Ioncinema

Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shinya Tsukamoto and Lee Chang-dong are the doing the Venice to Toronto double down, Jesse Eisenberg is sticking to a Telluride and TIFF showcase, while Andrew Haigh, Simon Stone and Mike Leigh might be packing their suitcases for the Lido, Colorado and Toronto. The Special Presentations programme makes it a bit clearer as to what the fall film festival map looks like.

Kore-eda and Chang-dong are expected to compete in the Golden Lion competition, while Tsukamoto could end up in or out of comp. Telluride will be hosting Cannes showcases for Club Kid, Fjord, La Bola Negra and Minotaur.… Read the rest

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Venice’s International Critics’ Week aka Settimana Internazionale della Critica have made their selections for their 41st edition and we’ve got some Sundance, Rotterdam and Cannes alumni filmmakers amongst this batch. From India, Shalini Adnani brings her family drama with themes of inequality and environmental crisis in Our Share of Sand. La torre helmer Sebastián Múnera goes full fiction mode with Meteorite – a female-centred story set in a land still haunted by the ghosts of violence. Italy is represented in three different strokes with one comp item in Tommaso Usberti‘s Prima della guerra which stars actress (sometimes director as was the case with The Hill Where Lionesses Roar) Luàna Bajrami, and Piero Usberti in a coming-of-age tale focusing on masculinity with extraordinary maturity.… Read the rest

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Saturday Night Live funnyman Bill Hader made the gradual move into feature films (his best work might be 2014’s The Skeleton Twins) and other television projects such as bits on Documentary Now! bits as some of his best work) and television namely creating the HBO show Barry with him directing 18 episodes. Known for his humor that can deconstruct guilt, loneliness, regret, or desire, he know moves behind the director’s chair for his debut. Here is everything we know so far (American Indie Edition) for … Bill Hader‘s They Know.



Following the conclusion of Barry, Hader developed the project with longtime creative collaborator Duffy Boudreau.… Read the rest

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Next week we will know the line ups for the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, as well as the 41st International Critics’ Week picks and 23rd Giornate degli Autori selections. Typically landing in the 21-to-23-film range, the Golden Lion competition lineup usually reserves four or five slots for Italian productions, leaving roughly sixteen places for the rest of the international field. Once the inevitable studio-backed red-carpet premieres are accounted for, the competition for the remaining slots becomes especially fierce, with limited opportunities for other national cinemas to break through and command attention. Tomorrow TIFF will offer a look into their Gala and Special Presentations selections which will include (and exclude) some of our guesses below.… Read the rest

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Next week we will know the line ups for the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, as well as the 41st International Critics’ Week picks and 23rd Giornate degli Autori selections. Typically landing in the 21-to-23-film range, the Golden Lion competition lineup usually reserves four or five slots for Italian productions, leaving roughly sixteen places for the rest of the international field. Once the inevitable studio-backed red-carpet premieres are accounted for, the competition for the remaining slots becomes especially fierce, with limited opportunities for other national cinemas to break through and command attention. Tomorrow TIFF will offer a look into their Gala and Special Presentations selections which will include (and exclude) some of our guesses below.… Read the rest

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France-based filmmaker João Paulo Miranda Maria is one of the new emerging voices from Brazil and has already padded a resume of shorts that were showcased at Cannes and Venice to prove it hi savoir-faire. A cinema curious about colonialism, racism, memory, identity and magical realism, he developed his debut feature Memory House through the Cannes Critics’ Week and the Cinéfondation — it was a 2020 Cannes Official Selection — the unfortunately cancelled edition. Last year he shot a short ‘Paysage après la bataille’ featuring Hafsia Herzi. He is now in sophomore feature terrain. Here is everything we know so far for … João Paulo Miranda Maria’s I Don’t Even Know Who I Was.… Read the rest

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Using the road-movie narrative template to explore an unconventional form of companionship, The Kidnapping of Arabella is far from a typical coming-of-age film — in fact, it might be better described as a “coming out-of-age” journey. One of your first reflections might be: who kidnaps whom? This piece of subversive comedy matches the idiosyncratic tone and character-driven quirks found in Carolina Cavalli’s feature debut, Amanda (2022), and her co-penned work Fremont (2023). Centering on themes of loneliness, connection, and co-dependence, this offbeat film delivers a quirky blend of deadpan humor, sharp dialogue, and a generous dose of absurdity.

Among the fresh new wave of Italian female filmmakers on the international film festival circuit, Cavalli returned to the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section for a her second time out with Benedetta Porcaroli winning the Orizzonti award for Best Actress.… Read the rest

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Warner Bros.’ indie label Clockwork lassoed the future cinema offerings from Sean Baker and Park Chan-Wook, and today they announce they’re moving into production on Mary Bronstein’s next film — a sport drama with the main course being a bit of backstabbing. Variety reports that she’ll be directing one of the higher ranked screenplays of 2024’s annual The Black List. Titled Nasty, Bronstein re-team with If I Had Legs I’d Kick You‘s Rose Byrne and they are adding Jenna Ortega to the top of the fold. The original screenplay was written by Isabella Jarosz. Production is set to begin in the fall.… Read the rest

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James Gray’s Paper Tiger has been selected by the New York Film Festival as the Opening Night selection for the 64th edition. This is film counts as number four to be selected by the festival. The film might have left Cannes empty-handed, but NEON are likely looking at different acting categories for awardage. In our Cannes ★★★★ review, our Nicholas Bell stamps this as one of Gray’s career best: “Paper Tiger is partially a film about ‘more money, more problems,’ but also, quite powerfully, a study on how the tantalizing facade of the American Dream is an express elevator to hell for anyone who desires to outstrip the fate of their economic realities.”… Read the rest

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Five Special Presentations programme titles have been added to Toronto, four of them are world premieres and one is heading over to the Lido. The Zellner Bros. will indeed be heading over to Venice with Alpha Gang – the tale about aliens who arrive on Earth seeking to destroy but they soon find themselves compromised with human emotions features the likes of Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine, Dave Bautista, Léa Seydoux, Lily-Rose Depp, Adria Arjona, Doona Bae, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. has to be one of the big acquisition titles available this fall.

Of the five-some we are most excited for the new work from Argentinian filmmaker Benjamín Naishtat who brings Glaxo to the fest.… Read the rest

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