New films to watch

Legal docudrama Saint Omer was voted Best Picture at the 34 th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, which announced this year’s juried award winners today. Saint Omer wins for its ability “to expertly interrogate issues of society, culture, race, and gender,” the festival release stated. “Alice Diop, as screenwriter and director, delivers a film that explores different dynamics of Black women in contemporary France, drawing empathetic lead performances from Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanga (whose characters never interact, save for one momentous glance). By harnessing the skills of her technical team, Diop turns Saint Omer into a shrewd, cogent, ambitious, and overwhelming film which teases a metafictional awareness while remaining clear-eyed and unsentimental.” The Palm Springs festival took place from January 5-16 and screened 134 films from 64 countries, including 27 premieres. The lineup includes 35 of the International Feature Film Oscar … [Read more...] about ‘Saint Omer’ Takes Top Honors At 34th Palm Springs Film Festival

The Göteborg Film Festival has unveiled the 53 Nordic Films that will take part in the latest edition of the Nordic Film Market , running February 2 – 5. Scroll down for the list. The line-up consists of 17 completed feature films, 15 works in progress, 11 films in development presented at the market’s co-financing platform Discovery, and another 10 features in development from up-and-coming Swedish creators at Talent to Watch. The 2023 edition of Nordic Film Market will comprise a full on-site event in Göteborg alongside digital screenings on the festival’s dedicated industry platform. This year the festival has said close to 500 invited buyers, distributors, sales agents, producers, festival programmers, and other key industry delegates from 32 countries are expected to attend. Elsewhere, the 17th edition of the TV Drama Vision summit will run February 1–2. Göteborg will run January 27 – February 5. As previously announced, Holy Spider breakout Zar Amir Ebrahimi … [Read more...] about Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market Unveils 2023 Lineup

Written and directed by Nida Manzoor, Polite Society stars Priya Kansara ( Bridgerton ), Ritu Arya ( Umbrella Academy ) and Nimra Bucha ( Disney+ Ms. Marvel ). The Focus Features movie had its world premiere Friday in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival. The movie begins with Ria (Kansara), a Pakistani teenager in a karate class. She’s a purple belt who is serious about honing her skills to become a stunt woman. She records YouTube videos of her home training and recites the line “I am the fury.” Her older sister Lena (Ayra) is an art school dropout who mopes around her parents’ house and often helps Ria record her videos. Ria is obsessed with professional stunt woman Eunice Huthart, who she frequently emails but never receives a response. Ria and her two friends Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) attend a private all-girls school where they are constantly picked on by a girl name Kovacs (Shona Babayemi). The bullying reaches … [Read more...] about ‘Polite Society’ Sundance Film Festival Review: A Cultural Action Adventure Film Complete With Martial Arts And Wirefu

Eileen , directed by William Oldroyd, and written by Ottessa Moshfegh, and Luke Goebel , which is based on Moshfegh’s book of the same name. The film stars Thomasin Mackenzie, Anne Hathaway , and Shea Whigham. Eileen (Mackenzie)  starts with the titular character sitting in her car on a beach, watching a couple make up. Her arousal peaks as a voyeur, and stuffs ice down her pants to cool down so to speak. The 24-year old is the loner type who works as a prison receptionist. She has her eyes on one of the prison guards,  and during her downtime at work her imagination runs wild with the possibilities of a hook up. Her mother is dead and now she lives with her father (played by Shea Whigham) who is a retired cop and raging alcoholic. When Eileen comes home from work one day, she sees the police trying to calm him while he’s drunk and waving a gun around in the middle of the street. She promptly deescalates the situation and instead of thanking her for preventing him … [Read more...] about ‘Eileen’ Sundance Film Review: This Is What Happens When Female Loneliness And Rage Collide

There is so much to appreciate about A.V. Rockwell ’s A Thousand and One . The film chronicles the lives of native New Yorkers from 1994-2005, which was a period of transition in NYC. The atmosphere began to change, as stop and frisk was over-utilized, gentrification was displacing the people of Harlem at rapid speed, and the culture of the city gave way to sterilization. Now there are even fewer resources available, the wage gap is beyond repair and it’s unaffordable. Rockwell drew inspiration from this and created a coming-of-age story about finding an identity and chosen family. The film starts in 1994, Inez De La Paz ( Teyana Taylor ) kidnaps her 6-year-old child Terry (Aaron Kingley Adetola) out of the foster care system. She knows what’s in store for him if he stays with the city as she too is a product of the system. Inez finds refuge in a friend and her mother who finds out Terry isn’t supposed to be with her. Because of her tough exterior, she comes off as aggressive … [Read more...] about ‘A Thousand And One’ Sundance Film Festival Review: A Mother And Son Bare The Weight Of A Brutal City In A.V. Rockwell’s New Movie

Ira Sachs ’ latest film centers on a three-way relationship between two men and a woman as they navigate their way through love, lust and heartbreak. Passages begins on a film set. Tomas ( Franz Rogowski ), a German man in Paris, is directing a period piece. On set, he’s a hardass, always yelling, screaming and nitpicking about small things. After shooting, he goes to the film wrap party with his husband Martin ( Ben Whishaw ), but he is less than enthusiastic about the event, so he leaves the forlorn Tomas alone to dance with Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos). The two head to another party, and without any indication that they even like each other, they have sex. Maybe it’s the first time he’s had sex with a woman, and he tells his husband about it as if he is supposed to be happy for him? Of course, this starts an argument between the two, which leads to Martin walking out. RELATED: Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winners Through The Years – Photo … [Read more...] about ‘Passages’ Sundance Film Review: Ira Sachs’ Polyamorous Drama Excites & Frustrates

EXCLUSIVE: New Line has set Secret Headquarters filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman to direct Undo, from Will Simmons ’ 2022 Black List screenplay. The action thriller is currently in development. Undo follows a former getaway driver who comes into possession of a watch that allows its user to go back in time, but only by one minute. Beau Flynn is producing through his FlynnPictureCo banner. Flynn’s most recent producing credits are New Line/DC’s Black Adam , Netflix’s Red Notice and Disney’s Jungle Cruise . FlynnPictureCo’s Scott Sheldon will executive produce. Simmons is currently adapting Robert Kirkman’s acclaimed sci-fi/action graphic novel Hardcore for Universal, with Skybound producing and Adam Wingard ( Godzilla Vs Kong ) directing. He recently wrote for the Sleepy Hollow remake for Paramount and Todd Garner, as well as a reboot of Internal Affairs also at Paramount. Prior to that, he adapted the acclaimed graphic novel Day … [Read more...] about New Line Picks Up Will Simmons Black List Script ‘Undo’, Sets Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost To Direct, Beau Flynn Producing

Stubborn and iconoclastic as always, Jean-Luc Godard has passed to another realm –and by his own choice–at age 91. Ever impudent and exasperating, forever pushing boundaries but remaining elusive, and an artist in every fiber of his being, Godard always did exactly what he wanted to do; for a few years many followed him ardently, and for lots of us in the 1960s he led the way into a vastly exciting and personal form of cinema. Thereafter he went entirely his own way, losing most of his audience but remaining at the forefront of exploring what cinema is, could be, and, sometimes, what it absolutely shouldn’t be. The official obituaries and tributes will certainly convey Godard’s importance and influence through the 1960s, the way he helped liberate cinema from its literary and orderly appearance to something far more energized, unexpected, jarring and often exhilarating. Although Godard consumed and brilliantly wrote about the existing cinema as a young critic, he … [Read more...] about Godard Is Gone: A Remembrance Of The Stubborn & Iconoclastic Film Director

Nominations for the EE British Academy Film Awards will be unveiled Thursday in London via a livestream that begins at 12 GMT/4 AM PST. Actors Hayley Atwell and Toheeb Jimoh will reveal nominations from BAFTA headquarters at 195 Piccadilly. Among frontrunners for awards are Netflix’s German-language World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front, which was longlisted in 15 categories, and Martin McDonagh’s tragicomedy The Banshees of Inisherin , which landed on 14 lists. All Quiet’s longlist showing is the largest haul a non-English language film has achieved during BAFTA’s longlist voting stage, which was first launched in 2021. The BAFTA ceremony will take place February 19 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London and will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK. Actor Richard E. Grant has been set as the host, while British presenter Alison Hammond will lead the BAFTA studio, a new behind-the-scenes stream launched for this year’s … [Read more...] about BAFTA Film Awards Nominations: How To Watch Online

The Real Housewives of New York City is going through a major reboot for Season 14 and Andy Cohen is teasing what is to come. During an “Ask Andy” segment with the audience from his Bravo late-night show Watch What Happens Live , Cohen gave his first impressions of the new season. “They’re super fashionable. The things that they are arguing about are as ridiculous as early RHONY ,” he is heard saying about the rebooted show. “I think it’s going to be a different show. It’s so hard because everyone is going to compare it to RHONY , which was so perfect. And I hope this is perfect in a totally different way.” The cast of RHONY Season 14 was presented at BravoCon in October 2022 and it included Sai De Silva, Ubah Hassan, Erin Dana Lichy, Jenna Lyons, Lizzy Savetsky, Jessel Taank and Brynn Whitfield. However, shortly after filming for the reality series commenced, Savetsky announced she was exiting the franchise citing “antisemitic attacks” against her. “I … [Read more...] about Andy Cohen Teases ‘The Real Housewives Of New York City’ Reboot: “It’s Going To Be A Different Show”