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Exclusive: Fresh off of being named to BAFTA Breakthrough’s 2024 cohort, Baby Reindeer breakout has come aboard to star in The Dregs, a Tuscany-set comedic thriller marking the directorial debut of writer Connor Martin.

Shooting in Italy in March, The Dregs centers on a friends’ trip to Tuscany that gets derailed by old wounds and a cursed bottle of Vin Santo.

Others in the cast include Benjamin Norris (Never Have I Ever), Marta Pozzan (From Scratch), Maria Grazia Cucinotta (Il Postino), and Zach Tinker (American Horror Story), who acts as executive producer.

Mike Stern developed the project and will produce through Astral Plane, with Alessandro Bertolucci serving as co-producer via Dublab It. Co-EPs include Pozzan, Jeremy O’Keefe, Marco Allegri, and Austin Aronson. O’Keefe handled casting via Jok Casting.

Stated Stern on the addition of Mau, “Nava was incredible on Baby Reindeer, and we...

Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired North American VOD rights to the drama-thriller “The Ghost Trap” and the social drama “Global Harmony,” the company announced during the Cannes Film Market. Allen Media also recently unveiled plans for a third installment in its successful “47 Meters Down” shark franchise.

“The Ghost Trap” (pictured) is the story of a young lobsterman who is forced to choose between right and wrong when his girlfriend suffers a traumatic head injury when she is swept off his boat by a rogue wave and rival lobstering family sabotages his gear, sparking a deadly trap war.

The film stars Zak Steiner (“Euphoria”), Greer Grammer (“Deadly Illusions”), Sarah Catherine Hook and Steven Ogg (“Westworld”). James Khanlarian makes his feature directorial debut, directing from K. Stephens’ script, which is based on the book she authored by the same name,...

Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Clara Rugaard and Til Schweiger lead the international cast of “Desperate Journey,” a newly-announced thriller set in the burlesque world of 1940s Paris.

The film — which has now wrapped production — comes from Emblem Pictures, and was written by two-time Oscar nominee Michael Radford (best known for directing 1994 global sensation “Il Postino”) and directed by Emmy winner Annabel Jankel (“Tell It to the Bees”).

Produced by Warren Derosa and Zsófia Kende, “Desperate Journey” is based on the true story of Freddie Knoller (played by Tønnesen), a young man forced to flee Vienna as Nazi hysteria takes hold. Knoller’s captivating story has been widely recognized around the world and he was honored by the late Queen Elizabeth.

Rounding out the supporting cast of the film are Sienna Guillory (“Meg 2: The Trench,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog”), Steven Berkoff, Fernando Guallar (“Love Divided”), Hugo Speer (“The Full Monty...

Perhaps you've had this experience:

You hear about an interesting movie or show, or you remember an old favorite, and you reason that since it's a well-known title, it's several years old, and you subscribe to several streaming services, you should be able to watch it for free somewhere.

Then you conduct the research that's necessary to find anything in the vast streaming landscape, and you realize that you're gonna have to shell out to rent or buy this thing.

Or worse, that film or series simply is not available. Anywhere.

If you're lucky, you can go on Amazon and have the DVD delivered in a couple of days, but you haven't seen your DVD player since Obama was in office, and you need something to watch now.

From comedy classics like Cocoon to Oscar winners like Il Postino to beloved children's movies like The Brave Little Toaster to action...

Since the second Academy Awards ceremony in 1930, 73 people have received acting Oscar nominations for their debut film performances, yielding a total of 15 breakout wins. Conversely, the list of actors who have earned recognition for their final movie appearances is much smaller, featuring only 18 general and two successful examples. Those who belong to this club gained entry in a variety of ways, with some having voluntarily quit acting altogether, others having specifically stepped away from film performing, and a few having sadly not lived long enough to bask in the glory of their farewell nominations.

Since film acting retirement can never be absolutely permanent while a performer is still alive, only deceased individuals can correctly be counted as official members of this group. Although most currently living retired actors did not pick up Oscar nominations for their latest films anyway, the academy did smile upon one – Daniel Day-Lewis – on his declared way out.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” executive producer Niels Juul is in Cannes with several projects based on IP from the vault of Italy’s storied Cecchi Gori movie company that include a remake of the Dino Risi-directed classic “Il Sorpasso” and “Kafka,” a script about the turbulent love life of Franz Kafka by John Briley (“Gandhi”).

The IP and some other assets of the movie company that once dominated Italy’s film industry and collapsed in the mid-1990s were acquired late last year by a group of Italian investors under the new management of Rome-based CEO Federico Canfora and U.S-based Javier Balliero Madrid. Madrid is president of the new company, which is backing a partial relaunch of the Cecchi Gori brand, which is behind such Oscar-winners as “Life Is Beautiful,” “Mediterraneo” and “Il Postino.”

They have a producing agreement with Los Angeles-based Juul, who is a former Cecchi Gori Pictures CEO.

Veteran auteur Mario Martone, whose Naples-set drama “Nostalgia” launched last year from Cannes, has quite a lot in common with Massimo Troisi, Italy’s beloved late comic actor-director who is best known internationally as the star of Oscar-winning film “Il Postino.”

Which is why Martone was well-suited to direct the multi-layered doc about Troisi’s legacy “Somebody Down There Likes Me” that is screening in the Berlinale Special sidebar.

For starters, they are both Neapolitan, and were born only a few years a part. Troisi – who in “Il Postino” played the simple postman who rides his bicycle on a sandy Italian island to deliver mail to his sole client, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda – died tragically of congenital heart failure at age 41 in June 1994, the day after “Il Postino” finished shooting at Rome’s Cinecittà studios.

Martone in Berlin spoke to Variety about capturing Troisi’s combination of humor,...

Exclusive: Italian director Mario Martone, who has been on the festival and awards circuit over the past year with Oscar submission and Cannes title Nostalgia, is at the Berlinale with his passion project Somebody Down There Likes Me.

The documentary pays tribute to late Italian actor and fellow Neapolitan Massimo Troisi who died tragically young at the age of 41 in 1994, just hours after filming wrapped on Michael Radford’s Il Postino (The Postman).

Selected for the Berlinale Specials sidebar, the documentary plays at a sold-out screening on Saturday, on the eve of what would have been the actor’s 70th birthday on February 19. Deadline can reveal a trailer.

Martone says he wants to shed light on the popular actor who he believes has never been properly celebrated.

“Massimo has always remained alive in the collective consciousness because he was a great actor and a great artist,” says the director.

Il Postino,...

Italian director Daniele Luchetti, who most recently helmed the third season of Rai/HBO’s Elena Ferrante series “My Brilliant Friend,” is working on a new film titled “Confidenza” (“Trust”) toplining Elio Germano.

Luchetti previously directed Germano in the drama “Our Life” in a role that in 2015 won the actor top honors in Cannes.

Vision Distribution is launching sales on “Trust” at the European Film Market.

In “Trust” Germano plays a teacher in his forties named Pietro Vella who works in a rundown Roman high school. He strongly believes he can help students strive for a better future and Teresa, and bright and rebellious student, is totally taken with him and his lessons. Then, a few years later, they meet up again and get romantically entangled. Teresa insists they must share their deepest secrets to bond for life. But as soon as Pietro really opens up, the relationship ends.

“Trust...

Slowly but surely, the Oscars are starting to reflect the best in international film, rather than simply celebrating the most impressive achievements in American production.

That’s a good thing for world cinema — to be recognized at last by the historically Hollywood-centric awards show — but a tricky transition, as the Academy reinvents what the Oscars represent.

For the past 50 years, the org has largely relegated non-English-language cinematic achievements to the “international feature” corner.

But a recent push by Academy leadership to expand its membership in every conceivable direction — seeking diversity at home, gender parity where possible and greater representation of industry talent around the globe — has significantly boosted international participation. Today, roughly 20 of the organization’s nearly 10,000 members live abroad.

These overseas members are the new wild card in the voting process, embracing achievements that are no more “foreign” to them — as non-English films were once labeled — than your average Hollywood film.

Director and screenwriter Michael Radford, who won BAFTA awards and Oscar nominations for his Italian language film “Il Postino: The Postman,” is set to co-direct “The Princess of Kapurthala” (aka “La Princesa De Kapurthala”). Directing duties on the 20th century romance will shared with Spanish filmmaker Manuel Estudillo (“El Eden Perdido”).

The Spanish language co-production between companies from Spain, the U.K., France and India, is part of the Co-Production Market at Nfdc’s Film Bazaar 2022 in Goa.

“The Princess of Kapurthala” is a trilogy based on the true life story of Spanish girl Anita Delgado, who became the Maharani Prem Kaur of Kapurthala in India at the age of 16. “Not just a pretty face that the Maharajah falls in love with, Anita is also a strong and determined woman who learns everything needed to become a princess, and later uses these charms to leave her mark on the society of that time,...

Italian auteur Mario Martone, who was recently in Cannes with “Nostalgia,” is set to direct a high-profile doc about the late Massimo Troisi, one of Italy’s most beloved comic actors who starred in the Oscar-winning film “Il Postino.”

Troisi, who played the simple postman who rides his bicycle on the sandy terrain of an Italian island to deliver mail to his sole client, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, died tragically of congenital heart failure at age 41 in June 1994, the day after “Il Postino” finished shooting at Rome’s Cinecittà studios.

The film directed by Michael Radford, which also starred Maria Grazia Cucinotta and Philippe Noiret, became an arthouse sensation one year later when it opened in the U.S. distributed by Miramax.

“Il Postino” went on to win an Oscar in 1996 for best dramatic score, having earned five nominations, including for best film, as well as best director for Radford,...

May 31st sees the release of The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 2 from Severin Films, bringing more cult classic Christopher Lee films to Blu-ray, including Uncle Was a Vampire and Dracula and Son! We have all the details below, along with a trailer, and a look at the box set artwork:

The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection 2

To celebrate the centennial of the legendary actor, Eurocrypt Collection 2 presents five of the most unexpected, underrated and underseen films of the iconic actor’s European career. Immediately following Horror Of Dracula, Lee reprised the role in the quirky 1959 Italian comedy Uncle Was A Vampire. Lee speaks fluent German opposite Klaus Kinski for the crazed 1962 krimi Secret Of The Red Orchid. In the 1974 UK psycho-thriller Dark Places, Lee toplines a cast that includes Joan Collins, Herbert Lom and Jane Birkin. Lee’s final performance as The Count in the 1976 French comedy Dracula And Son...

Anna Gross, a film executive and producer who worked on films such as “The NeverEnding Story” and “Tootsie,” died of cancer on July 23. She was 68.

Gross’ cousin, Mikie Heilbrun, confirmed her death to Variety. “Everyone’s life she touched she enriched,” Heilbrun wrote in an email. “She made them better more full beings and forever changed them.”

Gross began her career in film in the 1970s with an 8-year stint working for famed Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis, during which she worked on 14 films, including “Death Wish” (1974), “Three Days of the Condor” (1975), “The Shootist” (1976), “King Kong” (1976) and “Ragtime” (1981). Gross then became vice president of production for director Sydney Pollack, working to develop his films “The Electric Horseman” (1979), “Tootsie” (1982) and “Out of Africa” (1985).

Throughout the 1980s, Gross spent time in Germany working with producer Bernd Eichinger, where she oversaw the production on “The NeverEnding Story” (1984), “The Name of the Rose” (1986) and...

Sf Studios has boarded “Ellen,” an inspirational period drama about an unsung Danish woman who saved Jews during WW II. It will be directed by Mehdi Avaz (“Collision”) and executive produced by Niels Juul, whose credits include “Ferrari,” “Silence” and “The Irishman.”

Written by James Wyllie, the English-language movie will tell the true story of Ellen Nielsen, a fishmonger and single mother of six kids, who initiated the dangerous transport of Danish Jews on fishing boats to safety in Sweden during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Ellen’s tiny house, which was located in a fishing village on the outskirts of Copenhagen, became the central point of the Danish resistance movement and harbored a complex system of secret communication and transport.

Juul, who previously headed Cecchi Gori Pictures where he worked on “Life Is Beautiful,” “Il Postino” and “Shawshank Redemption,” is passionate about the project.

“When I first got into the film business,...

It took composer Dan Romer a while to find the right Italian touch for the music of “Luca,” Disney-Pixar’s animated fantasy (opening June 18) about young sea monsters masquerading as humans on the Italian Riviera.

“Not quite Italian enough” was director Enrico Casarosa’s response to his first try. “Too Italian!” was the response to his second. Eventually Romer discovered the correct instrumental seasoning: a bit of accordion, a little mandolin, a lot of acoustic guitar and pizzicato strings — just enough to hint at the locale and the period.

“I was looking for something off the beaten path, a little bit independent,” Casarosa tells Variety about his choice for composer. The director had been a fan of Romer’s music for the Benh Zeitlin films “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Wendy,” and says “there was something about his scores that said ‘kids on an adventure ride,’” which nicely describes “Luca.

With today’s release of Ludovico Einaudi’s “Cinema,” Universal Music Group confirms its status as one of the world’s most soundtrack-friendly music companies.

Music by Einaudi, the Italian composer and pianist, was featured in recent Oscar winners “Nomadland” and”The Father.” “Cinema” collects 28 pieces featured in those films and such earlier projects as “The Water Diviner,” “The Intouchables” and the miniseries “Doctor Zhivago.”

Each of the last seven Academy Award winners for original score was released or distributed by a Umg label or composed by a Umg artist, according to a spokesperson. Umg artists Jon Batiste and Hildur Guðnadóttir were the composers of “Soul” and “Joker,” respectively. “Grand Budapest Hotel” was on Abkco, “The Hateful Eight” and “The Shape of Water” on Decca, and “La La Land” and the “Black Panther” song album on Interscope.

Similarly, the last seven Grammy-winning scores, and the last seven BAFTA winners, were also Umg-affiliated.

It was the year of fresh faces, surprise wins, tear-inducing moments, battling pigs and Sharon Stone making Gap red-carpet worthy, all of which added up to one of the most well-received Oscar ceremonies of the past 30 years. Out of 24 categories, an outstanding 15 winners were first-time nominees. Whoopi Goldberg helmed the 68th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on March 25, 1996, and earned rave reviews after a lackluster previous year.

The year prior, David Letterman‘s hosting was met with largely negative reviews, so the Academy brought in legendary music producer Quincy Jones to liven things up, and it was he who picked Goldberg. This was the comedienne’s second time to host, having done so two years prior (she would host again in 1999 and 2002), and she managed to honor the nominated films, while also getting laughs with subtle digs – beginning with her opening remark, “So, did you miss me?” The “mighty afro-deity” also...

Chadwick Boseman’s Best Actor Oscar nomination this morning for Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom reps the seventh time that an actor has received such a posthumous honor in either the Best Actor or Supporting Actor category from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Boseman’s turn as ambitious cornet player Levee, who raises tensions with the white record label management and spars with his fellow jazz band members in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom reps his first Oscar nomination. Boseman’s nom today was one of five received by the George C. Wolfe directed feature.

Boseman, who made a huge splash as T’Challa in Disney/Marvel’s three-time Oscar winning $1.34 billion grossing feature Black Panther in 2018, died at 43 on Aug. 28, 2020, after a long, quiet battle with colon cancer. His death left the industry shocked and in despair. Not only did the actor play notable Black...

Before Monday morning, the late actor Chadwick Boseman had somehow never been nominated for an Academy Award, despite his astonishing performances as Jackie Robinson in 2013’s “42” and as James Brown in 2014’s “Get on Up” — not to mention his iconic role as the superhero T’Challa in 2018’s “Black Panther.”

That was finally rectified with Boseman’s nomination for best actor as an ambitious jazz trumpeter in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” It also puts Boseman, who died from colon cancer in August at 43, in one of the rarest and most bittersweet Oscar categories: the posthumous acting nominee.

Deceased nominees are not all that uncommon at the Oscars; there have been 79 in total before this year. But prior to Boseman, only seven actors had ever earned Academy Award nominations after their deaths.

The first posthumous acting nominee, Jeanne Eagels, didn’t technically receive an official nomination — the second Academy Awards...

With his Best Actor Oscar nomination for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Chadwick Boseman is the first actor posthumously nominated for an Academy Award since Heath Ledger.

Ledger was nominated and won Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 ceremony for “The Dark Knight.” It’s widely anticipated Boseman will also win an Oscar at the 93rd annual Academy Awards in April for his “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” performance.

See 2021 Oscars nominations full list

Throughout Oscars history, there have been multiple people nominated for an Academy Award after their death. Before Boseman, the most recent posthumous nominee was “Fences” playwright August Wilson, who received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2017 ceremony. Before Wilson, Walt Martin received a nomination for Best Sound Mixing for “American Sniper” at the 2015 ceremony.

The last posthumous Oscar winner was producer Gil Friesen, who won Best Documentary at the 2013 ceremony for “20 Feet From Stardom.”

Boseman almost...

On the heels of the nominations for the Golden Globes and the release of the BAFTA longlist, the Screen Actors Guild Awards have weighed in on the best films and performances of the season. Critics awards be damned, SAG will do what they want to do.

Overall, the nominations provided not as many jaw-droppers as we’ve seen in normal years. Chadwick Boseman made history by scoring four nominations on the film side in one year — two individual noms for his performances in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Da 5 Bloods,” and the others as part of the ensembles.

Heavily male casts dominated the ensemble categories. A24’s “Minari” has the most women represented in its cast with Yeri Han, Noel Kate Cho and supporting actress nominee Yung-Jun Youn. Amazon Studios’ “One Night in Miami” from Regina King, the only female-directed film to make the lineup, has two women among its cast,...

I’ve been a professional awards journalist for more than 30 years and I often keep falling for an old, sentimental assumption. When scanning a list of nominees to make predictions and a dead body suddenly pops up – especially the ghost of someone who was beloved and respected across Hollywood – I’m tempted to pick that contender, thinking: Oh, come on! How can voters fail to give their old pal one last hug?

But beware: that kind of thinking often comes back to haunt you later. At recent Emmys, you would’ve lost your shekels if you’d bet them on two tempting posthumous nominees: Fred Willard or Carrie Fisher. The Emmy is an industry peer-group award just like the Oscar and so it sometimes holds a lesson for film-award fans.

SEELatest Oscar Best Actor predictions by 30 Experts

Now we Oscar pundits must brutally ask ourselves a tough question: Is Chadwick Boseman...

Anthony Hopkins has sat comfortably in the top spot of our Best Actor Oscar odds all season for “The Father,” but there is now someone hot on his tail. Chadwick Boseman has risen to second place for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and may overtake him very soon.

Currently, Hopkins is still ahead at 4/1 odds to Boseman’s 9/2. Both have eight Experts in their corners, but the latter has the edge with our Editors (six to three) and our top 24 users (10 to nine).

After Netflix confirmed last month that Boseman will be campaigned in lead, the late star climbed from eighth to fourth place in our odds. He started his ascent to second after “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the film adaptation of August Wilson‘s play, screened for press on Nov. 14 to rapturous praise for Boseman’s monologue-heavy turn as hotheaded trumpeter Levee in blues legend Ma Rainey’s (Viola Davis) band.

Original

“Da 5 Bloods”

(Netflix)

Written by: Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee

Lee and Willmott won the

Oscar for adapted screenplay for 2018’s “BlacKkKlansman” and their examination of Ptsd and the aftermath of the fallen from Vietnam in “Da 5 Bloods,” encompassing the final performance of Chadwick Boseman, was deeply felt. Netflix is positioning the film to be a strong awards player and Lee is one of those familiar names that the branch will rec-

ognize and likely check off.

“Judas and the Black Messiah”

(Warner Bros.)

Written by: Will Berson and Shaka King (screenplay); Keith Lucas and Kenneth Lucas (story by)

The script’s narrative digs into government corruption and betrayal in such an acute way that has not been portrayed on screen before. While Black Lives Matter and civil unrest are still prominent in the news media and on the streets of our cities,...

Only eight actors in history have been nominated for Oscars posthumously. Only 12 actors have been nominated twice in the same year. Chadwick Boseman, sadly, could make history this Oscar season by winding up on both of those lists.

The actor, who died in August of this year after a battle with colon cancer that he hadn’t publicly disclosed, has been considered a solid Best Supporting Actor contender for months for his role in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.” And with initial press screenings of George C. Wolfe’s Broadway adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” taking place this week, Boseman makes a formidable case for Best Actor attention as well.

The role he plays in “Ma Rainey,” a volatile trumpet player named Levee, led to a 1985 Tony Award nomination for Charles S. Dutton in the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. That category is the Tonys...

Oscar watchers weren’t sure for a while whether Chadwick Boseman would be campaigned as a lead or supporting actor for the Netflix film adaptation of August Wilson‘s play “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” But it was recently confirmed that he’ll be pushed for Best Actor consideration. Since then he has risen into the top five in our odds for the lead-acting prize. Can he rise all the way to number-one?

See‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ trailer spotlights tension between Viola Davis’ veteran blues singer and Chadwick Boseman’s ambitious trumpeter

On October 20, the day before his lead campaign was confirmed, Boseman ranked eighth in our Best Actor forecasts with 25/1 odds based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. As of this writing, he has climbed all the way to fourth place with 7/1 odds. The film doesn’t open until December 18, and the Oscar...

No matter how many streaming platforms seem to pop up and demand your attention and subscription dollars, there are incredibly still movies that are just…missing. Not for streaming, not for rental, not for digital purchase, nothing. These movies are simply unavailable digitally. Maybe you can catch a cable broadcast or can find a DVD lying around, because chances are you’re not seeing a repertory screening of these either right now.

For years there were Disney movies, Studio Ghibli films, art house classics and James Cameron blockbusters that had no home, though that’s changed even within the last few months as HBO Max, Disney . Criterion Channel and Peacock have all emerged, but there are still plenty that are not available at the push of a button. It can do with how Hollywood treats its film history, legal puzzles in terms of who owns what or the financial reality...

As the Oscar season continues to unfold, a new question has been answered for the upcoming awards circuit. Netflix has confirmed to Variety that it will campaign the late Chadwick Boseman in the lead actor category for his role in the upcoming “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Based on the play by Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson, the film takes place in 1927 Chicago, where tensions rise between Ma Rainey, her ambitious trumpeter Levee, and the white management determined to control her music.

Academy Award winner Viola Davis (“Fences”) plays the “Mother of the Blues” and will also campaign for best actress. The rest of the cast, including Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts and Taylour Paige, will all campaign in the supporting categories. There has only been one film in Oscar history to manage more than two Black acting nominations from a film: 1985’s “The Color Purple.”

The 1984 original Broadway production,...

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to leave Hollywood studios in flux, there are still key decisions being discussed internally about the Oscars, such as actors’ placements in the acting categories. With six months until the Academy Awards, there are several factors needed in order to set a film up for awards season success. Without events to campaign and (metaphorically) kiss babies, the performances and films will be speaking for themselves.

Like the industry, Oscar predictions are in flux, but the biggest unknown is in the male acting categories, which are showing a real fluidity and will continue to do so throughout the season. One of the major questions regards the late Chadwick Boseman and where Netflix will campaign him for his upcoming work in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” While many pundits and prognosticators assume he will ultimately fall within the supporting actor category, there are rumblings that he could be campaigned as a lead actor.

By Abdul Rahman Shah

“Poetry doesn’t belong to those who write it, but those who need it.”

– Mario Ruoppolo in Il Postino.

It’s not easy to read a film. One can over-read, under-read, or even misread it; but all readings are important towards building discourse, which is the first step towards appreciating any form of art. Although lately in film discourse, we’re bogged down by a new type of reading. Born from the womb of social media and raised by pedants – film reviews and/or criticism tend to over-focus on perceived cinematographic mistakes, plot-holes, or even misunderstanding intertextual tropes based on how “real” the scene or moment is to the point of rejecting the symbolic. “Realness” is being constructed as the line between a good and a bad film. We are living in an age where metaphors are dying, being killed by literal reading.

Ceci n’est...

No Best Picture win could mean more to the future of the Academy than our most recent one. It wasn’t just an historic victory for Parasite, it was one that could mean something major for Oscar going forward. It’s almost as if voters listened to filmmaker Bong Joon Ho as the writer/director accepted his Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Language Film. He said the following: “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Those words are obviously true, but up until now, Academy members had been averse to rewarding this type of movie in the top category. Now that they have, where do they go from here? There are two clear and very different paths ahead… As you all know by now, Parasite is the first Best Picture winner not in the English language. In fact,...

There’s a feeling I always get at the end of a long Oscar night when the movie that won isn’t a terrible choice, but it’s the safe, blah, Mor predictable choice, the one that conforms to the dullest conventional wisdom about the kinds of movies Oscar voters prefer, because in the core of their being they’re out to reinforce a don’t-rock-the-boat vision of what a movie should be. The feeling gathers, imperceptibly, over the course of the evening, and by the time the best picture winner is announced the feeling has a name: mild depression. Here are a handful of the winners that have inspired it: “Chariots of Fire,” “Out of Africa,” “Dances with Wolves,” “The English Patient,” “The Artist.”

“Crash” winning out over “Brokeback Mountain” was a train-wreck category all its own. But that points to a crucial issue about the best picture winners...

When “Curb Your Enthusiasm” returns for its much-anticipated 10th season it does so with it a musical theme that’s a prime example of recognizable sonic branding and has become synonymous with comedy in our complicated times: “Frolic” by composer Luciano Michelini.

But surprisingly, this comic march for tuba, mandolin and piano wasn’t specifically written for the series. Rather, it was composed as a throwaway piece for an obscure Italian film, wound up in a music library and was accidentally discovered by comedian-writer Larry David.

In a previous recounting, David spoke of hearing it in a bank commercial. “I love that, where’d they get that from?” he thought at the time. “The commercial ran for a week and I never saw it again. Then I had my assistant research it — it became this whole ordeal to get the name of the bank and the music, and finally she tracked it down.

This week, “Parasite” received six Oscar nominations; this weekend, Neon will place Bong Joon Ho’s film in 843 theaters. Its widest release to date, concurrent with its introduction to home viewing, are timed to improve Oscar odds and maximize the already-stellar performance of the foreign-language arthouse movie.

Full credit goes to Neon cofounders Tom Quinn and Tim League for their smart strategies, but what’s also notable is the context of its success. By today’s standards, it’s a near miracle; at another time, it would have been just another job well done. Here’s some perspective on its achievement:

“Parasite” Defied 21st-Century Odds

The last major foreign-language hit was the French comedy “Intouchables,” at $10.2 million. Since “Amour” in 2012 ($6.7 million), only Wong Kar Wai’s “The Grandmaster” has even grossed $5 million (unless Netflix’s unreported “Roma” managed that; it likely came close). Recent successes like “Pain and Glory” ($4 million...

In its tenth weekend at the box office in a limited release at 306 theaters, Neon’s Parasite continues to suck up cash and counts $20.3M at the domestic box office. At that B.O. level, for a film that’s from a foreign country and entirely in a different language, Parasite is very, very close to busting into the top 10 foreign language films of all-time list, which is headed by 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at $128M.

Parasite became the highest grossing Palme D’Or winner in France and North America in 15 years since the release of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004.

In the wake of winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and opening on Nov. 8 stateside, Parasite continues to hold the best opening screen average of the year with $131K (at three theaters) in the wake of such 4Q competition from Jojo Rabbit,...

There is, in the Oscar prognostication game, no such thing as a sure bet. But as close as we’re likely to get this year is Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” receiving South Korea’s first-ever best international film (formerly best foreign language film) Academy Award nomination. In 2018, Lee Chang-dong’s brilliant “Burning” was the first South Korean film in 57 years and 30 submissions to get as far as the nine-film December shortlist, but it fell out of the final five in a competitive year.

The success of “Parasite” as a quadruple threat — domestically and internationally it has garnered both critical acclaim (and a Palme d’Or) and extraordinary box office returns of $112 million worldwide and counting — all but guarantees it will be spared “Burning’s” fate. Most commentators have filed that question under “asked and answered” and moved on to consider whether Bong’s deliciously dark class inequality satire has a shot,...

Earlier this year all eyes were on Alfonso Cuaron‘s “Roma” to make Oscar history as the first foreign language film to win Best Picture. Though it came up short in the end, it may have opened the door for Bong Joon Ho‘s “Parasite” to finally end that 91-year drought.

“Roma,” Netflix’s epic domestic drama about a poor maid (Yalitza Aparicio) working for an upper-middle class Mexican family in the 1970s, came into the 2018 Oscar race with a whopping 10 nominations. Cuaron prevailed for his directing — which made it the first non-English language movie to win that award — and it took home additional prizes for Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film. Yet when the final envelope was opened, the very American “Green Book” was announced as the recipient instead. Perhaps voters felt “Roma” had been amply taken care of in the foreign film category (not to mention the...

Since 1929, the year of the 2nd Academy Awards, seven performers have earned posthumous Oscar nominations for their work. This year, a legend of the silver screen may join the list of actors recognized for roles following their passing. More than three decades since his death in 1987, John Huston is poised for a posthumous Oscar return with his leading turn in Orson Welles‘ final film, “The Other Side of the Wind.”

This actor, writer, producer and director was no stranger to the Oscars over his illustrious five-decade career in cinema. Between 1940 and 1985, he garnered a total of 15 nominations, including bids in Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. His pair of victories came in 1948, as he triumphed for his direction and screenwriting on “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”

In “The Other Side of the Wind,” which premiered to warm notices at this year’s Venice Film Festival,...

Over his remarkable career in film, Orson Welles was the recipient of a trio of Oscar nominations, all for “Citizen Kane” (1941). That marked his feature film debut and is widely considered one of the greatest motion pictures ever produced. He, alongside Herman J. Mankiewicz, triumphed in Best Original Screenplay on the big night and, nearly three decades later, Welles earned an Honorary Oscar for his contributions to cinema.

Though Welles died in 1985, the filmmaker once again finds himself the talk of Oscar season, this time posthumously, with his final picture, “The Other Side of the Wind.”

The film, which made its world premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival, stars two-time Oscar winner John Huston (who died in 1987) as Jake Hannaford, a washed-up, hard-drinking Hollywood director who vies to revive his career with an experimental film, full of sex and violence. Shot over several years in the 1970s, “The Other Side of the Wind...

A kooky, disposable caper that’s light on charm and heavy on nonsense, Hadi Hajaig’s “Blue Iguana” was conceived as a throwback to the golden age of VHS crime-comedies — as the kind of freewheeling late-80s’ fare in which anything could happen because everything turned a profit on home video. And maybe, if you squint really hard, you can see the faintest shades of films like “Something Wild” or “Miami Blues” mixed into this manic parade of dumb criminals and even dumber plotting. Alas, anybody who watches Hajaig’s movie that closely will be more transfixed by the enormous gap between what the writer-director was going for and what he ultimately got.

Harkening back to John Lafia’s 1988 “The Blue Iguana” (a forgotten video store treasure starring Dylan McDermott as a bounty hunter) and Michael Radford’s more recent “Dancing at the Blue Iguana” (a Daryl Hannah/Sandra Oh...

Annecy, France— Annecy’s Brazil tribute looks like “the strongest showcase of the Brazilian animation sector at any festival ever,” says Brazilian Culture Minister Sergio Sá Leitão. Here’s a drill down on some – but just some – key titles.

‘Angeli The Killer’ Coala Filmes

A TV series in competition with the episode “A Crazy Love’s Delirium,” directed by Cesar Cabral, two-time winner of the Cinema Brazil Grand Prize for his shorts “Tempestade” (also screening at Sundance) and “Dossiê Rê Bordosa.” Based on Arnaldo Angeli Filho’s graphic novel “Chiclete com Banana,” it offers mixed techniques of 2D, puppets, clay and live action.

‘Bob Spit – We Do Not Like People’ Coala Filmes

A spinoff feature of adult and teen demos-targeted TV series “Angeli The Killer,” “Bob” turns on an old punk who tries to escape a post-apocalyptic desert. Feature is scheduled for delivery at the end of 2019.

‘Boy Transcoded From...

Composers John Powell and Germaine Franco took top honors at Wednesday night’s Screen Music Awards of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Ascap) at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Powell, composer of the Oscar-nominated score for “How to Train Your Dragon” and the new “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” received the Henry Mancini Award for his “outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film and television music.”

Franco, songwriter and arranger of last year’s “Coco” who was also recently named “one of 15 Latinas who are changing the world” by Univision, received the Shirley Walker Award, given to a composer “whose achievements have contributed to the diversity of film and television music.”

Both composers spent more time talking about the composers in whose honor the awards were named, rather than about themselves or their own music. Before the ceremony, Powell told Variety that he met Mancini when...

The new management of Cecchi Gori Pictures has hit paydirt as a California bankruptcy judge has ruled that rights to 42 film projects, including work by famed directors Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann, were fraudulently transferred. After issuing a partial summary judgment earlier this month, the judge has followed it up by determining that Cecchi Gori Pictures — once an Italian production giant behind such films as Il Postino, Life Is Beautiful and Se7en — was entitled to recover assets.

The history of this dispute is complicated, but begins with movie mogul Vittorio Cecchi Gori, who was convicted of financial crimes in Italy...

By Brad Gullickson

We spoke to the Game of Thrones actor about inhabiting the skin of pop culture phenomenon, Andrea Bocelli. Biopics are a dime a dozen. Rise and fall musician stories are even more prevalent and often suffer under the true-to-life misery that usually scars an icon’s lifestyle. Director Michael Radford (1984, Il Postino) was not looking […]

The article Toby Sebastian On Becoming Andrea Bocelli appeared first on Film School Rejects.

The upcoming Capri, Hollywood Fest will honor the new film The Music of Silence with its Biopic of the Year Award, it was announced Friday.

The film, about the life of tenor Andrea Bocelli, was helmed by Michael Radford, the two-time Oscar-nominated writer/director of The Postman. Toby Sebastian (Game of Thrones) stars as a young Bocelli, with Antonio Banderas playing his teacher. Based on Bocelli's autobiographical novel of the same name, the pic recounts Bocelli's life growing up with a devastating eye condition that eventually led to his blindness.

After dedicating his life to music, Bocelli went on to sell more than...

Antonio Banderas and Michael Radford: 'When you have an actor of the calibre of Antonio you can simply build the part around him' Photo: Richard Mowe Hispanic heart-throb Antonio Banderas, whose reputation in part has been forged on his normally clean-shaven, chiselled Latin looks has undergone something of a transformation for his latest screen incarnation in The Music Of Silence.

The 56-year-old adopts a much more mature look than his years suggest with grey hair and a luxuriant grey beard to play the Maestro who helps the young Andrea Bocelli realise his potential to become the golden voiced tenor known to millions in the film, directed by Michael Radford (of Il Postino and The Merchant Of Venice renown).

Antonio Banderas: 'Pedro Almodovar is not an easy guy. He's a tough director but very creative' Photo: Richard Mowe Based on Bocelli’s memoir in which he names his alter ego as Amos Bardi,...

Antonio Banderas is set to star in the Lamborghini biopic currently being developed by director Michael Radford (The Merchant of Venice, The Postman). Banderas will take on the role of Ferruccio Lamborghini, founder of the famous car and he will star alongside Alec Baldwin, who plays his rival Enzo Ferrari.

The film is based on the biography Ferruccio Lamborghini: La storia ufficiale (The official story), which was written by his son Tonino Lamborghini. Here are some story details that were shared in the press release:

The Lamborghini biopic spans the long life of the iconic entrepreneur, from the manufacturing of tractors (Lamborghini Tractors) at the start of his career, to creating military vehicles during World War II, and then on to designing and building the Lamborghini cars that ultimately defined his profound legacy.The film aims to tell an extraordinary multi-layered story of a man who helped an entire...

Antonio Banderas and Alec Baldwin are set to star in a Lamborghini biopic, coming from Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Ambi Media Group. Banderas will star as Ferruccio Lamborghini, founder of the famous luxury car. Baldwin will play his rival Enzo Ferrari. Academy Award nominee Michael Radford (“The Merchant of Venice,” “The Postman”) will direct the film, based on the book “Ferruccio Lamborghini. La storia ufficiale (The official story),” by the car founder’s son Tonino Lamborghini. Also Read: 'SNL': Baldwin's Trump Calls 'Morning Joe' As Publicist 'John Miller' (Video) Ambi’S Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi,...

Antonio Banderas and Alec Baldwin will star in a Lamborghini biopic that Michael Radford, the Oscar-nominated director of Il Postino, will direct.

Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi's Ambi Media Group is producing and financing the project, which will be introduced to buyers in Cannes.

Crash scribe Bobby Moresco is writing the script based on Ferruccio Lamborghini: La storia ufficiale (The official story), the biography written by his son, Tonino Lamborghini. The biopic has a working title of Lamborghini — The Legend.

Banderas will play Lamborghini, while Baldwin will portray his rival, Enzo Ferrari.

By optioning the book, Ambi has the backing...