News

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has unveiled the 49 projects across all formats that will be showcased at the 11th edition of its Qumra development and networking event in April.

They include Quarter to Thursday from Algerian director Sofia Djama, about three friends on a mission to bury a dachshund in a military base, which is in development. Djama’s last feature The Blessed won a slew of awards in Venice Horizons in 2017, and delivered a breakout best actress role for rising French-Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri.

The selection also features Syrian director Anas Khalaf’s Love 45 about an overweight Lebanese man who is caught in a destructive spiral, which is in production. Khalaf’s previous credits include the Syria, Bashar al-Assad-era set thriller The Translator.

The picture lock line-up includes Tunisian director Erige Sehiri’s Marie & Jolie about three Ivorian women from different generations making a life in in the...

Turns out you don’t have to be Irish to be lucky come March. That’s right, repertory cinemas from coast to coast will be raining down four-leaf clovers in the form of cinematic gems like “Matewan,” “The Watermelon Woman,” “The Cable Guy,” and many more. And we know what you’re thinking…you just got through slamming back Oscar film after Oscar film, maybe it’s time to take a little break from the movies. After all, spring’s around the corner — it might be nice to step outside for a bit, breathe in the fresh air.

Well, you’re wrong.

Fresh air is for people who can’t appreciate a random assortment of food scents and possibly carbon dioxide from a leaking soda machine tank. You’re of a different breed and as such, we know there’s no better place for you than the comfy cozy darkness of your local cinema.

Walter Salles’ deeply moving drama “I’m Still Here” has won the Academy Award for best international feature, marking a historic first for Brazil.

The film, which tells the real-life story of Eunice Paiva’s decades-long search for justice after her husband’s disappearance during Brazil’s military dictatorship, has been gaining momentum in recent weeks. Its surprise nomination for best picture — alongside expected nods for international feature and best actress for star Fernanda Torres — solidified its status as a major contender.

The film beat out France’s “Emilia Perez,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Denmark’s “The Girl With the Needle” and Latvia’s “Flow.”

“I’m so honored to receive this, and in such an extraordinary group of filmmakers,” Salles said during his acceptance speech. “This goes to a woman who, after a loss suffered during an authoritarian regime, decided not to bend. And to resist.

We have ourselves a race! The Oscar contests for Best Actor and Best Actress got especially interesting at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday because the winners disagreed with another industry peer group honor, the BAFTA Awards. But who tends to win the Oscar under those circumstances, the SAG winner, the BAFTA winner, or someone else entirely?

SEE2025 Oscars race scorecard: 'Conclave,' Timothée Chalamet pull off SAG Awards wins while Demi Moore rebounds

Let's start with Best Actress, where Demi Moore (The Substance) won the SAG Award while Mikey Madison (Anora) won BAFTA. This is the fifth year in a row that the two awards diverged. Let's break down all those disagreements year by year.

2023: Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) won SAG, Emma Stone (Poor Things) won BAFTA — Oscar went to the BAFTA winner.

2022: Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) won SAG,...

Walter Salles, Johnnie To, Lav Diaz, Darius Khondji and Anna Terrazas will serve as Qumra Masters at the 11th edition of the Doha Film Institute’s annual talent and project incubator.

They follow in the wake of some 50 top cinemas figures who have also taken up the role over the past 10 editions, including Claire Denis, Leos Carax, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal and James Gray.

The event, running from April 4 to 9, will invite the producers and directors of some 40 projects supported by the Doha Film Institute (Dfi) for six days of development support and networking.

Brazilian director Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) will be in attendance at the meeting fresh from his buzzy awards season with his Oscar-nominated drama I’m Still Here.

Filipino director Diaz brings his vision of a special brand of slow cinema which includes films such as The Woman Who Left and Evolution of a Filipino Family.

Iranian-French...

Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles and Filipino director Lav Diaz are among the five Masters invited to the 11th edition of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra lab.

Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To, Mexican costume designer Anna Terrazas and Iranian-French cinematographer Darius Khondji round out the 2025 Masters.

The 11th edition of Qumra will run from April 4-9 in Doha, Qatar.

The Masters will give one-on-one mentorship to the Qumra lab participants, and will each give a masterclass about their careers.

Salles is nearing the end of an awards campaign for his 10th feature film I’m Still Here. The film debuted in competition at Venice last year,...

The SAG Awards are shaping up to be a showdown between some of Hollywood’s biggest comeback stories and the next generation of breakout stars.

On one side are the resurgence narratives — like lead contenders Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”) and Demi Moore (“The Substance”). They’re joined by supporting nominees Edward Norton (“A Complete Unknown”) and Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Pérez”), who many feel are overdue for recognition. On the other side are Hollywood’s rising stars — the fresh faces poised to define the industry’s future. Think Timothée Chalamet and Mikey Madison in the lead races, with Kieran Culkin and Ariana Grande gaining traction in supporting roles.

Brody, now 51, became the youngest best actor Oscar winner for his tour de force performance in “The Pianist” (2002). But after that early triumph, his career took an uneven path, and he didn’t ride the momentum to further Oscar glory. Now, his critically...

Gabriel Mascaro’s “The Blue Trail,” playing in competition in Berlin, marks another great milestone for Brazilian cinema in a year where the country got its first best picture Oscar nomination with Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here.” Mascaro follows in the footsteps of Salles playing in competition in Venice and Karim Aïnouz playing in competition at Cannes with “Motel Destino,” three consecutive Brazilian films playing in the most prestigious strands of the three most important European film festivals.

“Each one of these films is so different from each other but has great strengths,” Mascaro tells Variety ahead of his Berlinale bow. “I feel very proud to be a part of it.”

“The Blue Trail” takes place in a near future Brazil where the government relocates the elderly to senior housing colonies so the younger generations can fully focus on productivity and growth. Tereza (Denise Weinberg), nearing 80, refuses to accept her fate,...

When the 2025 Oscar nominations were announced on Thursday, awards-watchers expected to see the titles “Emilia Pérez,” “Conclave” and “Wicked” in the lineup. But the gripping, humane Brazilian drama “I’m Still Here” was a surprise inclusion on the Best Picture list.

Pundits had expected the film to show up in the Best International Feature and potentially Best Actress (Fernanda Torres) categories, both of which it did, but the Academy members – 9,905 voters at last count – also supported the film across all branches to score a coveted Best Picture nomination.

“The Academy members have always gravitated to high quality work,” Michael Barker, co-president of the film’s distributor Sony Pictures Classics, told TheWrap. “Obviously, we knew that this film was high-quality and we knew that if we got enough Academy members to see it, we were going to have a shot.”

He added, “That strategy started a long time ago, and (fellow co-president...

Of all the attempts from Universal to revamp their classic creature features for new generations, the Wolf Man stands upright as one of the most compellingly tricky beasts to wrangle. Unlike other contenders like “Dracula” and “Frankenstein,” both entrenched in enduring pieces of 19th-century literature and subsequently retooled ad nauseam by a long string of auteur filmmakers, this creature remains firmly associated with the studio’s famed 1941 Lon Chaney, Jr. vehicle; say “werewolf,” and your imagination runs to any number of varying iterations of the classic beast, but say “Wolf Man” and you know exactly which hairy-faced, bipedal canine is creeping through the fog.

Given the past failed attempts to reintroduce the classic murderer’s row of monsters to the social media era—Tom Cruise still has nightmares in the shape of the gaping void that is the Dark Universe logo—what “Wolf Man” would need to succeed was some...

Black Clover might face a lot of allegations about being unoriginal, but if there’s one field in which the series is an absolute beast, it’s the anime’s action sequences. From Asta Vs. Liebe to Magna Vs. Dante, Studio Pierrot gave Black Clover fans some of the best battles in the anime world.

But there’s is one episode that can take over any other battle in the franchise in a second. The battle in question is Julius Novachrono Vs. Licht and the studio went above and beyond in animating the sequence. Fans responded to the episode likewise, as it still stands as one of the most fan-favorite episodes in the franchise.

Studio Pierrot went all out for Black Clover‘s highest-rated episode Licht Vs. Julius Novachrono in Black Clover episode 93 | Credits: Studio Pierrot

There are plenty of Black Clover episodes with ratings above 9 on IMDb. But Black Clover...

In recent years, movies about senility and mortality have taken on a pitilessly bleak, frightening tenor, notably in such awards magnets as “Amour,” “Vortex” and “The Father.” Preferring a less grim approach is the Netherlands’ submission to the Oscar international feature race this year. Jelle de Jonge’s “Memory Lane” is a sometimes boisterous, ultimately affirming seriocomedy about an elderly couple who take a road trip to retrace some of their youthful steps, probably for the last time. A hit on its home turf earlier this year, de Jonge’s film is a well-crafted crowdpleaser that should cross borders with relative ease … unlike its oft-squabbling protagonists.

Jaap (Martin van Waardenberg) and Maartje (Leny Breederveld) have been married close to half a century. But despite their material comfort, the 70-somethings aren’t exactly enjoying a harmonious retirement. He’s an endless grumbler whose doomsaying view that “the world’s on fire...

Welcome to Deadline’s roundup of the submissions for this year’s Best International Feature Film Oscar category. Below you will find details on each movie that has been officially put forward so far. The official deadline for submission was 5pm Pt October 2. We’ve rounded up 86 submissions so far, against 88 last year, but announcements continue to trickle in. Keeping checking in for updates.

This is a hotly contested race that often results in clear front-runners but also surprising gems. Click on titles for links to reviews, first looks, news and more.

In alphabetical order by country, these are the entries so far:

Albania

Title: Waterdrop

Director: Robert Budina

Prod: Erafilm

Notes: Waterdrop, which will have its festival premiere in Warsaw next month, is set on the shores of Lake Ohrid where City Planner Aida, a tough and successful businesswoman, manages the allocation of lucrative EU subsidies, navigating a corrupt system.

It takes confidence to name your film––simply and so very unspecifically––Love. Michael Haneke could get away with it for giving us the classic that is Amour. Gaspar Noé, on the other hand, came across poorly in his take on the L-word. Does Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud have something vital to say on the subject? In a breezy tone that soothes rather than shocks, yes. His film contemplates the many forms and possibilities of love while luxuriating in the Nordic vistas of Oslo. Not the most groundbreaking filmmaking, perhaps, but it’s pure cinematic balm that celebrates the basic, beautiful human need to connect. Fans of Joachim Trier’s work and Linklater’s Before trilogy, take note.

Itself part of a thematic trilogy about sex, dreams, and love, the relationship drama features Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig), a urologist who often has to give male patients bad news about their prostate.

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that begins after the October 2, 2024 deadline for countries to submit entries. To be part of the selection process for this category, which was called Best Foreign Language Film before 2020, requires a great deal of dedication. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best International Feature.)

In the days following the deadline for submissions, the academy determines each film’s eligibility. Then the several hundred academy members who serve on the International Feature screening committee are divided into groups and required to watch all their submissions over a six-week period that ends in early December. Their top 15 vote-getters will make it to the next round. That list of semi-finalists will be revealed on December 17, 2024.

These 15 films will be made available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final...

“Amour” or “The Father” this is not. Where the much-lauded of the few films tackling dementia without sentimentality take us to the worst horizon of degenerative disease, “Familiar Touch” adopts a more delicate approach. Writer/director Sarah Friedland’s deftly choreographed — literally, as Friedland comes to the film as a choreographer herself who works with aging adults — follows character actress and Tony winner Kathleen Chalfant as Ruth. She’s a once-vibrant Southern California octogenarian now slipping away to dementia.

After her son (H. Jon Benjamin) moves her into a Los Angeles memory care facility, Ruth, a former cook who still knows her recipe for Borscht note by note, must become acquainted with her surroundings — and with connections made with patient, nonjudgmental care workers (Carolyn Michelle and Andy McQueen). Even as she, in her dementia, feels betrayed by the son she had already started to forget.

“Familiar Touch” is a sales...

Director Sean Baker‘s “Anora” won the grand prize, the Palme d’Or, at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It was the first American film to claim top honors at the prestigious international competition since “The Tree of Life” in 2011. Does that mean it’s in good shape going into Oscar season? Despite its world renown, Cannes is hit-and-miss when it comes to anointing later awards contenders, often selecting art films that don’t end up resonating with the industry insiders in the academy. But in recent years the Oscars have been on the same page as the Cannes jury more often.

SEECannes 2024: Are Oscars next for ‘Anora,’ ‘All We Imagine as Light,’ Jesse Plemons, Karla Sofía Gascón…?

Three of the last four Palme winners ended up with Best Picture nominations at the Oscars: “Parasite” (2019), “Triangle of Sadness” (2022) and “Anatomy of a Fall” (2023). “Parasite” ended up winning its Oscar race,...

Margaret Menegoz, the producer of world-famous auteurs such as Michael Haneke and Wim Wenders, has died at the age of 83.

Menegoz was celebrated for her leadership of Les Films du Losange, an acclaimed production and distribution company which she ran for 46 years with an iron fist, guided by her passion for independent filmmaking and new voices.

Born in Hungary in 1941, during WW2, Menegoz grew up in Germany and ventured into the film industry after meeting her husband, Robert Menegoz, and traveled the world with him to shoot documentaries. She joined Les Films du Losange in 1975 and started as an assistant for revered directors Eric Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder who had co-founded the company in 1962. She quickly rose through the ranks and became manager of the company.

Under her helm, Les Films du Losange won an Oscar, three Palmes d’Or at Cannes. The company built a library of about 100 prestige films,...

Margaret Menegoz, the head of French production company Les Films du Losange, who produced the movies of Michael Hanke, Wim Wenders and Éric Rohmer, among others, has died. She was 83.

The company issued a statement confirming that Menegoz died in Montpellier on August 7. They cited her “love of films and work, and her loyalty to her filmmakers that have become the hallmarks of Les Films du Losange,” describing Menegoz as “open-minded towards Europe and the international scene, which she particularly cherished.”

Menegoz led Les Films du Losange for close to 50 years, taking over at the company in 1973. She produced more than 60 films, including Haneke’s Amour, The White Ribbon and Cache, Wenders’ 1977 feature The American Friend, Volker Schlöndorff’s Swann in Love (1984), Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa (1990), Rohmer’s A Tale of Springtime (1990) and A Tale of Winter (1992), among many others.

Amour received 5 Oscar nominations in 2013, including a nomination for Menegoz for best feature.

Margaret Menegoz, who led iconic French film company Les Films du Losange for close to 50 years, producing the films of Éric Rohmer, Michael Haneke and Wim Wenders among others, has died at the age of 83.

The German and French film producer was born in Hungary in 1941. Her family, which was of German origin, was expelled from the country in the wake of the 1945 Siege of Budapest, and Menegoz grew up in Germany.

Menegoz entered the film industry as an editor and then connected with the French independent filmmaking scene via her documentarian husband Robert Menegoz, who she met at the Berlin Film Festival in the early 1970s.

She took the reins of Les Films du Losange in 1975, having been originally hired as an assistant on co-founder Rohmer’s 1976 German-language film Marquise Of O, co-starring Edith Clever and Bruno Ganz.

Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder had created the company in 1962, but with...

Margaret Menegoz, the pioneering producer who was a central figure in France’s film industry during a career spanning decades, has died. She was 83.

The Hungarian-born German-French producer served as president of Les Films du Losange from 1975 until 2021, and was president of Unifrance from 2003 to 2008.

During a career that included a key role at the Cesar Academy, Menegoz produced films for directors such as Eric Rohmer, Barbet Schroeder, Wim Wenders, Andrzej Wajda, Agnieszka Holland and Michael Haneke, including the latter’s Palme d’Or-and Oscar-winning Amour in 2012.

After her tenure at Les Films du Losange ended, Menegoz handed over the...

Margaret Menegoz, the pioneering producer who was a central figure in France’s film industry during a career spanning decades, has died. She was 83.

The Hungarian-born German-French producer served as president of Les Films du Losange from 1975 until 2021, and was president of Unifrance from 2003 to 2008.

During a career that included a key role at the Cesar Academy, Menegoz produced films for directors such as Eric Rohmer, Barbet Schroeder, Wim Wenders, Andrzej Wajda, Agnieszka Holland, and Michael Haneke, including the latter’s Palme d’or-and Oscar-winning Amour in 2012.

After her tenure at Les Films du Losange ended, Menegoz handed over the...

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Nicole Kidman squat-piss on Zac Efron’s jellyfish sting, or eye-fuck John Cusack from across the room of a no-contact death row prison visit, or Efron dancing to Linda Clifford’s “I Just Wanna Wanna” in clinging tighty-whities in the rain. All of this and more happens in Lee Daniels’ sweaty, swampy Southern Gothic “The Paperboy,” the writer/director’s 2012 follow-up to his Oscar-winning sensation “Precious.” It’s a movie, as Daniels told IndieWire, that “doesn’t get any love.”

Set in 1969, this delirious entertainment follows Matthew McConaughey as a Florida reporter covering inmate Hillary Van Wetter (Cusack), who has been convicted of killing a racist cop. McConaughey hires his brother Jack (Efron) to probe Hillary’s possible innocence. Efron is seduced by the vamping, sex-mad blonde Charlotte Bless (Kidman), a southern-friend Alabama belle in love with Hillary from afar. Violence, madness,...

Love Island USA Kaylor Martin’s mom slammed Aaron Evans on social media. The two have had a rocky relationship. It all started in Casa Amour. However, her mother does not approve of Aaron or the way he acts. She made it very known on social media. Tonight, the chosen islanders will get to call their families. Now fans will hear their true opinions. Keep reading to find out more.

Aaron Evans Is Not Loyal

Aaron Evans and Kaylor Martin have had a rocky relationship. They seemed solid until Aaron chose to go to Casa Amour. It did not take him long to test out a new connection. It was more than testing it out though. Daniela was his new love interest in Casa. The two were always kissing and Aaron was not staying loyal to Kaylor. When the Villa got a video of the guys, Kaylor was heartbroken. Now,...

Beloved French actor Isabelle Huppert will receive the Lumière Award in the city of Lyon in October.

Created by Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux, the Lumière Film Festival celebrates classic and contemporary cinema each fall. The Lumière Award honors a leading figure in the world of cinema and their entire body of work.

Huppert succeeds German director Wim Wenders who was awarded the prize in 2023. Former recipients include Tim Burton, Jane Campion, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Ken Loach, Catherine Deneuve, Jane Fonda, Pedro Almodóvar, Miloš Forman, the Dardenne brothers and Wong Kar-wai, among others.

“It’s a great honor for me to receive the Lumière Award. It’s a magnificent prize, and so is its festival. It’s an award that bears the name of the inventors of cinema! Receiving it fills me with joy and pride,” said Huppert.

A prolific actor who shoots an average...

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival concluded on Saturday, May 25 following two weeks packed with screenings, stars, press and parties. With the prizes having been handed out for the festival’s 77th anniversary, we can now start looking at what contenders might be in the best spot to get into the upcoming Oscar race. Let’s examine the winners from this year’s festival and see the history that each category has when it comes to the Oscars.

In recent years, we’ve seen the festival serve as a huge springboard for major players in the Oscar derby. Three of the last four winners of the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, have nabbed Best Picture nominations: “Parasite” (2019), “Triangle of Sadness” (2022) and “Anatomy of a Fall” (2023). Other big winners at recent festivals that became big Oscar players include “Drive My Car,” “The Zone of Interest” and “BlacKkKlansman.” This year’s...

The Cannes Film Festival is nearing its conclusion, with plenty of films making a splash on the starry Croisette on the French Riviera. However, one studio executive tells Variety, “There aren’t many Oscar-buzzy titles to be excited about, not even in the international feature space.”

This year’s main competition jury, led by president Greta Gerwig and including J.A. Bayona, Ebru Ceylan, Pierfrancesco Favino, Lily Gladstone, Eva Green, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nadine Labaki and Omar Sy, will name its winners on Saturday.

It was looking like a foregone conclusion that the Palme d’Or win would be bestowed upon Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez,” starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Karla Sofía Gascón, which was picked up by Netflix. However, on Friday, Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” garnered the most enthusiastic reactions on social media from attendees and the longest-standing ovation at 12 minutes. One awards publicist says,...

“I took it hard. I wanted it to be special for him,” says Diane Kruger of performing in David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, a film the legendary director wrote as part of his grieving process after the death of his late wife, Carolyn.

The Shrouds, which is screening in competition in Cannes, follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel), a prominent businessman and widower who, inconsolable since the death of his wife, invents a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their departed loved ones in their graves. Kruger plays three roles — that of the late wife and her sister, as well as a virtual avatar that is a rendering in CG animation.

“One thing [David] said to me, which I think Vincent says in the film, is that when his wife passed and they put her in a coffin, he had this horrible, horrible urge to jump in with her...

There’s a certain formula that often defines the recipients of the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious top prize, the Palme d’Or. These films, especially in the last two decades, tend to have a sense of importance about them, frequently due to their sociopolitical awareness of the world (Laurent Cantet’s The Class), or of specific societal ills.

From time to time, the Palme d’Or goes to a bold, experimental, and divisive vision from a well-liked auteur, such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Terrence Malick’s The Three of Life. But more often it’s awarded to a film in the lineup that the majority of the members on the Cannes jury can agree is good. That felt like the case for Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley and I, Daniel Blake, as well as Julia Ducournau’s Titane,...

German filmmaker Tom Tykwer is taking over as managing director of X Filme Creative Pool, the company he co-founded 30 years ago, replacing partner Stefan Arndt, who is stepping down from the post on his own accord.

Tykwer will head up X Filme together with Uwe Schott, a producer who has been at the Berlin-based outfit since 2009 and has worked on many of the company’s biggest productions, from Cloud Atlas to the TV series Babylon Berlin.

Arndt, whose cinematic resume includes Run Lola Run, The White Ribbon, and Oscar winner Amour, will continue to produce for X Filme and, as a co-founder, remains a shareholder in the company.

In a statement, he said he wanted to withdraw from the daily business of managing X Filme “so that I can concentrate more on producing again. Some exciting projects are already in the making and I’m looking forward to realizing them...

According to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users as of this writing, two closed shows are expected to receive nominations for Best Musical at this year’s Tony Awards. They are “Days of Wine and Roses,” which is in fifth place with 19/2 odds, and “Here Lies Love,” which is in second with 5/1 odds. Traditionally, however, closed shows tend to struggle getting Best Musical noms.

“Here Lies Love” opened way back in the summer of last year and was well received by critics. Yet it sadly never caught on commercially and ended up closing last November. Meanwhile, “Days of Wine and Roses” had already intended to be a limited run with its final performance planned for April 28 after opening in January to its own critical acclaim. Yet due to lackluster grosses, the run became even more limited, ending early on March 31.

Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Throughout history,...

A successful photographer celebrated around the world. A writer who resorts to publishing her own novels. Each had a long history of relationships, familial and otherwise, before they met in middle age. Now he’s 84 and she’s 75, and they are facing mortality together. Will love save them? The premise for “Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other,” Jacob Perlmutter and Manon Ouimet’s quietly relatable documentary about the marriage of Joel Meyerowitz and Maggie Barrett, sounds like the real-life companion piece to Michael Haneke’s “Amour.” Soon enough, however, it’s revealed to be closer to Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” a dissection of a marriage full of resentment and hidden grievances.

Barrett and Meyerowitz met at the right time to start a lasting relationship. Both had seen strife and happiness, which led them to have a real connection. As they are presented in the film,...

The 2024 Oscar nominees for Best Director are Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), and Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”). Our odds currently show that Nolan (3/1) is most likely to win, followed in order by Lanthimos (4/1), Glazer (9/2), Triet (9/2), and Scorsese (9/2).

Three of these five filmmakers have been nominated at least once before, with Scorsese standing out as the only previous victor in the group. Now on his 10th bid (only two behind category record holder William Wyler), he initially triumphed on his sixth for “The Departed” (2007), which is also the only Best Picture winner in his filmography. He earned his remaining notices for “Raging Bull” (1981), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1989), “Goodfellas” (1991), “Gangs of New York” (2003), “The Aviator” (2005), “Hugo” (2012), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2014), and “The Irishman” (2020).

Having previously ranked as the third oldest directing nominee ever...

For the fourth consecutive year, we’ve got a firecracker of a Best Actress Oscar race. Lily Gladstone took home the Screen Actors Guild Award on Saturday for “Killers of the Flower Moon” over Emma Stone, who had been on a roll since the two won their respective Golden Globes, having pocketed the Critics Choice and BAFTA Awards for “Poor Things.” Now they each have an industry prize and Best Actress feels like a coin-flip. Gladstone has closed the gap on Stone in the Oscar odds since Saturday. Don’t be surprised if she overtakes the top spot soon. But when the SAG Awards and BAFTAs don’t align in Best Actress, which one has the edge at the Oscars?

Since BAFTA became an Oscar precursor 23 years ago, the Brits and the actors guilds have disagreed 13 times in the category prior to the Battle of the Stones. But not all splits are created equally.

Over three hours and five different chapters, Matthias Glasner’s “Dying” chronicles the travails of an estranged family of four: an elderly couple on the brink of death, their successful composer son and their alcoholic, ne’er-do-well daughter. The film casts a wide net over their experiences, and every leading performance is as impeccable as the last. However, Glasner’s formal rigidity prevents their stories from feeling intrinsically bound, leaving each of them with little to say.

The film opens in the German countryside with elderly couple Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) and Gerd Lunies (Hans-Uwe Bauer) being found helpless by a neighbor. Lissy’s litany of ailments render her only semi-mobile, and she often ends the day by soiling herself, while Gerd’s dementia leads him to wander naked into people’s homes. They can’t help each other, and their adult children are too preoccupied with their own metropolitan lives to get involved.

Once upon an awards season, Lily Gladstone looked to be the Oscar frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Then, she switched categories and was many experts’ tips to win Best Actress instead. Now, however, her status as Oscar favorite has dwindled — with an omission at the BAFTAs contributing to that.

Instead, Emma Stone looks like she might take home her second Best Actress Oscar for “Poor Things” after she won her first in 2017 for “La La Land.” Stone will surely cement that status with a predicted win at the BAFTAs, where she is nominated alongside Fantasia Barrino (“The Color Purple”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”), Vivian Oparah (“Rye Lane”), and Margot Robbie (“Barbie”).

Stone is the overwhelming favorite to win this BAFTA award and she sits top of our BAFTA odds chart for this category with Hüller in second.

Arthouse streamer Mubi has unveiled a deal to take a majority stake in Benelux indie distributor Cineart.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement will see the management team at Cineart remain intact, while co-CEOs and longtime execs Marc Smit and Stephan De Potter will retain “significant” stakes in the company.

“I’ve known and worked with Marc and Stephan for over 15 years, and admire what they’ve done with Cinéart. They are two of the most sophisticated and visionary operators in the business. We are delighted to be partnering with them and the whole team at Cineart, and can’t wait to bring more great films to audiences in Benelux together,” Efe Cakarel, founder and CEO of Mubi, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Cineart was part of a multi-territory deal for Sofia Coppola’s feature Priscilla ahead of a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi has acquired a majority stake in leading Benelux indie distributor Cinéart, further bolstering its global firepower as it continues to expand outside of its core streaming business.

Financial details of the deal were not revealed, but the acquisition will see Cinéart’s management team continue to lead the company as an independent European distributor, with no changes in operations. Cinéart will maintain its current team structure and slate of films, and will carry on working closely with its long time partners. Co-CEOs of Cinéart, Marc Smit and Stephan De Potter, will remain significant shareholders of the company.

Founded in 1975 by the late Eliane Dubois, Cinéart has offices in Amsterdam and Brussels and has released numerous prestige independent films, including “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Artist,” “Amour,” “I Daniel Blake,” “Deux Jours Une Nuit,” “Son of Saul,” “The Worst Person in the World,” “The Whale” and current awards contender “The Zone of Interest.

By now, even the most hardcore fans of French cuisine and “Chocolat” star Juliette Binoche can agree that Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” — rather than Tran Anh Hung’s “The Taste of Things” — was the one movie that could have given France its first Oscar win for best international feature in over 30 years, since Régis Wargnier’s “Indochine.”

Over the last three decades, a number of French movies have earned Oscar recognition, but none have been the official French Oscar submission. Michael Haneke’s “Amour” earned five Oscar noms in 2013 and even won the best foreign-language Oscar but it represented Austria. A year before, “The Artist,” a French-directed and produced silent movie, won five Oscars out of 10 nominations, including best picture. But the movie had come out in theaters in October, past the former Sept. 30 deadline (which has since then been extended in France) to submit films for...

With final voting complete, the 96th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 10 and air live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. Et/ 5:00 p.m. Pt. We update predictions through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks.

The State of the Race

With a fragile theatrical market for non-fiction features and a dwindling number of active documentary buyers, many Sundance 2023 films did not get picked up for distribution. As the top American film festival for docs, Sundance usually supplies as many as four out of the final five Oscar nominees each year.

And usually, by late summer, Oscar promotion is well underway. Last year, three Sundance grads — eventual Oscar nominees “Fire of Love” (Neon), “All that Breathes” (HBO), and the winner, “Navalny” (CNN) — were actively campaigning.

One Sundance World Cinema entry that built a following during the year was Pulitzer Prize winner Mstyslav Chernov...

by Cláudio Alves

After a litany of TIFF titles, Sweden's Opponent, and a pair of Latin American gems, let's take our Best International Film odyssey to Central Europe. There, we find a most curious couple from neighboring nations – a Swiss period piece about sexual repression and an Austrian docu-drama hybrid on an Italian celebrity. Both countries succeeded with the Academy in the past, having won twice each. Switzerland had its heyday in the last decades of the 20th century, taking the trophy for 1984's Dangerous Moves and 1990's Journey of Hope. For Austria, the triumph's more recent, with 2007's The Counterfeiters and 2012's Amour.

Thunder and Vera aren't likely victors like those past titles, but they're worth your time, nevertheless…...

The project stars American actress/model Devon Ross.

The production of director Dominik Sedlar’s Second World War feature Vindicta is underway in Croatia.

The film stars Devon Ross (HBO’s Irma Vep), Jack Bandeira, Sam Hazeldine (Peaky Blinders), Pip Torrens, Suzanne Bertish and Anna Madeley.

Austrian producer Veit Heiduschka, who has produced several of Michael Haneke’s films including Happy End, Amour, The White Ribbon and Hidden, is producing alongside Croatia Film’s creative director Zeljko Zima, Stephen Ollendorff, Alan Green, Wendy Benge and Sedlar.

It is Croatian-born US filmmaker Sedlar’s third successive feature with a Second World...

After premiering at the Venice Film Festival, Netflix’s awards season pony “Maestro,” the Leonard Bernstein biopic from sophomore director Bradley Cooper, in which he also stars, is gearing up for its next major stop at the New York Film Festival on Monday.

Ahead of its New York bow, the streamer invited a small group of journalists and friends of the Bernstein family to the Academy Museum on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. The famed composer’s daughters, Jamie Bernstein and Nina Maria Felicia Bernstein, introduced the screening, followed by an intimate discussion with some of the filmmaking team, including Oscar-nominated producer Kristie Macosko Krieger (“The Fabelmans”) and three-time nominated sound mixer Steven Morrow.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

“Maestro” follows Bernstein through decades of creating music and teaching while he’s married to Felicia Montealegre, played fiercely by Carey Mulligan.

The...

Berlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has picked up “Woodland” (“Wald”), written and directed by Elisabeth Scharang, which has its world premiere in the Centrepiece section at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film’s trailer has also just been launched.

Picture Tree Intl. also handled world sales on Scharang’s sophomore feature film, “Jack,” which also played at Toronto.

“Woodland” is inspired by the novel “Wald” from bestselling author Doris Knecht, and the personal experience of Scharang, who witnessed the attack of a terrorist shooter in Vienna in 2020 in which four people were killed and 23 others were injured. The film marks Scharang’s second collaboration with Dop Jörg Widmer, who is a frequent collaborator with Terrence Malick.

Brigitte Hobmeier as Marian Malin in “Woodland”

In “Woodland,” Marian Malin (Brigitte Hobmeier) has everything she could wish for — a passion, a job and love — until she and her husband (Bogdan Dumitrache...

Satyaprem Ki Katha

Starring: Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani

Director: Sameer Widhwans

You get the sneaky feeling that the protagonists are called Satyaprem and Katha so that the film would get its catchy title. Like Akash Vani. Yes, that too starred Kartik in one of his less frivolous(read: Bhoola Bhulaiya 2, Shehzada) roles.

As Satyaprem, aka Sattu, Kartik Aryan brings to the Gujarati wastrel’s part both innocence and heart. Satttu is at once endearing and annoying. His motives for marrying the dishy dandiya wali Katha is all wrong. But heck, this goofy guy knows about True Love; how many youngsters today can claim the same?

Sattu’s Gujju love story, or Amour In Ahmedabad if you will, has a peculiar rhythm to it. He wooes a girl way too classy and beautiful for him. But wins her in no time. Like Aishwarya Rai in Sanjay Bhansali’s Hum…De Chuke Sanam,...

Recently Gold Derby revisited each of Jennifer Lawrence‘s four Oscar nominations to coincide with the release of her new movie, “No Hard Feelings.” Today we’ll go more in depth on her road to winning Best Actress for “Silver Linings Playbook” back in 2012. That win made her the second youngest Best Actress (at age 22) in Oscar history, only behind Marlee Matlin, who was 21 when she prevailed for “Children of a Lesser God” in 1986.

SEERevisiting ‘Cleopatra’: The epic love story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

In this film adaptation of Matthew Quick‘s 2008 novel of the same name, Lawrence plays Tiffany, a young widow who meets Pat Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper), a man with bipolar disorder, leading to an unlikely romance. The movie was written and directed by David O. Russell, who was coming off of receiving his first Oscar nom for helming 2010’s “The Fighter,” which won...

One of this summer’s most anticipated comedies is the R-rated “No Hard Feelings” starring Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence. The Sony Pictures film opens June 23, 2023 and promises a change of pace for the actress best known for her dramas, like “Winter’s Bone,” “Joy” and last year’s “Causeway.” Much of her work brought her Academy Award nominations in the previous decade, so with “No Hard Feelings” on the horizon, let’s look back at Lawrence’s four exciting Oscar races.

Her first Academy Award nomination came in 2010 in the Best Actress category for her dramatic performance in “Winter’s Bone,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and became the little indie that could throughout the rest of the year. She had appeared in a few movie and TV projects before this one, but “Winter’s Bone” was the movie that put the young actress on the map.

Lawrence showed up at...

The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival came to a close on Saturday, May 27 after two weeks of films, celebrities, parties and interviews in the small city on the French Riviera. Now that the prizes have been given out, we can start looking at what could be top contenders for next year’s Oscars. Let’s analyze the results from this year’s festival and see this history that each category has when it comes to the Academy Awards.

Over the past several years the festival has been a springboard for major players in the Oscar derby. We’ve really seen it be an influence in the International Feature category where in-competition films have been nominated a regular basis. Recent Cannes films that ended up being top awards contenders in above the line categories include “Triangle of Sadness,” “Drive My Car,” “Parasite,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “BlacKkKlansman.

Updated May 26, 2023: The Cannes jury will hand out its awards on Saturday, May 27. The final predictions for which films and performances will win are listed below.

The Cannes Film Festival has had its fair share of impressive movie premieres this year, with audiences embracing new films from the likes of Jonathan Glazer, Todd Haynes and Hirokazu Kore-eda. But even the most sustained standing ovation doesn’t guarantee that a movie will walk away with the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ highest honor.

It all depends on the vagaries of the jury’s taste, and this one is headed up by Ruben Östlund, a two time Palme d’Or winner for “Triangle of Sadness” and “The Square.” And it’s not just Östlund’s decision to make. The ultimate victor will come down to the personal opinions of jury members Maryam Touzani, Denis Ménochet, Rungano Nyoni, Brie Larson, Paul Dano, Atiq Rahimi,...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including the exclusive streaming premiere of Albert Serra’s extraordinary Pacifiction, a trio of films by Todd Haynes, two by Michael Haneke (Caché and Amour), plus works by David Cronenberg, Shin’ya Tsukamoto, and Derek Jarman.

Additional selections include Alice Rohrwacher’s Corpo Celeste, Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers, Sean Baker’s early film Starlet, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s short Mekong Hotel.

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

June 1 – Is This Fate?, directed by Helga Reidemeister | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

June 2 – Safe, directed by Todd Haynes | I Really Love You: Three by Todd Hayne

June 3 – Caché, directed by Michael Haneke | Close-Up on Michael Haneke

June 4 – Amour, directed by Michael Haneke | Close-Up on Michael Haneke

June 5 – Topology of Sirens, directed by Jonathan Davies

June 6 – Tetsuo, the Iron Man, directed by Shin’ya...