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Dying for Sex is an upcoming comedy-drama miniseries set to premiere on Hulu on April 4, 2025. Starring Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate, the series is inspired by the true story of Molly Kochan, who, after being diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, embarks on a journey of self-discovery and sexual exploration. The show delves into themes of friendship, empowerment, and confronting mortality with humor and candor. This article provides an overview of the series, including its plot, where to watch, and details about the cast.

Hulu’s ‘Dying for Sex’ Plot Overview

Dying for Sex follows Molly (Michelle Williams), who, upon receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, decides to leave her husband and pursue a series of sexual adventures to feel alive and reclaim control over her life. Throughout her journey, she confides in her best friend, Nikki (Jenny Slate), sharing experiences that range from humorous to poignant. The series explores the complexities of human desire,...

Film Movement has acquired U.S. rights to Seán Devlin’s docudrama Asog exposing a land grab by developers on the Philippines’ picturesque Sicogon Island in the wake of a devastating super-typhoon.

Mixing fictionalized and documentary elements, the work stars Filipino transgender comedian Rey “Jaya” Aclao, who takes a student on a road trip to a drag competition.

Along the way, they encounter survivors of a destructive typhoon, who are caught between the twin threats of corporate greed and climate change.

Film Movement will give the work a limited theatrical run beginning in the spring, with screenings powered by crowdsourced platforms Gathr and Demand.Film.

Following its theatrical release, Asog will be available for VOD and leading digital outlets beginning April 11, 2025.

Based on true events on Sicogon Island, Asog exposes a corporate land grab that took place in the wake of the 2013 super-typhoon Haiyan by Ayala Land Inc., the Philippines’ oldest corporation and real estate developer,...

Indie distributor Film Movement has acquired U.S. rights to “Paying for It,” an indie comedy about an introverted cartoonist who starts sleeping with sex workers that premiered positively in Toronto.

Set in the late ’90s, “Paying for It” is a live-action adaptation of Canadian alternative-cartoonist Chester Brown’s bestselling graphic novel. In the partly autobiographical film, when Chester’s girlfriend announces she wants to explore other romantic options, Brown opts to sleep with sex workers and discovers a new kind of intimacy.

“Paying for It” is directed by multidisciplinary artist Sook-Yin Lee, who was Chester Brown’s real romantic partner when the real-life story took place.

The film – which is executive produced by John Cameron Mitchell and Dan Beirne – stars Beirne, emerging actor Emily Lê (“Riceboy Sleeps”) and acclaimed activist, author and performer Andrea Werhun.

“Paying for It” launched from Toronto’s Platform section in 2024 and was named by...

Exclusive: Film Movement have acquired North American rights for Oscar-nominated Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s timely movie Happy Holidays, which has been enjoying a prize-winning run on the festival circuit following its Venice debut last year.

The portrait of a contemporary Palestinian family and the complexities of its life in Israel premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti sidebar last September, clinching its Best Screenplay award.

Since then, it has played at a dozen festivals, clinching top awards at the Thessaloniki and Marrakech film festivals among others along the way.

The acquisition announcement was made by Film Movement President Michael Rosenberg and Nicolas Eschbach, CEO of French company Indie Sales.

“Though he’s just at the beginning of his filmmaking career, Scandar has shown an ability to create characters that portray Israeli and Palestinian life in an authentic and unforgettable manner,” says Rosenberg.

“At a time when all eyes are on the region,...

Exclusive: German Films, the agency that promotes German cinema globally, has revealed the seven participants for its annual Face to Face campaign, which include talents who have worked on projects such as Unorthodox, We Children From Bahnhof Zoo and Tides.

This year, which marks the 10th anniversary of the Face to Face initiative, will see German Films introduce seven burgeoning talents from the German film and TV industry to the international film community at the Berlin Film Festival next month. The initiative has long been considered a significant platform for showcasing German talents to the wider film and television spheres.

This year’s selection includes actors Aaron Altaras, Lea Drinda and Thea Ehre, writer-directors Leonie Krippendorff and Mariko Minoguchi, as well as director Mala Reinhardt and Director of Photography Tim Kuhn.

They are following in the footsteps of filmmakers and stars Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel, Burhan Qurbani, Saskia Rosendahl, Alexander Fehling,...

Paris-based Indie Sales has closed a raft of deals for “Last Swim,” Sasha Nathwani’s debut which won the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, including in the U.S. and the U.K.

Vertigo, whose track record include “Sound of Metal” and “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point,” has picked up the film and will set a theatrical release for it on April 4th in the U.K. and in the summer in the U.S. “Last Swim” had its U.K. premiere at BFI London Film Festival last October.

Set over a hot summer day in London, the film follows British-Iranian teen Ziba as she leads her friends on an eventful journey across the city, culminating in a once in a lifetime astronomical event. The high-school year is ending, but despite the celebratory atmosphere, “Ziba struggles to retain her characteristic optimism as she finds herself battling the intrusive...

“Happy Holidays” presents a charming yet familiar narrative in keeping with the traditional Hallmark holiday romance. The film’s main characters are Mia Park, played by Jessica Lowndes, a dissatisfied transplant from Miami trying to make a new life in Seattle, and Max Covington, played by Ezra Moreland, a dog shelter owner who prefers dogs to humans. The story’s idea is simple: a stray dog brings together two characters who don’t seem to have anything in common, and the warmth of the holiday season serves as the backdrop for their connection.

The film welcomes classic storytelling devices, especially the enemies-to-lovers arc, but it subtly flirts with novel narrative techniques. A unique spin on the romantic comedy genre is the interwoven dog romance, which serves as a catalyst for Mia and Max’s developing relationship. This combining of narratives enhances emotional engagement and reflects a larger cultural trend that...

The world premiere of Arild Østin Ommundsen and Silje Salomonsen’sNorwegian family dramaEverything Must Gowill open the35thedition of the Tromso International Film Festival (TIFF), taking place inNorway fromJanuary 13-19, 2025.

James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown will close the festival.

Everything Must Go is aboutthree siblings who move back into their childhood home following their father’s funeral.

In the competition strand, 12 features are in contention for the €5,000 Aurora prize includingBrady Corbet’s The Brutalist,Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths,Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man,and Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays.

Tromso has introduced a special sidebar focused on...

Scandar Copti’s Palestinian drama Happy Holidays took the Étoile d’Or main award at the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival.

The film, a Haifa-set drama in which a minor car accident sets off a chain of events that sow division in a patriarchal society, also received the best performance by an actress prize, shared between Wafaa Aoun and Manar Shehab.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Happy Holidays is a co-production between Palestine’s Fresco Films, Germany’s Red Balloon Film, France’s Tessalit Productions and Italy’s Intramovies. It debuted in Venice’s Biennale Cinema section in September,...

The Marrakech Film Festival, which opened Friday with Justin Kurzel’s timely thriller “The Order,” has more than 70 films in its lineup, which, as is customary, mixes known titles and fresh fare.

“The Order” is part of the event’s gala screenings that also comprise French-Moroccan auteur Nabil Ayouch’s feminist musical drama “Everybody Loves Touda,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” all of which will be accompanied by their directors.

The 14-title competition dedicated to first and second works includes Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s melodrama “Across the Sea,” about North African exiles in Marseilles, and Hind Meddeb’s doc “Sudan, Remember Us,” which pays homage to Sudanese people and culture by chronicling their 2019 revolution. “Sudan, Remember Us” is among films supported by the fest’s Atlas Workshops industry initiative, aimed at fostering and supporting the emergence of a new generation of Moroccan,...

Photo: Vincent Rodriguez III, Jonathan Bennett, Milana Wan, Greg Amato

Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Jeff Weddell

Hallmark+ fans will soon be heading back to 7 Cherry Lane for the start of three sequels with a star-studded cast.

Hallmark+ has announced the first of three Cherry Lane sequels, Season’s Greetings from Cherry Lane. Starring Jonathan Bennett, Corey Cott, Annabelle Bourke, Sarah Dugdale, Shannon Kook and Vincent Rodriguez III, the movie takes fans back in time to 1951, 2003, and 2024.

Photo: Rryla McIntosh, Annabelle Borke, Corey Cott, Jordan Buhat

Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Jeff Weddell

In this sequel and two others, viewers will have the chance to figure out the connections between the three generations of people living at No. 7 Cherry Lane.

Season’s Greetings from Cherry Lane Photo: Jonathan Bennett, Milana Wan, Vincent Rodriguez III

Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Jeff Weddell

Hallmark fans will recall last year’s Christmas on Cherry Lane, and...

Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays has won the Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which ran from October 31-November 10.

The family drama centring on an Arab-speaking Israeli family premiered earlier this year in Venice’s Horizons strand, winning best screenplay. Copti had previously won the best film and screenplay prizes at Thessaloniki in 2009 for his Academy Award nominated Ajami.

The Silver Alexander for best director went to Belgian Leonardo van Dijl for his debut feature Julie Keeps Quiet, winner of the Sacd award in Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar.

The jury of the international competition,...

Happy Holidays, the latest feature from Palestinian Filmmaker Scandar Copti, has taken the top prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.

Copti’s film won the Best Feature Film Award, which comes with a 10,000-euro cash prize. Awarding the prize, the jury, headed by Sara Driver, praised the film for “intricately weaving different narratives and perspectives that fully expose the complexity of national, gender and class dynamics that can divide societies and for seeing the future in the face of a young woman the Golden Alexander goes to Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti.”

Happy Holidays debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The story open after a minor accident sets off a chain of events, unraveling lies and unspoken truths that sow division within a multifaceted patriarchal society.

The festival’s Best Director Award, which comes with a 5,000-euro cash prize, was picked up Leonardo Van Dijl for Julie Keeps Quiet.

Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti’s Israel-set family drama “Happy Holidays” won the top prize Sunday at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, taking home the Golden Alexander for best feature film.

Copti’s sophomore feature, his first film since his Oscar-nominated 2009 debut “Ajami,” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar, winning the best screenplay prize. Variety’s Siddhant Adlakha described it as “a piercing, realistic family drama, the inflection points of which reveal deep cultural and political dimensions surrounding gender and ethnicity.”

“Happy Holidays” follows four interconnected characters who share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations and cultures. The ensemble cast — comprised of Arab and Jewish characters alike — creates a multifaceted portrait of life in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.

The Thessaloniki jury, which included filmmaker and producer Sara Driver (“Boom for Real”), filmmaker Denis Côté (“Vic + Flo Saw a Bear”) and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis (“How to Have Sex...

The Marrakech Film Festival unveiled its 2024 lineup on Thursday and set that Luca Guadagnino would replace Thomas Vinterberg as its jury president. The other jury members will be Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, and Ali Abbasi. Vinterberg “had to excuse himself for family reasons,” festival organizers said.

The Marrakech fest on Thursday also unveiled the lineup for its competition, 11th Continent, and Moroccan Panorama sections, as well as gala and special screenings. In the competition, 14 films will compete for the Étoile d’Or, or Golden Star.

The 21st edition of the fest in Morocco will also honor Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and, posthumously, pay homage to Moroccan star Naïma Elmcherqui. The Marrakech fest takes place Nov. 29-Dec. 7.

Check out the full lineup for the 2024 edition below.

Competition

Across The Sea (LA Mer Au Loin)

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

with Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Omar Boulakirba,...

Justin Kurzel’s political thriller The Order starring Jude Law will open the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival in the presence of the director and producer Stuart Ford later this month.

The film is among seven films that will be showcased as gala screenings at the Moroccan film festival, which unveiled its line-up on Thursday.

The galas also feature a trio of Best International Feature Film Oscar entries, Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda (Morocco), Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here (Brazil) and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), all of which will screen in the presence of their directors.

The festival will screen 70 features from 32 countries across sections spanning the Official Competition, Gala Screenings, Special Screenings, the 11th Continent, the Moroccan Panorama, Cinema for Young Audiences & Families, and films shown as part of the Tributes program.

The 14 first and second films in competition include French...

Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the full line-up for its 21st edition which will open with Justin Kurzel’s crime thriller The Order onNovember 29 and run to December 7.

Kurzel’s debut featureSnowtownwon thefestival’s jury prize in 2011, and the filmmaker returned in 2022 to serve on the jury.

This year’s jury will be presided over by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, replacing Thomas Vinterberg, and will award the Étoile d’Or for best film to one of 14 first- and second-time features in the international competition.

In total, the festival will screen 70 films from 32 countries, including 14 documentaries, 12 Moroccan titles, nine world...

Despite blue skies over Greece’s second city ahead of the opening ceremony, the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival kicks off Oct. 31 under clouds of uncertainty, with the war in Ukraine raging toward its three-year anniversary and the year-old Israel-Hamas conflict spilling into neighboring countries and threatening to engulf the entire Middle East. The U.S., meanwhile, heads to the polls next week for an election that’s been framed as a referendum on the fate of American democracy itself — with the eyes of the world watching.

For Thessaloniki festival director Orestis Andreadakis, a veteran film critic who’s been at the helm of the festival since 2016, global events have only brought a renewed sense of urgency “to find movies that matter,” he tells Variety on the eve of opening night. “Movies that say something about our lives, our situation in the world, with so many changes, so many dangers — wars,...

Paris-based sales agent Indie Sales has boarded “Maya, Give Me a Title,” a stop-motion project directed by Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) and narrated by Pierre Niney (“The Count of Monte Cristo”).

The film revolves around Gondry’s long-distance relationship with his daughter. As they live in two different countries, Gondry asks his daughter every evening, “Maya, give me a title.” Based on her answer, he creates a short animated reply in which Maya is the hero. Gondry’s long-time partner, Georges Bermann at Partizan Films, is producing, while The Jokers Films will release it in France.

Besides “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Gondry’s well known films also include “The Science of Sleep,” “Be Kind Rewind” and more recently “The Book of Solutions.”

Stop-motion has been a personal trademark of the director since his early music videos such as Björk’s “Human Behaviour” and The...

Thessaloniki Film Festival has revealed its International Competition section, which showcases 12 films by up-and-coming directors from around the world. The selection includes “Julie Keeps Quiet,” which is Belgium’s entry in the Oscars, and “Under the Volcano,” which is Poland’s entry.

Also selected are “Arcadia,” which won best director at Sarajevo for Yorgos Zois; “Happy Holidays,” which won best screenplay in Venice Horizons for Scandar Copti; “On Falling,” which won best director at San Sebastian for Laura Carreira; and “Pierce,” which won best director at Karlovy Vary for Nelicia Low.

The jury is composed of filmmaker and producer Sara Driver, filmmaker Denis Côté and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis.

The top prize is the Golden Alexander for best feature film, accompanied by a 10,000 euro cash prize. There is also the Silver Alexander for best direction, accompanied by a 5,000 euro cash prize; the best actor and actress awards; and the best screenplay and best artistic achievement award.

Japan’s leading indie film festival, Tokyo Filmex (November 23-December 1) has unveiled the line-up for its competition, opening and closing films, and other sections.

The festival, which marks its 25th year in 2024, will open with Jia Zhang-Ke’s Caught By The Tides, which played in competition at this year’s Cannes, and close with Hong Sang-soo’s By the Stream, for which actor Kim Min-hee won the Pardo for best performance at Locarno.

The 10 competition titles include the Georgian film April, directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, which won the special jury prize at Venice this year; Girls Will Be Girls, the...

Finding Mr. Christmas will be Hallmark's first reality competition series, in which Jonathan Bennett will be hunting for the next Christmas movie star. Jonathan, best known for his role as Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls, is the show's co-creator and host. The series will follow ten guys participating in different challenges, most of which will be holiday-themed activities to test their acting skills. Eventually, the winner will land a leading role in a Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel and get the title "Mr Christmas."

Jonathan, together with leading judge Melissa Peterman from The Big Bang Theory spin-off Young Sheldon and a couple of other special guest judges, will put the telegenic guys to the test to see who has the charisma and authenticity to take up the role. The last man standing will star in the leading role of Hallmark Channel's holiday movie Happy Holidays, making the competition interesting.

Photo: Catherine Bell, James Denton Credit: ©2023 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Pooya Nabei

Back in 2021, fans were devastated when Hallmark Channel canceled The Good Witch after seven seasons. However, Catherine Bell and James Denton starred together in Christmas on Cherry Lane in 2023. Now, Catherine has excited her fans on Instagram by sharing the news of their new movie together, Happy Holidays on Cherry Lane.

Catherine Bell and James Denton reunite in Happy Holidays on Cherry Lane on Hallmark+ Catherine Bell and James Denton star in Happy Holidays From Cherry Lane [Image @therealcatherinebell on Instagram]

According to People, Hallmark’s Good Witch cast enjoyed a mini-reunion at the fifth annual Christmas Con in New Jersey. After that, Catherine Bell excited her Good Witch fans by sharing a photo relating to the new Hallmark+ movie, Happy Holidays on Cherry Lane. The sequel to Christmas on Cherry Lane is set to stream on Thursday, December 12, 2024.

In Catherine’s Instagram post,...

German producer Dorothe Beinemeier of Red Balloon Film has won the €25,000 Hamburg production award for international cinema co-productions at the 10th anniversary of the Hamburg Production Awards on September 30.

Beinemeier co-produced Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays, about which the jury said: “It approaches all its characters with great empathy and grants us insights into a world where everyone is trapped.” The jury was comprised of

Happy Holidays won the prize for best screenplay at Venice’s Horizons section last month; Beinemeier’s further co-producer credits include Bruno Dumont’s The Empire and Ameer Fakher Eldin’s Yunan.

Furthermore,...

Fans of Hallmark’s Good Witch have a lot to look forward to. There are two reunions for the leads, Catherine Bell and James Denton, of this series. One reunion is in person at Christmas Con, and the other is in a Christmas movie sequel.

Here are all of the details.

Photo: Catherine Bell, James Denton

Credit: ©2023 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Pooya Nabei Good Witch Stars Headed To Christmas Con

People Magazine has reported that there is a Good Witch reunion at Christmas Con 2024. The publication reported that Catherine Bell, James Denton, Sarah Power, and Catherine Disher are part of the big holiday fan event.

This event is being held at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center between December 13-15.

Good Witch Photo: Catherine Bell, James Denton

Credit: ©2021 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Peter Stranks Don’t Miss Happy Holidays From Cherry Lane

There is a big Good Witch...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prix winner All We Imagine As Light and Mohammad Rasoulof’s special prize recipient The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, along with Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Venice selection Harvest are among the international competition selections at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival running October 16-27.

A packed line-up also brings Joshua Oppenheimer’s Telluride entry The End to the International Feature Competition, along with the North American premiere of The Quiet Son from Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, which debuted on the Lido.

There are world premieres for Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges’s Suçuarana...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes grand prix winner All We Imagine Is Light and Mohammad Rasoulof’s special prize recipient The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, along with Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Venice selection Harvest are among the international competition selections at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival running October 16-27.

A packed line-up also brings Joshua Oppenheimer’s Telluride entry The End to the International Feature Competition, along with the North American premiere of The Quiet Son from Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, which debuted on the Lido.

There are world premieres for Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges’s Suçuarana...

Hallmark+ is the rebranded streaming channel that will have a whole lot of Christmas this year. Firstly, they will air three new movie sequels to Christmas On Cherry Lane. Next, they will air the network’s first mystery series, Mistletoe Murders. Lastly, they will premiere two new holiday-themed reality shows.

This is all in addition to the Hallmark Channel’s Countdown To Christmas and Hallmark Mystery’s Miracles Of Christmas.

Here are all the details on the streaming channel.

Photo: Catherine Bell, Eva Tavares, Simon Farrell, James Denton

Credit: ©2023 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Allister Foster Hallmark+ Premiering Four Unwrapping Christmas Movies

According to TV Insider, Hallmark+ is premiering four movies in the Unwrapping Christmas series four Thursdays in a row. This is on November 7, 14, 21, and 28. They are about four friends who work at the shop All Wrapped Up. This stars Natalie Hall, Alec Santos, Kathryn Davis, Nathan Witte, Ashley Newbrough, Torrance Coombs,...

Haul out the holly, grab your cocoa, and wrap yourself in the warm embrace of holiday programming.

TV Fanatic is creating a dedicated holiday page for you, and you can get your first glimpse of everything Hallmark offers for the upcoming season.

For 15 years, fans of heartwarming holiday fare have heated up the cocoa and cozied up on their couches as they flocked to Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas for their holiday movie fix.

(Courtesy of Hallmark Media)

The jingle bell juggernaut kicks off its 24/7 programming event on Friday, October 18, and gifts viewers yearning for yuletide tales with 40 new, original movies across Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Mystery.

Hallmark+, the recently launched, reimagined streaming service and membership rewards program, is throwing its own holiday party.

It is offering seven original merry movies and — for the first time ever — four seasonal series that are sure to make spirits bright.

Here are...

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in ‘The Room Next Door’ (Photo Credit: Sony Classics)

The 2024 Venice Film Festival winners were announced on September 7th, with Oscar-winner Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her) earning the Golden Lion for Best Film for The Room Next Door. Almodóvar took home the coveted prize for this first English-language film, and he dedicated the win to his family. “It is my first movie in English but the spirit is Spanish,” said the acclaimed filmmaker.

Academy Award-winner Nicole Kidman was named Best Actress for her starring role in director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl. Kidman wasn’t able to attend the ceremony, and Reijn read a statement accepting the award. “Today, I arrived in Venice to find out shortly after that my brave and beautiful mother Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed. I’m in shock and I have to go to my family. But this award is for her.

Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

Almodóvar’s first English-language feature marks the first time he has won the top award at one of the three major film festivals. Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore star in the story of a woman who makes the decision to end her life, and the friend who re-enters her world around this time.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in the US on December 20, with Warner Bros handling multiple international territories including UK-Ireland.

Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” won the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice Film Festival. The Spanish auteur’s first feature in English took the top prize at the awards ceremony on Saturday, where he accepted the honor in person. Based on Sigrid Nunez’s novel “What Are You Going Through,” the film stars Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as friends who reunite after several years.

Though Almodóvar’s latest was not reviewed as enthusiastically as most of his films (a high bar to cross), the drama was still favored to do well at the Venice awards. When it premiered earlier this week, it was met with a lengthy standing ovation of almost 20 minutes — a warm reception even for festival audiences. And few are the cinephiles in Europe who do not consider the director of “All About My Mother,” “Talk to Her,” “Volver,” “Bad Education” and “Parallel Mothers” a living great.

The 81st Venice Film Festival comes to a close today with the awards ceremony, held at the Sala Grande in the Palazzo del Cinema.

Starting at 7pm Cet (6pm BST), viewers can watch the ceremony live in the video above; Screen will be updating this page with the winners as they are announced.

Scroll down for the latest winners

The ceremony will be hosted by Italian actress Sveva Alviti, who also hosted the opening ceremony on August 28. A Competition jury led by Isabelle Huppert will award eight prizes, including the Golden Lion for best film. There are further awards in the Horizons,...

While last year’s strikes created a somewhat subdued energy on the Lido with very few talent able to be present, this year’s 2024 Venice Film Festival proved to hot and steamy. And we’re not just talking about the excessive heat movie stars and fan alike were subjected to. Films like Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” and Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burrough’s short novel “Queer” aroused audience interest with career-best performances from Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and highly revealing sexual interplay. However it was Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door” that took home the coveted Golden Lion, marking the first time the filmmaker has won a top prize at any major festival throughout his career.

Brady Corbet returned to the Palazzo del Cinema with his four-hour post-wwii epic “The Brutalist,” which screened to rave reception and earned the director the Silver Lion,...

When Rami (Toufic Danial), one of the protagonists of Scandar Copti’s cleverly structured drama Happy Holidays, learns that his girlfriend Shirley (Shani Dahari) is pregnant, panic sets in. He is Palestinian and she is Israeli. He fears the reality of raising a child in a country where not even their relationship can be public. Rami asks Shirley to consider an abortion and she refuses.

Their relationship contains the first of several interlocking tensions observed in Happy Holidays, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Orrizonti sidebar. The movie follows Rami, Shirley and members of both their families as they navigate life in Israel. Copti, a Palestinian filmmaker who co-directed the Oscar-nominated Ajami with Israeli helmer Yaron Shani, trains his gaze on the subtle dynamics at play when people live in a heavily militarized and divided nation. How do interpersonal connections echo or question the will of the state?...

From Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti, the Israel-set “Happy Holidays” is a piercing, realistic family drama, the inflection points of which reveal deep cultural and political dimensions surrounding gender and ethnicity. Like his Oscar-nominated crime drama “Ajami” (which he co-directed with Yaron Shani), Copti’s second feature follows an ensemble of characters — Arab and Jewish alike — to assemble a multifaceted portrait of life in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.

In depicting strained family ties and rocky courtships, “Happy Holidays” veers between anxious and joyful. Copti and cinematographer Tim Kuhn shoot each interaction with an up-close, handheld intimacy that not only magnifies the subtle, powerful performances of the cast (many of them first-time actors), but welcomes the viewer into each scene, as though it were a complicated family reunion. At the center of its sprawling plot are four members of an Arab family, who share several casual, agreeable scenes together, but whose...

As the Toronto International Film Festival gets underway, The Hollywood Reporter’s critics weigh in on this year’s crop of titles, from biopics to documentaries, sweeping epics to intimate character studies, tear-jerking dramas to laugh-out-loud comedies.

Several of this year’s slate have already debuted at other festivals throughout the year. For those curious about the very best the TIFF calendar has to offer, a few — but not nearly all — of the highlights include the Steven Soderbergh ghost story Presence, which David Rooney hailed as “masterfully done” out of Sundance; the Icelandic grief drama When the Light Breaks, which Lovia Gyarkye described as “impossible to shake” at Cannes; and the literary adaptation Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, which Caryn James praised at Telluride for the “astonishing” child performance at its center.

In addition, the lineup includes a number of highly anticipated world premieres — we’re curious about David Gordon Green’s Nutcracker,...

A wide range of Egyptian films dominate the Arabic-language selection in Venice this year, including two feature debuts — from Khaled Mansour and Muhammed Hamdy — that represent new directions in Egyptian cinema.

Mansour is behind the endearing, audience-friendly “Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo.” It follows a taciturn security guard whose best friend is the canine of the title, played by two different, but similar-looking, highly trained dogs.

Operating at cinema’s more experimental edge is “Perfumed With Mint,” which also screens in TIFF’s Wavelength section. Veteran cinematographer Hamdy (“The Square”) creates a metaphorical film representing a generation that is contaminated with doubts about what a waits them.

Provocative drama “Happy Holidays” marks Palestinian helmer Scandar Copti’s (“Ajami”) first solo outing while “Sudan, Remember Us” is a political documentary from the French-Tunisian-Moroccan journalist and documentarian Hind Meddeb. Both films will also play in the Toronto Film Festival.

Rounding out the public program is “Aïcha,...

Drama “Happy Holidays” marks the long in the works solo directing debut of Palestinian director Scandar Copti, an Oscar nominee as co-director of “Ajami” (2009). Launching with prime slots in Venice Horizons and TIFF Centrepiece, the film follows an extended family of Palestinian citizens of Israel living in Haifa, allowing viewers to experience firsthand how cultural and societal perceptions are shaped. Moreover, it also showcases the effectiveness of his “singular drama” method, a process for working with actors that he developed while filming “Ajami.”

Copti says his artistic process always starts with a personal annoyance. The spark for “Happy Holidays” grew from a conversation he overheard as a teenager. He recalls, “A female relative of mine told her son, ‘Don’t ever let a woman tell you what to do,’ referring to his wife. This paradox made me realize just how deeply rooted patriarchal values are in our society.”

“Happy Holidays...

This year’s Venice Film Festival will, for 10 days, be the starriest place on earth, with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” Cate Blanchett in Alfonso Cuarón’s TV series “Disclaimer” and Daniel Craig in Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” all lighting up the Lido. But Alberto Barbera, the festival’s artistic director, promises that Venice still has grit underlying the glamour.

Barbera’s mandate at Venice has been extended through 2026 by new Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, a right-wing journalist and author appointed by Italy’s ruling coalition. But Barbera makes it clear he has been given free rein at a time when top festivals are becoming “important tools” in discussions about the most persistent problems facing the world. The 81st edition features movies that delve into two major geopolitical crises. “We’ve never backed down from dealing with thorny issues that can cause controversy,” Barbera says.