Ioncinema

IONCINEMA.com’s IONCINEPHILE of the Month highlights an emerging talent in cinema. This month, we spotlight Spanish filmmaker Lucia Aleñar Iglesias, whose directorial debut, Forastera, had its world premiere in the Discovery section of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. On two occasions we had the chance to speak with the filmmaker — watch our TIFF interview and our follow up Marrakech Film Festival interview. Forastera opens theatrically on Friday, May 29th via the folks at Grasshopper Film. Click for more details. And make sure to check out Part 2 of our profile – with Lucia Aleñar Iglesias’ Top Ten Films of All Time list.… Read the rest

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The folks art Cineuropa are giving us a major update on the next feature by master filmmaker Ulrich Seidl. Most recently in casting mode, we learn that Christoph Grissemann, and muse Maria Hofstätter will topline Distances which is being co-written with Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. If you’re into his previous films (namely the Paradise trilogy), he’ll be exploring previous themes of isolation, alienation, and bad tourism, this Austrian-German-France co-production is being lensed by Wolfgang Thaler and Ed Lachman. We should see this drop in 2027 – we’d bet on Venice. Here is the synopsis:

This is about Carl Schwert, a man in his late fifties who is interested in the misfortune of others.… Read the rest

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Hopefully at some point it’ll lose the over-used, generic title, but on the positive side, Swedish filmmaker Magnus von Horn is setting up his next project — moving into English language terrain with some premium talent in Jeremy Strong. Variety freshly reports that he’ll next direct the book-to-film project The Passenger — which is actually based on a 1938 novel of the same name by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz. This is the project that will be heading to Cannes as one of the ten projects part of the Investor’s Circle. Port au Prince Films’ Jan Krueger and Rosh Khodabakhs, Lava Films’ Mariusz Włodarski are producing.… Read the rest

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Rathaus Films have announced the winners of the third annual edition of the Rathaus Film Grant. The Rathaus Film Grant—this year in partnership with Song United—continue to expand their impact and will collectively support three Detroit based filmmakers awarding $20,000 in funding in 2026. In addition to the monetary support, these 3 projects winning projects and filmmakers will receive mentorship from the 2026 Jury of Darol Olu Kae, Ina Pira, Monique Walton, Kathy Kieliszewski, and Kevin Steen. With additional guidance from the team at Rathaus Films. Here are the 2026 Rathaus Film Grant Winners (pictured left to right above):

First Place $10,000
Director: Paisley Sutton – Project Title: The Popes
Genre: Documentary Short, Experimental
Producers: Paisley Sutton, Patrice Cheesman
Logline: Through intimate interviews and vivid vignettes, a documentary filmmaker uncovers intense parallels between her family in 2025 and her ancestors, a first-generation freed family called the Popes who lived in Gilded Age-era Georgetown, D.C.… Read the rest

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Canadian filmmaker Luis De Filippis and Portuguese filmmakers Catarina Vasconcelos and Daniel Soares are among the ten filmmakers/feature film projects who have been selected to participate in TorinoFilmLab’s FeatureLab development programme. Screen Daily reports that we have seven debuts and three second feature films, from 10 writer-directors, one co-writer, and 10 producers. There were 236 applications. The selected projects will take part in a development process from June to November 2026, including two residential workshops in Turin, Italy, and an online module in September.

Luis De Filippis’ debut Something You Said Last Night played well on the film fest circuit playing at TIFF, San Sebastian and Rotterdam.… Read the rest

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A filmography that began in 1999 with the Locarno Film Festival-premiered Le Bleu des villes, across ten features to date largely exploring economic struggle, institutional power versus the individual, and the dignity of labor under pressure—best embodied by his two Cannes Film Festival Competition entries La Loi du marché (2015) and En guerre (2018)—French filmmaker Stéphane Brizé has in recent years become a Venice regular with Une vie (2016), Un autre monde (2021), and the quietly affecting, deliciously funny and profound 2023 Hors-saison (read ★★★★ review). For his eleventh feature film, he returns to familiar themes and finds his recent muses returning to the fold.… Read the rest

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It’s only the second day of Cannes competition when the sophomore feature from a virtually unknown German filmmaker arrives, creating one of those disorienting moments where you pause to take stock of what’s unfolding on screen, even as you’re not entirely sure what it is you’re watching. Sound of Falling sees Mascha Schilinski and cinematographer Fabian Gamper crafting a haunting, sensory meditation on intergenerational trauma, memory, and female experience. Set across multiple eras on the same rural German farm, the film traces how pain, repression, desire, and silence echo through generations of women, less as plot than as emotional residue. Its nonlinear, dreamlike structure allows past and present to bleed into one another, suggesting the cyclical nature of history and inherited wounds.… Read the rest

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Adding their 20th feature film to the 2026 edition, the Directors’ Fortnight have extended a special to master filmmaker Bruno Dumont. His shot under-the-radar Les roches rouges (aka Red Rocks) will receive its world premiere plus the filmmaker will give a special masterclass (which will trace thirty years of his filmmaking, exploring a body of work that is both free and deeply singular..). Set in the French Riviera, the movie follows the story of Gèo, a seven year old child, boss of his peer gang that spend the summer through raids and reckless challenges on the cliffs over the sea. The arrival of a rival group coming from the capitol and the meeting with the mysterious Eve will give rise to a ruthless duel, where innocence and cruelty merge in a summer that will forever mark the characters.… Read the rest

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James Gray’s Paper Tiger was confirmed a couple of hour ago as the 20th and final feature in the Palme d’Or competition but we have a whole bunch of extra titles filling up the rest of the fest major sections with the Un Certain Regard section receiving a quartet of films. Zachary Wigon‘s third feature film Victorian Psycho (featuring Maika Monroe, Thomasin McKenzie and Jason Isaacs) will add some frights to the section, while actress turned director Judith Godrèche‘s technical debut in Mémoire de fille will get the media attention for a tale about Annie Ernaux – who is invited to a book signing.… Read the rest

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The Croisette is set to give some love towards the Jersey Shore with Directors’ Fortnight selected Butterfly Jam (by Kantemir Balagov) and now, James Gray‘s Paper Tiger is being confirmed as the 20th competition title which Variety reports the film is now property of Neon — the indie label have a whopping half dozen films in the horse race for the Palme d’Or. This is Gray’s first time being backed by the label and this is now film number six for him in competition – a remarkable feat that begin back in the year 2000 with The Yards.

Starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, the gritty crime thriller follows two brothers as they try to achieve the American dream, only to become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true.… Read the rest

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