sheep, six camels, and a hundred goats.

Set in northern Kenya, the film reveals the stark realities of child marriage, a practice deeply rooted in many patriarchal societies. While Nawi performs excellently academically, her aspirations are destroyed by an entrenched tradition that treats girls as tradable goods. The narrative explores a widespread problem, where women’s capabilities are frequently limited by societal constraints.

The film investigates how cultural traditions trap not only the oppressed but those who care for them. Nawi’s mother, while sympathetic, still perceives the marriage as unavoidable. This acquiescence represents a silent form of oppression—one that extends beyond individual experiences into the core of cultural practices.

The Heart...

For the rest of the world, it seems impossible to watch a U.S.-set production without situating it in relationship to the country’s spectacular self-implosion. This is particularly true of a film as topical as writer-director Michel Franco’s immigration drama Dreams, whose absence of “American” in its title makes the word seem all the more present. That absence may leave viewers with the disturbing sense that, for the foreseeable future, the expression “American dream” could only possibly be used ironically.

Franco’s story follows the turbulent romance between Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), an impossibly rich heiress with a philanthropic heart, and Fernando (Isaac Hernández), a dancer from the dance academy in Mexico City that’s funded by her arts foundation. Jennifer is bold enough to escape the prejudiced pressures of her billionaire milieu through a perversely recreational approach to danger whose plug she can pull at any time.

Best Friend Forever has inked distribution deals for Kateryna Gornostai’s Timestamp with Dulac Distribution in France and Cherry Pickers for Belgium and the Netherlands ahead of the film’s world premiere in competition at Berlin Film Festival on Thursday (February 20).

The film focuses on a school in Ukraine whose students and teachers are doing their best to continue their daily lives under the constant threat of war.

The only documentary selected for this year’s competition, it is also the first Ukrainian-directed film to compete for the festival’s Golden Bear since Kira Muratova’s Three Stories in 1997. It...

Best Friend Forever has inked distribution deals for Kateryna Gornostai’s Timestamp with Dulac Distribution in France and Cherry Pickers for Belgium and the Netherlands ahead of the film’s world premiere in competition at Berlin Film Festival on Thursday (February 20).

The film focuses on a school in Ukraine whose students and teachers are doing their best to continue their daily lives under the constant threat of war.

The only documentary selected for this year’s competition, it is also the first Ukrainian-directed film to compete for the festival’s Golden Bear since Kira Muratova’s Three Stories in 1997. It...

Jessica Chastain has described her latest film ‘Dreams’ as “incredibly political”.The 46-year-old actress stars in the drama, directed by Michel Franco, which explores immigration between Mexico and the United States, and she said despite U.S. president Donald Trump’s brutal approach to deportations since he was voted back into power again, she said she is “not going to give up on my country”.Premiering in competition at the Berlin Film Festival last weekend, ‘Dreams’ follows Jennifer, a wealthy philanthropist played by Jessica, who falls for Fernando, a young Mexican ballet dancer portrayed by Isaac Hernández. His character crosses the border into the US, leaving everything behind and narrowly escaping death, in order to be with her.Speaking at the film’s press conference, Jessica said: “‘Dreams’ is incredibly political because of what’s happening right now in the United States.” She appeared to be referencing immigration policies introduced during Donald Trump’s presidency,...

Gabriel Mascaro’s The Blue Trail has taken the lead on Screen’s Berlin jury grid with a strong 3.4 while Ari, Dreams, The Ice Tower and Reflection In A Dead Diamond also land.

The Blue Trailreceived four four stars (excellent) and five three stars (good), already beating the score of last year’s joint winners My Favourite Cake and The Devil’s Bath with 3.1.Denise Weinberg stars in the dystopian fable as a 77-year-old who embarks on a journey through the Amazon.

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

Close behind was Michel Franco’s...

The sustained snowfall in Berlin reflected a cool but steady first half of EFM 2025, defined largely by a shortfall in must-have big packages.

Amid reduced buyer presence, particularly from Asia, and with many buyers leaving on Sunday, the EFM has mostly been used by sellers to round off sales on pre-existing slates.

One big talking point is whether the new Berlinale and EFM leadership can bring back bigger sales titles, and craft a heavyweight festival selection extending into the second week to lure back attendees who fly to London for the Baftas mid-festival.

Festival director Tricia Tuttle’s first programme...

The sustained snowfall in Berlin reflected a cool but steady first half of EFM 2025, defined largely by a shortfall in must-have big packages.

Amid reduced buyer presence, particularly from Asia, and with many buyers leaving on Sunday, the EFM has mostly been used by sellers to round off sales on pre-existing slates.

One big talking point is whether the new Berlinale and EFM leadership can bring back bigger sales titles and craft a heavyweight festival selection extending into the second week to lure back attendees who fly to London for the Baftas mid-festival.

Festival director Tricia Tuttle’s first programme...

The sustained snowfall in Berlin reflected a cool but steady first half of EFM 2025, defined largely by a shortfall in must-have big packages.

Amid reduced buyer presence, particularly from Asia, and with many buyers leaving on Sunday, the EFM has mostly been used by sellers to round off sales on pre-existing slates.

One big talking point is whether the new Berlinale and EFM leadership can bring back bigger sales titles and craft a heavyweight festival selection extending into the second week to lure back attendees who fly to London for the Baftas mid-festival.

Festival director Tricia Tuttle’s first programme...

Emmy Rossum, Dove Cameron, Nicole Scherzinger and Chloe Fineman sat in the front row of the Carolina Herrera fashion show during New York Fashion Week in Manhattan.

Wes Gordon took over as creative director of the company from Herrera when she retired. Herrera attended the event with her family.

Models strutted down the runway embellished with 3,000 burgundy wine-colored flowers while Gordon’s handpicked assortment of songs played in the background, which included Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

The backdrop was a gorgeous, 360-degree view of New York City through floor-to-ceiling windows on the 48th floor.

For his 2025 collection, Gordon pushed the envelope with 66 daring looks including a tweed ultrafeminine mini dress and a tailored trouser.

There were delicate floral lace sets along with a series of embroidered sheer gowns. Several of the looks were accessorized with gold buttons, earrings or rose adornments. Gordon’s inspiration for the collection was his favorite film and book,...

Some images have become metonymic by nature, reflecting the political problems of today with little to no context needed. Such a shot opens Michel Franco’s newest offering, Dreams, and it is one of a huge truck abandoned next to a railway: illegal border-crossing. It rattles and shakes with the screams of people locked inside, clamoring for help; one already anticipates the dire condition the fugitives all are in once the police break open the back door. One of those “illegals” manages to escape amidst the chaos: a youngish, strong-looking man (Isaác Hernández) whose determination is made clear by every step he takes on that desolate road. We don’t know who he is, but he surely knows where he’s going, and there’s a fierceness to him that overpowers the pain he’s obviously in.

After hitchhiking to San Francisco, he breaks into the lavish house of Jennifer McCarthy...