Ioncinema

Sisters Doing It For Themselves: Herzog Returns with Theater of the Bizarre

Until quite recently, it was a foregone conclusion legendary director Werner Herzog would not be able to make his long gestating feature Bucking Fastard, detailed amongst several other unmade projects in his 2022 memoir Every Man for Himself and God Against All. As fate would have it, the curious endeavor, which fits perfectly within Herzog’s oeuvre littered with weird humans and/or natural environmental wonders, came to fruition with the novel casting of sisters Rooney and Kate Mara, who seem to be reveling in this strange absurdity as a pair of dysfunctional siblings who speak in unison and behave as if they were conjoined.… Read the rest

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Working with themes of migration, loneliness, abandonment and the need for connection, among the feature debuts programmed in this year’s Orizzonti competition line-up we find House of the Wind (La maison du vent) by Cameroon born / French filmmaker Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu. Produced by Horizons d’Afrique’s Yanghu and Linda Natacha Kwanya, La Mansarde Cinéma’s Arthur Grec, Steel Fish Pictures’ John Engel, Merveilles Production’s Faissol Gnonlonfin plus the Red Sea Fund, and Doha Film Institute, the world premiere will take place tomorrow on September 4th. Celluloid Dreams are handling world sales. We have the poster exclusive plus a clip of one key sequence where Josette (Josette Kwanya)— though she doesn’t know it yet — is about to form an unlikely bond with Sarah (Moudjeu Pouadeu), a young woman from her neighborhood.… Read the rest

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The Sun Also Rises: Boyle Explores the Origins of Media Sensationalism

If, as Alan Moore posits, “It is the job of the artists to give the audience what they need,” how, then, is it not the responsibility of the journalist to do the same? Danny Boyle adapts James Graham’s 2017 stage play Ink for his latest feature, tapping into the same contemporary examination he attempted in Jobs (2015) to contemplate how powerful figures utilized their platforms to irrevocably change a cultural landscape. The play and film trace us back to 1969, during the early days of oligarch Rupert Murdoch, when he purchased the dwindling Fleet Street rag The Sun and transformed it into a tabloid sensation upon partnering with ambitious editor Larry Lamb, a collaboration which would provide an influential template for the evolution of journalism from objective reporting to a destructive conduit for an increasingly divisive, twenty-four-news cycle.… Read the rest

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Coupins D’abord: Marazzi Documents Love in Times of Capa

Dually exploring the construction of an image and of a brand, the story of Gerda Taro is inseparable from the creation of “Robert Capa,” the Americanized persona adopted by Hungarian photographer Endre Friedmann as he and Taro sought to make their work more marketable in an increasingly hostile Europe. What begins as a practical disguise moves from complicity to something more complicated: a new identity and the mythos of an idea that a name ultimately eclipsed the woman who helped create it — that is … until now. Italian docu-helmer Alina Marazzi continues her exploration of the past and using archival footage (think Pietro Marcello but not as poetic) with The Girl with the Leica (La ragazza con la Leica).… Read the rest

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Only four features into her career, Justine Triet has already emerged as one of the defining voices of contemporary French cinema. Winning the Palme d’Or certainly accelerated that ascent, but her reputation rests on films that probe the elusiveness of objective truth, the tensions between women’s personal and professional lives, and the ways identity itself can be constructed, performed, and reinvented. Another Croisette only member, Triet’s Age of Panic was a 2013 in the ACID section, In Bed with Victoria was a 2016 selection in Critics’ Week section, and her last two efforts were profiled in the competition section – 2019’s Sibyl (read ★★ review) was followed by 2023’s Anatomy of a Fall (read ★★★½ review) – her thunderous international break-out film not only won the Palme but an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.… Read the rest

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Known for her discomfort and absurdity brand of comedy, we thought that Janicza Bravo might be moving into the kitchen for the Martha Stewart biopic title Good One, but in another juicy tidbit of future American indie project news via the World of Reel folks, we learn that her third feature might be shooting as early as next month and circles back to a true crime story of 1980’s NYC. Titled Preppy – the project is being produced by Michael Costigan and John Buderwitz.

Written by Rose Lichter-Marck and David Levine, this is based on the infamous 1986 “Preppy Murder,” two young women unknowingly fall for the same charming, dangerous man during a sweltering New York summer.… Read the rest

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Last week we learned that Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic was finally moving onto her next project landing a series scheduled for next year, however, if this Production Weekly listing proves to be right (via the World of Reel folks) she’ll have quite the epic 2027 ahead. After winning the Camera d’Or for her outstanding coming-into-age debut Murina, the Croatian filmmaker has been attached to a handful of projects but now comes word she might be moving into the director’s seat this autumn for a book to film project adapted by non other than Todd Field. It is titled The Girls, and apparently this is a Focus Features project based on the 2016 novel by Emma Cline.… Read the rest

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Telefilm Canada have put some sizeable coin towards a quartet of projects and among them we find Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize is now moving into her sophomore feature. Titled Cherry Blossoms, and filmed in the English language – we logically assume that this is the drama she was developing — inspired by a trend in Japan called Jouhatsu, where people simply vanish for varying reasons, often leaving their families devastated. We discovered the filmmaker on the Lido back in 2023 where her debut was showcased in the Giornate degli Autori section – it won Best Director.… Read the rest

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Canada submits Berlinale winner Nina Roza by Geneviève Dulude-de Celles, Chile submits Un Certain Regard selected The Meltdown (to be launched by Kino Lorber), Mexico submitted Venice winning On the Road by David Pablos, and Thailand submits Director’s Fortnight selected 9 Temples to Heaven, but the real news in the Best International Feature race is actually Japan backing Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s deeply moving All of a Sudden which Neon will launch theatrically in November after showcases in Toronto and NYFF. So it now looks like it’ll be a La Gradiva versus Minotaur consideration process for France, while the French industry will likely be pushing for Virginie Efira to get some buzz for awardage.… Read the rest

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The International Feature Film category is only beginning to heat up and we’ve already got some banger titles. Earlier this morning we had Belgium and South Korea advance the names of Lukas Dhont ‘s Cannes winner and Lee Chang-Dong‘s Venice-TIFF contender. And now comes word that Sandra Wollner’s brilliant third feature film Everytime has been selected as Germany‘s official submission for the 99th Oscars. With some of the rule changes, this meant that instead of exclusively pushing one film which would have likely been the Golden Bear winner Yellow Letters, Germany can have three horses in the race with İlker Çatak’s winner being included alongside Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize awarded Shame and Money by Visar Morina and now Wollner counts as three.… Read the rest

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