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Mohammad Rasoulof, the Iranian filmmaker who secretly left his country in 2024 after being sentenced to eight years in prison, will receive the Kurosawa Akira Award at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival. He will share the honor with director O Mipo. The two were chosen by a committee of filmmakers Yamada Yoji and Lee […]
2026 was filled with visionary horror films that rocked the box office, like “Obsession” and “Backrooms.” But what does the future of the genre look like? At this year’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, I moderated a panel about fear, fandom and the future of the horror genre, which touched on several topics about the business […]
Jia Zhangke will turn his attention to location scouting and production design for his next film, road movie “Mamma Dunhuang,” once the 10th Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival wraps on Sept. 30. As revealed by Variety, the film follows a woman who drives from Dunhuang, in western China near Central Asia, all […]
“Because of You Ka Kui,” a documentary on the late Beyond frontman Wong Ka Kui, will open the sixth Odyssey Film Festival in the U.K., with NGO U.K.-China Film Collab also picking up the Hong Kong film for local distribution. Discussions began in March at FilMart in Hong Kong, which U.K.-China Film Collab attended with […]
A very jet-lagged Scarlett Johansson reunited with co-stars Adam Driver and Miles Teller for the New York Film Festival premiere of “Paper Tiger,” which kicked off the festival’s 64th edition. “I’m hallucinating,” said Johansson during the post-screening Q&A at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. She just got off a long international flight from London, where […]
Tim Blake Nelson’s prison saga “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” Diego Luna’s migration drama “Ashes,” Boots Riley’s anticapitalist satire “I Love Boosters,” and Jesse Eisenberg’s latest film “The Debut” are among standout international titles that will launch into Italy at the upcoming Rome Film Festival. As previously announced, the 21st edition of the […]
Turkish arthouse distributor Baska Sinema has acquired domestic theatrical rights to “A Woman Asleep,” an experimental English-language AI feature directed by pioneering artist and filmmaker Vikki Bardot. Bardot is considered one of the early practitioners of photographic AI art and video art. She delivered a TEDx talk on AI and art in 2023, and her […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — RioMarket, the business section of the Rio International Film Festival, will be held over Oct. 1-11, featuring for the first time a partnership with TikTok and online one-on-one business meetings. The event, taking place in a warehouse in Rio’s port area renovated for the 2016 Summer Olympics, will gather execs […]
From the surprise election of mayor Zohran Mamdani to the Knicks winning the NBA championship, it’s been a time for underdog stories in the Big Apple. The New York Film Festival is continuing the trend, pulling off a coup by securing several major world premieres in a year that’s been frustratingly light on festival fanfare. […]
The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival has announced a slate of cultural programs running alongside its main competition, headlined by a 13-film retrospective honoring Mizoguchi Kenji on the 70th anniversary of his death, a symposium exploring a potential new international anime award, and a 10th-anniversary celebration of its Teens Cinema Workshop. The Mizoguchi tribute, staged […]
The 10th Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival opened on Sept. 24 with an AI robot dance by Unitree, a tribute to four late friends of the festival and the East-West Award for Hong Kong director Ann Hui. The ceremony took place at the Platform, the festival’s signature open-air theater inside the ancient […]
The Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) will present its Screen Icon Award to Indian actor, director and producer Aamir Khan at its 37th edition, with a 25th-anniversary Special Presentation screening of “Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India” alongside director Ashutosh Gowariker. The festival opens with South Korean thriller “The Assassin(s),” directed by Hur Jin-ho […]
“NAZA,” the hot-button documentary about killings in Gaza that won a special jury prize at the recent Venice Film Festival, is set to soon be released theatrically in more than 50 territories and will subsequently be made visible to global audiences for free via the website of British newspaper The Guardian. The Guardian, which produced […]
Disney+ will spotlight Season 3 of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” at Italy’s Lucca Comics and Games Festival, where stars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri, and the show’s co-creator and executive producer Jonathan E. Steinberg, and executive producer Dan Shotz will be on hand for a dedicated panel presentation that will include […]
The Tokyo International Film Festival has named Australian director Rolf de Heer president of the international competition jury for the festival’s 39th edition. De Heer has spent more than 40 years in Tasmania, Australia, directing, writing and producing films across a broad range of genres and subjects. His 1993 feature “Bad Boy Bubby” won the […]
The Middle East premiere of Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq’s timely drama “The Station” will open the revamped Doha Film Festival, which will run Nov. 19–27 in the Qatari capital. The film centers on Layal, who runs a women-only gas station in Yemen which is a safe haven during the country’s civil war. “When Layal’s younger […]
Susan Sarandon will be honored by the Rome Film Festival’s independently run Alice in the City sidebar, which is dedicated to films for children and youth. Sarandon will be attending the Eternal City fest to promote the international launch of “Silicon Valley” star Zach Woods’ feature film debut “The Accompanist,” in which she stars; and […]
The 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has confirmed Indian director Rima Das, Chinese producer Shan Zuolong and Korean actor Shim Eun-kyung as the three jurors for its New Currents Award, a prize that has served as a launchpad for emerging Asian directors. Debut feature films screening in BIFF’s Competition or Vision sections are eligible […]
Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, the most prominent film event and market in the Arab world, has canceled its sixth edition that was scheduled to take place from Dec. 3 to 12. The event will return in the fourth quarter of 2027 with a “renewed vision and a program that continues to celebrate cinema […]
Maha Harada spent two decades building scenes on the page before she ever stood behind a camera. Now 64, the best-selling Japanese author is making her feature directorial debut with “In My Father’s Room,” a film adapted from her own short story “An Unnecessary Man,” and it arrives in competition at the San Sebastian Film […]
