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Indian actor Konkona Sen Sharma has been cast as the lead female protagonist opposite Carlos Bardem (“El Cid”) in the comedy feature “Mis(s)chief,” it was revealed at the Film Bazaar in Goa.

The project hails from U.K. and India-based production outfit Avani Films and is currently in development. It has advanced to the second round at the 2025 Sundance Development Labs as a curated entry.

“Mis(s)chief” will follow a mother of two trying to succeed as a filmmaker while navigating a failing marriage, the odd bullet from a gangster she has unwittingly managed to annoy and the never-ending schedule of her children’s homework. British filmmaker Peter Webber (“Girl With a Pearl Earring”) is on board as executive producer and Emmy-nominated casting director Nancy Bishop is assembling an international cast.

“I am delighted by the comic premise, the representation of women and the writing itself,” Sen Sharma said.

Girls Will Be Girls director Shuchi Talati says 2024 is an incredible year for independent Indian women filmmakers. “We’re collectively creating a tapestry of stories that have not been given space in our culture,” she says.

Talati’s debut feature set the tone in January by winning the audience award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival while its 22-year-old lead actress, Preeti Panigrahi, bagged the special jury award for acting. The mother-daughter drama was more than six years in the making, with Talati first pitching it at the 2018 Nfdc Film Bazaar Co-Production Market.

She hasn...

The beloved classics in the Criterion Collection fit perfectly on Max, and will continue to stream there going forward.

The Criterion Collection is jam-packed with classic movies, arthouse flicks, and titles that true cinephiles consume non-stop. Having a reliable streaming partner for the Criterion Collection is a must for true movie lovers, and a new deal between it and Warner Bros. Discovery will secure that streaming future for multiple years to come. The two companies announced on Tuesday that they had extended their licensing deal, allowing Max to continue streaming Criterion Collection films.

Key Details: The new deal extension between Max and the Criterion Collection runs for multiple years. Classics like “Seven Samurai,” Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times,” and more are available. Max also offers Warner Bros. movies, A24 and Studio Ghibli films, and much more. Sign Up $9.99 / month max via prime video

Max was already the streaming home of...

You have a couple options if you want to watch a film from Criterion's unparalleled collection of cinematic classics. You can buy a physical copy of the movie from their website (look out for those flash sales they're always doing), you can wait approximately 10 hours in line to visit their Mobile Closet (a.

John Mayer is set to purchase the storied Hollywood lot established by Charlie Chaplin and later owned by A&m Records and the Jim Henson Company, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A rep for Mayer — who has an office on the lot — confirmed that the musician, along with director and producer McG, is “under contract to buy Henson Studios.” An exact price tag was not divulged, but the deal is believed to be worth around $60 million.

The sale of the property had been garnering some attention, not just because of its...

Exclusive: John Mayer and McG are closing in to the buy the famed Jim Henson Studio lot ne the Charlie Chaplin Studios at 1416 N. La Brea in Los Angeles, CA. Sources are telling us this tonight. No purchase price was disclosed.

The Grammy winning singer has offices at the Jim Henson lot and uses the studio there to record, we hear. McG is the famed filmmaker behind the original Sony Drew Barrymore-Cameron Diaz-Lucy Liu Charlie’s Angels movies as well as the Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy action romcom, This Means War.

A rep for Jim Henson company declined to comment. A rep for Mayer told Deadline’s Dish — this is happening. Deadline reached out to a rep for McG. We’ll update you when we hear back from them.

Triple note — Disney doesn’t own the Jim Henson lot. The Henson family does.

Ahhh, fall. It’s finally here. The leaves are dropping, pumpkin spice is in the air (and everyone’s coffee), and the holidays are close enough where we’re all either rushing to get our work done before the end of the year or starting to wind down in hopes that people will soon stop bothering us. It’s a magical time, especially with new awards contenders like “Anora” and “Conclave” finally releasing to wide audiences, but let’s not forget that older films deserve some love too. Especially around Thanksgiving, a holiday specifically designed for reflection. What better way to celebrate than looking back on some classics of cinema, both the widely seen and the obscure.

While October may have provided the spooks in New York and Los Angeles repertory theaters, November aims to calm things down with light offerings for youngsters like “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,...

The Jim Henson Company’s studio lot on La Brea Avenue will not be sold to the Church of Scientology, the estate of the famed puppeteer confirmed Saturday.

“In regards to recent rumors about the sale of the La Brea studio lot, the Henson family is not in any business dealings with the Church of Scientology, and that organization is not in consideration as a potential buyer of the property,” the estate said in a statement.

“It is still the family’s intention to move The Jim Henson Company to a new location it can share with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, but at this time the family is not in escrow with any buyer.”

Rumors of the potential sale were traced back to The InSneider, who referenced The Wrap’s own reporting about a potential sell of the lot from June. Film critic Jeff Sneider wrote, “Well, I’m...

White Bird, the Marc Forster-directed film adaptation of author R. J. Palacio’s sequel/prequel to her worldwide hit book and 2017 movie Wonder, has taken a long and circuitous route to finally getting a North American release. Frustrating as it has been, this is a film that is well worth the wait and perhaps more timely now than ever.

Shot in the Czech Republic in February 2021, White Bird was initially set as a wide release in September 2022, delayed a month to October then taken off Lionsgate’s release schedule entirely before either of those dates came around. It was then scheduled for an August 2023 opening, but last year’s SAG strike meant another delay until it was finally set several months ago for its October 4 release this Friday.

In that time, one of its production companies, Participant, has gone out of business, and another, Mandeville Films, has seen the...

Scott Stuber wasn’t out of the game for long, and he’s bringing back with him a venerated classic film brand. The former Netflix film chief is teaming with Amazon MGM Studios to relaunch the United Artists label and help produce movies for both theatrical and streaming.

Stuber left Netflix this spring, and under his new production company about to launch, he’ll already have a first-look, multiyear film deal with Amazon MGM Studios and will be involved in anything released by the new United Artists.

“With his proven track record of delivering global hits and an eye towards theatrical fare, Scott’s expertise and vision align perfectly with our film strategy,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios. “We are so proud to welcome him to our lot and partner with him on the relaunch of the legendary UA brand, as we work to leverage existing and new IP into big,...

Scott Stuber has found his post-Netlfix gig, re-launching the storied United Artists studio label under Amazon MGM.

The multi-year partnership will see Stuber finance and produce films via his soon-to-be-launched production company that will be released through United Artists, both theatrically and on streaming for Prime. Stuber will be involved in all UA releases, even those his company does not produce.

Stuber and his new shingle will also have a first-look deal with Amazon MGM and will be based out of the company’s Culver City offices.

Stuber joins Amazon MGM after announcing his departure as the film head of competing tech giant, Netflix, at the top of the year. Under Stuber’s direction, Netflix’s feature business aggressively entered the blockbuster space, courting filmmakers such as Zack Snyder and the Russo brothers, as well as award-winning auteurs like Martin Scorsese. To join Netflix in 2017, Stuber, who established himself as an executive at Universal,...

Should cinema be treated as a luxury or as a necessary form that brings people together? That’s the question facing another Toronto institution today as news surfaces of the city’s beloved Toronto Outdoor Picture Show facing dire financial straits. Beginning as the Christie Pits Film Festival in 2011, Tops became a registered non-profit organization in 2015 with a focus on presenting film programming to areas throughout Toronto, including Christie Pits Park, Fort York, Bell Manor Park, and Corktown Common. Over 25,000 people come out each summer for its free screening series, but Tops Founder and Artistic & Executive Director Emily Reid shared in a recent interview with Toronto’s CityNews that it may not have enough funding for next year.

“We’ve tried to keep our costs low, but we don’t sell tickets, so it’s always about what kind of funding we can bring in,” Reid said. “And it’s...

Did you know there are only two perfect horror movies? Or that there are only two perfect sci-fi films? At least, that's what Rotten Tomatoes would have you believe. The great arbiter of our collective cinematic taste has bestowed the hallowed 100% Tomatometer rating on just a handful of films across cinema history, and the result of this incessant ranking of art has apparently left us with two perfect "Toy Story" movies and just a single perfect "Godzilla" film. What a world.

Anyway, for whatever reason, Rotten Tomatoes scores remain consistently alluring to us all, even showing up on our streaming interfaces and instantly deciding for us whether a movie is worth a watch. Now, it's time to put cinematic legend and Hollywood hero Charlie Chaplin under the microscope and see how this giant of the industry can stand up to the mighty Tomatometer.

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin is, of course,...

Call of Duty used to be a game where players could spend countless hours playing the campaign and multiplayer and Activision have taken an interest in monetizing it. However, not all ideas are great and Dr Disrespect is no pushover with the company’s ideologies and beliefs.

The American online streamer took shots at the gaming company for the bizarre and inappropriate content the live service multiplayer game is putting out knowing a good chunk of the community are minors.

Dr. Disrespect is not a Fan of Activision’s Creative Choices on Call of Duty

Activision is biting more than it can chew with the current state of Call of Duty and not everyone is a fan of it.

Dr Disrespect is a man of the people and is not afraid to call out something he finds grotesque and inappropriate. The streamer’s reputation has earned him a massive following...

The one thing that Academy Award haters and lovers can agree on is the long and fascinating history of Oscar snubs. It’s the “Predator handshake” topic that brings us all together. It happens every year: the wrong movie wins a certain award or fails to secure the nomination it deserves. Some would say it’s a big part of the awards show experience.

Every now and then, though, the Academy Awards go above and beyond by implementing a “blanket snub.” It’s one thing for a great movie or actor to not get the win or nomination they’ve earned in the eyes of theater audiences. It’s quite another to realize that there have been numerous all-time great films throughout history that didn’t even get a single Oscar nomination, much less an Oscar win.

But let’s go one step further than that. We’re not going...

[Editor’s note: this story was originally published in January 2024. We updated and recirculated it in advance of the 96th Academy Awards on March 10.]

The Oscars are a cruel, selective beast. With only 10 movies recognized in the Best Picture race, and five entries in every other category, it’s an unfortunate reality that many high quality, deserving films each year will end up with nothing on nomination day.

The 2024 Oscar class is no different, with plenty of cries of snubbery coming out after their January 23 announcement. Most of the discussion has been taken up by the shocking blanks for Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig, who missed out on Best Actress and Best Director respectively for their work on “Barbie,” the indisputable film juggernaut of the year. Other major surprises included Charles Melton missing out for his breakout turn in “May December,” and Leonardo DiCaprio getting left out of the Best Actor race for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Other surprises proved of the more pleasant sort, with on-the-bubble contenders making it in like Robbie...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Ain’t It Just Like the Movies to Play Tricks When You’re Trying to Be So Quiet?

As if assembling the greatest songbook in the history of Western music through six decades (and counting!) of nonstop creative growth and experimentation wasn’t enough, Bob Dylan has made a surprisingly large impact on the world of film. In 1966, he helped launch the cinéma vérité movement — and captivated audiences with the mystery of who broke that fucking glass — by allowing D.A. Pennebaker to follow him for the landmark documentary “Don’t Look Back.

The lesser-known of Charlie Chaplin’s canon might still place among the finest films ever made, and his greatest scholars and acolytes will tell you A Woman of Paris has always deserved such label. It began the run of feature-length masterpieces that was The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator but remains semi-obscure––an oddity perhaps partly explained by Chaplin’s own classification as “the first serious drama written and directed by myself,” and one soon be amended by Janus Films’ U.S. release of a 4K restoration.

Ahead of its December 22 premiere at Film Forum, there’s a new trailer and poster. The former suggests a strong, faithful rendering from Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and Timothy Brock, who has newly conducted Chaplin’s original score; the latter so strongly evokes a 1923 theatrical release that I assumed it was the original one-sheet with new titles attached.

Depeche Mode are releasing Strange/Strange Too, a collection of music videos directed by Anton Corbijn, on DVD and Blu-ray for the very first time on December 8th via Sony Music Entertainment.

1988’s Strange and 1990’s Strange Too were previously only available separately in now out-of-print VHS and Laserdisc formats. Both were originally directed and filmed in Super 8 by Corbijn and have now been restored from original sources for the DVD and Blu-ray release. Corbijn himself was involved in the tape restoration process, which took place over several years with the participation of other folks involved with the original films as well.

Filmed mostly in black and white, Strange features videos for the three main singles for Music for the Masses and “A Question of Time” from Black Celebration alongside “Pimpf,” the instrumental closing track from the former album. In contrast, Strange Too was shot in full color. It includes...

These last few years the Criterion Channel have made October viewing much easier to prioritize, and in the spirit of their ’70s and ’80s horror series we’ve graduated to––you guessed it––”’90s Horror.” A couple of obvious classics stand with cult favorites and more unknown entities (When a Stranger Calls Back and Def By Temptation are new to me). Three more series continue the trend: “Technothrillers” does what it says on the tin, courtesy the likes of eXistenZ and Demonlover; “Art-House Horror” is precisely the kind of place to host Cure, Suspiria, Onibaba; and “Pre-Code Horror” is a black-and-white dream. Phantom of the Paradise, Unfriended, and John Brahm’s The Lodger are added elsewhere.

James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...

Clockwise from top left: Modern Times (screenshot), Newsies (screenshot), Norma Rae (20th Century Fox), Sorry To Bother You (Annapurna Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Just in time for Labor Day 2023, The A.V. Club has pulled together a rundown of the best films that celebrate the proletariat. Presented with all working class heroes in mind,...

Clockwise from top left: Modern Times (screenshot), Newsies (screenshot), Norma Rae (20th Century Fox), Sorry To Bother You (Annapurna Pictures) Graphic: The A.V. Club Just in time for Labor Day 2023, The A.V. Club has pulled together a rundown of the best films that celebrate the proletariat. Presented with all working class heroes in mind,...

Alberto Barbera is the longest-serving director of the Venice Film Festival. Counting this year’s event, which kicks off August 30, Barbera will have racked up 15 years at the helm. After a short, three-year stint from 1999-2001, Barbera returned in 2011, beginning what many consider the festival’s new golden age. Under his guidance, Venice has become a springboard for the Oscars (Gravity, Birdman, La La Land, The Shape of Water) and a launchpad for studio blockbusters (Joker, Dune).

His current term is up next year, but when asked if he would sign up again, Barbera just laughs. “Do you think if they offered it to me I would say no? It’s an offer you can’t refuse.”

Every sentence out of Barbera’s mouth seems to contain a film quote. But he came to cinema almost by accident. Unhappy with his job as a substitute teacher in middle school, he...

Marc Forster has frequently demonstrated an ability to tastefully moderate the more manipulative or saccharine aspects of popular but somewhat blunt-edged source material, in bestseller screen translations like “The Kite Runner” and “A Man Called Otto.” That knack comes in handy once more with “White Bird,” a graceful adaptation of a YA graphic novel by R.J. Palacio. A “Wonder story” tangentially related to 2012’s “Wonder,” it may get some boost from the connection to that book’s successful 2017 film version with Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson.

This less-starry affair (with brightest luminary Helen Mirren relegated to a glorified cameo) is a period piece mixing the Holocaust and teen romance, likely to appeal to a somewhat narrower audience — albeit one that will broaden in home formats. Though one can quibble over some of the more simplistic story elements here, the director’s astute craftsmanship delivers a handsome result that hits the...

Their music differs, but Bob Dylan and Tom Jones have much in common. They have both enjoyed long and successful careers dating back to the 1960s. Dylan’s music connected with fans from the start, and Jones’ soulful singing won over audiences worldwide, especially in the United Kingdom. Both have had chart-topping albums in England. Still, Dylan’s English chart record lasted less than a year before Tom Jones stormed in and broke it.

The Tom Jones album that took a chart record away from Bob Dylan

Dylan’s inspiring music and poetic lyrics will probably leave a lasting artistic legacy few can match. He skillfully captured real-life events with stirring tunes and literary-like prose. After more than 60 years of making music, his inspiration and influence have touched nearly every musician to follow in his footsteps. Nine Dylan albums have reached No. 1 in England in five decades — 1960s, 1970s, 2000s,...

Over the years, Bob Dylan has borrowed lyrics and lines of writing from other artists, including obscure Confederate poet Henry Timrod. In the early 2000s, Dylan grew interested in Civil War history. He wrote songs about the era and, it seems, discovered Timrod. While experts on the poet believe the line between his work and Dylan’s songs is clear, they don’t seem to mind much. Dylan certainly doesn’t; when asked about the plagiarism accusations, he rolled his eyes.

Bob Dylan lifted lines from a Confederate poet for his music

Timrod did not fight in the Civil War, but he wrote poems about it and its effect on life in the South. While he became known as the poet laureate of the Confederacy, he is a relatively obscure poet in modern times. Not so in Dylan’s Modern Times, though. Careful listeners noticed distinct similarities between Dylan’s 2006 album and Timrod’s poems.

Wang Bing’s moving documentary follows young workers as they laugh, fight and question their bosses while undertaking a season of brutally hard work

Charlie Chaplin’s frantic production-line factory worker in Modern Times is a ghostly presence in this giant, immersive documentary from Chinese director Wang Bing, the movie equivalent of a wall-sized tapestry; it is about the sweatshop capital of China, the northern town of Zhili in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, known as the “city of children’s clothing”. Thousands of workshops turn out mountains of cheap garments and every year vast numbers of young people from about 16 to 22 come from outlying cities to do a season of brutally hard work in return for cash in hand.

This is China’s hop picking or kibbutzim, the young workers often staying in the grim dorms the bosses offer rent free to justify low pay. There are bricks of cash to be seen in this film,...

In the 1960s, Bob Dylan said that the only product that could make him sell out was “ladies’ undergarments.” Several decades later, he proved this was true when he appeared in an ad for Victoria’s Secret. Dylan has “sold out” several other times over the years, though. He does not seem like a celebrity who would appear in commercials, but he has, surprising his fans each time.

Bob Dylan | Kevin Mazur/WireImage 1. Bob Dylan’s debut commercial appearance was for Victoria’s Secret

In 2004, Dylan surprised fans by appearing in a commercial for Victoria’s Secret. While he had previously licensed his music to advertisers, this was Dylan’s first time actually being in a commercial. The ad cuts between Dylan and model Adriana Lima in a lavish home.

“We had done some spots last year with Dylan’s music, and they got a great response,” creative director, Ed Razek,...

While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400 films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.

Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.

Check out the list below,...

Grave robbing is a lot like "The Star Wars Holiday Special," in that it's kinda neat to watch when Harrison Ford is doing it, but for the most part, nobody approves.

The bizarre act of digging up a human corpse and stealing it for unnatural purposes is the sort of thing we've grown accustomed to in movies. The image of Dr. Frankenstein kicking up the soil in search of really big corpses is pretty much burned into our brains. Grave robbing is the sort of thing villains do if the bodies are fresh, and heroes do if the bodies are really, really old — or if the body is fresh and belongs to Superman, that's probably the biggest ethical loophole.

But in real life, celebrities aren't usually known for digging up corpses for personal gain. That's the sort of thing that happens to celebrities more often than the other way around.

To hear Damien Chazelle tell the story of how he ended up casting Diego Calva as the lead of his new film “Babylon,” it almost sounds like a scene cut out of “Babylon.” “I saw a headshot randomly and I was just like, ‘Oh, that’s the face of a dreamer,’” Chazelle told GQ about finding Calva. “‘Those eyes have real poetry in them. Who is this guy? Has he ever acted before?’”

As it turned out, Calva had acted for years in his native Mexico and appeared on the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico.” But “Babylon” was at an entirely different scale than what came before – a lavish Hollywood production set in the 1920s and 1930s where the actor shares scenes with Oscar winner Brad Pitt and two-time Oscar nominee Margot Robbie.

“At first, he wanted to figure out if I was able to act,” Calva tells Gold Derby in...

Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, in its tale of how the talkies rocked the silent motion picture era, is no doubt, a metaphor for the streaming revolution which is impacting the film industry today.

We dive deep into the topic today on Crew Call with the Oscar winning La La Land filmmaker and his Babylon producer Matthew Plouffe, a former Focus Features exec who first heard about the director’s dream to make a 1920s-Hollywood-set feature some 13 years ago after meeting him.

“If you want your movie to play on the big screen, you have to go grab it, you have to demand it,” Plouffe tells us about the survival of original movies on the big screen.

“I think filmmakers embrace that: What is going to bring people to the bring screen? How can i grab that audience? I hope that inspires them. It’s what inspired me when we were making this movie.

Judging from its dazzlingly chaotic trailer, Damien Chazelle's "Babylon" is hellbent on capturing early Hollywood in all its debauched, Roaring Twenties glory. The particulars of the plot are being kept under wraps, but it appears to be about the suddenly shifting fortunes of an industry about to plunge headlong into the era of sound motion pictures (aka "talkies"). With a ludicrously talented and attractive ensemble cast that includes Bradd Pitt, Margot Robie, Diego Calva, Olivia Wilde, Jovan Adepo and the should-be-in-everything Samara Weaving, it could be about the manufacturing of curling stones and we'd be there on opening day.

Though the film looks like a boozy blast, the sobering truth is that many great artists struggled with the transition from silents to talkies. Cinema had progressed tremendously as a visual medium. Masters like F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang and Franz Borzage crafted films that were stylized, expressive and utterly captivating,...

Today at TIFF, months before its Christmas Day theatrical opening, Oscar-winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle came to show off the trailer of his Hollywood period opus, Babylon. It will drop tom’w. The pic is still in post.

The trailer is non-stop party and rollicking jazz. It starts with Margot Robbie’s up and coming movie star character doing coke. “There was more drugs,” says Chazelle about the era. “They’re building an industry from scratch.” Brad Pitt is wild mega- star, Jack Conrad, falling off balconies, getting dragged drunk out of cars, shooting guns and driving around in cars with Robbie covering his eyes.

“Signs on doors said ‘No Actors or Dogs Allowed’ when I moved to Hollywood,” adds Pitt’s character, “we changed that.”

“A few things happens, which is movies, and the town turns into a megalopolis,” says Chazelle. “To do that, you need a crazy person.”

“You thought this town needed you,...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.The Kid.For over a century, Charles Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” has been a global icon. His signifiers are simple: the derby hat and cane; the toothbrush mustache; the tight jacket and baggy trousers; the giant shoes. His significations, however—what the Tramp has meant to audiences around the world—have been profound.The most diminutive of men, the Tramp has had an outsized role in film history. Indeed, he is a portrait in paradoxes: a tragic-comic hobo-gentleman, flea-riddled but fastidious; a poet of pantomime, whose silence speaks volumes; a prat-falling klutz, who is the most graceful of danseurs; and a loner, who is worthier than most of human intimacy. Obtuse to the socioeconomic realities that structure his existence, he is an idealist hero akin to Don Quixote, as pointed out...

Mubi, the global curated film streaming service, production company and film distributor, has announced the introduction of its one-of-a-kind curator model in the country in partnership with critically acclaimed Director, Al Jafree Md Yusop. As part of the collaboration, Al Jafree has carefully handpicked a selection of ten diverse films for the platform, giving film enthusiasts looking for distinct content an opportunity to experience these films through the lens of the director. This maiden curated selection will be available to viewers under the ‘Hand-picked by Al Jafree Md Yusop’ spotlight starting March 18, 2022.

From Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Double Life of Veronique, to Wong Kar Wai’s multi award-winning In The Mood For Love and Agnes Varda’s Vagabond, to Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry, the curation boasts of gems from Asian and global classics, to all-time favourites catering to distinct cinematic sensibilities. Other notable titles from the curation include...

The 2020 Oscars produced a record four films that all received at least 10 nominations. While it created a wide-open field, it also meant great movies like “The Farewell,” “Hustlers,” “Midsommar” and more were completely snubbed. And believe us, there have been some bad movies nominated for plenty of Oscars in the past. And while we could go all day naming movies that have been unfairly overlooked by The Academy for one reason or another, these near classics feel like they should’ve been awards season shoo-ins and yet ultimately received no Oscar love at all.

“King Kong” (1933)

It was the quintessential monster movie of the era and was a landmark for special effects, but the Academy handed it zero nominations.

“Modern Times” (1936)

Many of Charlie Chaplin’s silent masterpieces predate the Oscars, but the Academy didn’t take the chance to nominate his final turn as The Tramp. Chaplin himself wouldn...

The Power of the Dog walked away a big winner at the Critics Choice Awards for movies while Ted Lasso scored big for TV.

“The Power of the Dog led the winners in the film categories, earning four awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jane Campion, and Best Cinematography for Ari Wegner. Belfast and Dune followed closely behind in the trophy count with three awards each. In the series categories, Ted Lasso took home four trophies, winning Best Comedy Series, Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Jason Sudeikis, Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Hannah Waddingham, and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Brett Goldstein.”

Read more about the Critics Choice Awards here

Oscar-winning actor and MCU regular William Hurt has passed away at the age of 71.

“Veteran actor William Hurt has passed away at 71 after a long battle with prostate cancer.

Leon Lecash, a photographer who shot album covers for David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Pat Benatar, and more, was convicted of harassing the owners of a Jewish bakery in London, according to The Daily Mail.

Lecash was convicted of six counts of harassment without violence for a series of emails he sent to the owners of Rinkoff Bakery, which opened in London’s East End in 1911 and is still operated by the Rinkoff family. Lecash claimed he was merely contacting the family to get information for two projects he was working on,...

In just a few days the Winter Olympic Games begin in Beijing, a massive event China will use to present an idealized image of itself to the world.

For a truer picture of China, in all its complexities and contradictions, ignore the Olympic pageantry and check out the documentary Ascension. The Oscar-shortlisted film, directed by Jessica Kingdon, creates a nuanced portrait of contemporary China, with emphasis on its increasingly stratified class system.

Ascension begins with aspiring workers pouring into cities in search of opportunity.

“A lot of it is migrant laborers,” Kingdon notes, “people from the countryside coming in.”

There are plenty of jobs, for those who don’t mind menial labor at less than munificent wages. Loudspeakers tout the advantages of signing up for one employer over another.

“Now recruiting, jobs at a foreign company,” one announcement says. “Factories and dorms with air conditioning. Standard uniform is required. Seated work available.

Writer/director Guillermo del Toro discusses a few of his favorite movies with Josh and Joe.

Show Notes:

Movies Referenced In This Episode

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Nightmare Alley (1947) – Stuart Gordon’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Drive My Car (2021)

Wicked Woman (1953) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

Modern Times (1936)

City Lights (1931)

The Great Dictator (1940)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review, Dennis Cozzalio’s Muriel Awards capsule review

Vertigo (1958) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s review

The Man Who Would Be King (1975) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

The Young And The Damned (1950)

Gone With The Wind (1939)

The Golem (1920) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans (1927)

Alucarda (1977)

Greed (1924) – Dennis Cozzalio’s Muriel Awards capsule review

Taxi Driver (1976) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary

District 9 (2009) – John Sayles...

It’s been over a century since Charlie Chaplin introduced his beloved Tramp character in 1914’s “Kid Auto Races at Venice.” Unlike a lot of the silent film performers of the time, Chaplin breaks the fourth wall and makes eye contact with the audience. And even a century later, there’s an immediacy to that eye contact, there’s a bond between you and the silent clown. “He’s this very fluid character who just communes with the audience,” said James Spinney, who, with Peter Middleton, directed the lauded new Showtime documentary “The Real Chaplin.”

“When you watch him, you feel this crackle as he looks at you,” Spinney noted during a recent Film Independent conversation. “It’s kind of flirtatious and mischievous when he does that. Watching his films today, we found that they felt fresh and subversive, even over a century later, and felt like a type of...

Under Childhood is a column on children’s cinema—movies about and for kids.In 1983, a characteristically intense Dennis Hopper remarked to the New York Times: “Most of the people I knew in my 20's are dead. [...] Forty-year-olds are survivors.” Fatefully Hopper’s punk bildungsroman Out of the Blue (1980) has found new life at 40 thanks to a crowd-funded 4K restoration. Formerly available mostly through faded reels and VHS rips, the film’s difficult but enduring passage through history repeats its story’s own narrative, though rescued from its hopeless end. In the film, sixteen-year-old Cindy “CeBe” Barnes undergoes sexual abuse by her alcoholic father (Dennis Hopper) and the neglect of her heroin-addicted mother (Sharon Farrell). Faced with what feels like the dead end of her short life, she chooses to leave the world behind in an act of self-immolation, taking both parents with her. As the Neil Young song that...

Warren Beatty’s show is a beautiful, one of a kind epic. Never mind that it is sharply critical of John Reed, an American who was buried in the Kremlin — Hollywood never approached the title subject directly: (whisper) Commies. Beatty’s production idiosyncrasies raised eyebrows but his picture is quite an achievement in filmic storytelling, cleverly accessing a political scene sixty years gone through testimony by notables that lived it. Beatty and Diane Keaton provide the romantic fireworks that make the film commercially viable, amid all the revolutionary fervor and political chaos.

Reds 40th Anniversary

Blu-ray Digital

Paramount Home Video

1981 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 195 min. / 40th Anniversary Edition / Street Date November 30, 2021 / 17.99

Starring: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosiński, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, M. Emmet Walsh, Ian Wolfe, George Plimpton, Dolph Sweet, Ramon Bieri, Gene Hackman, Gerald Hiken, William Daniels, Oleg Kerensky, Shane Rimmer, Jerry Hardin, Jack Kehoe,...

Prisoners of the Ghostland screenwriter/producer Reza Sixo Safai joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss his wildest cinematic experiences.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Infested (2002)

The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary

Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)

Mandy (2018)

Candy (1968) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer commentary

S.O.B. (1981)

The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Robin Hood (1973)

The Story of Robin Hood (1952)

Modern Times (1936)

The Kid (1921)

The Deer (1974)

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Qeysar (1969)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

The Warriors (1979)

New Jack City (1991)

Colors (1988)

The Whip And The Body (1963)

Blow Out (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Porky’s (1981)

Cinema Paradiso (1988) – Glenn Erickson’s Region B Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review

Circumstance (2011)

Ninja 3: The Domination (1984)

Flashdance (1983)

Debbie...

Switzerland became Charlie Chaplin’s home after he was hounded out of the U.S. in 1952, so it’s perhaps fitting that the Zurich Film Festival hosted the European premiere of feature documentary “The Real Charlie Chaplin.”

Playing in the festival’s documentary competition section, “The Real Charlie Chaplin” is an innovative montage of film clips, behind-the-scenes footage, newly-unearthed audio recordings, dramatic reconstructions and personal archive about cinema’s first and arguably greatest icon – tracing his meteoric rise from the slums of Victorian London to Hollywood stardom and eventual banishment.

The darker side of Chaplin’s life is explored too, from the treatment of his ex-wives (his second wife Lita Grey was just 15 when their relationship began) to his eccentric working methods.

The film is directed by Peter Middleton and James Spinney, whose acclaimed 2016 debut feature doc “Notes on Blindness” won the British Independent Film Award for Best Documentary Film.

Kristen Bell stars as Connie, an ex-Olympian quivering with restless energy, who lures her neighbor JoJo (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) to join her criminal enterprise. Though their seven figure haul is destined to catch the eye of the authorities, the women see themselves as modern Robin Hoods, and writer-directors Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly (“Beneath the Harvest Sky”) are inclined to agree.

Connie’s idea is simple. She and JoJo convince two married factory workers in Mexico (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino and Francisco J. Rodriguez) to ship them unused sheets of coupons. These they sell online to cash-strapped housewives willing to pay $10 for a $20 value. It’s a victimless crime, Connie believes, and the film’s bright colors and sophomoric needle-drops don’t offer much dissent. When Connie costumes herself in a prim blue dress to win favors from bank officers, the soundtrack plays, yes, “Devil With a Blue Dress.”

Gaudet and Pullapilly argue,...

All hail the marmalade-loving bear from darkest Peru!

Citizen Kane has been knocked from its throne at the top of Rotten Tomatoes’ list of best reviewed films and replaced by Paddington 2.

After the unearthing of a negative 80-year-old Chicago Tribune review on Tuesday, the 1941 Orson Welles classic lost its perfect 100 percent rating and slipped to a meagre 99 percent on the website’s Tomatometer, with the much-loved live-action/CGI-animated family film sequel — which still retains a 100 percent score — casually sauntering in to claim the crown. (To be clear, there are other films — such The Terminator, Modern Times and Singing ...

The 'Ok Computer' web series review is here. India’s first sci-fi comedy - Ok Computer stars Radhika Apte, Vijay Varma, Jackie Shroff & many Robo-sapiens. Co-produced and written by critically acclaimed filmmaker Anand Gandhi and produced, created, written, and directed by Pooja Shetty and Neil Pagedar, this 6-part series is set to launch on 26th March 2021 in 7 languages on Disney Hotstar VIP on 26th March for all subscribers of Disney Hotstar VIP and Disney Hotstar Premium.

Ok Computer Web Series Review

‘Ajeeb’ dastan hai yeh, kaha shuru kaha khatam, computer / technology strong hai ki human, na who samaj sake na hum.

First of all, kudos to Disney Hotstar, Anand Gandhi, Pooja Shetty and Neil Pagedar for this ‘Ajeeb’ but quirky futuristic peep into the age-old battle of man Vs machine which opens the gate for India’s first sci fi series.

Sir Charles Chaplin was so right in...

Every film presents unique production problems, and Searchlight’s “Nomadland” had a high degree of difficulty. Writer-director Chloé Zhao and her team wanted total authenticity as they filmed nomads who travel from job to job in the U.S. Southwest.

Production challenges included multiple locations, changeable weather, a small crew, a limited budget — and accommodating the nomads, who were playing versions of themselves, with no acting experience.

“We were there to follow them, and let them lead their lives,” says Peter Spears, one of the producers. “They didn’t all move together. Everyone had a different schedule. Some had family obligations or medical things to attend to; sometimes people would suddenly peel off to a job.”

Zhao — another of the film’s five producers — had written a tight narrative script, inspired by the nonfiction book by Jessica Bruder. The director and her team followed her script but with room for spontaneity.