Since premiering his last film “An Officer and a Spy” in competition at Venice in 2019, Roman Polanski has fallen from grace in France. But he’s now back with a new movie called “The Palace” that could make a surprise splash on the festival circuit. Polanski, who fled the U.S. in 1978 after pleading guilty … Read more
Why Laura Citarella’s Borgesian thriller shouldn’t get lost among the Venice Film Festival’s PR distractions This month, I’m going to review a film I doubt you’ll ever see. This is not intended as either a prank or a provocation; it’s simply a comment on the way the film industry works and the oddly devalued status we … Read more
Greece’s Homemade Films has boarded Mahdi Fleifel’s upcoming feature “Men in the Sun,” currently in the final stages of development. The story, set in Athens, will deal with masculinity, exile and loss, showing young refugees in their 20s hustling to survive in the urban pressure cooker. The company is also ready to start shooting Sofia … Read more
Every film Jafar Panahi makes is an act of resistance. Currently in jail, the Iranian director has spent the past 12 years in and out of house arrest, banned from traveling or making films outside Iran and faced with numerous obstacles making films at home. That hasn’t stopped him. In No Bears, he goes to … Read more
Satoshi Tsumabuki, Sakura Ando and Masataka Kubota star in ‘A Man.’ ©2022 “A Man” Film Partners Kei Ishikawa returns to the Venice Film Festival with A Man (Aru Otoko), six years after his debut feature Gukoroku – Traces of Sin premiered in the festival’s Orizzonti program. A Man has also been selected as the closing … Read more
Emanuele Crialese put in a buoyant performance at the Venice Film Festival Sunday, during which he discussed how his identity informed his Golden Lion contender L’immensità. “The inspiration was my childhood and my story that is being transposed and reinterpreted,” Crialese said of the flick. “I tried to find the good interpretation in it. I … Read more
The fall festival season returns to nearly full strength, and from Venice to Telluride, TIFF to NYFF, the selection is vast. Here are the films we’re most excited to see. We can only exclaim that the fall festivals “are back!” so many times before it ceases to be true, but in the case of the … Read more
One of the many casualties of last month’s shutdown of the 46-year-old San Diego Repertory Theatre was the Rep’s Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival, which was was forced to close midway through its 29th season. Rep veteran Hershey Felder, a playwright, actor, pianist and filmmaker, was able to find a new San Diego … Read more
New works by Darren Aronofsky, Andrew Dominik, Alejandro J. Iñárritu, Luca Guadagnino, Joanna Hogg and Laura Poitras are among the rich roster of titles that will launch from the Lido and compete for a Golden Lion at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, which is set for a standout stellar 79th edition. Artistic director Alberto Barbera … Read more
As Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera continues to see films and tinker with his selection before announcing the Lido lineup next week, several high-profile titles have emerged as either locked in or highly likely to be launching from the Lido. As previously anticipated by Variety, U.S. studios and streamers are set to be disembarking … Read more