News

As Germany shifts to the right, will its movies and TV series become less diverse?

After making major strides to promote diversity in film and TV productions in recent years, the German film industry could now be facing a setback in this effort. The country, which is home to the Berlin Film Festival and European conglomerates such as Rtl Group, recently passed a film funding law that removed a clause requiring all local productions to meet specific diversity, gender equality and inclusion criteria.

The German parliament — before being dissolved in December — ushered in a watered-down version of the country’s planned new film law that will create a more centralized funding system for production, distribution and exhibition. In the rush to get this crucial piece of legislation passed, German Culture Minister Claudia Roth “had to make some compromises in order to get the majority in parliament to vote for it,...

Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang announced the 97th Oscars nominations today (January 23), live from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater via a global live stream.

Emilia Pérez sets the record for most nominations for a non-English language film at 13. Previous record holders, with 10 nominations each, were Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Roma (2018).

The Brutalist and Wicked saw 10 nominations each, while A Complete Unknown and Conclave each received eight nods. Best Picture nominations for Emilia Pérez and Wicked mark the first time two musicals have been nominated in the category since 1968 (Oliver! and Funny Girl were two of the five nominated films that year).

The breakdown of studio nominations is Netflix with 16, A24 with 14, Universal has 13, Focus Features with 12, Searchlight at 10 and Neon with 7.

Conan O’Brien will host the 97th Oscars® on March 2 at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live at 7 p.m. Et/4 p.m.

The 51st Telluride Film Festival officially kicked off Friday afternoon with the world premiere of Piece by Piece, an animated documentary about the innovative singer, songwriter and record producer Pharrell Williams, as the Patron Preview screening at the Werner Herzog Theatre. And the consensus of those in attendance was that the film is a truly original, outside-the-box, rollicking good time.

Directed by the great Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom), the taut 93-minute film — at the request of Williams, who experiences sounds visually, something known as synesthesia — employs Lego animations to illustrate Williams’ journey from the projects of Virginia Beach to the heights of showbiz, and the bumps he has experienced along the way. (Neville had never previously worked with animation.)

Williams is not only the film’s subject — and opens up as never before during interviews with Neville in which they are both Lego-ized — but also one of its producers.

Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, has announced its list of July titles. The Tubi July 2024 slate features new Tubi Originals, as well as numerous action, art house, Black cinema, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, kids and family, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, and Western titles.

As a leading ad-supported video-on-demand service, the company engages diverse audiences through a personalized experience and the world’s largest content library: over 200,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of Tubi Originals, and nearly 250 Fast channels.

You can watch the Tubi July 2024 lineup for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, and Cox Contour.

You can also watch the service on connected television devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the Tubi site.

Tubi Originals

House Of Heat...

After closing out last month’s Cannes competition, Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Most Precious of Cargoes” opened this year’s Annecy Animation Festival on an auspicious note. With French productions accounting for one half of Annecy’s 12 competition slots, the Alpine showcase doubles a show of force for Gallic filmmakers writ large – a fact made all the more impressive given their sector’s relative youth.

“20 years ago, French animation barely existed,” says “The Most Precious of Cargoes” executive producer Valerie Schermann, who credits “Kirikou and the Sorceress” director Michel Ocelot with forging a new path that many have since followed. “Michel showed that it was possible to produce animated features in France; without him I would never have been able to make my own films.”

But if Schermann built a sterling filmography in those ensuing decades – with credits such as “Zarafa,” “Wolfy, the Incredible Secret” and “The Red Turtle” – the stalwart...

If an animated film turns up in the Competition at Cannes, chances are it’s not going to be another Bambi — although, if it were made today, the traumatic shooting of Bambi’s mother would certainly tickle the selection committee. No, Cannes prefers its animation to be skewed towards adults, like René Lalou’s surreal sci-fi Fantastic Planet (1973), Robert Taylor’s raunchy sequel The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974) or Ari Folman’s wartime docudrama Waltz with Bashir (2008). And with The Most Precious of Cargoes, actor turned director and now graphic artist Michel Hazanavicius has turned to the most controversial topic it is possible to approach with pen and ink: the Holocaust.

Five long years in the making, Hazanavicius’s adaptation of the 2019 novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg arrives in Cannes two years after the death of its narrator, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and, unfortunately, a year after the debut of Jonathan Glazer...

Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of “The Artist,” makes a first foray into animation with “The Most Precious of Cargoes” which world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival on May 24. Adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is the first animated feature to vie for a Palme d’Or since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008; and it will be the last movie watched by the competition jury, presided over by Greta Gerwig, before the closing ceremony.

Hazanavicius developed the project for years and wrote the script with Grumberg, as well as created the drawings. Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat created the original score. The drama intertwines the fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living deep in a Polish forest. On the train to the death camp, the young father wraps...

Studiocanal has unveiled the first clip of Michel Hazanavicius’s “The Most Precious of Cargoes,” an allegorical hand-drawn animated feature which is competing at the Cannes Film Festival. The first animated film to vie for a Palme d’Or since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel of the same name.

Set during World War II against the backdrop of the Holocaust,” the film has been developed by Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “The Artist,” for many years.Hazanavicius penned the script with Grumberg and created the drawings, with Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat providing the score.

The drama intertwines the fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living deep in a Polish forest. On the train to the death camp, the young father wraps...

As part of the 2025 Oscar rule changes for the 97th Academy Awards, animated movies can be simultaneously submitted for Best International Feature and Best Animated Feature. This will simplify the qualifying method for the latter and specifically help animated international films that may not have access to U.S. distribution.

“Previously, animated movies selected as a country’s international feature selection [which do not require U.S. theatrical distribution] were not qualified to enter for animated feature consideration unless they also met the qualifying standards for general entry [which require U.S. theatrical distribution],” an Academy insider told IndieWire.

“This consisted of separate submission forms. Submitters will still need to complete different forms, but now animated movies selected as a country’s international feature selection no longer need to meet general entry standards to be considered for the Animated Feature award. They would, however, still need to be ruled eligible under the Academy’s definition of ‘animation.'”

Two examples of animated international feature...

Michel Hazanavicius is back on the Croisette - with animated wartime drama The Most Precious of Cargoes Photo: © Ex Nihilo, Les Compagnons du Cinéma, Studio Canal, France 3 Cinéma, Les Films du Fleuve) The Oscar-wining director of The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius returns to the Cannes Film Festival Competition with his new animated feature The Most Precious of Cargoes, adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s best-selling novel of the same name.

It is set during the Second World World War against the backdrop of the Holocaust and will be the first animated feature to compete in the official selection in more than a decade, since Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir in 2008.

Described as “a passion project” for Hazanavicius the story intertwines the fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, who are arrested in Paris and deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living in the depths of a Polish forest.

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof is finally making his way back to the Cannes Film Festival following the controversy surrounding his Un Certain Regard 2023 jury appointment.

Rasoulof was invited to serve on the jury last year but was unable to attend due to Iran’s travel embargo on him. The “There Is No Evil” filmmaker was banned from leaving Iran after being arrested in July 2022 for posting statements criticizing government-sanctioned violence against protesters. Rasoulof was later temporarily released in February 2023 due to ongoing health concerns. He was later pardoned and sentenced to one year of penal servitude and a two-year ban from leaving Iran on the charge of “propaganda against the regime.”

Now, Rasoulof is debuting his latest feature “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in competition at the festival. While the plot remains under wraps, there is no word on whether Rasoulof will attend the festival. Variety first reported the news.

After announcing a whopping number of English-language films in competition, Cannes Film Festival has added some international titles: Michel Hazanavicius’ animated feature “The Most Precious of Cargoes” and Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Variety has learned.

An auteur-driven allegorical feature, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” (first-look still below) is adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel of the same name, set during World War II against the backdrop of the Holocaust. It will be the first animated feature to compete in more than a decade, since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008.

The film is co-produced and represented internationally by Studiocanal, which also has Gilles Lellouche’s “Beating Hearts” in competition. “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is a passion project for Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “The Artist,” who has been developing the project for years. Hazanavicius penned the script with Grumberg and created the drawings,...

Italian animation auteur Alessandro Rak – best known for European Film Award-winner “The Art of Happiness” and Neapolitan mob fable “Cinderella The Cat” – is at work on a new project titled “The Little Prince of Shangri-La” set in an imaginary Tibet and involving the search for the Dalai Lama.

Rak’s new work, which follows “Yaya and Lenny — The Walking Liberty,” that launched in 2021 from Locarno, was unveiled earlier this month at the Cartoon Movie co-production and pitch forum in Bordeaux, France.

As seen in this exclusive teaser provided to Variety, Rak’s new feature is set in an imaginary time that appears to blend present and past.

“The 13th Dalai Lama has just died,” reads the provided synopsis, and “The armies of the terrible Warlord are at the gates.” The fate of Tibet seems sealed. “But a vision emerges from the waters of the Great Lake of Prophecies. Does it...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Oscars Predictions:

Best Animated Short

Weekly Commentary: In the realm of animated shorts, the title can be as captivating as the storyline itself.

This year, Dave Mullins’ “War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” which is co-writes with Sean Lennon, the son of Beatles band member John Lennon,...

Uri Marantz graduated from the Film School in Tel Aviv in mid- 1990s. He directed a number of short films, and was involved in several television projects, both as a writer and creator. He is best known for the hit series “Daddy” that aired on Hot. “Since filmmaking is more or less a hobby in Israel, I had to compromise a lot”, explains the Israeli helmer why it took him that long to direct a feature length movie, adding that he always had a project here and there happening, but that he ended up working in the advertising industry as a copy- and content writer. “My dream of filmmaking was somehow ebbing away”, he says.

When we met in the hotel lobby of Nordic before the world premiere of his debut feature “King Khat” which competes in the Rebels With A Cause program of Tallinn Black Nights film festival, Marantz...

The Oscar-nominated director of Waltz with Bashir talks about the hypocrisy of the UK’s response to war, his project to help the relatives of those taken hostage by Hamas and why he’s still hopeful of a solution

Ari Folman, the Oscar-nominated director of Waltz With Bashir and Where Is Anne Frank, has said he believes the UK’s response to the Israel-Hamas war is grounded in “hypocrisy” and ignorance.

“I think there is a lot of hypocrisy,” said Folman, who lives in Tel Aviv and is filming testimonies of the relatives of Jewish people taken hostage by Hamas. “You cannot be aware of what is going on in Gaza and not pay empathy to the other side.”

In the west, he says, there is a “total unawareness that Hamas is a fundamentalistic [organisation]. They are not freedom fighters. They are sick monsters who slaughtered babies and chopped [off] heads. They...

The ‘Waltz With Bashir’ director is working with a collective of Israeli filmmakers to keep up global awareness of the hostages’ situation.

Oscar-nominated Waltz With Bashir filmmaker Ari Folman has partnered with other Israeli filmmakers for a collective project bringing together testimony from families of hostages kidnapped during the October 7 terror attack by Hamas to urge their release.

Folman and documentary director Jasmine Kainy are spearheading the initiative titled #BringThemHomeNow that is produced by Ophir-winning director and filmmaker Eliran Peled and director Smadar Zamir.

The more than 40 videos of families of hostages were filmed in a studio in Tel Aviv...

The ‘Waltz With Bashir’ director is working with a collective of Israeli filmmakers to keep up global awareness of the hostages’ situation.

Oscar-nominated Waltz With Bashir filmmaker Ari Folman has partnered with other Israeli filmmakers for a collective project bringing together testimony from families of hostages kidnapped during the October 7 terror attack by Hamas to urge their release.

Folman and documentary director Jasmine Kainy are spearheading the initiative titled #BringThemHomeNow that is produced by Ophir-winning director and filmmaker Eliran Peled and director Smadar Zamir.

The more than 40 videos of families of hostages were filmed in a studio in Tel Aviv...

Introduced last year, Mia’s dedicated animation program heads into its sophomore edition with a more firmly entrenched industry position and a resoundingly global outlook. With the program scaffolding already in place, Mia curators spent the past year shoring up support and scouting for projects at key markets in Berlin, Cannes and Annecy, resulting in a program of roughly 30 co-production pitch projects and works-on-progress that altogether spans more than 40 countries.

The rise in animation studios across the African continent will be a major theme of this year’s edition, with nearly one third of the co-production pitch projects coming from Africa-based studios. Among them, titles like Ama Adi-Dako’s “Drumland,” Jérémie Becquer and Julien Becquer’s “Mia Moké,” Esmail Zalat’s “The Prey” and Kay Carmichael’s “Troll Girl” will bring studios based in Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa into the fold.

Meanwhile, on the conference side, an Oct.

Rome’s Mia Market, dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films, documentaries and more, kicked off Monday in the Eternal City’s 17th century Palazzo Barberini. There were some 2,300 registered industry execs on day one – roughly 300 of which are buyers – more than 120 selected projects on display, and plenty of panels.

At a press conference, Mia director Gaia Tridente noted that, sadly, a group of industry execs who were expected to arrive from Israel, including “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman, are being forced to stay in the country by the war that has broken out with Palestinian militant group Hamas. “Our thoughts go out to them and we hope to be able to welcome them in Rome in a context of peace and security for all,” Tridente said.

The pre-Mipcom event, taking place Oct. 9 to 13, has expanded its scope this year, adding a full-fledged section dedicated to animation and...

Rome’s upcoming Mia market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries is set to run Oct. 9-13 in central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub.

Now at its ninth edition, this innovative pre-Mipcom event (the Mia acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) aims to boost the Italian industry by strengthening its international ties. It will feature 62 projects of all shapes and sizes from 36 countries with an accent on “inclusion and diversity,” says its director Gaia Tridente.

As previously announced, Mia has recruited a roster of high-caliber speakers at Mia that includes Nicole Clemens, president of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ original scripted series; Sara Bernstein, president of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries; Marge Dean, head of Skybound Entertainment’s animation studio and president of...

All titles below begin streaming for free on October 1 unless otherwise noted:

Originals

Documentary

TMZ Presents:

Tragically Viral

– 10/11-

What happens when the quest for clicks goes too far? TMZ examines the dark & sometimes deadly side of social media in Tragically Viral.

Scariest Monsters In The World

-10/18-

Join us as we embark on this international countdown of the scariest monsters in the world – who will be on your list as the most creepy?

TMZ No Bs: Rich, Famous & Terrified Stars

-10/25-

TMZ examines some of the most downright terrifying experiences celebs have faced that prove being a celebrity isn’t all glitz & glamor.

Horror

Dante’S Hotel

-10/13-

When an unknown assailant preys on a haunted hotel’s patrons, an event planner teams up with a mysterious tenant who’s dark past is the key to freeing the cursed hotel

The Devil Comes To Kansas City

-...

by Nathaniel R

The Peasants

Do you remember that painted animation film Loving Vincent (2017)? It was billed as the world's first fully painted feature film and it went on to an Oscar nomination in the Best Animated Feature category (eventually losing to Pixar's Coco). The married filmmaking team behind that picture have done it again with The Peasants, which is an adaptation of a novel about a peasant girl who causes a scandal by marrying a rich older man. Only three animated films have ever been nominated for Best International Feature Film -- Waltz With Bashir, Flee, and The Missing Picture (sort of) -- and interestingly enough all three of them can be classified as documentaries in addition to being animated. The same isn't true of The Peasants but Poland is submitting this one for the Oscar race...

Rome’s Mia market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films, and documentaries is set to feature a panoply of 62 projects from 36 countries for its upcoming 9th edition.

Though European content remains the core of the curated pre-Mipcom event that will run Oct. 9-13 in the central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini – which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub – organisers on Thursday announced that this year more than 500 entries were submitted from 80 countries which they said marks a 30% increase in terms of national provenance.

Mia (whose whose acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) is headed by Gaia Tridente.

Standout projects that made the cut for Mia comprise groundbreaking Romanian animator Anca Damian’s “Motherhood,” described as a poetic journey into female body and desire, illustrated by Italian artist Virginia Mori and co-produced by French studio Miyu Productions...

The director of ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ will help choose the next head of the Berlinale.

Edward Berger, the Oscar-winning director of All Quiet On The Western Front, has been named by Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister of Culture and Media, as one of the members of a six-person selection committee to appoint a successor to the Berlinale’s management team of executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian.

The committee will be chaired by Roth and will also include Anne Leppin, co-managing director of the German Film Academy, the Iranian-born actress-producer-screenwriter Sara Fazilat whose...

Market

Mia, the international market held annually in Rome, has announced the first confirmed speakers for its ninth edition.

This year, speakers at the industry event — which focuses on co-production, financing strategies and sales and distribution — include Nicole Clemens, president of Paramount of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ original scripted series; Sara Bernstein, president of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries; Marge Dean, head of Skybound Entertainment’s animation studio and president of Women in Animation; “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman; Nicholas Weinstock, founder and president of Invention Studios and “Severance” producer; and James Townley, chief content officer of development at Banijay.

Clemens’ upcoming productions at Paramount include Taika Waititi’s “Time Bandits” and Billy Crystal’s “Before” as well as “Cross” starring Aldis Hodge. Bernstein will give a keynote on her career, focusing on recent Imagine productions including “Judy Blume Forever” and “Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming With Dave Letterman...

Schory was head of the Israel Film Fund for 21 years.

Katriel Schory, former long-time head of the Israel Film Fund, has received a lifetime achievement award from the Israel Academy of Film and Television.

Schory was presented with the award at a special event on August 27, ahead of the Ophir Awards ceremony on September 10 – the main ceremony for the Israeli Academy.

“Israeli cinema would not look the same without Katriel Schory,” read a statement from the Academy, which selected the executive for the award “for his work and public achievements over the past 30 years, with great respect and endless appreciation.

Lucca Comics & Games, Europe’s number one comic and gaming convention, kicked off the 2023 season on Thursday with the launch of the poster and festival trailer for this year’s event. The 57th Lucca festival will be held in the picturesque Italian medieval city Nov. 1-5.

This 2023 festival theme, Together, and rainbow color additions to the Lucca logo, emphasizes organizers’ focus on diversity and inclusion for this year’s edition.

The 2023 poster was designed by Israeli artists, and twin brothers, cartoonist Asaf Hanuka and The New Yorker illustrator Tomer Hanuka. The brothers develped the concept art for Air Folman’s 2008 Oscar-nominated animated documentary Waltz With Bashir, and have collaborated on several graphic novels together, including Boaz Lavie’s The Divine.

Their design for the Lucca poster mashes up Western and Eastern traditions, with an oriental dragon descending from the sky over Lucca’s historic city.

“The image captures the essence...

Zhang Series Debut

Zhang Yimou, China’s most enduring filmmaker, is joining the worldwide shift by feature film directors into the streaming arena.

Zhang, who directed “Full River Red,” the most successful film of 2023 in China, is to be involved with his first TV series. He will executive produce “The First Shot,” his representatives confirmed to Variety.

The show is to be directed by Xing Lu and is backed by Tencent Video. It is currently in development, with a tentative air date in 2025. That’s because Zhang has a film directing project with an anticipated Chinese New Year release date, due to begin shooting this summer.

Sakamoto Deal

Award-winning Japanese screenwriter Sakamoto Yuji will partner with Netflix over the next five years to develop a range of titles to premiere only on the streaming platform. “In Love and Deep Water,” set to be released later this year, promises to be...

Spanish animation shows off its serious side in Cannes’ “Revelations!” showcase, dedicated to new shorts both by promising beginners and acclaimed filmmakers, such as Alberto Mielgo, who scored an Academy Award for “The Windshield Wiper.”

In June, four of the presented titles will also head to Annecy: María Lorenzo’s “Fashion Victims 2.0,” “Lost at Sea,” directed by Lucija Stojevic and Andrés Bartos, Pablo Río’s “Conej Steps Out” and Carla Pereira and Juanfran Jacinto’s “All Is Lost.”

“Animators, or just artists in general, tend to reflect on their times. Some of these films were born during the pandemic and yes, there is this melancholy to them. They are tackling multiple serious subjects,” says animation curator Carolina López Caballero.

That includes elderly suicide, like in the case of Diego Porral’s tender “Leopoldo from the Bar,” where a lonely man walks through ever-changing streets of Madrid accompanied by a massive pigeon.

As the writers' strike pushes against Hollywood's embracing of A.I., one underseen drama, "The Congress," reminds us why humanity in filmmaking matters.

After months of speculation and failed negotiations, the Writers Guild of America put down their pens and went on strike this month. The entertainment industry has shifted exponentially in the past 15 years since the last WGA strike, thanks to the dominance of streaming services and changes in the residual process. One of the key areas where the guild is fighting for security is the growing presence of artificial intelligence in their field. In a list of their proposals, sent to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the WGA sought to regulate the use of A.I. in writers' rooms and wanted assurances from studios that it would not be used to write or rewrite material. They also want to block it from being used as source material.

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including David Easteal’s The Plains (one of the best films we saw on the festival circuit last year), Christophe Honoré’s Winter Boy, Koji Fukada’s 10-part series The Real Thing, Bruce Labruce’s Saint-Narcisse, and more.

Additional highlights include three films by Joan Micklin Silver, additions to their Lars von Trier series, Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville, Sally Potter’s Orlando, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, and more.

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

April 1 – Henry Fool, directed by Hal Hartley

April 2 – Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman

April 3 – The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers, directed by Helke Sander | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

April 4 – Saint-Narcisse, directed by Bruce Labruce

April 5 – Jaime Francisco, directed by Javier Rodríguez | Brief Encounters

April 6 – Hester Street, directed by Joan Micklin...

Aardman Animations’ founder Peter Lord and “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman are set to receive Pulcinella Career Awards at Italy’s Cartoons On The Bay TV animation festival which is broadening its scope.

The event launched in 1996 by Italian state broadcaster Rai has now expanded beyond TV toons to comprise video game productions, the comic book world, transmedia storytelling and metaverse animation content.

Reflecting its more high-tech horizons, the fest’s 27th edition – which will run May 31-June 4 in the Southern seaside city of Pescara – will also be celebrating “Cuphead,” the hit Canadian video game that’s become a Netflix series, and bestowing its creator Maja Moldenhauer with its new Transmedia Award.

In another high-caliber get, British puppet studio Mackinnon and Saunders, which worked with Guillermo del Toro on “Pinocchio,” will be feted by Cartoons on the Bay with its Studio of the Year Award. The studio’s co-founder...

Italian star author Robert Saviano, whose mob exposé “Gomorrah” spawned both Matteo Garrone’s eponymous prizewinning movie and the groundbreaking crime series that plays stateside on HBO, is making his directorial debut.

Saviano will direct “I’m Still Alive,” an animation adaptation of his graphic novel illustrated by Israeli artist Asaf Hanuka (“Waltz With Bashir”). “Still Alive” examines the anti-mob activist’s life under armed guard since being forced to live with police protection shortly after 2006 when Saviano’s account of the inner workings of the Neapolitan Camorra crime syndicate was published.

Just like Saviano’s graphic novel, “I’m Still Alive” will feature illustration’s by Hanuka, an Eisner-winning cartoonist who is known, besides “Bashir,” for his autobiographical strips “The Realist” and for graphic novel “The Divine.”

“I’m Still Alive” is being mounted as an international co-production between Naples-based Mad Entertainment and Lucky Red in Italy, GapBusters for Belgium,...

For a festival traditionally not keen on animation, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee” has surprisingly garnered remarkable accolades. The Danish-French-Swedish-Norwegian production marked the first acquisition of Sundance (sold to Neon for seven figures!), and eventually closed out as the winner of this year’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. At the same time, however, maybe this is to be expected. Out of ten entries, three this year in the World Cinema: Documentary section concerned the plight of refugees. “Flee” truly stands out here, as it tells a story beyond refugee status.

“Flee” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

“Flee” recounts the years-long journey of an anonymous gay Afghan refugee (hereon referred to as Amin Nawabi). Nawabi seems to have it all. He is an accomplished academic with a postdoc waiting for him at Princeton University; his significant other is madly in love with him; and now,...

Exclusive: Oscar Isaac, Evangeline Lilly, Elliott Gould and Billy Zane will voice the Gidi Dar-directed animated movie Legend of Destruction.

The Ushpizin‘s filmmaker’s latest project has been nine years in the making incorporating a unique visual style with 1,500 original still paintings by David Polonsky and Michael Faust, the artists behind Waltz with Bashir and The Congress. The paintings are edited together to produce an innovative cinematic language, in creating a full-fledged experience of an epic action war film.

The pic is set in 66 Ad, Judea, under Roman rule; a virtual powder keg waiting to explode. Its society is polarized, and there is rampant social injustice and corruption. When the Jews revolt against the Roman Empire, the situation quickly deteriorates into a brutal civil war and the Roman war beast is unleashed to crush the rebellion. The film ends in...

‘Plane’ pips ‘The Fabelmans’ into third place.

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Jan 27-29) Total gross to date Week 1. Avatar: The Way Of Water (Disney) £2.1m £70.7m 7 2. Pathaan (Yash Raj) £1.4m £2m 1 3. Plane (Lionsgate) £1.1m £1.2m 1 4. The Fabelmans (eOne)

£1m £1.1m 1 5. M3GAN (Universal) £749,355 £6m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.24

Bollywood action title Pathaan stormed the UK-Ireland box office with a £1.4m session landing it in second place for the weekend, behind only seven-time chart topper Avatar: The Way Of Water.

With £550,768 already in the bank from Wednesday and Thursday previews, Pathaan broke the record for highest single-day takings for an...

Ari Folman (“Waltz With Bashir”), Nadav Lapid (“Ahed’s Knee”) and Hagai Levi (“Our Boys”) are among a group of 250 Israeli filmmakers that has signed an open letter to protest against the recently launch of the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund.

The Fund, which held its inaugural film festival in the occupied West Bank in July , was founded by Miri Regev, the controversial former culture minister of Israel who was highly criticicized within the local film community for her right-wing views. Regev was believed to have put pressure on the Israel Film Fund to ban films that were critical of Israel from receiving subsidies.

The signatories of the public letter said they will not seek funding from, nor cooperate with the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund and have urged the Israeli Academy of Film and Television not to partake in “whitewashing the Occupation” ahead of the Ophir Awards, the...

More than 250 of Israel’s top filmmakers have signed an open letter, saying they will not seek funding from, nor cooperate with the recently–established Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund, following the fund’s inaugural film festival in the occupied West Bank.

The filmmakers call on the Israeli Academy of Film and Television not to partake in “whitewashing the Occupation” ahead of the Ophir Awards — Israel’s Academy Awards — later this month. Read the full text of the letter below.

Among the signatories are multiple Academy Award winners and nominees. They have signed a public letter in which they state that they will not receive grants and will not participate in “lectura” (selection of films for development and production) or in professional events held by the Shomron (Samaria) Film Fund. The goal of the Shomron (Samaria) Film Fund, write the filmmakers, is “to invite Israeli filmmakers to actively participate...

Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Ari Folman’s Where Is Anne Frank is Mubi Go's Film of the Week in the United Kingdom and Ireland for August 12, 2022. Notebook: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?Ari Folman: Surprising, unexpected, animation movie. A coming-of-age story during World War II.Notebook: Where and what is your favorite movie theater and why? Folman: My favorite movie theater is by far the Louis Lumière in Cannes. I think when I first screened a movie over there, in 2008 in competition with Waltz with Bashir, I was having an ecstasy of a religious experience. Notebook: What is the most memorable movie screening of your life, and why is it memorable?Folman: The most memorable screening was a screening of Waltz with Bashir in Sarajevo, Bosnia. It was an open-door screening...

‘Eiffel’ with Emma Mackey, ‘Where Is Anne Frank’ also starting.

Nope, the latest horror from US filmmaker Jordan Peele, is the leading title opening at UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend; as Indian Forrest Gump remake Laal Singh Chaddha receives the widest opening ever for a South Asian film.

Opening in 681 locations, Universal’s Nope is Peele’s third feature, and centres on the residents of a lonely California valley who bear witness to a chilling discovery. Screen Star of Tomorrow 2009 Daniel Kaluuya leads the cast, which also includes Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun and Brandon Perea.

Peele is frequently credited with the...

Sony’s Brad Pitt vehicle “Bullet Train” debuted at the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office with a £2.8 million (3.4 million) opening weekend, according to numbers released by Comscore.

As the school holidays continue, in second place, Warner Bros.’ family friendly “DC League Of Super-Pets” took £1.2 million in its second weekend for a total of £6.2 million. Another animation, Universal’s “Minions: The Rise Of Gru,” in third position, collected £1.1 million in its sixth weekend and now has a total of £36.7 million.

In fourth place, Disney’s “Thor: Love And Thunder” earned £938,257 in its fifth weekend for a total of £33.2 million. Rounding off the top five was Warner Bros.’ “Elvis” with £737,845 in its seventh weekend for a total of £22.6 million.

Paramount’s Tom Cruise vehicle “Top Gun: Maverick” finally dropped out of the top five and collected £609,409 in its 11th weekend in sixth position. With a total of £77.5 million,...

Paris-based Les Films D’Ici (“Waltz with Bashir”) has boarded Chilean doc “El Porvenir de la Mirada,” produced by Santiago-based Storyboard Media and associate produced by Academy Award winner Sebastian Lelio (“A Fantastic Woman”).

The feature-length doc chronicles the trauma of young protesters shot in the eyes by Chilean riot police during the massive demonstrations that roiled Chile in October 2019.

Said producer Charlotte Uzu of Les Films D’ici: “It’s an important film that will portray people’s brave and necessary fight against the blindness of conscience.”

“We’re delighted at how our project has been received at Cannes’ Marché du Film and even more so now that we can count on the vast experience of the prestigious Les Films D’Ici as our producing partner,” said Storyboard Media’s Carlos Nunez, who founded the production company with Gabriela Sandoval. “We’re certain that their participation will give the project a global dimension,...

Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s debut feature “Pamfir” which will world premiere at Directors’ Fortnight. The banner is handling international sales on the movie.

Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk previously directed the short film “Weighlifter,” a European Film Award contender and winner of the Best Short Film Award in Angers.

“Pamfir” takes place in Western Ukraine, on the eve of a traditional carnival. It follows a man, Pamfir, who returns to his family after months of absence. His unconditional love for his family is such that when his only child starts a fire in the prayer house, Pamfir has no other choice but to reconnect with his troubled past in order to repair his son’s fault.

“It has been an amazing journey working with such an inspiring international crew from Ukraine, Poland, France and Chile,” said Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. He added that “despite miles of distance, and tremendous difficulties, this has been a fruitful collaboration.

Last Sunday, at a very eventful Oscars, it was easy to miss when three actors identified as Disney princesses presented the best animated feature award by reading, “Animated films make up some of our most formative movie experiences as kids. So many kids watch these movies over and over… and over and over and over and over… I think some parents out there know exactly what we’re talking about.”

Framing the five Academy Award nominees for best animated feature as a corporate product for kids that parents must begrudgingly endure could be dismissed as simply careless. But to those of us who have dedicated our lives to making animated films, that carelessness has become routine. The head of a major animation studio once told an assembly of animators that, if we played our cards right, we would one day “graduate to live-action.” Years later, an exec at another studio...

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars and Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Oscar and Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four phases, running all year long: Draft, Pre-Season, Regular Season and Post Season. The eligibility calendar and dates of awards will determine how long each phase lasts and is subject to change.

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2022 Oscars Predictions:

Best International Feature

Updated: March 24, 2022

Awards Prediction Commentary:

Despite a palpable surge for Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World,...

The Danish film “Flee,” with Oscar nominations in animated, documentary and international film categories, tells the tale of Amin, a gay refugee from Afghanistan who is separated from his family.

Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen says that when his school friend opened up about his childhood, the helmer had intended to make a short, which grew to feature length as more details were spilled. “It really started out as a conversation between two friends,” he says.

“We are exposed to so many of these stories in the media so I think a lot of people, me at least, I have a tendency to block things out because it becomes too much,” he says. “If you take everything in, you’re not able to get up in the morning.”

Using animation also helped re-create Amin’s childhood in Afghanistan that the doc obviously couldn’t depict.

“The fact that you don’t...

A version of this story about “Flee” first appeared in the Down to the Wire of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

In terms of making history at this year’s Oscars, no film matches the three-peat achieved by Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee.”

The Danish documentary about the life of an Afghan refugee named Amin is not simply the first animated film nominated for Best Documentary Feature, which would be remarkable enough – but it was also nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film. The movies “Honeyland” (2019) and “Collective” (2020) were the first to be nominated in the documentary and international categories. “Flee” matched that record and beat it.

“It’s just crazy and amazing,” said Danish director Rasmussen. “This film started just as a conversation between two friends. In the beginning, I brought up the idea of maybe making it as a short documentary, and back then, nearly 10 years ago,...

In the streaming age, documentary filmmakers, once the long-suffering artists working in obscurity to finish self-funded passion projects, have become rock stars. Deep-pocketed platforms such as Netflix and Hulu have dished out for costly archival clearances and biopic rights, and the strategy has invariably led to awards glory.

But just as the medium has become more elevated, so too has it grown increasingly global in scope, with a vast network of documentary gatekeepers venturing outside the traditional nonfiction markets of the U.S. and Western Europe for the next big project that can go the distance to become an awards contender.

“We’re growing closer together in a good way,” says Rick Perez, the newly installed president of the Los Angeles-based Intl. Documentary Assn. The former Sundance documentary executive recognizes the influence of the streamers, but says the nonfiction boom is mainly the result of the decades-long work of independents...

A long, hard journey from Kabul to Copenhagen is relived in Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s ultimately uplifting film – a deserving awards contender

The Danish French film-maker Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary, in which a middle-aged academic living in Denmark relives his flight from Afghanistan as a boy, is shaping up as a major awards contender. Within the past fortnight, it has been nominated for best animated feature and best documentary at both the Baftas and Oscars, with an additional Academy Award nod for best international feature. It’s easy to see why the film has touched a nerve. Addressing difficult subject matter in a manner that is at once emotionally engaging and stylistically adventurous, Flee follows in the footsteps of Ari Folman’s 2008 animated awards-winner Waltz With Bashir, about his experiences and memories of the 1982 Lebanon war, proving once again that genuinely “true life” storytelling requires as much artistry and invention as any drama.